🇨🇳 China Executes Former Official in $412 Million Corruption Case

China executed a former official from Inner Mongolia over corruption charges totaling about 3 billion yuan ($412 million), a rare use of the death penalty for graft that comes with President Xi Jinping’s sweeping campaign to cleanse the Communist Party intensifying.

It is rare for Chinese officials to receive the death penalty for corruption charges. More frequently they get a two-year reprieve from execution, with their sentence commuted to life imprisonment for good behavior.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-12-17/china-executes-former-official-in-412-million-corruption-case

https://archive.ph/lv0Hr

🇺🇸🇮🇱 Lawsuit accuses State Department of creating loopholes for Israel on military aid and human rights

WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department has carved out exceptions for close ally Israel that block a U.S. law restricting foreign military support over human rights abuses, a lawsuit from a group of Palestinians in Gaza and American relatives asserted Tuesday.

Former State Department officials and crafters of the 1997 Leahy law were among those advising and backing the lawsuit.

The lawsuit details the barriers that it accuses the State Department of creating on Israel’s behalf to skirt enforcement and asks courts to intervene. That is after campus protests and moves by some lawmakers failed in their goal of limiting U.S. military support to Israel over civilian deaths in Gaza during the war with Hamas.

📝 The Leahy Laws or Leahy amendments are U.S. human rights laws that prohibit the U.S. Department of State and Department of Defense from providing military assistance to foreign security force units that violate human rights with impunity.

https://apnews.com/article/israel-military-aid-gaza-us-biden-leahy-law-3fe632e1ef524656b7a201bc4c1651a2

Lot of Russian navy movements to-from Mediterranean. Linked to or shaped by the situation in Syria (and Ukraine), but some may have been planned earlier.

Expecting major withdrawal of equipment from Tartus

📎 CovertShores

🇲🇽 Regional expansion of Mexico's cartels, as well as their affiliates.

@CIG_telegram

🇪🇸❌🇮🇱 A collective of Spanish lawyers, judges, and prosecutors amassed over 1200 signatures on a petition demanding the Spanish government apply and enforce sanctions on the Israeli government, which they presented on December 17 in front of the Spanish Parliament building in Madrid

📎 TRT World

🇪🇺 EU signs $11B deal for sovereign satellite constellation to rival Musk’s Starlink

The European Union is forging ahead with plans for a constellation of internet satellites to rival Elon Musk-owned Starlink, after signing a €10.6 billion ($11.1 billion) deal to launch nearly 300 satellites into low- and medium-Earth orbits by 2030. The bloc wants the space tech to boost its digital sovereignty by providing secure comms to governments.

Musk’s Starlink, meanwhile, already has some 6,000 satellites in orbit, recently passed 4 million subscribers, and has major deals with the likes of Royal Caribbean and United Airlines. It’s also gearing up to launch a direct-to-phone service with T-Mobile.

🔗 https://techcrunch.com/2024/12/16/eu-signs-11b-deal-for-sovereign-satellite-constellation-to-rival-musks-starlink/

📚 How well did different states do on the NAEP after adjusting for demographics?

Mississippi and Florida tied for the #2 spot, not far behind Massachusetts.

These are test score rankings adjusted for gender, age, race/ethnicity, receipt of free and reduced-price school lunch, special education status, and English language learner status

They suggest a very different picture than the one we usually get, where the northeast dominates

https://www.urban.org/research/publication/states-demographically-adjusted-performance-2022-nations-report-card

📎 Crémieux

🇸🇴 New fighting in Erigavo displaced more than 42K people. Deadly fighting occurred this past weekend between Somaliland security forces and forces said to be belonging to the Khaatumo administration- per reports

📎 HarunMaruf

California Governor Gavin Newsom declares a state of emergency due to the H5N1 bird flu.

📎 AF Post

JUST IN: Wisconsin reports its first human case of H5N1 bird flu, linked to poultry

📎 BNO News