Tuesday 16 February 2021

Tuesday Briefing: Pelosi says lawmakers will set up commission to probe Capitol riot

Today's top stories

U.S. politicians to set up commission to probe Capitol riot, Myanmar military guarantees new election and Parler crawls back online

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said lawmakers will establish an outside, independent commission to review the “facts and causes” related to the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump.

Joe Biden said the Senate’s acquittal of the former president for inciting an insurrection was a reminder that democracy was fragile.

Meanwhile North Carolina Republican leaders voted to censure Senator Richard Burr over his vote to convict Trump during his impeachment trial.

In New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo acknowledged that his office should not have withheld data on COVID-19 nursing home deaths from state lawmakers, the public and press - falling short of making an apology.

In Texas, at least one person was dead and more than 4 million were without power after a rare deep freeze forced the state’s electric grid operator to impose rotating blackouts because of higher power demand.

Overseas, Israel held out the possibility that it would not engage with Biden on strategy regarding the Iranian nuclear program, urging tougher sanctions and a “credible military threat” against its arch-enemy.

World

Myanmar’s military guaranteed that it would hold an election and hand power to the winner, denying that its ouster of an elected government was a coup and denouncing protesters for inciting violence and intimidating civil servants.

A rocket attack on U.S.-led forces in northern Iraq killed a civilian contractor and injured an American service member, in the deadliest such attack in almost a year.

A court in Bangladesh sentenced to death five members of an Islamist militant group for killing a U.S. blogger critical of religious extremism six years ago.

Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison apologized to a woman who alleged that she was raped in parliament two years ago for the way her complaint was handled at that time, ordering a probe into the government’s workplace culture.

In New Zealand, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern accused Australia of abdicating its responsibilities by “unilaterally” canceling the citizenship of a woman detained in Turkey and accused of having links to the Islamic State.

Tech

Parler, a social media service popular with American right-wing users, that virtually vanished after the Capitol riot, re-launched on Monday and said its new platform was built on “sustainable, independent technology.”

TikTok was hit with multiple complaints from EU consumer groups for allegedly violating the bloc’s consumer laws and for failing to protect children from hidden advertising and inappropriate content.

SoftBank shares closed at a record high, surpassing a peak reached at the height of the dot-com bubble, as online backers celebrated the recovery in the value of the firm’s tech portfolio.

There’s nothing quite like the roar of a revving McLaren engine to set a petrolhead’s pulse pounding. Yet, new gas-fueled engines could be illegal in many countries by 2030, so the supercar maker has to go electric - but that’s easier said than done.

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