Politics

A dramatic rollercoaster of a day for Catalonia and Spain is ending ominously, with the Catalan president Puigdemont announcing that he would let the region's parliament decide the fate of the Catalan declaration of independence from Spain, capping off a day of furious reversals. The announcement follows a dramatic reversal from the Catalan leader who until just a few hours ago, was expected to announce that he'd call an early election in the region to avoid Spain's takeover of the Catalan government.

While Democrats, old and new, are abandoning the sinking Hillary Clinton ship, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper is still "with her."

As Daily Caller reports, Clapper is shrugging off news that the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee funded the research behind the dossier on Donald Trump (and lied about it non-stop for almost a year). Clapper said the only thing that matters is whether the information is “corroborated.”

It didn't take much for Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont to turn from hero to villain for the local separatists.

Shortly after news hit that Puigdemont would not be declaring independence but would instead seek new elections, some time around Dec. 30, Catalan separatists revelled against his plan to draw back from declaring independence as Spanish authorities finalize plans to oust his insurgent administration. A crowd gathered in the square in front of the Catalan government palace chanted "traitoers" and “Attention, PdeCat, patience is over."

Yesterday Catalonia’s government was preparing to declare independence, as we discussed. Just hours after Puigdemont snubbed Madrid, canceling his visit to The Senate to discuss their imposition of Article 155, Catalan Deputy First Minister Oriol Junqueras told AP that the Spanish government had left Catalonia “no other option” but to proclaim a new republic. Mr. Junqueras told the AP he was commenting as leader of his party, Republican Catalan Left, not as a member of the regional government.

Update (8:40 pm ET): The FBI informant who helped the Justice Department secure a conviction against the top official from the US subsidiary of Rosatom, the Russian atomic energy agency, but was blocked by the Obama Justice Department from testifying about Russian efforts to bribe and extort their way into possession of North American uranium assets - a process which was cleared by both Hillary Clinton's State Department and Robert Mueller's FBI - has as of moments ago been cleared to testify, the Justice Department announced on Wednesday e