President Joe Biden won’t enforce a ban on the social media app TikTok that is set to take effect a day before he leaves office on Monday, a U.S. official said Thursday, leaving its fate in the hands of President-elect Donald Trump.

Congress last year, in a law signed by Biden, required that TikTok’s China-based parent company ByteDance divest the company by Jan. 19, a day before the presidential inauguration. The official said the outgoing administration was leaving the implementation of the law — and the potential enforcement of the ban — to Trump.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal Biden administration thinking.

Trump, who once called to ban the app, has since pledged to keep it available in the U.S., though his transition team has not said how they intend to accomplish that.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is expected to attend Trump’s inauguration and be granted a prime seating location on the dais as the president-elect’s national security adviser signals that the incoming administration may take steps to “keep TikTok from going dark.”

Incoming national security adviser Mike Waltz on Thursday told Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends” that the federal law that could ban TikTok by Sunday also “allows for an extension as long as a viable deal is on the table.”

The push to save TikTok, much like the move to ban it in the U.S., has crossed partisan lines. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said he spoke with Biden on Thursday to advocate for extending the deadline to ban TikTok.

“It’s clear that more time is needed to find an American buyer and not disrupt the lives and livelihoods of millions of Americans, of so many influencers who have built up a good network of followers,” Schumer said Thursday on the Senate floor.

Democrats had tried on Wednesday to pass legislation that would have extended the deadline, but Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas blocked it. Cotton, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that TikTok has had ample time to find a buyer.

“TikTok is a Chinese Communist spy app that addicts our kids, harvests their data, targets them with harmful and manipulative content, and spreads communist propaganda,” Cotton said.

TikTok CEO’s is expected to be seated on the dais for the inauguration along with tech billionaires Elon Musk, who is CEO of SpaceX, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, according to two people with the matter. The people spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal planning.

Last week, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a legal challenge to the statute brought by TikTok, its China-based parent company ByteDance, and users of the app. The Justices seemed likely to uphold the law, which requires ByteDance to divest TikTok on national security grounds or face a ban in one of its biggest markets.

“If the Supreme Court comes out with a ruling in favor of the law, President Trump has been very clear: Number one, TikTok is a great platform that many Americans use and has been great for his campaign and getting his message out. But number two, he’s going to protect their data,” Waltz said on Wednesday.

“He’s a deal maker. I don’t want to get ahead of our executive orders, but we’re going to create this space to put that deal in place,” he added.

Separately on Wednesday, Pam Bondi, Trump’s pick for attorney general, dodged a question during a Senate hearing on whether she’d uphold a TikTok ban.

Trump has reversed his position on the popular app, having tried to ban it during his first term in office over national security concerns.

He joined TikTok during his 2024 presidential campaign and his team used it to connect with younger voters, especially male voters, by pushing content that was often macho and aimed at going viral. He pledged to “save TikTok” during the campaign and has credited the platform with helping him win more youth votes.

The deal between Israel and Hamas to release hostages being held in Gaza and begin a ceasefire was officially signed by negotiators in Doha on Thursday, according to two sources familiar with the issue. But the Israeli government isn’t expected to vote on it until Saturday night.

The delay in the vote will postpone the start of the ceasefire and the release of the first three hostages from Sunday to at least Monday, according to Israeli officials.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was updated by the negotiations team that an agreement was reached, his office said in a statement on Friday morning local time.

Netanyahu ordered the hostage coordinator to work with relevant government ministries to prepare for the release of the hostages.

The Israeli security cabinet was supposed to convene on Thursday morning to vote on the agreement, but several last minute disputes in the negotiations in Doha delayed the official signing of the agreement a day.

A U.S. official said that on Wednesday night, after the deal was announced, there was a disagreement about the final list of Palestinian prisoners to be released as part of the deal.

Hamas demanded to swap several names on the list for military leaders of the militant group who are serving multiple life sentences for planning and orchestrating suicide bombings, Israeli and U.S. officials said.

Israel had earlier used the veto it has as part of the deal to block their release but Hamas brought them up again as a new demand in the negotiations.

President Biden’s Middle East envoy Brett McGurk, President-elect Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and Qatari and Egyptian mediators worked for several hours in Doha to resolve the issue.

“In the end it was a tempest in a teapot,” a U.S. official said.

Even after the issue was resolved it took another several hours for the agreement to be officially signed.

The deal was signed by officials from Israel, Qatar and Hamas, a source with knowledge said. President Biden’s top Middle East adviser Brett McGurk signed the deal for the U.S.

While the deal continued to be negotiated in Doha, Netanyahu’s ultranationalist coalition government partners — Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich and Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir said they would vote against the deal.

Netanyahu met Smotrich on Thursday, urged him not to resign and briefed him about his discussions with the incoming Trump administration about the deal, a source with knowledge said.

Ben Gvir held a press conference and announced he would resign and his party would leave the coalition if the deal is approved by the Israeli cabinet. He said he would be ready to rejoin the coalition if Israel were to resume fighting in Gaza after the 42-day ceasefire in the first phase of the deal.

The Likud issued a statement attacking Ben Gvir and accusing him for trying to topple the right-wing government.

The Likud statement claimed the agreement includes guarantees from the U.S. that it would allow Israel to resume the war and to receive weapons from the U.S.

Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz said on CNN on Wednesday that the incoming administration made it clear to Netanyahu that if Hamas reneges on any part of the deal, the U.S. will back Israel.

Waltz also said the Trump administration will ensure Gaza is demilitarized and Hamas is destroyed.

The Israeli security cabinet is expected to convene on Friday morning to vote on the deal, Israeli officials said. The full cabinet will then convene on Saturday night.

Under Israeli law, Palestinian prisoners can’t be released from prison without a government vote. If the deal is approved, there will be a 24-hour period for the public to appeal to the court.

Netanyahu is expected to have a majority in both votes, even if Smotrich, Ben Gvir and the cabinet ministers from their parties vote against the deal.

Netanyahu’s aide said that because of the schedule, the ceasefire and the release of the hostages would be delayed from Sunday to Monday.

According to the agreement, 33 hostages will be released in the first phase of the deal, including women, children, men over the age of 50 and men under the age of 50 who are wounded or sick. Israel’s assessment is that most of those 33 hostages are alive.

The hostages will be released gradually throughout the first phase of the agreement, beginning on the first day of the six-week ceasefire in Gaza.

Israeli Defense Forces will also gradually withdraw to a buffer zone in Gaza near the border with Israel. The IDF will leave the Netzarim corridor in the center of the Gaza Strip and most of the Philadelphi corridor on the border between Gaza and Egypt.

Palestinians will also be allowed to return to northern Gaza during the first phase of the deal. Those who walk won’t go through security checks but vehicles will be checked by Qatari and Egyptian officials to ensure no heavy weapons are transferred to Gaza.

More than 700 Palestinian prisoners will also be released, including about 275 who are accused of murdering Israelis and are serving life sentences. Another thousand Palestinians from Gaza who were detained by the IDF during the war but didn’t participate in the Oct. 7 attack will also be released.

The exact number of prisoners to be released will be determined only after Hamas clarifies which of the hostages to be released are alive, Israeli official said.

From the first day of the ceasefire, 600 aid trucks, including 50 fuel trucks, will enter Gaza every day. In addition, 200,000 tents and 60,000 mobile homes will be delivered for displaced Palestinians in Gaza.

The agreement stipulates that Qatar, Egypt and the U.S. will serve as guarantors for the implementation of the agreement.

On the 16th day of the ceasefire, Israel and Hamas will begin negotiations on the second phase of the agreement, which is supposed to include the release of the remaining hostages and a permanent ceasefire and complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump plans to announce Sean Curran as his pick for director of the Secret Service, CNN reported on Thursday, citing multiple sources familiar with the plan.

Curran has served as the special agent in charge of Trump’s security detail and was with him at the time of an assassination attempt on the Republican during an appearance in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Curran has a close personal relationship with Trump, CNN said, and supervises about 85 people in his current role.

He would replace Ron Rowe, who has served as served as acting director since July, when Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned after the agency came under harsh scrutiny for its failure to stop a would-be assassin from wounding Trump during a campaign rally.

The House on Jan. 16 passed legislation that will deport illegal immigrants convicted of domestic violence or sexual assault. All Republicans were joined by 61 Democrats to push the bill through with a vote of 274–145.

The legislation, known as the Preventing Violence Against Women by Illegal Aliens Act and introduced by Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), also renders these individuals inadmissible for immigration to the United States.

Similar legislation passed the House 266–158 in the last Congress but languished in committee in the Senate.

Mace, a victim of rape and domestic violence, refuted accusations that the bill demonizes illegal immigrants, saying that she wanted to “demonize illegal immigrants who are here raping our women and girls, murdering our women and girls, and who are pedophiles, molesting our children.”

“You’re darn right, that’s what I’m here to do today,” she said during a debate on the House floor.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said he opposed the bill because victims of domestic violence are sometimes accused by their attackers as retaliation.

“The way this messaging bill is actually written will create big problems for many, many victims of domestic violence,” Raskin said.

He cited the example of a woman who was convicted of domestic violence after she bit the ear of a man allegedly trying to assault her. She was sentenced to time served after spending 10 days in jail, he said.

Raskin also objected that the bill uses the definition of domestic violence from the Violence Against Women Act. This expands domestic abuse to encompass nonviolent offenses such as “verbal, psychological, economic, or technological abuse,” Raskin said.

He noted that the legislation was opposed by numerous domestic violence advocacy groups, including the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence, the Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault, and Catholic Charities in Omaha, Nebraska.

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, supported by over 200 such agencies, issued a letter to Congress opposing the bill.

The same group also opposed the Laken Riley Act—which requires detaining illegal immigrants who commit or are accused of theft or shoplifting—as well as a bill banning men from women’s sports.

Both of those bills have passed the House and are expected to clear the Senate.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) said current immigration laws already call for deportation for those who are convicted of or admit to such crimes.

“There is actually no gap in the law that needs to be fixed,” she said.

President-elect Donald Trump will regain the Oval Office next week after a campaign in which he pledged to take a hard stance on illegal immigrants who commit crimes in the United States.

Former ICE director Tom Homan, who has been tapped as Trump’s border czar—a position that doesn’t require Senate confirmation—has said he will conduct a large-scale deportation of illegal immigrants, beginning with those who have been convicted of criminal activity.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Thursday selected Rep. Rick Crawford (R-Ark.) to chair the House Intelligence Committee, elevating the veteran panel member to the role after he removed Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) from the top job.

The shift was a surprise on Capitol Hill, where Turner’s ouster sparked an outcry from Democrats and some Republicans who were given no advance warning of the move — and suspected the “America First” wing of the party helped push Turner out.

But Johnson’s selection of Crawford, the most senior GOP lawmaker on the panel, could help calm concerns from national-security focused Republicans.

“Our intelligence community and its oversight must maintain the highest levels of trust. The House Intel Committee will play a pivotal role in this work in the new Congress, and Rick Crawford will provide principled leadership as its chairman,” Johnson said in a statement first shared with The Hill. “He has earned the respect of his colleagues through his years of faithful service on the committee and his steady approach to the challenges facing our country.”

He also lauded Turner’s leadership on the panel during the last Congress.

“He led the committee well during a very challenging period of our nation’s history and was fully dedicated to the task,” Johnson said in a statement. “He is a highly valued member of our Conference, and we look forward to his continued contributions to keeping America safe and expanding our global security, including in his important position as the Chair of the U.S. Delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.”

In addition to Crawford becoming chair, Johnson made five new additions to the House Intelligence Committee, spots that are highly coveted by members: Rep. Ann Wagner (R-Mo.), who had sought to be chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee; Rep. Ben Cline (R-Va.), Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.), Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.), and Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas).

The announcement from Johnson came less than 24 hours after news broke that he would not re-appoint Turner to lead the Intelligence Committee in the 119th Congress amid, according to one GOP lawmaker, complaints from hard-line conservatives and Trump World about his leadership.

Johnson has denied that President-elect Trump played any role in the decision, and a spokesperson for Trump also indicated he did not request the shakeup. The Speaker has the sole authority to appoint the Intelligence Committee chair and GOP members.

Crawford, who is in his eighth term in Congress and is starting his fifth term on the Intelligence Committee, had unsuccessfully sought to be chair of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee at the end of last year.

In a statement, Crawford echoed the kind of concerns Trump has espoused about the intelligence community.

“Since joining the Committee in 2017, I have witnessed firsthand that abuse within our nation’s security apparatus has eroded trust in our institutions and compromised America’s ability to gather intelligence,” Crawford said in a statement. “As Chairman, I will aggressively uphold our mandate to provide credible and robust oversight of the Intelligence Community’s funding and activities. Without aggressive oversight and vigorous protection of Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights, the IC is prone to give in to mission creep and skirt U.S. laws. In all our work, I pledge to preserve Americans’ constitutional rights even as we work to support the IC in doing everything required to collect indispensable information from our foreign adversaries.”

Crawford added that “leaks and indiscretions by misguided intelligence staff can endanger Americans and hinder our ability to predict and prevent attacks,” and that “everyone on the Committee and within the IC must be devoted to secrecy regarding the material we review.”

Crawford supported renewal of a controversial law allowing the warrantless surveillance of foreigners when they are abroad, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

It’s a measure that has earned the ire of the MAGA wing of the party, which sees the intelligence tool as a backdoor for gaining access to Americans and who want to include a warrant requirement.

Turner was also a major proponent of the tool, putting him at odds with staunch Trump supporters like Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), a critic of the law and one of the few Intelligence Committee members to vote against extending FISA 702.

Renewal of FISA 702 will be a major issue facing this year, as Congress voted to extend the measure for two years — pushing what will no doubt be a controversial reauthorization into the Trump presidency.

Crawford also voted against a $60.8 billion Ukraine aid package in 2024, saying in a statement at the time: “While the entire Western world stands in support of Ukraine’s fight to expel Vladimir Putin’s Ukraine invasion force, I cannot in good faith vote to send billions of dollars in non-military financial aid to Ukraine to prop up its economy when Americans are struggling with rising costs at home.”

Turner, on the other hand, has been a strong Republican supporter of aid to Ukraine — drawing the ire of Trump-allied, America First conservatives.

Crawford has played an elevated role on the Intelligence Committee in recent weeks.

He led a subcommittee investigation into the origins of the anomalous health incidents (AHI), also known as “Havana syndrome,” that have been plaguing some in the intelligence community.

In that assessment he departed from the conclusion of intelligence leaders, asserting that as foreign adversary was likely behind the attack.

“I’m convinced that there is a foreign adversary responsible for these. … Now to be clear, it doesn’t mean all these incidents that have been reported are attributable to a foreign adversary. It just means that the evidence supports that in many cases,” Crawford told reporters last month.

“This is not speculation on my part. This is me telling you we have collected evidence that I can confidently say we can attribute many of these AHI attacks to foreign adversaries.”

In doing so, Crawford was highly critical of the Biden Administration, criticizing the president for an issue that the county has grappled with since 2016.

But he blamed the White House both for a failure to take action and suggested they engaged in a cover-up on the topic.

“The Biden Administration and IC leadership has sought to hinder the Subcommittee’s investigation into AHIs to keep the truth about AHIs from Congress and, by extension, the American public,” he said, using an abbreviation for the intelligence community.

Across the aisle, Democrats wasted no time bashing Johnson’s decision to replace Turner at the top of the Intel panel, accusing the Speaker of catering to the wishes of Trump at the expense of national security.

“The Constitution demands that Congress function as a check and balance to the Executive Branch, not cater to its demands,” said Rep. Jim Himes (Conn.), the senior Democrat on the committee.

President-elect Donald Trump announced Thursday that he is appointing multiple legendary Hollywood actors as “special ambassadors” to Hollywood.

Those special ambassadors will be Jon Voight, Mel Gibson, and Sylvester Stallone, Trump said.

All three actors are conservative and have appeared publicly with Trump or praised him publicly in the past. Stallone, for example, praised Trump as “the second George Washington” while introducing him at the America First Policy Gala in Palm Beach in November.

“It is my honor to announce Jon Voight, Mel Gibson, and Sylvester Stallone, to be Special Ambassadors to a great but very troubled place, Hollywood, California,” Trump wrote in a Thursday Truth Social post.

“They will serve as Special Envoys to me for the purpose of bringing Hollywood, which has lost much business over the last four years to Foreign Countries, BACK—BIGGER, BETTER, AND STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE!”

“These three very talented people will be my eyes and ears, and I will get done what they suggest,” Trump added. “It will again be, like The United States of America itself, The Golden Age of Hollywood!”

The actors’ support for Trump is particularly significant given the strong anti-Trump sentiment voiced by many Hollywood progressives, such as George Clooney, who embrace politicians like former President Barack Obama.

“When George Washington defended his country, he had no idea that he was going to change the world,” Stallone said of Trump in November. “‘Cause without him, you can imagine what the world would look like. Guess what, we got the second George Washington.”

Gibson, who has been pictured with Trump on a number of occasions in the past, shared that he was voting for Trump in October, telling paparazzi of Kamala Harris: “I know what it’ll be like if we let her in. And that ain’t good. Miserable track record. No policies to speak of. She’s got the IQ of a fence post.”

Pope Francis fell Thursday and hurt his right arm, the Vatican said, just weeks after another apparent fall resulted in a bad bruise on his chin.

Francis didn’t break his arm, but a sling was put on as a precaution, the Vatican spokesman said in a statement.

On Dec. 7, the pope whacked his chin on his nightstand in an apparent fall that resulted in a bad bruise.

The 88-year-old pope, who has battled health problems including long bouts of bronchitis, often has to use a wheelchair because of bad knees.

He uses a walker or cane when moving around his apartment in the Vatican’s Santa Marta hotel.

The Vatican said that Thursday’s fall also occurred at Santa Marta, and the pope was later seen in audiences with his right arm in a sling. At one of the meetings, Francis apologetically offered his left hand for a handshake when he greeted the head of the U.N. fund for agricultural development, Alvaro Lario.

“This morning, due to a fall at the Casa Santa Marta, Pope Francis suffered a contusion to his right forearm, without fracture. The arm was immobilized as a precautionary measure,” the statement said.

Speculation about Francis’ health is a constant in Vatican circles, especially after Pope Benedict XVI broke 600 years of tradition and resigned from the papacy in 2013.

Benedict’s aides have attributed the decision to a nighttime fall that he suffered during a 2012 trip to Mexico, after which he determined he couldn’t keep up with the globe-trotting demands of the papacy.

Francis has said that he has no plans to resign anytime soon, even if Benedict “opened the door” to the possibility. In his autobiography “Hope” released this week, Francis said that he hadn’t considered resigning even when he had major intestinal surgery.

David Lynch, who co-created “Twin Peaks” and directed films such as “Blue Velvet” and “Mulholland Drive,” has died. He was 78.

Lynch’s family revealed his passing via social media on Thursday.

“It is with deep regret that we, his family, announce the passing of the man and the artist, David Lynch,” their statement read. “We would appreciate some privacy at this time.”

“There’s a big hole in the world now that he’s no longer with us. But, as he would say, ‘Keep your eye on the donut and not on the hole,’” Lynch’s family added. “It’s a beautiful day with golden sunshine and blue skies all the way.”

The family did not reveal Lynch’s cause of death.

The famed writer-director was diagnosed with emphysema, a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, back in 2020.

It was reported last week that Lynch evacuated his LA home near Laurel Canyon Boulevard due to the deadly wildfires. His producer Sabrina Sutherland confirmed that he was safe.

In November, Lynch — who started smoking at age 8 but quit in 2022 — told People that he needed supplemental oxygen to do much of anything.

“What you sow is what you reap,” said Lynch. “You’re literally playing with fire. It can bite you. I took a chance, and I got bit.”

Lynch added that “it’s tough living with emphysema. I can hardly walk across a room. It’s like you’re walking around with a plastic bag around your head.”

In August, Lynch told Sight and Sound magazine that he was homebound because “it would be very bad for me to get sick, even with a cold.”

Lynch was born in 1946 in Missoula, Montana. He began his filmmaking career in the 1960s.

His first feature-length movie was the 1977 art film “Eraserhead.”

Lynch’s next film was 1980’s “The Elephant Man,” about a severely deformed man living in London. The movie, starring John Hurt and Anthony Hopkins, was nominated for eight Oscars — including Best Director for Lynch.

He followed that up with 1984’s “Dune,” which did not fare well at the box office. Denis Villeneuve has since made his version of the epic space opera with Zendaya and Timothée Chalamet in the cast.

In 1990, Lynch and Mark Frost created “Twin Peaks”. The series starred Kyle MacLachlan and aired on ABC for two seasons before it was canceled. It spawned a movie prequel, 1992’s “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me,” that Lynch directed and co-wrote.

“Twin Peaks” later returned for a revival series called “Twin Peaks: The Return” on Showtime in 2017. Lynch directed and co-wrote all 18 episodes.

In his storied career, Lynch was nominated for four Oscars and several Emmy Awards. He won the César Award twice and the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival once.

Lynch had four wives. He was married to Peggy Lentz from 1967 to 1974, Mary Fisk from 1977 to 1987 and director Mary Sweeney from 2006 to 2007. He wed actress Emily Stofle in 2009, and she filed for divorce in late 2023. A settlement was reached just last month.

He was also in a relationship with “Blue Velvet” star Isabella Rossellini from 1986 to 1991.

Lynch was a father of four children. His oldest child, Jennifer Lynch, 56, is a filmmaker.

President-elect Donald Trump indicated on Wednesday that anyone who’s worked for former Vice President Mike Pence, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley or any other of his Republican critics need not apply for open jobs in his new administration.

Trump, 78, touted in a Truth Social post that he’s already hired “over 1,000 people” for roles in his incoming administration that are “outstanding in every way” before shedding light on the sort of individuals he doesn’t plan on extending job offers to.

“In order to save time, money, and effort, it would be helpful if you would not send, or recommend to us, people who worked with, or are endorsed by, Americans for No Prosperity (headed by Charles Koch), ‘Dumb as a Rock’ John Bolton, ‘Birdbrain’ Nikki Haley, Mike Pence, disloyal Warmongers Dick Cheney, and his Psycho daughter, Liz, Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, General(?) Mark Milley, James Mattis, Mark Yesper, or any of the other people suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome, more commonly known as TDS,” the president-elect wrote.

“Thank you for your attention to this matter!” he added.

Haley and Pence both ran failed campaigns against Trump in the 2024 Republican presidential primaries.

Pence refused to endorse Trump once he became the GOP nominee.

Meanwhile, Haley, who ended her White House bid last March, waited until late May to back Trump and didn’t release her delegates until July – just days before the Republican National Convention.

Americans for Prosperity Action, a super PAC funded by billionaire Charles Koch, had endorsed Haley in the GOP primaries.

Former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter, former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), both endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 race and Liz frequently appeared on the campaign trail with the Democratic nominee.

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and former House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) – the top and bottom of the 2012 GOP presidential ticket – also indicated ahead of Election Day 2024 that they would not be voting for Trump.

Bolton, Milley, Mattis and Mark Esper are all former members of the first Trump administration who have been critical of the president-elect.

Trump will be sworn in as the 47th president of the United States on Monday.

The FBI has closed its DEI office.

“In recent weeks, the FBI took steps to close the Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI), effective by December 2024,” the agency told Fox News Digital on Thursday.

The agency didn’t specify why it had closed the office, although many Republicans have been critical of it prioritizing diversity, equity and inclusion, saying that had overshadowed national security.

Earlier this month, Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray claiming that “radical” DEI practices had “endangered” Americans following the New Year’s Day terrorist attack in New Orleans.

“I am deeply concerned that—under your leadership—the Bureau has prioritized Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives over its core mission of protecting the American people,” Balckburn wrote in the Jan. 3 letter after referencing the attack.

After the announcement, Blackburn said in a post on X: “The question is why were they allowed to be focused on DEI in the first place? The FBI should be focused on catching criminals, not winning participation trophies.”

The FBI page on diversity and inclusion – that was still on its website as of Thursday – says the agency is “committed to cultivating a diverse and inclusive workforce. In 2015, the FBI added diversity as one of the organization’s core values.

It continued: “We believe that differences in thought and belief, in race and religion, in orientation, and in ability contribute to more effective decision making, drive innovation, and enhance the employee experience. We know that a more diverse workforce allows us to connect with and maintain the trust of the American people. We also understand we have work to do. We stand committed, as today’s FBI, to fostering a culture of inclusivity and diversity.”

Former FBI special agent and Fox News contributor Nicole Parker told Fox News Digital: “I appreciate all forms of diversity. Make no mistake of that. What I do not appreciate is when there is a constant push for social justice weaponization at the FBI whose top priorities are to protect the American people and uphold the Constitution.”

She added that FBI Director Christopher Wray has made it clear that threats across and against the nation are “at an all-time high. ‘Flashing red lights,’ as he has stated in congressional testimony. There is no time for clubs, groups, or social agendas that divert time, attention and resources away from the mission of the FBI to protect the American people.”

“DEI is a dangerous distraction,” she continued. “I have no issue in celebrating whatever you would like regarding your heritage or gender or religion. But that should be done on your own time and not with the U.S. taxpayers’ dollars while on official Bureau time.”

Parker added, “The FBI needs to focus on hiring the best and brightest based solely on meritocracy. Americans deserve the best. I have never been on an operation or heard of a civilian calling into the FBI and requesting an individual of a certain race or gender provide them with assistance in solving their problem or stopping a crime they’ve fallen victim to. Americans simply want to be safe.”

“The FBI should be focused on being one in fighting crime, not various groups and divisions that divide,” she said.

Parker also noted that there are numerous other groups within the FBI aside from the DEI office, including the American Indian and Alaska Native Advisory Committee, Asian Pacific American Advisory Committee, Black Affairs Diversity Committee, Bureau Equality, Hispanic Advisory Board, Near and Middle East Advisory Committee, Persons with Disabilities Advisory Committee, Veterans Affairs Advisory Committee, and the Women’s Advisory Committee.

She said the bureau also has numerous resource groups, including Blacks in Government, FBI African American Millennials, FBI Family, FBI Jewish Americans, FBI Latinos for Empowerment Advancement and Development, FBI Pride, Federal Asian Pacific American Counsel, Federally Employed Women, From Boots to Suits and the Toastmasters Club.

Wray announced in December that he planned to resign with nearly three years left in his term, citing Trump’s desire for a change in leadership at the agency.

This is President Biden’s last week in office. President-elect Trump will take office on Monday.

The FBI’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion was created in 2012 during the Obama administration with its goal to provide “guidance and implement programs that promote a diverse and inclusive workplace that allows all employees to succeed and advance.”

In 2021, after Biden took office, Scott McMillion became the FBI’s first chief diversity officer, saying that he planned to spearhead a “cultural shift” at the agency.

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody will take Marco Rubio’s seat in the U.S. Senate, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Thursday, making Moody only the second woman to represent Florida in the chamber.

Moody, 49, elected as the state’s top law enforcement officer in 2018, campaigned on a pledge to voters that she’d be a prosecutor, not a politician.

Along with DeSantis, Moody boosted her political profile during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, calling on the federal government to “hold China responsible” for the outbreak.

Before running for statewide office, Moody worked as a federal prosecutor. In 2006, she was elected to the post of circuit judge in Hillsborough County, home to Tampa.

As the state’s attorney general, Moody has been instrumental in defending DeSantis’ conservative agenda in court and has joined other Republican-led states in challenging the Biden administration’s policies, suing over changes to immigration enforcement, student loan forgiveness and vaccine mandates for federal contractors.

“I’m happy to say we’ve had an Attorney General that is somebody that has acted time and time again to support the values that we all share,” DeSantis said.

Under Florida law, it’s up to the Republican governor to pick Rubio’s replacement, after President-elect Donald Trump picked the three-term senator to be his next Secretary of State. Moody will serve in the Senate until the next general election in 2026, when the seat will be back on the ballot.

Moody fought unsuccessfully to keep an abortion rights measure off the ballot in Florida in 2024, saying proponents were waging “a war” to protect the procedure. The measure did go before voters but ultimately failed to get the 60% approval needed to pass.

She was also among the state attorneys general to sign on to the lawsuit backed by Trump aimed at overturning Joe Biden’s election victory in 2020.

Republican state Sen. Joe Gruters, a key Trump ally in the state, was among those who had pushed the president-elect’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump as their top pick for the Senate seat. Lara Trump removed herself from consideration in December.

Still, Gruters praised Moody, calling her “a winner here in Florida.”

“She’s very popular. And I think people see the job that she does and they appreciate her work and her effort at trying to … keep Florida safe,” Gruters said before the announcement.

Moody’s appointment opens up a key vacancy in Florida’s Cabinet, giving DeSantis another shot at expanding his influence in the state. DeSantis will also get to pick a replacement for outgoing Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, who’s leaving his post to run for former Rep. Matt Gaetz’s open seat in Congress.

Rudy Giuliani reached a deal Thursday with two Georgia women who won a $148 million defamation verdict against him that allows him to keep all of his property in exchange for a payment of unknown size — plus a promise to never again defame them.

The settlement saves Giuliani, the former New York City mayor, from the brink of losing both of his homes, as well as countless other pieces of valuable property.

The women, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, have spent months in court seeking to force Giuliani to turn over his possessions to them to help satisfy the massive judgment.

Freeman and Moss, who are former election workers in Georgia, won the defamation judgment in 2023 when a jury found that Giuliani accused them of election fraud after the 2020 election. The women, who are mother and daughter, said in a statement they had agreed “to allow Mr. Giuliani to retain his property in exchange for compensation.”

“The past four years have been a living nightmare,” Freeman and Moss said. “We have fought to clear our names, restore our reputations, and prove that we did nothing wrong. Today is a major milestone in our journey. We have reached an agreement and we can now move forward with our lives.”

In a court filing, lawyers for the women and Giuliani said the settlement “would result in the conclusion of all litigation currently pending between and among the Parties.”

The amount of the compensation was not disclosed. In remarks to reporters outside Manhattan federal court Thursday, a lawyer for Giuliani, Joseph Cammarata, declined to say whether a third party was funding the payment, saying he wouldn’t discuss the “material terms” of the agreement.

Cammarata said the settlement allows Giuliani to keep his Upper East Side apartment and his condo in Palm Beach, Florida, as well as “all his personal belongings.”

Those belongings include property a judge already ordered Giuliani to turn over to the women, including watches, a ring, sports memorabilia and a vintage Mercedes-Benz convertible.

In a statement posted to social media, Giuliani said: “I am satisfied with and have no grievances relating to the result we have reached.”

He added: “No one deserves to be subjected to threats, harassment, or intimidation. This litigation has taken its toll on all parties. This whole episode was unfortunate. I and the Plaintiffs have agreed not to ever talk about each other in any defamatory manner, and I urge others to do the same.”

The announcement of the settlement came five hours after Giuliani was set to start a trial over whether he could shield his Florida condo from being seized by creditors and whether he had given World Series rings to his son, a step that might have also made them off-limits.

Giuliani appeared poised to lose the Palm Beach property in the trial, particularly after U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman found him in civil contempt of court twice and, as punishment, declared that Giuliani would be barred from presenting the central legal defense that could have helped him retain the condo.

Georgia state Sen. Colton Moore (R) was arrested and transported to the Fulton County Jail on Thursday for attempting to enter the House Chamber to hear Gov. Brian Kemp’s (R) state address after being banned from the area last year.

“It has gone too far. I have an obligation to be in that room,” Moore told a group of law enforcement officers preventing him from entering.

“I represent 200,000 people in northwest Georgia who duly elected me to be here today,” he said after being thrown to the ground.

Pro-Trump and anti-Brian Kemp State Sen. Colton Moore is thrown to the ground and arrested today after the GA House Speaker would not allow him to attend Kemp’s State of the State speech. pic.twitter.com/SXrKclsSnd

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) January 16, 2025

BREAKING: Senator @realColtonMoore, who serves as the Vice-Chair of the @FreedomCaucusGA was just unconstitutionality arrested by Speaker @JonBurnsGA for simply trying to attend the State of the State joint session.

This is what tyranny looks like, folks. pic.twitter.com/Zhf2J7HU53

— Dustin Grage (@GrageDustin) January 16, 2025

He blamed the interaction on his continued crusade against District Attorney Fani Willis, who presided over President-elect Trump’s election interference case.

She was recently disqualified from the case after an affair with one of the top prosecutors.

Moore was suspended from the GOP caucus in 2023 for demanding an “impossible” probe of Willis during a special session.

“Senator Colton Moore, who exposed and defeated corrupt District Attorney Fani Willis last year, has been arrested by the Anti-Trump Speaker of the Georgia House,” Moore’s team wrote in a statement on social platform X.

“Colton is being held in the same Atlanta jail as President Trump. We are working to ensure his expedient release.”

Bruce LeVell, a former senior adviser to Trump, commended Moore for his actions.

“Colton Moore, a loyal, hardworking, pro-Trump Georgia State Senator, was handcuffed and arrested by the House Speaker after attempting to attend the State of the State session to fulfill his duties,” LeVell wrote in a Thursday statement on X.

Moore was released from the jail hours after the incident on Thursday and shared an update to note that he’s receiving medical treatment at Emory University Hospital Midtown located in Atlanta.

Police are on a manhunt for a serial arsonist who started a fire next to a sleeping subway passenger in New York City.

This comes after an illegal immigrant burned a woman alive just weeks ago on the New York subway.

According to the New York Post, a masked suspect was first seen on video lighting a cop car on fire at approximately 2:20 am right in front of 254 Broadway on January 10. Only minutes afterward, the suspect was seen again on more surveillance footage lighting a car on fire near 14 Murray St.

The third time the suspect was seen in the act, he lit a paper cup on fire before throwing it into a garbage can near the Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall station.

The fourth instance is when the suspect lit a pile of garbage on fire next to the dozing passenger at around 3:40 am on a northbound J train inside the Woodhaven Avenue Station, police said.

Watch:

A manhunt is underway as the NYPD searches for an arson suspect that lit a fire next to a sleeping subway passenger. pic.twitter.com/uMMd8tjhLm

— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) January 16, 2025

Video of the incident was caught on camera and the masked suspect can be seen lurking over the sleeping passenger before lighting the garbage on fire.

The suspect was then seen walking off the train. A police search for the suspect was underway as of Thursday and are offering a reward of $3,500 for information on the incident.

The fire lit on the subway next to the passenger comes weeks after illegal immigrant Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, 33, allegedly burned 57-year-old Debrina Kawam of New Jersey to death. Zapeta was previously deported under the first Trump administration and police could not identify Kawam for days due to the severity of the burns.

A Democrat operative who worked for the Biden White House personnel office, as a political appointee to the Department of Labor, and for the Kamala Harris transition team, has been hired by the Department of Labor in a role that will continue in the Trump administration using a loophole, The Daily Wire has reported.

Elizabeth Peña was a Biden political appointee to the Labor Department’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs, where she worked from October 2021 to October 2024, first as a Special Assistant and then as Policy Advisor, according to her LinkedIn.

From October to December 2024, she served as senior manager of vetting for the Harris transition team. Then in January, she returned to the Labor Department — this time as International Relations Officer, not a political appointee.

In a LinkedIn post announcing her new position on Monday, she said she planned to use it to promote “equity,” a left-wing policy opposed by the incoming president.

“I’m thrilled to announce that I have returned to the Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) as an International Relations Officer! This new role marks a continuation of my journey to protect and promote labor rights globally. Over the past few years, I’ve had the privilege of working on issues that matter deeply to me and at ILAB, I look forward to collaborating with partners at home and abroad to uphold the principles of dignity, equity, and justice in the workplace,” she wrote.

Peña knows the importance of having people with the right political leanings in the right jobs — and the rules around it — because placing Democrats in key posts has been a large part of her career in politics. From September 2020 to January 2021, she worked on the Biden transition team as it selected Democrats to fill top jobs. From January to September 2021, she worked in the White House’s influential Presidential Personnel Office, which does the same thing.

Prior to that, she worked for Beto O’Rourke’s presidential campaign, where she “authored over 500 vetting reports analyzing employees,” according to her LinkedIn.

Federal ethics rules frown on “burrowing,” as the effort to embed political appointees into the next administration is known. According to a report from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, a political appointee can only be converted to a permanent position with special permission from the Office of Personnel Management.

The Congressional Research Service said that’s because of concerns about whether the person was hired because they were close to top leaders instead of being the best-qualified, that it takes a job away from an existing civil servant who may have wanted a promotion, and “that the individual who is converted to a career position may seek to undermine the work of the new Administration.” All of that, the Congressional Research Service says, “may increase the tension between political and career staff.”

Democrats have lashed out at Trump’s suggestion that government employees are often liberals who may seek to thwart him — a suggestion that the Biden PPO alum’s appointment makes harder to dispute.

Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA), the incoming ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, previously condemned the idea of political operatives moving into the federal workforce, saying he was “committed to protecting the civil service from partisan attacks and attempts to replace qualified experts with political loyalists.”

The Labor Department appears to have used a loophole to avoid Peña showing up on a list of “burrowed” employees, which under the law must be furnished to Congress. A Labor Department spokesperson told The Daily Wire “Peña was hired as a Term employee at the Bureau of International Labor Affairs. A Term employee is a time-limited position that does not confer career status, distinguishing it from both political appointee roles and permanent career positions.”

An International Relations Officer job with “term” status was posted from November 26 through December 3. It showed a salary of $117,962 to $153,354 and a term of three years, meaning she would serve for the bulk of the Trump administration.

Also in November, a permanent International Relations Officer job was posted, then cancelled. The Labor Department did not answer a question about whether the term-limited job was created for Peña and displaced a standard permanent position. A Daily Wire review of federal job ads showed that the bureau listed International Relations Officer jobs more than 80 times since 2019, and none of them were “term” jobs.

The job ad tracks closely with Peña’s resume, saying the successful applicant must have experience “developing labor-related policy or program recommendations for senior leadership” and speak Spanish.

The Labor Department spokesperson indicated that the “term” classification sidestepped typical anti-burrowing procedures, saying “If Ms. Peña applies for and is selected to transition into a career position in the future… her application will undergo the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) review process required for all former political appointees.”

The Biden administration has taken other personnel measures that could make it more difficult for Trump to identify and remove partisan operatives from the workforce. That includes hiring permanent employees to work on DEI initiatives — roles Trump is likely to abolish. Federal agencies may change their titles in an attempt to hide the target.

A source close to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said that the agency has taken steps to change the title of its Chief Equity Officer, Dia D. Harris, to Senior Adviser.

The Chief Equity Officer job is not listed in the Plum Book, implying it is a career position. Yet employees originally hired to do DEI are likely partisan in ways that directly contradict Trump’s agenda, and are likely to remain that way regardless of title.

Harris’s LinkedIn says “I allow, permit, & encourage U 2 b as authentic as possible… I authentically live as an Unapologetically Blackity Black Black Man!”

As Chief Equity Officer “I direct the implementation of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) initiatives, assist in the establishment of DEIA goals, and execute agency-wide action plans,” his LinkedIn says, adding that he was previously a self-employed “Inclusion Equality & Diversity Consultant.”

The seventh test flight of SpaceX’s Starship had some serious highs and lows.

The company launched its Starship megarocket for the seventh time ever today (Jan. 16), sending the 403.5-foot-tall (123 meters) reusable vehicle aloft from its Starbase site in South Texas at 5:37 p.m. EST (2237 GMT; 4:37 p.m. local time).

One of the goals of this ambitious test flight was to catch Starship’s giant first-stage booster, known as Super Heavy, back at Starbase’s launch tower, using the structure’s “chopstick” arms. SpaceX pulled this off for the first time on Starship Flight 5 in October — and did so again today.

Holy fuck, Super Heavy has been caught for the second time, go SpaceX! pic.twitter.com/mGzs00tmlA

— Teslaconomics (@Teslaconomics) January 16, 2025

The 33-engine booster nestled softly into the tower’s arms about seven minutes after liftoff today, showcasing the time-saving recovery strategy that SpaceX intends to use for both Super Heavy and Ship, Starship’s 171-foot-tall (52-meter-tall) upper stage.

But not everything went to plan today. SpaceX lost contact with Ship around 8.5 minutes into flight, apparently after the vehicle suffered some kind of anomaly.

All six of Ship’s Raptor engines fired up during the stage’s ascent burn, “but as we were getting to the end of that ascent burn, we saw engines dropping out on telemetry, and we have since lost contact with the Ship,” Dan Huot, of SpaceX’s communications team, said during the company’s launch webcast.

Huot and fellow webcast host Kate Tice later confirmed that Ship had been lost. The reasons were not immediately clear, the duo said.

Ship was supposed to fly much of the way around the world, then splash down softly in the Indian Ocean off the west coast of Australia about 66 minutes after liftoff, as it did on the three previous Starship launches.

Flight 7 was supposed to feature something new for Ship as well: About 17.5 minutes after liftoff, the upper stage was to deploy 10 mock satellites similar in size and weight to the next-gen version of SpaceX’s Starlink broadband spacecraft. Ship didn’t make it that far into flight, however.

The deployment would have been useful practice. SpaceX is counting on Starship to finish building out its Starlink megaconstellation, which currently consists of nearly 7,000 satellites in low Earth orbit but could eventually harbor more than 40,000 craft.

The dummy satellites were to follow Ship’s suborbital trajectory, ultimately splashing down in the Indian Ocean, SpaceX wrote in a Flight 7 mission description.

As Huot and Tice noted, the Ship upper stage flying today was a new iteration that sported a suite of upgrades and modifications.

“The vehicle’s forward flaps have been reduced in size and shifted towards the vehicle tip and away from the heat shield, significantly reducing their exposure to reentry heating while simplifying the underlying mechanisms and protective tiling,” SpaceX wrote in the mission description.

“Redesigns to the propulsion system, including a 25% increase in propellant volume, the vacuum jacketing of feedlines, a new fuel feedline system for the vehicle’s Raptor vacuum engines, and an improved propulsion avionics module controlling vehicle valves and reading sensors, all add additional vehicle performance and the ability to fly longer missions,” the company added.

These modifications added about 6.5 feet to the vehicle’s length, according to SpaceX.

The Super Heavy that flew today was largely the same as recent boosters, but it did have one novel feature. In a Super Heavy first, it employed used hardware — a Raptor engine that also flew on Flight 5.

Starship’s previous six test flights occurred in April and November of 2023 and March, June, October and November of last year. SpaceX aimed to conduct a chopsticks catch of Super Heavy on Flight 6 as well, but a communication issue with the launch tower nixed that try, and the booster diverted for a Gulf of Mexico splashdown.

SpaceX is developing Starship, the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built, to help humanity settle the moon and Mars, among other feats. And we should expect to see more than a mere handful of Starship test flights this year; the company aims to make serious progress on the vehicle in 2025.

“This new year will be transformational for Starship, with the goal of bringing reuse of the entire system online and flying increasingly ambitious missions as we iterate towards being able to send humans and cargo to Earth orbit, the moon and Mars,” SpaceX wrote in the Flight 7 mission description.

Vivek Ramaswamy, the biotech entrepreneur positioned to help oversee President-elect Donald Trump’s effort to cut government spending, is in discussions about filling Vice President-elect JD Vance’s Senate seat in Ohio, two people briefed on the process told NBC News.

The development is a reversal for Ramaswamy, who in November said his work alongside billionaire Elon Musk at Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency would remove him from consideration for the Senate job.

But Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, who will appoint an interim successor to take over Vance’s seat, chatted with Ramaswamy about the Senate vacancy in a meeting last weekend at the Governor’s Mansion in Columbus, according to a source familiar with the talks. The source, who was granted anonymity to share details about private conversations, also said Trump has encouraged Ramaswamy to accept the appointment if DeWine offers it.

“Neither Governor DeWine nor our office has commented on any possible candidates for the pending appointment,” DeWine spokesperson Dan Tierney wrote in a text message.

The Washington Post first reported Trump’s encouragement of Ramaswamy. Politico first reported the meeting with DeWine.

Though Ramaswamy initially took himself out of the running for the Senate, he has been a constant factor in DeWine’s deliberations over who should replace Vance, who resigned last week in advance of his swearing-in as vice president.

Ramaswamy, a Cincinnati native who now lives in the Columbus area, is widely believed to be interested in running to succeed DeWine, who is term-limited, as governor next year. But so is DeWine’s preferred successor, Lt. Gov. Jon Husted.

A bruising GOP primary featuring Husted, Ramaswamy and others could dent DeWine’s legacy. Without any clear signal about Ramaswamy’s intentions in 2026, DeWine has considered appointing Husted, a close ally, to the Senate vacancy to better solidify his political future. Whoever DeWine picks would have to win a special election in 2026 to serve the remaining two years of Vance’s term.

But Husted, who for two weeks has been viewed as the leading candidate for the appointment, has resisted past overtures to run for the Senate, and he has been aggressively preparing his campaign for governor. Ohio Republicans wired into the process have said he has reservations about accepting the Senate appointment.

DeWine has said he plans to reveal his choice “probably” this week. Other possibilities include former state GOP chair Jane Timken and former state Rep. Jay Edwards.

It’s not clear why Ramaswamy would be willing to leave Trump’s government efficiency team, known as DOGE, before its work even starts, nor is it clear whether or why Trump would be eager for him to go. But some of Ramaswamy’s recent posts on X, Musk’s social media site, have created a rift within Trump’s MAGA movement.

Wading into a debate over H-1B temporary worker visas, a carve-out for high-skilled workers who some on the political right say are taking American jobs, Ramaswamy criticized an American culture that he said “venerated mediocrity over excellence.”

A source who speaks with Trump said the notion that Trump might be keen on Ramaswamy’s taking the Senate seat was not surprising.

“DJT is tired of him,” the source said, referring to Trump by his initials. “Wants him in a new role.”

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has informed Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, that he will no longer be chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, according to a GOP leadership source and a Republican lawmaker familiar with the matter.

The lawmaker said Turner told him Wednesday that he would not be staying on as head of the critical panel that conducts oversight of the U.S. intelligence community. The House Intelligence Committee chair is also a member of the so-called “Gang of Eight” congressional leaders who receive some of the most sensitive, classified briefings from the intelligence community.

Johnson confirmed the news later Wednesday but downplayed the change as he offered praise for Turner.

“It’s a new Congress. We just need fresh horses in some of these places. But I’m a Mike Turner fan,” Johnson told reporters in the Capitol. “He’s done a great job. He performed valiantly in a difficult time under difficult circumstances. So I have nothing but positive things to say about my friend and colleague.”

“This is not a President Trump decision; this is a House decision,” the speaker added, referring to speculation that politics may have led to the change. “And this is no slight whatsoever to our … outgoing chairman.”

The top post on the Intelligence Committee is one of the few positions directly chosen by the speaker of the House at the start of a new Congress. Johnson said he would make an announcement about Turner’s replacement on Thursday.

In a statement Wednesday night, Turner, a staunch NATO supporter who has aggressively pushed for U.S. aid for Ukraine, said he was “proud” of his time serving on and leading the committee. His office said Turner would only be serving on the Armed Services and Oversight and Government Reform committees in the new Congress, meaning he will no longer have a seat on the Intelligence panel.

“Under my leadership, we restored the integrity of the Committee and returned its mission to its core focus of national security. The threat from our adversaries is real and requires serious deliberations,” Turner said.

“As a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, I have been and will continue to be a strong advocate for the military and our national defense,” he continued. “My work to expand missions and capabilities at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base continues. Furthermore, I look forward to welcoming the NATO Parliamentary Assembly to Dayton in the coming months.”

House Republican sources said they did not know who Johnson would choose to replace Turner. Some senior Republicans on the panel are Reps. Rick Crawford of Arkansas, Trent Kelly of Mississippi, and Darin LaHood of Illinois.

Last year, Johnson raised eyebrows in the intelligence community and around Capitol Hill when he appointed two Donald Trump loyalists, Reps. Scott Perry, R-Pa., and Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, to the Intelligence Committee.

The decision to replace Turner stunned lawmakers in both parties given that Turner, a defense hawk, is well-respected on both sides of the aisle.

Then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., had tapped Turner to serve as the top Republican on the panel starting in January 2022. After Republicans took back the majority that fall, McCarthy kept him on as chairman of the Intelligence committee for the 118th Congress, a term that started January 2023.

When McCarthy was ousted and Johnson succeeded him as speaker in October 2023, Johnson decided to keep Turner in place as Intelligence chairman.

Now, after winning his first full term as speaker earlier this month, Johnson appears to be putting his own mark on this position and others. On Tuesday, Johnson appointed Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., the former Education and Workforce Committee chair, as the new Rules Committee chair.

Democrats on the Intelligence Committee said they did not get any warning that Turner was being removed.

“I’m enormously concerned because I think you’d be hard-pressed to find somebody as fair-minded,” said Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the Intelligence panel.

He added that Turner “and I had our disagreements, but, you know, I had confidence in him.”

With Trump days away from returning to the White House, Democrats have been sounding the alarm that top intelligence and national security posts are being influenced by presidential politics.

Earlier Wednesday, Senate Democrats pressed former Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, Trump’s pick to lead the Central Intelligence Agency, asking him if he would push back against efforts requiring CIA employees to demonstrate “loyalty to a political figure above loyalty to country.”

Ratcliffe, a former House Intelligence Committee member who served as Trump’s director of national intelligence, responded that he would not impose a political litmus test on his employees.

“If you look at my record and my record as DNI, that never took place. That is never something anyone alleged,” he said. “It’s something that I would never do.”

President Joe Biden warned of the dangers of “misplaced power” Wednesday in a grim farewell address that compared the nation’s tech CEOs to oligarchs.

“Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead,” Biden said in a prime-time speech to the nation in the White House‘s Oval Office.

Tech titans such as X CEO Elon Musk and, more recently, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg have been attempting to curry favor with President-elect Donald Trump as he prepares to be inaugurated for a second term.

Biden, seated behind the Resolute Desk, compared his warnings to the alarm President Dwight Eisenhower expressed decades earlier about the nation’s growing military-industrial complex.

“Americans are being buried under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation, enabling the abuse of power,” Biden said, referring to social media websites. “The truth is smothered by lies told for power and for profit. We must hold the social platform accountable to protect our children, our families, and our very democracy from the abuse of power.”

Biden also called for tax reform, for the United States to assert its dominance in the artificial intelligence space, new ethics standards for Congress and the Supreme Court, and an amendment to the Constitution “to make clear that no president, no president, is immune from crimes that he or she commits while in office.”

“In a democracy, there’s another danger to the concentration of power and wealth,” Biden said. “It erodes a sense of unity and common purpose. It causes distrust and division. Participating in our democracy becomes exhausting and even disillusioning. … We have to stay engaged in the process.”

Flanked by pictures of his family, including first lady Jill Biden and son Hunter, Joe Biden not only reflected on the four years of his one and only term as president but also his eight years as Barack Obama‘s vice president and 36 years representing Delaware in the Senate.

He also had special praise for Vice President Kamala Harris, who replaced him as the 2024 Democratic nominee amid concerns about his age and mental acuity.

“My eternal thanks to you, the American people,” the president said. “After 50 years of public service, I give you my word: I still believe in the idea for which this nation stands, a nation where the strengths of our institutions, the character of our people, matter and must endure. Now, it’s your turn to stand guard. May you all be the keeper of the flame. May you keep the faith.”

In his address, Joe Biden leaned into the theme of protecting democracy at the center of his presidential campaign. On the trail, he and Trump accused one another of representing a threat to the Constitution, with the president citing Jan. 6 and Trump pointing to the federal investigations against him.

“After 50 years at the center of all of this, I know that believing in the idea of America means respecting the institutions that govern a free society, the presidency, the Congress, the courts, a free and independent press, institutions,” Joe Biden said Wednesday. “Our system of separation of powers, checks and balances, may not be perfect, but it’s maintained our democracy for nearly 250 years, longer than any other nation in history that’s ever tried such a bold experiment.”

Despite the president’s arguments, he will depart the White House on Monday will dismal approval ratings, among the lowest of his presidency. A CNN poll published this week found only 37% of respondents approved of his administration, compared to 63% who did not. His average approval rating is net negative 17 percentage points, according to RealClearPolitics.

His farewell address coincided with his announcement earlier Wednesday that Israel and Hamas had agreed to a ceasefire and hostage deal 15 months after the terrorist organization attacked its Jewish neighbor.

“This plan was developed and negotiated by my team, and will be largely implemented by the incoming administration,” Biden said. “That’s why I told my team to keep the incoming administration fully informed because that’s how it should be, working together as Americans.”

Biden previewed his remarks in an open letter released Wednesday morning that served to remind the public that he inherited a country emerging from a pandemic that became “stronger, more prosperous, and more secure” than before it.

“Today, we have the strongest economy in the world and have created a record 16.6 million new jobs. Wages are up. Inflation continues to come down,” the president wrote. “The racial wealth gap is the lowest it’s been in 20 years. We’re rebuilding our entire nation.”

Outgoing first lady Jill Biden has admitted that it was “disappointing” that Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was the one whose decisive intervention pushed President Biden out of the 2024 campaign.

“We were friends for 50 years,” Jill, 73, told the Washington Post in an interview published Wednesday that was billed as her final sit-down while in the White House.

“It was disappointing.”

The Bidens have largely bitten their tongues when discussing the internal revolt following the president’s disastrous showing in his one debate against Republican Donald Trump on June 27.

While Joe Biden, 82, had initially insisted that he would carry on in the race, pressure from top Democrats — led by Pelosi, the former House speaker — forced him to announce his withdrawal on July 21.

“Let’s just say I was disappointed with how it unfolded,” the first lady reiterated to the Washington Post.

“I don’t know. I learned a lot about human nature,” she said, adding, “I think that’s all I’m going to say.”

At the time, The Post reported that Pelosi had played the “bad cop” to Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer’s “good cop” in convincing the president to bow out.

Other outlets reported that Pelosi threatened to release internal polling showing that Biden had no chance against Trump if the president insisted on carrying on.

Pelosi then endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for the nomination rather than advocating for an open primary — only to later blame Biden for not exiting the race quicker.

“Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” she told the New York Times in an interview published Nov 8.

Weeks earlier, Pelosi had defended her actions in an interview with the Guardian, saying she thought Biden was “one of the great consequential presidents of our country.”

“I think his legacy had to be protected,” she added. “I didn’t see that happening in the course that it was on, the election was on.”

The Bidens and Pelosi are not believed to have made up since the drama.

Last week, Biden claimed in an interview with USA Today that he could have won re-election over Trump if he had not quit the campaign.

“It’s presumptuous to say that, but I think yes,” he said of his chances.

Meanwhile, Jill Biden was spotted enjoying a friendly chat with Trump when both attended the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris last month.

“Joe and I respect our institutions, our traditions,” the first lady told the Washington Post of that interaction, “and it’s very important to me that they continue and we — What would be the point of nastiness?”

When asked about her husband’s legacy, Jill said: “I hope that they remember Joe as a strong, empathetic president with integrity and character.”

“I mean, character really is everything, isn’t it?”