Washington — FBI Director Christopher Wray said Wednesday he intends to resign at the end of President Joe Biden’s term in January, an announcement that came a week and a half after President-elect Donald Trump announced his intention to nominate loyalist Kash Patel for the job.

At a town hall meeting with the bureau workforce, Wray said he would be stepping down “after weeks of careful thought.”

Wray’s intended resignation is not unexpected considering that Trump had picked Patel for the role in his new administration.

Wray had previously been named by Trump and began the 10-year term — a length meant to insulate the agency from the political influence of changing administrations — in 2017, after Trump fired then-FBI Director James Comey.

Trump had telegraphed his anger with Wray on multiple occasions, including after Wray’s congressional testimony in September. But the soft-spoken director rarely seemed to go out of his way to publicly confront the White House.
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Washington — President Joe Biden has approved a new national security memorandum ahead of Donald Trump’s return to the White House that could serve as a road map for the incoming administration as it looks to counter growing cooperation among China, Iran, North Korea and Russia, the White House said Wednesday. 

Biden administration officials began developing the guidance this summer. It was shaped to be a document that could help the next administration build its approach from Day 1 on how it deals with the tightening relationships involving America’s most prominent adversaries and competitors, according to two senior administration officials. 

The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House, said the classified memorandum would not be made public because of the sensitivity of some of its findings. 

The document includes four broad recommendations: improving U.S. government interagency cooperation, speeding up the sharing of information with allies about the four adversaries, calibrating the U.S. government’s use of sanctions and other economic tools for maximum effectiveness, and bolstering preparation to manage simultaneous crises involving the adversaries. 

The U.S. for many years has been concerned about cooperation among the four countries. Coordination has accelerated between the countries in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. 

The officials noted that as Russia has become more isolated by much of the world, Moscow has turned to Iran for drones and missiles. From North Korea, the Russians have received artillery, missiles and even thousands of troops that have traveled to help the Russians try to repel Ukrainian forces from the Kursk region. China, meanwhile, has supported Russia with dual use components that help keep its military industrial base afloat. 

In return, Russia has sent fighter jets to Iran and assisted Tehran as it looks to bolster its missile defense and space technology. 

North Korea has received from Russia much-needed fuel and funding to help build out its manufacturing and military capabilities. The officials added that Russia has “de facto accepted North Korea as a nuclear weapon state.” 

China, meanwhile, is benefiting from Russian know-how, with the two countries working together to deepen their military technical cooperation. The two nations are also conducting joint patrols in the Arctic region. 

Biden and Trump have sharply different worldviews, but officials in both the incoming and outgoing administrations said they have sought to coordinate on national security issues during the transition. 

One of the officials said that the Biden White House memo “isn’t trying to box (the Trump administration) in or tilt them toward one policy option or another.” 

The official said the document is intended to help the next administration build “capacity” as it shapes its policies on some the most difficult foreign policies it will face.
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WASHINGTON — The Biden administration says it is in touch with all rebel groups in Syria following the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad and wants the process of forming a new government to be led by Syrians.

White House national security communications adviser John Kirby spoke with VOA Turkish’s White House correspondent Begum Donmez Ersoz and said whatever governance comes out of the process, Washington wants to make sure it meets the aspirations of the Syrian people.

Kirby says it’s too soon to tell whether Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Sunni Islamic al-Qaida offshoot that the United States has designated a terror group, and its leader, Mohammed al-Golani, have undergone an ideological transformation.

The following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

VOA: Did Israel give the United States prior notification of their strikes on the Golan Heights and their deeper push into Syria?

John Kirby, White House national security communications adviser: I’m going to let the Israelis speak to their operations, and I’m not going to speculate about what they’re doing. I would just tell you that they certainly have the right to self-defense. We recognize that they see threats across that border as things unfold in Syria, and they’ve taken some actions. … We, too, share a concern that the Israelis have over chemical weapons and the possibility of stockpiles in Syria and the potential use … so we’re in constant communication with the Israelis about what they’re doing, and that will continue.

VOA: Does the U.S. believe that Hayat Tahrir al-Sham has undergone an ideological transformation?

Kirby: I think it’s too soon to tell. Mr. al-Golani is saying the right things about inclusiveness, about not being interested in persecuting either minorities or other groups. But I think, you know, we have to wait and see what they actually do in terms of trying to establish good governance. … They are still a designated terrorist group. … Whatever kind of governance comes out of this, we want to make sure it meets the aspirations of the Syrian people, that they have a vote and a voice in their future. So, we want it to be a Syrian-led process, and the United States will continue to support that kind of process.

VOA: There is a concern in Turkey about the potential of an independent Kurdish state in northern Syria. How will the United States mitigate Turkey’s concerns?

Kirby: They have legitimate concerns in terms of the safety and security of people inside Turkey. I know right now, Syria is kind of coming to the fore because of the news over the weekend, but it’s not as if we haven’t continually, over the last four years, had conversations with the Turks about their concerns along that border. And quite frankly, sharing with them our concerns about what we’re trying to do against ISIS, partnering with the Syrian Democratic Forces. So, where those two levels of concerns overlap, or maybe conflict, we have the ability and have executed the ability to have conversations with the Turks to try to sort all this out.

VOA: The United States is talking to Turkey for information on the whereabouts of journalist Austin Tice. Can you share more on those talks?

Kirby: I won’t get into the details of the discussions. … We’re still trying to get more context and information about Austin — where he is, what condition he might be in. We obviously talked to the Turks about this … but we also talked to other counterparts in the region. Those conversations are ongoing. As the president said on Sunday, we want to see him back home with his family where he belongs, and we’ll continue to have the level of engagement in the region to see if we can bring about that outcome.

VOA: President-elect Donald Trump has signaled a hands-off approach in Syria. What would be the danger of that for U.S. interests in the region?

Kirby: Well, we’ll let Mr. Trump speak to his plans when he comes into office. We believe there are two things keenly in America’s national security interest. Number 1 is the transition, peaceful transition, to legitimate governance in Syria that is a Syrian-led process. … The second thing that’s very much in our national security interest is making sure that ISIS cannot regenerate the capabilities like it had in 2014 and cannot exploit the current uncertainty in Syria to their own advantage.

VOA: Syria was an important playground for Iran and the Shia Crescent. That has been broken now. Do you think Iran’s ambitions over the Middle East are over?

Kirby: I think only [the] supreme leader can answer that particular question. … As Iran wakes up and looks at the region, it is different, and their axis of resistance has been broken in many, many places. … And they, too, have been weakened as a military and as a capability, just in terms of, for instance, air defense. … That said, I can’t tell you that, as we look at the world today, that we see Iran giving up on their hegemonic ambitions in the region. They certainly are not as capable of executing those visions and that ambition, but I haven’t seen anything that would indicate that that they’re turning a blind eye to trying to pursue those kinds of ambitions.

VOA: Would the United States accept a hard-line government under HTS in Syria that would contain Iran, as Golani alluded to in his speech?

Kirby: What we want to see in terms of governance in Syria is governance that is seen as credible and legitimate, that is sustainable, that meets the aspirations of the Syrian people, and that is the result, the product, of a Syrian-led process to get them to that point. I think it’s too soon to know exactly how it’s all going to unfold, and we’re watching this real, real close.
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washington — A congressional task force investigating the attempts to kill Donald Trump during his presidential campaign is recommending changes to the Secret Service, including protecting fewer foreign leaders during the height of election season and considering moving the agency out of the Homeland Security Department.

The 180-page report by the bipartisan task force released Tuesday is one of the most detailed looks so far into the July assassination attempt against Trump during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania and a second attempt in Florida two months later.

Like the series of other investigations and reports, the task force railed at the agency tasked with protecting the top echelon of America’s democratic leaders.

“The events of July 13, 2024, were tragic and preventable, and the litany of related security failures are unacceptable,” the authors wrote. “The Secret Service’s zero fail mission allows no margin for error, let alone for the many errors described in this report.”

In the July shooting, a gunman opened fire from the roof of a nearby building, wounding Trump in the ear, killing one rallygoer and wounding two others. He was killed by a counter sniper.

In another assassination attempt in September, a gunman waited for hours for Trump to appear at his golf course in Florida, but a Secret Service agent thwarted the attack by spotting the firearm poking through some bushes.

Here are the highlights of the new report and its recommendations:

Reducing the number of people protected — specifically foreign leaders

The report’s authors noted that the number of people the agency is tasked with protecting has “greatly expanded.” At the same time, the presidential campaign season is getting longer and more intense.

The agency is also tasked with protecting foreign dignitaries during the U.N. General Assembly, when heads of state and government flood into New York. That event happens every September, which comes at the “height of campaign season,” the report noted, adding to the agency’s staffing crunch.

“Congress, DHS, and the USSS should jointly consider the protective role the USSS plays for foreign leaders and consider whether such duties can be transferred or abrogated in order to focus on the USSS’s primary duty: to protect the President and other critical U.S. leaders,” the report said.

Drop some investigative work, especially during elections

The Secret Service is known for its high-profile work of protecting the president, the vice president, presidential candidates, their families and others.

But agents also carry out a wide range of investigations not related to their protective mission — investigating fraud and financial crimes, for example. Stemming from when the agency was part of the Treasury Department, those investigations are an important part of training Secret Service officers for skills they’ll need on protective details, agency leaders say.

But the task force recommended reviewing these investigative responsibilities — especially during campaign season — so the agency “can prioritize the protection of U.S. leaders and candidates running for office.”

Questioning whether the Secret Service should stay in the Homeland Security Department

After DHS was created in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the Secret Service was moved there from the Treasury Department.

The task force suggested reevaluating that move. During the time Secret Service has been in the Homeland Security Department, “USSS has not benefited from stable leadership,” the lawmakers said.

They said the structure “potentially weakens USSS, a small but critically important agency, in advocating for its budget and other priorities inside a much larger entity.”

Staffing problems

The task force said the gunman in Butler, Pennsylvania, Thomas Crooks, exploited gaps in protection because of a lack of assets and staff.

Specifically, the panel noted that the Secret Service, already dealing with the increased tempo of a presidential campaign, was protecting not one but two high-profile people that day in close vicinity to each other, with first lady Jill Biden at a nearby event.

In one example highlighting the lack of resources at the Trump rally, the task force said there should have been a counter-surveillance unit in Butler, and if there had been one assigned that day, it might have spotted the shooter earlier.

Such a counter-surveillance team was in place for the Biden event, the report noted, although that event was indoors.

“From interviews with special agents on the ground, it appears that the main factor in the decision to not request [the counter-surveillance unit] was an assumption that the request would be denied due to the protectee’s status as a former President at the time of the event,” the report said.

Pointing to bad communication, faulty planning

Much of the criticism in the aftermath of the July assassination attempt has centered on how the shooter could have gotten access to a roof with a clear line of sight to Trump and why there was such poor communication between the Secret Service and local law enforcement.

The Secret Service often relies on local law enforcement to secure large events. The report detailed how local law enforcement had one idea of its responsibilities while the Secret Service had another.

But the task force emphasized that ultimately the Secret Service is responsible for ensuring that coordination runs smoothly.

“The Secret Service must own responsibility for the security of the site,” the report said.
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MALIBU, CALIFORNIA — Thousands of Southern California residents were under evacuation orders and warnings Tuesday as firefighters battled a wind-driven wildfire in Malibu that burned near seaside mansions and Pepperdine University, where students sheltering at the school’s library watched as the blaze intensified and the sky turned deep red.

A “minimal number” of homes burned, but the exact number wasn’t immediately known, Los Angeles County Fire Department Chief Anthony Marrone said. More than 8,100 homes and other structures were under threat, including more than 2,000 where residents have been ordered to evacuate. Some 6,000 more people were warned to be prepared to evacuate at a moment’s notice.

Ryan Song, a resident assistant at Pepperdine University, said he first noticed the power went out at his dorm late Monday and then looked out the window and saw a huge pink glow.

“I thought, ‘This is too bright,’ and it got bigger and bigger,” the 20-year-old junior said. “I immediately went outside and saw that it was a real fire.”

Song and the other resident assistants went door to door, evacuating students. Most were calm and followed instructions, he said; a few who were scared rushed to their cars to get off campus.

Song spent the next few hours racing back and forth in the dark between his dorm and the main campus to ensure no one was left behind as fire raged down a mountain, he said.

“It felt really close,” he said, adding he was probably less than a mile away. “Seeing the fire rampaging down the hill is obviously scary for students, but I felt like our staff was prepared.”

The university later said the worst of the fire had pushed past campus.

It was not immediately known how the blaze, named the Franklin Fire, started. County officials estimated that more than 9 square kilometers of trees and dry brush had burned. There was no containment.

The fire burned amid dangerous conditions because of notorious Santa Ana winds expected to last into Wednesday.

Marrone said at least a thousand firefighters would be scrambling to get a handle on the blaze before 2 p.m., when winds were expected to regain strength. “Time is of the essence for us to grab ahold of the fire and start getting some containment,” the chief said at a morning news conference.

The fire erupted shortly before 11 p.m. Tuesday and swiftly moved south, jumping over the famous Pacific Coast Highway and extending all the way to the ocean, where large homes line the beach and inland canyons are notoriously fire prone. At one point, it threatened the historic Malibu Pier, but the structure was protected and is intact, officials said.

Pepperdine canceled classes and finals for the day and there was a shelter-in-place order on campus. Helicopters dropped water collected from lakes in the school’s Alumni Park onto the flames.

Firefighters with flashlights and hoses protected nearby homes overnight, ABC 7 reported. As the sun came up Tuesday, smoke billowed over the campus and the adjacent mountains that plunge toward the coast.

North to northeast winds were forecast to increase to 48 to 64 kph with gusts up to 105 kph expected, the National Weather Service’s office for Los Angeles posted on social media platform X.

Power to about 40,000 customers had been shut off by Monday night, including 11,000 in Los Angeles County, as Southern California Edison worked to mitigate the impacts of the Santa Ana winds, whose strong gusts can damage electrical equipment and spark wildfires. Email and phone messages were left with Edison inquiring whether electricity had been turned off in Malibu before the fire started.

The Woolsey Fire that roared through Malibu in 2018, killing three people and destroying 1,600 homes, was sparked by Edison equipment.

Santa Anas are dry, warm and gusty northeast winds that blow from the interior of Southern California toward the coast and offshore. They typically occur during the fall months and continue through winter and into early spring.
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U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday presided over his final White House Tribal Nations Summit by reaching into the nation’s dark past and establishing a national monument to honor the suffering of thousands of Native children and their families in federal boarding schools in the 19th and 20th centuries. VOA White House correspondent Anita Powell reports from Washington.
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PHOENIX — A polygamist religious leader who claimed more than 20 spiritual “wives” including 10 underage girls was sentenced to 50 years in prison on Monday for coercing girls as young as 9 years old to submit to criminal sex acts with him and other adults, and for scheming to kidnap them from protective custody.

Samuel Bateman, whose small group was an offshoot of the sect once led by Warren Jeffs, had pleaded guilty to a yearslong scheme to transport girls across state lines for his sex crimes, and later to kidnap some of them from protective custody.

Under the agreement, Bateman pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit transportation of a minor for sexual activity, which carries a sentence of 10 years to life imprisonment, and one count of conspiracy to commit kidnapping, which is punishable by up to life imprisonment. He was sentenced to 50 years on each count, to be served concurrently.

The rest of the charges were dismissed as part of the agreement.

Authorities say that Bateman, 48, tried to start an offshoot of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints based in the neighboring communities of Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah. The fundamentalist group, also known as FLDS, split from the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after Mormons officially abandoned polygamy in 1890.

U.S. District Court Judge Susan Brnovich sentenced Bateman after hearing statements in court by three teenage girls about the trauma they still struggle to overcome. Although they gave their names in court, The Associated Press does not name victims of sexual crime, and some appeared to still be minors.

“You should not have the opportunity to be free and never have the opportunity to be around young women, ” Brnovich told Bateman, noting that for a man of his age the 50-year sentence was effectively a life sentence.

“You took them from their homes, from their families and made them into sex slaves,” the judge said. “You stripped them of their innocence and childhood.”

A short competency hearing that was closed to the public was held just before sentencing to discuss a doctor’s assessment of Bateman’s mental health. The defense had argued that Bateman could have benefited from a maximum of 20 years of psychiatric treatment behind bars before being released.

The girls told the court, sometimes addressing Bateman himself, how they grappled to develop relationships in high school, among other struggles. Now living with foster families, they said they had received much support from trusted adults outside their community.

After the sentencing, the teens hugged and wept quietly. They were escorted out of court by a half dozen men and women in jackets with the slogan “Bikers Against Child Abuse,” a group dedicated to protecting children from what it calls dangerous people and situations. A woman who sat with the teens said no one in the group would have a comment.

There was no one in the courtroom who appeared to be a supporter of Bateman.

The alleged practice of sect members sexually abusing girls whom they claim as spiritual “wives” has long plagued the FLDS. Jeffs was convicted of state charges in Texas in 2011 involving sexual assaults of his underage followers. Bateman was one of Jeffs’ trusted followers and declared himself, like Jeffs, to be a “prophet” of the FLDS. Jeffs denounced Bateman in a written “revelation” sent to his followers from prison, and then tried to start his own group.

In 2019 and 2020, insisting that polygamy brings exaltation in heaven and that he was acting on orders from the “Heavenly Father,” Bateman began taking female adults and children from his male followers and proclaiming them to be his “wives,” the plea agreement said. While none of these “marriages” were legally or ceremonially recognized, Bateman acknowledged that each time he claimed another “wife,” it marked the beginning of his illicit sexual contact with the woman or girl.

Federal agents said Bateman demanded that his followers confess publicly for any indiscretions and he imposed punishments that ranged from public shaming to sexual activity, including requiring that some male followers atone for their “sins” by surrendering their own wives and daughters to him.

Bateman traveled extensively between Arizona, Utah, Colorado and Nebraska and regularly coerced underage girls into his criminal sexual activity, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona said. Recordings of some of his sex crimes were transmitted across state lines via electronic devices.

Bateman was arrested in August 2022 by state police as he drove through Flagstaff, Arizona, pulling a trailer. Someone had alerted authorities after spotting small fingers reaching through the slats of the door. Inside the trailer, which had no ventilation, they found a makeshift toilet, a sofa, camping chairs and three girls, 11 to 14 years old.

Bateman posted bond but was soon arrested again, accused of obstructing justice in a federal investigation into whether children were being transported across state lines for his sex crimes. Authorities also took nine children from Bateman’s home in Colorado City into protective custody.

Eight of the children later escaped from foster care in Arizona, and were found hundreds of miles away in Washington state, in a vehicle driven by one of the adult “wives.” Bateman also admitted his involvement in the kidnapping plot.

Federal prosecutors noted that Bateman’s plea agreement was contingent on all of his co-defendants also pleading guilty. It also called for restitution of as much as $1 million per victim, and for all assets to be immediately forfeited.

Seven of Bateman’s adult “wives” have been convicted of crimes related to coercing children into sexual activity or impeding the investigation into Bateman. Some acknowledged they also coerced girls to become Bateman’s spiritual “wives,” witnessed Bateman having criminal sexual activity with girls, participated in illicit group sex involving children, or joined in kidnapping them from foster care. Another woman is scheduled to be tried Jan. 14 on charges related to the kidnappings.

Two Colorado City brothers also face 10 years to life at their sentencings, on Dec. 16 and Dec. 20, after being convicted in October of charges including interstate travel to persuade or coerce a child to engage in sexual activity. Authorities say one bought Bateman two Bentley automobiles, while the other bought him a Range Rover.

In court records, lawyers for some of Bateman’s “wives” painted a bleak picture of their clients’ religious upbringings.

One said his client was raised in a religious cult that taught sexual activity with children was acceptable and that she was duped into “marrying” Bateman. Another said her client was given to Bateman by another man as if she were a piece of property, feeling she had no choice.
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Since winning the election, President-elect Donald Trump has begun a complex transition process involving a carefully selected team to ensure an orderly handover. Members of this group are tasked with assisting in making key appointments, identifying candidates for top Cabinet and federal agency positions and defining public policy priorities.

See the full story here.
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New York — A Marine veteran who used a chokehold on an agitated subway rider was acquitted on Monday in a death that became a prism for differing views about public safety, valor and vigilantism. 

A Manhattan jury cleared Daniel Penny of criminally negligent homicide in Jordan Neely’s 2023 death. A more serious manslaughter charge was dismissed last week because the jury deadlocked on that count. 

Penny, who had shown little expression during the trial, briefly smiled as the verdict was read. Both applause and anger erupted in the courtroom, and Neely’s father and two supporters were ushered out after audibly reacting. Another person also left, wailing with tears. 

“It really, really hurts,” Neely’s father, Andre Zachery, said outside the courthouse. “I had enough of this. The system is rigged.” 

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the Democrat whose office brought the case, said prosecutors “followed the facts and the evidence from beginning to end” and respect the verdict. 

There was no immediate comment from lawyers for Penny, who rushed to a waiting car after the verdict. The anonymous jury, which had started deliberating Tuesday, was escorted out of court to a van. 

Penny’s attorneys had said he was protecting himself and other subway passengers from a volatile, mentally ill man who was making alarming remarks and gestures. 

The case amplified many American fault lines, among them race, politics, crime, urban life, mental illness and homelessness. Neely was Black. Penny is white. 

There were sometimes dueling demonstrations outside the courthouse, including Monday, when chants could be heard through the courtroom window ahead of the verdict. High-profile Republican politicians portrayed Penny as a hero while prominent Democrats attended Neely’s funeral. 

Penny, 26, served four years in the Marines and went on to study architecture. 

Neely, 30, was a sometime subway performer with a tragic life story: His mother was killed and stuffed in a suitcase when he was a teenager. 

As a younger man, Neely did Michael Jackson tributes — complete with moonwalks — on the city’s streets and subways. But Neely also struggled with mental illness after losing his mother, whose boyfriend was convicted of murdering her. 

He subsequently was diagnosed with depression and schizophrenia, was repeatedly hospitalized, and used the synthetic cannabinoid K2 and realized it negatively affected his thinking and behavior, according to medical records seen at the trial. The drug was in his system when he died. 

Neely told a doctor in 2017 that being homeless, living in poverty and having to “dig through the garbage” for food made him feel so hopeless that he sometimes thought of killing himself, hospital records show. 

About six years later, he boarded a subway under Manhattan on May 1, 2023, hurled his jacket onto the floor, and declared that he was hungry and thirsty and didn’t care if he died or went to jail, witnesses said. Some told 911 operators that he tried to attack people or indicated he’d harm riders, and several testified that they were afraid. 

Neely was unarmed, with nothing but a muffin in his pocket, and didn’t touch any passengers. One said he made lunging movements that alarmed her enough that she shielded her 5-year-old from him. 

Penny came up behind Neely, grabbed his neck, took him to the floor and “put him out,” as the veteran told police at the scene. 

Passengers’ video showed that at one point during the roughly six-minute hold, Neely tapped an onlooker’s leg and gestured to him. Later, he briefly got an arm free. But he went still nearly a minute before Penny released him. 

“He’s dying,” an unseen bystander said in one video. “Let him go!” 

A witness who stepped in to hold down Neely’s arms testified that he told Penny to free the man, though Penny’s lawyers noted the witness’ story changed significantly over time. 

Penny told detectives shortly after the encounter that Neely threatened to kill people and the chokehold was an attempt to “de-escalate” the situation until police could arrive. The veteran said he held on as long as he did because Neely periodically squirmed. 

“I wasn’t trying to injure him. I’m just trying to keep him from hurting anyone else. He’s threatening people. That’s what we learn in the Marine Corps,” Penny told the detectives. 

However, one of Penny’s Marine Corps instructors testified that the veteran misused a chokehold technique he’d been taught. 

Prosecutors said Penny reacted far too forcefully to someone he perceived as a peril, not a person. Prosecutors also argued that any need to protect passengers quickly ebbed when the train doors opened at the next station, seconds after Penny took action. 

Although Penny himself told police he’d used “a choke” or “a chokehold,” one of his lawyers, Steven Raiser, cast it as a Marine-taught chokehold “modified as a simple civilian restraint.” The defense lawyers contended that Penny didn’t consistently apply enough pressure to kill Neely. 

Contradicting a city medical examiner’s finding, a pathologist hired by the defense said Neely died not from the chokehold but from the combined effects of K2, schizophrenia, his struggle and restraint, and a blood condition that can lead to fatal complications during exertion. 

Penny did not testify, but several of his relatives, friends and fellow Marines did — describing him as an upstanding, patriotic and empathetic man. 

The manslaughter charge would have required proving that Penny recklessly caused Neely’s death. Criminally negligent homicide involves engaging in serious “blameworthy conduct” while not perceiving such a risk. Both charges were felonies and carried the possibility of prison time. 

While the criminal trial played out, Neely’s father filed a wrongful death suit against Penny.
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The results of the 2024 U.S. presidential election rattled the country and sent shockwaves across the world — or were cause for celebration, depending on who you ask. Is it any surprise then that the Merriam-Webster word of the year is “polarization”?

“Polarization means division, but it’s a very specific kind of division,” said Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster’s editor at large, in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press ahead of Monday’s announcement. “Polarization means that we are tending toward the extremes rather than toward the center.”

The election was so divisive, many American voters went to the polls with a feeling that the opposing candidate was an existential threat to the nation. According to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 120,000 voters, about 8 in 10 Kamala Harris voters were very or somewhat concerned that Donald Trump’s views — but not Harris’ — were too extreme, while about 7 in 10 Trump voters felt the same way about Harris — but not Trump.

The Merriam-Webster entry for “polarization” reflects scientific and metaphorical definitions. It’s most commonly used to mean “causing strong disagreement between opposing factions or groupings.”

Merriam-Webster, which logs 100 million pageviews a month on its site, chooses its word of the year based on data, tracking a rise in search and usage.

Last year’s pick was “authentic.” This year’s comes as large swaths of the U.S. struggle to reach consensus on what is real.

“It’s always been important to me that the dictionary serve as a kind of neutral and objective arbiter of meaning for everybody,” Sokolowski said. “It’s a kind of backstop for meaning in an era of fake news, alternative facts, whatever you want to say about the value of a word’s meaning in the culture.”

It’s notable that “polarization” originated in the early 1800s — and not during the Renaissance, as did most words with Latin roots about science, Sokolowski said. He called it a “pretty young word,” in the scheme of the English language. “Polarized is a term that brings intensity to another word,” he continued, most frequently used in the U.S. to describe race relations, politics and ideology.

“The basic job of the dictionary is to tell the truth about words,” the Merriam-Webster editor continued. “We’ve had dictionaries of English for 420 years and it’s only been in the last 20 years or so that we’ve actually known which words people look up.”

“Polarization” extends beyond political connotations. It’s used to highlight fresh cracks and deep rifts alike in pop culture, tech trends and other industries.

All the scrutiny over Taylor Swift’s private jet usage? Polarizing. Beef between rappers Kendrick Lamar and Drake? Polarizing. The International Olympic Committee’s decision to strip American gymnast Jordan Chiles of her bronze medal after the Paris Games? You guessed it: polarizing.

Even lighthearted memes — like those making fun of Australian breakdancer Rachael “Raygun” Gunn’s performance — or the proliferation of look-alike contests, or who counts as a nepo baby proved polarizing.

Paradoxically though, people tend to see eye to eye on the word itself. Sokolowski cited its frequent use among people across the political spectrum, including commentators on Fox News, MSNBC and CNN.

“It’s used by both sides,” he said, “and in a little bit ironic twist to the word, it’s something that actually everyone agrees on.”

Rounding out Merriam-Webster’s top 10 words of 2024:

Demure

TikToker Jools Lebron’s 38-second video describing her workday makeup routine as “very demure, very mindful” lit up the summer with memes. The video has been viewed more than 50 million times, yielding “huge spikes” in lookups, Sokolowski said, and prompting many to learn it means reserved or modest.

Fortnight

Taylor Swift’s song “Fortnight,” featuring rapper Post Malone, undoubtedly spurred many searches for this word, which means two weeks. “Music can still send people to the dictionary,” Sokolowski said.

Totality

The solar eclipse in April inspired awe and much travel. There are tens of millions of people who live along a narrow stretch from Mexico’s Pacific coast to eastern Canada, otherwise known as the path of totality, where locals and travelers gazed skyward to see the moon fully blot out the sun. Generally, the word refers to a sum or aggregate amount — or wholeness.

Resonate

“Texts developed by AI have a disproportionate percentage of use of the word ‘resonate,'” Sokolowski said. This may be because the word, which means to affect or appeal to someone in a personal or emotional way, can add gravitas to writing. But, paradoxically, artificial intelligence “also betrays itself to be a robot because it’s using that word too much.”

Allision

The word was looked up 60 times more often than usual when, in March, a ship crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. “When you have one moving object into a fixed object, that’s an allision, not a collision. You’re showing that one of the two objects struck was not, in fact, in motion,” Sokolowski said.

Weird

This summer on the TV news show “Morning Joe,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz called Republican leaders “weird.” It may have been what launched his national career, landing him as the Democratic vice presidential nominee. Though it’s a word that people typically misspell — is it “ei” or “ie”? — and search for that reason, its rise in use was notable, Sokolowski said.

Cognitive

Whether the word was used to raise questions about President Joe Biden’s debate performance or Trump’s own age, it cropped up often. It refers to conscious intellectual activity — such as thinking, reasoning, or remembering.

Pander

Pander was used widely in political commentary, Sokolowski said. “Conservative news outlets accused Kamala Harris of pandering to different groups, especially young voters, Black voters, gun rights supporters.” Whereas Walz said Trump’s visit to a McDonald’s kitchen pandered to hourly wage workers. It means to say, do, or provide what someone — such as an audience — wants or demands even though it is not “good, proper, reasonable, etc.”

Democracy

In 2003, Merriam-Webster decided to make “democracy” its first word of the year. Since then, the word — which, of course, means a form of government in which the people elect representatives to make decisions, policies and laws — is consistently one of the dictionary’s most looked up. “There’s a poignancy to that, that people are checking up on it,” Sokolowski said. “Maybe the most hopeful thing that the curiosity of the public shows, is that they’re paying attention.”
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Washington — Celebrities, cultural icons and a few surprise guests are gathering for the annual Kennedy Center Honors celebration Sunday evening in Washington. 

This year’s recipients of the lifetime achievement award for artistic accomplishment are director and filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, the Grateful Dead, jazz trumpeter Arturo Sandoval, and singer-songwriter Bonnie Raitt. In addition, the venerable Harlem theater The Apollo, which has launched generations of Black artists, is being recognized. 

There will be personalized tributes with performances and testimonials from fellow artists during the gala at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Medallions were presented during the traditional Saturday night ceremony at the State Department. 

The tribute performances are often kept secret from the recipients themselves, most notably in 2018 when Cyndi Lauper flat out lied to her longtime friend Cher about being unable to attend. Lauper appeared on stage to perform Cher’s hit, “If I Could Turn Back Time.” 

Several of the latest honorees have themselves participated in past tributes to friends and colleagues at the Kennedy Center. 

Coppola spoke during fellow director Martin Scorsese’s induction in 2007. Sandoval performed in the tribute to his mentor, jazz trumpet legend Dizzy Gillespie. Raitt has taken part in tributes to Buddy Guy and Mavis Staples. Raitt even attended the Kennedy Center Honors in the 1970s when her father, Broadway performer John Raitt, was taking part in a tribute to composer Richard Rogers. 

The tribute to the Grateful Dead is expected to double as a memorial to the band’s founding bass player Phil Lesh, who died in October at age 84. 

This could also be the last Kennedy Center Honors ceremony without political intrigue for a while. 

During Republican Donald Trump’s first four years in office, Kennedy Center officials were forced to walk a public tightrope between the tradition of the president attending the ceremony and the open antipathy toward Trump from multiple honorees. In 2017, recipient Norman Lear threatened to boycott his own ceremony if Trump attended. Trump, who takes office in January, skipped the ceremony for the entirety of his first term. 

Democratic President Joe Biden is scheduled to host a reception for the honorees at the White House and plans to attend the Kennedy Center ceremony afterward. 

The show will air on CBS on Dec. 22. 
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The Walt Disney Co.’s animated film “Moana 2” remained at the top of the box office in its second weekend in theaters as it brought in another record haul. 

The film added $52 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. That brings its domestic total to $300 million, surpassing the original, and its global tally to a staggering $600 million.

The amount set a record gross for a movie on the weekend following Thanksgiving weekend, unseating “Frozen II,” which earned $35.2 million in the same time frame in 2019. The numbers are not adjusted for inflation. Originally conceived as a Disney+ series, “Moana 2” has already broken into the top five highest grossing releases of the year. Its performance means Disney has three films in this year’s top five, including “Inside Out 2” and “Deadpool & Wolverine.” The studio also has another big movie on the way before the year ends: Barry Jenkins’ “Mufasa,” out Dec. 20.

The weekend also showcased several new releases, including A24’s horror comedy “Y2K” and the Jude Law crime thriller “The Order.” But nothing was ever going to present significant competition to the enticing Thanksgiving leftovers, “Moana 2,” “Wicked” and “Gladiator II.”

Second place at the box office was occupied by “Wicked,” which added $34.9 million, bringing its domestic total to $320.5 million in three weeks. Globally, the musical adaptation released by Universal is at $455.6 million. “Gladiator II” followed in third place with $12.5 million, while “Red One” came in fourth with $7 million.

“These holdovers are going to create the momentum that’s going to put an $8.5 billion-plus box office year on the horizon,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore.

Pre-pandemic, $11 billion had become the annual norm for the movie business. Since then, the closest the industry has gotten to that number was last year, which cracked $9 billion. This year started off slow and up to a few months ago, Dergarabedian said, even hitting $8 billion for the year was in doubt. But in the two weeks since Thanksgiving, the deficit from last year has narrowed by over 5%. 

The newcomers struggled to make a significant impact. Even the 10th anniversary rerelease of Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar,” which played in only 165 theaters, did better than “Y2K” ($2.1 million) and “The Order” ($878,000) combined. Paramount reported that the science fiction epic starring Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway brought in an estimated $4.4 million. IMAX also noted that all the 70mm IMAX presentations of “Interstellar” were sold out through the weekend.

“I was thrilled so many moviegoers took advantage of the original IMAX experience of ‘Interstellar’ this weekend,” Nolan said in a statement.

The biggest of the many newcomers was the Indian action pic “Pushpa: The Rule – Part 2,” which earned $4.9 million. Sony and Crunchyroll’s anime release, “Solo Leveling – ReAwakening,” made $2.4 million. Fathom also released pop duo for KING + COUNTRY’s “A Drummer Boy Christmas” concert in theaters where it made $2.1 million.

“It’s a really diverse marketplace,” Dergarabedian said. “There’s event cinema, international cinema, a rerelease of a 10-year-old film. It’s easily one of the most eclectic and interesting lineups I’ve ever seen.”

Next weekend theaters are in for another influx of bigger movies, with both Sony’s comic book film “Kraven the Hunter” and the animated “The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim” opening in wide release. Awards contenders “Nickel Boys” and “September 5” will also open in a limited number of theaters.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. “Moana 2,” $52 million. 

2. “Wicked,” $34.9 million. 

3. “Gladiator II,” $12.5 million. 

4. “Red One,” $7 million. 

5. “Pushpa: The Rule – Part 2,” $4.9 million. 

6. “Interstellar” rerelease, $4.4 million. 

7. “Solo Leveling – ReAwakening,” $2.4 million. 

8. “Y2K,” $2.1 million. 

9. “for KING + COUNTRY’S: A Drummer Boy Christmas,” $2.1 million. 

10. “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever,” $1.5 million.
    …