US Congress Useless
A man accused of putting a bounty on the life of Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino was found not guilty Thursday. A verdict was reached just before 4 p.m. The jury of six men and six women got the case about 12:45 p.m. Thursday. Closing arguments took up all of the morning. The government was unable to provide any evidence to corroborate an alleged murder-for-hire plot. According to the statute, a person commits murder for hire if they take a substantial step toward committing the crime. That substantial step must be an act that strongly corroborates that the defendant intended to carry it out.
In November 2020, a freak wave appeared, lifting a lone buoy off the coast of British Columbia 17.6 meters (58 feet) high.
Pope Leo is among world leaders invited to join Donald Trump's "Board of Peace" according to Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vaticans top diplomatic official.
Leo, the first U.S. pope and a critic of some of Trump's policies, is evaluating the invitation, he said. Read more
Police have ruled a Florida man's actions self-defense after he shot a felon who allegedly attempted to abduct his wife. According to Fox News affiliate WTVT-TV, citing the Manatee County Sheriff's Office, Nicholas Palomo, a 36-year-old felon who had previously gone to prison for kidnapping and other crimes, attempted to abduct a woman who was walking her dog in Bradenton, Florida, on New Year's Day. The woman managed to run away from Palomo's car and warned her husband, who went outside to confront Palomo.
President Volodymyr Zelensky says trilateral talks on ending the war in Ukraine are to take place with Russia and the US in the United Arab Emirates, after he met President Donald Trump in Davos. "It's all about the land. This is the issue which is not solved yet," Zelensky told reporters at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland - adding that trilateral talks might provide the two sides with "variants".
France says it has seized an oil tanker in the Mediterranean suspected of being part of Russia's sanction-busting "shadow fleet". French President Emmanuel Macron said the tanker, named the Grinch, was "subject to international sanctions and suspected of flying a false flag". Read more
A Minnesota federal magistrate judge refused to sign a complaint charging independent journalist Don Lemon in connection with a protest inside a church in St. Paul on Sunday, multiple sources familiar with the proceedings told CBS News. "The attorney general is enraged at the magistrate's decision," said a source familiar with the matter. Attorney General Pam Bondi has been in Minnesota for two days, as the Justice Department has sought to surge prosecutorial and law enforcement resources there.
In the run-up to the 2016 Democratic Party convention, FBI Director James Comey gained access to at least eight thumb drives containing large volumes of former Secretary Hillary Clinton's sensitive State Department emails " as well as some from President Obama " that appeared to have been compromised by foreign hackers. Instead of investigating the explosive new batch of evidence revealed in recently declassified documents, Comey rushed ahead to close an investigation into whether Clinton improperly transmitted and received classified material from a private, unsecured server she kept in her basement. Comey also took the extraordinary step of bypassing the attorney general and personally exonerating Clinton of wrongdoing during an unusual press conference on July 5, 2016. Just hours later, Obama invited Clinton " who would be formally nominated as the Democrats' standard bearer three weeks later " aboard Air Force One to help launch her multicity campaign tour
Mr Smith goes to Washington to remind Congress and America of Trump's crimes and that no man should be above the law.
The Justice Department seized two mission crew trainers (MCTs) that were interdicted in transit from the Test Flying Academy of South Africa (TFASA) to the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA). The mission crew trainers (MCTs) are mobile classrooms intended to assist the PLA to train personnel on the use of airborne warning and control systems and antisubmarine warfare (ASW) aircraft.
Seized MCTs
Trump is the ultimate deal maker. President Donald Trump said Wednesday he will not impose tariffs that were set to take effect Feb. 1, citing a "framework of a future deal" with NATO involving Greenland and the Arctic region. "Based upon a very productive meeting that I have had with the Secretary General of NATO, Mark Rutte, we have formed the framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland and, in fact, the entire Arctic Region," Trump wrote on Truth Social. Trump said the deal, if finalized, "will be a great one for the United States of America, and all NATO Nations," adding that the agreement led him to halt the planned tariffs.
It's a war of the worlds at CBS News.
Ten people familiar with the workings of CBS News say the Paramount Skydance unit is veering toward dysfunction, with a management team led by Bari Weiss that doesn't value the standards held by veteran journalists - and a staff that views its editor-in-chief and her hand-picked senior staff with great skepticism, owing to her lack of experience managing mainstream media assets.
President Donald Trump said he won't impose a promised tariff increases on European countries starting in February if a new deal with Greenland can be "consummated." "Based upon a very productive meeting that I have had with the Secretary General of NATO, Mark Rutte, we have formed the framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland and, in fact, the entire Arctic Region," Trump posted on his Truth Social platform Wednesday. "This solution, if consummated, will be a great one for the United States of America, and all NATO Nations. Based upon this understanding, I will not be imposing the Tariffs that were scheduled to go into effect on February 1st." Trump did not provide specifics as to what the "solution, if consummated," will be.
Trump announced on Wednesday that he would not follow through on his threat to impose tariffs on eight European allies on Feb. 1 over their opposition to his claim of Greenland. Why it matters: Trump already dropped his threat to invade Greenland earlier Wednesday, and has now reversed his tariff threat " which had triggered a crisis in the transatlantic alliance and rattled global markets.
Swedish pension fund Alecta has divested most of its holdings in U.S. Treasuries amid increased risk and unpredictability in U.S. politics, business daily Dagens Industri (DI) reported on Wednesday, citing the company. Alecta did not immediately respond to a request for comment. DI reported, not identifying its sources, that Alecta's divestment totalled around 70 billion-80 billion Swedish crowns ($7.7 billion-8.8 billion).
