On January 3, 2021, Madison Cawthorn took the oath of office to become a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. In doing so, he “solemly” swore that he “will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.” Having lost his reelection bid in the primary to Rep. Chuck Edwards, Cawthorn’s term ended earlier this month. However, his more than 750,000 constituents of North Carolina’s 11th congressional district are still discovering the extent to which their former representative violated his oath.

Soon after Edwards won the general election on November 8, 2022, Cawthorn appeared to close shop without notice or explanation. With nearly two months remaining in his term, Cawthorn vacated his Washington and district offices. According to a report from the Asheville Citizen Times, not only did Cawthorn clear out his offices as of November 16, but no one remained even to answer phones, leaving constituents without the dedicated connection to the federal government they needed for assistance with issues such as veterans benefits and Social Security.

On that very same day, however, Cawthorn was sure to attend Donald Trump’s reelection announcement at Mar-a-Lago, saying “I want a president who people are terrified of, who’s going to push people out of the way when he’s walking up because he’s the United States of frickin’ America. He represents every single one of us.” In the meantime, Cawthorn effectively stopped representing every single one of his constituents, choosing to informally abandon them rather than resign and let someone who cares about oaths do the job.

It turns out Cawthorn wasn’t even done screwing over his constituents. In a statement early this week, Edwards announced that Cawthorn failed to transfer official casework as part of the transition by the December 23, 2022 deadline. Cawthorn even ignored Edwards’ repeated attempts to request files about constituents with issues still in progress. As a result, Edwards is now asking constituents to contact his office, wasting time and resources cleaning up the mess made by Cawthorn’s egregious desertion.

In a blistering editorial on Tuesday, the Charlotte Observer wrote this latest development is “further evidence that Cawthorn didn’t run for Congress to serve others.” Adding that this is what happens “when you elect unserious candidates who care more about lip service than leadership and legislating,” the Observer pointed out that Republicans finally condemned Cawthorn only because he had become too much of a political liability. North Carolina and America deserve better.

The post This keeps getting uglier for Madison Cawthorn appeared first on Palmer Report.

Tens of thousands of Israelis demonstrated on Saturday against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial reform plans, with organisers accusing him of undermining democratic rule weeks after his reelection.

Bestriding a religious-nationalist coalition with a solid parliamentary majority, Netanyahu, now in his sixth term, wants to rein in the Supreme Court in what he has described as a restoration of the balance of the three branches of government.

Critics say the proposed reforms would cripple judicial independence, foster corruption, set back minority rights and deprive Israel’s courts system of credibility that helps fend off war-crimes allegations abroad. Among those opposed are the Supreme Court chief justice and the country’s attorney-general.

After President Isaac Herzog appealed to polarised politicians to “lower the temperatures” of the debates, organisers of the demonstrations – held in three cities despite chilly winter rain – sought to strike a note of national unity.

“Take an Israeli flag in one hand, an umbrella in the other, and come out to protect democracy and law in the State of Israel,” said centrist ex-defence minister Benny Gantz, who attended the Tel Aviv rally but, like other opposition figures, was not due to address it.

“We Are Preserving Our Shared Home,” read one demonstrator’s placard. Netanyahu was guilty of a “legal putsch”, said another.

Israeli media put the number in attendance at around 80,000, with thousands more at protests in Jerusalem and Haifa.

The 73-year-old premier on Friday signalled flexibility on the reform plan, saying it would be implemented “with careful consideration while hearing all of the positions”.

Polls have diverged on public views of the reforms. Channel 13 TV last week found 53% of Israelis were opposed to changing the court appointments’ structure while 35% were in support. But Channel 14 TV on Thursday found 61% in favour and 35% opposed.

Critics of the Supreme Court say it is overreaching and unrepresentative of the electorate. Its proponents call the court a means of bringing equilibrium to a fractious society.

“Tens of thousands of people were at tonight’s demonstrations. In the election held here two and a half months ago, millions turned out,” tweeted Miki Zohar a senior lawmaker in Netanyahu’s conservative Likud party.

“We promised the people change, we promised governance, we promised reforms – and we will make good on that.”

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Ukraine’s President Zelensky faces many issues. The former actor’s country is locked in conflict with Russia, although corruption …

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The post 3. War & Peace Podcast: Ukraine’s Zelensky Revolution appeared first on Ukraine Intelligence.

BEIJING — China on Saturday reported nearly 60,000 deaths in people who had COVID-19 since early December following complaints it was failing to release data, and said the “emergency peak” of its latest surge appears to have passed.

The toll included 5,503 deaths due to respiratory failure caused by COVID-19 and 54,435 fatalities from other ailments combined with COVID-19 since Dec. 8, the National Health Commission announced. It said those “deaths related to COVID” occurred in hospitals, which left open the possibility more people also might have died at home.

The report would more than double China’s official COVID-19 death toll to 10,775 since the disease was first detected in the central city of Wuhan in late 2019. China has counted only deaths from pneumonia or respiratory failure in its official COVID-19 death toll, a narrow definition that excludes many deaths that would be attributed to COVID-19 in other places.

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China stopped reporting data on COVID-19 deaths and infections after abruptly lifting anti-virus controls in early December despite a surge in infections that began in October and has filled hospitals with feverish, wheezing patients.

The World Health Organization and other governments appealed for information after reports by city and provincial governments suggest as many as hundreds of millions of people in China might have contracted the virus.

The peak of the latest infection wave appears to have passed based on the decline in the number of patients visiting fever clinics, said a National Health Commission official, Jiao Yahui.

The daily number of people going to those clinics peaked at 2.9 million on Dec. 23 and had fallen by 83% to to 477,000 on Thursday, according to Jiao.

“These data show the national emergency peak has passed,” Jiao said at a news conference.

The United States, South Korea and other governments have imposed virus-testing and other controls on people arriving from China. Beijing retaliated on Wednesday by suspending issuance of new visas to travelers from South Korea and Japan.

China kept its infection rate and deaths lower than those of the United States and some other countries at the height of the pandemic with a “zero-COVID” strategy that aimed to isolate every case. That shut down access to some cities, kept millions of people at home and sparked angry protests.

The average age of people who died since Dec. 8 is 80.3 years and 90.1% are aged 65 and above, according to the Health Commission. It said more than 90% of people who died had cancer, heart or lung diseases or kidney problems.

“The number of elderly patients dying from illness is relatively large, which suggests that we should pay more attention to elderly patients and try our best to save their lives,” said Jiao.

This month, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said agency officials met with Chinese officials to underline the importance of sharing more details about COVID-19 issues including hospitalization rates and genetic sequences.

President Joe Biden delivers remarks on preserving and protecting Democracy at Union Station on November 2, 2022 in Washington, DC.

Michael A. McCoy/Getty Images

• More Obama-era classified documents were found at President Biden’s Wilmington home, per The Times.
• The White House on Saturday announced that five additional pages were found on Thursday.
• Biden’s attorneys previously found documents in the home last December and contacted the DOJ and National Archives.

Aides to President Joe Biden have discovered additional pages of classified documents at the commander-in-chief’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, according to The New York Times.

Richard Sauber, the special counsel to the president, said in a statement on Saturday that five more pages of classified information were found on Thursday by the president’s personal attorneys — in addition to other documents that were located in December in the president’s garage and an adjacent room.

“The President’s lawyers have acted immediately and voluntarily to provide the Penn Biden documents to the Archives and the Wilmington documents to DOJ. We have now publicly released specific details about the documents identified, how they were identified, and where they were found. The appointment of the Special Counsel in this matter this week means we will now refer specific questions to the Special Counsel’s office moving forward. As I said Thursday, the White House will cooperate with the newly-appointed Special Counsel,” the statement read.

The discovery on Thursday brings the total number of documents found this week to six pages.

A first batch of documents from the administration of President Barack Obama, where Biden served as vice president, was discovered at the now-president’s former office in Washington, DC.

On Thursday, United States Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel — former United States attorney Robert Hur — to look into whether any laws were violated regarding the handling of the documents.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Russia unleashed a major missile attack on Ukraine on Saturday, smashing a nine-storey apartment block in the city of Dnipro, killing at least five people and striking vital energy facilities, officials said.

Ukraine’s energy minister said the coming days would be “difficult” as months of Russian bombardment of the power grid threaten the supply of electricity, running water and central heating at the height of winter.

In the east-central city of Dnipro, 20 people were rescued from an apartment block where an entire section of the building had been reduced to rubble, sending smoke billowing into the sky, the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office said.

“Tragedy. I’ve gone to the site…. We will be going through the rubble all night,” said Borys Filatov, mayor of the rocket-making city on the Dnipro River.

Five people were killed and at least 60 people, including 12 children, were also wounded in the attack, with more people were still trapped under the rubble, the regional governor said.

Another person was killed and one wounded in the steel-making city of Kryviy Rih where six houses were damaged in President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s hometown, mayor Oleksandr Vilkul said.

In his nightly speech, Zelenskiy appealed to the West to supply more weapons to prevent further deaths from what he described as “Russian terror”.

“What’s needed for this? The kind of weapons that our partners have in stockpiles and that our warriors have come to expect. The whole world knows what and how to stop those who are sowing death,” he said.

Saturday’s attack comes as Western powers consider sending battle tanks to Kyiv and ahead of a meeting of Ukraine’s allies in Ramstein in Germany next Friday where governments will announce their latest pledges of military support.

On the front lines in the east, Ukraine said its forces were battling to hold onto control of the small town of Soledar where Russia has sacrificed large numbers of troops and resources to try to secure some kind of advance after months of setbacks.

In Dnipro, pictures showed firefighters putting out a blaze around the carcasses of some cars. A broad chunk of the apartment block was missing. The exterior of the rest of the building was badly damaged. Wounded people were carried away on stretchers.

Russia, which invaded Ukraine last February, has been pounding its energy infrastructure with missiles and drones since October, causing sweeping blackouts and disruptions to central heating and running water.
Ukraine shot down 25 of 38 Russian missiles of different types, the Air Force said.

Missiles struck critical infrastructure facilities in the eastern region of Kharkiv and the western region of Lviv, officials said. Kharkiv region lost power completely and disruptions to electricity and water supplies in Lviv were also possible, officials said.

Moldova’s interior ministry said missile debris had been found in the north of the country near the Ukraine border following the air strikes.

The attack on Saturday came hours after a smaller-scale missile attack hit critical infrastructure in Kyiv and the eastern city of Kharkiv.

The first attack was unusual because missiles struck their targets before the air raid siren even sounded. No one was reported hurt then, but missile debris caused a fire in one area and houses were damaged outside the capital, officials said.

DTEK, the biggest private electricity company, introduced emergency blackouts in several regions.

Residential infrastructure was also hit in the village of Kopyliv outside the capital. The windows and roofs of 18 privately owned houses were shattered or damaged by the blast, Oleksiy Kuleba, the regional governor, said.

Commenting on the first attack, Air Force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat said Russia’s missiles had likely been fired along a high, looping ballistic trajectory from the north, which would explain why the air raid siren did not sound.

Ukraine is not able to identify and shoot down ballistic missiles, he told the Ukrainska Pravda online outlet.

In Ukraine’s northeast, two S-300 missiles struck the city of Kharkiv near the Russian border early on Saturday, according to regional governor Oleg Synehubov.

The attacks hit critical energy and industrial targets in the Kharkiv and Chuhuev district of the region, he said.

Saturday’s strikes came as Ukrainian and Russian forces battled for control of Soledar, a small salt-mining town in eastern Ukraine that for days has been the focus of a relentless Russian assault.

Ukraine insisted that its forces were battling to hold onto control of Soledar, but acknowledged the situation was difficult, that street fighting was raging and that Russian forces were advancing from various directions.

Russia said on Friday that its forces had taken control of the town with a pre-war population of 10,000, in what would be a minor advance, but one holding psychological importance for Russian forces who have suffered months of battlefield setbacks.

Reuters could not immediately verify the situation in Soledar.

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Twitter Inc has secured a ruling allowing the social media company to force several laid-off workers suing over their termination to pursue their claims via individual arbitration than a class-action lawsuit.

U.S. District Judge James Donato on Friday ruled that five former Twitter employees pursuing a proposed class action accusing the company of failing to give adequate notice before laying them off after its acquisition by Elon Musk must pursue their claims in private arbitration.

Donato granted Twitter’s request to force the five ex-employees to pursue their claims individually, citing agreements they signed with the company.

Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The San Francisco judge left for another day “as warranted by developments in the case” whether the entire class action lawsuit must be dismissed, though, as he noted three other former Twitter employees who alleged they had opted out of the company’s arbitration agreement have joined the lawsuit after it was first filed.

The lawyer who represents the plaintiffs, Shannon Liss-Riordan, said on Monday that she had already filed 300 demands for arbitration on behalf of former Twitter employees and would likely file hundreds more.

Those workers all claim they have not received the full severance package promised by Twitter before Musk took over. Some have also alleged sex or disability discrimination.

Last year, Donato had ruled that Twitter must notify the thousands of workers who were laid off after its acquisition by Musk following a proposed class action accusing the company of failing to give adequate notice before terminating them.

The judge said that before asking workers to sign severance agreements waiving their ability to sue the company, Twitter must give them “a succinct and plainly worded notice”.

Twitter laid off roughly 3,700 employees in early November in a cost-cutting measure by Musk, and hundreds more subsequently resigned.

In December last year, Twitter was also accused by dozens of former employees of various legal violations stemming from Musk’s takeover of the company, including targeting women for layoffs and failing to pay promised severance.

Twitter is also facing at least three complaints filed with a U.S. labor board claiming workers were fired for criticizing the company, attempting to organize a strike, and other conduct protected by federal labor law.

While Abraham Lincoln was 6-foot-4, James Madison was a full foot shorter. The shortest first lady was Eliza Johnson at 4 feet 9 inches, and Eleanor Roosevelt, Michelle Obama, and Melania Trump tied for the tallest at 5 feet 11 inches.

Shayanne Gal/Business Insider

• While every American president and first lady has reached the same heights of political office and public service, not all reached the White House at the same physical height.
• John Adams and Abigail Adams were only separated in height by an inch, while Thomas Jefferson was over a foot taller than his wife, Martha Jefferson.
• We found the heights through online research and speaking with presidential historical sites and libraries, but a few first ladies’ heights have been lost to history.
• Here is the height difference of every US president and first lady we could find.