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President-elect Donald Trump ’s nomination of former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi has been positively received by Senate Republicans . As compared to Trump’s previous pick, former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who took himself out of consideration for the position Thursday, Bondi appears to be more universally accepted and seems to have a clearer path to confirmation in the Senate. In a social media post , Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) called Bondi’s nomination “a grand slam, touchdown, hole in one, ace, hat trick, slam dunk, Olympic gold medal pick.” TRUMP CABINET PICKS: WHO’S BEEN TAPPED TO SERVE IN THE PRESIDENT-ELECT’S ADMINISTRATION Of the senators who sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), who expressed his concerns about Gaetz’s nomination, said the pick was “an excellent nomination” and that Bondi’s experience “as a career prosecutor and Florida Attorney General make her a good choice to lead the DOJ.” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), who is also on the committee, said in a post that Bondi will “make a fabulous AG.” He congratulated her and called her a “friend.” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), also on the committee, said she is “well regarded” and “experienced.” Outgoing Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), who has frequently been at odds with Trump, said Bondi “will be a highly capable leader at DOJ.” Romney will not be in the Senate during Bondi’s confirmation process, though Sen.-elect John Curtis (R-UT), who was elected to replace Romney, was believed to be one of at least four senators who said they would not vote to confirm Gaetz. Of the incoming freshmen senators who will be voting on Bondi’s confirmation, Sen.-elect Bernie Moreno (R-OH) said, “Congratulations to my friend @PamBondi, who will be a fantastic Attorney General! Pam is a true fighter who will dismantle the Trump-hating deep state at DOJ, root out the corrupt career prosecutors, and make our country great again,” on X. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER Republican senators were reportedly relieved after Gaetz announced he would withdraw, with one GOP senator calling his confirmation “an uphill battle.” Gaetz, a firebrand Trump loyalist, was facing the release of a report from the House Ethics Committee regarding alleged sex trafficking, sex with an underage girl, and illicit drug use, along with other actions. Bondi served as attorney general for Florida from 2011 to 2019, but she is perhaps better known for serving as one of Trump’s defense lawyers during his first impeachment. When announcing Bondi’s nomination, Trump said she “will refocus the DOJ to its intended purpose of fighting crime, and Making America Safe Again.”
How to watch NCAA Bowl games 2024/25: live stream college football from anywhere, schedule, kick-off times, TV channelsChuck Woolery, smooth-talking game show host of 'Love Connection' and 'Scrabble,' dies at 83The world stands at the dawn of a “third nuclear age” in which Britain is threatened by multiple dilemmas, the head of the armed forces has warned. But alongside his stark warning of the threats facing Britain and its allies, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin said there would be only a “remote chance” Russia would directly attack or invade the UK if the two countries were at war. The Chief of the Defence Staff laid out the landscape of British defence in a wide-ranging speech, after a minister warned the Army would be wiped out in as little as six months if forced to fight a war on the scale of the Ukraine conflict. The admiral cast doubt on the possibility as he gave a speech at the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) defence think tank in London. He told the audience Britain needed to be “clear-eyed in our assessment” of the threats it faces, adding: “That includes recognising that there is only a remote chance of a significant direct attack or invasion by Russia on the United Kingdom, and that’s the same for the whole of Nato.” Moscow “knows the response will be overwhelming”, he added, but warned the nuclear deterrent needed to be “kept strong and strengthened”. Sir Tony added: “We are at the dawn of a third nuclear age, which is altogether more complex. It is defined by multiple and concurrent dilemmas, proliferating nuclear and disruptive technologies and the almost total absence of the security architectures that went before.” The first nuclear age was the Cold War, while the second was “governed by disarmament efforts and counter proliferation”, the armed forces chief said. He listed the “wild threats of tactical nuclear use” by Russia, China building up its weapon stocks, Iran’s failure to co-operate with a nuclear deal, and North Korea’s “erratic behaviour” among the threats faced by the West. But Sir Tony said the UK’s nuclear arsenal is “the one part of our inventory of which Russia is most aware and has more impact on (President Vladimir) Putin than anything else”. Successive British governments had invested “substantial sums of money” in renewing nuclear submarines and warheads because of this, he added. The admiral described the deployment of thousands of North Korean soldiers on Ukraine’s border alongside Russian forces as the year’s “most extraordinary development”. He also signalled further deployments were possible, speaking of “tens of thousands more to follow as part of a new security pact with Russia”. Defence minister Alistair Carns earlier said a rate of casualties similar to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would lead to the army being “expended” within six to 12 months. He said it illustrated the need to “generate depth and mass rapidly in the event of a crisis”. In comments reported by Sky News, Mr Carns, a former Royal Marines colonel, said Russia was suffering losses of around 1,500 soldiers killed or injured a day. “In a war of scale – not a limited intervention, but one similar to Ukraine – our Army for example, on the current casualty rates, would be expended – as part of a broader multinational coalition – in six months to a year,” Mr Carns said in a speech at Rusi. He added: “That doesn’t mean we need a bigger Army, but it does mean you need to generate depth and mass rapidly in the event of a crisis.” Official figures show the Army had 109,245 personnel on October 1, including 25,814 volunteer reservists. Mr Carns, the minister for veterans and people, said the UK needed to “catch up with Nato allies” to place greater emphasis on the reserves. The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said Defence Secretary John Healey had previously spoken about “the state of the armed forces that were inherited from the previous government”. The spokesman said: “It’s why the Budget invested billions of pounds into defence, it’s why we’re undertaking a strategic defence review to ensure that we have the capabilities and the investment needed to defend this country.”
India's 26 major listed realty firms sell Rs 35 000 cr worth properties in Q2, Godrej Properties at topMOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday apologized to his Azerbaijani counterpart for what he called a "tragic incident" following the crash of an Azerbaijani airliner in Kazakhstan that killed 38 people, but stopped short of acknowledging that Moscow was responsible. Putin's apology came as allegations mounted that Russian air defenses shot down the plane while attempting to deflect a Ukrainian drone strike near Grozny, the regional capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya. Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a Security Council meeting via videoconference Saturday at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia. An official Kremlin statement issued Saturday said that air defense systems were firing near Grozny airport as the airliner "repeatedly" attempted to land there on Wednesday. It did not explicitly say one of these hit the plane. The statement said Putin apologized to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev "for the fact that the tragic incident occurred in Russian airspace." The readout said Russia has launched a criminal probe into the incident, and Azerbaijani state prosecutors have arrived in Grozny to participate. The Kremlin also said that "relevant services" from Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan are jointly investigating the crash site near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan. The plane was flying from Azerbaijan's capital, Baku, to Grozny when it turned toward Kazakhstan, hundreds of miles across the Caspian Sea from its intended destination, and crashed while attempting to land. There were 29 survivors. According to a readout of the call provided by Aliyev's press office, the Azerbaijani president told Putin that the plane was subject to "external physical and technical interference," though he also stopped short of blaming Russian air defenses. Part of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane lies on the ground Thursday near the airport of Aktau, Kazakhstan. Aliyev noted the plane had holes in its fuselage and the occupants sustained injuries "due to foreign particles penetrating the cabin mid-flight." He said that a team of international experts began a probe of the incident at Azerbaijan's initiative, but provided no details. Earlier this week, the Azerbaijani Prosecutor General's office confirmed that investigators from Azerbaijan are working in Grozny. On Friday, a U.S. official and an Azerbaijani minister made separate statements blaming the crash on an external weapon, echoing those made by aviation experts who blamed the crash on Russian air defense systems responding to a Ukrainian attack. U.S. President Joe Biden, responding Saturday to a reporter asking whether he thought Putin should take responsibility for the crash, said: "Apparently he did but I haven't spoken to him." Biden made the comment after leaving church in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. Passengers and crew members who survived the crash told Azerbaijani media they heard loud noises on the aircraft as it circled over Grozny. Dmitry Yadrov, head of Russia's civil aviation authority Rosaviatsia, said Friday that as the plane was preparing to land in Grozny in deep fog, Ukrainian drones were targeting the city, prompting authorities to close the area to air traffic. Yadrov said after the captain made two unsuccessful attempts to land, he was offered other airports but decided to fly to Aktau. People attend a funeral Saturday for Mahammadali Eganov, who died in the Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 crash near the Kazakhstan's airport of Aktau at the age of 13, in Baku, Azerbaijan. Earlier this past week, Rosaviatsia cited unspecified early evidence as showing that a bird strike led to an emergency on board. In the days following the crash, Azerbaijan Airlines blamed "physical and technical interference" and announced the suspension of flights to several Russian airports. It didn't say where the interference came from or provide any further details. If proven that the plane crashed after being hit by Russian fire, it would be the second deadly civil aviation accident linked to fighting in Ukraine. Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was downed with a Russian surface-to-air missile, killing all 298 people aboard, as it flew over the area in eastern Ukraine controlled by Moscow-backed separatists in 2014. Russia denied responsibility but a Dutch court in 2022 convicted two Russians and a pro-Russia Ukrainian man for their role in downing the plane with an air defense system brought into Ukraine from a Russian military base. The grave of Mahammadali Eganov, 13, who died in the Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 crash near the Kazakhstan's Aktau airport, is seen Saturday in Baku, Azerbaijan. Following Wednesday's suspension of flights from Baku to Grozny and nearby Makhachkala, Azerbaijan Airlines announced Friday that it would also halt service to eight more Russian cities. Several other airlines made similar announcements since the crash. Kazakhstan's Qazaq Air on Friday said it would stop flying from Astana to the Russian city of Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains for a month. Turkmenistan Airlines, the Central Asian country's flagship carrier, on Saturday halted flights to Moscow for at least a month, citing safety concerns. Earlier this past week, Israel's El Al carrier suspended service from Tel Aviv to the Russian capital, citing "developments in Russia's airspace." Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter.Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the leaders of President-elect Donald Trump's new "Department of Government Efficiency," have found themselves at odds with some of Trump's far-right supporters over their support for H-1B visas, which allow foreign skilled professionals to work in America. The debate was sparked over the Christmas holiday when Laura Loomer , a conservative social media figure who faced criticism when she traveled with Trump on some campaign stops, criticized Trump's appointment of Silicon Valley entrepreneur Sriram Krishnan as his senior policy adviser for artificial intelligence. Criticizing a post from Krishnan where he advocated the removal of country caps for green cards, Loomer called the appointment "deeply disturbing," prompting an online battle between the business leaders who say the work visas are essential to employing high-qualified foreign workers and Trump supporters who argued it was a way for business leaders to have cheap labor rather than provide job opportunities for Americans. Both Ramaswamy and Musk made numerous posts on X claiming H-1B visas are essential because American culture doesn't prioritize success in science and engineering careers compared to other countries. "Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long (at least since the 90s and likely longer). That doesn't start in college, it starts YOUNG," Ramaswamy posted on X. "A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers," he added. MORE: As Trump returns to the border, a closer look at what he's pledging to do on immigration if elected Musk, who has said he once worked in the United States on an H-1B visa, said he has depended on these work visas for the operation of his tech companies and that they are essential due to the number of skilled workers needed to handle the rise of new technologies. "OF COURSE my companies and I would prefer to hire Americans and we DO, as that is MUCH easier than going through the incredibly painful and slow work visa process," he posted. "HOWEVER, there is a dire shortage of extremely talented and motivated engineers in America." Loomer and other far-right conservatives have also argued that the expansions of such programs would go against Trump's immigration crackdown. While she and others have accused Musk and Ramaswamy of hindering Trump's aggressive immigration proposals, the business leaders have argued that any such reforms would not hinder the program's extensive vetting process. "Maybe this is a helpful clarification: I am referring to bringing in via legal immigration the top ~0.1% of engineering talent as being essential for America to keep winning," Musk wrote on X. "This is like bringing in the Jokic's or Wemby's of the world to help your whole team (which is mostly Americans!) win the NBA," he said, referencing two foreign-born basketball stars. Now, the business leaders are being accused of using Trump for their own personal gain. "We are substituting a third world migrant invasion for a third world tech invasion. Same shit," Loomer posted on X. "Except this invasion won't be done by rapist foreigners who look and smell like garbage. It will be done by career leftist tech billionaires who hate Trump deep down inside." MORE: How Democrats are planning to fight Trump's mass deportation plan Further showing a divide among conservatives over the issue, former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley also weighed in, pushing back on a post from Ramaswamy and arguing American workers should be prioritized over foreigners . "There is nothing wrong with American workers or American culture," she said. "All you have to do is look at the border and see how many want what we have. We should be investing and prioritizing in Americans, not foreign workers." In an interview with the New York Post on Saturday , Trump called H-1B work visas a "great" program that he has used for employment on his properties. "I’ve always liked the visas," he said. "I have always been in favor of the visas. That’s why we have them. I have many H-1B visas on my properties. I’ve been a believer in H-1B. I have used it many times. It’s a great program." In June, David Sacks, who will be the president-elect's AI and crypto czar, interviewed Trump for his "All In" podcast and asked Trump if he would expand H-1B work visas for tech workers after fixing the border -- to which Trump said "yes." In that same episode, Trump also promised to award all international graduates with green cards, saying, "I want to do, and what I will do, is you graduate from a college, I think you should get, automatically as part of your diploma, a green card to be able to stay in this country. That includes junior colleges, too." His campaign later walked back that promise, saying there would be a vetting process. "He believes, only after such vetting has taken place, we ought to keep the most skilled graduates who can make significant contributions to America," Karoline Leavitt, incoming White House press secretary, said in a statement to ABC News at the time. "This would only apply to the most thoroughly vetted college graduates who would never undercut American wages or workers." ABC News' Zohreen Shah contributed to this report.Party City surprises shoppers with going out of business sale before shuttering over 850 stores