Jeffries wins historic bid to lead House Dems after Pelosi
WASHINGTON (AP) — New York congressman Hakeem Jeffries has been elected House Democratic leader and will become in the new year the first Black American to lead a major political party in Congress. Democrats met Wednesday behind closed doors for the internal party elections as Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her team step aside. House Democrats are ushering in a new generation of leaders. The 52-year-old Jeffries has vowed to “get things done,” even after Republicans won control of the chamber and relegate Democrats to the minority party in January. The trio led by Jeffries includes 59-year-old Rep. Katherine Clark of Massachusetts as the Democratic whip and 43-year-old Rep. Pete Aguilar of California as caucus chairman.
Treasury making Trump taxes available to House committee
The Treasury Department says it has complied with a court order to make former President Donald Trump’s tax returns available to a congressional committee. The Supreme Court last week rejected Trump’s request for an order that would have prevented Treasury from giving six years of tax returns for Trump and some of his businesses to the Democratic-controlled House Ways and Means Committee. The court ended the three-year legal battle over disclosure of Trump’s tax returns. A department spokesperson said “Treasury has complied with last week’s court decision” but declined to say whether the committee had accessed the documents.
Ex-FTX CEO says he didn’t ‘knowingly’ misuse clients’ funds
The former CEO of the failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX says that he did not “knowingly” misuse customers’ funds. He also says he believes his millions of angry customers will eventually be made whole. The comments from Sam Bankman-Fried came during an interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin at conference put on by The New York Times. Bankman-Fried has done a handful of media interviews since FTX collapsed in mid-November, but Wednesday’s was his first video interview since it filed for bankruptcy protection on Nov. 11. FTX failed in the cryptocurrency version of a bank run.
NYC to involuntarily remove mentally ill people from streets
Acting to address “a crisis we see all around us” toward the end of a year that has seen a string of high-profile crimes involving homeless people, New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced a push Tuesday to remove people with severe, untreated mental illness from the city’s streets and subways. Adams said the effort would require involuntarily hospitalizing people who were a danger to themselves, even if they posed no risk of harm to others, arguing the city had a “moral obligation” to help them. Officials in New York said the city would roll out training immediately to “ensure compassionate care.”
Deaths from substance abuse rose sharply among older Americans in 2020
Deaths due to substance abuse, particularly of alcohol and opioids, rose sharply among older Americans in 2020, the first year of the coronavirus pandemic, as lockdowns disrupted routines and isolation and fear spread, federal health researchers reported Wednesday. Alcohol and opioid deaths remained far less common among older people than among those middle-aged and younger. But the pronounced uptick surprised government researchers. Deaths from opioids increased among Americans age 65 and older by 53% in 2020 over the previous year, the National Center for Health Statistics found. Alcohol-related deaths rose by 18%.
Special court needed for Russian crimes in Ukraine, EU chief says
The European Union’s top official Wednesday proposed the creation of a United Nations-backed court to investigate and prosecute possible Russian crimes in the war in Ukraine, reflecting growing calls in Kyiv and the West for holding Moscow accountable for atrocities committed since its invasion. The idea, which would have to overcome significant procedural hurdles to become reality, underlines growing frustration among Ukrainians and their supporters that the international justice system is not equipped to prosecute top Russian officials over the invasion, even as independent investigators have documented evidence of possible war crimes, including the murder and torture of civilians.
Islamic State chief is dead and new one is picked. Both are unknown.
The jihadis of the Islamic State group announced Wednesday that their leader, whose identity had remained shrouded in mystery, had been killed in battle less than nine months after taking charge of the terrorist organization. A spokesperson for U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. troops in Syria, confirmed that the leader was dead, saying he had been killed in mid-October by anti-government rebels in southern Syria. The Islamic State also named a successor, but provided no information about him other than a nom de guerre. The leadership transition, announced through a voice message on Telegram, came at a time of extreme weakness for the group.
China vows crackdown on ‘hostile forces’ as public tests Xi
China’s ruling Communist Party has vowed to “resolutely crack down on infiltration and sabotage activities by hostile forces.” The Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission’s statement was released late Tuesday after the largest street demonstrations in decades by citizens fed up with strict anti-virus restrictions. While it did not directly address protests, the statement serves as a reminder of the party’s determination to enforce its rule. There has been a massive show of force by the internal security services to deter a recurrence of protests that broke out over the weekend in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other cities. Security forces have conducted random ID checks and searched mobile phones for evidence of participation in demonstrations.
By wire sources