South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Wyoming Republicans censure Rep. Cheney over impeachment
RAWLINS, Wyo. — The Wyoming Republican Party voted overwhelmingly Saturday to censure U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney for voting to impeach President Donald Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Only eight of the 74-member state GOP’s central committee stood to oppose censure in a vote that didn’t proceed to a formal count. The censure document accused Cheney of voting to impeach even though the U.S. House didn’t offer Trump “formal hearing or due process.”
“We need to honor President Trump. All President Trump did was call for a peaceful assembly and protest for a fair and audited election,” said Darin Smith, a Cheyenne attorney who lost to Cheney in the Republican U.S. House primary in 2016. “The Republican Party needs to put her on notice.”
Cheney in a statement after the vote said she remained honored to represent Wyoming and will always fight for issues that matter most to the state.
Republican officials said they invited Cheney but she didn’t attend. An empty chair labeled “Representative Cheney” sat at the front of the meeting room.
The censure vote was the latest blowback for Cheney for joining nine Republican representatives and all Democrats in the U.S. House in the Jan. 13 impeachment vote. Just three months after winning a third term with almost 70%, Cheney already faces at least two Republican primary opponents in 2022.
Cheney will remain as the third-ranking member of the House GOP leadership, however, after a 145-61 vote by House Republicans on Wednesday to keep her as conference committee chair.
China OKs 2nd vaccine: Beijing has approved a second Chinese COVID-19 vaccine — a drug made by Sinovac Biotech that will be distributed to developing countries — in a move that furthers the country’s efforts to be a global player in ending the pandemic.
Sinovac said in a statement Saturday that it had received conditional approval from China’s National Medical Products Administration a day earlier. In December, China approved a vaccine made by Sinopharm Group, a state-owned company.
Sinovac and Sinopharm have released little data from late-stage trials that would allow scientists to draw independent conclusions on their vaccines’ efficacy.
Sinovac said the approval was based on two months of clinical trial data. It said it had not obtained the final analysis data, adding that “the effectiveness and safety results have yet to be further confirmed.”
Sinovac has struck deals with at least 11 countries and regions, including Brazil, Chile, Indonesia and Turkey.
Journalist freed: Egyptian authorities on Saturday freed an Al-Jazeera journalist after more than four years in detention, his family lawyer said.
Mahmoud Hussein walked free from a police station Saturday afternoon, a few days after a court ordered his conditional release pending investigations into charges of publishing false information and belonging to a banned group, lawyer Gamal Eid said.
The lawyer said Hussein will have to report to a nearby police station twice a week.
Hussein, an Egyptian working for the Qatarbased satellite network, was detained at the Cairo airport in December 2016, when he arrived on a family vacation from Doha, the network said.
Flooding in France: Floodwaters that devastated vineyards and orchards receded Saturday in southwest France but rose elsewhere, including in a French town where people were evacuated from flooded homes.
In the Paris region, the Seine River overflowed its embankments for a fifth day. The Marne River to the east inundated several towns, including Lagny-Sur-Marne.
In the western town of Saintes, the Charente River flooded dozens of streets and homes, and was expected to keep rising. Mayor Bruno Drapron called on authorities to declare a natural disaster, an action that would facilitate aid and insurance payments.
Further south, waters receded after the worst flooding in 40 years swelled the Garonne River between Bordeaux and Toulouse. Vineyards and orchards turned into lakes, and rescue boats floated along smalltown streets.
Agencies hail US on Yemen: Aid agencies working in war-torn Yemen on Saturday welcomed plans by President Joe Biden’s administration to revoke the terrorist designation of Yemen’s Houthi rebels in order to mitigate one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters.
David Miliband, head of the International Rescue Committee, said the designation would have done nothing to address terrorism in the Arab world’s poorest country, and would only hinder much-needed aid deliveries to Yemenis living in Houthi-held areas.
For years, the Iranianbacked Houthis have ruled the capital and Yemen’s north where the majority of the population lives, forcing international aid groups to work with them. Agencies depend on the Houthis to deliver aid, and they pay salaries to Houthis to do so.
President Donald Trump’s administration branded the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization, a move that limited the provision of aid to Yemen, a country of 29 million people that’s currently on the brink of famine.
Chile protests: The shooting of a street juggler has set off protests over alleged police violence in southern Chile, with several buildings set ablaze and an officer held in custody for investigations on Saturday.
Local news media showed about 10 buildings set ablaze in the southern tourist town of Panguipulli following the shooting on Friday, and authorities reported other protests in Santiago, the capital.
Police said Francisco Martinez Romero, 27, resisted police at a routine identity check.
A video circulated widely on social media showed an officer shooting toward the feet of the man, who was carrying and sometimes waving what appeared to be two blunt machetes used in his performance.
Somalia elections: A meeting on Somalia’s troubled election has ended in failure as the federal government and regional states could not reach agreement on remaining issues two days before the scheduled vote. President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed on Saturday blamed unnamed “foreign interventions.”
Lawmakers in parliament booed the president, pounding their desktops, as he addressed them after days of discussions fizzled. He accused Puntland and Jubbaland states of refusing to support an agreement last September on the electoral process.
The uncertainty is ripe for exploitation by the Somalia-based al-Shabab extremist group, which has threatened to attack the polls and even launched a documentary series on Friday criticizing the president and the electoral process, which it accused of being corrupt.