House passes defense bill, clearing it for Biden
The House on Thursday overwhelmingly passed an $886 billion defense bill, clearing the measure for President Joe Biden after pushing past a revolt from the far right over the exclusion of restrictions they had sought to abortion access, transgender care, and racial diversity and inclusion policies at the Pentagon. The 310-118 vote reflected the bipartisan nature of the bill, which earned the support of a majority of Democrats and Republicans despite the vocal opposition of hard-liners, who staged a last-ditch rebellion on the House floor to try to block its passage. Biden is expected to sign the measure into law.
Schumer delays holiday break, pressing for border deal to unlock Ukraine aid
Senate Democrats announced Thursday that they would put off their upcoming holiday break and stay in Washington next week to press for passage of a bill pairing military assistance for Ukraine with a crackdown on migration at the U.S. border with Mexico, as lawmakers on both sides of the talks reported progress toward a compromise. The move, announced by Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the majority leader, was a bid by Democrats to intensify the pressure on Republicans to drop their opposition to the Ukraine funding bill, after House GOP leaders left Washington for the year without acting on the matter.
Former FBI spy hunter sentenced to 4 years in prison
A federal judge in Manhattan on Thursday sentenced a former top FBI agent to more than four years in prison for conspiring to launder money and violate U.S. sanctions intended to punish a Russian oligarch with ties to President Vladimir Putin. Charles McGonigal had served as chief of counterintelligence for the FBI in New York, a crucial and sensitive position inside the U.S. intelligence community, before retiring in 2018. In January, however, McGonigal’s reputation as a spy hunter was upended when he was arrested by federal agents and two indictments were unsealed in New York and Washington.
GOP support grows for a house candidate with a disputed military record
J.R. Majewski, a Donald Trump acolyte from Ohio whom House Republicans abandoned the first time he ran for Congress in the 2022 midterm elections after discrepancies in his military record emerged, is back as a candidate — and with some prominent GOP names behind him. Majewski, an Air Force veteran, picked up endorsements from Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio and Frank LaRose, Ohio’s secretary of state, in his Republican primary as he seeks to challenge Rep. Marcy Kaptur, a Democrat, in the 9th District. The show of support contrasted sharply with the National Republican Congressional Committee’s canceling its ads for Majewski during the final six weeks of his 2022 race.
State Department’s fight against disinformation comes under attack
A Republican-led campaign against researchers who study disinformation online has zeroed in on the most prominent American government agency dedicated to countering propaganda and other information operations from terrorists and hostile nations. The State Department’s Global Engagement Center is facing a torrent of accusations in court and in Congress that it has helped the social media giants — including Facebook, YouTube and X (formerly Twitter) — censor Americans in violation of the First Amendment. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and two conservative digital news outlets last week became the latest plaintiffs to sue the department and its top officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Brazil’s congress weakens protection of Indigenous lands
On Thursday, Brazil’s Congress approved a law that threatens Indigenous people’s rights to most of the land they inhabit or claim, potentially opening vast territories to deforestation, farming and mining — and in turn contributing to climate change. The new law requires Indigenous people to provide concrete evidence that they occupied the land they claim on Oct. 5, 1988 — a difficult, if not impossible, requirement for many. The law allows Indigenous land claims going through the legal process to be thrown out for lacking such documentation. Established legal protections for Indigenous territories can also be legally challenged and rescinded.
By wire sources