Beware, guys! Today's News are gonna get quite oily indeed!

Quote:With just days left in the 117th Congress, exiting U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, a Pennsylvania Republican, has introduced a measure that would ease the permitting process for pipelines.

The Pipeline Permitting for Energy Security Act is described as creating regulatory certainty for natural gas pipeline construction across the United States. Specifically, it would approve the completion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, spanning 303 miles from northwestern West Virginia to southern Virginia.

Completing this pipeline could create more access to natural gas from Pennsylvania.
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The Senate’s session days are nearly over and the bill will die at the end of the year, but an aide said it was introduced as a standalone bill and the hope is to add to the conversation that’s already been started on permitting. Several stakeholder groups are supportive of language in Toomey’s bill, and there is significant interest in moving permitting reform forward both inside and outside Congress, the aide said.
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Toomey will be replaced by Democrat John Fetterman who has spoken both in support of and opposition to the gas industry.

U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, a Pennsylvania Republican, introduced a House companion bill to Toomey’s proposal and is expected to pursue it into the next session.

Quote:The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously Friday to phase out oil drilling in the city, approving an ordinance that bans new oil and gas extraction.

The council voted 12–0 for the ordinance, which amends the municipal code to make existing extraction activities a nonconforming use in all zones.
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The city ordinance phases out all such oil and gas extraction activities by banning new oil and gas extraction and ceasing existing operations within 20 years. Operators would not be able to expand their existing sites or extend the life of a well during the 20-year phase-out period.

Many community groups have lobbied Los Angeles to stop oil drilling, citing the harm it has on communities that are disproportionately felt in working-class communities and communities of color. More than 500,000 Los Angeles County residents live within a half-mile of an active oil well.

Concerns from community members have mounted at recent council meetings over a potential loss of jobs and an increase in gas prices.
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Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed new rules last October, under which new oil wells or drilling facilities in California would have to be at least 3,200 feet from homes, schools, hospitals, nursing homes, and other “sensitive locations.”

Quote:European Union member countries have agreed to a $60-per-barrel price cap on Russian oil in a bid to weaken the Kremlin’s ability to wage war in Ukraine, though Moscow has said the move is meaningless as it plans to keep charging buyers regular prices or cut them off.

After a last-minute flurry of negotiations, the EU’s rotating presidency, currently held by the Czech Republic, said in a statement that “ambassadors have just reached an agreement on price cap for Russian seaborne oil.”
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The decision must still be officially approved with a written procedure but is expected to clear that formal hurdle over the weekend, Sados said.

Kaja Kallas, the prime minister of Estonia, an EU member state that feels particularly threatened by Russia’s military moves in the region, hailed the price cap agreement.
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Last week, the European Commission recommended capping Russian oil prices at $65–70 per barrel, but Poland and the Baltic countries—including Estonia—came out in opposition, pushing for a lower cap.

Kallas estimated that, for every dollar lower on the cap, Russia would lose around $2 billion in oil revenues.
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A day prior, as representatives of EU countries were in the final stretch of talks, the Kremlin said it would ignore whatever cap would finally ensue and negotiate prices directly with buyers.
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Former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin told CNBC during a panel discussion in November that the Russian oil price cap was “not only not feasible, I think it’s the most ridiculous idea I’ve ever heard.”

Simone Tagliapietra, an energy policy expert at the Bruegel think tank in Brussels, said that a $ 60-per-barrel cap “will almost go unnoticed” by Russia because it would be close to a price point at which Russian oil is already selling.

Quote:Republicans have flipped a U.S. House of Representatives seat representing a central California district, expanding their majority in the next Congress.
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Duarte has 66,884 votes while Gray has 66,300, according to unofficial results from the California secretary of state’s office.

The win, for California’s 13th Congressional District, means Republicans have secured 221 House seats starting January, when new members are sworn in.

Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) has represented the 13th district since 2013. Due to redistricting, she ran for California’s 12th Congressional District this year and won.

Quote:Hunter Biden’s sister-in-law, Hallie Biden, reportedly threw his handgun in a trash container in Delaware in 2020. Agents with Secret Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) were reportedly involved.

Based on the reports, a transparency group called Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Secret Service asking for records related to the incident, including reports, telephone logs, and witness statements.

The Secret Service, in its initial April 2021 response, said it located records and would process them. But more than a year later, in October, it said the response was sent in error and that the agency had never actually located any responsive records.

The third change came in a recent court filing that was lodged after Judicial Watch sued over the matter. The Secret Service now says more than 100 records have been located.
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The Secret Service told The Epoch Times in September, in response to a FOIA request similar to the one from Judicial Watch, that it “searched all Program Offices that were likely to contain potentially responsive records, and no records were located.”
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The ATF has already acknowledged having records of the incident, but a judge ruled that the agency did not have to disclose them.
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The parties proposed to file their next joint report by Jan. 13, 2023.

The report would include how many pages had been processed, how many were given to Judicial Watch, how many had been sent to the Executive Branch, and how many had been withheld.

Quote:Snowden’s lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, was cited by Russian state media TASS as saying that his client on Thursday received his Russian passport and pledged allegiance to his host country Russia, where he fled to from the United States in 2013 after making a series of explosive disclosures.

Kucherena told the outlet that he had seen Snowden a day earlier and he was doing well.

It comes around three months after Russian President Vladimir Putin granted Snowden citizenship. Snowden is grateful that he’s a full-fledged Russian citizen, Kucherena was cited by Russia’s Interfax agency as saying, with the lawyer noting that now Snowden can no longer be extradited to a foreign country.

Snowden lives in Moscow with his American wife, Lindsey Mills. According to Kucherena, Mills has also applied to become a Russian citizen.

Quote:A federal judge in New York dismissed financial fraud charges against Huawei’s chief financial officer (CFO), Meng Wanzhou, four years after her arrest strained relations between the United States and China.
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Meng, the daughter of Chinese telecom giant Huawei’s founder, entered a deferred prosecution agreement with U.S. prosecutors last year, in which she admitted to misleading global institutions about Huawei’s Iran business.

Under the agreement, the government would put the prosecution on hold until December 2022 and drop the case altogether if the defendant complies with the specified conditions in the agreement.

U.S. Attorney Carolyn Pokorny on Thursday submitted the request to dismiss the charges against Meng, claiming that there was no information that Meng had violated any terms of the agreement through Dec. 1.
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Huawei is still charged in the case, which is pending in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, New York. A status conference is scheduled for Feb. 7, but no trial date has been set yet.
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Meng was arrested at Vancouver International Airport in December 2018 on a U.S. warrant. She was indicted on bank and wire fraud charges for misleading global institutions about Huawei’s business dealings in Iran.

Quote:Yermo is an unincorporated community in San Bernardino County in the California’s Mojave Desert. Highway 15 runs east-west through the area. On the south side of the highway lies Liberty Sculpture Park, where the arson attack happened in July 2021. The fire is alleged to have been started by a Chinese secret police agent.

Showcasing giant sculptures and other artistic pieces of the many different aspects of Chinese people’s fight for freedom and democracy in recent years, many tourists have traveled on Highway 15 from either Los Angeles or Las Vegas to visit the park.
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In the early evening on July 24, 2021, one sculpture in Liberty Sculpture Park was destroyed by fire. It was a giant human-head shaped sculpture named “CCP virus.”
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The front portion of the sculpture consisted of half of Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s face, while the other half was the face of an evil-looking skeleton. There were pins depicting COVID-19 spike proteins all around the sculpture’s cranium.

The sculpture was completed on June 4, 2021—the 32th anniversary of 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre. It was about 6 feet in height, and made of steel and fiberglass. It was on display for only two months before it was destroyed by the fire.

Yuan said he noticed signs that the arson attack was coming, having reported suspicious activities to the local police a week before the fire.
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To Yuan, it looked as if someone had tried to use a car and the steel cable connected to the sculpture to pull the statue down because the D-ring was broken. After that, staff at the park were prepared for another attempt at vandalism. But they did not know when and how things would happen.

The Chinese secret police came back and set the park on fire on July 24. The arson took place on a Friday at dinner time when the park was closed.
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“The communist regime is afraid of two things: large-scale uprising and international embarrassment,” Yuan said on why he believes the Chinese secret agents came to destroy the virus sculpture.

Quote:Authorities in North Carolina said on Dec. 3 that a power outage affecting tens of thousands of people is being investigated as a “criminal occurrence.”

Gov. Roy Cooper issued a statement on Dec. 4 about the outages and said that an investigation is underway.
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“As utility companies began responding to the different substations, evidence was discovered that indicated that intentional vandalism had occurred at multiple sites,” the sheriff’s office said.
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It appears that no suspects have been arrested or identified in connection to the incident. No motive has been publicly revealed.

Nearly 40,000 customers were without power in Moore County as of Dec. 4, according to an outage map provided by utility Duke Energy. Moore County is located near the city of Fayetteville.
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Authorities also told residents that some sewer services in the area aren’t working and to stay off the roads. The reason why, officials said, is because some traffic lights aren’t working.

Quote:The sheriff gave a few more details about the situation, saying there was extensive damage found at two substations caused by multiple gunshots, which caused power outages primarily in the central and northern portions of the county.

Quote:Elon Musk said Saturday evening that there is "definitely some risk" to his personal safety during an extensive discussion about free speech, changes he has made to Twitter, and the release of internal communications from the fall of 2020 about what led the tech giant to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story.

"Frankly the risk of something bad happening or literally even being shot is quite significant. I'm definitely not going to be doing any open air car parades, let me put it that way," Musk said in a Twitter Spaces discussion.

"It's not that hard to kill me if somebody wanted to, so hopefully they don't."
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"Throughout history, free speech has been highly unusual, not common. So we have to fight really hard to keep that because it's such a rare thing and it's by no means something that's default," Musk said. "Controlled speech is the default, not free speech."

Quote:"President Biden signed a measure that would force railway workers to accept a deal that averts a strike but does not include paid sick leave. But how do you expect Biden to care about sick leave when he shows up to work every day with full-blown CTE?" Che joked.

CTE is an acronym for chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease usually following a history of brain trauma. Patients with CTE commonly experience symptoms such as short-term memory loss, confusion, impaired judgment and even dementia.
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Though Biden’s gaffes have been frequently ridiculed by social media, "Saturday Night Live" has largely avoided satirizing the president throughout his first years in office.

In October, however, the sketch comedy show began poking fun at Biden’s gaffes and his frequent avoidance of reporters during appearances. During one "Weekend Update" segment, host Colin Jost mocked Biden’s flub while giving a speech in a car factory.
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"On Thursday, Biden said we are closer to nuclear Armageddon than we’ve been in 60 years," the game show host, played by Bowen Yang, read. He added, "When Joe Biden was born, we didn't have highways."

Quote:“We are sad to inform you that our incredible, fierce and loving mother has passed away after a battle with cancer, only recently discovered,” the statement read. “She was surrounded by her closest family and felt with great strength, leaving us with a certainty of our never-ending joy of living and whatever adventures lie ahead,” it added.

“As iconic as she was on the screen, she was an even more amazing mother and grandmother.”
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“Our mother’s zest and passion for life, her children, grandchildren, and her many animals, not to mention her eternal joy of creating, are unparalleled and leave us inspired to live life to the fullest just as she did,” it concluded.
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Alley collected eight Emmy nominations during her career, the first five for playing Rebecca Howe on NBC’s Cheers after effectively taking over in 1987 for Shelley Long, who had quit the Boston-based series. She won in 1991 and worked on the show through its 1993 conclusion.
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She played the accountant Mollie Jensen, a single mother who has a baby (voiced by Bruce Willis), opposite John Travolta in the hit comedy Look Who’s Talking (1989), directed by Amy Heckerling, then returned for sequels in 1990 and 1993.

Quote:Bolton said, “Donald Trump, if he were to take the oath of office again, God forbid, would either be lying about preserving, protecting and defending the Constitution or maybe he wouldn’t say it at all. You can’t have this kind of approach. It’s not something one can disagree with. This is foundational to the republic.”

He continued, “There’s one thing that would get me to get into the presidential race, which I looked at in prior elections. It would be to make it clear to the people of this country that Donald Trump is unacceptable as the Republican nominee.”
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Bolton said, “Absolutely. I think to be a presidential candidate. You can’t simply say I support the Constitution. You have to say I would oppose people who would undercut it. We used to have a thing in the House of Representatives called the House Un-American Affairs Committee. I think when you challenge the Constitution itself the way Trump himself has done, that is un-American.”

Quote:The Global Times, a mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), published an opinion article saying the visit will “cast a shadow” on Australia’s improving relationship with China and shows support for “Taiwan independence.”

The six backbenchers, including former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce, Labor’s Meryl Swanson and Libby Coker, and the Coalition’s Scott Buchholz, Terry Young, and Gavin Pearce, arrived in Taiwan on Dec. 5.

They met Agriculture Minister Chen Chi-Chung for talks expected to cover Taiwan’s bid to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agree­ment for trans-­Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), one of the world’s biggest trading blocs.

With support from Taiwan’s foreign ministry, the Australian delegation will also meet President Tsai Ing-wen and Foreign Minister Joseph Wu during the itinerary.

The visit is Australia’s first parliamentary delegation to Taiwan since 2019 and follows Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s breakthrough meeting with Xi Jinping at the sidelines of G20 in Bali last month.
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“We want to make sure that we are both close to mainland China and also close to Taiwan,” the Nationals MP told Sky News.  “We have a strong economic reason to be close to the island of Taiwan, and we want to make sure that we maintain that connection.”

Quote:North Korea fired more than 130 naval shells into its sea boundaries early on Monday in retaliation for South Korea executing a joint military drill with the United States, according to the Korean People’s Army (KPA).

An unidentified spokesperson for the KPA said in a statement that the barrage of artillery shells was fired between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. local time from multiple rocket launchers off its east and west coasts in what the official described as a “tit-for-tat” move, state-run KCNA news agency reported.

North Korea said it conducted its firing after detecting dozens of “projectiles” fired from South Korea near the shared border of the two Koreas, a claim denied by South Korea.
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South Korea said the artillery launch violated the 2018 inter-Korean agreement designed to reduce hostile military activities between the two Koreas because some of the shells landed within a maritime buffer zone near the sea border.

The 2018 Comprehensive Military Agreement (CMA) was the most substantive deal to come from the months of meetings between leader Kim Jong Un and then-South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

In response to the firing, South Korea has sent several warning communications to North Korea, the ministry of defense said in a statement, without giving any further details.
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On Dec. 5, the two allied nations conducted a joint land-based firing drill near the border in Cheorwon County in the middle of the peninsula, which will continue on Dec. 6.

Quote:The rights group Safeguard Defenders has revealed an additional 48 overseas China-run police outposts bringing the total to 102 stations. Some were set up with help from the host countries.
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The report revealed that besides providing ostensibly administrative service, these stations also serve more sinister purposes, such as, tracking down, arresting, and extraditing people wanted by the CCP, including dissidents who disagree with the regime and its leader Xi Jinping.

Two recently discovered local Chinese authorities, in the cities of Nantong and Wenzhou, set up the bulk of the newly reported stations beginning in 2016. Four separate local police jurisdictions have now been identified as having established such an overseas police force, according to the report.

The network has made a presence in 53 nations so far.
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One police network hired 135 staff to be in charge of its first 21 stations, the recent report claims.
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Specifically, the Madrid-based group found a worker hired at a foreign station in Stockholm on a three-year contract.

The group also noted the involvement of Wenzhou station in Paris in at least one illegal “capture and/or persuade to return” operation, and 80 similar cases assisted by the Nantong overseas police system.

“This is in addition to already exposed operations in Spain and Serbia,” the NGO reported.
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Several countries in Europe, including Italy, Croatia, Serbia, and Romania signed police patrol agreements with the communist regime between 2015 and 2019, the report says.

China and Italy marked its security cooperation in 2015 with a series of bilateral deals.
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Italy hosted 11 such Chinese police stations including in Venice and Prato, near Florence, the organization claimed.
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The NGO further pointed to the article on the Nantong government website that reported on police cooperation between that Chinese provincial system and the police department of Dobroesti in Romania, and the similar units in Johannesburg, South Africa and Lusaka, Zambia.
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But Safeguard Defenders stated that despite the fact that Beijing was not directly in charge of the stations, “some statements and policies are starting to show a clearer guidance from the central government in encouraging their establishment and policies.”
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Ireland and the Netherlands have closed the Chinese police stations that were discovered in their countries, and iInquiries are being conducted in Spain. Canada has filed official complaints to the Chinese Ambassador over reports of unofficial Chinese police service stations operating in Canada.

Quote:Fox News is parting ways with Lara Trump, a leading conservative political figure and the daughter-in-law of the former president.

“We appreciate Lara’s valuable contributions across Fox News Media programming,” a network spokesperson said in a statement to a number of media outlets over the weekend.

Trump had served as a paid contributor to the network and over the last several months appeared regularly on its prime-time and daytime programming to give analysis that often defended former President Trump or criticized Democrats.

Her reported departure comes at a time when a number of conservative media figures, including leading hosts on Fox, have sought distance from the former president or suggested the Republican party might need a new leader.

Quote:An Oregon state judge granted a temporary restraining order on Dec. 6 against all provisions of the state’s Ballot Measure 114, which requires a permit to purchase firearms and institutes a ban on “large-capacity” magazines.

The measure, which was passed by 50.7 percent of voters on Nov. 8, was scheduled to take effect on Dec. 8.
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Under Oregon law, residents currently do not need a permit to purchase firearms, and though a background check is required, it does not need to have been completed before buying a gun. There are also currently no restrictions on magazines.

The new law would require residents to complete a background check to obtain a permit to purchase a gun, and would prohibit the manufacture, sale, use, and purchase of magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition and allow a shooter “to keep firing without having to pause to reload.”

Quote:The 30-year-old man, who was arrested by authorities on Dec. 5 at Sydney Airport, has been extradited from New South Wales and will face the ACT Magistrates Court today on Dec. 7, according to a statement by Australian Federal Police.
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Nancy Dong began to record the two men with her phone before one of them snatched it and proceeded to assault her.
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“This young man then grabbed my neck with his elbow, lifted me up, and threw me to the ground. He then started to kick and punch me. I almost fainted from the fall, and I lost the ability to resist his attack,” Dong alleged.

The altercation led to bruises on Dong’s arms and injuries to her lower body that forced her to require the use of crutches to be mobile.

While the two men spray-painted Dong’s car, a woman is also alleged to have played lookout for them. The police have released pictures of the three and sought information about them.

The man was returned to the ACT on Dec. 6 and will face charges of robbery, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, destroying/damaging property, and defacing private premises. The other two suspects remain at large.

Quote:The world’s largest contract chipmaker is opening a second fabrication plant in Arizona to produce advanced semiconductor technology, as the U.S. government seeks to shore up America’s chipmaking supply chain.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), a major supplier to Apple, announced today that the second fabrication plant (or “fab”) will bring the company’s total investment in its manufacturing site north of Phoenix to $40 billion. The fab has started construction and is slated to begin production of cutting-edge 3-nanometer process technology in 2026.

The site’s initial fab, which broke ground last year with a planned investment of $12 billion, will produce chips using the less advanced 4-nanometer process. When complete, the two fabs will crank out more than 600,000 wafers per year, generating an estimated $40 billion of end-product value, according to TSMC.

The first fab is scheduled to be operational by 2024; but a letter from TSMC to the U.S. Department  of Commerce last month cited challenges with construction costs and project uncertainty at the site, according to reporting by The Wall Street Journal on Dec. 5.

The company said the overall site will create 10,000 high-tech jobs, including 4,500 direct jobs with TSMC, in addition to more than 10,000 construction jobs. President Joe Biden is expected to visit the facility today along with TSMC’s founder, Morris Chang.
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Major customers for TSMC’s chips include AMD, Apple, Broadcom, and Nvidia.

Quote:Israel’s consul general in Shanghai, Edward Shapira, was held in a medical facility for COVID patients for 10 days.
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Shapira, who only suffered from mild symptoms, mentioned how he was still trying to recover from what he had gone through being held in “conditions reminiscent of a prison” during “the 10 most bizarre days imaginable” he wrote.

“Not recommended for those suffering from claustrophobia and basically for anyone!”

Shapira said the days passed in anticipation of two negative results with a difference of 24 hours between the tests, all while being held in a room between two hallways, “a kind of aquarium, two single beds, two automatic doors that open with remote control and a small window-like opening for a ‘food’ tray.”
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Shapira, who only suffered from mild symptoms, mentioned how he was still trying to recover from what he had gone through being held in “conditions reminiscent of a prison” during “the 10 most bizarre days imaginable” he wrote.

“Not recommended for those suffering from claustrophobia and basically for anyone!”

Shapira said the days passed in anticipation of two negative results with a difference of 24 hours between the tests, all while being held in a room between two hallways, “a kind of aquarium, two single beds, two automatic doors that open with remote control and a small window-like opening for a ‘food’ tray.”

Quote:Videos taken in El Paso, Texas and posted to Instagram show immigrants breaching a southern border fence and running across traffic moving at full speed along State Highway 375.

The videos show 13-14 illegal immigrants getting past a border fence separating Mexico from the United States before dodging oncoming traffic.
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One of the immigrants even threw his fist in the air as he crossed in front of the videographer, accepting the cheers as he darted.

The shot then goes to another group making the mad dash across Loop 375.
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Fiscal year 2022 ended with 2,378,944 migrant encounters, according to data released in September, which was the highest ever recorded in a fiscal year.

What is not included in the data was the 599,000 known "gotaways" that U.S. Customs and Border Protection, or CBP, sources told Fox News, evaded capture during the same period.

As the 2023 fiscal year gets underway, CBP sources told Fox News that there were roughly 64,000 "gotaways" in October, which averages out to roughly 2,000 migrants slipping past border patrols every day.

Quote:Hungary blocked the approval of an 18 billion euro financial aid package for Ukraine, prompting accusations from other European Union members that Prime Minister Viktor Orban is abusing his veto power. 

The package, worth roughly $18.9 billion, would have provided funds for Ukraine to maintain its staunch defense in the face of invasion from Russia. Orban’s vote forces the other European nations to find alternative means of continuing to support Ukraine.

The European Union decided to withhold $7.5 billion in funding to Hungary over concerns of fraud and corruption. Critics of Orban believe he blocked the proposed Ukraine funds in order to pressure the rest of the bloc to release the funds.

The E.U. requires unanimity to send Ukraine money through the bloc’s channels, but individual nations are also able to do so on their own, although it is more complicated to coordinate the effort.
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But Freund insisted that "the EU will find ways to support Ukraine even without Hungary. But that means: more time, more effort, more costs."

Orban denied that his veto had anything to do with the dispute over funds and instead was a statement about how the E.U. should operate, saying that reports of a veto were "fake news. Hungary is ready to give financial assistance to Ukraine, on a bilateral basis."

Quote:Peruvian President Pedro Castillo was detained and removed from office on grounds of “permanent moral disability” on Dec. 7 after attempting to dissolve Congress and implement a nationwide curfew.

Legislators unanimously denounced the former head of state’s decree as a coup against democratically elected officials.

A few hours before his interception by local authorities, Castillo announced his plans to disband Congress in a televised broadcast.

With visibly shaking hands, the president said he planned to disband the legislative body, which would be replaced by a newly elected assembly with “constituent powers to prepare a new constitution within a period not exceeding nine months.”

During the speech, Castillo declared that a nationwide curfew of 10 p.m. would be effective immediately. He said that from Dec. 7, “we will only rule by decree.”

Both public and political outrage arrived swiftly on the heels of the president’s announcement. Social media exploded with demands for Castillo’s removal from office.
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Ironically, Castillo’s attempt to dissolve Congress was a last-ditch effort to stall another impeachment vote, which was set to take place only hours before his public decree. The vote would have been Congress’ third attempt since July 2021.

The national curfew was another 11th-hour measure meant to stem the growing tide of public rebellion against Castillo spreading throughout the nation.
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Inflation rates have risen steadily under Castillo’s leadership, topping out at more than 8 percent. This has greatly affected Castillo’s supporters, most of whom are working class.

Shortly after his attempted consolidation of power, police intercepted Castillo as he tried to flee the government palace in Lima with his family.
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In a speedy decision, 101 legislators voted to remove Castillo immediately.

Quote:North Carolina Republicans told the Supreme Court on Dec. 7 that the U.S. Constitution gives state legislatures preeminent authority to make the rules for presidential and congressional elections without interference from the courts.

The case is important because, if the high court finds for North Carolina, the rules governing how states regulate federal elections could change dramatically.
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At issue is the once-obscure independent state legislature doctrine, under which Republicans argue that the Constitution has always directly authorized state legislatures alone to make rules for the conduct of federal elections in their respective states.

Democrats say this doctrine is a fringe conservative legal theory that could endanger voting rights, enable extreme partisan gerrymandering in the redistricting process, and cause upheaval in election administration.

Liberal law professor Richard Hasen has called the doctrine the “800-pound gorilla” of election law because of its potentially disruptive effect on election administration norms.

Conservatives, on the other hand, say the doctrine is derived from the plain text of the Constitution and would restore reasonable rules on the electoral playing field and allow elected state officials, instead of judges, to make election rules.

The Supreme Court hasn’t ruled on the doctrine directly, but some justices have said that it could have been argued in the Bush v. Gore case, which resolved the disputed 2000 presidential election.

The doctrine, if endorsed by the high court, could in theory allow state legislatures to select presidential electors in disputed elections, something critics decry as a threat to democracy.

Quote:A McDonald’s franchisee in Pennsylvania was hit with a large fine for over a hundred child labor violations.

Santonastasso Enterprises LLC, which operates out of the Pittsburgh area, was accused by the Department of Labor (DOL) for the alleged violations at their 13 locations on Dec. 5.
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The franchisee was fined $57,300 for 101 alleged child labor violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act, which restricts the amount of hours minors are legally allowed to work.

Santonastasso was the employer of 101 minors at the restaurants in question.

One of the violations allegedly involved a worker under the age of 16 of being “allowed to operate a deep fryer, which was not equipped with a device to automatically lower and raise the baskets.”

The company has been accused by the DOL of allowing 14- and 15-year-olds work over the three hour limit and work beyond the law’s 7 p.m. cut-off time while school was in session.

In some cases, employees under 16 were working more than eight hours a day on non-school days.

Santonastasso is also accused of allowing minors to work beyond the legally permittable 18 hour cap, during school weeks or past 9 p.m. between June 1 and Labor Day.

All of these practices are considered illegal.

Quote:Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is under investigation for ethics violations, the House Ethics Committee announced on Dec. 7.

The brief announcement said only that “the Acting Chairwoman and Acting Ranking Member of the Committee on Ethics have jointly decided to extend the matter regarding Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, which was transmitted to the Committee by the Office of Congressional Ethics on June 23, 2022.”
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It gave no explanation about the reason for the investigation.

Still, there are indications that give some clues as to possible reasons for the case: specifically, Ocasio-Cortez’s attendance of the Met Gala in September 2021.

At the gala, an annual event attended by the wealthy and well-connected, Ocasio-Cortez made splashes when she wore a designer dress that read “Tax the Rich.” The statement was instantly mocked by conservatives, who noted that the Met Gala costs tens of thousands of dollars to attend—a figure well out of reach for everyday Americans.

Following the event, Thomas Jones, founder of the conservative-leaning American Accountability Foundation (AAF) argued in an ethics complaint that he believes Ocasio-Cortez, a self-described socialist who represents areas of Queens and the Bronx, broke House rules by accepting the gift.

Daily Mail UK Wrote:Conservative commentators such as Dan Bongino and Charlie Kirk were deliberately put on a 'search blacklist' - in the case of Bongino - or tabbed 'do not amplify', in the case of Kirk.

Those who questioned the prevailing COVID orthodoxy of lockdowns and mask mandates, such as Stanford's Dr Jay Bhattacharya, who argued that lockdowns harmed children, were also placed on a 'search blacklist'.

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Investigative Reporter Jennifer Valentino-DeVries Wrote:The Times is in good financial shape now. And we think that our work should be valued more highly than what they’re currently offering.

The Daily Mail UK Wrote:While a win for Griner - who was convicted of possessing two cartridges of cannabis oil while entering Russia in February - the deal has been slammed as an embarrassing 'surrender' for the Biden administration.

Many see it as a gift to Putin and his war effort in Ukraine. They consider it a damning indictment on Biden's diplomatic track record, and are appalled by the involvement of Saudi Arabia in negotiating.

The White House today denied that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was involved, but also thanked the UAE for the 'use of their territory', in what seemed to be a conflicting statement.

Quote:Trudeau was referring to a CBC News report published on Dec.7 saying that in October 2021 the federal government awarded a contract worth nearly $550,000 to Sinclair Technologies, an Ontario-based company controlled by China-based company Hytera Communications.

“I find it disconcerting that while parts of the government security agencies were advising us, as a government, and as Canadians, that we have to be very careful about foreign interference in our institutions—in our structures, in the way we do business and keep Canadians safe—that other parts of the civil service were signing contracts that have questionable levels of security for our operations and our national security institutions like the RCMP,” Trudeau told reporters while speaking at a press conference in Montreal on Dec. 7.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) owns about 10 percent of Hytera Communications through an investment fund, according to the CBC report. The United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) blacklisted Hytera last year, along with several other Chinese companies, saying it poses “an unacceptable risk” to U.S. national security.

The Canadian government contracted Sinclair Technologies to provide the RCMP with a radio frequency filtering system that was designed, in part, to shield the federal police’s land-based radio communications from eavesdropping.

Trudeau said that the federal government will “absolutely” be investigating the contract.

Quote:Former Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has warned that a war over Taiwan will cripple China’s economy and make it suffer far more than Western countries.

In a speech at the Hudson Institute on Dec. 7, Morrison warned of a “mutually assured destruction” if conflicts break out between Washington and Beijing over Taiwan Strait.
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“And the appetite for détente could be as much about securing breathing space as it is to avoid conflict,” he said.
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Chinese leader Xi Jinping reiterated recently that he would not renounce the use of force on Taiwan, a self-ruled democracy that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has long regarded as a renegade province.

“We will never promise to renounce the use of force, and we reserve the option of taking all measures necessary,” Xi said at the opening of the 20th Party Congress, a twice-a-decade-event, on Oct. 16.

Xi also warned President Joe Biden not to cross the red line over Beijing’s claims to Taiwan on the sidelines of the G20 in Bali, Indonesia, last month.

However, Morrison said a war in the Taiwan Strait would cripple China’s economy, for example, by disrupting supply chains and causing financial markets to panic and possibly collapse.
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“We know Chinese ports account for 40 percent of shipping volume in the world’s top 100 ports.

“Six of the largest ships transit through the Taiwan Strait. What would happen to the movement of capital?”
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“The potential impact of sanctions would be a devastation to the Chinese economy and more so than it would be in western countries,” he said.

Morrison called on like-minded countries to work together to protect the world order and increase regional certainty while reducing their dependence on China’s economy.

Quote:Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son, and the president’s brother, Jim Biden, have 150 Suspicious Activity Reports filed against them, according to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).

Only two of the reports are public, Jordan said in an interview that aired on Newsmakers by NTD and The Epoch Times on Dec. 7.

While most Americans have never heard the term “Suspicious Activity Report” it often involves an investigation into fraud or money laundering.

A Suspicious Activity Report is filed by a financial institution—such as a bank—with the U.S. Treasury Department and it is the result of the institution noticing money moving from person to person or account to account abnormally.

According to Jordan, the Biden administration—via the Treasury Department—has refused to comply with requests to access the reports. But when Republicans take back control of the U.S. House on Jan. 3, Jordan said they’ll be able to override that obstruction.
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“[There’s a] politicization of the Justice Department, based on the fact that we’ve had 14 agents come to us as whistleblowers.”

In each of the above situations, truth and investigations were suppressed, Jordan claimed, because Democrats controlled House Committees and could limit Republicans’ actions. But because Republicans gained command of the House following the midterm elections, they’re in charge of selecting new committee chairs and the shackles will be off, he said.

Importantly, Republicans elected Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) as the Oversight Committee Chairman. And starting in January 2023, Jordan said, Comer has indicated he wants to get to the bottom of the 150 Suspicious Activity Reports.

Quote:The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) confirmed on Dec. 11 that the Libyan intelligence official accused of making a bomb that destroyed a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 was arrested and is in U.S. custody.
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Mas’ud is now the third Libyan intelligence official charged in the United States in connection with the Lockerbie bombing, but he would be the first to stand trial in a U.S. courtroom. It’s not clear if Mas’ud has a lawyer.

Pan Am Flight 103, which was heading to New York from London, exploded over Lockerbie, causing the deaths of all 259 people on board the plane and another 11 on the ground, in what’s considered the deadliest terrorist attack in the United Kingdom. Among the 190 Americans on board were 35 Syracuse University students flying home for Christmas after a semester abroad.

Scotland’s Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service issued a statement on Dec. 11 about Mas’ud’s arrest by saying that “the families of those killed in the Lockerbie bombing have been told that the suspect … is in U.S. custody.”

Quote:Automaker Stellantis will indefinitely idle an assembly plant in Illinois that employs around 1,350 workers, the company said, citing the challenge of rising costs related to the electric vehicle (EV) market and other factors.

The site, which will be idled beginning in February 2023, manufactures the Jeep Cherokee SUV. Stellantis, the parent company of Chrysler, Dodge, and Jeep, said it might not resume operations at the site as it considers alternative options.
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Tim Ferguson, shop chairman for United Auto Workers (UAW) union Local 1268, which represents the Illinois plant’s hourly workers, cited company documents to claim that Cherokee production is being shifted to Stellantis’s Toluca plant in Mexico and that the firm intends to close the Belvidere plant.

Amsterdam-based Stellantis insists that it’s looking at repurposing the Illinois facility but didn’t reveal any concrete plans. Cindy Estrada, vice president of UAW, criticized Stellantis for receiving “billions in government incentives” to transition to clean energy while failing to invest that money into “our communities.”

The carmaker had said it plans to invest more than 30 billion euros ($31.6 billion) through 2025 to electrify its vehicle lineup.

Quote:Iran is facing increasing nationwide protests since the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who died on Sept. 16 in suspicious circumstances after her arrest for allegedly improperly wearing her hijab.

The Iranian regime has harshly clamped down on the protesters, and is reportedly aided by Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) surveillance technology in this suppression campaign.
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Researchers have termed this “digital authoritarianism.” A 2021 Freedom House report ranked Iran the one of the worst environments for internet freedom, second only to China.
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Iran’s Supreme Council of Cyberspace temporarily banned Instagram, the country’s most popular social media platform, during the protests. Telegram, a messaging app, was earlier banned in 2018 because it encouraged anti-regime protests.
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The news was later quoted by Tehran Bureau, a foreign-based independent Iranian media. “Such technologies, produced in China, are capable of picking individuals out of crowds, even at night, and can be used by the regime to build cases against protesters or women who break the dress code,” reported Tehran Bureau on Sept. 30.

At least eight Chinese companies sell technology to the Iranian regime that is used to surveil its citizens, the report said. These are Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology, Huawei Technologies, ZTE, Zhejiang Dahua Technology, Tiandy, Tencent, Zhejiang Uniview Technologies, and FiberHome Telecommunication Technologies.
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Iranwire, a diaspora and citizen-run news website said that the Iranian Interior Ministry in 2020 bought CCTV equipment manufactured by the Chinese company, Dahua Technology. Surveillance tech firms Dahua and Hikvision helped the Chinese communist regime set up its surveillance network to repress Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang. Both were added to a U.S. trade blacklist in 2019 over their roles in adding Beijing’s rights abuses in the region.

Quote:On Sunday morning, Kirby said that trading Whelan was “never a choice posed by the Russians” and that the Biden administration could only exchange Griner for Bout under the agreement. Whelan was detained in 2018 and was given a 16-year prison term.

“They treat Paul differently because of these sham espionage charges,” Kirby told Fox News on Sunday. “He is put in this special category by the Russians.”

Last week, Whelan told CNN via phone that he was “greatly disappointed” and said that more should be done to secure his release. He said he was pleased that Griner, who was jailed on drug possession charges, was sent back to the United States.
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But Kirby disputed those claims and said that “until the very end we were making efforts to try to get both of them out but there was no way to get there.”
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Bout’s release in exchange for Griner was panned by Republicans and even some high-ranking Democrats. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, indicated that he wasn’t happy with the move.

Quote:The four unnamed individuals are among six taken to be questioned by Belgian police following raids that began across 16 properties in the capital city of Brussels on Dec. 9, officially international anti-corruption day.

Those raids—during which police reportedly seized computers, mobile phones, and €600,000 ($633,500) in cash—were the result of an investigation that started in mid-July 2022 regarding an alleged criminal organization infiltrating the EU parliament and attempting to interfere with political decisions.

Investigators “suspected a Gulf country (of influencing) the economic and political decisions of the European parliament,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

Belgian media identified the Gulf country in question as Qatar, which has repeatedly come under fire over reports of alleged corruption, including claims that it bribed officials to host the 2022 World Cup. Qatar has denied such allegations.
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While authorities did not identify the individuals detained during the weekend raids, local media reported that at least one is a member of the European Parliament and another is a former EU lawmaker.
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"Two persons have been released by the investigating judge.”
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European Parliament vice-president Eva Kaili, who is a member of the Greek Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D), was said to be among those detained and charged.

In November, Kaili praised Qatar for being a “frontrunner in labor rights,” abolishing kafala (the sponsorship system of immigrants), and reducing minimum wage. She took aim at EU members who she accused of “bullying” Qatar and accusing “everyone that talks to them or engages [with them] of corruption.”

In a statement on Dec. 10, the Socialists and Democrats Group said the party had suspended Kaili, effective immediately, in response to the ongoing investigations.

Quote:The New Zealand government has placed travel bans on 22 Iranian security guards, including members of the morality police, who are connected to the death of Mahsa Amini and the violent response to protests that it sparked.
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The individuals affected by the ban include Hossein Salami, commander in chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC); Gholam-Reza Soleimani, commander of the Basij (paramilitary force); Hossein Ashtari, commander of the police; and Mohammed Rostami, head of the morality police.

The prime minister indicated that more bans may follow, and those affected will not be allowed to enter or transit in New Zealand.

Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta said the bans sent a “strong message” that New Zealand does not tolerate the violent suppression of protests and denial of human rights in Iran.
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The country has supported multilateral efforts, such as those of the U.N. Human Rights Council, and has also suspended its human rights dialogue with Iran indefinitely.

New Zealand established its human rights dialogue with Iran in 2018 in hopes of advancing its human rights concerns.

Vijaya Gadde Wrote:The biggest question is whether a tweet like the one this morning from Trump, which isn’t a rule violation on its face, is being used as coded incitement to further violence.

Quote:Maybe because I am from China, I deeply understand how censorship can destroy the public conversation.

Josep Borrell, the European Union’s foreign policy chief Wrote:Iran has to understand that the European Union will condemn strongly and will take any action we can in order to support Iranian women, to support peaceful demonstrators and, certainly, reject the death penalty.