World breaking news today (Feb 26): Extremists 'want to blow up the Capitol' when Biden addresses Congress
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(Photo: Wikipedia)

Over 300 Capitol rioters arrested

America watched as hordes of rioters broke into the U.S. Capitol on January 6 — crushing through windows, pressing up stairways, and sending lawmakers and law enforcement running for their lives. The flood of protesters who streamed into the Capitol that day left federal authorities with an equally immense task: finding and charging those responsible, according to CBS News.

Federal prosecutors have now charged more than 300 people, and arrested more than 280, in connection with the events of January 6, Acting Deputy Attorney General John Carlin said Friday. A Justice Department official said this week that the department had opened files on approximately 540 subjects.

"The investigation into those responsible is moving at a speed and scale that's unprecedented, and rightly so. Those responsible must be held to account, and they will be," Carlin said.

Biden visits Texas as state recovers from historic winter storm

President Joe Biden traveled to Houston on Friday to survey the damage from Texas' recent historic winter storm, the president’s first trip as commander in chief to a state following a natural disaster.

Biden met with state and local officials about the recovery efforts at the Harris County Emergency Operations Center in Houston, commending them for putting together a "hell of an operation," before he and first lady Jill Biden toured a local food bank to thank volunteers.

The winter storm earlier this month pummeled Texas and the surrounding region, leaving millions without power, heat and water for days. Millions of Texans remain under advisement to boil their drinking water and many are also facing food shortages and sky-high electricity bills.i

President Joe Biden visits the Harris County Emergency Operations Center, in Houston, Texas, on Feb. 26, 2021.Jonathan Ernst / Reuters

"Jill and I wanted to visit Texas today for a couple of reasons," Biden said. "First and foremost: to let the people of Texas know our prayers are with you in the aftermath of this winter storm. And secondly, ... to let you know we will be true partners to help you recover and rebuild from the storms and this pandemic and the economic crisis."

The Texas storm hit just as Biden announced his administration was working to open three federally-backed mass vaccination sites in the state as part of his goal to rapidly deploy vaccines around the country in a race against the spread of new Covid-19 variants, according to CNBC News.

The storm delayed the delivery of hundreds of thousands of doses to Texas, but Biden, speaking from one of the mass vaccination sites at Houston's NRG Stadium Friday evening, said that the country was on track to surpass his goal of administering 100 million shots in his first 100 days in office.

Dutch parliament: China's treatment of Uighurs is genocide

The Dutch parliament on Thursday passed a non-binding motion saying the treatment of the Uighur Muslim minority in China amounts to genocide, the first such move by a European country. Activists and U.N. rights experts say at least one million Muslims are being detained in camps in the remote western region of Xinjiang. The activists and some Western politicians accuse China of using torture, forced labour and sterilisations.

China denies any human rights abuses in Xinjiang and says its camps provide vocational training and are needed to fight extremism.

“A genocide on the Uighur minority is occurring in China,” the Dutch motion said, stopping short of directly saying that the Chinese government was responsible.

Members of the Uighur community and sympathizers demonstrate on the Dam square in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 29 December 2019. [Remko De Waal/EPA/EFE]

The Chinese Embassy in The Hague said on Thursday any suggestion of a genocide in Xinjiang was an “outright lie” and the Dutch parliament had “deliberately smeared China and grossly interfered in China’s internal affairs.”

Canada passed a resolution labelling China’s treatment of the Uighurs genocide earlier this week.

The Dutch motion said that actions by the Chinese government such as “measures intended to prevent births” and “having punishment camps” fell under United Nations Resolution 260, generally known as the genocide convention.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s conservative VVD party voted against the resolution, Reuters reported.

China OKs 2 more virus vaccines for wider use

It gave conditional approval to a vaccine from CanSino Biologics and one from state-owned Sinopharm. Both are already used among select groups of people under an emergency use authorization. China now has four vaccines to immunize its population of 1.3 billion people.

CanSino’s COVID-19 vaccine is the first developed by a Chinese company that requires only one shot. Both vaccines can be stored between 2 and 8 degrees Celsius.

Sinopharm's vaccine (Photo: CGTN)

CanSino says its vaccine candidate is 65.28% effective 28 days after the dose is given. A Sinopharm subsidiary, the Wuhan Institute of Biologics, says its vaccine candidate is 72.51% effective.

Neither company has publicly released final testing data showing safety and efficacy, according to abc News.

Gold price forecast - gold markets break barrier

Gold markets have broken down below the $1750 level during the trading session on Friday as yields continue to kill the idea of holding gold as of late.

Gold markets have had a rough Friday as they have broken through the crucial $1750 level. This is an area that has been supportive for a while, so at this point in time I think that as long as yields continue to rise in the 10 year note, gold is going to continue to struggle. We are at the very bottom of the overall range, and this means that we are probably going to continue to see a bloodbath in the gold market.

(Photo: Business Standard)

Gold markets have had a rough Friday as they have broken through the crucial $1750 level. This is an area that has been supportive for a while, so at this point in time I think that as long as yields continue to rise in the 10 year note, gold is going to continue to struggle. We are at the very bottom of the overall range, and this means that we are probably going to continue to see a bloodbath in the gold market, FX Empire reported.

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