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Gaetz stands accused of buying and using illegal drugs and paying for sex with a high schooler
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Donald Trump is signalling his incoming administration’s readiness to expand U.S. territory, with recent out-of-nowhere snipes at Panama and 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 targets for some kind of annexation or purchase.
Trump has also called for ramping up the use of the death penalty, after Biden commuted the death sentences of most people on federal death row.
Meanwhile, allies of House Speaker Mike Johnson are urging the president-elect to reaffirm his support for the Republican leader after Democrats and some Republicans blocked the Trump- and Elon Musk-led campaign to derail the stop-gap funding bill before Christmas, averting a government shutdown.
The House of Representatives is also 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.
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.
More than 1,500 people who have been criminally charged in connection with a mob’s assault on the Capitol — fuelled by his bogus narrative that the 2020 presidential election was rigged and stolen from him — are now awaiting potential pardons for alleged crimes live-streamed to millions of viewers.
Trump could issue mass amnesty to hundreds of defendants as soon as his first day in office, maintaining that even violent offenders could be granted clemency on a “case-by-case” basis.
Here are some of their stories:
Hundreds of defendants admitted to their crimes or were convicted by juries after attacking police, threatening lawmakers or conspiring against the government. Trump could wipe their slates clean, Alex Woodward reports
With Donald Trump and Elon Musk dominating the headlines, we’ve heard a little less these days from Vice President Kamala Harris.
So what has she been up to?
On Christmas Eve, at least, she and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff checked out homemade ornaments from Washington-area students.
People often say to take Trump seriously but not literally.
It seemed on Monday that Denmark was doing both, announcing a funding package to defend Greenland worth at least $1.5 billion.
The timing, however, was apparently coincidental.
Danish Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen told the BBC the announcement falling as Trump toyed with somehow buying Greenland was an “irony of fate.”
President-elect has indicated the U.S. will make Greenland purchase a priority in post about new ambassador to Denmark
The Internal Revenue Service is sending unclaimed stimulus checks of up to $1,400 to 1 million US taxpayers in the coming weeks.
Here’s why the payments are going out — and how to find out if you’re eligible for the credit.
Katie Hawkinson has the details.
These payments will be automatically sent to eligible taxpayers by the end of the month
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:
Washington showed its gray hair in 2024. More reckonings are likely on the horizon
In the final weeks of his administration, Joe Biden has sought to shore up his criminal justice legacy, issuing pardons and commutations to reformed offenders, while removing most people from federal death row.
However, in another key area, policing, the Biden administration’s progress could stall once Trump takes over.
During the last four years, the Biden administration has secured just one federal oversight agreement, known as a consent decree, with a department investigated for misconduct.
The U.S. Justice Department and the city of Louisville have reached an agreement to reform the city’s police force after an investigation prompted by the fatal police shooting of Breonna Taylor
The DOJ has investigated 12 departments this administration, but so far only this month’s agreement with Louisville has translated into more long-lasting, binding reform steps.
Trump, who has frequently called for harsher, law-and-order-style policing, and who has been critical of past police reform efforts, is unlikely to do as much as Biden on this front, leaving the future status of these agreements in doubt.
Biden also failed to pass a long-sought police reform bill after the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in 2020.
Here’s more on Biden’s death penalty policy as the administration comes to a close.
The Biden administration has spent weeks trying to assure the public there’s nothing to fear about drones and aircraft spotted buzzing over New Jersey and other states.
Groups of drones have been appearing nightly in string of states with little to no explanation
On Christmas Eve, it highlighted a different kind of drone, taking viewers on an aerial tour through the White House’s Christmas decorations.
It may not quell the raging conspiracy theories about the drones, but it is still a pretty cool video.
Watch below.
As President Joe Biden winds down his presidency, Trump is behaving as though he is already in office, writes Rhian Lubin.
Within the last week, Trump launched a campaign against last week’s temporary bill and issued threats against the Panama Canal and Greenland.
Trump is behaving as though he is already in office as Biden winds down his presidency, according to Republican and Democratic lawmakers
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:
Critics argue migrants already know the risks of journey and restrictive policies put border-crossers at further risk
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