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fb 777 5 ph Trump calls for immediate ceasefire in Ukraine and says a US withdrawal from NATO is possibleAfter weeks of fear and bewilderment about the drones buzzing over parts of New York and New Jersey, U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer is urging the federal government to deploy better drone-tracking technology to identify and ultimately stop the airborne pests. This photo provided by Trisha Bushey shows the evening sky and points of light Dec. 5 near Lebanon Township, N.J. The New York Democrat is calling on the Department of Homeland Security to immediately deploy special technology that identifies and tracks drones back to their landing spots, according to briefings from his office. Schumer’s calls come amid growing public concern that the federal government hasn’t offered clear explanations as to who is operating the drones, and has not stopped them. National security officials have said the drones don’t appear to be a sign of foreign interference. “There’s a lot of us who are pretty frustrated right now,” said Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, on Fox News Sunday. “The answer ‘We don’t know’ is not a good enough answer.” President-elect Donald Trump posted on social media last week: “Can this really be happening without our government’s knowledge? I don’t think so. Let the public know, and now. Otherwise, shoot them down.” Certain agencies within the Department of Homeland Security have the power to “incapacitate” drones, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on Sunday. “But we need those authorities expanded,” he said, without saying exactly how. The drones don’t appear to be linked to foreign governments, Mayorkas said. “We know of no foreign involvement with respect to the sightings in the Northeast. And we are vigilant in investigating this matter,” Mayorkas said. Last year, federal aviation rules began requiring certain drones to broadcast their identities. It’s not clear whether that information has been used to determine who is operating the drones swarming locations in New York and New Jersey. Mayorkas’ office didn’t immediately respond to questions about whether they’ve been able to identify drones using this capability. Schumer is calling for recently declassified radar technology to be used to help determine whether an object is a drone or a bird, identify its electronic registration, and follow it back to its landing place. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Sunday said federal officials were sending a drone detection system to the state. “This system will support state and federal law enforcement in their investigations,” Hochul said in a statement. The governor did not immediately provide additional details, including where the system will be deployed. Dozens of mysterious nighttime flights started last month over New Jersey, raising concerns among residents and officials. Part of the worry stems from the flying objects initially being spotted near the Picatinny Arsenal, a U.S. military research and manufacturing facility and over Trump’s golf course in Bedminster. Drones are legal in New Jersey for recreational and commercial use, but they are subject to local and Federal Aviation Administration regulations and flight restrictions. Operators must be FAA certified. Among President-elect Donald Trump's picks are Susie Wiles for chief of staff, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for secretary of state, former Democratic House member Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence and Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz for attorney general. Susie Wiles, 67, was a senior adviser to Trump's 2024 presidential campaign and its de facto manager. Trump named Florida Sen. Marco Rubio to be secretary of state, making a former sharp critic his choice to be the new administration's top diplomat. Rubio, 53, is a noted hawk on China, Cuba and Iran, and was a finalist to be Trump's running mate on the Republican ticket last summer. Rubio is the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “He will be a strong Advocate for our Nation, a true friend to our Allies, and a fearless Warrior who will never back down to our adversaries,” Trump said of Rubio in a statement. The announcement punctuates the hard pivot Rubio has made with Trump, whom the senator called a “con man" during his unsuccessful campaign for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination. Their relationship improved dramatically while Trump was in the White House. And as Trump campaigned for the presidency a third time, Rubio cheered his proposals. For instance, Rubio, who more than a decade ago helped craft immigration legislation that included a path to citizenship for people in the U.S. illegally, now supports Trump's plan to use the U.S. military for mass deportations. Pete Hegseth, 44, is a co-host of Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends Weekend” and has been a contributor with the network since 2014, where he developed a friendship with Trump, who made regular appearances on the show. Hegseth lacks senior military or national security experience. If confirmed by the Senate, he would inherit the top job during a series of global crises — ranging from Russia’s war in Ukraine and the ongoing attacks in the Middle East by Iranian proxies to the push for a cease-fire between Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah and escalating worries about the growing alliance between Russia and North Korea. Hegseth is also the author of “The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free,” published earlier this year. Trump tapped Pam Bondi, 59, to be attorney general after U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration. She was Florida's first female attorney general, serving between 2011 and 2019. She also was on Trump’s legal team during his first impeachment trial in 2020. Considered a loyalist, she served as part of a Trump-allied outside group that helped lay the groundwork for his future administration called the America First Policy Institute. Bondi was among a group of Republicans who showed up to support Trump at his hush money criminal trial in New York that ended in May with a conviction on 34 felony counts. A fierce defender of Trump, she also frequently appears on Fox News and has been a critic of the criminal cases against him. Trump picked South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a well-known conservative who faced sharp criticism for telling a story in her memoir about shooting a rambunctious dog, to lead an agency crucial to the president-elect’s hardline immigration agenda. Noem used her two terms leading a tiny state to vault to a prominent position in Republican politics. South Dakota is usually a political afterthought. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, Noem did not order restrictions that other states had issued and instead declared her state “open for business.” Trump held a fireworks rally at Mount Rushmore in July 2020 in one of the first large gatherings of the pandemic. She takes over a department with a sprawling mission. In addition to key immigration agencies, the Department of Homeland Security oversees natural disaster response, the U.S. Secret Service, and Transportation Security Administration agents who work at airports. The governor of North Dakota, who was once little-known outside his state, Burgum is a former Republican presidential primary contender who endorsed Trump, and spent months traveling to drum up support for him, after dropping out of the race. Burgum was a serious contender to be Trump’s vice presidential choice this summer. The two-term governor was seen as a possible pick because of his executive experience and business savvy. Burgum also has close ties to deep-pocketed energy industry CEOs. Trump made the announcement about Burgum joining his incoming administration while addressing a gala at his Mar-a-Lago club, and said a formal statement would be coming the following day. In comments to reporters before Trump took the stage, Burgum said that, in recent years, the power grid is deteriorating in many parts of the country, which he said could raise national security concerns but also drive up prices enough to increase inflation. “There's just a sense of urgency, and a sense of understanding in the Trump administration,” Burgum said. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ran for president as a Democrat, than as an independent, and then endorsed Trump . He's the son of Democratic icon Robert Kennedy, who was assassinated during his own presidential campaign. The nomination of Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services alarmed people who are concerned about his record of spreading unfounded fears about vaccines . For example, he has long advanced the debunked idea that vaccines cause autism. Scott Bessent, 62, is a former George Soros money manager and an advocate for deficit reduction. He's the founder of hedge fund Key Square Capital Management, after having worked on-and-off for Soros Fund Management since 1991. If confirmed by the Senate, he would be the nation’s first openly gay treasury secretary. He told Bloomberg in August that he decided to join Trump’s campaign in part to attack the mounting U.S. national debt. That would include slashing government programs and other spending. “This election cycle is the last chance for the U.S. to grow our way out of this mountain of debt without becoming a sort of European-style socialist democracy,” he said then. Oregon Republican U.S. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer narrowly lost her reelection bid this month, but received strong backing from union members in her district. As a potential labor secretary, she would oversee the Labor Department’s workforce, its budget and put forth priorities that impact workers’ wages, health and safety, ability to unionize, and employer’s rights to fire employers, among other responsibilities. Chavez-DeRemer is one of few House Republicans to endorse the “Protecting the Right to Organize” or PRO Act would allow more workers to conduct organizing campaigns and would add penalties for companies that violate workers’ rights. The act would also weaken “right-to-work” laws that allow employees in more than half the states to avoid participating in or paying dues to unions that represent workers at their places of employment. Scott Turner is a former NFL player and White House aide. He ran the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council during Trump’s first term in office. Trump, in a statement, credited Turner, the highest-ranking Black person he’s yet selected for his administration, with “helping to lead an Unprecedented Effort that Transformed our Country’s most distressed communities.” Sean Duffy is a former House member from Wisconsin who was one of Trump's most visible defenders on cable news. Duffy served in the House for nearly nine years, sitting on the Financial Services Committee and chairing the subcommittee on insurance and housing. He left Congress in 2019 for a TV career and has been the host of “The Bottom Line” on Fox Business. Before entering politics, Duffy was a reality TV star on MTV, where he met his wife, “Fox and Friends Weekend” co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy. They have nine children. A campaign donor and CEO of Denver-based Liberty Energy, Write is a vocal advocate of oil and gas development, including fracking — a key pillar of Trump’s quest to achieve U.S. “energy dominance” in the global market. Wright also has been one of the industry’s loudest voices against efforts to fight climate change. He said the climate movement around the world is “collapsing under its own weight.” The Energy Department is responsible for advancing energy, environmental and nuclear security of the United States. Wright also won support from influential conservatives, including oil and gas tycoon Harold Hamm. Hamm, executive chairman of Oklahoma-based Continental Resources, a major shale oil company, is a longtime Trump supporter and adviser who played a key role on energy issues in Trump’s first term. President-elect Donald Trump tapped billionaire professional wrestling mogul Linda McMahon to be secretary of the Education Department, tasked with overseeing an agency Trump promised to dismantle. McMahon led the Small Business Administration during Trump’s initial term from 2017 to 2019 and twice ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for the U.S. Senate in Connecticut. She’s seen as a relative unknown in education circles, though she expressed support for charter schools and school choice. She served on the Connecticut Board of Education for a year starting in 2009 and has spent years on the board of trustees for Sacred Heart University in Connecticut. Brooke Rollins, who graduated from Texas A&M University with a degree in agricultural development, is a longtime Trump associate who served as White House domestic policy chief during his first presidency. The 52-year-old is president and CEO of the America First Policy Institute, a group helping to lay the groundwork for a second Trump administration. She previously served as an aide to former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and ran a think tank, the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Trump chose Howard Lutnick, head of brokerage and investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald and a cryptocurrency enthusiast, as his nominee for commerce secretary, a position in which he'd have a key role in carrying out Trump's plans to raise and enforce tariffs. Trump made the announcement Tuesday on his social media platform, Truth Social. Lutnick is a co-chair of Trump’s transition team, along with Linda McMahon, the former wrestling executive who previously led Trump’s Small Business Administration. Both are tasked with putting forward candidates for key roles in the next administration. The nomination would put Lutnick in charge of a sprawling Cabinet agency that is involved in funding new computer chip factories, imposing trade restrictions, releasing economic data and monitoring the weather. It is also a position in which connections to CEOs and the wider business community are crucial. FILE - Former Rep. Doug Collins speaks before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at a campaign event at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, Oct. 15, 2024, in Atlanta. Karoline Leavitt, 27, was Trump's campaign press secretary and currently a spokesperson for his transition. She would be the youngest White House press secretary in history. The White House press secretary typically serves as the public face of the administration and historically has held daily briefings for the press corps. Leavitt, a New Hampshire native, was a spokesperson for MAGA Inc., a super PAC supporting Trump, before joining his 2024 campaign. In 2022, she ran for Congress in New Hampshire, winning a 10-way Republican primary before losing to Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas. Leavitt worked in the White House press office during Trump's first term before she became communications director for New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, Trump's choice for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has been tapped by Trump to be director of national intelligence, keeping with the trend to stock his Cabinet with loyal personalities rather than veteran professionals in their requisite fields. Gabbard, 43, was a Democratic House member who unsuccessfully sought the party's 2020 presidential nomination before leaving the party in 2022. She endorsed Trump in August and campaigned often with him this fall. “I know Tulsi will bring the fearless spirit that has defined her illustrious career to our Intelligence Community,” Trump said in a statement. Gabbard, who has served in the Army National Guard for more than two decades, deploying to Iraq and Kuwait, would come to the role as somewhat of an outsider compared to her predecessor. The current director, Avril Haines, was confirmed by the Senate in 2021 following several years in a number of top national security and intelligence positions. Trump has picked John Ratcliffe, a former Texas congressman who served as director of national intelligence during his first administration, to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency in his next. Ratcliffe was director of national intelligence during the final year and a half of Trump's first term, leading the U.S. government's spy agencies during the coronavirus pandemic. “I look forward to John being the first person ever to serve in both of our Nation's highest Intelligence positions,” Trump said in a statement, calling him a “fearless fighter for the Constitutional Rights of all Americans” who would ensure “the Highest Levels of National Security, and PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH.” Kash Patel spent several years as a Justice Department prosecutor before catching the Trump administration’s attention as a staffer on Capitol Hill who helped investigate the Russia probe. Patel called for dramatically reducing the agency’s footprint, a perspective that sets him apart from earlier directors who sought additional resources for the bureau. Though the Justice Department in 2021 halted the practice of secretly seizing reporters’ phone records during leak investigations, Patel said he intends to aggressively hunt down government officials who leak information to reporters. Trump has chosen former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin to serve as his pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency . Zeldin does not appear to have any experience in environmental issues, but is a longtime supporter of the former president. The 44-year-old former U.S. House member from New York wrote on X , “We will restore US energy dominance, revitalize our auto industry to bring back American jobs, and make the US the global leader of AI.” “We will do so while protecting access to clean air and water,” he added. During his campaign, Trump often attacked the Biden administration's promotion of electric vehicles, and incorrectly referring to a tax credit for EV purchases as a government mandate. Trump also often told his audiences during the campaign his administration would “Drill, baby, drill,” referring to his support for expanded petroleum exploration. In a statement, Trump said Zeldin “will ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses, while at the same time maintaining the highest environmental standards, including the cleanest air and water on the planet.” Trump has named Brendan Carr, the senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, as the new chairman of the agency tasked with regulating broadcasting, telecommunications and broadband. Carr is a longtime member of the commission and served previously as the FCC’s general counsel. He has been unanimously confirmed by the Senate three times and was nominated by both Trump and President Joe Biden to the commission. Carr made past appearances on “Fox News Channel," including when he decried Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris' pre-Election Day appearance on “Saturday Night Live.” He wrote an op-ed last month defending a satellite company owned by Trump supporter Elon Musk. Trump said Atkins, the CEO of Patomak Partners and a former SEC commissioner, was a “proven leader for common sense regulations.” In the years since leaving the SEC, Atkins has made the case against too much market regulation. “He believes in the promise of robust, innovative capital markets that are responsive to the needs of Investors, & that provide capital to make our Economy the best in the World. He also recognizes that digital assets & other innovations are crucial to Making America Greater than Ever Before,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. The commission oversees U.S. securities markets and investments and is currently led by Gary Gensler, who has been leading the U.S. government’s crackdown on the crypto industry. Gensler, who was nominated by President Joe Biden, announced last month that he would be stepping down from his post on the day that Trump is inaugurated — Jan. 20, 2025. Atkins began his career as a lawyer and has a long history working in the financial markets sector, both in government and private practice. In the 1990s, he worked on the staffs of two former SEC chairmen, Richard C. Breeden and Arthur Levitt. Jared Isaacman, 41, is a tech billionaire who bought a series of spaceflights from Elon Musk’s SpaceX and conducted the first private spacewalk . He is the founder and CEO of a card-processing company and has collaborated closely with Musk ever since buying his first chartered SpaceX flight. He took contest winners on that 2021 trip and followed it in September with a mission where he briefly popped out the hatch to test SpaceX’s new spacewalking suits. Rep. Elise Stefanik is a representative from New York and one of Trump's staunchest defenders going back to his first impeachment. Elected to the House in 2014, Stefanik was selected by her GOP House colleagues as House Republican Conference chair in 2021, when former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney was removed from the post after publicly criticizing Trump for falsely claiming he won the 2020 election. Stefanik, 40, has served in that role ever since as the third-ranking member of House leadership. Stefanik’s questioning of university presidents over antisemitism on their campuses helped lead to two of those presidents resigning, further raising her national profile. If confirmed, she would represent American interests at the U.N. as Trump vows to end the war waged by Russia against Ukraine begun in 2022. He has also called for peace as Israel continues its offensive against Hamas in Gaza and its invasion of Lebanon to target Hezbollah. President-elect Donald Trump says he's chosen former acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker to serve as U.S. ambassador to NATO. Trump has expressed skepticism about the Western military alliance for years. Trump said in a statement Wednesday that Whitaker is “a strong warrior and loyal Patriot” who “will ensure the United States’ interests are advanced and defended” and “strengthen relationships with our NATO Allies, and stand firm in the face of threats to Peace and Stability.” The choice of Whitaker as the nation’s representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is an unusual one, given his background is as a lawyer and not in foreign policy. President-elect Donald Trump tapped former Sen. David Perdue of Georgia to be ambassador to China, saying in a social media post that the former CEO “brings valuable expertise to help build our relationship with China.” Perdue lost his Senate seat to Democrat Jon Ossoff four years ago and ran unsuccessfully in a primary against Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp. Perdue pushed Trump's debunked lies about electoral fraud during his failed bid for governor. Trump will nominate former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to be ambassador to Israel. Huckabee is a staunch defender of Israel and his intended nomination comes as Trump has promised to align U.S. foreign policy more closely with Israel's interests as it wages wars against the Iran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah. “He loves Israel, and likewise the people of Israel love him,” Trump said in a statement. “Mike will work tirelessly to bring about peace in the Middle East.” Huckabee, who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 and 2016, has been a popular figure among evangelical Christian conservatives, many of whom support Israel due to Old Testament writings that Jews are God’s chosen people and that Israel is their rightful homeland. Trump has been praised by some in this important Republican voting bloc for moving the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Guilfoyle is a former California prosecutor and television news personality who led the fundraising for Trump's 2020 campaign and became engaged to Don Jr. in 2020. Trump called her “a close friend and ally” and praised her “sharp intellect make her supremely qualified.” Guilfoyle was on stage with the family on election night. “I am so proud of Kimberly. She loves America and she always has wanted to serve the country as an Ambassador. She will be an amazing leader for America First,” Don Jr. posted. The ambassador positions must be approved by the U.S. Senate. Guilfoyle said in a social media post that she was “honored to accept President Trump’s nomination to serve as the next Ambassador to Greece and I look forward to earning the support of the U.S. Senate.” Trump on Tuesday named real estate investor Steven Witkoff to be special envoy to the Middle East. The 67-year-old Witkoff is the president-elect's golf partner and was golfing with him at Trump's club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sept. 15, when the former president was the target of a second attempted assassination. Witkoff “is a Highly Respected Leader in Business and Philanthropy,” Trump said of Witkoff in a statement. “Steve will be an unrelenting Voice for PEACE, and make us all proud." Trump also named Witkoff co-chair, with former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler, of his inaugural committee. Trump said Wednesday that he will nominate Gen. Keith Kellogg to serve as assistant to the president and special envoy for Ukraine and Russia. Kellogg, a retired Army lieutenant general who has long been Trump’s top adviser on defense issues, served as National Security Advisor to Trump's former Vice President Mike Pence. For the America First Policy Institute, one of several groups formed after Trump left office to help lay the groundwork for the next Republican administration, Kellogg in April wrote that “bringing the Russia-Ukraine war to a close will require strong, America First leadership to deliver a peace deal and immediately end the hostilities between the two warring parties.” (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib) Trump asked Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., a retired Army National Guard officer and war veteran, to be his national security adviser, Trump announced in a statement Tuesday. The move puts Waltz in the middle of national security crises, ranging from efforts to provide weapons to Ukraine and worries about the growing alliance between Russia and North Korea to the persistent attacks in the Middle East by Iran proxies and the push for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas and Hezbollah. “Mike has been a strong champion of my America First Foreign Policy agenda,” Trump's statement said, "and will be a tremendous champion of our pursuit of Peace through Strength!” Waltz is a three-term GOP congressman from east-central Florida. He served multiple tours in Afghanistan and also worked in the Pentagon as a policy adviser when Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates were defense chiefs. He is considered hawkish on China, and called for a U.S. boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing due to its involvement in the origin of COVID-19 and its mistreatment of the minority Muslim Uighur population. Stephen Miller, an immigration hardliner , was a vocal spokesperson during the presidential campaign for Trump's priority of mass deportations. The 39-year-old was a senior adviser during Trump's first administration. Miller has been a central figure in some of Trump's policy decisions, notably his move to separate thousands of immigrant families. Trump argued throughout the campaign that the nation's economic, national security and social priorities could be met by deporting people who are in the United States illegally. Since Trump left office in 2021, Miller has served as the president of America First Legal, an organization made up of former Trump advisers aimed at challenging the Biden administration, media companies, universities and others over issues such as free speech and national security. Thomas Homan, 62, has been tasked with Trump’s top priority of carrying out the largest deportation operation in the nation’s history. Homan, who served under Trump in his first administration leading U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was widely expected to be offered a position related to the border, an issue Trump made central to his campaign. Though Homan has insisted such a massive undertaking would be humane, he has long been a loyal supporter of Trump's policy proposals, suggesting at a July conference in Washington that he would be willing to "run the biggest deportation operation this country’s ever seen.” Democrats have criticized Homan for his defending Trump's “zero tolerance” policy on border crossings during his first administration, which led to the separation of thousands of parents and children seeking asylum at the border. Customs and Border Protection, with its roughly 60,000 employees, falls under the Department of Homeland Security. It includes the Border Patrol, which Rodney Scott led during Trump's first term, and is essentially responsible for protecting the country's borders while facilitating trade and travel. Scott comes to the job firmly from the Border Patrol side of the house. He became an agent in 1992 and spent much of his career in San Diego. When he was appointed head of the border agency in January 2020, he enthusiastically embraced Trump's policies. After being forced out under the Biden administration, Scott has been a vocal supporter of Trump's hard-line immigration agenda. He appeared frequently on Fox News and testified in Congress. He's also a senior fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Former Rep. Billy Long represented Missouri in the U.S. House from 2011 to 2023. Since leaving Congress, Trump said, Long “has worked as a Business and Tax advisor, helping Small Businesses navigate the complexities of complying with the IRS Rules and Regulations.” Former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler was appointed in January 2020 by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and then lost a runoff election a year later. She started a conservative voter registration organization and dived into GOP fundraising, becoming one of the top individual donors and bundlers to Trump’s 2024 comeback campaign. Even before nominating her for agriculture secretary, the president-elect already had tapped Loeffler as co-chair of his inaugural committee. Dr. Mehmet Oz, 64, is a former heart surgeon who hosted “The Dr. Oz Show,” a long-running daytime television talk show. He ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate as the Republican nominee in 2022 and is an outspoken supporter of Trump, who endorsed Oz's bid for elected office. Elon Musk, left, and Vivek Ramaswamy speak before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at an Oct. 27 campaign rally at Madison Square Garden in New York. Trump on Tuesday said Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Ramaswamy will lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency" — which is not, despite the name, a government agency. The acronym “DOGE” is a nod to Musk's favorite cryptocurrency, dogecoin. Trump said Musk and Ramaswamy will work from outside the government to offer the White House “advice and guidance” and will partner with the Office of Management and Budget to “drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before.” He added the move would shock government systems. It's not clear how the organization will operate. Musk, owner of X and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has been a constant presence at Mar-a-Lago since Trump won the presidential election. Ramaswamy suspended his campaign in January and threw his support behind Trump. Trump said the two will “pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.” Russell Vought held the position during Trump’s first presidency. After Trump’s initial term ended, Vought founded the Center for Renewing America, a think tank that describes its mission as “renew a consensus of America as a nation under God.” Vought was closely involved with Project 2025, a conservative blueprint for Trump’s second term that he tried to distance himself from during the campaign. Vought has also previously worked as the executive and budget director for the Republican Study Committee, a caucus for conservative House Republicans. He also worked at Heritage Action, the political group tied to The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. Trump says he’s picking Kari Lake as director of Voice of America, installing a staunch loyalist who ran unsuccessfully for Arizona governor and a Senate seat to head the congressionally funded broadcaster that provides independent news reporting around the world. Lake endeared herself to Trump through her dogmatic commitment to the falsehood that both she and Trump were the victims of election fraud. She has never acknowledged losing the gubernatorial race and called herself the “lawful governor” in her 2023 book, “Unafraid: Just Getting Started.” Dan Scavino, deputy chief of staff Scavino, whom Trump's transition referred to in a statement as one of “Trump's longest serving and most trusted aides,” was a senior adviser to Trump's 2024 campaign, as well as his 2016 and 2020 campaigns. He will be deputy chief of staff and assistant to the president. Scavino had run Trump's social media profile in the White House during his first administration. He was also held in contempt of Congress in 2022 after a month-long refusal to comply with a subpoena from the House committee’s investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. James Blair, deputy chief of staff Blair was political director for Trump's 2024 campaign and for the Republican National Committee. He will be deputy chief of staff for legislative, political and public affairs and assistant to the president. Blair was key to Trump's economic messaging during his winning White House comeback campaign this year, a driving force behind the candidate's “Trump can fix it” slogan and his query to audiences this fall if they were better off than four years ago. Taylor Budowich, deputy chief of staff Budowich is a veteran Trump campaign aide who launched and directed Make America Great Again, Inc., a super PAC that supported Trump's 2024 campaign. He will be deputy chief of staff for communications and personnel and assistant to the president. Budowich also had served as a spokesman for Trump after his presidency. Jay Bhattacharya, National Institutes of Health Trump has chosen Dr. Jay Bhattacharya to lead the National Institutes of Health. Bhattacharya is a physician and professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, and is a critic of pandemic lockdowns and vaccine mandates. He promoted the idea of herd immunity during the pandemic, arguing that people at low risk should live normally while building up immunity to COVID-19 through infection. The National Institutes of Health funds medical research through competitive grants to researchers at institutions throughout the nation. NIH also conducts its own research with thousands of scientists working at its labs in Bethesda, Maryland. Dr. Marty Makary, Food and Drug Administration Makary is a Johns Hopkins surgeon and author who argued against pandemic lockdowns. He routinely appeared on Fox News during the COVID-19 pandemic and wrote opinion articles questioning masks for children. He cast doubt on vaccine mandates but supported vaccines generally. Makary also cast doubt on whether booster shots worked, which was against federal recommendations on the vaccine. Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, Surgeon General Nesheiwat is a general practitioner who serves as medical director for CityMD, a network of urgent care centers in New York and New Jersey. She has been a contributor to Fox News. Dr. Dave Weldon, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Weldon is a former Florida congressman who recently ran for a Florida state legislative seat and lost; Trump backed Weldon’s opponent. In Congress, Weldon weighed in on one of the nation’s most heated debates of the 1990s over quality of life and a right-to-die and whether Terri Schiavo, who was in a persistent vegetative state after cardiac arrest, should have been allowed to have her feeding tube removed. He sided with the parents who did not want it removed. Jamieson Greer, U.S. trade representative Kevin Hassett, Director of the White House National Economic Council Trump is turning to two officials with experience navigating not only Washington but the key issues of income taxes and tariffs as he fills out his economic team. He announced he has chosen international trade attorney Jamieson Greer to be his U.S. trade representative and Kevin Hassett as director of the White House National Economic Council. While Trump has in several cases nominated outsiders to key posts, these picks reflect a recognition that his reputation will likely hinge on restoring the public’s confidence in the economy. Trump said in a statement that Greer was instrumental in his first term in imposing tariffs on China and others and replacing the trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, “therefore making it much better for American Workers.” Hassett, 62, served in the first Trump term as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. He has a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania and worked at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute before joining the Trump White House in 2017. Ron Johnson, Ambassador to Mexico Johnson — not the Republican senator — served as ambassador to El Salvador during Trump's first administration. His nomination comes as the president-elect has been threatening tariffs on Mexican imports and the mass deportation of migrants who have arrived to the U.S.-Mexico border. Johnson is also a former U.S. Army veteran and was in the Central Intelligence Agency. Tom Barrack, Ambassador to Turkey Barrack, a wealthy financier, met Trump in the 1980s while helping negotiate Trump’s purchase of the renowned Plaza Hotel. He was charged with using his personal access to the former president to secretly promote the interests of the United Arab Emirates, but was acquitted of all counts at a federal trial in 2022. Trump called him a “well-respected and experienced voice of reason.” Andrew Ferguson, Federal Trade Commission Ferguson, who is already one of the FTC's five commissioners, will replace Lina Khan, who became a lightning rod for Wall Street and Silicon Valley by blocking billions of dollars worth of corporate acquisitions and suing Amazon and Meta while alleging anticompetitive behavior. “Andrew has a proven record of standing up to Big Tech censorship, and protecting Freedom of Speech in our Great Country,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding, “Andrew will be the most America First, and pro-innovation FTC Chair in our Country’s History.” Jacob Helberg, undersecretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment Dan Bishop, deputy director for budget at the Office of Budget and Management Leandro Rizzuto, Ambassador to the Washington-based Organization of American States Dan Newlin, Ambassador to Colombia Peter Lamelas, Ambassador to Argentina Get local news delivered to your inbox!

December 12, 2024 – Coins.ph , the Philippines’ largest digital asset platform, has achieved key milestones in its global expansion, including launching early access for Australian users and an upcoming launch in Brazil. This comes on the back of record numbers and strong performance for Coins.ph this year. Not only has trading volume on the exchange grown 10 times, the company is projecting to close the year out with revenue being 4 times that of the prior year. Coins.ph is not stopping there. Under the leadership of CEO Wei Zhou, Coins.ph has grown from a homegrown pioneer to a global player with its international platform Coins.xyz , and aims to set the standard for regulated cryptocurrency services globally. Launches in Australia and Brazil In Australia, Coins is partnered with Monochrome, which launched Australia’s first direct spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs. Together, the two are delivering trusted and compliant services to meet the needs of Australian crypto users. In line with this, Coins.xyz Australia is connected to the country’s banking rails so users can seamlessly cash in and withdraw Australian Dollars (AUD). It also boasts AUD trading pairs for those that want to trade crypto with AUD directly. In Brazil, one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing crypto markets, Coins.xyz will be opening its doors to users soon and launching its fiat on and offramps next month. “We promised global expansion, and now it’s happening,” said Wei Zhou, CEO of Coins.ph and Coins.xyz. “Australia and Brazil are key markets for our vision of connecting the world through regulated and accessible digital asset services. It’s our mission that Coins.ph, through Coins.xyz, distinguishes itself as a standard bearer for trust, compliance, and security in the global crypto space.” A Rare Filipino Success Story on the Global Stage Coins.ph is rewriting the narrative for Philippine tech startups. Very few have managed to establish a significant global presence, and Coins.ph has taken tangible steps towards this. “Our investments in technology and product over the past two years have catapulted our capabilities and paved the way for Coins.ph to become truly global,” Zhou said. Coins.ph’s expansion through Coins.xyz is a testament to the caliber of Filipino talent and as it conquers new market. Not only is the company looking to set the benchmark for regulated crypto services worldwide, it is also proving to builders across the country that a Philippine-born platform can aspire to become a contender worldwide. Being business-savvy should be fun, attainable and A+. BMPlus is BusinessMirror's digital arm with practical tips & success stories for aspiring and thriving millennial entrepreneurs.Copy link Copied Copy link Copied Key Posts PM’s character in question in latest poll US conducted airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Syria Syria’s Assad flees to Russia as rebels seize Damascus AAP Copy link Copied Copy link Copied Most Viewed In PoliticsA look at how some of Trump's picks to lead health agencies could help carry out Kennedy's overhaul The people that president-elect Donald Trump has selected to lead federal health agencies in his second administration include a retired congressman, a surgeon and a former talk-show host. All of them could play pivotal roles in fulfilling a new political agenda that could change how the government goes about safeguarding Americans’ health — from health care and medicines to food safety and science research. If Congress approves, prominent environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine organizer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will helm the team. Here’s a look at the nominees’ potential role in carrying out what Kennedy says is the task to “reorganize” agencies. Trump raced to pick many Cabinet posts. He took more time to settle on a treasury secretary WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump launched a blitz of picks for his Cabinet, but he took his time settling on billionaire investor Scott Bessent as his choice for treasury secretary. The Republican not only wanted someone who jibes with him, but an official who can execute his economic vision and look straight out of central casting while doing so. With his Yale University education and pedigree trading for Soros Fund Management before establishing his own funds, Bessent will be tasked with a delicate balancing act. Trump expects him to help reset the global trade order, enable trillions of dollars in tax cuts, ensure inflation stays in check, manage a ballooning national debt and still keep the financial markets confident. Israeli strikes without warning in central Beirut kill at least 15 as diplomats push for cease-fire BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — Lebanese officials say Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 15 people and injured dozens in central Beirut, as the once-rare attacks on the heart of Lebanon’s capital continue without warning. Diplomats are scrambling to broker a cease-fire but say obstacles still remain. The current proposal calls for a two-month cease-fire during which Israeli forces would withdraw from Lebanon and Hezbollah would end its armed presence along the southern border south of the Litani River. Lebanon’s Health Ministry says Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,500 people in Lebanon in the months of fighting that have turned into all-out war. Voters rejected historic election reforms across the US, despite more than $100M push JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Election reform advocates had hoped for a big year at the ballot box. That's because a historic number of states were considering initiatives for ranked choice voting or to end partisan primaries. Instead, voters dealt them big losses in the November elections. Voters in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and South Dakota all rejected proposed changes to their voting systems. In Alaska, a proposal to repeal ranked choice voting appears to have narrowly fallen short. The losses in many states came even though election reform supporters raised more than $100 million, easily outpacing opponents. Supporters say they aren't giving up but plan to retool their efforts. The week that upped the stakes of the Ukraine war KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — This past week has seen the most significant escalation in hostilities Ukraine has witnessed since Russia's full-scale invasion and marks a new chapter in the nearly three-year war. It began with U.S. President Joe Biden reversing a longstanding policy by granting Kyiv permission to deploy American longer-range missiles inside Russian territory and ended with Moscow striking Ukraine with a new experimental ballistic weapon that has alarmed the international community and heightened fears of further escalation. Winter storms and rain sweep across the US while a new system is expected to arrive for Thanksgiving HEALDSBURG, Calif. (AP) — A major storm continues to drop heavy snow and record rain in California, causing small landslides and flooding some streets. Meanwhile, on the opposite coast, blizzard or winter storm warnings were in effect Saturday from parts of the Northeast to central Appalachia. The storm on the West Coast arrived in the Pacific Northwest earlier this week, killing two people and knocking out power to hundreds of thousands, before moving through Northern California. Another storm system is expected to arrive for Thanksgiving week and linger into Tuesday in the Pacific Northwest, dumping rain as well as snow in the higher elevations. That is according to the National Weather Service. Even with access to blockbuster obesity drugs, some people don't lose weight Most people taking popular drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy to lose weight have shed significant pounds. But obesity experts say that roughly 20% of patients — as many as 1 in 5 — may not see robust results with the new medications. The response to the drugs varies from person to person and can depend on genetics, hormones and differences in how the brain regulates energy. Undiagnosed medical conditions and some drugs can prevent weight loss. Experts say it can take experimentation to help so-called nonresponders find results. Fighting between armed sectarian groups in restive northwestern Pakistan kills at least 37 people PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — A senior Pakistani police officer says fighting between armed sectarian groups in the country's restive northwest has killed at least 37 people. The overnight violence was the latest to rock Kurram, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, and comes days after a deadly gun ambush killed 42 people. The officer said Saturday that armed men torched shops, houses and government property overnight. Gunfire is ongoing between rival tribes. Although Sunnis and Shiites generally live together peacefully in Pakistan, tensions remain in some areas, especially Kurram. Doctor at the heart of Turkey's newborn baby deaths case says he was a 'trusted' physician ISTANBUL (AP) — The Turkish doctor at the center of an alleged fraud scheme that led to the deaths of 10 babies says he was a “trusted” physician. Dr. Firat Sari is one of 47 people on trial accused of transferring newborn babies to neonatal units of private hospitals, where they were allegedly kept for prolonged and sometimes unnecessary treatments in order to receive social security payments. Sari said patients were referred to him because people trusted him and he did not bribe anyone involved with Turkey’s emergency medical phone line. Sari, said to be the plot’s ringleader, faces up to 583 years in prison. Andy Murray will coach Novak Djokovic through the Australian Open Recently retired Andy Murray will team up with Novak Djokovic, working with him as a coach through the Australian Open in January. Murray’s representatives put out statements from both players on Saturday. Djokovic is a 24-time Grand Slam champion who has spent more weeks at No. 1 than any other player in tennis history. Murray won three major trophies and two Olympic singles gold medals who finished 2016 atop the ATP rankings. He retired as a player after the Paris Summer Games in August.

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has welcomed the fall of Bashar al-Assad's "barbaric regime" in Syria, as he called for the restoration of "peace and stability". The ousted Syrian president - who Russian state media report is in Moscow having been granted asylum by Russia - fled the country after his government fell to a lightning rebel offensive early on Sunday. Sir Keir said the Syrian people "had to put up with [Assad's] brutal regime for far, far too long". When asked if the government would engage with rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), set up as an affiliate of al-Qaeda and proscribed as a terrorist group by the UK, he said it was "early days" but that there needed to be a "political solution". "The developments in Syria in recent hours and days are unprecedented, and we are speaking to our partners in the region and monitoring the situation closely," Sir Keir said on Sunday, shortly after arriving in the United Arab Emirates for a visit unrelated to events in Syria. "The Syrian people have suffered under Assad's barbaric regime for too long and we welcome his departure. "Our focus is now on ensuring a political solution prevails, and peace and stability is restored." He also called on "all sides" to protect civilians and minorities, and "ensure essential aid can reach the most vulnerable" in the coming hours and days. Shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel said : "Our first priority must be the Syrian people. Syrians need to be protected – all communities and groups." Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey described Assad as "a vile dictator who used chemical weapons against him own people" in a post on X . He added the UK must "do what we can to ensure the protection of minority groups and ultimately an orderly transition of power with free and fair elections". Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner earlier told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme that the UK wanted to see "a political solution along the lines of UN resolution, and we're working with our allies". Asked if HTS would be better than Assad, Rayner said "we've got to have a government in Syria, a political solution, that protests civilians and infrastructure". The Islamist group, set up 13 years ago as a direct affiliate of al-Qaeda, drove the rebels' rise to power in Syria in recent weeks. It previously publicly broke ranks with al-Qaeda, although it remains proscribed as a terrorist group by the UK, as well as the UN, the US, Turkey and other countries. Questions remain over whether it has completely renounced those links, but its message in the run-up to Assad's deposition has been one of inclusiveness and a rejection of violence. Former head of MI6 Sir John Sawers told Sky News: "I think Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani, the leader, has made great efforts over the last 10 years to distance himself from those terrorist groups and certainly the actions we've seen of [HTS] over the last two weeks has been those of a liberation movement, not of a terrorist organisation." He added: "It would be rather ridiculous, actually, if we're unable to engage with the new leadership in Syria because of a proscription dating back 12 years." The prime minister's pre-planned visits to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia for meetings on Monday are unrelated to events in Syria. The government said Sir Keir is pursuing closer ties with the two countries to increase investment, deepen defence and security ties, and drive growth and new opportunities to benefit working people. The UK government had been evacuating its citizens from Syria over the weekend before the fall of Damascus overnight. On Sunday, hundreds of Syrians in Manchester celebrated Assad's demise by singing, dancing and crying in the city centre, while dozens of people also gathered in Belfast to celebrate the end of his regime .The Cavaliers managed only 173 total yards, but chose not to play backup QB Tony Muskett, who had a credible relief effort in a loss to Notre Dame in the previous game. 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Losing to older brother John Harbaugh and seeing the Los Angeles Chargers' four-game winning streak snapped Monday night might be the least of Jim Harbaugh's problems this week. The Chargers are holding their breath that running back J.K. Dobbins isn't seriously hurt after he left with a knee injury late in the first half of the Chargers’ 30-23 loss to the Baltimore Ravens . Harbaugh, who dislikes discussing injuries and eschews questions about any player's status with the tried and true “I'm not a doctor” answer, will get plenty of inquiries about Dobbins' health this week. There were no updates on Dobbins' status Tuesday. The Chargers return to practice on a short week before having to travel cross-country to Atlanta. After injuries derailed Dobbins' four years with the Ravens, the 2020 second-round pick decided to bet on himself by signing only a one-year deal with the Chargers. Though the first 10 1/2 games, the bet appeared to be paying off. Dobbins had 40 yards on six carries when he was wrenched backward by linebacker Malik Harrison and then gang-tackled on a play for no gain on third-and-1 at the 50-yard line. Dobbins is fourth in the AFC in rushing with 766 yards and averages 4.8 yards per carry, third highest among AFC backs with at least 100 carries. He has been considered among the candidates for AP Comeback Player of the Year after suffering a torn Achilles tendon in last season’s opener. Dobbins' production throughout the season has made the offense more balanced. Los Angeles had 14 rushes for 68 yards before he was injured. They had seven carries for 15 yards the rest of the game. Without Dobbins and a 14-13 deficit at halftime, the Chargers tried to count on Justin Herbert and the passing game to rally back. Herbert was 11 for 22 for 125 yards and sacked three times in the five drives after Dobbins' departure and didn't get back into the end zone until Gus Edwards' 1-yard run with 46 seconds remaining. Edwards will be counted on to be the lead back if Dobbins has to miss games. Edwards missed four games during the middle of the season because of an ankle injury and has 25 carries for 93 yards in three games since returning to the lineup. Hassan Haskins and rookie Kimani Vidal will be counted on to provide depth. “Obviously, I’m hoping J.K. is OK. Gus has been an awesome addition, being able to run and go and get some yards,” Herbert said. "We just got to stay with it. I think that offensive line has done a great job all year. It didn’t go our way today, but we’re going to keep pounding the ball and keep getting after it.” Dobbins' injury also could not come at a worse time for the Chargers. They are 7-4 and hold the sixth seed in the AFC, but have tough upcoming tests against playoff contenders Atlanta (6-5), Kansas City (10-1), Tampa Bay (5-6) and Denver (7-5) the next four weeks. Herbert on the run. Herbert has at four scrambles of at least 12 yards in the past five games and got his second rushing touchdown of the season on the opening drive with a 5-yard carry up the middle. Not giving up big-play touchdowns. Rashod Bateman's 40-yard touchdown late in the second quarter (which would have been pass interference on Kristian Fulton if it wasn't completed) marked the third straight game the Chargers allowed a passing TD of at least 40 yards. They had allowed only two in the first nine games. LB Joey Bosa had four tackles, his most since he had seven in Week 1 against the Raiders. Bosa missed three games earlier in the season because of a hip injury, but had only two tackles in the four games since his return until Monday night. WR Quentin Johnston is the second Chargers receiver since 2009 to be targeted at least five times and not have a catch according to Sportradar. Travis Benjamin also had five targets and no receptions against the Jets in 2017. Besides being held without a catch, Johnston had two critical drops during the second half. In addition to Dobbins, CB Eli Apple suffered a hamstring injury in the first half and did not return. CB Cam Hart was inactive because of an ankle injury and was in a walking boot. LB Denzel Perryman (groin) and TE Hayden Hurst (hip) were also inactive because of injuries. 57 — Points allowed by the Chargers in the past two games. They had given up 68 in their first five games after their bye week. 73 — Games it took for Herbert to reach 1,800 completions, tying him with Kansas City's Patrick Mahomes as the fastest players in NFL history to reach that mark. 6 — Games where Daiyan Henley has had double-digit tackles. The second-year linebacker had 10 tackles (four solo) on Monday night. The Chargers will make their second trip in three years to Atlanta on Sunday. They won the 2022 meeting in Week 9 when Cameron Dicker hit a 37-yard field goal on the last play of the game. Los Angeles is 2-0 against the NFC South this season and has a four-game winning streak against teams in the division. AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFLThe debate over Alabama’s inclusion in the College Football Playoff has led to many passionate disputes, including among ESPN personalities. On Sunday’s College Football Playoff Selection Show, ESPN’s Booger McFarland pointed out that if the 13-member College Football Playoff Selection Committee chose Alabama over SMU as the #12 seed, they would be selecting “brand” over substance. Alabama ended the season as a three-loss team with two defeats against unranked opponents. SMU had only two defeats, one against a tough BYU squad and another in the ACC Conference Championship game against Clemson. Ultimately, the committee voted to give the final at-large spot to SMU. Herbstreit, however, did not appreciate McFarland’s characterization of the committee’s selection process as brand vs. substance. “Right out of the gate, I don’t understand Booger’s comment about brand over last night, I think that’s low-hanging fruit on the internet or social media,” Herbstreit said. “To me, it’s very, very clear that ... this isn’t easy. The committee is going to lose no matter what they do. You look at SMU, they make it to their conference championship game, they lose on a last-second field goal, they don’t have any wins over anybody in the Top 25. Then you have ‘Bama with the strength of schedule, but then they have a very, very disappointing, almost embarrassing loss late in the year when they’re a three-touchdown favorite to Oklahoma. “So, really, there’s no right answer. Normally, I’d err on the side of what Coach Saban is saying. Alabama has three wins over teams that are currently in the Top 25, usually that should matter. But that loss, for me, I called the game in Norman, it’s not a great Oklahoma team, and Alabama didn’t just lose that game, they got embarrassed. And I’m guessing that could potentially be an anchor for them that could be tough to overcome. I wouldn’t be surprised if the committee honored SMU because of that loss in Norman late in the year.” McFarland responded by claiming his point was to bring some “levity” to the discussion. “Yeah, to your point, Kirk, (I’m) just bringing a little levity to the situation. But you’re right. It was maybe a little low-hanging fruit. But at the end of the day, we’re having a little fun up here,” McFarland said. “I differ a little bit with you talking about Alabama’s strength of record. They have three losses, and one of those is by 21 points on the road in Norman. Another is to Vanderbilt. So I hear you and Coach (Saban) talk about who we’ve beat. But at some point, it’s hard for me to dismiss those losses out of my mind. “I get it; the schedules aren’t balanced, and teams are playing different schedules. But at some point, we have to take a look at who these teams beat based on who’s lined up on their schedule, and that’s why I’m going to lean towards SMU a little bit.” College Football Playoff Committee Chairman later joined the ESPN broadcast to explain the committee’s decision-making process. “We looked at the number of wins Alabama had against ranked opponents,” Manuel said. “We looked at SMU’s schedule and they were undefeated in-conference. Their losses were to ranked teams. But we also looked at Alabama’s losses to unranked teams. And it was quite a debate. We value strength of schedule. That’s why Alabama, as a three-loss team, is ranked ahead of other teams that have two losses. It’s something that we talked about quite a bit. But in the balance of it, the way SMU played in that game, losing on a last-second field goal, great win by Clemson, great game. We just felt that in this particular case, SMU still had the nod at 10 above of Alabama. And that’s no disrespect to Alabama’s strength of schedule. It’s merely looking at the entire body of work for both teams.” The national championship will be played at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Jan. 20.

Edinburgh Airport shut down by IT issue just as holiday travel season gets under wayRanking the 5 best Cavs right now; Jameis Winston and the Browns’ 2025 QB room: Terry’s Talkin’ podcastLosing to older brother John Harbaugh and seeing the Los Angeles Chargers' four-game winning streak snapped Monday night might be the least of Jim Harbaugh's problems this week. The Chargers are holding their breath that running back J.K. Dobbins isn't seriously hurt after he left with a knee injury late in the first half of the Chargers’ 30-23 loss to the Baltimore Ravens . Harbaugh, who dislikes discussing injuries and eschews questions about any player's status with the tried and true “I'm not a doctor” answer, will get plenty of inquiries about Dobbins' health this week. There were no updates on Dobbins' status Tuesday. The Chargers return to practice on a short week before having to travel cross-country to Atlanta. After injuries derailed Dobbins' four years with the Ravens, the 2020 second-round pick decided to bet on himself by signing only a one-year deal with the Chargers. Though the first 10 1/2 games, the bet appeared to be paying off. Dobbins had 40 yards on six carries when he was wrenched backward by linebacker Malik Harrison and then gang-tackled on a play for no gain on third-and-1 at the 50-yard line. Dobbins is fourth in the AFC in rushing with 766 yards and averages 4.8 yards per carry, third highest among AFC backs with at least 100 carries. He has been considered among the candidates for AP Comeback Player of the Year after suffering a torn Achilles tendon in last season’s opener. Dobbins' production throughout the season has made the offense more balanced. Los Angeles had 14 rushes for 68 yards before he was injured. They had seven carries for 15 yards the rest of the game. Without Dobbins and a 14-13 deficit at halftime, the Chargers tried to count on Justin Herbert and the passing game to rally back. Herbert was 11 for 22 for 125 yards and sacked three times in the five drives after Dobbins' departure and didn't get back into the end zone until Gus Edwards' 1-yard run with 46 seconds remaining. Edwards will be counted on to be the lead back if Dobbins has to miss games. Edwards missed four games during the middle of the season because of an ankle injury and has 25 carries for 93 yards in three games since returning to the lineup. Hassan Haskins and rookie Kimani Vidal will be counted on to provide depth. “Obviously, I’m hoping J.K. is OK. Gus has been an awesome addition, being able to run and go and get some yards,” Herbert said. "We just got to stay with it. I think that offensive line has done a great job all year. It didn’t go our way today, but we’re going to keep pounding the ball and keep getting after it.” Dobbins' injury also could not come at a worse time for the Chargers. They are 7-4 and hold the sixth seed in the AFC, but have tough upcoming tests against playoff contenders Atlanta (6-5), Kansas City (10-1), Tampa Bay (5-6) and Denver (7-5) the next four weeks. Herbert on the run. Herbert has at four scrambles of at least 12 yards in the past five games and got his second rushing touchdown of the season on the opening drive with a 5-yard carry up the middle. Not giving up big-play touchdowns. Rashod Bateman's 40-yard touchdown late in the second quarter (which would have been pass interference on Kristian Fulton if it wasn't completed) marked the third straight game the Chargers allowed a passing TD of at least 40 yards. They had allowed only two in the first nine games. LB Joey Bosa had four tackles, his most since he had seven in Week 1 against the Raiders. Bosa missed three games earlier in the season because of a hip injury, but had only two tackles in the four games since his return until Monday night. WR Quentin Johnston is the second Chargers receiver since 2009 to be targeted at least five times and not have a catch according to Sportradar. Travis Benjamin also had five targets and no receptions against the Jets in 2017. Besides being held without a catch, Johnston had two critical drops during the second half. In addition to Dobbins, CB Eli Apple suffered a hamstring injury in the first half and did not return. CB Cam Hart was inactive because of an ankle injury and was in a walking boot. LB Denzel Perryman (groin) and TE Hayden Hurst (hip) were also inactive because of injuries. 57 — Points allowed by the Chargers in the past two games. They had given up 68 in their first five games after their bye week. 73 — Games it took for Herbert to reach 1,800 completions, tying him with Kansas City's Patrick Mahomes as the fastest players in NFL history to reach that mark. 6 — Games where Daiyan Henley has had double-digit tackles. The second-year linebacker had 10 tackles (four solo) on Monday night. The Chargers will make their second trip in three years to Atlanta on Sunday. They won the 2022 meeting in Week 9 when Cameron Dicker hit a 37-yard field goal on the last play of the game. Los Angeles is 2-0 against the NFC South this season and has a four-game winning streak against teams in the division. AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL

On this "Face the Nation" broadcast, moderated by Margaret Brennan: Rep. Mike Turner , Republican of Ohio Business executive Frank McCourt Mouaz Moustafa , executive director for the Syrian Emergency Task Force, and Andrew Boyd , former director of the CIA's Center for Cyber Intelligence Reps. Mike Kelly , Republican of Pennsylvania, and Jason Crow , Democrat of Colorado Click here to browse full transcripts of "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan." MARGARET BRENNAN: I'm Margaret Brennan in Washington. And this week on Face the Nation: There is breaking news overnight, as Syrian rebels overthrow dictator Bashar al-Assad's regime. What are the implications for the Middle East and American security? Syrian rebels swept into the capital city of Damascus today with breakneck speed, finally toppling the brutal al-Assad regime after 13 years of civil war. It's a conflict that former and soon-to-be-President again Donald Trump is familiar with. He wants bomb Assad's military to punish him for using chemical weapons and then ordered U.S. troops out of Syria six years ago. Trump spent Saturday reconnecting with U.S. allies in Paris. (Begin VT) DONALD TRUMP (Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. President-Elect): It certainly seems like the world is going a little crazy right now. (End VT) MARGARET BRENNAN: We will have the latest from the region and we will talk to the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Ohio Republican Mike Turner. Then: Following the congressional task force investigation into security failures leading to the assassination attempts of Donald Trump earlier this year... (Begin VT) REPRESENTATIVE MIKE KELLY (R-Pennsylvania): At every step of the way, they failed. (End VT) MARGARET BRENNAN: ... top investigators Pennsylvania Republican Mike Kelly and Colorado Democrat Jason Crow will give us their findings on how to fix the Secret Service. Finally: With the future of controversial social media giant TikTok in doubt, we will hear from a potential buyer. It's all just ahead on Face the Nation. Good morning, and welcome to Face the Nation. For the first time in 54 years, the al-Assad family is no longer ruling Syria. (Begin VT) (SHOUTING) (End VT) MARGARET BRENNAN: Rebels who'd been fighting government forces for 13 years swept through Syria in two weeks, capturing Damascus, taking the Syrian people and the world by surprise. Dictator Bashar al-Assad appears to have fled the country. And we are reminded this morning of the horrors from his reign of terror. His brutal suppression of anti-regime protests in 2011 sparked the world's largest refugee crisis. Since then, the mass atrocities became too numerous to detail, the death toll impossible to tally, including due to the regime's use of chemical weapons against civilians. Assad dared to test whether America and the world would stop him, something then-President Obama chose not to do militarily, even after he crossed that so-called red line. Here's our Bob Schieffer's report on Assad's chemical weapon attack from 2013. (Begin VT) BOB SCHIEFFER: The death toll in what appears to be a poison gas attack in the Syrian civil war continues to rise. By some estimates, as many as 1,800 people may have been killed. Rebels blame the Syrian government, which continues to deny any responsibility. Whoever is responsible, perhaps nothing can better help us understand the horror of Syria than this video of a mother telling her small child goodbye, almost as if she is hugging her good night and tucking her into bed. (End VT) MARGARET BRENNAN: President-elect Donald Trump met Saturday with French President Emmanuel Macron, as well as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is lobbying for more aid from the U.S. and NATO allies in his country's war with Russia. In a post on his TRUTH Social Web site early this morning, Mr. Trump blamed Assad's defeat on the entanglements of his allies, saying Russia lost all interest in Syria because of Ukraine, and, along with Iran, Russia is in a – quote – "weakened state" right now. Trump called for an immediate cease-fire in Ukraine, saying that Zelenskyy and Ukraine wanted to make a deal to stop the madness. We begin our coverage today with our Imtiaz Tyab reporting from the Turkish-Syrian border. (Begin VT) (SHOUTING) IMTIAZ TYAB (voice-over): Scenes like this would have been unthinkable just one week ago, Syrian rebels in the heart of Damascus celebrating the fall of the regime, with the whereabouts of President Bashar al-Assad unknown, as people wept for joy in the streets... (MAN SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE) IMTIAZ TYAB: ... shouting "Freedom." (MAN SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE) IMTIAZ TYAB: Some rebels appeared on state TV to announce Assad's removal. His stunning defeat was at the hands of an alliance of armed groups who launched a lightning-fast offensive seemingly out of nowhere, and who faced little resistance from the Syrian army. The rebel forces say they have now – quote – "fully liberated" a number of major cities. And they have also emptied prisons filled with those who dared to stand up against Assad's rule during the country's nearly-14-year civil war, a war that, up until now, had seemed frozen, even forgotten. But as the statues and monuments to the Assad dynasty continue to be pulled to the ground, the family's blood-soaked half-century of authoritarian rule passed from father to son is now over. Ten years ago, at the height of the civil war, which was born out of the Arab Spring uprisings... (MAN SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE) IMTIAZ TYAB: ... Assad was then just barely clinging to power. But Russia and Iran, along with Lebanon's powerful Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia, came to his rescue and tipped the war firmly in his favor through a punishing campaign of well-documented war crimes, including indiscriminate airstrikes and chemical weapons attacks, a brutality against his own people that's hard to fathom. But Russia is now preoccupied with its war in Ukraine. Hezbollah's leadership has been decapitated after a year of bitter fighting with Israel. And Iran along with its other proxies have also been degraded by Israeli strikes. Assad's 24-year rule looks unlikely to be rescued or resurrected, ushering a new, but deeply uncertain era for Syria. (End VT) IMTIAZ TYAB: And a key leader of Syria's armed opposition, Abu Mohammad al-Golani, who belongs to a group known as Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, which used to be aligned with al Qaeda, has forbid anyone to go near the buildings housing Syria's state institutions, signaling the rebels want to support a peaceful transition of power. But the power vacuum left by Bashar al-Assad is enormous, Margaret. And the fear is, these groups could soon turn on each other and begin a new, perhaps even darker chapter in this already ugly civil war. MARGARET BRENNAN: That's Imtiaz Tyab reporting from the Turkish-Syrian border. And we're joined now by the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Ohio Congressman Mike Turner. Just a stunning turn of events within such a short period of time. The U.S. doesn't have a diplomatic presence inside of Syria. Our visibility is a little limited here. What is it that you think Americans need to know about this turn of events? REPRESENTATIVE MIKE TURNER (R-Ohio): Well, Margaret, that was an excellent report, because you certainly laid the groundwork of this has been an incredibly brutal civil war with hundreds of thousands of people dying, including the use of chemical weapons, and, of course, reminding people that the Obama administration had said this would be a red line, that we would use military force to stop the use of chemical weapons, then failing to do so. This is a – an Islamic militia that has risen up and has continued and now is successfully toppling the Assad regime. As your report indicated, it's al Qaeda in its origins, but it opposes ISIS. It is Turkish-backed. This is a blow to Iran, a blow to Russia. We're seeing what is likely a disintegration in – in Syria. The big questions will be, what does this mean for the U.S.? What does it mean for Iran, Russia, the neighbors of Israel and Jordan, which are strong allies of the United States? MARGARET BRENNAN: So, you mentioned there and we showed the picture of Abu Mohammad al-Golani. He is the leader of Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, people call HTS. You're going to hear a lot about that in the coming days and weeks, the rebel group that appears to be taking control. But they are working also with the prime minister. The United States government has a ten million bounty on the head of Jolani. Do you think the United States still should keep that? Should Americans be concerned that this will mean something in terms of impact for terror threats to the United States? REPRESENTATIVE MIKE TURNER: Well, this is a terrorist organization and group, but this is not going to be just a passing of power and authority. It could be. We'll have to, obviously, watch that. You know, one of the things that we do see here, though, is, this is a diplomatic failure with respect to the United States and Turkey. You know, the U.S. has troops in Syria. This is on the border of Turkey. Turkey is a NATO ally. The United States is working with the Kurds. This really could have been an opportunity for the United States to work to try to resolve the issue between the Kurds, Turkey and the United States and working with Turkish interests in Syria. Hopefully, this could be an opportunity where there could be a diplomatic support there that hopefully could have – you know, help in this transition in Syria. MARGARET BRENNAN: There are 900 U.S. troops in Syria in the South. Donald Trump in 2019 pulled U.S. troops out of Northern Syria, abandoning our allies there. Do you believe he will stand by the 900 U.S. troops that remain there, or should he consider pulling them out when he takes office? REPRESENTATIVE MIKE TURNER: Well, I think, you know, one of the things that Donald Trump will make clear is, is that any threat to U.S. troops will be unbelievably responded to. So, everyone should understand, absolutely, that the United States troops are to be secure. The second thing is, is, he does absolutely support the Kurds and that he's going to look for a diplomatic solution. I think there will be an assessment as to whether or not those troops should remain. But it's – you know, I think, here, there is an opportunity for the parties, especially now that Iran and Russia's roles are going to be diminished – diminished. They have been brutal in their support with Assad, the hundreds of thousands of people, including use of chemical weapons, that have been killed have been under the Russian influence there. Russia still has two bases, a naval and air force base there, that are going to be, you know, both at risk for Russia, but also a risk to the population of Syria, because they could – they have been used before to attack the Syrian population. We'll have to see what Russia does there. But this is going to be an area that's going to be highly volatile and in transition. MARGARET BRENNAN: And no idea where Bashar al-Assad might have fled to? REPRESENTATIVE MIKE TURNER: No, not at this time. MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to ask you, since we're talking about the incoming administration. Donald Trump has chosen Tulsi Gabbard, the former congresswoman, a former Democrat, now Republican, to be the director of national intelligence, overseeing 18 intelligence agencies. She not only went and met with Assad. She publicly doubted high-confidence assessments by U.S. intelligence that he did what we showed you pictures of him doing, using chemical weapons there. Do you trust that she could actually represent the intelligence community, lead it and be trusted to brief the commander in chief? REPRESENTATIVE MIKE TURNER: Well, I obviously differ in a great deal in a number of areas with both her judgment and – and her background and experience. But what I do trust is the... MARGARET BRENNAN: You're smiling when you're saying this. REPRESENTATIVE MIKE TURNER: ... is the Senate – is the Senate's process. And I think the – the senators are going to put her through a process. She has been nominated. She will go through the process, and I think there will be significant debate and evaluation. I think... MARGARET BRENNAN: You don't think she'll be confirmed? REPRESENTATIVE MIKE TURNER: ... that Donald Trump has put together in his last term, and I think he will in this term, a great national security team. I think CIA Director Ratcliffe, I think Mike Waltz as national security director... MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-hmm. REPRESENTATIVE MIKE TURNER: ... are both great examples of people who are going to be foundational. MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes. REPRESENTATIVE MIKE TURNER: And I think you're going to see a great national security team. MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, this is a community that you also have oversight of. So you may not vote in the Senate, but it sounds like she doesn't have your confidence. What about Pete Hegseth to run the Pentagon at a time of global instability? REPRESENTATIVE MIKE TURNER: Yes, I think – I think the chairman of the Armed Services in the Senate has made a great statement. He said, we certainly support the process, and he has his support going through the process, and we'll have to see how that goes through. One thing that is absolutely clear is that the Pentagon needs reform. We are not keeping pace with what Russia and China are doing in advanced weapon systems. MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-hmm. REPRESENTATIVE MIKE TURNER: At the same time, we're seeing the weapon systems of advanced technology that are being utilized on the battlefield of Ukraine, and our acquisition systems and our accounting systems, our spending systems are not working at the Pentagon. MARGARET BRENNAN: That requires experience. REPRESENTATIVE MIKE TURNER: We need reform. We need reform. Someone has to be able to lead that, and that's going to be the debate in the Senate. MARGARET BRENNAN: I love when I ask congresspeople, and they just keep reminding me that they don't sit in the Senate and don't want to comment. I sense some – some uncertainty there on your part, but I don't want to put words in your mouth. I want to ask you, though, about what is ticking down in Congress right now. And that is something – there's a scramble at the end of this year to get a bunch of work done. Your Democratic colleague in the Senate Mark Warner, said: "It is an urgent priority to address cybersecurity gaps in these final weeks." Is it a priority for you to do something because of this massive breach by China of U.S. telecom? REPRESENTATIVE MIKE TURNER: You know, one thing that's – that's very disappointing and we've seen from this administration, this malaise of – or this stasis of where they're unable to move as a result of the president unable to make a decision. Here, we have this massive breach, this hack that has occurred from China, but we're hearing nothing from the president himself, no action from this administration as to what their – what consequences there will be. This is not – doesn't need just a technological fix. This needs also a diplomatic fix, a nation-to-nation consequences to China. You know, in the Obama administration... MARGARET BRENNAN: What would consequences look like? REPRESENTATIVE MIKE TURNER: In the Obama administration, China hacked the personnel management system of the U.S. government, and there were no consequences. And now we're seeing China hack the entire system of the nation. MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes. REPRESENTATIVE MIKE TURNER: There needs to be consequences. They can be economic. They can be in a number of ways. But, right now, we have zero. We have nothing coming out of the administration. What need – we need to be talking about is not, technologically, how do we fix this... MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-hmm. REPRESENTATIVE MIKE TURNER: ... but how do we address – which is what Donald Trump is doing, is coming in and saying, China is our most – gravest threat. How do we address the fact that China is aggressively attacking the United States? And they're doing that in our telecom. MARGARET BRENNAN: Question for the incoming administration to pick that up. Thank you, Chair Turner. Face the Nation will be back in a minute. Stay with us. (ANNOUNCEMENTS) MARGARET BRENNAN: For some analysis on the events unfolding in the Middle East, we're joined now by Andrew Boyd, a CBS News contributor who previously held leadership positions at the CIA and once served in Damascus as a Foreign Service officer, and Mouaz Moustafa, the executive director of the Syrian Emergency Task Force. Welcome back to Face the Nation. Mouaz, I want to start with you. You have been involved with the Syrian opposition for well over a decade. Help us understand what it means to see the regime fall. MOUAZ MOUSTAFA (Executive Director, Syrian Emergency Task Force): It's an indescribable feeling of happiness that this regime, this dictator who has made the worst crimes of the 21st century, alongside Russia and Iran and ISIS, all of these horrible people have been defeated by a coalition of rebel forces that did not need any support from any outside country, not Turkey, not Qatar, not anyone. This time around, Syria was liberated by its people for its people. And it's truly inspiring. And it's not just good reverberations for Syria, for the Middle East and Europe as well. MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, there's a lot of uncertainty as to what this all means. Andy, you have watched this region very closely for some time. At this hour, none of the officials that I have spoken with in regional governments, in the U.S. government seem to know where Bashar al-Assad even went. Does it matter where he went? ANDREW BOYD: Mouaz may differ on this one. I don't think it does now that the government has fallen. I do think what unfolds over the next couple of weeks and, if the opposition actually treats all of the factions in Syria with dignity and respect and ensures their safety, we will have more understanding, because there's a lot of atrocities that were carried out by the Assad regime. Those people are probably still in Syria. And so we will see how that goes. MARGARET BRENNAN: A fair point. The people who worked within the regime, they're still there? ANDREW BOYD: The Syrian military intelligence, the military – the other intelligence services, Syrian General Intelligence Directorate, I mean, have a lot of blood on their hands. So... MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes. And I know that you personally, Mouaz, were involved in smuggling out documented evidence of some of the torture, of the mass atrocities, the systematic, institutionalized violence that happened from some of those prisons. You brought it to Congress. You made it public. What do you think we can learn now as those billing – buildings are being seized by rebels? MOUAZ MOUSTAFA: Well, the first thing that we are working really hard, and I can tell you all the rebel factions are working really hard to do, is find Austin Tice and hopefully bring him home, God willing, now back to this family. MARGARET BRENNAN: An American journalist who once worked at CBS News for some time, a Marine veteran. MOUAZ MOUSTAFA: And he's a hero. He went to cover the plight of the Syrian people from what Assad, Iran and Russia have been doing to them. And, God willing, we bring him home alive. But we need to find him and bring him to his mom, no matter what. And the Syrians owe him a debt forever. And, also, other Americans that are undeclared, and freeing Syrians from prisons is something that's really important. But the collection of that intelligence, as well as the Hezbollah, Iranian, Russian, Assad regime, any officials that have been arrested by the Syrian people, again, without any support of the international community or regional countries, who actually worked to try to save Assad, that is valuable. That's valuable to the United States. That's why we need to engage with this new emerging government that, God willing, is the path to democracy. The only Arab country in the world... MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes. MOUAZ MOUSTAFA: ... with the hope of being a democracy is Syria. That's incredible. MARGARET BRENNAN: That's a big promise to make. MOUAZ MOUSTAFA: It's not a promise. It's hope that's realistic. MARGARET BRENNAN: Or hope. Hope. Andy, but the – right now, the person we're seeing emerge, we showed him in Umayyad Mosque... (CROSSTALK) MARGARET BRENNAN: ... hugely symbolic place to come and make a speech in Damascus, is this leader of a terrorist group designated, by the United States as a terrorist... ANDREW BOYD: Correct. Correct. MARGARET BRENNAN: ... $10 million bounty on his head. ANDREW BOYD: Correct. MARGARET BRENNAN: What does that signify to you? ANDREW BOYD: Well, as Congressman Turner said, it's not going to be an easy process to undesignate Abu Mohammad al-Jolani. MARGARET BRENNAN: You – which means the U.S. can't talk to him. ANDREW BOYD: The U.S. can't talk to him. I mean, we can accommodate some sort of flexibility there, but he's not going to instantly come off the designation list. So, I mean, we will see. I mean, you have said that – that he's going to respect all the factions, the Druze, the Christian, even the Shia and Alawi, who are responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Syrians. MOUAZ MOUSTAFA: I'm speaking by his actions, not by his words. ANDREW BOYD: Right. MOUAZ MOUSTAFA: Well, Aleppo, et cetera – you could talk to the bishop of Aleppo, but, yes, absolutely. ANDREW BOYD: But – but time will tell. I mean, I'm a born skeptic, as a lot of my colleagues at the agency are. We will see. MARGARET BRENNAN: Go ahead, Mouaz. MOUAZ MOUSTAFA: Yes. MARGARET BRENNAN: Tell us who is in this. You talked about it as a coalition, not just HTS. Who are these people who now seem to be in control of Syria? MOUAZ MOUSTAFA: Sure. First of all, since the whole world is boiling down the whole Syrian revolution to one faction of a coalition, or, let's say, even one person within a faction of that coalition, let's discuss that. Why was HTS put on the terrorist list? It was put on a terrorist list over an older version called Jabhat al-Nusra that had a loose affiliation with al Qaeda... MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes. MOUAZ MOUSTAFA: ... not a transnational or regional terrorist thing, but an inter-Islamist whatever. I don't agree with any... ANDREW BOYD: But, Mouaz, I think Margaret's talking also as a person, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani. I mean, he was in al Qaeda in Iraq. He worked for Abu Musab al Zarqawi. He spent several years in Bucca prison as a detainee. So we're also – we're talking HTS, Jabhat al-Nusra, but also him as a person. He's designated... (CROSSTALK) MOUAZ MOUSTAFA: Sure, let's talk about him as a person. But what's hilarious about this is, right now, as millions of Syrians come back from Europe and are ready to come back home, as people have not been displaced and there has been zero reports of violations – and I was on the phone with the bishop of Aleppo. The reason I was on the phone is that President Trump and people in President Trump's camp were concerned about the Christians in Syria. Of course, there's so much focus on – any time there's something, terrorist, terrorist. MARGARET BRENNAN: Right. MOUAZ MOUSTAFA: And what ended up happening is, the bishop of Aleppo said, sir, first, it's the coalition of groups, including HTS. MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes. MOUAZ MOUSTAFA: And we have had electricity more now than we have under the regime, and our only fear is Russian airstrikes. So I'm glad that President Trump still – still... MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes. MOUAZ MOUSTAFA: ... told Russia what it should do. MARGARET BRENNAN: Right. MOUAZ MOUSTAFA: Get out of Syria. And it has done so. MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, we will be watching to see whether that continues to be the case and what transpires and what it means... (CROSSTALK) MOUAZ MOUSTAFA: One – one last thing, Margaret. It's really important. MARGARET BRENNAN: I have to go. I'm so sorry. MOUAZ MOUSTAFA: Al Qaeda in Syria is HoR. MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes. MOUAZ MOUSTAFA: It's the affiliate. And HTS has defeated it and defeated ISIS. The old designation is kind of irrelevant. MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes. Well, we will be watching this developing story. And we will be right back. (ANNOUNCEMENTS) MARGARET BRENNAN: Tonight on 60 Minutes, a look at how the crypto industry flexed its political muscle by donating enormous sums of money to get pro- crypto candidates elected. (Begin VT) BRAD GARLINGHOUSE (CEO, Ripple): Crypto for all of us. MARGARET BRENNAN (voice-over): Brad Garlinghouse is the CEO of a company called Ripple, whose cryptocurrency, XRP, became the third largest in the world this past week. Ripple and two other companies contributed $144 million to super PACs that supported pro-crypto Republicans and Democrats. BRAD GARLINGHOUSE: Do I think we had an impact to elect a Democratic senator in Michigan, Elissa Slotkin? Yes, absolutely. Do I think we had an impact in Arizona, a Democratic senator in Arizona, Gallego? Absolutely. MARGARET BRENNAN: Overall, crypto companies contributed one-third of all direct corporate contributions to super PACs. Of the 29 Republicans and 33 Democrats the industry backed in congressional races, 85 percent won. BRAD GARLINGHOUSE: It's incredible. MARGARET BRENNAN: So you see this election as a major victory? BRAD GARLINGHOUSE: For sure. MARGARET BRENNAN: But some people will look at that and say, you teamed up and bought an election. BRAD GARLINGHOUSE: Here's the thing. Voters voted. We educated voters, as many industries do, about candidates. MARGARET BRENNAN: But you helped supercharge the candidates with the money in the coffers, right... BRAD GARLINGHOUSE: We absolutely did. MARGARET BRENNAN: ... on whatever it is they wanted to talk about. BRAD GARLINGHOUSE: That's absolutely right. (End VT) MARGARET BRENNAN: You can watch my full report tonight on 60 Minutes. (ANNOUNCEMENTS) MARGARET BRENNAN: We will be right back with a lot more Face the Nation, including our conversation with the bipartisan chairs of a congressional task force investigating what went wrong with law enforcement in the Butler, Pennsylvania, assassination attempt of former President Trump. Stay with us. (ANNOUNCEMENTS) MARGARET BRENNAN: Welcome back to Face the Nation. On Friday, we sat down with Republican Mike Kelly and Democrat Jason Crow, the leaders of the bipartisan congressional task force investigating the assassination attempts on former President Trump. We wanted to know what they learned about the challenges facing the Secret Service when it comes to keeping protectees safe. (Begin VT) REPRESENTATIVE JASON CROW (D-Colorado): The area that I in particular looked at was the culture of the organization, because I was struck by the stories and the recount of the specific actions of officers and agents on the ground that day. And there were some heroic ones, but there were also a lot of examples of people that knew that something was wrong and they didn't say anything. REPRESENTATIVE MIKE KELLY (R-Pennsylvania): Yes. MARGARET BRENNAN: Why didn't anyone say anything? Were they unaware of vulnerabilities, or is there a culture of silence, where people speaking up get smacked down for doing so? REPRESENTATIVE JASON CROW: That's – that is my concern, is that there's a culture of silence and that individual officers and agents are not empowered to say something is wrong. MARGARET BRENNAN: Congressman Kelly, on that point, I mean, some of this sounds like management 101, that this is not specific to the Secret Service. A lot of organizations have problems like what you just highlighted there. Acting Director Rowe testified Thursday he thinks the Secret Service needs to identify leaders earlier on and promote them based on ability, not just hours logged on the clock. REPRESENTATIVE MIKE KELLY: But isn't that true of everything in life? When you look at this, when people talk about, we need better leadership than that, I was on those grounds the night before. They weren't set up at that point. They were going to work through the night to get it ready. And then you find out afterwards that there was no coordination, there was no team meeting, there was no, well, this is going to be your responsibility to know where you're supposed to be and what time you're supposed to be there. You bring local law enforcement in, but you don't – you don't include them in the planning. Or, when you do the – the interviews afterwards, well, I thought he was going to do it. No, we thought somebody else was going to do it. When you knew there was a suspicious person on the grounds – and this is a common – going back and forth now. This is where they said they weren't communicating with each other. You can't tell me that you didn't know until 10 minutes after 6:00 that you couldn't communicate. At 11 minutes after 6:00, the shooter took action. They knew an hour-and-a-half ahead of time. Out of all the thousands of the people walking around on that ter – on that property, there was a suspicious person, and they kept losing sight of him. I would have said – and I have no background in law enforcement – keep the president back until we clear the area. That's the part that doesn't make sense. MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes. REPRESENTATIVE MIKE KELLY: Because they failed from the first thing, from the picking of the site, preparing the site, to the coordination of the site, to the ability to communicate. At every step of the way, they failed. And the question is, why didn't you just say, hold up, just hold up, don't let him come out? MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, when the acting director says on Thursday of this week, we need to pick better leaders, that would suggest that the agency today does not necessarily have the leaders it needs to fix... REPRESENTATIVE MIKE KELLY: Oh. MARGARET BRENNAN: ... all the things you just laid out. REPRESENTATIVE MIKE KELLY: Yes. And I think, by saying what he said, that's what he meant. They don't have the leadership they need. When they morphed them into Homeland Security back in 2001, 2 – whenever it was, they took away their identity and their exclusivity. When you're the best of the best, when you're the elite of the elites... MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-hmm. REPRESENTATIVE MIKE KELLY: ... if you lose that, then all of a sudden you just become part of a team. There was a huge mistake back when Homeland came into existence. That's not a criticism, because they did what they had to do back then. But I'm telling you, on July 13, there was a lack of professionalism, there was a lack of concern, there was a lack of coordination. And the ability to communicate is the one thing I will never understand. You knew you couldn't talk to each other. Why did you go forward? REPRESENTATIVE JASON CROW: I want to be really clear that there are plenty of extraordinary agents and officers in the Secret Service, right? MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-hmm. REPRESENTATIVE JASON CROW: And when we talk about a failure of mission, you know, in Butler or any place else, that doesn't mean that, you know, 80, 90 percent of the – of the Secret Service agents aren't phenomenal and dedicated professionals. But there is a systematic problem here. The structure, the personnel, the staffing of the Secret Service, hasn't changed in years, at the same time as we are now asking them to do things that they didn't do a decade ago. And they are – they are fulfilling an operational tempo that requires them to be deployed... MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-hmm. REPRESENTATIVE JASON CROW: ... three weeks out of a month, constantly doing events, skipping firearms training, skipping leadership development training. We are not developing their skills and their training. And I think you see the results of that. MARGARET BRENNAN: So, you made three dozen recommendations in this report on what to change, including to reduce the number of protectees. Right now, Secret Service protects not only presidential leadership, their immediate families, their spouses, their children, candidates, and anyone really the president designates. Should all of that continue? REPRESENTATIVE MIKE KELLY: We've increased the size of protectees that are out there, including foreign assets that come here and people that bring – bring their families and things. So that's gotten so big. But, if you look at Homeland, I think – I think, when you look at Secret Service, it's about 3 percent of their overall spend. The biggest spend is on FEMA. And, now, we don't want to change anything like that. But you can't have an exclusive without funding them to the level that they need to be funded, not only in manpower and in training, but in the assets that they have to have available to them. MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-hmm. REPRESENTATIVE JASON CROW: You always have to ask yourself, what are your missions and what is the thing that only you can do? Like, what is that no- fail mission? MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-hmm. REPRESENTATIVE JASON CROW: In this case, with the Secret Service, that no- fail mission is to protect our highest-level candidates and our highest- level elected officials, period. All the other things, investigation of financial crimes, training and support, these are all secondary missions. So, if you're not actually adequately performing any of those missions to standard, and if you have reached a breaking point, then it's time to assess, what are those missions that need to fall off and to be transitioned elsewhere? That's my view. MARGARET BRENNAN: You, Congressman Crow, seemed very frustrated, based on the report and hearing that you have... REPRESENTATIVE JASON CROW: Do I seem frustrated? REPRESENTATIVE MIKE KELLY: No, no, you're very... (CROSSTALK) (LAUGHTER) MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, with the fact that you couldn't find out more about the shooter, both in Butler and in – the potential shooter in Mar-a- Lago. REPRESENTATIVE JASON CROW: Yes. That's actually a really important element to the story. And people have rightful questions about it. I have questions about it. And that is, why did the shooter do this? MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-hmm. REPRESENTATIVE JASON CROW: What drove him to do it? Was he a lone wolf shooter? Did he have associates or affiliates? What was his motivation? How was he radicalized? We endeavored to get answers to those questions. We submitted numerous requests to the Department of Justice and FBI. Their response is, this is an ongoing criminal investigation, and we can't give that information to Congress. That, in my view, is an unacceptable position. And here's why. MARGARET BRENNAN: For both Butler and Mar-a-Lago, that was the answer? REPRESENTATIVE JASON CROW: Correct. That's right. And here's why that's unacceptable. I sit on the Intelligence Committee. I have sat on the Armed Services Committee. And Congress all the time gets access to our nation's most sensitive secrets, ongoing operations, intelligence operations, military operations. So you can't tell me that there isn't a way to put us into a secure facility and get us information about an ongoing criminal investigation, when I regularly am receiving briefs on what our – our spies and our military special operators are doing regularly around the world. So, none of this stands to reason. And we have dedicated ourselves to continue to get those answers. And if the FBI and DOJ thinks that they can wait us out and stonewall us, they are wrong. MARGARET BRENNAN: You think they're intentionally withholding information? REPRESENTATIVE JASON CROW: I don't know what their intention is. I mean, I'm not a mind reader. But, you know, I have been around Congress long enough to know what – what... (CROSSTALK) REPRESENTATIVE MIKE KELLY: When you get stonewalled. Yes. Yes. REPRESENTATIVE JASON CROW: When you get stonewalled. I mean, listen, this is – this is not uncommon... REPRESENTATIVE MIKE KELLY: No. REPRESENTATIVE JASON CROW: ... when you're dealing with agencies and departments. It's a pretty regular method. And it's something that, you know, we encounter all the time in our oversight responsibilities. MARGARET BRENNAN: So, we don't know, or tell me if perhaps you know answer to this. REPRESENTATIVE JASON CROW: Yes, we're – we're in... MARGARET BRENNAN: Was there a foreign nexus? Do we know, yes or no? (CROSSTALK) REPRESENTATIVE JASON CROW: Americans are deluged with misinformation and disinformation that's coming from a variety of sources. And conspiracy theories sometimes take root when there's a lack of information or there's conflicting information. So our job is to try to get information out there, to be transparent, to be accessible, to tell the real story. MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-hmm. REPRESENTATIVE JASON CROW: And that's why this is important. This element of that story is important, because there's a lot of conspiracies around... REPRESENTATIVE MIKE KELLY: Absolutely. REPRESENTATIVE JASON CROW: ... these shootings, right? And we take that seriously. And we want to – we want to, you know, rebuff those. But, you know, in this case – and I sit on a lot of other committees with access to information – I have seen no evidence that a state actor, an adversary was responsible for either of these attempted assassination attempts. I have seen no evidence. But, you know, when you're in a position where, you know, the government says, well, it's not this, but we won't tell you what it is, right, and – and we can't tell you – we can't tell you definitively, well, you know, people respond and have questions about that. REPRESENTATIVE MIKE KELLY: Mm-hmm. REPRESENTATIVE JASON CROW: And I understand that mentality. So, even though we don't have evidence of one thing, people still want to know what else it is. And I still want to know what else it is. MARGARET BRENNAN: Did he act alone? Do we know that? REPRESENTATIVE JASON CROW: We don't know that. MARGARET BRENNAN: Or Congress doesn't know that. REPRESENTATIVE JASON CROW: Yes. And, you know, it's one thing to say – and I'm going to be really clear about this. MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes. REPRESENTATIVE JASON CROW: Because this is very, very sensitive territory... REPRESENTATIVE MIKE KELLY: Yes. REPRESENTATIVE JASON CROW: Because we want to make sure we're not... MARGARET BRENNAN: Right. REPRESENTATIVE JASON CROW: ... getting people spun up unnecessarily. There is no evidence of – from other sources, you know, internal government sources, from our investigation, that others were involved, that he acted with others, and that a foreign state or adversary was involved in this. But that still raises the question of, why did he do this? MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-hmm. REPRESENTATIVE JASON CROW: Was just – was he just a disturbed young man who decided to take action alone? Probably. I mean, that's probably the answer. REPRESENTATIVE MIKE KELLY: That's what it looks like now, yes. REPRESENTATIVE JASON CROW: Right? REPRESENTATIVE MIKE KELLY: Yes. REPRESENTATIVE JASON CROW: That's what it looks like. But we need to know, right? And let's get the information out there that the government has to make sure that we can settle this. And that's – that's our obligation. MARGARET BRENNAN: Is the agency today able to do its job, if they weren't able to do it in July? REPRESENTATIVE MIKE KELLY: We were tasked with trying to find out what happened that day, why it happened that day, and to – and to the best of our ability make sure that the Secret Service, that doesn't happen again to them. We can't guarantee that these things won't happen. MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-hmm. REPRESENTATIVE MIKE KELLY: Because it's a crazy world right now. But there was too much ahead of time that we did know that we didn't share. I would never let my child play near a road. And when you do, you put people in jeopardy of that and you know there's a danger there. Don't let it happen. MARGARET BRENNAN: Is there anything that you feel important to raise that we didn't talk about? REPRESENTATIVE MIKE KELLY: We never identified as Republicans and Democrats. We – we defined as a task force to find out what happened that day. And the whole – the whole goal from day one is to restore the faith and trust and confidence that the American people must have in this agency. At this point, it's probably at the lowest ebb it's ever been. MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-hmm. REPRESENTATIVE MIKE KELLY: And the other thing is, I think we realize that threats are 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. You can't take a day off. You can't take a play off. You've got to be ready every single moment for anything that could possibly happen. Is that a difficult task? Yes. Is it almost impossible? Yes, there's a lot of bad actors out there. But you know what's not impossible? Our dedication to the fact that we're going to do the best we can do every single day to ensure that the American people have the faith and trust and confidence they must have in us. REPRESENTATIVE JASON CROW: This is a tough place to work. REPRESENTATIVE MIKE KELLY: Oh. (LAUGHTER) REPRESENTATIVE JASON CROW: And there are – frankly, there are some people here that don't belong here, that I think are just here to get attention, to get, you know, clicks on social media, that aren't here to legislate. REPRESENTATIVE MIKE KELLY: Yes. REPRESENTATIVE JASON CROW: But this has been one of the best experiences of my time in Congress. And I couldn't have asked for a better partner than Mike Kelly. You know, and he's a very conservative Republican, and I'm a Democrat. We're both proud of that. (LAUGHTER) REPRESENTATIVE JASON CROW: We're proud of our politics. And... REPRESENTATIVE MIKE KELLY: We are. REPRESENTATIVE JASON CROW: And we represent our districts, right? REPRESENTATIVE MIKE KELLY: Yes. Yes. We do. We do. REPRESENTATIVE JASON CROW: That's actually – that's actually the job, right? REPRESENTATIVE MIKE KELLY: Yes. REPRESENTATIVE JASON CROW: We represent the culture and the politics and the hopes and dreams of our districts. And that's what's so – so beautiful about this place when it works well. But this process – and I think this is really important for Americans to understand – this process was serious. It was bipartisan. It was – it was deep. And we did the job that we were asked to do. (End VT) MARGARET BRENNAN: You can watch our full interview on our Web site and our YouTube page. We will be right back. (ANNOUNCEMENTS) MARGARET BRENNAN: A panel of federal judges in D.C. last week upheld a new law that could effectively ban the popular social media app TikTok by mid- January if its Chinese owners do not sell it to a new buyer. Frank McCourt, the executive chairman of McCourt Global and founder of Project Liberty, is one of the potential buyers, and he joins us now. Good to see you here. FRANK MCCOURT (Executive Chairman, McCourt Global): Good morning. MARGARET BRENNAN: So, TikTok says, well, they might go to the Supreme Court on this one. If they don't, their parent company, ByteDance, has said they're not interested in selling. Do you have any indication that they will and that the incoming Trump administration would support someone like you buying it? FRANK MCCOURT: Well, yes, I think where we are now, Margaret, is, there's three options. You know, one is an appeal. Our lawyers tell us there's very little chance of a successful appeal by ByteDance, strong bipartisan legislation, a 3-0 by the three – you know, by the appellate court. So now that leaves us with two, a ban or a sale. We don't want to see it banned. I would add that President – president-elect Trump has also said he doesn't want to see it banned. So now let's talk about the sale. So we've been working for the last eight months on the assumption that the legislation would be upheld and that there would be a sale. MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-hmm. FRANK MCCOURT: So, that's where we are right now. And we're working very, very hard to be in a position to buy the U.S. portion of TikTok... MARGARET BRENNAN: Right. FRANK MCCOURT: ... so it's not shut down. MARGARET BRENNAN: So, what is that worth to you? There are estimates it could be as high as $200 billion in worth. FRANK MCCOURT: Two hundred billion dollars would be more – more in the range of what the entirety of the platform is worth, not just the U.S. piece. MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-hmm. FRANK MCCOURT: And let's be clear. The Chinese government has said they're not selling the algorithm. They view that as I.P. of the country. So, Tik – U.S. TikTok is a piece of ByteDance. If it's sold, it will be sold without an algorithm. So the value will be far, far less than 200 – $200 billion. We have circled over $20 billion to be in a position, and we're very serious about raising whatever capital is required to buy the platform. And – and, to be clear... MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes. FRANK MCCOURT: ... we're looking to move the 170 million users over to a new protocol, where the individuals will own and control their identity and their data. We're not looking to replicate the existing version. MARGARET BRENNAN: So, let's talk about that. As you said, 170 million Americans use TikTok, especially young people. U.S. law prohibits foreign control of mass media, but this social media space is kind of a loophole here. There aren't a lot of governing rules in this space. Do you think Congress needs to write new rules of the role – of the road to ban foreign ownership and to put restrictions on even owners like you? FRANK MCCOURT: I think we need to upgrade our regulations and our policies. There's no doubt about that. But, far more importantly, we need to fix the technology. The Internet is broken, fundamentally broken. We heard your guest earlier Representative Turner talk about the threat from China on our telecom hack, massive hack, massive threat to Americans. MARGARET BRENNAN: And they're still in the telecom system, according to U.S. intelligence. FRANK MCCOURT: Absolutely. And we heard your recent guests, Representatives Kelly and Crow, talk about the deluge of misinformation and disinformation, the fact that it's a very dangerous world right now. The reason why the Congress moved so quickly with TikTok to pass the legislation is because it is a national security threat to Americans. MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-hmm. FRANK MCCOURT: And the reason why the judges upheld it is for that same reason. So let's turn a problem into a solution by taking advantage of this moment, move the 170 million users over to a new protocol where individuals are respected. MARGARET BRENNAN: Do you have an indication from president-elect Trump that he wants to see an American entity buy this? Because he would also have some influence in the outcome. FRANK MCCOURT: Of course, as president-elect, he'll have massive influence. But... MARGARET BRENNAN: Have you spoken to him? FRANK MCCOURT: But – but President – President Trump is a dealmaker. We know that. I'm a dealmaker, OK? I have been doing business deals my entire – my entire life. Let's make a deal where everybody wins, where China's able to sell the U.S. portion of TikTok, where American citizens are protected, and where there's – and 170 million users continue to enjoy the platform. So he has said he doesn't want it banned, which means a sale. And the legislation and the – the appellate decision require that this platform be – be owned by Americans. We have built a clean, bottom-up American stack to move this user base over, where there will be no Chinese backdoors and no ability to – to take advantage of American citizens. MARGARET BRENNAN: You – you're indicating you've built out some technology, you think, that will not allow for government surveillance? FRANK MCCOURT: Correct. MARGARET BRENNAN: But can you, if you are – whoever owns this is going to be powerful, if you get 170 million Americans on a platform, particularly young people, to consume the information on this system. So what guarantees do you make? Because Facebook and Twitter, they also harvest information about consumers. Would you? FRANK MCCOURT: Yes, well, that's exactly what we don't want to do. So the reason why we want to move people to a new stack where you can't harvest without permission, so individuals will own and control their identity and their data, permission its use, will actually have an Internet that respects people, as opposed to exploits them. Imagine empowering people. And, to be clear, Margaret, I'm not looking to be the CEO of TikTok. We call it the people's bid, because we want this to empower people and to stop this nonsense where we're exploiting people by scraping their data and taking advantage of them, and, in the case of TikTok, actually creating a national security threat. MARGARET BRENNAN: Elon Musk, who owns X, formerly known as Twitter, now has raised concerns about content moderation restricting free speech. Do you share that concern, and what restrictions would you put on paid political advertising? FRANK MCCOURT: I mentioned earlier that we need better policies, for sure, but we need better tech. Right now, we have a tech stack that's built, and these giant apps scrape our data and exploit it. Why not flip the power? Why not actually give people their data back? MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-hmm. FRANK MCCOURT: Our data is our personhood in this age. Let us decide how to use it. Let us each decide what moderation we're comfortable with, what censorship we're comfortable with, what privacy we're comfortable with. MARGARET BRENNAN: Should – OK, so the surgeon general says you need a warning label because this is damaging the mental health of young people in this country. Should people under the age of 16 have access? FRANK MCCOURT: Under the current tech stack, I agree with the surgeon general. Under a new technology – listen, I'm a builder. My family has been building for five generations. This is an engineering problem that can be fixed. Let's take this ban of TikTok... MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-hmm. FRANK MCCOURT: ... this massive national security problem, and turn it into a solution for Americans. Let's make it a win, a win-win. MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes. Well, mid-January, we will see what happens in this case. And we will watch your potential bid here. Thank you for joining us. We'll be back in a moment. (ANNOUNCEMENTS) MARGARET BRENNAN: The weeklong cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon appears to be holding, but the situation in Gaza remains dire. Here's our Debora Patta reporting from East Jerusalem. (Begin VT) DEBORA PATTA (voice-over): A massive Israeli strike caught on camera by CBS News as it ripped through the Al-Mawasi tented camp near Khan Yunis, a designated humanitarian safe zone turned into a blazing inferno. Faced with unpredictable danger, exhausted families on the move again. Israel says it was targeting two Hamas militants. But over 20 people died, among them four children and a pregnant woman. (MONA SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE) DEBORA PATTA: In Central Gaza, 13-year-old Shadi Faraj (sp?) was playing outside when he was killed. (MONA SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE) DEBORA PATTA: "This is proof of their crimes," his aunt Mona (sp?) shouted. "They just want to kill as many Palestinians as possible." In Northern Gaza, Israel has ordered everyone to leave. It is under siege. Even as Palestinians flee, they are shot at. Israel has allowed virtually no aid into the north for more than two months. In the south, this is what it looks like outside the few remaining bakeries, as people fight just for a piece of bread. Every morning, 11-year-old Zeina Juhab (sp?) braved those crowds, until one day she did not come home. She had been trampled to death. (AHMED SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE) DEBORA PATTA: "The world looks at us, and all they see are terrorists," her father, Ahmed (sp?), told us. "We're not terrorists. We just want to survive." But no one, it seems, is listening, as hunger spreads everywhere. (End VT) DEBORA PATTA: Amnesty International says there is no time to waste and has warned the U.S. to stop sending weapons to Israel because of the likelihood, Margaret, that these would be used for war crimes or genocide. MARGARET BRENNAN: That was our Debora Patta in East Jerusalem. We will be right back. (ANNOUNCEMENTS) MARGARET BRENNAN: That's it for us today. Thank you for watching. Until next week, for Face the Nation, I'm Margaret Brennan.

Spread the love interview only "outlined the Kremlin's demands regarding the war in Ukraine in this interview, reiterating typical Kremlin propaganda narratives." The Ukrainian propaganda actually wrote: "This isn't Carlson's first foray into Kremlin-approved journalism. Back in February 2024, the ever-objective host managed to secure a two-hour interview with Vladimir Putin, where the Russian dictator flexed his well-rehearsed tales of historical revisionism and grievance politics." Crimea has been fought over countless times. Here is a coin of the Roman Emperor Neo, who was forced to intervene in Crimea as well. Go back further; it was occupied by the Greeks. They love to put out their own propaganda about history when Ukraine was never a country. The monetary history of the... Martin Armstrong

SAN FRANCISCO , Nov. 26, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK) today announced the appointment of Janesh Moorjani as the company's chief financial officer, effective December 16, 2024 . Moorjani brings over 20 years of experience in the technology industry, with deep expertise in driving growth and efficiency at scale. Most recently, Moorjani served as CFO and COO of Elastic NV (NYSE: ESTC), the Search AI Company. Reporting to chief executive officer Andrew Anagnost , Moorjani will lead and oversee Autodesk's global finance organization. Moorjani will succeed interim chief financial officer Elizabeth "Betsy" Rafael, who will serve as an advisor to the company through the end of fiscal 2025 and will continue to serve on Autodesk's Board of Directors, resuming her status as an independent director following the transition period and end of her employment by the company. "We are excited to welcome such a high-caliber and seasoned CFO in Janesh," said Andrew Anagnost , president and CEO of Autodesk. "His deep finance and software experience will be instrumental in supporting Autodesk's continued momentum with sustained growth and enhanced profitability. I look forward to partnering with Janesh to drive Autodesk's successful path forward and continue creating additional value for our stockholders. I also thank Betsy for stepping into the interim CFO role at an important time for Autodesk, and for her continued contributions both through the transition and as a qualified and experienced board member moving forward." Moorjani brings strong experience leading dynamic public software companies. He recently was CFO of Elastic since 2017 and assumed the additional responsibilities of COO in 2022. Prior to Elastic, he served in executive and leadership roles at Infoblox, VMware, Cisco, PTC, and Goldman Sachs. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Cohesity, a leading AI-powered data security and data management company. "I am thrilled to join Autodesk and work with Andrew, the company's strong management team and the Board to capitalize on the compelling growth opportunities we have ahead," said Moorjani. "Autodesk has established a clear leadership position as a technology innovator by providing differentiated and connected solutions that allow customers across industries to design and make anything. I look forward to working with the team to build on Autodesk's strong financial foundation to drive continued growth, profitability and free cash flow to ultimately deliver sustainable stockholder value." ABOUT AUTODESK The world's designers, engineers, builders, and creators trust Autodesk to help them design and make anything. From the buildings we live and work in, to the cars we drive and the bridges we drive over. From the products we use and rely on, to the movies and games that inspire us. Autodesk's Design and Make Platform unlocks the power of data to accelerate insights and automate processes, empowering our customers with the technology to create the world around us and deliver better outcomes for their business and the planet. For more information, visit autodesk.com or follow @autodesk. #MakeAnything Autodesk is a registered trademark of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product and services offerings, and specifications and pricing at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document. SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including quotations from management, statements regarding our strategies, performance, results, growth, profitability and free cash flow, and all statements that are not historical facts. There are a significant number of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from statements made in this press release, including: our strategy to develop and introduce new products and services and to move to platforms and capabilities, exposing us to risks such as limited customer acceptance (both new and existing customers), costs related to product defects, and large expenditures; global economic and political conditions, including changes in monetary and fiscal policy, foreign exchange headwinds, recessionary fears, supply chain disruptions, resulting inflationary pressures and hiring conditions; geopolitical tension and armed conflicts, and extreme weather events; costs and challenges associated with strategic acquisitions and investments; our ability to successfully implement and expand our transaction model; dependency on international revenue and operations, exposing us to significant international regulatory, economic, intellectual property, collections, currency exchange rate, taxation, political, and other risks, including risks related to the war against Ukraine launched by Russia and our exit from Russia and the current conflict between Israel and Hamas; inability to predict subscription renewal rates and their impact on our future revenue and operating results; existing and increased competition and rapidly evolving technological changes; fluctuation of our financial results, key metrics and other operating metrics; our transition from up front to annual billings for multi-year contracts; deriving a substantial portion of our net revenue from a small number of solutions, including our AutoCAD-based software products and collections; any failure to successfully execute and manage initiatives to realign or introduce new business and sales initiatives, including our new transaction model for Flex; net revenue, billings, earnings, cash flow, or new or existing subscriptions shortfalls; social and ethical issues relating to the use of artificial intelligence in our offerings; our ability to maintain security levels and service performance meeting the expectations of our customers, and the resources and costs required to avoid unanticipated downtime and prevent, detect and remediate performance degradation and security breaches; security incidents or other incidents compromising the integrity of our or our customers' offerings, services, data, or intellectual property; reliance on third parties to provide us with a number of operational and technical services as well as software; our highly complex software, which may contain undetected errors, defects, or vulnerabilities; increasing regulatory focus on privacy issues and expanding laws; governmental export and import controls that could impair our ability to compete in international markets or subject us to liability if we violate the controls; protection of our intellectual property rights and intellectual property infringement claims from others; the government procurement process; fluctuations in currency exchange rates; our debt service obligations; and our investment portfolio consisting of a variety of investment vehicles that are subject to interest rate trends, market volatility, and other economic factors. Further information on potential factors that could affect the financial results of Autodesk are included in Autodesk's Form 10-K and subsequent Forms 10-Q, which are on file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Autodesk disclaims any obligation to update the forward-looking statements provided to reflect events that occur or circumstances that exist after the date on which they were made. View original content to download multimedia: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/autodesk-appoints-janesh-moorjani-as-chief-financial-officer-302316577.html SOURCE Autodesk, Inc.

Julián Álvarez picking up the scoring pace with Atletico MadridI spent 10 years and $800,000 renovating an Arkansas missile silo. It’s my greatest accomplishment, but I don’t recommend others try it.

Bangladeshis spend $4b annually for healthcare abroad