Foreign News
US House votes to expel George Santos from Congress
After a damning ethics report, fraud charges and lies about his past, the US House of Representatives has expelled Congressman George Santos.
Lawmakers voted 311 to 114 to oust the disgraced lawmaker.
He has been accused of using campaign money for luxury expenses such as Botox and stealing charity money for a veteran’s dying service dog. The 35-year-old from Queens is only the sixth lawmaker in history to be expelled from Congress.
His ouster comes after the House ethics committee released a report that found he “blatantly stole from his campaign” and exploited “every aspect of his House candidacy for his own personal financial profit”.
Among the many allegations in its final report, the panel accused him of spending campaign money on OnlyFans – a platform where users pay for content, including pornography – and holidays in the Hamptons, an elite seaside enclave in New York state.
Expulsion votes are rare in Congress and require a two-thirds super majority.
Santos made a quick exit as the votes against him started to pour in, jumping straight into a waiting SUV without answering any questions. After the resolution to expel Santos was adopted on Friday, there was scattered applause from both sides of the aisle.
A group of four New York Republicans who were elected alongside George Santos and who have long sought to give him the boot said they can now finally “stop talking about him”. They also dispute it sets bad precedent to remove him.
“The precedent that is set is that we hold members of Congress to a higher standard,” said New York Republican lawmaker Anthony D’Esposito. “The people of New York’s third congressional district need representation.” D’Esposito added that “it shouldn’t have come to this”.”He should have held himself accountable. He should have resigned,” he said.
Others, however, have defended Santos. Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene called the vote “shameful”, adding that it will erode the Republican majority in the House.
Santos faces troubles outside of Washington DC as well. The 35-year-old has been charged with 23 federal felony counts, including wire fraud, money laundering and theft of public funds, as well as separate allegations of campaign finance violations.
His trouble started shortly after winning an election in November 2022 to represent New York’s 3rd congressional district. The New York Times published an investigation in December that revealed Santos had lied about a Wall Street career, a college degree and having Jewish ancestry. Since then, allegations against the lawmaker have continued to pile up. He has been accused of a range of fabrications and fraud schemes, including scamming Amish dog breeders in Pennsylvania and claiming his mother died in the 9/11 terror attacks.
The scandals swirling around the lawmaker have pulled off the rare feat of uniting lawmakers on both sides of the aisle as they came together to have him removed. Santos had remained defiant, refusing to resign despite many calls from both sides of the aisle to step down.
“This place is run on hypocrisy,” he told reporters earlier this week. “If they want me to leave Congress, they’re going to have to take that tough vote.”
Santos has said he would leave the Capitol right away if expelled.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul has 10 days to call for an election, which would take place 70 to 80 days later.
The ouster and special election could further pare down Republicans’ narrow nine-seat House majority. There is no guarantee another Republican will win the congressional seat he holds, which was easily won by Joe Biden in the 2020 general election.
Santos loses the ability to vote on legislation immediately. Workers will also quickly remove his nameplate from his office in the Longworth building across the street from the Capitol. In the meanwhile, House clerk staff will continue running daily operations for the district until Santos’ replacement is elected. Santos will also lose his health insurance, the officials said.
He can still dine, however, in the exclusive House restaurant, exercise in Capitol gym and borrow books from the Library of Congress – all privileges afforded to former members of Congress.
But he is not eligible for a congressional legislative pension.
Foreign News
Pilot praised after crash-landing faulty Somali passenger plane on seashore
An airline in Somalia has praised one of its pilots after he crash-landed his passenger plane, which had suffered a technical fault, on the shoreline next to the capital’s international airport with all 55 on board surviving.
Starsky Aviation said the pilot’s quick thinking was crucial in saving the 50 passengers and five crew.
The crew of the aircraft, a Fokker 50, reported a problem shortly after take off from Mogadishu on Tuesday morning and requested that the plane return, Somalia’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said.
It then touched down but failed to stop on the runway, overshooting the tarmac before coming to rest in shallow water, the CAA’s director Ahmed Macalin Hassan said.
It is not clear yet exactly what the issue was.
Footage posted on X appeared to show passengers leaving the aircraft and walking away from the wreckage on the shore of the Indian Ocean. No serious injuries have been reported.
The African Union’s mission in Somalia said UN and AU troops were “swiftly deployed” to help with rescue efforts. Somalia’s transport minister was also at the scene, its post on X added.
“We are relieved to confirm that all passengers and crew are safe. Investigations are under way to establish what caused the technical issue that led to the emergency landing,” Starsky spokesman Hassan Mohamed Aden said.
“The pilot’s swift and calm decision-making played a decisive role in ensuring the safety of everyone on board, and we commend him for how he handled the situation,” he added.
[BBC]
Foreign News
Portugal elects Socialist Party’s Seguro as president in landslide
Antonio Jose Seguro of the centre-left Socialist Party has secured a landslide victory and a five-year term as Portugal’s president in a run-off vote, beating his far-right, anti-establishment rival, Andre Ventura, according to partial results.
With 95 percent of votes counted, 63-year-old Seguro has garnered 66 percent. Ventura trailed at 34 percent, still likely to secure a much stronger result than the 22.8 percent his anti-immigration Chega party achieved in last year’s general election. Ballots in large cities such as Lisbon and Porto are counted towards the end.
Two exit polls have placed Seguro in the 67-73 percent range, and Ventura at 27-33 percent.
A succession of storms in recent days has failed to deter voters, with turnout at about the same level as in the first round on January 18, even though three municipal councils in southern and central Portugal had to postpone voting by a week due to floods. The postponement affected some 37,000 registered voters, or about 0.3 percent of the total, and is unlikely to influence the overall result.
Portugal’s presidency is a largely ceremonial role, but it holds some key powers, including the ability to dissolve parliament under certain circumstances.
Ventura, 43, who had trailed Seguro in opinion polls, had argued that the government’s response to the fierce gales and floods was “useless” and called for the entire election to be postponed.
However, the authorities rejected the demand.
Seguro, during his last campaign rally on Friday, accused Ventura of “doing everything to keep the Portuguese from turning out to vote”.
Despite his loss on Sunday, Ventura, a charismatic former television sports commentator, can now boast increased support, reflecting the growing influence of the far right in Portugal and much of Europe. He is also the first extreme-right candidate to make it through to a run-off vote in Portugal.
Meanwhile, Seguro has cast himself as the candidate of a “modern and moderate” left, who can actively mediate to avert political crises and defend democratic values. He received backing from prominent conservatives after the first round amid concerns over what many see as Ventura’s populist, hardline tendencies.
But Prime Minister Luis Montenegro – whose minority centre-right government has to rely on support from either the Socialists or the far right to get legislation through parliament – declined to endorse either candidate in the second round.
While the role is largely ceremonial, the head of state has the power to dissolve parliament and call early elections.
The new president will succeed outgoing conservative Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa in early March.
[Aljazeera]
Foreign News
Washington Post chief executive steps down after mass lay-offs
The chief executive of the Washington Post is stepping down, the newspaper has announced, days after overseeing mass lay-offs.
William Lewis said it was the right time to leave, saying in a message to staff that was shared online that “difficult decisions” had been made to ensure the paper’s future.
On Wednesday the newspaper announced it was cutting a third of its workforce, dramatically scaling back its coverage of sport and international news.
The decision was condemned by many journalists and prompted criticism of the Post’s billionaire owner, Jeff Bezos. Executive editor Matt Murray said the cuts would bring “stability”.
Jeff D’Onofrio, who joined as chief financial officer of the newspaper last year, will serve as acting publisher and CEO, the Post said as it announced Lewis’s departure.
A former Dow Jones chief executive and publisher of the Wall Street Journal, Lewis was appointed to the role at the Washington Post in 2023.
He has faced criticism from subscribers and employees as he tried to reverse financial losses at the daily.
Hundreds protested in front of the paper’s headquarters in Washington DC on Thursday after the mass lay offs, which included the paper’s entire Middle East staff and its Kyiv-based Ukraine correspondent.
Marty Baron, the Post’s executive editor until 2021, said the cuts ranked “among the darkest days in the history of one of the world’s greatest news organisations”.
The departure of Lewis marks the latest upheaval for the leading US newspaper, which has seen a series of staff cuts and controversial editorial decisions in recent years.

Shortly before the 2024 US presidential election, Bezos, the founder of Amazon, broke with decades of tradition by deciding the newspaper would not endorse a presidential candidate.
The newspaper had endorsed a candidate in most presidential elections since the 1970s – all of whom had been Democrats.
The move caused widespread criticism and led to the loss of tens of thousands of subscribers.
Meanwhile, the opinion editor resigned in February last year when Bezos decided to focus the paper’s comment section on “personal liberties and free markets”.
Bezos, who acquired the newspaper in 2013, said pieces opposing those views would not be published.
[BBC]
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