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Two Somali men who prosecutors called pirates were sentenced to 30 years in prison Tuesday in the 2012 kidnapping of an American journalist who was held hostage for over two years. Abdi Yusuf Hassan and Mohamed Tahlil Mohamed — who both had positions in Somalia’s government — were “key players” in the abduction of journalist Michael Scott Moore, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said. Moore was in Somalia investigating piracy when men with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades ambushed his vehicle and took him hostage on January 21, 2012, officials said. Moore was held hostage for 977 days as the pirates demanded a ransom, and at one point, he was transferred to a boat that had been taken over by pirates and whose slain captain was kept in a freezer, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in...

President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday named Pete Hegseth, a Fox News host and military veteran, as his pick for defense secretary. In a statement , Trump described Hegseth as "tough, smart and a true believer in America First." "With Pete at the helm, America’s enemies are on notice — Our Military will be Great Again, and America will Never Back Down," Trump said. During his first administration, Trump nominated James Mattis and later Mark Esper to lead the Pentagon. Mattis resigned in December 2018 , and suggested in a letter stepping down from the post that he and Trump differed in their views on “treating our allies with respect” and being “clear-eyed” on U.S. adversaries and competitors. Trump fired Esper in 2020 a fter disagre...

President-elect Donald Trump named tech billionaire Elon Musk and conservative activist Vivek Ramaswamy on Tuesday to head up a new Department of Government Efficiency, fulfilling a campaign pledge to give Musk sweeping oversight of government spending. Trump, in a statement posted to social media , said the department will help to "dismantle Government Bureaucracy" and slash excess regulations. The name of the agency, DOGE for short, is a reference to a popular internet meme and cryptocurrency associated with Musk. Trump said the department would exist "outside of Government," giving advice to those in the White House on overhauling federal agencies. The arrangement would also likely allow Musk and Ramaswamy to continue working in the private sector and serve without S...

Police in South Florida are working to determine the identity of a head that washed ashore near Key Biscayne on Tuesday morning. The head, which appeared to belong to a man, was spotted by a beach worker about 8:30 a.m. floating on the shoreline near a small island near Key Biscayne, said Detective Andre Martin of the Miami-Dade Police Department. Key Biscayne police notified Miami-Dade police’s homicide bureau, the agency that handles slayings in Key Biscayne, Martin said. Personnel with the medical examiner's office were investigating the cause of death, Martin said. Police have not determined if the person was killed in a slaying, or if a marine animal or a boating accident could have led to a decapitation, Martin said. “We have not been able to determine exactly how the ...

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday announced William McGinley will serve as White House counsel in his administration. A longtime presence in Republican legal circles, McGinley served as White House Cabinet secretary during the first Trump administration. He resigned in 2019 and returned to private practice. He is currently a partner at Holtzman Vogel. Earlier this year, McGinley was hired to work as outside counsel on the Republican National Committee’s election integrity team, according to The New York Times . McGinley has worked with Don McGahn, Trump’s first White House counsel. The two men were partners at Washington, D.C. law firm Patton Boggs before leaving together in 2014 to join rival firm Jones Day. McGahn was hired to represent the fi...

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump plans to nominate South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem to be the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, four sources familiar with the decision confirmed Tuesday morning. "Kristi has been very strong on Border Security," Trump said in a statement announcing he will make the nomination. "I  have known Kristi for years, and have worked with her on a wide variety of projects — She will be a great part of our mission to Make America Safe Again." As homeland security secretary, Noem would oversee a number of key federal agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Secret Service, the Transportation Security Administration and the Coast Guard. ...

Republican Eric Hovde refused Tuesday to concede defeat in the Wisconsin Senate race, casting doubt on the results despite a lack of evidence of any wrongdoing in last week's election . In a four-and-a-half minute video posted to X , Hovde said he was considering whether to seek a recount in the battleground state contest, which NBC News and other outlets called for Sen. Tammy Baldwin last week. She currently leads by less than 30,000 votes, 49.4% to 48.5%, with 99% of the vote counted. Wisconsin allows candidates to request a recount , but they are required to cover the expenses if the margin of victory is larger than 0.25 percentage points. But Hovde also suggested that a recount would not fully address the "voting inconsistencies" he claimed occurred...

President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday named Pete Hegseth as his pick for defense secretary in the next administration. In a statement announcing his plans to nominate Hegseth, a Fox News host and military veteran, Trump described him as "tough, smart and a true believer in America First." "With Pete at the helm, America’s enemies are on notice — Our Military will be Great Again, and America will Never Back Down," Trump said. This is a developing story. Please check back for updates. Note: Thank you for visiting our website! We strive to keep you informed with the latest updates based on expected timelines, although please note that we are not affiliated with any official bodies. Our team is committed to ensuring accuracy and transparency in our reporting, verif...

The incoming Trump administration is considering locations and talking to private prison companies about drastically expanding immigrant detention centers that would hold immigrants before they are deported as part of President-elect Donald Trump's promised mass deportation plan, two sources familiar with the planning told NBC News. The goal is to double the number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention beds — 41,000 are now allocated by Congress — to hold vast numbers of migrants for short periods of time while they await deportation after their arrests inside the U.S., the sources said. The plan would also include restarting the policy of detaining parents with their children, known as family detention, which immigration advocates have criticized and the Bid...