Knowfacts

President Biden on Tuesday proposed a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the coming months, but suggested it take place in a third country – outside of the United States and Russia . The president spoke with Putin on Tuesday to discuss a number of "regional and global issues." "President Biden reaffirmed his goal of building a stable and predictable relationship with Russia consistent with U.S. interests, and proposed a summit meeting in a third country in the coming months to discuss the full range of issues facing the United States and Russia," the White House said in a statement Tuesday. The two also discussed the intent of the U.S. and Russia to pursue a "strategic stability dialogue on a range of arms control and emerging security issues" to build on the extension of the New START Treaty, according to the White House.The START Treaty enhances U.S. national security by placing verifiable limits on all Russian deployed intercontinental...

Former President Barack Obama said the U.S. needs to "reimagine" how law enforcement works following the death of Daunte Wright , who was shot by a police officer in a Minneapolis suburb on Sunday. Wright's death occurred at the same time and in the same area as the trial of former officer Derek Chauvin, who is charged with murdering George Floyd, whose death sparked protests and riots across the country. "The fact that this could happen even as the city of Minneapolis is going through the trial of Derek Chauvin and reliving the heart-wrenching murder of George Floyd indicates not just how important it is to conduct a full and transparent investigation, but also just how badly we need to reimagine policing and public safety in this country," Obama said in a statement. Our hearts are heavy over yet another shooting of a Black man, Daunte Wright, at the hands of police. It’s important to conduct a full and transparent investigation, but this is also a reminder...

The Texas Republican tweeted that he wears Boehner’s 'drunken, bloviated scorn' proudly U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz doubled down on his response to former House Speaker John Boehner after he told the Texas Republican to "go f--- yourself" in a leaked audio recording. "I think he was probably recording at nine or ten in the morning so obviously he had too much wine that day already," Cruz told the Daily Caller on Saturday. "This guy is a little unhinged." Cruz on Friday mockingly tweeted that he wears Boehner ’s "drunken, bloviated scorn" proudly alongside a clip from an upcoming CBS News interview with Boehner in which he calls Cruz a "jerk" and accuses him of "making a lot of noise" but not being especially productive in Congress. "The Swamp is unhappy," Cruz tweeted. "I wear with pride his drunken, bloviated scorn. Please don’t cry," the lawmaker joked, referencing Boehner's reputation for appeari...

John C. Inglis, the former deputy director of the National Security Agency , is expected to be tapped by President Biden to head the Department of Homeland Security’s cybersecurity agency, according to a report late Sunday. The Washington Post reported that the post is a White House position. The paper said Inglis, who spent eight years in the position at the NSA, is expected to be confirmed with ease. The position was created at the end of last year and will likely have to face growing security threats posed by foreign actors. The expected Monday announcement comes weeks after reports surfaced that suspected Russian hackers gained access to government email accounts, including one belonging to former acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf, the Associated Press reported. The accounts were accessed by what is known as the SolarWinds intrusion. An inquiry by the AP found new details about the breach at DHS and other agencies, including the Energy Department, where hackers acce...

A Florida woman who went viral when she coughed on a customer at a Pier 1 store last year in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic has been sentenced to 30 days in jail. Debra Jo Hunter, 52, was also ordered by a Jacksonville judge on Thursday to pay a $500 fine, serve six months probation and participate in a mental health evaluation along with anger management. She was also ordered to cover the costs of the victim's COVID-19 test, said David Chapman, communications director for the state attorney's office in Jacksonville, in an email. Hunter received credit for one day already served in jail. She was arrested last June after she was recorded deliberately coughing on the other customer during an argument with employees inside the store. According to investigators, the victim, Heather Sprague, had begun recording Hunter's heated encounter with the employees over an item return. Victim Heather Sprague (above) had begun recording Hunter's heated encounter with the emplo...

Former President Trump blasted Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell, calling him a "dumb son of a b.....," in decidely off-script remarks at a major Republican National Committee donor gathering Saturday night. The event took place at Trump's Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, where the nation's 45th president delivered a keynote address that often veered away from an advance release of his speech. "If that were Schumer instead of this dumb son of a b----, Mitch McConnell, they would never allow it to happen," Trump said of the certification of the 2020 election results at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, according to The Washington Post. "If that were Schumer instead of this dumb son of a b----, Mitch McConnell, they would never allow it to happen." — Former President Trump "They would have fought it," Trump said, also referring to the election as "bulls---" at one point. Trump vowed in the speech he would help Republicans win ...

Vice President Kamala Harris’ relative silence regarding the topics of immigration and border security since taking on an oversight role on those issues continued to draw more media scrutiny Saturday. It was the 18th day that Harris went without holding a news conference regarding her duties on the issues, since receiving the assignment from President Biden. On Saturday, the Washington Examiner published an article headlined, "Kamala Harris MIA on the border crisis." It recapped the vice president’s recent travels to Connecticut, California, and Illinois on matters unrelated to the migrant situation along the southern border. The same story quoted White House press secretary Jen Psaki, reacting Wednesday to questions about when Harris would be visiting the border region. "I’m sure it will be soon," Psaki said, according to the Examiner . Also Saturday, NBC News published an article titled, "Confusion clouds Harris immigration role." The NBC story argued...

New research has identified what’s very likely the tiniest living fossils so far a group of microbes that feed off radioactive decay. The team, led by the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, an independent, non-profit oceanography research institute, reports that the microbes have been frozen, evolutionary-speaking, for millions of years. Finding such a case could upturn our current understanding of how microbes evolve and why, and could potentially help guide biotechnology applications in the future (since you want these to not evolve/change over time). We’re fine as we are “This discovery shows that we must be careful when making assumptions about the speed of evolution and how we interpret the tree of life,” said Eric Becraft, the lead author on the paper. “It is possible that some organisms go into an evolutionary full-sprint, while others slow to a crawl, challenging the establishment of reliable molecular timelines.” The microbe species is known as Candidatus Desulforudis auda...