The Trump administration declared Cuba a state sponsor of terrorism on Monday, the latest in a series of actions aimed at undoing the Obama-era legacy of opening U.S. relations with the island nation just weeks before President-elect Joe Biden takes office. Placing Cuba back on the list before the Trump administration leaves office will place a major roadblock for efforts by incoming Biden officials to return to the Obama-era policy.
President Trump is facing a historic second impeachment after Democrats in the House of Representatives formally charged him with one count of “incitement of insurrection” over the Capitol Hill riot. Earlier, ABC News said it had obtained an internal FBI bulletin which detailed plans for “armed protests” and calls for the “storming” of state, local and federal courthouses and buildings across the country if Trump was removed from power before then.
Indonesian divers on Tuesday retrieved from the sea bed the flight data recorder (FDR) of a Sriwijaya Air plane that crashed into the Java Sea with 62 people on board at the weekend, officials said. With few immediate clues on what happened after takeoff, investigators will rely heavily on the flight recorders to determine what went wrong.
Republicans in the US Congress are facing a backlash from businesses over last week’s violence in Washington. At least a dozen major US companies have said they would cut off campaign contributions to those who voted to challenge Joe Biden’s victory. They join a growing list including hotel giant Marriott, Citibank and major technology firms like Google.
A judge has granted the only woman on US federal death row a stay of execution to check whether she is competent to be put to death on mental health grounds. Lisa Montgomery, who strangled an expectant mother before cutting her unborn child from the womb and passing it off as her own, was due to die by lethal injection on Tuesday at the Terre Haute federal prison in Indiana.