Their request was made with mere weeks remaining until a British court decides whether to grant a request by the U.S. government to extradite Mr. Assange so that he can stand trial in Alexandria, Virginia.
Mr. Assange, 49, an Australian, faces charges in the U.S. related to WikiLeaks, the secret-spilling site he started, and possibly decades in prison convicted of all counts.
He was arrested in April 2019 inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, and he remains jailed on remand at a nearby prison while awaiting a determination on the U.S. extradition request.
The parliamentarians do not explicitly condone Mr. Assange in the letter. But they do echo his defense that he acted as a journalist by releasing through WikiLeaks reams of secret material embarrassing to the U.S.
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The 5 Towns Jewish Times
December 16, 2020
President Elect Joseph R. Biden
A young man went to his rabbi to discuss a serious issue. The rabbi listened intently and afterward suggested that the young man focus on the matter with intensity during his daily prayers. A few weeks later, the man returned to the rabbi to report that he had been davening with passion, but there did not seem to be any response from Hashem.
The rabbi leaned back in his chair and offered a sobering analysis on the matter: “Hashem did respond to you, my friend, but the answer was no.”
By Lisa Friedman
WASHINGTON President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. will nominate Michael S. Regan, secretary of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, according to three people on the Biden transition team.
Mr. Regan became Mr. Biden’s top choice only in recent days, two people familiar with the selection process said. The front-runner had for several weeks been Mary D. Nichols, California’s air quality regulator, but she faced significant criticism from liberal groups who accused her of not doing enough to address issues of environmental racism in her state.
Mr. Biden also has been under pressure to make his cabinet choices more racially diverse. If confirmed, Mr. Regan is expected to bring a strong focus on racial equity to the agency.
Mr. Biden visited Atlanta this week looking to boost Mr. Ossoff and Mr. Warnock in their races against Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler.
A Democratic sweep of the races in the Jan. 5 election would flip control of the Senate, with Vice President-elect Kamala D. Harris holding the tie-breaking vote.
“There are folks in Congress threatening to do everything in their power to block our efforts,” Mr. Biden says. “We need you to get out there and vote for Jon Ossoff as well as Raphael Warnock. We need them in the Senate.”
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