Extra, Extra
Apprise and Consent: Pete Hegseth is not qualified to be the Sec of Defense, and his personal history makes him an even less appropriate pick. Last week, his confirmation hopes looked dim. Then the pressure campaign (Fox News, social media posts, and threats of primary opponents) started. Growing momentum for Cabinet picks who could define Trump’s second term. “The stakes were laid bare in recent days by a fierce pressure campaign on social and conservative media targeting Sen. Joni Ernst over her reservations about Trump’s Pentagon pick, Hegseth … Amid concerns about sexual assault and drinking allegations and his past opposition to women serving in the military, some of her colleagues had even floated Ernst, an Iraq war veteran who’s fought sexual abuse in the military, as a possible replacement candidate. But on Monday, after rapidly rising pressure, including in her home state, Ernst said in a statement after another meeting with Hegseth that she would ‘support Pete through this process’ and looked forward to a ‘fair hearing.'” Meanwhile from the NYT (Gift Article): Nobel Laureates Urge Senate to Turn Down Kennedy’s Nomination. “Placing Mr. Kennedy in charge of DHHS would put the public’s health in jeopardy and undermine America’s global leadership in the health sciences.” (For many, this will read like an endorsement.)
+ Assad Wrong Says So Much: An interim prime minister has been named in Syria and senior Assad government officials are wanted for war crimes as tortured bodies have been found. Here’s the latest from BBC. Meanwhile, Israel is moving to prevent terror groups from getting access to military stockpiles in Syria, “and the Israeli defense minister announced that his forces had destroyed Syria’s navy.” Assad joins list of toppled leaders 13 years after Arab Spring. While leaders were removed, democracy hasn’t followed.
+ Martial Nah: “South Korea’s previous defense minister was formally arrested Wednesday over his alleged collusion with President Yoon Suk Yeol and others in imposing martial law last week.”
+ Lie After Death Experience? “A probate commissioner has ruled against Rupert Murdoch’s effort to change his family’s trust to give one of his sons control of his media empire and ensure Fox News maintains its conservative editorial slant.”
+ Quantum Leap: “Google has unveiled a new chip which it claims takes five minutes to solve a problem that would currently take the world’s fastest super computers ten septillion – or 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years – to complete.”
+ Murderer’s Row: “Mangione could be heard yelling, in part, ‘it’s completely out of touch and an insult to the intelligence of the American people. It’s lived experience!'” Here’s the latest on the UnitedHealthcare CEO murder suspect. (As if you could turn on your computer and somehow miss it.)
+ Canny Granny: “O2, the company behind the scam-baiting granny, said the AI technology can keep scammers on the phone for 40 minutes at a time. Daisy was trained with the help of YouTuber and software engineer Jim Browning, who has made an online career exposing scammers to his community of 4.4 million subscribers.” A phone company developed an AI ‘granny’ to beat scammers at their own game.
