Fauci Deposition in Censorship Case Released; Georgia's US Senate Runoff Election | NTD News Today

Welcome to NTD News Today. I'm Kevin Hogan. Let's take a look at our top stories. The Biden administration allowing eligible Haitians to stay and work longer in the United States without being deported. We explain why. A new document shows what Dr. Anthony Fauci said at a recent deposition. We bring you what Fauci said he thinks of censorship and more. Georgia's race for U.S. Senate nears the finish line. The runoff election is today. We have more on what candidates had to say in their final appeals to voters. A push for reparations in California. The state says it's needed to combat what they call a housing wealth gap. But what are the economic impacts of this half trillion dollar initiative? We bring you analysis. The Biden administration is allowing hundreds of thousands of Haitians to stay and work in the U.S. longer without being deported. NTD's Jessica Beatty has more on the decision. The Biden administration Monday said it's for over 260,000 Haitians in the United States. Protections include deferred deportation and being able to work in the U.S. for an extra year and a half until August 2024. It's part of something called temporary protected status or TPS. Congress created TPS in 1990 to provide temporary protections for immigrants from certain countries if it's deemed unsafe for them to return home. The Biden administration says it's still unsafe for Haitians to return because of socioeconomic challenges, political instability, gang violence and the recent catastrophic earthquakes. Haitian nationals who entered the U.S. after November 6th are not eligible for the protected status. If they're living in the U.S. illegally, they could still be removed from the country. Meanwhile, President Biden's visiting Arizona Tuesday, but not the southern border, even though he'll only be 100 miles away. Immigration experts on both sides are unhappy. As president, Biden has not visited the border despite the border crisis. Why go to a border state and not visit the border? Because the more important thing going on, they're going to invest billions of dollars in a new enterprise. Fox reports that former President Trump visited the border five times as president. The former Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement under Trump, Tom Homan, says Border Patrol agents risk their lives every day to enforce Biden's policies. Homan told Fox if Biden fails to visit the border and talk to Border Patrol agents, then he'll show he's truly abandoned the agency that works 24-7 to keep this country safe. Progressive groups are also frustrated. Alexandra Miller from the American Immigration Council says Biden should see the impact of federal immigration policies. In her words, to bear witness to the cruelty that migrants are experiencing. Illegal border crossings hit a record yearly high in 2021 under Biden, at 1.7 million. It already hit a new record this year at 2.3 million. Jessica Beatty, NTD News. Dr. Anthony Fauci says he relied on others to dismiss the COVID-19 lab leak theory because he doesn't have enough expertise in the area. That's despite repeatedly dismissing the theory. This and more were published in a document yesterday. On Monday, Dr. Anthony Fauci's deposition was released. The deposition was taken as part of a lawsuit alleging collusion between the U.S. government and big tech to censor people. In the deposition, Fauci said he did not have the expertise to determine whether COVID-19 came from nature or a laboratory. That's despite repeatedly dismissing the theory that originated in a Chinese lab. I'm not qualified since I'm not an evolutionary virologist to make any kind of definite determination. I have relied as anyone would with highly qualified, respected evolutionary virologists to come to that conclusion or not. After Fauci dismissed the theory in 2020, big tech companies began censoring people who suggested that COVID did come from a lab. Fauci says neither he or his staff reached out to social media companies to ask for censorship. However, he was later shown an email which showed that officials from National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases were trying to connect to Google on vaccine communications, specifically misinformation, and that a meeting was planned. He said he wasn't sure whether the meeting ever took place. After saying that he was concerned about misinformation regarding vaccines because it could lead to the loss of life, Fauci was asked whether he thinks misinformation should be stopped, to which he replied, That's not my area. I'm very well aware of the concept of freedom of speech. The area of the curtailment of that is something that is not in my area of expertise. It was also revealed that Fauci's daughter used to work for Twitter as a software engineer. Fauci says he never discussed content posted on social media with his daughter. A Texas federal judge has ordered Southwest Airlines to reinstate Charlene Carter. She's the flight attendant who made headlines after a jury ruled she was unlawfully fired for expressing pro-life views and for criticizing her union. Judge Brantley Starr remarked, Bags fly free with Southwest, but free speech didn't fly at all with Southwest in this case. Starr granted Carter over $800,000 in compensation, punitive damages and back pay. The judge wrote that the jury also awarded future pay, but that Carter would rather have her job back. Carter became an outspoken opponent of abortion after she suffered physical and emotional effects after terminating a pregnancy years earlier when she was 19. Georgia's U.S. Senate runoff election is today. Candidates made their last pitches to voters on Monday. The outcome of the close race will determine if Democrats can add to their thin majority in the chamber. NTD's Jeremy Sandberg has more on today's contest. The contest between incumbent Senator Raphael Warnock and Hershel Walker in the battleground state of Georgia has been the most expensive race in this year's cycle. Campaign finance data shows total spending was close to $400 million. Warnock says he's confident of a win, but isn't celebrating yet. I wanted to run off before and I'm not about to spike the football before I get into the end zone. The pro-abortion pastor likened Democrats' progressive push to the contractions of a new birth. You have to suffer through the contractions knowing that if you keep on pushing, change is always possible. And I don't know about you in this defining moment in America. I'm ready to keep on pushing. Recent polling shows Warnock with a slight lead within the margin of error over his Trump-endorsed challenger. The former president called into Walker's Monday rally to show his support. A vote for Raphael Warnock is a vote to give Chuck Schumer and the unhinged far-left Democrats total control of the United States Senate. We can't let this happen. Walker used a football analogy to galvanize his base. If we flood the zone by eight or nine, we'll know who won this contest. Election officials have reported heavy turnout ahead of the runoff. Political experts expect the early vote leaned Democrat. Republicans tend to vote in bigger numbers on election day. Vote, vote, vote, flood the polls. Georgia's Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger says a strong turnout is expected on election day and that he's worked hard to ensure everything runs smoothly. We've actually already had 80,000 people that voted in this runoff that didn't vote in the fall at all. So that's what you're really seeing is people that were kind of sitting back and watching things are getting engaged in this race. So we think both sides are energized. He says the results will be audited and verified. A Warnock victory could give Democrats an outright majority of 51 seats in the upper chamber and a measure of sway over committees and judicial appointments. A win for Walker would boost Republicans' chances of blocking President Biden's agenda. Jeremy Sandberg, NTD News. Internal email documents at Twitter show that Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs allegedly collaborated with former Twiddle officials last year. This by flagging accounts for so-called election misinformation. Entity's Daniel Monahan has the story. The revelation comes as Elon Musk and journalist Matt Taibbi late last week demonstrated how the company previously censored conservatives at the urging of the Democrat party. Carrie Lake commented on Tucker Carlson. This thing is going to go so deep that I think people are going to be shocked when they learn the full extent. According to an email on January 7th, 2021, the communications director for Hobbs' Secretary of State office emailed the Center for Internet Security or CIS. It read that they are flagging an unidentified Twitter profile for review under the subject line titled election-related misinformation. A CIS representative later forwarded the message to a Twitter employee saying, please see this report below from the Arizona Secretary of State's office. Please let me know if you have any questions. The Twitter employee replied saying, thank you. Both tweets have been removed from the service. Meanwhile, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, Governor Doug Ducey and other officials on Monday certified the state's vote canvas. This officially declares Hobbs a Democrat the winner in the race for governor. And I just want to once again thank the voters of Arizona. Because of your participation, our democratic institutions thrived. Stay engaged and keep voting. Election officials acknowledged there were mishaps in the November election, but said no one was disenfranchised. Hobbs, meanwhile, said, quote, Arizona had a successful election. Republican candidates, including Carrie Lake, who ran for governor, and Abe Hamadei, who ran for attorney general, have said they will sue. They had to wait for the certification before they could formally challenge the results in court. And state law says they have five days to do so. Here's Lake speaking on the war room with Steve Bannon on Monday morning. We're ready to go with what we believe to be an exceptional lawsuit. And we believe we will be victorious in that lawsuit. And we'll take it all the way to the Supreme Court if we have to. We will not stop fighting because the people of Arizona were disenfranchised. The candidates say machines malfunctioning in Maricopa County on Election Day led to voters being disenfranchised. Lake, who has yet to concede to her opponent, called the email leaks a conflict of interest, coercion, corruption. The office of Katie Hobbs responded to the allegations. They say the email exchange was taken entirely out of context, adding it has nothing to do with this year's midterm election. The notice read that, quote, it's the Secretary of State's job to make sure that voters are informed about how to vote and how our election system works. One of the ways we do that is by working to counter disinformation online that can confuse voters. Daniel Monaghan, NTD News. California Governor Gavin Newsom is promoting a reparations program for black residents. The state's government says it will correct what it calls the housing wealth gap. We get some analysis on this initiative in terms of the economic impact and the difference between reparations for state-sponsored racism versus for worldwide slavery practices. Joining us now is Barrington Martin II, the host of the Barrington Report and former Democratic congressional candidate for Georgia. It's a pleasure having you on today, Barrington. It's a pleasure to be here, Kevin. Good to talk to you. California's reparations proposal could amount to about $220,000 per person in payments to black residents. What is your assessment of this for both the would-be recipients and those having to pay, given high inflation and a looming economic downturn? Well, I think it could have great economic proportions into our nation. I mean, we're talking about a little north of over a half a trillion dollars that one governor plans to spread out amongst a little under three million black Americans within the state of California. And with all of these things that are happening with inflation, with the increasing prices on gas, increasing prices on food, where will they get this money? I think that much more needs to be assessed in handing out such a large sum of money to one specific group of people, because what it sounds like is that they're basically are going to replace wealth or basically give money from one group to another group. And that shouldn't be the case within this country. You pose an interesting question. Where does this money come from? Let's look at the other side here. The co-founder of the group called Where Is My Land is in favor of broader eligibility for black people to receive reparations outside just descendants of slaves. She said black people deserve restitution because they deal with racism and discrimination in areas such as health care, juvenile justice and the wealth gap. And she said black residents who are not descendants of slaves were harmed by the legacy of slavery from Jim Crow laws in the prison system. What's your reaction to this? Absolutely. So, of course, we can we can account for the state sponsored racism of Jim Crow. Actually, I think that that's where reparations should be looked into and not necessarily through slavery, because slavery was a worldwide practice. And even black people, if you look at the history of slaves themselves, also think that it's also inaccurate to state that a lot of the discrepancies are totally due to racism, because often oftentimes, excuse me, these disproportions are not due to racism, but are or should have rather a much more nuanced conversation. And I say this because a lot of the times we speak about the wealth gap, we speak about all of these gaps within health care and so forth. But what it's never talked about is the core issues that begin these problems. The family unit, for example, to break down the family within the black family is is entirely the core to allow the problems that we see with African-Americans in this country. And so I think that once we have these more nuanced conversations, we're able to dictate where the start of their problems begin and where the solutions can end. And you mentioned that slavery is a worldwide problem. In your view, is it responsible to put the burden on American citizens when there were overseas actors who were involved in the capture of slaves and so on? Absolutely not. When you look at the history again, I think that this is another conversation needs to be had in regards to this topic is that we need to go back and look up the history books and actually see what occurred. There were many different financiers of slavery. There were many different countries that had a direct thing to do with slavery. America is one of the only countries to end slavery practices as early as it did. I mean, we still have slavery right now taking place right now in present day within this world that we live in. And you speak at a national level how America was ending slavery early. Now, let's look at an individual level. White people as well as black people own slaves. So how would this affect discussions surrounding reparations? I think that ultimately, honestly, you have to look at that this could not necessarily be attributed to one group of people or provide solutions to one race of people. But if we want to look at reparations properly, we should look at reparations through the lens of state-sponsored racism through Jim Crow. I think that there is a fair argument there when the government enabled and was actually honoring discrimination or discriminatory practices against black Americans. I think that the government should have to pay up for a lot of the mistakes they made and a lot of bad decisions they made towards sponsoring racism or racism tactics in this country. A lot to think about here. Barrington Mark in the second, host of the Barrington Report and former Democratic congressional candidate for Georgia. Thank you so much for your analysis. Thank you so much, Kevin. Coming up, the Center for Jewish History in New York is helping Holocaust survivors find lost family. The new program offers DNA testing kits. We have that and more just after this break. An international fugitive and child predator has been captured in Mexico after five years of evading law enforcement. Brad Hatter was arrested in Georgia in 2005 for attempting to meet a nine-year-old girl for sexual activity. Two years later, he was convicted of attempting to entice a minor and sentenced to nine years in prison. After his release in 2017, he was registered as a sex offender and required to report to federal probation officer. But in 2018, U.S. Marshal Service said Hatter stopped reporting to his probation officer and went into hiding. They then began the five-year hunt until they located him with the help of Mexican authorities. He was returned to detention in the U.S. on Sunday. And the Center for Jewish History in New York is offering free DNA testing kits to Holocaust survivors and their children. NTD's Andrew Thomas has the details on the organization's initiative. The Center for Jewish History is helping Holocaust survivors find their families. They allocated $15,000 in an initial pilot program. Those funds cover about 500 DNA testing kits. The DNA reunion project has been long in the making and it is an effort to provide some degree of consolation and maybe even we could say justice for Holocaust survivors who have never been aware of their family roots. 80-year-old Holocaust survivor Jackie Young recently completed a DNA search. Orphaned as an infant, he spent the first few years of his life in a Nazi camp. Ultimately, he was taken to England after World War II and adopted. These people didn't exist to leave me on the doorstep of wherever and say bye-bye, don't want to see you again. These people, my mother, my father and the family were taken away on trains and murdered. Young had some scant information about his birth mother but nothing about his father. But earlier this year, genealogists were able to use a DNA sample to help find a name and some relatives. Young says his mind is finally at ease. I hadn't known what I do know now. I think I would still felt that my left arm or my right arm wasn't fully formed. You know, it's just, it's like I say, for me, family is everything. I think it's the major pillar of life is humanity. The Center for Jewish History hopes to help more people like Young through the new DNA test kit program. Andrew Thomas, NTD News. Tampa, Florida's police chief has resigned after trying to use her badge to avoid a traffic ticket last month. Chief Mary O'Connor was a passenger in a golf cart when a Pinellas County deputy stopped them for driving the golf cart on a road without having any tags on the vehicle. The deputy let O'Connor go without a citation. This was their exchange that was captured on the deputy's body cam. Good evening. How are you feeling? Good. I'm Deputy Chief of the Sheriff's Office. I stopped you because you were driving an unregistered vehicle with no tag on it on the roadway. Yeah, we went to the club. It was closed so we went over and picked up some. Is your camera on? It is. I'm the police chief in Tampa. Oh, how are you doing? I'm doing good. I'm hoping that you'll just let us go tonight. Okay, yeah. Now that you say that, you look familiar. Yeah, I'm sure I do. Okay, so all right folks. Well, have a good night. After an internal affairs investigation was completed, Tampa's mayor allowed O'Connor to resign. In her resignation letter, O'Connor said she was resigning because she would never want her personal mistake to stand in the way of the progress she made in mending relationships between the police department and the community. The Tampa mayor said she expects the national search and hiring process for a new Tampa police chief to take several months. In the meantime, Assistant Police Chief Lee Burkaw will serve as interim police chief. Protesters on Monday called on San Francisco's Board of Supervisors to reject a city proposal. It gives city police the ability to use potentially lethal remote-controlled robots in emergency situations. The San Francisco Police Department said it does not have pre-armed robots and has no plans to arm robots with guns. However, the robots can be equipped with explosive charges to incapacitate or disorient violent, armed, or dangerous suspects. The proposal was amended to specify that robots could only be used after an alternative force or de-escalation tactics were used. The robots can also be used if the officer concludes these alternative means wouldn't work to subdue the suspect. Politicians, advocates, and protesters are calling on San Francisco's Board of Supervisors to reject the city's proposal. Well, the mayor and the San Francisco Police Department have proposed a policy to allow the police department to use robots to kill in San Francisco. And that came before the Board of Supervisors last week and passed by an 8-3 majority. And it's coming back for a second reading, the final reading tomorrow. And we wanted to send a clear message that people are opposed to this. I voted against it and most people in San Francisco are strongly opposed to having robots that kill. The first time a robot was used to deliver explosives in the U.S. was in 2016. Dallas police sent an armed robot to kill a sniper who had killed five officers in an ambush. San Francisco police say they currently have a dozen ground robots, but none have been used to deliver an explosive device. Hearst has agreed to pay out $168 million to some former customers. The settlement is over claims related to the company falsely reporting rental cars as stolen. The cases sometimes resulted in people being arrested and spending time in jail before the false reports were worked out. In one case, a person claimed it took two years to resolve the case against them. Systematic flaws by Hearst are allegedly to blame, including not recording payment or rental extensions, failing to track its own vehicle inventory, and failing to correct false reports to police. A Hearst spokesman said Monday the company is not currently detailing how they are preventing future such occurrences. And CEO Stephen Schur said, while we will not always be perfect, the professionals at Hearst will continue to work every day to provide best-in-class service to the tens of millions of people we serve each year. Putting your cell phone on airplane mode during a flight, could that soon be coming to an end? In Europe, regulators there recently cleared the way for devices that use 5G technology to remain on during flights. Aviation experts believe the U.S. industry is likely to follow. However, it's still expected the FAA will keep in place a general regulation that prohibits use of certain devices for safety's sake. That's unless operators determine a device is okay to use. One aviation studies professor says the main issue remains potential interference with an airplane's navigation systems. There has not yet been any evidence that electronic interference has caused problems, or worse, been a factor in a crash. However, the Federal Communications Commission says devices not in flight mode can overload networks on the ground, especially during takeoffs and landings. Experts say 5G wavelengths are not as likely to interfere with aircraft systems as older generation cell service. A 2017 survey found about 40 percent of passengers admit to not putting their device on airplane mode. And the Mauna Loa volcano on Hawaii's Big Island continued to visibly erupt in the early hours of Tuesday morning with lava bubbling from a seam in the rock. U.S. Geological Survey Scientist Ken Hahn said on Monday that it's believed the volcano is spouting out between 100 and 150 cubic yards per second. He says the front of the lava flow is moving at approximately 50 feet per hour. A concern for many on Hawaii's Big Island is that the lava will reach Saddle Road, also known as Route 200. The highway connects communities on different parts of the island, and if the road becomes impassable, the delivery of many goods and services will become much more difficult and time-consuming. It remains unclear when or if the lava will actually reach the road. And just ahead, a YouTuber from Taiwan shows examples of YouTube's filtering mechanism. And take a look at what he finds out. And President Joe Biden is heading out west today. The Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC is making some big investments in Arizona. That and more when we return. A performance that truly matters for each and every one of us. This is what you've been waiting for. See it at least once in your lifetime. Get tickets now at Shenyun.com. Did you know dragging chains can spark a wildfire? Only you can prevent wildfires. Good to have you back with us. President Joe Biden will visit the Arizona plant of TSMC today. This, as the Taiwanese chipmaker, is set to more than triple its planned investment in the factory to $40 billion. That is one of the largest foreign investments in U.S. history. Some view the investment as a big win for Biden after supply chain issues disrupted the U.S. economy early in his presidency. Biden won't be visiting TSMC alone. He'll be joined by Apple CEO Tim Cook, TSMC founder Morris Chang, and the heads of various chipmakers. They will attend a tulen ceremony. That's the symbolic moving of the first equipment onto the shop floor of the new $12 billion facility. The plant is scheduled to be in operation in 2024. TSMC is the world's largest contract chipmaker and a major supplier to U.S. hardware manufacturers such as Apple and NVIDIA. And the Biden administration yesterday announced is working with Congress on ways to reinforce deterrence against any changes to the status of Taiwan. Here's Press Secretary Corinne Jean-Pierre. I'm not going to get ahead of the process as it relates to Congress or the NDAA. I'll say this more broadly. We continue to work with Congress on ways we can reinforce deterrence across the Taiwan Strait and build Taiwan's resilience in meaningful ways, including the self-defense capabilities. The press secretary did not detail specifics or lay out the administration's view on Taiwan legislation currently under consideration. The Chinese Communist Party claims the self-ruled island as its own in spite of never having ruled it. The U.S. Secret Service says hackers linked to the Chinese regime stole at least $20 million in COVID relief. The hackers raided unemployment insurance funds and small business administration loan money in more than a dozen U.S. states. The Secret Service blames the theft on a well-known group that has allegedly schemed on behalf of Beijing for years. It's unclear if this operation was for self-enrichment or for the Chinese regime. Since 2020, the Secret Service has recovered more than $1.4 billion of pandemic relief funds stolen by various actors. YouTube appears to be moderating content related to the recent anti-lockdown protests in China. A YouTuber says he ran a test to see which words caused him to be demonetized. In a video posted last week, Taiwanese YouTuber Ba Zhong, who has over 600,000 followers, tested YouTube's demonetization rules. He made a video talking about the anti-lockdown protests that took place in various Chinese cities in late November and tried uploading it using different titles. Let's change the title first. This one is safe. It turned green. I will try with a different title. The trial shows that titles which refer to the protests in certain ways will get demonetized. That means the content creator is unable to get revenue generated from the ads shown during the video. Being demonetized also means the video will be shown to fewer users. Being demonetized will restrict how many people can see this video. Then there wouldn't be any point for me to make this video. I just hope people can see it. The YouTuber says he tried words like Emperor Xi, which refers to the Chinese regime leader Xi Jinping, and the video got demonetized. He replaced the word with just Emperor, and it came out fine. The problem appears to be with the term Emperor Xi. Let's change it to Emperor. We don't want an emperor. Would it be okay? Yes, emperor works. But it cannot go with Xi. His trial also found that words like white paper movement and from various provinces appears to trigger demonetization. The protests in China are also known as the white paper movement because many protesters were holding a blank sheet of white paper. The white paper movement takes place in various provinces. It doesn't work. The problem is with various provinces. Various provinces is not allowed. The YouTuber criticized the platform for allegedly moderating contents related to the Chinese regime. His video has generated over 400,000 views in two days. If this is a Chinese platform, it would make sense. But this is an American company. YouTube, what are you doing? Don't be kidnapped by the ad providers. YouTube needs to stand up. NTD reached out to YouTube for comment, but didn't hear back before broadcast time. Reporting by Allison Li, NTD News. While YouTube is blocked in China by the firewall, the Taiwanese YouTubers called on the company not to bow to Chinese advertisers, which constitute a large portion of their Asian market. Some viewers suggested uploading content across many different platforms. And in mainland China, the communist regime is signaling a reopening to the rest of the world. With a tiny fraction of flights running in and out of Beijing, the city just announced that two of its airports have dropped the need for departing passengers to show a negative COVID test for the flight. Only body temperature and health codes will be mandated. But from the inside, video evidence suggests the control of people might be becoming even tighter. A video showing local police hitting a grandmother in front of a child went viral over the weekend. She refused to take a COVID test. NTD cannot verify the date of the video, but the Chinese regime using force on citizens is not a rare occurrence. Another video posted December 2nd shows health workers in white suits breaking into a woman's hotel room to forcibly take her to a quarantine camp. While the woman screamed that she wasn't dressed appropriately and needed to change, the men ignored her request and entered her room. Some Chinese residents cannot help but try to protect themselves using any means. In this video, workers in white suits tried to take a young man away. They did not show any documentation. He brandishes a knife to protect himself. The woman says, if you show us proof, then we will leave with you. While the Chinese regime shows some cities opening up and testing booths being taken away, the reality is residents still need to show a negative test to go about. The Communist Party uses a health code to control the population in China. In many areas, if your health code is not green, you are not allowed to go outside the house or enter places like supermarkets or even your own building or district. In one video, a man shows how easy it is to be controlled with a QR health code by sticking his phone outside the window. Similar situations are happening in Guangzhou, where people trying to leave the city had their health codes turned yellow or red. Outwardly, the communist regime is signaling a relaxation of restrictions. However, it continues to tighten its grip on the Chinese people. NTD News. And if you have any news tips or feedback for the show, don't hesitate to email us at news.today at ntd.com. And still to come, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy seeks to overturn bribery and influence peddling charges against him. He has repeatedly denied wrongdoing. And a trial in Brussels, Belgium will determine if 10 men played a part in suicide bombings that killed 32 people and injured over 300. We'll have all that and more for you right here on NTD News. Russian President Vladimir Putin drove a Mercedes across the bridge linking southern Russia to the annexed Crimean Peninsula. It's less than two months since an explosion tore through the structure. The 12-mile road and rail bridge was personally opened by Putin in 2018. It was bombed on October 8th in an attack Russia said was carried out by Ukraine. Putin was accompanied by Russia's Deputy Prime Minister. He was shown in state media behind the wheel of the Mercedes asking questions about the attack. He also walked along parts of the bridge to inspect it and asked about the repair work. Ukraine never claimed responsibility for the bombing. The bridge is considered Europe's largest. The explosion wrecked one section of the road bridge, temporarily halting traffic. The blast also destroyed several fuel tankers and a train heading towards the annexed Crimean Peninsula from neighboring southern Russia. Elon Musk's SpaceX is expanding its Starlink satellite system into the military sphere. It's a new national security line called Starshield. The new program was unveiled on December 2nd. It includes building up the launch and satellite communications technology as well as providing a secured satellite network for government entities. The most likely customers of Starshield would appear to be the U.S. military and intelligence community which have already invested heavily into SpaceX's satellite technology with key stakes in the Starlink system. Details on Starshield's scope and capabilities remain sparse including the time frame for when the system would be in orbit and the total amount invested. SpaceX has yet to announce any tests or results but the company envisions Starshield as the center of an end-to-end package for national security. A protester assaulted Albanian opposition leader Salih Barisha. He was in the Albanian capital for a summit between leaders of the European Union and Western Balkan countries. Video shows Barisha leading hundreds of protesters toward the summit area. At this point a man stepped out of the crowd and punched him in the face. The attacker was immediately subdued by bodyguards. Witnesses saw Barisha's face covered in blood. It's still unclear what led to the attack. Police say the detained suspect had been charged with violence and drug trafficking. Barisha has served as both president and prime minister of Albania. He was banned from the U.S. in 2021 for alleged corruption but he denied any wrongdoing. Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy will try to convince a Paris court to overturn his March 2021 conviction for bribery and influence peddling. His appeal hearing started on Monday. The initial trial saw Sarkozy sentenced to three years in prison, two of them suspended. It was a stunning fall from grace for a man who served as president from 2007 to 2012 but he is now facing a string of judicial investigations and trials. At the time of the initial trial the court found that Sarkozy had tried to bribe a judge after leaving office and to peddle influence in exchange for confidential information about an investigation into his 2007 campaign finances. According to Judge Christine Mee, he took advantage of his status and the relationships he had formed. Sarkozy repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and said he was the victim of witch hunts and lies. His appeal suspended the execution of the sentence in the original trial. The appeal hearing, scheduled to last until December 16th, will review both the verdict and the sentence. Together with late Jacques Chirac, who was found guilty of corruption in 2011, Sarkozy is the only other president to be convicted by a court. Emotions are running high in Brussels as a bombing trial begins. The trial will determine whether 10 men played a part in the 2016 suicide bombings that killed 32 people and injured over 300. Belgium has launched its largest ever criminal trial, more than six years on from the 2016 terror attacks. Ten men will stand trial accused of involvement in a triple suicide bombing which killed 32 and injured over 300 around the capital. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the coordinated attacks on March 22nd. Brussels airport was hit by twin bombings while a third was detonated at a metro station. The trial, which is expected to last seven months, will no doubt trigger painful memories. Six of the accused have already been sentenced to jail terms in France for their role in the November 2015 Paris attack, in which 130 were killed. That includes Salah Abdeslam, the main suspect in the Paris trial. Nine of the accused are charged with multiple murders and attempted murders in a terrorist context and face potential life sentences. All ten are accused of participating in the activities of a terrorist group. One of the men will be tried in absentia but is presumed to have been killed in Syria. The case, which will be overseen by Judge Lars Nassar, will be settled by a jury, with lawyers representing around 1,000 people affected by the attacks. The trial is estimated to cost at least 35 million euros, 37 million dollars, and will include hearings for some 370 experts and witnesses. Just ahead, Londoners scavenge for artifacts along the banks of the River Thames. The hobby is called mudlarking and it traces its roots to at least the late 18th century. At Oslo's Viking Ship Museum, a team of engineers works to preserve three vessels that have survived for a millennium. Soon they'll have a new home. Stay tuned for more on that when we return. We're entering an unprecedented period of economic turmoil. The economy is unstable, our government is in shambles, and the global war on energy has created a domestic crisis. Americans need a way to protect their financial future. 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Citing a British official, Greece's ANT1 TV said on Sunday that the only way to return the sculptures to Greece without violating British law was, quote, if the museum opened a kind of annex in Greece. The British Museum has always ruled out returning them, saying they were legally acquired. In March, the United Nations Cultural Agency UNESCO urged both countries to reach a settlement on the issue. London sees a boom of people scavenging for treasures along the banks of the River Thames. The hobby dates back to at least the late 18th century, and today's Andrew Thomas has the details on this unusual pastime. This is called mudlarking. Hobbyists search for historical artifacts washed up on the banks of the River Thames. It's still a popular leisure activity, but centuries ago, many Londoners would have been digging for something to sell. Alessio Cecconi has found items from thousands of years ago. This shoe is more likely 300 years old, and he restored it himself. The person probably was walking a bit on a wonky way. Maybe his legs were not too straight, and in fact, he's very squished on the inner side. These days, historical items found here should be reported to the Museum of London, but plenty of mudlarks get to keep their treasures. The enthusiast should have a We've gone from about 200 foreshore permits issued about four or five years ago to 5,000 now, and that's a vast increase, and what we're doing is protecting the integrity and the archaeology of the foreshore. But so many people are doing it now that the Port of London Authority has stopped issuing new permits. For some tourists like Michelle Ronback, it's a huge disappointment. She traveled to London specifically to mudlark. Invested thousands of dollars to go on this trip which can't be amended. Ronback explains the appeal of mudlarking. I was curious about, you know, where you came from, and how your ancestors lived, and what was their life like, and what, you know, what kind of things did they use? Books and social media have helped inspire a new wave of treasure hunters, and the Thames riverbanks have become an international attraction for scavenging. Andrew Thomas, NTD News. In Norway, a museum is building a new home for three viking ships that have survived for over a millennium. Engineers are making sure the process is safe for the ships. NTD's Andrew Thomas has more on their efforts. These ships date back to the 9th and 10th centuries, but they're at the mercy of temperature changes and humidity in Oslo's Viking Ship Museum, so a new building is necessary to protect the wooden vessels. The whole ship is collapsing over its supports, and the stem is moving forward and causing fractures to the sideboards of the ship, and we are in dire needs now to get a new building with a better climate system, better supports. But the vibrations caused by construction are also a threat to the delicate ships. This wood is now incredibly fragile. If you had a little piece of wood, you could just make crumbs out of it. It would just fall apart between your fingers. The new museum will open in 2026, a hundred years after the ship's current home was opened. The existing museum closed in September last year to prepare for the move. Before that, it received around 500,000 visitors per year. The director of the Museum of Cultural History said it was unfortunate but necessary for the museum to close during the move. Now we have to close the museum for several years while we build a new one. We're very sad about that and originally wanted to keep the old museum open while we built a new one, but for logistical reasons and due to concerns for the safety of the collection and our visitors, we haven't been able to make that happen. For those fascinated with Viking history, the ships are priceless. Some even compare the ships to the pyramids in Egypt. An enthusiast even built an exact replica of one of the ships exclusively using Viking age tools and methods. Andrew Thomas, NTD News. A rare sight has stunned locals in a southern Russian city. Residents in the Dagestan region say thousands of endangered Caspian seals have washed up dead on the Caspian coastline. The local Ministry of Natural Resources says at least 2,500 seal bodies have been washed ashore in recent days and the number could still increase. The animals were found along the entire coastline of the Russian Caspian Sea. Residents say they have never seen this many. According to the Caspian Sea Nature Conservation Center, the seals probably died about two weeks before they washed up. No external signs of violent attack have been detected. These Caspian seals are among the smallest in the world found only in the brackish waters of the Caspian Sea. Experts warn that heavy metals and other pollutants in the sea are becoming a big threat. Forensic exams are underway to determine the cause of the seals' deaths. NASA's Artemis 1 mission just sailed within 80 miles of the lunar surface. It's the closest approach to the moon for a spacecraft built to carry humans since Apollo 17 half a century ago. The Orion capsule's lunar flyby was part of the return leg of its voyage. About a week ago, it reached its farthest point in space, nearly 270,000 miles from Earth. The unmanned capsule passed about 80 miles above the lunar surface on Monday as the spacecraft fired its thrusters for a powered flyby burn. The move is designed to change the vehicle's speed and set it on course back to Earth. NASA said the three-and-a-half minute burn is the last major spaceflight maneuver for Orion. It's due to And coming up, auctioneers in New York are displaying some of the highest value diamonds. The rarest pieces may fetch up to $20 million. And World Cup scalpers are making huge profits on their ticket resales. Find out their strategies. We'll be back with more soon here on NTD News. As the holiday season rolls in, auction houses in New York are showcasing their highest value jewelry. Crowning the collection are some of the rarest diamonds. One is a golden canary diamond that Sotheby's is auctioning. The 300-carat item is expected to fetch $15 to $20 million. The gem was found in the Congo in the 1980s. A girl picked it up in a pile of rubble in her uncle's backyard. Another rare gem for sale is the long-lost emerald. It was found on a 17th-century shipwreck by the team of the poultry businessman. He gave it to his wife as an engagement ring. She is now auctioning it off with the proceeds going to humanitarian relief efforts in Ukraine. The ring itself is worth $50,000 to $70,000, but the story behind it could drive prices higher. And a short distance away, Christie's New York is also gearing up for its final jewelry sale of the year. The highlight lot is a fantastic, incredible, and the largest to come to the auction market, a fancy blue diamond. It's a pear shape. It's made as a pendant necklace, so it's incredibly wearable, mounted in a little frame of pink diamonds as well. It's in for $10 to $15 million. This is a piece from the 1940s, but the first palm tree came about in the late 30s, and it was the equivalent, the art deco period equivalent to a product drop. Cartier was opening their Cannes boutique and their Monte Carlo boutique, and they designed a series of palm trees to commemorate it, and it was very limited. The brooch featured a 13-carat diamond and is estimated at over $500,000. Jewelry experts say the intricate craftsmanship makes it highly sought after. Illegal ticket sales for the World Cup finals in Doha are seeing prices skyrocket to ten times their value. They're hidden in WhatsApp groups, social media sites, and elsewhere. Luis Octar is on the phone with a ticket scalper at the World Cup in Qatar. He's asking the person what he can do to show that he's good for the money. He's saying that he lives in California, and he can show the scalper his ID or Facebook. The ticket is not transferable. They can give you their account number, and you log in into their account, and you use the ticket. That's another option. Angela, she said that she's from Brazil, and then she offered a ticket for $300, which is, I don't think so. I think she's trying to scam me, and then now I'm going to, she's asking me how many tickets do I want. I'm going to tell her that I want one ticket, and then if she transfers the ticket to me, I can pay her. Otherwise, I will not do it. Reuters has seen increasing numbers of ticketless fans like Octar gathering outside World Cup stadiums to haggle with such scalpers, sometimes in person, sometimes on social media sites and WhatsApp channels. Ticket scalping is nothing new, but here in Doha, it carries a fine of up to 10 times the face value of the tickets being sold illegally. And the highest scalps that Reuters found actually match that in price. 10 times face value. FIFA's warned that it'll cancel any tickets identified as being sold outside official platforms, although legitimate tickets are becoming increasingly scarce as the games get closer to the final. Qatar has dropped a prior requirement that visitors entering the country have match tickets, which has also raised demand. You can hear it from one of the hawkers yourself. He wanted to stay anonymous, only telling us that he came to Doha from France for the sporting event. In fact, a black market is taking shape. With this Argentina match that can be bought between €62 and for up to €250 was resold in the best case for €900, and I resold for €700. I take the matches you can monetize the most, such as the Argentina matches, matches with Cristiano Ronaldo, so Portugal, and the matches with Leon Messi, and the Mexican matches, because the Mexicans are dedicated supporters, so they are ready to pay high prices. Actually, you need to do this in an intelligent way. You can't just do it randomly. For instance, I don't know if you were able to see, it is not what I have done, but most are coming with an Argentina jersey. They try to blend in with the crowd. Scalpers seem undeterred by CCTV cameras and police patrols. Back with Akhtar, he just wants to watch some soccer, if he can get inside. And a team of Turkish sniffer dogs joined security drill for the World Cup Finals. They're responsible for finding bombs and explosives. During the safety drills in Doha, the sniffer dogs searched for potential explosives in sports stadiums and vehicles. Experts then made controlled explosions. It was part of an international effort to maintain security for the FIFA 2022 World Cup. Turkey and Qatar have strengthened ties in recent years. The two nations work closely on commercial and economic issues. This year, Turkey sent more than 3,000 security personnel to Qatar for the World Cup and provided training ahead of the games. Aside from that, Turkish authorities say they have sent 100 members of special forces, 50 bomb detection dogs and their operators, as well as 50 bomb experts and other staff to Qatar. The world's oldest land animal is getting a series of commemorative stamps to mark its 190th birthday. Officials on the South Atlantic island of Saint Helena made the stamps for Jonathan, a giant tortoise. Jonathan is also the face of Saint Helena's five-pence coin. According to Guinness World Records, Jonathan is the oldest living canolian on record, a category that includes turtles and tortoises. He is thought to have been born around 1832. The famous turtle was brought to Saint Helena from the Seychelles in 1882. If you embraced a bit of lethargy during the pandemic, you're not alone. In fact, that behavior has become such a phenomenon, it inspired the Oxford Word of the Year for 2022, Goblin Mode. Oxford University Press says Goblin Mode is when you're unapologetically, self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly or greedy, typically in a way that rejects social norms or expectations. It's basically the opposite of trying to better yourself. This is the first year the Oxford Word of the Year was chosen by the public. Goblin Mode beat out its two competitors, Metaverse and the hashtag IStandWith. And that's all for today's program. We're really glad to have you with us. Please send us an email if you'd like to tell us something. We're going to put it on screen. For podcasters, that's news.today at ntd.com. I'm Kevin Hogan, NTD News, New York City.