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– David Perdue, a Republican candidate for Georgia governor, on Thursday called for the establishment of a police unit to investigate voter fraud, underscoring his campaign strategy of promoting falsehoods about wrongdoing in the 2020 election. Perdue, who has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump in his bid to unseat fellow Republican Brian Kemp, said that he was proposing an “Election Law Enforcement Division” to investigate and enforce election laws in Georgia. “This is about transparency and accountability. Georgians deserve confidence that only legal votes will be counted, and that anyone who tries to interfere with our elections will

WASHINGTON – The Biden administration is preparing for future variants of COVID-19, White House chief of Staff Ron Klain told MSNBC in an interview that aired on Thursday as the Omicron-related wave of cases appeared to be easing in parts of the country. “We’re prepared. We’re increasing the production of tests. We’re increasing the production of masks,” Klain said in the interview that was taped on Wednesday. “We have to be prepared for whatever comes next… there’s a lot of steps left in fighting this pandemic. We are taking those steps.” (Reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)

By Hilary Russ NEW YORK -McDonald’s Corp said on Thursday it will expand its U.S. test of a plant-based burger it created with vegan meat maker Beyond Meat Inc to about 600 locations next month. The restaurants – in San Francisco, California and Dallas-Forth Worth, Texas – will sell the so-called “McPlant” burger starting Feb. 14 for as long as supplies last in order to “help us understand customer demand,” the Chicago-based chain said in a post on its website. Shares of Beyond Meat, which makes the McPlant patty from peas, rice and potatoes, were up more than 5% at

-New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Thursday said his first paycheck, to arrive on Friday, will be automatically converted into cryptocurrency via Coinbase Global Inc. The salary will be converted to ethereum and bitcoin, the statement added. The mayor last year said he would take his first three paychecks in bitcoin https://www.reuters.com/world/us/new-york-mayor-elect-eric-adams-says-he-will-take-his-first-paychecks-bitcoin-2021-11-04 and signaled his intention to make his city the “center of the cryptocurrency industry”. “New York is the center of the world, and we want it to be the center of cryptocurrency and other financial innovations,” Adams said in a statement. Coinbase Global operates an exchange that

By Joseph Nasr and Sarah Marsh BERLIN – Germany could find itself in a no-win situation if Russia invades Ukraine, pitting Berlin’s main gas supplier against its most important security allies. Chancellor Olaf Scholz would face pressure from the United States and other Western allies to respond to any invasion by stopping the recently completed Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia to Germany going into operation. But doing so would risk exacerbating a gas supply crunch in Europe that has been widely blamed on a dearth of gas flows from Russia, and has caused energy prices in Europe to soar.