y747

y747 "The View" co-host Whoopi Goldberg said that billionaire X owner Elon Musk is President-elect Donald Trump’s "actual vice president" on Thursday, suggesting Vice President-elect JD Vance was a figurehead. "The View" co-host Whoopi Goldberg suggested on Thursday that billionaire X owner Elon Musk is President-elect Donald Trump’s "real" vice presidential pick. Goldberg made the claim during Thursday's episode of the ABC talk show, arguing that Musk has been making decisions as though he’s Trump’s real second in command. She then argued that he should be required to sell his social media platform . "Musk is the real, actual vice president. He’s making decisions. He’s doing things, so I think, why doesn’t he have to give up X with everything he’s done?" TRUMP WOULD NEED CONGRESSIONAL APPROVAL TO DISSOLVE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT, EXPERTS SAY During Thursday's episode of ABC's "The View," Whoopi Goldberg argued that billionaire Elon Musk is President-elect Trump's real vice president and that he should be required to give up X. (Screenshot/ABC) The co-host’s theory came up during a discussion on the recent exodus of liberals from X to the new social media site, "Bluesky." Fellow co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin remarked that people moving to the new app just further entrenches the country’s division. "So we had this, you know, this election that was tense. Donald Trump won, and the right is going to stay on X and then the left is going to be on Bluesky . How do we try to talk to each other?" Griffin asked. Whoopi responded, first by blaming conservatives for bullying liberals off the platform. She said, "Unfortunately, I will have to say the other side, I think, has driven people away, because – you know – it’s not just discourse. It’s nasty name-calling and coming after your family and ‘I’m going to do this to you,’ and I don’t think anyone should have to take that from anybody if they don’t have to." KIRK CAMERON, CHRISTIAN PARENTS FLOAT REPLACING DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AS TRUMP MULLS CABINET PICK President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk pose for a photo during the UFC 309 event at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 16, 2024, in New York City. (Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC) She added that Republican social media users are also fleeing X because they might have different opinions than most Republicans. "They’re moving as well," she said. Her other reason for the exodus was Trump appointing Musk to be part of his cabinet – as one of the heads of his proposed Department of Government Efficiency . "And I know why also, because, you know, as I believe, Elon Musk is the actual vice president," she told her co-hosts. "Yes, I believe that," she continued, and floated that Vice President-elect JD Vance is just an "interim" pick. "Because I think that Matt – not Matt – JD Vance. He’s kind of an interim." CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP After asking why Musk shouldn’t have to ditch X while also having governmental power in Trump’s cabinet, co-host Sunny Hostin replied, "He should." "I know we got to go," Goldberg said as the show approached commercial break. "But I’m musing. I’m musing. We have to go." Gabriel Hays is an associate editor for Fox News Digital.

Syria's de facto leader said Sunday it could take up to four years to hold elections in Syria, and that he plans to dissolve his Islamist group that led the country's insurgency at an anticipated national dialogue summit for the country. Ahmad al-Sharaa, who leads Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the group leading the new authority in Syria, made the remarks in an interview with Saudi television network Al-Arabiyya. It comes almost a month after a lightning insurgency led by HTS overthrew President Bashar Assad's decades-long rule, ending the country's uprising-turned civil war that started back in 2011. Al-Sharaa said it would take time to hold elections because of the need for Syria's different forces to hold political dialogue and rewrite the country's constitution following five decades of the Assad dynasty's dictatorial rule. Also, the war-torn country's battered infrastructure needs to be reconstructed, he said. “The chance we have today doesn’t come every 5 or 10 years,” said al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani. “We want the constitution to last for the longest time possible.” Al-Sharaa is Syria's de facto leader until March 1, when Syria's different factions are set to hold a political dialogue to determine the country's political future and establish a transitional government that brings the divided country together. There, he said, HTS will dissolve after years of being the country's most dominant rebel group that held a strategic enclave in the country's northwest. Earlier, an Israeli airstrike in the outskirts of Damascus on Sunday killed 11 people, according to a war monitor, as Israel continues to target Syrian weapons and military infrastructure even after the ouster of Assad. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the airstrike targeted a weapons depot that belonged to Assad’s forces near the industrial town of Adra, northeast of the capital. The observatory said at least 11 people, mostly civilians, were killed. The Israeli military did not comment on the airstrike Sunday. Israel, which has launched hundreds of airstrikes over Syria since the country's uprising turned-civil war broke out in 2011, rarely acknowledges them. It says its targets are Iran-backed groups that backed Assad. Unlike his criticism of key Assad ally Iran, al-Sharaa hoped to maintain “strategic relations” with Russia, whose air force played a critical role in keeping Assad in power for over a decade during the conflict. Moscow has a strategic airbase in Syria. The HTS leader also said negotiations are ongoing with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in northeastern Syria, and hopes that their armed forces will integrate with the Syrian security agencies. The Kurdish-led group is Washington’s key ally in Syria, where it is heavily involved in targeting sleeper cells belonging to the extremist Islamic State group. Turkish-backed Syrian rebels have been clashing with the SDF even after the insurgency, taking the key city of Manbij, as Ankara hopes to create a buffer zone near its border in northern Syria. The rebels attacked near the strategic northern border town of Kobani, while the SDF shared a video of a rocket attack that destroyed what it said was a radar system south of the city of Manbij. In other developments: — Syrian state-run media said a mass grave was found near the third largest city of Homs. SANA said civil defense workers were sent to to the site in al-Kabo, one of many suspected mass graves where tens of thousands of Syrians are believed to have been buried during a brutal crackdown under Assad and his network of security agencies. — An Egyptian activist wanted by Cairo on charges of incitement to violence and terrorism, Abdulrahman al-Qardawi, was detained by Lebanese security forces after crossing the porous border from Syria, according to two judicial and one security officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to to talk to the press. Al-Qardawi is an Egyptian activist residing in Turkey and an outspoken critic of Egypt's government. He had reportedly visited Syria to join celebrations after Assad's downfall. His late father, Youssef al-Qaradawi, was a top and controversial Egyptian cleric revered by the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. He had lived in exile in Qatar for decades. — Lebanese security forces apprehended an armed group in the northern city of Tripoli that kidnapped a group of 26 Syrians who were recently smuggled into Lebanon, two Lebanese security officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to share the information with the media. The Syrians included five women and seven children, and security officials are working to return them to Syria.WASHINGTON (AP) — One year after the Jan. 6, 2021 , U.S. Capitol attack, Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department was committed to holding accountable all perpetrators “at any level” for “the assault on our democracy.” That bold declaration won't apply to at least one person: Donald Trump. Special counsel Jack Smith's move on Monday to abandon the federal election interference case against Trump means jurors will likely never decide whether the president-elect is criminally responsible for his attempts to cling to power after losing the 2020 campaign. The decision to walk away from the election charges and the separate classified documents case against Trump marks an abrupt end of the Justice Department’s unprecedented legal effort that once threatened his liberty but appears only to have galvanized his supporters. The abandonment of the cases accusing Trump of endangering American democracy and national security does away with the most serious legal threats he was facing as he returns to the White House. It was the culmination of a monthslong defense effort to delay the proceedings at every step and use the criminal allegations to Trump's political advantage, putting the final word in the hands of voters instead of jurors. “We always knew that the rich and powerful had an advantage, but I don’t think we would have ever believed that somebody could walk away from everything,” said Stephen Saltzburg, a George Washington University law professor and former Justice Department official. “If there ever was a Teflon defendant, that’s Donald Trump.” While prosecutors left the door open to the possibility that federal charges could be re-filed against Trump after he leaves office, that seems unlikely. Meanwhile, Trump's presidential victory has thrown into question the future of the two state criminal cases against him in New York and Georgia. Trump was supposed to be sentenced on Tuesday after his conviction on 34 felony counts in his New York hush money case , but it's possible the sentencing could be delayed until after Trump leaves office, and the defense is pushing to dismiss the case altogether. Smith's team stressed that their decision to abandon the federal cases was not a reflection of the merit of the charges, but an acknowledgement that they could not move forward under longstanding Justice Department policy that says sitting presidents cannot face criminal prosecution. Trump's presidential victory set “at odds two fundamental and compelling national interests: On the one hand, the Constitution’s requirement that the President must not be unduly encumbered in fulfilling his weighty responsibilities . . . and on the other hand, the Nation’s commitment to the rule of law,” prosecutors wrote in court papers. The move just weeks after Trump's victory over Vice President Kamala Harris underscores the immense personal stake Trump had in the campaign in which he turned his legal woes into a political rallying cry. Trump accused prosecutors of bringing the charges in a bid to keep him out of the White House, and he promised revenge on his perceived enemies if he won a second term. “If Donald J. Trump had lost an election, he may very well have spent the rest of his life in prison,” Vice President-elect JD Vance, wrote in a social media post on Monday. “These prosecutions were always political. Now it’s time to ensure what happened to President Trump never happens in this country again.” After the Jan. 6 attack by Trump supporters that left more than 100 police officers injured, Republican leader Mitch McConnell and several other Republicans who voted to acquit Trump during his Senate impeachment trial said it was up to the justice system to hold Trump accountable. The Jan. 6 case brought last year in Washington alleged an increasingly desperate criminal conspiracy to subvert the will of voters after Trump's 2020 loss, accusing Trump of using the angry mob of supporters that attacked the Capitol as “a tool” in his campaign to pressure then-Vice President Mike Pence and obstruct the certification of Democrat Joe Biden's victory. Hundreds of Jan. 6 rioters — many of whom have said they felt called to Washington by Trump — have pleaded guilty or been convicted by juries of federal charges at the same courthouse where Trump was supposed to stand trial last year. As the trial date neared, officials at the courthouse that sits within view of the Capitol were busy making plans for the crush of reporters expected to cover the historic case. But Trump's argument that he enjoyed absolute immunity from prosecution quickly tied up the case in appeals all the way up to the Supreme Court. The high court ruled in July that former presidents have broad immunity from prosecution , and sent the case back to the trial court to decide which allegations could move forward. But the case was dismissed before the trial court could get a chance to do so. The other indictment brought in Florida accused Trump of improperly storing at his Mar-a-Lago estate sensitive documents on nuclear capabilities, enlisting aides and lawyers to help him hide records demanded by investigators and cavalierly showing off a Pentagon “plan of attack” and classified map. But U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the case in July on grounds that Smith was illegally appointed . Smith appealed to the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, but abandoned that appeal on Monday. Smith's team said it would continue its fight in the appeals court to revive charges against Trump's two co-defendants because “no principle of temporary immunity applies to them.” In New York, jurors spent weeks last spring hearing evidence in a state case alleging a Trump scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through a hush money payment to a porn actor who said the two had sex. New York prosecutors recently expressed openness to delaying sentencing until after Trump's second term, while Trump's lawyers are fighting to have the conviction dismissed altogether. In Georgia, a trial while Trump is in office seems unlikely in a state case charging him and more than a dozen others with conspiring to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state. The case has been on hold since an appeals court agreed to review whether to remove Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis over her romantic relationship with the special prosecutor she had hired to lead the case. Associated Press reporter Lisa Mascaro in Washington contributed.

Blue Yonder said that it experienced disruptions to services it manages for customers on Thursday, which the third-party software supplier determined to be “the result of a ransomware incident.”

The 26-year-old South African has pedigree, finishing the 2017 World Under-20s Championship as the top try-scorer before claiming Player of the Year honours that same season. With the Saints, he has been their anchor since 2021 and capped it with that League title. A devastating yet athletic ball-carrier at the back of the scrum, it is easy to see why Ulster wanted him so badly and he is an outstanding signing. At the same time, it’s also not incorrect to question why Ulster wanted him so badly. While Augustus may be a top-quality player, head coach Richie Murphy already has three top options at his disposal in the back-row in the shape of recent Ireland debutant Cormac Izuchukwu, long-time Ireland squad member Nick Timoney and their current Player of the Season David McCann. For Augustus to come in, one of them has to go out. While Izuchukwu could move into the second-row, the consensus is that he is better utilised on the blindside flank, meaning four into three doesn’t go and making Augustus a somewhat confusing acquisition. But Murphy has clarified that not only did they want Augustus to join them in the 2025/26 season on a three-year deal, they specifically went looking for a player that fitted his exact mould. “We consciously went looking for that type of player. That type of player was what we wanted to bring into the squad. A focal point, a big ball-carrying back-row with high involvements that gets you on the front foot and allows other players to play off the back of him,” explains the head coach. “If you look at the game, the game is about power and speed, and he has both of those things, which will allow other big, powerful speed players like Nick, like Izzy to come into the game more as well. “It gives us another string to our bow that, when you’re playing at the very top end of Europe, you need players of that calibre. “It’s a statement of where we want to get to. He’s a top-class player, he’s 26-years-old, he’s in his prime. He’s been a very effective ball-carrier in the Premiership the last few seasons, so we’re really delighted to get him here.” What that means for Ulster’s back-row stocks moving forward is yet to be seen, but it certainly is a statement of intent from the province and a welcome boost coming into a busy month of December that will be pivotal in Ulster’s fortunes for the rest of the 2024/25 season. Inter-provincial rivals and perennial pacesetters Leinster are first up on Friday night at Ravenhill on their return to United Rugby Championship action, and things don’t get any easier from there, with back-to-back games against Toulouse and Bordeaux-Begles in the Champions Cup to follow. A brutal loss to Cardiff in their final game before the international break, where Ulster blew a 19-0 lead in Wales to lose 21-19, will have stung during their four weeks off, but there’s no time for feeling sorry for themselves with the schedule ahead of them. “We gave the guys eight days off and encouraged them to go away and take a break. Since they’ve come back in, they’ve worked hard for that period to prepare for what’s coming in the next couple of weeks. We’ve worked on tidying up the areas of our game that we feel have been letting us down a little bit,” adds Murphy. “The guys are chomping at the bit to get back out there, but we’re also going into a block of games which are not only incredibly difficult, but the way the fixtures fall makes it even tougher. “Nine days to Toulouse, six days to Bordeaux and six days to Munster, it’s a pretty tough schedule, and it’s a schedule that’s going to need as many bodies on deck as possible. “That has an impact on our squad and the freshness of our players, not only because they have to play more but, in order to get the work done during the week, we have to train more. It puts more pressure on the squad.” Still, despite what is to come, Murphy insists they are excited by what they have managed to achieve during the break and what could lie ahead in this second block of the season. “Back end of the second-half of that Cardiff match, we probably let our standard drop and couldn’t regain control, which was disappointing on our behalf given how we played in the first-half. We know there will be ups and downs this season, we just didn’t expect them in the same game,” he laments. “But it hasn’t changed what we were going into this training window about, we’ve still gone after the same things that we would have before that. Trying to finish off those games and see them out is something that we’re going to be tested on in the next few weeks. “We’re very excited, we’ve worked hard over the last few weeks. We feel that areas of our game that we’ve focused on have improved, so no better test than Leinster to test that out.” There were also a couple of positives in Ireland’s clash with Fiji, not just seeing Izuchukwu make his Ireland debut but also seeing tighthead prop Tom O’Toole make his first appearance at loosehead for the side. While not ruling out the potential of the prop doing likewise in provincial colours, though, Murphy poured cold water on a permanent switch for the Ireland star. “Tom is our tighthead at the moment. At this time, we see him as a tighthead,” he maintains. “Am I saying you won’t see him at loosehead? No, I’m not, depending on what happens with the squad. But where he sits in our thinking at this moment in time is on the tighthead side.”

VERMILLION — It was a regular season to remember for South Dakota football. With a 9-2 record, capped off by one of the most miraculous victories in the program’s history against North Dakota State, the Coyotes claimed their first Missouri Valley Football Conference title and the No. 4 seed in the FCS Playoffs. ADVERTISEMENT There were plenty of memorable moments throughout the season, but there were a few that really defined the Coyotes' season. Here are three of those season-defining moments ... So technically this play didn’t start the season. The USD defense actually got caught off guard against Northern State in the opening series of the season back on Aug. 29. The Wolves stormed down the field and scored a field goal to go up 3-0 in the first quarter. However, Keyondray Jones-Logan was about to make the first big play of the season. As Northern State kicked it off, Jones-Logan fielded the kick at the three-yard line and proceeded to turn on the afterburners. After evading a few defenders, he was free and took it 97 yards for the return touchdown. It put the Coyotes up 7-3 as they went on to claim victory over the Wolves in the season-opener 45-3. It was the first of two kickoff return touchdowns from Jones-Logan in the regular season and sent a message to the rest of the country of the deadly weapon USD possessed. The message mostly got through too as he didn’t get many more opportunities during the season to field kickoffs as teams either went away from him or kicked it out of the back of the end zone. Regardless, it was a tone-setter, not only in the season-opener but for the rest of the season that the Coyotes were ready to put the country on notice. The Coyotes needed a play and needed a play in the worst way in Brookings. In the most recent edition of the Interstate Series, things had just gone about as wrong as they could have for the Coyotes. Trailing 14-7 with 4:57 left in the game, USD was driving. On the Jacks’ 10-yard line, Aidan Bouman handed off to Travis Theis, who looked back to Bouman as he began a route out to the right side. However, Theis threw an interception on the play as SDSU took all the momentum USD had built over the offensive series. ADVERTISEMENT Suddenly, the Jacks had the chance to run the clock and claim victory if the Coyotes couldn’t come up with some type of game-altering play. Enter Dennis Shorter. Mark Gronowski handed off to Angel Johnson on a fairly simple halfback draw. Shorter charged out of the secondary and put his helmet right on the ball. It launched backward out of Johnson’s arms and was up for grabs as it rolled. Mi’Quise Grace picked it up and ran it in for the game-tying touchdown. No, USD did not go on to beat SDSU as the Coyotes fell in heartbreaking fashion 20-17 in overtime. However, this was the game that truly put the FCS on notice. USD walked into Brookings and was only a play or two away from winning. It cemented the Coyotes as legitimate contenders for a National Championship and Shorter’s forced fumble was the highlight of the night. Was there ever any doubt that this would be the ultimate defining moment of the season? Just a few minutes early, the Coyotes were all but dead in the water. North Dakota State just finished off a back-breaking 20-play, 99-yard touchdown drive that took almost 11 minutes off the clock. The Bison went up 28-17 with just under five minutes to go and hope of a victory seemed all but lost. But there was some magic in the air. USD went on a quick touchdown drive to make it a one-possession game with the Bison leading 28-23. After the defense forced a punt deep in NDSU’s own territory, the stage was set for what would be one of the most memorable drives in USD history. The first big play from Phelps came a few plays before the game-winning catch. Phelps made a miraculous 23-yard catch along the sideline that was originally ruled incomplete. After further review though, Phelps somehow tapped a toe despite actively being pushed out-of-bounds. The catch set the Coyotes up at the Bison 25-yard line. ADVERTISEMENT But Bouman took a sack two plays later and the clock was ticking. However, the hurry from USD to the line caused the NDSU defense a bit of confusion. And, well, Phelps explained what he saw on the very next play. “It was a scramble to get back to the line of scrimmage,” he said. “If you’ve seen the play, it was kind of a busted coverage because whenever you watch the tape, the corner overlapped that the slot receiver. And I was just open from there. I couldn’t believe [I was that open].” Phelps found himself with no defender near him as Bouman delivered a pass at the four-yard line. Phelps all but walked it in as USD went up 29-28. NDSU couldn’t deliver a miracle lateral play with just a few seconds left as the Coyotes clinched their first conference title in school history. It was the defining moment of the season. However, if you ask those around the program, they hope it’s not the ultimate defining moment as the Coyotes aim to accomplish even more in the playoffs on the road to Frisco.US stock indices pushed to fresh records Tuesday, shrugging off tariff threats from President-elect Donald Trump while European equities retreated. Trump, who doesn't take office until January 20, made his threat in social media posts Monday night, announcing huge import tariffs against neighbors Canada and Mexico and also rival China if they do not stop illegal immigration and drug smuggling. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.