Trump team signs agreement to allow Justice to conduct background checks on nominees, staff
As Jalen Suggs watched from the bench in the second half of Saturday’s contest between the Magic and the Pistons at Kia Center , the fourth-year pro noticed something in particular about his team. “When you look at those really good teams around the league, those playoff teams, veteran-led teams, no matter how the game flow goes, first quarter, second quarter,” he told reporters in the locker room. “There’s never a thought or feel that they’re going to lose those games. “We’re starting to garner that,” he added about coach Jamahl Mosley ‘s squad that won its eighth in the last nine games. Suggs, who exited Orlando ‘s 111-100 win early in the second quarter due to a sore left hamstring, was the latest Magic starter to suffer a injury this season following Paolo Banchero (torn right abdominal muscle) and Wendell Carter Jr. (left foot plantar fasciitis), who haven’t played in weeks. But even without that core trio on the court, the Magic (11-7) found a way to extend its second half lead to as many as 22 points in the fourth quarter against Detroit (7-11) and remain undefeated (8-0) at home. “Knowing we walk into these games hurt, tired, long-stretch, a lot going on, there was never a believe that this team was going to come in and beat us,” Suggs said. “Which isn’t a discredit to them. They’ve got some good basketball players over there and really been playing good this year. “And they were down Cade [Cunningham] which, I hope he gets well, but [the result] more speaks on us and the growth and maturity that we’re applying over here,” he added. “Everyone stepped up.” Beede’s Breakdown: How Magic handled business vs. visiting Pistons And the Magic guard is right. As has been the case since Banchero’s injury, Franz Wagner continued to score with ease (30 points on 50% shooting from the field) and had help from the Magic’s bench that outscored Detroit’s 55-45. That help included 18 points and 7 rebounds from his older brother, Moe Wagner, and 12 rebounds and 3 blocks from Jonathan Isaac, who added 5 points. There was also Anthony Black, who had 11 points with 5 assists and 2 steals after starting the second half in place of Suggs. And Franz Wagner will need more of the same from his supporting cast when Orlando travels to Charlotte (6-10) on Monday, especially if Carter isn’t available. Suggs declined to speak at length about his hamstring injury but told reporters in the locker room he’s “good.” “I’m solid,” he said. “I’m good. Good win [Saturday night].” Orlando’s initial injury report for the Charlotte game confirmed his post-game comments. Suggs wasn’t even listed on the report, meaning he’s expected to be available despite missing most of Saturday’s contest. Carter, who’s again considered questionable to play, continued to do some work pre-game on the court but was ruled out for his 11th consecutive contest. “He’s gone through some pretty, pretty strenuous workouts so we’re going to continue to see how he responds to those and we’ll go from there,” Mosley said of the Magic center, who hasn’t played since Nov. 3 at Dallas. Regardless, Orlando’s mindset doesn’t change entering the game at the Hornets, whom the Magic defeated by 25 points at home two weeks ago. “We talk about doing it by committee,” Mosley said. “One guy goes down and each guy knows the next person is able to step up and make the right plays for this team.” Jason Beede can be reached at jbeede@orlandosentinel.comVan Nistelrooy returned to Old Trafford as Erik ten Hag’s assistant in the summer and had a four-game interim spell in charge following his compatriot’s sacking in October. He left the club in the wake of Ruben Amorim’s appointment but was only out of work for two weeks after being appointed Leicester’s new manager on a deal until 2027. The 48-year-old had a glittering playing career with United and was disappointed his return had to end so soon. “The moment I took over the interim job what I said was I’m here to help United and to stay to help United, and I meant it,” he said. “So I was disappointed, yeah, very much so, and it hurt I had to leave. “The only job I would take as an assistant was at United because of the bond that I have with the people in the club and the fans. “But in the end I got my head around it because I also understand the new manager. I’m in football long enough, and I’ve managed myself, that you can think of a situation, me being there, I understand. “I spoke to Ruben about it, fair enough to him, the conversation was grateful, man to man, person to person, manager to manager, and that helped a lot to move on and straightaway get into talks with new possibilities which of course lifted my spirits.” The Dutchman takes on a difficult job at the King Power Stadium as he is tasked with keeping Leicester in the Premier League. He inherits an influential dressing room, which has seen a number of managers come and go over the last few years. Ruud's here for his first press conference as our Manager 😃 pic.twitter.com/A4Juixvorb — Leicester City (@LCFC) December 2, 2024 Van Nistelrooy revealed he has done his due diligence and also let the players know as well. “It’s the only way you can work. It’s mutual respect. I also mentioned to the players yesterday that I looked at the squad and started to make phone calls about players, because in football everyone knows everyone,” he said. “With two or three phone calls you hear stories about 20 players and for me it was important that you hear there are good characters there. That’s important, that there are good people there. “I look at the players how they play. I obviously don’t know them but I got general information and the individuals that they are a good bunch of people. That was important for me to get in.”
Robert Eggers ’ spectacular “ Nosferatu ” opens with several pronounced seconds of perfect, crypt-like blackness, as if the director were adjusting his audience’s eyes to see in the dark. But the film that follows — luminously ashen where too many recent movies and TV shows have just been irritatingly dim — is flooded with a moonlight so lucid and alive that even the story’s most stygian moments might as well have been set at high noon. For all of its exquisite darkness, this “ Nosferatu ” is never the least bit difficult to see. The reason for that is simple: Eggers doesn’t want us to see in the darkness, he wants us to see the darkness itself. To recognize it not as the absence of light, but rather as a feral and undying force all its own — one that we carry within ourselves like a secret corseted in virtue. Faithful as it might seem to F.W. Murnau’s 1922 “Nosferatu,” Eggers’ lush and rapturously psychosexual riff on the same material isn’t a simple remake so much as a seductive reverse shot. Where the earlier film climaxes by casting the silhouette of a vampire against a solid wall, this new one starts by projecting the same image across the soft white curtains of its heroine’s bedroom window, as young Ellen Hutter’s ( Lily-Rose Depp ) midnight prayer for “a spirit of comfort” is answered by a hunger so close at hand that its appetite seems to be rooted within her own heart. Or perhaps the call is emanating from somewhere else in her body, as Ellen comes to the voice as much as it comes to her. The prologue might end with a paroxysm of violence, but first there are a few timid whimpers of nascent pleasure; Bill Skarsgård’s base and primal Count Orlok is a nightmare who arrives on the wings of a nocturnal emission. Despite Orlok’s prosthetic decrepitude and the plague-like toxicity of his love, what truly horrifies Ellen about him is that some unknown part of her nature craves his touch. Ellen’s special friend will come to assume increasingly corporeal form as the movie goes on, and Eggers won’t be able to stop himself from paying more literal homage to Murnau’s most famous shot by the time it’s over, but it’s the human woman — not the slumbering monstrosity she awakens from afar — whose silhouette will consume this film’s attention. As compelled by the fear of the self as Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” (and Murnau’s unauthorized adaptation of it) was by the fear of the other, this Jungian twist on the formative vampire story keeps its villain shrouded in shade in order to illustrate how its heroine is merely shrouded in light; she’s a living shadow play whose true curse is belonging to a pre-Victorian society that sees female desire as its own form of darkness. Ellen’s only salvation, such as it is, is that she was born into a “Nosferatu” capable of seeing her darkness so clearly. Modern in its perspective yet fetishistically accurate to its time, Eggers’ horny-as-hell but highly repressed “Nosferatu” is nothing if not the version of this story you would expect him to make. Like “The Witch” before it, the film renders sin with a puritanical sense of mortal danger. Like “The Northman,” this ultra-sincere “Nosferatu” is a stylized fable that shirks off the simplicity of its plot with a visceral physicality. Like “The Lighthouse,” it features a deliriously happy Willem Dafoe as a pipe-smoking kook who says things like “The night demon has supped your good wife’s blood” with the enthusiasm of a character all too happy to have that chance. And like all of Eggers’ films, of which “Nosferatu” is the richest and most fully realized, it draws a spellbinding power from the friction it finds between historical social mores and the eternal human thirsts they exist to keep in check. If “Nosferatu” sinks its fangs a tiny bit deeper than any of the director’s previous work, perhaps that’s because it’s tinged with a degree of tragic cruelty that Eggers has yet to allow in his “original” material. In stark contrast to the settler heroine of “The Witch,” who takes at least some joy in accepting the devil’s bargain to live deliciously, Ellen yearns to find her peace within the patriarchy. Her first thought after signing a covenant with Orlok’s disembodied voice isn’t to seek out his crypt across the Carpathian Mountains, but rather to settle down with the most basic man in Wisborg, Germany circa 1838: middle-class estate agent Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult), a handsome nobody whose cheekbones are higher than his wages. Ellen hopes that marrying Thomas will stop Orlok from calling out to her in the night, but her dear husband is equally seducible to his own simplest instincts. It’s Thomas whose ambition leads the vampire right to the Hutters’ front door, as his new boss — the bestial Herr Knock, played by a scenery and cast-chewing Simon McBurney — tasks him with journeying to Transylvania in order to finalize a real estate deal with a mysterious count from “an eccentric bloodline.” Providence? Ellen is the only person who seems to know better. “But he already has the job,” she whispers to the heavens after learning of Thomas’ audition-like first assignment, a throwaway moment that speaks volumes to what’s said and unsaid in their relationship. On the subject of that relationship, all we really know about it is that Ellen and Thomas seem to genuinely love each other — and that the children they intend to have one day would be born with jawlines sharper than any stake. There’s never any reason to think that a better husband would solve Ellen’s problems, in part because they share a palpably mutual attraction, even going so far as to make out on the floor of their rich friends’ mansion after a dinner party one evening (which seems like some pretty egregious PDA for the time period). Not that shipping magnate Friedrich Harding (a fantastically imperious Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and his wife Anna (Emma Corrin) would think twice if they caught their houseguests snogging in semi-public; Friedrich is a “rutting goat” of a man, and Anna seems to have accepted a nearly permanent state of pregnancy as the only affordable price for her pleasure. Ellen has a more complicated relationship with her unarticulated lust, which is really just the expression of all that she wants but lacks permission to ask from life. Eggers’ broadly suggestive script doesn’t put too fine a point on the specifics of Ellen’s repression (she identifies Orlok as the manifestation of her shame, and insists that she has no need for salvation), but Depp’s revelatory performance ensures that the rest of the movie doesn’t have to. Pouty but headstrong, possessed but clinging to what’s left of her power, Depp plays Ellen as a young woman so at war with the foreignness of her own unconscious that at one point her tongue threatens to detach itself from the rest of her face, as though the muscles of her body were attempting to escape through her mouth. Orlok’s influence overcomes Ellen in a series of Butoh-inspired seizures equal parts Linda Blair and Kazuo Ôno, and there’s no small irony to the remarkable self-control Depp has to display in order to so convincingly wrestle with her character’s darkness, which concentrates inside of the poor newlywed like a blood clot. Alas, Baltic Germany’s medical establishment (embodied here by Ralph Ineson’s Dr. Wilhelm Sievers) only knows to treat repression with repression. At one point he prescribes his increasingly “hysterical” patient an even tighter sleeping corset, as though a few bits of firm lace might be enough to suffocate the devil inside of her. Dafoe’s Professor Albin Eberhart Von Franz has other, more progressive ideas, but his stranger methods trend more towards the occult than they do to modernity. And what good would modernity really do for a woman whose lifeforce so violently chafes against patriarchal control? Needless to say, Orlok will make the trip to Wisborg — arriving in Germany like a plague, with Thomas all but crawling back home to his wife behind him — long before Western society will learn to accept that denying human desire is less a collective victory than a personal self-defeat. There isn’t time enough for that to happen in this movie, though Eggers certainly holds out for as long as he can. The filmmaker smears this wet pinprick of a story across 132 lavishly illustrated minutes, its plot spread thin but its atmosphere suffused with fresh details. Like any great fairy tale, “Nosferatu” demands a certain degree of surrender. Like too few of the films adapted from them, it earns that surrender with the strength of its craft. The morbidly enchanting sequence where Hutter arrives at the foot of Orlok’s castle — the weary traveler rescued by a self-driving carriage — is the best kind of indulgence, as Jarin Blaschke’s ultra-desaturated 35mm cinematography steeps us in the pallid splendor of this twilight world until death itself seems like a beauty worth savoring. I don’t get the impression that Eggers is much of a gamer, but few movies have ever come so close to capturing the feel of “Bloodborne” on the big screen. Wisborg isn’t especially vast, but the four city blocks that Eggers’ team created on a Prague soundstage are as evocative as a snow globe, and only seem to become more so whenever Ellen begins to shake. Eggers allows himself a handful of conventional horror scenes, but all of them — save for a few tedious bits highlighting Knock’s use to Orlok, and a “Last Voyage of the Demeter” sequence that’s short on fresh ideas — are enhanced by their extraordinary manipulation of shadow, which elevates standard jolts into a vivid dance between id and ego. (I can’t remember the last time a fake-out scare was so rewarding.) There’s hardly a millisecond of this movie that isn’t measuring the distance between people and the darkness they disavow within themselves, an effect so palpable that Orlok himself comes to feel somewhat irrelevant to the story he sets into motion. Eggers certainly loves the guy, and Skarsgård’s ultra-committed performance allows the film to enjoy a contagious pleasure in returning the vampire archetype to its more bestial origins. It also allows Eggers’ “Nosferatu” — a film more interested in psychic anxiety than sociopolitical prejudice — to untether its vampire from the anti-semitic tropes that Murnau’s version was forced to contend with. This Orlok is a more carnal force than ever before (it’s rare that we get to see Dracula’s flaccid dick), but whatever sex appeal his raw animalism and thick mustache might hold for certain audiences is offset by rotting back flesh and a general rejection of aristocratic charm. If the makeup is impressive, Skarsgård’s undead baritone is what most brings the undead character to life, his every word of dialogue sounding as though it’s just been rolled across the river Styx. If Skarsgård doesn’t make the same impression as Max Schreck, that’s largely because Eggers’ adaptation doesn’t give him much of a chance to emerge from the periphery. While reducing Orlok to an appetite is what allows “Nosferatu” to focus its energy on Ellen, the vampire is such a fantastic representation of Mrs. Hutter’s shadow that he struggles to take shape in her absence. Of course, that’s not the fatal flaw it might seem — not in a film so wholly enthralled by the question of where “evil” comes from, nor one so gloriously capable of illustrating why feeding our darkness is the best method we have of bringing it to light. Focus Features will release “Nosferatu” in theaters on Christmas Day . Want to stay up to date on IndieWire’s film reviews and critical thoughts? Subscribe here to our newly launched newsletter, In Review by David Ehrlich, in which our Chief Film Critic and Head Reviews Editor rounds up the best new reviews and streaming picks along with some exclusive musings — all only available to subscribers.TOKYO, Dec. 02, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MEDIROM Healthcare Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: MRM) (“MEDIROM”) announces that M3, Inc. (TOKYO PRIME: 2413), or an affiliate within the M3 group, is participating in the Series A equity financing round of MEDIROM MOTHER Labs Inc., a subsidiary of MEDIROM. NFES Technologies Inc. is the lead investor of the Series A financing round at a pre-money valuation of JPY9 billion. Additional information is available here: https://medirom.co.jp/en/ir/20240824/6148%09 Forward-Looking Statements Regarding MEDIROM Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may include estimates or expectations about MEDIROM’s possible or assumed operational results, financial condition, business strategies and plans, market opportunities, competitive position, industry environment, and potential growth opportunities. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terms such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “design,” “target,” “aim,” “hope,” “expect,” “could,” “intend,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “believe,” “continue,” “predict,” “project,” “potential,” “goal,” or other words that convey the uncertainty of future events or outcomes. These statements relate to future events or to MEDIROM’s future financial performance, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause MEDIROM’s actual results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements to be different from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements because they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which are, in some cases, beyond MEDIROM’s control and which could, and likely will, affect actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Any forward-looking statement reflects MEDIROM’s current views with respect to future events and is subject to these and other risks, uncertainties and assumptions relating to MEDIROM’s operations, results of operations, growth strategy and liquidity. More information on these risks and other potential factors that could affect MEDIROM’s business, reputation, results of operations, financial condition, and stock price is included in MEDIROM’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), including in the “Risk Factors” and “Operating and Financial Review and Prospects” sections of MEDIROM’s most recently filed periodic report on Form 20-F and subsequent filings, which are available on the SEC website at www.sec.gov . MEDIROM assumes no obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, or to update the reasons actual results could differ from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future. ABOUT M3, Inc. M3 is a one of a kind venture company that operates a multitude of global services centred around its physician platform such as m3.com . M3 is the first company incorporated after the year 2000 to be included in the Nikkei 225 Index. Its 330,000+ Japanese and 6,500,000+ global physician member panel serves as a central platform in advancing innovation and reform across healthcare worldwide. Tokyo Stock Exchange Prime Market (Securities code 2413) 1-11-44 Akasaka Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-0052 JAPAN Web https://corporate.m3.com/en ABOUT MEDIROM MOTHER Labs Inc. A subsidiary of MEDIROM Healthcare Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: MRM), focuses on the health-tech sector. The company’s core activities include the "Specific Health Guidance Program" offered through the "Lav" health application and development and sales of the 24/7 recharge-free MOTHER Bracelet smart tracker. By leveraging the features of the recharge-free MOTHER Bracelet, MOTHER Labs offers customizable health management solutions across diverse sectors, including caregiving, logistics, manufacturing, etc. MEDIROM Healthcare Technologies Inc. NASDAQ Symbol: MRM Tradepia Odaiba, 2-3-1 Daiba, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan Web https://medirom.co.jp/en Contact: ir@medirom.co.jp MEDIROM MOTHER Labs Inc. Tradepia Odaiba, 2-3-1 Daiba, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan MOTHER Bracelet is the world's first* 24/7 recharge-free smart tracker. It uses innovative technology from a Silicon Valley tech company that allows for power generation based on temperature differences between body and surrounding air. The recharge-free feature eliminates the risk of data loss when a device is taken off for recharge. MOTHER Bracelet records five basic metrics: heart rate, calories burned, body surface temperature, step count, and sleep. Official Website: https://mother-bracelet.comS&P/TSX composite down Monday, U.S. stock markets mixedVictory Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Teradata Co. ( NYSE:TDC – Free Report ) by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 133,783 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 2,579 shares during the quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. owned approximately 0.14% of Teradata worth $4,059,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period. Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Teradata by 3.3% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,841,180 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $457,898,000 after purchasing an additional 377,761 shares in the last quarter. Lynrock Lake LP boosted its position in Teradata by 9.9% in the second quarter. Lynrock Lake LP now owns 6,666,666 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $230,400,000 after buying an additional 600,000 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Teradata by 60.9% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,136,209 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $73,827,000 after buying an additional 808,691 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Teradata by 27.5% during the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,702,179 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $58,827,000 after buying an additional 367,641 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Boston Trust Walden Corp lifted its stake in shares of Teradata by 14.5% in the 2nd quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 1,673,431 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $57,834,000 after acquiring an additional 212,359 shares during the last quarter. 90.31% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds. Insiders Place Their Bets In other news, insider Hillary Ashton sold 14,962 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.53, for a total value of $411,903.86. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 121,382 shares in the company, valued at $3,341,646.46. This trade represents a 10.97 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link . Also, insider Margaret A. Treese sold 5,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.50, for a total value of $156,750.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 96,783 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,758,315.50. This trade represents a 5.38 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here . Company insiders own 0.92% of the company’s stock. Teradata Trading Up 1.1 % Teradata ( NYSE:TDC – Get Free Report ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The technology company reported $0.69 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.56 by $0.13. Teradata had a net margin of 4.56% and a return on equity of 145.40%. The business had revenue of $440.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $417.71 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.14 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up .5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Teradata Co. will post 1.41 earnings per share for the current year. Analysts Set New Price Targets A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. JMP Securities cut Teradata from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. StockNews.com raised Teradata from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Northland Securities cut their target price on shares of Teradata from $38.00 to $37.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Teradata from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Teradata from $30.00 to $29.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $39.91. View Our Latest Stock Report on TDC About Teradata ( Free Report ) Teradata Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides a connected multi-cloud data platform for enterprise analytics. The company offers Teradata Vantage, an open and connected platform designed to leverage data across an enterprise. Its business consulting services include support services for organizations to establish a data and analytic vision, enable a multi-cloud ecosystem architecture, and identify and operationalize analytical opportunities, as well as to ensure the analytical infrastructure delivers value. Read More Receive News & Ratings for Teradata Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Teradata and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter .
WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump's transition team on Tuesday signed an agreement to allow the Justice Department to conduct background checks on his nominees and appointees after a weekslong delay. The step lets Trump transition aides and future administration staffers obtain security clearances before Inauguration Day to access classified information about ongoing government programs, an essential step for a smooth transition of power. It also allows those nominees who are up for Senate confirmation to face the background checks lawmakers want before voting on them. Teams of investigators have been standing by to process clearances for Trump aides and advisers. "This agreement with the Department of Justice will ensure President Trump and his team are ready on Day 1 to begin enacting the America First Agenda that an overwhelming majority of our nation supported on Election Day," said Susie Wiles, Trump's designate to be White House chief of staff. The announcement came a week after the Trump transition team signed an agreement with the Biden White House to allow transition staff to coordinate with the existing federal workforce before taking office Jan. 20. The White House agreement was supposed to have been signed by Oct. 1, according to the Presidential Transition Act, and the Biden White House issued both public and private appeals for Trump's team to sign on. Security clearances are required to access classified information, including on ongoing operations and threats to the nation, and the Biden White House and outside experts emphasized to Trump's team the importance of having cleared personnel before Inauguration Day so they could be fully briefed and ready to run the government. President-elect Donald Trump arrives before the launch of the sixth test flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024 in Boca Chica, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Pool via AP) Republican Senators also insisted on FBI background checks for Trump's nominees before they face confirmation votes, as has been standard practice for decades. Lawmakers were particularly interested in seeing the findings of reviews into Trump's designated nominee for defense secretary, former Fox News host Pete Hegseth, and for Rep. Tulsi Gabbard to be director of national intelligence. "That's why it's so important that we have an FBI background check, a committee review of extensive questions and questionnaires, and a public hearing," Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said Monday. John Thune, incoming Senate Republican leader, said the Trump team "understands there's going to have to be a thorough vetting of all these nominees." 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. Doug Collins is a former Republican congressman from Georgia who gained recognition for defending Trump during his first impeachment trial, which centered on U.S. assistance for Ukraine. Trump was impeached for urging Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden in 2019 during the Democratic presidential nomination, but he was acquitted by the Senate. Collins has also served in the armed forces himself and is currently a chaplain in the United States Air Force Reserve Command. "We must take care of our brave men and women in uniform, and Doug will be a great advocate for our Active Duty Servicemembers, Veterans, and Military Families to ensure they have the support they need," Trump said in a statement about nominating Collins to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs. 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.” 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. William McGinley, White House counsel McGinley was White House Cabinet secretary during Trump's first administration, and was outside legal counsel for the Republican National Committee's election integrity effort during the 2024 campaign. In a statement, Trump called McGinley “a smart and tenacious lawyer who will help me advance our America First agenda, while fighting for election integrity and against the weaponization of law enforcement.” 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. 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. Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter.
Amorim’s to-do list to make Man Utd great again
Van Nistelrooy returned to Old Trafford as Erik ten Hag’s assistant in the summer and had a four-game interim spell in charge following his compatriot’s sacking in October. He left the club in the wake of Ruben Amorim’s appointment but was only out of work for two weeks after being appointed Leicester’s new manager on a deal until 2027. The 48-year-old had a glittering playing career with United and was disappointed his return had to end so soon. “The moment I took over the interim job what I said was I’m here to help United and to stay to help United, and I meant it,” he said. “So I was disappointed, yeah, very much so, and it hurt I had to leave. “The only job I would take as an assistant was at United because of the bond that I have with the people in the club and the fans. “But in the end I got my head around it because I also understand the new manager. I’m in football long enough, and I’ve managed myself, that you can think of a situation, me being there, I understand. “I spoke to Ruben about it, fair enough to him, the conversation was grateful, man to man, person to person, manager to manager, and that helped a lot to move on and straightaway get into talks with new possibilities which of course lifted my spirits.” The Dutchman takes on a difficult job at the King Power Stadium as he is tasked with keeping Leicester in the Premier League. He inherits an influential dressing room, which has seen a number of managers come and go over the last few years. Ruud's here for his first press conference as our Manager 😃 pic.twitter.com/A4Juixvorb — Leicester City (@LCFC) December 2, 2024 Van Nistelrooy revealed he has done his due diligence and also let the players know as well. “It’s the only way you can work. It’s mutual respect. I also mentioned to the players yesterday that I looked at the squad and started to make phone calls about players, because in football everyone knows everyone,” he said. “With two or three phone calls you hear stories about 20 players and for me it was important that you hear there are good characters there. That’s important, that there are good people there. “I look at the players how they play. I obviously don’t know them but I got general information and the individuals that they are a good bunch of people. That was important for me to get in.”Metformina vuelve a faltar en farmacias; CCSS promete distribuir medicina esta semanaTrump team signs agreement to allow Justice to conduct background checks on nominees, staff
The United States Department of Defense has confirmed that American troops are supporting Philippine operations in the South China Sea through the “US Task Force Ayungin,” whose existence only came to light when US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin III mentioned it on social media. But Philippine security officials stressed that the little-known unit was limited to providing support for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, among others, and that the Americans had no “direct participation” in operations such as resupply missions to Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal. Maj. Pete Nguyen, the Pentagon spokesperson, told the Inquirer in an email exchange on Thursday that the task force was composed of US forces “providing our Philippines allies with enhanced cooperation and interoperability for their maritime operations.” “This support includes planning and training with Philippines’ Western Command (Wescom) for systems provided through US security assistance, such as the unmanned surface vessels that Secretary Austin observed during his stop in Palawan,” Nguyen said. “US forces have decades of close partnership with the Philippines. This task force is a continuation of that longstanding relationship in support of our shared security interests,” he added. READ: LOOK: PH, US conduct amphibious assault exercise near West PH Sea In a post on X on Tuesday, Austin said he had met with members of the task force during a visit to Palawan province and “thanked them for their hard work on behalf of the American people and our alliances and partnerships in this region.” Ayungin, a low-elevation feature some 200 kilometers off mainland Palawan, is guarded by a military outpost on the grounded World War II vessel BRP Sierra Madre. Philippine resupply missions to Ayungin had been repeatedly harassed by Chinese vessels that swarm the disputed waters. In a statement late Wednesday, the Armed Forces of the Philippines said US troops in Palawan “provide technical assistance through the information-sharing group” within the Command and Control Fusion Center at the Wescom headquarters. “This support enhances our capability in maritime domain awareness, a critical task that aids in planning and implementing programs and activities to protect our interests in the West Philippine Sea,” the AFP said. Kanishka Gangopadhyay, spokesperson of the US Embassy in Manila, said the task force was meant to enhance coordination and interoperability between Manila and Washington “by enabling US forces to support AFP activities in the South China Sea.” The initiative, he said, aligns with multiple lines of cooperation between US and Philippine forces, including the Mutual Defense Board-Security Engagement Board process and the Bantay Dagat framework. Under the 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (Edca), American troops are allowed extended stays in select military bases in the Philippines. But National Security Adviser Secretary Eduardo Año on Thursday said the United States had no “direct participation” in Ayungin resupply missions. “They are providing support to us, for example, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, [and] maritime domain awareness, so they are helping by giving information,” Año told reporters at a security meeting in Mabalacat, Pampanga. Philippine and US officials did not immediately answer questions as to when the task force was formed or whether it had been in operation at the time of recent Chinese harassments of Philippine vessels using lasers or water cannons. READ: China Coast Guard seizes PH supplies for Ayungin Año said the matter was “internal to the side of the US.” Subscribe to our daily newsletter By providing an email address. I agree to the Terms of Use and acknowledge that I have read the Privacy Policy . Reached for comment, American security expert Ray Powell said, “My contacts tell me that this is not a new task force, but was just made public with Secretary Austin’s visit.” For comprehensive coverage, in-depth analysis, visit our special page for West Philippine Sea updates . Stay informed with articles, videos, and expert opinions.
With Bill Skarsgård as the "horrible old vampire", Robert Eggers's remake of FW Murnau's silent 1922 classic stars Lily-Rose Depp, Nicholas Hoult, and has its "share of gruesome shocks". Many people have seen plenty of vampire films , but what if we hadn't seen any? What if we'd never heard of Dracula, and we had only the vaguest idea of what a vampire might be? Welcome to the world of Nosferatu, written and directed by Robert Eggers. A remake of FW Murnau's silent classic – which in itself was a fairly faithful, if unofficial, adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula – this is a film that restores the mystery and magic to the concept of an undead bloodsucker by stripping away all of the vampire clichés that have built up since Murnau's original was released in 1922. Eggers is the ideal man for the job. Before he made The Witch, The Lighthouse and The Northman , he was so obsessed with Murnau's Nosferatu that he staged it as a school play when he was a teenager. He is also known for putting his own stamp on horror films by shooting them as if they were arthouse period dramas – and that's what he does here. The costumes and props are all true to the 19th-Century setting, the spectacular outdoor scenes are shot on location in the Czech Republic and Romania, and some of the indoor scenes are illuminated only by candlelight. At the start, when a top-hatted Thomas Hutter is hurrying through the bustling streets to his musty office, you could easily mistake him for Bob Cratchit in A Christmas Carol . If you're not familiar with the name Hutter, that's because the makers of 1922's Nosferatu changed some of the details of Stoker's story, in a vain attempt to get around copyright issues ( Stoker's widow sued them, anyway ): much of the action takes place in the fictional German harbour town of Wisborg in 1838, rather than London in the 1890s. But the outline of the plot is unmistakably Stoker's. Hutter (Nicholas Hoult) is a callow solicitor who works for a cackling weirdo named Knock (Simon McBurney on hilariously frenzied form). In order to secure a promotion, Hutter agrees to journey to distant Transylvania for a meeting with a certain count. His new bride Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) begs him not to take the trip, but Hutter insists, and leaves Ellen in the care of his wealthy friend Harding (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Harding's wife Anna (Emma Corrin). Before long, they'll need the help of a diligent doctor named Sievers (Ralph Ineson), and his mentor, a professor of the occult who was called Van Helsing in Stoker's novel, but is renamed Von Franz (Willem Dafoe) in Nosferatu. Hutter's lone horse ride through wintry forests and over rocky mountains is full of breathtakingly beautiful vistas, and Eggers makes the terrain seem so wild and inhospitable that Hutter would have earned his promotion whatever the destination. But, of course, the destination is a crumbling castle occupied by the Dracula-like Count Orlok. He is played by Bill Skarsgård (It, The Crow, John Wick: Chapter Four ), not that anyone could recognise him underneath all the prosthetic make-up and the layers of heavy clothing. Eggers wisely keeps him at a distance and in the shadows during his first scenes, but the creature we're eventually shown is more like a maggoty walking corpse than the suave seducer seen in most vampire films. Rumoured to be a sorcerer who sold his soul to Satan in return for eternal life, Orlok has the fashion sense of Vlad the Impaler, a booming, vowel-mangling voice which makes it sound as if he is always at the far end of a tunnel, and the loudest wheeze since Darth Vader. He may never be as iconic as his 1922 counterpoint, and he doesn't seem as tragically lonely as he was when Max Schreck played him in Murnau's film, but the imposing (and decomposing) fiend that Eggers and Skarsgård have created is a Dracula/ Orlok unlike any other, which is quite an achievement after more than a century of on-screen vampires. When Orlok begins his reign of terror in Wisborg, Eggers seems to be influenced by The Exorcist and Alien , two films that visit unearthly ordeals on grounded human characters. True, there are smatterings of camp humour, some more deliberate than others. Dafoe is enjoying himself a little too much as a hearty, moustache-twirling eccentric who goes around chirping: "The night demon has supped of your good wife's blood." And Taylor-Johnson's strained attempt at an upper-crust English accent may have you chuckling through the film's gravest scenes. But overall, Eggers takes his doom-laden tale bracingly seriously. Almost everyone commits themselves to the mood of gothic melodrama, and no one makes any ironic wisecracks about garlic or bats. Hoult is especially poignant as Hutter, a would-be hero who is reduced to a feverish wreck by his Transylvanian excursion – and by his own desperate desire to move up to a higher social and economic class. Depp, meanwhile, is a revelation as the troubled Ellen. The uncanny connection between the count and the heroine echoes the one in Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula film, but Eggers places it at the dark heart of Nosferatu. Ellen is deeply in love with her husband, but she has been haunted for years by nightmarish yet erotic visions of another man. As Orlok preys on the people of Wisborg, she is tormented by the question of whether he is an actual monster or just the embodiment of her own emotional instability and unfulfilled yearnings. In contrast with most vampire films, then, this one is about sex rather than sexiness, ie, it's not about vampires being devilishly attractive, it's about men controlling women's bodies. One shrewd point made by Eggers is that the doctors of the period could be vampire-like themselves. When Ellen starts to have fits, Sievers's diagnosis isn't that she is possessed by an evil spirit, but that this hysterical female simply has "too much blood" in her veins. Still, however multi-layered and innovative Nosferatu is, there's no escaping the fact that it's still a Dracula film, which means that familiar things keep happening to familiar characters, and the inevitability of it all makes it more sad than scary. As Eggers proceeds steadily and methodically through the events in Murnau's masterpiece, you may admire the intelligence and painstaking craft that has gone into it, but you may also have the feeling that you're watching actors playing time-honoured roles rather than real people in mortal danger. Horror fans needn't worry, though: Nosferatu has its share of gruesome shocks. And after so many years of cool teen vampires, it's refreshing to see a horrible old vampire again. But what really separates Eggers' Nosferatu from the flock is how deeply it explores the images and themes of vampire lore. There aren't many Dracula films that give you so much to sink your teeth into. ★★★★☆ Nosferatu is released on 25 December in the US and 1 Jan in the UK. -- If you liked this story, sign up for The Essential List newsletter – a handpicked selection of features, videos and can't-miss news delivered to your inbox every Friday. 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