Biden blocks oil and gas drilling across huge stretch of US coastline weeks before Trump’s inauguration: Live
President makes power move to protect environment ahead of joint-session to formally recognize president-elect’s November victory over Kamala Harris, four years on from attempted insurrection by his supporters
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Your support makes all the difference.Joe Biden has moved to ban new offshore oil and gas development along most US coastlines, a decision that Donald Trump, who has vowed to boost domestic energy production, may find difficult to reverse.
The White House said on Monday that Biden will use his authority under the 70-year-old Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to protect all federal waters off America’s east and west coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and portions of the northern Bering Sea in Alaska.
Meanwhile, Trump’s victory over Biden’s vice president Kamala Harris in November’s presidential election will be formally certified by a joint-session of Congress today, the occasion coinciding with the fourth anniversary of the Capitol riot of January 6 2021.
One of the darkest days in American history, the date will live in infamy for the violent scenes that erupted between Trump supporters and local law enforcement on the steps of the Capitol.
The states’ electoral vote records will be unsealed in the House of Representatives at 1pm ET (6pm GMT) today and read aloud in alphabetical order.
Given that the duty of presiding over the process falls to the vice president, Harris will have to formalize her own defeat.
When egos collide: Trump could be next after angry Musk turns on Farage
Trump has two years to cause real chaos and harm and only these people will be able to stop him
Musk gets good news a day after Italian PM visits Trump as Rome announces potential $1.6bn SpaceX deal
Biden set to give two final speeches as he looks to secure legacy before Trump’s return
Can Trump reverse Biden’s offshore drilling ban?
Donald Trump is adamant he will “unban” offshore drilling immediately after becoming president, as he told Hugh Hewitt this morning:
It won’t be that simple, as Fox News’s Jacqui Heinrich notes: “This may not be *immediately* possible. Biden took action under the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act — which does not provide authority for presidents to reverse it. Trump will likely have to work to undo Biden’s ban through Congress or the courts.”
Trump spokesperson calls hush-money sentencing ‘unlawful’
Donald Trump’s spokesperson Steven Cheung released the following statement regarding the attempt to stay the sentencing of the president-elect in following his 34-count hush-money conviction:
“Today, President Trump’s legal team moved to stop the unlawful sentencing in the Manhattan D.A.’s Witch Hunt. The Supreme Court’s historic decision on Immunity, the state constitution of New York, and other established legal precedent mandate that this meritless hoax be immediately dismissed. The American People elected President Trump with an overwhelming mandate that demands an immediate end to the political weaponization of our justice system and all of the remaining Witch Hunts. We look forward to uniting our country in the new administration as President Trump makes America great again.”
A jury convicted the president-elect in May 2024 based on the evidence presented during a lengthy trial.
Watch: Kamala Harris gives video address ahead of ‘sacred obligation’ of certifying Trump’s election victory
Proud Boys leader formally asks Trump for pardon of seditious conspiracy conviction
Lawyers for Enrique Tarrio, the former Proud Boys leader, have formally asked Donald Trump for a pardon for his actions on January 6, 2021.
Tarrio is currently serving a 22-year prison term after being convicted of seditious conspiracy in connection with the attack on the US Capitol.
President-elect Trump takes office in two weeks.
Trump seeks to stay hush money sentencing date
Donald Trump’s legal team has filed a motion to stay the sentencing of the president-elect in his hush-money case, which was set for January 10 on Friday by Judge Juan Merchan.
Pete Hegseth has enough votes to become defense secretary, say top Republican
Trump has reportedly been reassured by a top Republican that his controversial pick for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has enough backing from the GOP to be confirmed by the Senate.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune told the president-elect that the former Fox News host has the required number of votes to survive the confirmation process, CBS News reports.
However, speaking to the same network’s Face the Nation on Sunday, Thune said that the process would be fair but reiterated that the nominees would all have to “make their case in front of the committee.”
Mike Bedigan reports.
Pete Hegseth has enough votes to become Defense Secretary, top Republican tells Trump
The former Fox News host is due to attend a confirmation hearing for the top Pentagon job on January 15
Giuliani faces second day of testimony
Rudy Giuliani will testify for a second day as he faces the possibility of being held in contempt of court for dodging court orders to hand over his property.
Attorneys for two election workers he defamed have tried unsuccessfully to begin taking possession of a long list of his property following a jury’s $148 million defamation verdict in 2023.
Judge Lewis Liman in Manhattan is overseeing the property transfer case.
On Friday, Trump’s former attorney and the former New York City mayor testified for three hours, claiming that he doesn’t know where some of his possessions are, or if he ever had them to begin with. He admitted to withholding his grandfather’s watch from the election workers and bizarrely claimed he doesn’t use a calendar and did not believe that evidence orders for “all” communications included emails.
Here’s what you need to know:
Rudy Giuliani testifies he kept his grandfather’s watch from defamed election workers
The former New York mayor insists he’s ‘not trying to hide’ but doesn’t know where some of his assets are or if he ever had them during the long-running case to collect $148 million
Musk gets good news a day after Italian PM visits Trump as Rome announces potential $1.6bn SpaceX deal
A deal that would see Elon Musk’s SpaceX take over secure communications for the Italian government is reportedly back on track and nearing final approval after Italy’s prime minister met with Trump this weekend.
Bloomberg reports that the burgeoning agreement “appeared to move forward” after right-wing prime minister Giorgia Meloni met with the president-elect on Saturday at Mar-a-Lago, where the incoming commander-in-chief continues to hold court ahead of his inauguration.
John Bowden has more.
Musk gets good news a day after Italian PM visits Trump
Ongoing talks ‘appeared to move forward’ after meeting, according to reports
Trump could be next after angry Elon Musk turns on Nigel Farage
Here’s our political editor David Maddox on what yesterday’s extraordinary attack on Farage by Musk means for the billionaire’s relationship with the president-elect, who has frequently championed by the Brexiteer and is unlikely to be pleased about a broadside that implicitly questions his own political judgement.
When egos collide: Trump could be next after angry Musk turns on Farage
News analysis: The Musk-Farage fallout has revealed the achilles heel of the populist right – it relies almost entirely on big egos and personalities and collapses like a house of cards when they turn on one another
Trump hosts premier of documentary about lawyer John Eastman who subverted 2020 election
The president-elect is facing criticism for premiering a documentary over the weekend at Mar-a-Lago about an allied lawyer who helped him strategize about how to overturn the 2020 election results.
The film, The Eastman Dilemma: Lawfare of Justice, profiles lawyer John Eastman, who helped Trump formulate an unprecedented, illegal plan to use Congress and then-vice president Mike Pence to overturn the certification of the 2020 election results.
The documentary examines “growing evidence that a two-tiered justice system has emerged, where conservative figures face severe penalties,” according to its creators.
Other election-deniers were also at the event, including his former national security adviser Michael Flynn, former lawyer Rudy Giuliani and former trade official Peter Navarro, who helped devise a separate plan from Eastman’s to reject the 2020 results and later spent time in prison for being in contempt of the January 6 congressional committee.
Josh Marcus reports.
Anger as Trump hosts premier of documentary about lawyer who subverted 2020 election
Screening came just before anniversary of January 6 insurrection at U.S. Capitol
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