ABC agrees to settle Trump ‘rape’ defamation case for $15m as more administration picks announced: Live updates

The transgender activist who organized a sit-in at the US Capitol to protest the House Republicans’ new policy against a transgender new member of Congress says The Independent that the 2024 election cycle shows that LGBTQ+ Americans really can’t trust Democrats to back down in the fight.

“Unfortunately, the signals coming from our government right now, under a Democratic president, are telling us that we’re basically on our own,” the 33-year-old activist told our Io Dodds in an interview.

Incoming “border czar” Donald Trump has hinted that the president-elect’s plans for mass deportations will begin in Chicago, part of a plan that will deploy law enforcement officers to communities across the country for a broad crackdown on people living in the country without legal permission.

The mayor of the Windy City is vowing to protect his city’s residents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who could enter schools and workplaces, opposing a so-called “sanctuary” policy that prohibits federal forces from using local police to carry out deportations.

“What the Trump administration has called for is for local police departments across the country to act like ICE agents. In sanctuary cities, that’s not allowed,” Democratic Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson told CNN.

Senate Republican leader and polio survivor Mitch McConnell on Friday denounced “dangerous” efforts to repeal the polio vaccine following news that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s attorney. tried to do just that.

In 2022, attorney Aaron Siri petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to withdraw its approval of several critical vaccines for children, including the polio vaccine. News of Syria’s action came just weeks after President-elect Donald Trump nominated RFK Jr. to be secretary of Health and Human Services. Siri currently helps Kennedy’s veterinary officers serve in the department.

Kennedy is known for his extreme anti-vaccine views that are widely derided by the mainstream medical community. Sira’s petition claims the vaccine has not been properly tested to ensure it is safe, despite decades of use protecting millions of children from contracting the disease.

Barron Trump has been described as a “ladies’ man” on the New York University (NYU) campus, where he is so popular that even his liberal classmates love him.

An insider at the NYU Stern School of Business, where Barron enrolled this fall, said People magazine that Donald Trump’s only son with his third wife, Melania Trump, has proven to be “popular with the ladies”.

“He’s tall and handsome,” a source said of the 18-year-old, who stands at a stunning six foot nine.

Donald Trump’s transition team is reportedly considering scrapping a requirement to report car accidents that Tesla and X CEO Elon Musk strongly opposes, according to a new report.

According to Reuters, which reviewed a document purportedly proposing the change, removing the requirement could undermine the government’s ability to effectively investigate accidents and regulate the safety of vehicles with self-driving systems, such as Musk’s Tesla and Cybertrucks.

Musk, who is the world’s richest man, has used his vast wealth to pour a quarter of a billion dollars into Trump’s 2024 campaign. If Trump’s team does remove the accident reporting requirements, it would likely directly benefit Musk’s Tesla, which accounts for most of the accidents — more than 1,500 — reported to federal safety regulators under the program.

ABC has agreed to pay $15 million as part of a settlement with Donald Trump after the president-elect sued the network and host George Stephanopoulos for defamation.

In March, Stephanopoulos pressured Congresswoman Nancy Mays to support the former president despite a judge finding him “liable for jury-rape,” he said.

“Donald Trump found liable for defamation of rape victim by jury,” Stephonopoulos said on ABC This week at that time. “The judge confirmed that.”

Donald Trump Jr is dating a new woman he thinks will “impress” his father, but has not publicly announced his split with Kimberly Guilfoyle, whose style he criticized, according to a report.

Photos captured Trump Jr., 46, holding hands with socialite Bettina Anderson, 38, as they took an evening stroll in Palm Beach, Florida this week.

Although neither the eldest son of President-elect Donald Trump nor Guilfoyle, 55, have spoken publicly about the status of their relationship, insiders said People that after months of criticizing Guilfoyle’s style, he thinks he’s found someone who fits into the Trump family — someone who can be compared to his father’s wife, Melania. Trump met Melania at a party in 1998, when he was on a date with another woman, the former first lady said in a 2016 interview. Harper’s Bazaar.

Donald Trump announced Saturday that Truth Social CEO Devin Nunes and President-elect National Intelligence Director Ric Grenell have been selected to serve in his incoming administration.

Nunes, a former representative from California, was selected to chair Trump’s intelligence advisory board, while Grenell was selected as his presidential special envoy.

While in office, Nunes served on the House Intelligence Committee and consistently supported then-President Trump’s every move. He also led a two-year investigation into the US response to the 2012 Benghazi attack, which ultimately found no evidence of wrongdoing by the US State Department under Hillary Clinton.

Nunes also refused to support an investigation into Trump’s former national security adviser and Q-Anon conspiracy theorist Michael Flynn after it was revealed he had unreported conversations with Russian officials while serving under Trump.

“From everything I see, his conversations with the Russian ambassador – he did this country a favor and he should be thanked for that,” Nunes said at the time.

Grenell was previously Trump’s ambassador to Germany and his director of National Intelligence.

Prior to his involvement in the Trump administration, Grenell was a consultant to Eastern European oligarch Vladimir Plahotniuc. He faced criticism after writing articles defending the oligarch without making it clear that he was being paid to manage the man’s image.

Grenell is a former Fox News contributor and was named a vice president at the far-right news outlet Newsmax in 2021. He drew the ire of the media in 2020 when, during a Trump press conference, he refused to introduce himself to reporters and publicly accused the state of covering up incidents of voter fraud. in order to help the electoral prospects of the then Democratic candidate Joe Biden.

These claims were made without evidence, and Mr. Grenell refused to answer questions from reporters who asked him to prove his claims.

Tesla, SpaceX and X CEO Elon Musk was at Saturday’s Army-Navy game along with President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance. The image shows the three men at the Jumbotron stadium and is another example of Musk – the richest man in the world and presumably a very busy person who runs three major companies – spending a significant amount of time hanging out with Trump.

Failed Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy posted a photo of himself posing with Daniel Penny, who was recently acquitted in the death of Jordan Neely, a black street performer who struggled with homelessness and schizophrenia, and recalled that he had donated to Penny’s legal defense fund. Neely died after being choked by Penny for more than six minutes on a New York City subway train.

Neely allegedly yelled threats at the other passengers, but witnesses said he never touched anyone.

“Last year, our family made a contribution to the fund for the legal defense of this man because he was wronged. We have no regrets. I hope Daniel Penny has a bright future and a good life ahead – wrote Ramaswamy. According to reports at the time, Ramaswamy donated $10,000 to Penny’s defense.