Australian Banks Face Ratings Cut

In a hearing that centered on whether she would stand up to President-elect Donald Trump as the nation’s top law enforcement officer, Pam Bondi repeatedly declined to say she would resist White House pressure and refused to answer whether Trump lost the 2020 election. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] While the Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee appeared satisfied with Bondi’s answers, Democrats pressed her on whether she can be trusted as attorney general to safeguard the independence of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and uphold the rule of law if Trump were to initiate politically motivated investigations.

WASHINGTON — Federal officials on Wednesday released a far-reaching proposal to make cigarettes less addictive by capping their nicotine content, a goal long sought by antismoking advocates that is unlikely to go into effect anytime soon. The proposed rule from the Food and Drug Administration comes in the final days of President Joe Biden’s term, greatly reducing the likelihood that it will actually be enacted.

Despite President Joe Biden’s former directive that U. S. flags would be flown at half-staff during President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration day—a continuation of mourning after the death of former President Jimmy Carter—several Republicans have pledged to fly their flags at full-staff. In honor of Carter—who died on Dec. 29, 2024, aged 100—Biden proclaimed that flags at government buildings should be flown at half-staff “as an expression of public sorrow” for 30 days—a period of time that would have included Trump’s inauguration on Monday, Jan.

U. S. regulators on Wednesday banned the dye called Red 3 from the nation’s food supply, nearly 35 years after it was barred from cosmetics because of potential cancer risk. Food and Drug Administration officials granted a 2022 petition filed by two dozen food safety and health advocates, who urged the agency to revoke authorization for the substance that gives some candies, snack cakes and maraschino cherries a bright red hue. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The agency said it was taking the action as a “matter of law” because some studies have found that the dye caused cancer in lab rats.

Severance is a complex tale of corporate conspiracy, scary scientific advancements, and the sheer boredom of working a desk job. In the show, an ominous company named Lumon experiments with a technology that splits employees’ memories between their work lives and home lives. The two sides of a severed person’s personality are colloquially referred to as their “innie” and “outie.” The outie clocks into work at Lumon each morning, at which point the innie takes over.

Civil rights organizations are probably already prepping the lawsuit that they will file in the event that Donald Trump issues an executive order restricting birthright citizenship. Their argument will be straightforward. The Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in the wake of the Civil War, guarantees U. S. citizenship to all those “born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” In 1898, in United States v.