“The stock market plunged on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve scaled back its expectations for interest rate cuts next year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell about 1,100 points, or 2.5%, the largest drop for the index since August. The dip marked the 10th consecutive day of losses for the Dow, its longest losing streak since 1974. The S&P 500 fell nearly 3%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq plummeted about 3.5%. … Speaking at a press conference in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank may proceed at a slower pace with future rate cuts, partly because it has now substantially lowered interest rates.” (12/18/24)
“The House Ethics Committee secretly voted to release its report into former Rep. Matt Gaetz‘s conduct before the end of the year, according to a report. The report’s findings are expected to be made public following the House’s final votes this year and as lawmakers take off from D.C. for the holidays, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CNN. The release would culminate a three-year probe into allegations of child sex trafficking involving a 17-year-old girl, illicit drug use and other improprieties against Gaetz, the man Donald Trump had initially tapped to be his attorney general — the top law-enforcement official in the U.S. before he pulled out last month of the running. … The 42-year-old, who denied all of the allegations against him, blasted the potential release of the report.” (12/18/24)
“The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear last-ditch legal arguments from TikTok as to why it should not be banned or sold in the US. The US government is taking action against the app because of what it says are its links to the Chinese state — links which TikTok and its parent company ByteDance have denied. The Supreme Court justices did not act on a request by TikTok for an emergency injunction against the law, but will instead allow TikTok and ByteDance to make their case on 10 January — nine days before the ban is due to take effect.” (12/18/24)
“Tens of millions of people across Iran are facing major disruptions as authorities shut down services in the face of an exacerbating energy and currency crisis amid historic regional tensions. This week, government offices, schools, banks and businesses in major provinces and in the capital Tehran have been largely closed due to worsening fuel and power shortages as temperatures dropped to subzero levels. Energy Minister Abbas Aliabadi said on Wednesday that 13 power plants are out of commission due to a lack of fuel. ‘If the fuel is provided, there will be no problem in providing the electricity, as power plants have undergone necessary repairs and are ready for winter. The petroleum ministry is following up on providing fuel,’ he told reporters after a cabinet meeting.” (12/18/24)
“The Japanese company Space One failed for a second time Wednesday to launch its Kairos rocket when it went out of control about two minutes into the flight. The rocket’s first-stage nozzle malfunctioned about 80 seconds into the flight at 11:00 a.m. Wednesday local time from Space Port Kii in Kushimoto, Wakayama Prefecture, and automatically self-destructed during the launch that had already been postponed twice by weather conditions. Space One is attempting to be the first private company in Japan to put satellites into orbit and the company’s president, Masakzu Toyoda, made a press conference apology to the company’s clients for ‘being unable to’ reach that goal.” (12/18/24)
“From public hangings in the town square to lethal injections witnessed by journalists, executions historically have mostly been carried out with at least some public scrutiny. Indiana was expected to again diverge from that tradition Wednesday, until state prison officials granted Joseph Corcoran’s request to include a reporter among those witnessing his early-morning execution. The state had said no independent witnesses would be present due to Indiana laws shielding information about the death penalty. But the editor of the Indiana Capital Chronicle posted on X after the early Wednesday execution that Corcoran put one of the outlet’s reporters on his own list of permitted witnesses and she was allowed to observe.” (12/18/24)
“An improvised land mine apparently planted by a drug cartel killed two Mexican soldiers and wounded five others, Mexico’s defense secretary said Tuesday. Before the blast, the soldiers had discovered the dismembered bodies of three people, officials said. Gen. Ricardo Trevilla acknowledged that the army had already suffered six deaths from such improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, between 2018 and 2024. But he didn’t specify whether those six had been killed by bombs dropped from drones, or by buried roadside bombs, both of which have been used by gangs in Mexico. Trevilla said that devices like the one that exploded Monday were ‘very rustic,’ and officials in the past have described them as similar to buried pipe bombs.” (12/18/24)
“France’s highest court has upheld an appeal court decision which had found former President Nicolas Sarkozy guilty of corruption and influence peddling while he was the country’s head of state. Sarkozy, 69, faces a year in prison, but is expected to ask to be detained at home with an electronic bracelet — as is the case for any sentence of two years or less. He was found guilty of corruption and influence peddling by both a Paris court in 2021 and an appeals court in 2023 for trying to bribe a magistrate in exchange for information about a legal case in which he was implicated. … Sarkozy, who was France’s president from 2007 to 2012, retired from public life in 2017 though still plays an influential role in French conservative politics.” (12/18/24)
“House Democrats are once again likely to bail out Speaker Mike Johnson on a stopgap spending bill, as conservatives largely vow to oppose it on the floor. ‘I expect we’re going to pass the CR,’ said Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee. … Democratic lawmakers emerged from a closed-door leadership meeting Wednesday without taking a formal position on whether to support or oppose the stopgap bill, and they’re unlikely to whip on it. But Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday were touting the wins for their side in the legislation, including $100 billion in disaster aid, childcare funding and health care provisions. … Dozens of Republicans are expected to oppose the legislation when it comes to a vote this week, and conservatives are signaling they would even block it in the Rules Committees, which determines what legislation makes it to the floor.” (12/18/24)
“People remained trapped in a collapsed building in Vanuatu’s capital Port Vila on Wednesday a day after a 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck the Pacific nation, killing 14 people including two Chinese nationals. … As aftershocks continued to rattle the island nation of 330,000 people, footage posted on social media showed vehicles crushed under the debris, boulders strewn across a highway and landslides near Port Vila’s international shipping terminal. National broadcaster VBTC showed people queuing for fuel and essentials as power, water and communications were disrupted.” (12/18/24)
