President Biden is commuting the sentences of nearly 1,500 people who were released from prison and placed on home confinement during the coronavirus pandemic and is pardoning 39 Americans convicted of nonviolent crimes. It’s the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history. The commutations announced Thursday are for people who have served out home confinement sentences for at least one year after they were released. Prisons were uniquely bad…

President-elect Donald Trump has invited Chinese President Xi Jinping to attend his inauguration next month, multiple sources told CBS News, and inauguration officials are making plans for additional foreign dignitaries to attend the swearing-in ceremony. Trump invited Xi in early November, shortly after the election, sources said, but it was not clear whether he has accepted the invitation. A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately comment.…

TIME Magazine has named incoming US President, Donald Trump as its person of the year for the second time. “For marshaling a comeback of historic proportions, for driving a once-in-a- generation political realignment, for reshaping the American presidency and altering America’s role in the world, Donald Trump is TIME’S 2024 Person of the Year,” Time Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs said in a letter to readers. The Republican president-elect is set to…

The United States has announced a $10 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Guan Tianfeng, a 30-year-old Chinese national accused of orchestrating global cyberattacks. The U.S. Department of State revealed on Tuesday that Guan believed to be residing in China’s Sichuan Province, is wanted for hacking computer firewalls and compromising critical systems worldwide. An indictment unsealed the same day charges Guan with conspiracy to commit computer fraud…

Ala Jabeer cried as he prepared to cross from Turkey into Syria with his 10-year-old daughter on Tuesday, thirteen years after the war forced him to flee his home. He returns without his wife and three of his children who died in devastating earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria last year. Father and daughter left days after Syrian rebels ousted Bashar al-Assad from Damascus, and a day after President Tayyip…

Israel carried out a wave of heavy airstrikes across Syria as its troops advanced deeper into the country, drawing to within 25 kilometers (15 miles) of the capital, a Syrian opposition war monitor said Tuesday. However, Israel denied its forces were advancing toward Damascus. Associated Press reporters in Damascus heard heavy airstrikes overnight and into Tuesday on the city and its suburbs. Photographs circulating online showed destroyed missile launchers, helicopters…

President-elect Donald Trump called Canadian Prime Minister “Governor Justin Trudeau of the Great State of Canada” on Tuesday, after threatening to impose massive tariffs on imports from Canada. “It was a pleasure to have dinner the other night with Governor Justin Trudeau of the Great State of Canada,” Trump wrote on Truth Social early Tuesday. “I look forward to seeing the Governor again soon so that we may continue our…

Police in New York have charged a man with murder after the assassination of UnitedHealthcare chief executive, Brian Thompson. Luigi Mangione, a 26-year-old Ivy League graduate, was arrested in a branch of McDonald’s on Monday following a five-day manhunt. Wearing a dark sweatshirt and flanked by local police and NYPD detectives, Mangione arrived at a Pennsylvania court where he was arraigned on a string of gun offences. Manhattan officials later…

Dozens of Nobel Prize winners are urging the US Senate to oppose Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination to lead the US Department of Health and Human Services, according to a letter dated Monday, and published by the New York Times. The letter – signed by 77 laureates in chemistry, economics, medicine and physics – cites Kennedy’s opposition to vaccines, his criticism of the fluoridation of drinking water, his promotion of…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to take to the witness stand Tuesday (today) for the first time in his trial on corruption allegations, a pivotal point in the drawn-out proceedings that comes as he wages war in Gaza and faces an international arrest warrant for war crimes charges. Netanyahu is on trial at home on accusations of fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three separate matters.…

The United Kingdom (UK) and other European countries have said they will suspend the processing of asylum applications from Syrians after the fall of the Assad regime in Damascus, with Austria already preparing a “repatriation and deportation” programme to the country. In London, a Home Office spokesperson said it had “temporarily paused decisions on Syrian asylum claims whilst we assess the current situation.” The spokesperson added, “We keep all country…

In the wake of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s bungled attempt to impose martial law, the government has banned more top officials from leaving the country Tuesday, Yonhap reported, A day after Yoon himself was hit with a travel ban, his party was forging a “resignation roadmap” that reportedly could see him step down in February or March before fresh elections. Yoon suspended civilian rule a week ago and…