Special counsel David Weiss contradicted President Joe Biden’s rationale for issuing a pardon to his son, Hunter. Weiss said there is no evidence of “selective or vindictive prosecution.” 
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- Special counsel David Weiss contradicted President Joe Biden’s rationale for issuing a pardon to his son, Hunter. Weiss said there is no evidence of “selective or vindictive prosecution.”
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President Joe Biden arrived in Angola on Dec. 2, in what is likely to be the last foreign trip of his presidency as he seeks to bolster ties with African countries amid the growing influence of China and Russia on the continent.
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President-elect Donald Trump said on Truth Social that will travel to France to attend the reopening of the Notre Dame cathedral, which has been restored after a devastating fire five years ago.
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A Delaware judge has reaffirmed her earlier decision to nullify Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s $56 billion compensation package, after a recent shareholder vote in favor of reinstatement, according to court documents filed Monday.
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A dance scene from the 1954 classic film “White Christmas” foreshadowed the downslide of classical dance. Story after the news.
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Good morning. It’s Tuesday. Thank you for reading Morning Brief. Send me a line.
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| Ivan Pentchoukov
National Editor |
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President Joe Biden (C) reacts as he is greeted by members of the U.S. Embassy in Angola upon his arrival at the Quatro de Fevereiro Luanda International Airport in Luanda on December 2, 2024. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images) |
Special counsel David Weiss, who is prosecuting the two cases against Hunter Biden, told judges in Delaware and California on Monday that there is no evidence that the president’s son was the target of “selective or vindictive prosecution.” |
- President Joe Biden on Sunday, when announcing a pardon for Hunter Biden, said that he was reversing his previous pledge not to do so, because his son was “selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted.”
- Weiss’s office noted that a number of judges, including some appointed by the president, have previously rejected similar arguments from the president’s son.
- Prosecutors also pointed out that Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to tax charges brought in California federal court, while a jury convicted him of gun-related crimes in Delaware federal court.
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Lawyers for Hunter Biden told the two spurts that the pardon “requires dismissal” of both indictments against the president’s son. That view is not correct, the prosecutors said, and urged the judges overseeing the cases to instead close the dockets, which would result in documents in the cases remaining accessible. (More) |
- The White House on Dec. 2 defended President Joe Biden pardoning his son, Hunter Biden.
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Hunter Biden said he will not take the pardon for granted: “I will never take the clemency I have been given today for granted and will devote the life I have rebuilt to helping those who are still sick and suffering.”
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The younger Biden joins a long list of controversial pardons. Our colleague, Jack Phillips, put together a list.
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- “There will be all hell to pay” if the Oct. 7 hostages are not released by the time Trump takes office next year, the president-elect warned.
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The Japanese company that is acquiring U.S. Steel received a warning from Trump on Monday. The president-elect said on Truth Social he will block the sale.
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Warren Stephens, a prominent investment banker and philanthropist, is Trump’s pick for ambassador to the United Kingdom, pending Senate confirmation.
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A Congressional staffer carrying ammunition was arrested at the U.S. Capitol.
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A Delaware judge has reaffirmed her earlier decision to nullify Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s $56 billion compensation package, after a recent shareholder vote in favor of reinstatement, according to court documents filed Monday. |
- Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick of the Delaware Court of Chancery stood firm on her January ruling that deemed the pay package excessive and invalid.
- The latest decision comes as a blow to Tesla and its shareholders, who, according to earlier court filings, had voted to re-approve Musk’s pay package in June after the January judgment.
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In her 101-page opinion, McCormick rejected Tesla’s attempt to “reset” the situation through the June vote.
- “Were the court to condone the practice of allowing defeated parties to create new facts for the purpose of revising judgments, lawsuits would become interminable,” she said.
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Tesla’s stock fell 1.4 percent in after-hours trading following the decision, according to market data.
McCormick ordered Tesla to pay $345 million in attorney fees to the legal team representing the shareholder plaintiff, which cannot be paid in cash or Tesla stock. This amount, while substantial, falls short of the $5.6 billion initially requested by the attorneys. (More)
“Shareholders should control company votes, not judges,” Musk wrote on X. More U.S. News |
- The U.S. manufacturing sector showed signs of recovery in November, as new orders expanded for the first time in eight months and rising confidence spurred companies to add staff.
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The average price of gas in the United States fell for the seventh straight week to $3 per gallon, for the lowest level in three years.
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Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger has retired after almost four years leading the tech corporation, with his exit coming amid a steady decline in the company’s revenues and share value.
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A 557-page report detailing the findings was released by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic. It has now been officially determined that gain-of-function research and a lab leak in China are the most likely origins of the virus. Watch ➞ |
Beijing’s lead in apparel exports to the United States has been reduced in favor of other Asian nations, with reports and experts attributing the decline to a number of factors, including human rights abuses and the U.S.-China trade war. |
- China, the largest exporter of apparel to the United States, lost 16.4 percent of its share of the market from 2013 to 2023, while other exporters’s shares increased, particularly countries like Vietnam, Bangladesh, India, and Cambodia, according to a recent report by the United States International Trade Commission (USITC).
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The decrease in the Chinese share of the market happened due to several reasons, the most important being tariffs imposed by Washington and China’s human rights violations against Uyghurs in forced labor camps in Xinjiang, the report found.
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President-elect Donald Trump’s second term will further impact the U.S. market not only for big exporters and geopolitical adversaries like China but also for smaller countries.
In his first term, Trump slapped tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of Chinese goods in response to Beijing’s unfair trade practices—a policy continued by Biden. A significant drop in China’s share of U.S. imports has been evident since 2018.
The tariff war and trade tensions were so impactful that many U.S. firms at least partially moved away from China. (More)
More World News: |
- Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. expressed concerns on Dec. 2 about a Russian submarine that allegedly entered his country’s exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea.
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An American who was thought to be a hostage in Gaza was killed on Oct. 7 last year, the Israel Defense Forces said.
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The Israeli air defense system intercepted a projectile before it reached Israeli territory on Dec. 1 as the Yemen-based Houthi terrorist group claimed it had launched a “hypersonic missile” against a vital target in central Israel.
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Police in the former Soviet republic of Georgia have clashed with protesters for a fourth consecutive night after the Georgian Dream party, which won elections last month, suspended negotiations about joining the European Union for four years.
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A controversial refereeing decision sparked violence and a crush at a soccer match in southeast Guinea, west Africa, killing 56 people according to a provisional toll, the government said on Monday.
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Protesters shoot fireworks toward police during a fourth day of nationwide protests against a government decision to shelve EU membership talks in Tbilisi early on Dec. 2, 2024. (Giorgi Arjevanidze/AFP via Getty Images) |
Judy Haynes (Vera-Ellen) and Phil Davis (Danny Kaye) dance to “The Best Things Happen While You’re Dancing" in the classic film “White Christmas.” (Paramount) |
“The theater, the theater. What’s happened to the theater? Especially where dancing is concerned.” So begins Irving Berlin’s “Choreography” number in the 1954 classic film “White Christmas.” |
- As avant-garde music plays in the background, popular Hollywood entertainer Danny Kaye, flanked by a troupe of expressionless dancers in modernist attire, moves weirdly around a set that looks like something straight out of a modern art museum.
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In the midst of Golden Era songs and routines such as “Blue Skies,” “Mandy,” and “The Best Things Happen While You’re Dancing,” this number seems dropped out of a much later era, at least until Vera-Ellen enters in a vibrant pink dress and livens things up with some fancy taps.
- This number brilliantly pokes fun at the new style of dance while exemplifying the joy and beauty of the old ways.
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In today’s dance world, the transition to modern style referred to in “Choreography” is even more apparent. |
- The lyrics speak more of the popular dance genre, but the world of classical ballet is now also being swiftly overtaken by contemporary dance, which stems from the style shown in this routine.
- By looking through the lens of this classic Hollywood number, we can get a clear picture of the ballet world’s present state.
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Watch the “Choreography” dance number from the film“White Christmas” here. Read the full article by our colleague Rebekah Brannan here. |
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Thanks for reading. Have a wonderful day. |
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