US House nearing vote on Biden impeachment inquiry – speaker

The White House has rebuked allegations against Joe Biden as a political smear campaign

Recently-installed US House Speaker Mike Johnson has said that he believes Republicans may have the required votes to formalize impeachment proceedings against President Joe Biden.

Speaking on Fox News on Saturday, Johnson said that the House GOP will decide whether to lodge proceedings amid long-standing allegations that Biden and his family were behind an illegal scheme to use their political influence for financial gain when he was vice president.

Johnson, who assumed the role of House speaker in October, also claimed that the White House has “stonewalled” investigations into Biden by preventing witness committee testimonies and withholding documents.

“I believe we will [hold a vote],” Johnson said on the ‘Fox & Friends’ news program, flanked by House Republican Conference Chair Elise Steganik. He added that he didn’t believe that Democrats would provide any support, “but they should.”

However, Johnson stressed that impeachment proceedings would not be used as a blunt partisan tool to pursue Biden for political gain. “Elise and I both served on the impeachment defense team of Donald Trump twice, when the Democrats used it for brazen partisan political purposes,” he said. “We decried the use of it. This is very different.”

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For months, Republicans have poured over Biden and his son Hunter’s business dealings in a bid to identify possible illegalities that could provide a foundation for impeachment. A vote, though, has not been held after some Republicans expressed doubt that there was sufficient evidence of wrongdoing to proceed.

Johnson, however, told Fox News that the White House has “withheld thousands of pages of evidence.”

Biden has repeatedly denied Republican allegations against him and has said that the ensuing investigations are without merit. Last month, a legal representative of the White House claimed in a letter to House Republicans that they had “misrepresented” the facts of Biden’s alleged impropriety, the Associated Press reported.

The attorney wrote that Republicans have “ignored the overwhelming evidence disproving [their] claims and repeatedly shifted the rationale for [their] ‘inquiry.’” On Saturday, a White House spokesman told CNN that the allegations are a “baseless, politically motivated attempt to smear President Biden.”

Last month, Hunter Biden offered to testify before Republican committees investigating his business dealings – but only if it took place in a public setting.

Should Biden be impeached by the House, it would be improbable that the Democrat-controlled Senate would vote to remove him from office. Former President Donald Trump, who was impeached twice, was acquitted in both of his Senate trials.

If a vote to formalize impeachment proceedings against Joe Biden is to take place this month, it must occur before the House of Representatives goes into recess on December 15.

Paris attack suspect had expressed ‘hard-core Islamic State ideology’

FRANCE 24’s terrorism expert Wassim Nasr discusses the suspect, who was known to French authorities, in the deadly knife attack in Paris on December 2, 2023. “This is the same kind of case of what happened in Vienna in 2020: a national, who never went to Syria, tried to go there, went to prison, went through a deradicalization program, changed his mind on the way and committed the attack.”

EU needs its own nuclear weapons – ex-German FM

Green politician Joschka Fischer cited the need to deter Russia and added that the bloc should also invest in air defenses

The European Union needs to get its own nuclear arsenal to better deter Russia, a former Foreign Minister of Germany, Joschka Fischer, has argued. The now-retired official has also warned that the bloc should be able to stick up for itself should its relations with the US cool.

Last month, Czech President Petr Pavel said that NATO considers Moscow to be the biggest threat, with the US-led military bloc preparing for a major conflict. Top Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin have, in turn, repeatedly stressed that they see NATO’s eastward expansion as encroaching on the country’s security.

Joschka Fischer insisted in an interview with Die Zeit, published on Sunday, that “we must restore our deterrence capability” in light of Russia’s actions in Ukraine. He also said that Europe cannot afford to let Moscow prevail in Ukraine, with the current conflict being of “crucial importance” for the continent’s future.

Fischer, who served as foreign minister and vice chancellor from 1998 to 2005, also played a key role in founding the German Green Party. In 1999, when he was Berlin’s top diplomat and the Green party leader, he supported NATO’s bombing campaign against Yugoslavia. In 2011, he backed German troops’ intervention in Afghanistan.

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No chance for renewal of nuclear accord with US – Moscow

When asked by Die Zeit if he thought that Germany should acquire nuclear weapons, the former politician replied in the negative, saying that it should be the EU instead. He also suggested that France and Britain’s nuclear arsenals were no longer enough to ensure European security. 

When the interviewer reminded Fischer that he and his party strongly opposed nuclear weapons back in the 1980s, the former minister claimed that the “world has changed” since. He went on to note that while he hopes that US-EU relations will remain as close as they are now, this could change, for instance if former President Donald Trump is re-elected next year. 

Aside from nuclear deterrence, Europe should place particular emphasis on beefing up its air defenses, Fischer told Die Zeit.

Speaking late last month, Czech President Pavel, who served as Chairman of NATO’s Military Committee between 2015 and 2018, said that “all armies are preparing for the possibility of a high-intensity conflict” in Europe. 

In late October, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that NATO’s nuclear-sharing scheme, under which part of the US nuclear arsenal is stationed outside the country, creates “increased strategic risks.” The diplomat went on to stress that these developments forced Moscow to “resort to compensatory measures amid the general increase of threats posed by NATO.”

Dozens of US nuclear bombs are reportedly stored in Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Türkiye. 


READ MORE: Russia promises response to US nuclear deployment in Europe

Russian officials have repeatedly said the country has no plans to attack NATO. Moscow, at the same time, has for years regarded the bloc’s creeping expansion toward its borders as a major threat. President Putin cited Ukraine’s potential accession to NATO membership as one of the key reasons for launching the military operation against Kiev in February 2022.

US to ‘quadruple’ shells production – Pentagon chief

Among the reasons for the move is “Ukraine’s high burn rate for artillery,” according to Lloyd Austin

Spending on the production of artillery shells by the Pentagon has almost doubled in recent years and will be increased even further, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has said.

“Ukraine’s high burn rate for artillery [amid the conflict with Russia] has hammered home the need to invest even more in munitions,” Austin told the participants of the Reagan National Defense Forum at Simi Valley, California on Saturday.

This comes as Kiev’s counteroffensive has failed to deliver significant gains despite billions of dollars’ worth of military support from the US and other Western backers.

The Pentagon chief said, “Compared to the defense budget from just five years ago, we’re putting nearly 50% more money into munitions.”

“And, during this administration, America’s production of artillery shells won’t just increase, it won’t just double, it will quadruple,” he claimed, without revealing any exact figures.

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Zelensky asks West for weapons cash on credit

Austin also said the US military has launched “the most ambitious modernization effort in nearly 40 years for our defense industrial base.” It’ll see some $50 billion allocated to the sector, supporting “tens of thousands of good American jobs in more than 30 states.”  

Artillery shells will be produced in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Texas as part of the modernization, assuring “greater prosperity at home and greater security around the globe,” he claimed.

During his trip to Kiev two weeks ago, Austin announced a new $100 million assistance package to Ukraine, including various caliber artillery shells.

This came shortly after Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky claimed that deliveries of artillery rounds to Kiev’s forces “have decreased” and “really slowed down” since another US ally, Israel, launched its military operation against Hamas on October 7 in response to an incursion by the latter. According to Zelensky, competition for munitions between countries has intensified, particularly for shells of NATO’s standard 155mm caliber.

The flow of US-made artillery ammunition to Ukraine has dwindled by “more than 30%,” ABC reported mid-November, citing an unnamed Ukrainian official.

In September, Ukrainian MP Alexandra Ustinova told CNN that the country was firing up to 6,000 rounds daily amid its counteroffensive, but the military wanted to shoot more than 10,000. Even this number was “a fraction” of the ammunition deployed by Russia.


READ MORE: No military solution to Ukraine conflict – top US general

Earlier this week, Zelensky announced on social media that Kiev’s forces will switch to building fortifications, acknowledging that the counteroffensive, which began in early June, failed to deliver the desired results. According to Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, Ukraine has lost over 125,000 troops and 16,000 pieces of heavy equipment in unsuccessful attempts to advance over the past six months.