“Venezuela’s government on Saturday released some of the thousands of people who were detained during and after deadly protests that followed the July presidential election. The disputed results have earned officials, including [former] President Nicolas Maduro, international scorn. The individuals left prison a day after the attorney general, who is loyal to the ruling party, announced the review of 225 cases linked to the aftermath of the election, which Maduro and opposition candidate Edmundo González both claim to have won. Tearful reunions took place outside prisons in various cities. The Venezuelan-based nongovernmental organizations Penal Forum and Venezuelan Prison Observatory announced the prison releases on X. The former confirmed the release of at least 70 people, while the latter said the government freed the individuals under certain conditions, which it did not explain further.” (11/17/24)
“Ahead of a Chicago City Council vote unanimously rejecting Mayor Brandon Johnson’s proposed $300 million property tax hike, local residents addressed the council and the mayor, criticizing Johnson to his face over trying to raise taxes while catering to illegal immigrants. Among these angry locals were several supporters of President-elect Donald Trump, who, while wearing MAGA gear, gloated about how Trump’s victory means Johnson’s liberal policies – particularly those assisting illegal immigrants – will face a reckoning. ‘The feds need to address you! The DOJ needs to address you! And hopefully Donald Trump will address you, because you’re gonna protect the undocumented, while you’re gonna allow for the citizens in Chicago suffer under your, what? Three percent?’ Chicago resident Tyjuan Sims told the mayor on Thursday night.” (11/16/24)
“The head of Georgia’s Central Electoral Commission was doused with black paint Saturday at a meeting to confirm the results of the country’s divisive Oct. 26 parliamentary elections. Protesters gathered outside the commission’s building in Tbilisi, where officials announced that the ruling Georgian Dream party had won 53.93% of the vote. Opposition supporters have rejected the results amid allegations that the vote was rigged, an accusation that Georgian Dream denies. The Saturday session was interrupted when David Kirtadze, a commission member from the opposition United National Movement party, threw black paint at commission chairman Giorgi Kalandarishvili.” (11/16/24)
“In their final meeting, China’s leader Xi Jinping told U.S. President Joe Biden that ‘China is ready to work with a new administration,’ as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take over. The two leaders gathered Saturday on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. Biden was expected to urge Xi to dissuade North Korea from further deepening its support for Russia’s war on Ukraine. Biden said that he was proud of the work the nations had achieved since their last meeting, which was last year on the sidelines of the conference held in San Francisco. ‘Over the past four years, China-U.S. relations have experienced ups and downs, but with the two of us at the helm, we have also engaged in fruitful dialogues and cooperation, and generally achieved stability,’ Biden said. It’s the last time they will meet; Biden is leaving office and making way for Trump.” (11/16/24)
“With President-elect Trump headed back to the White House and Republicans in the majority in Congress, Democrats have few options to push back against the GOP agenda. But one enterprising North Carolina lawmaker thinks his minority party should look across the pond to the United Kingdom for the answer to ‘go toe to toe’ with Trump. Rep. Wiley Nickels, D-N.C., has proposed that Democrats create a ‘shadow cabinet’ to organize the opposition and challenge each decision by the government. ‘Across the Atlantic, the British have something we don’t: a team from the opposition that mirrors the government’s cabinet members’ …. Wiley argues in an op-ed for the Washington Post. His proposal is to appoint 26 Democratic leaders in Congress to mirror Trump’s Cabinet-level officials and challenge each initiative of the incoming administration.” (11/16/24)
“An Israeli strike targeting a building in central Beirut has killed Hezbollah’s spokesman Mohammad Afif, according to officials from the Lebanese armed group. Three other people were injured in the strike in the densely populated Ras al-Nabaa district in the Lebanese capital, officials said on Sunday, adding that the building was targeted without warning. Many Lebanese displaced by Israel’s ongoing strikes in Beirut’s southern suburbs had taken refuge in the neighbourhood.” (11/17/24)
“San Francisco robotaxi company Cruise’s long saga over its car’s 2023 dragging of a knocked-over pedestrian has finally reached an end, with the company admitting to criminal behavior and agreeing to pay a $500,000 penalty. On Thursday, company President Craig Glidden signed a legal agreement with Martha Boersch, who leads the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California. In the document, Cruise admits to hiding the immediate aftermath of an Oct. 2, 2023, crash — when the company’s robotaxi dragged a pedestrian it had hit after she was knocked over by another car — from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Glidden, in signing the document, barred Cruise from ever again contradicting that narrative of events. Alongside the agreement, Boersch filed a document accusing Cruise of a felony offense, ‘Falsification of Records in Federal Investigation.'” (11/17/24)
“Rudy Giuliani surrendered a Mercedes-Benz, watches and a ring on Friday to two Georgia election workers who successfully sued him for defamation — while still refusing to turn over other property to comply with a $148 million judgment against him. The initial delivery comes as Giuliani is embroiled in a dispute over his legal representation and is trying to keep some items of his personal property. … An attorney for Giuliani, Joseph Cammarata, told U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman that the former New York City mayor hadn’t given items in a storage facility to [the plaintiffs] because a court-imposed restraining order prevented him from doing so. And, Cammarata wrote, certain categories of items the judge ordered Giuliani to turn over to the women are exempt by statute. Cammarata, for example, told the judge that ‘all wearing apparel’ is exempt by law from turnover, which should make a Joe DiMaggio jersey off-limits.” (11/15/24)
“Thousands of climate justice advocates took to the streets of London on Saturday to demand the U.K. government ‘end its reliance on fossil fuels, commit to paying climate reparations, and end its complicity in the genocide in Gaza’. Organizers said more than 60 groups — including Extinction Rebellion, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Amnesty International U.K., Palestine Solidarity Campaign, War on Want, and Just Stop Oil — took part in the March for Global Climate Justice. The demonstration took place amid yet another shambolic United Nations Climate Change Conference and as Israeli forces continue a war on Gaza that U.N. experts this week called ‘consistent with the characteristics of genocide.’ More than two dozen associated protests were held in cities and towns across Britain and Ireland, including Dublin, Edinburgh, Manchester, and Sheffield.” (11/16/24)
“The Onion’s winning bid for Alex Jones’s Infowars platform is under review by a U.S. federal bankruptcy judge after Jones and his lawyers complained about how an auction was conducted. The satirical news outlet was announced as the winning bidder on Thursday in an auction that is part of Jones’s personal bankruptcy. … At a hastily called court hearing in Houston on Thursday, Judge Christopher Lopez ordered another hearing to be held next week. He wants to know what happened with the auction and how the bankruptcy trustee chose The Onion over the only other bidder — a company affiliated with a Jones product-selling website.” (11/15/24)
