Good morning. It’s Friday. Thank you for reading Morning Brief. Send me a line—Ivan Pentchoukov. |
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President-elect Donald Trump named former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi as his nominee for U.S. attorney general. Trump announced the appointment hours after former Rep. Matt Gaetz withdrew from consideration for the position.
- Brazilian authorities indicted former president Jair Bolsonaro and 36 others, accusing the group of plotting a coup to keep Bolsonaro in power.
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Scientists have uncovered a new chemical compound lurking in U.S. drinking water, potentially exposing one in five Americans to an unidentified health risk.
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The United States has condemned the International Criminal Court over its issuance of arrest warrants on Nov. 21 for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant regarding their actions in the conflict between Israel and the Hamas terrorist group.
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More than 120 rescue elephants live in a nature park in Thailand. Story after the news.
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| Ivan Pentchoukov,
National Editor |
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Pam Bondi, former Florida Attorney General, speaks during a press conference announcing a class action lawsuit against big tech companies at the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster on July 07, 2021 in Bedminster, New Jersey. (Michael Santiago/Getty Images) |
Matt Gaetz Out, Pam Bondi In |
- Bondi served as Florida’s attorney general from 2011 to 2019. Bondi, at Trump’s request, served on his administration’s opioid and drug abuse commission.
- “Pam will refocus the DOJ to its intended purpose of fighting crime, and making America safe again,” Trump wrote.
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Gaetz, who withdrew from contention earlier on Nov. 21, wrote on social media that Bondi is “a stellar selection.”
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- In an earlier statement, Gaetz said, “It is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance transition.”
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Gaetz faced congressional, federal, and media scrutiny over allegations that would have complicated his path to confirmation as the nation’s top federal prosecutor.
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Trump responded to Gaetz’s announcement in a social media post, thanking Gaetz for his efforts in seeking approval from senators for the U.S. attorney general role.
“He was doing very well but, at the same time, did not want to be a distraction for the administration, for which he has much respect,” Trump wrote. “Matt has a wonderful future, and I look forward to watching all of the great things he will do!”
Bookmark: We’re keeping track of all the cabinet appointees here. Explainer: Trump plans to use impoundment to cut spending. Here’s how it could work.
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- Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Nov. 21 ordered all state agencies to conduct risk assessments and withdraw state funds from investments in China.
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Visa and Mastercard executives were on defense during a Nov. 19 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, as Democrat and Republican lawmakers on both sides criticized their business practices, including so-called swipe fees.
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Republican candidate Nick Begich defeated incumbent Democratic rival Rep. Mary Peltola in Alaska’s U.S. House race on Wednesday, giving Republicans one more seat as they seek to bolster their narrow House majority.
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The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that its chair, Gary Gensler, will leave the agency on Jan. 20, 2025.
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The director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency sounded the alarm on dwindling disaster-related funding due to back-to-back hurricanes.
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A coalition of 32 state attorneys general, led by Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, has urged Congress to pass the bipartisan Kids Online Safety Act before the end of the 118th Congress, saying the legislation is crucial for protecting children from online harm.
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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) will chair a House subcommittee with congressional oversight of the new Department of Government Efficiency.
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The incoming Trump administration could put new pressure on companies to drop race- and gender-based employment programs, a coalition of money managers stated in a warning to America’s largest companies.
Last week, 58 conservative asset managers, state treasurers, and nonprofit groups issued an open letter to more than 1,000 U.S. corporate CEOs demanding that they disclose to shareholders the extent to which they impose diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies on employees and contractors. |
- Such programs, the authors say, could harm staff, sales, and stock prices, and create legal liabilities if they are found to violate civil rights laws.
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“It’s important that these companies recognize and understand that the DEI-ESG regime is coming to an end,” OJ Oleka, CEO of the State Financial Officers Foundation and a signer of the letter, said, referring also to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles.
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DEI programs took a significant hit when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the 2023 case of Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard that publicly funded schools could not discriminate on the basis of race or gender, and justices wrote in their majority opinion that “eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it.”
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Legal analysts say that America’s civil rights laws also apply to private companies, and they expect the incoming Trump administration to take a harder line in enforcing these laws. (Full Story) More U.S. News |
- The Illinois Supreme Court has overturned former “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett’s felony conviction for orchestrating a fake hate crime, finding that his prosecution violated due process because it ran afoul of a non-prosecution deal he entered into in an earlier, related case.
- Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration cannot withdraw from a multi state initiative designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions without gaining approval from the state Legislature, a judge ruled Monday.
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The listeria outbreak that killed 10 and left dozens ill across 19 states has ended, federal health officials announced on Thursday.
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Our senior editor Jan Jekielek is sitting down today with Todd Bensman, an expert on the border and counterterrorism and author of the book, “Overrun.” He’s a senior national security fellow for the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington policy institute. Watch ➞ |
Brazil’s Department of Federal Police announced indictments on Nov. 21 against former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, and 36 others, on allegations they attempted to keep him in power through a violent coup d’état. |
- The charges follow a nearly two-year investigation into the Jan. 8, 2023, breach of the Brazilian federal government buildings, including its National Congress and Supreme Court.
- Bolsonaro has denied all claims that he tried to retain power after losing his 2022 reelection bid to the current Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
- In a press statement following the indictment, Bolsonaro accused Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes of being behind the investigation. He alleged that de Moraes has altered the records of people who have testified and authorized arrests without charges, in a fishing expedition to advance the case.
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Opinion: When President Trump takes office in January, his Army Secretary will need to refocus and re-energize the Army while eliminating bureaucratic waste. Among the many complex tasks ahead, one move is simple and clear.
Looking for a different columnist? Browse the Opinion Section |
Royal household staff pose for a photograph next to a decorated Christmas tree at Windsor Castle in Windsor, England, on Nov. 21, 2024. Peter Nicholls/Getty Images |
We all know the feeling we get looking through old photos, listening to songs from our past, or telling old stories. Memories come to mind, we start to long for days gone by, and we’re left with a feeling of nostalgia. But what’s really happening internally when we feel this way? And what does it mean? |
- Most of us welcome nostalgic feelings and find in them a brief respite from recent troubles. But thinkers in the past didn’t share the same rosy view.
- Johannes Hofer, the 17th-century Swiss physician who coined the term, conceptualized this feeling as a disease, pointing to its tendency to evoke episodes of weeping, insomnia, and anxiety.
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Even the word nostalgia—from the Greek words “nostos” (“homecoming”) and “algos” (“pain”)—alludes to something negative: the pain of a return home.
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Abused elephants find a new home at Elephant Nature Park in Thailand. (Kevin Revolinski) |
Her name was Namthip, and at 13 years old, she was just a teenager. Yet she had spent her entire life with a chain around one leg, standing every night on concrete and unable to lie down to sleep.
Luckily, she was then purchased out of captivity and moved to Elephant Nature Park in northern Thailand, her new forever home. More than 120 rescue elephants live in this inspiring place. Some of them were physically damaged from injuries sustained doing illegal logging work or tourism detail.
All of them were emotionally damaged, kept from the rich community life normal to the species.
New arrivals at Elephant Nature Park need time to adjust and find their way into the welcoming herd after a solitary lifetime. In some cases that is 70-plus years; elephants live about as long as humans do if living conditions favor it.
The park and its affiliated Save Elephant Foundation are the life mission of Saengduean Chailert, who fittingly goes by the name Lek, which means “tiny” in Thai.
As a child, Lek witnessed the violent abuse of an injured elephant forced to move timber. The painful cries of the animal haunted her, leading her to become passionate about the plight of elephants. In 1996, Khun Lek’s efforts to rescue abused creatures caught the attention of Bert von Roemer, a Texan with a similar passion for the ethical treatment of animals.
Von Roemer purchased the original 50 acres for today’s Elephant Nature Park. After 30 years, the project and its foundation are world-renowned. Learn more by reading the full article by our colleague Kevin Revolinski here. |
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Thanks for reading. Have a wonderful day. |
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