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Breaking: Congress Confirms Biden As President-Elect

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…Trump Promises Smooth Transition, Remains Adamant About Election Defeat

Congress has affirmed President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory over President Trump.

The counting of Vermont’s three electoral votes put Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris over the 270-threshold needed to win the presidency.

The Senate and House rejected objections to throw out Georgia and Pennsylvania’s electoral votes for Biden. Republicans also objected to Arizona, Nevada and Michigan’s electoral votes, but the motions failed before they reached debate.

“The announcement of the state of the vote by the President of the Senate shall be deemed a sufficient declaration of the persons elected President and Vice President of the United States, each for the term beginning on the 20th day of January 2021 and shall be entered together with the list of the votes on the journals of the Senate and the House of Representatives,” Pence said following the count of all of the state’s Electoral College votes.

The certification comes after pro-Trump rioters stormed the US Capitol earlier Wednesday.

Four people are dead, including one woman who was shot after supporters of President Donald Trump breached one of the most iconic American buildings, engulfing the nation’s capital in chaos after Trump urged his supporters to fight against the ceremonial counting of the electoral votes that will confirm President-elect Joe Biden’s win.

Shortly after 1 p.m. ET Wednesday hundreds of pro-Trump protesters pushed through barriers set up along the perimeter of the Capitol, where they tussled with officers in full riot gear, some calling the officers “traitors” for doing their jobs. About 90 minutes later, police said demonstrators got into the building and the doors to the House and Senate were being locked. Shortly after, the House floor was evacuated by police. Vice President Mike Pence was also evacuated from the chamber, where he was to perform his role in the counting of electoral votes.

An armed standoff took place at the House front door at about 3 p.m. ET, and police officers had their guns drawn at someone who was trying to breach it. A Trump supporter was also pictured standing at the Senate dais earlier in the afternoon.

A woman died after being shot in the chest on the Capitol grounds, DC police confirmed to CNN. DC Police Chief Robert Contee said three other people died from medical emergencies during the riot.

Multiple officers have been injured with at least one transported to the hospital, multiple sources tell CNN.

Smoke grenades were used on the Senate side of the Capitol, as police worked to clear the building of rioters. Windows on the west side of the Senate were broken, and hundreds of officers amassed on the first floor of the building.

The Senate floor was cleared of rioters as of 3:30 p.m. ET, and an officer told CNN that they successfully squeezed them away from the Senate wing of the building and toward the Rotunda. The protesters were removed through the east and west doors of the Capitol. At least 52 people were arrested as of 9:30 p.m. ET Wednesday in Washington.

The US Capitol Police worked to secure the second floor of the Capitol first, and were seen just before 5 p.m. ET pushing demonstrators off the steps on the east side of the building. With about 30 minutes to go before Washington’s 6 p.m. ET curfew, Washington police amassed in a long line to push the mob back from the Capitol grounds.

It took until roughly 5:40 p.m. ET for the building to once again be secured, according to the sergeant-at-arms.

The stunning display of insurrection was the first time the US Capitol had been overrun since the British attacked and burned the building in August of 1814, during the War of 1812, according to Samuel Holliday, director of scholarship and operations with the US Capitol Historical Society.

The shocking scene was met with less police force than many of the Black Lives Matter protests that rolled across the country in the wake of George Floyd’s killing at the hands of Minneapolis police officers last year. While federal police attacked peaceful protesters in Lafayette Square outside the White House over the summer, clearing the way for Trump to take a photo in front of a nearby church at the time, protesters on Wednesday were able to overrun Capitol police and infiltrate the country’s legislative chambers.

Meanwhile, United States President, Donald Trump has conceded defeat to President-Elect, Joe Biden.

Biden’s victory was certified by the joint Session of Congress, presided by outgoing Vice President, Mike Pence, on Thursday morning.

Trump in a statement shortly after Biden’s victory acknowledged that he would leave office on January 20

He said that the would be an orderly transfer of power to Biden.

The statement read, “Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on January 20th,”

“I have always said we would continue our fight to ensure that only legal votes were counted. While this represents the end of the greatest first term in presidential history, it’s only the beginning of our fight to Make America Great Again.”

 

 

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Two Dead As Drone Attacks Set Oil Refinery On Fire In Russia

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Multiple air attacks on the Russian border region of Belgorod adjoining Ukraine on Saturday killed two people and injured at least seven, the governor said.

Further east, an overnight drone attack on the Samara region caused a fire at a major oil refinery, the latest in a series of strikes against Russia’s fuel industry.

Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on Telegram that two districts in his region as well as the regional capital, also called Belgorod, had been hit in drone and air attacks.

“It’s shaping up to be a difficult morning,” Gladkov said.

“As a result of an air attack by Ukrainian armed forces on Belgorod, three balconies collapsed in an apartment building. One of these apartments was occupied by a married couple. To much grief, the man died from his injuries on the spot,” he said.

He posted a photo of a residential building with the facade partially destroyed.

Another person was killed in a drone attack on districts outside the city, he said.

In the Samara region – 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) away from the front lines in eastern — the local governor reported “several drone attacks” on local oil refineries.

One of them caused a fire at the Kuibyshev refinery, governor Dmitry Azarov said in a statement on Telegram, noting that there were no casualties.

The refinery, run by Russian oil giant Rosneft, is one of the largest in the region, with a production capacity of seven million tonnes per year, according to its official website.

A drone attack on another refinery in the region, Novokuibyshevsk, “was repelled without damaging the technological equipment”, Azarov said.

The attacks came 24 hours after Russia unleashed one of its largest aerial barrages of the two-year conflict, hitting dozens of Ukrainian energy site and leaving more than a million temporarily without power.

Ukraine’s air force said it had downed 31 of 34 Russian drones fire at its territory overnight, while Russia’s defence ministry said it had intercepted 12 Ukrainian drones.

Ukraine, which has been facing a Russian offensive for over two years, has stepped up its attacks inside Russia in recent weeks, targeting energy sites in particular.

And Russia has also launched a barrage of what it calls “retaliatory” attacks, targeting Ukraine’s energy sector and the capital Kyiv in recent days.

AFP

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Gun Attack At Moscow Concert Leaves At Least 40 Dead

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Gunmen opened fire at a rock concert in a Moscow suburb Friday killing at least 40 people, wounding 100, and setting off an inferno in the theatre, authorities said.

Attackers dressed in camouflage uniforms entered the building, opened fire, and threw a grenade or incendiary bomb, according to a journalist for the RIA Novosti news agency at the scene.

The fire quickly spread through the Crocus City concert hall in the Krasnogorsk suburb in the north of the Russian capital, which can hold several thousand people and has hosted top international artists.

“According to preliminary information, 40 people were killed and more than 100 were injured as a result of a terrorist attack in the Crocus City Hall,” according to the FSB security service, quoted by Interfax news agency and other Russian media.

Authorities said a “terrorist” investigation had been started and President Vladimir Putin was receiving “constant” updates on the attack, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies.

Telegram news channels Baza and Mash, which are close to security forces, showed video images of flames and black smoke pouring from the hall.

Other images showed two men walking through the hall with at least one person left on the ground near the entrance. Concert-goers were also seen hiding behind seats or trying to escape.

Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said there had been a “terrible tragedy” at the concert by Russian rock band Piknik and cancelled all public events in the city for the weekend.

Security services quoted by Interfax news agency said between two and five people “wearing tactical uniforms and carrying automatic weapons” opened fire on guards at the entrance and then started shooting at the audience.

“People who were in the hall were led on the ground to protect themselves from the shooting for 15 or 20 minutes,” the RIA Novosti journalist was quoted as saying.

People started crawling out when it was safe, the journalist reported.

About 100 people escaped through the theatre basement while others were sheltering on the roof, the emergency services ministry said on its Telegram channel.

But about one third of the complex was ablaze, TASS news agency reported.

Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said it had been a “bloody terrorist attack”.

“The whole international community must condemn this odious crime,” she said on Telegram.

The US presidency called the attack “terrible” but said there was no immediate sign of any link to the conflict in Ukraine.

“There is no indication at this time that Ukraine or Ukrainians were involved in the shooting,” US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters in Washington.

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev vowed on Telegram that Ukraine’s top officials “must be found and ruthlessly destroyed as terrorists” if they were linked to the attack.

“I offer my condolences to the families of the dead,” said Moscow’s mayor as a major security operation was launched around the theatre and nearby shopping mall.

TASS said that SOBR, special police forces, and the OMON anti-riot squad had been sent to the Crocus hall.

It added that all the members of the rock band had been evacuated safely.

Orthodox church leader Patriarch Kirill was “praying for peace for the souls of the dead,” said his spokesman Vladimir Legoyda.

Previous Warnings

Moscow and other Russian cities have been the targets of previous attacks by Islamist groups but there have also been incidents without any clear political motive.

Earlier this month, the US embassy in Russia warned that “extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow”, including concerts.

In 2002, Chechen separatist fighters took 912 people hostage in a Moscow theatre, the Dobrovka, demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops from the region.

Special forces attacked the theatre to end the hostage-taking and 130 people were killed, nearly all suffocated by a gas used by security forces to knock out the gunmen.

Russia launched a military intervention in Ukraine in February 2022 and it has been the target of attacks along the border by anti-Kremlin forces.

Ukraine’s presidency and the Freedom of Russia Legion, whose fighters are part of Ukraine’s armed forces, denied any role in the concert hall attack.

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Magnitude-6.4 Quake Hits Off Indonesia’s Java Island

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A magnitude-6.4 offshore earthquake hit near Indonesia’s Java island on Friday, the United States Geological Survey said, with the tremor felt in the capital Jakarta and forcing residents of another city to flee their homes.

The quake had a depth of approximately eight kilometres (five miles), and struck off Java island’s northern coast near Bawean island at about 3:52 pm local time (0852 GMT), the USGS said.

There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries, and no tsunami warning was issued by local authorities.

The quake was felt more strongly in East Java Province, including in the major city of Surabaya.

“I was at home when the earthquake struck. The jolt made us unsteady. The water in the sewer (outside) was swaying,” said Yulianus Andre, an AFP journalist in the city.

“My family and I rushed out of home and our neighbours did too. The jolt lasted more than a minute when we were outside.”

Indonesia, a vast archipelago nation, experiences frequent earthquakes due to its position on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, an arc of intense seismic activity where tectonic plates collide that stretches from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.

A magnitude-6.2 quake that shook Sulawesi island in January 2021 killed more than 100 people and left thousands homeless.

In 2018, a magnitude-7.5 quake and subsequent tsunami in Palu on Sulawesi killed more than 2,200 people.

And in 2004, a magnitude-9.1 quake struck Aceh province, causing a tsunami and killing more than 170,000 people in Indonesia.

AFP

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