A beachgoer has described the traumatic scenes at Bowentown Beach as surf lifeguards tried valiantly to save a woman who died from wounds suffered in a shark attack.Police last night named the victim as Kaelah Marlow, 19, from Hamilton.Marlow…
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'I was too scared to move': Alarming reports of drug reactions at New Year festivals
Hundreds of New Year festival-goers have reported alarming symptoms – including paranoia, seizures, severe nausea and inability to sleep for days – after taking chemicals sold to them as MDMA, or ecstasy. The wave of bad reactions…
Summer Photo Competition: Week of January 4-10
Send us your best holiday pictures and be in to win top prizes.
Herald morning quiz: January 9
Test your brains with the Herald’s morning quiz. Be sure to check back on nzherald.co.nz at 3pm for the afternoon quiz. To challenge yourself with more quizzes, CLICK HERE.
Trump confirms he 'will not be going to' Biden's inauguration
President Donald Trump confirmed he won't attend President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration on January 20.
The move undercuts his message just a day earlier that he would work to ensure a "smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power" to his successor.
"To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th," he said in a tweet Friday morning US time (2.44am Saturday AEDT).
RELATED: Donald Trump admits defeat but stops short of conceding election
He will be the first incumbent president since Andrew Johnson in 1869 to skip his successors inauguration.
Traditionally, the incoming and outgoing presidents ride to the US Capitol together for the ceremony, as a symbol of the nation's peaceful transition.
Trump offered no clues as to how he would spent his final hours in office.
READ MORE: US faces 13 potentially perilous final days of Donald Trump's presidency despite transition pledge
Trump's comments come two days after a violent mob of his supporters occupied the Capitol for several hours as lawmakers were tallying the electoral votes that certified Biden's victory.
Biden will become president at noon on January 20 regardless of Trump's plans.
The move had been widely expected, as Trump for months falsely claimed victory in the election and promulgated baseless claims of voter fraud. His own administration said the election had been fairly run.
Vice President Mike Pence is still expected to attend the inauguration.
Biden's transition team had no immediate comment on Trump's announcement. But Jen Psaki, the president-elect's incoming White House press secretary, said last month that whether Trump attended the inauguration was not top of mind for Biden.
– Reported with Associated Press
12 Days Left in Office Trump May Face Impeachment for Causing Capitol Invasion
(CNN) Washington DC- Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her leadership team are considering a lightning-quick impeachment process if Vice President Mike Pence and the Cabinet refuse to take unprecedented steps to remove President Donald Trump from office in less than two weeks’ time, according to multiple Democratic sources.
The stunning intervention to remove a sitting president would need significant bipartisan support to succeed in the Senate, something Democrats don’t have yet. But Pelosi has bluntly warned the White House that the House would impeach Trump for “seditious acts” in inciting riots at the Capitol on Wednesday.
“This is urgent — this is an emergency of the highest magnitude,” the California Democrat told reporters Thursday. “My phone has been exploding with ‘impeach, impeach, impeach.’ “
Pelosi and her leadership team spoke Thursday night about whether to hold a quick impeachment vote, and the overwhelming sentiment was to move ahead, according to multiple sources. While there were some dissenters concerned that the move could be perceived as an overreach and turn off Trump supporters in their districts, the view among most top Democrats — including Pelosi — is that Trump should be held accountable for his actions.
The full Democratic caucus will speak Friday at 12 p.m. ET. Moving ahead with impeachment, of course, doesn’t mean Congress would be able to remove Trump from office. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell could let the clock run out and not hold an impeachment trial in his chamber given that President-elect Joe Biden will be President on January 20.
McConnell, sources said, hasn’t spoken to Trump for weeks — fallout from the Kentucky Republican acknowledging Biden won the presidency in mid-December.
For his part, Biden has no appetite for opening an impeachment proceeding, people familiar with the matter said Thursday night, as he prefers to keep his focus on taking office in less than two weeks. “Impeachment would not help unify this country,” a person close to Biden said, who added that “this is a matter to be decided by the Congress.” Sources told CNN earlier Thursday the President-elect had no intention of weighing in on the 25th Amendment talks either.
If Pence and the Cabinet don’t invoke the 25th Amendment, Democrats have been discussing a process that would allow them to bypass the committee proceedings and move articles of impeachment directly to the floor within two days.
The discussions are expected to intensify Friday, when House Democrats hold their first full-caucus call since the attack on the US Capitol as a growing number of members press for impeachment.
This call, scheduled for noon ET, will be an important moment in terms of what’s going to transpire over the next two weeks. While House Democrat after House Democrat has backed a second impeachment, the caucus itself hasn’t gathered since the dramatic events transpired. The call will be the first opportunity for lawmakers to talk to leadership about the impeachment issue, the 25th Amendment issue and significant security concerns related to the Capitol.
Indeed, given the tight timeline, it isn’t possible to launch a formal impeachment inquiry like in 2019, an arduous undertaking that took several months.
But one option Democrats are exploring: offering articles of impeachment through a privileged resolution. That would allow the chamber to move ahead with a vote to impeach Trump within two days, skip hearings, approving an organizing resolution, an investigation and moving straight to a vote.
Top Democrats in both chambers seem to embrace this approach.
“We don’t need a lengthy debate,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said Wednesday.
The first step is to draft the resolution, something that multiple Democratic members are now circulating.
The one with the most traction is being drafted by Reps. David Cicilline of Rhode Island, Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Ted Lieu of California — three members of the House Judiciary Committee. Others have proposed options as well, including Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar.
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, a member of the House Judiciary Committee and part of his party’s leadership, reiterated to CNN that the preferred route is for the Trump administration to invoke the 25th Amendment.
“The sooner the better,” Jeffries said of forcing Trump out of office. “It’s a weighty constitutional matter to go down the road of impeachment, ultimately some form of a trial, conviction or removal.”
Any member could offer a privileged resolution, but it has to be when the House is in session. It cannot be a brief pro forma session when no legislative business is conducted. Right now, the House is not scheduled to be back until January 19, but House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, has not ruled out bringing the House back into session next week.
What’s the 25th Amendment and how does it work?
Once the resolution is offered, it would automatically be put up for a vote within 48 hours. With majority support, the House would impeach Trump, sending it to the Senate for a trial about whether to remove him from office.
But with so little time left in Trump’s presidency, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would essentially be able to run out the clock and avoid a Senate impeachment trial in Trump’s remaining few days in office, according to Hill sources.
McConnell declined to comment on the Kentucky Republican’s views on invoking the 25th Amendment.
Impeachment wasn’t the preferred route going into the day, nor was it considered a likely option for Democratic leaders. But the momentum of members getting behind it creates momentum for something leaders weren’t initially planning to pursue.
Given the tight timeline and volatile dynamics, at this point nothing is a sure thing and there’s a sense that the dust needs to settle a bit before an actual course of action is laid out.
It’s possible for Congress could take steps to make sure that if Trump were impeached, the Senate could make it so he could never be elected to office again. But that still would require the support of two-thirds of the Senate to make that happen.
This story has been updated with additional reporting and developments.
CNN’s Jeff Zeleny contributed to this report.
The post 12 Days Left in Office Trump May Face Impeachment for Causing Capitol Invasion appeared first on The St Kitts Nevis Observer.
Queensland now cut off from WA
Western Australia reinstated its hard border controls with Queensland at 12.01am (2am AEST) today.
Queensland is now categorised as a medium-risk state, after the recent case of the mutant COVID-19 strain found in Brisbane, meaning travel into WA from the Sunshine State will no longer be permitted.
There are some exemptions to the ban, which are the same as it currently stands for NSW and Victoria.
Live updates: Brisbane to go into three-day lockdown
Premier Mark McGowan announced the decision yesterday, following a National Cabinet meeting.
"The case of the hotel quarantine cleaner in Brisbane is extremely concerning," Mr McGowan said.
"This is a dangerous situation, not only for Brisbane, but for the whole of Australia," he said.
Anyone who arrived into WA from Queensland — previously listed as a very low-risk state — since January 2, will be required to get tested and complete 14 days of self-isolation.
Since January 2, 7500 passengers have arrived in WA.
It is advised these arrivals be tested by Tuesday.
Nine flights from Queensland are expected to arrive in Perth today.
All passengers on these flights will be granted entry into the state and will need to be tested, as well as immediately go into self-isolation for 14 days and be tested again on day 11.
"Return to Queensland, unless you have personal circumstances that require you to stay in WA," Mr McGowan said to any Queenslanders currently in the state.
"We need to take this course of action to protect Western Australians,
"We're not just dealing with COVID-19 of 2020, this is a whole new beast."
If you have recently arrived in WA from Queensland you are free to depart the state today.
The Western Australia community has been COVID-free for 272 days.
"All the way along, throughout the pandemic, out best defence has been our border controls,
"2021 looks a lot like 2020 right now."
Mr McGowan advised all WA residents against travelling outside of the state amid the evolving situation.
Following recent advice from the AHPPC, which includes limiting international arrivals nationally, Western Australia will be capping its international arrivals at 512 a week, down from 1025.
Changes to hotel quarantine workers include daily saliva tests for all workers on top of the weekly testing regime already in place.
House Democrats could vote on Trump impeachment mid-next week
House Democrats are furious at President Donald Trump and are quickly building momentum to move on impeachment of Trump in the next several days — as soon as the middle of next week.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her leadership team ran through their options Thursday night (local time) and the overwhelming sentiment was impeachment was the way forward, according to multiple sources.
While there were some dissenters concerned that the move could be perceived as an overreach and turn off Trump supporters in their districts, the view among most top Democrats, including Pelosi, is that Trump should be held accountable for his actions.
READ MORE: What is the 25th amendment? The backdoor method for removing a president
This process is not going to be anything like 2019. This would be fast: No investigations and no weeks-long hearings. The most likely scenario is that a member brings a privileged resolution to the House floor and offers it during session.
This requires Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, to bring members back, which folks expect to be announced sometime after the 12pm ET caucus call.
RELATED: Second Trump cabinet member quits in protest of president's rhetoric
Once they do, it kicks off the process for a vote in a matter of days. A simple majority is enough to impeach the President.
If they do this, it would make Trump the first President to be impeached twice.
That would not mean he would be removed from office, which would require the Senate to vote to do so.
House Judiciary Committee aides are consulting with the authors of one of the Democratic impeachment resolutions — Reps. David Cicilline, Jamie Raskin and Ted Lieu — in order to prepare for moving quickly to a potential impeachment vote on the House floor next week, according to three sources.
The aides are helping to edit and fine-tune the impeachment resolution, the sources said, which includes an article of impeachment for abuse of power, charging that Trump incited the insurrection at the Capitol.
The impeachment resolution introduced Thursday also includes Trump's call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, but some moderate members are urging that impeachment should be kept as straightforward as possible in order to keep focus on Wednesday's events.
What to watch
This is moving fast. Members weren't in this place two days ago.
The events of Wednesday, the images that have played across television screens, the accounts of what happened throughout the Capitol complex and the President's approach to all of it before and after have all culminated in members feeling like something has to happen now. Pelosi said it Thursday at her presser, members have been texting her nonstop "impeach, impeach."
Rep. Katherine Clark of Massachusetts, the assistant House Speaker, told CNN's John Berman on New Day on Friday that they could bring articles of impeachment to the floor as "early as mid-next week." She later tweeted that Democrats were "actively working" to find the quickest timeline for a vote.
This isn't just Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and liberals asking for impeachment. There were notable comments Thursday from Rep. Elissa Slotkin, a moderate from Michigan who didn't vote for Pelosi for speaker less than a week ago, who pushed for invoking the 25th Amendment.
Rep. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia also released a statement pushing for the 25th Amendment, but then saying, "if the Vice President fails to act, it will become necessary for every member of Congress bound by our Constitutional oaths to take further action. If we refuse to respond to a US President inciting an uprising against our democracy, we risk losing it forever."
More than 60 Democrats, led by Reps. Dean Phillips of Minnesota, Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida and Tom Malinowski of New Jersey, sent a letter to Democratic leaders Friday asking they reconvene and work to impeach Trump following Wednesday's Capitol breach.
"We write to ask respectfully that the House reconvene immediately to reckon with the assault on our democracy that we experienced on January 6th," the Democrats wrote. "We could take up the question of whether President Trump should be censured or impeached for encouraging a violent attack on the United States Congress, as well as Representative Raskin's proposal that Congress appoint a body, as provided by the 25th Amendment, to determine whether the President is fit to discharge the powers and duties of his office.
House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, a California Democrat who led the House's impeachment inquiry against Trump in 2019 over his efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate President-elect Joe Biden in the early stages of the 2020 campaign, said in a statement Friday he supported removing Trump through the 25th Amendment or impeachment.
"Every day that he remains in office, he is a danger to the Republic, and he should leave office immediately, through resignation, the 25th Amendment or impeachment," Schiff said.
What would happen in the Senate
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has not spoken on this. But given that the House would likely pass this with just days left in Trump's Presidency, it's likely McConnell would just run out the clock.
The GOP is frustrated, exasperated by Trump at this point. CNN reported that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy had a yelling match Wednesday with Trump as rioters were overrunning the Capitol Building. But, McConnell likes to avoid intra-party fights and forcing members to take a vote on impeachment when there are only days left of Trump's presidency wouldn't be a good way to keep his members united.
Sen. Ben Sasse, the Nebraska Republican who was an early critic of Trump's election fraud rhetoric, told CBS Morning News he'd consider any articles of impeachment from the House.
"The House, if they come together and have a process, I will definitely consider whatever articles they might move because, as I've told you, I believe the President has disregarded his oath of office," Sasse said Friday.
Successes outweigh challenges in family counselling
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts –- Despite the challenges posed by family counselling, the Counselling Unit has witnessed successes in how families have benefited from its Family Matters Programme according to officials from the Counselling Unit within the Ministry of Social Development.
The Counselling Unit is piloting the Families Matters Programme, an evidence-based, parent-focused intervention programme funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). This programme has been adapted and implemented in countries throughout the world and is designed to promote positive parenting and improve parent-child communication.
“Our first year was the most challenging year because it was a new approach,” explained Family Counsellor Alicia Collins, a member of the Counselling Unit. “No service provider (Counselling Unit staff) was entering into any home because families were sceptical of their new methods and did not trust their motives.”
“The training received from the USAID allowed staff members to change their perspectives on these challenges,” said Counselling Unit Director, Michele de la Coudray-Blake. “It enabled them to take steps in the right direction toward achieving their overall goal of reducing risk factors within the family so as to better protect children.”
As a result, families were more accepting of the message and welcomed counsellors into their space. The family counsellors interacted with the families, engaging in positive reinforcement of parenting skills.
“Children have seen parents who may not have spoken to each other for years, come together and work while developing a different relationship,” said Mrs. Coudray-Blake.
Another success highlighted was that of parents changing their strategy of discipline as “they moved it away from that punitive way to having more conversations that then yield results.”
“We’ve seen young children step up to the plate and be engaged in the household and what’s going on there as well,” said Mrs. Coudray-Blake. “These successes were a direct result of engagement through the Families Matters Programme.”
The post Successes outweigh challenges in family counselling appeared first on The St Kitts Nevis Observer.
Giant sinkhole consumes cars in Italian hospital parking lot
A giant sinkhole opened on Friday in the parking lot of a hospital in Naples, Italy, forcing the temporary closure of a nearby residence for recovering COVID-19 patients because utilities were severed.
Operations weren't affected at the Hospital of the Sea, and firefighters said it didn't appear anyone was injured.
The sinkhole consumed three cars in the hospital's otherwise empty visitors' parking lot.
The local hospital district said the 20-metre-deep, 2000-square-metre sinkhole opened at dawn.
Chief firefighter Commande Ennio Aquilino told Italian television channel SkyTG 24 the implosion could have been caused by an infiltration of water underground as a result of recent heavy rains.
At the time, six people were recovering at the residence for COVID-19 patients.
They have been relocated.
Regional Governor, Vincenzo De Luca, said the residence would reopen within days after electricity and water service are restored.
Both were also interrupted at the hospital, but backup systems allowed care to continue.
"Frankly, we were also worried about the collapse of all utilities and that the activity of the hospital could be jeopardised," Gov. De Luca said.
"Thank God, this did not happen.
"We had a power break, but electricity was restored and now we don't have any problem in providing care."