Senate passes defense
bill, steering clear of far-right policy dictates
The Senate on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed an $886 billion defense bill that would set Pentagon policy and provide a 5.2% pay raise for military personnel, defying the demands of hard-right Republicans who had tried and failed to attach a raft of deeply partisan restrictions on abortion, transgender care and diversity initiatives. The vote was 87-13 to approve the legislation, which would expand the Defense Department’s ability to compete with China and Russia in hypersonic and nuclear weapons, implement components of a key Indo-Pacific security partnership with Britain and Australia, and direct hundreds of millions of dollars in military assistance to Ukraine and Israel.
Judge pauses Trump election case amid appeal
of immunity issue
A federal judge Wednesday put on hold all the proceedings in former President Donald Trump’s trial on charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election as his lawyers asked an appeals court to move slowly in considering his claim that he is immune from prosecution. The separate but related moves were part of an ongoing struggle between Trump’s legal team and prosecutors working for special counsel Jack Smith over the critical question of when the trial will be held. Smith has also filed a parallel request to the Supreme Court to consider the immunity issue even before the appeals court does. Trump’s lawyers have until Dec. 20 to respond to that request.
Scientists pinpoint cause of severe morning sickness
The nausea and vomiting that often define the first trimester of pregnancy are primarily caused by a single hormone, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature. Researchers said that the discovery could lead to better treatments for morning sickness, including rare, life-threatening cases of it. The study confirms prior research that had pointed to the hormone, called GDF15. The researchers found that the amount of hormone circulating in a woman’s blood during pregnancy — as well as her exposure to it before pregnancy — drives the severity of her symptoms. More than two-thirds of pregnant women experience nausea and vomiting during the first trimester.
E3 Tech Expo is
shutting down
E3, one of the world’s largest video game conventions, is shutting down permanently, its organizers said Tuesday, ending what was once an annual rite for players and creators after it struggled for years to remain relevant in a rapidly evolving industry. The Electronic Entertainment Expo, known as E3, had been held every year in Los Angeles since 1995, except when it was canceled during the pandemic. It was one of the most high-profile venues where game makers showcased their creations to fans before they went on sale. During the pandemic, organizers canceled E3 in 2020 and made it virtual in 2021. It was canceled again in 2022 and never recovered.
In a first, nations at climate summit agree to move
away from fossil fuels
For the first time since nations began meeting three decades ago to confront climate change, diplomats from nearly 200 countries approved a global pact that explicitly calls for “transitioning away from fossil fuels” like oil, gas and coal that are dangerously heating the planet. The sweeping agreement was reached Wednesday after two weeks of debate at the United Nations climate summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The new deal calls on countries to accelerate a global shift away from fossil fuels this decade in a “just, orderly and equitable manner,” and to quit adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere entirely by midcentury.
Russian missile attack
on Kyiv injures dozens
Russia launched a barrage of ballistic missiles at Kyiv, Ukraine, before dawn Wednesday, injuring more than 50 people and damaging several apartment buildings in the third attack on Ukraine’s capital in the past week. The Ukrainian air force said that the attack had involved 10 missiles and that it shot down all of them, but added that falling debris from the interceptions had wreaked havoc on apartment blocks in the city’s eastern Dniprovskyi district. The attack came hours after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine wrapped up a trip to Washington to appeal for more U.S. military aid, amid signs that support is waning.
White House official plays down Biden’s ‘indiscriminate bombing’ remark
A top White House spokesperson Wednesday played down President Joe Biden’s statement a day earlier that Israel was conducting “indiscriminate bombing” in the Gaza Strip, saying several times that the president was merely expressing concern about the toll of civilian casualties in the war. The president’s comments Tuesday were widely seen as a sign of a new rift between allies. But John Kirby, a spokesperson for the White House’s National Security Council, refused to repeat the statement and sidestepped questions about whether the United States had formally concluded that Israel’s bombing was indiscriminate, which could be a war crime under international law.
Argentina’s new ‘anarcho-capitalist’ president
starts slashing
Javier Milei won Argentina’s presidency last month. On Tuesday, two days after taking office, the self-proclaimed “anarcho-capitalist” unveiled deep spending cuts and a sharp devaluation of Argentina’s currency. Milei’s government said it would halt new infrastructure projects; lay off recently hired government workers; reduce energy and transportation subsidies for residents; cut payments to Argentina’s 23 provinces; and halve the number of federal ministries. It said it would also officially devalue the Argentine peso — $1 will now cost 800 pesos, instead of 350 — bringing the government exchange rate much closer to the market value of the peso.
Australian court
tosses conviction of
mother accused of
killing 4 of her children
A court of appeal Thursday overturned the conviction of a woman once labeled Australia’s worst female serial killer by the tabloids for the deaths of her four young children. Kathleen Folbigg, 56, was found guilty in 2003 of killing the children and sentenced to 30 years in prison. But Australia’s scientific community rallied around her, citing genetic evidence that indicated the children had most likely died of natural causes. Folbigg received a pardon in June. The Court of Criminal Appeal in Sydney on Thursday threw out her conviction, potentially opening the door to compensation from the state.
By wire sources
