Breaking
Wealth World News
Archive

2024

Browsing
Politics

General involved in Afghanistan withdrawal has promotion confirmed by Senate

Lt. Gen. Christopher Donahue – who was seen in the viral, night vision photo showing the final American soldier out of Kabul, Afghanistan – was quietly confirmed by the Senate on Monday to lead U.S. Army forces in Europe and Africa. 

Donahue, who headed the 82nd Airborne Division during the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, was tapped by President Biden for the promotion to four-star general, but the confirmation was left out of a series of a hundred other military promotions green-lighted by the Senate before Thanksgiving recess. The delay was caused by one senator holding Donahue’s confirmation, according to Politico. 

Several outlets reported that Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., was responsible for the procedural hold. 

Mullin has been a vocal critic of the Biden-Harris administration’s handling of the botched withdrawal mired by the killing of13 U.S. service members and roughly 170 Afghan civilians during a suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport’s Abbey Gate. Donahue was responsible for the 82nd Airborne as it was tasked with securing the airfield at the Kabul airport during evacuations before the country fell to the Taliban. 

The senator called out Donahue, as well as other officials, in an Aug. 24, 2024, statement on the three-year anniversary of the suicide bombing attack. 

‘Three years later, not one person has been held accountable for the disaster–not Gen. Milley, Gen. McKenzie, Gen. Donahue, U.S. Ambassador to Tajikistan John Pommersheim, or anyone at the State Department,’ Mullin said at the time. ‘To this day, no one has testified before Congress as to who gave this directive. No one has been held accountable for the 13 brave American heroes who died at Abbey Gate, or the countless Americans who lost their lives trying to escape Kabul.’ 

President-elect Trump’s former defense secretary turned Trump critic, Mark Esper, had defended Donahue’s nomination, and urged last month for the hold to be lifted. 

‘Responsibility for the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 rests with the White House, not the Defense Dept, and certainly not with the uniformed leaders who faithfully executed Pres Biden’s misbegotten decisions,’ Esper wrote on X. 

Trump had promised on the campaign trail to fire senior officers involved in the withdrawal, though not Donahue specifically. 

One U.S. official told NBC News last month that the Trump transition team was compiling a list of senior current and former U.S. military officers to be potentially court-martialed over the pullout. 

The Senate ultimately confirmed Donahue’s promotion to be the commander of US Army Europe-Africa by unanimous consent on Monday, as the hold was dropped. Mullin had not publicly commented about the hold. 

Donahue has headed the 18th Airborne Corps at Fort Liberty, North Carolina, since 2022. 

He has also been leader of the Special Operations Joint Task Force Afghanistan and served as the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s deputy director for special operations and counterterrorism.

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS
Keep Reading
By
Politics

McConnell criticizes federal judges for reversing retirement decisions as ‘open partisanship’

The Senate GOP leader on Monday slammed decisions by two federal judges to reverse their announced retirements after Republican former President Trump won re-election in November.

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., criticized the pair of ‘partisan Democrat district judges’ after they announced plans to ‘unretire’ after ‘the American people voted to fire Democrats last month.’ 

‘Looking to history, only two judges have ever unretired after a presidential election. One Democrat in 2004 and one Republican in 2009. But now, in just a matter of weeks, Democrats have already met that all-time record. It’s hard to conclude that this is anything other than open partisanship,’ McConnell said in remarks delivered on the Senate floor.

In mid-November, U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley of Ohio informed President Biden of his intention to stay on the bench after Biden had failed to nominate a replacement for him.

Marbley, who was appointed by President Clinton, said that because a successor had not been confirmed, ‘I have therefore decided to remain on active status and carry out the full duties and obligations of the office.’ 

Meanwhile, U.S. District Judge Max Cogburn of North Carolina, who was appointed by President Obama, has also withdrawn plans to retire, Reuters reported.

Both Marbley and Cogburn had announced plans to take senior status before the election, which would have allowed them to take reduced caseloads until the president appoints a successor. 

McConnell said their decisions to rescind their retirements after Trump won points to ‘a political finger on the scale.’ He urged the incoming Trump administration to ‘explore all available recusal options with these judges.’ 

He also warned two sitting circuit court judges, who have announced retirements and have vacancies currently pending before the senate, against making similar decisions to ‘unretire.’ 

‘Never before has a circuit judge unretired after a presidential election. It’s literally unprecedented. And to create such a precedent would fly in the face of a rare bipartisan compromise on the disposition of these vacancies,’ McConnell said.

He was referring to a bipartisan agreement on judicial nominations last month that secured Trump’s ability to appoint four crucial appellate court judges after he assumes office in January.

Republicans agreed to halt procedural delay tactics and permit Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to vote on cloture on nine of Biden’s district court judges before Thanksgiving and vote to confirm them when they return after the holiday. In exchange, Democrats would pull four circuit court nominees who lack the votes to get confirmed, allowing Trump to fill those vacancies next year. 

However, a Democratic source familiar told Fox News Digital that only two of the circuit court vacancies are certain, and the other two may ultimately decide against taking senior judge status.

McConnell threatened that ‘significant ethics complaints’ would follow swiftly if any retiring judge reversed their decision to take senior status because Trump won.

‘As I repeatedly warned the judiciary in other matters, if you play political games, expect political prizes. So let’s hope these judges do the right thing and enjoy their well-earned retirement and leave the politics to the political branches.’ 

Fox News Digital’s Julia Johnson and Kelly Phares contributed to this report.

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS
Keep Reading
By
Politics

After Trump’s tariff threat, Mexico says Canada wishes it ‘had the cultural riches Mexico has’

Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum says Canada ‘could only wish they had the cultural riches Mexico has’ following a threat by President-elect Donald Trump to impose tariffs on both countries over the flow of migrants and drugs into the U.S. 

Sheinbaum made the remark after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau joined Trump for dinner at Mar-a-Lago on Friday, during which he spoke to the president-elect about his border concerns, Kirsten Hillman, Canada’s ambassador in Washington, told The Associated Press. 

‘The message that our border is so vastly different than the Mexican border was really understood,’ Hillman said Sunday. 

Sheinbaum then told the AP the following day that ‘Mexico must be respected, especially by its trading partners,’ adding that Canada had its own problems with fentanyl consumption and ‘could only wish they had the cultural riches Mexico has.’ 

U.S. customs agents seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the Canadian border during the last fiscal year, compared with 21,100 pounds at the Mexican border, the AP reported. 

On immigration, the U.S. Border Patrol made 56,530 arrests at the Mexican border in October alone, while there were only 23,721 arrests at the Canadian border between October 2023 and September 2024. During the same period, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported 1.53 million encounters with migrants at the southwest border with Mexico. 

‘As everyone is aware, thousands of people are pouring through Mexico and Canada, bringing Crime and Drugs at levels never seen before,’ Trump wrote last week on Truth Social. 

‘On January 20th, as one of my many first Executive Orders, I will sign all necessary documents to charge Mexico and Canada a 25% Tariff on ALL products coming into the United States, and its ridiculous Open Borders. This Tariff will remain in effect until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country!’ Trump added.  

Sheinbaum also said to the AP that during her own conversation last week with Trump, he ‘had agreed’ that Mexico wanted to focus on intelligence sharing in anti-drug efforts, noting ‘he said that in his opinion that was good.’ 

However, she said Mexico would reject any direct U.S. intervention in Mexico and continue to enforce the tight restrictions on U.S. law enforcement agencies in Mexico imposed by her predecessor.  

‘That is going to be maintained,’ she said. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS
Keep Reading
By
Politics

Tired of Ukraine? Remember South Vietnam

Suppose you support Ukraine but not the way the war has been prosecuted – but also want Russian President Vladimir Putin to be soundly and unmistakably defeated. How do you square this problem?

Maybe look back 50 years ago to the fall of South Vietnam for some context and guidance.

Besides the squandered opportunities at the early stages of both fights, Ukraine today brings to mind the latter phase of the Vietnam War. 

The Americans were tired of it. 

It wasn’t being conducted in a way that seemed sensible or likely to bring victory (and hadn’t been for some time).

And the United States itself was wracked with social and economic problems back in the early ’70s. 

Thus, the U.S., and Congress in particular – to include Sen. Joe Biden (‘We are under no obligation to help those people’) – let South Vietnam go under. 

It turned out that with just a reasonable level of support, the South Vietnamese could have hung on indefinitely, until the rest of Southeast Asia got its acts together and strengthened their economies and political structures. 

Instead we cut them off… while Henry Kissinger in passive-aggressive fashion begged the North Vietnamese for a deal.

And we got everything that followed after Saigon fell – and we’re still paying for it.  

Recall what happened after South Vietnam was enslaved – to include ‘reeducation camps’ and summary executions by the North Vietnamese communists.

The ‘Boat People’ tragedies as South Vietnamese fled the country.

Our Hmong allies in South Vietnam were savaged.

And the rest of Southeast Asia suffered.

Half the Cambodian population murdered by Khmer Rouge communists, for starters.  

Insurgency in the Philippines brewed up.  

And the rest of the world?  

Africa – Angola, Mozambique, the Horn of Africa – brutal civil wars that developed to Russia and China’s advantage. Rhodesia, and eventually South Africa – democracies and pro-West (for all their shortcomings) were put into untenable positions.  

Central America – Russia and local communists ascendent.  

And remember the ‘disarmament’ movements in Europe, egged on by successful Russian political warfare that caused us no end of trouble – to include the ‘peace movement’ in the USA that demanded the U.S. give the Soviets what they wanted. Can’t risk nuclear war, you know. 

It seemed like the free world was finished.

The list could be much longer.

All it took to avoid all of this – and the attendant human suffering – was just a little more effort to support South Vietnam. Money, logistics and air support.

The specifics are different with Ukraine – not least that America isn’t doing any of the fighting (a plus) – but the basics are similar enough.

Whatever else happens from here out with Ukraine, it’s imperative that Putin can’t claim to have come out ahead. And his Iranian, North Korean and Chinese friends similarly should wish they’d not gotten involved.

Otherwise, the thuggish regimes from Beijing to Caracas make their moves.

What to do?

Lean on the Europeans to do 10 times more than they are now. The U.S. as well should expand defense production and give the Ukrainians whatever they need – and keep records. Things and money have a way of vanishing in Eastern Europe.

But pumping guns, hardware and money into Ukraine isn’t enough.

Apply real sanctions on the Russians. There are too many loopholes now.

Go after Putin’s personal wealth and make it disappear, and also expose to high heaven what we can’t grab.

Relearn political warfare. Any competent political warfare operator or propagandist has plenty to work with. One idea of a thousand:  hammer home that proud Russia is depending on Asians (North Koreans and Chinese) to save it.  

Do to the Iranians what President Trump did in his first term, and then some. The mullahs were on the ropes. Bring down the regime. Don’t restrain the Israelis.

Apply real sanctions on North Korea – or even just enforce ones that exist.

But for any of this to work, revoke China’s Most-Favored-Nation trade status and state clearly it’s because of what they’ve done to support Russia in Ukraine.  

It has to be a sledgehammer to the head… and this would be.  

And break our addiction to the China market and Chinese manufactured goods, drugs, precursor chemicals, rare earths minerals and the like.

We may be ‘tired’ of Ukraine, but nothing good will come of letting it go under – or letting the dictatorships think they’ve come out ahead.

That’s a lesson learned in 1975 in Saigon.

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS
Keep Reading
By
Sports

Browns QB says he’s praying for help with interceptions

Jameis Winston set a Cleveland Browns record with 497 passing yards in Monday night’s 41-32 loss to the Denver Broncos.

But despite also throwing four touchdown passes, it was his two interceptions returned for touchdowns — and three picks overall — that stuck with the quarterback.

‘I know I’m better than this,’ Winston said of the turnovers in a postgame news conference. ‘Like, I’m just praying for the Lord to deliver me from pick-sixes.’

Winston’s first interception against the Broncos came in the second quarter, when his pass intended for tight end Jordan Akins was nabbed by edge rusher Nik Bonitto and returned 71 yards, giving Denver a 21-10 lead. His second extinguished any hope for a Cleveland comeback from a 34-32 deficit in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter, as Broncos cornerback Ja’Quan McMillian leaped to jump Elijah Moore’s route and took the interception 44 yards after getting back on his feet. On the subsequent drive, Winston was picked off by Broncos linebacker Cody Barton in the end zone after two long passes and a pass interference got the Browns to the 2-yard line.

The turnovers marred a prolific night for Cleveland’s offense, which set a season high in scoring. Wide receiver Jerry Jeudy had 235 receiving yards, setting an all-time high for a player facing his former team.

NFL STATS CENTRAL: The latest NFL scores, schedules, odds, stats and more.

Winston said he apologized to his teammates for the pick-sixes.

‘It’s tough to win when you have two defensive touchdowns that the quarterback gave (the other team),’ Winston said. ‘Defense played good. Offense played well. I didn’t do a great job.’

Volatile play has been the hallmark of Winston’s 10-year NFL career. The No. 1 pick in the 2015 NFL draft set the single-season record for pick-sixes with seven in 2019. His 30 interceptions that year are tied for seventh most in NFL history and are the only time since 1989 that a quarterback has reached that mark. Yet he also led the league with 5,109 passing yards that season and recorded a career-high 33 touchdown passes.

The Buccaneers brought aboard Tom Brady the following season, and Winston signed with the New Orleans Saints. Winston started just 10 games over four years after a 2021 knee injury derailed his second shot as a first stringer. He joined the Browns as a backup this offseason before taking over after Deshaun Watson was lost for the season to a torn Achilles in October.

Winston, who entered the night with the highest interception rate (3.4%) of any active player, vowed to turn things around.

‘I’m gonna keep working,’ Winston said. ‘I’m gonna fix it. … Nothing is going to change from a mental perspective, but the physical perspective, I’m gonna continue to work, and I’ll be better.’

All the NFL news on and off the field. Sign up for USA TODAY’s 4th and Monday newsletter.

This post appeared first on USA TODAY
Keep Reading
By
Sports

Randy Moss discloses ‘internal’ health issue on ‘Sunday NFL Countdown’

The opening moments of ESPN’s ‘Sunday NFL Countdown’ briefly took a more serious turn this week.

Host Mike Greenberg quickly gave the floor to NFL Hall of Famer Randy Moss, who then addressed an ongoing health issue that forced him to wear sunglasses at times throughout the broadcast. Moss’ eyes appeared to be yellow during the previous week’s show, and he asked the audience for their prayers as he is ‘battling something internally.’

‘I just want to share something with y’all,’ Moss said. ‘I put a post up maybe a few minutes ago on Instagram just telling people who were talking about my eyes last week and I just want to let the viewers know that me and my wife, me and my family, we are battling something internally. I have some great doctors around me. I couldn’t miss the show. I wanted to be here with you guys. I feel great, but if you see me with these Michigan turnover glasses that I have on, it’s not being disrespectful because I’m on television. Man, I’m battling something. I need all the prayer warriors. God bless you all and thanks for the prayers.’

Greenberg and the rest of the ‘NFL Sunday Countdown’ crew featuring Rex Ryan, Alex Smith and Tedy Bruschi then put on glasses as well in a show of solidarity with Moss for their Week 13 broadcast.

NFL STATS CENTRAL: The latest NFL scores, schedules, odds, stats and more.

Moss, 47, encouraged men to ‘get your blood work done,’ in his Instagram post. He also declared that ‘your boy is going to get through it.’ He did not disclose specifics about the illness or medical situation that he’s going through at the moment.

The Hall of Famer played for 14 seasons with the Minnesota Vikings, Oakland Raiders, New England Patriots, Tennessee Titans and San Francisco 49ers. He ranks second all-time in career touchdown catches (156) behind only Jerry Rice and he’s fourth all-time in receiving yards (15,292).

Moss has been an NFL analyst at ESPN since 2016, with regular appearances on ‘Sunday NFL Countdown’ and ‘Monday Night Countdown’ as part of the network’s pro football coverage.

This post appeared first on USA TODAY
Keep Reading
By
Sports

Bowl projections: Alabama rejoins playoff field as Texas, SMU move up

Sometimes the penultimate weekend of the college football season can make the playoff picture clearer. There are just a handful of championship games left and a finite amount of results combinations can make things easier to predict.

That’s not the case this year, even with the expanded 12-team field in place for the first time. There are at-large candidates with their regular season over and how the committee will sort them is anybody’s guess. There’s five conferences vying for first-round byes and the championship games will sort out those races. And how the seeding among all these teams are impacted by the games this weekend is unclear.

Does a second loss by Penn State and third by Georgia send them behind teams that do not play next week? Or would a good outing against the respective No. 1 (Oregon) and No. 2 (Texas) teams actually improve their seeding stock?

UP AND DOWN: Winners and losers from Week 14 in college football

That’s for next week. So what changed this week in the projected CFP field? Texas replaces Georgia as the SEC champion. SMU is now the ACC representative after Miami’s loss knocked the Hurricanes out of the field. Off its defeat of Southern California, Notre Dame improves its seeding and will now host a first-round game. And the SEC gets its fourth team in field with three-loss Alabama edging South Carolina on the basis of the head-to-head result between the schools.

As for the entire postseason picture, there are 82 teams that finished bowl-eligible, which means all the bowl games will be filled with teams with six wins. Funny how that all works out.

Notes: Not all conferences will fulfill their bowl allotment. An asterisk represents a replacement pick. Legacy Pac-12 schools in other conferences will fulfill existing Pac-12 bowl agreements through the 2025 season.

College football bowl projections

This post appeared first on USA TODAY
Keep Reading
By
Sports

Oklahoma’s offensive coordinator hire follows Lincoln Riley blueprint

Oklahoma hired an extraordinarily young offensive coordinator from West Texas. 

Again. 

Ten years ago, it was Lincoln Riley On Monday, the school announced the addition of Ben Arbuckle, who served in the same role at Washington State.

Riley, 31 when hired, replaced former Oklahoma national championship quarterback Josh Heupel. Arbuckle, 29, is replacing one of Heupel’s teammates from that 2000 team, former Sooner fullback Seth Littrell, who was fired midseason. 

Without rehashing how things ended with Riley, we can all agree that he was a superb offensive coordinator for the Sooners. Who knows if Oklahoma coach Brent Venables’ choice of Arbuckle will be the home run that Riley was for Bob Stoops, but the similarities from a biographical standpoint are striking. 

BOWL PROJECTIONS: Alabama back into the playoff as Texas, SMU rise

RE-RANK: Texas moves up, Ohio State tumbles in NCAA 1-134 ranking

Arbuckle grew up in Canadian, Texas — 200 miles northeast of Riley’s hometown of Muleshoe. Amarillo is smack dab in between. Arbuckle played college football at West Texas A&M in Canyon, just south of Amarillo. Further down I-27 is Lubbock, where Riley went to Texas Tech. 

At Canadian High School, Arbuckle was teammates with former Sooners backup quarterback Tanner Schafer, a favorite of Riley’s in the quarterback room. 

Arbuckle’s first college coaching job was as a quality control assistant under Zach Kittley at Houston Baptist. Arbuckle followed Kittley to Western Kentucky. 

Kittley got his coaching start at Texas Tech, learning under Kliff Kingsbury and Sonny Cumbie, a couple of Mike Leach’s quarterbacks. Kingsbury and Cumbie are contemporaries of Riley — all branches of Leach’s coaching tree. Just as Riley was mentored by Leach, Arbuckle was a protege of Kingsbury’s. 

Arbuckle, coincidentally, spent the last two seasons as offensive coordinator at Washington State, where the late Leach coached from 2012-19. As Oklahoma’s offensive coordinator, Arbuckle is in the same role Leach held in 1999. 

Under Arbuckle’s direction, Washington State ranked 14th this season in yards per play (6.65). Oklahoma’s offense ranked 126th (4.78). Washington State averaged 36.8 points per game compared to 24.3 for the Sooners. 

No telling how Arbuckle’s offense will fare in the SEC, but Venables’ future as Oklahoma’s head coach will hinge in large part on his hiring of Arbuckle. 

If Arbuckle is anything like the last whiz kid the Sooners hired from West Texas, their offense is about to take off.

This post appeared first on USA TODAY
Keep Reading
By
Sports

Christian McCaffrey injury update: 49ers RB placed on IR

The San Francisco 49ers running back injured the PCL in his knee, an MRI confirmed Monday. San Francisco plans to place McCaffrey on injured reserve. He is expected to miss six weeks.

Head coach Kyle Shanahan announced the news during his Monday press conference.

‘It’s about a six-week recovery, so he’s gonna be going on IR,’ Shanahan said.

The 49ers feared that McCaffrey injured his PCL during Sunday night’s 35-10 loss to the Buffalo Bills.

NFL STATS CENTRAL: The latest NFL scores, schedules, odds, stats and more.

It’s believed McCaffrey sustained the injury during an 18-yard run in the second quarter. McCaffrey broke free and was tackled around his feet by Bills safety Taylor Rapp. Three plays later, McCaffrey retrieved a toss from 49ers QB Brock Purdy and immediately fell to the ground in obvious discomfort. After the play was whistled dead, the 49ers running back hobbled to the sideline and into the team’s blue medical tent with 11:23 on the clock in the second quarter.

McCaffrey was examined in the blue medical tent and taken into the locker room shortly afterward.

The 49ers announced that McCaffrey was questionable to return midway through the second quarter and then ruled him out at the start of the second half.

McCaffrey has had an injury-riddled 2024 season.

The 49ers star running back was placed on injured reserve to begin the season and missed the team’s first eight games due to calf and Achilles injuries.

McCaffrey produced 202 rushing yards and 146 receiving yards in four games this year.

The defending NFC champion 49ers have been plagued by injuries in 2024. Wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk (knee) and defensive lineman Javon Hargrave (triceps) are two of 10 players currently on injured reserve. The 49ers were also without offensive tackle Trent Williams (ankle) and defensive end Nick Bosa (hip, oblique) for the past two games.

Backup running back Jordan Mason, who shined in McCaffrey’s absence, is also being placed on injured reserve due to an ankle injury he suffered in the loss against the Bills.

The 49ers’ top three running backs are sidelined. McCaffrey and Mason are set to join running back Elijah Mitchell (hamstring), who is already on IR.

Running back Isaac Guerendo is next up on the depth chart for San Francisco.

This post appeared first on USA TODAY
Keep Reading
By
Politics

Senate Democrats to hold leadership elections after losing chamber majority

Democrat senators are scheduled to hold an internal leadership election to fill their top posts in the chamber less than two months after losing the Senate majority to Republicans in the 2024 election.

The election is expected to take place on Capitol Hill on Tuesday morning, with a focus on who will fill the No. 3 position held by a retiring longtime lawmaker.

Last month’s election cost Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., a job he has long held: Senate majority leader. But it will only amount to a demotion for Schumer, who will assume the position of Senate minority leader in 2025.

Majority Whip Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., is also expected to remain the No. 2 Democrat in the chamber as minority whip, a position he has held for nearly two decades.

However, the third ranking Democrat, Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., did not seek re-election this cycle, leaving her policy and communications committee chair position up for grabs.

Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., were reportedly both competing for the No. 3 position in the chamber. However, Axios reported Monday that the Minnesota Democrat is in line to fill the coveted leadership post.

Booker will reportedly take on the No. 4 position in the Senate, though it is unclear as to what that will entail, according to an Axios report ahead of the leadership election.

Booker spent the campaign season making himself known around the country with appearances in Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Ohio, South Carolina and Wisconsin, per the New Jersey Globe. 

Senate Republicans recently held leadership elections as they gear up for their six-seat majority in the chamber next Congress. 

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., was elected via secret ballot in November to serve as Senate majority leader in the 119th Congress, replacing Schumer in the No. 1 position in the chamber.

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS
Keep Reading
By