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The Senate begins holding confirmation hearings Tuesday for President-elect Donald Trump's Cabinet picks, starting with Pete Hegseth for defense secretary.
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The Iowa Republican's decision dramatically increases the likelihood that Mr. Hegseth will have enough votes to be confirmed as President-elect Donald J. Trump's defense secretary.
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Pete Hegseth, Trump's choice for defense secretary, drew Democrats' ire for past statements voicing strong opposition to female troops serving in combat units.
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(Second column, 19th story, link)
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Selections for attorney general, secretary of homeland security, secretary of state and Treasury secretary are among those set to have hearings this week.
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Republicans' decision to push through the measure early in the new Congress indicated their belief that the issue is politically potent for them. Its future in the Senate is uncertain.
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Human rights advocates and healthcare professionals around the world are demanding the release of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of the largest major hospital in northern Gaza, Kamal Adwan Hospital. Abu Safiya disappeared in December after Israeli forces raided and shut down Kamal Adwan. He is believed to be held at the troubled Sde Teiman Israeli prison, which has been plagued by reports of gruesome abuses including torture and sexual violence against Palestinians in custody. Abu Safiya's friend and former colleague, Dr. John Kahler, a co-founder of the medical humanitarian aid group MedGlobal, speaks to Democracy Now! about Abu Safiya's tireless commitment to his medical work while suffering the pain, trauma and tragedy of Israel's genocide on Gaza. "His bravery is a supreme act of resistance," says Kahler. "What no oppressor will tolerate is that level of resistance."
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(First column, 6th story, link)
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Hegseth set to start Cabinet confirmation hearings...
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After Biden's major foreign policy address Monday at the State Department, we go to Jerusalem and get an analysis of Biden's foreign policy decisions in Israel and Palestine from Matt Duss, executive vice president at the Center for International Policy and former foreign policy adviser to Senator Bernie Sanders. "There's simply no question at this point that the laws of war have been egregiously violated," he says of the Israeli military's genocidal conduct against Palestinians in Gaza. "When it comes to America's friends and allies, he has a different standard."
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(Second column, 2nd story, link)
Related stories:
BIDEN TO REMOVE CUBA FROM TERROR LIST...
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South Dakota's tribes barred the governor from setting foot on their land after she said drug cartels operate there — an allegation the nations' leaders deny.
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(Second column, 10th story, link)
Related stories:
Pezeshkian's First Foreign Media Interview: Blames Israel for 'Iranophobia'...
SURVEY: HALF of Adults Worldwide Hold Antisemitic Views...
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(First column, 4th story, link)
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President-elect Donald J. Trump's pick for defense secretary had a more amicable exchange with Joni Ernst, a Republican, who is considered a key vote.
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Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald J. Trump's choice to lead the Pentagon, rejected what he said were "false claims" about his conduct.
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President-elect Donald J. Trump's pick for defense secretary used a generally unflattering term to criticize legal officers in the military.
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As negotiators from Israel and Hamas continue discussions in Qatar about a possible Gaza ceasefire, we speak with Palestinian journalist Abubaker Abed, who spoke at a press conference of Gaza media workers last week urging the international press to speak up for their Palestinian colleagues. The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate says nearly 200 journalists have been killed in Israeli attacks since October 2023. "The world just keeps turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to what is happening," says Abed from outside the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah. "It's completely enraging and unacceptable." His recent article for Drop Site News is headlined "What It's Truly Like to Sleep in a Damp, Frigid Tent: A Report From Gaza."
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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced major changes to what content is allowed on his company's social media platforms Facebook, Instagram and Threads, scrapping the system of independent fact-checkers in favor of "community notes" from volunteer users. Zuckerberg also loosened moderation rules around offensive speech, which will allow hateful content targeting women, LGBTQ people and other groups. Meta's changes have been widely interpreted as a gift to Donald Trump and other Republicans, who have long argued against the policing of hate speech and disinformation online. The company has also donated $1 million to Trump's inauguration and recently added Trump ally Dana White, the CEO of Ultimate Fighting Championship, to its corporate board — part of a larger shift in Silicon Valley toward Trump and his MAGA movement. For more on these changes, we speak with media scholars Siva Vaidhyanathan and Marc Owen Jones, as well as Philippine journalist Maria Ressa, whose media company Rappler has been at the forefront of battling disinformation and hate speech on social media. "As of last year, 71% of the world is under authoritarian rule. We are electing illiberal leaders democratically, partly because our public information ecosystem … is corrupting our individual communications with each other," says Ressa.
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International outrage is growing over Israel's abduction of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in the Jabaliya refugee camp, who was detained after Israeli forces raided and shut down the last major hospital in northern Gaza last week. A new United Nations report finds that Israeli strikes on and near hospitals in the Gaza Strip have "pushed the healthcare system to the brink of total collapse." Displaced Palestinians throughout the territory are dying from the ongoing Israeli bombardment, as well as injuries, infections and diseases due to Israel's restrictions on medical care and medical supplies. At least six babies have also died of hypothermia in recent days amid plunging winter temperatures. "Living conditions are just deplorable. They are not compatible with human life," says Dr. Mimi Syed, an emergency medicine physician who just left Gaza after volunteering there for a month. We also speak with trauma surgeon Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, who previously volunteered at the European Hospital in Khan Younis. "It's very likely that tens or even hundreds of thousands of people are going to die of the combination of malnutrition, displacement, exposure to the elements and hypothermia this winter," says Sidhwa.
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 Top officials from Facebook Inc, Alphabet Inc's Google and Twitter Inc will appear before U.S. lawmakers on Thursday at a hearing on foreign influence and election security, the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee announced on Tuesday.
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