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As it lauded former President Donald Trump and spread his unfounded claims of election fraud, One America News Network saw its viewership jump. Reuters has uncovered how America’s telecom giant nurtured the news channel now at the center of a bitter national divide over politics and truth.

WASHINGTON, Sept 27 (Reuters) - A sharply divided U.S. Senate failed on Monday to advance a measure to suspend the federal debt ceiling and avoid a partial government shutdown, as Republican lawmakers denied the bill the votes necessary to move forward. The legislation by President Joe Biden's Democrats was aimed at beating two fast-approaching deadlines that, if left unaddressed, threaten to destabilize the U.S. economy as it struggles to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic. The near party-line vote of 48 votes to advance against 50 opposed fell short of the 60 votes needed to push the bill ahead in the...

Austria is set to implement “strict” mask rules and COVID-19 passes on ski lifts amid attempts to attract foreign tourists for the first time in two years, Reuters reported Monday. Skiers will be required to wear masks while using enclosed ski lifts and show proof of vaccination or a negative test when purchasing a ticket, according to Reuters. “This year there will definitely be winter holidays in Austria,” Austria Tourism Minister Elizabeth Koestringer said, according to Reuters. “We have developed strict rules for a safe winter.” Tourism makes up about 5% of Austria’s economic output, and it is still unclear...

A partisan review of the 2020 presidential election commissioned by Arizona Republicans has confirmed President Joe Biden's victory over Donald Trump in the state's most populous county, according to a draft report of the review's findings. Maricopa County announced what it said were the main findings on its Twitter feed late on Thursday, saying a draft report "confirms the county's canvass of the 2020 General Election was accurate and the candidates certified as the winners did, in fact, win".

BEIRUT, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Lebanon's Prime Minister Najib Mikati has asked his foreign minister to seek clarification from the international community after Israel granted U.S. oilfield services group Halliburton an offshore drilling contract in the Mediterranean. Lebanon and Israel are in dispute over the delineation of their territorial waters in the Mediterranean and negotiations between the old foes could lead to Lebanon being able to unlock valuable gas reserves...

WASHINGTON/ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE, Sept 7 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden on Thursday will present a six-pronged strategy intended to fight the spread of the highly contagious coronavirus Delta variant and increase U.S. COVID-19 vaccinations, the White House said on Tuesday. The United States, which leads the world in COVID-19 cases and deaths, is struggling to stem a wave of infections driven by the variant even as officials try to persuade Americans who have resisted vaccination to get the shots. Rising case loads have raised concerns as children head back to school, while also rattling investors and upending company return-to-office...

WASHINGTON — Hundreds of officials who worked for former Republican President George W. Bush are endorsing Democratic White House hopeful Joe Biden — the latest Republican-led group coming out to oppose the re-election of Donald Trump. The officials, who include Cabinet secretaries and other senior people in the Bush administration, have formed a political action committee — "43 Alumni for Biden" — to support the former vice president in his Nov. 3 race, three organizers of the group told Reuters, which first reported the story. The group on Wednesday put out a statement announcing its formation.Bush was the country's 43rd...

When President Joe Biden appeared in the White House East Room on July 8 to stress that the U.S. pullout from Afghanistan was proceeding apace, he declared that a Taliban takeover of the country was not inevitable. Five weeks later, the Taliban is in charge, scenes of chaos at the Kabul airport from the evacuation of Americans and U.S.-aligned Afghan citizens has transfixed the world, and Biden is scrambling to defend himself from a series of miscalculations that have damaged U.S. credibility. While insisting that "the buck stops with me," Biden has doled out blame to others over America's humiliating...

COVID-19 variants do not derive from the vaccine. The vaccine cannot replicate the virus. Guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) explaining how mRNA vaccines only provide instructions to the cells in the human body on how to make a “spike protein” is visible here . Delta is one of four variants of the new coronavirus creating concern in the United States (here). Also called B.1.617.2, Delta originated in India and was identified in the United States in March 2021 (bit.ly/3rlcxAi). The Delta variant is a mutation of the original COVID-19 virus (SARS-CoV-2).

Chinese farmer Cheng wades through knee-deep water, pulling dead pigs behind him one-by-one by a rope tied around their ankles as he lines up the bloated carcasses for disposal. More than 100 of Cheng's pigs drowned in floods that paralysed China's central Henan province last week, and the outlook for those left alive is bleak. "I'm waiting for the water levels to go down to see what to do with the remaining pigs," said the 47-year-old farmer from Wangfan village, about 90 kilometres (55 miles) north of provincial capital Zhengzhou. "They've been in the water for a few days now...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia is on course to run a budget surplus this year, analysts say, a turnaround after strong half-year data, with high oil prices giving room to cover spending promises from President Vladimir Putin ahead of parliamentary elections. Last month, Putin promised to spend on infrastructure, education and health, seeking to give the ruling United Russia party a boost. The pledges added to social support measures announced in April that will cost the budget around 400 billion roubles ($5.40 billion) over two years. Russia had a budget surplus of 626 billion roubles from January to June, the finance...

The damage that President Joe Biden’s disastrous policies would deal to U.S. miners appeared to even be too much for the left-wing outlet Reuters. Reuters published a new story completely tearing into the Biden administration for slighting American workers: “Biden looks abroad for electric vehicle metals, in blow to U.S. miners.” Specifically, Reuters noted that Biden “will rely on ally countries to supply the bulk of the metals needed to build electric vehicles and focus on processing them domestically into battery parts.” Biden’s plans would reportedly be a “blow to U.S. miners who had hoped Biden would rely primarily on...

Reuters attempted to dismiss inflation fears after the disastrous Consumer Price Index (CPI) report was released by citing one of President Joe Biden’s donors. Reuters’ story on the CPI data cited Johns Hopkins University Center for Financial Economics Director Robert Barbera. Reuters included his comments in the fourth paragraph, to undercut the news that “U.S. consumer prices increased by the most in nearly 12 years in April,” which “could add fuel to financial market fears of a lengthy period of higher inflation.” “‘This is not a sign of an inflation problem,’” Barbera reportedly told Reuters. “‘We have the capacity to...

A new report backs up news accounts that the Iranian official who was caught on a leaked audio tape saying John Kerry told him about Israeli attacks on Iranian interests in Syria insisted Kerry was his first source of information about the attacks. Last week, The New York Times reported that Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told an interviewer conducting an oral history project that Kerry had told him Israel had struck around 200 Iranian targets in Syria. A tape of the interview was leaked. According to the translation published by The Times in a follow-up report, the comment...

Germany’s domestic spy agency is monitoring anti-lockdown protesters, claiming they are potentially involved in a plot to subvert the country. According to a Reuters report, the BfV spy agency is concerned that the demonstrations are being used as a cover for far-right extremists and people who believe in “conspiracy theories” about COVID-19 to incite violence. “Authorities fear that far-right extremists and conspiracy theorists who either deny the existence of Covid or downplay its threat to public health are exploiting lockdown frustrations to stir anger against politicians and state institutions five months before a general election,” states the report. While the...

A life-sized bronze statue of Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg installed at a United Kingdom university has sparked a backlash among students and critics who argue the money could have been better spent. The sculpture -- with a price tag of £24,000 (roughly $33,000) -- was unveiled at the University of Winchester in southern England on Tuesday. The university, in a statement, noted it was a symbol of its "ongoing commitment to sustainability and social justice." The Winchester University and College Union (UCU) branch criticized the statute's high price tag during the coronavirus pandemic and described it as a "vanity...

A £24,000 statue of Greta Thunberg installed at a university has sparked anger among students who have branded it a “vanity project”. The University of Winchester believes it is the world’s first life-sized sculpture of the “inspirational” Swedish environmental activist. But the students’ union said the funds could have been better spent. The university said “no money was diverted” from student support or staffing for the project. President of Winchester Student Union Megan Ball described Thunberg as a “fantastic role model to everyone, as someone who speaks loudly and proudly about important global issues”, but said the union could not...

Key members of the GOP are calling for either an investigation or resignation following reports of former U.S. Secretary of State and current Climate Czar John Kerry leaking information about covert Israeli military operations to Iran.

He is an arrogant job destroyer, but now he's also a traitor (again)

U.S. Special Climate Envoy John Kerry on Monday denied allegations stemming from leaked audio that suggested he disclosed the number of Israeli attacks on Iranian targets to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.“I can tell you that this story and these allegations are unequivocally false. This never happened—either when I was Secretary of State or since,” Kerry wrote on Twitter.Kerry’s response was attached to a Twitter message by a Washington Post reporter who cited a State Department spokesperson saying that the Israeli attacks had already been disclosed by Israel itself. The Post reporter further shared a September 2018 Reuters story...