USA

WASHINGTON (AP) — Members of President Donald Trump’s failed presidential campaign played key roles in orchestrating the Washington rally that spawned a deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol, according to an Associated Press review of records, undercutting claims the event was the brainchild of the president’s grassroots supporters.

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. defense officials say they are worried about an insider attack or other threat from service members involved in securing President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, prompting the FBI to vet all of the 25,000 National Guard troops coming into Washington for the event.

The massive undertaking reflects the extraordinary security concerns that have gripped Washington following the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by pro-Trump rioters.

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 17 (APP): A new report from the UN’s air transportation agency says international air travel has dramatically fallen due to the coronavirus pandemic by around 60 per cent over the course of last year, to levels last seen in 2003.

The Montreal–based International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) said on Friday, that as seating capacity fell by around 50 per cent last year, that left just 1.8 billion passengers taking flights through 2020, compared with around 4.5 billion in 2019.

NEW YORK, Jan 17 (APP): Within hours of being sworn in on Wednesday as the US President, Joe Biden plans to sign a number of executive orders, including rejoining the 2016 Paris climate accord and ending the travel ban on predominantly Muslim countries, designed to signal an immediate break from President Donald Trump.

“President-elect Biden will take action — not just to reverse the gravest damages of the Trump administration — but also to start moving our country forward,” incoming White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain wrote in a memo released Saturday.

NEW YORK, January 17. /TASS/: NASA specialists carried out test firing of the Space Launch System (SLS) carrier missile engines Saturday. The event was livestreamed on the NASA website.

Four engines, installed on a special stand inside the NASA testing facility, worked simultaneously for about one minute. The firing was expected to last about eight minutes.

WASHINGTON, Jan 17 (NNN-XINHUA) — US researchers at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and College of Medicine have discovered two new COVID-19 variants likely originated in the United States.

The findings include a new variant that carries a mutation identical to the strain found in Britain, and the evolution of another strain with three other gene mutations that were not previously seen, the university said in a news release.

WASHINGTON, Jan 17 (NNN-AGENCIES) — US President Donald Trump, in a last-minute push to solidify Morocco’s normalization with Israel, bestowed a rare award Friday on its king as his administration rallied international support in a regional dispute.

Trump, who sees Arab recognition of Israel as a key overseas achievement of his presidency, last month broke decades of precedent by recognizing Morocco’s full sovereignty over contested Western Sahara, with Morocco in turn saying it would normalize relations with the Jewish state.

Washington, Jan 17 (PTI) Less than 100 hours ahead of his historic inauguration, US President-elect Joe Biden has either nominated or named at least 20 Indian Americans, including 13 women, to key positions in his administration, a new record in itself for this small ethnic community that constitutes one per cent of the country's population.

As many as 17 of them would be part of the powerful White House complex.

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — In a dig at the outgoing Trump administration, President-elect Joe Biden introduced his slate of scientific advisers Saturday with the promise that they would summon “science and truth” to combat the coronavirus pandemic, climate crisis and other challenges.

“This is the most exciting announcement I’ve gotten to make,” Biden said after weeks of Cabinet and other nominations and appointments. “This is a team that is going to help restore your faith in America’s place in the frontier of science and discovery.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will be sworn in by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Wednesday, a history-making event in which the first Black, South Asian and female vice president will take her oath of office from the first Latina justice.

Harris chose Sotomayor for the task, according to a person familiar with the decision. She’ll also use two Bibles for the swearing-in, one of which belonged to Thurgood Marshall, the first Black Supreme Court justice.

ABC News first reported the latest details of Harris’ inauguration plans.