Congress Narrowly Averts Government Shutdown — And Rejects Trump’s Debt Ceiling Commands
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Denmark is boosting defense spending for Greenland. A Danish official said Tuesday that the timing of the announcement, coming as President-elect Donald Trump made comments that the U.S. should own the territory, was an “irony of fate.”
Troels Lund Poulsen, the Danish defense minister, told the paper Jyllands-Posten Tuesday that the country plans to spend a “double-digit billion amount” in krone — about $1.5 billion — to make sure they have a “stronger presence” in the Arctic.
Trump said Sunday that the “ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity” for the U.S. The U.S. military operates a base in northwest Greenland.
After seemingly joking about Canada becoming the “51st” state, the incoming president fired off ominous messages alleging the Panama Canal and Greenland pose serious economic and national security threats to the United States and might be targeted for some kind of annexation or purchase.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives is reeling after an ethics committee report into former congressman Matt Gaetz “determined there is substantial evidence” that he paid tens of thousands of dollars for sex and used illicit drugs while he was a member of Congress.
Texas buys billboards in Central America warning migrants of danger of rape and abuse on journey to US
The state of Texas is paying an estimated $100,000 to install on blunt and at-times graphic billboards across Mexico and Central America in the coming weeks in the hopes of deterring future illegal immigration.
The Independent’s Josh Marcus reports:
Alex Woodward25 December 2024 14:00
Trump calls for death penalty against violent offenders
The political fallout remains ongoing for Joe Biden’s decision to commute the sentences of most people on federal death row to life in prison.
In a Truth Social post on Tuesday, Donald Trump promised to “vigorously” pursue the death penalty against violent offenders.
“As soon as I am inaugurated, I will direct the Justice Department to vigorously pursue the death penalty to protect American families and children from violent rapists, murderers, and monsters,” Trump wrote. “We will be a Nation of Law and Order again!”
Trump oversaw a historic 13 federal executions in office, the most of any modern U.S. president.
Here’s more on the Biden commutations.
Josh Marcus25 December 2024 13:00
‘Confused’ congresswoman tracked to nursing home shines spotlight on troubling aging issues facing lawmakers
The discovery by a local newspaper of a “confused” Texas Republican congresswoman living in an assisted care facility after she dropped out of sight last month has triggered concerns about aging lawmakers clinging to their powerful roles in the face of fears about diminishing competence.
The Independent’s John Bowden reports:
Alex Woodward25 December 2024 12:00
Trump’s FCC nominee sends ominous letter to Disney CEO: ‘Americans no longer trust the national news media’
After Trump threatened to strip ABC’s broadcast license and forced the network into a $15 million settlement, the president-elect’s pick to lead the Federal Communications Commission warned its parent company that Americans “no longer trust the national news media to report fully, accurately, and fairly.”
In a letter to Disney’s CEO Bob Iger, Brendan Carr lamented the “erosion in public trust” in news media, and suggested ABC was partially to blame.
Inside Trump’s latest fight with the media, and what Carr – a Project 2025 co-author — plans to do in office:
Alex Woodward25 December 2024 11:00
Colombia’s president denounces ‘American fascist’ Colombian-American calling for public executions of immigrants
Far-right Republican figure Valentina Gomez, who has made headlines for stunts like taking a flamethrower to banned books, is now calling for public executions for any immigrant in the country illegally who “rapes or kills an American.”
“They don’t deserve deportation. They deserve to be ended,” she says in a video moments after shooting an effigy tied to a chair in the back of the head.
The caption reads “Public executions for any illegal that rapes or kills an American.” The video posted on X has been flagged for potentially violating the platform’s “rules against Violent Speech.”
Gomez, who is Colombian-American, came sixth in an eight-person primary for Missouri’s secretary of state, and last week she said she’s moving to Texas to challenge congressman Dan Crenshaw’s seat
Colombia’s own president called her an “American fascist.”
“She is not just an American fascist. She is Colombian,” Gustavo Petro wrote in Spanish. “And being a migrant, what she wants is to unleash hatred against migrants. Most Americans are killed by Americans.”
Alex Woodward25 December 2024 10:00
ICYMI: Biden vetoes legislation that would have allowed Trump to add more judges to the federal judiciary
President Joe Biden has vetoed legislation that would have added dozens of judges to the federal judiciary, dealing a blow to Trump’s incoming administration and his plans to build on his first term’s radical reshaping of the courts with more right-leaning judges.
The bipartisan bill would have awarded roughly 66 new federal judicial slots over the next three presidential terms. Trump would have been able to appoint a first batch of 25.
The bill passed the Senate unanimously in August but lingered in the Republican-controlled House for months, until after Trump’s victory in the 2024 election. It cleared the House on a largely party-line in December.
The JUDGES Act would have increased the number of trial court judges in 25 federal district courts in 13 states, including California, Florida and Texas, in six waves every two years through 2035.
The bill “seeks to hastily add judgeships with just a few weeks left” in the current Congress, Biden wrote in a letter to lawmakers Monday night.
“The House of Representatives’ hurried action fails to resolve key questions in the legislation, especially regarding how the new judgeships are allocated, and neither the House of Representatives nor the Senate explored fully how the work of senior status judges and magistrate judges affects the need for new judgeships,” he added.
“The efficient and effective administration of justice requires that these questions about need and allocation be further studied and answered before we create permanent judgeships for life-tenured judges,” the letter continued.
The bill “would create new judgeships in states where senators have sought to hold open existing judicial vacancies,” efforts that suggest “concerns about judicial economy and caseload are not the true motivating force behind passage of this bill now,” according to Biden.
(EPA)
Alex Woodward25 December 2024 09:00
John Bolton: I’m ‘very worried’ about how Trump would handle ‘much more likely’ international crisis
John Bolton, President-elect Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, said that an international crisis is “much more likely” during the Republican’s second term.
Alex Woodward25 December 2024 08:00
Trump wants to purchase Greenland. How would that actually work?
Greenland’s strategic military and economic interests — compounded by two-thirds of the territory falling within the Arctic Circle — make the island attractive to Trump and other U.S. politicians over the years. So what would an attempt to acquire or seize Greenland actually look like?
Alex Woodward25 December 2024 07:00
Watch: Rudy Giuliani dressed up as Santa to promote his coffee
As his financial woes look ever bleaker in light of the $150 million defamation ruling against him in favor of two Georgia election workers he falsely accused of interfering in the 2020 election, Rudy Giuliani appears to be resorting to more unusual efforts to raise cash.
Alex Woodward25 December 2024 06:00
Biden’s Christmas gift: A new (old) national bird
Joe Biden isn’t taking it easy on Christmas Eve.
The president signed 50 bills into law Tuesday evening.
Most of them won’t make headlines—one names a post office, while another deals with congressional pensions—but one is just too weird to ignore.
On December 24, 2024, the bald eagle became the national bird of the United States.
While the eagle has always been the de facto national symbol, that status was never enshrined into law, a fact that prompted a Minnesota man and eagle obsessive named Preston Cook to lobby for the change.
Josh Marcus25 December 2024 05:00
