KRISTEN WELKER: This Sunday: confirmation battles. President-elect Donald Trump’s controversial cabinet picks are sending shockwaves through Washington and raising questions about how he will carry out his second administration. SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI: I don't think it's a serious nomination for the attorney general. SEN. SUSAN COLLINS: I was shocked that he has been nominated. SEN. KEVIN CRAMER: I have concerns that he can't get across the finish line. JOHN BOLTON: It must be the worst nomination for a cabinet position in American history. KRISTEN WELKER: Will the senate approve Mr. Trump’s picks? Plus: total control. Republicans take charge of both chambers of Congress, clearing a path for Mr. Trump to enact his policy plans. SPEAKER MIKE JOHNSON: We a...

Bela Karolyi, one of the United States' most eminent gymnastics coaches alongside wife Márta, has died at age 82, a spokesperson for USA Gymnastics said Saturday evening. Jill Geer, a spokesperson for the organization, the nation's governing body for the sport, confirmed Karolyi died Friday. A cause of death was not provided. Bela Karolyi helped build USA Gymnastics into an Olympics and international competition powerhouse starting in the 1980s and extending through the 2010s, when his wife had taken over many of his leadership duties. After success with Nadia Comăneci in Romania, the couple helped to launch the athletic careers of U.S. Gymnastics Hall of Fame inductees Dominique Dawes, Phoebe Mills, Betty Okino, Kerri Strug, Mary Lou Retton and Kim Zmeskal. They found early fa...

More than 60 million households watched the much-hyped boxing match between 58-year-old retired boxing legend Mike Tyson and the far-younger Jake Paul on Friday night, Netflix said. The match between Tyson, former heavyweight champion of the world, and Paul, a 27-year-old social media star-turned-boxer, ended with no knockdowns and a win by unanimous decision for Paul. The event was plagued by reports of problems with the video quality or interruptions during the undercard matches, but reports of issues tracked by website downdetector.com had dropped by the time of the main event at around 11 p.m. local time in Texas. Netflix on social media acknowledged the problems, which were lampooned by X users who posted heavily pixelated videos purported to be the match. "T...

Former President Donald Trump has clinched a second term in the White House, and his Republican Party has won control of the Senate and the House. But several races remain uncalled. While Republicans will control both chambers, with five House races and one Senate race still uncalled, it remains to be seen how large their majorities will be — and therefore how easily they can move to implement Trump's agenda. With votes still being counted, here's a look at the key races that remain uncalled by the NBC News Decision Desk (read more about how those races are called ). The lone Senate race left to call Pennsylvania: Although Trump won Pennsylvania, the Senate race there is headed to a recount . Democratic Sen. Bob Casey is running for a third term against Repub...

Three more people were arrested and charged with hate crimes in a targeted attack on a man who was allegedly kicked, spit on and called derogatory names because of his sexual orientation, police in Maryland said. Sean Antone, 19, Benjamin Brandenburg, 18, and Logan Clark, 19, were taken into custody a little over a week after the Salisbury Police Department announced the arrests of 12 Salisbury University students in the Oct. 15 assault . Antone was arrested by the Howard County Police Department on Nov. 7, authorities said in a news release . Brandenburg was arrested by Salisbury police on Wednesday, and Clark turned himself in to Salisbury police on Thursday. Their charges mirror those received by the others including first-degree assault, reckless endangerment, false...

“Saturday Night Live” cast members returned to biting satire after hedging their bets last week by asserting allegiance to President-e l ect Donald Trump . The sketch comedy showcase presented its version of the meeting between outgoing President Joe Biden and Trump at the White House on Wednesday, portraying Trump’s Cabinet picks as unconventional. Reporters were shooed from the meeting as the two presidents, with Trump portrayed by James Austin Johnson and Biden played by former cast member Dana Carvey, embarked on a serious discussion. Journalists shouted questions in the background: “What’s going on?” one said. “Should I move to Canada?” another asked. Carvey’s Biden complained that his dog had been attacking foreign leaders who visi...

For Brandon Mintz, it was the text messages and calls that started rolling in from friends and colleagues asking how high bitcoin prices could go. For Lee Bratcher, it was the surge in ticket sales for his annual North American Blockchain Summit. They were signs, the two bitcoin industry executives said, that the next era of cryptocurrency could soon be dawning. President-elect Donald Trump’s win on the heels of his campaign’s embrace of cryptocurrency technology, along with Senate and House victories by a Republican Party seen as friendlier to crypto interests, have sparked a fresh wave of optimism in the crypto world. It’s a sharp turn in sentiment for an industry that, 24 months ago, was reeling from a precipitous crash in prices, multibillion-dollar scandals and deep questions...

President-elect Donald Trump said on Saturday that oil and gas industry executive Chris Wright, a staunch defender of fossil fuel use, would be his pick to lead the Department of Energy. Wright is the founder and CEO of Liberty Energy, an oilfield services firm based in Denver. He is expected to support Trump’s plan to maximize production of oil and gas and to seek ways to boost generation of electricity, demand for which is rising for the first time in decades. He is also likely to share Trump’s opposition to global cooperation on fighting climate change. Wright has called climate change activists alarmist and has likened efforts by Democrats to combat global warming to Soviet-style communism. “There is no climate crisis, and we’re not in the midst of an energy tran...

For President-elect Donald Trump , there’s a clear story that runs through each of the seven battleground states that he swept on his way to recapturing the White House. He managed to drive up even further what were already sky-high margins with his white, blue-collar base while harnessing historically broad nonwhite voter support to erode the Democratic base in cities and diversifying suburbs. And for Vice President Kamala Harris , the battleground picture is one of regression — a widespread failure to match Joe Biden’s 2020 performance, with her gains largely isolated to areas centered on the wealthier, college-educated white voters who increasingly make up her party’s backbone. With the final votes now largely tallied , we dug into the county-level, demogra...

Country singer Sundance Head, who won Season 11 of "The Voice," was injured by a bullet at his ranch in Texas on Friday, his agent said. Head, 46, was taken by helicopter to a hospital in Tyler, agent Trey Newman said in a statement. He was released late Friday and was back home, according to a post on his verified Facebook page Saturday. The round lodged in a fatty area of Head’s stomach, Newman said. Head’s wife, Misty, said on the Facebook page that surgery would be unnecessary. The bullet, described by the page as a round from his .22 firearm, could have caused serious damage if it struck the area of his body just outside the wound profile, according to Saturday’s statement. “I’m posting a pic of his shirt just so y’all can see how lucky he was,” the state...