At the 29th Conference of the Parties (COP29) in Azerbaijan, attendees are full of dire predictions that the world’s climate will worsen under President-elect Trump. But when Trump fulfills his campaign promises to increase U.S. oil and gas production and removes President Biden’s pause on new liquid natural gas exports, global emissions will likely decline rather than rise.
This is because exports of U.S. natural gas generally displace coal, reducing global CO2 emissions. Even Germany, Europe’s largest manufacturer, is using lignite coal (rather than the less-polluting bituminous coal) to deal with shortages of renewables now that it has closed its nuclear power plants and Russian gas is no longer available.
About 3 billion people in emerging economies lack electricity and running water, and cook over wood and dung. Natural gas power plants would reduce particulates from wood and dung and make the air cleaner. Under President Biden, the World Bank does not make loans for fossil fuel power plants.
More U.S. gas for export will lower prices of Russian and Qatari gas, harming countries that are invading Ukraine and tied to Iran. Prices are set based on future production, and even announcements of energy production will weaken America’s enemies.
Natural gas production has lowered U.S. emissions of CO2, which have declined by a billion metric tons over the past 16 years as natural gas has substituted for coal use in the generation of electricity. Over the same period, CO2 emissions in China have risen by 5 billion metric tons.
Between 2022 and 2023 US coal exports to Europe increased by 22% compared with the prior year. Because coal has more emissions than natural gas, it is surprising that Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm has not asked for a pause in coal exports, only on natural gas exports.
America’s natural gas exports to Europe have been soaring since 2022, when Russia decreased the flow of natural gas. According to the Energy Information Administration, America exported an average of almost 12 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas in 2023, more than any other country.
Europe is America’s biggest customer, and in a phone call to President-elect Trump, European Union President Ursula von der Leyen suggested that US natural gas could replace Russian gas.
But even if America stopped all use of fossil fuels immediately, global temperatures would only be two-tenths of 1 degree Celsius by the year 2100, according to government models. This is because China, India, Africa, and Latin America are ramping up their use of coal to reach Western standards of living. China is home to large supplies of coal, but little natural gas, and uses its domestic coal supplies for generating electricity to power its global manufacturing capacity.
A second Trump administration will not only encourage production of natural gas but also faster permitting of pipelines and LNG terminals to move the natural gas from the interior of the country to the ports, and into export terminals to be shipped to Europe and Asia.
America’s natural gas production, at over 100 billion cubic feet per day, is greater than pre-pandemic levels, but production is primarily on private lands. It could have been even higher if Biden had not restricted leases on federal land and if pipeline approval were faster.
Trump’s energy plan includes permitting reform, allowing different sources of energy to compete on a level playing field, opening more lands to natural gas development, reversing Biden’s climate agenda, expediting nuclear technology, and protecting the energy grid.
Trump, unlike Biden, will not instruct the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to slow down pipeline and liquid natural gas export terminal construction in the name of a transition to renewables. Nor will Trump instruct the Securities and Exchange Commission to discourage investment in pipelines, or the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to discourage loans for fossil fuel projects.
The more natural gas is exported, the lower are global emissions. With Trump’s changes, natural gas will be able to travel to where it is needed due to faster infrastructure permitting.
As the northern hemisphere moves into its winter season, the need for more energy for warming homes and businesses becomes even more pressing, and natural gas is cleaner than coal. COP29 attendees have no reason to demonize Trump’s energy agenda, which will be a boon to the environment.
Diana Furchtgott-Roth serves as the Director of the Center for Energy, Climate, and Environment and The Herbert and Joyce Morgan Fellow in Energy and Environmental Policy at The Heritage Foundation.
On one side, Elon Musk and RFK Jr. are pushing for Howard Lutnick, with Musk praising the Cantor FItzgerald CEO as a disruptor compared to Key Square Group (and George Soros protégé) Scott Bessent – the latter of whom met with Trump on Friday, and has the backing of many including noted investor Kyle Bass.
“Scott Bessent is eminently more qualified than Howard Lutnick to run the U.S. Treasury,” said Bass in a Wednesday post on X. “Scott understands markets, economics, people, and geopolitics better than anyone I’ve ever interacted with. Markets have already anticipated a Bessent choice. Lutnick is not Trump’s answer.”
In response, RFK Jr. suggested that Lutnick – who is currently working as co-chair of Trump’s transition team, would be a strong advocate for Bitcoin – which he described as “a hedge against inflation for middle class Americans,a remedy against the dollar’s downgrade from the world’s reserve currency, and the offramp from a ruinous national debt.”
Bitcoin is the currency of freedom , a hedge against inflation for middle class Americans,a remedy against the dollar’s downgrade from the world’s reserve currency, and the offramp from a ruinous national debt. Bitcoin will have no stronger advocate than Howard Lutnik.
Musk suggested more people weigh in on the decision, but said he views Bessent as “a business-as-usual choice,” while Lutnick “will actually enact change.”
Would be interesting to hear more people weigh in on this for @realDonaldTrump to consider feedback.
My view fwiw is that Bessent is a business-as-usual choice, whereas @howardlutnick will actually enact change.
According to Bloomberg, the choice is ‘creating tension and increasing the chance that another candidate rises up,’ citing anonymous people familiar with the decision making.
Trump himself has appeared frustrated with the infighting and staff are looking for alternatives, with Robert Lighthizer, Senator William Hagerty and Apollo Global Management Inc. Chief Executive Officer Marc Rowan among the names in the mix.
Lutnick was a key support to Trump’s fundraising in the final months of the campaign and he has helped lead the team’s transition to the presidency. Because of that, some key advisers are looking at what else Lutnick might take — if not Treasury — such as a plum ambassadorship, according to people familiar with the decision. –Bloomberg
That said, Lutnick previously donated to both Hillary Clinton in 2015 and Kamala Harris’ Senate campaign in 2016, among others.
Ultimately, the choice is up to Trump – who hasn’t shared his opinion in public.
There were 757 reports of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) accounted for between May 2023 and June 2024, according to an unclassified Department of Defense (DoD) report released Thursday.
Congress mandated the annual report by the DoD’s All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), which is tasked with studying and cataloging reports of UAPs, formerly referred to as UFOs.
The report said that AARO received 757 UAP reports from May 1, 2023, to June 1, 2024, of which “485 of these reports featured UAP incidents that occurred during the reporting period. The remaining 272 reports featured UAP incidents that occurred between 2021 and 2022 but were not reported to AARO until this reporting period and consequently were not included in previous annual UAP reports.”
The new findings bring the total number of UAP cases under AARO review to more than 1,600 as of June.
AARO Director Dr. Jon Kosloski said at a Nov. 14 media briefing the findings have left investigators puzzled.
“There are interesting cases that I, with my physics and engineering background and time in the IC [intelligence community], I do not understand. And I don’t know anybody else who understands them either,” Kosloski said.
Some cases were later resolved, with 49 determined to be common objects like balloons, birds, and unmanned aerial systems. Another 243, also found to be ordinary objects, were recommended for closure by June. However, 444 were deemed inexplicable and lacking sufficient data, so they were archived for future investigation.
Notably, 21 cases were considered to “merit further analysis” due to anomalous characteristics and behaviors, unlike typical sightings.
Despite the unexplained incidents, the office noted that it “has discovered no evidence of extraterrestrial beings, activity, or technology.”
The report said UAP cases often had consistent patterns, described with unidentified lights and round, spherical, or orb-shaped objects with distinct visual traits.
Of the new cases, 81 were reported in U.S. military operating areas, and three reports from military aircrews described “pilots being trailed or shadowed by UAP”.
The Federal Aviation Administration reported 392 unexplained sightings of the 757 reports since 2021.
In one such case, the AARO resolved a commercial pilot’s sighting of white flashing lights as a Starlink satellite launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
“AARO is investigating if other unresolved cases may be attributed to the expansion of the Starlink and other mega-constellations in low earth orbit,” the report states.
The AARO report maintains that none of the resolved cases have substantiated “advanced foreign adversarial capabilities or breakthrough aerospace technologies.” The document also states that the AARO will immediately notify Congress if any cases indicate such, which could suggest extraterrestrial involvement.
The report emphasized the AARO’s “rigorous scientific framework and a data-driven approach” and safety measures while investigating these phenomena.
UAP Hearing
The report was released a day after a House Oversight Committee hearing titled “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Exposing the Truth,” during which witnesses alleged government secrecy surrounding the phenomenon.
During the hearing, a former DoD official, Luis Elizondo, said UAPs are real.
“Advanced technologies not made by our government or any other government are monitoring sensitive military installations around the globe,” he said.
Elizondo testified that the government has operated secret programs to retrieve UAP crash materials to identify and reverse-engineer alien technology.
“Furthermore, the U.S. is in possession of UAP technologies, as are some of our adversaries. I believe we are in the midst of a multi-decade secretive arms race, one funded by misallocated taxpayer dollars and hidden from our elected representatives and oversight bodies,” he said.
“Although much of my government work on the UAP subject still remains classified, excessive secrecy has led to grave misdeeds against loyal civil servants, military personnel, and the public, all to hide the fact that we are not alone in the cosmos.
“A small cadre within our own government involved in the UAP topic has created a culture of suppression and intimidation that I have personally been victim to, along with many of my former colleagues.”
The irrelevant legacy media is currently fixated on pushing the narrative that President-elect Trump’s cabinet nominees are not qualified to take the positions he has offered them.
As we highlighted yesterday, all the right people are pissed off about it.
Rachel Maddow, who is still adamant Trump is going to put her in a concentration camp, claimed that he is intentionally destroying the government with his cabinet nominations.
Now here’s a quick reminder that the media said nothing when Joe Biden made some truly incomprehensible nominations.
As the media and Democrats attack Trump’s nominees—RFK Jr, Tulsi Gabbard, Matt Gaetz etc—let’s take a look at how unqualified Biden’s nominees are for their jobs –
Xavier Becerra, HHS – not a doctor, he’s a lawyer, ex-attorney general of California
Jared Bernstein, Chair of Council of Economic Advisors – not an economist, Bachelor’s degree in music, masters in sociology
Pete Buttigieg, Transportation Secretary – no transportation background, Mayor of Indiana, “pothole Pete”
Mayorkas, DHS Secretary – no security background, lawyer, Asst U.S. attorney, Obama transition team
Jennifer Granholm, Energy Secy – no energy background, Michigan Governor
Gina Raimondo, Commerce Secretary – No trade background, Gov of Rhode Island
Deb Haaland, Interior Secy – New Mexico Congressman
And just for kicks…Bill Nye, the environmentalist “Science Guy” — no background in environmentalism or science, he’s a mechanical engineer and comedy writer.
Sam Brinton is a LGBTQ activist who was hired to the office of nuclear energy. They he was later fired for being weird and stealing other people’s clothes and integrating them into their his wardrobe.
Former US Government official, Sam Brinton has been accused of stealing Tanzanian Fashion Designer, Asyakhamsin’s luggage in 2018.
Then there’s Choo choo Pete. His only qualification was that he liked trains as a child.
Transportation secretary nominee Pete Buttigieg says he’s had “a personal love of transportation ever since childhood…though I know that in this administration I will at best aspire to be the second biggest train enthusiast around.” https://t.co/Htk1eGXy8tpic.twitter.com/tX48fXdEoO
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, who never held any position relating to energy and doesn’t have any qualifications regarding energy just consistently pushed the new green deal agenda and railed against American energy production for four years.
Energy Secretary Granholm secretly consulted with a top Chinese Communist energy official before the release of 50 million barrels of oil from the SPR, the largest release of its kind in US history at the time. pic.twitter.com/FA6VQYW1ll
I was in the Michigan National Guard during Granholm’s term. The one thing I remember clearly August 2005 she came to Camp Grayling and said for soldiers to go to Iraq, is like athletes going to the Olympics.
You can’t even compare Trump’s cabinet picks to this parade of clowns.
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Trump Picks Fracking Boss As Next Energy Secretary
Donald Trump has nominated Chris Wright, who runs the Colorado-based oil and natural gas fracking services company, Liberty Energy, to lead the Energy Department. Like many other Trump picks, Wright, LIberty’s CEO, has no previous Washington experience, and instead has made a name for himself as a vocal proponent of oil and gas, saying fossil fuels are crucial for spreading prosperity and lifting people from poverty. And in news that will surely infuriate the green lobby and brainwashed progressives everywhere, Wright has said that the threat of global warming is exaggerated.
“Chris has been a leading technologist and entrepreneur in Energy,” Trump said in a statement Saturday. “He has worked in Nuclear, Solar, Geothermal, and Oil and Gas. Most significantly, Chris was one of the pioneers who helped launch the American Shale Revolution that fueled American Energy Independence, and transformed the Global Energy Markets and Geopolitics.”
In response to the nomination, Wright said on X that “my dedication to bettering human lives remains steadfast, with a focus on making American energy more affordable, reliable, and secure. Energy is the lifeblood that makes everything in life possible. Energy matters. I am looking forward to getting to work.” He is spot on.
I am honored and grateful for the opportunity from @realDonaldTrump to serve our country as U.S. Secretary of Energy. My dedication to bettering human lives remains steadfast, with a focus on making American energy more affordable, reliable, and secure. Energy is the lifeblood… pic.twitter.com/IfjMQw9xKi
Trump said Wright, if confirmed, would also sit on the newly formed Council of National Energy that will be chaired by Doug Burgum, Trump’s nominee to lead the Interior Department.
The Energy Department has a multi-faceted mission that includes helping to maintain the nation’s nuclear warheads, studying supercomputers and maintaining the US’s several hundred million-barrel stockpile of crude oil (his appointment likely means that the US will aggressively ramp up its refilling of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve). The DOE also plays a key role in approving projects to export liquefied natural gas, something that was paused during Biden’s administration. Trump has vowed to undo the pause.
While the department has little authority over oil and gas development, Wright will play a leading role in helping Trump carry out his energy priorities.
Trump’s selection of Wright, whose company is among the largest providers of fracking services globally, is a show of support for the hot-button oil and gas extraction method that Trump frequently touted during the campaign to attack his Democratic opponent Kamala Harris who had previously vowed to ban fracking, even if she subsequently flip-flopped on the issue, just like on every other hot topic.
Elsewhere, Bloomberg points out that Wright’s company published a 180-page paper this year that concluded climate change “is far from the world’s greatest threat to human life,” and that “hydrocarbons are essential to improving the wealth, health, and life opportunities for the less energized.”
“There is no climate crisis. And we are not in the midst of an energy transition either,” Wright said in a video posted on his LinkedIn page. “Humans, and all complex life on earth, is simply impossible without carbon dioxide — hence the term carbon pollution is outrageous.”
Wright holds engineering degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California at Berkeley. He describes himself on his Denver-based company’s website as a “tech nerd turned entrepreneur and a dedicated humanitarian.”
Trump named Wright with backing from Continental Resources Chairman Harold Hamm, a Trump energy adviser and donor. Hamm said in an interview with the Houston-based trade publication Hart Energy that Wright was his choice for the job.
If confirmed by Congress, Wright would play a leading role in Trump carrying out his campaign pledge to declare a national emergency on energy. Trump has cast such a declaration as helping increase domestic energy production — including for electricity — which he says is needed to help meet booming power needs for artificial intelligence.
Under the first Trump administration, the Energy Department played a critical role in the president-elect’s efforts to revive US coal power, an initiative he’s hinted he may attempt again.
Wright would also oversee Trump’s promise to refill the nation’s emergency cache of crude oil. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which has a capacity of more than 700 million barrels, reached lows not seen since the 1980s following the Biden administration’s unprecedented drawdown of a record 180 million barrels in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
While Wright has warned that subsidies for wind and solar drive up power prices and increase grid instability, he does support alternative energy.
“I’m not here to protect market share for oil gas,” he said during a 2022 interview with Bloomberg Television. “We should do credible things, mostly driven by market forces. But shoveling subsidies at wind and solar, which are 3% of global energy, that’s not meaningfully going to change greenhouse gas emissions. But it is going to drive electricity prices up.”
Wright is on the board EMX Royalty Corp., a global mining royalties firm, according to his company bio, and his company is an investor in geothermal energy and sodium-ion battery technology. More importantly, Wright serves on the board of small modular reactor developer Oklo, which we first recommended to our premium subscribers back in May and have pushed aggressively every since as a long-term investment.
We have feeling that the record number of OKLO shorts that has been built up in recent weeks amid the stock’s unprecedented meltup will be hurting very badly come Monday.
After President-elect Donald Trump won a second term, multiple defendants charged for their roles in the events of Jan. 6, 2021, asked to delay their cases because they anticipate pardons from Trump.
Many were denied, but each nonetheless raised questions about how Trump will handle the cases.
According to data collected by NPR, more than 1,500 people have been charged in relation to Jan. 6, with nearly 1,000 pleading guilty.
At least a dozen cases have been dismissed, while plenty remain with changes following Trump’s election. At the beginning of November, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia announced multiple sentences and guilty verdicts.
Various factors could determine whether these individuals end up avoiding jail time, but perhaps the most important is Trump’s eventual control of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and who will lead that department.
On Nov. 13, Trump announced Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) as his pick for attorney general. Gaetz has been critical of the prosecutions and introduced a bill in July that was intended to prevent prosecutors from retaliating against Jan. 6 defendants for seeking resentencing. Gaetz has also questioned federal involvement, stating that Jan. 6 “wasn’t an insurrection” but that it “very well may have been a fedsurrection.”
Assuming the presidency also grants Trump substantial pardon power under the Constitution: Trump has indicated that he’s open to pardoning those charged but left open the possibility that some would face punishment.
“We will treat them fairly,” he said in January 2022. “And if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons, because they are being treated so unfairly.”
More recently, during an event in July, he was asked about individuals who assaulted officers. He said he would “absolutely” pardon the defendants “if they’re innocent” and added that “they were convicted by a very tough system.”
More than 70 defendants have received a mixed verdict, and so far, more than 1,000 people have been sentenced, with 64 percent receiving prison time, according to NPR data. Some defendants have also taken plea deals.
“I think there’s going to be a complete second look at all of the prosecutions,” Robert Ray, a former Trump impeachment attorney, told The Epoch Times, while noting the large number of cases brought. He added that a second look wouldn’t “necessarily yield a favorable result with regard to each and every defendant, but I think there’s going to be a pretty strenuous exercise of the pardon and commutation power to deal with overreaching [by prosecutors].”
John Pierce, an attorney who has represented Jan. 6 defendants, told The Epoch Times he expects a “blanket pardon,” while Trump–Vance transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said the president-elect “will make pardon decisions on a case-by-case basis.”
Politics of Pardons
It’s unclear which individuals Trump will consider for pardon.
“That’s the million-dollar question,” Lori Ulrich, an attorney with the public defender’s office, told The Epoch Times. She is currently representing Joseph Fischer, whose case made it to the Supreme Court this year.
Fischer and other defendants face a myriad of charges, including an obstruction charge the Supreme Court addressed this summer in Fischer v. United States. It’s unclear how Trump’s DOJ will apply that ruling, but the president-elect’s pardons could be influenced by factors such as the politics surrounding his pardons.
“If President Biden either pardons or commutes the sentences for Hunter Biden, that gives President Trump political cover to either pardon or commute the non-violent J6 offenders, [as well as] Peter Navarro, and Steve Bannon, if he chooses to,” John Shu, a constitutional law expert who served in both Bush administrations, told The Epoch Times.
Shu was referring to President Joe Biden’s son, who was convicted in September of various tax offenses. Both of Trump’s former White House advisers, Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro, could be pardoned after each served a four month sentences for defying subpoenas from the House committee that investigated Jan. 6.
A CBS poll found that three years after the events of Jan. 6, 78 percent of Americans expressed disapproval toward “actions of those who forced their way into the Capitol.”
William Shipley, an attorney for one of the defendants, suggested in a motion on Nov. 10 that the election didn’t reflect well on the DOJ’s efforts.
“Defendant Baker would point out that the ‘people’ on behalf of whom the Government purports to speak made themselves heard clearly on November 5, and that should mean something to the Department of Justice without regard to what Administration is now in charge,” Shipley said in a motion for defendant Stephen Michael Baker.
That motion, which asked for a delay in proceedings, was quickly rejected by U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper this month.
Upon entering office, Trump’s pardon power would allow him to commute sentences and pardon convicts who have already served time, such as Ulrich’s client, Riley Williams. Williams was accused of helping to steal then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s laptop. She was found guilty on two felony counts, but the jury was unable to reach a verdict on two other counts, including aiding and abetting theft of government property.
Non-Violent Offenders
Shu told The Epoch Times that pardons for non-violent offenders were more politically palatable.
In August, the DOJ said that approximately 140 police officers were assaulted on Jan. 6, while more than 500 people have been charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers or employees. It added that “approximately 163 individuals … have been charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer.”
Among those are Daniel Ball, who pleaded not guilty but whom the DOJ accused of, among other things, “throwing an explosive device that detonated upon at least 25 officers.” Others included a father-son pair who pleaded guilty in January, and Zachary Alam, who was found guilty last year.
David Gelman, an attorney and former Trump campaign surrogate, told The Epoch Times that re-examining the Jan. 6 prosecutions would have to occur on a “case-by-case basis” but indicated that Trump could consider violence in choosing how to exercise his pardon power.
Trump said at a town hall in 2023 that he was “inclined to pardon many of” the defendants who had been convicted. “I can’t say for every single one because a couple of them, probably, they got out of control,” he said.
Earlier this year, he started one of his rallies with a recording of the national anthem sung by Jan. 6 prisoners. He also vowed in March that his “first acts” as president would be to “Free the January 6 Hostages being wrongfully imprisoned,” he wrote on his Truth Social account.
In a motion filed just after the election, one of the Jan. 6 defendants, Anna Lichnowski, asked her judge to postpone sentencing partly on the basis that her offenses were non-violent, making her “a good candidate for a pardon,” according to her attorney.
Lichnowski was one of a series of defendants who filed motions for some kind of delay in their cases after Trump’s victory. Many of them have been denied, including by U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton, who said that Trump’s potential pardon was “irrelevant” to Lichnowski’s case.
“The potential future exercise of the discretionary pardon power, an Executive Branch authority, is irrelevant to the Court’s obligation to carry out the legal responsibilities of the Judicial Branch,” Walton said in a Nov. 7 court order.
Matthew Graves, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, similarly resisted the motions while arguing that the public is interested in a quick administration of justice.
Graves will likely exit the DOJ in Trump’s second term, experts speculated—something that is expected for many prosecutors at the beginning of a new administration. During Trump’s and Biden’s first terms, dozens of prosecutors were asked to leave.
The vast majority of defendants have been charged with a trespassing offense, the use of which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld in October. Defendant Couy Griffin, founder of Cowboys for Trump and a former county commissioner from New Mexico, had asked the court to review the DOJ’s use of this charge against him.
In a 2–1 decision, the court held that the DOJ could apply the trespassing law without proving that he was aware that former Vice President Mike Pence’s presence on the Capitol grounds was the reason for restricting that area.
Obstruction Charge
In June, the Supreme Court held in a 6–3 decision that the DOJ had misinterpreted a financial reform law in attempting to accuse the Jan. 6 defendants of obstructing an official proceeding.
The majority opinion in that case, Fischer v. United States, held that the DOJ erred in its attempt to disentangle two portions of the Sarbanes–Oxley financial reform law (Section 1512(c)(1) and (c)(2)).
The DOJ had argued that the law allowed prosecutions that targeted obstructive conduct in a catch-all way that included methods other than those mentioned at the beginning of the section.
A majority of the Supreme Court, including Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, disagreed and held: “To prove a violation of §1512(c)(2), the Government must establish that the defendant impaired the availability or integrity for use in an official proceeding of records, documents, objects, or other things used in an official proceeding, or attempted to do so.”
It’s unclear how Trump and his DOJ will apply the Fischer decision to the defendants’ unique circumstances. It carries a 20-year maximum sentence.
In November, the DOJ said that “approximately 259 defendants who, at the time Fischerwas decided, were charged with or convicted of violating 18 U.S.C. § 1512 to determine whether the charge should continue to be prosecuted.”
The DOJ said that after Fischer, the government “decided to forgo the Section 1512(c)(2) charge for approximately 96 defendants, will continue to pursue the charge for approximately 13 defendants, and continues to assess the remaining defendants.”
Approximately 133 were sentenced, and more than half were convicted of that offense and other felonies, according to DOJ data from August.
“We Don’t Have Enough…”: Russia Temporarily Limits Exports Of Enriched Uranium To U.S.
In news that will act as a headwind for the U.S.’s re-emerging nuclear industry, it was reported last week that Russia is temporarily restricting enriched uranium exports to the U.S., raising supply concerns for reactors that produce nearly 20% of the nation’s electricity.
Russia provided no details or timeline for its uranium export restrictions in a Friday Telegram statement, though utilities’ advance purchasing likely mitigates immediate effects, Bloomberg wrote in a report on Friday.
Amid global backlash over its war in Ukraine, Russia continues leveraging energy as a geopolitical tool, also cutting gas supplies to Austria—ending a 60-year agreement that fulfills 80% of its demand—citing a legal dispute.
Bloomberg noted that Russia’s move targets a key U.S. vulnerability in the nuclear fuel cycle, as it controls nearly half of global uranium enrichment capacity and supplied over a quarter of U.S. enriched fuel last year.
Chris Gadomski, head nuclear analyst for BloombergNEF commented: “We don’t have enough enriched uranium here. They should have been stockpiling enriched uranium in anticipation of this happening.”
While 2023 deliveries are largely complete, a prolonged ban could affect reactor operators by 2025, leaving some without alternative suppliers.
Jonathan Hinze, president of UxC, which tracks uranium-fuel markets, told Bloomberg: “There would be some utilities maybe that would be expecting that material and now might not get it.”
Cameco spokeswoman Veronica Baker added: “To break the dependence on Russia and other state-owned enterprises, coordinated western responses are required.”
The Biden administration has launched a multibillion-dollar initiative to revive domestic uranium enrichment, but progress is limited, with only one U.S. commercial facility, owned by Urenco Ltd., supplying about a third of the enriched uranium for American reactors. U
renco plans a 15% capacity increase by 2027, citing the urgency of reducing reliance on unstable foreign sources.
Major U.S. nuclear operators, including Constellation Energy and Centrus Energy, have waivers to import Russian fuel, but Centrus, the top U.S. trader of Russian uranium, is exploring alternatives in case Russia’s supplier, Tenex, fails to meet its obligations.
Russia says the restrictions respond to a U.S. ban on Russian enriched uranium, signed by President Biden in May but allowing shipments until 2028 through waivers.
Firearm Suppressor Demand Explodes At Historic Rate
In a recent Freedom of Information Act request by the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) data shows an explosion in Americans purchasing a firearm suppressor.
NSSF pointed out in the report: “American gun owners are on track to exceed 87 years of registered silencers in just the latest three years.”
Here are the numbers:
Today, the ATF is processing suppressor applications in not only record time but in some instances the same day. Long gone is the wait time barrier and it is drawing shooters and hunters to purchase a suppressor who had previously dreaded long wait time to purchase one. As a result, silencer registration metrics are off the chart.
The now discontinued ATF Firearms Commerce in the United States report displayed the number of silencers that were registered in each state. The May 2021 edition reported 2,664,774 silencers in the US, more than doubling the 1.3 million silencers disclosed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) in 2017.
In a recent Freedom of Information Act request (FOIA), NSSF received from ATF the additional number of silencers from May 2021 to July 2024. An incredible 2,193,123 more suppressors are protecting the hearing of hunters and shooters. That means a whopping 4.86 million silencers and counting are in possession by law-abiding Americans.
The number of suppressors owned by law-abiding Americans has soared in recent years.
The surge in suppressor demand must be great news for SilencerCo, one of the largest firearm suppressor companies in the US.
However, for the overall firearms industry, hard times have been underway since the gun bubble popped in 2021, after multiple years of panic buying by Americans following the crime tsunami sparked by failed progressive “defund the police” policies.
The latest National Instant Criminal Background System (NICS) data shows the boom and bust cycle of gun buying. Keep in mind that NICS checks are a proxy for the number of guns sold and are not exact because the background checks are performed on the buyer rather than the gun.
NICS checks are still well above a 20-year trend and seasonally rising into the end of the year.
Meanwhile, the billionaire-funded anti-gun group “Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund” via its “The Smoking Gun” website lost its mind about law-abiding Americans purchasing suppressors.
Since Election Day, the Trump transition has been copying and pasting the same quote again and again into emails to reporters seeking comment on this or that presidential appointment.
“President-Elect Trump will begin making decisions on who will serve in his second Administration soon,” Trump transition spokesperson Karoline Leavitt always writes without fail. “Those decisions will be announced when they are made.”
The boilerplate delivers an obvious truth that many in Washington, D.C., find uncomfortable or, in some cases, unimaginable: The president-elect alone, not his senior staff, and certainly not any outside organization, is calling the shots.
Enter Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The famous vaccine skeptic is a new addition to the Trump orbit. He abandoned his own presidential campaign over the summer before backing the Republican candidate, delivering an unusual but no less invaluable endorsement in the final stretch of the election season. “It is a realignment,” Tucker Carlson later said of the coalition that included RFK Jr., whose addition he helped facilitate. “It is unbelievable.” The Kennedy apostate, it seemed at the time, was only there to deliver a bit of political capital.
Kennedy is an environmental lawyer who believes in climate change and who sued oil companies. He is a Catholic but also a liberal who believes in abortion rights. He is a crusader against what he has described as “Big Banks” and “Big Data” and “Big Tech” and “Big Pharma.”
The one thing Kennedy would never be? The Health and Human Services Secretary. So said Howard Lutnick, the co-chair of the Trump transition committee. Just days before the election, he told CNN that Kennedy was “not getting a job for HHS.” Asked anchor Kaitlin Collins, “He would not be in charge of HHS?” Replied Lutnick, “No, of course not.”
And then, nine days after the election, Trump announced his intent to nominate RFK Jr. to that HHS post.
“I look forward to working with the more than 80,000 employees at HHS to free the agencies from the smothering cloud of corporate capture so they can pursue their mission to make Americans once again the healthiest people on Earth,” Kennedy said in a statement.
Pharmaceutical stocks stumbled. Democrats on Capitol Hill were aghast. Republicans were mostly silent. Asked for reaction, South Dakota Sen. John Thune, whom Republicans elected to serve as Senate majority leader in the next Congress, told reporters, “I don’t have one at this point.”
Not all of Trump’s picks were so controversial. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, for instance, is well-respected among his colleagues on the Hill and is considered a shoo-in for secretary of state. Others reflected the realignment that Carlson referenced on the campaign trail, like former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, a lapsed Democrat whom Trump tapped to serve as his director of national intelligence.
And then there is former Rep. Matt Gaetz. RealClearPolitics first reported that the Florida Republican was about to resign after Trump announced his intent to nominate him to be attorney general. His hasty resignation likely precludes the House Ethics Committee from releasing a report that includes allegations he had sex with a minor. Gaetz denies the allegations. Some Republicans still find them disqualifying.
Trump made the decision, according to Politico, after his longtime confidant Boris Epshteyn lobbied on Gaetz’s behalf the night before. Incoming White House chief of staff Susie Wiles was reportedly unaware and in a different part of the plane during the deal-making.
The developments reflect a president-elect who is much more hands-on this time around and, perhaps, a transition chief unaware of how Trump operates.
“Lutnick doesn’t understand the pre-election transition was just a placeholder,” said one former White House official in close contact with the transition team. “He’s not even remotely in charge anymore, his role was to warm up the lists, then Trump and team add and make real decisions.”
“Did he think he was picking the Cabinet?” the Trump World source quipped to RealClearPolitics. “Maybe he forgot who won 312 electoral votes.”
Lutnick had also proclaimed during the campaign that anyone affiliated with the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 was “radioactive.” But numerous individuals with Project 2025 on their resumes have been tapped for key posts (Tom Homan was named “border czar”) or are even helping to lead the transition (John Ratcliffe is involved in the national security teams).
A White House transition is a daunting undertaking for any president-elect. Beyond just the Cabinet, thousands of mid and lower-level positions across the government must be filled. Advisers close to the president-elect say that Trump relies on the advice and counsel of Wiles and Lutnick. No longer a political novice, though, like he was the last time, he is making the final calls.
“We are not the candidate. We are not the president. It is his campaign, his election, and his presidency,” the former White House aide explained. “We can only help if asked. Decisions are all his.”
The product of those decisions? A Cabinet lineup that reflects the realignment that Trump promised, even if it isn’t the one that Washington would prefer. At Mar-a-Lago, his Palm Beach residence, Trump reveled in his heterodox picks.
At a gala celebrating the anniversary of the America First Policy Institute, a think tank staffed with loyalists, he pointed to RFK Jr. in the crowd before vowing that his HHS nominee would “do some unbelievable things that no one else could accomplish.”
It seemed until recently that no one else besides Trump could imagine RFK Jr. in that role. It was his decision alone.
Israeli Troops Reach Deepest Point In Lebanon Since Ground Op Began
The Israeli military has reached the deepest point in Lebanon since the ground offensive began about six weeks ago. This has been reported by both Lebanese and Israeli media, amid raging battles with Hezbollah on Saturday.
“The state-run National News Agency reported that Israeli troops temporarily captured a strategic hill in the southern Lebanese village of Shamaa, about five kilometers (3 miles) from the border early Saturday, before later being pushed back,” Israeli media reports. “The outlet claimed soldiers detonated several buildings including a shrine before they withdrew.”
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed that troops “continue their limited, localized, and targeted operational activity in southern Lebanon.”
Airstrikes continue to reach across the country, but it is the ground war which remains the riskiest endeavor for the IDF. For example on Wednesday, the IDF announced that six soldiers and officers from its Golani Brigade were killed in a single combat action.
They were reportedly ambushed by Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon, after which a lengthy firefight ensued. It is rare for that many Israeli troops to die in a single ground engagement:
Israel suffered one of its deadliest days of its ground offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon on Wednesday, November 13, when six of its soldiers were killed in combat near the border.
The soldiers “fell during combat in southern Lebanon,” the army said in a statement. Their deaths mean 47 Israeli troops have been killed in combat with Hezbollah since September 30, when Israel sent ground forces into Lebanon. The army’s announcement came after Israel’s new Defense Minister Israel Katz said there would be no easing up in the war against Hezbollah.
As for the new action in Shamaa, the IDF has reportedly since retreated. Warplanes have meanwhile continued to pound Beirut’s southern suburbs, as well as the port city of Tyre.
Tyre has been issued new evacuation orders this weekend, and over a dozen buildings have been destroyed in new rounds of strikes. The last couple weeks have seen a new focus on targeting alleged Hezbollah hideouts in the densely populated southern city.
Lebanon’s government has said several paramedics and emergency workers have been killed and wounded in some of these latest air raids. The country has remained helpless under Israeli airpower, having no real air force with modern jets to speak of. The Lebanese Army also doesn’t have anti-air defense missile systems, and all of this is largely due to US policy.
Hezbollah has also not relented in its rocket attacks on Israel, launching at least 65 projectiles across the border Saturday. Much of the Israeli population of the north remains evacuated from their homes on an indefinite basis.
