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After Trump's Project 2025 denials, he is tapping its authors and influencers for key rolesThe designation of Bidzina Ivanishvili is the latest in a series of sanctions the US has placed on Georgian politicians and others this year. The Biden administration has imposed sanctions on the founder of Georgia’s ruling political party, which has steered the country away from a pro-Western stance and towards Russia, US officials said. The US State and Treasury departments said they hit Georgian Dream party founder and honorary chairman Bidzina Ivanishvili with penalties “for undermining the democratic and Euro-Atlantic future of Georgia for the benefit of the Russian Federation”, according to a statement. The designation of Mr Ivanishvili is the latest in a series of sanctions the US has placed on Georgian politicians and others this year. Those sanctions include freezes on assets and properties those targeted may have in US jurisdictions or that might enter US jurisdictions as well as travel bans on the targets and members of their families. “We strongly condemn Georgian Dream’s actions under Ivanishvili’s leadership, including its ongoing and violent repression of Georgian citizens, protesters, members of the media, human rights activists, and opposition figures,” the State Department said in a statement. “The United States is committed to promoting accountability for those undermining democracy and human rights in Georgia.” Mr Ivanishvili is a billionaire who made his fortune in Russia and served briefly as Georgia’s prime minister. In 2012, he founded Georgian Dream, Georgia’s longtime ruling party. Critics have accused Georgian Dream of becoming increasingly authoritarian and tilted towards Moscow. The party recently pushed through laws similar to those used by the Kremlin to crack down on freedom of speech and LGBT+ rights, prompting the European Union to suspend Georgia’s membership application process indefinitely. In October, Georgian Dream won another term in a divisive parliamentary election that has led to more mass protests. Last month, the country’s prime minister, Irakli Kobakhidze, announced a four-year suspension of talks on Georgia’s bid to join the European Union, fuelling further public outrage.
(The Center Square) – Legislators in Washington, D.C., have taken a number of steps over the past few days to push for insurance and pharmaceutical reforms to be passed before the end of the year. On Wednesday, a bicameral group of Republican and Democrat lawmakers held a press conference discussing the need for pharmacy benefit manager reform to protect small pharmacies across the country and “save lives.” “Whether you are a Republican, Democrat, or an independent, we all want the same thing. We want accessible, affordable, quality health care,” said Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga. “We’re not here today to just discuss one bill or to discuss just one patient’s story. We're here because there's broad, bipartisan pharmacy benefit manager, or PBM, reform that is needed to save lives.” Pharmacy benefit managers are the middlemen responsible for managing the drug prices covered by health insurance plans. According to the Harvard Political Review , the problem with pharmacy benefit managers is that they “have vertically integrated with pharmacy chains and health insurers through massive conglomerates.” That then allows them to abuse their power to cut out small pharmacies and increase prices. Carter also signed a letter that was released last week calling on the Department of Justice to dig into the role pharmacy benefit managers played in the opioid epidemic. Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., Deborah Ross, D-N.C., and Cliff Benz, R-Ore., all joined him in signing that letter. “The opioid crisis has devastated communities in North Carolina and across the country, and PBMs may have fueled it by prioritizing profits over people,” Ross said on social media . “That’s why I joined a letter calling on the DOJ to investigate their role and hold these bad actors accountable.” The letter looked at recent reports on the largest pharmacy benefit managers, CVS Caremark, Express Scripts, and OptumRx which state that they “colluded and conspired to steer patients towards OxyContin in exchange for $400 million.” OxyContin is a trade name for the narcotic oxycodone hydrochloride, a painkiller available by prescription only. This and the general “lack of transparency” is just one of the many complaints that legislators aired on Wednesday. “My colleagues who are joining me today, Democrats and Republicans ... all recognize that PBMs are decreasing the accessibility, the affordability, and therefore the quality of health care in America,” Carter said. “We have an opportunity, right now, to advance bipartisan legislation that increases reporting requirements, which would heighten transparency and shine a light on the opaque practices of these PBMs.” Carter was also joined by Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., who is leading the effort to get legislation passed in the U.S. Senate. “This year, we're losing about one pharmacy a day in America,” Lankford said. “We want leadership to be able to take this up and to bring it up in the end-of-year package ... Stop holding up legislation that is bipartisan, bicameral, and solving a problem that Americans need solved.”
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US Department of Justice Outlines Breakup of Google in Historic Anti-Trust CaseThieves in England stole a van containing 2,500 pies, with the value of the savory treats estimated to be about £25,000, or $31,600 U.S. dollars. Michelin-star chef Tommy Banks took to social media Monday to report the robbery, saying on Instagram that the van and 2,500 pies that were set to be sent to the York Christmas Market had been stolen. The BBC reported that the stolen pies were savory and included steak and ale pies, turkey and cranberry pies and butternut squash pies. "Out there somewhere is our van and nearly a ton of pies with my name written all over them," Banks said. Banks is the owner of the Michelin-starred restaurant The Black Swan in Oldstead, a village north of the city of York, along with other several other food businesses in northern England. "They probably didn’t bargain for the nearly ton of pies' In his first Instagram plea, Banks acknowledged the hard work that had gone into making the pies, and addressed the robbers, asking that they drop the pies off to a community center, "so we can at least give them to people who need food and they are not wasted." "I know you’re a criminal, but maybe just do something nice because it’s Christmas and maybe we can feed a few thousand people with these pies that you’ve stolen. Do the right thing," Banks added in the video . On Tuesday, however, the fate of the pies became clear, as the van was recovered by police. The pies, which were heavily damaged, were still inside. North Yorkshire Police reported that a van that was stolen from a business park in the town of Melmerby at some time over the weekend had been found "abandoned with false number plates in the Hemlington area of Middlesbrough." The theft is still under police investigation as of Dec. 3 and no arrests have been made. Banks said in a follow-up video Tuesday that the "the whole this is a total write-off, to be honest, which is a real shame ... Not the ending to this story I was hoping for." In his first post about the crime itself, he had a message for whoever stole the van and pies: "I think you are a thieving piece of (expletive) and I hope you don’t get any presents this Christmas." And in other culinary crime news ... Last month, British police arrested a man implicated in connection with a cheddar cheese theft involving cheese stolen from Neal's Yard Dairy, a leading specialist London cheese retailer. According to the Metropolitan Police Department, the man was involved in the October heist of 24 tons of creamy loot, valued at around $390,000. Max Hauptman is a Trending Reporter for USA TODAY. He can be reached at MHauptman@gannett.com .
Retired DOJ prosecutor Steve Mellin shares his thoughts on President Biden’s commutations of federal death sentences on ‘America Reports.’ Following President Biden's move to commute the sentences of 37 prisoners on federal death row, Sen. Joe Manchin , I-W.Va., called the clemency granted to two of the individuals "horribly misguided and insulting." In the 37 cases, Biden commuted the sentences to life sentences without the potential for parole. Manchin — a Democrat-turned-independent senator who will soon leave office — said he felt a responsibility to speak out on behalf of the parents of Samantha Burns, who was slain in 2002 at the age of 19, according to reports. TRUMP PLEDGES TO BRING BACK FEDERAL EXECUTIONS AFTER BIDEN COMMUTES DEATH SENTENCES FOR 37 INMATES Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., speaks during the Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on the Special Diabetes Program on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on July 11, 2023. (Jemal Countess/Getty Images for JDRF) "After speaking to Samantha Burns’ parents, I believe it is my duty to speak on their behalf and say President Biden’s decision to commute the death sentences for the two men convicted in her brutal murder is horribly misguided and insulting," the lawmaker declared in a statement posted on X. "Particularly since Samantha’s family wrote letters to President Biden & the Department of Justice, pleading for them not to do this, but their concerns were unheard. I can’t imagine the grief that Kandi and John Burns are reliving and dealing with during the holiday season," Manchin continued. "As their U.S. Senator and a father, I want to express my deepest sympathy for their continued suffering. Please know that Samantha will forever be in our prayers." Brandon Basham is pictured after escaping from the Hopkins County Jail in Madisonville, Kentucky, on Nov. 4, 2002. He went on an interstate crime spree with fellow escapee Chadrick Fulks that included the murders of two women. (Ashland Police Department/Getty Images) The two men connected with the young woman's death escaped lockup and went on a crime spree in 2002, according to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit . "On November 4, 2002, cellmates Chadrick Fulks and Brandon Basham escaped from a county detention facility in Kentucky" and "unleashed a criminal rampage that lasted seventeen days and zigzagged across several states," according to the court, which noted that the men "admitted to killing Burns and pleaded guilty to carjacking resulting in death in the Southern District of West Virginia." TRUMP HAS CHRISTMAS MESSAGE TO ‘RADICAL LEFT LUNATICS,’ TELLS INMATES BIDEN GRANTED CLEMENCY TO ‘GO TO HELL!’ Chadrick Fulks is escorted by U.S. Marshals out of the federal courthouse in Huntington, West Virginia, on April 12, 2005, following an arraignment on charges of carjacking resulting in the death of Marshall University student Samantha Burns, use of a firearm to commit a crime and interstate transportation of a stolen motor vehicle. (AP Photo/The Herald-Dispatch, Randy Snyder) In a fiery Christmas Day post on Truth Social, President-elect Trump told the 37 individuals who escaped capital punishment to "GO TO HELL!" In a statement about the commutations, President Biden said, "I condemn these murderers, grieve for the victims of their despicable acts, and ache for all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss." OUTGOING SEN. JOE MANCHIN PUSHES CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT FOR SUPREME COURT TERM LIMITS President Biden speaks at the Department of Labor in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 16. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images) CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP But he also said that he was "more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level." "These commutations are consistent with the moratorium my Administration has imposed on federal executions, in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder," Biden said. Alex Nitzberg is a writer for Fox News Digital.
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