May 6 - May 12: Week in Review

Biden Family's Alleged Foreign Payments: The U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability presented a series of allegations that President Biden's family benefited financially from schemes with foreign nationals during his vice presidency. The claims state that the Bidens made millions for no services other than access and influence. The Biden family reportedly set up over a dozen LLCs and engaged in many intentionally complicated financial transactions and transfers to hide the payments and avoid scrutiny. The White House is calling the claims baseless. Read more at House Oversight & BBC News.

Tucker Carlson Announces New Show on Twitter: Tucker Carlson and his legal team accused his former employer, Fox News, of fraud and breach of contract days after the two parted ways. Tucker has since announced that he will be starting a new show on Twitter with no start date announced yet. Twitter has not yet confirmed whether they will support the decision. Starting a new show on any platform without Fox's approval would reportedly put Carlson out of approximately $25 million due to a non-compete clause in his agreement with Fox, which runs until January 2025. Read more at Axios.

US House Rep. George Santos Faces Federal Charges: U.S. Rep. George Santos of New York has been charge with seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, two counts of making materially false statements to the House of Representatives and one count of theft of public funds. He pleaded not guilty at the federal courthouse in Central Islip, New York, and was released on a $500,000 bond after agreeing to surrender his passport. The freshman Republican has admitted to lying about having Jewish ancestry, a Wall Street background, college degrees and a history as a star volleyball player. Read more at CBS & Associated Press.

The Immigration Crisis: Title 42: Title 42, a 1944 emergency health authority that places additional restrictions on illegal immigration during public health emergencies, has allowed the U.S. to quickly turn back migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border for the past three years because of the COVID-19 pandemic. While families and children traveling alone have often been exempt from the policies set in place by Title 42, it is estimated that officials turned away migrants more than 2.8 million times since the start of the pandemic, many of whom were repeat offenders who were caught multiple times.

Republicans sued when President Biden tried overturning Title 42's use in 2022, arguing that the restrictions were necessary to protect the border. While courts have kept the rules in place, the rules officially expired on Thursday at 11:59 p.m. after Biden announced in January that the administration was ending national COVID-19 emergencies.

The Biden administration has since put into place a series of new policies that could result in criminal prosecution for people who are caught crossing the border illegally more than once.

Per U.S. and international law, anyone who comes to the U.S. can ask for asylum. However, the screening process in the immigration court system, which determines whether they can stay in the U.S., can often take years to complete for each asylum seeker.

Under new policies, the Biden administration is proposing turning away anyone seeking asylum who didn't seek protection in a country they traveled through prior to arriving in the U.S. A lawsuit was immediately filed in a federal court in San Francisco claiming that the policies duplicate efforts that were proposed by the Trump administration and had already been rejected by the same court. Read more at Associated Press.

Elon Musk Stepping Down as Twitter CEO: Elon Musk announced Thursday that he has selected a new CEO for Twitter and later confirmed on Friday that NBCUniversal executive Linda Yaccarino will be his successor. With a background that is rich in marketing and advertising as an executive with NBCUniversal, Yaccarino is expected to take over many of the business decisions, while Musk will remain as the company's owner and focus more on the product design and new technology. Read more at Associated Press & Axios.

Mass Shootings in US: This week, Gun Violence Archive reported a total of 17 mass shootings resulting in 68 victims injured and 24 victims dead.