Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Defense Secretary, spent a second day Tuesday on Capitol Hill, meeting privately with Republican senators amid rising questions about his ability to effectively lead the Pentagon. Hegseth told reporters he was planning to sit down with senators, even with those potentially skeptical of his nomination. “We’re going to meet with every senator that wants to meet with us, across the board,” Hegseth as he went from office to office Tuesday.

Kash Patel, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the FBI, was recently informed by the bureau that he had been targeted in a cyberattack by Iranian hackers, according to a report by CNN on Tuesday that also said the hackers may have gained access to some of Patel’s communications during the breach. The incident is part of a broader pattern of Iranian hacking efforts aimed at Trump associates. In September, the Justice Department charged three members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) for a series of cyberattacks targeting Trump campaign staffers during the 2020 presidential election.

Chad Chronister, Donald Trump’s pick to run the Drug Enforcement Administration, said Tuesday he was withdrawing his name from consideration, becoming the second person selected by the president-elect to bow out quickly after being nominated for a position requiring Senate confirmation. Sheriff Chronister, the top law enforcement officer in Hillsborough County, Florida, said in a post on X that he was backing away from the opportunity, which he called “the honor of a lifetime.” “Over the past several days, as the gravity of this very important responsibility set in, I’ve concluded that I must respectfully withdraw from consideration,” Chronister wrote. He did not elaborate, and Trump’s transition team did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

President-elect Donald Trump’s lawyers formally asked a judge Monday to throw out his hush money criminal conviction, arguing that continuing the case would present unconstitutional “disruptions to the institution of the Presidency.“ In a filing made public Tuesday, Trump’s lawyers told Manhattan Judge Juan M. Merchan that anything short of immediate dismissal would undermine the transition of power, as well as the “overwhelming national mandate” granted to Trump by voters last month. They also cited President Joe Biden’s recent pardon of his son, Hunter Biden, who had been convicted of tax and gun charges. “President Biden asserted that his son was ‘selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted,’ and ‘treated differently,’” Trump’s legal team wrote.

The IDF announced on Wednesday that the graduation ceremony for the pilot technician course for 26 Chareidi soldiers took place on Tuesday at the Air Force base in Haifa. The soldiers were certified as Level A technicians for F-16 aircraft and will serve at the Ramat Dovid Air Base in northern Israel. “This is the first training course for Class A technicians from the Chareidi sector,” the IDF spokesperson said.

By Rabbi Yair Hoffman Beginning tonight, Wednesday evening, December 4th, 2024, we begin reciting the phrase “V’sain Tal Umatar” (And give dew and rain for a blessing) in the Shmoneh Esrei prayer of the Maariv (evening) service. What if I Forgot to Say V’sain Tal Umatar? If a person said “V’sain Bracha” (And give a blessing) instead of “V’sain Tal Umatar Livracha”, and realized the error after finishing the Shmoneh Esrei, the entire Shmoneh Esrei must be repeated. If the error was caught while in the middle of Shmoneh Esrei, corrective action can be taken by inserting the phrase “V’sain Tal Umatar Livracha” in the Shema Koleinu blessing, before the words “Ki Ata Shomeiya”.

A New York City mayoral staffer has been indefinitely suspended without pay following the release of a video showing her tearing down a poster meant to raise awareness for hostages kidnapped by Hamas during the October 7, 2023, terror attack in southern Israel. The staffer, 25-year-old Nallah Sutherland, serves as a coordinator in the Mayor’s Office of Special Projects and Community Events, a role ironically aimed at bridging cultural divides and promoting New York City’s diversity. The incident occurred on November 2 at the corner of York Avenue and East 84th Street, where Sutherland was filmed ripping down the poster and striking the phone of the person recording the video.

In a segment that felt more like a group therapy session than serious journalism, CNN’s Dana Bash and her panel seized on South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s brief, swiftly retracted declaration of martial law as an excuse to issue their usual alarmist warnings about Donald Trump. The panel spent significant airtime drawing tenuous parallels between South Korea’s political turbulence and the United States under Trump’s incoming administration, with a heavy dose of condescension for anyone who might not share their apocalyptic worldview. MJ Lee, a CNN correspondent, began with a historical overview of South Korea’s struggles with democracy, which seemed credible enough—until she veered into a hyperbolic warning about how Americans should interpret events abroad.

CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten highlighted a major decline in public trust in the FBI, noting Tuesday that this trend may have influenced President-elect Donald Trump’s decision to nominate Kash Patel as the agency’s next director. Enten appeared on CNN Newsroom with Kate Bolduan to discuss the potential impact of Patel’s controversial nomination. Citing polling data from Gallup, Enten pointed out that Americans’ confidence in the FBI has plummeted over the past decade, with approval ratings hitting their lowest levels of the 21st century. “There’s real reason to believe that Americans would go along with changes Patel might propose for the FBI,” Enten said.

By Rabbi Yair Hoffman It was the spring of 1948.  A Catholic priest named Father Kenneth Cox walked into the office of Rabbi Israel Brodie, senior Jewish chaplain of the British Army.  Father Cox had an extraordinary request. After serving ten years in the priesthood, Father Cox wanted to become a Ger. This meeting would mark the beginning of one of the most remarkable religious transformations of the twentieth century. Born in 1911 to a wealthy London family, Kenneth Cox had already undergone one profound religious conversion. Raised Anglican and nicknamed “parson” by his schoolmates for his religious fervor, he had converted to Catholicism in his twenties. By 1943, he was an ordained Catholic priest serving a parish in Stirling, Scotland.