United States | News & Politics

WASHINGTON, Jan 14 (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump's pick to lead the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth, endured fierce Democratic grilling over everything from his inexperience, alleged drinking and his past opposition to women in combat to emerge largely unscathed among Republicans at his confirmation hearing on Tuesday.

Hegseth, a former Fox News host and decorated veteran, is one of the most controversial figures ever nominated to be Secretary of Defense and any vote to confirm him is expected to be very close. But he weathered the four-hour hearing without making any major gaffe that might have alienated Republicans and even won critical backing from Republican Senator Joni Ernst, who holds sway in her party.

Several other committee Republicans, to laughter from a friendly audience packed with supporters wearing Hegseth hats, praised the 44-year-old, who has slammed diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in the military, and, in his latest book, questioned whether the top U.S. general has the job because he's Black.

A number of episodes have sparked concern, including a 2017 sexual assault allegation against Hegseth that did not result in charges and which he denies. He has also been accused of excessive drinking and financial mismanagement at veterans' organizations. Hegseth has vowed to abstain from alcohol if confirmed and said he made financial errors but denied wrongdoing.

A network of former intelligence operatives has woven itself into the fabric of right-wing alternative media, amplifying anti-Muslim scare narratives that appear aimed at countering a noted decline in conservative support for Israel since October 7, 2023. Central to this effort is Sarah Adams, a figure promoting conspiracies about a supposed Palestinian-linked Al-Qaeda plot against the West.

On December 12, 2024, Adams appeared on the Shawn Ryan Show for a two-hour interview that quickly amassed over 2.5 million views on YouTube. Shorter excerpts have gained further traction across social media platforms.

The central theme of Adams’s podcast appearance is her assertion that Al-Qaeda is planning a series of large-scale attacks on civilian targets in the West, claiming the Hamas-led October 7 attack was “only the beginning.” She elaborates on the alleged threats while positioning herself as a Pentagon critic, accusing the U.S. government of ignoring its own intelligence.

Throughout the interview, Adams frequently references Hamas, often in contexts where the connection seems tenuous, reinforcing the conflation of disparate narratives under a singular alarmist frame. She even attempted to connect Hamas to the 9/11 attacks, hearkening back to the days leading up to the Iraq War, when fantastic claims were made without being challenged and tenuous connections promoted as evidence of the pressing threats against Americans.

Chinese users of Shanghai-based Xiaohongshu, known as Rednote, welcome American arrivals to the platform.

While the exact number of downloads is unknown, the Apple store put Xiaohongshu – which does not have an official English name but means “little red book” – as the No 1 free-to-use social media platform across all free iPhone apps in the US.

The exodus of “TikTok refugees” has been spurred by mounting concerns over the app’s fate in the wake of last week’s Supreme Court oral arguments, in which the justices seemed to lean towards national security over free speech.

US influencer Nuha – who has more than 1.5 million followers on TikTok and about 135,000 on Instagram – is among those signing up for Xiaohongshu’s blend of e-commerce and user-generated content.

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Rolling Stone yesterday: More Women Accuse Author Neil Gaiman of Sexual Assault

I’ve given Amanda Palmer the slant eye ever since her The Art of Asking TED talk. It seemed to me that she either doesn’t understand or pretends not to understand power dynamics in relationships.

A week before Trump's inauguration, Jerusalem already sees a change in the rules of the game that has broken the deadlock in the hostage negotiations. Unusually, the outgoing Biden administration has let Witkoff lead the process, on the grounds that any obligations the United States undertakes will be incumbent on Trump, not on Biden.

Witkoff is a Jewish real estate investor and developer who is close to Trump. He doesn't have the background of the kind of people who usually fill diplomatic roles. "Witkoff isn't a diplomat. He doesn't talk like a diplomat, he has no interest in diplomatic manners and diplomatic protocols," says a senior Israeli diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity. "He's a businessman who wants to reach a deal quickly and charges ahead unusually aggressively."

In fact, Witkoff has forced Israel to accept a plan that Netanyahu had repeatedly rejected over the past half year. Hamas has not budged from its position that the hostages' freedom must be conditioned on the release of Palestinian prisoners (the easy part) and a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza (the hard one). Netanyahu rejected this condition and thus was born the partial deal proposed by Egypt.