Special Counsel Jack Smith plans to resign, file report before Trump can fire him: report
Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith is expected to resign before President-elect Trump is inaugurated in January, the New York Times reported, citing sources familiar with the matter. Smith is aiming to bring to an end his cases against Trump and step down before the new president takes office as a way to get ahead of the Republican’s promise to fire him “within two seconds.” Trump has pointed to a Supreme Court immunity ruling from this summer that broadened the criteria for official presidential conduct ineligible for prosecution even after a president is no longer in office. Smith has been evaluating how to wind down both the 2020 election interference case and the separate classified documents case before Trump takes office, Fox News reported last week. Longstanding Justice Department policy says sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted while in office. SPECIAL COUNSEL JACK SMITH MOVES TO DROP TRUMP ELECTION INTERFERENCE CASE Smith on Friday filed a motion to vacate all deadlines in the 2020 election interference case against Trump in Washington, D.C., a widely expected move, but one that stops short of dropping the case against him completely. He said Friday that his team plans to give an updated report on the official status of the case against Trump on Dec. 2. Smith is required under DOJ regulations to submit a report of his findings and an explanation of the charges the prosecutor considered and ultimately filed – even though neither case made it to trial. Under a crunched timeline, it is unclear if Attorney General Merrick Garland would make that report public before the end of President Biden’s term or defer to the incoming Trump administration, according to the Times. Sources close to the matter told the Times that Smith has no intention of dragging his feet, and has informed career prosecutors and FBI agents on his team not directly involved in preparing the report that they can plan their exits in the coming weeks. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT LOOKING TO WIND DOWN TRUMP CRIMINAL CASES AHEAD OF INAUGURATION In Friday’s filing, Smith said he needed a month “to assess this unprecedented circumstance and determine the appropriate course going forward consistent with Department of Justice policy.” The House Judiciary Committee is concerned that Smith and prosecutors involved in the investigations will “purge” records to skirt oversight and is demanding they produce to Congress all documents related to the probes before the end of the month, Fox News Digital previously reported. Fox News’ Breanne Deppisch, Brooke Singman and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
India’s first hydrogen train to start trials soon: Check route, features, top speed to be…
This hydrogen-powered train will be the first in India that will be running on water. Instead of conventional diesel or electric engines, the train uses hydrogen fuel cells to generate the electricity required for movement.
Democratic committee chair pours cold water on replacing Sotomayor before Trump takes office
Talk of Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor retiring and having her seat filled before President-elect Donald Trump takes office is “idle speculation” and not “realistic,” a top Democrat says. Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin, D-Ill., made the comments to Politico following reports that Democrats are discussing whether to call on the 70-year-old to vacate her seat to avoid potentially giving Trump the opportunity to replace her if she retires following his return to the White House in January. “Whoever makes those calls [for a retirement] can’t count,” Durbin told Politico. “Take a look at the calendar and tell me how in the world you could achieve that without setting aside the budget and the defense authorization act and all the other things that need to be done? I don’t think it’s a realistic idea.” Last week, a Democratic senator also said to Politico: “She can sort of resign conditionally on someone being appointed to replace her. But she can’t resign conditioned on a specific person. What happens if she resigns and the nominee to replace her isn’t confirmed, and the next president fills the vacancy?” SOTOMAYOR SHOULD BE REPLACED BY KAMALA HARRIS, CNN COMMENTATOR ARGUES Sotomayor is one of the three justices on the Supreme Court appointed by a Democratic president. Democrats lost their Senate majority to Republicans in the 2024 election and only have about two months left of control in the chamber. JUSTICE ALITO PLANS TO REMAIN ON SUPREME COURT, RESISTING PRESSURE TO STEP ASIDE: REPORT People close to Sotomayor recently told The Wall Street Journal that she has no plans to step aside from her position. “This is no time to lose her important voice on the court. She just turned 70 and takes better care of herself than anyone I know,” one source told the newspaper. Fox News’ Aubrie Spady contributed to this report.
LoP Rahul Gandhi rides Kerala’s longest zipline in Wayanad to boost tourism after landslides; watch
Posting his journey on his Youtube channel, the Congress leader said that despite the recent challenges faced by the landslide, the area is filled with “incredible attractions.”
A push to change a 2019 Texas law that bars certain felons from becoming social workers
Texas prohibits people with assault convictions, among other felonies, from becoming social workers. A new lawsuit says the ban is unconstitutional.
‘No Muslim quota even if your…’: Union Minister Amit Shah’s scathing attack on LoP Rahul Gandhi in Maharashtra
Describing the Opposition’s Maha Vikas Aghadi grouping in Maharashtra as the Aurangzeb Fan Club, Union Minister Amit Shah said the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance abides by the ideals of Shivaji Maharaj and Veer Savarkar.
Canada orders binding arbitration to end port lockout
With the lockouts, $930m of goods are being affected daily, affecting supply chains and local economy, the government says. Canada’s labour minister is intervening to end the lockouts of workers at the country’s two biggest ports. Minister of Labour Steven Mackinnon said on Tuesday that the negotiations had reached an impasse and he was directing the Canada Industrial Relations Board to order the resumption of all operations at the ports of Vancouver and Montreal and move the talks to binding arbitration. Port of Montreal’s workers were locked out on Sunday and workers in Vancouver on the Pacific Coast have been locked out since November 4. “There is a limit to the economic self-destruction that Canadians are prepared to accept,” MacKinnon said. “In the face of economic self-destruction, there is an obligation to intervene. As minister of labour, that responsibility falls to me.” MacKinnon said 1.3 billion Canadian dollars ($930m) of goods is affected every day. He said it was affecting supply chains, the economy and Canada’s reputation as a reliable trading partner. Business groups have been calling for government intervention to get the flow of goods moving again. MacKinnon says he hopes operations can be restored in a matter of days. The Maritime Employers Association locked out 1,200 longshore workers at the Port of Montreal on Sunday after workers voted to reject what employers called a final contract offer. The workers were seeking increases of 20 percent over four years. The job action came after port workers in British Columbia were locked out amid a labour dispute involving more than 700 longshore supervisors, resulting in a paralysis of container cargo traffic at terminals on the West Coast. International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514, which represents supervisory longshore workers at the heart of the British Columbia dispute, said it will file a legal challenge to the minister’s orders. “We will fight this order in the courts,” said Frank Morena, ILWU Local 514 president, in a statement. “And we will not forget how these employers and this federal Liberal government have attacked not only the ILWU but all of labour.” Forced to intervene It was the second time in a few months that the Liberal government has stepped in to halt a dispute. In August, it ordered an end to work stoppages at the country’s two largest railway companies. The left-leaning government has previously stated its preference for resolving labour disputes through collective bargaining. MacKinnon said he had been forced to intervene after federal mediators reported that the talks at Montreal and Vancouver were at an impasse. The left-of-centre opposition New Democrats, a pro-union party which is propping up the minority Liberal government, accused Ottawa of caving in to employers. “Back-to-work orders suppress wages for all Canadians, so billionaires get richer and the rest of Canadians fall further behind,” leader Jagmeet Singh said in a statement but made no mention of withdrawing support from the Liberals. The Teamsters union, which represents employees at the two main rail companies that were embroiled in a labour dispute in August, has filed court challenges against rulings by the labour board that forced them back to work. Meanwhile, the Canadian Labour Congress said in a statement, “The government is sending a dangerous message: Employers can bypass meaningful negotiations, lock out their workers, and wait for political intervention to secure a more favourable deal,” Adblock test (Why?)
Pentagon leaker Jack Teixeira sentenced to 15 years in prison
Prosecutors sought 17 years imprisonment for ‘significant’ violations of the Espionage Act. Jack Teixeira, a member of the Massachusetts National Guard, has been jailed for 15 years for leaking classified documents about the war in Ukraine and other military secrets. A federal judge in Boston, United States, on Tuesday sentenced the 22-year-old after he pleaded guilty earlier this year to six counts of wilful retention and transmission of national defence information under the Espionage Act. Prosecutors had argued for a 17-year sentence for Teixeira, saying he “perpetrated one of the most significant and consequential violations of the Espionage Act in American history”. “The defendant took an oath to defend the United States and to protect its secrets – secrets that are vital to US national security and the physical safety of Americans serving overseas,” prosecutors wrote. “Teixeira violated his oath, almost every day, for over a year.” Breach raised questions about US ability to protect secrets Teixeira, from North Dighton, Massachusetts, was part of the 102nd Intelligence Wing at Otis Air National Guard Base, located on Cape Cod. He worked as a cyber-transport systems specialist – essentially an information technology specialist responsible for military communications networks. Authorities said he shared the classified documents on the messaging app Discord. Teixeira began by typing out copies that he then published online. Later, he photographed the files, some of which bore “SECRET” and “TOP SECRET” markings. The documents included information about allies and adversaries including troop movements in Ukraine and top secret information about Israel’s Mossad spy agency. Teixeira also admitted posting information about a US adversary’s plans to harm US forces serving overseas. The breach raised questions about the US’s ability to protect its secrets and embarrassed the administration of President Joe Biden, which scrambled to contain the diplomatic and military fallout. Teixeira’s lawyers asked for a lighter sentence of 11 years, arguing their client had no political goal and was not working as a spy for a foreign government. In their sentencing document, they acknowledged their client had “made a terrible decision which he repeated over 14 months”. “Instead, his intent was to educate his friends about world events to make certain they were not misled by misinformation,” the lawyers wrote. “To Jack, the Ukraine war was his generation’s World War II or Iraq, and he needed someone to share the experience with.” They noted that Teixeira had never been convicted of a crime before. But prosecutors countered that Teixeira did not suffer from any intellectual disability that would prevent him from knowing right from wrong, adding that his post-arrest diagnosis of “mild, high-functioning” autism was of “questionable relevance” to the case. ‘I wanted to say, ‘I am sorry” Teixeira apologised to the court for his actions before he was sentenced by the US District Judge Indira Talwani. “I wanted to say, ‘I’m sorry for all the harm that I brought and caused’,” Texeira said referring to the “maelstrom” he caused family and friends. “I understand all the responsibility and consequences fall upon my shoulders alone and accept whatever that will bring,” he said. Teixeira hugged one of his lawyers and looked towards his family and smiled before being led out of court. He cannot be charged with any further Espionage Act violations under the terms of his guilty plea. Adblock test (Why?)
UN aid chief warns of ‘gravest crimes’ committed in Israel’s war on Gaza
The United Nations’s humanitarian aid chief told a meeting of the Security Council (UNSC) that “acts reminiscent of the gravest international crimes” are being committed in Gaza where Israel’s military continues to bombard, besiege and prevent aid from reaching the civilian population. Addressing the UNSC on Tuesday, Joyce Msuya, the interim chief of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), described Israel’s monthlong ground offensive and ongoing siege of northern Gaza as an “intensified, extreme, and accelerated version of the horrors of the past year” in the Palestinian territory. Palestinian civilians have been driven from their homes by Israel’s military and “forced to witness their family members killed, burned and buried alive” in Gaza, which Msuya described as “a wasteland of rubble”. “We are witnessing acts reminiscent of the gravest international crimes,” she warned the council meeting. “The daily cruelty we see in Gaza seems to have no limits,” she said, firmly pointing the finger of blame at Israel for blocking aid from entering Gaza’s besieged north. “As I brief you, Israeli authorities are blocking humanitarian assistance from entering North Gaza, where fighting continues and around 75,000 people remain with dwindling water and food supplies,” she said. Msuya also called out the indiscriminate destruction of Gaza after more than a year of Israeli attacks. “What distinction was made and what precautions were taken, if more than 70 percent of civilian housing is either damaged or destroyed?” The meeting of the UNSC was called by Guyana, Switzerland, Algeria and Slovenia following a report by international food security experts on Friday who said the humanitarian situation in Gaza was “extremely grave and rapidly deteriorating” and warned of an imminent famine in parts of the north. Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon called the reports of possible famine in northern Gaza “baseless and slanderous”. He told reporters before the UNSC meeting that the situation in Gaza, including the north, has shown improvement since October. Earlier on Tuesday, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said October saw the lowest amount of humanitarian aid enter Gaza this year, and the war-torn enclave had received “nowhere near what we need to support more than two million Palestinians”. Dujarric said that for a second month, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) was only able to reach half the people who rely on UN assistance in Gaza, and only with reduced rations. A convoy of 14 trucks had planned to deliver humanitarian supplies to shelters for displaced people in north Gaza’s Beit Hanoon and the Indonesian Hospital in the Jabalia refugee camp on Monday, but only two trucks with ready-to-eat meals, wheat flour and one carrying water made it to two shelters. The other trucks in the aid convoy were unable to make their deliveries because of delays in receiving authorisation from Israeli authorities as well as due to crowds of desperately hungry people waiting along the convoy’s route, Dujarric said. The delivery was the first time in more than a month that people in Beit Hanoon had received any food assistance, he said. The WFP had planned another mission to Beit Hanoon to reach the rest of the shelters and the hospital on Tuesday, but he said that “those missions have been denied” by Israel. “We continue to call for the immediate opening of more land routes into Gaza and for the lifting of administrative and physical restrictions within Gaza to efficiently reach the most vulnerable people and areas,” Dujarric said. Palestine’s UN envoy, Riyad Mansour, told the UNSC meeting that Israel has chosen to perpetrate “famine as a method of war” in a process of ethnic cleansing in Gaza. “Everything we warned against, everything Israel denied, is happening before our eyes,” he said. “We are at the last stages of an orchestrated plan to empty wide areas of Gaza from its Palestinian population.” Adblock test (Why?)
Texas lawmakers file record breaking 1,500 bills for 2025 legislative session
Tuesday was the first day Texas lawmakers could file bills for next year’s legislative session, and they were not shy about submitting a record-breaking 1,500 in the first filing period. Though there is no real advantage, staffers camped out behind the Senate chamber in order to file early. The early rush will, however, give a glance into issues plaguing the Lone Star State before the 89th legislative session reconvenes in 2025. TEXAS CONGRESSMAN LOOKING AT PATH TO ‘HEALTHY’ GOP HOUSE MAJORITY | FOX NEWS VIDEO The bills filed covered everything from abortion, border security, restrictions on undocumented students receiving in-state tuition, proof of citizenship to register to vote and ways to lower property taxes or eliminate them altogether. It is not uncommon for lawmakers to file thousands of bills during the session, but a majority never make it to the governor’s desk. The lowest bill numbers are reserved for the highest priority bills set by the House speaker and lieutenant governor in charge of the Senate. TEXAS ANNOUNCES OVER 1M INELIGIBLE VOTERS REMOVED FROM VOTING ROLLS SINCE LAST PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION Republicans flipping control in the House and Senate will undoubtedly affect the upcoming legislative session, but many of them have not yet filed their bills. Currently, the red state is expecting to have a surplus of $20 billion to fund the new mandates at the start of the 2025 session, according to state comptroller Glenn Hegar.