Trump hits Cuba with new sanctions
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Monday re-designated Cuba as a “state sponsor of terrorism,” hitting the country with new sanctions that could hamstring President-elect Joe Biden’s promise to renew relations with the communist-governed island.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the step, citing in particular Cuba’s continued harboring of U.S. fugitives, its refusal to extradite a coterie of Colombian guerrilla commanders as well as its support for Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.
The designation, which had been discussed for years, is one of several last-minute foreign policy moves that the Trump administration is making before Biden takes office Jan. 20.
Removing Cuba from the blacklist had been one of former President Barack Obama’s main foreign policy achievements as he sought better relations with the island, an effort endorsed by Biden as his vice president. Ties had been essentially frozen after Fidel Castro took power in 1959.
As he has with Iran, Trump has sought to reverse many of Obama’s decisions involving Cuba. He has taken a tough line on Havana and rolled back many of the sanctions that the Obama administration had eased or lifted after the restoration of full diplomatic relations in 2015.
After frosty few days, Pence, Trump appear to reach détente
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence appear to have come to a détente after nearly a week of silence, anger and finger-pointing.
The two met Monday evening in the Oval Office and had a “good conversation,” according to a senior administration official. It was their first time speaking since last Wednesday, when Trump incited his supporters to storm the Capitol building as Pence was presiding over certification of November’s election results. Pence and his family were forced into hiding.
During their conversation, the official said, Trump and Pence pledged to continue to work for “the remainder of their term” — a seeming acknowledgement that the vice president will not pursue efforts to try to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office with nine days left in his term.
While his office had not definitively ruled out invoking the amendment, Pence had signaled that he no intention of moving forward with that kind of challenge. The House is prepared to cast a vote Tuesday calling on Pence to invoke the amendment.
“The president represents an imminent threat to our Constitution, our Country and the American people, and he must be removed from office immediately,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The House on Wednesday is expected to make Trump the first president in the nation’s history to be impeached a second time.
Lawmaker gets COVID-19, blames maskless colleagues in Capitol riot lockdown
U.S. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, a New Jersey Democrat and lung cancer survivor, has tested positive for COVID-19.
Watson Coleman, 75, of Ewing, believes she was exposed after sheltering with several maskless colleagues during last week’s storming of the U.S. Capitol, according to a statement from her office.
She said she received a positive rapid test Monday and is awaiting the results of PCR testing. She previously received the first dose of the Pfitzer/BioNTech vaccine when it was made available to all Congress members.
Watson Coleman, the first Black woman to represent New Jersey in Congress, is serving her third term in the U.S. House.
Video taken during Wednesday’s attack shows Republican members of Congress spurning offers of masks, which rules require. They included Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Andy Biggs of Arizona and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania.
The Capitol’s attending physician, Brian Monahan, said in a statement Sunday that members who had gathered in an unspecified isolation room should get tested.
800-pound turtle found dead baffles experts
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A sea turtle weighing up to 800 pounds was found dead Saturday on the Outer Banks, and experts are puzzled over what caused its death.
The animal was identified as a leatherback sea turtle — an ancient species unchanged since the dinosaur eras — and a photo shows it was found amid the sea grasses on the Pamlico Sound side of Hatteras Island.
The nonprofit Hatteras Island Wildlife Rehabilitation said one of its volunteers found the dead turtle.
“It is fresh dead and I didn’t see any obvious signs of trauma,” the group said Saturday on Facebook. “Samples were taken for an aging study, but we won’t really know why it died. It is also in a pretty rough location for necropsy and moving a 600 to 800 pound turtle by hand isn’t likely. They are beautiful creatures that we know so little about.”
Cold-stunned sea turtles — those paralyzed by a sudden drop in water temperature — are often found along the North Carolina coast this time of year. But that was unlikely in this case, according to Hatteras Island Wildlife Rehabilitation.
Leatherbacks are the world’s largest sea turtle, known to grow to 1,000 pounds and 5.5 feet in length, according to NOAA Fisheries. The species is “highly migratory,” traveling 10,000 miles annually.
By wire sources