LIVE: Trump calls his speech before US Capitol siege 'totally appropriate'

Trump calls social media clampdown 'catastrophic mistake'. Stay tuned for Latest LIVE news

Latest News LIVE: President Donald Trump has called the social media clampdown 'catastrophic mistake' after Twitter moved to permanently block his account. He further said that his speech before the US Capitol siege was 'totally appropriate' and also daid that US House Democrats' move to impeach him is 'absolutely ridiculous'.

Fresh bird deaths were reported in Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday amid cases of avian influenza in 10 states and union territories, with the Centre saying it has issued advisories regarding testing protocols and maintaining sufficient stock of PPE kits required for culling operations.

Pakistan and China together form a potent threat to national security and their collusive approach towards India cannot be wished away, Army Chief General M M Naravane said on Tuesday.

In another news, Consumer Price Index (CPI)-based inflation eased to 4.59 per cent in December 2020 compared to 6.93 per cent in November, according to government data released Tuesday. Food inflation declined to 3.41 per cent in December, compared to 9.5 per cent in the previous month.

On the international front, the US President Donald Trump approved an emergency declaration for Washington that lasts through January 24, the White House said, after authorities warned of security threats to President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration next week.
 

Stay tuned for the latest news of the day.

3:14 AM

Democrats poised to impeach defiant Trump over storming of US Capitol

A fiery debate opened in the US House of Representatives on Tuesday over a Democratic-led effort to remove President Donald Trump from office for inciting supporters who stormed the Capitol last week, while Trump denied any wrongdoing.
 

Democrats pushed Republican lawmakers to disavow Trump's false allegation that President-elect Joe Biden's victory in the Nov. 3 election was illegitimate - the claim that enraged Trump's supporters and prompted the violence in Washington that killed five including a police officer.
 

Republicans refused to concede the point and said their unsuccessful effort last week to challenge the results of the election was justified. But in a sign of divisions within the party, House Republican leaders have decided not to lobby their members against voting for impeachment, two House leadership aides told Reuters, leaving the decision to each lawmaker's conscience.
 

Making his first public appearance since last Wednesday's riot, Trump defended the remarks he made to supporters at a rally before they stormed the seat of Congress and also lambasted Democrats for pushing ahead with a drive to impeach him for an unprecedented second time.
 

"What I said was totally appropriate," Trump told reporters as he left for a trip to the US-Mexico border wall near Alamo, Texas, his first public foray since the assault on the Capitol.
 

3:10 AM

US House Republican leaders won't push members to vote against impeachment

US House Republican leaders have decided not to lobby their members against voting to impeach President Donald Trump, two House leadership aides told Reuters on Tuesday, confirming a report in the New York Times.
 

Republican leaders won't pressure members to vote against either a resolution expected on the floor Tuesday evening that calls for starting the Constitution's 25th amendment process of removing the president, or an impeachment resolution expected in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, the aides said. "Both are votes of conscience," one said.

3:08 AM

US companies suspend political donations after Capitol attack

A number of large U.S. companies, including AT&T Inc, American Express and Dow Inc, have said they would cut off campaign contributions to those who voted to challenge President-elect Joe Biden's victory, with Republicans in the U.S. Congress facing growing blowback from Corporate America.

3:06 AM

Laws are just the start: Australian watchdog warns Google, Facebook

Australia’s competition regulator has warned that planned laws to make the country the first in the world to force Google and Facebook to pay for news content were likely just the start of more regulation for digital platforms.

 

The Australian government announced legislation last month after an investigation it said showed the tech giants held too much market power in the media industry, a situation it said posed a potential threat to a well-functioning democracy.

 

Under the code, Google and Facebook will be subject to mandatory price arbitration if a commercial agreement on payment for Australian media cannot be reached.

 

“This bargaining code is a journey, if we see market power elsewhere, we can add them to the code,” Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Chairman (ACCC) Rod Sims said in an interview for Reuters Next.

 

Digital platforms face fines of up to A$10 million ($7.7 million) if they do not comply with the decision.

3:05 AM

FBI warns of armed protests ahead of Joe Biden's inauguration next week

The abrupt resignation of Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf added to the mounting tension in Washington ahead of President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration next week, with thousands of National Guard troops set to be deployed and the FBI warning of armed protests in all 50 state capitals.
 

As inaugural security preparations intensified, House Democrats accelerated their push to force the ouster of President Donald Trump before his term officially ends, threatening to impeach him for a second time unless he resigns for encouraging the march that led to last Wednesday’s assault on the U. S. Capitol.
 

But Vice President Mike Pence indicated that he’d reject demands to immediately oust Trump through the 25th Amendment to the Constitution as the two met in the Oval Office and agreed to work together for the remainder of the term, according to a senior administration official.

 

Trump has issued an emergency declaration for the national capital here ahead of his successor Joe Biden's inauguration on January 20, amidst threat perception to the event by federal agencies.
 

Democratic Party nominee for US President in 2016 Hillary Clinton expressed solidarity towards impeachment of President Donald Trump by saying it is essential to impeach him in wake of the Capitol riots but warned that impeachment alone "won't remove white supremacy from America".
 

3:05 AM

Banning of social media accounts by tech firms a big mistake: Trump

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that the steps being taken by big tech companies, who have banned and suspended his social media accounts, is going to be a catastrophic mistake.

 

I think that big tech is doing a horrible thing for our country and to our country. And I believe it's going to be a catastrophic mistake for them, Trump told reporters before boarding Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base.

 

This was Trump's first remarks in the public after Twitter permanently suspended his account.

 

Facebook, Instagram and other social media outlets have also banned his account alleging that his postings incite violence.

 

They're dividing and divisive, and they're showing something that I've been predicting for a long time. I've been predicting it for a long time and people didn't act on it. But I think big tech has made a terrible mistake, and very, very bad for our country--and that's leading others to do the same thing. And it causes a lot of problems and a lot of danger, Trump said.

 

Big mistake. They shouldn't be doing it. But there's always a counter move when they do that. I've never seen such anger as I see right now and that's a terrible thing, said the outgoing US President.

3:04 AM

Trump denies any responsibility for his supporters' Congress attack

US President Donald Trump, facing impeachment on a charge of "incitement of insurrection" on Tuesday denied responsibility for his supporters' violent invasion of the US Capitol last week and said his remarks before the siege were appropriate.
 

The Republican president told reporters that his speech before Wednesday's assault - in which he urged supporters to march on the Capitol and fight - had been analyzed by unnamed others, who he said believed it was "totally appropriate."

 

"If you read my speech ... what I said was totally appropriate," he told reporters at Joint Base Andrews when asked about any personal responsibility he had regarding the Jan. 6 attack when his supporters stormed the Capitol with members of Congress and his own Vice President Mike Pence inside.
 

"They've analyzed my speech and my words and my final paragraph, my final sentence and everybody ... thought it was totally appropriate," he said before heading to Alamo, Texas to visit and sign his signature wall on the border with Mexico.
 

Democrats in the US House of Representatives plan to impeach Trump on Wednesday unless he steps down or is removed before then, which would make him the only US president ever to be impeached twice.
 

3:04 AM

President-elect Joe Biden to name Gary Gensler as US SEC chair: Report

Gary Gensler, a leading financial regulator under the Obama administration, is expected to be named chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by President-elect Joe Biden in coming days, two sources familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

 

Gensler was chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) from 2009 to 2014, and since November has led Biden's transition planning for financial industry oversight.

 

Gensler did not respond to a request for comment.

 

A spokesperson for Biden did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 

Gensler's appointment as the country's top securities regulator likely means a reversal of four years of the rule-easing that Wall Street banks, brokers, funds and public companies have enjoyed under President Donald Trump's SEC chair Jay Clayton.

3:03 AM

Wall Street barely higher as investors pause amid US Capitol turmoil

The S&P 500 was barely higher in Tuesday's volatile session as investors waited for earnings season and monitored developments in Washington after supporters of outgoing US President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol.
 

As Democrats moved to impeach Trump for inciting the deadly rampage last week, Trump on Tuesday denied wrongdoing saying that his public comments on the day of the attack were "totally appropriate."
 

Also, the Washington Post reported that an FBI office in Virginia issued an internal warning the day before the Capitol invasion that extremists were planning to come to Washington and were talking of "war."

 

Trump's denial and the FBI story, which contradicts suggestions that the administration did not expect an attack, "highlight the fact that there's still a lot of issues in this country and we have a lot of progress to make before we can really go forward," said Michael O'Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading in Stamford, Connecticut.

3:03 AM

US to require negative Covid-19 tests for international air passengers

The head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is expected to sign an order on Tuesday expanding coronavirus testing requirements for nearly all international air travelers, not just from Britain, sources briefed on the matter told Reuters.
 

The new rules are to take effect two weeks from the day they are signed by CDC Director Mark Redfield, which would be Jan 26.
 

The CDC has been urgently pressing for an expansion of the requirements with the Trump administration for weeks. One remaining issue is how to address some countries that have limited testing capacity and how the CDC would address travel to those countries, the sources said.

12:00 AM

Over 1k bird deaths reported; Centre issues advisories on testing, culling

Fresh bird deaths were reported on Tuesday, including over 900 from Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan, amid cases of avian influenza in 10 states and union territories, with the Centre saying it has issued advisories on testing and maintaining sufficient stock of PPE kits for culling operations.

 

In Uttarakhand, where nearly 300 birds, mostly crows, have died over the last few days, an high alert has been sounded after samples tested positive for the influenza, while in Maharashtra, a culling exercise was ordered in parts of Latur district.

 

Till Monday, bird flu outbreak was confirmed in Delhi, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Gujarat.

11:06 PM

Odisha CM exempts fees for students appearing in Board exam

Keeping in view adverse impact of Covid-19 pandemic on the livelihood of the people across Odisha, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday announced that the state government will not charge any fee from students appearing in the Matric examination. Patnaik decided to waive the fees for the annual examination, conducted by the Board of Secondary Education, in the greater interest of the students.

The matriculation exam is scheduled to begin in the state from May 3 this year. "The state government will bear Rs 27 crore on this account and more than 6 lakh students will be benefited", the chief minister said in a statement. Every candidate appearing in the annual high school certificate examination was supposed to pay Rs 420 for filling up the forms.

Patnaik said the education sector is one the worst sufferer of the pandemic as the students could not attend classes for nine long months which has affected their studies. "No student will be denied opportunity to appear in the annual board examination for class 10th due to financial constraints," Patnaik said.

10:29 PM

Rain to continue in parts of Chennai for next few hours: IMD

Rain to continue in Cuddalore districts for the next 1 to 2 hours. Rain will continue for the next three hours in Ariyalore, Perambalore, Trichy and Tanjavur. From tomorrow onwards, the rain will start to slowly decrease: Director, Chennai Met Department

9:39 PM

Trump says move to impeach him is 'absolutely ridiculous'

9:38 PM

Trump says his speech before US Capitol attack 'appropriate'