Trump nominates former Pence military aide for new Ukraine post
President-elect Trump has nominated a Vietnam War veteran and retired general for a potential new post focused on ending the Russia-Ukraine war. Trump has created the position of special envoy for the Ukraine conflict, according to Reuters, and picked Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg for the post. Kellogg served as former Vice President Mike Pence’s national security adviser and was spotted at the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago club on Tuesday, according to the New York Post. KELLOGG ON ISRAEL’S ‘STUNNING’ ERADICATION OF TERROR LEADERS “”I am very pleased to nominate General Keith Kellogg to serve as Assistant to the President and Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform. “Keith has led a distinguished Military and Business career, including serving in highly sensitive National Security roles in my first Administration. He was with me right from the beginning! Together, we will secure PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH, and Make America, and the World, SAFE AGAIN!” Three sources familiar told Reuters that Kellogg presented Trump with a plan to end the conflict, and in April co-authored a research document that presented the idea of using weapons supplied to Ukraine as leverage for armistice negotiations with Russia. Kellogg is currently the co-chair of the Center for American Security at the America First Policy Institute – which is led by several now-nominees within the new Trump administration. AFPI’s chairwoman-of-the-board is Education Secretary-designate Linda McMahon and its president is Agriculture Secretary-designate Brooke Rollins. THIS CONFLICT SHOULD’VE BEEN SOLVED YEARS AGO: KELLOGG CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Fox News Digital reached out to Kellogg via AFPI for comment.
Houstonian Mark Swidan to be released from Chinese imprisonment
The Texan has been imprisoned in China for 12 years on charges of drug trafficking.
Cuomo joins Netanyahu’s legal defense team against ICC warrants as he mulls 2025 NYC mayoral run
Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo joined Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s legal defense team this week, as the Jewish leader and his former defense chief Yoav Gallant face arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court (ICC) over their ongoing response to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack. Cuomo, a three-term Democrat who resigned in 2021 amid harassment allegations, also railed against antisemitism at a recent dinner with leaders of New York’s Jewish community. Cuomo condemned what he characterized as whitewashing Hamas kidnappings and murders in Israel, telling the National Committee for Furtherance of Jewish Education he is proud to join Netanyahu’s defense. He condemned the “denial” that too many people and “institutions” have about the scourge of antisemitism. Cuomo said one Jewish leader, Rabbi Zvi Kogan, who had been reported as “missing” in the United Arab Emirates was not so, and instead was kidnapped and murdered by Hamas. Cuomo suggested such incorrect characterizations should be considered antisemitic. CUOMO TESTIFIES ON NYS COVID ORDERS AND NURSING HOME DEATHS “This is the moment that is going to be in the history books. This is a pivotal moment and this is the moment when true friends stand shoulder to shoulder and fight for the state of Israel,” Cuomo said. “I am proud to be on the legal defense team of the prime minister against the arrest warrant at the ICC – and I’m proud to stand against antisemitism.” The ICC charged Netanyahu and Gallant with crimes against humanity and war crimes, setting off a global firestorm as signatories to the court’s jurisdiction found themselves at odds with non-party allies like the U.S. In recognizing the ICC, member nations have a sworn duty to uphold its edicts. Netanyahu’s warrant therefore presented the swath of Western nations – including the entire European Union – with a predicament that placed them counter to the U.S. and Israel. Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts told Britain’s GB News there would be “hell to pay for any international leader buying into this bulls—.” That nation’s leader, left-wing Prime Minister Keir Starmer, faces pressure from some members of his Labour Party who have cited an “obligation” to arrest Netanyahu, according to the outlet. The Macron administration in France signaled Netanyahu will be treated as immune to the ICC because – while the French are signatories – Israel is not. CUOMO RESIGNS FROM NEW YORK GOVERNORSHIP Separately, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot was asked if France would arrest Netanyahu, and responded that Paris is “very committed to international justice and will apply international law,” according to the Jerusalem Post. The warrants caused bipartisan outrage on Capitol Hill as Sens. John Fetterman, D-Pa., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and Reps. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., and Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., found rare agreement. Graham told “Hannity” that he and Cotton seek to pass a law sanctioning any country aiding the ICC in arresting Netanyahu, while the other listed lawmakers all condemned the warrant. Cuomo is also rumored to be considering a 2025 mayoral run in New York City – which is home to the largest Jewish community in the U.S. During his remarks, he cited the 1.6 million Jews in the Big Apple and said Hamas is demonstrating in the streets with masks while Jewish people are afraid to wear yarmulkes or Stars of David in public. “That cannot happen in the state of New York,” he said, adding a relevant law he signed as governor should be properly enforced. In 2019, Cuomo approved antisemitic-hate-crimes legislation sponsored by state Sen. Todd Kaminsky, D-Long Beach, and launched a “No Hate In Our State” campaign soon after. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP A Cuomo spokesman directed Fox News Digital to video of the governor’s speech and said in a statement the Democrat is proud to be part of a legal “dream team” for Netanyahu. “As governor, Cuomo made fighting antisemitism and supporting Israel a top priority, passing landmark hate crime legislation, prioritizing security upgrades to religious institutions, creating a new hate crimes unit in the State Police and leading a state delegation to Israel when it was under attack,” he said. The ideological potpourri of the U.S., Russia, Cuba, Turkey, Vatican City and Malaysia are some of the more major nations who do not recognize the ICC. Major U.S. allies Canada, Mexico, Australia and the United Kingdom recognize the Holland-based bench. Fox News Digital has reached out to the Netanyahu administration for comment.
Trump Cabinet nominees, appointees targeted with ‘violent, unAmerican threats’
EXCLUSIVE: Nearly a dozen of President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees and other appointees tapped for the incoming administration were targeted Tuesday night with “violent, unAmerican threats to their lives and those who live with them,” prompting a “swift” law enforcement response, Fox News Digital has learned. The “attacks ranged from bomb threats to ‘swatting,’” according to Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman and incoming White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. Sources told Fox News Digital that John Racliffe, the nominee to be CIA director, Pete Hegseth, the nominee for secretary of defense, and Rep. Elise Stefanik, the nominee for UN ambassador, were among those targeted. “Last night and this morning, several of President Trump’s Cabinet nominees and administration appointees were targeted in violent, unAmerican threats to their lives and those who live with them,” she told Fox News Digital on Wednesday. “In response, law enforcement acted quickly to ensure the safety of those who were targeted. President Trump and the entire Transition team are grateful for their swift action.” PRESIDENT-ELECT TRUMP APPOINTS THREE KEY POSITION IN WHITE HOUSE OFFICES Local law enforcement officials responded to the threats and visited the homes of several nominees and appointees, Fox News Digital has learned. Leavitt said Trump and the transition team “are focused on doing the work of uniting our nation by ensuring a safe and prosperous future.” TRUMP HIT FOR HIRING LOYALISTS LIKE PAM BONDI: DOESN’T EVERY PRESIDENT DO THAT? “With President Trump as our example, dangerous acts of intimidation and violence will not deter us,” she said. Stefanik’s office confirmed in a post on X that she was one of the targets of the incident. “This morning, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, her husband, and their three-year-old son were driving home to Saratoga County from Washington for Thanksgiving when they were informed of a bomb threat to their residence,” the post stated. “New York State, County law enforcement, and U.S. Capitol Police responded immediately with the highest levels of professionalism. We are incredibly appreciative of the extraordinary dedication of law enforcement officers who keep our communities safe 24/7.” The threats come mere months after Trump survived two assassination attempts. Just days before accepting the Republican nomination, Trump was shot at a rally on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania. During the event, Trump was displaying a chart highlighting skyrocketing illegal immigration under the Biden-Harris administration. As he turned toward the chart, he was hit by a bullet that pierced the upper part of his right ear by the now-deceased would-be-assassin, Thomas Matthew Crooks. Trump credits the chart for saving his life. Weeks later, in September, another would-be-assassin hid in the bushes at Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach, Florida. The alleged gunman, Ryan Wesley Routh, had an AK-47-style rifle pointing through the fence toward Trump as the GOP nominee was golfing. Trump was rushed off the golf course by U.S. Secret Service agents unharmed. This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Mumbai: Air India pilot dies by suicide, boyfriend arrested for abetment
Police took her boyfriend Aditya Pandit (27) into custody on Tuesday after one of Tuli’s relatives accused him of harassing and abusing her and forcing her to stop eating non-vegetarian food, the official citing the FIR.
A third woman has died under Texas’ abortion ban as doctors reach for riskier miscarriage treatments
Porsha Ngumezi bled to death as she was miscarrying after her doctor opted against an emergency procedure used to end pregnancies.
Kerry suggests Africans without electricity must pick ‘the right kinds of electricity’
Former Secretary of State John Kerry claimed that there is a “climate emergency,” and suggested that Africans without electricity must select “the right kinds of electricity,” likely referring to green energy production, and that the U.S. must help them to afford it. Kerry made the comments at a speaking event at the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics on Nov. 21, 2024. The Democrat suggested there will be a need to “declare a climate emergency, which is what we really have. And we need to get people to behave as if this really is a major transitional challenge to the whole planet.” He noted that the U.S. has the biggest economy on earth, with China in second place. JOHN KERRY CALLS THE FIRST AMENDMENT A ‘MAJOR BLOCK’ TO STOPPING ‘DISINFORMATION’ “Adios comunista,” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Tx., wrote in a post on X when replying to a post featuring a clip of Kerry’s comments. JOHN KERRY TORCHED FOR CLAIMING PEOPLE WOULD ‘FEEL BETTER’ ABOUT UKRAINE WAR IF RUSSIA REDUCED EMISSIONS Kerry, a former senator and the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee who lost to incumbent Republican President George W. Bush, went on to serve as secretary of state during a portion of President Barack Obama’s White House tenure. He has also previously served as special presidential envoy for climate under President Joe Biden. BIDEN CLIMATE CZAR JOHN KERRY SNAPS WHEN CONFRONTED ABOUT CARBON FOOTPRINT Biden awarded Kerry the Presidential Medal of Freedom this year.
Mississippi runoff election for state Supreme Court justice is too close to call
A runoff election for the state Supreme Court in Mississippi is too close to call between state Sen. Jenifer Branning and incumbent Justice Jim Kitchens as of Wednesday morning. Although Mississippi judicial candidates run without party labels, Branning had the endorsement of the Republican Party, while Kitchens had several Democratic Party donors but did not receive an endorsement from the party. Branning, who has been a state senator since 2016, led Kitchens by 2,678 votes out of 120,610 votes counted as of Wednesday morning. Kitchens is seeking a third term and is the more senior of the court’s two presiding justices, putting him next in line to serve as chief justice. Her lead had been 518 just after midnight Wednesday. NEWS ANCHOR DROPPED AFTER SOCIAL MEDIA POST TELLING TRUMP-HATERS SUPPORTING HARRIS: ‘STAY HOME, DON’T VOTE’ Around midnight Wednesday, The Associated Press estimated there were more than 11,000 votes still to be counted. In the Nov. 5 election, 7% of votes were counted after election night. Branning had a substantial lead in the first round of voting with 42% compared to Kitchens’ 36%. Three other candidates split the rest. The victor will likely be decided by absentee ballots that are allowed to be counted for five days following an election in Mississippi, as well as the affidavit ballots, according to the Clarion Ledger. Voter turnout typically decreases between general elections and runoffs, and campaigns said turnout was especially challenging two days before Thanksgiving. The Magnolia State voted emphatically for President-elect Donald Trump, who garnered 61.6% of the vote compared to Vice President Harris’ 37.3%. Branning and Kitchens faced off in District 1, also known as the Central District, which stretches from the Delta region through the Jackson metro area and over to the Alabama border. Branning calls herself a “constitutional conservative” and says she opposes “liberal, activists judges” and “the radical left.” The Mississippi GOP said she was the “proven conservative,” and that was why they endorsed her. EX-NY TIMES REPORTER ISSUES WARNING ON LIBERAL MEDIA, REVEALS WHY SHE HAD TO LEAVE She has not previously held a judicial office but served as a special prosecutor in Neshoba County and as a staff attorney in the Mississippi Secretary of State’s Division of Business Services and Regulations, per the Clarion Ledger. Branning voted against changing the state flag to remove the Confederate battle emblem and supported mandatory and increased minimum sentences for crime, according to Mississippi Today. Kitchens has been practicing law for 41 years and has been on the Mississippi Supreme Court since 2008, and prior to that, he also served as a district attorney, according to the outlet. He is endorsed by the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Action Fund, which calls itself “a catalyst for racial justice in the South and beyond.” Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., also backed Kitchens. In September, Kitchens sided with a man on death row for a murder conviction in which a key witness recanted her testimony. In 2018, Kitchens dissented in a pair of death row cases dealing with the use of the drug midazolam in state executions. Elsewhere, in the state’s other runoff election, Amy St. Pe’ won an open seat on the Mississippi Court of Appeals. She will succeed Judge Joel Smith, who did not seek re-election to the 10-member Court of Appeals. The district is in the southeastern corner of the state, including the Gulf Coast. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Trump’s AG pick has ‘history of consensus building’
President-elect Donald Trump last week announced the nomination of Florida’s former attorney general, Pam Bondi, to head up the Justice Department, touching off a flurry of speculation as to how Bondi, a longtime prosecutor and close ally of Trump, might lead the department. Former colleagues who knew her best during her time as a Florida prosecutor, including a Democrat opponent for state attorney general who she later tapped to be her drug czar, described Bondi in a series of interviews as an experienced litigator whose leadership style is more consensus-builder than bridge-burner and whose tenure may generate less friction among rank-and-file career staff at the Justice Department than early critics might fear. If confirmed, those close to Bondi told Fox News Digital that she will likely espouse many of the same priorities she did in her years as a prosecutor in Florida, primarily in cracking down on drug trafficking, illicit fentanyl imports and in running a Justice Department that enforces fair treatment of both political and career appointees alike. “From a lawyer’s standpoint, this woman knows how to be a lawyer and a trial lawyer,” Nicholas Cox, Florida’s statewide prosecutor, told Fox News Digital of Bondi’s record. “There’s just not a question about it.” Here are some of the ways her time in Florida could inform her tenure as attorney general. Drug crackdown: In Florida, Bondi quickly earned a reputation for cracking down on opioids and the many “pill mills” operating in the Sunshine State when she was elected as the state’s attorney general in 2010. At the time, Florida “was the epicenter of the opioid crisis,” Florida statewide prosecutor Nicholas Cox said in an interview. It was also a hub for so-called drug tourism: Out-of-state residents traveled to Florida from across the country to purchase opioids in bulk, relying on the state’s many-house pharmacies, “cash-only” clinics and a lack of statewide prescribing laws to purchase the addictive medications, largely without restriction. When Bondi took office, opioids were killing around seven people each day, Dave Aronberg, the state attorney for Palm Beach County, who formerly served as Bondi’s drug czar, said in an interview. There were also “more pain clinics than McDonald’s locations” in Florida at the time, he said, illustrating the magnitude of the problem. Aronberg, a Democrat who ran against Bondi for attorney general in 2010 before she appointed him to the post, credits his former boss as being the person “most responsible for ridding the state of Florida of destructive pill mills.” He and others point to Bondi’s push for legislation that helped eliminate pill mills in the state, her crackdown on doctors and clinics responsible for prescribing the pain pills en masse, and her work in enforcing Florida’s “Statewide Prescription Drug Diversion and Abuse Road Map” to best coordinate federal, state and local efforts as helping end the crisis. Later, she served in Trump’s first presidential term as a member of his Opioid and Drug Abuse Commission. If confirmed as U.S. attorney general, Bondi has made clear she plans to remain focused on drug trafficking issues, including cracking down on drug cartels, trafficking and more. Now, these people told Fox News Digital they expect Bondi will bring the same playbook to Washington as attorney general, this time with an eye to drug trafficking and illicit fentanyl use. ‘UNLIKELY COALITION’: A CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM ADVOCATE SEES OPPORTUNITIES IN A SECOND TRUMP TERM Working across the aisle: Bondi has spent years as a prosecutor in Florida, first as a prosecutor in the Hillsborough County State Attorney’s Office before being elected in 2010 as the state’s attorney general. Cox, the Florida state prosecutor, noted that Bondi’s career was also heavily shaped by her 18 years working in the Florida District Attorney’s Office, a career position that was not informed by politics. “We all worked together, and it made for a really strong criminal justice system,” Cox said. Aronberg echoed this assessment. In Florida, Bondi “was not seen as a very partisan person,” he said, citing her “strong working relationship with Democrats,” which continued even after being sworn in as state attorney general. “She would support legislation regardless of whether it was supported by Democrats or Republicans,” Aronberg said, and in return, she was well-liked across the aisle. DNC UNION LAUNCHES GOFUNDME TO HELP FORMER STAFFERS HIT BY MASSIVE LAYOFFS AFTER ELECTION LOSSES TRUMP ‘ENEMIES’ In announcing Bondi as his nomination for attorney general, Trump again took aim at the Justice Department, which he characterized as being “weaponized” against him. “Pam will refocus the DOJ to its intended purpose of fighting Crime, and Making America Safe Again,” Trump said in the statement. But those close to Bondi said they do not think of her as an overly political person, saying they believe the many years she spent as a litigator and state attorney general will help her deftly navigate the unique political pressures in the role, including Trump’s calls to go after his so-called “enemies” within the Department of Justice. Though Bondi herself has echoed calls to “investigate the investigators” involved in the special counsel investigations into Donald Trump, former colleagues said they think she has learned from former Justice Department leaders before her, including former Attorney General Bill Barr and former Special Counsel John Durham, who was tapped by Barr to investigate alleged misconduct in the Trump-Russia probe. “I’ve told my Democratic friends not to overreact because we have been through this before,” Aronberg said, citing the special counsel probe led by Durham. In the next four years, he said, “I think we will see more of that.” But Aronberg sees a difference between Bondi and others, including Trump’s former attorney general nominee, Matt Gaetz. Bondi “is not going to burn the house down,” Aronberg said. “She’s not going to manufacture evidence as a way to walk Trump’s enemies out in handcuffs.”
Revolutionizing enterprise systems through innovation: Sandhyarani Ganipaneni’s transformative SAP journey
Under the guidance of Technical Lead Sandhyarani Ganipaneni, ILG Information Technology has achieved a remarkable transformation of their SAP infrastructure, delivering substantial operational efficiencies and significant cost savings.