President-elect Trump announced his nominations for U.S. ambassadors to five countries on Monday, including Austria and Japan.
In a series of Truth Social posts on Monday night, the incoming president detailed his picks for the U.S. ambassadors to Japan, the Dominican Republic, Austria, Luxembourg and Uruguay. Each nominee will need to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
Trump named George Edward Glass, a former U.S. ambassador to Portugal, to serve as the incoming U.S. ambassador to Japan.
‘As a former President of an Investment Bank, George will bring his business acumen to the Ambassador’s position,’ Trump said of Glass. ‘George graduated from the University of Oregon, served as Alumni President, and on its Board of Trustees. He will always PUT AMERICA FIRST. Congratulations George!’
Leah Francis Campos, the sister of ‘Fox & Friends Weekend’ co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy and sister-in-law to incoming Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, was also picked to be an ambassador. Trump nominated her to serve as U.S. ambassador to the Dominican Republic.
‘Leah served our Country as a CIA Case Officer before becoming Senior Advisor for the Western Hemisphere on the House Foreign Affairs Committee,’ the Republican wrote. ‘Leah will take her love of Country, and commitment to our National Security and Prosperity, to her post as U.S. Ambassador to the Dominican Republic. Congratulations Leah!’
Trump also announced Arthur Graham Fisher, the president of Fisher Realty, as his pick for U.S. ambassador to Austria.
‘He has been consistently ranked as a top broker in the area, and the State of North Carolina, representing many of the most astute clients in America,’ the incoming president wrote. ‘Art has been a staunch supporter of America First Policies, and will make us proud in Austria!’
Trump added that Stacey Feinberg and Lou Rinaldi will serve as U.S. ambassadors to Luxembourg and Uruguay, respectively.
‘As a Producer of Broadway musicals, a motivational speaker, and a Board Member of the Women Founders Network, Stacey is committed to supporting women in launching their careers, and scaling their businesses to unprecedented success,’ Trump wrote of Feinberg. ‘Stacy will be GREAT, and make America proud!’
Of Rinaldi, Trump called his nominee a ‘successful businessman, entrepreneur, and longtime friend,’ who grew up in Uruguay.
‘Lou is a great golfer, and will be in a Country with some terrific courses. Having grown up in Uruguay, he possesses an intimate understanding of the Country’s culture and history,’ Trump’s statement read. ‘His expertise and background make him exceptionally qualified to advance U.S. interests, and strengthen the longstanding partnership between the United States and Uruguay.’
Fox News’ Deirdre Heavy contributed to this report.
A co-chair of the House of Representatives’ Congressional DOGE Caucus said there is ‘real motivation’ behind accomplishing its mission of cutting the federal deficit.
Rep. Blake Moore, R-Utah, is House GOP Conference vice chair and the No. 6 House Republican, and recently joined Reps. Aaron Bean, R-Fla., and Pete Sessions, R-Texas, in leading the caucus.
The group’s name is an acronym for Delivering Outstanding Government Efficiency, coinciding with the Department of Government Efficiency – also DOGE for short – a new advisory panel commissioned by President-elect Trump and led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.
The caucus’ first meeting is slated for Tuesday. Moore said he hopes they can ‘create some structure on what we want to accomplish and set some initial first easy wins.’
He did not elaborate on what those wins would be, but suggested one of the caucus’ main goals would be delivering recommendations to Musk and Ramaswamy on how to make the federal government more efficient.
‘We’ve got people that have great ideas from their various committees on things, areas that we can find efficiencies, and just get that all on paper and eventually, you know, provide some recommendations,’ Moore said.
The Utah Republican is hopeful that his unique position as a member of House leadership will allow him to be a conduit between the caucus and fellow congressional leaders.
‘I was looking for another opportunity to help serve the conference,’ Moore said of his decision to become a co-chair. ‘There is a ton of bipartisan work that’s already been done on this type of stuff for years leading up to it. We needed this moment as a catalyst to do it. So I am just thrilled to be a part of the leadership team.’
He also suggested that the enthusiasm for DOGE was unlike anything he’d seen for prior government initiatives.
‘There’s real motivation behind this, and the American people are galvanized by this. For example, I’m the chair, co-chair of the Ski and Snowboard caucus. Utah has… got the best ski – greatest snow on earth and all that. That doesn’t draw the attention,’ Moore said.
‘But I became a co-chair also of the DOGE Caucus, and you could tell a widespread interest in this from both media back home [and] constituents. We have to honor that.’
Moore also dismissed concerns that DOGE’s internet meme-inspired branding might make people take it less seriously, arguing instead that it will help make Americans enthusiastic about the mission.
‘Doge’ is also the name of an internet meme popular in the 2010s, depicting a Shiba Inu and frequently accompanied by phrases in broken English representing the dog’s supposed internal monologue.
Musk has made no secret of his affinity for the meme, and even coined the name ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ while posting references to it on X, formerly Twitter, before Trump made it a reality. He’s also promoted a cryptocurrency of the same name.
‘I’ve never seen so much excitement and engagement from my constituents,’ Moore said. ‘The fact that it’s the Doge, I think this is how people connect now. Like, you know, that’s a good thing because it makes it relatable. And so I think it’s definitely something that kind of makes people laugh a little bit and just find the irony in it.’
‘Whatever can get people’s attention, you have to use that for good. Then you’ve got potential for impact.’
With former president and now President-elect Donald Trump unable to run again for the White House in 2028, Vice President-elect JD Vance appears to be the heir apparent to the America First movement and the Republican Party’s powerful MAGA base.
But even though the 40-year-old Vance will be considered the front-runner in the next GOP presidential nomination race, the chair of the Republican National Committee says the party will hold to its traditional role of staying neutral in an open and contested presidential primary.
‘We will,’ RNC chair Michael Whatley said in a Fox News Digital interview.
Vance, with Trump’s support in a party firmly in the president-elect’s grip, will be very hard to knock off in the 2028 Republican presidential primaries.
‘We are getting four more years of Trump and then eight years of JD Vance,’ Donald Trump Jr. said in October on the campaign trail.
The younger Trump, who’s a powerful ally of the vice president-elect, is extremely popular with the MAGA base.
‘The vice president will be in the catbird seat. No question about it,’ longtime Republican consultant Dave Carney recently told Fox News Digital.
Carney, a veteran of numerous Republican presidential campaigns over the past four decades, said that Vance ‘is the guy to beat.’
David Kochel, another longtime GOP strategist with plenty of presidential campaign experience, said that Vance is the front-runner due to ‘the size and the scope’ of Trump’s Electoral College and popular vote victories last month, ‘and the implied passing of the torch from Donald Trump.’
‘There will be no shortage of people looking at it. But most people looking at it are seeing the relative strength of the Trump victory and the movement,’ Kochel said.
However, Kochel noted that ‘nobody will completely defer to JD Vance. There will be a contest. There always is.’
Whatley, who was interviewed a week after Trump asked him to continue as RNC chair moving forward, said he’s ‘very excited about the bench that we have in the Republican Party right now.’
‘You think about all the Republican governors, you think about all the Republican senators, the members of the House that we have, the leaders across the country that have been engaged in this campaign are going to be part of the president’s cabinet,’ he added.
Whatley argued that the president-elect’s ‘America First movement is bigger than Donald Trump. He is the tip of the spear. He is the vanguard of this movement. But. It is a very big movement right now.’
The chairman on Thursday also emphasized that ‘Donald Trump has completely remade the Republican Party. We’re now the working-class party. We’re now a party that is communicating and working with every single voter, speaking to every single voter about the issues that they care about. So, as we go into 2028, we are in a great position to be able to continue the momentum of this agenda and this movement.’
Unlike the rival Democratic National Committee, which in the 2024 cycle upended the traditional presidential nominating calendar, the RNC made no major changes to their primary lineup, and kept the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary as their first two contests.
Asked about the 2028 calendar, Whatley said ‘I’ve not had any conversations with anybody who wants to change the calendar on our side. I know the Democrats did during the course of this election cycle, not sure that it really helped them all that much.’
‘We’re very comfortable with the calendar as it is. But as we move towards 2028, we’ll have those conversations,’ he added.
McKinsey & Company agreed to pay $650 million in a deferred prosecution agreement that will resolve a federal criminal probe into the company’s consulting work advising Purdue Pharma on how to increase sales of its opioid painkiller OxyContin, a court filing said Friday.
A former top partner at McKinsey, Martin Elling, also agreed to plead guilty to obstruction of justice next month in the probe by the U.S. Department of Justice, according to a filing in U.S. District Court in Abingdon, Virginia.
The criminal charging document that McKinsey agreed to have filed by prosecutors alleges the consulting giant “knowingly and intentionally” conspired with Purdue Pharma “and others to aid and abet the misbranding of prescription drugs.”
The document also said McKinsey is accused, through the acts of its then-partner Elling, of “knowingly destroying and concealing records and documents with the intent” to impede the investigation by the Department of Justice.
McKinsey, which previously agreed to pay almost $1 billion to settle lawsuits by states, local governments and others related to its opioid consulting, accepted responsibility for the conduct alleged by federal prosecutors, according to the deferred prosecution agreement.
As part of the deal, McKinsey will not work on any marketing, sale, promotion or distribution of controlled substances.
In a statement to CNBC, McKinsey said, “We are deeply sorry for our past client service to Purdue Pharma and the actions of a former partner who deleted documents related to his work for that client.”
“We should have appreciated the harm opioids were causing in our society and we should not have undertaken sales and marketing work for Purdue Pharma,” the firm said. “This terrible public health crisis and our past work for opioid manufacturers will always be a source of profound regret for our firm has requested comment from McKinsey.”
The company said that in addition to its deferred prosecution agreement with the DOJ, it “has agreed to settle a related civil False Claims Act investigation and to enter into a Corporate Integrity Agreement with the Office of Inspector General at the Department of Health and Human Services.”
A rocky year for restaurants separated the industry’s biggest chains into winners and losers, as eateries competed for a smaller pool of customers who have grown more discerning about how they spend their dollars.
“I’ve been eating out less this year — it tastes just as good, and it’s way cheaper,” said Jennifer Jennings, who works in sales in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Prices for food away from home had risen 3.6% over the last 12 months as of November, according to the Labor Department’s consumer price index. Grocery prices climbed just 1.6% during the same time, making cooking at home more attractive than dining out.
In response, many consumers have cut their restaurant spending, leading to slower sales and greater competition. The value wars reignited this summer. Chains took aim at their rivals in marketing and social media posts. And restaurants ramped up innovation, hoping that new menu items could boost sluggish traffic trends.
“I think the common thread behind everything right now is that the chains that are winning aren’t standing still. They’re doing something innovative, whether that’s new menu items … maybe that’s a marketing innovation … maybe it’s just hyper-emphasizing value,” said RJ Hottovy, head of analytical research for Placer.ai.
The year started off slow, with declining year-over-year traffic in January and February, before visits picked up again in March, according to industry tracker Black Box Intelligence. But eateries struggled again over the summer as consumers tightened their belts. Even a slew of value meals that promised cheap burgers and fries couldn’t stem the tide.
As traffic has fallen, bankruptcy filings have soared. Twenty-six bars and restaurants have filed for Chapter 11 this year, just one shy of tripling 2020′s total during the pandemic, according to the Debtwire Restructuring Database. This year’s filers included big names like Red Lobster and TGI Fridays.
While traffic has improved into the fourth quarter, some industry experts say it’s too early to predict a full recovery. A Numerator survey of more than 2,000 consumers found that the majority — across all income groups — plan to maintain their current spending levels at limited-service restaurants in the coming months.
But the chains that are already winning have seen their gains grow in the fourth quarter, further fueling their success.
Here are the winners and losers of the restaurant industry in 2024:
Value became restaurant CEOs’ new favorite word this year as they sought to reverse falling sales and appeal to inflation-weary consumers.
McDonald’s rang the alarm for the industry in late April, warning that consumers have become more “discriminating.” Three months later, the company’s second-quarter sales missed estimates and foot traffic to its U.S. restaurants shrank. The burger giant responded by rolling out a $5 combo meal, and many of its rivals followed suit with their own discounts and deals.
Traffic tied to value menu deals climbed 9% through October compared with the year-ago period, according to Circana data.
But value meals alone won’t save the industry.
For one, the lift from the deals isn’t enough to offset overalltraffic declines, according to David Portalatin, Circana senior vice president and industry advisor for food and food service.
Plus, “value” has come to mean more than just the price tag. It also includes the experience and quality.
“For the low-income consumer, it’s the dollar amount that matters. For everybody else, it’s value. Even if you have money, you’re noticing things are more expensive, and you’re going to be more selective,” Michael Zuccaro, Moody’s Ratings vice president of corporate finance, told CNBC.
Fast-food restaurants have been losing customers this year, as customers pull back their spending.
Despite a proliferation of $5 combo meals, traffic to quick-service restaurants fell almost 2% this year through October, according to Circana data. That’s bad news for the industry because fast food accounts for nearly two-thirds of overall restaurant visits.
Industry experts attribute the decline in fast-food traffic largely to low-income customers. Diners who make less than $40,000 account for more than a quarter of both McDonald’s and Taco Bell’s customer bases, based on Numerator data.
Many of those consumers have chosen to spend less at fast-food restaurants, whether it’s skipping the order of French fries or forgoing a visit altogether to cook at home.
“There’s a lot more competition with grocery and other food retailers,” Hottovy said. “That’s where most of the competition is, particularly for that lower- to middle-income consumer.”
The fast-food chains performing the best right now, like Yum Brands’ Taco Bell, have high value perception.
Typically, when consumers tighten their belts in an economic downturn or recession, fast-food restaurants benefit. Even as low-income consumers cut back, higher-income consumers trade down to fast-food combo meals. But that hasn’t happened this time as consumers who make more money have instead embraced a more holistic definition of value to decide where to spend their money. Those diners want a high-quality, satisfying meal more than they care about a deal.
The fast-food chains that performed the best in 2024 tended to focus on chicken: Chick-fil-A, Raising Cane’s andWingstop.
Chicken prices have stayed relatively stable this year, while beef prices have climbed. Poultry also benefits because some consumers consider it a more healthy option than red meat, even when the chicken is breaded and fried.
Chicken has been gaining market share from beef since the chicken sandwich wars of 2019, and restaurants have been leaning into the shift in consumer behavior. McDonald’s, for example, recently added the Chicken Big Mac to its U.S. menu permanently.
Upstarts like Raising Cane’s have also been making a splash. The privately held chain, known for its chicken tenders, is the fourth-largest chicken chain in the U.S., with a market share of 7.8%, according to Barclays. The chain could soon overtake KFC, the rare chicken chain that’s struggled to resonate with U.S. consumers this year.
KFC, which is owned by Yum Brands, has fallen behind in recent years as competition has intensified. Rivals like Chick-fil-A and Popeyes have stolen market share with buzzy menu items and the consumer shift toward boneless chicken.
Those chicken chains are stealing market share from burgers. McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Restaurant Brands International’s Burger Kingall had lackluster years.
McDonald’s has long dominated the burger category, with 48.8% market share, according to Barclays. But the chain saw its grip slip earlier this year as it scared off low-income consumers with its menu prices. However, by October, things were looking up for the Golden Arches: its $5 value meal was winning back customers, and its pricier Chicken Big Mac was boosting traffic.
Then came a fatal E. Coli outbreak linked to the slivered onions used in its Quarter Pounders. While the company acted quickly to contain the fallout, sales tumbled, especially in the affected states. McDonald’s plans to chip in $165 million to help out franchisees and boost marketing efforts. The chain has also revived its popular McRib for a limited time and unveiled a new value menu that will launch in January.
Analysts are optimistic that McDonald’s will be able to put the incident behind it. Traffic turned positive in the week ended Dec. 8 for the first time since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the outbreakon Oct. 22, according to a note from Gordon Haskett Research Advisors.
For rivals Burger King and Wendy’s, that’s bad news.
Like McDonald’s, Burger King launched a $5 value meal over the summer to appeal to thrifty consumers. Its same-store sales fell in the third quarter, although Restaurant Brands CEO Josh Kobza said the business is much healthier than it was in September 2022, when the parent company formally launched Burger King’s U.S. turnaround strategy.
Likewise, Wendy’s has been struggling to gain a foothold in the value wars. The company recently announced that it would close 140 underperforming restaurants in the fourth quarter, in the hopes that culling its footprint would boost the overall business.
But a promotion tied to the 25th anniversary of Spongebob Squarepants has been a green shoot for the burger chain. Some locations even sold out of key ingredients for the “Krabby Patty” meal, according to an October note from Wolfe Research.
Taco Bell in Gastonia, N.C.Jeff Greenberg / Universal Images via Getty Images file
Taco Bell is another rare fast-food winner.
The Mexican-inspired chain was the only one of Yum Brands’ three holdings to report same-store sales growth every quarter so far this year. (Pizza Hut and KFC actually reported three straight quarters of same-store sales declines.)
Yum executives have attributed Taco Bell’s success to consumers’ perception of its value. It was the top limited-service chain that diners across all income groups considered to be more affordable than groceries, according to a Numerator survey of more than 2,000 consumers.
Yum has also credited Taco Bell’s “brand buzz.” Look no further than actress Selena Gomez’s Instagram post sharing her recent engagement, with Taco Bell’s Mexican Pizza prominently displayed on a picnic blanket; the brand’s PR chief said in a LinkedIn post that Taco Bell didn’t sponsor the post.
And the chain keeps moving. It’s rolling out artificial intelligence software to take drive-thru orders in hundreds of locations. And in early December, it unveiled a new drink-focused concept, called the Live Mas Café. The first location is being tested in San Diego.
As Taco Bell continues to stand out, Yum plans to highlight the brand in late January with an investor presentation outlining its strategy for next year.
Fast-casual restaurants are the only restaurant segment to report traffic growth this year.
Cava’s stock has skyrocketed 192% this year. Wingstop’s quarterly same-store sales have climbed more than 20% in every report it’s released this year. And traffic to Chipotle’s restaurants keeps growing, despite online backlash over its portion sizes and the departure of longtime CEO Brian Niccol in September.
But it isn’t just those chains. Broadly, the fast-casual restaurant segment has seen traffic rise 3% through October compared with the year-ago period, according to Circana data. And dollar sales have increased 8% for the category.
“You spend more money by going out rather than staying in, and fast casual seems to strike the right balance of the value equation,” said Circana’s Portalatin.
Chipotle and its fellow fast-casual chains also benefit from a customer base that skews higher-income. Chipotle executives have previously said that they haven’t seen the same traffic reversals as the rest of the industry because the chain’s customers have more money to spend on eating out.
Of course, there were a few losers even in the fast-casual category. Chains like BurgerFi and Roti filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy as their traffic fell and costs rose.
“Maybe they expanded too quickly and had other issues, and so they got into trouble,” John Bringardner, head of Debtwire.
A woman walks by a Starbucks in New York City, on April 4, 2022.Spencer Platt / Getty Images file
Niccol shocked the restaurant world in August when Starbucks announced he’d be taking over as chief executive, following his predecessor’s ouster. Chipotle’s stock fell and Starbucks shares soared on the news in a combined market cap swing of $27 billion, showing Wall Street’s belief in Niccol as a leader.
Niccol’s departure from Chipotle came six years into his tenure. He ushered the burrito chain firmly out of its foodborne illness crisis, leaned into online ordering, modernized its locations for the digital age and led the company through the pandemic. Wall Street analysts expect that his replacement, Scott Boatwright, will stay the course set by Niccol.
On the other hand, Niccol’s appointment at Starbucks will likely mean big changes for the coffee giant. The board hired him after two consecutive quarters of same-store sales declines. Customers had become fed up with its high prices and chaotic, unwelcoming stores, and even discounts and new drink launches couldn’t persuade them to return.
As CEO, Niccol has pledged to bring the company “Back to Starbucks.” In late October, he shared early thoughts to reshape the U.S. business, from small tweaks like bringing back Sharpies to much more ambitious plans, like cutting back its extensive drinks menu.
Heading into 2025, Wall Street is excited about his proposals. Piper Sandler ranked Starbucks as its best idea for restaurants that it covers. BTIG also named it as a top pick, alongside Wingstop.
Traffic to casual-dining restaurants has fallen 2% year-to-date through October, according to Circana data.
This year’s decline in visits follows years of waning demand for casual-dining chains. They’ve struggled to compete since the Great Recession, which brought the dawn of fast-casual options that offer high-quality food at cheaper prices with greater convenience.
Some consumers are also skipping casual-dining chains and instead frequenting local independents.
The segment’s biggest losers this year were Red Lobster and TGI Fridays, which both filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Red Lobster, which filed in May, has since exited bankruptcy with a new owner, leadership and strategy to turn around the business.
“You’re seeing some weeding out … of those concepts that are a little tired, a little under pressure,” Circana’s Portalatin said.
Other casual-dining chains that are struggling to win over customers include Applebee’s, owned by Dine Brands.
Still the category has some outliers, like Texas Roadhouse, Chili’s and Olive Garden. Their relative outperformance has boosted the segment’s metrics, hiding some chains’ deeper deterioration. (Olive Garden parent Darden Restaurants reports its latest quarterly results on Thursday.)
While casual restaurants struggle, one bright spot was Chili’s, owned by Brinker International. A table at the chain more associated with families became a hot reservation among Gen Z diners.
The bar and grill’s turnaround finally took hold this year, boosted by sharp advertising and TikTok-viral deals. In its latest quarter, Chili’s reported same-store sales growth of 14.1%, fueled by a 6.5% increase in traffic.
The chain’s “3 for Me” bundle, priced at $10.99, appealed to consumers looking for value. Plus, Chili’s advertised the promotion by taking aim at the prices of its fast-food rivals. And its Triple Dipper combo, which offers three appetizers, took off on TikTok, causing sales of the menu item to soar more than 70% in its latest quarter compared with last year. The Triple Dipper now accounts for 11% of the chain’s business, Brinker CEO Kevin Hochman said on the company’s latest earnings call on Oct. 30.
Chili’s success has spawned copycats. Rival Applebee’s recently picked a fight with Chili’s over its competing $9.99 value meal. And Olive Garden reintroduced its Never Ending Pasta Bowl promotion.
In mid-November, restaurant executives were feeling optimistic about 2025 at the Restaurant Finance and Development Conference in Las Vegas.
Circana’s Portalin echoed that sentiment, predicting that inflation will keep declining next year, bringing some much-needed stability to prices and the overall industry.
“Think about everything consumers have dealt with over the last year: natural disasters, global conflict, the polarizing national election,” he said. “If we could get all of that in the rear view mirror, and if we can maintain some of these basic fundamentals around income and labor, we think customer traffic will improve in 2025.”
But not everyone in the industry is so sure that 2025 will bring a restaurant recovery.
“I think we’re going to continue the same mindset that we’re leaving 2024 with, this value-oriented, deal-driven consumer,” Placer.ai’s Hottovy said.
Likewise, Moody’s outlook for the restaurant industry predicts modest sales growth, but Moody’s Zuccaro said companies will all be fighting for their share.
In other words, the value wars won’t slow down — and may even intensify.
The former head of Ozy Media has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for his role in an alleged fraud involving the failed content startup.
Carlos Watson was facing a maximum of 37 years in prison after his July conviction on securities and wire fraud charges. Prosecutors had sought a 17-year sentence and multimillion-dollar forfeiture to the government.
“The quantum of dishonesty in this case is exceptional,” U.S. District Judge Eric Komitee said in handing down the sentence, according to The Associated Press. He later told Watson: “Your internal apparatus for separating truth from fiction became badly miscalibrated.”
Watson pleaded not guilty to the charges and has continued to maintain his innocence.
The rise and fall of Ozy closely tracked the broader internet media bubble of the 2010s. The group attempted to ride the investment wave generated by the likes of BuzzFeed and Vice, which were attracting billions in venture capital.
Both of those firms have themselves faced financial reckonings: BuzzFeed narrowly avoided being delisted from the stock market, while Vice filed for bankruptcy.
During the Watson trial, a former lieutenant explained the pressures Ozy came under to stay afloat — and the boundaries it crossed to do so.
“Survival within the bounds of decency, fairness, truth, it morphed into survival at all costs and by any means necessary,” former Ozy Chief Operating Officer Samir Rao told jurors, saying that Watson had sanctioned all his falsehoods. Rao himself pleaded guilty.
President-elect Donald Trump and the head of Japanese tech conglomerate SoftBank, Masayoshi Son, will announce a $100 billion investment effort designed to spur artificial intelligence and related infrastructure projects.
The effort, first reported by CNBC, will attempt to create 100,000 jobs over four years.
Trump and Son announced a similar initiative in 2016 after Trump was elected president for the first time, with the Japanese firm agreeing to invest $50 billion in the U.S. with the aim to create 50,000 jobs. It is not clear whether that effort fully paid off, as many of SoftBank’s numerous startup investments in the U.S. and beyond failed to pay off. A 2019 report from Forbes found hard data on the ultimate impact difficult to come by. Axios, however, reports it largely met the marks, at least for a time.
Today, SoftBank is a much smaller company than when Trump first took office nearly a decade ago — and according to Bloomberg News, only has $25 billion in cash on hand, raising questions about how Son and his firm will come up with the pledge money.
A SoftBank representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Son joins the slew of tech titans announcing investments following Trump’s electoral victory. Earlier this month, Amazon and Meta, the parent company of Facebook, each announced $1 million contributions to Trump’s inaugural fund, as have OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and the AI startup Perplexity.
Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced the closure of the country’s embassy in Ireland on Sunday, accusing Ireland of “extreme anti-Israel policies.”
“The actions and antisemitic rhetoric used by Ireland against Israel are rooted in the delegitimization and demonization of the Jewish state, along with double standards. Ireland has crossed every red line in its relations with Israel,” Sa’ar said, according to a foreign ministry statement.
“Israel will invest its resources in advancing bilateral relations with countries worldwide according to priorities that also take into account the attitudes and actions of these states toward Israel,” he added.
The statement pointed to action taken by the Irish government, including Ireland’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state, and its support for South Africa’s legal action against Israel in the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Yair Lapid, Israel’s opposition leader, criticized the move in a post on X, calling it a “victory for anti-Semitism and anti-Israel organizations.”
“The way to deal with criticism is not to run away, but to stay and fight!”
His comments sparked backlash from Sa’ar, who on his own X account wrote: “Shame on you, Yair!… This is clear anti-Semitism based on delegitimization, dehumanization and double standards towards the Jewish state.”
Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris described Israel’s decision as “deeply regrettable.”
“I utterly reject the assertion that Ireland is anti-Israel. Ireland is pro-peace, pro-human rights and pro-International law,” he wrote on X.
Dublin in March said it would intervene in a genocide case against Israel at the ICJ, reflecting the country’s long-standing position of solidarity with the Palestinian cause.
The case was first brought to the ICJ by South Africa, and in an initial ruling in January, the court ordered Israel to “take all measures within its power” to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza, but stopped short of accusing it of genocide.
The death toll in the French territory of Mayotte from Cyclone Chido is “several hundred” and may run into the thousands, the island’s top government official told a local broadcaster Sunday.
France rushed rescue teams and supplies to its largely poor overseas department in the Indian Ocean that has suffered widespread destruction.
“I think there are some several hundred dead, maybe we’ll get close to a thousand. Even thousands … given the violence of this event,″ Mayotte Prefect François-Xavier Bieuville told TV station Mayotte la 1ere.
He had previously said it was the worst cyclone to hit Mayotte in 90 years.
Bieuville said it was extremely difficult to get an exact number of deaths and injuries after Mayotte was pummeled by the intense tropical cyclone on Saturday, causing major damage to public infrastructure, including the airport, flattening neighborhoods and knocking out electricity supplies.
The French Interior Ministry confirmed at least 11 deaths and more than 250 injuries earlier Sunday but said that was expected to increase substantially.
Mayotte in the southwestern Indian Ocean off the coast of Africa is France’s poorest island and the poorest territory in the European Union. It has a population of just over 300,000 spread over two main islands.
Bieuville said the worst devastation had been seen in the slums of metal shacks and informal structures that mark much of Mayotte. Referring to the official death toll so far, he said ″this figure is not plausible when you see the images of the slums.”
“I think the human toll is much higher,” he added.
Mayotte took the brunt of Chido
Chido blew through the southwestern Indian Ocean on Friday and Saturday, also affecting the nearby islands of Comoros and Madagascar. Mayotte was directly in the cyclone’s path, though, and took the brunt. Chido brought winds in excess of 220 kph (136 mph), according to the French weather service, making it a category 4 cyclone, the second strongest on the scale.
Later, Chido made landfall in Mozambique on the African mainland and there were fears for more than 2 million people in the country’s north who could be impacted, according to authorities there.
French President Emmanuel Macron said his “thoughts” were with the Mayotte people and Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau was due to travel to Mayotte on Monday. Retailleau had warned Saturday night after an emergency meeting in Paris that the death toll “will be high,” while new Prime Minister François Bayrou, who took office on Friday, said infrastructure had been severely damaged or destroyed across Mayotte.
Pope Francis offered prayers for the victims while on a visit Sunday to the French Mediterranean island of Corsica.
France wants air and sea bridge
Rescuers and firefighters were sent from France and the nearby French territory of Reunion and supplies were also rushed in on military aircraft and ships. Damage to the airport’s control tower meant only military aircraft were able to fly in.
Patrice Latron, the prefect of Reunion, said authorities aim to establish an air and sea bridge from Reunion to Mayotte. About 800 more rescuers were to be sent in the coming days and more than 80 tons of supplies had been flown in or were on their way by ship. Some of the priorities were restoring electricity and access to drinking water, Latron said.
The French Interior Ministry said 1,600 police and gendarmerie officers have been deployed to “help the population and prevent potential looting.”
In some parts of Mayotte, entire neighborhoods of metal shacks and huts were flattened, while residents reported trees had been uprooted, boats flipped or sunk and many areas were without power.
Chad Youyou, a resident in Hamjago in the north of the island, posted videos on Facebook showing the extensive damage in his village and across the surrounding fields and hills, where almost every tree had been leveled.
“Mayotte is destroyed … we are destroyed,” he said.
Cyclone slams into Mozambique
Chido continued its eastern trajectory and into northern Mozambique where it continued to cause serious damage, while farther inland landlocked Malawi and Zimbabwe warned they might have to evacuate people because of flooding.
In Mozambique, UNICEF said Cabo Delgado province, home to around 2 million people, was the first region to be hit and many homes, schools and health facilities have been partially or completely destroyed.
UNICEF Mozambique spokesman Guy Taylor said that communities faced the prospect of being cut off from schools and health facilities for weeks and Mozambique authorities warned there was a high danger of landslides.
December through to March is cyclone season in the southwestern Indian Ocean and southern Africa has been pummeled by a series of strong ones in recent years. Cyclone Idai in 2019 killed more than 1,300 people, mostly in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe. Cyclone Freddy left more than 1,000 dead across several countries in the Indian Ocean and southern Africa last year.
The cyclones bring the risk of flooding and landslides, but also stagnant pools of water may later spark deadly outbreaks of the waterborne disease cholera as well as dengue fever and malaria.
Studies say the cyclones are getting worse because of climate change. They can leave poor countries in Africa, which contribute a tiny amount to global warming, having to deal with large humanitarian crises, underlining their call for more help from rich nations to deal with the impact of climate change.
Milei, who has three Italian grandparents who emigrated to Argentina in 1926, before he was born, was accorded it on the grounds of “ius sanguinis,” or his bloodline, the spokesperson said.
Milei’s sister and political adviser Karina Milei was also granted Italian citizenship during the visit to Rome, during which the pair attended the political convention of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s far-right Brothers of Italy party.
Milei started the process – which can last years for most people – earlier this year, according to Meloni, speaking to Italian media Sunday afternoon on the sidelines of the annual convention, called “Atreju” for a character in the 1984 fantasy film “The NeverEnding Story.”
While the Milei siblings qualify to become Italian, the timing puts them within weeks of the introduction of new rules for the process, which will raise the cost of applications and make it even more difficult for children born in Italy to foreign parents to become citizens.
The new rules stipulate that an Italian citizen who was born in Italy but gave up their Italian citizenship after leaving the country may not automatically transfer citizenship to their descendants.
It is not clear if Milei’s grandparents retained their Italian citizenship or if they gave it up to become Argentine nationals.
Riccardo Magi, an opposition parliamentarian who has campaigned for birthright citizenship, criticized the granting of citizenship to the Milei siblings on X, calling it a “slap in the face to girls and boys who were born here or reside permanently and have been waiting for citizenship for years and years, sometimes without any result.”
“Have you lived in Italy since you were born? Do you go to schools in the country? Do you speak Italian but are your parents of foreign origin? Citizenship, then, you can dream of,” he wrote.
“You have practically never set foot in Italy but your name is Javier Milei, you are a friend of Giorgia Meloni and you discover that you have a distant relative from Calabria called ‘don Ciccio’? Don’t worry, the government will give it to you.”
Meloni, on a recent visit to Argentina, expressed solidarity with the conservative leader, with whom she has been working to strengthen ties.
Milei, who likes to brandish a chainsaw to symbolize budget cuts, gave her an action figure of himself holding the power tool.
