Donald Trump's run of good fortune is expected to be recognized this week by Time magazine, which will name him Person of the Year, according to media reports. Time will announce the winner Thursday morning on its website. Trump's political comeback after two impeachments , four indictments , losing the 2020 election and inciting a riot at the U.S. Capitol to try to overturn the results is a remarkable moment in American history. The president-elect also survived two assassination attempts . A bullet grazed his ear and killed a rallygoer during the first assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania. Trump is the first president to win another term after losing his reelection bid since Grover Cleveland in 1892. He also is the oldest person to assume the presidency, and the first person convicted of a felony to win the job. Trump's victory also is notable because of the political realignment he has brought. He made gains with younger voters and Hispanic voters . Trump is expected to celebrate the honor by ringing the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange Thursday and unveiling the magazine cover, Politico and Reuters reported, citing anonymous sources. Trump also was named Person of the Year in 2016 after winning his first White House bid. A Time spokesperson declined to comment. Time unveiled the Person of the Year short list earlier this week. It includes Trump, Vice President Kamala Harris, Kate Middleton, Elon Musk and Benjamin Netanyahu. Time named professional basketball player Caitlin Clark Athlete of the Year on Tuesday. Pop star Taylor Swift was named Person of the Year in 2023.Rape allegation against Jay-Z will not affect NFL relationship, says chiefNoneKansas once required voters to prove citizenship. That didn't work out so well
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Bowls miss out in 4 CFP teams in latest postseason twistSamuel Musgrave and an unknown accomplice were captured on CCTV as they entered Out Out on Hartlepool Marina and stole £8,000 worth of goods. Teesside Crown Court heard how the 49-year-old was out looking for scrap metal when he carried out the opportunistic burglary on June 13. Nicci Horton, prosecuting, said the defendant stole a glass washing machine, pizza oven, slushie machine, a large screen projector and some stock. She said the defendant claimed that he believed the business had been abandoned and helped himself to the goods but ‘that was clearly not true’ as the bar was still up and running. Out Out in Hartlepool (Image: Google) Musgrave, of Kirkdale Street, Hetton-le-Hole, pleaded guilty to the burglary. Michael Cahill, mitigating, said his client had been working as a site manager but was now the carer for his elderly father. U8He said: “He was out looking for scrap and the temptation got the better of him when he saw the open door. “He went in with another person and he accepts that they stole those items together.” See more court stories from The Northern Echo by clicking here Don’t miss out on our biggest sale of the year! Get a full year of the Northern Ech o for only £25 or try 6 months for just £6 . Click here for details. Judge Timothy Stead sentenced Musgrave to eight months in custody suspended for 18 months. He added: “You have your father to care for, a 17-year-old daughter and a wife – it’s time to avoid this sort of temptation. “I’m not going to deprive you of your liberty today, there’s no point filling up prisons with sentences of this kind although if you do it again in the near future it will be different. Musgrave was also ordered to attend 15 rehabilitation activity requirement days and carry out 100 hours of unpaid work.
Trump selects longtime adviser Keith Kellogg as special envoy for Ukraine and Russia
NEW YORK (AP) — He's making threats, traveling abroad and negotiating with world leaders. Donald Trump has more than a month and a half to go before he's sworn in for a second term. But the Republican president-elect is already moving aggressively not just to fill his Cabinet and outline policy goals, but to achieve those priorities . Trump has threatened to impose a 25% tariff on goods from Canada and Mexico, prompting emergency calls and a visit from Canada's prime minister that resulted in what Trump claimed were commitments from both U.S. allies on new border security measures. The incoming president has warned there will be “ALL HELL TO PAY" if, before his inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025, Hamas does not release the hostages being held in Gaza . He has threatened to block the purchase of U.S. Steel by a Japanese company, warning "Buyer Beware!!!” And this weekend, Trump was returning to the global stage, joining a host of other foreign leaders for the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral five years after it was ravaged by a fire. On Saturday, he met with French President Emmanuel Macron — joined at the last minute by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — and had plans to see Britain's Prince William also in Paris. Absent in Paris: lame duck President Joe Biden, who has largely disappeared from headlines, except when he issued a pardon of his son , Hunter, who was facing sentencing for gun crimes and tax evasion. First lady Jill Biden is attending in his place. “I think you have seen more happen in the last two weeks than you’ve seen in the last four years. And we’re not even there yet,” Trump said in an over-the-top boast at an awards ceremony Thursday night . For all of Trump's bold talk, though, it is unclear how many of his efforts will bear fruit. The pre-inauguration threats and deal-making are highly unusual, like so much of what Trump does, said Julian Zelizer, a political historian at Princeton University. “Transitions are always a little complicated in this way. Even though we talk about one president at a time," he said, “the reality is one president plus. And that plus can act assertively sometimes." Zelizer said that is particularly true of Trump, who was president previously and already has relationships with many foreign leaders such as Macron, who invited both Trump and Biden to Paris this weekend as part of the Notre Dame celebration. “Right now he’s sort of governing even though he’s not the president yet. He’s having these public meetings with foreign leaders, which aren't simply introductions. He's staking out policy and negotiating things from drug trafficking to tariffs," Zelizer said. Trump already has met with several foreign leaders, in addition to a long list of calls. He hosted Argentinian President Javier Milei in Florida at his Mar-a-Lago club in November. After the tariff threat, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago for a three-hour dinner meeting. Canadian officials later said the country is ready to make new investments in border security, with plans for more helicopters, drones and law enforcement officers. Last Sunday, Trump dined with Sara Netanyahu, wife of the Israeli prime minister. Incoming Trump aides have also been meeting with their future foreign counterparts. On Wednesday, several members of Trump's team, including incoming national security adviser Mike Waltz, met with Andriy Yermak, a top aide to Zelenskyy, in Washington, as Ukraine tries to win support for its ongoing efforts to defend itself from Russian invasion, according to a person familiar with the meeting. Yermak also met with Trump officials in Florida, he wrote on X . That comes after Trump's incoming Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, traveled to Qatar and Israel for high-level talks about a cease-fire and hostage deal in Gaza, according to a U.S familiar with the efforts, meeting with the prime ministers of both countries. There is no prohibition on incoming officials or nominees meeting with foreign officials, and it is common and fine for them to do so — unless those meetings are designed to subvert or otherwise impact current U.S. policy. Trump aides were said to be especially cognizant of potential conflicts given their experience in 2016, when interactions between Trump allies and Russian officials came under scrutiny. That included a phone call in which Trump's incoming national security adviser, Michael Flynn, discussed new sanctions with Russia’s ambassador to the United States, suggesting things would improve after Trump became president. Flynn was later charged with lying to the FBI about the conversation. Trump’s incoming press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that, “All transition officials have followed applicable laws in their interactions with foreign nationals.” She added: “World leaders recognize that President Trump is returning to power and will lead with strength to put the best interests of the United States of America first again. That is why many foreign leaders and officials have reached out to correspond with President Trump and his incoming team.” Such efforts can nonetheless cause complications. If, say, Biden is having productive conversations on a thorny foreign policy issue and Trump weighs in, that could make it harder for Biden “because people are hearing two different voices” that may be in conflict, Zelizer said. Leaders like Russia's Vladimir Putin and Netanyahu may also anticipate a more favorable incoming administration and wait Biden out, hoping for more a better deal. It also remains unclear how extensively the Biden administration has been kept apprised of Trump transition efforts. Although there is no requirement that an incoming administration coordinate calls and meetings with foreign officials with the State Department or National Security Council, that has long been considered standard practice. That is, in part, because transition teams, particularly in their early days and weeks, do not always have the latest information about the state of relations with foreign nations and may not have the resources, including interpretation and logistical ability, to handle such meetings efficiently. Still, the Biden and Trump teams have been talking, particularly on the Middle East, with the incoming and outgoing administrations having agreed to work together on efforts to free hostages who remain in held in Gaza, according to a U.S. official, who, like others, was not authorized to comment publicly about the sensitive talks and spoke on condition of anonymity. That includes conversations between Witkoff and Biden’s foreign policy team as well as Waltz and Biden national security adviser Jake Sullivan. Last month, Biden administration officials said they had kept Trump’s team closely apprised of efforts to broker a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah on the Israel-Lebanon border. “I just want to be clear to all of our adversaries, they can’t play the incoming Trump administration off of the Biden administration. I’m regularly talking to the Biden people. And so, this is not a moment of opportunity or wedges for them," Waltz said Friday in a Fox Business interview. But when it comes to immigration, Biden administration officials haven’t been entirely in the loop on discussions around how to execute on Trump’s pledge to deport millions of migrants, according to four administration officials with knowledge of the transition who spoke on condition of anonymity. That’s not terribly surprising given how differently the teams view migration. Trump’s team, meanwhile, is already claiming credit for everything from gains in the stock and cryptocurrency markets to a decision by Walmart to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion policies Trump opposes. “Promises Kept — And President Trump Hasn’t Even Been Inaugurated Yet,” read one press release that claimed, in part, that both Canada and Mexico have already pledged "immediate action” to help “stem the flow of illegal immigration, human trafficking, and deadly drugs entering the United States." Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has stopped short of saying Trump mischaracterized their call in late November. But she said Friday that Trump “has his own way of communicating, like when we had the phone call and he wrote that we were going to close the border. That was never talked about in the phone call.” Earlier this week, Mexico carried out what it claimed was its largest seizure of fentanyl pills ever. Seizures over the summer had been as little as 50 grams per week, and after the Trump call, they seized more than a ton. Security analyst David Saucedo said that "under the pressure by Donald Trump, it appears President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration is willing to increase the capture of drug traffickers and drug seizures that Washington is demanding.” Biden, too, tried to take credit for the seizure in a statement Friday night. ___ Associated Press writers Matthew Lee, Aamer Madhani, Colleen Long and Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington and Mark Stevenson in Mexico City contributed to this report.The target by the Federal Government to ramp up oil production to 3 million liters per day has been accompanied with different strategies, SUCCESS NWOGU writes Federal Government’s ambitious crude oil production target of 2.06 million barrels per day in the 2025 budget has once more underscored the need to adopt proactive and effective measures to ramp up Nigeria’s crude oil production. The budget’s crude oil target was less than the initial projection. The Minister of Defence, Dr. Mohammad Badaru Abubakar, speaking recently at 6 Division Nigerian Army Barracks in Port Harcourt, said FG had set a target to increase oil production per day to 2.3 million per day by mid-2025. He claimed that the current oil production had risen from one million barrels to 1.6 to 1.7 million barrels. Abubakar said: “I believe we are now at about 1.6 to 1.7 million barrels as against 1.4 million barrels that we were on. And I believe that by the end of the year, we will see ourselves around 1.9 to two million barrels. “And by the middle of next year (God’s willing) we will be producing about 2.3 million barrels. With the arrangement that I have seen in place, and with the efforts the Arm Forces are putting in the efforts of the Chief of Defence Staff and the service Chiefs and course with the encouragement from the President. “The oil production has to continue to increase and I assure you before the end of the year we will see a tremendous increase in the oil production in this country.” 3m barrels per day target The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) said that crude oil production output of three million barrels per day was achievable up from the current 1.7million. The Chief Corporate Communications Officer (CCCO) of NNPCL, Olufemi Soneye, stated this in an address at a stakeholders engagement for journalists covering the National Assembly in Abuja. Soneye said the feat was attainable with support from all critical stakeholders. He said the political will towards the target was already provided by President Bola Tinubu with directives to relevant security agencies to stem the ugly tide of oil theft and pipeline vandalism, which, according to him, led to increase in daily oil production from 1.4 million to 1.7milliion barrels per day. Soneye said: “Three million barrels oil production per day is achievable in Nigeria if all the stakeholders work in synergy for that purpose from the security agencies both government and private owned, to oil companies and host communities. “With expected synergy from all the relevant stakeholders on war against oil theft and pipeline vandalism, the required enabling environment would be in place for optimal oil production to the volume of 2.5 to three million barrels per day.” He lamented that at a point, oil production dropped to 900,000 barrels per day in the country before the engagement of private security agencies and renewed efforts of the military. “At that time, we felt Nigeria was in trouble as far as oil theft was concerned but, the intensity of war against it, has allayed our fears,” he said. According to OPEC’s Monthly Oil Market Report for November, using direct communication, Nigeria crude oil production increased by 152,000 barrels per day from 1.333million barrels per day (mbpd) in October to 1.486mbpd in November. Nigeria’s average crude oil production in September fell by 27,000 barrels from 1.352mbpd in August to 1.324 million barrels per day in September, 2024 using direct communication. For August, Nigeria’s oil production increased by 30,000 barrels per day from 1.276million barrels per day in June to 1.307mbpd in July; 1.251mbpd in May; 1.281mbpd in April; 1.231mbpd in March; 1.322mbpd in February; 1.427mbpd in January, 2024 and 1.327mbpd in December, 2023. Production increase In efforts to boost crude production, Vice President Kashim Shettima recently commissioned a new Floating Production, Storage and Offloading vessel by Oriental Energy Resources Limited. He represented President Bola Tinubu at the Drydocks World Dubai Shipyard in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates. Sources said the vessel, named ENEM FPSO, with a storage capacity of one million barrels, would kick off with an initial production of 17,000 barrels per day before increasing its production capacity to 30,000 bpd. A statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Communications, Office of the Vice President, Stanley Nkwocha, said the development aligned with the president’s efforts to revitalise the nation’s oil and gas sector. He added that the government aims to optimise production, reduce dependence on foreign imports and generate more revenue. According to him as Nigeria’s home-based refineries come alive, vessels like this would be instrumental in maximising the nation’s production capacity and driving economic growth. Shettima said: “This FPSO vessel is more than just a technological achievement; it is a symbol of Nigeria’s ambition and our readiness to meet global energy demands. Under President Tinubu’s leadership, we are witnessing the transformation of the oil and gas sector, which is central to our economic revitalisation efforts. “He stated that the vessel is a critical link in Nigeria’s ambition to optimise productivity, enabling the country to become a central hub for hydrocarbon demand, both domestically and globally.” He stated: “Over the decades, Alhaji Muhammadu Indimi has stood as a model businessman and symbol of excellence in the oil and gas industry. So, it’s not surprising that his vision has transformed Oriental Energy Resources Limited into a global phenomenon. “This outcome testifies to what is possible when ambition is matched with perseverance and expertise. His journey reminds us that Nigeria is a land of opportunity, and with dedication, there is no limit to what we can achieve. “Just about two weeks ago, His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was in Paris, where he oversaw the expansion of one of Nigeria’s indigenous banks into that sphere of the European financial market. That historic moment reflected our collective aspiration as a nation. “This FPSO vessel symbolises a future where Nigerian ingenuity meets global standards, and we will be here every step of the way to ensure its utility and success.” Executive Chairman, Oriental Energy Resources Limited, Muhammadu Indimi, said the facility was the first FPSO to be fully funded by a Nigerian indigenous company. He explained that the vessel named ENEM FPSO, has heralded an effort for an indigenous Nigerian oil and gas company to independently develop a marginal field, stressing that it is an important milestone for Nigeria and its indigenous oil and gas sector. “When operating at full capacity we expect the Okwok Oil Field to produce up to 30,000 barrels of oil a day, significantly enhancing Nigeria’s oil production and contributing to the government’s ambition to increase oil revenue to fund Nigeria’s development. “The Okwok field is just one step towards our long-term ambition to deliver 100,000 barrels of oil per day of production in Nigeria. We have a strong set of proven assets and a development pipeline that can deliver it,” he said. Oil theft Though Nigeria is one of Africa’s leading crude oil exporters, the large-scale oil theft has posed a major threat to national economy as it is estimated that oil theft costs Nigeria millions of dollars each month; and that about $23bn in oil revenue was lost in 2022. The Governor of River State, Siminalayi Fubara, recently donated 6 gun boats to the Nigerian Navy as one of the strategies to combat oil theft and economic sabotage. Sources said the gunboats will enhance waterway patrols and response times, especially near submerged oil export pipelines that are prone to attacks. The governor noted that oil theft is a big problem that needs all hands on deck to tackle it. He explained that the six gunboats donated by the River State government are meant to support the Nigerian Navy to ensure that the nefarious activities of oil thieves are drastically reduced. Fubara said: “We have set up local vigilantes to support the protection of oil facilities, acquired gunboats, and [are] protecting the ecosystem of the region. “We are doing our best to discourage any form of economic sabotage, which is why the country’s output has increased in recent months given our support and protection of pipelines.” “What we need is a total reorientation of the people to discourage them from stealing oil. It’s a bad situ – ation because you have children as young as 14 and 15 involved.” Illegal refineries NNPC Ltd maintained that the war against crude oil theft and oil pipelines vandalism has been on course, adding that the company and public and private security operatives have intensified efforts to rid the nation of oil thefts. In a post on its X it explained that between November 30 and December 6, it uncovered at least 34 illegal refineries and 17 illegal pipeline connections in one week across the Niger Delta region and that it recorded a total of 94 oil theft incidents in parts of Bayelsa, Rivers, and Abia States. It added that a massive illegal storage site was uncovered in Okrika 7 of River State where officials found crude oil stored in sacks ready for the black market and that illegal crude oil storages were also reportedly discovered in Igi 3, Ibudiya 1, Eborcha, and Ukua. It said: “In a series of coordinated operations, illegal pipelines were discovered and dismantled at key hotspots – Ogboingbiri, Ejehinkiri, Alabelema in Bayelsa state. “And Okrika 7 in Rivers state witnessed swift action as security forces uncovered an illicit setup used by perpetrators to exploit Nigeria’s resources. “Repairs were carried out promptly restoring the pipelines to full functionality and fortifying the nation’s hydrocarbon infrastructure.” It added: “The Crackdown didn’t stop there. Illegal refineries met their end in Ebocha, umuajuloke community, Okrika 7, and Kumkum in Rivers State, as well as Ukwa, Uzuaku, Oza West, Odogwa, Obuzor, Oandu in Abia State and Bizeni in Bayelsa state. The destruction of these sites serve as a Stern warning – no haven exists for crude oil theft in Nigeria. “The week’s incidents spanned key corridors – 39 in the central Corridor, 41 in the Eastern Corridor, four in the western Corridor, and 10 in deep blue water.” “This was achieved by the joint efforts of NNPCL command and control Centres, Shell Petroleum Development Company, Pipeline Infrastructure Nigeria Limited, Maton Engineering Nigeria Limited, Oando PLC, New Guard Security and Consultancy Limited, and government security agencies.” Last Line: The Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, Mele Kyari, said the increased crude oil production was as a result of improved security measures and the support of joint venture partners. “We have reached a new peak in production that we haven’t seen in the last three years. This is related to the sustained efforts by the armed forces and other security agencies to protect our critical assets,” Kyari said in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja.