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By REBECCA SANTANA, Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The picture of who will be in charge of executing President-elect Donald Trump’s hard-line immigration and border policies has come into sharper focus after he announced his picks to head Customs and Border Protection and also the agency tasked with deporting immigrants in the country illegally. Trump said late Thursday he was tapping Rodney Scott, a former Border Patrol chief who’s been a vocal supporter of tougher enforcement measures, for CBP commissioner. As acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Trump said he’d nominate Caleb Vitello, a career ICE official with more than 23 years in the agency who most recently has been the assistant director for firearms and tactical programs. They will work with an immigration leadership team that includes South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem as head of the Department of Homeland Security ; former acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement head Tom Homan as border czar ; and immigration hard-liner Stephen Miller as deputy chief of staff. Customs and Border Protection, with its roughly 60,000 employees, falls under the Department of Homeland Security. It includes the Border Patrol, which Scott led during Trump’s first term, and is essentially responsible for protecting the country’s borders while facilitating trade and travel. Scott comes to the job firmly from the Border Patrol side of the house. He became an agent in 1992 and spent much of his career in San Diego. When he joined the agency, San Diego was by far the busiest corridor for illegal crossings. Traffic plummeted after the government dramatically increased enforcement there, but critics note the effort pushed people to remote parts of California and Arizona. San Diego was also where wall construction began in the 1990s, which shaped Scott’s belief that barriers work. He was named San Diego sector chief in 2017. When he was appointed head of the border agency in January 2020, he enthusiastically embraced Trump’s policies. “He’s well known. He does know these issues and obviously is trusted by the administration,” said Gil Kerlikowske, the CBP commissioner under the Obama administration. Kerlikowske took issue with some of Scott’s past actions, including his refusal to fall in line with a Biden administration directive to stop using terms like “illegal alien” in favor of descriptions like “migrant,” and his decision as San Diego sector chief to fire tear gas into Mexico to disperse protesters. “You don’t launch projectiles into a foreign country,” Kerlikowske said. At the time Scott defended the agents’ decisions , saying they were being assaulted by “a hail of rocks.” While much of the focus of Trump’s administration may be on illegal immigration and security along the U.S.-Mexico border, Kerlikowske also stressed the importance of other parts of Customs and Border Protection’s mission. The agency is responsible for securing trade and international travel at airports, ports and land crossings around the country. Whoever runs the agency has to make sure that billions of dollars worth of trade and millions of passengers move swiftly and safely into and out of the country. And if Trump makes good on promises to ratchet up tariffs on Mexico, China and Canada, CBP will play an integral role in enforcing them. “There’s a huge amount of other responsibility on trade, on tourism, on cyber that take a significant amount of time and have a huge impact on the economy if it’s not done right,” Kerlikowske said. After being forced out under the Biden administration, Scott has been a vocal supporter of Trump’s hard-line immigration agenda. He has appeared frequently on Fox News and testified in Congress. He’s also a senior fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. In a 2023 interview with The Associated Press, he advocated for a return to Trump-era immigration policies and more pressure on Mexico to enforce immigration on its side of the border.CSR initiative eases students’ burdenCentre Can Now Access Telecom Traffic Data, But Not Messages, For Security

Dismissed Bamban mayor Alice Guo —House of Representatives photo MANILA, Philippines — Beyond key figures in the bloody war on drugs, the House quad committee is also seeking further inquiries and the possible filing of charges against key figures in the illegal Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos), particularly Alice Guo. Regarding the dismissed Bamban, Tarlac mayor, the committee recommended that Guo be investigated further to determine the possibility of filing espionage charges against her. “Various information [about her] remains unverified, including allegations of her being a spy and her connections to Chinese mafias,” read the 51-page progress report summarizing the committee’s findings and recommendations from its hearings in the past four months. “If the findings warrant it, appropriate legal cases should be filed against her to address these serious allegations, e.g. criminal prosecutions for espionage,” it added. READ: Alice Guo’s petition for bail denied by Pasig court The panel also said that Guo should be investigated as well “for any antigraft and corrupt practices ... including falsification of documents and perjury.” In both the Senate and House inquiries into Pogos, Guo was identified as the previous owner of Baofu compound in Bamban, which leased its land to a Pogo called Hongsheng Gaming Technology Inc. which later changed its name to Zun Yuan Technology. Several Pogo service providers were found operating within the compound when it was raided earlier this year, including those associated with Xionwei Technology, a company owned by Allan Lim, an associate of former Duterte economic adviser Michael Yang. Guo is also accused of misrepresenting herself as a Filipino using a fake birth certificate, which allowed her to acquire landholdings and even occupy a political office. Allegations that she was a Chinese spy gained ground during the House quad committee’s inquiry, after lawmakers confronted her about an Al Jazeera documentary on confessed Chinese spy Shi Zhijang, who implicated Guo in his dossier of Communist Party of China agents. Two other mayors, Liseldo Calugay of Sual, Pangasinan, and Teddy Tumang of Mexico, Pampanga, were also recommended for investigation for their dealings with Guo and for possibly giving undue prejudice to Chinese nationals in allowing Pogos to thrive in their respective provinces. 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 .

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg recently claimed that the murder of the UnitedHealthcare CEO earlier this month "was a killing that was intended to evoke terror." And now prosecutors have charged the shooter, Luigi Mangione , with terrorism. This cold-blooded execution on a New York City street in broad daylight was a shocking act of violence. But does it meet the threshold of terrorism? Political scientists have debated to death the definition of terrorism. And still there is no consensus. The terrorism scholar Alex Schmid spent decades researching the elusive definition of terrorism and concluded that the "search for an adequate definition is still on." He and other scholars such as Walter Laqueur have identified hundreds of terrorist definitions. This lack of consensus is understandable because the term terrorism is not value-neutral. Governments around the world apply the word terrorism instrumentally to isolate and discredit their enemies at home and abroad. In authoritarian countries such as China, Egypt, and Turkey, even peaceful political dissidents risk being treated as terrorists. Democracies, too, are sometimes guilty as well, such as when the mob of Donald Trump supporters were called terrorists for unsuccessfully trying on Jan. 6, 2021, to influence the presidential election outcome at the Capitol. Disagreements between countries also abound to serve their geopolitical interests, as reflected in the current international debate over whether Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in Syria should be de-listed as a Foreign Terrorist Organization given its savvy public relations campaign to re-brand itself away from its Al-Qaeda roots. These kinds of international disagreements are hardly new. In its zeal to combat Zionists, Iran has long described Hezbollah as a legitimate resistance group whereas the United States, Israel, and some European capitals view the "Party of God" as terrorists. Governments may even revoke the terrorism label when geopolitical circumstances change. Historically, the United States regarded the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, as a terrorist group given its bloody attacks in Turkey for Kurdish independence. But when the United States came to rely on the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces against Islamic State in Syria, Washington brushed aside Turkish objections of their alleged PKK ties. That said, there is more definitional disagreement between countries than terrorism scholars who typically consider an act terrorism when it meets three criteria. At least in theory, a violent act is considered terrorism when perpetrated by a non-state actor against a civilian target for a political goal. That means a lone wolf, small cell, or larger organization using violence rather than a proper army; a soft target like a synagogue or school rather than a tank or military base; in pursuit of a cause like national self-determination, a caliphate, or Communist revolution rather than because of mental health problems, a personal dispute, or selfish reasons such as greed. All available evidence indicates that the suspect, Mangione, acted alone with no ties to a government or organization. Mangione could thus be understood as a " lone wolf ." The victim of the attack was also a private citizen walking around in Manhattan and therefore clearly a non-combatant target. And the motive was perhaps political. Mangione had undergone spinal surgery a year earlier for chronic back pain. The handwritten note found after Mangione was detained as a suspect in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson referenced " parasites " in the health care system who " continue to abuse our country for immense profit because the American public has allowed them to get away with it ." But a political motive could certainly be clearer. Noticeably absent from the "manifesto" is any articulation of a desired political, social, or religious goal. Mangione doesn't call for the overthrow of the U.S. political system, an end to capitalism, or anything of the sort. He seems to have been motivated in part by anger over his continued chronic back pain after the spinal surgery. There are at least questions about how this pain could have impacted his mental health. In other terrorist attacks, the perpetrators were much clearer about their intended political aims. In 2013, Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev carved his message into wooden slats of a boat in which he was hiding: "Stop killing our innocent people and we will stop." The perpetrators of the December 2015 shooting in San Bernardino posted a pledge of allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State prior to committing their act of terrorism that killed 14 people. Similarly, Omar Mateen, the gunman behind the 2016 Pulse nightclub attack, spoke to a 911 dispatcher and said he was committing the attack for the leader of Islamic State. In cases such as these, the terrorist motivation leaves less to the imagination with little question about whether the violence was purely criminal in nature or was in furtherance of some broader cause. In our assessment at this time, the Mangione case has closer parallels to the 2010 attack on an IRS building in Austin, Texas. In that case, the perpetrator, Andrew Joseph Stack, deliberately flew his plane into an IRS field office, killing himself and an IRS manager. Before the attack, Stack also left behind a manifesto in which he discussed his financial difficulties, hatred of big business, and personal conflicts with the IRS and the tax code. Despite calls to label this a terrorist attack, the FBI and other local police officials considered it a purely criminal matter . Currently, it appears that Mangione was perhaps motivated more by anger toward a system than a desire to affect political change. Anger, however, motivates all sorts of crimes that are not considered terrorism. It is possible more evidence will emerge during the investigation and trial that shows a clearer political motive for the attack. But right now, this murder is not a clear-cut case of terrorism even though it shares several constitutive elements. Either way, Mangione will likely have plenty of quiet time to process whatever it is the tragedy was intended to achieve. Max Abrahms is a tenured professor of political science at Northeastern University. Joseph Mroszczyk is an assistant professor at the U.S. Naval War College. The views expressed in this article are the writers' own.

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The House subcommittee investigating former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) partisan January 6 Special Committee “interviewed hundreds of witnesses,” but testimony from the most notorious star of Pelosi’s hearings is conspicuously absent from its report. The subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA), issued an interim report December 17, 2024, calling former White House employee Cassidy Hutchison the Pelosi “Select Committee’s star witness.” But despite the subcommittee “interview[ing] hundreds of witnesses,” the committee’s report makes no reference to bringing in Hutchinson for questioning – despite mentioning her by name 268 times. According to a source, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) personally intervened to block the subcommittee from issuing a subpoena to Hutchinson. Johnson, in a statement to Breitbart News, called that claim “clearly false.” Breitbart asked the subcommittee and Loudermilk’s personal office why the subcommittee did not question Hutchinson despite her prominence throughout the report and the subcommittee’s otherwise thorough, exhaustive work. Breitbart also asked about any alleged interference from Johnson in the subcommittee’s work, particularly if Johnson interfered in any efforts to subpoena Hutchinson. The subcommittee and Loudermilk’s office did not respond. Johnson’s full statement to Breitbart, in which he denies blocking the subpoena, also broke the news that he will be continuing the subcommittee’s work into the next Congress, but that it will be “elevated” to the full committee level. Johnson’s statement regarding Breitbart’s source’s claim reads in full: This is clearly false. I have never blocked any subpoena and don’t even have the authority to do so. As Speaker, I have pressed for full transparency regarding the events of January 6 and the Democrats’ sham J6 Committee. I directed our House Oversight subcommittee to release the J6 video footage for the American people to see, and I allocated almost two million additional dollars to hire additional staff to conduct the crucial investigative work. We are proud of the subcommittee’s important work in exposing the false narratives and lies peddled by the Democrats’ J6 committee. But there is much work still to be done, so I am elevating the investigation from the subcommittee level to the full committee level — thereby giving it full subpoena authority. We look forward to House Republicans continuing this investigation and working with the incoming Trump Administration, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, to fully expose the phony and politically-motivated J6 Committee. The statement does not make clear what role Loudermilk will play after the investigation is elevated out of the Oversight Subcommittee. Breitbart shared Johnson’s statement via email with a spokesperson for the subcommittee and asked for a comment, including if the subcommittee was made aware by Johnson that its work would be continued by the committee. The spokesperson did not respond. As Johnson’s statement alludes, the subcommittee does not have unilateral authority to issue subpoenas. Generally in the House, subcommittees must issue subpoenas through the cooperation of the full committee. Loudermilk has said he would relish the independent subpoena power afforded by a select committee. The subcommittee spokesperson did not respond when asked if the House Administration Committee or its chairman, Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI), ever interfered with an attempt to issue a subpoena to Ms. Hutchinson, although Breitbart is unaware of any attempt from Steil to do so. In his report , Loudermilk writes that one of the two conditions he needed before accepting the subcommittee assignment from then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was “that I have the autonomy and resources needed to effectively pursue the facts without political bias or outside influence.” “McCarthy assured me that I would be given what I needed to conduct a real investigation and proper oversight,” Loudermilk said. He continued: At one point, the work of the subcommittee was completely halted due to the removal of Kevin McCarthy as Speaker, and subsequently faced internal efforts to derail the investigation. However, our team persevered through the delays; and, when Mike Johnson took the gavel as Speaker of the House, he allocated even more resources to our investigation and committed to more transparency for the American people. The Oversight Subcommittee possesses more resources than most similarly constituted subcommittees, enabling it to beef up its staff, although the subcommittee has remained confined by the constraints of serving under a full committee. Loudermilk’s work chairing the subcommittee has been widely praised by Republicans, even by Donald Trump himself. Trump heaped praise Sunday on Loudermilk for his “great work” as chairman. “Congratulations to Congressman Barry Loudermilk on the great work he has done in exposing the massive corruption of the J6 Unselect Committee of Political Thugs!” he posted on Truth Social, also thanking Mark Levin for elevating much of Loudermilk’s work. “We need more Warriors like Barry and Mark to expose the massive corruption taking place in our Country!” Hutchinson worked on Capitol Hill for then-Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) and followed him to the White House when he became Trump’s Chief of Staff. She served in several relatively low-level capacities which included acting as a gatekeeper to Meadows – a role through which Hutchinson would have interacted with numerous lawmakers seeking time with Meadows. Loudermilk’s subcommittee has blasted Hutchinson for communicating with disgraced Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) without her own attorney’s knowledge. Those communications began after Hutchinson had sat before the committee twice. After Hutchinson and Cheney began communicating, Hutchinson went back to the committee and began introducing multiple new claims, many of them secondhand, which were subsequently denied by those present. In his report, Loudermilk says “Cassidy Hutchinson’s most outrageous claims lacked any evidence, and the Select Committee had knowledge that her claims were false when they publicly promoted her.” “[T]he Select Committee chose to focus the conclusions of its nearly one-thousand-page report largely on the uncorroborated and inconsistent testimony of one witness—Cassidy Hutchinson,” the report points out. “Hutchinson gave Representative Cheney and the other Members of the Select Committee exactly what they were looking for.” Bradley Jaye is a Capitol Hill Correspondent for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter at @BradleyAJaye .Tributes pour in for ‘lovely’ woman who died following Cork assault

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec 26, 2024-- The iconic fitness brand and website, Men’s Fitness , has relaunched under The Arena Group . Originally published in 1987 as the ‘magazine for active men,’ the brand’s mission is to be the definitive source for men who want to live stronger, healthier lives. The new site contains health and fitness news, training routines, nutrition expertise, gear reviews and more. The site is led by Matt Allyn, former Editor-in Chief of Men’s Journal . Allyn also previously wrote for Runner’s World , Bicycling and Men’s Health . This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241226468398/en/ Beloved Fitness Brand, Men’s Fitness, Returns under The Arena Group just in time for New Year's resolutions. (Photo: Business Wire) The staff is comprised of seasoned health and fitness writers and experts. The team also has an Advisory Board made up of doctors, certified trainers and dieticians who are regular contributors to the site, providing guidance and context on the latest research or trending fitness content. One goal of the new site is to connect readers directly to these experts. “We’re at a point where there is more interest than ever in fitness and health,” said Allyn. “But it’s also harder than ever for readers to know who to trust. There is a lot of noise in this space. So, one of our main goals is to identify and showcase experts in this field, to help readers navigate their fitness journey with trusted sources.” New Year’s Resolutions Beginning earlier this month, and continuing through January, Men’s Fitness will produce a series of feature stories on men who went through health transformations – and will showcase the steps they took throughout the process. The goal is to inspire others to live their healthiest life. “Everyone’s health needs are different,” said Allyn. “We’re excited to kick off the new year by illuminating these stories to aid and inspire men on their health and fitness journey.” Men’s Fitness – which had been a sub brand of Men’s Journal since 2017 – is focused solely on health, fitness and nutrition. It has a robust social following on Facebook and X and the team plans to focus on growing its social content and audience in 2025. About The Arena Group The Arena Group (NYSE American: AREN) is an innovative technology platform and media company with a proven, cutting-edge playbook that transforms media brands. Arena’s unified technology platform empowers creators and publishers with tools to publish and monetize their content, while also leveraging quality journalism of anchor brands like TheStreet, Parade , Men’s Journal and Athlon Sports to build their businesses. The company aggregates content across a diverse portfolio of brands, reaching over 100 million users monthly. Visit us at thearenagroup.net and discover how we are revolutionizing the world of digital media. View source version on businesswire.com : https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241226468398/en/ CONTACT: Steve Janisse c-sjanisse@thearenagroup.net 404-574-9206 KEYWORD: NEW YORK UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA INDUSTRY KEYWORD: OTHER COMMUNICATIONS PUBLISHING FITNESS & NUTRITION MEN COMMUNICATIONS MEDIA LIFESTYLE HEALTH CONSUMER SOURCE: The Arena Group Copyright Business Wire 2024. PUB: 12/26/2024 11:38 AM/DISC: 12/26/2024 11:37 AM http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241226468398/en