Bihar: 14-year-old girl beaten to death for plucking gram leaves in Kaimur
She had gone to the farmland with her cousin to pluck gram leaves.
Rand Paul’s ‘Festivus Report’ exposes $900B in government squander
FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., released his annual Christmas “Festivus” report Friday for the ninth year in a row, outlining $900 billion in government waste. Among notable instances, the National Institutes of Health allocated funds to study Russian cats on treadmills, photos of Barbies were utilized as identification to obtain COVID relief funds, the Department of Defense lost $169 million of outdoor-stored military gear, $6 million went towards tourism in Egypt by the United States Agency for International Development, and the Small Business Administration provided over $200 million to “struggling” music artists such as Post Malone, Chris Brown, and Lil Wayne. Up from $30 trillion in debt in 2022, this year’s debt amounts to $34 trillion, the report also highlights. “Who’s to blame for our crushing level of debt? Everybody,” Paul wrote in the report. “This year, members of both parties in Congress voted to raise the debt ceiling, which empowered the government to borrow an unlimited amount of money until 2024. As Congress spends to reward its favored industries and pet projects, the American taxpayers are forced to pay the price through record–high inflation and crippling interest rates.” He added: “The same big spenders teamed up, yet again, to continue sending Americans’ hard-earned money to foreign countries and funding endless wars, all while ignoring our porous southern border.” RAND PAUL’S 2022 ‘FESTIVUS REPORT’ AIRS $482 BILLION WORTH OF FEDERAL WASTE Rand’s report highlighted government spending that included accepting Barbie doll photos to obtain COVID relief funds from a portion of an $800 billion allocation in Paycheck Protection Program funds. Other expenses highlighted were $659 billion for national debt interest, $33.2 million for transgender monkey research, $6 million for boosting Egyptian tourism, and an unknown cost for USDA’s dog-walking research in summer. “Researchers found the Labradors’ fur color did not affect their body temperatures after a hot summer’s walk. That’s it. That’s the taxpayerfunded, cutting-edge study,” Paul wrote. “The Agricultural Research Service at the USDA, which funded the study at Southern Illinois University, gets $1.7 billion a year from Congress, but it’s unknown how much the hot dog study cost the taxpayer.” Under Dr. Fauci’s leadership, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) funded a study using $477,121 to force-feminize male rhesus macaques in a Florida lab, the report found. The experiment involved administering female hormones to these male monkeys to investigate potential vulnerabilities to HIV, even though critics argue monkeys are not susceptible to HIV. RAND PAUL ANNOUNCES ‘OFFICIAL CRIMINAL REFERRAL,’ SAYS EMAIL SHOWS FAUCI COVID TESTIMONY ‘ABSOLUTELY A LIE’ “The lab worked to make male lab monkeys ‘transgender’ to address ‘social injustices’ suffered by ‘transgender persons’ such as ‘transgender women (TGW)-individuals who were assigned a male set at birth but express their gender along a female spectrum,’” the report read. Additionally, there were undisclosed expenses for training Department of Homeland Security employees, studying Russian cats on treadmills and meth-head monkeys from a portion of $2.7 million, creating graphic novels on disinformation, and exploring COVID-19 “misinformation” in black and rural communities totaling $3.8 million. SEN. RAND PAUL SAYS CRTICISM OF UKRAINE FUNDING IS A ‘GROWING MOVEMENT’ IN WASHINGTON Costs for ruining military equipment totaled $169 million, while expenses for entertainment and studies involving gambling monkeys, transgender monkeys, and improper federal payments accumulated to $236 billion. The Congressional Budget Office forecasts a staggering increase in national debt, estimating an average addition of $2 trillion annually for the coming decade. This translates to over $5 billion in debt daily over the next 10 years. “As always, taking the path to fiscal responsibility is often a lonely journey, but, as I’ve done in years past, I will continue my fight against government waste this holiday season,” Paul wrote. Last year, Paul’s report broke down $482 billion in wasteful spending, from the billions spent giving COVID relief funds to ineligible people to a $118,000 study on whether Marvel movie villain Thanos would really be able to snap his fingers while wearing the Infinity Gauntlet.
Biden team’s central 2024 message paints Trump as ‘threat to democracy’: report
President Biden’s re-election campaign will push former President Trump as being a “threat to democracy” as a primary component of the 2024 presidential election, according to a report. Biden’s campaign manager, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, said the president’s camp would attempt to frame the election as having drastically high stakes with the “fate of American democracy” on the line. “We are treating this election like it will determine the fate of American democracy – because it will,” Chavez Rodriguez said in a campaign memo, according to Bloomberg. “The threat Donald Trump posed in 2020 to American democracy has only grown more dire since then,” Chavez Rodriquez added. “He is running a campaign on revenge and retribution – and at the expense of Americans’ freedoms.” CHAIRS OF GROUP THAT LED EFFORT TO BOOT TRUMP FROM COLORADO BALLOT DONATED TO BIDEN The strategy is nothing new, as Biden and Democrats have been pushing the statement for some time now. However, it exemplifies how they plan to further lean into it for what they appear to view as a likely rematch with Trump. Several prominent Republicans have started to push back against the claim and told Fox News Digital this week that it is Biden’s party that is working overtime to undermine the vote. They pointed to Democrats’ efforts to keep Trump off the ballot, imprison him, stifle free speech on social media and rewrite election laws while fighting measures designed to protect ballot integrity. The ongoing efforts, they said, are a much more significant threat to democracy than the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot Biden and Democrats frequently cite. DEM-APPOINTED COLORADO JUSTICE SAYS TRUMP BALLOT BAN UNDERMINES ‘BEDROCK’ OF AMERICA IN FIERY DISSENT Democrats have most recently thrown their weight behind state-level legal efforts to prevent Trump from appearing on 2024 presidential ballots, including in Colorado, where the state Supreme Court ruled 4-3 this week that the former president violated the Constitution’s 14th Amendment when he “engaged in insurrection” concerning Jan. 6, and should be disqualified. “Democrats cynically used the COVID-19 pandemic to radically undermine long-standing election laws on the fly and then started pushing for non-citizens to vote in U.S. elections,” Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel told Fox News Digital. “Now the left is working to remove political opponents from the ballot in a shocking display of disregard for the American people’s right to choose their candidates.” “These attacks on the democratic process drive down voter confidence and trust in the electoral system. Meanwhile, the RNC and our partners are fighting to make sure the American people choose their presidential candidates, not the courts,” she said, adding that the RNC was trying to protect election integrity by fighting for policies to ensure only American citizens vote in elections. The Biden campaign did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.
White House unveils strict hydrogen regulations in victory for environmentalists
The White House unveiled highly anticipated guidance placing significant restrictions on the type of hydrogen power development eligible for generous federal tax credits. The proposed guidance, released Friday morning in a joint announcement by the White House, Treasury Department and Department of Energy, tethers the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) highest production credit of $3 per kilogram of hydrogen produced to tight green energy standards. The restrictions had been supported by environmentalists and some green energy companies but opposed by business and clean power industry groups. “The Inflation Reduction Act’s hydrogen tax credit will help build a clean hydrogen industry that will be critical in reducing emissions from harder-to-decarbonize sectors like heavy industry and heavy transportation,” John Podesta, President Biden’s clean energy czar, said in a statement. GOP REPORT HIGHLIGHTS 2023 ENERGY, OVERSIGHT WINS OVER ‘UNREALISTIC CLIMATE AGENDA’ “Today’s announcement will further unprecedented investments in a new, American-led industry as we aim to lead and propel the global clean energy transition,” added Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm. “Hydrogen has the potential to clean up America’s manufacturing industry, power the transportation sector and shore up our energy security all while delivering good-paying jobs and new economic opportunity to communities in every pocket of America.” Hydrogen has been widely pegged as a key technology for reducing future greenhouse gas emissions, especially in hard-to-decarbonize sectors like shipping, heavy trucking and cement and steel manufacturing. The transportation and industrial sectors account for nearly 60% of U.S. end-use emissions. Overall, the hydrogen production tax credits are some of the most generous clean energy incentives earmarked under the IRA, Democrats’ massive climate and tax bill President Biden signed in August 2022, and are worth up to $100 billion. The legislation marked the nation’s most ambitious effort yet to spur the growth of hydrogen generation, which remains a nascent technology requiring billions of dollars in investment to achieve large-scale production. BIDEN ADMIN AIMS TO PUSH TOWNS, CITIES TO ADOPT GREEN ENERGY BUILDING CODES: ‘VERY SUSPICIOUS’ However, the formulation of the tax credits has sparked an intense debate in recent months, leading to delays in issuing Friday’s guidance, as a result of the potential carbon emissions produced in the production of hydrogen. The credits will be available for 10 years, starting on the date a hydrogen production facility is placed into service for projects that begin construction before 2033. The IRA includes four tiers of credits, ranging from $0.60 per kilogram to $3 per tier, which are determined based on the carbon intensity of that production. A common pathway for hydrogen production, for example, is electrolysis, a process by which hydrogen is split from water using an electric current. While the only emissions from that process are hydrogen and oxygen, environmentalists have argued that hydrogen reliance could be rendered pointless if the electricity is generated from fossil fuel-fired sources. “The Clean Hydrogen Production Credit aims to make production of clean hydrogen with minimal climate pollution more economically competitive and accelerate development of the U.S. clean hydrogen industry,” the Treasury Department said Friday. “Today’s proposed regulations advance those goals and will support the development of a robust U.S. clean hydrogen industry that creates good-paying jobs, while also reducing carbon emissions.” Under the guidance, hydrogen producers are only eligible for the highest tax credit if electricity is generated from a green energy source, such as wind and solar, that came online within three years of a new facility being placed into service. That provision means a facility fueled by green energy that has been operational for more than three years is ineligible for the credit. In addition, the guidance requires that, beginning in 2028, hydrogen developers’ electricity generation is sourced from a clean source on an hourly basis, the most stringent timescale. In other words, the electricity generated for electrolysis must be produced within an hour of hydrogen production from that electricity. BIDEN ADMIN HIT WITH LEGAL CHALLENGE OVER GAS APPLIANCE CRACKDOWN And the final key provision for hydrogen produced using electricity mandates clean energy is sourced from a project in the same region. “The proposed 45V rules represent a major milestone in determining tax credits on a technology neutral basis, ensuring the life cycle emissions analysis required by statute will be accurate, account for system-wide impacts and avoid wasteful subsidies for electrolytic hydrogen projects that are purportedly clean but actually use dirty electricity,” said Mike Kaercher, the director of the Climate Tax Project at the Tax Law Center at NYU Law. “Experts have estimated that lax rules could have locked in hundreds of millions of additional tons of carbon emissions in the long run.” However, the proposal is facing significant pushback from industry groups and hydrogen companies that have argued for the federal government to begin implementation of the IRA tax credits with lax guidance to incentivize greater investment and development in the near term. Groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association (FCHEA) and the Clean Hydrogen Future Coalition, in addition to hydropower and nuclear groups, have argued strict regulations like those unveiled Friday will deter investment, increase the cost of hydrogen, lead to fewer projects in the coming years and discriminate against existing low-carbon power sources. MAINE FORCED TO DELAY VOTE ON EV MANDATE AMID WIDESPREAD POWER OUTAGES “The guidance announced today by the Biden-Harris administration will place unnecessary burdens on the still nascent clean hydrogen industry,” FCHEA President and CEO Frank Wolak said Friday. “The nation needs commonsense solutions for this tax credit that are aligned with the congressional intent to spur robust economic development and create jobs while reducing carbon emissions. “Congress intended the tax credit to spur domestic clean hydrogen production and allow the United States to maintain an international competitive advantage, not to be an inadvertent backdoor to regulate use of the electric utility grid,” he added. “The United States cannot achieve its climate goals without clean hydrogen, and these proposed regulations and requirements will unnecessarily hold back our domestic industry, driving investment, manufacturing and technology leadership
Biden commutes sentences for 11 convicted of drug crimes, targeting ‘unjustified disparities’
President Biden is granting clemency to 11 drug dealers convicted of non-violent crimes, as well as rolling back anti-drug laws on federal land. The White House announced Biden’s decision via a statement Friday in which the president offered his reasoning for approving the sudden release of nearly a dozen drug-related offenders. “First, I am commuting the sentences of 11 people who are serving disproportionately long sentences for non-violent drug offenses,” Biden announced in a press statement. “All of them would have been eligible to receive significantly lower sentences if they were charged with the same offense today.” In the same announcement, the president went a step further — revealing a proclamation that will also pardon further marijuana-related crimes on federal land. FORMER PROSECUTOR ACCUSE OF LIMITING QUESTIONS ABOUT JOE BIDEN, DENIES POLITICS PLAYED A ROLE IN HUNTER PROBE “Second, following my pardon of prior federal and D.C. offenses of simple possession of marijuana, I am issuing a Proclamation that will pardon additional offenses of simple possession and use of marijuana under federal and D.C. law,” the president said. Biden said the law enforcement reforms are meant to curb and rethink the country’s “failed approach to marijuana.” BIDEN ‘EXPRESSING DEEP FRUSTRATION’ WITH SLOW PROGRESS OF HIS INFRASTRUCTURE LAW: REPORT Biden said, “Criminal records for marijuana use and possession have imposed needless barriers to employment, housing, and educational opportunities. Too many lives have been upended because of our failed approach to marijuana. It’s time that we right these wrongs.” The president is also urging governors across the country to adopt similar policies to walk back the legal impact marijuana-related crimes have on offenders’ lives. “Just as no one should be in a federal prison solely due to the use or possession of marijuana, no one should be in a local jail or state prison for that reason, either,” Biden said. “That’s why I continue to urge governors to do the same with regard to state offenses and applaud those who have since taken action.” “I have exercised my clemency power more than any recent predecessor has at this point in their presidency,” Biden boasted. He continued, “And while today’s announcement marks important progress, my Administration will continue to review clemency petitions and deliver reforms that advance equal justice, address racial disparities, strengthen public safety, and enhance the wellbeing of all Americans.”
Menendez blocks 2 Biden nominees over frustration with border negotiations
Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., blocked two President Biden nominees before the holiday recess over what his office claims is a “lack of responsiveness” from the administration on border security negotiations. Menendez, who is charged in connection to an alleged corruption scheme to benefit the Egyptian government, blocked the nominations of Basil Gooden for USDA undersecretary of rural development and Summer Mersinger, who was renominated for a commissioner role with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a spokesperson for the senator’s office reportedly confirmed to Politico. According to the spokesperson, Menendez is unhappy with the dearth of details from the Biden administration to himself and other Congressional Hispanic Caucus members during the ongoing negotiations with Republicans to pass a supplemental spending bill for Ukraine aid in exchange for border security funding. Menendez wanted to demonstrate his “dissatisfaction” with the Biden administration’s current response on the border, the spokesperson added, describing how the senator indicated last week to Democratic leadership that he intended to block the nominations and proceeded to object again on Wednesday. TOP POLITICAL COURTROOM MOMENTS OF 2023 The move derailed a plan to fast track confirming the two by voice vote in the Senate before lawmakers departed Washington, D.C., for the holiday recess. “It is truly shameful that President Biden and his administration are considering selling out migrants and asylum-seekers in order to placate extreme Republicans who are jeopardizing our national security and that of our allies just to score a political point,” Menendez said last week. Illegal border crossings have skyrocketed to record levels in recent weeks, during what is typically a slow migration month. Politico noted how some saw the objection as payback to Agriculture Chair and No. 3 Senate Democrat Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, who was the first member of the Senate Democratic leadership to demand Menendez’s resignation following his indictment in September on bribery and other offenses. However, Menendez’s spokesperson told Politico that that suggestion was “simply not true.” TOP DEM COMMITTEE ACCEPTED THOUSANDS FROM MENENDEZ THE SAME DAY FEDS UNSEALED HIS BRIBERY CHARGES Menendez, his wife Nadine and three New Jersey businessmen were charged in September in connection to a yearslong corruption scheme in which the high-ranking Democrat allegedly agreed to use his position to benefit the Egyptian government in exchange for hundreds of thousands of bribes, including gold bars, cash and a luxury convertible. He has pleaded not guilty to the initial indictment and additional charges of acting as a foreign agent brought in October. Though he stepped down from his position as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in the aftermath, the defiant Menendez has refused calls from his own party members – from Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy to local officials – to resign. Authorities who searched Menendez’s home last year found more than $100,000 worth of gold bars, as well as over $480,000 in cash — much of it hidden in closets, clothing and a safe, prosecutors say. Photos in the indictment show cash that was stuffed in envelopes in jackets bearing Menendez’s name. Investigators also say they discovered a Google search by Menendez for the value of a “kilo of gold,” and DNA of one man prosecutors say bribed him on an envelope filled with thousands of dollars. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Parliament Security Breach Case: Delhi Police Special Cell conducts psycho-analysis tests of all accused
All these tests were conducted in a government institute located in Rohini, said police. The psycho-analysis test of Lalit Jha, the alleged mastermind behind the conspiracy, and Mahesh Kumawat was also conducted.
Ban on plying of BS III petrol, BS IV diesel vehicles in Delhi NCR amid worsening air quality
Non-essential construction work has also been banned in the region.
What’s the latest UN Gaza resolution that the US has agreed to?
After a week of diplomatic back and forth, the United States has signalled that it is ready to support a United Nations Security Council resolution. Here is what we know about the draft resolution. Why did the US want the draft resolution watered down? The original draft was put forth by the United Arab Emirates mission to the UN on December 15 and it called for a cessation of hostilities and unhindered flow of aid into the Gaza Strip. It also said that the UN would exclusively monitor aid that enters Gaza through routes from outside states. Additionally, it called for an “immediate and unconditional release of all hostages”. Initially, the US did not want the word “cessation” in the resolution. As a result, the language was substituted with “suspension of hostilities”. However, Washington was unconvinced despite the first round of revisions and voting was delayed. Now, the problem was with the UN monitoring of aid entering Gaza. PassBlue, an independent organisation that monitors the UN, posted on X that US diplomats were reportedly in agreement with the UN monitoring of aid until Israel saw the draft resolution. The USUN diplos were apparently OK with this para in the Gaza draft text, until #Israel saw it. Israel wants to keep full control of humanitarian aid getting into Gaza https://t.co/gzJpxQBq4G — PassBlue (@pass_blue) December 20, 2023 Before Thursday, Arab and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) members proposed new language to the US pertaining to the clause that talks about the UN monitoring aid entering Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Rami Ayari posted on X. It’s late and I’ll be going to sleep shortly but here’s the state of play on negotiations regarding the #UNSC draft reso on #Gaza aid scale-up. Following Blinken’s calls with his Egyptian and Emirati counterparts, ambassadors of the three countries have been trying to resolve the… https://t.co/kBGqf2Aex4 — Rami Ayari (@Raminho) December 21, 2023 By then, a vote on the draft resolution had already been postponed seven times in three days, Al Jazeera’s Gabriel Elizondo reported. However, the voting did not take place as scheduled for Thursday either – and was delayed to Friday. What changes did the US make to the resolution? With the help of Arab states, the US amended the draft. US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield said: “We’re ready to vote on it. And it’s a resolution that will bring humanitarian assistance to those in need.” The original draft, which mentioned a “cessation of hostilities”, was changed to call for an “urgent suspension of hostilities to allow safe and unhindered humanitarian access and for urgent steps towards a sustainable cessation of hostilities”. But the US-amended draft drops all references to a pause in fighting. Instead, it calls for “urgent steps to immediately allow safe and unhindered humanitarian access, and also for creating the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities”. The original draft also said the UN will “exclusively monitor all humanitarian relief consignments to Gaza provided through land, sea and air routes” from countries not party to the war. Instead, the amended draft resolution asks UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to appoint a senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator to, in turn, establish a mechanism for accelerating aid to Gaza through states that are not party to the conflict. The coordinator would also have responsibility “for facilitating, coordinating, monitoring, and verifying in Gaza, as appropriate, the humanitarian nature” of all the aid. The initial draft resolution had demanded that Israel and Hamas allow and facilitate “the use of all land, sea and air routes to and throughout the entire Gaza” for aid deliveries. That was changed to “all available routes,” which some diplomats said allows Israel to retain control over access to all aid deliveries to all 2.3 million people in Gaza. Israel monitors the limited aid deliveries to Gaza via the Rafah crossing with Egypt and the Israel-controlled Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing. Will the resolution pass? To pass, the resolution needs at least nine votes in favour out of the 15 member states, and no vetoes by the US, France, China, the United Kingdom or Russia — the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. While Thomas-Greenfield told reporters that the draft is now “a resolution we can support”, she declined to specify whether the US will vote in favour or abstain. The vote, however, was delayed until Friday after Russia – also a veto power – and some other council members complained during closed-door talks about the amendments made to appease Washington, diplomats said. Russia’s UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzya declined to speak to reporters after the meeting. Now that the language that initially called for a “cessation of hostilities” has been diluted significantly, there is no guarantee that permanent members Russia and China will be on board. Russia and China previously vetoed a US-led resolution on October 25, which called for a “humanitarian pause” instead of a “ceasefire”. If it passes, will it make a difference? Gaza urgently needs food as its entire population is experiencing a hunger crisis, a UN-backed report says. A significantly large proportion of households is experiencing food insecurity and the threat of famine is rising. While the clause of unhindered aid access sounds promising in theory, the delivery of food and other assistance lagged Gaza’s needs even before the war. More than two months of fighting have created a further backlog of assistance requirements. Meanwhile, Israel has so far not lived up to the aid commitments it has made. Earlier, a humanitarian pause was brokered between Israel and Hamas to allow for a prisoner and captive exchange, alongside allowing for more humanitarian aid to enter Gaza. But even during the pause, about 200 aid trucks entered Gaza every day, compared with the 500 trucks that would enter daily before the outbreak of violence on October 7. The UN said the flow of aid during the truce was no match to the needs of Gaza’s civilians. Hunger in the enclave has only worsened since,
‘The Fat One’ sings: Spain’s Christmas lottery rolls out millions in prizes
Known as ‘El Gordo’, the world’s richest lottery is set to pay out close to $3bn in prizes. People across Spain have been tuning in to watch the televised draw of the Christmas lottery known as “El Gordo” (‘The Fat One’), as pupils from Madrid’s San Ildefonso school began singing out the prize-winning numbers. A total of 2.6 billion euros ($2.86bn) in prizes will be distributed this year, most in small amounts, as Friday’s announcements were sung out, as is the tradition. Most people buy fractions of full tickets, with the most common purchase a 20-euro ($22) share, offering a top prize of 400,000 euros ($440,000). The two-centuries-old tradition kicks off the festive season and is televised from Madrid’s Teatro Real opera house, with tens of thousands of people tuning in to radio stations and watching online. Purchasing and sharing tickets in the run-up to Christmas is a much-loved tradition among families and friends, and is celebrated in bars, sports clubs and on the streets. Children at the school in the Spanish capital pick the numbers from among 100,000 small wooden balls drawn from two large golden rolling drums, showing the ticket numbers and their corresponding prizes. They sing out both figures, that cadence well-known across the country. The event lasts approximately three and half hours as ticket holders wait in anticipation for the jackpot known as “El Gordo” to be called out. People in costumes wait before the start of the draw of Spain’s traditional Christmas lottery ‘El Gordo’, at Teatro Real, Madrid, Spain, on December 22, 2023 [Susana Vera/ Reuters] While other lotteries may have bigger individual top prizes, El Gordo, held each year on December 22, is ranked as the world’s richest for the total prize money involved. Spain established its national lottery as a charity in 1763 during the reign of King Carlos III. Its objective later became to shore up state coffers. The December 22 lottery began in 1812 and children have been singing the prizes since the beginning. Adblock test (Why?)