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Tom Cotton demands DOD records on border-wall material sales be preserved

FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., is demanding that Department of Defense (DOD) Secretary Lloyd Austin promise to keep all records as the Biden administration continues to sell southern border wall materials for low prices ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s second term.  “I write to demand full accountability and transparency from the Department of Defense about its role in the disposal of excess border wall materials from the first Trump administration,” the senator said in a letter to Austin on Monday. JUDGES BACKING OUT OF RETIREMENT AHEAD OF TRUMP TERM LEAVE GOP SENATORS FUMING He acknowledged that President Biden was the one who decided “to halt the needed construction of the southwestern border wall,” but added that he had questions about the DOD’s role in the sale of materials.  It was reported by Fox News’ William La Jeunesse that sections of wall were being sold “as scrap” and for just “pennies on the dollar.”  RFK JR SET TO FACE ABORTION, VACCINE SCRUTINY IN SIT-DOWNS WITH SENATORS ON CAPITOL HILL According to a DOD official, Biden’s administration has been disposing of excess border wall materials as was authorized by the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The official said that about 60% of these materials have been given to authorized recipients such as U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Texas and California. They added that 40% was purchased by GOVPLANET, a marketplace that sells surplus government equipment and materials. The border wall materials that are available on the site are not currently owned by the government and the DOD doesn’t have the authority to prevent any sales of them, the official said. BIDEN CLEMENCY ANNOUNCEMENT GETS MIXED REVIEWS ON CAPITOL HILL: ‘WHERE’S THE BAR?’ In his letter to Austin, Cotton told the secretary to provide a written assurance that the department would “preserve all electronic and written material related to the disposition of the border wall materials.” Additionally, he asked for a “full accounting” of how the border wall materials were disposed of as outlined in the NDAA.  TIDE TURNS IN FAVOR OF TRUMP DOD PICK PETE HEGSETH AFTER MATT GAETZ FAILURE And lastly, Cotton demanded a list of each company that materials were sold to.  “Thankfully, the egregious waste of taxpayer money and flaunting of urgent national security concerns will end on January 20, 2025, when President-elect Trump assumes office,” the Arkansas Republican said. “Congress will use the records you are required by law to preserve to fully understand the Biden Department of Defense’s role in making our border less secure.” The DOD did not immediately provide comment to Fox News Digital.  At a press conference on Monday, Trump pleaded with the Biden administration to halt their continued lame duck efforts to sell border wall materials. “It’s almost a criminal act,” the president-elect said.  “They know we’re gonna use it,” Trump explained, adding that it will cost more to get back.  He predicted it would cost “hundreds of millions of dollars more” to rebuild the wall portions. 

Trump says he doesn’t expect DeSantis to name daughter-in-law Lara Trump as Rubio’s Senate replacement

President-elect Trump says he doesn’t think Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will name his daughter-in-law Lara Trump to succeed Sen. Marco Rubio in the Senate. “No, I don’t. I probably don’t. But I don’t know,” Trump said Monday as he took questions from reporters at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida. “Ron’s doing a good job. That’s his choice – nothing to do with me.” Trump last month announced that he would nominate Rubio, the three-term senator from Florida and a senior Republican member of the Senate Foreign Relations and Intelligence committees, to serve as secretary of state in his incoming administration. TRUMP PRESSES DESANTIS TO NAME DAUGHTER-IN-LAW TO SUCCEED RUBIO IN SENATE Since then, the president-elect and some top Trump allies have recommended that Lara Trump, who from March until a week ago served as Republican National Committee co-chair, fill the next two years of Rubio’s term in the Senate. DeSantis has said he’ll make a decision on the Rubio Senate replacement by early next month. DESANTIS SETS TIMETABLE TO NAME RUBIO SENATE SUCCESSOR Trump on Monday praised his daughter-in-law, saying, “Lara’s unbelievable. She was incredible. The job she did at the RNC…. she is so highly respected.” And he added that Lara Trump is highly sought after. “I also know that Lara got so many other things. I mean she’s got so many other things. People want her to be on television. They want to give her contracts,” Trump said. “She’s got so many other things that she’s talking about.” The president-elect also praised Rubio, but added, “He leaves a vacancy in Florida and Ron’s going to have to make that decision. And he’ll make the right decision.” Sources have confirmed to Fox News that Trump told DeSantis that he would like to see his daughter-in-law succeed Rubio. But Republican sources in Florida suggest that DeSantis is more likely to name someone who’s held public office in the Sunshine State. And Lara Trump, in interviews with Fox News and the AP, has said she would “seriously consider” serving Florida in the Senate. DeSantis, a one-time Trump ally who clashed with the former president last year and early this year during a very contentious 2024 GOP presidential nomination race, mended relations a bit with the former president after the primary season, as he endorsed Trump and helped raise money for the Republican nominee’s general election campaign. “Florida deserves a senator who will help President Trump deliver on his election mandate, be strong on immigration and border security, take on the entrenched bureaucracy and administrative state, reverse the nation’s fiscal decline, be animated by conservative principles, and has a proven record of results,” DeSantis said last month. And he noted at the time that “we have already received strong interest from several possible candidates, and we continue to gather names of additional candidates and conduct preliminary vetting. More extensive vetting and candidate interviews will be conducted over the next few weeks, with a selection likely made by the beginning of January.” The formal confirmation process for Rubio by his fellow senators won’t kick off until after Trump is sworn into office on Jan. 20.

Biden sets record with first-term clemency grants, here’s how others presidents rank

President Biden made history last week when he commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 prisoners and pardoned another 39 people – sparking mixed reactions from lawmakers, including Democrats, who noted that his actions far outpace the clemency actions of any other U.S. president serving his first term in office. In a statement last week announcing the new clemency actions, Biden said America “was built on the promise of possibility and second chances.” “As president, I have the great privilege of extending mercy to people who have demonstrated remorse and rehabilitation, restoring opportunity for Americans to participate in daily life and contribute to their communities, and taking steps to remove sentencing disparities for nonviolent offenders, especially those convicted of drug offenses,” Biden said. Biden’s lengthy list sparked mixed reaction from some lawmakers and criminal justice reform advocates, who questioned the administration’s decision-making in determining prisoners that were eligible for clemency.  BIDEN CLEMENCY ANNOUNCEMENT GETS MIXED REVIEWS ON CAPITOL HILL: ‘WHERE’S THE BAR?’ The Biden administration told CNN that the decisions on who could be included were not made on an individual basis, but rather, was a “uniform” decision granted to people with a record of good behavior while on house arrest.  That includes former Illinois city comptroller Rita Crundwell, who, in 2012, pleaded guilty to a nearly $55 million embezzlement scheme, and former Pennsylvania judge Michael Conahan, who was convicted in 2011 for his role in a “Kids-for-Cash” scheme, in which children were sent to for-profit detention centers in return for millions of dollars of kickbacks from the private prisons.  A full list of individuals included in Biden’s most recent clemency action can be found on the Justice Department website. The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News’s request for comment on its decision-making in issuing presidential pardons. Biden’s decision to include Conahan on his list of prisoners granted clemency was sharply criticized Friday by Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat who had been considered on Vice President Kamala Harris’ short-list for running mate earlier this year. Shapiro said Friday he thinks Biden got it “absolutely wrong” in granting clemency to Conahan, saying the decision has “created a lot of pain here in northeastern Pennsylvania.”  “Some children took their lives because of this. Families were torn apart,” Shapiro said of the for-profit detention center scandal. BIDEN STIRS OUTRAGE IN SCRANTON BY COMMUTING ‘KIDS FOR CASH’ JUDGE’S SENTENCE Before leaving office in 2017, President Barack Obama granted clemency to 1,927 individuals during his two terms as president – the highest total of any modern president going back to former president Harry Truman, also a Democrat, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of Justice Department data.  Truman, who served as president from 1945 to 1953, granted clemency to 2,030 individuals during his two terms in office – slightly outpacing Obama’s list.  Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was elected president four times, granted a total of 3,687 pardons, sentence commutations and other acts of clemency during his time in the White House. After Roosevelt died in office during his fourth term, the U.S. Constitution was ratified to limit all future presidents to two terms in office. Others noted the differences between individuals included on Biden’s clemency list and those who saw reduced or pardoned sentences under Obama. The vast majority of Obama’s clemency actions focused on commuting the sentences of federal inmates who met certain criteria outlined under his administration’s Clemency Initiative, a program that ended in 2017 when Trump took office. But critics have noted the stark differences between the number of individuals selected for clemency under each president – and any relationship to a sitting commander in chief. The Obama administration, for example, largely focused its commutations and reductions on nonviolent drug offenders, including many who had been sentenced under mandatory minimum sentencing laws passed by Congress in the late 1980s.  These clemency grants came under sharp criticism by some Republicans, who accused Obama of imposing his political will to end certain mandatory minimum sentences – which many argued at the time minimized the “lawmaking authority” of Congress. But Biden’s clemency grants also far outpace his predecessor, Donald Trump, during his first term in office.  Between 2017 and 2021, Trump granted just 143 pardons and 93 sentence commutations – amounting to just 2% of the clemency applications that his administration received, according to available Justice Department data.  Some noted that the individuals selected for clemency during Trump’s first term also appear to bear a very different list of criteria compared to former presidents. An analysis conducted by Lawfare found that 29 of the 34 pardons granted by Trump were not based on recommendations of the Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney.  Such recommendations are not necessary for clemency, but presidents in recent memory have relied on the DOJ for input into worthy recipients for pardons and commutations.

Cyclone Chido: What to know about storm that devastated France’s Mayotte

Cyclone Chido has become the worst storm to impact the French overseas territory of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean in 90 years. Here is more about the destruction caused by Chido and what may come next: What is Cyclone Chido? Chido developed from a tropical depression in the southeastern Indian Ocean basin from December 7 to 8. A tropical depression is an area of low pressure over an ocean accompanied by circular wind flow produced by thunderstorms. Tropical depressions have maximum sustained wind speeds of 61km/h (38mph) or less. A tropical depression can intensify and become a tropical storm if wind speeds are from 62km/h (39mph) to 119km/h (74mph). Anything above that is considered a tropical cyclone. The terminology can be slightly confusing. Tropical cyclones are called hurricanes when they occur in the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean Sea and northeastern Pacific Ocean and are called typhoons when they occur in the western Pacific Ocean. And when they occur in the South Pacific and the Indian Ocean, they are referred to as cyclones. Advertisement Chido intensified into a cyclone and hit Mayotte, an archipelago home to 320,000 people off the east coast of Africa. While Mayotte lies in the Indian Ocean, it is an overseas department of France and is directly ruled from Paris. However, it is France’s poorest region, and an estimated third of the population live in shanty towns. The cyclone has also impacted surrounding nations in southeastern Africa, bringing heavy rainfall and damaging houses in Madagascar, Mozambique and the Comoros Islands before weakening. According to an early estimate, at least three people have died in Mozambique, local officials told the AFP news agency. When and where did Chido make landfall? Chido hit Mayotte on Saturday morning with wind speeds exceeding 220km/h (137mph). It made landfall as a tropical storm in Mozambique on Sunday morning. Chido was incredibly powerful. It was equivalent to a Category 4 hurricane at the time of landfall in Mayotte, making it the second strongest type of storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale. According to the National Hurricane Center in the United States, Category 4 storms, which have wind speeds ranging from 209km/h to 251km/h (130mph to 156mph) cause “catastrophic damage”. They can destroy well-built homes, uproot trees and down power poles, leading to power outages. (Al Jazeera) How many people have been killed by Chido in Mayotte? According to France’s Interministerial Crisis Management Operational Centre (COGIC), the official death toll in Mayotte as a result of Chido is 19 people. Advertisement However, it is feared that Chido has actually killed hundreds of people. The French Ministry of Interior has said “it will be difficult to account for all victims” and a conclusive number of those affected by Chido has not been determined yet. Determining the death toll could take “days and days”, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau told French media. Retailleau arrived in Mayotte’s capital, Mamoudzou, on Monday. France has sent medical and military personnel to Mayotte on ships and military aircraft. Rescue workers, including reinforcements from France, are digging through debris to try to find survivors of the cyclone. “I think there will certainly be several hundreds. Maybe we will reach a thousand, even several thousands,” senior local French official Francois-Xavier Bieuville told the local media channel Mayotte la 1ere on Sunday. The uncertainty is partly due to the large number of undocumented migrants in Mayotte – more than 100,000, according to French authorities. Additionally, a French Interior Ministry official said determining the death toll would be complicated because “Mayotte is a Muslim land where the dead are buried within 24 hours.” Many of Mayotte’s migrants come from the neighbouring Comoros Islands and East African countries such as Somalia. They are attracted by better economic opportunities that come with Mayotte’s status as a department of France. How badly damaged is Mayotte’s infrastructure? According to COGIC, 830 people have been injured, including 24 with severe injuries. Additionally, 100,000 people have been moved to 70 emergency shelters. Critical infrastructure in Mayotte has been damaged, including roads, water treatment plants and electrical transmission lines. “The health system is seriously affected, and access to care has been seriously degraded,” outgoing French Health Minister Genevieve Darrieussecq said on Sunday. Advertisement The control tower of Mayotte’s main airport, Dzaoudzi–Pamandzi, also sustained damage. This has made rescue operations difficult because only military aircraft can now fly into Mayotte. According to the internet monitoring group NetBlocks on Monday, Mayotte has been offline almost entirely for more than 36 hours. COGIC reported 15,000 people have experienced power outages. Impoverished communities have been hit hardest by the cyclone. Mayotte’s shanty towns, where most homes are built with sheet metal, were not constructed to withstand the power of a cyclone, and many of the dead are believed to have been living in these areas. Damage to infrastructure has left some communities in Mayotte without food and water since Saturday, said Salama Ramia, a senator representing Mayotte in the French Senate. Mayotte is the poorest French overseas territory and is also believed to be the poorest European Union territory. Three out of four people in the island nation live below the poverty line. For years, Mayotte has struggled with water shortages, drought and underinvestment. Where is Chido now? As of 09:00 GMT on Monday, Chido had weakened to a remnant low, or a post-tropical cyclone, slightly south of the Balaka township in Malawi. It had a speed of 45km/h (28mph). What’s next? According to ReliefWeb, Chido is expected to dissipate near Zimbabwe on Tuesday. Cyclones typically form in the southwestern Indian Ocean from November to April. An average of 12 cyclones form per year. In 2019, Cyclone Idai killed more than 1,300 people in countries including Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. In 2023, Cyclone Freddy caused storms for a month, killing more than 1,000 people in East Africa. Freddy remained a tropical cyclone for 36 days, and the World Meteorological Organization declared it the longest lasting tropical cyclone on record. Advertisement Scientists warn that cyclones are

Canada finance minister resigns as PM Trudeau grapples with new Trump term

Canada’s Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has resigned in a blow to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is facing declining approval ratings and opposition from within his own party, as well as the prospect of a trade war with the United States. In her resignation letter, which was posted on X on Monday, Freeland revealed that Trudeau had informed her last week that he no longer wanted her to serve in the role and would instead offer her another cabinet position. “Upon reflection, I have concluded that the only honest and viable path is for me to resign from the cabinet,” Freeland wrote. “For the past number of weeks, you and I have found ourselves at odds about the best path forward for Canada,” she continued. Trudeau did not immediately respond to the resignation, which comes just days after he met with Canada’s provincial leaders to outline his plans to respond to threats of a trade war with US President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office on January 20. Trump has vowed to impose 25 percent tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico if the neighbouring countries do not stop what he called an “invasion” of undocumented migrants and drugs. Advertisement The Trudeau government has reportedly been developing plans to invest in increased border security and monitoring in response, but has faced mounting pressure to take a harder line on Trump. The government was set to further present details of the border plan to the Parliament of Canada on Monday, in an economic update that was to be delivered by Freeland. A former journalist, Freeland also served as deputy prime minister since 2019. In her resignation letter, she said she disagreed with how the government was approaching policy towards its southern neighbour. “Our country today faces a grave challenge,” she said, describing Trump’s threat as “aggressive economic nationalism”. “We need to take that threat extremely seriously,” she continued. “That means keeping our fiscal powder dry today, so we have the reserves we may need for a coming tariff war. That means eschewing costly political gimmicks, which we can ill afford and which make Canadians doubt that we recognise the gravity of the moment.” In another blow to Trudeau, Housing Minister Sean Fraser also announced on Monday that he would not seek re-election. Looming elections The updates come as Trudeau’s Liberal Party has been preparing for elections which must be held before the end of October next year. Trudeau has said he plans to stay at the party’s helm. Because Liberals do not hold an outright majority, if the allied New Democratic Party were to pull its support, this would trigger a new election at any time. Advertisement Meanwhile, Trump’s victory has driven home concerns that Canada could be subject to global anti-incumbency trends that could see the Conservative Party, led by populist Pierre Poilievre, take power for the first time since 2015. After nearly a decade in power, Trudeau in September saw his approval rating dip to just 33 percent. He has continued to face criticism over high consumer and housing costs, the legacy of his government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and most recently, his handling of Trump. The US president-elect and his allies have further helped to colour public perception with their regular ridiculing of Trudeau. Most recently, Trump referred to the prime minister as the “governor” of a “great state”. That came shortly after Trudeau, who had visited Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, the US last month in an effort to mend ties, said that Canada would “respond to unfair tariffs in a number of ways”. Trudeau’s government had previously enacted retaliatory tariffs after Trump imposed tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminium during his first term. The tariffs were eventually lifted by both countries. Adblock test (Why?)

Israeli strike kills Palestinian grandfather Khaled Nabhan

NewsFeed An Israeli strike killed Khaled Nabhan, a Palestinian grandfather known for his emotional goodbye to his 3-year-old granddaughter who was killed in an Israeli attack in November of 2023. Published On 16 Dec 202416 Dec 2024 Adblock test (Why?)

Delhi-NCR Air Pollution: GRAP 4 curbs invoked as air quality turns severe, AQI reaches…

Delhi’s average AQI rose to 399 at 9 PM on Monday and breached the 400 mark at 10 PM.

Noida schools’ timings revised from Tuesday due to cold weather; check details

The district administration has also written to all government departments to enforce staggered work timings.

Trump tangles with reporter on Iran preemptive strike: ‘Is that a serious question?’

President-elect Trump tangled with a reporter who asked him Monday if he would entertain the idea of preemptive strikes on Iran. Trump, following remarks at Mar-a-Lago, took questions from the media, and one reporter asked if he would target Iran’s nuclear facilities, “Well I can’t tell you that. I mean, it’s a wonderful question, but how can I – am I going to do preemptive strikes? Why would I say that?” the president-elect responded. “Can you imagine if I said yes or no? You would say, ‘That was strange that he answered that way.’ Am I going to do preemptive strikes on Iran? Is that a serious question? How could I answer a question like that?” Trump continued.  ISRAEL EYES IRAN NUKE SITES AMID REPORTS TRUMP MULLS MOVES TO BLOC TEHRAN ATOMIC PROGRAM  The reporter then asked if Trump would be in support of Israel striking Iran.  “How could I tell you a thing like that now?” Trump responded. “You don’t talk about that before something may or may not happen. I don’t want to insult you, I just think it’s just not something that I would ever answer. Having to do with there or any other place in the world.”  CHRISTIAN LEADER IN LEBANON URGES US, ALLIES TO INTERVENE TO STOP HEZBOLLAH  “We’re trying to help very strongly and getting the hostages back, as you know, with Israel and the Middle East,” Trump added Monday.  “We’re working very much on that. We’re trying to get the war stopped, that horrible, horrible war that’s going on in Ukraine with Russia. We’re going to, we’ve got a little progress. It’s a tough one. It’s a nasty one. It’s nasty,” he also said. 

Biden admin expected to offer California waiver to ban gas-powered cars by 2035: report

The Biden administration is reportedly considering giving California permission to ban new gas-powered cars in the state as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to undo a host of green energy policies next year. California set an emissions standard to ban new gas cars in the state by 2035, but such a regulation requires a waiver from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to proceed. Just weeks before Biden’s term ends, the EPA is reportedly planning to grant the waiver to allow the state to set stricter emissions standards for electric vehicles than allowed by the federal government, the Washington Post first reported, citing several sources briefed on the matter. The EPA did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment, but a spokesperson for the agency told POLITICO’s E&E News that they are still reviewing the regulation “to make sure its decisions are durable and grounded in the law.” AUTO DEALERSHIP OWNER ON EVS: ‘PEOPLE CAN’T AFFORD TO BUY THESE VEHICLES’ The report comes just days before the Supreme Court rejected a request from oil companies to challenge California’s constitutional authority to establish its own standards on electric vehicles.   The California Air Resources Board requested a waiver from the federal government for permission to require that 22% of new cars sold be zero emissions by 2025 and achieve a complete ban on gas cars in 2035, citing climate change concerns.  BIDEN EPA MAKES FIRST-EVER CLIMATE CHANGE ARREST The state’s waiver requests were challenged by several conservative states and oil groups who questioned whether the state had legal authority to impose such emissions standards, but on Monday, the Supreme Court denied their petition for review. “EPA’s decision to grant California this preemption waiver is based on a rock-solid legal foundation and decades of precedent, and it ensures vital clean air protections for millions of people,” said Alice Henderson, director and lead counsel for the Transportation and Clean Air Policy for Environmental Defense Fund, following the Supreme Court’s decision. Trump, however, is reportedly planning to specifically target California’s EV standards when he assumes office. During his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump blasted Biden’s actions related to California’s proposed EV mandate regulations. “Fresh off imposing his insane, job-killing electric vehicle mandate at the federal level, Crooked Joe Biden is preparing to slaughter the remnants of the U.S. auto-industry by approving California’s waiver request outlawing the sale of all gasoline-powered automobiles,” Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Digital in a statement.  Leavitt said that, if elected, on his first day in office, Trump would revoke both federal EV requirements and any waiver issued for California by the Biden administration. California officials met in early December to establish ways to “Trump proof” the state before the president-elect takes office, allocating $25 million for a legal defense fund to fight the incoming administration.