Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi will likely require surgery for a hip injury she sustained after falling down stairs while abroad on a congressional delegation trip in Luxembourg, sources familiar with the situation tell ABC News.

Pelosi, 84, is currently hospitalized and receiving medical care, according to her office.

“While traveling with a bipartisan Congressional delegation in Luxembourg to mark the 80th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi sustained an injury during an official engagement and was admitted to the hospital for evaluation,” her spokesperson Ian Krager said in a statement.

“Speaker Emerita Pelosi is currently receiving excellent treatment from doctors and medical professionals,” the statement read. “She continues to work and regrets that she is unable to attend the remainder of the CODEL engagements to honor the courage of our servicemembers during one of the greatest acts of American heroism in our nation’s history.”

“Speaker Emerita Pelosi conveys her thanks and praise to our veterans and gratitude to people of Luxembourg and Bastogne for their service in World War II and their role in bringing peace to Europe,” Krager added.

Eighteen House members are part of the delegation, according to House Speaker Mike Johnson. They were to take part in observances of the anniversary of the pivotal World War II battle on Friday and Saturday.

Other lawmakers on the trip include Republican Rep. Michael McCaul, the chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, and Democratic Rep. Mark Takano, ranking member of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs.

Pelosi in November won reelection to her California seat, clinching a landmark 20th term.

Despite stepping down from leadership in 2022 after Republicans won control of the House, Pelosi remains a key Democratic power player. She worked behind the scenes to urge President Joe Biden to step out of the 2024 race after his CNN debate performance, ABC News reported at the time.

Pelosi later said Biden’s late exit was a key factor in Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss to President-elect Donald Trump.

A drone fell out of the sky and crashed into a New Jersey homeowner’s backyard Thursday night — prompting the town’s mayor to even drive to the scene to survey the site himself.

The aircraft smashed down in a residential area of Pequannock Township in Morris County around 8:45 p.m. Thursday, according to police and dispatch audio.

Officials determined the craft was “a hobby or toy type of drone” and “not a large commercial or military grade drone,” the Pequannock Police Department told The Post.

It comes on the heels of New Jersey cops warning of possible “copycats.”

“What we think is it started as some sort of Picatinny Arsenal base surveillance drill or operation but once it exploded online, this became a copycat situation,” one Garden State police chief theorized.

The US Army’s Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center is located at the Picatinny Arsenal and is one of the sites where several mystery drone sightings have been reported, which has prompted concern.

As a highly secure facility that develops and tests new bombs, guns, ammunition and warfare devices for all branches of the military, it is a target for espionage by foreign adversaries.

When The Post arrived at the crash site Thursday night, the resident was putting his trash cans out and declined to comment.

However, as paranoia grips the state, the report of one crashing into a homeowner’s backyard had the mayor rushing to the scene.

The mayor of Pequannock, Ryan Herd, pulled up in a Ford Econoline work van to survey the crash scene for himself.

Herd told The Post “it is definitely not” one of the massive, car-size drones that purportedly have been hovering overhead.

He said he’s “absolutely” concerned that “nobody knows whose drones are flying over us and what they’re flying over us for and where they’re taking off and landing.”

“Drones are flying over our houses, which is our private property. My family is here,” he added.

The Morris County Prosecutor’s Office is investigating the incident.

Meanwhile, there was a second report of a downed drone that hit a powerline in nearby Randolph Township less than an hour later.

The report turned out to be unfounded, the Morris County Sheriff’s Office confirmed.

In a follow-up phone call Friday morning, Herd urged residents not to chase after, shoot at or attempt to catch any of the large drones.

“We can’t be putting up Class 1 and Class 2 drones trying to follow these drones. God forbid something happens and it crashes into the big drone, and the big drone crashes into a house and kills six people — that’s going to be a problem,” he said.

Local officials have told The Post that many sightings farther afield could be either civilian copycats flying their own drones or people mistaking planes, helicopters or satellites for UFOs.

After receiving reports of drone activity last month near Morris County, New Jersey, the Federal Aviation Administration issued temporary bans on drone flights over a golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey — owned by President-elect Donald Trump — and over Picatinny Arsenal Military Base.

The FAA says the bans were in response to requests from “federal security partners.”

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters Thursday that federal investigators have been unable to verify any of the 3,000-plus reports of car-size drones patrolling the nighttime skies in recent weeks.

Pentagon officials have said they do not believe the drones are a foreign asset.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said earlier this week the aircraft are “very sophisticated,” noting that “the minute you get your eyes on them, they go dark” — but promised residents that the devices are not a threat to public safety.

Murphy said New Jerseyans should not shoot them out of the sky — but welcomed federal authorities to take them down to study, NJ.com reported.

c

President-elect Donald Trump has announced a commitment to abolish Daylight Saving Time (DST), calling it “inconvenient and very costly to our nation.”

In a recent Truth Social post, Trump wrote:

“The Republican Party will use its best efforts to eliminate Daylight Saving Time, which has a small but strong constituency, but shouldn’t!

Daylight Saving Time is inconvenient, and very costly to our Nation.”

Daylight Saving Time involves setting clocks forward by one hour during warmer months to extend evening daylight and then reverting them in cooler months.

The practice was standardized in the U.S. with the Uniform Time Act of 1966, aiming to conserve energy and make better use of daylight.

However, its effectiveness has been debated, with studies showing minimal energy savings and highlighting potential health risks, such as increased heart attacks and workplace injuries following the time changes.

Studies have shown that the shift to DST in spring increases the risk of heart attacks by about 24% on the following Monday, and there are also reports of increased stroke risks shortly after the time change, according to the University of Michigan.

Sleep deprivation associated with the time change can result in chronic sleep loss, which is known to contribute to various health problems, including mood disturbances, suicide, and increased risk of accidents, according to the non-profit Sleep Foundation.

The change in time disrupts the sleep-wake cycle, resulting in “social jet lag,” where individuals experience misalignment between their internal clock and social obligations.

Many people report feeling tired and less alert following the spring transition to DST, and this fatigue can contribute to decreased productivity.

The U.S. economy loses approximately $434 million annually due to productivity declines caused by increased sleep disturbances and workplace injuries during the DST transition periods, according to New York Times.

Additionally, the shift leads to increased workplace injuries and more frequent incidents of “cyberloafing,” where employees spend work time on non-work-related internet activities.

In 2019, Trump wrote, “Making Daylight Saving Time permanent is O.K. with me!” This mean, the time used during daylight saving time—where clocks are set forward by one hour to provide more daylight in the evening—would become the standard time year-round.

Making Daylight Saving Time permanent is O.K. with me!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 11, 2019

Elon Musk, appointed by Trump to head the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), reacted to a survey on X showing overwhelming support for eliminating the biannual clock changes in spring and fall.

Musk wrote, “Looks like the people want to abolish the annoying time changes!”

💯💯💯 leave it daylight savings time always.

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) November 27, 2024

A woman in Florida has been arrested after she allegedly threatened the health insurance company BlueShield with a copycat crime following the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

The woman, 42-year-old Briana Boston of Lakeland, allegedly called BlueCross BlueShield in response to a recent medical claim being denied and issued a threat echoing the UnitedHealthcare CEO killer’s words.

“Delay, deny, depose. You people are next,” she allegedly said to the company over the phone.

The words “Delay, Deny, Depose” were written on the bullet casings used to kill UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

When police arrived at Boston’s home to question her about the phone call, she allegedly told them that “healthcare companies played games and deserved karma from the world because they are evil.” She also told police she owned no firearms and had no intention to hurt anyone, which the police did not believe.

Per the New York Post:

But police said the angry mom intended to threaten the company by purposefully invoking a phrase strikingly similar to the one Luigi Mangione allegedly scrawled on bullets he’s accused of shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson with.

Mangione, who is facing a murder charge in the slaying, allegedly wrote “Deny,” “Defend,” and “Depose” on ammunition recovered at the murder scene outside a Midtown Manhattan hotel.

Boston’s bail has been set at $100,000. Lakeland Police Chief Sam Taylor told WFLA that she should have known better than to issue such threats.

“She’s been in this world long enough that she certainly should know better that you can’t make threats like that in the current environment that we live in and think that we’re not going to follow up and put you in jail,” Taylor said.

Though hardcore leftists have either been celebrating Mangione as a hero or at least have expressed sympathy for his alleged crime, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) denounced those views.

“In America, we do not kill people in cold blood to resolve policy differences or express a viewpoint,” he said.

“I understand people have real frustration with our healthcare system. I have worked to address that throughout my career. But I have no tolerance, nor should anyone, for one man using an illegal ghost gun to murder someone because he thinks his opinion matters most. In a civil society, we are all less safe when ideologues engage in vigilante justice.”

Former U.S. Marine Daniel Penny accepted Vice President-elect J.D. Vance’s invitation Friday to be his personal guest at the upcoming Army-Navy game over the weekend.

A jury found Penny not guilty of criminally negligent homicide on Monday relating to the death of Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old homeless man, who the now-former defendant held in a chokehold to protect surrounding passengers on a New York City subway in May 2023. Vance praised Penny for his “courage” and criticized Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who prosecuted the former Marine, for attempting to “ruin [Penny’s] life for having a backbone” in a Friday post on X.

“Daniel’s a good guy, and New York’s mob district attorney tried to ruin his life for having a backbone,” Vance said. “I’m grateful he accepted my invitation and hope he’s able to have fun and appreciate how much his fellow citizens admire his courage.”

Daniel’s a good guy, and New York’s mob district attorney tried to ruin his life for having a backbone.

I’m grateful he accepted my invitation and hope he’s able to have fun and appreciate how much his fellow citizens admire his courage. https://t.co/b4bY0G0EM3

— JD Vance (@JDVance) December 13, 2024

Multiple witnesses said Neely approached commuters in an erratic and threatening manner by screaming, aggressively throwing his jacket on the ground and exclaiming that he did not care about going to jail. The day following his acquittal, Penny told Fox News’ Judge Jeanine Pirro that he would have felt immense guilt if Neely had harmed someone on the subway during a Tuesday Fox Nation interview.

“This type of thing is very uncomfortable. All this attention and limelight is very uncomfortable. I would prefer without it. I didn’t want any type of attention or praise … and I still don’t. The guilt I would have felt if someone did get hurt if he did do what he was threatening to do, I would never be able to live with myself,” Penny said.

Bragg initially charged Penny in May 2023 with second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. The manslaughter charge carried a sentence of up to 15 years in prison, while the negligent homicide charge held a maximum of four years imprisonment.

Judge Maxwell Wiley, who oversaw the trial, dropped the manslaughter charge after the jury reached a “deadlock” during their Dec. 6 deliberations.

In a separate case, Bragg charged President-elect Donald Trump with 34 felony counts for allegedly attempting to falsify business records to cover up a $130,000 hush money payment to former porn actress Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election. Months after the jury convicted Trump on all counts, his legal team has requested that Judge Juan Merchan dismiss the case since he will assume office in January.

The Biden administration’s liberal use of a the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) led to 240% surge of foreign nationals protected from deportation and granted interim legal status in the United States, according to the most recent data from the research arm of Congress.

The data, which showed consistent increases in immigrants granted “TPS” status since President Joe Biden took office in early 2021, make up just part of the largest illegal and legal immigration surge in American history.

Critics say the Biden administration’s expansion of the number of immigrants protected with the status has worsened the migrant crisis and granted de facto amnesty to illegal immigrants. In raw numbers, TPS recipients increased from 320,000 at the beginning of Biden’s administration in April 2021 to 1,095,115 in the waning months of Biden’s term in December 2024, according to the most recent data gathered and published last week by the Congressional Research Service.

This is a 240% increase in TPS immigrants and occurred after the administration extended protections to several new countries.

You can read the most recent report from the CRS here. 

Protected from removal

After taking office, President Biden extended TPS protections to people from more than 17 countries, including those in geopolitical hotspots like Ukraine, Lebanon, and Syria along with others that suffer poverty and instability. He also restored protections for immigrants from many countries removed from the list by the Trump administration, which previously deemed that conditions in those countries were not sufficient to warrant inclusion in the program.

The 17 countries on the list are: Afghanistan, Burma, Cameroon, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Haiti, Honduras, Lebanon, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, Venezuela, and Yemen.

The more than 1 million immigrants from countries designated under TPS are protected from removal. The Biden administration and Democratic legislators sought repeatedly throughout its term to extend a pathway for Legal Permanent Residence (LPR) status, yet, Congress did not act on the requests.

The administration’s use of TPS was seen as a way to act on accomplishing progressive immigration priorities, especially after a Democratic trifecta government failed to pass Biden’s proposed immigration reforms in 2021.

A proxy for amnesty

After Republicans took the House in the 2022 elections, TPS proponents saw it as an opportunity to expand help to immigrants without the legislative branch. “It’s something that they can do without congressional approval,” then-Senator Bob Menendez, D-N.J., said of expanding TPS.

“They could reauthorize those categories and expand on it,” he said, according to Roll Call. “So that would be a way of administratively helping a large number of people.”

However, some critics say that Biden the expansive use of the program has encouraged more illegal immigration by using it as a proxy for amnesty, which the administration was unable to pass through Congress.

“While previous administrations have misused the TPS authority, the Biden Administration appears to be deliberately using TPS to grant amnesty by executive fiat to the millions of illegal aliens it has allowed into American communities,” wrote Robert Law, former policy advisor at the Homeland Security Department and Director of the Center for Homeland Security and Immigration at the America First Policy Institute, a Trump-aligned think-tank.

The liberal use of TPS also allows the administration to provide a quasi-amnesty to scores of illegal immigrants, exposing a flaw in the program which is designed for temporary relief from disasters or wars in an immigrant’s home country.

“TPS offers an alien a temporary immigration status. Because most, if not all, of the beneficiaries are illegal aliens, a grant of TPS is quite lucrative. In addition to generally having a reprieve from deportation, aliens with TPS are also able to obtain EADs (work permits), Social Security numbers, driver’s licenses, and the ability to travel internationally and be allowed back into the United States,” Law wrote.

Harkens back to 1850’s Ellis Island

“The plethora of benefits available to an illegal alien with TPS underscores the inherent flaw in the current application of this statutory authority. Illegal aliens, whether they are EWI [entry without inspection] or overstayed their visa, have no intention of returning to their home countries,” he continued.

The considerable increase in immigrants protected by TPS comes during what data shows is the largest immigration surge in American history. From 2021 to 2023, annual net immigration averaged 2.4 million people, both legal and illegal immigrants, according to many media reports and Congressional Budget Office data. This was a faster pace of arrivals than at any time during the United States’ nearly 250 year history, even outstripping the rate of the peak years of Ellis Island traffic, The New York Times noted.

Taking into account the differences in population, the last time the country experienced a similar level of immigration was 1850, when new immigrants reached 0.6% of the country’s total population. The current explosion of immigration has also resulted in a new high for the percentage of the U.S. population that is foreign-born, now 15.2%. This is up from 13.6 percent in 2020. The previous record was 14.8% in 1890.

President-elect Trump is expected to reverse the Biden administration’s immigration policies, by finishing his signature border wall and mounting an effort to deport millions of illegal immigrants that entered the country in the last four years.

He has also promised to target Biden’s TPS expansion, which he criticized during the campaign. Trump tried to remove several countries from the TPS list during his first term, but the move was halted by a court challenge. When Biden was inaugurated, the federal government abandoned the effort.

The couple who run PinkNews, the world’s largest LGBT news website, have been accused by staff of multiple incidents of sexual misconduct.

Several former staff members told the BBC they saw Anthony James, a director at the UK-based company and husband of its founder, kissing and touching a junior colleague who they say appeared too drunk to consent.

And more than 30 current and former members of staff said a culture of heavy drinking led to instances when founder Benjamin Cohen and his husband behaved inappropriately towards younger male employees.

Representatives for Mr Cohen and Dr James told the BBC they were not able to provide a statement at this time, but that their position is that the allegations are false.

Run by family members of Mr Cohen – his husband and former GP Dr James is chief operating officer, and his father Richard is the chief lawyer – PinkNews says its mission is “to inform, inspire change and empower people to be themselves”.

It played an influential role in the campaign for marriage equality in the UK and its annual awards ceremony has attracted prime ministers and other politicians.

Away from the cameras and red carpets, however, multiple former staff members have told the BBC they had experienced bullying and sexual misconduct which made some of them feel unsafe to be alone around Mr Cohen and Dr James. Allegations of misogyny have also emerged and several people told us that some young female members of staff had been asked to act as the couple’s surrogates.

As well as interviewing 33 people who worked at PinkNews between 2017 and 2024, we have also seen a variety of evidence including official written complaints, private emails and WhatsApp messages sharing staff members’ concerns, plus doctors’ records referring to stress and mental health struggles attributed to the work environment at PinkNews.

Speaking after this story was first published, the Prime Minister’s spokesperson called the reports “very concerning”. While he would not comment on specifics of the case, he said that he believed “everyone should be free” from inappropriate behaviour in the workplace.

“People should always feel confident to come forward in these situations,” he added.

Asked if Mr Starmer would attend the Pink News Awards again, following a previous appearance in 2022, he said he could not comment on the specifics at this stage.

‘They weren’t capable of consenting’

Five former members of staff told the BBC they had witnessed Dr James groping and kissing a junior member of staff, who they said was “too drunk to stand or talk” and “unable to consent”.

The alleged incident happened outside a central London pub, where staff had gathered after a PinkNews event.

A former PinkNews staff member, who we are calling Gary, said Dr James had led the junior colleague behind a tree. “Anthony was just forcing himself on somebody who wasn’t able to make that decision for themselves because of how intoxicated they were,” he said.

People at the event said they helped the alleged victim get home in a taxi.

But several former members of staff who said they witnessed the incident told us they were too scared to complain. One person said: “It’s the CEO’s husband, what are you going to do? Lose your job?”

A complaint about the incident was made later by a staff member, and was shared with several members of the senior leadership team at PinkNews. The BBC has been shown multiple copies of the complaint but has been unable to establish whether any action was taken as a result.

Many of the former employees said staff socials or awaydays often involved drinking until the early hours of the morning and that “Prosecco Friday” – where staff would be given free wine and crisps – was introduced in the office in an effort to boost staff morale.

Another former staff member we are calling Damian said he personally experienced inappropriate behaviour from Mr Cohen during an evening at the pub after work.

“Ben was extremely drunk to the point he fell off his chair, and then asked me out of earshot of my other colleagues whether I wanted to go back to his […] because Anthony his husband wasn’t there,” Damian said.

“He said something along the lines of ‘Anthony is always getting with other men’ and the suggestion was we would do something sexually. I was extremely uncomfortable.”

Damian said after that night, he avoided being alone with Mr Cohen for the rest of his time at PinkNews.

“I never heard about it again, no apology,” he said. “It put me on alert because it made me realise it was a boundary he thought he could cross.”

Stephan Kyriacou, who worked at PinkNews between 2019 and 2021, said the job had started as a “dream come true” where he did not have to “hide who I was or pretend”, but the dream was soon “shattered”.

During a Christmas party, Mr Kyriacou said, Mr Cohen had slapped him on the bottom in front of everyone else.

“I just shut down for a minute. I didn’t know what to say. I was in shock. I remember turning to my friends and saying, ‘What the hell just happened?'”

Mr Kyriacou said he no longer felt comfortable enough to be alone around his boss.

He said: “That just made me completely avoid him. I don’t remember ever speaking to him one-on-one after that.”

Other staff also voiced their concerns about Mr Cohen, Mr Kyriacou said, with several messages in a group chat describing him as a “creep” and staff saying they did not feel comfortable around him.

“None of us really felt like we could complain because we didn’t know what was going to happen to us. Ben is very well-known and we didn’t know whether he was going to badmouth us to people,” Mr Kyriacou said.

‘Creepy and sleazy’

Staff have told us they were shouted at and belittled by Mr Cohen, and that there was a “toxic” culture at the company.

“He can be quite brutal in the way he speaks to you,” said Damian. “When things go wrong he’d come down on you like a tonne of bricks and so you were just in this constant state of emotional flux.

“He put extreme pressures on me to the point I would go home and cry. It caused issues in my own personal relationship with my partner, and then [Benjamin] would love-bomb me and I would think everything was alright.”

Cai Wilshaw, former head of external affairs at PinkNews, said: “You had this sort of dark cloud in the office sometimes when Ben was there, that made it really difficult to actually enjoy working there.

“We worked together quite well, but it is clear that he is a very, very difficult character, and sometimes overly so in a way that really impacted people who worked with him.”

Some staff members also said they had witnessed what they called “misogynistic” behaviour.

Several people said that on occasions young, female members of staff had been asked to act as a surrogate for Mr Cohen and Dr James.

They say that often the request was delivered as a joke, but that it had made people feel “awkward and uncomfortable”.

One anonymous staff member called it “creepy and sleazy”, while another called it “part and parcel” of how “misogynistic” PinkNews was.

A spokesperson for the National Union of Journalists said it has reached out to its members following the “deeply disturbing” allegations, which they say “paint a picture of a dysfunctional and wholly unacceptable workplace environment”.

Many of the staff who spoke to the BBC said they hope the culture at PinkNews can change so it can continue to tell stories relevant to the LGBT community.

“It’s important because the mainstream media doesn’t often report on whatever’s happening to trans or queer people,” said Stephan Kyriacou. “I think if it can be overhauled, that will make a massive difference.”

Gary said there was a need for “authentic queer-led journalism and queer-led stories” but said “unfortunately PinkNews has kind of lost its credibility in that arena”.

Damian told us he believed PinkNews’ future could only be secured if Mr Cohen and Dr James took a step back.

“The fact you cannot separate the two is extremely problematic,” he said. “Ben needs to be held to account. Until the day that happens, I don’t know if there’s a future for PinkNews.”

House Republicans are considering whether to move forward with disciplinary measures against House Ethics Committee ranking member Susan Wild (D-PA) over her handling of the panel’s investigation into former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL).

Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) said he had been asked for his “view” on introducing a censure resolution against Wild, who will leave Congress in January, amid reports that she was at the center of leaks regarding the Gaetz investigation.

It’s unclear whether Republicans would move forward with such a measure, which would need to be brought to the floor next week before Congress adjourns and Wild is no longer a House member.

“House Ethics discussions are confidential, and House Ethics has no jurisdiction over individuals not serving in Congress. There must be consequences for ‘leaking,’” Perry said in a post on X.

“How can anyone have any faith in the House Ethics Committee when one of its own members are engaged in unethical practices.”

Scott said he is not “leading the effort,” but Punchbowl News reported on Friday that he was at the center of conversations on the House floor concerning the subject earlier this week.

Talk of a censure resolution comes after the Hill reported that Wild was absent from recent Ethics Committee meetings discussing the report after she was traced as the leak to some of the investigation’s findings. It was not clear whether Wild chose to skip or if she was asked not to attend.

“Rep. Wild was frustrated by the manner in which the report was handled and didn’t feel it was fruitful to participate in any further meetings on its ‘potential’ release. Characterizing it as anything more is inaccurate. There will be no further statement,” Jed Ober, Wild’s chief of staff, told the Hill.

House leaders have suggested that there should be repercussions for any committee members who were involved in possible leaks, telling Axios the practice is “dangerous.”

“We can’t set that as a precedent,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) told the outlet.

The committee has met repeatedly to discuss whether to release the investigation’s findings, although the bipartisan panel has failed to reach an agreement. Because the panel consists of five Republicans and five Democrats, any decision must have bipartisan support to be approved.

That deadlock prompted some House Democrats to take matters into their own hands, with Reps. Sean Casten (D-IL) and Steve Cohen (D-TN) both filing separate privileged resolutions that would force the House Ethics Committee to publish its report. However, both of those measures were shot down by Republicans on the House floor.

Those failed votes make it almost certain the report will never see the light of day as House leadership will appoint new members to the Ethics Committee next year and Gaetz will no longer be in contention for a Trump Cabinet position or elected office. However, if the Florida Republican does run for office in the future, some Republicans have suggested they would want to see the report released.

Update:

Texas GOP Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick says he want to buy border-construction material being auctioned by the Department of Homeland and give it to President-elect Donald Trump.

“Joe Biden is now hauling off the border wall that’s been lying down for years and he wants to auction it off starting at five dollars a piece,” Patrick told Fox News opinion-show host Laura Ingraham on Thursday. “Message to the White House right now: I will bid on all of that wall and we will buy it in Texas and we will give it to Donald Trump.”

Patrick also said he has the authority to spend Texas tax dollars that way.

“I got a billion dollars in my pocket to do it,” he said. “I write the budget with [state] Sen. Joan Huffman. We have the money.”

Border security was a top campaign issue for Trump this year, as it was when he first won the presidency in 2016.

In Trump’s next term, he is expected to ramp up border security and perhaps conduct mass deportations and end birthright citizenship.

Original:

The Biden administration is using its final weeks to haul a massive amount of border wall materials away from the southern border to be sold off in a government auction, an apparent effort to hinder President-elect Donald Trump’s effort to secure the border, The Daily Wire has reported.

Videos obtained exclusively by The Daily Wire from a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agent show unused sections of the wall being hauled away on the back of flatbed trucks from a section of the border just south of Tucson, a hotspot for illegal crossings during the Biden administration.

The agent estimates that up to half a mile per day of unused border wall is being moved.

“They are taking it from three stations: Nogales, Tucson, and Three Points,” the border patrol agent, who was granted anonymity to speak freely, told The Daily Wire. “The goal is to move all of it off the border before Christmas.”

Trump made clear during his campaign that he intends to finish construction of the border wall, making use of the materials that have remained untouched at the border since President Joe Biden took office in 2021. If the material brought to the border during his first term is sold off, it will significantly delay any progress on one of Trump’s flagship campaign promises at the border.

Watch:

EXCLUSIVE: Weeks before Trump takes office, Biden is racing to auction off unused border wall materials.

Video shows trucks hauling wall materials off the border to a government auction site, where a massive amount of wall is waiting to be sold. pic.twitter.com/ogaQMBHw7R

— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) December 12, 2024

The government contractor, DP Trucking LLC, is transporting the pieces of the wall north on Interstate 19 to Pinal Airpark in Marana, Arizona, where it is being auctioned through GovPlanet, a surplus government equipment auction marketplace.

“They just started taking all the wall that was not used, which is still totally good and usable, and they started taking it northbound,” the agent said. “They’re pulling it all off the border.”

Harold Lambeth, the owner of the trucking company, confirmed to The Daily Wire in a phone call that his company is transporting the unused border wall sections north away from the construction sites. He said he is unable to disclose further information about the work.

Video of the GovPlanet auction site where the material is being taken shows seemingly endless piles of unused border wall material. Another video, taken from one of the construction sites on the border, shows DP Trucking LLC trucks passing through with the same style of unused border wall stacked up the back of their flatbeds.

The auction website shows that sales occurred as recently as December 4 for precisely the types of materials being pulled off the border. GovPlanet has online auctions set for Dec. 11 and Dec. 18 for more of the border wall material, which is listed on the company’s website as “32.91’ X 7.91’ Steel Bollard Wall Sections w/Grout.”

The bidding for each section of wall panels is set to begin at only $5.00, according to the website.

Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ), whose congressional district borders the Pinal Airpark where the material is being sold, said the Biden administration is “purposefully hamstringing” Trump before he takes office.

“The Biden Administration is well aware they shouldn’t have reversed the construction of the border wall. If it’s true, they’re purposefully hamstringing an incoming president, it wouldn’t be shocking,” Crane told The Daily Wire. “Why would they want to see President Trump succeed with policies they aggressively sabotaged?”

The long-time border patrol agent has seen political fights play out over the border before, and believes that the Biden administration is trying to stymie Trump’s ability to quickly secure the border as soon as he returns to office.

“When Trump comes back, and he wants to start the border wall all over again, the whole entire funding fight is gonna happen again,” the agent said. “That’s their play. He’s gonna have to fight for this — again.”

The Customs and Border Protection Agency referred The Daily Wire to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, saying the latter had jurisdiction over the materials until they are erected. From there, The Daily Wire was referred to the Defense Logistics Agency, where an official said the standing policy is to refer all media requests on this to the public affairs team at the Office of the Secretary of Defense. A member of the public affairs team declined to respond to inquiries.

Trump is expected to use an executive order to unlock funds to restart construction of the border wall that was halted under Biden, with anticipation that it could be one of his day-one actions.

Crane, the Arizona congressman, says the last-minute fire sale by the Biden administration is “a direct affront to the will of the people.”

“The American people gave President Trump a mandate in November, which included the fulfillment of his plans to secure the border,” Crane said. “Any last-ditch attempt to obstruct this mandate by the Biden Administration would be a direct affront to the will of the people.”

Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi is reportedly working behind the scenes to put the kibosh on Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’ dream of taking a powerful Democratic House position in the new Congress.

The 35-year-old progressive Squad member is looking to become the ranking member on the House Oversight Committee, having served as vice ranking member.

But she would have to beat out Virginia Congressman Gerry Connelly, who also launched his own bid for the top committee job.

Their face-off sets Democrats up for a generational battle between the millennial member of Congress and the 74-year-old lawmaker who has served in the House since 2009.

Pelosi may no longer be in Democratic House leadership but she still wields immense power and has publicly backed Connolly for the position.

Behind the scenes, the 84-year-old California Democrat is reportedly even making calls on behalf of Connolly, according to a new report in Punchbowl News.

As Connolly seeks to become top Democrat on the House oversight Committee, last month he revealed days after the election that he was diagnosed with esophagus cancer.

The congressman said he would be undergoing chemotherapy, but he was confident in a successful outcome.

AOC first signaled she was ‘interested’ in mounting a bid for ranking member earlier this month and said she was speaking with colleagues before formalizing her bid.

While Democrats are in the minority again in the new year, whoever serves as ranking member on the committee could hold massive power should Democrats retake the majority in the midterms.

Retaking the House would give them the ability to subpoena Trump administration officials as they carry out investigations.

Current House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin is vying to be the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee where its current Ranking Member Jerry Nadler is not running again.

Nadler in announcing he would not seek to remain in the top position, threw his support behind Raskin, paving the way for a smooth transition.

All 215 House members will vote on who will fill the top committee positions for the new Congress by secret ballot.

Pelosi and AOC have been doing a delicate dance since the New York progressive Congresswoman came to Washington after a surprise upset ousting a powerful Democratic incumbent in the 2018 primary.

Ocasio-Cortez was among a group of protesters who stormed Pelosi’s office urging action on climate change in October 2018.

But Pelosi has also publicly praised the high-profile young congresswoman and downplayed reports of their feud in the past.

Earlier this year, AOC offered her own praise on the former speaker for ‘passing the torch’ to Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

The U.S. Secret Service was unable to neutralize a threat to Donald Trump from just five feet away according to a bombshell new report.

An agent fired off at least six rounds at Ryan Wesley Routh in West Palm Beach, Florida, in September but was unable to hit the target before he fled, according to the 180-page House Assassination Task Force report.

Fox News host Jesse Watters expressed outrage at the latest revelation on his hit show on Wednesday night.

‘He was only five feet away and he missed [Routh] not once, not twice, but six times,’ Watters exclaimed.

‘He missed him six times, from five feet. How does a trained agent who passed the firearms test miss a target five feet away?’ he questioned.

The report claimed the deadly shooting at Trump’s Butler, Pennsylvania, rally on July 13 was ‘preventable and should not have happened.’

But the report also encompassed the new details about the second foiled attempt on Trump’s life at his golf course in West Palm Beach.

‘The report says the Secret Service found out at 2:30 in the morning that Trump would be golfing that day,’ Watters said of the West Palm Beach incident. ‘But they didn’t secure the course, allowing Routh to camp out for 12 hours before anyone saw him.’

Routh appeared in court on Wednesday and his legal team is using the insanity defense.

‘How convenient,’ said Watters with skepticism about the proposed defense.

The report notes: ‘The agent first noticed the suspect, later identified as Ryan Wesley Routh, and then noticed the barrel of Routh’s gun sticking through the fence line. The special agent, who may have been as close as five feet away from Routh, immediately responded by firing shots toward the suspect. It is believed six shots in total were fired; however, final ballistics are pending an ongoing FBI investigation.’

So it’s not conclusive that the distance or shots are as detailed by the panel.

If true, the new details present concerning information about the marksmanship of an agent assigned to the detail of the former president who at the time was running for another term and who had already been shot just two months earlier.

The report was released just days after its final public meeting last week where Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe got into a screaming match with Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas).

Rowe did acknowledge at the hearing the agency’s ‘abject failure’ in the July shooting.

The panel was created by a House vote shortly after the first assassination attempt over the summer. And a few months later they were asked to also look into the second incident.

The group concluded that there was no single failure that allowed shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks to fire at Trump, but ‘various’ decisions and moments that created an ideal situation for the assassination attempt.

The Task Force on the Attempted Assassination of Donald Trump released a series of recommendations it feels will help prevent future incidents.

Members of the task force visited both sites where men tried to take out the former – and now future – president.

FOX NEWS ALERT: New revelations about the attempted Trump assassin, Ryan Routh. The @SecretService agent who spotted Routh in the bushes was only five feet away from him, but shot and missed- SIX TIMES. How does a trained agent miss a target five feet away? And that’s not all… pic.twitter.com/BT6ykkM42J

— Jesse Watters (@JesseBWatters) December 12, 2024

The task force said it conducted 46 interviews and reviewed 18,000 pages of documents.

Crooks, who was 20 when he was shot dead by a Secret Service counter sniper, killed one rally goer, injured two others and was able to strike Trump in the right ear before he was neutralized by the former president’s protective detail.

‘[T]he former President—and everyone at the campaign event—were exposed to grave danger,’ the committee wrote.

‘Conversely, the events that transpired on September 15, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Florida, demonstrated how properly executed protective measures can foil an attempted assassination,’ they added.

The bipartisan task force was created to investigate the July 13 attack that came just centimeters away from ending Trump’s life.

But when a second assassination plot was foiled just two months later on September 15, the panel was also asked to include that incident in its probe.

While Crooks was able to get just several hundred feet in range of Trump with a rifle and discharge several shots, Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, didn’t even fire a shot before a Secret Service agent opened fire in his direction.

Routh was posted outside Trump’s West Palm Beach golf course in the shrubs when he pointed the barrel of his firearm through the fencing and bush.

An agent surveying the green a few holes ahead of the then-2024 presidential candidate spotted the scope and fired in the direction of the threat. Routh fled the scene but was captured shortly after and taken into custody.

His firearm, backpacks with bulletproof materials and a GoPro camera were recovered from where he was camping out since the middle of the night.

The Assassination Task Force said the second incident was an example of what should be done by the Secret Service to best guard their protectees.

While the first assassination attempt was used as an example of how a series of failures can lead to a deadly situation.

The report comes just days after their final hearing, which devolved as Rep. Fallon got into a fiery back-and-forth with Acting Director Rowe.

An impassioned shouting match broke out after Fallon struck a nerve when he pressed Rowe about security measures in place to protect Trump, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris at the September 11 remembrance this year.

It led to a bitter argument between the two men at the hearing on Thursday, which was supposed to be focused on the security failures surrounding Trump’s protective detail.

But the conversation turned to what Fallon considered to be another Secret Service security problem two months after the first attempt – and just days before the second.

Fallon said the agent in charge of the detail should have been stationed physically closer to Trump, Biden and Harris when they all attended a 9/11 commemoration event at Ground Zero.

When asked about why the SAIC was out of range, Rowe insisted that he and other members of the detail were just outside of view of the image Fallon had blown up to exhibit at the hearing.

‘That is the day that we remember the more than 3,000 people that have died on 9/11,’ Rowe said, starting to raise his voice.

‘I actually responded to Ground Zero. I was there going through the ashes of the World Trade Center,’ he went on.

When Fallon tried to cut in, Rowe did not back down, causing the congressman to begin shouting.

‘I’m not asking you that. I’m asking you, were you the special agent in charge?! You were not,’ Fallon charged.

‘Do not invoke 9/11 for political purposes, congressman!’ Rowe was heard yelling over a barrage of cross-shouting.

‘I’m trying to ask a question. Don’t try to bully me!’ Fallon screamed and pointed at the witness.

‘You are out of line, congressman!’ Rowe fired back. ‘Way out of line.’

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed Thursday in Aqaba, Jordan, that an American citizen had been found in Syria and that the Biden-Harris administration was working to bring him home. Blinken did not identify the American, but he was described on social media as Travis Timmerman, a resident of the state of Missouri.

Videos had circulated Thursday of Syrian rebels caring for an American who, they said, had been found in one of the prisons of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, which collapsed on Sunday amid the rebel advance.

Great News:
🚨Rescued American Travis Timmerman by rebels from dictator Assad & his regime Prison today.

Next, We will find our Fellow Houstonian and Veteran Captain US Marine & Journalist Austin Tice missing in Syria. pic.twitter.com/pcYgmAUmSY

— Naoufal Houjami 🇺🇸 (@ForTexasHoujami) December 12, 2024

American identified as Travis from Missouri found in Syria, telling NBC he was detained after entering as a ‘pilgrim’.

Denies being journalist Austin Tice, missing since 2012. #Syria #Travis pic.twitter.com/8ZBrEUnFT6

— British Pakistani Index (@PakistaniIndex) December 12, 2024

It was not known exactly how or why Timmerman reached Syria, or why he was imprisoned. He was reported to have been tortured by the regime.

As Breitbart News reported earlier Thursday:

Timmerman appears to be a civilian who independently decided to travel to Syria for personal reasons. He told reporters that he is a Christian and had “been reading Scripture a lot” when he disappeared in Hungary. The readings convinced him to make “a pilgrimage to Damascus,” an ancient city that plays a major role in the conversion of Saint Paul. Timmerman reportedly walked into Syria illegally and was arrested by border patrol after roaming the border region for three days.

Tice, a journalist, has been missing since 2012. The U.S. believes that he is still alive.

Other prisoners — many gone for decades — have surfaced from Assad’s prisons, including Christian activists abducted from Lebanon.

A stranger followed a 26-year-old woman before beating and raping her in a brutal Wednesday morning Bronx attack, cops said.

The victim was walking on Virginia Avenue near Wood Avenue in Parkchester around 3:30 a.m. as the suspect, identified as Gregory Williams, 21, trailed behind her, authorities said.

Then the alleged predator ambushed her with multiple punches to the right side of her body, before raping her, police said.

The victim was taken to a local hospital, where she is listed in stable condition, cops said.

Williams, of the Bronx, allegedly took off after the disturbing attack, but was captured around 12:45 p.m. on Wednesday, police said.

He was charged with two counts of first-degree rape, as well as third-degree assault, third-degree sexual abuse and second-degree harassment, the NYPD said.

Williams, dressed in a black hoodie and red and black pajama pants, remained quiet as he was walked out of an NYPD station house by detectives Wednesday night.

The woman at the center of the Duke University lacrosse rape case has finally admitted she lied when she accused three young men of sexual assault in 2006.

Crystal Mangum, from Durham, North Carolina, came under the spotlight in 2006 when she accused the trio of gang raping her during a party where she was hired as a stripper.

The 46-year-old mother-of-three is currently in prison after being convicted of second-degree murder for stabbing her boyfriend with a kitchen knife in 2011.

It was from prison where she spoke to Let’s Talk with Kat, an independent content creator who released an interview with her Thursday.

There, Mangum admitted that she’d made the entire thing up.

‘I testified falsely against them by saying that they raped me when they didn’t and that was wrong, and I betrayed the trust of a lot of other people who believed in me,’ she said.

Mangum even admitted that the three men ‘trusted me that I wouldn’t betray their trust.’

‘[I] made up a story that wasn’t true because I wanted validation from people and not from God.’

She claimed that it was her search for validation that led her to become a stripper despite having a college education.

Mangum then asked the three men she accused – David Evans, Colin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann – to accept her apologies.

‘I want them to know that I love them and they didn’t deserve that and I hope they can forgive me.

‘I hope that they can heal and trust God and know that God loves them and God is loving them through me, letting them know that they’re valuable and they didn’t deserve that.’

Mangum made it clear that she’s attempted to find religion in prison, saying she mostly reads the Bible to ‘get through the day.’

‘You can get all of that [growth] in Jesus, he loves us just the way we are. He’s enough and we’re enough.’

She claims that she would describe her time in prison as one of ‘growth’.

However, she said that she had ‘no regrets’ and that everything happens because of God.

The case became one of the most racially charged in recent memory which ended explosively when the prosecutor was disbarred and the young men were declared innocent.

The chilling case began back on March 13, 2006 when three of the four co-captains of the men’s lacrosse team at Duke hosted a party for their teammates at their off-campus house.

The group had paid a total of $800 for two exotic dancers to perform – one of whom was single mom Crystal, who was a student at the nearby North Carolina Central University.

All but one of the players on the lacrosse team were white and in the aftermath Crystal, who is Black, made a series of allegations against three of the team members.

She accused Evans, Seligmann, and Finnerty of raping and sexually assaulting her in the bathroom.

And the ensuing fallout created a firestorm across the nation – highlighting racial and socioeconomic divides at the elite university and beyond – in what became known as the Duke Lacrosse Case.

The coach was forced to resign and the university canceled the remainder of the season.

Speaking after he was indicted, David said: ‘You have all been told some fantastic lies, and I look forward to watching them unravel in the weeks to come, as they already have in weeks past…. The truth will come out.’

The students hired defense attorneys but the situation became hazy when Crystal claimed she could no longer recall the exact details of what happened that night.

The DNA evidence failed to match any of the 46 white players on the team and she eventually recanted her statement.

She later said she was not sure she had been raped, but insisted some sort of sexual assault had taken place, the LA Times said.

The tide eventually turned on prosecutor Mike Nifong who had ‘overzealously championed his case in the media.’

The boys’ defense attorneys pleaded for the North Carolina State Bar to intervene and charges were brought against a sitting district attorney for the first time in history.

It was decided that Nifong had been too outspoken and concealed the crucial DNA findings from the investigation – he was later disbarred.

As a result, the case was then handed over to an alternative district attorney, Roy Cooper, who dropped the charges against the players just four months later. Cooper recently finished up two terms as the state’s Democrat governor.

He declared the college students to be ‘innocent’ and branded Nifong as a ‘rogue prosecutor.’

Ultimately, the case did not go to trial and the three players received $20 million each in a settlement with Duke.

The house has since been torn down and the university spent more than $100 million on legal fees, settlement costs, and other expenses to preserve its ‘brand,’ according to Vanity Fair.

Crystal, who later released a memoir titled The Last Dance For Grace: The Crystal Mangum Story, was never charged with making false accusations – but her legal troubles would only continue to worsen.

Just a short time later, in February 2010, she was convicted on misdemeanor charges for setting a fire that nearly razed her home with her three children inside.

In a videotaped police interrogation, Crystal told officers she got into a confrontation with her boyfriend at the time – Milton Walker – and burned his clothes, smashed his car windshield and threatened to stab him.

The single-story duplex had heavy smoke damage, but no one was hurt, a Durham fire department news release said.

But there was still one final tragic twist in the tale.

On April 3, 2011, she and her 46-year-old boyfriend, Reginald Daye, who had been dating for about a month, had become caught up in a heated argument after she was allegedly caught flirting with another man.

She claimed that Reginald had been beating her at the time before she snatched the kitchen knife and stabbed him in self-defense.

Crystal told the court: ‘He straddled me, hit me, and then he started choking me. I couldn’t breathe. My head hurt real bad.’

‘I was just trying to survive and I felt like Reginald was trying to kill me,’ she added in her testimony.

The mom ultimately ‘poked him in the side’ of the chest at his apartment.

In a call to emergency services immediately after the stabbing Reginald’s nephew told the operator: ‘It’s Crystal Mangum. The Crystal Mangum. I told him she was trouble from the damn beginning.’

Reginald died 10 days later at Duke Hospital due to complications from his injuries.

It took the jury just six hours to reach a unanimous verdict.

In 2013, Crystal, then 34, was sentenced to a minimum of 14 years in prison for second-degree murder.

Russia launched a large-scale missile attack on Ukrainian energy facilities during the morning rush hour on Friday, Kyiv said, while explosions were heard in the Black Sea port of Odesa and other cities in western Ukraine.

Russian forces have been targeting Ukraine’s electricity system for most of the year and it renewed its strike campaign last month, causing lengthy power cuts for millions of civilians as the war with Russia nears the 34-month mark.

“Russia aims to deprive us of energy. Instead, we must deprive it of the means of terror. I reiterate my call for the urgent delivery of 20 NASAMS, HAWK, or IRIS-T air defense systems,” Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote in a post on X.

An industry source told Reuters that Friday’s attack had targeted Ukrainian power substations and that it had included more strikes on gas infrastructure than in past assaults.

As the attack unfolded, energy officials announced longer, emergency power cuts, but they did not make clear whether that was because of new damage or whether it was a precautionary measure. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Around a half of power company Yasno’s 3.5 million consumers were without power on Friday morning, their CEO said.

The extent of any damage was hard to assess. After repeated Russian attacks on the power grid, officials reveal little detailed information about the outcome of strikes and the state of the network.

Lviv Region Targeted

Authorities in the western region of Lviv confirmed there had been attacks on energy facilities there and that the schedule of power cuts would have to be changed, implying there had been damage.

Russia says it does not target civilian infrastructure, but that it sees the power system as a military target.

Ukraine’s energy system has already suffered 11 waves of attacks this year, which have caused widespread damage and lengthy power cuts all over the country.

The morning missile strike was preceded by an overnight attack involving dozens of drones.

Russian troops, meanwhile, are notching up their fastest battlefield gains in eastern Ukraine since 2022 in their drive to seize the entire industrial Donbas region.

“The enemy continues its terror. Once again, the energy sector across Ukraine is under massive attack,” Galushchenko wrote in a post on Facebook.

The Department of Education under President Joe Biden spent more than $1 billion on DEI-driven grants to public school districts, universities, and nonprofits since 2021, according to a report released by watchdog group Parents Defending Education (PDE).

The 162 grants funding DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) initiatives were aimed at hiring, educational programming, and mental health training, according to PDE. Total price tag: $1,002,522,304.81. PDE said that’s a conservative estimate.

“These numbers are based on available data and not exact. The number of districts and students is likely much higher. Some districts, such as Miami-Dade County Public Schools, is connected to multiple grants and is therefore only counted once in the numbers,” PDE wrote in its report.

PDE broke down the DEI grant distribution into three buckets:

1. DEI Hiring: $489,883,797.81
2. DEI Programming: $343,337,286
3. DEI-Based Mental health/Social Emotional Learning (SEL): $169,301,221

“Some grants covered two or all of the above categories, in those cases, the grant was counted only towards the most dominant category,” PDE said in its report.

In one example, PDE found that the “School District of Philadelphia was given $3,973,175 for its restorative justice program that is modeled after Oakland Unified School District’s (Calif.), and a program advisor is a far-left activist and former Communist Party USA member.”

Meanwhile, a report released by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in September found that nearly one-third of K-12 students across the country are behind their grade level as of the end of the 2023-24 school year.

PDE, which bills itself as a “national grassroots organization working to reclaim our schools from activists imposing harmful agendas,” first shared its report with Fox News.

“The only people or groups to benefit from the enormous amount of grant funding are the universities, administrators, and DEI consultants, at the expense of children’s education,” PDE researcher Rhyen Staley told the outlet. “This needs to change by placing children’s learning at the forefront of education, instead of prioritizing race-based policies and DEI.”

President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Linda McMahon to be his education secretary to replace outgoing Miguel Cardona.

President Joe Biden is commuting the sentences of roughly 1,500 people who were released from prison and placed on home confinement during the coronavirus pandemic and is pardoning 39 Americans convicted of nonviolent crimes. It’s the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history.

The commutations announced Thursday are for people who have served out home confinement sentences for at least one year after they were released. Prisons were uniquely bad for spreading the virus and some inmates were released in part to stop the spread. At one point, 1 in 5 prisoners had COVID-19, according to a tally kept by The Associated Press.

Biden said he would be taking more steps in the weeks ahead and would continue to review clemency petitions. The second largest single-day act of clemency was by Barack Obama, with 330, shortly before leaving office in 2017.

“America was built on the promise of possibility and second chances,” Biden said in a statement. “As president, I have the great privilege of extending mercy to people who have demonstrated remorse and rehabilitation, restoring opportunity for Americans to participate in daily life and contribute to their communities, and taking steps to remove sentencing disparities for non-violent offenders, especially those convicted of drug offenses.”

The clemency follows a broad pardon for his son Hunter, who was prosecuted for gun and tax crimes. Biden is under pressure from advocacy groups to pardon broad swaths of people, including those on federal death row, before the Trump administration takes over in January. He’s also weighing whether to issue preemptive pardons to those who investigated Trump’s effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and are facing possible retribution when he takes office.

Clemency is the term for the power the president has to pardon, in which a person is relieved of guilt and punishment, or to commute a sentence, which reduces or eliminates the punishment but doesn’t exonerate the wrongdoing. It’s customary for a president to grant mercy at the end of his term, using the power of the office to wipe away records or end prison terms.

Those pardoned Thursday range in age from 36 to 75. About half are men and half are women, and they had been convicted of nonviolent crimes such as drug offenses, fraud or theft and turned their lives around, White House lawyers said. They include a woman who led emergency response teams during natural disasters; a church deacon who has worked as an addiction counselor and youth counselor; a doctoral student in molecular biosciences; and a decorated military veteran.

Louisiana resident Trynitha Fulton, 46, was one of the pardons; she pleaded guilty to participating in a payroll fraud scheme while serving as a New Orleans middle school teacher in the early 2000s. She was sentenced to three years of probation in 2008.

“The pardon gives me a sense of freedom,” Fulton said in a written statement to the AP. “The conviction has served as a mental barrier for me, limiting my ability to live a full life.”

“The pardon gives me inspiration to make more impactful decisions personally and professionally,” she added.

After her conviction, Fulton went on to earn a master’s degree. She helps lead the nonprofit Skyliners-Youth Outreach, which supports New Orleans youth by providing hot meals, clothing, shelter and mental health referrals.

The president had previously issued 122 commutations and 21 other pardons. He’s also broadly pardoned those convicted of use and simple possession of marijuana on federal lands and in the District of Columbia, and pardoned former U.S. service members convicted of violating a now-repealed military ban on consensual gay sex.

Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., and 34 other lawmakers are urging the president to pardon environmental and human rights lawyer Steven Donziger, who was imprisoned or under house arrest for three years because of a contempt of court charge related to his work representing Indigenous farmers in a lawsuit against Chevron.

Others are advocating for Biden to commute the sentences of federal death row prisoners. His attorney general, Merrick Garland, paused federal executions. Biden had said on the campaign trail in 2020 that he wanted to end the death penalty but he never did, and now, with Trump coming back into office, it’s likely executions will resume. During his first term, Trump presided over an unprecedented number of federal executions, carried out during the height of the pandemic.

More clemency grants are coming before Biden leaves office on Jan. 20, but it’s not clear whether he’ll take action to guard against possible prosecution by Trump, an untested use of the power. The president has been taking the idea seriously and has been thinking about it for as much as six months — before the presidential election — but has been concerned about the precedent it would set, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss internal discussions.

But those who received the pardons would have to accept them. New California Sen. Adam Schiff, who was a part of the House committee that investigated the violent Jan. 6 insurrection, said such a pardon from Biden would be “unnecessary,” and that the president shouldn’t be spending his waning days in office worrying about this.

Former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., another target of Trump’s threats, said in a statement this week that his suggestion that she and others be jailed for the investigations “is a continuation of his assault on the rule of law and the foundations of our republic.”

Before pardoning his son, Biden had repeatedly pledged not to do so. He said in a statement explaining his reversal that the prosecution had been poisoned by politics. The decision prompted criminal justice advocates and lawmakers to put additional public pressure on the administration to use that same power for everyday Americans. It wasn’t a very popular move; only about 2 in 10 Americans approved of his decision, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz confirmed Thursday that the FBI used confidential sources as part of its response to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, a revelation that lends clarity to an aspect of the event that has long been a source of speculation.

Horowitz said in a long-awaited 84-page report that 26 FBI sources were in Washington for the riot. Some of them were embedded among rioters in restricted areas, and four FBI sources also entered the Capitol with the rioters. He noted, however, that the FBI did not authorize any of those sources, also known as informants or “confidential human sources,” to enter restricted areas or the Capitol or to otherwise break the law.

The FBI sources who entered the restricted areas have not faced any charges to date, Horowitz said.

Horowitz also noted that no FBI employees, which are different than the FBI confidential human sources, were working undercover at the riot.

The FBI had tasked three of the 26 sources with being in Washington on Jan. 6 to “report on domestic terrorism subjects,” Horowitz said. The other 23 traveled to the city “on their own initiative and were not tasked by the FBI to do so,” he said.

The DOJ, through U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves’s office in Washington, has charged more than 1,500 people in connection to the riot in the past four years. A majority of them have faced minor trespassing violations, while hundreds of others have faced more serious charges, such as assaulting police officers or destroying property.

The defendants were largely supporters of President-elect Donald Trump and participated in the riot as part of a protest of the 2020 election results.

Since the incident, a faction of Trump’s supporters have spread the theory that law enforcement organized the riot or abetted participants, but Horowitz did not reach this conclusion.

The inspector general did find that the FBI failed to properly check with its field offices as part of its preparation for Jan. 6. FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate conceded that the bureau missed this “basic step” during an interview with Horowitz.

“While the FBI undertook significant efforts to identify domestic terrorism subjects who planned to travel to the Capital region on January 6 and to prepare to support its law enforcement partners on January 6 if needed, we also determined that the FBI did not take a step that could have helped the FBI and its law enforcement partners with their preparations in advance of January 6,” Horowitz wrote.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) told the Washington Examiner that the report raised several questions for him that he planned to follow up on, including how four FBI sources entered the Capitol.

“Now when regular Americans do that, they get in trouble for that,” Jordan said. “So how did they get in? Did they go through a broken window? They walk right in the door? What’d they do? Another fundamental question is, why weren’t they charged? How much did they get paid? … We know one guy who was being reimbursed actually entered the Capitol. So, we’re paying a guy for information who actually didn’t follow the rules and broke the law. What did we pay him?”

Horowitz said his investigation did not include reviewing the DOJ’s prosecutorial activity, but rather it involved reviewing the FBI’s preparations and responses to the riot. He said he interviewed more than 200 witnesses and reviewed hundreds of thousands of documents as part of his investigation.

Donald Trump has been crowned TIME magazine’s Person of the Year after reclaiming the presidency, marking him as only the second U.S. president in history to serve non-consecutive terms. The announcement came on Thursday, placing Trump at the pinnacle of a contentious list of global influencers.

“Trump’s political rebirth is unparalleled in American history,” TIME wrote in an announcement, after speaking with the President-elect ahead of the announcement.

Trump dubbed his campaign “72 Days of Fury” after a term that Trump himself coined. This win sets Trump apart as a political figure of singular historical significance, having first held the title in 2016 when he initially seized the presidency from Hillary Clinton.

Trump’s political rebirth is unparalleled in American history. His first term ended in disgrace, with his attempts to overturn the 2020 election results culminating in the attack on the U.S. Capitol. He was shunned by most party officials when he announced his candidacy in late 2022 amid multiple criminal investigations. Little more than a year later, Trump cleared the Republican field, clinching one of the fastest contested presidential primaries in history. -TIME

The competition for this year’s title was fierce, with Trump edging out other high-profile names such as Vice President Kamala Harris, his tech mogul supporter Elon Musk, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Catherine, Princess of Wales. Notably, Musk was the magazine’s pick back in 2021.

Reflecting on his tumultuous path to victory, Trump’s year included overcoming significant challenges: a stark clearing of the GOP field, a conviction in a New York courtroom, and surviving not one, but two assassination attempts.

The campaign saw surprising alliances, including consolidations of support from unexpected quarters such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Elon Musk, alongside a dramatic shift in the Democratic nomination.

According to TIME, Trump’s win gave him the “political capital to address the sources of American discontent at home and abroad” Trump himself suggested a bold agenda, including plans to pardon Jan. 6 political prisoners.

What a difference 8 years can make. pic.twitter.com/bn3L0M93tt

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) December 12, 2024

“It’s going to start in the first hour … maybe the first nine minutes,” Trump told the outlet.

The Person of the Year title, a tradition since 1927, is not necessarily a mark of honor but rather a recognition of influence. TIME has historically selected presidents during their election victories, with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris jointly receiving the nod in 2020, and other repeat honorees including Barack Obama and George W. Bush.

Trump’s victory lap included ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange in Manhattan, where chants of “USA’ broke out…

JUST IN: ‘USA’ chants break out as President-elect Donald Trump rings the New York Stock Exchange opening bell.

Trump became the first president to ring the bell since Ronald Reagan.pic.twitter.com/vPnYNspGj8

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) December 12, 2024

Trump is the first president to ring the bell since Ronald Reagan.

The large mysterious drones reported flying over parts of New Jersey in recent weeks appear to avoid detection by traditional methods such as helicopter and radio, according to a state lawmaker briefed Wednesday by the Department of Homeland Security.

In a post on the social media platform X, Assemblywoman Dawn Fantasia described the drones as up to 6 feet in diameter and sometimes traveling with their lights switched off. The Morris County Republican was among several state and local lawmakers who met with state police and Homeland Security officials to discuss the spate of sightings that range from the New York City area through New Jersey and westward into parts of Pennsylvania, including over Philadelphia.

The devices do not appear to be being flown by hobbyists, Fantasia wrote.

Dozens of mysterious nighttime flights started last month and have raised growing concern among residents and officials. Part of the worry stems from the flying objects initially being spotted near the Picatinny Arsenal, a U.S. military research and manufacturing facility; and over President-elect Donald Trump’s golf course in Bedminster. Drones are legal in New Jersey for recreational and commercial use, but they are subject to local and Federal Aviation Administration regulations and flight restrictions. Operators must be FAA certified.

Most, but not all, of the drones spotted in New Jersey were larger than those typically used by hobbyists.

The number of sightings has increased in recent days, though officials say many of the objects seen may have been planes rather than drones. It’s also possible that a single drone has been reported more than once.

Gov. Phil Murphy and law enforcement officials have stressed that the drones don’t appear to threaten public safety. The FBI has been investigating and has asked residents to share any videos, photos or other information they may have.

Two Republican Jersey Shore-area congressmen, U.S. Reps. Chris Smith and Jeff Van Drew, have called on the military to shoot down the drones.

Smith said a Coast Guard commanding officer briefed him on an incident over the weekend in which a dozen drones followed a motorized Coast Guard lifeboat “in close pursuit” near Barnegat Light and Island Beach State Park in Ocean County.

Coast Guard Lt. Luke Pinneo told The Associated Press Wednesday “that multiple low-altitude aircraft were observed in vicinity of one of our vessels near Island Beach State Park.”

The aircraft weren’t perceived as an immediate threat and didn’t disrupt operations, Pinneo said. The Coast Guard is assisting the FBI and state agencies in investigating.

In a letter to U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Smith called for military help dealing with the drones, noting that Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst has the capability “to identify and take down unauthorized unmanned aerial systems.”

However, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters Wednesday that “our initial assessment here is that these are not drones or activities coming from a foreign entity or adversary.”

Many municipal lawmakers have called for more restrictions on who is entitled to fly the unmanned devices. At least one state lawmaker proposed a temporary ban on drone flights in the state.

“This is something we’re taking deadly seriously. I don’t blame people for being frustrated,” Murphy said earlier this week. A spokesman for the Democratic governor said he did not attend Wednesday’s meeting.

Republican Assemblyman Erik Peterson, whose district includes parts of the state where the drones have been reported, said he also attended Wednesday’s meeting at a state police facility in West Trenton. The session lasted for about 90 minutes.

Peterson said DHS officials were generous with their time, but appeared dismissive of some concerns, saying not all the sightings reported have been confirmed to involve drones.

So who or what is behind the flying objects? Where are they coming from? What are they doing? “My understanding is they have no clue,” Peterson said.

A message seeking comment was left with the Department of Homeland Security.

Most of the drones have been spotted along coastal areas and some were recently reported flying over a large reservoir in Clinton. Sightings also have been reported in neighboring states.

James Edwards, of Succasunna, New Jersey, said he has seen a few drones flying over his neighborhood since last month.

“It raises concern mainly because there’s so much that’s unknown,” Edwards said Wednesday. “There are lots of people spouting off about various conspiracies that they believe are in play here, but that only adds fuel to the fire unnecessarily. We need to wait and see what is really happening here, not let fear of the unknown overtake us.”