Patrick Fishburn leads at Sea Island as Joel Dahmen keeps alive hopes of keeping his jobMikel Arteta hails "landmark" Champions League win but Arsenal dealt injury concern
NoneMumbai, Nov 30: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the swearing-in of the new Mahayuti government in Maharashtra on December 5 evening as BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis emerged as the frontrunner for the post of chief minister. The oath-taking ceremony will take place at 5 pm at Azad Maidan in south Mumbai, state BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule said. While there was no announcement yet on who would be the chief minister, BJP sources said Devendra Fadnavis, who has been chief minister twice and was deputy CM in the last Eknath Shinde-led government, was the frontrunner for the post. Shinde, who is holding the charge as caretaker chief minister and who headed to his native village Dare in Satara district a day before amid speculation that he was not happy with the way the new government was shaping up, has taken ill, an aide said. He was running temperature of 105 degree F, the aide said. The swearing-in ceremony will take place at 5 pm at the Azad Maidan ground, said Bawankule in a post on X. PM Modi will attend the ceremony, he added. Speaking to reporters in Pune earlier in the day, NCP chief Ajit Pawar said the chief minister will be from the BJP, while there will be deputy CMs from the two allies — his party and the Shiv Sena. Pawar was a deputy CM in the last government. Talking about Shinde’s illness, Shiv Sena leader Shambhuraj Desai, who hails from Satara district, told reporters that Shinde and other party leaders returned from Delhi early Friday morning after meeting the top BJP leaders, and Shinde has had cough and cold since then. “Exertion affected him, so we advised him to take rest,” said Desai. Sanjay Shirsat, a Shiv Sena leader close to Shinde, said his party must get the home portfolio. Speaking to PTI, Shirsat also claimed that attempts were made to sideline Shinde. Meanwhile, a BJP leader said a meeting will be held on December 2 to elect the BJP legislature party leader. Fadnavis was likely to get the CM post this time, he added. Shinde, who heads the Shiv Sena and who was chief minister since June 2022, attended a meeting of the ruling alliance leaders with senior BJP leader Amit Shah in Delhi on Thursday night. Before that, he had made it clear that any decision on the chief minister’s post by the top BJP leadership would be acceptable to him. Shinde is under pressure from a group of Shiv Sena leaders who think he should not become a deputy CM, having been the chief minister for more than two years. Another group of party leaders insists that he must be part of the new government. The Mahayuti alliance of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) retained power with a landslide victory in the assembly elections, the results of which were announced on November 23.
By Lindsay Shachnow Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal sent a letter to President Joe Biden and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin Sunday, urging them to issue a policy directive which would prevent the deployment of military personnel against Americans “unless specifically authorized.” Warren, a member of the Armed Services Committee, asked that the Insurrection Act — which allows the president to deploy the military for civilian law enforcement — be “narrowly applied and that the President must consult with Congress to the maximum extent practicable.” “In instances when federal forces are necessary to protect or prevent violations of individuals’ civil liberties, federal forces should only be authorized when state, local, or federal civilian law enforcement personnel are unable, fail, or refuse to protect their rights,” the letter , dated Dec. 1, says. For years, advocates have been calling to reform the Insurrection Act , calling it “dangerously vague” and “ripe for abuse.” “In theory, the Insurrection Act should be used only in a crisis that is truly beyond the capacity of civilian authorities to manage,” according to New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice . “However, the Insurrection Act fails to adequately define or limit when it may be used and instead gives the president significant power to decide when and where to deploy U.S. military forces domestically.” In his first term, Donald Trump considered using military force in response to Black Lives Matter protests and was encouraged to invoke martial law after losing the 2020 election, according to NBC News . And recently, Trump has promised to lean on military forces when launching the “ largest deportation program in American history .” In an October interview with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo on “Sunday Morning Futures,” Trump was asked about fears of “chaos” ensuing on Election Day. “We have some very bad people. We have some sick people, radical left lunatics,” he said. “It should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard or, if really necessary, by the military.” Ahead of Trump’s inauguration, the senators hope the directive will serve as a preventive measure against the former president whose advisers are drafting plans to potentially invoke the Insurrection Act on day 1 in office, The Washington Post reported last month . Vice President Elect J.D. Vance has reportedly defended Trump’s pledge to use military force against certain Americans deemed “the enemy from within.” Warren has also taken aim at Trump’s choice of Fox News host Pete Hegseth as his secretary of defense, calling for the appointment to “be rejected.” In the letter, Warren and Blumenthal raised concerns about the U.S. Supreme Court’s Trump v. United States decision which “significantly expanded presidential immunity for official acts.” “Given the disagreement amongst scholars on the serious implications of the recent Supreme Court decision, it is reasonable to assume that service members, other DoD personnel, and the broader military community may not be aware of or fully understand their rights and responsibilities,” the letter says. “If unaddressed, any ambiguity on the lawful use of military force, coupled with President-elect Trump’s demonstrated intent to utilize the military in such dangerous and unprecedented ways, may prove to be devastating.” Lindsay Shachnow Lindsay Shachnow covers general assignment news for Boston.com , reporting on breaking news, crime, and politics across New England. Boston.com Today Sign up to receive the latest headlines in your inbox each morning. Be civil. Be kind.
The Financial Times said Trump Media and Technology Group , which operates Truth Social, is close to an all-stock acquisition of Bakkt, which is backed by NYSE-owner Intercontinental Exchange. LONDON: Bitcoin 's march toward $100,000 gathered pace on Thursday as investors bet a friendlier US regulatory approach to cryptocurrencies under President-elect Donald Trump will unleash a boom era for the asset class. Bitcoin prices topped $98,000 for first time in European trading, and were last up around 4% on the day. The cryptocurrency 's price has more than doubled this year and is up about 40% in the two weeks since Trump was voted in as the next US president and a slew of pro-crypto lawmakers were elected to Congress. "While it's now firmly into overbought territory, it is being drawn toward the $100k level," said IG Markets analyst Tony Sycamore. Trump embraced digital assets during his campaign, promising to make the United States the "crypto capital of the planet" and to accumulate a national stockpile of bitcoin. More than $4 billion has streamed into US listed bitcoin exchange-traded funds since the election. This week, there was a strong debut for options on BlackRock's ETF, with call options - bets on the price going up - more popular than puts. Crypto-related stocks have soared along with the bitcoin price . Ready to Master Stock Valuation? ET's Workshop is just around the corner!
Euro zone business activity took a surprisingly sharp turn for the worse this month as the bloc’s dominant services industry contracted and manufacturing sank deeper into recession, a survey showed on Friday. HCOB’s preliminary composite euro zone Purchasing Managers’ Index, compiled by S&P Global, sank to a 10-month low of 48.1 in November, below the 50 mark separating growth from contraction. A Reuters poll had predicted no change from October’s 50.0. “The November PMI is another wake-up call for euro zone policymakers that the economy continues to show signs of weakness,” said Bert Colijn at ING. “New business is weakening again for both manufacturing and services with export orders in particular being down sharply as the euro zone economy battles weak demand from abroad.” The data pushed euro zone government bond yields lower and knocked the euro EUR= to its lowest against the dollar since December 2022 as investors bet on faster rate cuts from the European Central Bank. The central bank has cut rates three times this year to 3.25% amid increasing concerns about the bloc’s lacklustre growth outlook. Money markets expect another quarter-point cut next month and a further 125 basis points of cuts next year that would take the main rate to 1.75% by end 2025. A composite new business index fell to 46.6 from 47.9, its lowest reading this year, suggesting no imminent improvement. The economic downturn accelerated in both Germany and France with business activity falling at the quickest rate since early this year, the survey showed. Political uncertainty in the bloc’s two biggest economies may be partly to blame. Germany’s three-way coalition collapsed earlier this month, leaving the country in political limbo until snap elections in February, while in France a far-right party is threatening to topple Prime Minister Michel Barnier’s fragile coalition government over a dispute about the 2025 budget. Germany’s economy grew less than previously estimated in the third quarter, the statistics office reported on Friday, in further bad news for a country set to be the worst performer among the Group of Seven rich democracies this year. Adding to the gloomy outlook, German industry expects a 3% fall in production in 2024, a third year of decline, with no recovery in sight for 2025, the country’s BDI industry body said on Friday. To boot, President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed trade tariffs will have a significant effect on the euro zone economy in the coming years, according to a strong majority of economists in a Reuters poll. A PMI index of euro zone services, which had been offsetting the decline among manufacturers, fell to a 10-month low of 49.2 from 51.6. The poll forecast was for no change. Firms did increase headcount again but were less optimistic about the year ahead. The business expectations index fell to a two-year low of 55.0 from 59.9. The manufacturing PMI index fell to 45.2 from 46.0, confounding expectations for no change. An index measuring output, which feeds into the composite PMI, dropped to 45.1 from 45.8. That was despite factories cutting their charges for a third month and at a steeper pace than in October. The output prices index dropped to 47.9 from 48.2. In Britain, outside the European Union, business output shrank for the first time in more than a year and tax increases in the new government’s first budget hit hiring and investment plans, its PMI showed, a fresh setback for Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s push for economic growth. British retail sales fell much more than expected in October, according to official data on Friday that added to signs of a loss of momentum in the economy. Source: Reuters (Reporting by Jonathan Cable, Editing by Christina Fincher)