United States

U.S. House of Representatives Democrats plan a vote on Monday to urge Vice President Mike Pence to take steps to remove President Donald Trump from office after his supporters' deadly storming of the Capitol, before attempting to impeach him again.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House will proceed with legislation to impeach President Donald Trump as she pushes the vice president and the Cabinet to invoke constitutional authority force him out, warning that Trump is a threat to democracy after the deadly assault on the Capitol.

Police arrested more Capitol rioters on Jan. 9, including a man who carried off the House speaker's lectern, as more graphic details of the insurrection emerged, revealing the violence and brutality of the mob that stormed a seat of American political power.

"At this hour our democracy is under unprecedented assault unlike anything we've seen in modern times," Biden said, adding that what unfolded was, "an assault on the rule of law like few times we have ever seen it."
"I call on this mob to pull back and allow democracy to go forward," Biden said. "At their best the words of a president can inspire, at their worst they can incite."

On Wednesday, January 6, Vice President Mike Pence will preside over a meeting of the Senate ratifying the election of Joe Biden as the next president of the United States, with 306 electoral votes to Donald Trump's 232. Until these elections, this meeting was a mere formality on the path between the November 3 vote and the inauguration on January 20.

Apparently, that may delay the official confirmation of the presidential election a bit, Deutsche Welle reports. The inauguration on January 20 is not in question.
On Wednesday, January 6, the American Congress should confirm the outcome of the presidential elections and the victory of Joseph Biden.

U.S. Senator Ted Cruz on Jan. 2 said he will spearhead a drive by nearly a dozen Republican senators to challenge President-elect Joe Biden's victory when Electoral College results are tallied in Congress on Jan. 6 - a largely symbolic move that has virtually no chance of preventing Biden from taking office.   

The year is closing with fewer registrations of new enterprises on the General Commercial Register (GEMH) compared to last year and with even fewer shutdowns than in 2019. It was a year that got off to a good start for entrepreneurship - until the pandemic struck.

A representative-elect from Louisiana died of Covid-19 on Dec. 29, the first member of the U.S. Congress to succumb to the disease.

Republican Luke Letlow, 41, had been elected to Louisiana's 5th district and was due to be sworn in on Sunday.

Louisiana governor John Bel Edwards announced the news on Twitter with a "heavy heart."

Millions of Americans are about to see their jobless benefits expire on Dec. 26 as President Donald Trump has so far refused to sign into law a $2.3 trillion pandemic aid and spending package, insisting that it did not do enough to help everyday people.