DOJ sends letter detailing concerns over Arizona election audit
The Justice Department s Civil Rights Division sent a letter to Arizona Senate President Karen Fann (R) on Wednesday detailing concerns it has over private contractors performing an audit of the November presidential election in Maricopa County.
Last month, the GOP-controlled state Senate used subpoenas to get the 2.1 million ballots cast in Maricopa County during the election, as well as voting machines and private and public voter information. The Senate hired private contractors to conduct the audit, now underway in Phoenix, seeking a recount of all ballots and a review of the voting machines and voter information to search for evidence of potential fraud,
May 5, 2021
The United States will advocate for waiving COVID-19 vaccine patent protections in discussions with the World Trade Organization, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced Wednesday.
The Biden administration believes strongly in intellectual property protections, Tai said in a statement, but the White House will back the waiver given the extraordinary circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic. The administration has faced pressure to support the measure, which is aimed at increasing vaccinations around the world especially in countries experiencing a surge in infections, like India without having to rely solely on exports.
These extraordinary times and circumstances of call for extraordinary measures. The US supports the waiver of IP protections on COVID-19 vaccines to help end the pandemic and we’ll actively participate in @WTO negotiations to make that happen. pic.twitter.com/96ERlboZS8
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
The Republican Party is at a turning point, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) writes in an opinion article published in
The Washington Post on Wednesday evening, and members must decide whether we are going to choose truth and fidelity to the Constitution.
Cheney is receiving backlash from the GOP for voting to impeach former President Donald Trump for his role in inciting the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, as well as pushing back against his false claims of election fraud. Trump, she writes, is seeking to unravel critical elements of our constitutional structure that makes democracy work confidence in the result of elections and the rule of law. No other American president has ever done this.
The third season of
Succession, which follows the Murdoch-esque Roy family and has been off the air since 2019 thanks to COVID-19 delays, is set to involve a bitter corporate battle that threatens to turn into a family civil war, HBO says. The show picked up a whopping 18 nominations at the 2020 Emmys, scoring the top prize of Outstanding Drama Series and based on the casting unveiled in the last two days alone, it may have an even stronger showing next time.
John Mulaney is headed back on stage.
The comedian has scheduled his first stand-up shows since recently spending two months in rehab, tickets for which have already sold out,
Variety reports. The shows, called John Mulaney: From Scratch, are set for City Winery in New York City beginning on May 10, with audiences required to either be fully vaccinated or test negative for COVID-19 to attend.
Page Six reported that he checked into rehab to receive treatment for alcohol and cocaine addiction. The former
Saturday Night Live writer has been open about his struggles with sobriety, speaking about it in interviews and at times during his stand-up.