GEORGIAS 2 RUNOFFS FOR SENATE CONTROL - IS THE FIX IN FOR THE DEMOLIBNUTS

2020 AMERICAN ELECTION RESULTS BY STATE TRUMP VS LOSER LIBERAL SLEEPY (SLOPPY JOE) BIDEN.

ON D-65 OF THE TRUMP WIN OF THE PRESIDENCY. TUE JAN 05,21.

Key dates for the Electoral College and what they mean-AEIdeas-DECEMBER 14,20

What are the key dates for the workings of the Electoral College?

November 3 — Election Day

Election Day is November 3. We may or may not know the winner of the presidential contest on election night, but we certainly will not have a final tally and certified results until weeks later. States vary widely in the time they allot for certifying their election results. Some may give a final certification the week after Election Day. Others may take over 30 days. And there is the possibility of recounts and judicial contests of elections which could extend the time to determine an official winner of a state.
Ballots are passed out to 16 Electors on the Michigan Senate floor for them to cast their formal votes for the president and vice president of the United States in Lansing, Michigan, U.S., December 19, 2016. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook

December 8 — Safe Harbor

December 14 — The meeting of the Electors

Two key dates loom in December. On December 14, presidential electors must have been selected by the states and will meet as a group in their states to cast electoral votes for president and vice president. But December 8 is also a significant date, the so-called “safe harbor” date. The Electoral Count Act sets this date as an important date for states to make their official selection of electors, as those electoral votes will be given greater protection from challenge when Congress counts the electoral votes in January. The Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore assigned great significance to this date in Bush v. Gore.

January 3 — The convening of the new Congress

January 6 — Congress counts the votes

January 20 — Inauguration Day. The new presidential term begins at noon.

On January 3rd, the new Congress will take office, and on January 6th it will meet to count the electoral votes and declare a president- and vice president-elect. On January 20th at noon, the current presidential term will end and the next one will begin.This is excerpted from the new fourth edition of After the People Vote, edited by John Fortier, senior fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center and a member of AEI’s Election Watch team.John C. Fortier-AEI Adjunct Scholar-SENOIRFELLOWKarlyn Bowman-Senior Fellow

THE 2 GEORGIA RUNOFFS ARE GOING ON AT 7PM. JAN 5,21-AT AROUND 6.15PM OR AROUND THAT. ALREADY GEORGIA GOVERNOR MADE AN EXCUSE THAT SOME POLLS WILL BE OPENED FOR AN HOUR LATER BECAUSE OF SOME EXCUSE. THEY BETTER DO THE PRE VOTE-VOTING NUMBERS FIRST. OR WE WILL HAVE A FIX FOR SURE AGAIN.AT 7.25PM THE DEMOLIBS LEAD BOTH RACES BY 67.9% TO 32.1. THEY KNOW THERE WAS 3 MILLION PRE VOTES. WHY ARE THEY NOT GETTING THEM RESULTS OUT FIRST. THERE ALL COUNTED ALREADY. THIS IS HOW THEY FIX THE VOTES. FOR THE DEMOLIBNUTS. NOW THERE STAYING OPEN 3 HOURS LATER-THE VOTER REGISTTRATION SYSTEM FROM 11PM TO 2 AM.

AT 8.05PM AFTER 26% OF THE VOTES DEMOLIBNUTS LEAD BOTH RACES OSOFF 52.6% - WARNOCK 53.0%

AT 10.55PM-LOFFLER OF THE GOP HAS 2,017,336 OVER LIB 1,943,217 AND GOP PERDU HAS 2,033,382 OVER LIB 1,927,013 GOP R1 50.9% - 49.1% AND 51.3% IN R2 - 48.7% . THERES STILL 9% LOOK FOR TRICKS BY THE DEMOLIBNUTS. IN DEKALB COUNTY WE GOT A SCREW UP BY THE OFFICIALS. ONE SAID THERES A 171,000 LEFT. ANOTHER SAID 117,000 VOTES TO COME. GABRIEL STERLING COMES ON AND SAYS - OH THE LADY GOT THE 1 AND 7 MIXED UP. WHAT BULL. STERLING CLAIMS THE 171,000 VOTES WILL BE COUNTED IN TONIGHT. AND HE CLAIMS THE DEMOLIBNUTS WILL TAKE THE LEAD IN BOTH RACES.ITS 11.05PM.

AT 11.20PM-AT 94%. SUDDENLY THE DEMOLIBNUTS LEAD IN R1 WARNOCK 2,120,825 - LOEFFLER 2,100,815 50.2% - 49.8%. AND GOP PERDUE LEADS DEMOLIBNUT 50.2% - 49.8%. 2,122,971 - 2,103,342. STERLING KNEW WHAT WAS COMING. HE SAID THE DEMOLIBNUTS WOULD BE LEADING AFTER THE VOTES CAME DOWN AFTER CLAIMING 171,000 INSTEAD OF 117,000 VOTES. FIXXXXXX. NOW THEY CLAIM DEKALB COUNTY HAS 18,000 MORE VOTES TO COUNT IN. CLINTON NEWS NETWORK CNN. IS PLAYING WITH THE NUMBERS TO CONFUSE EVERYBODY NOW. ITS 96% DONE.AT 11.30PM.THEY NOW CLAIM SOME WON`T BE COUNTED TILL TOMORROW OR THU OF THE 4% LEFT AND MAIL IN VOTES.

AT 11.50PM-ONE DEMOLIBNUTS LEAD AND THE OTHER VIRTUALLY TIED NOW AFTER 98%. WARNOCK 2,205,935 50.4% AND LOEFFLER 2,170,803 49.6%. AND PERDUE STILL LEADS BY 2,000 VOTES-2,189,226 50.0% AND OSSOFF 2,187,338 50.0%. ABOUT 200,000 VOTES STILL TO BE COUNTED SAYS GA SEC OF STATE. JUST ENOUGH FOR THE DEMLIBNUTS TO SECURE THE SENATE AT A 50-50 DRAW WITH PENCE GETTING THE DECIDING VOTE WHEN TRUMP WINS THE PRESIDENCY INNTHE NEXT 15 DAYS.ITS 11.58PM.JAN 5,21.

Some Georgia precincts granted extensions for wait times

Georgia Election Official Gabriel Sterling announced Tuesday evening that several precincts have received judicial extensions for polling locations to remain open as wait times build up: Gwinnett County with 1 precinct; Columbia County with 2 precincts; Tift County with 1 precinct and Chatham County with 2 precincts.

35 minutes ago 7PM.Dylan Stableford-JAN 5,21-The latest

• Polls closed in Georgia at 7 p.m. ET, though voters who were in line at that time are legally allowed to vote.
• A record 3 million people cast ballots in early voting, both in person and by mail; about another million were expected to vote in person Tuesday.
• Republicans David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler are facing Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock in races that will decide control of the U.S. Senate.
• If Warnock and Ossoff both win, Democrats will take control because Vice President-elect Kamala Harris can cast any tiebreaking votes.
• If either Perdue or Loeffler win, Republicans will retain control with a slim majority.

Yahoo News-Trump supporters in Georgia explain why they believe the president's claims of voter fraud-BY Marquise Francis·National Reporter & Producer-Tue, January 5, 2021, 7:10 PM EST

DALTON, Ga. — On Monday, President Trump traveled to rural Georgia to campaign for the state’s two incumbent Republican senators, where, a day before two runoff elections that will decide control of the U.S. Senate, he continued to spread baseless claims of widespread voter fraud.“Since the election, we have put forth indisputable evidence documenting the rampant fraud, which will be announced on Wednesday, as you know,” Trump said at Monday night’s rally in this city, known as the carpet capital of the world, in front of thousands of his supporters. “I want to thank Sen. Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz and all of the incredible senators that have stepped up to fight, because they’ve seen what happens. They know it’s a fraud and not just here.”Trump’s supporters at the rally held onto his every word, repeatedly chanting, “Stop the steal” and “U-S-A” at several moments during the evening. In interviews with Yahoo News, they explained why, despite the lack of evidence to support the president’s claims, they continue to repeat them.“I believe [Trump] won the election by a landslide,” said Debbie Edwards, 67, of Rome, Ga. “We are here to stop the steal!”Despite the Trump campaign’s dismal record in court challenging the election results, Dorothy Harpe from Atlanta, who attended Monday’s rally, said Trump should get a second term because the election was “rigged.”“[Trump] has done great things for this country,” Harpe, 70, told Yahoo News, saying he brought jobs to the country and did “great things” for Black people.“I don’t trust the election, but I already voted,” she said. “I think the voting [in November] was rigged and the election was fraud. We have enough evidence to prove that the election was rigged,” she continued, adding that election ballots in Fulton County were hidden, which is not true.Jim Earnhardt, 76, from Canton, said there is mathematically no way Democrats could have won in Georgia.“Democrats stole it,” Earnhardt said. “They’re not smart enough to pull it off, and the numbers don’t add up.”Alanta-based political strategist Fred Hicks told Yahoo News that he believes this election cycle has forced voters to “justify” their decisions.“This election season, perhaps more than any other, has forced voters to justify to themselves and their families their decisions,” he said. “I think that is why Trump lost Georgia while Republicans in the state had a good day overall.”Hicks added that Republicans are once again in a tough place for this Senate race, but Democrats aren’t going to win on anti-Trump rhetoric alone.“Republicans are in what I call the Trump conundrum,” Hicks said. “They need [Trump’s] votes to have any chance at winning, yet Trump lost Georgia and is their biggest liability.”“Democrats can get to 48 or even 49 percent by being anti-Trump, but we have to tell what we are going to do if we win and how that will reduce suffering if we want to get people — especially minorities who live outside of metro Atlanta — out to vote and get over 50 percent,” he added. “The key determinant of the outcome will be if left-leaning groups can connect the dots for voters between this election and their day-to-day lives.”

Yahoo News-At Georgia rally, Pence says America will 'hear the evidence' of election fraud on Jan. 6-Jay Busbee-January 4, 2021, 2:31 PM EST

Vice President Mike Pence said Monday that the case for widespread election fraud would be made to the American people when Congress meets this week to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s victory over President Trump.“We’ve all got our doubts about the last election. I share the concerns of millions of Americans about voting irregularities,” Pence said at an indoor congregation at Rock Springs Church in Milner, Ga., in support of Republican Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue in runoff elections there.Pence, who by law will be tasked with declaring a winner of the Electoral College vote, seemed to leave open the possibility that Trump could still remain in power for a second term.“Come this Wednesday,” he said, referring to the impending certification of election results, “we’ll have our day in Congress. We’ll hear the evidence.”Biden won the state of Georgia by 12,000 votes, and three separate recounts have confirmed that victory. But with Trump contesting the election results, and pressuring Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes” and declare him the winner, Pence’s job of turning out the vote in the two Senate runoff elections has been made more precarious.If both Loeffler and Perdue lose to Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, the Senate will be split 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans, giving Vice President-elect Kamala Harris a tie-breaking vote and vastly easing the path for Biden’s agenda.Mike Pence“I hear some people saying, ‘Just don’t vote,’” Pence said, referring to multiple Trump loyalists who have suggested voters boycott the election. “If you don’t vote, they win.”From the moment that Rock Springs senior pastor Benny Tate introduced him with “He’s a Christian, he’s conservative, he’s Republican, in that order,” it was clear Pence’s faith would play a significant role in his remarks. He praised the role of prayer in American life; he contended that the Trump administration had protected religious freedom; and, in one particularly applause-heavy line, he thundered, “We’re going to keep Georgia, and we’re going to save America!”Pence also touted the Trump administration’s response to COVID-19, praising the jobs regained and the vaccines rolled out and contending that America is nearing the end stage of the pandemic. “We know what we need to do to stop the spread and flatten the curve,” he said before the indoor crowd, many of whom were unmasked.Perhaps it was the fact that he was behind a pulpit, or perhaps he was rising to the gravity of the moment, but Pence was more animated and engaged than he’d been in most past public appearances. He spoke with the cadence of a preacher, he modulated his voice to project both sincerity and resolve, and he made absolutely sure to tie himself directly to Trump, which brought the loudest cheers of the rally.“We’re looking to you, Georgia, we’re looking to you to hold the line,” he said, “and I believe in all my heart that you will.”Election Day is Tuesday, with early voting already complete. FiveThirtyEight’s current average of all polls of the races has Ossoff ahead by 1.4 percentage points and Warnock ahead by 2 percentage points, though those margins have narrowed slightly since the weekend.Pence’s rally was the second of several major visits to Georgia in the days leading up to the election. Harris spoke at a rally in Savannah on Sunday, Biden is slated to speak Monday afternoon in Atlanta, and Trump will be hosting a rally in Dalton on Monday night.

Yahoo News-Georgia election official on Trump call: ‘Nobody I know who would be president would do something like that’Mon, January 4, 2021, 4:19 PM EST

Georgia election official Gabriel Sterling condemned President Trump’s call with Georgia’s secretary of state, saying, “I personally found it to be something that was not normal, out of place and nobody I know who would be president would do something like that to a secretary of state."Some have said, do you believe that what happened in that phone call was an attack on democracy? I'll leave other people that make the decision on that. I personally found that to be something that was not normal, out of place, and nobody I know who would be president would do something like that to a Secretary of State.Thank you.

Yahoo News-More than 1.3 million votes already cast in key Georgia races-Marquise Francis·National Reporter & Producer-December 20, 2020

ATLANTA — More than 1.3 million people have already cast their ballots in the first week of early voting in the critical Georgia Senate runoff races, according to state election data. After just six days of early in-person voting and about four weeks of mail-in balloting, the unusually high number is just about on track with last month’s historic presidential race turnout in which 5 million Georgians voted.“Georgians are fired up,” Georgia-based Democratic strategist Greg Nasif told Yahoo News. “While some folks like me will always hold out hope for 100 percent turnout and find disappointment when we inevitably fall short, I think many will be very pleased with how the voters turn out.”Runoff elections in Georgia, triggered when no candidate wins 50 percent of the November vote, are relatively rare. The last notable runoff in Georgia occurred in 2008, when Republican Saxby Chambliss defeated Democrat Jim Martin. The two runoff races underway right now will determine control of the U.S. Senate and potentially define the arc of the first two years of President-elect Joe Biden’s term.Republican Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler are looking to keep their seats, while Democratic hopefuls Jon Ossoff and the Rev. Raphael Warnock are trying to unseat the two incumbents and position Georgia as a blue state for years to come. Unless both Ossoff and Warnock win, the GOP will retain its Senate majority and its ability to block much of Biden’s agenda.Late Saturday evening, President Trump announced he would host a rally on Jan. 4, on the eve of the Jan. 5 election. Trump used the announcement to renew his attacks on Georgia Republicans who reject his false claim that he won the Peach State in the November presidential vote.“As badly as we were treated in Georgia by the ‘Republican’ Governor and ‘Republican’ Secretary of State, we must have a massive victory for two great people, Kelly Loeffler & David Perdue, on January 5th,” Trump tweeted. “I will be having a big Rally for them on Monday night, January 4th.Local Republicans are likely to pay close attention to Trump’s message in the closing days of the campaign. If he uses the rally to continue to undermine confidence in the state’s election system, he could be turning off his own voters.“As the Georgia secretary of state noted, the president’s public hostility toward mail voting cost him in key states, and it’s a significant issue Republicans are seeking to address by telling their people to vote however they can, including absentee,” veteran Republican strategist Liam Donovan told Yahoo News. “If they don’t address this inequity, you could very well see another election-night lead for Republicans eroded as the mail votes roll in.”Campaigns usually struggle to turn out voters in off-cycle elections, and officials feared the heightened tensions surrounding Trump’s flurry of baseless legal challenges of fraud would dissuade voters from casting ballots. But with high turnout so far, voters appear engaged in the runoff contests.“The Republicans may have a problem on their hands, with many of their voters convinced the [presidential] election was rigged and Jan. 5 could be rigged again,” Nasif said. “I tend to think those voters will gravitate toward cynicism over consistency, and that angry voters vote.”About 150,000 people have voted each day of early voting thus far, as a flood of TV ads, giant highway bililboards and other forms of outreach bombard voters across the state.Early data offers some hope for Democrats in the historically Republican state.About 59 percent of runoff voters so far who also voted in the primary requested Democratic Party ballots, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, while about 39 percent requested GOP ballots.But one-third of runoff voters didn’t show up for the primary, leaving no record this year of which party they prefer.Atlanta-based political strategist Fred Hicks told Yahoo News that he believes more legal battles should be expected.“Unless Republicans win, this election will not be over Jan. 5,” Hicks said. “What we are seeing play out in the presidential election will happen in the Senate race if Democrats win.”

US: 'We stand by our principles, stand up for what is right' 2 to 167: Just Israel, US reject UN budget, over alleged bias against Jerusalem-Two allies object specifically to funding 20th-anniversary event for 2001 Durban conference, where motion equated Zionism with racism; $3.2 billion budget endorsed by 167 nations-By TOI staff and AFP-DEC 31,20-Today, 12:20 am

US President Donald Trump’s outgoing administration on Thursday fired a late salvo against the United Nations by voting against its budget, citing disagreements on Israel and Iran — but it found almost no international support.Only Israel voted with the United States, with 167 nations in favor, as the General Assembly closed the year by approving the $3.231 billion UN budget for 2021.Kelly Craft, the US ambassador to the United Nations, voiced objections that the budget would fund a 20th-anniversary event for the 2001 UN conference on racism in Durban, South Africa, where the United States walked out in solidarity with Israel after countries advanced a motion equating Zionism with racism. That analogy was deleted before the motion passed.The United States, the biggest funder of the UN, “called for this vote to make clear that we stand by our principles, stand up for what is right and never accept consensus for consensus’s sake,” Craft said on the General Assembly floor.(From L-R) UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan, US UN Ambassador Kelly Craft, US Special Envoy for Iran Brian Hook and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meet in New York on August 21, 2020. (Ronny Przysucha/Israeli UN Mission)-“Twenty years on, there remains nothing about the Durban Declaration to celebrate or to endorse. It is poisoned by anti-Semitism and anti-Israel bias,” she said.Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, said that the Durban conference “will become another meeting demonizing the Jewish state — it will be used once again to slander us and to launch false accusations of racism against Jewish self-determination.”“Today we must all speak out against commemorating the disgrace that was the Durban Conference,” Erdan said. “Israel opposes any measure aimed at allocating a budget for this purpose — we all know that such funds will not be used to support human rights but to spread even more anti-Semitism and hate towards Israel.”“It is part of a wider anti-Israel bias at the UN,” said Erdan. “I will not stand by when such lies and incitement against Israel and the Jewish people are freely given a platform.”The General Assembly separately approved a resolution backing follow-up efforts on the Durban conference.That resolution passed 106-14 with 44 abstentions. The United States and Israel were joined in voting no by Western powers including Britain, France and Germany.Craft also complained about how the United States received almost no support in the world body in September when it declared that UN sanctions against Iran had come back into force.The Trump administration said it was triggering UN sanctions due to alleged Iranian violations of a nuclear deal negotiated by former US president Barack Obama, but even US allies scoffed at the argument that Washington remained a participant in an accord that Trump had loudly rejected.“The US doesn’t need a cheering section to validate its moral compass,” Craft said. “We don’t find comfort based on the number of nations voting with us, particularly when the majority have found themselves in an uncomfortable position of underwriting terrorism, chaos and conflict.”Craft said that the US vote would not change its UN contribution, including 25 percent of peacekeeping expenditures and some $9 billion a year in UN-channeled humanitarian relief.US President-elect Joe Biden is expected to seek a more cooperative relationship with the UN, including stopping a US exit from the World Health Organization, which Trump blamed for not doing more to stop COVID-19.

Ending tortuous Brexit journey, UK breaks away from EU economy-‘We have our freedom in our hands and it is up to us to make the most of it,’ Boris Johnson says, as London officially severs decades-long partnership with Europe-By Jitendra Joshi and Phil HAZLEWOOD-1 January 2021, 1:40 am

LONDON (AFP) — Britain on Thursday finally severed its turbulent half-century partnership with Europe, quitting the EU single market and customs union and going its own way four-and-a-half years after its shock vote to leave the bloc.Brexit, which has dominated politics on both sides of the Channel since 2016, became a reality as Big Ben struck 11:00 p.m. (2300 GMT) in London, just as most of mainland Europe ushered in 2021.Prime Minister Boris Johnson — the figurehead of the “Leave” campaign — described it as an “amazing moment” for the country and played up his upbeat narrative of a “Global Britain” unshackled from rules set in Brussels.He vowed that post-Brexit Britain, despite being battered by a surge in coronavirus cases, would be an “open, generous, outward-looking, internationalist and free-trading” country.“We have our freedom in our hands and it is up to us to make the most of it..There will be plenty who will be only too happy to say goodbye to the grimness of 2020.But this was also the year when we rediscovered a spirit of togetherness, of community.In 2021 we have our freedom in our hands and it is up to us to make the most of it. Happy New Year! pic.twitter.com/gDRXe2SuCb — Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) December 31, 2020-Legally, Britain left the European Union on January 31 but has been in a standstill transition period during fractious talks to secure a free-trade agreement with Brussels, which was finally clinched on Christmas Eve.Now the transition is over, EU rules no longer apply. The immediate consequence is an end to the free movement of more than 500 million people between Britain and the 27 EU states.Customs border checks return for the first time in decades, and despite the free-trade deal, queues and disruption from additional paperwork are expected.Matt Smith, managing director of HSF Logistics, which ships mainly fresh meat and chilled goods between Britain and Europe, said he was sending around 15 truckloads to the EU on New Year’s Eve ahead of the changes.The government’s new post-Brexit customs systems are largely untested and Smith was doubtful how his business would fare with the new paperwork.After disembarking from a ferry, lorries undergo checks at the port of Dover on the south-east coast of England, just after 2300 GMT, as Britain officially leaves the EU (European Union) trading block, late on New Year’s Eve, December 31, 2020 (JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP)-“We’re not too sure to be honest, it seems to be a bit of a headache,” he told AFP. “There’ll be delays along the line at some stage.”Britain is the first member state to leave the EU, which was set up to forge unity after the horrors of World War II.The 2016 referendum opened up abiding wounds between Leavers and Remainers, and ushered in years of political paralysis before Johnson took power last year, vowing to chart a future for Britain built on scientific innovation and new partnerships across the seas.A parliamentary debate on Wednesday to ratify the trade deal was marked by elegiac farewells from pro-EU lawmakers, and warnings of disruption as Britain dismantles the intricate network of ties built since it joined the EU’s forerunner in 1973.While the EU trade deal averted potential business chaos in the immediate future, the divorce will play out in many practical ways.The clock-face on the Elizabeth Tower, commonly known by the name of the bell, ‘Big Ben’ in London, shows 2300 (GMT), as Britain officially leaves the EU (European Union) trading block, on New Year’s Eve, December 31, 2020 (Tolga Akmen / AFP)-Changes apply to everything from pet passports, to how long Britons can visit their holiday homes on the continent and an end to British involvement in a student exchange program.Potential disruption at ports is stoking fears of food and medicine shortages, as well as delays to holidaymakers and business travelers used to seamless travel in the EU.British fishermen are disgruntled at a compromise to allow continued access for EU boats in British waters.The key financial services sector also faces an anxious wait to learn on what basis it can keep dealing with Europe, after being largely omitted from the trade agreement.In a landmark deal sealed just hours before 2300 GMT, the tiny British territory of Gibraltar will become part of Europe’s passport-free zone to keep movement fluid on its border with Spain.Northern Ireland’s border with EU member state Ireland will be closely watched to ensure movement is unrestricted — a key plank of a 1998 peace deal that ended 30 years of violence over British rule.And in pro-EU Scotland, where Brexit has given a boost to calls for a new vote on independence, Johnson faces a potential constitutional headache as 2021 dawns.An anti-Brexit pro-Scottish independence activist holds a flag mixing the EU flag and the Scottish Saltire as she gathers for a small protest against Britain’s exit from the European Union outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh on December 31, 2020 (Andy Buchanan / AFP)-But opinion polls indicate that most Britons, on both sides of the referendum divide, want to move on and are far more worried about the worsening coronavirus pandemic, which has hit the country harder than most.Johnson, who himself was among those who was struck down by the virus, warned of tough times ahead because of a resurgence of Covid-19 infections but said a UK-developed vaccine offered grounds for hope.“It’s going to be better,” said Maureen Martin, from the port of Dover that lies across the Channel from France. “We need to govern ourselves and be our own bosses.”Britain is a financial and diplomatic big-hitter and a major NATO power with a permanent seat on the UN Security Council and in the G7 grouping of the world’s richest economies.The EU has now lost 66 million people and an economy worth $2.85 trillion, and there is regret that Britain wanted out.French President Emmanuel Macron said Britain will remain “our friend and ally” but lamented that Brexit was the fruit of “a lot of lies and false promises.”Michel Barnier, head of the European Commission’s Task Force for Relations with the United Kingdom at the London School of Economics in London, January 8, 2020. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)-“No one has been able to show me the added value of Brexit,” added EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier. “It’s a divorce… you can’t celebrate a divorce.”Boarding a Eurostar train in Paris as the Brexit hour approached, Francois Graffin, 59, said he was going to pack up his life in London and return to live in France.“It breaks my heart,” he said.In Britain, Brexit has been the culmination of years of anti-Brussels agitation as the union morphed from a trading community to a more ambitious political project.However, the 2016 referendum never spelt out what shape Brexit should take.Johnson’s predecessor Theresa May repeatedly failed to drive through a “soft” separation that would have kept Britain largely bound to the EU.But he drove a much harder bargain, to the profound unease of UK businesses and opposition parties.Now after months of stormy negotiations that were repeatedly upended by the pandemic, Brussels, too, is keen to move on.But UK lawmaker Chris Hazzard, from the Irish republican Sinn Fein party, said Brexit was far from over.“When all the bluster dies down… it will become depressingly clear that this trade deal is… the beginning of a new trading relationship built on permanent negotiation, disputes and recriminations,” he warned.The Daily Telegraph, where Johnson made his name as a Brussels-bashing Europe correspondent, said the government faced a new reality shorn of the EU bogeyman.“Politicians will have to get used to bearing much greater responsibilities than they have been used to while the UK has been in the EU,” it said.

Exclusive-Set to amend ‘pay to slay,’ PA hopes Biden will shun law deeming PLO ‘terrorist’ Palestinians aim to fundamentally change relationship with US when new president takes office, hope to reopen PLO office in DC, including by overcoming a US law that hinders ties-By Jacob Magid-DEC 31,20-Today, 6:16 pm

NEW YORK — With just three weeks until US President-elect Joe Biden enters the White House, the Palestinian Authority (PA) is putting together a strategy for a reset of ties with Washington after three years of boycotting the Trump administration.The centerpiece of the effort will be convincing the Biden administration to designate as unconstitutional congressional legislation from 1987 that labeled the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) “and its affiliates” a terror group, senior Palestinian officials told The Times of Israel.They hope that doing so will set the stage for a renewed bilateral relationship — one in which Ramallah is viewed as a more equal partner, and that isn’t entirely tied to the peace process with Israel.PA President Mahmoud Abbas severed relations with the Trump administration after US President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December 2017 and moved the US embassy there from Tel Aviv in May 2018. He also preemptively rejected Trump’s January 2020 “vision” for Israeli-Palestinian peace. The administration, while repeatedly urging Abbas to reengage, drastically reduced state funding for the Palestinians.Senior Palestinian officials told The Times of Israel that a fresh willingness to alter the way it pays stipends to Palestinian security prisoners, as well as the families of terrorists and others killed by Israelis, is aimed at laying the groundwork for the new diplomatic push.The altered policy would base the stipends on prisoners’ financial need rather than the length of their sentence, potentially marking a shift away from what has long been a sticking point for the PA’s detractors.The readiness to amend the stipends policy was first reported by The New York Times last month and confirmed to The Times of Israel this week by a senior Palestinian official.The practice of paying allowances to those convicted of carrying out terror attacks and to the families of those killed while carrying out attacks — often referred to by some Israeli officials as a pay-to-slay policy —  has been pilloried by critics as incentivizing terror.Palestinian leaders have long defended the payments, describing them as a form of social welfare and necessary compensation for victims of Israel’s callous military justice system in the West Bank.Over the past year, officials in the US and the EU have warned Ramallah that a failure to substantively change the policy would prove a major obstacle to improved relations, two sources familiar with the matter said.The change may also usher Ramallah into compliance with the 2018 Taylor Force Act, which suspended US aid to the PA as long as it continued to implement the existing prisoner payment policy.An effort to amend the practice would be “a step forward… if it means that the welfare allocations will be similar to those of needy families, which are less than a tenth of what the terrorists earn,” said Yossi Kupferwasser, the former research division head in the IDF Military Intelligence Directorate, and a vocal critic of the PA’s stipends policy. “If not, this is a trick.”Highlighting his skepticism, Kupferwasser pointed to an announcement earlier this month by the PA Prisoners Affairs Commission that it would pay three months of the prisoner salaries in advance in order to avoid an Israeli military order penalizing banks that distribute them.-A means to an end-As Ramallah moves to change the controversial practice, it hopes that Biden will agree to deem the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1987 an unconstitutional constraint on his powers, said two senior Palestinian officials, insisting on anonymity.The reality has changed dramatically since 1987, the officials said. As part of the 1993 Oslo Accords, Israel recognized the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people. The PA governing body that was formed as part of that deal has gone on to ink bilateral anti-terrorism agreements with both the US and Israel. Also as part of the accords, PLO chairman Yasser Arafat publicly renounced violence as a means for achieving self-determination — a commitment Israeli leaders have long dismissed, with many alleging that Arafat played a direct role in orchestrating the suicide bombing onslaught of the Second Intifada.But in a post-Oslo era where Ramallah has relations with both the US and Israel, “it is simply unfair to continue deeming the PLO a terror organization,” said a member of the PLO’s National Council. Palestinian officials declined to speak on record, saying that they feared the intended strategy would be interpreted as an ultimatum to the transition team before the US president-elect even takes office.Snubbing the 1987 law designating the PLO a terror group, as two of Biden’s predecessors did, would allow for the reopening of the PLO mission in Washington.Distinct from, yet affiliated with the PA, the PLO coalition of Palestinian factions had been operating a diplomatic office since the Oslo Accords until it was closed by the Trump administration in 2018.The 1987 legislation deeming the PLO a terror group remained in place, but Congress allowed for the mission’s operation, so long as the president signed a waiver every six months stipulating that doing so was a US national interest.In 2011, Congress began placing additional conditions on the mission’s continued presence, including one requiring the president to certify that “the Palestinians have entered into direct and meaningful negotiations with Israel.” This effectively conditioned Washington’s relations with the Palestinians on a substantive peace process.That paradigm is one the Palestinians are desperate to change. “We’re not asking to detach the peace process from the relationship entirely, but ties shouldn’t be exclusively judged based on the outcome of it, because that punishes Palestinians regardless of whether they’re responsible for the stalemate,” said the PLO’s National Council member who spoke to The Times of Israel.Other provisions to the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1987 added by Congress in recent years have included a ban on the Palestinians joining any UN bodies or pursuing a case against Israel at the-International Criminal Court.When Ramallah began to seek action against Israel at the ICC in 2017, filing an official complaint against Israel at The Hague, it effectively prevented Trump from signing the waiver and the PLO mission was officially shuttered in September 2018.Nonetheless, US legal tradition gives presidents wide leeway to disregard parts of laws that they deem to be unconstitutional shackles on their powers, especially regarding foreign policy.Biden could use that privilege to allow the mission to reopen, thus obviating the need for the waiver along the way. Otherwise, the only way to reopen the diplomatic office within the confines of the law would be to alter provisions that banned the Palestinians from Washington once they went to the ICC. Then the waiver process could be re-introduced.The Palestinians, however, are intent on resetting relations entirely, rather than simply returning to the days where their operations in DC were limited and constantly under a microscope.One Palestinian official who spoke to The Times of Israel on the condition of anonymity said Ramallah could no longer accept its presence in Washington being up for debate every six months. However, he recognized that the eradication of the 1987 law would take time and characterized it as an “intermediate goal” that would likely require at least a year to see through.Biden indeed campaigned on reopening the PLO mission as well as a US consulate in East Jerusalem, but one former campaign adviser familiar with the transition’s discussions on the matter said that the president-elect has yet to decide how he would go about doing so.In the meantime, the Palestinians may be forced to continue operating without representatives in Washington.The PLO national council member acknowledged that the Israeli-Palestinian issue likely won’t be at the top of the Biden administration’s agenda, but said that declaring the 1987 legislation unconstitutional would prevent the further deterioration of US-Palestinian ties in the interim.When Trump did the Palestinians a favor-While doing so might require a degree of political capital, there is in fact precedent for the move.In a signing statement issued at the time of the passage of the 1987 legislation, US president Ronald Reagan asserted that while he had no intention of forging ties with the Palestinians, “the right to decide the kind of foreign relations, if any, the United States will maintain is encompassed by the President’s authority under the Constitution” and by not Congress through legislation aimed at handcuffing the executive’s diplomatic capabilities.Subsequent presidents chose to ignore Reagan’s concerns, even after the Oslo Accords, deciding that they would operate within the letter of the law and sign the presidential waiver every six months.It was Trump who ended that trend. He went further than Reagan when he allowed the PLO mission to remain open for almost a year after the Palestinians began pursuing a criminal case against Israel in the ICC in the fall of 2017, in direct violation of the Congressional provision to the 1987 law.Instead, Trump’s State Department simply asked the Palestinians to limit their operations “to those related to achieving a lasting, comprehensive peace between the Israelis and Palestinians.”The PA hopes that when it changes its prisoner payment practice, Biden will be prepared to similarly disregard the 1987 legislation. To justify the reopening of the PLO mission, the incoming president could simply point to the precedent set by Reagan and Trump. No further action would be needed. While the position could be challenged in court, the executive’s constitutionally granted authority to oversee diplomatic relations would be difficult to rebut.Alternatively, Congress could simply repeal the Anti-Terrorism Act, but doing so would be a much taller order, given that the legislative branch has historically been much tougher on the Palestinians than the executive.Mission impossible? Even if the Biden administration grants Ramallah’s wish, the PA will still face obstacles once the PLO mission is reopened. This is because the return of its officials to Washington would trigger the 2018 Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act (ATCA), which allows American victims of terror to sue the PA for damages in US courts by deeming Ramallah’s monthly “martyr” allowances funding for terrorism.Skirting such suits would require the US secretary of state to invoke exemptions listed in the legislation. This would be politically fraught but legally tenable and also easier to justify if the Biden administration could point to Ramallah’s reform of the prisoner payments policy.“There are forces out there that are going to be looking to exact a political price on Biden for anything that he does that is seen as conciliatory for the Palestinians,” said Foundation for Middle East Peace president Lara Friedman, a dovish commentator on Israel. “The best thing he can do is own his policies.”She added that heeding the PA’s request regarding the 1987 legislation “would be a powerful declaration of independence by Biden from decades of foreign policy-making shackled by logic and legal constructs [imposed by Congress] geared not to promote Israeli-Palestinian peace but to prevent it.”“Aside from declaring the law unconstitutional, Biden has no clear path to allowing the PLO back in Washington,” Friedman said.The Biden transition team and the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office declined a request to comment on this story.

Iran’s Zarif says Trump trying to fabricate ‘pretext for war’Slamming US president for show of force in region, foreign minister says Tehran will ‘openly and directly defend its people, security & vital interests’-By TOI staff-31 December 2020, 4:37 pm

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Thursday accused outgoing US President Donald Trump of attempting to fabricate a “pretext for war” as tensions mount between the two countries.His remarks come ahead of the first anniversary of the US killing of top Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike in Baghdad on January 3.US aircraft carrier USS Nimitz has been patrolling Gulf waters since late November and two American B-52 bombers recently overflew the region.“Instead of fighting Covid in US, @realDonaldTrump & cohorts waste billions to fly B52s & send armadas to OUR region,” Zarif wrote on Twitter.“Intelligence from Iraq indicate plot to FABRICATE pretext for war,” he added.A US Air Force B-52H ‘Stratofortress’ from Minot Air Force Base, N.D., is refueled by a KC-135 ‘Stratotanker’ in the US Central Command area of responsibility, December 30, 2020. (Senior Airman Roslyn Ward/U.S. Air Force via AP)-Trump ordered a drone strike on January 3 this year to kill Soleimani near Baghdad’s international airport.Days later, Iran launched a volley of missiles at Iraqi bases housing US and other coalition troops, with Trump refraining from any further military response.“Iran doesn’t seek war but will OPENLY & DIRECTLY defend its people, security & vital interests,” Zarif said.Instead of fighting Covid in US, @realDonaldTrump & cohorts waste billions to fly B52s & send armadas to OUR region-Intelligence from Iraq indicate plot to FABRICATE pretext for war.Iran doesn't seek war but will OPENLY & DIRECTLY defend its people, security & vital interests.— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) December 31, 2020-Trump said last week said he would hold Iran “responsible” for any fatal attack on Americans in Iraq after accusing Tehran of being behind a rocket strike on the US embassy in Baghdad on December 20.Zarif at the time warned the US president against any “adventurism” before leaving the White House on January 20, and said, “putting your own citizens at risk abroad won’t divert attention from catastrophic failures at home.”US President Donald Trump addresses the nation from the White House on the ballistic missile strike that Iran launched against Iraqi air bases housing US troops, January 8, 2020. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)-The US embassy in Iraq and other foreign military and diplomatic sites have been targeted by dozens of rockets and roadside bomb attacks since later 2019.Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from a landmark nuclear deal with Iran and world powers in 2018 and launched a “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran, reimposing and reinforcing crippling sanctions.The two countries have twice come to the brink of war since June 2019, especially following the killing of Soleimani.Tensions with Iran further escalated with the killing in November of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, an Iranian scientist named by the West as the leader of the Islamic Republic’s disbanded military nuclear program. Iran has blamed Israel for the killing, but US officials are concerned that any Iranian retaliation could hit US interests.