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ATLANTA (AP) — Already reeling from their November defeats, Democrats now are grappling with President Joe Biden’s pardoning of his son for federal crimes, with some calling the move misguided and unwise after the party spent years slamming Donald Trump as a threat to democracy who disregarded the law. The president pardoned Hunter Biden late Sunday evening, reversing his previous pledges with a grant of clemency that covers more than a decade of any federal crimes his son might have committed. The 82-year-old president said in a statement that his son’s prosecution on charges of tax evasion and falsifying a federal weapons purchase form were politically motivated. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.
Mr Bayrou, 73, a crucial partner in Macron’s centrist alliance, has been a well-known figure in French politics for decades. His political experience is seen as key in efforts to restore stability as no single party holds a majority at the National Assembly. Mr Macron’s office said in a statement that Mr Bayrou “has been charged with forming a new government”. During the handover ceremony, Mr Bayrou said that “no one knows the difficulty of the situation better” than he does. “I’ve taken reckless risks all along my political life to raise the issue of debt and deficits in the most important elections,” he said. France is under pressure from the European Union’s executive body and financial markets to reduce its colossal debt, estimated to reach 6% of its gross domestic product this year. “I know that the risks of difficulties are much greater than the chances of success,” Mr Bayrou said, adding that he hopes to lead the country towards a “needed reconciliation”. “I think this is the only possible path to success,” he said. The new prime minister is expected to hold talks with political leaders from various parties in the coming days in order to choose new ministers. Former prime minister Michel Barnier resigned last week following a no-confidence vote prompted by budget disputes in the National Assembly, leaving France without a functioning government. Mr Macron in an address to the nation vowed to remain in office until his term ends in 2027. Mr Macron’s centrist alliance does not have a majority in parliament and Mr Bayrou’s Cabinet will need to rely on moderate lawmakers from the left and the right to be able to stay in power. Some conservatives are expected to be part of the new government. Mr Macron’s strategy aims at preventing far-right leader Marine Le Pen from holding “make or break” power over the government. Ms Le Pen helped oust Mr Barnier by joining her National Rally party’s forces to the left to pass the no-confidence motion last week. Mr Bayrou’s appointment is also in line with Mr Macron’s efforts to build a non-aggression pact with the Socialists so that they commit not to vote against the government in any future confidence motion. Mr Bayrou leads the centrist Democratic Movement, known as MoDem, which he founded in 2007. In 2017, he supported Mr Macron’s first presidential bid and became a weighty partner in the French president’s centrist alliance. At the time, he was appointed justice minister, but he quickly resigned from the government amid an investigation into the MoDem’s alleged embezzlement of European Parliament funds. Mr Bayrou this year was cleared in the case by a Paris court, which found eight other party officials guilty and sentenced the party to pay a fine. Mr Bayrou became well known to the French public when he was education minister from 1993 to 1997 in a conservative government. He was three times a candidate for president: in 2002, 2007 and 2012.Preview: Borussia Dortmund vs. Freiburg - prediction, team news, lineups
Game industry predictions for 2025 | The DeanBeat
Daily Post Nigeria Ex-Imo commissioner sues police for illegal arrest, detention Home News Politics Metro Entertainment Sport News Ex-Imo commissioner sues police for illegal arrest, detention Published on December 2, 2024 By Casmir Nwankwo A former Commissioner in Imo State, Dr Fabian Ihekweme, has filed a N5 million lawsuit against the Nigerian Police Force before a Federal High Court in Abuja over alleged gross violations of his fundamental human rights. In the suit marked Suit No. FHC/ABI/CS/1809/2024, the plaintiff seeks an order of perpetual injunction restraining the police from further arrest, detention, intimidation, assault and harassment over frivolous and unsubstantiated allegations concerning his fundamental rights to freedom of expression. He also wants an order of the court compelling and directing the defendants to immediately release or grant him bail, pending investigation or charge him to court, as stipulated in sections 35(4) and (5) and 36 (1) of the 1999 Constitution. He is seeking a declaration that his arrest on November 28 in Abuja in a Gestapo manner by the police in Imo State constitutes an infringement of his fundamental human rights and that his continuous detention by the police amounts to a violation of his fundamental human rights. He equally wants the court to declare that denying him access to his team of lawyers by the police since November 28 when he was arrested in Abuja and taken to Owerri violates his fundamental human rights and thus award him N5 million as damages against the police for alleged harassment, assault, and illegal detention. An affidavit of urgency deposed by the wife of the plaintiff, Mrs Ihekweme Excel Fabian, said the plaintiff is managing a severe health condition and his continuous detention without access to medicare will worsen his health condition and endanger his life. “That the applicant is now suffering double jeopardy of unlawful detention and an imminent health risk that could endanger his life,” she averred and further stated the constitution provides for rights to a fair trial within a reasonable time. She said the applicant ought to have been released on administrative bail or charged to court at least two days after his arrest, as provided by the Constitution and stated that the conduct of the respondents is arbitrary, illegal, unconstitutional, harsh, oppressive and void. Related Topics: Fabian Ihekweme police Don't Miss NAHCON moves to comply with Saudi Arabia’s order on 2025 Hajj pilgrimage You may like Police arrest 22 cattle rustling, robbery suspects in Jigawa Police rescue kidnapped victim in Jigawa August Protest: Police deny claims by Amnesty International as IGP orders CPs to investigate Alleged Extra-Judicial Killing: Group blasts Police, demand investigation into Okediachi’s murder Police arraign 113 foreigners over cybercrime operations Officers scooping fuel from fallen tanker not our personnel – Police Advertise About Us Contact Us Privacy-Policy Terms Copyright © Daily Post Media LtdNo, James Franklin doesn’t have a lot of time to watch NFL games each weekend. He’s understandably focused on his 10-1, No. 4 Penn State team that is one win away from essentially clinching the program’s first College Football Playoff berth. Even so, it’s been hard for him to miss the recent heroics Saquon Barkley has performed with the Philadelphia Eagles. First it was a video-game-like backward hurdle against the Jacksonville Jaguars , which actually did make its way into EA Sports’ Madden 25 not long ago. Sunday night, the former Nittany Lions running back and 2017 Heisman Trophy finalist set an Eagles single-game record with 255 rushing yards against the Los Angeles Rams . Barkley had 302 total yards from scrimmage against the Rams, breaking another franchise record. He last hit such a feat against Iowa in Penn State’s dramatic 21-19 win in 2017. Franklin said Wednesday night after Penn State’s practice that he’s seen plenty of highlights and he and that his wife, Fumi, have texted with Barkley this season. “It’s an example of, he’s at a really good place. Really well-run organization, arguably the best O-line coach in the NFL, behind arguably one of the best offensive lines,” Franklin told reporters inside Holuba Hall. “And we all knew — I mean, we all knew, right? — that given the opportunity and put in a favorable situation, he’d have a chance to maximize it.” The New York Giants drafted Barkley with the second overall pick in the 2018 draft. He became the 2018 Offensive Rookie of the Year but battled injuries that marred his time in New York. The Giants let him walk in free agency this offseason, and he signed with the division-rival Eagles on a three-year, $37.75 million contract. In his first year in Philadelphia, the Coplay, Pennsylvania, product leads the NFL with 1,392 rushing yards and is tied for fourth with 10 rushing scores. The yardage is already a career-high with six games left to play, while he’s one score away from tying his career-high in rushing touchdowns. “I think the other thing with him that the Eagles are learning and I talked to them about, is as good of a player he is, he’s just as good, if not a better, teammate. That’s unusual,” Franklin said. “To have that type of guy in your locker room and that type of leader and that type of presence on your team, it’s a force multiplier in a lot of ways.” And now after such a hot start, there’s some serious MVP buzz for Barkley. DraftKings is giving him the third-best odds behind Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen and Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson. “I’m not surprised,” Franklin said. “Proud. Happy. And it’s also cool that he’s doing it here. It’d be cool if he was doing it on the West Coast, but it’s even cooler he’s doing it right here in his backyard. There’s a huge crossover contingent of Penn State fans and Eagles fans, which is cool. I’m just happy for him and the Eagles organization. It’s a win-win for everybody, which is really, ultimately, what you want.” BETTING: Check out our guide to the best PA sportsbooks , where our team of sports betting experts has reviewed the experience, payout speed, parlay options and quality of odds for multiple sportsbooks. Sign up for the PennLive’s Penn State newsletters, the daily Penn State Today and the subscriber-exclusive Penn State Insider Stories by Max Ralph 2025 Penn State Signing Day Preview: Q&A with 4-star wide receiver Koby Howard Penn State men's basketball suffers 1st loss to Clemson after season-worst offensive output Penn State senior named finalist for college football's top community service award
Looking at long-dated bonds...WASHINGTON (AP) — As a former and potentially future president, Donald Trump hailed what would become as a road map for “exactly what our movement will do” with another crack at the White House. As for a hard-right turn in America became a liability during the 2024 campaign, . He denied knowing anything about the “ridiculous and abysmal” plans written in part by his first-term aides and allies. Now, after being elected the 47th president on Nov. 5, Trump is stocking his second administration with key players in the detailed effort he temporarily shunned. Most notably, Trump has tapped for an encore as director of the Office of Management and Budget; Tom Homan, his former immigration chief, as and immigration hardliner Stephen Miller as . Those moves have accelerated criticisms from Democrats who warn that Trump's election hands government reins to movement conservatives who spent years envisioning how to concentrate power in the West Wing and impose a starkly rightward shift across the U.S. government and society. Trump and his aides maintain that he won a mandate to overhaul Washington. But they maintain the specifics are his alone. “President Trump never had anything to do with Project 2025,” said Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt in a statement. “All of President Trumps' Cabinet nominees and appointments are whole-heartedly committed to President Trump's agenda, not the agenda of outside groups.” Here is a look at what some of Trump's choices portend for his second presidency. As budget chief, Vought envisions a sweeping, powerful perch The Office of Management and Budget director, a role Vought held under Trump previously and requires Senate confirmation, prepares a president's proposed budget and is generally responsible for implementing the administration's agenda across agencies. The job is influential but Vought made clear as author of a Project 2025 chapter on presidential authority that he wants the post to wield more direct power. “The Director must view his job as the best, most comprehensive approximation of the President’s mind,” Vought wrote. The OMB, he wrote, “is a President’s air-traffic control system” and should be “involved in all aspects of the White House policy process,” becoming “powerful enough to override implementing agencies’ bureaucracies.” Trump did not go into such details when naming Vought but implicitly endorsed aggressive action. Vought, the president-elect said, “knows exactly how to dismantle the Deep State” — Trump’s catch-all for federal bureaucracy — and would help “restore fiscal sanity.” In June, speaking on former Trump aide Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast, Vought relished the potential tension: “We’re not going to save our country without a little confrontation.” Vought could help Musk and Trump remake government's role and scope The strategy of further concentrating federal authority in the presidency permeates Project 2025's and Trump's campaign proposals. Vought's vision is especially striking when paired with Trump's proposals to dramatically expand the president's control over federal workers and government purse strings — ideas intertwined with the president-elect tapping mega-billionaire Elon Musk and venture capitalist Vivek Ramaswamy to Trump in his first term sought to remake the federal civil service by reclassifying tens of thousands of federal civil service workers — who have job protection through changes in administration — as political appointees, making them easier to fire and replace with loyalists. Currently, only about 4,000 of the federal government's roughly 2 million workers are political appointees. President Joe Biden rescinded Trump's changes. Trump can now reinstate them. Meanwhile, Musk's and Ramaswamy's sweeping “efficiency” mandates from Trump could turn on an old, defunct constitutional theory that the president — not Congress — is the real gatekeeper of federal spending. In his “Agenda 47,” Trump endorsed so-called “impoundment,” which holds that when lawmakers pass appropriations bills, they simply set a spending ceiling, but not a floor. The president, the theory holds, can simply decide not to spend money on anything he deems unnecessary. Vought did not venture into impoundment in his Project 2025 chapter. But, he wrote, “The President should use every possible tool to propose and impose fiscal discipline on the federal government. Anything short of that would constitute abject failure.” Trump's choice immediately sparked backlash. “Russ Vought is a far-right ideologue who has tried to break the law to give President Trump unilateral authority he does not possess to override the spending decisions of Congress (and) who has and will again fight to give Trump the ability to summarily fire tens of thousands of civil servants,” said Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, a Democrat and outgoing Senate Appropriations chairwoman. Reps. Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico, leading Democrats on the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, said Vought wants to “dismantle the expert federal workforce” to the detriment of Americans who depend on everything from veterans' health care to Social Security benefits. “Pain itself is the agenda,” they said. Homan and Miller reflect Trump's and Project 2025's immigration overl ap Trump’s protests about Project 2025 always glossed over . Both want to reimpose Trump-era immigration limits. Project 2025 includes a litany of detailed proposals for various U.S. immigration statutes, executive branch rules and agreements with other countries — reducing the number of refugees, work visa recipients and asylum seekers, for example. Miller is one of Trump's longest-serving advisers and architect of his immigration ideas, including his promise of the largest deportation force in U.S. history. As deputy policy chief, which is not subject to Senate confirmation, Miller would remain in Trump's West Wing inner circle. “America is for Americans and Americans only,” Miller said at Trump’s on Oct. 27. “America First Legal,” Miller’s organization founded as an ideological counter to the American Civil Liberties Union, was listed as an advisory group to Project 2025 until Miller asked that the name be removed because of negative attention. Homan, a Project 2025 named contributor, was an acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement director during Trump’s first presidency, playing a key role in what became known as Trump's Previewing Trump 2.0 earlier this year, Homan said: “No one’s off the table. If you’re here illegally, you better be looking over your shoulder.” Project 2025 contributors slated for CIA and Federal Communications chiefs John Ratcliffe, Trump's , was previously one of Trump's directors of national intelligence. He is a Project 2025 contributor. The document's chapter on U.S. intelligence was written by Dustin Carmack, Ratcliffe's chief of staff in the first Trump administration. Reflecting Ratcliffe's and Trump's approach, Carmack declared the intelligence establishment too cautious. Ratcliffe, like the chapter attributed to Carmack, is hawkish toward China. Throughout the Project 2025 document, Beijing is framed as a U.S. adversary that cannot be trusted. Brendan Carr, the senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, wrote Project 2025's FCC chapter and is to chair the panel. Carr wrote that the FCC chairman “is empowered with significant authority that is not shared” with other FCC members. He called for the FCC to address “threats to individual liberty posed by corporations that are abusing dominant positions in the market,” specifically “Big Tech and its attempts to drive diverse political viewpoints from the digital town square.” He called for more stringent transparency rules for social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube and “empower consumers to choose their own content filters and fact checkers, if any.” Carr and Ratcliffe would require Senate confirmation for their posts. ___ Bill Barrow, The Associated PressTaqadum’s Embrace of the RSF: A Betrayal of Peace and Unity?Passage Bio sees $284,519 in stock purchases by Lynx1 Capital
The condemnation came as the House of Lords debated regulations paving the way for a scheme which would require animal lovers on the British mainland to have documentation in order to visit Northern Ireland. Critics view the move as further evidence of Northern Ireland still having to follow EU rules post-Brexit and being treated differently from the rest of the UK – a major source of contention to the unionist community. The paperwork, which will be free to apply for, includes a declaration that the owner will not travel onwards to Ireland or another EU country with their pet or assistance dog. Animals will have to be microchipped and have their own individual pet travel document, which will be valid for its lifetime. Northern Ireland residents returning after a stay in Great Britain with their pet or assistance dog will not need a travel document. The scheme is being introduced under the Windsor Framework, a revised deal for Northern Ireland’s post-Brexit trading arrangements aimed at tackling issues caused by the protocol. Raising her concerns in Parliament, Baroness Hoey, a Northern Irish Brexit supporter and former Labour MP, said: “These regulations are in effect about a new aspect of the Irish Sea border that has not had expression until this point because of the grace periods.” She added: “The experience of visiting Northern Ireland with your pet dog or cat, or even a ferret, will be made to feel like a visit to a foreign country. Lady Hoey went on: “This could spell the end of holiday trips for pet owners from GB to NI and then on to the Republic, when they want to explore both Northern Ireland and the Republic. “If they have a pet passport, they will have renounced their right to go to the Republic. That makes the border more of an obstruction than having border control posts on it, because at least in that eventuality, you could still cross over it.” Rejecting claims it was a result of the UK leaving the EU, she said: “The reality is that this is happening precisely because Northern Ireland has not got Brexit. “As we say repeatedly, it is still subject to EU rules and the EU could change the rules overnight.” Former DUP deputy leader Lord Dodds of Duncairn said: “Every one of the statutory instruments that come forward under the Windsor Framework must be properly debated, because these laws are being brought forward to implement what a foreign jurisdiction has decided should be the law of the United Kingdom. “In the 21st century, we should not accept colonial rule. We abolished it elsewhere. We believe it should not be tolerated for one second. People should have the democratic right to decide their laws for themselves, in their interests.” He added: “The ridiculous part about this debate is that we are having to debate European laws regulating the movement of pet animals owned by British citizens between one part of the United Kingdom and another. That is an outrage.” Lord Dodds went on: “As I said, there will be hundreds, thousands more of these regulations, in all areas, affecting the daily lives of people in Northern Ireland. They all add up to a grievous assault on Northern Ireland’s constitutional position.” But former leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick said: “I support the Windsor Framework because it is a necessary legal device to deal with the complexities that were presented to us in Ireland, north and south, on the issue of Brexit. “We need a pragmatic solution rather than choosing to have political contests and duels simply for the sake of them.” Introducing the regulations, environment minister Baroness Hayman of Ulloch said: “This scheme will simplify the requirements associated with moving pet dogs, cats and ferrets from Great Britain to Northern Ireland significantly. “It replaces single-use animal health certificates with a free-of-charge lifelong travel document and removes the need for costly pet health treatments. “Pet owners who travel frequently with their pets, or those who rely on the services of an assistance dog to travel independently, will benefit substantially from this change in approach.” However, she acknowledged the concerns raised by peers and promised to continue engagement with them.
B.C. Premier David Eby is promising to seek new export opportunities for the province after U.S. president-elect Donald Trump threatened to impose a 25-per-cent tariff on all Mexican and Canadian goods. British Columbia exports billions of dollars’ worth of commodities and products – coal and lumber, plastics and machinery – every month, with just over half bound for the United States. It could be worse. Canada as a whole sends three-quarters of its exports to the U.S. B.C. has less exposure to that single market thanks to a long-running policy, embraced by political parties of every stripe, of maintaining a diversified trade portfolio. “We’re going to continue to do our work to expand those trading opportunities,” Mr. Eby told reporters Wednesday. In the 1980s, B.C.’s political leaders set their economic sights on Asia, opening trade offices in Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan with the intent of reducing the province’s dependence on its dominant customer to the south. The province has bankrolled countless trade missions and now maintains 19 overseas trade offices. Yet the U.S. has consistently remained its most important trading partner over the past four decades. At best, the diversification strategy has dampened the siren call of the behemoth at its doorstep. “Canada is so privileged to be next door to this giant economic engine of the United States,” noted former B.C. premier Glen Clark in an interview. “We understand the laws there, we understand the language, we understand the people, and it’s very close, so it’s a natural.” But too much dependence on a single market – no matter how big, no matter how easy – comes with risk. Mr. Trump’s tariff threat should be a catalyst for a fresh commitment to cultivate new markets, said Mr. Clark, who led 13 trade missions to China alone during his term as premier, from 1996 to 1999. “Reviving that trade policy, only with different focus on parts of the world, makes a lot of sense as we move forward in this kind of dangerous time.” In 1987, Mike Harcourt, then the NDP opposition leader, stood up in the legislature and endorsed the Social Credit government’s early trade missions. Even as some Socred backbenchers dismissed the trips as “boondoggles,” Mr. Harcourt pressed for a more aggressive strategy. “We support those initiatives, but we’re not bold enough,” he said, insisting that the province needed to establish outposts in China and India. At the time, the Canada-U.S. softwood lumber dispute was demonstrating the ability of the U.S. to cripple the province’s forest sector. That conflict continues today – a textbook example for Canada of how U.S. protectionism can supersede good trade relations. British Columbia’s position as a trade gateway for Pacific Rim countries was already a reality before politicians tried to help. The year Mr. Harcourt was calling for trade offices in China, just 46 per cent of the province’s exports went to the United States. When he became Premier in 1991, Mr. Harcourt took the opportunity to pursue new markets aggressively. “I started talking about Vancouver being, not the last stop of the CPR railway, but the front door to Asia for Canada,” he said in an interview. But today he believes the province’s trade strategy needs an urgent update to prepare for 2025, when Mr. Trump returns to office. B.C.’s Trade Diversification Strategy was updated in 2023, but much has changed since. The value of softwood lumber exports has stagnated and is now rivalled by sales of machinery and equipment. Meanwhile, energy exports – especially coal – are climbing in value. Mr. Trump’s tariff threats aside, global trade relations are also more complex, particularly with China and India. The two countries are host to almost half of B.C.’s international trade offices outside the U.S. David Emerson helped steer Canada toward trade diversification. As deputy finance minister under then-Premier Bill Bennett and deputy minister to Premier Bill Vander Zalm, he crafted B.C.’s Asian Pacific trade strategy and later introduced the Asia-Pacific Gateway and Corridor Initiative as the federal Minister of International Trade. He also was the minister who negotiated the one and only settlement on softwood lumber, in 2006. That agreement expired in 2015. Mr. Emerson says this is not a good time for British Columbia – and Canada – to face a strong protectionist leader in the U.S., because the alternatives are limited. “I do believe we need to grow market penetration in markets other than the U.S., but the greatest potential is in markets where we now have terrible relations,” he said. “Today, relations with China and India are a mess, and the great trade diversification strategy has run into serious trouble.” China is B.C.’s second-largest export destination – one that is growing in value. But Canada and China are in the midst of a trade spat. In August, Ottawa announced a 100-per-cent import tariff on Chinese electric vehicles and a 25-per-cent tariff on steel and aluminum products from China, after the U.S. and the European Union introduced similar measures. The following month, Beijing launched an anti-dumping investigation into imports of rapeseed from Canada. Meanwhile, Mr. Trump has signalled he is prepared to reignite trade tensions between the U.S. and China, which could put other trading partners in the crossfire. Canada’s relations with India soured after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said last year that there were credible allegations the Indian government had links to the assassination of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada. Canada has since alleged that India’s Home Affairs Minister, Amit Shah, ordered the targeting of Sikh activists in Canada. Both countries have now expelled each other’s top diplomatic officials. Mr. Trump’s rationale for slapping tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports is to punish both countries for lax border security, allowing illegal migrants and illicit drugs to slip through into the U.S. On Wednesday, Mr. Trudeau met with the premiers to strategize and emerged with a promise to strengthen border security by pumping more money into the Canada Border Services Agency and the RCMP. Mr. Eby, who advocated for that investment as an answer to Mr. Trump’s complaints, said Canada should put up a united front to take on the U.S. trade threat. But in the meantime, he said, he’ll renew his government’s commitment to diversification. “This was definitely the right direction, obviously, in hindsight, and we do have to redouble those efforts, given the instability south of the border.” The decades of previous efforts have shown, however, that changing those trade patterns will be exceptionally difficult.WASHINGTON (AP) — As a former and potentially future president, Donald Trump hailed what would become Project 2025 as a road map for “exactly what our movement will do” with another crack at the White House. As the blueprint for a hard-right turn in America became a liability during the 2024 campaign, Trump pulled an about-face . He denied knowing anything about the “ridiculous and abysmal” plans written in part by his first-term aides and allies. Now, after being elected the 47th president on Nov. 5, Trump is stocking his second administration with key players in the detailed effort he temporarily shunned. Most notably, Trump has tapped Russell Vought for an encore as director of the Office of Management and Budget; Tom Homan, his former immigration chief, as “border czar;” and immigration hardliner Stephen Miller as deputy chief of policy . Those moves have accelerated criticisms from Democrats who warn that Trump's election hands government reins to movement conservatives who spent years envisioning how to concentrate power in the West Wing and impose a starkly rightward shift across the U.S. government and society. Trump and his aides maintain that he won a mandate to overhaul Washington. But they maintain the specifics are his alone. “President Trump never had anything to do with Project 2025,” said Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt in a statement. “All of President Trumps' Cabinet nominees and appointments are whole-heartedly committed to President Trump's agenda, not the agenda of outside groups.” Here is a look at what some of Trump's choices portend for his second presidency. As budget chief, Vought envisions a sweeping, powerful perch The Office of Management and Budget director, a role Vought held under Trump previously and requires Senate confirmation, prepares a president's proposed budget and is generally responsible for implementing the administration's agenda across agencies. The job is influential but Vought made clear as author of a Project 2025 chapter on presidential authority that he wants the post to wield more direct power. “The Director must view his job as the best, most comprehensive approximation of the President’s mind,” Vought wrote. The OMB, he wrote, “is a President’s air-traffic control system” and should be “involved in all aspects of the White House policy process,” becoming “powerful enough to override implementing agencies’ bureaucracies.” Trump did not go into such details when naming Vought but implicitly endorsed aggressive action. Vought, the president-elect said, “knows exactly how to dismantle the Deep State” — Trump’s catch-all for federal bureaucracy — and would help “restore fiscal sanity.” In June, speaking on former Trump aide Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast, Vought relished the potential tension: “We’re not going to save our country without a little confrontation.” Vought could help Musk and Trump remake government's role and scope The strategy of further concentrating federal authority in the presidency permeates Project 2025's and Trump's campaign proposals. Vought's vision is especially striking when paired with Trump's proposals to dramatically expand the president's control over federal workers and government purse strings — ideas intertwined with the president-elect tapping mega-billionaire Elon Musk and venture capitalist Vivek Ramaswamy to lead a “Department of Government Efficiency.” Trump in his first term sought to remake the federal civil service by reclassifying tens of thousands of federal civil service workers — who have job protection through changes in administration — as political appointees, making them easier to fire and replace with loyalists. Currently, only about 4,000 of the federal government's roughly 2 million workers are political appointees. President Joe Biden rescinded Trump's changes. Trump can now reinstate them. Meanwhile, Musk's and Ramaswamy's sweeping “efficiency” mandates from Trump could turn on an old, defunct constitutional theory that the president — not Congress — is the real gatekeeper of federal spending. In his “Agenda 47,” Trump endorsed so-called “impoundment,” which holds that when lawmakers pass appropriations bills, they simply set a spending ceiling, but not a floor. The president, the theory holds, can simply decide not to spend money on anything he deems unnecessary. Vought did not venture into impoundment in his Project 2025 chapter. But, he wrote, “The President should use every possible tool to propose and impose fiscal discipline on the federal government. Anything short of that would constitute abject failure.” Trump's choice immediately sparked backlash. “Russ Vought is a far-right ideologue who has tried to break the law to give President Trump unilateral authority he does not possess to override the spending decisions of Congress (and) who has and will again fight to give Trump the ability to summarily fire tens of thousands of civil servants,” said Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, a Democrat and outgoing Senate Appropriations chairwoman. Reps. Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico, leading Democrats on the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, said Vought wants to “dismantle the expert federal workforce” to the detriment of Americans who depend on everything from veterans' health care to Social Security benefits. “Pain itself is the agenda,” they said. Homan and Miller reflect Trump's and Project 2025's immigration overl ap Trump’s protests about Project 2025 always glossed over overlaps in the two agendas . Both want to reimpose Trump-era immigration limits. Project 2025 includes a litany of detailed proposals for various U.S. immigration statutes, executive branch rules and agreements with other countries — reducing the number of refugees, work visa recipients and asylum seekers, for example. Miller is one of Trump's longest-serving advisers and architect of his immigration ideas, including his promise of the largest deportation force in U.S. history. As deputy policy chief, which is not subject to Senate confirmation, Miller would remain in Trump's West Wing inner circle. “America is for Americans and Americans only,” Miller said at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally on Oct. 27. “America First Legal,” Miller’s organization founded as an ideological counter to the American Civil Liberties Union, was listed as an advisory group to Project 2025 until Miller asked that the name be removed because of negative attention. Homan, a Project 2025 named contributor, was an acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement director during Trump’s first presidency, playing a key role in what became known as Trump's “family separation policy.” Previewing Trump 2.0 earlier this year, Homan said: “No one’s off the table. If you’re here illegally, you better be looking over your shoulder.” Project 2025 contributors slated for CIA and Federal Communications chiefs John Ratcliffe, Trump's pick to lead the CIA , was previously one of Trump's directors of national intelligence. He is a Project 2025 contributor. The document's chapter on U.S. intelligence was written by Dustin Carmack, Ratcliffe's chief of staff in the first Trump administration. Reflecting Ratcliffe's and Trump's approach, Carmack declared the intelligence establishment too cautious. Ratcliffe, like the chapter attributed to Carmack, is hawkish toward China. Throughout the Project 2025 document, Beijing is framed as a U.S. adversary that cannot be trusted. Brendan Carr, the senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, wrote Project 2025's FCC chapter and is now Trump's pick to chair the panel. Carr wrote that the FCC chairman “is empowered with significant authority that is not shared” with other FCC members. He called for the FCC to address “threats to individual liberty posed by corporations that are abusing dominant positions in the market,” specifically “Big Tech and its attempts to drive diverse political viewpoints from the digital town square.” He called for more stringent transparency rules for social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube and “empower consumers to choose their own content filters and fact checkers, if any.” Carr and Ratcliffe would require Senate confirmation for their posts. ___ Bill Barrow, The Associated Press
F.P. Report MUZAFRABAD: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Assembly has unanimously passed a resolution condemning the US sanction on Pakistan, presented by former PM Raja Farooq Haider Khan. The resolution criticised the US efforts to disrupt regional power balance in favour of India and reaffirmed Pakistan’s missile programme as purely defensive. Raja Farooq Haider accused the US of being influenced by Indian lobbying. AJK PM Chaudhry Anwarul Haq reiterated unwavering support for Pakistan’s military and emphasised the critical role of missile technology and nuclear programme in national security, urging collective defense against foreign intervention and aggression. The resolution highlighted Pakistan’s pivotal role in regional stability.
Caroline Dwane Stanley announces resignation from Sinn Fein
