DECEMBER 2022 - POLITICAL TRENDING NEWS

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US President Joe Biden and French President Emanuel Macron pledge to hold Russia accountable for “widely documented atrocities and war crimes” in Ukraine. European Council President Charles Michel urges Chinese President Xi Jinping to use the country’s “influence” on Russia over its war in Ukraine.

 ian Blackford is to stand down as leader of the SNP group at Westminster, it has been confirmed. Mr Blackford said he believed it was time for "fresh leadership" after five years in the role. He said he would formally stand down at the group's annual general meeting next week. There has been speculation in recent weeks that some SNP MPs were plotting to replace Mr Blackford as group leader.

House Republicans are playing high-stakes tug of war with Kevin McCarthy’s speakership dreams. And now both sides are digging in their heels. On the GOP leader’s right, conservatives are meeting with House rules officials to strategize ahead of a planned floor challenge to McCarthy during the speakership vote on Jan. 3. Meanwhile, centrist Republicans are making threats of their own to colleagues who’d bulldoze McCarthy — including that they’ll work with Democrats to recruit a GOP speaker candidate more to their liking.

An IRS watchdog said Thursday that it “did not identify misconduct” in the rare, invasive audits of former FBI Director James Comey and his top deputy, both of whom former President Donald Trump saw as political enemies when he was in office. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said in a review of the audit process that the IRS organization in charge of the hyperselective program chose tax returns for audit correctly and did not use malicious code that would have cherry-picked a specific taxpayer.

President Joe Biden’s top supply chain adviser is leaving the White House, departing from the post as the country’s product distribution snags show signs of easing. Sameera Fazili, deputy director of the National Economic Council and a deputy assistant to the president, is exiting on Friday, according to two people familiar with the matter. She led the White House’s work on trying to fix the supply chain problems that have fueled inflation and also on passing the CHIPS and Science Act.

 This week we examine the U.S. response to recent mass protests in China and quiz the D.C.-based representative for Taiwan’s opposition KMT party about Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) Taiwan travel plans. We’ll also parse China’s complicated politics of mourning and profile a book that reveals the vulnerability of our most personal information to Chinese government data harvesting operations. 

The disgraced former Florida tax collector who cooperated with federal authorities in their investigation into Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) was sentenced Thursday to 11 years behind bars. Joel Greenberg’s sentencing was delayed multiple times as he cooperated with state and federal authorities.

The strategy behind Hakeem Jeffries’ years long ascent to House Democratic leader, as his top allies see it, focused on making the outcome feel inevitable. And in the end, it did. The New York Democrat culminated a remarkably frictionless climb of the party ladder on Wednesday, securing every vote and avoiding a single challenger. He became the highest-ranking Black congressional leader in U.S. history just 12 days after formally declaring his run.

Herschel Walker’s final play in Georgia’s Senate runoff is to, at all costs, avoid any more controversy. That, and let trusted Republican voices do most of the talking. Dodging drama isn’t easy for the former football star who spent his primary and general election campaigns dogged by allegations of abuse and lying, while regularly making national headlines for outlandish comments. But Walker forcing his incumbent Democratic rival into a runoff despite a barrage of unflattering coverage has given him another shot at appealing to voters.

The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear arguments about the legality of President Joe Biden’s student debt relief program in the coming months while keeping the policy on hold in the meantime. The decision tees up a high-stakes battle at the high court early next year that will decide the fate of Biden’s sweeping plan to provide up to $20,000 of debt relief to tens of millions of Americans who owe federal student loans.

Trump Organization attorneys made their closing plea to a New York jury on Thursday to absolve the company from an alleged criminal tax scheme that could cost it $1.6 million.

In closing arguments for the monthlong New York Supreme Court trial, team Trump stressed that former CFO Allen Weissleberg was only out to help himself when he and other executives took company perks like an apartment, luxury cars and private school tuition without reporting the benefits to tax authorities.

The Ukrainian government is warning Western allies that it is anticipating increased Russian attacks on its energy infrastructure in the coming days and that Kyiv does not have enough replacement parts to bring heat and power back online if those occur, according to two congressional officials and one Western official briefed on U.S. intelligence.