Category: Breaking

Politico   Donald Trump is expected to be named Time magazine’s “Person of the Year” — and to celebrate the unveiling of the cover, the president-elect will ring the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday morning, according to three people familiar with the plans granted anonymity because they were not authorized to divulge the plans. Last year, pop superstar Taylor Swift was recognized. To mark the magazine cover reveal, Time CEO Jessica Sibley rang the opening bell. Trump was also named Time Person of the Year in 2016 after he won the presidential election. He joins 13 other U.S. presidents who have received the recognition, including President Joe Biden. READ THE FULL STORY                 

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Breitbart   A report published by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) this week revealed previously unconfirmed information on four eavesdropping facilities in Cuba that China may be utilizing to conduct espionage on the United States. CSIS, a Washington-based think tank, detailed in the report that satellite imagery and open-source analysis “offer an unprecedented look into these facilities and provide clues as to how they could be used to spy on sensitive communications and activities in the region.” In a previous report released in July, CSIS detailed that the communist regime maintains four active bases located in Bejucal, El Salao, Wajay, and Calabazar — four locations that stand out as the most likely facilities to be supporting China’s efforts to collect signals intelligence (SIGINT) on the region and spy on the United States. READ THE FULL STORY                 

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Washington Examiner   Federal bankruptcy judge Christopher M. Lopez rejected the Onion‘s bid to buy Infowars, the website of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, citing that the auction of the website and the bid lacked transparency and created an uneven playing field. Chicago-based satirical publication, won the auction for the website while backed by the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting. For years, Jones claimed that the 2012 school shooting was fake and the victims’ families were just actors convincing the world of the tragedy. The families sued Jones in 2018 for defamation. After Jones refused to participate in the trial, judges in Connecticut and Texas found him liable by default, and a jury awarded the families $1.4 billion in damages in 2022. Jones is still appealing the ruling and he has since declared bankruptcy and sold his company, Free Speech Systems, in order to pay some of what he owes the families. READ THE FULL STORY               

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Washington Examiner   Police arrested a suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on Monday. Luigi Mangione, 26, was described as a “person of interest” by New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch at a news conference Monday afternoon. She added that Mangione had multiple items on him, including a firearm with a suppressor, a fake ID, and a “handwritten document that speaks to both his motivation and mindset,” when he was arrested by local police in Pennsylvania on local firearms charges. Mangione was discovered at a McDonald’s and was recognized by an employee, according to officials. She said that NYPD detectives were on their way to Pennsylvania to question him. READ THE FULL STORY                 

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Breitbart   Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday that he’s open to the potential deployment of Western troops in Ukraine to guarantee the country´s security as part of a broad effort to end the almost three-year war with Russia. The deployment would be a step toward Ukraine joining NATO, Zelenskyy said in a post on his Telegram channel. “But before that, we must have a clear understanding of when Ukraine will be in the European Union and when Ukraine will be in NATO,” Zelenskyy said. READ THE FULL STORY         

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Axios   China is launching an antitrust investigation into AI giant Nvidia, triggering fears of an escalating international dispute entangling one of America’s most vital tech companies. The move may be seen as a retaliation over the U.S. imposing restrictions on the sale of advanced AI chips and technology to China. China’s State Administration for Market Regulation — which investigates monopolies — is probing Nvidia’s acquisition of Mellanox Technologies, according to multiple reports. READ THE FULL STORY           

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The Daily Wire A doctor celebrated as “America’s best-known practitioner of youth gender medicine” is being sued for medical negligence by a former patient — a young girl who underwent a gender transition and now feels she was deeply betrayed.  Twenty-year-old Kaya Clementine Breen accuses Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy of fast-tracking her attempted gender transition, including puberty blockers, hormones, and a double mastectomy, when she was a young teenager.  Her lawyers argue that Olson-Kennedy, the therapist she referred Breen to, the surgeon who removed Breen’s breasts, and other medical professionals are all guilty of medical negligence for rushing Breen through procedures that have deeply and negatively impacted her future.  READ THE FULL STORY

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The Washington Examiner   Republicans killed two measures that would have compelled the House Ethics Committee to release its report on former Rep. Matt Gaetz, but some would be willing to reverse their stance if the former Florida congressman is nominated for another position. “Many of us voted to support the precedent but will feel differently if he’s nominated for a high-level position or runs for office. I’m not the only one. There’s many,” Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) told the Washington Examiner. Gaetz had been the subject of an investigation by the committee over allegations of sex trafficking and sex with a minor, accusations he has denied. The Florida Republican resigned from his House seat last month after being named President-elect Donald Trump‘s pick for attorney general, but he later withdrew himself from the nomination after it appeared doomed. READ THE FULL STORY                 

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Breitbart   Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) on Thursday, after a groundswell of support for Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth, denied she is behind a campaign on Capitol Hill to tank his nomination and seek the job herself. “I don’t have a campaign against Pete,” she told RealClearPolitics’s White House correspondent Philip Wegmann, adding that he deserved to have a Senate confirmation hearing. “I just want to make sure the process is able to play out and that we’re thoroughly vetting him. I do believe that Pete deserves to have a hearing. All the rumblings out there are absolutely false. My role as a senator is to make sure that we are putting to bed any rumors, any anonymous whatever,” she claimed. READ THE FULL STORY                 

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Axios   The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Friday announced a federal order that the country’s milk supply be tested for bird flu. The sluggish federal response to the H5N1 bird flu outbreak has alarmed researchers, especially with new findings that the virus is one mutation away from being able to more efficiently affect humans. “This new guidance from USDA, which was developed with significant input from state, veterinary and public health stakeholders, will facilitate comprehensive H5N1 surveillance of the nation’s milk supply and dairy herds,” the department said. READ THE FULL STORY                 

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The Economist   JOHANNA OLSON-KENNEDY is among the most celebrated youth gender medicine clinicians in the world. She has been the Medical Director of the Center for Transyouth Health and Development at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA), one of the first high-profile American youth gender clinics and presently the largest, since 2012. A frequent expert witness in court cases who is often quoted in the media, Dr Olson-Kennedy also leads a $10m initiative funded by the National Institutes of Health to study youth gender medicine—by far the largest such project in America. In addition, she is the president-elect of the United States Professional Association for Transgender Health.   As state-level bans on youth gender medicine have accumulated, and are being tested at the Supreme Court, this controversial field has been seized by a fierce debate over the proper role of mental-health assessments. The Dutch clinicians who published the seminal youth gender medicine protocol in 2012 emphasised the importance of conducting a careful, in-depth assessment prior to starting a young person on puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones. But Dr Olson-Kennedy has emerged as a critic of what she views as undue and unnecessary “gatekeeping”. “I don’t send someone to a therapist when…

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C-SPAN The Supreme Court heard oral argument in United States v. Skrmetti, a case on whether Tennessee’s ban on transgender medical treatments for minors violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. Tennessee enacted its law in March of 2023, which stated that there was a “compelling interest” to protect minors from physical and emotional harm by banning health care providers from administering hormone/puberty blockers and surgery to minors for transgender purposes. Transgender minors and their families sued the state, and the Justice Department intervened on their behalf, arguing the law discriminated on the basis of sex. A district court then stopped the ban on hormone and puberty blockers, but the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that decision. The Justice Department then appealed to the Supreme Court. Chase Strangio, who argued on behalf of trans minors and their parents, was the first openly transgender lawyer to argue before the Court. LISTEN TO THE FULL AUDIO      

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Breitbart   Several top Veterans Affairs officials in Tennessee resigned as an internal investigation and a broader congressional probe into alleged sexual misconduct intensified, Breitbart News has learned. Congressional investigators discovered that one man who resigned, whose name they would not tell Breitbart News but sources familiar say was a bargaining unit biomedical employee, had dozens of sexual relationships with women who worked at the Mountain Home VA medical center in Tennessee. In fact, the congressional investigators told Breitbart News this one man slept with no fewer than 32 different women who worked there—and the man and several of the women bragged about their exploits on an online group forum on a government communication portal that VA officials use to communicate about veteran healthcare and facility operations. What’s more, sources familiar with the congressional investigation told Breitbart News they uncovered that an orgy of at least 12 officials who work at the facility took place. It’s unclear at this time whether the orgy happened on government property at the VA facility or off-site—but the mere fact that a dozen of the government workers employed there did this is astounding. READ THE FULL STORY       

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The Hill   The Biden administration issued new restrictions Monday on exports of certain semiconductor chips and equipment to China, marking the Biden administration’s latest crackdown to curb the country’s competitive advancements in chipmaking. The new export controls place more than 100 Chinese chipmaking tool manufacturers on a restricted trade list, prohibiting U.S. companies from sending them equipment without specific permission, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security said Monday.   Leading chip equipment company Naura Technology Group is among the dozens of Chinese companies facing new restrictions. READ THE FULL STORY                 

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Politico   A House staffer was arrested Monday morning for entering the Cannon House Office Building with ammunition, according to a statement from the US Capitol Police. Capitol Police said the staffer is Michael Hopkins, who is the communications director for Rep. Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.). “USCP officers noticed what appeared to be ammunition on the x-ray screen. After a hand search of the bag, officers found four ammunition magazines and eleven rounds of ammunition,” the police statement read. “The staffer told the officers that he forgot the ammunition was in the bag. 38-year-old Michael Hopkins was arrested, and he is facing charges for unlawful possession of ammunition, including one charge for possession of a high-capacity magazine.” READ THE FULL STORY                 

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Axios   President Biden is facing a steady trickle of condemnation from members of his own party for issuing a pardon of his son Hunter over the weekend. The pardon is already having downstream political ramifications for Democrats as Republicans try to tie them to it. Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), an incoming senator, wrote on X: “The Democrat party OWNS the Hunter Biden pardon!” READ THE FULL STORY                   

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Washington Examiner   In a landmark decision for the United Kingdom, British lawmakers have voted in favor of a bill that will allow terminally ill adults to end their lives with assistance in England and Wales. Friday’s decision came after an emotionally and impassioned debate that resulted in the bill passing by a vote of 330 to 275 in the House of Commons. Hundreds of people gathered outside Parliament during the debate. The legislation, which is still to face further scrutiny in Parliament and possible amendments, would allow doctors to assist patients who have less than six months to live to end their lives. READ THE FULL STORY                 

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Breitbart   The small rural Canadian township of Emo (population 1,333) is being ordered by the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal to pay damages after failing to proclaim Pride Month as instructed back in 2020. CBC News reports Borderland Pride tasked Emo with the job of declaring June as Pride Month and ordered municipal authorities to fly an “LGBTQ2 rainbow flag for a week of your choosing” despite the fact they lack an official flagpole. Borderland Pride also asked Emo to “email us a copy of your proclamation or resolution once adopted and signed.” READ THE FULL STORY                 

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Yahoo   Coffee futures extended their rampant rally to the highest in more than four decades in New York on global supply worries, threatening to further raise costs for consumers. Arabica beans — the variety favored for specialty brews — climbed as much as 3.9%, hitting the highest since 1977. They’ve jumped almost 70% this year. A severe drought earlier this year in Brazil has fueled worries about the country’s output. That comes on top of concerns about another bean variety produced in Vietnam, after a key coffee belt was hit by dryness during the growing period and heavy rains arrived at the start of harvest. READ THE FULL STORY                   

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Axios   With votes still being counted in the 2024 election, at least two dozen ambitious House members are already sizing up runs for higher office in 2026, Axios has learned. This extraordinarily large cohort could cause all kinds of headaches for House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) as they navigate a razor-thin House majority. Both sides are trying to maximize attendance and minimize early retirements in one of the most closely divided Houses in history. READ THE FULL STORY               

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Washington Examiner   Half of voters aged 18-29 have a positive view of the Republican Party compared to 35% who have an unfavorable view, a massive shift from previous years. The youth vote has long been considered a bastion of Democratic support, with Democratic strategists frequently theorizing before this past election that it would be decided by youth turnout — ostensibly guaranteed to vote Democrat. Instead, the youth vote saw a massive shift toward President-elect Donald Trump and Republicans, with an Economist-YouGov poll taken after the election finding the largest support for Republicans in years. The results were a major change from just before the election, when the 18-29 demographic’s favorability rating was 35%-49%, making the latest results a massive swing over just one month. READ THE FULL STORY               

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Breitbart   Construction bosses based primarily in Texas are complaining that President-Elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance will stop them from hiring and continuing to employ hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens in industry jobs. Trump and Vance have vowed to carry out the nation’s largest deportation program in American history, spearheaded by former Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Thomas Homan, whom Trump has named “border czar.” “We’re going to go do the job. President Trump has a mandate from the American people,” Homan said recently. “We’ve got to secure this country. We’ve got to save American lives.” READ THE FULL STORY                 

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Axios   President-elect Trump is expected to appoint ultra loyalist Kash Patel to a high-profile position at either the FBI or the Justice Department, top transition sources tell Axios. Patel would be a deeply controversial pick for any leadership role, especially FBI director. Given the hurdles Patel might face winning Senate confirmation, Trump is considering naming him deputy director or to an appointed investigative role within DOJ, the sources said. A final decision hasn’t been made. Trump still could change his mind, including by elevating Patel all the way to FBI director — a move that would send Gaetz-like shockwaves throughout Washington. READ THE FULL STORY                 

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New York Post   Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor announced Monday he plans to resign from his post next month to make way for President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the powerful office. Damian Williams said he would step down as US attorney for the Southern District of New York on Dec. 13 – about a month before Trump’s inauguration. “Today is a bittersweet day for me,” Williams said in a statement. READ THE FULL STORY                

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CBS News    Service workers at Charlotte Douglas International Airport have gone on strike during a busy week of Thanksgiving travel to protest what they say are unlivable wages. Employees of ABM and Prospect Airport Services cast ballots Friday to authorize the work stoppage in North Carolina, which a spokesperson said began Monday morning. Officials with Service Employees International Union announced the impending strike in a statement early Monday, saying the workers would demand “an end to poverty wages and respect on the job during the holiday travel season.” READ THE FULL STORY                 

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Washington Examiner   President-elect Donald Trump is backing Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis to replace former Rep. Matt Gaetz in the next Congress. Trump shared his endorsement of Patronis on Truth Social, calling him a “wonderful friend” to him and MAGA. “As your next congressman, Jimmy would work tirelessly alongside of me to Grow our Economy, Secure our Border, Stop Migrant Crime, Strengthen our Incredible Military/Vets, Restore American Energy DOMINANCE, and Defend our always under siege Second Amendment,” Trump wrote. “Should he decide to enter this Race, Jimmy Patronis has my Complete and Total Endorsement. RUN, JIMMY, RUN!” READ THE FULL STORY       

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Washington Examiner   The California Legislative Analyst’s Office projected a dismal fiscal outlook for the Golden State as Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) is anticipated to pour millions of dollars into fighting the Trump administration.  The non-partisan budget watchdog released an analysis this week showing that while the state has managed to reduce its budget deficit by a massive amount since last year, the deficit is estimated to climb back up to a staggering $20 billion by 2026.  “We anticipate the Legislature likely will need to address deficits in the future, for example by reducing spending or increasing taxes. In our view, this year’s budget does not have capacity for new commitments, ongoing ones,” the LAO’s report reads.  READ THE FULL STORY                 

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The Hill   Texas gave final approval Friday to optional biblical lesson plans for kindergarten through 5th grade classes in state public schools.  The State Board of Education voted 8-7 to allow lessons on topics such as Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount and the Last Supper, structured by the state-created Bluebonnet Learning.   Schools are not required to implement the curriculum — but would receive an additional $60 per student in funding if administrators adopt it.   READ THE FULL STORY                 

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CNN Former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, who withdrew from consideration as President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general on Thursday, said Friday he will not be returning to Congress next year. “I’m still going to be in the fight, but it’s going to be from a new perch. I do not intend to join the 119th Congress,” he told Charlie Kirk in an interview. Gaetz, first elected in 2016, had resigned from the House earlier this month after Trump selected him to lead the Department of Justice and before the House Ethics Committee could release a report about its investigation into him, including alleged sexual misconduct, which he has denied. The fate of the report — and whether it would be released with him no longer in Congress — had resulted in an animated debate on Capitol Hill about whether he could be confirmed. READ THE FULL STORY                  

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Wall Street Journal Our nation was founded on the basic idea that the people we elect run the government. That isn’t how America functions today. Most legal edicts aren’t laws enacted by Congress but “rules and regulations” promulgated by unelected bureaucrats—tens of thousands of them each year. Most government enforcement decisions and discretionary expenditures aren’t made by the democratically elected president or even his political appointees but by millions of unelected, unappointed civil servants within government agencies who view themselves as immune from firing thanks to civil-service protections. This is antidemocratic and antithetical to the Founders’ vision. It imposes massive direct and indirect costs on taxpayers. Thankfully, we have a historic opportunity to solve the problem. On Nov. 5, voters decisively elected Donald Trump with a mandate for sweeping change, and they deserve to get it. President Trump has asked the two of us to lead a newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, to cut the federal government down to size. The entrenched and ever-growing bureaucracy represents an existential threat to our republic, and politicians have abetted it for too long. That’s why we’re doing things differently. We are entrepreneurs, not politicians. We will serve as outside volunteers, not federal…

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Breitbart   The chances that President-elect Donald Trump’s nominees are confirmed by the Senate are quite good, according to Jeff Greenfield, a contributing writer at Politico Magazine. Greenfield’s opinion contradicts the mainstream media’s narrative on the confirmation chances of Pete Hegseth, Matt Gaetz, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.   Big media outlets have been claiming for days the three have almost a zero chance of confirmation. Punchbowl News told readers last week Gaetz “can’t get confirmed.” Greenfield, a Yale-trained lawyer and former speechwriter of President John F. Kennedy informed Politico Magazine readers that history supports the confirmation of Trump’s nominees, who he characterized as “the most unqualified individuals ever to be nominated.” READ THE FULL STORY                 

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Washington Examiner   One of the first actions that President-elect Donald Trump could take come Jan. 20, 2025, is rescinding the Biden administration’s ban on the term “illegal alien.” Advisers to Trump’s transition team on homeland security matters told the Washington Examiner this week that there have already been discussions on doing away with the Biden administration’s politically correct immigration language to talk about illegal immigrants at the border and within the country. “In this [present] administration, we used ‘undocumented immigrants,’ right?” said a former high-ranking immigration official who now is involved in advising the transition team on policy. “Expect all of that to change.” READ THE FULL STORY                 

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Center for Immigration Studies   With President-Elect Trump promising a “mass deportation” program for aliens here illegally, Canada is bracing for a surge of third-country migrants headed north. Expect the “world’s longest undefended border” to soon be a little more defended, as a migrant surge would likely imperil the electoral prospects of current Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party. “Canada Prepares for a Rise in Border Crossings”. Two days after the November 5 U.S. presidential election, Canada’s national public broadcast outlet, the CBC, published an article headlined “Canada prepares for a rise in border crossings with threat of mass deportations under Trump”. That article noted there was a surge in illegal border crossings into Canada in 2017 after Trump was elected president the first time, and warned that something similar or worse could occur following his latest electoral victory, which was bolstered by his promises of expanded immigration enforcement: The mere threat of mass deportation could lead to a rise in both asylum claims at official ports of entry and attempts to make clandestine crossings into Canada, said Jennifer Elrick, an associate professor of sociology at McGill University who studies immigration policy. Overall, the second Trump presidency could have a “profound impact on…

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The Associated Press   Danish lawmakers on Monday agreed on a deal to plant 1 billion trees and convert 10% of farmland into forest and natural habitats over the next two decades in an effort to reduce fertilizer usage. The government called the agreement “the biggest change to the Danish landscape in over 100 years.” “The Danish nature will change in a way we have not seen since the wetlands were drained in 1864,” said Jeppe Bruus, head of Denmark’s Green Tripartite Ministry, created to implement a green deal reached in June among farmers, the industry, the labor unions and environmental groups. READ THE FULL STORY                 

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Axios   After years of wondering why there was a disconnect between how Americans feel about the economy (bad) and the actual state of the economy (pretty good), we may have the answer — it was politics all along. If politics is the main driver of consumer sentiment, then it’s no longer nearly as useful as an economic indicator. A real-time measure of consumer sentiment abruptly turned positive last week for the first time since June 2021, as Republican optimism surged on Donald Trump’s victory.  READ THE FULL STORY                 

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The Hill   India has overtaken China as the top source of international students for U.S. colleges, according to a report from Open Doors. For the 2023-2024 school year, India saw a massive 23 percent increase in the number of college students sent to America, up to 331,602.   China, meanwhile, saw a 4 percent decrease in the number of students sent to U.S. colleges and universities, according to Open Doors, which is published by the Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and the Institute of International Education. READ THE FULL STORY                 

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Inside EVs   Engineering breakthroughs and improved chassis designs have made cars structurally safer than ever. Cars nowadays come loaded with standard safety features like multiple airbags, advanced cameras and sensors that can monitor surroundings and step in during emergencies. However, a new report highlights a troubling trend: rising levels of distracted driving undermine these safety gains and Tesla appears to be the most affected.  Automotive research and data analytics firm iSeeCars said the Tesla Model Y has a fatal accident rate of more than three times the average car over a billion miles driven. The Model S is twice more likely to result in a fatal crash than the average car. READ THE FULL STORY         

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The Hill   Nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults are considered overweight or obese, according to new research published Thursday from The Lancet.   The research points to a substantial increase in overweight and obese adults in the last 30 years as well as an especially large increase in adolescents aged 5-24, with forecasts showing little room for improvement leading up to 2050.   In 2021, 75 percent of adults were considered overweight or obese, and, factoring in how weight issues in adolescents rarely resolve, research predicts that number with rise to 80 percent, or about 260 million Americans. READ THE FULL STORY                 

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Washington Examiner   President-elect Donald Trump tapped campaign spokesman Steven Cheung as his incoming director of communication and Sergio Gor as director of the presidential personnel office. “Steven Cheung and Sergio Gor have been trusted Advisors since my first Presidential Campaign in 2016, and have continued to champion America First principles throughout my First Term, all the way to our Historic Victory in 2024,” Trump said in a statement Friday. “I am thrilled to have them join my White House as we, Make America Great Again.” The combative Cheung previously worked in the first Trump administration as director of strategic response, while Gor ran the pro-Trump Super PAC, Right For America. READ THE FULL STORY                     

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Breitbart   Outgoing Secretary of State Antony Blinken began a farewell visit to the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Brussels, Belgium, on Wednesday in which he repeatedly insisted that President Joe Biden would “push every dollar out the door that we have at our disposal” to Ukraine. Blinken met with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and Ukraine’s newly minted foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, asserting that the Biden’s administration secured $8 billion in Ukraine spending in September and would continue to find way to supply Ukraine with “the air defenses it needs, that has the artillery it needs, that has the armored vehicles it needs” to fight Russia. Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 shortly after Biden lifted sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project, which would have dramatically increased Russian natural gas exports to western Europe, particularly Germany. President-elect Donald Trump sanctioned the pipeline project during his first term as a means of depriving Russian strongman of the funds necessary to conduct more belligerent activity in eastern Europe; Putin initially invaded Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and colonized it in 2014. Biden’s move to rescind the sanctions prompted shock and condemnation in Kyiv, where President Volodymyr…

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Axios   Bitcoin continued its blistering hot streak Wednesday, breaking through the $90,000 price threshold for the first time. The world’s oldest cryptocurrency is an element of the Trump trade that’s shown no signs of stopping. The president-elect adopted a love of the cryptocurrency industry on the campaign trail. READ THE FULL STORY               

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NBC News   A triumphant President-elect Donald Trump huddled with House Republicans ahead of their leadership elections on Wednesday and threw his support behind Speaker Mike Johnson, a key ally, as the GOP prepares for unified control of government next year. Endorsing the Louisiana Republican for two more years as speaker, Trump said he is “with him all the way,” using such words as “tremendous” and “terrific” to describe Johnson, according to Republican sources in the closed-door meeting at the Hyatt Regency hotel near the Capitol. The 45th and future 47th president received multiple standing ovations from rank-and-file Republicans during the meeting. Introducing Trump on stage, Johnson called Trump the “Comeback King.” READ THE FULL STORY 

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Reuters Donald Trump selected U.S. Senator Marco Rubio to be his secretary of state, sources said on Monday, putting the Florida-born politician on track to be the first Latino to serve as America’s top diplomat once the Republican president-elect takes office in January. Rubio was arguably the most hawkish option on Trump’s shortlist for secretary of state, and he has in years past advocated for a muscular foreign policy with respect to America’s geopolitical foes, including China, Iran and Cuba. Over the last several years he has softened some of his stances to align more closely with Trump’s views. The president-elect accuses past U.S. presidents of leading America into costly and futile wars and has pushed for a more restrained foreign policy. READ THE FULL STORY                 

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The Blaze Blaze Media investigative reporter Steve Baker filed a late motion in U.S. District Court to delay all proceedings in his looming Jan. 6 criminal trial, citing the Department of Justice pausing its prosecution of President-elect Donald J. Trump. Judge Christopher Cooper quickly denied the motion. The lead defense attorney for Baker, scheduled to go to trial on Nov. 12, asked Judge Cooper “to vacate all dates and hearings in this case in the interests of justice, and to set a status conference in this matter for the week of February 2, 2025.” Cooper refused. William Shipley cited the DOJ’s motion to pause the criminal case against the president-elect in light of the Nov. 5 election “to afford the government time to assess this unprecedented circumstance and determine the appropriate course going forward consistent with Department of Justice policy.” READ THE FULL STORY      

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Fox News   Thomas Homan, who President-elect Donald Trump appointed as “border czar” on Sunday night, has a clear message for any Democratic governors who oppose the planned mass deportation operation. “If they’re not willing to help, then get the hell out of the way because [Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)] is going to do their job,” Homan, who was acting ICE director during the first Trump administration, told Fox News Digital in an interview on Friday. Trump announced on Sunday that Homan will be appointed “border czar” and would be in charge of the borders and “all Deportation of Illegal Aliens back to their country of origin” in the new administration. READ THE FULL STORY                 

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Politico   Special counsel Jack Smith’s decision to pause his prosecution of President-elect Donald Trump is no reason to do the same for members of the mob that attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, the Justice Department argued Monday. Several Jan. 6 defendants have used Smith’s call for a three-week breather — quickly endorsed by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan — as proof that all criminal cases connected to the Jan. 6 attack deserve a similar slowdown. “To deny this motion, in the face of the Justice Department’s official position [in the Trump case], would run contrary to the interests of justice and likely subject the defendant to criminal convictions for no purpose other than expediency,” argued William Shipley, an attorney for Jan. 6 defendant Stephen Baker, who was set to begin a trial in his case Tuesday. READ THE FULL STORY                 

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