Trump auditions Cabinet prospects high above Manhattan
Trump auditions Cabinet prospects high above Manhattan
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump held court from his perch high above Manhattan on Monday, receiving a line of former rivals, longtime allies and TV executives while overseeing a presidential transition that at times resembles a reality show like the one he once hosted.
Trump met with nearly a dozen prospective hires, all of whom were paraded in front of the cameras set up in the Trump Tower lobby as they entered an elevator to see the president-elect. Out of public view himself, he fell back on his TV star roots by filming a video that touted his legislative goals once he takes office.
Trump did not immediately announce any appointments after the meetings, which came on the heels of a two-day whirlwind of interviews at his golf course in Bedminster, N.J.
Unlike his predecessors, who often spoke with Cabinet candidates under a cloud of secrecy, Trump turned the search into a very public audition process. The extraordinary exercise took on a routine feel Monday.
Among those meeting with the president-elect were former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
Iraq’s ascendant Shiite militias take the fight to Tal Afar
TAL AFAR AIRPORT, Iraq (AP) — A sandstorm is brewing west of the Iraqi city of Mosul, kicked up across a barren landscape by thousands of men and machines headed to war.
Trucks, armored transports and even tanks carry fighters through a cloud of fine dust past a series of base camps and heavy weapons depots dotting the route to the front line against the so-called Islamic State.
These are the Shiite militias, and their goal is Tal Afar, on the main road to the Syrian city of Raqqa, the capital of IS’ self-declared caliphate.
Currently a sideshow compared with the street-to-street fighting in Mosul, some 70 kilometers (44 miles) to the east, the battle for Tal Afar is certain to boost Shiite power. And its significance could be just as great — if not greater — for Iraq and the future of the region than the main battle for Mosul itself.
Officially, the Iraqi government and top militia leadership say that only Iraqi army units will enter Tal Afar, once dominated by Shiites but now primarily Sunni Turkmen, a minority in the country with cultural and historic links to nearby Turkey to the north.
StoryCorps urges conversations about election this Thanksgiving
NEW YORK (AP) — That electoral elephant in the room threatening political tension this Thanksgiving? StoryCorps believes it could be a unifying main course.
The oral history project’s “Great Thanksgiving Listen 2016” is urging Americans, particularly teens, to use the holiday weekend to record a conversation with a grandparent or another elder on their feelings about the election, their hopes and fears for the country and their thoughts on how to bring people together in a time of division.
Dave Isay, StoryCorps’ founder and president, said the project could strengthen ties across the country when the chasm is deep.
“We’re living in a moment where the divide is just so massive,” and the discussions will give people a chance to reflect on what happened in the last two weeks, he said. “I can’t think of anything more important right now than listening to each other and finding a way forward.”
StoryCorps debuted the Thanksgiving project last year, prompting intergenerational conversations just as this time around, though without the election theme. The result was staggering: more than 50,000 recordings, as many as StoryCorps amassed in its first decade of operation combined.