All posts tagged: Secretarys

Keir Starmer Says He’s Staying Put After Defense Secretary’s Departure Hammers His Authority

Keir Starmer Says He’s Staying Put After Defense Secretary’s Departure Hammers His Authority

Published by Sam Flores

Starmer has seen the departure of several junior and senior ministers in recent weeks, as Labour Party lawmakers revolt and rivals plot, in despair at the government’s relentless unpopularity. But the sudden resignation of Defense Secretary John Healey is a heavy blow. Healey quit Thursday, warning that the government is not spending enough on the military to keep Britain safe “at this time of rising threats.” His departure hits Starmer in the one place the often embattled prime minister has won consistent praise: the world stage. France and the U.K. also have put together a maritime security force that would help keep the Strait of Hormuz open to shipping if the Iran war ends. Starmer has also argued strongly that European nations must do more to fund their own defense in response to President Donald Trump ’s criticism of the United States’ NATO allies. “Starmer has been consistently staunch about warning of the security risk from Russia,” said Olivia O’Sullivan, head of the U.K. in the World program at the Chatham House think tank. “He’s …

RFK Jr. vs. the Animal Kingdom: A Brief History of the Secretary’s Fascination With Creatures Great and Small

RFK Jr. vs. the Animal Kingdom: A Brief History of the Secretary’s Fascination With Creatures Great and Small

Published by Sam Flores

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., currently the nation’s secretary of health and human services, often positions himself as an enemy of settled science. But when it comes to dead animals, he’s somehow always ready for hands-on exploration. In a new biography, RFK Jr.: The Fall and Rise—released Tuesday—journalist Isabel Vincent reports that Kennedy once pulled over to the side of the road to cut off the genitals of a dead racoon for quasi-scientific study. According to the New York Post, Vincent learned about this incident from Kennedy’s own private journals, which he wrote between the years of 1999 and 2001. “I was standing in front of my parked car on I-684 cutting the penis out of a road killed raccoon, thinking about how weird some of my family members have turned out to be,” the journal entry read—a surprising show of self-awareness for someone sticking his fingers into a dead woodland creature. Apparently, Kennedy doesn’t have a love for animals so much as an irrepressible desire to have them around. It apparently started early: In his …

Labor Secretary’s husband barred from HQ after sexual assault claims

Labor Secretary’s husband barred from HQ after sexual assault claims

Published by Sam Flores

Shawn DeRemer, husband of Lori Chavez-DeRemer, U.S. President Trump’s nominee to be secretary of labor, sits, on the day Chavez-DeRemer testifies before a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., Feb. 19, 2025. Kent Nishimura | Reuters At least two female staffers have alleged that they were sexually assaulted at the Labor Department building by the husband of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, MS Now confirmed on Thursday night. Chavez-DeRemer’s husband, Dr. Shawn DeRemer, has not been criminally charged, but has been barred from the Labor Department’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., after the women detailed their claims to investigators, MS Now confirmed. The New York Times first reported the situation on Thursday, citing people familiar with the situation and a police report. “This is an active investigation by MPD’s Sexual Assault Unit,” a Washington Metropolitan Police Department spokesperson told CNBC when contacted about the Times’ account of one accuser filing a police report in late January. “We cannot confirm the names of potential suspects or witnesses. …

Labor secretary’s husband banned from HQ after 2 staffers accuse him of sexual assault

Labor secretary’s husband banned from HQ after 2 staffers accuse him of sexual assault

Published by Sam Flores

The Department of Labor’s (DOL) headquarters banned Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer’s husband after two women employed by the department alleged that he sexually assaulted them, The New York Times reported Thursday. The staffers claimed that Dr. Shawn DeRemer touched them inappropriately inside the department building, with one of the incidents caught on security camera on… Source link

The Defense Secretary’s Dreadful Defense of ICE

The Defense Secretary’s Dreadful Defense of ICE

Published by José Betancourt

Even before Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had declared Alex Pretti a domestic terrorist, Pete Hegseth was online trashing his home state. Hegseth, who grew up north of Minneapolis, took to social media in the hours after masked immigration agents shot the ICU nurse with a stark calculation: “ICE > MN.” “We have your back 100%. You are SAVING the country,” the Pentagon chief told immigration agents in an X post. “Shame on the leadership of Minnesota—and the lunatics in the street.” Hegseth didn’t define the we. He and fellow Cabinet members? The 1.3 million service members he commands? The troops he put on standby for potential deployment to Minneapolis? He hasn’t said. But if there was any doubt about how Hegseth would wield military might if troops were sent to check unrest or dissent in U.S. cities, there’s your answer. Hegseth, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan as a National Guardsman before becoming a Fox News weekend host, has repeatedly blamed “woke” and “weak” military leaders for imposing overly restrictive rules of engagement that, …

The Agriculture Secretary’s Confusing Dinner Recommendation

The Agriculture Secretary’s Confusing $3 Dinner Recommendation

Published by Sam Flores

At first, we didn’t think much of it, the One Other Thing. When Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins suggested a meal of one corn tortilla, one piece of broccoli, one piece of chicken, and “one other thing”—all for a mere $3–we dwelled more on the other parts. The one corn tortilla, the unit of broccoli, the piece of chicken! How strange and bland a combination! How stingy in contrast to the birthday steaks our leaders enjoyed! If we’d only known then. Corn tortilla. Broccoli. Chicken. And one other thing. Maybe a carrot! Maybe a bit of cheese! We assumed that it had to be food. That was our mistake, I think. Assuming that the One Other Thing had to be food. And at first, after we signed on to receive the Recommended Meal, it was food. A mint. Some popcorn. An almond. Nothing too surprising. On the fifth night, we let the baby open it. He put it into his mouth immediately, and I had to fish it out. Something hard and black. That was when …

Politics Home | Labour MPs Urge Senior Tory To Apologise For Sharing Tweet Claiming Home Secretary’s “Loyalty Is To Islam”

Politics Home | Labour MPs Urge Senior Tory To Apologise For Sharing Tweet Claiming Home Secretary’s “Loyalty Is To Islam”

Published by Sam Flores

3 min read17 December Labour MPs have demanded that Conservative MP and chair of the 1922 Committee Bob Blackman apologise after he shared a tweet that claimed Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood’s “loyalty is to Islam”. Blackman retweeted a post on X – formerly Twitter – which showed an old video of Mahmood attending a pro-Palestine protest outside a Sainsbury’s supermarket in 2014. The tweet, posted on Monday evening by @Suffragent_, wrote of Mahmood: “She now pretends to support Jews after the Bondi Beach attack, but we all know the truth. Her loyalty is to Islam.” The account regularly tweets far-right content, including claiming that it is “women who are to blame” for allowing migrant men into the UK, and stating that it is the “white man who saves the day again” in the aftermath of the antisemitic terrorist attack in Australia last week. Some Labour MPs told PoliticsHome they believe Blackman should apologise for retweeting the post about Mahmood, particularly as he chairs the influential 1922 Committee of Conservative backbenchers. The committee has been …