Times Of Harvard

 It was 1988, near the end of the cold war, when then-senator Joe Biden made yet another visit to the Soviet Union for talks on arms control. By that time, he felt comfortable enough in Moscow to bring a guest into the room: his teenage son. “Would you mind my son, Hunter Biden, sitting in and listening? The gentleman is interested in international affairs and diplomacy,” he said, according to Victor Prokofiev, the Soviet foreign ministry interpreter at the meeting. A photograph from the meeting shows Biden’s son seated at the head of the table as his father and Andrei Gromyko, the chairman of the presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, discussed ratifying the intermediate-range nuclear forces treaty. “That was extremely unusual,” Prokofiev said. “It was particularly striking to me as a Soviet person.”  And when he has entered the White House, Joe Biden has brought with him nearly half a century of foreign policy experience, making him one of the most seasoned envoys ever...

 Russian police detained more than 3000 protesters on Sunday as activists took to the streets across the country demanding the release of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. The protests in scores of cities in temperatures as low as minus-50 C (minus-58 F) highlighted how Navalny has built influence far beyond the political and cultural centers of Moscow and St. Petersburg. In Moscow, an estimated 15,000 demonstrators gathered in and around Pushkin Square in the city center, where clashes with police broke out and demonstrators were roughly dragged off by helmeted riot officers to police buses and detention trucks. Some were beaten with batons. Navalny’s wife Yulia was among those arrested. Police eventually pushed demonstrators out of the square. Thousands then regrouped along a wide boulevard about a kilometer (half-mile) away, many of them throwing snowballs at the police before dispersing. Some later went to protest near the jail where Navalny is held. Police made an undeterm...

 Scottish-born, Grammy-nominated musician and producer SOPHIE died following a tragic accident on Jan. 30. The visionary transgender artist was 34 years old. The Scottish-born, Los Angeles-based artist, an LGBTQ+ icon touted for producing an avant garde style of electronic pop music, passed away on the morning of Saturday, Jan. 30. SOPHIE's rep announced the news in a statement to NPR and other outlets, saying, "It is with profound sadness that I have to inform you that musician and producer SOPHIE passed away this morning around 4am in Athens, where the artist had been living, following a sudden accident." "Tragically our beautiful SOPHIE passed away this morning after a terrible accident," SOPHIE's record label Transgressive said in a statement posted on Twitter. "True to her spirituality she had climbed up to watch the full moon and accidentally slipped and fell. She will always be here with us. The family thank everyone for their love and support an...

 Hundreds of people have rallied in several French towns and cities in protests called by anti-capitalist and environmental groups against e-commerce giant Amazon. Among the places where demonstrators staged rallies on Saturday was the small southern town of Fournes near Pont-du-Gard, a World Heritage site, where the United States-based company plans to set up a 38,000-square-metre (400,000-square-feet) facility. Protesting at the site, between 800 and 1,000 people formed a human chain to show the size of the project, with multicoloured balloons floated 18 metres (60 feet) up to indicate the height of the planned five-storey warehouse. “It’s two years that the citizens of Fournes and its surroundings have fought against the installation of a giant Amazon warehouse,” said Raphael Pradeau, spokesman of French citizens’ activist group Attac. “At the start they were a bit alone against everyone, but they have succeeded in halting the project thanks to legal recourse,” he added. “We wan...

    QAnon Shaman, real name Jacob Chansley, said he'd speak at Trump's impeachment trial next month.     Chansley's lawyer said his client used to love the former president but now feels let down that he did not receive a presidential pardon.     Chansley is to be arraigned on charges related to the Capitol insurrection on Friday. Trump's impeachment trial is set to begin on February 8. The QAnon Shaman, he of the fur, face paint, horns, and bare chest, has offered to speak at former President Donald Trump's impeachment trial next month. The Shaman, real name Jacob Chansley, told the Associated Press, via his lawyer Albert S. Whatley, that he would be open to attending the trial and testify against the president. Chansley, Whatley said, had been "horrendously smitten" with Trump, but now feels "like he was betrayed by the president" after the president failed to give him and other Capitol rioters pardons. Chansley is among several Capitol rio...

 Social media activists traded, video, and clip of a young man harassing a girl while she was in her car, in a way that the tweeters described as disgusting. The video shows a young man harassing the girl from behind the windshield of her car, by sticking his tongue out in an unethical manner.  And the Qassim region police announced the arrest of a citizen in his second decade of life. For documenting indecent signals being directed near a vehicle in a woman. And he posted it on his account. Al-Qassim Police said that the young man’s behavior constitutes a crime according to the systems of combating the crime of harassment and combating information crimes. As soon as the clip spread, activists and tweeters expressed their dissatisfaction with the young man’s behavior and described him as dirty and disgusting, calling for his speedy arrest and accountability for his action. One of them asked: “Where did he come from this very, very, very, very, very, very daring!” To respond to...

  Rep. Paul Gosar, an Arizona Republican, told a right-wing militant group that the US was in a civil war and predicted it would become violent, Jim Arroyo, the leader of an Arizona chapter of Oath Keepers, said in a Nov. 2020 video. "We asked [Gosar] flat-out, at that time, do you think we're heading into a civil war?" Arroyo said of his exchange with Gosar. "And his response to the group was just flat-out, 'We're in it, we just haven't started shooting yet.'" Arroyo used Gosar's claim to back up his theory that the US was "in the begining phases of a full-scale, kinetic civil war" provoked by a "communist insurrection." "What we are witesssing in the United States right now is a Communist takeover, it's an insurgency," he said in the video, titled "The Coming Civil War?" "You need to prepare to defend yourselves, your families, and your neighborhoods."  Far-right activist Ali Alexander, ...

Dutch police used water cannons to disperse hundreds of protesters in Amsterdam demonstrating against a new lockdown curfew that was introduced to curb the spread of coronavirus. It comes after rioting youths set a coronavirus testing facility on fire in Urk, a small fishing village in the Netherlands on Saturday. Police clashed with protesters taking part in the outlawed anti-lockdown demonstration in Amsterdam’s Museum Square on Sunday. Officials said many of the protesters failed to social distance and were not wearing protective face masks. Video footage showed the water cannon spraying a group of people against the wall of the Van Gogh museum.     Police in Eindhoven, 80 miles south of Amsterdam, also used a water cannon and tear gas against a crowd of demonstrators that included supporters of the anti-immigrant group Pegida. Eindhoven police said they made at least 30 arrests and warned people to stay away from the city centre. There were no immediate reports of inj...

The tankers — the Iranian-flagged MT Horse and the Panamanian-flagged MT Frea — were seized in waters off Indonesia’s West Kalimantan province, said Wisnu Pramadita, a spokesman for the Indonesian Maritime Security Agency. He said the tankers are suspected of a variety of violations, including not displaying national flags, shutting off their identification systems, anchoring illegally as well as the illegal transfer fuel between ships and spilling oil. The tankers — the Iranian-flagged MT Horse and the Panamanian-flagged MT Frea — were seized in waters off Indonesia’s West Kalimantan province, said Wisnu Pramadita, a spokesman for the Indonesian Maritime Security Agency. He said the tankers are suspected of a variety of violations, including not displaying national flags, shutting off their identification systems, anchoring illegally as well as the illegal transfer fuel between ships and spilling oil.  

 Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla hasn’t received his company’s Covid-19 vaccine shot yet, saying he and other executives will not “cut the line” as U.S. officials kick off a massive effort to distribute the vaccine across the country. The vaccine, which Pfizer developed in partnership with Germany-based BioNTech, is the first approved for emergency use in the U.S. to prevent Covid-19. The Food and Drug Administration on Friday authorized the vaccine for use in people 16 and older, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Sunday officially recommended its use. However, there are limited doses available and as such, the CDC has recommended states prioritize health-care workers and long-term care residents for initial distribution. While Bourla’s company developed the vaccine, he is not a frontline health-care worker himself. He said he’s also 59 and in relatively good health, so it’s not entirely appropriate for him to receive the vaccine before other people who need it more. I...

 The Human Rights Commission in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia published a statement on the number of executions carried out during 2020, praising the 85% rate of reduction in the number of executions compared to 2019. The Commission’s statement comes amid threats of execution to dozens of political detainees, prisoners of conscience, and those accused of non-serious crimes, including minors. The Commission’s statement on the annual execution toll is uncharacteristic, since it did not issue such a statement during the years that saw the highest number of executions in the country’s history, from 2015 to 2019. This highlights the nature of the Commission’s role, which revolves around whitewashing the government’s bad record or justifying its violations by saying its actions are legal and consistent with human rights. The Human Rights Commission plays a role that is not adequate in keeping with the principles related to the Status of National Institutions for the Promotion and Protectio...

A loud explosion shook Riyadh on Tuesday three days after the kingdom intercepted a projectile fired over the Saudi capital. No immediate reaction came from Saudi Arabia, which has come under repeated missile or drone attacks from Houthi rebels in neighbouring Yemen since 2015. The blast rattled windows across the Saudi capital at about 1pm (10:00 GMT), witnesses said. Some residents reported hearing two blasts on social media. Saudi Arabia-owned Al Arabiya TV cited local reports of a blast and videos circulating on social media of a missile being intercepted over Riyadh. On Saturday, the Saudi Arabia-led coalition, which backs Yemen’s internationally recognised government against the Houthis, said it intercepted and destroyed a “hostile air target” heading towards Riyadh, state television reported. The brief statement did not identify the source of the target and the Houthis said they were not involved. Riyadh’s King Khaled International Airport said there were a number of flight dela...

The U.S. accounts for roughly one of every four cases reported worldwide and one of every five deaths.  More than 25 million people have been infected with the coronavirus and at least 418,000 people have died in the U.S. since the pandemic began. The number of cases reported in the U.S. since the pandemic's start surpassed 25 million on Sunday, according to Johns Hopkins University. According to data through Thursday from the COVID Tracking Project, hospitalizations are still high in the West and the South, with over 80,000 current COVID-19 hospital patients in those regions. The new milestone, reported Sunday by Johns Hopkins, is a grim reminder of the coronavirus’ wide reach in the U.S., which has seen far more confirmed cases and deaths than any other country in the world. The U.S. accounts for roughly one of every four cases reported worldwide and one of every five deaths. India has recorded the second most cases, with about 10.7 million. The number of new cases in the U.S. ha...

A post on social media features two photographs of President Joe Biden’s swearing in ceremony that appear to show a different set up of the people on the background. Some users claim this mismatch between the images is proof that Biden’s inauguration was pre-recorded or somehow staged and inauthentic. Watch:    

An intelligence agency has just confirmed that the US government does indeed buy location data collected by its citizens’ smartphones. In a memo sent to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and obtained by The New York Times, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) admitted that it buys location data from brokers — and that the data isn’t separated by whether a person lives in the US or outside of it. Data brokers are companies that, as the name implies, collect and sell people’s information. The companies collect people’s location information (and much more) by paying app makers and websites for it. Once the broker has the information, they can aggregate it and sell it to whoever’s willing to pay for it — including the US government. In the memo, the DIA says that its “personnel can only query the US location database when authorized through a specific process” that requires approval from senior leadership, the Office of Oversight and Compliance, and the Office of General Counsel. The DIA also says th...

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer agreed Friday night to a two-week delay of former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, allowing the chamber to focus on confirming President Joe Biden's Cabinet and coronavirus relief. Under the timeline outlined by Schumer, the House will deliver the article of impeachment Monday evening, senators will be sworn-in Tuesday and the trial will officially begin the week of February 8. The framework for the trial comes after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) also called for a two-week delay in order to give Trump time to plan his legal defense. "The January 6th insurrection at the Capitol, incited by Donald J. Trump was a day none of us will ever forget," Schumer said Friday. "We all want to put this awful chapter in our nation’s history behind us. But healing and unity will only come if there is truth and accountability. And that is what this trial will provide." Doug Andres, a spokesperson for McConnell, sai...

The United Arab Emirates has signed a deal with the United States to purchase 50 F-35 fighter jets and up to 18 MQ-9 Reaper drones, according to Reuters. The deal was signed about an hour before the inauguration of President Joe Biden, who said he will re-examine the agreements. While the final delivery date for the F-35s could not yet be confirmed, people familiar with the deal told Reuters that an initial proposal earmarked delivery for 2027. The deal goes back to November last year when the Trump administration told Congress of its intention to sell more than $23 billion of advanced weaponry to the UAE. “This is in recognition of our deepening relationship and the UAE’s need for advanced defense capabilities to deter and defend itself against heightened threats from Iran,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said at the time. In December, lawmakers repeatedly tried to block the controversial deal, but the US Senate successfully opposed resolutions seeking to prohibit the sale. Amnesty In...

 Cristiano Ronaldo has reportedly turned down a £5.3million-a-year offer to be the face of Saudi Arabia tourism. But the Middle East country have not given up hope of attracting a world class footballer to help them out, with Lionel Messi in their sights. According to The Telegraph 'the deal on offer is understood to include the player making visits to Saudi and his image being used in all promotional material'. But Juventus striker Ronaldo, 35, decided to 'pass' on the offer. Concerns have been raised over Saudi Arabia's human rights record as the country tries to attract world-class sport to its shores. Formula One bosses have been condemned by human rights groups for scheduling next year’s penultimate race of the season in Saudi Arabia. And Amnesty International slammed the decision to host the Anthony Joshua versus Andy Ruiz Jr rematch in the country. They urged AJ to speak out against the country's human rights history, but the 31-year-old insisted it was ...

The incoming Biden administration will push Congress to expand food benefits for Americans struggling because of coronavirus until at least September 2021 or until the crisis is over. “As I speak, 1 in 7 households in America, more than 1 in 5 Black and Latino households in America report they don’t have enough food to eat,” Biden said in a speech Thursday night in which he unveiled the details of his vision for a $1.9 trillion stimulus package. “It’s wrong, it’s tragic, it’s unnecessary.” In addition to extending a monthly increase in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits, the president-elect is also calling for another $3 billion to help mothers and their children access food in the pandemic as well as an initiative in which restaurants battered by the crisis receive help to get meals to families in need. While Biden’s proposals still have to pass Congress, a $900 billion stimulus package passed in December already made big changes to SNAP.  “The crisis...

  Larry King, the radio and television personality whose breezy and conversational interviews with celebrities and world leaders made him a broadcasting icon for nearly half a century, has died, his TV production company Ora Media said in a statement Saturday. The statement said he had been receiving treatment at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. It did not specify the cause of death, but King was recently hospitalized with Covid-19. King had a variety of medical issues in his life. He had Type 2 diabetes, survived several heart attacks, and underwent quintuple bypass surgery in 1987. He underwent surgery for lung cancer in 2017 and had a procedure for angina in 2019, CNN said. King was born Lawrence Harvey Zeiger in 1933 in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Jewish immigrants. His legendary broadcasting career began in radio, expanding to television when he became the host of “Larry King Live” on CNN from 1985 to 2011. It was one of CNN’s highest rated shows. It garnered him...

Well-wishes to an incoming U.S. president took on a new form this year, as world leaders issuing congratulations to President Joe Biden also appeared to express palpable relief that the Trump administration had come to an end. "America is back," tweeted South Korean President Moon Jae-in shortly after Biden's inauguration. "America's new beginning will make democracy even greater. Together with the Korean people, I stand by your journey toward 'America United.'"  Moon was among the world leaders most affected by former President Donald Trump's foreign policy, in this case the nuclear brinkmanship that accompanied his unprecedented meetings with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The overtures amounted to three high-profile summits that ultimately did not yield major breakthroughs or prevent rising tensions in recent months as Pyongyang sought to reassert itself during the transition of power in Washington. Others in the crosshairs of Trump's at...

President Joe Biden will spend his first full day in office taking action on the coronavirus pandemic, which he promised would be his top priority if elected.  Biden's federal response will include increasing vaccine production, expanding testing and requiring masks on certain public transportation, according to the plan, titled "National Strategy for the COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness." It is tied to the $1.9 trillion pandemic plan Biden unveiled last week. The main goals of the strategy revolve around restoring trust in the federal government, increasing vaccinations, mitigating the spread of the virus, exercising the Defense Production Act, reopening schools, stimulating business and travel, addressing health inequalities and preparing for future pandemics.  It's a sharp turn from the Trump administration, which largely tried to pin coronavirus response on the states. "For almost a year now, Americans could not look to the federal government for a...

 President Joe Biden took the oath of office Wednesday at an inauguration ceremony that was drastically different from years past due to the Covid-19 pandemic and security concerns following the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6.  Bucking long-standing tradition, Donald Trump skipped the inauguration and flew to Florida Wednesday morning. About halfway through his inauguration speech, President Joe Biden said something very important about the work of Washington -- and how he envisions his presidency.  "Politics doesn't have to be a raging fire destroying everything in its path," Biden insisted. "Every disagreement doesn't have to be a cause for total war." If you blinked, you might have missed it. But that line -- and the sentiment behind it -- functions not only as a rejection of the political worldview of his predecessor in office but also as the core belief that underpins Biden's entire theory of the presidential case. And yet, time and time agai...

 After a video of his mother’s condition went viral, the son of a woman who was hospitalized after receiving Pfizer’s Covid jab told RT that, even though he was not an anti-vaxxer, he had serious doubts about the drug’s safety. Brant Griner issued an appeal on Facebook last week, after his mother began experiencing serious medical issues several days after taking the vaccine. In a now-viral post, Griner shared a video of his mother shaking uncontrollably as she attempted to walk, using nearby walls and a door to support herself as she inched forward. “Mom is getting even worse today and I still don’t have any answers from doctors as to how to fix this. Please pray for her. I can’t stand to see my mom this way. It makes me want to cry. knowing I can’t do anything to help her. Please don’t take the covid19 vaccine,” he wrote. The message and accompanying video has been shared nearly 160,000 times, and has racked up more than 35,000 comments.  Watch:  

Cartoonist Barry Blitt has been creating Donald Trump-themed art for The New Yorker magazine since 2015. “I can’t thank Trump enough,” he told the publication back in 2017. “Maybe, when he leaves office, in 2024, I’ll be able to claw my way out of the rubble and shake his hand to express my gratitude personally.” His vision will arrive sooner than he had anticipated, as, come 20 January 2021, Trump will leave the office and a new man will be sworn in. Blitt’s latest piece for the magazine marks the end of an era, as it is his last New Yorker cover published during Trump’s presidency. The illustration, titled A Weight Lifted, is as cheeky as it is symbolic. It depicts an eagle, a heroic American icon, carrying a reluctant and scowling Trump in the skies.  The image seems reminiscent of the infamous Trump Baby blimp flown in numerous protests, though the possible reference hasn’t been confirmed. The artwork appears on The New Yorker magazine’s 25 January issue, now on stands.

    Massive fire engulfs the commercial complex in the United States. Watch:  

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said the crowd of Trump supporters who attacked the US Congress on January 6 were “violent criminals” who were “fed lies” and “provoked” by President Donald Trump. Speaking to the US Senate on Tuesday, McConnell’s remarks are his strongest condemnation of President Trump’s role in the January 6 attack by Trump’s supporters on the US Congress. “The last time the Senate convened we had just reclaimed the Capitol from violent criminals who tried to stop Congress from doing our duty,” said McConnell, the No 1 Republican in the Senate. “The mob was fed lies. They were provoked by the president and other powerful people. And they tried to use fear and violence to stop a specific proceeding of the first branch of the federal government which they did not like,” he said. The Democratic-led US House of Representatives impeached Trump on one charge of incitement to insurrection for rallying his supporters and telling them to march on the Capitol. A crowd ...

Chief of the National Guard Bureau, Gen. Joseph L. Lengyel, visited some 65000 National Guard troops in the country's capitalas they continue to support missions as part of the state’s COVID19 response.  Here’s his message to the families and all those who have been serving communities throughout the state.  

 Here’s more evidence the clean-tech boom is only getting bigger. Breakthrough Energy Ventures, the clean-tech venture capital fund led by Bill Gates, has raised $1 billion for a second round of investments after backing 45 startups with its first billion. Created in 2016, BEV began funding startups just as the second wave of clean-tech investments was gaining momentum. Since then, interest in the sector has exploded. VC money flowing into startups that can help cut emissions has soared to $16 billion in 2019 from $400 million in 2013, a 40-times increase, according to a PwC report published last year. The first clean-tech boom was a disappointment. VCs lost more than half the $25 billion invested between 2006 and 2011. The financial crisis compounded the losses, but experts believe there were bigger problems with the underlying investment philosophy. First, VCs were looking to replicate the success they had seen in internet startups, expecting returns from clean-tech investments i...