Category Archives: Donald Trump

After much of Los Angeles went dark in the spring of 2020 amid the growing SARS-CoV-2 threat, two UCLA scientists and their small teambegan working late nights on the fifth floor of the Gonda (Goldschmied) Neuroscience and Genetics Research Center, developing technology that would pave the way for the UCLA community to safely return to campus.

The safer-at-home orders had shut down all but the few core campus activities and services deemed essential. While that meant the suspension of most laboratory research, it didnt apply to a new project led by Valerie Arboleda M.D. 14,Ph.D. 14, assistant professor of pathology and human genetics, and Joshua Bloom 06, a research scientist in human genetics and an adjunct professor in computational biology. Through their collaboration with Octant Bio, a biotech company founded and incubated at UCLA; faculty in UCLAs departments of human genetics and computational medicine; UCLA Health; and other academic institutions across the country, their research ultimately found its way from the high-tech lab Arboleda and Bloom named SwabSeq to vending machines across campus.UCLA faculty, staff and students returning last fall were able to easily access the free COVID-19 test kits, with picking up a testas simple as grabbing a snack: Users simply register for the SwabSeq test by scanning a QR code with their smartphone, retrieve the kit and collect their saliva sample, then deposit the kit in a drop box next to the machine. An email or text notifies them when they can access a secure website for their result.

Diagnosing COVID-19 typically involves polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing, but as a tool for mass screening of asymptomatic individuals, the approach is limited in its capacity. To run tens of thousands of tests simultaneously, SwabSeq harnesses the power of next-generation DNA sequencing a revolutionary technology thats come of age in the last 15 years and enables the processing of millions of DNA fragments at a time. The testing platform also bypasses a step typically required in the PCR method that of extracting RNA from samples, which can take days to process.

Im thrilled that SwabSeq helped put us back on campus and that my students and I are able to come into the lab.

Valerie Arboleda

SwabSeq attaches a piece of DNA that acts like a molecular barcode to each persons sample, enabling the labs scientists to combine large batches of samples in a genomic sequencing machine. Viewing the barcodes in the resulting sequence, the technology can quickly identify the samples that have the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. SwabSeq can return individual test results in about 24 hours, with highly accurate results the false-positive rate is just 0.2%.

Michal Czerwonka

Rachel Young, laboratory supervisor and clinical laboratory scientist for the COVID-19 SwabSeq lab

SwabSeq has now tested more than half a million specimens from UCLA, as well as from a handful of other universities in Southern California and from the Los Angeles Unified School District. A $13.3 million contract recently awarded by the National Institutes of Health sets the stage for an expansion of SwabSeqs efforts.

This is an innovative use of genomic sequencing for COVID-19 testing that is uniquely scalable to thousands of samples per day, [and that is] sensitive and fast a combination that is challenging to find in diagnostic testing, Arboleda says. Its not cost-effective as a test for a few people, or if you have someone in the hospital who needs an immediate result, but its very effective as a screening tool for large asymptomatic populations.

Neither Arboleda nor Bloom could have predicted they would one day find themselves leading a major element of UCLAs research response to a once-in-a-century pandemic.

Arboleda entered the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA intending to become a full-time clinician, but when she took a year off from her medical school studies to work in a lab, she found her true calling. She enrolled in the UCLA Medical Student Training Program, graduating in 2014 with both an M.D. and a Ph.D. in human genetics. As a faculty member, she now devotes about 80% of her time to research, with much of the focus on rare genetic syndromes.

Bloom, trained as a geneticist and a computational biologist, has used model systems such as yeast to develop experimental and computational methods for identifying the heritable genetic factors underlying gene expression differences and other complex traits in large populations. Ive worked on some really abstract problems. Diagnostic testing in a pandemic is definitely not something I thought Id ever be involved in, he says, smiling.

Michal Czerwonka

A machine in the SwabSeq laboratory

Like most of their UCLA colleagues and much of the rest of the world, Bloom and Arboleda saw their work routines upended by the pandemic. Bloom was grappling with the new reality when he received a call from Sri Kosuri, a UCLA assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry and co-founder/CEO of Emeryville, California-based Octant Bio, the startup where Bloom was a consultant and where early pilot studies for SwabSeq were conducted.

He suggested we could turn the drug-screening technology Octant was using into a COVID test, and asked if I could help with the computational work, Bloom recalls. There were other people at UCLA who were also thinking that with all these smart people here, we should be able to develop a test. From there we began to have large group meetings involving multiple universities sharing information.

When Arboleda heard about the nascent project from a faculty colleague, she knew she could be helpful. In addition to the expertise in molecular biology she could apply to setting up the experiments, her training in pathology gave her the experience with regulatory matters that would need to be addressed once the test was developed. She agreed to collaborate with Bloom, who used his expertise in informatics to optimize the automated DNA sequencing process toward the goal of producing accurate diagnostic readouts.

The two spent a good part of April and May 2020 in the lab. We would do the assay and put it on the sequencer, then Josh would analyze it as soon as it came off the machine, Arboleda says. Based on that, the next day we would adjust a couple of parameters and rerun the experiment.

PreCOVID-19, she had become accustomed to a supervisory role as a principal investigator overseeing a team of scientists. I hadnt gone back to the lab in a while, she says. It was a wild two months, where I felt like a grad student again!

The number and pace of the iteration cycles a new one every 24 hours made this research project unlike any other Bloom had seen. The sequencing technology enables that, because you can tweak a bunch of things and get readouts for them all at once, he says.

But more than that, he credits the speed with which SwabSeq moved from concept to reality to an all-hands-on-deck approach befitting the urgency of the need. We had senior faculty, including department heads, engaged and excited to help, Bloom says.

One of those department heads isEleazar Eskin,chair of the Department of Computational Medicine,a departmentaffiliated with both UCLA Samueli School of Engineering and the medical school. He hascoordinatedlogistics and business operations to ensure that the lab operates efficiently and remainsflexibleenough toadapt to changing circumstances, such asthe appearance of theomicron variant of the virus.Eskinalso built the custom software for SwabSeq'slab-information management system.

Adds Arboleda: Everyone knew it was important and contributed in whatever way would support the mission, whether it was getting space, fundingor institutional review board approvals. And since only people who were doing COVID work could come to campus, I had people on my team who said, OK, Ill put on a mask and do whats needed.

Michal Czerwonka

Hard at work in the SwabSeq lab

The SwabSeq lab now occupies an entire floor in the Center for Health Sciences South Tower. The space is divided into three rooms, each dedicated to a portion of the test. One room is for handling samples; a second is used as a clean room and storage area; and a third, its walls lined with high-level sequencers, is for post-PCR sequencing. All over, freezers and refrigerators store enough reagents for millions of tests. The lab isnt necessarily a one-off Arboleda notes that the technology can be applied to general infectious disease testing and surveillance. Its flexible protocol can rapidly scale up testing and provide a solution to the need for population-wide testing to stem future pandemics, she says.

For now, aside from regular meetings to discuss SwabSeq development and high-level technical issues, the scientists have returned to the work they were doing before everything changed in March 2020. Im thrilled that SwabSeq helped put us back on campus and that my students and I are able to come into the lab, Arboleda says. Now if someone tests positive, no one worries because that person can stay home, and we know we can all easily get tested.

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SwabSeq: Scalable, Sensitive and Fast COVID-19 Testing - UCLA Newsroom

And unlike a prison, a mink shed has no plumbing. We focus a lot on the respiratory transmission among people, Jonathan Epstein, a zoonotic-disease ecologist, says, but its important to remember that this is also a GI-tract virus, and its shed in the stool. While we flush our own infected excreta down porcelain toilets, the excreta of mink collects under their cages in dank mounds in which coronavirus can remain infectious for days, long enough to be aerosolized when farmworkers shovel it away.

Its probable that the factory-farm conditions that minks are subjected to make them especially susceptible to microbial pathogens. Notwithstanding their undeniably adorable exteriors alert, wide-set eyes, dainty, partly webbed paws and long furry bodies mink are not sociable herd animals like cows, sheep, chickens and pigs, who have been under human domestication for thousands of years, exchanging microbes back and forth with one another and with us. They are solitary, meat-eating predators, unaccustomed to life in intimate proximity to other individuals. Just how the stress of crowding affects mink is unknown, though it is thought to suppress their immune systems. Farmed mink are famously vulnerable to pathogens such as distemper and influenza. Mink farmers must pump them up with vaccinations to keep them alive for the handful of months it takes for them to grow thick fur.

I was told by Michael Whelan, then a mink-industry spokesman, that farmers in the United States had developed strict biosecurity measures to prevent microbial transmission between humans and animals on mink farms. Livestock operations such as poultry farms, for example often require that workers wear Tyvek suits, masks and bootees and shower-in and shower-out of the fully sealed sheds where captive animals are kept. And yet many of the mink farms I visited in Utah didnt even have adequate fencing around their borders. The rickety perimeter gate around one farm I saw was open to passing traffic, including the cows in an adjacent clearing, the deer of which nearby roadway signs warned and a band of feral cats that slinked onto the farms gravel lot just yards from the doorless mink sheds.

Unlike in Europe, health officials in the United States did not conduct active surveillance on mink farms for coronavirus, relying instead on mink farmers to self-report outbreaks. Publicly, industry representatives said they took the risk of coronavirus incursions seriously, but privately, many were almost dismissive about the threat the virus posed. One mink farmer, Joe Ruef, described coronavirus in mink as a nonevent when we spoke by phone. The industry trade group, Fur Commission USA, called it a supposed public health threat, in an email to its members that was leaked to activists and shared with me. And when word got out that I was visiting Utah mink farms, Fur Commission USA sent out a security alert to its members, with a photograph of my rental car and its license plates. DO NOT let her on to your property, and under no circumstances allow her near the mink sheds, it read, because any pictures or documented cases of ranches that are not following the recommended biosecurity protocols could damage our efforts to defend the US producers.

As a relatively small industry that sells most of its animal products overseas as garments rather than as food, mink farms have escaped most regulatory oversight. Federal laws that pertain to animals like the Animal Welfare Act and the Humane Slaughter Act do not cover animals on fur farms. Few states require mink farms to be licensed or inspected; none require veterinary oversight. Like most states, Utah has no regulations on fur farming at all. Even the minimal containment strategies devised for infected mink farms proved difficult to implement. In Utah, mink farmers were fairly resistant to having anyone come onto their facilities, the Utah state veterinarian Dean Taylor told me. In internal correspondence acquired through public-records requests, Utah health department officials discussed an infected farm that the department was not permitted to access even for testing. Unregulated, secretive mink farms, Han says, are not that different, if you think about it, from these captive wildlife farms that we hear about in Asia.

On the 12 mink farms that reported outbreaks, health officials implemented quarantines, testing protocols and trapping programs to capture and test nearby animals. Unlike in Europe, there were no culls of susceptible or infected mink. While in 2014 and 2015 the U.S.D.A. paid $200 million to compensate farmers for culling 50 million farmed birds to short-circuit an outbreak of avian influenza, the agency had no budget to do the same to prevent coronavirus from exploding on mink farms.

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Animals Infecting Humans Is Scary. Its Worse When We Infect Them Back. - The New York Times

China has unveiled its lists of the top-10 scientific advances in China and the world for 2021, as selected by members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and members of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE).

Academicians from the CAS and CAE hold Chinas highest national academic titles in science and engineering.

Among the scientific breakthroughs listed, Chinas progress on its first solar exploration task stands out.

The China National Space Administration released new images taken by the countrys first Mars rover Zhurong, including the landing-site panorama, the Martian landscape and a selfie of the rover, signifying the complete success of Chinas first Mars exploration mission.

Other advances include progress on long-term stays on Chinas space station, research into synthesizing starch from carbon dioxide, the lunar samples brought back by the Change-5 mission, the route to de novo domestication of wild allotetraploid rice, as well as the prevention and control of the agricultural pest Bemisia tabaci.

Topping the list of the worlds top-10 scientific advances is the development of the first living robots with the ability to reproduce. The millimeter-sized living machines, called Xenobots 3.0, are neither traditional robots nor a species of animal, but living, programmable organisms.

Other notable advances include research on the accurate prediction of protein structures, a genetic engineering technique for genetic diseases, using human pluripotent stem cells to grow sesame-seed-sized heart models, and the recreation of the early structures of the human embryo from stem cells.

The selection of the top-10 scientific advances in China and the world has been hosted by the CAS and CAE on 28 occasions, playing a positive role in popularizing the latest sci-tech developments at home and abroad.

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China reveals lists of top global, Chinese scientific advances for 2021 - Macau Business

Researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology Mandi and The International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), New Delhi, have identified phytochemicals in the petals of a Himalayan plant that could potentially be used to treat COVID-19 infections.

The research team's findings have been recently published in the Biomolecular Structure and Dynamics journal. The research was led by Dr Shyam Kumar Masakapalli, Associate Professor, BioX Centre, School of Basic Science, IIT Mandi, Dr Ranjan Nanda, Translational Health Group and Dr Sujatha Sunil, Vector-Borne Disease Group, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, New Delhi.

Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, the researchers are trying to understand the virus's nature and discover new ways to prevent the infection. While vaccination is one route to providing the body with fighting power against the virus, there is a worldwide search for non-vaccine medicines that can prevent viral invasion of the human body. These medicines use chemicals that either bind to the receptors in our body cells and prevent the virus from entering them or act on the virus itself and prevent its replication inside our bodies.

Masakapalli says, "Among the different types of therapeutic agents being studied, phytochemicals - chemicals derived from plants - are considered particularly promising because of their synergistic activity and natural source with fewer toxicity issues. We are hunting for promising molecules from the Himalayan flora using multi-disciplinary approaches."

The petals of the Himalayan Buransh plant, scientifically called Rhododendron Arboreum, are consumed in various forms by the local population for their varied health benefits. IIT Mandi and ICGEB set out to scientifically test the extracts containing different phytochemicals, focusing on the anti-viral activity. The researchers extracted the phytochemicals from the Buransh petals and performed biochemical assays and computational simulation studies to understand their anti-viral properties.

Ranjan Nanda says, "We have profiled and investigated the phytochemicals of Rhododendron Arboreum petals sourced from Himalayan flora and have found it to be a promising candidate against the COVID virus."

Extracts from these petals were rich in quinic acid and its derivatives. Molecular dynamics studies showed that these phytochemicals have two effects against the virus. They are bound to the main protease - an enzyme that plays a vital role in viral replication - and the Human Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme-2 (ACE2) that mediates viral entry into the host cells.

The researchers also showed through experimental assays that non-toxic doses of the petal extracts can inhibit COVID infection in Vero E6 cells (cells derived from the kidney of an African green monkey that is commonly used to study infectivity of virus and bacteria) without any adverse effects on the cells themselves.

Sujatha Sunil says, "A combination of the phytochemical profiling, computer simulations and in vitro anti-viral assays showed that the extracts from the Buransh petals inhibited the replication of the COVID virus in a dose-dependent manner."

The findings support the urgent need for further scientific studies to find specific bioactive drug candidates from R. Arboreum, in vivo and clinical trials against COVID-19. The research team also plans to carry out additional studies to understand the precise mechanism of inhibition of COVID-19 replication by specific phytochemicals from Buransh petals.

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The above article has been published from a wire source with minimal modifications to the headline and text.

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Flower Petals of Himalaya's Buransh Tree Has Phytochemicals That Can Help Fight COVID-19, Say Researchers | The Weather Channel - Articles from The...

CINCINNATI The Bengals ended their playoff drought on Saturday night when they beat the Raiders 26-19. It's Cincinnati's first postseason win since Jan. 6, 1991. Get head coach Zac Taylor's reaction, plus hear from Joe Burrow, Ja'Marr Chase, C.J. Uzomah and Sam Hubbard below.

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Make sure you bookmark All Bengals for the latest NFL news, exclusive interviews, film breakdowns and so much more!

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The starting gun in the next White House race doesnt fire for 10 more months, until after the 2022 midterm elections.

But President Bidens most muscular comments to date regarding former President Donald Trump - as Biden gave a much talked-about address inStatuary Hall marking the one-year anniversary of the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol - appeared to serve as a preview for a potential 2024 rematch between the two leaders.

The speech seemed to be a turning point for the president, who during much of his first year in the White House has directly avoided targeting his predecessor in office. But on Thursday, without using Trumps name, the president accused him of inciting the mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 in hopes of disrupting congressional certification of Bidens Electoral College victory in the 2020 election.

2021, THE YEAR THAT THE 2024 PRESIDENTIAL RACE IGNITED

"We must be absolutely clear about what is true and what is a lie. And here is the truth: The former president of the United States of America has created and spread a web of lies about the 2020 election," Biden charged, as he pointed to Trump's repeated, unfounded claims that the 2020 election was "RIGGED" and "stolen" due to massive voter fraud.

"Hes done so because he values power over principle, because he sees his own interests as more important than his countrys interests and Americas interests, and because his bruised ego matters more to him than our democracy or our Constitution," the president argued.

WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 06: US President Joe Biden gives remarks in Statuary Hall of the U.S Capitol on January 6, 2022 in Washington, DC. One year ago, supporters of then President Donald Trump attacked the U.S. Capitol Building in an attempt to disrupt a congressional vote to confirm the electoral college win for Joe Biden. (Photo by Greg Nash-Pool/Getty Images)

And Biden emphasized that Trumps "done what no president in American historyhas ever, ever done: He refused to accept the results of an election and the will of the American people."

Stressing that Trumps "a defeated former president," Biden accused him of "trying to rewrite history." And looking ahead to what sounded like the next presidential election campaign, Biden pledged to "defend this nation. And I will allow no one to place a dagger at the throat of our democracy."

Trump, who canceled his originally planned news conference on Jan. 6, fired off numerous statements throughout the day.

The former president argued that Biden "used my name today to try to further divide America," labeling it "political theater."

And Trump claimed that the presidents speech was "just a distraction for the fact Biden has completely and totally failed."

WHAT TRUMP TOLD FOX NEWS ABOUT HIS 2024 TIMETABLE

Looking ahead to this Novembers midterms, when the GOP hopes to win back majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate, Trump said that "to watch Biden speaking is very hurtful for many peoplethis is an election year and MAGA Republicans should get elected and work with me to fix this horror."

After his address, Biden told reporters that he referred to Trump in his speech as a "former president" rather than directly name him because he "did not want to turn" marking the one-year anniversary of the attack on the Capitol "into a contemporary political battle between me" and Trump.

But in some ways, what Biden said on Thursday sounded like the opening shots in the next White House race.

Georgia PERRY, GA - SEPTEMBER 25: Former US President Donald Trump speaks at a rally on September 25, 2021 in Perry, Georgia. (Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images) (Getty Images)

Expect Trump to fire back when hes in front of cameras next weekend, as he heads to the crucial battleground state of Arizona to hold his first campaign style rally of 2022.

And then there were four

The Republican National Committee (RNC) has narrowed the list of contenders to host its 2024 presidential nominating convention down to four major cities.

Making the short-list are Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Nashville, Tennessee, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Salt Lake City, Utah. Milwaukee and Pittsburgh are located in crucial general election battleground states, while Nashville and Salt Lake City are located in reliably red states.

CLICK HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS REPORTING FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

The RNC confirmed to Fox News that staff from their site selection committee will be traveling to the four finalist cities to survey the convention plans. And committee members will discuss the 2024 convention cities, as well as the nominating calendar and presidential primary debates, when the RNC holds its winter meeting, early next month in Salt Lake City.

The news of the four finalists was first reported by Politico.

Were seeing a lot less of Mike Pompeo

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says he dropped 90 pounds over the past nine months thanks to exercise and dieting.

Pompeo told the New York Post that he hit a tipping point in June when he stepped on the scale and saw that his weight was nearing 300 lbs. for the first time in his life.

The Fox News contributor, a former congressman from Kansas who served as CIA director and then Americas top diplomat during the Trump administration, traveled to all four of the early voting presidential primary and caucus states last year, sparking plenty of speculation hes mulling a 2024 White House run.

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But the 58-year-old Pompeo said his weight loss isnt about any possible presidential run.

"The truth is, Im really getting ready for 2044 and hoping Ill be around in 2054," he told the New York Post, pointing to potential grandchildren. "My sons getting married in July, and I wanted to be healthier and be around for what I hope the Lord will bless us with as grandkids before too terribly long."

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Game on between Biden and Trump as president appears to give first speech of the 2024 White House race - Fox News

The solemnity of the day was in danger of being undermined by former President My Little Phony. Two weeks ago, he announced that at the time of the Capitol prayer service, he planned to deliver remarks doubling down on the big lie to counterprogram the remembrance events. Yeah, you cant let remembrance events go on without counterprogramming. The same reason at a funeral youve got to bring out an insult comic for the people who are glad the guys dead: [Imitating comic] John looks good. Its the first time Ive seen him stiff in years! Oh! His wife knows what Im talking about. Anyway, thats my time. His, too! Tip your pallbearers. STEPHEN COLBERT

It would be like Judas giving a speech to commemorate Good Friday: [Imitating Judas] Sure, its a sad day, but without me, none of this wouldve happened. The real crucifixion was on Nov. 3 Mary Magdalene knows what Im talkin about. Tip your Pharisees. STEPHEN COLBERT

Donald Trump is canceling an appearance and listening to advice from other people? Im worried about him. JAMES CORDEN

Republican senators said the press conference wasnt a good idea, so instead Trump will just spend a quiet day dancing to Y.M.C.A. at home. JAMES CORDEN

But according to The New York Timess Maggie Haberman, the real, real reason is that it was becoming clear he wasnt likely to get the live TV coverage he was hoping for. Well, that makes sense. Upstaging solemn events rarely gets good ratings. Thats why they canceled Dick Clarks Pearl Harbors Rockin Eve. STEPHEN COLBERT

In his statement regarding the cancellation, Trump referred to the insurrection as a completely unarmed protest and said he was moving the event from Mar-a-Lago to Arizona on Jan. 15.

Id like to point out that they were armed. And when did we start having to say unarmed protests? Protests are unarmed by default. Thats like saying: We had a lovely weekend. It was a totally bloodless cotillion. STEPHEN COLBERT

It makes sense that hes moving it from Mar-a-Lago to Arizona, considering their state motto: Arizona: Americas backup Florida. STEPHEN COLBERT

So, no press conference tomorrow, but Trump will speak at an Arizona rally on Jan. 15 instead, just as Martin Luther King Jr. would have wanted. JAMES CORDEN

Theres an update in the world of Covid: Everyone in the world has Covid. STEPHEN COLBERT

Speaking of, the C.D.C. announced that after you isolate for five days with Covid, you should take a rapid test if you have access to one. You can read more about it in this months issue of Unhelpful Advice magazine. JIMMY FALLON

Thats right, another update from the C.D.C. Even Dr. Fauci is like, Oh, I muted those months ago. JIMMY FALLON

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Late Night Is Thrilled Trumps Finally Listening to Someone - The New York Times

WASHINGTON

Lucky countries have celebrations that remind their citizens of what binds them together think Memorial Day or the Fourth of July.

Unlucky countries do the opposite: They commemorate the divisions that drive them apart.

In Northern Ireland, Protestant militants march noisily on July 12 to remind the Catholic minority which side won the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. In Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbs march on Jan. 9 to assert their independence from the groups they fought in their countrys war.

After the U.S. Civil War, Southern states celebrated Confederate Memorial Day on a different date than the Norths Decoration Day; the holidays didnt merge until World War I.

Last week, with the anniversary of the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, the United States slipped onto the list of unhappy countries.

The day turned into a festival of national division not a single, unifying commemoration but three very different observances.

President Biden gave an unexpectedly fiery speech, blaming Donald Trump for inciting the mob that attacked the Capitol and for continuing to stoke the poisonous myth that the 2020 election was stolen.

The former president of the United States of America has created and spread a web of lies, Biden said. Hes done so because he values power over principle and because his bruised ego matters more to him than our democracy.

Predictably, Trump rose to the bait, issuing four angry statements from his exile in Mar-a-Lago, all renewing his spurious claims.

The Big Lie was the election itself, he wrote. The election outcome was the real insurrection, he said. And he accused the Biden administration of appalling abuse of political prisoners, an apparent reference to defendants held on federal charges after the riot a favorite cause of his fringiest followers, like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).

Caught in the middle were Republican leaders who know Trump lost the election but dont want to say so because it would enrage the vengeful former president.

They observed Jan. 6 by offering muddled statements that disapproved of the riot but blamed Democrats for politicizing the issue as if there were any way to avoid connecting the invasion of the Capitol to politics.

The actions of that day were lawless and as wrong as wrong can be, House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) said. The problem now, he complained, is that Democrats are using it as a partisan political weapon.

Its a difficult straddle to execute, as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) discovered when he incautiously described the riot as a violent terrorist attack, a phrase he has used in the past.

Heresy! Cruz, who ran against Trump for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, was assailed by Trump supporters and subjected to interrogation by Tucker Carlson of Fox News. It was not a violent terrorist attack, Carlson insisted.

In a scene reminiscent of the show trials of Mao Zedongs China, Cruz promptly recanted his deviation from party doctrine.

It was a mistake, he said, referring to his statement, not the riot.

Lesson to other Republicans who seek reelection: Dont deviate from Trumps views, or you may be a victim of the GOPs own form of cancel culture.

Trump, who gloried in watching the mob rampage through the Capitol, doesnt appear to want the battle to end. And thats the chief obstacle to getting over the division that remains. Its not about whether sacking the Capitol was right or wrong; even McCarthy can answer that question accurately. Its whether the myth Trump used to rile up the mob his infinitely debunked claim that the election was stolen should be embraced or repudiated.

Thats not a debate that offers ground for compromise. Either Trump is right, and the current president of the United States is illegitimate or Trump deliberately set out to overturn a democratic election and is bending the rest of the GOP to his will.

So far, he appears to be succeeding, at least when it comes to radicalizing his party.

Thats why Biden, after months of pretending that Trump was no longer there, escalated last week.

We are in a battle for the soul of America, he said, reviving a slogan from his 2020 campaign. I did not seek this fight but I will not shrink from it, either.

Trumps continuing campaign to deny the presidents legitimacy no ground for compromise there, either left him little choice.

For a few weeks after Jan. 6, 2021, it was possible to hope that the trauma of the day might unify the country. That didnt happen; the ensuing year only confirmed our division.

The lesson of Jan. 6, 2022, is that Jan. 6 isnt over.

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Column: The lesson of Jan. 6: Jan. 6 still isn't over - Los Angeles Times

Tiffany Trump is busy planning her wedding to financier Michael Boulos, but the couple took some time for a little rest and relaxation over the holidays. Instead of a typical Trump celebration with her dad Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, the duo decided to head to the French Alps with Michaels parents,Massad and Sarah Boulos, his older brother, Fares Boulos and Tiffanys mom, Marla Maples.

Michael shared a very glam photo of the two of them sitting slopeside at Courchevel, a luxurious French ski resort. Tiffany wore chic black sunglasses and a Tiffany-blue puffy coat with fur trim and a black fur hat (she looked like a ski bunny). Her fianc kept his winter gear simple with an all-black ensemble and reflective sunglasses. It doesnt look like Tiffany hit the slopes, but her mom looked like she had the time of her life with her future son-in-law and his family.

Maples sounded truly moved to be included in their vacation plans. Moments of fun captured in time! Ive learned that joy is the greatest commodity we have to share with others, she wrote in the caption of her photo dump. I am so grateful for this family and the special time of adventure, dreaming, laughing and praying together. Heres to everyone finding reasons to smile and more ways to share love! She even bonded with Michael and Massad for a top-of-the-mountain family picture.

Even though Tiffany made the move to Florida like her Trump siblings, she is rarely seen spending time with them. This holiday vacation with her future in-laws (and missing her dads annual New Years Eve party) might signal that shes ready to identify as a Boulos family member and it looks like shes bringing mom along for the ride.

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Tiffany Trump Skipped Dad Donald Trumps New Years Eve Party For a Ski Vacation With Her In-Laws - SheKnows

Hours after rioters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Vice President Mike Pence listens after reading the final certification of the Electoral College votes cast in the 2020 presidential election. J. Scott Applewhite/AP hide caption

Hours after rioters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Vice President Mike Pence listens after reading the final certification of the Electoral College votes cast in the 2020 presidential election.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, chair of the Democratic-led House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, says members expect this month to ask former Vice President Mike Pence to voluntarily appear.

Pence's role on the day of the siege has drawn close interest from the committee, as it examines then-President Donald Trump's actions that day, as well as in the days leading up to the attack. Trump had been pressuring Pence to step out of his ceremonial role and reject Joe Biden's election results in several key states.

Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, shared the timing plans for the Pence ask in an interview with NPR.

"I think you could expect that before the month's out," Thompson said.

He described Pence's appearance as critical, especially as the former vice president ultimately issued a letter before the Jan. 6 proceedings that said he would not step out of his ceremonial role.

"The vice president was put in a tough spot. The president was putting a lot of pressure on him to break the law, and he stood fast," added Thompson. "And because of his respect for law, there were people who came to the Capitol a year ago wanting to hang him. And so, if for no other reason, our committee really needs to hear what are his opinions about what happened on Jan. 6."

The committee is meeting next week behind closed doors and expects to firm up final plans regarding Pence and the voluntary ask then, Thompson said.

The effort comes as the committee moves into a new phase of its investigation, with a closer look into Donald Trump's inner circle and new public requests for voluntary testimony. In the last several weeks, the committee has asked that Fox News personality Sean Hannity and Republican Reps. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Jim Jordan of Ohio come before the panel.

None has signaled interest in doing so.

Thompson did not rule out more requests for other witnesses in Trump's inner circle, including daughter and former senior White House adviser Ivanka Trump.

"Look, we are absolutely open to anyone coming voluntarily to the committee," Thompson said. "If in fact we think somebody has information that as a committee we need, and getting a subpoena for that person's participation is important, then we will do it."

The committee has obtained information that Ivanka Trump tried to get her father to call off the riot several times that day, Thompson and other members have said.

"We have information that Ivanka did try to get the president to call off what was occurring at the Capitol. We don't have all the information. That's why we would love to have access to it," Thompson said.

Thompson said more details on Ivanka Trump's requests to her father regarding the attack are likely held within White House documents that are the subject of an ongoing legal fight. Donald Trump has lost several rounds in federal courts seeking to block the committee's access to a tranche of those documents and is now asking the Supreme Court to intervene.

"So we think once we have access to that, it will help clear up all the drips and drabbles of the information that we are getting," Thompson said.

The committee has issued more than 50 subpoenas, has interviewed about 350 witnesses, has received more than 45,000 documents and is chasing nearly 350 tips.

The committee is also assessing whether Donald Trump or others should be considered for criminal referrals for their actions tied to the siege. So far, the House has approved the committee's two criminal referrals for ex-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and former strategist Steve Bannon.

Thompson said the committee is also working to issue "significant recommendations" for new legislation. This could include reforms to the Electoral Count Act or new penalties for obstructing an official proceeding, such as the certification of presidential election results.

"Because one of the dangers, as you know, is if the insurrectionists had been successful and gotten their hands on the ballots from the different states and destroyed [them]," Thompson said, "we would have had a constitutional crisis of no end."

The panel is in a race to wrap up its investigation before the November midterm elections this year, as Republicans could take back control of the lower chamber next year and shut down the probe.

Hearings to present those findings could be held by this spring or summer, members have said.

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Jan. 6 panel expects this month to ask Mike Pence to voluntarily appear - NPR