Supreme Court declines to take action on Trump's Pennsylvania appeal prior to certification of Biden win

Taking back what is yours would not, by this logic, be trespassing, terrorism or treason. Instead, it is merely setting things right. By inciting a predominantly white crowd to lay siege to an institution that was ratifying what they had been told was a “stolen" election, Trump was trying to preserve his presidency as if it were private property – his to keep, or give away.

Turning power into property

As scholars of comparative authoritarianism, we have come to learn that this is nothing new. History offers plenty of egregious examples of autocrats who treated their office and powers as their private property. Louis XIV, king of France, did not know how to distinguish between himself and the state. According to the legend, the “Sun King" said that he was the state or, modified in property terms, that the state belonged to him.

China defended its handling of the coronavirus pandemic Tuesday but said it would "strive to do better" after independent experts criticised the speed of its response to a virus that has now killed more than two million people worldwide.

Beijing has faced international criticism for an alleged lack of transparency after the virus emerged in the central city of Wuhan in late 2019 and for stifling whistleblowers who tried to raise the alarm.

Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns is alarmed by the exposure of democracy's fragility, but he has plenty of reasons for optimism.

The filmmaker has documented three major crises in U.S. history -- the Civil War, the Depression and World War II -- and he believes Americans may be living through a fourth, and worst, historic crisis, reported NPR.