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NEW YORK – A New York judge Friday upheld President-elect Donald Trump’s criminal conviction but signaled that he was inclined to spare him any punishment, a striking development in a case that had spotlighted an array of embarrassing misdeeds and imperiled the former and future president’s freedom. The judge, Juan M. Merchan, indicated that he favored a so-called unconditional discharge of Trump’s sentence, a rare and lenient alternative to jail or probation. He set a sentencing date of Jan. 10, and ordered Trump to appear either in person or virtually. An unconditional discharge would cement Trump’s status as a felon just weeks before his inauguration — he would be the first to carry that dubious designation into the presidency — even as it would water down the consequences for his crimes. Source link

Washington – Speaker Mike Johnson on Friday won re-election to the top post in the House, salvaging his job in a dramatic last-minute turnabout by putting down a revolt from conservatives who initially voted to block his ascent. Johnson barely mustered the majority he needed to win reelection on the first ballot, with help from President-elect Donald Trump, who interrupted a golf game to lobby holdouts by phone. That allowed the speaker to avoid the humiliation of a multiday slog of failed votes like the one his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, suffered through before ultraconservatives relented and elected him two years ago. Johnson won with just enough votes to clinch the gavel, 218-215. Source link

WASHINGTON/LONDON – Alcoholic drinks should carry a warning about cancer risks on their label, the U.S. Surgeon General said Friday in a move that could signal a shift toward more aggressive tobacco-style regulation for the sector if adopted. U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said alcohol consumption increases the risk of at least seven types of cancer, including breast, colon and liver cancer, but most U.S. consumers remain unaware of this. Murthy also called for the guidelines on alcohol consumption limits to be reassessed so that people can weigh the cancer risk when deciding whether or how much to drink. U.S. dietary guidelines currently recommend two or fewer drinks per day for men and one drink or less per day for women. Source link

Washington – He demanded new elections in Britain, promoted Germany’s far-right, blasted the European Commission — and that’s just the start. Elon Musk is pushing the hard right in Europe, where progressives are grappling with how, or even whether, to contain him. The interventions by the world’s wealthiest man — who also owns one of the planet’s largest megaphones, social media platform X — have already seen him secure unprecedented influence thanks to his proximity to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. Now the ever-more powerful Tesla and SpaceX chief is turning his gaze on Europe, where many governments are already grappling with the rise of populism and the far-right. Source link

Detroit – U.S. new-car sales in 2024 continued to rise from their pandemic lows, bolstered by replenished inventories, higher incentives and surging demand for hybrid vehicles, automakers reported Friday. Sales of new vehicles finished at 15.9 million last year, according to Wards Intelligence, up 2.2% from the prior year, and the highest since 2019. Automakers are projecting strong sales will continue into 2025, although President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed automotive policies, such as removing tax credits for EVs, present a wild card. “We’re carrying significant momentum into 2025,” Rory Harvey, GM’s head of global markets, said in a release. The Detroit automaker defended its 2023 crown as the biggest U.S. carmaker by sales, selling 2.7 million vehicles last year, the company said on Friday, up 4.3% from 2023. Source link

U.S. President Joe Biden blocked Nippon Steel’s proposed $14.9 billion purchase of U.S. Steel citing national security concerns, in a potentially fatal blow to the deal after a yearlong review. Biden, President-elect Donald Trump and an influential labor union opposed the effort by Japan’s top steelmaker to acquire the iconic American firm, which would have created the world’s third-largest steelmaker, according to World Steel Association data. The path forward is unclear. The companies could sue the U.S. government, another buyer could swoop in for U.S. Steel, or Republicans who favor the deal could urge Trump to find a way to approve it. Source link

WASHINGTON/TOKYO – U.S. President Joe Biden officially blocked Nippon Steel’s proposed $14.9 billion purchase of U.S. Steel on Friday, citing national security concerns, dealing a potentially fatal blow to the contentious plan after a year of review. Nippon paid a hefty premium to clinch the deal and made several concessions, including a last-ditch gambit to give the U.S. government veto power over changes to output, but to no avail. In a statement, Nippon and U.S. Steel blasted Biden’s decision, calling it a “clear violation of due process” and a political move, and saying they would “take all appropriate action” to protect their legal rights. Source link

LONDON – Thousands of far-reaching sanctions have been imposed by dozens of countries on Russian banks, businesses and people since Moscow ordered tanks to roll across the border into Ukraine in the winter of 2022. Now, more than 1,000 days later, as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office, questions about the sanctions’ effectiveness — and future — are expected to come under renewed scrutiny. Trump has stated, “I want to use sanctions as little as possible.” And he has made clear that there will be a shift in U.S. policy toward Ukraine, having promised to end the war in a single day. Source link

Seoul – South Korean investigators attempted to arrest impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol at his residence Friday over a failed martial law bid but were blocked by his security forces. They stood down just days before the arrest warrant expires on Monday. Here’s a look at what could happen next: Source link

Charlottesville, Virginia – In an otherwise nondescript office in downtown Charlottesville, Virginia, a small leather chest sits atop a filing cabinet. Within it lies a combination lock, unopened for more than 50 years. The man who set it is dead. On its own, the lock is unremarkable — the kind you might use at the gym. The code, a mnemonic of a six-letter word converted into numbers, was known only to psychiatrist Dr. Ian Stevenson, who set it long before he died and years before he retired as director of the Division of Perceptual Studies, or DOPS, a parapsychology research unit he founded in 1967 within the University of Virginia’s school of medicine. Stevenson called this experiment the Combination Lock Test for Survival. He reasoned that if he could transmit the code to someone from the grave, it might help answer the questions that had consumed him in life: Is communication from the “beyond” possible? Can the personality survive bodily death? Or simply: Is reincarnation real? Source link