Summary

House Speaker Mike Johnson faces growing Republican dissent over his handling of government funding, potentially jeopardizing his reelection as speaker on January 3.

Allies are urging Donald Trump to reaffirm his support for Johnson to avoid a prolonged leadership fight, which could delay certification of Trump’s 2024 election victory on January 6.

Johnson’s bipartisan spending bill, criticized by Trump, narrowly averted a government shutdown but failed to include Trump’s core debt-limit demands.

Some Republicans warn that a speakerless House would disrupt critical legislative processes, including election certification.

With just weeks left in office, US President Joe Biden has commuted the sentences of 37 of 40 federal death row inmates - potentially thwarting President-elect Donald Trump's plans to expand federal executions during his upcoming administration.

Summary

President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of 37 federal death row inmates to life without parole, sparing all but three convicted of high-profile mass killings.

Biden framed the decision as a moral stance against federal executions, citing his legal background and belief in the dignity of human life.

Donald Trump criticized the move as senseless, vowing to reinstate the death penalty.

Reactions were mixed: some victims’ families condemned Biden, while others supported his decision. Human rights groups praised it as a significant step against capital punishment.

Trump and his dipshit crypto bros are planning to steal billions from the U.S. Treasury using an engineered crypto bubble.

While Catholic U.S. President Joe Biden continues to provide weapons to Israel that have killed over 45,000 Palestinians in Gaza, Pope Francis has called for an investigation to determine if Israel's military attacks on Gaza constitute genocide and by implication that the Biden administration is a participant in the genocide. It would not be the first time the Pope has identified the role of individual Catholics in genocide. In 2017, Pope Francis asked for forgiveness for Catholic church's role in Rwanda genocide acknowledging that some Catholic priests and nuns ‘succumbed to hatred and violence’ by taking part in 1994 killings.

Summary

Luigi Mangione’s lawyer accused New York Mayor Eric Adams of politicizing Mangione’s arrest for the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

Adams attended Mangione’s perp walk, calling it symbolic, but Mangione’s attorney claimed the spectacle aimed to distract from Adams’ own federal corruption charges.

Mangione, arrested in Pennsylvania, faces first-degree murder charges in Manhattan tied to terrorism, as well as federal charges potentially carrying the death penalty.

His lawyer emphasized the presumption of innocence during his Monday court appearance. Trial dates for both cases have yet to be set.

President-elect Donald Trump has once again suggested he wants to revert the name of North America’s tallest mountain — Alaska’s Denali — to Mount McKinley, wading into a sensitive and decades-old conflict about what the peak should be called.

Big Dog Sick

Summary

Tesla lobbies for stricter EV incentives in the UK, including higher taxes on fossil fuel vehicles, while opposing EV subsidies in the U.S. due to Elon Musk’s political support for Donald Trump.

Tesla previously supported federal EV incentives, but Musk’s political stance has since shifted, prioritizing his anti-“woke” agenda.

Critics argue this approach undermines Tesla’s mission to advance sustainable transportation.

The contrast between Tesla’s lobbying strategies in the U.S. and UK highlights a tension between the company’s goals and Musk’s personal politics.

Sigh... What a complete moron.

The president-elect is renewing unsuccessful calls he made during his first term for the U.S. to buy Greenland from Denmark, adding to the list of allied countries with which he’s picking fights even before taking office on Jan. 20.

From the report: “The Committee determined there is substantial evidence that Representative Gaetz violated House Rules and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, impermissible gifts, special favors or privileges, and obstruction of Congress.”

More: “The record overwhelmingly suggests that Representative Gaetz had sex with multiple women at a 2017 Florida party, including the then-17-year-old, for which they were paid… Victim A recalled receiving $400 in cash from Representative Gaetz that evening, which she understood to be payment for sex. At the time, she had just completed her junior year of high school. Victim A said that she did not inform Representative Gaetz that she was under 18 at the time, nor did he ask her age.”