Jesus is unique, and women are free and equal in God’s sight. That is what we should take away from this [virgin birth] story.
Christianity, like many world religions, has often been less than
fair in its treatment of women. But at the heart of historical
Christianity, there has always been the idea that Christmas is a
feminist holiday, a feast that celebrates the choice of an autonomous
woman. As Christianity has risen to become the largest and most
widespread religion in the world, women are coming into their own. It
cannot be otherwise.
God didn’t send Jesus into the world because He was satisfied with
the status quo. God sent Him here because things needed to change—and
right at the top of the list of the things God wanted to change was the
position of women. The change didn’t happen overnight, and even today we
haven’t seen the full consequences of giving half the world its
rightful due; but from the day that Mary answered Gabriel, a new force
has been at work in the world. The rise of women to new freedom and new
dignity, which is one of the primary developments of our time, is the
blossoming of a tree that was planted a very long time ago.
“The motor vessel CHEM PLUTO, a Liberia-flagged, Japanese-owned, and
Netherlands-operated chemical tanker was struck at approximately 10 a.m.
local time (6 a.m. GMT) today in the Indian Ocean, 200 nautical miles
from the coast of India, by a one-way attack drone fired from Iran,” a
Pentagon spokesperson told Reuters.
Fox News correspondent David Spunt has the latest on the first son's refusal to testify on 'Special Report.'
The assistant U.S. attorney who was accused oflimiting questionsrelated to President Biden during the federal investigation into Hunter Biden is no longer employed by the Justice Department, Fox News has learned.
Lesley Wolf, who served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Delaware, is no longer with the DOJ, according to a source familiar with the situation.
The source said Wolf had longstanding plans to leave the Department of Justice and did so weeks ago.
Wolf, who IRS whistleblowers claimed slow-walked the Hunter Biden investigation, is sitting for a transcribed interview before the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday morning.
Specifically, IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley alleged that Wolf worked to "limit" questioning related to President Biden and apparent references to Biden as "dad" or "the big guy."
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Brooke Singman is a Fox News Digital politics reporter. You can reach her at Brooke.Singman@Fox.com or @BrookeSingman on Twitter.
WASHINGTON — The former federal prosecutor who allegedly shielded President Biden and his son Hunter
during a criminal investigation testified 79 times to Congress that she
was “not authorized” by the Justice Department to answer questions
about the case, according to a transcript reviewed by The Post.
Former Delaware Assistant US Attorney Lesley Wolf repeatedly cited a
five-page authorization letter from Associate Deputy Attorney General Bradley Weinsheimer as she refused to answer questions during a House Judiciary Committee deposition last week.
Weinsheimer’s Dec. 12 letter, also reviewed by The Post, says: “[T]he
Department generally does not authorize congressional testimony from
line-level personnel, especially relating to an ongoing investigation
with charges pending in court. The Department has declined to do so in
connection with this matter.”
Wolf’s dozens of refusals to answer questions — just one day after the full House voted to authorize an impeachment inquiry
into President Biden — frustrated attempts to firm up the storyline
involving what whistleblowers say was a sweeping cover-up by Wolf and
colleagues to protect the Biden family.
A
former federal prosecutor who allegedly shielded President Biden and
his son Hunter during a criminal investigation testified that she was
“not authorized” to answer questions about her actions, according to a
transcript. AP
The near-blanket rejection of questions follows pressure from House
Republicans on the administration to allow witness testimony and could
bolster GOP arguments that the White House is obstructing the inquiry,
which itself could form an article of impeachment.
Two IRS agents who worked on the long-running tax fraud investigation
into Hunter Biden, which focused on his foreign income from countries
such as China and Ukraine, alleged in prior testimony to House
committees that Wolf tipped off the first son’s lawyers to investigative
steps and forbade inquiries into Joe Biden, even when communications
mentioned him.
Wolf served on the squad of prosecutors that signed off on a
probation-only plea deal in June for the first son on tax and gun
charges, which fell apart the following month under scrutiny from a federal judge.
Lesley
Wolf (above) repeatedly cited a five-page authorization letter from
Bradley Weinsheimer as she refused to answer questions during a House
Judiciary Committee deposition. Fedbar.org
IRS supervisor Gary Shapley, who oversaw the Hunter Biden
investigation for three years, and case agent Joseph Ziegler, who worked
on the inquiry for five years, made a series of specific claims against
Wolf, which she did not refute in her testimony.
Tax investigators learned in December 2020 that Wolf “reached out to
Hunter Biden’s defense counsel and told them” about investigators’ plans
to search a northern Virginia storage unit that contained business
records, “circumventing our chance to get to evidence from potentially
being destroyed, manipulated or concealed,” Ziegler testified in July.
Shapley testified that investigators were months earlier barred from
searching a guest house at Joe Biden’s Wilmington, Del., home, where
Hunter often stayed.
Wolf’s
refusals to answer questions come one day after the full House voted to
authorize an impeachment inquiry into President Biden. REUTERS
Shapley said that on Sept. 3, 2020, “Wolf told us there was more than
enough probable cause for the physical search warrant there, but the
question was whether the juice was worth the squeeze.”
Wolf also allegedly objected during a meeting on Dec. 3, 2020, to questioning a key Biden family associate, Rob Walker, about the president.
“Wolf interjected and said she did not want to ask about the big guy
and stated she did not want to ask questions about ‘dad,’” he said.
“When multiple people in the room spoke up and objected that we had
to ask, she responded, there’s no specific criminality to that line of
questioning. This upset the FBI, too,” Shapley testified.
Wolf served as a key point person for the investigation, serving under Delaware US Attorney David Weiss.
The whistleblowers accused Weiss’ office of giving Hunter Biden’s
legal team advance knowledge of a planned interview attempt in late
2020, scuttling a planned approach, and said prosecutors didn’t pass
along a paid FBI informant’s tip that Joe and Hunter Biden received $10 million in bribes from Ukrainian energy company Burisma,
which paid Hunter a salary of up to $1 million to serve on its board
beginning in 2014 when his vice president dad led US policy toward the
country.
Wolf allegedly instructed FBI agents in August 2020 to remove
references to Joe Biden from a search warrant affidavit, writing,
“Someone needs to redraft [the affidavit] … There should be nothing
about Political Figure 1 in here,” according to an email released by the Ways & Means Committee.
“That email, I think, is super important because it’s a one-off
example in writing of the constant concern of following investigative
leads that might lead to Joe Biden,” Ziegler said last week in a Fox
News interview.
“The FBI agents who drafted that affidavit, they believed that they
had sufficient evidence — probable cause — to support including
Political Figure 1 in that affidavit,” said the self-identified Democrat.
IRS supervisor Gary Shapley (not pictured) oversaw the Hunter Biden investigation for three years. REUTERS
“That related to [Ukrainian energy company] Burisma, access to Joe
Biden and access to the administration and there was ample evidence that
was included in that affidavit that’s supported including Political
Figure 1. That has a waterfall effect on the investigation because those
emails that we’re searching for might not come through to the team.”
Shapley and Ziegler said they were not allowed to get cellphone
geolocation data that could have proved Joe Biden was with his son in
July 2017 when Hunter sent a threatening text message to a Chinese government-linked businessman saying, “I am sitting here with my father,” and warning of retribution.
Within 10 days of that message, $5.1 million flowed to accounts
linked to Hunter and first brother James Biden from CEFC China Energy —
after a tranche of $1 million earlier that year, less than two months
after Biden left office as vice president.
Internal
Revenue Service whistleblowers Joseph Ziegler and Gary Shapley testify
in the House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing
about alleged meddling in the Justice Department’s investigation of
Hunter Biden. REUTERS
A May 2017 email penciled in Joe Biden, referred to as the “big guy,” for a 10% cut from CEFC dealings.
The IRS whistleblowers say that — in addition to preferential
treatment for Joe and Hunter Biden — Attorney General Merrick Garland
misled Congress under oath about Weiss’ ability to independently bring
criminal charges against Hunter Biden.
Biden-appointed US attorneys in Los Angeles and Washington have
confirmed in testimony that they declined to partner with Weiss, who in
August was elevated by Garland to be a special counsel, allowing him to bring charges independently outside of Delaware.
The DOJ didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about Wolf’s testimony.
The ceiling in ocean freight prices shot up in a matter of hours on
Thursday as a result of more vessels diverting from the Red Sea. CNBC
has learned that logistics managers were quoted this morning an ocean
freight rate of $10,000 per 40-foot container from Shanghai to the U.K.
Last week, rates were $1,900 for a 20-foot container, to $2,400 for a
40-foot container. Truck rates in the Middle East now being quoted are
more than double. ... As of Thursday morning, 158 vessels are currently re-routing away
from the Rea Sea carrying over 2.1 million cargo containers, Kuehne +
Nagel tells CNBC. The value of this cargo based on MDS Transmodal
estimates of $50,000 per container is $105 billion.
Maersk said that, after monitoring the situation since suspending the
routes on Friday, it had decided all vessels currently on hold and
previously scheduled to travel via the Red Sea would take the Cape of
Good Hope.
The vessels will continue on diverted routes “as soon as
operationally feasible,” the company added. As of Monday, Maersk said it
had around 20 vessels stopped en route, around half of which are east
of the Gulf of Aden. The remainder are located south of the Suez Canal
in the Red Sea, or north of it in the Mediterranean Sea.
The November 2021 level was about 605 million barrels, about 30 days worth of supply at a 2022 consumption rate of 20 million bpd.
The 350 million barrel level was reached in May 2023 and has been range bound there for eight months. That is about 17.5 days worth of supply.
Crude oil price has not cooperated for refilling what was released. The 2021 price averaged $68 and climbed to nearly $95 in 2022. With 2023 almost over the price has averaged nearly $78.
The release of less than two weeks of supply during 2022 and 2023 as prices skyrocketed looks like a really silly political stunt. Crude oil production has rebounded to what it was under Donald Trump, so there's been plenty of supply in the higher price environment and no need to squander the SPR in this way.
U.S. Steel also supplies to the renewable energy industry and stands to benefit from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which provides tax credits and other incentives for such projects, something that attracted suitors.
“In light of the deteriorating security situation for shipping in the Red Sea, bp has decided to temporarily pause all transits through the Red Sea,” it said. “We will keep this precautionary pause under ongoing review, subject to circumstances as they evolve in the region.”
Shipping giants MSC,Hapag-Lloyd , CMA, CGM, andMaersk have also all announced suspensions of travel through the Red Sea due to thedrone threat, meaning no access to the key link between Europe and Asia between the Middle East and North Africa.
Violence resumed on Monday in the Red Sea, with the U.K. Maritime Trade Organization saying it was alerted that a vessel nearly 30 miles out from Yemen’s port of Mokha “experienced an explosion on its port side.”
