Sharks take on the Sabres after Wennberg's 2-goal gameI like Martha Stewart. Always have. Two recent documentaries, “Martha” on Netflix and the CNN series “The Many Lives of Martha Stewart,” follow the Greek drama that make Stewart a cultural fascination to this day. They recount the jihad against this visionary who came under attack for being a woman with fierce ambition. Admittedly, Stewart’s hard-edged perfectionism and nuclear-powered drive had created some tension with her product, the “soft” home arts of cooking, flower arranging and chair reupholstering. But did she have to be destroyed? Sure, Stewart engaged in some insider trading that may have seemed nothing more than an innocent stock tip. She shouldn’t have lied about it to the FBI. But did journalist Dominick Dunne have to call her the “Goddess of Greed” over a transaction that saved the creator of a billion-dollar business only $45,673? It sure didn’t merit five months in prison. In 1987, the cultural hyenas jumped on her for signing a $5 million contract with Kmart. Stewart was allegedly “selling out” the domestic lifestyle she had cultivated, moving away from authenticity toward mass production and profit. Heaven forfend. The year before, The Disney Co.’s CEO walked off with a $90 million severance check after 14 months of undistinguished performance. She was tenacious. So what? Male executives wore that badge proudly. This woman built a business empire based on creating artistic cheese trays and making wreaths from dry leaves. Try that, Elon Musk. Some of her trouble came in the sub-message that our home lives had turned slovenly because Americans had stopped caring about family dinners and dust balls under the sofa. Some translated that not as a call to do better but as an indictment. But Stewart had no army. Those who accused her of creating unrealistic expectations for women juggling work and family should have been asked: Whose expectations? One could simply enjoy watching her on TV or reading her magazine, Martha Stewart Living. Her projects were properly labeled “aspirational.” I once tried to follow her instructions for coloring cloth with natural vegetable dyes. Two hours later, I ended up with blotchy fabric and hands stained by beet juice. I tried, I failed, and I had a funny story to tell. I was intrigued by her demonstration on how to roll an ironed tablecloth in parchment paper to prevent wrinkles. And how nice that she could whip up 80 perfectly iced little cakes in no time. I can’t do a single backflip. Must I resent Simone Biles for executing a triple-double in one move? It took Superwoman strength to plant an orchard with 122 trees and who knows how many rose bushes. One interviewer noted that people living in Detroit or New York City couldn’t do rose gardens. She responded, “But yes, they want roses.” The fantasy was more than half the point. Women were among her leading inquisitors. One called her “the most intimidating homemaker on earth.” Another female interviewer tells her, “Either they worship you or they say you make us crazy.” There was a third possibility — that they found her entertaining. Stewart can lay claim to two heroic feats: She played a big part in improving the quality of American homelife. And she rebuilt a business that had been left for dead. Above all, Martha was a great tough broad. You saw how TV’s Larry King kept badgering her about her failed marriage in a way that would have seemed bizarre had the executive been a man. “I had sacrificed a marriage because of the allure of a great job,” she finally relented. And she didn’t regret it? She did not. I like Stewart, still going strong at 83. More than ever. Harrop, who lives in New York City and Providence, Rhode Island, writes for Creators Syndicate: fharrop@gmail.com . Get local news delivered to your inbox!gba777 app no deposit bonus 。

Topline President-elect Donald Trump tapped Peter Navarro as his senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, Paul Atkins as his commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission and David Warrington as the top White House lawyer as part of a string of appointments announced Wednesday. Key Facts Get Forbes Breaking News Text Alerts: We’re launching text message alerts so you'll always know the biggest stories shaping the day’s headlines. Text “Alerts” to (201) 335-0739 or sign up here . White House Counsel: David Warrington Trump announced David Warrington , his campaign general counsel who represented him during the House Jan. 6 committee probe, Wednesday as the top White House lawyer, replacing his initial nominee, William McGinley, who Trump said will serve as counsel to the newly created Department of Government Efficiency. Department Of Government Efficiency Counsel: William Mcginley In what could be viewed as a demotion from White House counsel, Trump said William McGinley will instead serve as the head lawyer for the newly created DOGE, led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, though the Trump transition team “War Room” X account disputed the notion , insisting DOGE “needs a solid, experienced pro like Bill McGinley.” Assistant Secretary Of State: Monica Crowley A former Fox News contributor and former senior communications director for Trump’s National Security Council who stepped down from that role amid plagiarism accusations, Trump tapped Monica Crowley as assistant secretary of state and chief of protocol of the U.S., writing on Truth Social that she will “be the administration representative for major U.S. hosted events,” such as the Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028, the World Cup in 2026 and the nation’s 250th anniversary celebrations, also in 2026. Securities And Exchange Commission Chair: Paul Atkins Trump tapped Paul Atkins for the top financial regulator post, announcing his decision in a Wednesday afternoon post on Truth Social. Atkins was previously an SEC commissioner from 2002 to 2008, during the George W. Bush administration. Atkins “recognizes that digital assets & other innovations are crucial to Making America Greater than Ever Before,” Trump wrote Wednesday, nodding to the crypto community’s embrace of Atkins, who would succeed crypto skeptic Gary Gensler as SEC chief. Drug Enforcement Agency Administrator: Chad Chronister Withdraws Hillsborough County (Fla.) Sheriff Chad Chronister was Trump’s initial choice to lead the Drug Enforcement Agency, but Chronister posted to X late on Tuesday that he decided to withdraw. The post was met with accounts celebrating the withdrawal and ridiculing past decisions. But, the following day Trump took credit for Chronister stepping down, saying on Truth Social Chronister “didn’t pull out, I pulled him out.” Trump said he did so “because I did not like what he said to my pastors and other supporters.” As sheriff, Chronister once arrested a pastor for breaking Covid-19 lockdown rules in 2020. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., posted to X after the announcement, saying he’s “glad to see [Chronister] withdraw from consideration. Next time politicians lose their ever-lovin minds, he can redeem himself by following the Constitution.” Senior Counselor For Trade And Manufacturing: Peter Navarro Trump chose Peter Navarro for the top trade advisor role, announcing the appointment on Truth Social and writing that Navarro “was treated horribly by the Deep State, or whatever else you would like to call it,” referencing Navarro’s conviction last year that made him the first person in history to serve a prison sentence for contempt of Congress. Nasa Administrator: Jared Isaacman Trump tapped billionaire Jared Isaacman , founder and CEO of Shift4 payment processing firm, as administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, calling him “an accomplished business leader, philanthropist, pilot, and astronaut” in a Truth Social post. Army Secretary: Daniel Driscoll Trump announced Daniel Driscoll , a senior advisor to Vice President-elect JD Vance, will serve as the senior Defense department civilian. Driscoll, an Army veteran, will “serve as a disruptor and change agent,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. Special Envoy For Hostage Affairs: Adam Boehler Adam Boehler , founder of the health-care investment firm Rubicon Founders and the former CEO of the United States Development Finance Corporation, will serve as special envoy for hostage affairs, Trump announced on Truth Social. Ambassador To Uk: Warren Stephens Trump has chosen Warren Stephens , an investment banker worth an estimated $3.4 billion, to serve as his envoy to the United Kingdom, a job that requires Senate confirmation. He leads Arkansas-based investment bank Stephens Inc., which was founded by his uncle more than 90 years ago and is known for its role in Walmart’s 1970 initial public offering. Stephens has also donated millions to pro-Trump and GOP-aligned political action committees. In a Truth Social post , Trump called Stephens “one of the most successful businessmen in the Country.” Senior Advisor On Arab And Middle Eastern Affairs: Massad Boulos Trump tapped Massad Boulos , father-in-law to his daughter, Tiffany Trump, as his senior advisor on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs. Boulos’ son, Michael Boulos, married Tiffany Trump in 2022. Boulos, the CEO of a Nigerian motor vehicle company, conducted outreach to Arab American voters for Trump during his 2024 campaign. Trump announced Boulos as his pick for the role in a Truth Social post on Sunday, calling him “an asset to my Campaign” who was “instrumental in building tremendous new coalitions with the Arab American Community.” Fbi Director: Kash Patel Trump announced Kash Patel as his pick for FBI director Saturday. Patel held multiple roles in the first Trump administration, including helping lead the GOP-controlled House Intelligence Committee’s investigation into the FBI’s probe of Russia’s links to Trump’s 2016 campaign. He served as chief of staff to former acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller during Trump’s final months in office, and Trump reportedly attempted to install him as deputy CIA or FBI director in his final months in office, but reversed course amid internal backlash. Patel has remained fiercely loyal to Trump since he left office and has vowed to help Trump seek retribution against his various political enemies. He has also called for an overhaul of the FBI, writing in his book that the agency “has become so thoroughly compromised that it will remain a threat to the people unless drastic measures are taken,” according to excerpts cited by ABC News . Patel would replace FBI Director Christopher Wray if he’s confirmed by the Senate. Ambassador To France: Charles Kushner Trump nominated Charles Kushner , founder of the real estate firm Kushner Companies and the father of Trump's son-in-law Jared, as U.S. ambassador to France. Kushner was pardoned by Trump in 2020 after serving a prison sentence on federal charges of tax evasion and illegal campaign donations. He pleaded guilty to 18 counts, including tax evasion and witness tampering. Special Envoy For Ukraine And Russia: Keith Kellogg Trump named Keith Kellogg , a retired lieutenant general and former chief of staff for the White House National Security Council during Trump’s first term, as special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, a newly created position. Kellogg has presented Trump with a plan for ending the war and forcing Ukraine and Russia to the negotiating table, Reuters reported previously, citing unnamed sources. National Institutes Of Health Director: Dr. Jay Bhattacharya Stanford professor and vocal Covid-19 lockdown critic Dr. Jay Bhattacharya is Trump’s pick to lead the National Institutes of Health. In announcing the appointment, Trump said “Jay and RFK Jr. will restore the NIH to a Gold Standard of Medical Research as they examine the underlying causes of, and solutions to, America’s biggest Health challenges, including our Crisis of Chronic Illness and Disease.” In 2020, Bhattacharya co-authored an open letter titled the “Great Barrington Declaration” which argued against the effectiveness of Covid-19 lockdowns. The letter, which was criticized by health experts including Dr. Anthony Fauci, argued for “herd immunity” for most of the population “through natural infection” while sheltering vulnerable populations. According to his profile page on Stanford Medicine, the India-born Bhattacharya serves as professor of health policy at the university. United States Trade Representative: Jamieson Greer Washington lawyer Jamieson Greer is Trump’s pick to lead international trade negotiations. An Air Force veteran and former chief of staff to Trump’s former trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, Greer “played a key role during my First Term in imposing Tariffs on China and others to combat unfair Trade practices,” Trump said in a statement. National Economic Council Director: Kevin Hassett Trump announced late Tuesday that he picked Kevin Hassett to lead the National Economic Council, giving him significant sway over policy decisions surrounding trade, taxes and deregulation. Trump said Hassett “will play an important role in helping American families recover from the Inflation that was unleashed by the Biden Administration.” Hassett, who led the Council of Economic Advisers during Trump’s first term, recently expressed some skepticism about some of Trump’s economic proposals, telling Goldman Sachs last month Trump’s proposal to reduce the corporate tax rate to 15% was unlikely to net the same “dynamic effects” as the 2017 Tax Cut and Jobs Act, and Trump’s tariffs proposals would likely require legislation, Politico reported . Hassett also told Goldman that Federal Reserve leadership should be “neutral” from the administration and said “suspicions” about Trump’s desire for coordination between the Fed and the White House in setting interest rates “should be taken seriously.” Domestic Policy Council Director: Vince Haley Vince Haley, who served as adviser and speechwriter during Trump’s first term was named as the head of the Domestic Policy Council. Trump said Haley had a “brilliant mind for Policies that work for the American People.” Trump did not outline any specific issues that Haley will focus on, but according to the Wall Street Journal the council will oversee several key domestic issues, including “healthcare, immigration and education.” Haley has worked with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., for several decades and even served as the campaign manager of his 2012 presidential bid. Haley also worked under Stephen Miller—who Trump named as his Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy— while writing Trump’s speeches during his first term in office. Department Of Health And Human Services Deputy Secretary: Jim O’neill Silicon Valley investor Jim O’Neill , who is a close associate of billionaire and Trump backer Peter Thiel, was named as the pick for the Department of Health and Human Services Deputy Secretary. In his announcement Trump said O’Neill will work alongside his HHS Secretary pick Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and “oversee all operations and improve Management, Transparency, and Accountability to, Make America Healthy Again.” O’Neill previously served as the CEO of the Thiel Foundation and was up for consideration for the FDA commissioner role during Trump’s first term. O’Neill also worked as the HHS principal associate deputy secretary during the George W. Bush administration. The Silicon Valley investor has called for major reform at the FDA in the past and argued that the efficacy of drugs should be measured after they have been allowed on market. O’Neill said the agency should approve drugs once its been demonstrated as being safe. Navy Secretary: John Phelan Trump tapped financier John Phelan as his nominee for Secretary of the Navy. Phelan founded MSD Capital more than two and half decades ago to manage the fortune of billionaire Michael Dell. According to the Hill, Phelan was a key donor to Trump’s campaign during this election season and contributed $834,600 to the president-elect’s joint fundraising committee, Trump 47. Treasury Secretary: Scott Bessent Hedge fund executive Scott Bessent is Trump’s pick for treasury secretary. Bessent—who spoke recently with Forbes—had long been seen as a top choice for the role, especially as it was reported Trump was leaning toward someone with Wall Street experience. Bessent is the founder of Key Square Management, a hedge fund that had less than $600 million in assets under management at the end of last year, and worked for Democratic megadonor George Soros for years before that. Bessent donated about $3 million to Trump and other Republican causes this election season and previously said Trump was “very sophisticated on economic policy.” Bessent is known for being pro-tariff—tariffs are at the center of Trump’s economic policies—and called the import taxes a “negotiating tool with our trading partners” in a Fox News column last week. If confirmed, Bessent would make history as the first Senate-confirmed LGBTQ+ Republican Cabinet member. Attorney General: Pam Bondi Trump announced former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi as his pick to lead the Justice Department—elevating an ally shortly after former Rep. Matt Gaetz’s withdrawal. Bondi served as Florida’s top lawyer from 2011 to 2019, and later joined Trump’s defense team in his first Senate impeachment trial in 2020. She also served on a Trump-era commission on opioids and drug addiction. Attorney general is one of the most high-profile and highly anticipated appointments, as Trump has fiercely criticized the Justice Department for prosecuting him and is expected to drastically change its makeup—and possibly push for retribution against his opponents. In a Truth Social post , Trump said Bondi will “refocus the DOJ to its intended purpose of fighting Crime, and Making America Safe Again.” Secretary Of Defense: Pete Hegseth Trump selected Pete Hegseth as his secretary of defense, praising his status as a combat veteran and role as a co-host on Fox & Friends Weekend. Revelations subsequently emerged that Hegseth was accused of sexually assaulting a woman at a Monterey, California, hotel in 2017. The Monterey Police Department confirmed in a statement that it investigated the incident, but did not bring charges. Hegseth has denied the allegations through his attorney, Timothy Parlatore, who told multiple outlets last week he paid his accuser a settlement to avoid a lawsuit over the matter. Health And Human Services Secretary: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Trump nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Health and Human Services Department, making good on his promise to give Kennedy broad leeway over public health. Kennedy, who ran for the Democratic nomination then as an independent candidate before dropping out and endorsing Trump, espouses debunked views on public health—including skepticism about the efficacy of childhood vaccines and the Covid-19 vaccine. He has also advocated for removing fluoride from public water, an idea Trump said he as open to. As HHS secretary, Kennedy would oversee 13 public health-related agencies, and has expressed plans to upend many of them, telling an audience at a conference in November he would halt infectious disease studies at the National Institutes of Health if given a role in the Trump administration. “I’m going to say to NIH scientists, God bless you all . . . thank you for your public service,” NBC reported. The surprise selection drew criticism from many Democrats, and some Republicans expressed wariness about the pick. Trump’s former Vice President Mike Pence spoke against Kennedy as the pick to lead HHS in a statement and urged Senate Republicans to reject the nomination, citing Kennedy’s support of abortion rights. Secretary Of State: Marco Rubio Trump nominated Sen. Marco Rubio , R-Fla., as secretary of state. Rubio and Trump feuded when they both ran for president in 2016, but the two smoothed over their relationship during Trump’s most recent White House run. Rubio frequently campaigned for Trump and was said to be in the running to be his vice presidential pick. Some of Rubio’s foreign policy stances break with Trump, including his co-sponsorship of legislation last year that would prohibit a president from exiting NATO without congressional approval. Rubio would be the first Latino to hold the position, which is subject to Senate confirmation. Forbes estimated Rubio’s net worth at over $1 million—significantly less than some other members of Trump’s inner circle, but a jump since 2015, when he was worth just $100,000. Director Of National Intelligence: Tulsi Gabbard Trump announced Tulsi Gabbard will serve as his Director of National Intelligence, a role that puts her at the head of the U.S. intelligence community. Gabbard is a former Democratic representative from Hawaii and a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, perhaps best-known for clashing with Kamala Harris on the debate stage in 2019. She left the party in 2022 and became an independent, before endorsing Trump in August and announcing she had joined the Republican Party. A critic of U.S. military interventions, Gabbard has drawn intense scrutiny for her foreign policy views, including for meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2017 . Education Secretary: Linda Mcmahon Trump tapped former WWE CEO Linda McMahon as secretary of the Department of Education in an announcement Tuesday. McMahon is Trump’s transition co-chair alongside Lutnick and served as the administrator of the Small Business Administration from 2017 to 2019. The nomination came after Lutnick was picked as commerce secretary over McMahon, who was “privately frustrated” she was not offered the position before Lutnick was tapped for it, Semafor reported, citing two unnamed people familiar with the matter. McMahon is also the America First Policy Institute’s board chair, helping lead the think tank that has raised millions in support of Trump, according to CNN . Commerce Secretary: Howard Lutnick Howard Lutnick is Trump’s pick for commerce secretary, Trump confirmed Tuesday—picking him for the commerce role instead of treasury secretary. Trump, in a statement, called Lutnick “the embodiment of resilience in the face of unspeakable tragedy,” referencing his charitable contributions to 9/11 families after 658 Cantor Fitzgerald employees, including Lutnick’s brother, died in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, while Lutnick was CEO. Lutnick, who rebuilt the company after 9/11, has spent his entire career at Cantor Fitzgerald and became president and CEO of the financial services firm at the age of 29. His special purposes acquisition company, Cantor Fitzgerald Acquisition Corp., took the Rumble video platform popular among right-wing influencers public in 2022. As commerce secretary, Lutnick will play a role in implementing Trump’s plans for steeper tariffs and he has expressed broad support for the proposal. Lutnick was previously under consideration for treasury secretary—typically a more prominent Cabinet job—and earned support from Musk and Kennedy, but Trump ultimately turned his attention to other candidates after he reportedly became annoyed with Lutnick’s aggressive campaign for the treasury role. Homeland Security Secretary: Kristi Noem Trump picked South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem for the role of secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Noem is a long-time Trump loyalist who was believed be a contender for Vice President. The appointee will be essential in carrying out Trump’s aggressive immigration plans, in addition to the agency’s duties surrounding cybersecurity, antiterrorism and emergency response. Agriculture Secretary: Brooke Rollins Trump announced Brooke Rollins as his pick for agriculture secretary. Rollins served as a policy advisor during Trump’s first administration and is the president of the America First Policy Institute, a think tank founded by former Trump administration officials that has advocated against foreign ownership of U.S. farmland. She was reportedly considered for White House chief of staff before Susie Wiles was named to the role. Centers For Medicare And Medicaid Services Administrator: Mehmet Oz Trump announced Tuesday that Mehmet Oz , the celebrity doctor who lost his 2022 Senate bid to Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., will fill the role. Oz will work closely with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who Trump announced last week as his pick for Health and Human Services secretary. Oz’s rise to fame is largely tied to his frequent appearances on the Oprah Winfrey show in the early 2000s and his own subsequent daytime talk show. He’s accused of espousing questionable medical claims, including promoting the debunked theory that the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine could treat Covid-19, and pushing so-called miracle weight loss products unsupported by scientific research. Trump endorsed Oz in his 2022 Senate campaign. Chief Of Staff: Susie Wiles Trump named his campaign co-manager Susie Wiles chief of staff two days after his election win, marking his first major administrative pick. Wiles will be the first woman to hold the position. Department Of Government Efficiency: Elon Musk And Vivek Ramaswamy Trump announced Elon Musk , the world’s wealthiest person, will run a new Department of Government Efficiency (or “DOGE”) alongside investor and former Republican primary candidate Vivek Ramaswamy . Trump said in a statement the department—which has not yet been created—will offer “advice and guidance from outside of Government” and focus on “making changes to the Federal Bureaucracy with an eye on efficiency,” including through spending and regulatory cuts. Musk, a vocal Trump backer who donated over $100 million to a pro-Trump super PAC, has pitched the department in the past, seemingly naming it after the meme cryptocurrency dogecoin. Office Of Management And Budget Director: Russell Vought Trump nominated Russell Vought as director of the Office of Budget and Management, potentially marking his second time in the role. Vought was the office’s director from 2020 to 2021 after serving as deputy director and acting director. Vought authored a chapter in the controversial Project 2025 policy agenda on the Executive Office of the President of the United States and will be in charge of overseeing the White House budget and implementation of Trump’s policies throughout the executive branch. He also reportedly said in secret camera footage published by the Centre for Climate Reporting that Trump “blessed” Project 2025 despite distancing himself from it on the campaign trail. Vought is expected to push for policy restructuring that provides more power to the president. Homeland Security Adviser And Deputy Chief Of Staff For Policy: Stephen Miller Trump announced Stephen Miller as White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, plus the additional role of homeland security adviser. Miller was a senior adviser to Trump during his first administration and one of the architects of some of his most controversial immigration policies, including his family separation program. Border Czar: Tom Homan Trump appointed his former Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Tom Homan to newly created role, he announced , as Trump plans a mass deportation of undocumented migrants during his second term. Cdc Director: Dave Weldon, Fda Commissioner: Marty Makary, Surgeon General: Janette Nesheiwat Trump announced former Rep. Dave Weldon , R-Fla.—who served in Congress from 1995 to 2009—as CDC director, and tapped Marty Makary , who became known for opposing vaccine mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic, as FDA commissioner. He also named former Fox News contributor Janette Nesheiwat as his pick for surgeon general. Secretary Of Labor: Lori Chavez-Deremer Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer , R-Ore., was nominated as Trump’s secretary of labor. She was elected to the House of Representatives in 2022 to represent Oregon’s 5th Congressional District and recently lost her reelection bid. Senior Director For Counterterrorism: Sebastian Gorka Sebastian Gorka was appointed as the deputy assistant to the president and senior director for counterterrorism. He previously served as strategist to the president in the first Trump administration and is the host of his own radio show, “America First with Sebastian Gorka.” Hud Secretary: Scott Turner Trump named former NFL player Scott Turner as his pick for secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Turner served in the first Trump administration as the executive director of Trump’s White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council. National Security Adviser: Mike Waltz Trump appointed Rep. Mike Waltz , R-Fla., to serve as his national security adviser. In recent months, Waltz—a former Army Green Beret—has frequently criticized China, urged NATO members to pay more for defense and said he expects Trump to push Ukraine and Russia toward a negotiated end to the war in Ukraine. Interior Secretary: Doug Burgum (and Head Of New National Energy Council) Trump nominated North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum as secretary of the interior. If confirmed by the Senate, he’ll be responsible for managing vast swaths of federally owned land, administering national parks and handling oil and gas drilling on federal property—which Trump has vowed to ramp up . Trump also tapped Burgum as chairman of the new National Energy Council, which will cut down on regulations and “oversee the path to U.S. ENERGY DOMINANCE,” according to Trump . The position will also provide Burgum a seat on the National Security Council. First elected North Dakota governor in 2016, Burgum briefly ran against Trump in the 2024 GOP primaries, but dropped out and endorsed Trump. A tech executive and investor by trade, Burgum previously ran Great Plains Software, remaining at the company after it was acquired by Microsoft. Last year, Forbes estimated his net worth at at least $100 million. Energy Secretary: Chris Wright Chris Wright , chief executive of the oilfield services group Liberty Energy, was named Trump’s nominee for secretary of energy. Wright has argued against climate change’s role in causing extreme weather events, saying in a video posted to LinkedIn last year “there is no climate crisis, and we’re not in the midst of an energy transition either.” He later disputed he was “[fighting] climate science,” despite saying the claims he made were “correct.” Transportation Secretary: Sean Duffy Trump nominated former Rep. Sean Duffy , R-Wisc., as secretary of transportation, lauding his time in Congress and his role as a member of the House Financial Services Committee. Following his resignation from Congress in 2019, Duffy registered as a lobbyist and continued spending campaign funds on Trump’s D.C. hotel. The campaign spent more than $22,000 at Trump’s D.C. hotel between 2017 and 2020, $17,000 of which was spent in a single day in July 2019. Duffy is a co-host of Fox Business’ “The Bottom Line” and has contributed to Fox News since 2020. He is married to “Fox & Friends Weekend” co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy. Veterans Affairs Secretary: Doug Collins Trump picked former Rep. Doug Collins , R-Ga., as his secretary for veterans affairs. Collins served as a congressman from 2013 to 2021, and was known as a vocal backer of Trump in the chamber during his first administration. He is also a chaplain in the United States Air Force Reserve Command. Collins vowed to “streamline and cut regulations in the VA, root out corruption, and ensure every veteran receives the benefits they've earned.” The former congressman was deployed to Iraq in 2008 as a member of the Air Force’s 94th Airlift Wing. Cia Director: John Ratlciffe Former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe will serve as CIA director. A former Texas congressman, Ratcliffe served as the director of national intelligence from 2020 to 2021 and acted as Trump’s primary intelligence adviser during his last presidency. During his time as director of national intelligence, Ratcliffe declassified unverified Russian intelligence information that claimed Hillary Clinton approved a plan to link Trump to Russia and the Democratic National Committee cyberattacks in 2016. Democrats criticized Ratcliffe’s decision to publicly release the information, alleging he was politicizing unverified information to aid Trump. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator: Lee Zeldin Trump tapped former Rep. Lee Zeldin , R-N.Y., to lead the EPA, citing his “very strong legal background” and calling him “a true fighter for America First policies” in a statement. Zeldin—a Trump ally who ran for New York governor two years ago—“will ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American business while at the same time maintaining the highest environmental standards,” the statement said. Fcc Chair: Brendan Carr Trump named Brendan Carr to chair the Federal Communications Commission. Carr has served as one of the FCC’s five commissioners since 2017, when Trump first appointed him to the agency. He’s known as a critic of big tech companies, writing a chapter of the controversial Project 2025 agenda—which Trump has broadly disavowed—that argued the FCC should narrow the immunity enjoyed by tech platforms and require companies to be transparent about their content moderation decisions. He’s also used his platform at the FCC to back Musk. He’ll take over the FCC as Trump pushes the agency to revoke the licenses of broadcast TV stations whose coverage he claims is unfair—though that could be very difficult in practice . Ambassador To Un: Elise Stefanik Trump nominated GOP Conference Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik , R-N.Y., for the United Nations ambassador role. Stefanik is known as a staunch Trump ally. Special Envoy To The Middle East: Steven C. Witkoff Trump tapped Steven Witkoff , a GOP donor and real estate investor, for special envoy to the Middle East. Witkoff is chairman of the University of Miami Business School Real Estate Advisory Board and the CEO of Witkoff, a real estate firm he founded in 1997. He is also a longtime friend of Trump’s and one of the president-elect’s golf partners . Witkoff was with Trump during the apparent second assassination attempt on his life, telling NBC that Secret Service agents dived on Trump and got him off his Florida golf course in under 20 seconds. Ambassador To Nato: Matthew Whitaker Trump announced on Wednesday Matthew Whitaker will serve as the official U.S. representative to NATO. Whitaker was the former U.S. acting attorney general appointed after former Attorney General Jeff Sessions resigned and before former Attorney General William Barr was sworn in during Trump’s first term. Whitaker oversaw the DOJ during former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and was heavily scrutinized by Democrats over whether he sought to interfere in the probe on Trump’s behalf, allegations he denied. Whitaker frequently appears on Fox News as an advocate for Trump, defending his decision to tap Gaetz as attorney general last week and broadly criticizing the Justice Department over its various investigations into Trump’s conduct. Ambassador To Israel: Mike Huckabee Trump announced former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as his envoy to Israel last week, touting his military service as he served in the Army Special Forces for 27 years. Huckabee is a staunch supporter of Israel and has criticized the Biden administration’s calls for a cease-fire with Hamas. Huckabee has advocated for Israel to annex parts of the West Bank, which Israel occupied in 1967, and has backed Israeli settlers in the territory. A former Southern Baptist pastor, Huckabee regularly leads evangelicals on visits to Israel. White House Press Secretary: Karoline Leavitt Karoline Leavitt , the Trump campaign’s national press secretary, will serve as White House Press Secretary once the president-elect assumes his office. Leavitt, 27, was an assistant press secretary during Trump’s first presidency. She also won the Republican primary in New Hampshire's 1st Congressional District in 2022, becoming the second Gen Z candidate to win a House primary . White House Communications Director: Steven Cheung Trump picked his campaign spokesman, Steven Cheung , to serve as his communications director at the White House. Cheung was the director of communications for the president-elect’s 2024 presidential campaign and served as director of strategic response during Trump’s last term, after working in communications for the Ultimate Fighting Championship previously. Other White House Jobs Trump named James Braid his director of legislative affairs—Braid is Vice President-elect Sen. JD Vance’s lead policy staffer and worked in the Office of Management and Budget during Trump’s first term. Matt Brasseaux , a deputy political director for the Trump campaign and Republican National Committee in 2024, was appointed director of the office of political affairs. Alex Latcham , Trump’s former deputy political director during his first administration and a senior deputy political director for his most recent campaign and the RNC, will serve as director of the office of public liaison. Campaign staffer and former One America News anchor Natalie Harp —nicknamed the “human printer” as she’s known for trailing Trump with a portable printer and supplying him with paper copies of news stories—is expected to help control the flow of information to and from Trump, according to The New York Times , though she hasn’t officially been given a role. Top GOP lawyer William McGinley was chosen for White House counsel, after previously working as Trump’s White House cabinet secretary from 2017 to 2019, advising other cabinet members on policy coordination, optics and ethics. Dan Scavino will return to his role as deputy chief of staff, after serving as a longtime Trump communications staffer (he was held in contempt of Congress for refusing to testify in the House Jan. 6 committee investigation, but the Justice Department declined to prosecute him). James Blair will work as deputy chief of staff for legislative, political and public affairs, after spearheading Trump’s grassroots voter outreach efforts and making frequent media appearances. Taylor Budowich was picked for deputy chief of staff for communications and personnel, after running the Trump-aligned MAGA Inc. super PAC. Trump tapped William Scharf to be White House staff secretary: Scharf, a former prosecutor who ran in the Republican primary for Missouri attorney general, was part of Trump’s legal team that successfully argued he has immunity from official acts he took during his first term. Sergio Gor , president and co-founder of Donald Trump Jr.’s Winning Team Publishing company, has been tapped to lead the Presidential Personnel Office. Other Justice Department Jobs Todd Blanche , Trump’s hush money trial lawyer, was tapped as the president-elect’s deputy attorney general. Blanche was lauded as “an excellent attorney who will be a crucial leader in the Justice Department,” which Trump has often criticized throughout his criminal and civil cases. Trump picked another of his attorneys, Emil Bove , as principal associate deputy attorney general. Bove represented Trump alongside Blanche throughout the hush money trial and is a former federal prosecutor. Dean John Sauer was chosen for for solicitor general, after he was credited with helping win Trump’s presidential immunity case, which resulted in the Supreme Court ruling that presidents have some immunity for official acts they take in office. Sauer also served as solicitor general of Missouri for six years and clerked for late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton was chosen as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, widely seen as one of the most prestigious prosecuting jobs due to the high-profile cases filed in the district, which includes New York City. Tangent Trump announced Wednesday he asked Republican National Committee co-chair Michael Whatley to return to the role. Trump tapped Whatley and his daughter-in-law Lara Trump to co-chair the RNC after he effectively secured the GOP 2024 presidential nomination. Key Background Trump decamped to Mar-a-Lago after his win, holding meetings with his inner circle, administration hopefuls and transition team to craft his second term agenda and build out his staff. Trump is shaping his second-term agenda with the help of several right-wing groups, his closest allies and billionaire backers. Musk, who has been spotted on numerous occasions alongside Trump since his election, is among those who appear to be influencing Trump’s policy and personnel decisions. Lutnick is also overseeing a team making recommendations for personnel picks and vetting potential candidates, and Miller is expected to play a key role in making the final decisions. The right-wing think tank America First Policy Institute is reportedly the primary driver of Trump’s transition plans and has been crafting possible executive actions for Trump once he takes office. The organization is chaired by McMahon and led by former Trump Domestic Policy Counsel Director Brook Rollins. Further Reading What We Know About Trump’s Potential Cabinet—With RFK Jr. And Elon Musk Among The Candidates (Forbes) Who Will Help Shape Trump’s Policy Agenda? Here Are The Key Groups And Players (Forbes) Stephen Miller Will Reportedly Lead Trump’s Policy Agenda—Here’s Who Else Could Help Him (Forbes)

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at school, resulting in his hospitalization in a neck brace. The alleged incident happened on Nov. 15 at C. Paul Barnhart Elementary School. School officials called 911 after finding the boy hitched up, but details remain murky about what actually transpired between the two youths. On the same day, Barnhart Principal Carrie Burke released a statement saying the two students had been "horseplaying" when the situation took a dangerous turn. A second grader at Charles County Elementary School was reportedly hospitalized after he was hung by another student. (Photo: Facebook/The Arkansas Justice Project) Later on social media, the boy's mother went viral after sharing conflicting details about what happened, including an image of her son in the hospital wearing a neck brace. "My child, who is a 2nd grader, was hung in the boys' bathroom by a 4th grader," she wrote, adding, "I received the most traumatizing phone call from the school stating that my child was being rushed to the children's hospital in NW." School officials did not share specific details about what occurred during the incident but indicated that the narrative being pushed on social media was false and misleading. The mother's account suggested that her son might have been hung by the neck, yet this claim could not be independently verified. "The principal went into the bathroom and found my baby foaming at the mouth and unconscious," the mother alleged in the widely shared post on Instagram. "I walked into the trauma room with 8-10 doctors surrounding my son. This is the... A.L. Lee

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Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Friday allowed a childless elderly couple, married for the last 30 years, to become parents through assisted reproductive technology, even though the husband, at 58, crossed the upper age limit of 55 specified in the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Act, 2021. Noting that the wife, who is below 50, is eligible for IVF, Justice Amrita Sinha in her order said: "If the woman is not allowed to avail ARTS even though she is eligible for it, it will be sheer injustice to her. The wife ought not to suffer for the ineligibility of her husband. This is so because the husband has no physical participation in any of the procedures involved for the birth of the child through ARTS." Justice Sinha also said: "The husband has claimed that he is financially strong to bear the expenses of the procedure. Apart from providing moral and financial support to the wife, the husband hardly has a role to play." This is the second case in which the HC interpreted the ARTA 2021 to allow couples to opt for IVF even if one among them overshot the age limits — 50 for women and 55 for men. In May 2024, the Calcutta HC allowed an older couple, who lost their 19-year-old son to suicide in 2023, to become parents again, even though the husband was 59. In the current case, a couple from Cossipore, married in 1994, opted for the IVF after they failed to bear a child in their 30 years of conjugal life. The purpose was to continue with the family line. Accordingly, they went to a fertility clinic in Dec 2023. The clinic, after considering the husband's age, opined that his age was not conducive for undergoing IVF. The clinic advised the couple to approach the state health department and get the go-ahead instead. The state health department denied permission based on the report of the fertility clinic. The couple moved the HC seeking permission. Arguing that "the law cannot be interpreted or applied in such a manner that the same becomes unworkable," Justice Sinha also broached on the HC's 2024 judgment and said it was earlier held that "the couple would be entitled to have the benefit of IVF as one of the parties qualify on the upper age limit stipulated in Section 21(g), irrespective of the fact that the other spouse does not." Bending laws to allow the couple to take an attempt at parenthood, Justice Sinha said, "It cannot be said with certainty that each and every ARTS case would be successful... The facility must be their last resort to get a child for which they are craving for so long."PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its position in STERIS plc ( NYSE:STE – Free Report ) by 0.7% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 37,931 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 279 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc.’s holdings in STERIS were worth $9,200,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period. Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its stake in shares of STERIS by 13.7% in the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 6,442,805 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock worth $1,414,453,000 after buying an additional 778,613 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in STERIS by 7.5% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,738,630 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock valued at $390,880,000 after acquiring an additional 120,616 shares in the last quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc boosted its stake in STERIS by 29.7% during the 2nd quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 1,150,517 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock valued at $251,663,000 after purchasing an additional 263,383 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of STERIS by 9.5% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,114,224 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock worth $270,230,000 after purchasing an additional 96,336 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of STERIS by 12.8% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 840,194 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock valued at $184,439,000 after purchasing an additional 95,412 shares in the last quarter. 94.69% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors. Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth A number of brokerages have recently commented on STE. KeyCorp lifted their price target on shares of STERIS from $255.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Piper Sandler upgraded shares of STERIS from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $230.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Stephens restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $260.00 price target on shares of STERIS in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. StockNews.com cut STERIS from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of STERIS in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, STERIS presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $253.00. STERIS Stock Performance STE opened at $214.34 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $227.89 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $228.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 2.41 and a quick ratio of 1.55. The firm has a market cap of $21.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.26 and a beta of 0.85. STERIS plc has a 1-year low of $195.47 and a 1-year high of $248.24. STERIS ( NYSE:STE – Get Free Report ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The medical equipment provider reported $2.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.02. STERIS had a return on equity of 13.78% and a net margin of 8.02%. The business had revenue of $1.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.33 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.03 EPS. STERIS’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that STERIS plc will post 9.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year. STERIS Dividend Announcement The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 19th. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 19th will be issued a $0.57 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 19th. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.06%. STERIS’s dividend payout ratio is presently 52.05%. Insiders Place Their Bets In other STERIS news, CFO Michael J. Tokich sold 23,332 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $247.00, for a total transaction of $5,763,004.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 42,930 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,603,710. This represents a 35.21 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website . 1.14% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders. About STERIS ( Free Report ) STERIS plc provides infection prevention products and services worldwide. It operates through four segments: Healthcare, Applied Sterilization Technologies, Life Sciences, and Dental. The Healthcare segment offers cleaning chemistries and sterility assurance products; automated endoscope reprocessing system and tracking products; endoscopy accessories, washers, sterilizers, and other pieces of capital equipment for the operation of a sterile processing department; and equipment used directly in the operating room, including surgical tables, lights, and connectivity solutions, as well as equipment management services. Featured Stories Receive News & Ratings for STERIS Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for STERIS and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter .

Two U.S. Navy destroyers fought back this weekend against missile attacks aimed at American ships in the Red Sea. “U.S. Navy destroyers USS Stockdale (DDG 106) and the USS O’Kane (DDG 77) successfully defeated a range of Houthi-launched weapons while transiting the Gulf of Aden, Nov. 30 — Dec. 1,” U.S. Central Command reported in a news release on its . “The destroyers were escorting three U.S. owned, operated, flagged merchant vessels, and the reckless attacks resulted in no injuries and no damage to any vessels, civilian or U.S. Naval,” the release said. “The destroyers successfully engaged and defeated three anti-ship ballistic missiles (ASBMs), three one-way attack uncrewed aerial systems (OWA UAS), and one anti-ship cruise missile (ASCM), ensuring the safety of the ships and their personnel, as well as civilian vessels and their crews.” The Houthis began attacking Red Sea shipping last October as a show of support for Hamas as Israel began its attacks into Gaza. Since January, the has launched multiple bombing strikes in areas of Yemen held by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, but it has not been able to halt the attacks. The latest attacks came after the International Institute for Strategic Studies saying the time is right for a new policy against the Houthis. “After 12 months of sustained attacks on Western shipping, it seems obvious that the current response by the international community has failed to reach its stated goals. Despite their military superiority, the U.S. and its allies have not seriously degraded the capability of the Houthis to launch attacks, nor their ability to resupply their arsenals,” the report said. The report said the Houthis have emerged stronger within Yemen for having withstood the U.S. attacks. The report said that while the U.S. and its allies lob bombs at the Houthis from time to time, “there appears to be no complementary political strategy.” With that as the backdrop, Senior Vice President of the American Foreign Policy Council Ilan Berman wrote an Op-Ed posted by , saying President-elect Trump needs to make the a top priority and noting that Red Sea trade has dropped 90 percent in the past year, which has impacted more than 65 nations. Egypt alone, he wrote, has lost $6 billion in trade. “Worse, the Biden administration seems to have basically acquiesced to the current state of affairs in the Red Sea,” he wrote, noting that after Trump labeled the Houthis a terrorist group during his first term, Biden reversed that when he took office in 2021. “A fresh look is sorely needed. And while the incoming Trump administration has already made clear that it is wary of widening regional military involvement, it still has the opportunity to recalibrate America’s approach on at least two fronts,” he wrote, noting that one is to not only declare the Houthis terrorists, but also pirates subject to vast punishments. Berman said needs to feel pressure to stop the Houthis. “Washington so far has remained largely silent regarding Iran’s role in enabling Houthi attacks, despite authoritative evidence that weapons deliveries from the Islamic Republic are responsible for making the group’s activities possible. But Houthi predation could be curtailed dramatically if America and its allies move to a policy of extended attribution, whereby Houthi actions have consequences not only for the Yemeni terror group itself but for its paymasters in Tehran, as well,” he wrote. Regardless of what action is taken, he wrote, the premise should be that “as far as Washington and its partners are concerned, Houthi misbehavior is being made possible by Tehran — and that, as a result, Tehran holds the key to getting its Yemeni proxy to stand down.” “After years of policy drift, the incoming administration will need to figure out a way to rebuild America’s regional credibility in the Middle East, while simultaneously guaranteeing the security of commerce there,” he wrote. “For Donald Trump, who stressed the need for fresh economic policies while on the campaign trail, setting his sights on the Houthis would simply constitute good business.” We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. .

FirstEnergy Corp. stock underperforms Thursday when compared to competitors despite daily gainsiHeartMedia Announces Early Results and Modification of the Terms of the Offers and Consent Solicitations for Existing Notes and Term LoansSubscribe to our newsletter Privacy Policy Success! Your account was created and you’re signed in. Please visit My Account to verify and manage your account. An account was already registered with this email. Please check your inbox for an authentication link. Support Hyperallergic We’re funded by readers like you! If you value our reviews and news reporting, we need your support more than ever. Please join us as a member today. Already a member? Sign in here. Support Hyperallergic’s independent arts journalism for as little as $8 per month. Become a Member An emaciated man stands alone. He’s naked and in an all-too-white room. The hair on his head has recently been shaved, though his beard is full. The handcuffs shackling his wrists appear oversized for his small frame. A yellow earplug is jammed in only one ear. This photograph is the public’s first, and so far only, look at a War on Terror detainee in a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) black site: a secret detention center set up to hold and interrogate prisoners who have not been charged with a crime. It’s a surprising image, stark and overexposed, both in terms of how bright the photograph is and how naked the man is. Someone employed by the CIA took this photograph, though we don’t know who. But we do know why it was taken, and who it is in the frame. His name is Ammar al-Baluchi, a detainee at Guantanamo Bay currently facing capital charges for the 9/11 attacks. This photograph, likely from 2004, is from the period before he was transported to the United States’s offshore penal colony in 2006. Baluchi was one of at least 119 Muslim men held incommunicado by the CIA for years in its global network of clandestine black sites, where he and at least 38 others were repeatedly subject to “enhanced interrogation techniques,” a US-government euphemism for torture. Get the latest art news, reviews and opinions from Hyperallergic. Daily Weekly Opportunities From May 2003 to September 2006, Baluchi was secretly shuffled between five black sites, including one in Romania, where this photo is believed to have been taken. (The photo, recently declassified, was provided to me by Baluchi’s lawyers, who added the black band across his midsection to preserve his dignity. I broke the story surrounding the photograph and Baluchi for the Guardian earlier this year.) Whenever any of these Muslim men were moved, CIA protocol dictated that field officers photograph each one, both naked and clothed, “to document his physical condition at the time of transfer.” The image before us isn’t just any photograph. It’s visual evidence of crimes authorized and committed by the United States government, an entry in the annals of self-reported atrocity photography. In all, the CIA took some 14,000 photographs of the agency’s black sites around the world, but we, the public, have never been able to see any of them until now. There are plenty of examples of this macabre genre. Israel produces it . So does Syria’s Bashar al-Assad . As did the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. The Nazis . The Soviets . The French . Governments of different political leanings have contributed to this dark archive, uniting the magical technology of the camera with the awesome power of detention and even death. They take pictures of their own crimes and immediately file them away, in an acrobatic technocratic act of simultaneous remembering and forgetting. The question is why. A photograph, presumably, is meant to be seen. These images, on the other hand, were intended to record but almost never to be viewed. They were certainly never meant to be seen by the public. Of course, anyone who has used their phone camera to take a picture of a receipt knows that a photograph doesn’t have only a public function. It can also operate as a trace of memory and documentation of a transaction. Self-reported atrocity photographs, indeed, fulfill the record-keeping needs of a government bureaucracy. The fact that the CIA was using black sites was revealed to the public in 2005, but it was not until 2015 that the photo archive documenting them was exposed. In response to that revelation, a US government official described the photographs as having been “taken for budgetary reasons to document how money was being spent.” Behold the banality of bureaucratic evil. Photography, since its inception, has subjected Muslim men to coercive violence. In 1850, barely a decade after the invention of photography in 1839, French travel writer Maxime Du Camp sojourned with the novelist Gustave Flaubert through Egypt, Nubia, Palestine, and Syria, taking pictures along the way. On the Nile, Du Camp routinely photographed one of the sailors on his steamer, Hajj Ishmael, usually with the latter draped in just a loin cloth. “He was an extremely handsome Nubian,” Du Camp writes in his travelogue . “I sent him climbing up onto the ruins which I wanted to photograph, and that way, I was able to obtain an exact scale of proportions.” The challenge in early photography, with its long exposure times, was to get your subjects to sit still. Du Camp came up with a solution that he proudly described to his friend, the French poet Théophile Gautier. “I finally arrived at the idea of a rather baroque deception that will make you, dear Théophile, understand something about the gullible naiveté of these poor Arabs,” he wrote. “I told him that the copper pipe of my lens jutting out of the camera was a cannon that would burst into shrapnel if he had the misfortune to move while I was pointing it in his direction, a story which immobilized him completely. Persuaded, Hajj Ishmael did not move for more than a minute.” I suppose there’s a reason why we talk about a “photo shoot.” “To photograph people is to violate them,” Susan Sontag writes in On Photography (1977), “by seeing them as they never see themselves, by having knowledge of them they can never have; it turns people into objects that can be symbolically possessed. Just as the camera is a sublimation of the gun, to photograph someone is sublimated murder — a soft murder, appropriate to a sad, frightened time.” More than any other subgenre, it is self-reported atrocity photography that most closely approximates the murder Sontag describes. During the first two years of Bashar al-Assad’s violent repression of a popular uprising in Syria, a photographer who worked for the military police was assigned the duty of taking pictures of the corpses of civilians the regime killed. The bodies were mostly in military hospitals, often in a severely mutilated state. Initially, each corpse had the person’s name written on it. Eventually, names were replaced with three sets of numbers, the first indicating who the person was, the second pointing to the branch of the intelligence service responsible for the imprisonment, and the third referring to the person’s medical report, stripping them of the final remnants of their humanity. It became immediately clear to the photographer, who is now known by the pseudonym “Caesar,” that these people were being tortured to death. Government higher-ups required his photos as proof that their orders to punish and kill dissidents were being carried out. For two years, he did his work while smuggling copies of over 52,000 of those photos out of the country, before defecting in 2013. His photos have since been displayed around Europe and North America and have been instrumental in proving Assad’s ruthlessness. In Caesar’s photographs, mostly captured with a Nikon Coolpix P50 , the people photographed are already dead. The camera operates as an apparatus of confirmation, the final stage of the government’s killing machine. The Khmer Rouge also systematically documented the atrocities they committed. More than a fifth of the Cambodian population died during its genocidal rule between 1975 and 1979. The Khmer Rouge’s most notorious political prison and torture center Tuol Sleng, also known as S-21, was a converted high school in the middle of Phnom Penh, through which more than 14,000 people were shuttled. Fewer than a dozen survived. Each person was photographed upon entry, many by Nhem En, S-21’s chief photographer, who was only 15 years old when the Khmer Rouge sent him to China to study photography. He returned six months later with a Chinese box camera and began working at S-21. What we see in the photographs of S-21 is the sober reality that those brought and photographed here are marked for death, even though, unlike Caesar’s photos, they are still alive when photographed. By capturing the imminence of their demise, the photographer closes in on killing them, not by knife or bullet but by immortalizing them. Death pervades the frame of the living, which makes a photo of Kong Saman , for example, all the more stunning. A child’s tiny, bony arm and hand extend upward, grabbing the woman’s sleeve. We can’t see the child’s face, but the gesture is enough to remind us of the horrifying fact that young life coexists with mechanized death. In both the Syrian and Khmer Rouge examples, the photographers themselves have been identified. That knowledge, along with the change of venue (from hidden government files to art museum or US Congress) and the political purpose of their display, which serves to prove the brutality of the exhibiting state’s enemies, has radically changed our perception and reception of these images. What was once meant as evidence of efficiency has transformed into proof of brutality. If the photographs previously functioned to label enemies who had been exterminated, they now serve as mementos to identify and remember specific victims. The Tuol Sleng photographs gained particular fame after a 1997 exhibition at New York’s Museum of Modern Art featuring about 20 images from the archive. The Caesar photos have been exhibited widely, from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to the European Union Parliament and beyond. But exhibiting the photos in a museum or public hall desensitizes the viewer by making the images feel as if they are fully understood objects, either as historical artifacts or works of art, quite unlike the Baluchi photograph, which remains opaque. None of this extra knowledge is brought to this now 20-year-old photograph of Ammar al-Baluchi. We don’t know who took the picture, and it hasn’t been exhibited in any galleries or political halls of power. All we know is that this is but one of 14,000 photos, that Baluchi was tortured by the CIA, and that no one in the US government has ever been held accountable for the torture program it put into place following the 9/11 attacks. Self-reported atrocity photography, however, transcends government bureaucracy, in the same way that photography is more than simply a visual record. Like all images of its kind, the Baluchi photo records a massive imbalance of power: He is naked before the photographer’s lens and helpless before the machine of the state. Despite this disparity, Baluchi looks straight through the lens with a defiant, wounded, and all-too-human expression. With that gaze, he manages to resist his own soft murder. Despite his shrunken size and condition, he fills the photograph with life and presence. While his body appears defeated, his face looks ready to free himself of the photograph by force of will alone. And that may be the greatest surprise of all. The irony behind this image is that, while it is Baluchi in the frame, it is the nameless photographer, and the apparatus of power behind him, who remain in hiding. We hope you enjoyed this article! Before you keep reading, please consider supporting Hyperallergic ’s journalism during a time when independent, critical reporting is increasingly scarce. Unlike many in the art world, we are not beholden to large corporations or billionaires. Our journalism is funded by readers like you , ensuring integrity and independence in our coverage. We strive to offer trustworthy perspectives on everything from art history to contemporary art. We spotlight artist-led social movements, uncover overlooked stories, and challenge established norms to make art more inclusive and accessible. With your support, we can continue to provide global coverage without the elitism often found in art journalism. If you can, please join us as a member today . Millions rely on Hyperallergic for free, reliable information. By becoming a member, you help keep our journalism free, independent, and accessible to all. Thank you for reading. Share Copied to clipboard Mail Bluesky Threads LinkedIn Facebook

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A Nebraska defensive leader from this season who had previously announced his return in 2025 has changed course and will transfer. Defensive end Jimari Butler said last week he intended to remain with the Huskers for a sixth and final year but pivoted Monday and will enter the portal. The 6-foot-5, 260-pounder from Alabama started 10 games this fall with 22 tackles and a fumble recovery. His seven stops for loss are third most on the team and his 371 defensive snaps were 10th most among the Blackshirts. Butler last week laid out why he would stay with NU once more, describing plans to get a master’s degree in criminal justice after talking with his mother and evaluating his NFL draft stock. He reflected on his previous dalliance with the portal – he entered when Nebraska made a coaching change at the end of the 2022 season but ultimately stayed. “It was kind of a panic move because I didn’t know what to expect,” Butler said. “But I’ve seen my growth as a player and I just wanted to give it another year.” The pivot came in the wake of defensive coordinator leaving to take the same position at Florida State. Butler is the fourth Husker to turn to the portal Monday and second defensive lineman after rotational player Vincent Jackson. Butler’s departure means all three of NU’s starting D-linemen are moving on after seniors Ty Robinson and Nash Hutmacher exhaust their eligibility following the upcoming bowl game. Junior lineman Elijah Jeudy indicated Sunday he would return for his senior year. Asked why so many players stayed with Nebraska last offseason, Butler called the culture “a different vibe.” “It’s more family-oriented,” Butler said. “But you eat what you kill in the program so if you produce you’re going to play.” Butler has appeared in 37 career games with 65 tackles and 17 TFLs in three-plus seasons as a steady contributor. Get local news delivered to your inbox!5 Types Of Combat Aircraft Utilized Across The Red SeaExpedition 71 Astronauts to Discuss Mission in NASA Welcome Home Event

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — After losing to San Francisco in the playoffs three of the last five seasons, the Green Bay Packers wouldn’t mind seeing the 49ers get left out of the postseason entirely. The Packers (7-3) could damage San Francisco’s playoff hopes Sunday by beating the 49ers at Lambeau Field. San Francisco (5-5) dropped to .500 after losing at home to the Seattle Seahawks, though the 49ers remain just a game behind the Arizona Cardinals in the NFC West. “I think we’re motivated to keep winning more than anything,” Packers center Josh Myers said. “Obviously, they have knocked us out quite a bit. There’s that extra motivation behind it, but at this point, we’re just trying to churn out wins.” The 49ers will be playing this game without starting quarterback Brock Purdy, who injured his right shoulder in the Seahawks game. Although an MRI showed no structural damage, Purdy's shoulder didn't improve as the week wore on. Brandon Allen will start in Purdy's place. Green Bay is third in the NFC North and two games behind the Detroit Lions, but the Packers appear on track to at least earn a wild-card playoff berth. History suggests their path to a potential Super Bowl would get much clearer if the 49ers aren’t standing in their way. The 49ers trailed 21-14 in the fourth quarter before rallying to beat the Packers 24-21 in the divisional playoffs last year on Christian McCaffrey’s 6-yard touchdown run with 1:07 left. Now, it’s the 49ers who are struggling to protect late leads, as they’ve blown fourth-quarter advantages in three games against divisional opponents. “You could look at, ‘Hey, we’re three possessions away from being 8-2,’ but you can’t really live like that,” 49ers tight end George Kittle said. “Those are the mistakes that we’ve made to be 5-5. It’s not exactly where we want to be. It is frustrating. The nice thing is we have seven games left to go out there and play Niners football and take advantage of those opportunities.” Green Bay’s recent history of playoff frustration against the 49ers also includes a 13-10 loss at Lambeau Field in the 2021 divisional playoffs and a 37-20 road defeat in the 2019 NFC championship game. Even the Packers players who weren’t around for last season’s playoff loss realize what this game means. “I think one of the first meetings that I was in here, we had a conversation about the Niners beating us,” said Green Bay safety Xavier McKinney, who joined the Packers this season. “So I understand how important it is, and we all do.” Both teams must figure out how to convert red-zone opportunities into touchdowns. The 49ers are scoring touchdowns on just 48.8% of their drives inside an opponent’s 20-yard line to rank 27th in the NFL. The Packers are slightly worse in that regard, scoring touchdowns on 48.7% of their red-zone possessions to rank 28th. In their 20-19 victory at Chicago on Sunday, Green Bay drove to the Bears 5 without scoring on two separate series. Purdy isn't the only notable player who won't be participating in Sunday's game. San Francisco won't have four-time Pro Bowl edge rusher Nick Bosa available after he hurt his left hip and oblique against the Seahawks. Packers cornerback Jaire Alexander (knee) and linebacker Edgerrin Cooper (hamstring) also have been ruled out. Kittle expects to play for the 49ers on Sunday after missing the Seahawks game with a hamstring injury. 49ers left tackle Trent Williams (ankle) is questionable. Green Bay’s defense feasted on turnovers the first part of the season, but hasn’t been as effective in getting those takeaways lately. The Packers have 19 takeaways – already exceeding their 2023 total – but haven’t forced any turnovers in their last two games. 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan hasn’t eased McCaffrey back into the lineup in his return after missing the first eight games with Achilles tendinitis. McCaffrey has played 91% of the 49ers’ offensive snaps the past two weeks. Jordan Mason, who rushed for 685 yards during McCaffrey’s absence, has just five snaps on offense the last two games. Shanahan said he’d like to get Mason more opportunities, but it’s hard to take McCaffrey off the field. Green Bay nearly lost to the Bears because of its third-down struggles on both sides of the ball. The Packers were 1 of 5 on third-down opportunities, while the Bears went 9 of 16. The Packers’ defense could have a tough time correcting that problem against San Francisco, which has converted 45.4% of its third-down situations to rank fourth in the league. AP Pro Football Writer Josh Dubow contributed to this report. AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFLWashington Commanders' offense busts out thanks to its old friend, the running game