5 things to know for Dec. 13: January 6 rioters, Grocery prices, Syria, Ukraine, Stanley recall
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Today is Friday the 13th — a day regarded as unlucky among the 25% of Americans who consider themselves superstitious. Don’t be scared of this eerie date, though. Try incorporating some positive mindfulness practices in your life and see what happens! Here’s what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day. President-elect Donald Trump said that his Day One priority in office is to pardon the rioters who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. But it’s not clear who among the hundreds of convicted rioters, defendants awaiting trial and remaining fugitives would receive clemency. Trump advisers are still solidifying their approach to the pardons and defense attorneys are scrambling to convince the incoming administration that their clients are deserving. Meanwhile, a Justice Department watchdog found that there were no undercover FBI employees at the Capitol during the January 6 riot, rejecting speculation from Trump allies who have for years suggested that the violence that day was provoked by federal agents. The cost of grocery store items in November was a bit more painful than they have been for a while. Americans paid 22% more for groceries last month compared to when Donald Trump left office in January 2021, according to the latest Consumer Price Index data released earlier this week. And, compared to February 2020, before the pandemic, Americans paid 27% more for groceries in November. The president-elect on Thursday said Americans are “going to be affording their groceries very soon” but also admitted that might be very hard to achieve. Even if Trump helps improve supply chain issues, analysts say other policies he’s pledged to enact, including broad-based tariffs and mass deportations of migrants who entered the country illegally, risk raising food prices substantially. Rebel leader Mohammad al-Jolani urged Syrians to celebrate the fall of the Assad regime without firing shots after accidental gunfire caused deadly chaos in the northern city of Raqqa. Jolani’s message comes after hundreds of people took to the streets of Raqqa on Thursday to celebrate the ouster of longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad and a man lost control of his machine gun, mistakenly opening fire on bystanders. At least one person was killed and 15 wounded, according to a local journalist and witnesses. Additionally, more than 1 million people have been displaced across Syria since the collapse of the Assad regime, the UN estimates. Food shortages are widespread in Aleppo, the second-largest city, it said. Russia launched a widespread attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure overnight, forcing the country to implement emergency power outages, Ukrainian authorities said today. “The enemy continues its terror. Once again, the energy sector across Ukraine is under massive attack,” Ukrainian energy minister German Halushchenko said. The extent of the damage had yet to be clarified, he added while urging people to remain in shelters. Moscow’s forces have intensified bombardments of Ukraine in recent months, leaving the country in a precarious position as the war grinds into its third winter. The US on Thursday also announced a $500 million aid package for Ukraine in the coming days that will pull equipment out of US military stocks to help put Kyiv on a strong footing going into 2025, a senior Biden administration official said.
The announcement Saturday night signaled an unusually direct effort by the White House to influence college football scheduling and television programming.
Chilean President Gabriel Boric announced a state of catastrophe in two regions in the south of the country early on Sunday as raging wildfires forced at least 20,000 people to evacuate and left at least 16 people dead.
The Pentagon has ordered about 1,500 active-duty soldiers to prepare for deployment to Minnesota, according to defense officials cited by The Washington Post and ABC News, as Minnesota officials have also mobilized the National Guard.
The Democratic Party has a deeply motivated base and a clear advantage on the generic congressional ballot ahead of this fall’s midterms despite dismal impressions of its current leaders in Congress, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS.
American Battleground: Demolition Man – How Trump’s first year back is changing the nation’s capital
On a breezy autumn morning beneath skittering clouds, the demolition crew strikes quicker than almost anyone expected. Working seemingly under the sole command of President Donald J. Trump, who has long fashioned himself the Builder-in-Chief, they take only days to reduce the 123-year-old East Wing of the White House to rubble. No drawn-out debate. No approval by independent preservationists.
What was once a place of worship filled with precious objects packed with meaning now sits in heavy layers of dark soot, burdened by the pungent smell of smoke after someone set fire to Mississippi’s largest and oldest synagogue.
Dos semanas después del derrocamiento de Nicolás Maduro, los ciudadanos venezolanos que viven en diferentes países de la región siguen con atención lo que ocurre en la tierra que los vio nacer. Jimena de la Quintana visitó Gamarra, el emporio comercial más grande de Perú y uno de los más importantes de Latinoamérica, que es fuente de empleo de muchos venezolanos. ¿En qué condiciones regresarían esos migrantes venezolanos a su país? ¿Para ellos es suficiente que Maduro ya no esté en el poder?
The US on Saturday announced it conducted a lethal strike in Syria on an al Qaeda affiliate leader it says had direct ties to an ISIS attacker who killed three Americans in early December.
President Donald Trump has leaned into his presidential clemency powers much more aggressively in his second term –in fact, he’s pardoned one woman twice.
The Pentagon has ordered the military command that oversees new recruits’ enlistment to hold off on initial training for people who are HIV-positive and recently enlisted in the military, CNN has learned, saying that a decision on reinstating a Defense Department ban on their joining the military was “expected in the next few weeks.”
Democrat Abigail Spanberger was sworn into office Saturday as Virginia’s first female governor, amid a cold drizzle outside the state Capitol after centuries of men holding the commonwealth’s top office.
The European Union and the Mercosur bloc of South American countries formally signed a long-sought landmark free trade agreement on Saturday, capping more than a quarter-century of torturous negotiations to strengthen commercial ties in the face of rising protectionism and trade tensions around the world.
Judge restricts federal response to Minnesota protests amid outrage over immigration agents’ tactics
Immigration agents carrying out a sweeping operation in Minnesota can’t deploy certain crowd-control measures against peaceful protesters or arrest them, a federal judge ruled Friday. The order follows widespread outrage over a fatal shooting, reports of US citizens getting detained and Minnesotans getting asked for documents for no clear reason.