MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — States in the northern plains are largely shutting down ahead of a massive winter storm that could dump up to 2 feet of snow in some areas, accompanied by strong winds and dangerously cold temperatures. Many schools throughout the Dakotas, Minnesota and Wisconsin were called off for Wednesday, ahead of the storm. Offices closed, and so did the Minnesota Legislature, which won't reconvene until Monday. Emergency management leaders warned people to stay off the roads or face potential “whiteout” conditions due to the snow and fierce winds. The storm will make its way toward the East Coast later in the week.
WARSAW (AP) — President Joe Biden is wrapping up his whirlwind, four-day visit to Poland and Ukraine by reassuring eastern flank NATO allies that his administration is highly attuned to the looming threats and other impacts spurred by the grinding Russian invasion of Ukraine. Before departing Warsaw on Wednesday, Biden will hold talks with leaders from the Bucharest Nine, a collection of nations on the most eastern parts of the NATO alliance that came together in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin's 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. As the war in Ukraine drags on, the Bucharest Nine countries’ anxieties have remained heightened.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Thousands of hours of surveillance footage from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol are being made available to Fox News Channel host Tucker Carlson, a stunning level of access granted by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy that Democrats swiftly condemned as a “grave” breach of security with potentially far-reaching consequences. The hard-right political commentator said his team is spending the week at the Capitol pouring through the video and preparing to reveal their findings to his viewers. But granting exclusive access to sensitive Jan. 6 security footage to such a deeply partisan figure is a highly unusual move, seen by some critics as essentially outsourcing House oversight to a TV personality who has promoted conspiracy theories about the attack.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vivek Ramaswamy, a wealthy biotech entrepreneur and investor and the author of “Woke, Inc.,” has entered the Republican race for president. In a video released Tuesday night, Ramaswamy, 37, formally launched his longshot bid by decrying what he called a “national identity crisis” that he claims is driven by a left-wing ideology that has replaced “faith, patriotism and hard work” with “new secular religions like COVID-ism, climate-ism and gender ideology." “We have obsessed so much over our diversity and our difference that we forgot all the ways we’re really just the same as Americans," he says. In a Wall Street Journal editorial published at the same time, he pledged to repeal civil service protections for federal workers if he wins, as well as work to eliminate affirmative action, including directing the Justice Department to prosecute “illegal race-based preferences." Born in Ohio, Ramaswamy, the son of Indian immigrants, founded a biotechnology company before becoming the partner of a hedge fund.
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli troops on Wednesday moved into a Palestinian city in the occupied West Bank, setting off fighting that killed at least six Palestinians, including a 72-year-old man, Palestinian health officials said. It was one of the deadliest incidents in nearly a year of fighting in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, and raised the prospect of further bloodshed. The Hamas militant group, which rules the Gaza Strip, said “its patience is running out.” The Israeli military gave few details about its operation in the northern city of Nablus. The city is known as a militant stronghold, and the army frequently operates there.
ATLANTA (AP) — They were led down a staircase into a garage beneath a downtown Atlanta courthouse, where officers with big guns were waiting. From there, they were ushered into vans with heavily tinted windows and driven to their cars under police escort. For Emily Kohrs, these were the moments last May when she realized she wasn’t participating in just any grand jury. “That was the first indication that this was a big freaking deal,” Kohrs told The Associated Press. The 30-year-old Fulton County resident who was between jobs suddenly found herself at the center of one of the nation’s most significant legal proceedings.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia voters on Tuesday elected Democrat Jennifer McClellan, a veteran state legislator from Richmond, to fill an open seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, where she will make history as the first Black woman to represent the state in Congress. “We will make this commonwealth and this country a better place for everyone,” McClellan said in a victory speech at a party with supporters in Richmond. “I am ready to get to work.” McClellan, 50, prevailed over right-wing Republican nominee Leon Benjamin in the special election for the blue-leaning 4th District, which has its population center in the capital city and stretches south to the North Carolina border.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is weighing Wednesday whether Facebook, Twitter and YouTube can be sued over a 2017 Islamic State group attack on a Turkish nightclub based on the argument the platforms assisted in fueling the growth of the terrorist organization. What the justices decide to do in this case and a related one it heard Tuesday is important particularly because the companies have been shielded from liability on the internet, allowing them to grow into the giants they are today. On the first day of arguments, the justices suggested they had little appetite for a far-reaching ruling that would upend the internet.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its investment arm have been fined $5 million for using shell companies to obscure the size of the portfolio under church control, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced Tuesday. The faith, widely known as the Mormon church, maintains billions of dollars of investments in stocks, bonds, real estate and agriculture. Much of its portfolio is controlled by Ensign Peak Advisers, a nonprofit investment manager overseen by ecclesiastical leaders known as its presiding bishopric. The church has agreed to pay $1 million and Ensign Peak will pay $4 million in penalties based on the violation.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Few Brazilians can claim to dominate their field as much, and at such a young age, as the 39-year-old Carnival showman Leandro Vieira. Vieira has become one of the most decorated leaders of the annual parade competition in Rio de Janeiro. This year, as Carnival director of a samba school that hasn’t won in more than two decades, he could cement his name as one of the greatest since the festivities kicked off almost 100 years ago. Rio’s is the nation’s premier Carnival parade, and the contestants compete for money prizes, prestige and fandom. Vieira’s job includes helping to pick his samba school’s theme for the year, its material for costumes and who will feature on the top of majestic floats.
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