First thing: Trump aides could face prosecution for attack on Capitol Hill | US News



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The House select committee investigating the deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol on Jan.6 is ready to urge federal prosecution of former Donald Trump aides who refuse to comply with subpoenas, a key member of the panel.

Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino, Strategist Steve Bannon and Pentagon Assistant Kash Patel challenge subpoenas for documents and testimony, on instructions from the former President .

Among fears that the panel will not seek to enforce its will, Adam Schiff, a member of the panel as well as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, told CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday: “We are ready to move forward and to urge the Ministry of Justice to prosecute anyone who does not do their legitimate duty.

Meanwhile, Second House Republican Steve Scalise of Louisiana repeatedly refused to say on Sunday that the 2020 election had not been stolen.

  • Wyoming’s Liz Cheney also said she will enforce subpoenas. She is one of only two Republican women on the committee.

  • The riot, around which five people including a police officer died, follows a rally near the White House during which Trump urged his supporters to “fight like hell” to reverse his electoral defeat.

  • In an interview with the Guardian, Schiff discusses life before politics as well as his leading roles in impeachment and other drama on Capitol Hill.

Donald Trump’s own treasury secretary blocked Ivanka’s role at the World Bank – report

(Left to right) Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland Ivanka Trump, then IMF Director Christine Lagarde and German Chancellor Angela Merkel at a panel in Berlin
(Left to right) Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland Ivanka Trump, then IMF Director Christine Lagarde and German Chancellor Angela Merkel during a panel in Berlin. Photographer: Markus Schreiber / AP

Only direct intervention by his own Treasury secretary prevented Donald Trump from appointing his daughter, Ivanka Trump, as head of the World Bank, according to a report.

Citing two anonymous sources, the Intercept said the appointment “was incredibly close to happening” in January 2019, but for Steven Mnuchin’s decision to intervene. Mnuchin, a Goldman Sachs banker and film producer, served during Trump’s four years in office, a rare feat among Trump’s cabinet picks and advisers.

The head of the World Bank is still chosen by the United States. In January 2019, Jim Yong Kim resigned. Rumors abounded that Ivanka Trump, an executive with the Trump Organization before her father entered politics, would be chosen.

Three months later, Trump told Atlantic, “I even thought of Ivanka for the World Bank… she would have been great at that because she’s very good with numbers.

  • Ivanka Trump told reporters her father offered her the job but she turned it down because she was “happy with the job” as a senior White House adviser.

  • “A growing number of countries” are not happy that the United States still chooses the head of the World Bank and hearing how close the president’s daughter was to being chosen could add “fuel to the fire,” an expert said.

Lego to remove gender bias from toys after children’s survey results

A child plays with Lego.  The toy maker said it is working to remove gender bias from its product lines
A child plays with Lego. The toy maker said it works to remove gender biases from its product lines. Photograph: James Veysey / Rex / Shutterstock

Lego has announced that it will work to remove gender stereotypes from its toys after a global survey commissioned by the company found that attitudes towards gambling and future careers remain uneven and restrictive.

The researchers found that while girls became more confident and eager to engage in a wide range of activities, the same did not hold true for boys.

Seventy-one percent of the boys surveyed feared they would be laughed at if they played with what they called “girl’s toys” – a fear shared by their parents. “Parents are more concerned that their sons will be teased than their daughters for playing with toys associated with the opposite sex,” said Madeline Di Nonno, executive director of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media , who conducted the research.

The study found that parents always encouraged sons to play sports or Stem activities, while daughters were offered to dance and dress (daughters were five times more likely to be encouraged in these activities. than boys) or cook (three times more likely to be encouraged).

  • Danish toy maker commissioned the UN International Day of the Girl report on Monday. She interviewed nearly 7,000 parents and children aged 6 to 14 from China, the Czech Republic, Japan, Poland, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

In other news …

Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen
Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen said his group has assured the United States that it is determined that Afghanistan is not used by extremists to attack other countries. Photograph: Tatyana Makeyeva / Reuters
  • The United States has agreed to provide humanitarian aid to desperately poor Afghanistan on the brink of economic disaster, but refused to politically recognize the country’s new rulers, the Taliban said on Sunday.

  • Bus fell into river in northern China, killing at least three and missing 11 after flooding caused by heavy rains, houses were destroyed and farmland covered in two provinces.

  • Man died after trying to hit people on sidewalk with his truck, crashed into a building and was then pulled out and beaten by the group in southern California, authorities said.

  • Facebook executive Nick Clegg took a damage control tour of U.S. political talk shows on Sunday, but remained evasive on questions about the attack on the Capitol.

Statistics of the day: more than half of the 20 largest fires in California history have burned in the past four years

Butte County firefighters watch flames spread rapidly on a road during the Bear Fire in Oroville, California.
Butte County firefighters watch flames spread rapidly on a road during the Bear Fire in Oroville, California. Photograph: Josh Edelson / AFP / Getty Images

Firefighters still remember a time when fighting a so-called mega-fire – a blaze that burns over 100,000 acres – was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Nowadays, it is much more common for fires to spread over huge tracts of land. More than half of the 20 largest fires in California history have burned in the past four years. Eight of Oregon’s top 20 fires also occurred during this period. Arizona burned the most acres in history last year. The August complex fire in California, which alone consumed more than a million acres, became the first-ever gigafire in 2020.

Don’t Miss This: Alan Ruck from Succession on Ferris Bueller, Alcohol and Bounce

With Matthew Broderick (right) in Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
With Matthew Broderick (right) in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Photograph: Cinetext Bildarchiv / Paramount / Allstar

By the time he was cast for Succession, Alan Ruck, now 65, was well used to playing the sad and the sorry. As Captain John Harriman in Star Trek Generations, he had to deal with the loss of Captain Kirk; as the Rabbit in Twister, he was the idiotic member of the tornado chasing team, prowling around the maps. But after a decades-long crisis, the actor’s career came back in full force with the role of Connor Roy. He talks about his success in the 80s, his “attitude problems” and his enthusiasm for the new series of Succession.

Where: how to alert on Facebook – from someone who has already done so

Sophie Zhang, right, the whistleblower who came forward two years ago.  Last week Frances Haugen, left, testified before Congress
Sophie Zhang, right, the whistleblower who came forward two years ago. Last week Frances Haugen, left, testified before Congress. Composite: Rex / Shutterstock / The Guardian

In April, Sophie Zhang told the world about her employer’s failure to tackle deception and abuse. This month, another Facebook whistleblower, Frances Haugen, stepped forward. After providing the Wall Street Journal and the US government with thousands of internal documents showing Facebook’s internal research into his own wrongdoing, Haugen testified before Congress. During his testimony, Haugen encouraged “more tech workers to come forward through legitimate channels … to make sure the public has the information they need.” Here is Zhang’s advice for potential whistleblowers.

Climate balance: Air capsule from 1765 reveals ancient stories hidden under Antarctic ice

Artist Wayne Binitie with his glass sculpture containing air from the year 1765
Artist Wayne Binitie with his glass sculpture containing air from 1765. Photograph: Jane Barlow / PA

A bulb of Antarctic air from the year 1765 is the centerpiece of a new exhibit that reveals the hidden stories contained in polar ice to visitors attending the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow. Artist Wayne Binitie has spent the past five years undertaking an extraordinary collaboration with scientists from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), who drill, analyze and preserve ice cylinders from deep in the ice cap that record past climate changes.

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