Good morning, and welcome to The Epoch Times News Brief for Friday, Nov. 22, 2024. I’m Bill Thomas, we have some urgent stories to share with you right now, and here’s what’s going on.
President-elect Donald Trump picks a new nominee to be the nation’s attorney general, an international tribunal issues arrest warrants relating to the war in the Middle East, and Russia has just reportedly struck Ukraine with a new missile model.
Also, the governor of a massive Southern state issues orders dealing with Chinese threats, and U.S. regulators want the courts to break up a leading technology company and its web browser, which many of us use every single day.
Trump Picks Bondi for Attorney General
Yesterday, Trump picked former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to be the country’s next attorney general, moving swiftly to replace former nominee Matt Gaetz, who withdrew from contention earlier in the day.The president-elect called Bondi “tough on violent criminals,” and he said that as Florida’s first female attorney general, she “worked to stop the trafficking of deadly drugs, and reduce the tragedy of fentanyl overdose deaths, which have destroyed many families across our country.”
Additionally, Bondi previously served on the Trump administration’s opioid and drug abuse commission.
The nomination was made after former Florida congressman Matt Gaetz announced earlier in the day that he was withdrawing from being Trump’s choice for U.S. attorney general, because his nomination’s pending “confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work” of the president-elect’s future administration.
Trump responded to that announcement on Truth Social by thanking Gaetz for his efforts in seeking approval from senators, and wished him well, saying he’s got a “wonderful future” ahead of him.
However, the former representative faced significant congressional, federal, and media scrutiny over a number of allegations that would have complicated his path to confirmation.
So you know, the House Ethics Committee had been investigating Gaetz, and earlier this week, the committee announced that it would not release its final report regarding the investigation—at least for the time being.
By the way, Gaetz recently won his reelection bid for the upcoming Congress, but he resigned from his seat on Nov. 13, after he was named as Trump’s choice for attorney general.
ICC Issues Arrest Warrants for Israeli Leaders
The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague has just issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu along with the country’s former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for “crimes against humanity.”The warrants also accuse the pair of “war crimes,” which were allegedly committed between October 2023 and May of this year.
The ICC said that both Netanyahu and Gallant bore criminal responsibility for using “starvation as a method of warfare,” and also for “murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.”
In response, Netanyahu’s office said that his country “rejects with disgust” the “absurd and false actions leveled against it by ICC,” and Israeli President Isaac Herzog said that the ICC’s decision “chose the side of terrorism and evil over democracy and freedom.”
By the way, the court also issued an arrest warrant for a Hamas leader known as Mohammed Deif, whom Israel believes is dead.
So you know, Israel and the United States are not members of the ICC, and it will now be up to the organization’s 124 member states to decide whether or not to enforce the warrants.
Putin Says Russia Used New MRBM to Strike Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin says that yesterday, Russian forces struck the Ukrainian city of Dnipro with a hypersonic medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM).He said the MRBM is a new missile model that Russian forces have dubbed “Oreshnik,” and that the missile was armed with a non-nuclear payload.
Hours earlier, Ukrainian officials began reporting what they believed was an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) strike on Dnipro.
Yesterday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the speed and the altitude of the missile in question matched those of an ICBM, and that further investigations were underway to determine whether or not the reports were accurate.
Ukraine’s air force said it believes the missile was fired from a location in Russia’s Astrakhan region, which borders the Caspian Sea, and that Russia launched it alongside another ballistic missile along with six cruise missiles.
So you know, the Ukrainian military says that it intercepted all of the cruise missiles, and that the two other ballistic missiles did not cause any significant damage.
The missile strike happened just days after reports emerged that the United States had agreed to allow Ukraine to use U.S.-made long-range weapons for deep strikes inside Russian territory for the first time.
You should also know that Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that he would view approval of Ukraine’s long-range strikes inside Russia as a significant escalation in the ongoing Russia–Ukraine war.
Texas Governor Targets CCP Infiltration
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has just issued a number of executive orders that target the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) influence in his state.Earlier this week, Abbott signed one executive order that safeguards critical infrastructure from cyberattacks, another that protects Texans from the CCP’s espionage operations, and a third that defends local dissidents from the Chinese regime’s harassment.
In issuing the orders, Abbott said that “China has made it clear that they can—and will—target and attack America’s critical infrastructure.”
One of his orders directs two different departments in the state to create a task force to study potential vulnerabilities within government systems and critical infrastructure.
The governor says that that task force will run response simulations to cyberattacks, and also assemble a committee of state agencies to “simulate a restart of Texas’ electric grid in the event of a foreign attack.”
Another of Abbott’s orders directs all state agencies and certain academic institutions to “harden” their systems from potential infiltration by hostile nations, including by implementing more thorough background checks on employees and contractors.
The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee applauded Abbott’s leadership. He said that Texas is “leading the charge in combating the CCP,” and also that these executive orders deliver a strong message to the CCP: “Don’t mess with Texas.”
US Regulators Seek Breakup of Google
U.S. regulators have just asked a federal judge to break up Google, and they say the tech giant has been abusing its power in the search engine and search advertising markets for more than a decade.Earlier this week, the Department of Justice (DOJ), alongside 38 states and territories, outlined its proposed remedy in a 23-page court filing. The new document follows a previous federal court ruling that found Google unlawfully maintained its dominance through anti-competitive practices that deprived consumers and advertisers of meaningful choices.
The DOJ’s proposal aims to “restore competition” in the search market, and it calls for Google to divest itself of the Chrome browser, which regulators argue has been used to reinforce the company’s monopoly by directing search traffic exclusively to Google’s platforms.
The court filing also seeks to bar Google from entering into exclusive agreements with other distributors, including its contracts with Apple that make Google’s product the default search engine on iPhones.
Regulators argue that these arrangements allow Google to control nearly all search access points, leave consumers with limited choices, and offer other companies little opportunity to compete.
By the way, Google has not yet responded to the latest filing. However, the company has previously defended its business practices, arguing that its products benefit consumers and that competition in the tech industry remains robust.
And now, it looks like our time is just about up for today, so we’re going to call it a wrap for the Friday edition of The Epoch Times News Brief.
Don’t forget the News Brief Motto: We’re portable, affordable, and always on-demand. Anywhere you go, we’re happy to tag along.
And finally, as we do each and every day on this program, we wrap everything up with a very notable quote, and this one comes to us from the fabulous singer Naomi Judd, who said: “A dead end is just a good place to turn around.”
For all of us here at The Epoch Times News Brief, I’m Bill Thomas.
The Epoch Times News Brief program is written each day by David Ross.
Thank you for making us your one-stop source for a concise, accurate, and unbiased daily synopsis of many of the news stories you need to know about.
Enjoy the remainder of your day, and we’ll see you right back here tomorrow for another edition of The Epoch Times News Brief.
For now, let’s all continue to watch out for one another and have an absolutely superb day today. Bye for now.
