WHAT'S BREWING
JEWISH GROUP JOINS FIGHT AGAINST TRUMP ARMS SALE J Street, a prominent Jewish American organization working on Middle East issues, is pushing to stop Trump from sending $23 billion in military arms and equipment to the United Arab Emirates. “The sale of a massive quantity of such destructive weapons systems to the UAE would only further fuel an escalating arms race in a region already suffering from destabilizing wars that endanger civilians and undermine U.S. interests,” J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami told HuffPost. [HuffPost]
TRUMP VACCINE CZAR PRAISES BIDEN'S MASK PLAN Dr. Moncef Slaoui, the chief scientific adviser for Operation Warp Speed, said Biden’s plan to ask Americans to wear masks during his first 100 days in office is a “good idea.” Asked on CNN whether Biden’s request would be “too little too late,” Slaoui said it was “never too late.” “This pandemic is ravaging the country,” said Slaoui. “We all need to take our precaution, have our mask, wash our hands, keep our distance, remain aware that this virus is a killer." [HuffPost]
TRUMP'S PARTING GIFT: A WORSE YEMEN CATASTROPHE Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is considering designating the Houthis, the Yemeni militia that rules over the vast majority of the country’s population, as a terrorist organization. The move would fit the Trump administration’s strategy to weaken Iran, which supports the Houthis, and thrill Iranian adversaries like Saudi Arabia. It would push millions of people in Yemen into starvation and prolong the country’s civil war. Biden would find it extremely difficult to reverse the designation. [HuffPost]
GEORGIA GOV RIPS RIGGED ELECTION COMPLAINTS A legal action filed by Georgia’s Republican Gov. Brian Kemp blasted the Trump legal team’s election fraud complaints as “myth.” Kemp’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit challenging election results called the complaints “outlandish.” The filing followed attacks by Trump on Kemp at a Georgia rally. [HuffPost]
CONDEMNED TO DIE IN TRUMP'S EXECUTION SURGE On Dec. 10, Brandon Bernard is scheduled to be executed. If the execution goes forward, he will die for acting as an accomplice in a crime that happened when he was 18. Five of the nine surviving jurors who voted 20 years ago to condemn Bernard to death now support sparing his life. So does a former federal prosecutor, who defended Bernard’s death sentence on appeal. He has a clemency petition pending before Trump. [HuffPost]
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