https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-36468511
It was precisely hypocrisy, Mr Cole says, which led to the Profumo affair in the 1963, seen as the "first public humiliation of a minister for a sex scandal".
John Profumo resigned as secretary of state for war after admitting he had lied to the House of Commons about his relationship with a 19-year-old model and showgirl, Christine Keeler.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/donald-trump-doesnt-have-a-mandate-to-radically-remake-america
When he declared victory in this month’s election, Donald Trump told supporters that the American public had given him an “unprecedented and powerful mandate.” And it certainly appeared that way: Not only was he on his way to a swing-state sweep and an even bigger Electoral College win than in 2016; he had also taken the popular vote, the first Republican to do so in two decades and the second since 1988. America might’ve gotten stuck with Trump eight years ago. But this time, it seemed, the voters chose him.
But as the ballots have been counted in the weeks since Election Day, Trump’s popular vote lead—and the mandate he claimed as a result of it—has quietly shrunk. “Powerful?” Hardly. Trump is on track to win the popular vote by the narrowest margin since 2000, when Al Gore edged out George W. Bush but lost in the Electoral College. It also appears that the president-elect’s share of the vote will end up below 50 percent. His unexpected gains this cycle don't signal a new silent majority; it's more like a noisy plurality.
Trump seems to believe it means he can do whatever he wants, as evidenced by cabinet picks like Pete Hegseth, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Linda McMahon, and Tulsi Gabbard—who seem to have been chosen for their roles based on their loyalty, willingness to blow up the system, and the fact that Trump sees them on television a lot.
https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-830381
An investigation has been launched into the disappearance of an Israeli-Moldovan dual citizen who lives in the United Arab Emirates and has been missing since Thursday, the Prime Minister’s Office said on Saturday.
It said the Mossad and authorities in the Gulf country had opened the investigation based on information that the man’s disappearance was related to “a terrorist incident,” without providing further details.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/who-is-pam-bondi-donald-trumps-new-pick-for-attorney-general/
Her aides claimed Bondi was considering joining a lawsuit brought by New York against Trump University over fraud allegations. After Bondi’s political action committee received a $25,000 check from Trump’s family’s charitable foundation, Bondi’s office chose not to pursue the case.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/11/22/trump-win-popular-vote-below-50-percent-00190793
Trump’s 49.9 percent (for now) is still more than Kamala Harris’ 48.3 percent. When the counting is done, the margin will probably have shrunk even further. No matter: It still earns him 312 electoral votes from a population that also gave his Republican Party control of the House and Senate. He won.
All the same, the numbers might seem a wee bit jarring to anyone who has been listening to Washington’s triumphal Republicans and self-flagellating Democrats — all of whom seem to have internalized a version of the story that involves a romping, stomping Trump triumph.
The name of the Trump nominations game is clearly “shakeup”—and that’s to be applauded. Few doubt that Washington is in desperate need of some rattling. But note Lesson No. 3: The Gaetz fiasco is a reminder that there remains a bright line between a candidate who is aggressive, committed and professional and one who is unthinking, partisan and a liability. Mr. Trump has chosen a solid lineup of the former, from Linda McMahon (Education) and Marco Rubio (State) to Chris Wright (Energy) and Brendan Carr (Federal Communications Commission). Mr. Gaetz was always clearly the latter—big on bravado, short on ideas and temperament. While not as discussed as the ethics question, it’s also an important reason his nomination was destined to fail.
But the very reasons that drew Trump to Hegseth are threatening to derail his nomination.
He would come to the job never having led a large government agency or faced the scrutiny that comes with it. A 2017 sexual-assault allegation that he later paid his accuser to keep secret blindsided Trump transition officials and has left even some Republicans undecided about voting to confirm him.
While conditional divorces can free women in case of a husband’s disappearance or loss of mental faculties in battle, rabbis say pushing such a document on soldiers may hurt morale
https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-loses-matt-gaetz-for-agand-his-grip-on-total-power/
While one theory is that Gaetz was intended as a sacrificial lamb to help make other extreme choices seem more palatable, it is not clear that his dropping out will have that effect. It could in fact make it easier for Senators with some vestigial amount of spine left to mount an opposition to Gabbard, RFK, Jr. or Hegseth. The cases against each of them, strong to begin with, are mounting daily.
The botched Gaetz nomination, together with the other pushback, show that while GOP lawmakers generally agree with the president-elect’s ambition to reshape the federal bureaucracy, they are at times willing to buck their party’s standard-bearer.
https://www.bhol.co.il/news/1679131
דרמה בפרשת העיגון שממשיכה להסעיר את המגזר החסידי: לאחר נסיון הימלטות מהארץ, קובע ביה"ד: הרב מטאהש ישהה במעצר בית | מחאות דלות ברחובות | בד"ץ העדה החרדית מפתיע ומסרב להתערב
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/11/21/politics/matt-gaetz-withdrawing-attorney-general/index.html
But on Thursday morning, President-elect Donald Trump called Gaetz with bad news: He did not have the votes in the Senate to win confirmation, Trump told Gaetz, according to a source with direct knowledge of the call.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/399555
Former Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked refused visa to enter Australia, over her opposition to a Palestinian state. 'An antisemitic decision and a black day for Australian democracy.'
