Trump picks Brooke Rollins to lead Department of Agriculture

Choice of president of America First Policy Institute completes top cabinet picks for president-elect

Donald Trump has chosen Brooke Rollins, president of the America First Policy Institute, to be agriculture secretary.

“As our next Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke will spearhead the effort to protect American Farmers, who are truly the backbone of our Country,” the US president-elect said in a statement.

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Unidentified drones spotted over three UK airbases, US air force confirms

Unmanned aerial systems seen over RAF bases in Suffolk and Norfolk but US air force does not know if they were hostile

A number of unidentified drones have been spotted over three airbases in Britain, the US air force has confirmed.

“Small unmanned aerial systems” were seen between 20 and 22 November over RAF Lakenheath and RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk, and RAF Feltwell in Norfolk.

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Thousands protest against sexual violence in France – Al Jazeera English

  1. Thousands protest against sexual violence in France  Al Jazeera English
  2. 51 men were charged with raping her: Gisele Pelicot gives closing statement in shocking French trial  Yahoo! Voices
  3. Thousands protest against femicides and sexual and sexist violence in France  The Associated Press
  4. Pelicot rape trial: ‘It is Gisèle’s name that will be remembered’  The Guardian
  5. Thousands march across Europe protesting violence against women  Euronews
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John Bolton rips into Trump’s pick for counter-terrorism chief Sebastian Gorka

Trump’s former national security adviser says Gorka is the ‘worst cabinet appointment in recent American history’

Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton has laid into Sebastian Gorka, the president-elect’s pick for counter-terrorism chief, as a “conman” whose selection is not “going to bode well for counter-terrorism efforts when the [national security council’s] senior director is somebody like that”.

Trump praised Gorka, an immigrant from Hungary, as a “tireless advocate for the America First Agenda and the MAGA Movement”.

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Trump ally Lindsey Graham warns UK, Canada, and other countries of sanctions for aiding Netanyahu arrest: – The Times of India

  1. Trump ally Lindsey Graham warns UK, Canada, and other countries of sanctions for aiding Netanyahu arrest:  The Times of India
  2. How Can the I.C.C. Prosecute Leaders of Israel, Which Is Not a Member?  The New York Times
  3. Lindsey Graham Warns US Allies Over Netanyahu Warrant: 'Crush Your Economy'  Newsweek
  4. France dampens response to ICC Israel warrants, takes note of decision  Reuters
  5. Fire Trudeau for backing arrest of Netanyahu, says Canada opposition leader  Yahoo! Voices
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Spiky blue devils and chocolate lilies: Victorian grassland bursts with wildflowers after ecological ‘reset’

Careful management including weed control and a burn laid the groundwork for floral abundance in Boorhaman reserve

Thousands of native daisies, aromatic lilies, milkmaids, billy buttons and rare orchids have blossomed in a pocket of north-east Victorian grassland in one of the best wildflower displays in years.

Glen Johnson, an ecologist at Wild Research, said Boorhaman reserve, located north of Wangaratta, was “an amazingly diverse environment from the knees down”.

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Meta is ‘reckless’ in ‘need-to-know situations’, Canada warns Australia as it braces for early bushfire season

Heritage minister says Facebook made ‘room for misinformation’ after turning news off in 2023 as Australia mulls actions that could lead to Meta doing the same

Twelve months on from Canada’s worst-ever wildfire season unfolding during a news blackout on Facebook, the nation has warned Australia about Meta’s “reckless” behaviour during “need-to-know situations”.

An early start to Australia’s bushfire season is looming for swaths of the country, with large parts of Queensland and the Northern Territory, the south-west of Victoria and south-east corner of South Australia facing higher risk, according to an official assessment in September.

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Ramshackle Russian Assault Groups Are Maneuvering Around Undermanned Ukrainian Defenses In Donetsk Oblast – Forbes

  1. Ramshackle Russian Assault Groups Are Maneuvering Around Undermanned Ukrainian Defenses In Donetsk Oblast  Forbes
  2. Russian forces capture settlement of Novodmytrivka in eastern Ukraine  Reuters
  3. Kyiv says Russian troops advancing fast as missile fears grow  Courthouse News Service
  4. Russia reports it has taken control of Ukraine’s Donetsk villages  VOA Asia
  5. Russian troops advance near five settlements in Donetsk Oblast – DeepState analysts  Ukrainska Pravda
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‘One conversation really changed my mind’: the personal stories driving MPs’ decisions on assisted dying

Traditional allies such as Diane Abbott and John McDonnell are split over Friday’s vote as politicians grapple with the issue

During a Labour away day ahead of the last election, the party’s candidates were put through their paces as parliamentary debaters. The topic chosen, assisted dying, was a deliberately intractable issue designed to test their analytical skills. Yet just months later, scores of new MPs find themselves having to make a very real decision over changing the law.

“I’m genuinely the most back and forth on this that I’ve been on anything,” said one new MP who has found themselves on either side of the debate over recent months. Like so many, with the issues so finely balanced in their mind, a single conversation can sway their thinking.

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Hamas says Israeli female hostage killed in north Gaza combat zone

Group’s armed wing says unnamed woman’s death established after long break in contact with her captors

Hamas’s armed wing said on Saturday that an Israeli woman taken hostage during the October 2023 attack had been killed in a combat zone in northern Gaza, as the Israeli military said it was investigating.

The spokesperson for Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Abu Obeida, said contact had been restored with the woman’s captors after a break of several weeks and it was established that the hostage had been killed in an area of north Gaza where the Israeli army has been operating.

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UK justice secretary attacks assisted dying bill as ‘state death service’

Shabana Mahmood has written to her constituents saying she is ‘profoundly concerned’ about Friday’s Commons vote

MPs will be placing the country on a “slippery slope towards death on demand” if they back legislation on assisted dying in England and Wales this week, the lord chancellor and justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has said in a letter to constituents before a historic Commons vote on Friday.

Mahmood has received numerous letters about the bill from people in her Birmingham Ladywood seat, which has a big Muslim population, and sent out replies saying that she was “profoundly concerned” about the legislation, not only for religious reasons but also because of what it would mean for the role of the state if one of its functions became helping people to die.

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