President-elect is set to rely on a trio of former lobbyists to help implement his agenda to shake up Washington. Incoming White House chief of staff , attorney general nominee , and Transportation secretary nominee Sean Duffy have all been registered lobbyists. According to disclosure filings, Bondi and Wiles did lobbying work as recently as this year, with Duffy working as a lobbyist into 2023. Their combined clients range from blue chip companies — including Amazon, GM, and Uber — to insurance giants like MetLife and Fidelity National Financial. Wiles and Bondi were also separately registered to lobby for foreign interests, which included one of Nigeria's largest political parties and the Qatarian embassy. Wiles and Bondi have both once worked for Ballard Partners, once a regional firm in Florida that exploded in popularity due to its ties to Trump world. Earlier this summer, the firm opened an office in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. "Part of why you hired Ballard Partners over the last few years is knowing that if Trump is president, the people you are working with stand at having a pretty good chance at having influence in a Trump administration," Jeff Hauser, executive director of the Revolving Door Project, a public interest group, told Business Insider. Brian Ballard, a major Republican fundraiser and founder of the firm, did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment. Wiles, according to The New York Times, did not cut ties to her most recent firm until Trump announced his intention to have her lead his second White House. Her past work included an effort to get the Trump administration to approve a cooper and gold mine in a sensitive area of Alaska. Sen. , an Alaska Republican, widely viewed as a key vote in the narrowly divided US Senate, and other top state officials have long opposed the Pebble Partnership. The EPA, under Obama, Trump, and Biden's administrations, have repeatedly opposed efforts to mine in the bay, home to one of the world's largest salmon fisheries. Duffy, who if confirmed would oversee the Federal Aviation Administration, lobbied in 2020 for an airline group that includes American, Delta, and United among its members. Starting not long after he left Congress in 2019, Duffy lobbied for Polaris, a US auto manufacturer known its off-road and recreational vehicles. Former lawmakers are only restricted from lobbying Congress for a year, though they can immediately lobby the rest of the federal government. According to his disclosures, Duffy's work at times included advising the company on how to navigate EV incentives and tariffs. ProPublica previously that Duffy lobbied White House trade adviser Peter Navarro as Polaris sought to win exemptions to tariffs on the parts it was importing. ProPublica found that Polaris' efforts, including use of Duffy, ultimately led the company to get most of what it wanted. Bondi's work for Amazon was related to trade and tariff policy, according to disclosures. She also lobbied for General Motors, Uber, Fidelity National, Carnival North America, and even Major League Baseball. Wiles, Bondi, and Duffy's respective work all fits within the larger revolving door narrative that dominates Washington, even as Trump portrays himself as ready to shake up the status quo. Ron Klain, President Biden's first chief of staff and longtime adviser, was a lobbyist for Fannie Mae in the early 2000s. Steve Ricchetti, another longtime Biden fixture, spent so much time lobbying that top Obama administration officials tried to prevent then-Vice President Biden from hiring him after the 2008 election. His brother Jeff Ricchetti, who remains a registered lobbyist, saw his business boom after Biden won the 2020 election. President Barack Obama initially received high praise for his limits on hiring lobbyists who had recently lobbied the federal agency they sought to join, though he granted some limited waivers including to a former top lobbyist to Raytheon. Ultimately, Obama was unable to stop the , as Politico reported in 2015. Hauser said what stands out about the Trump team so far is their unorthodox approach to the transition, including refusing to sign formal agreements with the current administration which would include ethics guidelines. While Trump, like Obama and Biden, issued an ethics-related executive order after taking office in 2017, Hauser isn't convinced it will happen again. "Given the aversion of his transition to the ethics process of the transition, I think it's an open question whether or not he is going to make his appointees sign additional ethics pledges in office this time," Hauser said. Read the original article onIn response to the recent reports about the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) restricting access to certain coastal airspace, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a strong statement reaffirming the country's commitment to upholding national sovereignty.
After 14 Years, the Return is Here: "Final Destination 6" Sets Release DateThe parents first brought attention to the issue when they noticed that the winter school uniforms their children were wearing seemed to be of poor quality and lacked the warmth expected from proper winter attire. Upon further inspection, some parents claimed to have found pieces of scrap cloth inside the uniforms, which raised suspicions about the materials used in the production of the uniforms.
Sportscaster Greg Gumbel dead from cancer at 78The move to limit access to coastal airspace by the PLA has sparked concerns and speculations in the international community. Some see it as a provocative action that could escalate tensions in the region. However, the Chinese Foreign Ministry's response clarified that the restrictions are necessary measures taken to safeguard the country's territorial integrity and national security.Florida State made official on Monday the hiring of Gus Malzahn as offensive coordinator, confirming weekend reports that he would resign as UCF head coach to reunite with Seminoles coach Mike Norvell. UCF had confirmed on Sunday reports of Malzahn's exit but not his destination, and FSU had not made an announcement until Monday afternoon. "I am excited to be here at Florida State and to help us win championships," Malzahn said in a statement. "It's exciting to work with Coach Norvell, who is someone I believe in as a coach and leader." Norvell, who served as a graduate assistant under Malzahn at Tulsa in 2007-08, said on Saturday night after the Seminoles' 31-11 loss to Florida that he could not identify the new offensive coordinator until the hiring process was finalized. Florida State, which is 2-10 overall and 1-7 in the Atlantic Coast Conference, is ranked No. 132 of 133 FBS programs in total offense (270.2 yards per game). The Seminoles are 130th in the nation in scoring offense (15.4 points per game). Norvell shook up his staff, including firing offensive coordinator/offensive line coach Alex Atkins on Nov. 10 after a 52-3 defeat at Notre Dame. "I'm extremely excited to have Gus Malzahn join our staff at Florida State," Norvell said in the school's statement on Monday. "He has one of the most innovative minds in college football and a proven track record of developing elite offenses everywhere he's been. "His offenses have consistently showcased a tremendous running game combined with explosive plays through the air. I'm thrilled to work side-by-side with Gus again as we elevate the Florida State offense back to one of the elite groups in college football." UCF also endured a tough 2024 season, going 4-8 after losing eight of its last nine games. During Malzahn's four-year tenure, the Knights went 28-24, including 5-13 in the Big 12 Conference the last two seasons. Malzahn, 59, is 105-62 in 13 seasons as a college head coach, highlighted by a 68-35 mark in eight seasons at Auburn -- which included a BCS title game appearance in 2013. He served as offensive coordinator and play caller when the Tigers won the national title in 2010. Malzahn will be tasked with revitalizing a Florida State offense that helped produce a 13-1 campaign in 2023, when the Seminoles were denied a spot in the College Football Playoff. Over the last three seasons at UCF, his rushing attack has been in the Top 10 in the nation. In his 19 seasons as a college head coach or offensive coordinator, Malzahn's teams have averaged 447.7 yards per game, and three of his teams eclipsed 7,000 yards in a season. --Field Level Media
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The first thing I do each morning is check my watch — not for the time but for my sleep score. As a runner, when the glowing red letters say my score — and my training readiness — are poor, I feel an instant dread. Regardless, I scroll on, inspecting my heart rate variability and stress level — snapshots that influence the tone I carry into the day. What does dreading my smartwatch’s interpretation of my athletic competence say about me? That I have become a pawn in the gamification of health data. Last year, electronics represented one of the largest proportions of total Black Friday sales, according to Deloitte. That’s when I bought my first smartwatch, a Garmin. This year, I’m throwing it away. I was the perfect target. For several years, I had been preparing to run my first marathon. I watched fitness influencers, ultramarathoners and Olympians optimize their training with meticulous tracking and high-tech devices. I wanted in. I got the watch and joined Strava, a social media network for athletes. Once I had a tracker on, sleep became sacred. I traded late-night socializing for it, confident that I’d cash in on race day. I built my day around my nights, transfixed by a false sense of control over my circadian rhythm. Sleep, just like my running routine, had slowly morphed from a bodily function into a technological token of productivity. I was hooked, emboldened by the illusion that I was training intuitively. I pushed hard when my Garmin nudged me, and even harder when I wanted to prove its metrics wrong. I began to run more for the PR (personal record) badge and “your fastest 5k!” notifications than for mental clarity and solitude. I ran because I loved it, and because I loved it, I fell prey to the Strava-fication of it. Suddenly, I was no longer running for myself. I was running for public consumption. I realized this only when it literally became painfully obvious. An MRI found that the lingering pain I’d been ignoring in my heels — something my watch hadn’t picked up on — was caused by four running-induced stress fractures. Recovering from the injury forced me to be sedentary, and during that time I’ve thought a lot about the app-ification of exercise culture. I’ve realized that health optimization tools — the ones marketed as necessary for better sleep, a lower resting heart rate, higher VO2 max (a measure of how much oxygen your body absorbs) and so on — are designed to profit off our fitness anxiety. We track ourselves this way and that way, obsessing over our shortcomings to no apparent end. In doing so, we are deprogrammed from listening to innate physiological signals and reprogrammed to create shadow experiences such as posting our detailed workout stats or running paths on digital walls that no one is looking at. I’ve also learned that if you stop tracking, you will feel marginally but measurably better. I don’t deny that today’s fitness gadgets are incredibly alluring, and in many ways tracking can be useful for training. I am convinced, however, that overreliance on the data collected by devices and apps — and the comparisons we draw from sharing it — can quickly corrupt and commodify what I find to be the true essence of running: being present. When we aren’t tracking, when we are just doing, we can begin to reap the dull yet profound psychological benefits of endurance sports — the repetitive silence, the consistent failure — that can’t be captured in a post or monetized. And when we endure the mundane and difficult aspects of a sport, over and over, we often make gains that are mindful as well as physical, becoming more aware of how and what we pay attention to. This is no small task. It takes discipline to remain aware, present and undistracted. Exercise is a rare opportunity to allow our bodies’ movement to color our thoughts from one minute to the next. When we’re in motion, we don’t need to analyze our health metrics. We can learn to accept the moment and be humbled by our limitations. Gift-giving season attempted to convince you that you need devices to make your exercise more effective and efficient. There were bright and beautiful advertisements featuring famous athletes. There were a sleeker smartwatch and a cutting-edge GPS tracking shoe sole like that one Instagram keeps showing you. Be skeptical. Freeing yourself, even temporarily, from the smartwatch or smartphone or smart-fill-in-the-blank that is tracking your every move is a challenge worth taking on. Because every walk or run or ride is a new story, and without fitness devices the path remains ours to choose.Since J. Edgar Hoover died in 1972 — after 48 years of leading the FBI — the seven men chosen to lead the premier law enforcement agency had previous experience as senior lawmen, senior federal prosecutors and federal judges. If President-elect Donald Trump has his way, the agency will instead be headed by a political loyalist who has pledged to use his powers to target the president’s political opponents. Kash Patel, 44, is a former junior-level federal prosecutor who was a White House aide in Trump’s first administration. That’s drawing scrutiny not just from Democrats, but from at least one Senate Republican. RELATED STORY | Mother of Pete Hegseth reportedly told son he was an 'abuser of women' in email South Dakota Republican Mike Rounds expressed support for current FBI Director Chris Wray — who Trump appointed after firing predecessor James Comey in 2017. “The president has the right to make nominations, but normally these are for a 10-year term. We'll see what his process is and whether he actually makes that nomination,” Rounds said Sunday during an interview on ABC News’ “This Week.” It would also be the second time Trump removed an FBI director before the end of the congressionally mandated 10-year term, which is designed to allow FBI directors to outlast the presidential administration. Since the end of the first Trump Administration, Patel has been actively engaged with the Make America Great Again movement supporting Trump. He was also one of the select group of supporters who accompanied Trump during the trial earlier this year in Manhattan that led to Trump being convicted of 34 felony counts related to falsifying corporate documents. RELATED STORY | Here's who Trump has asked to join his administration He has also said that a charity he operates provides financial help to families of people charged in connection with the January 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol. In an interview with conservative strategist Steve Bannon, Patel said he and others “will go out and find the conspirators not just in government but in the media.” ”We’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections,” Patel said, referring to the 2020 presidential election in which Biden, the Democratic challenger, defeated Trump. “We’re going to come after you, whether it’s criminally or civilly. We’ll figure that out. But yeah, we’re putting you all on notice.” In an interview earlier this year on the “Shawn Ryan Show,” Patel vowed to sever the FBI’s intelligence-gathering activities from the rest of its mission and said he would “shut down” the bureau’s headquarters building on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., and “reopen it the next day as a museum of the ‘deep state.’” Rounds, meanwhile, praised Wray and said he saw no reason he should be removed. “Chris Wray, who the president nominated the first time around — I think the president picked a very good man to be the director of the FBI when he did that in his first term,” Rounds said. “When we meet with him behind closed doors, I've had no objections to the way that he's handled himself, and so I don't have any complaints about the way that he's done his job right now.” The Associated Press contributed to this report.Title: "A-Share Explosion: Three Major Indexes Opened High and Soared, Kickstarting the Trading Day"
Thirteen community organizations in Montreal's Ahuntsic-Cartierville borough had until 5 p.m. Friday to vacate their long-time home, but they refuse to pack up. Instead, they're fighting the eviction, which was ordered by the building's owner, the (CSSDM). The school service centre has been renting the space to the organizations for about 20 years, but now plans to use the property for a French-language learning centre Among the groups being evicted is (SNAC), which offered food assistance to 1,970 households over the last year, feeding nearly 4,000 people from their location in the C on Laverdure Street There is also an organization that supports people dealing with addiction, homelessness and mental health issues. There's a daycare and , a youth advocacy group, as well. There's even a francisation centre already on site, offering French-language classes. There are services for seniors, a meals-on-wheels program and educational services, too, said Rémy Robitaille, head of , the council representing the groups getting evicted "We won't move from here, even if they told us to move at 5 p.m. tonight," he said, noting the community groups are challenging the eviction in court. The organizations say they have nowhere to relocate after months of struggling to find something affordable. Rémy Robitalle, head of Solidarité Ahuntsic, said the eviction saga has dragged on since 2022, beginning with a 200 per cent rent increase. (Gabriel Guindi/CBC) The landlord, the CSSDM, said in a statement Friday that it is facing a sustained increase in educational needs in the Ahuntsic-Cartierville sector, particularly for francisation programs offered in adult education. At the same time, the , which houses the CSSDM's current francisation centre, is being renovated and the the programming there needs to be relocated to the , the statement said "To fulfil our primary mission of providing education and to avoid a service disruption in the absence of any other facility capable of accommodating all our students, we are compelled to reclaim full possession of the building," it said. Given Solidarité Ahuntsic's repeated refusals, since 2018, to sign a lease with the CSSDM, the organizations are currently occupying the premises under a month-to-month tolerance lease, the statement added. The eviction is a lawful step, the CSSDM said, and legal proceedings are ongoing. The council has refused rent increases for six years while the school service centre continues to pay electricity, heat and maintenance, it said. Several politicians have condemned the decision to force the groups out, including MNA Haroun Bouazzi, who represents the Maurice-Richard riding, which includes parts of Ahuntsic-Cartierville and Montréal-Nord. Bouazzi has called the eviction a disaster for the neighbourhood's social and community safety net, noting that 25,000 people rely on the organizations' services each year. Bouazzi is urging the (CAQ) government to intervene and grant a reprieve. He has been lobbying for the government to delay the eviction since the spring. Along with a petition, he submitted a detailed demand to the government, explaining the urgency of the situation, but said the only response he got was one deferring responsibility to the CSSDM. The CSSDM argues the eviction is necessary to provide French courses, but Bouazzi points out that French-language programming is already available there. Efforts to delay the eviction for three years have been supported by Ahuntsic-Cartierville borough mayor Émilie Thuillier and federal MP Mélanie Joly, who represents the riding of Ahuntsic-Cartierville. The three-year reprieve would allow the organizations to relocate to a new facility in the Écoquartier Louvain, a social development planned for the borough but for which construction has not begun. The development, which will include 800 to 1,000 housing units, is expected to accommodate co-operatives and a shared space for community groups as well. "All the community organizations will have a place together in the new centre, but we need time to build it," Thuillier said. In the meantime, officials are urging the Quebec government to give the CSSDM more funds so it can find more suitable premises for the francisation centre it wants to create. Bouazzi said the building is very old and that, before it can be used as a learning centre, it would need extensive renovations that would take four years — longer than the community groups need to relocate. The Centre communautaire d'Ahuntsic houses 13 community organizations, all of which are facing eviction. (Julie Marceau/Radio-Canada) "I have a hard time thinking that this government will destroy the social mesh we have here," he said. "I am sure that what they want is noble and positive, but now that we understand the consequences, we have to stop this madness." Robitaille noted that the groups' trouble with their landlord began in 2022, when the CSSDM increased their rent by 200 per cent. The organizations attempted to refuse the rent increase, but the CSSDM threatened to sell the building. When the organizations offered to buy it, the service centre instead opted to retake it for educational purposes. Robitaille said it's not clear to him why the CSSDM wants to evict the organizations so soon. "It's strange they want to remove the francisation courses that we already give to around 400 people a year," he said, noting the renovations to get the building up to code will be costly, but the government has been cutting back on subsidies for . The Ministry of Education issued a statement Friday afternoon, saying the CSSDM owns the building and is responsible for its use, including surplus properties. "If the CSSDM needs the space for students, the educational mission must always take priority," the ministry said.
Fortunately, kind-hearted strangers came to her aid, offering assistance and comforting words. With their help, she was able to find her way back to the city and seek the support she needed to report the fraudulent tour operator. Her story served as a cautionary tale, highlighting the dangers of falling prey to false travel traps and emphasizing the importance of vigilance and awareness when booking tours.