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Hindustan Times
an hour ago
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
US Senate committee approves Trump's UN envoy pick, nomination heads to full vote
By Patricia Zengerle US Senate committee approves Trump's UN envoy pick, nomination heads to full vote WASHINGTON, - The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday voted narrowly in favor of Mike Waltz, President Donald Trump's pick to be U.N. envoy, clearing the way for a confirmation vote in the full 100-member Senate. The panel voted 12-10 in favor of Waltz, who was removed as Trump's national security adviser in May after he was caught up in a scandal involving a Signal chat among top Trump aides. Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the committee's ranking Democrat, joined Republicans in backing Waltz and Republican Senator Rand Paul joined Democrats in voting against him. There was no immediate indication of when the full Senate might consider the nomination. A spokesperson for the chamber's Republican leader, Senator John Thune, said there were no scheduling updates. Thune has indicated he might delay the Senate's annual August recess if Democrats do not allow Republicans to confirm Trump nominees more quickly. In a recent post on his Truth Social platform, Trump urged the Senate to stay in Washington for votes on his nominees. Waltz - a retired Army Green Beret and former Republican lawmaker from Florida - is one of the last major Trump nominees awaiting likely Senate confirmation. He was ousted as national security adviser on May 1 after he was caught up in a March scandal involving the Signal chat that discussed details of a U.S. military operation and mistakenly included a journalist. Trump then promptly nominated Waltz as his U.N. ambassador. In a statement on her vote, Shaheen said she disagreed with Waltz on some issues, including his "use of unclassified systems to coordinate sensitive discussions." However she also called him a moderating force with a background in national security policy-making who does not seem to be isolationist. "Mike Waltz did not represent himself to me as someone who wants to retreat from the world - and this is a quality I value in nominees," Shaheen said. At his confirmation hearing this month, Waltz said the United Nations needs reform and the United States must have a strong voice to counter China, adding that he is "confident we can make the U.N. great again." This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
Reuters
an hour ago
- Politics
- Reuters
US Senate committee approves Trump's UN envoy pick, nomination heads to full vote
WASHINGTON, July 24 (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday voted narrowly in favor of Mike Waltz, President Donald Trump's pick to be U.N. envoy, clearing the way for a confirmation vote in the full 100-member Senate. The panel voted 12-10 in favor of Waltz, who was removed as Trump's national security adviser in May after he was caught up in a scandal involving a Signal chat among top Trump aides. Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the committee's ranking Democrat, joined Republicans in backing Waltz and Republican Senator Rand Paul joined Democrats in voting against him. There was no immediate indication of when the full Senate might consider the nomination. A spokesperson for the chamber's Republican leader, Senator John Thune, said there were no scheduling updates. Thune has indicated he might delay the Senate's annual August recess if Democrats do not allow Republicans to confirm Trump nominees more quickly. In a recent post on his Truth Social platform, Trump urged the Senate to stay in Washington for votes on his nominees. Waltz - a retired Army Green Beret and former Republican lawmaker from Florida - is one of the last major Trump nominees awaiting likely Senate confirmation. He was ousted as national security adviser on May 1 after he was caught up in a March scandal involving the Signal chat that discussed details of a U.S. military operation and mistakenly included a journalist. Trump then promptly nominated Waltz as his U.N. ambassador. In a statement on her vote, Shaheen said she disagreed with Waltz on some issues, including his "use of unclassified systems to coordinate sensitive discussions." However she also called him a moderating force with a background in national security policy-making who does not seem to be isolationist. "Mike Waltz did not represent himself to me as someone who wants to retreat from the world - and this is a quality I value in nominees," Shaheen said. At his confirmation hearing this month, Waltz said the United Nations needs reform and the United States must have a strong voice to counter China, adding that he is "confident we can make the U.N. great again."
The Hill
2 hours ago
- Politics
- The Hill
Senate panel advances Waltz nomination for UN ambassador with Democratic support
The top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday helped advance President Trump's nominee for ambassador to the United Nations after opposition from Republican Senator Rand Paul (Ky.) delayed a vote. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), the ranking member of the committee, voted with Republicans to advance Trump's former national security advisor, Mike Waltz, after securing a commitment from the administration to distribute $75 million in lifesaving assistance. Waltz's advancement out of the committee means he can now be scheduled for a vote on the Senate floor. Shaheen said that while she disagrees with Waltz on some issues and raised concern about his role in using the Signal messaging app to discuss attack plans in Yemen, she views him as a 'moderating force' within the administration, criticizing Vice President Vance and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth as people who want to 'retreat from the world.' 'I think we're better off having someone like Mike Waltz present. That is particularly true when you consider the alternatives to Mr. Waltz as a nominee,' she said. Shaheen was making a veiled reference to some of Trump's more controversial allies carrying out diplomacy, like his envoy for special missions Richard Grenell. 'As Mr. Waltz knows, I intend to hold him accountable through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's oversight role in the months and years ahead,' the New Hampshire Democrat continued. 'And I welcome the Administration's commitment to distribute $75 million of lifesaving assistance.' The committee voted 12-10 to advance Waltz's nomination, with Paul the lone Republican senator opposing Trump's nominee. Paul criticized the former Florida lawmaker during his confirmation hearing for a 2020 vote to constrain Trump's ability to bring troops home from Afghanistan, while he was serving in Congress. 'When it comes to ending a war, you voted with [former Wyoming Republican congresswoman] Liz Cheney and the others to say that the president couldn't end the war,' the Kentucky senator said. Trump nominated Waltz as U.N. ambassador after choosing to keep his first nominee, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), in the House to preserve the slim GOP majority. Waltz's nomination also served as a small rebuke for his role in the Signal scandal — when he used the commercial messaging app to discuss war plans against the Houthis in Yemen with the president's senior officials and mistakenly invited a journalist into the conversation. And while Democrats questioned and criticized Waltz over the Signal scandal during his confirmation hearing, the former Green Beret and lawmaker was engaged on substantive topics about the U.S. role at the U.N. with an eye towards confirmation.
Business Insider
10 hours ago
- Business
- Business Insider
Inside the whisper networks where laid-off coworkers job hunt and commiserate
After getting let go from Meta in February, Shayna Moon accepted an invitation to a private LinkedIn chat where she recognized the names of its roughly 40 members. All were former colleagues who'd also been dismissed from the tech giant. Moon, who'd been laid off earlier in her career from Microsoft, said she shared tips with the group on how to apply for health and unemployment benefits, as well as advice she'd received from an employment lawyer. "There's all this administrative stuff you have to do when you're laid off from a job," said the 34-year-old technical producer who lives in California. "It is nice to have a group of people to talk to who are all going through the same bullshit as you are." Getting laid off used to mean having to hastily say goodbye to colleagues and start a job search alone. Not anymore. Many workers who've been let go as part of mass restructurings are staying in touch by joining private online chat groups to vent, grieve, and help each other move on. Unlike more generic alternatives open to anyone hit with a pink slip, these invite-only groups are strictly for individuals booted from the same organization, as they share many of the same frustrations and challenges. A communication lifeline Sara Russell, whose more than 25-year-career as a federal worker came to an abrupt end in February, said a group she joined helped her cope with the pain — and in ways friends and family couldn't. "Everybody's in shock and you need to support each other," she told Business Insider. "As a group, we understood what was going on. We didn't have to explain it all." Russell, 58, said one of her former colleagues set up the chat on the encrypted mobile app Signal a few weeks before they were axed. They sensed that layoffs were coming, she said, because the Trump administration had pledged to trim the federal workforce, and they chose Signal out of concern that their work computers were being monitored. The club, which they named "Survivors," initially served as a way of exchanging information about their predicament, explained Russell, who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. It later morphed into a communication lifeline once they officially got the boot and lost access to their work email. "We were just cut off," she said. "There was no closure. I worked with 70,000 employees and I just disappeared off the map." Surging worker resistance In the wake of the pandemic, workers have been gravitating toward private online groups to contest the incursion of the workplace into their personal lives, according to Brooke Erin Duffy, an associate professor of communication at Cornell University who studies social-media culture. "We have seen a surge in worker resistance," she said, citing the emergence of movements in recent years such as " quiet quitting," " bare minimum Monday," and " lazy girl jobs." Though it's unclear just how many private worker groups exist, lately they've become increasingly important hubs for discussing topics such as layoffs, workplace surveillance, and the impact of generative AI on job security, added Duffy. Between January and June, US-based employers slashed nearly 750,000 jobs, the most for the first half of any year since 2020, according to Challenger, Gray and Christmas. Excluding 2020, that number is the highest midyear total since 2009, the career-transition firm said. "Against this backdrop, it makes sense that workers are turning to whisper networks," Duffy said. Such groups tend to provide more than just emotional solace for layoff victims. They're typically also safe places to gripe about a former employer and ask sensitive questions, such as whether anyone in the group got a severance check yet, said Alison Fragale, an organizational psychologist in Chicago. By contrast, taking complaints or sensitive questions to social media instead isn't likely to be as satisfying and could turn off prospective employers. "We've seen a lot of people do those things to their peril," she said. The power of connections Another benefit of private layoff clubs is that members are often willing to critique each other's résumés, engage in mock interviews and share job leads since everyone is in the same boat and already knows each other. An exception, though, can occur if the group is small and comprises mostly people who previously had the same job function and are looking for work in the same industry and region, warned New York career coach Roy Cohen. In such cases, members might clam up since now "they are competing for the same opportunities," he said. "Game Industry Job Hunt," a private Slack group for laid-off videogame-industry workers and volunteer helpers, is divided into 12 channels, each representing a game company that has been hit with heavy job cuts in recent years. Members are vetted before getting access only to the channel where they belong, though they can all go into a separate one called "Can You Refer Me," which works just like the name sounds. The group's creator, Cristina Amaya, a producer of game-industry events in Los Angeles, said she chose Slack over other messaging apps since it's a common workplace tool and she thinks many people miss using it after losing their jobs. While she is currently employed and had a job when she formed "Game Industry Job Hunt" in late 2023, she said she's been laid off three times and set up the group because she likes helping people. A big believer in the power of networking for finding jobs, Amaya recently introduced a member who was let go earlier this month from a job at "Assassin's Creed" developer Ubisoft Entertainment to a volunteer. The volunteer works at a game studio that the laid-off woman aspires to join. "Your connections make everything for you," Amaya said. "They can be the people who get you in the door." Have a layoff or job-search story to share? Contact the reporter via email at sneedleman@ here's our guide to sharing.
The Herald Scotland
13 hours ago
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Hegseth's Signal messages were classified info from battle commanders
The message was classified as secret information when Gen. Erik Kurilla, the commander of U.S. Central Command, sent it to Hegseth, a U.S. official who was not authorized to speak publicly, told USA TODAY. The Pentagon stood by its contention that the information Hegseth revealed on the Signal chat, which had inadvertently included a journalist from The Atlantic, wasn't secret. More: Trump adviser Michael Waltz defends Signal use, says he stayed on White House payroll "The Department stands behind its previous statements: no classified information was shared via Signal," Sean Parnell, the Pentagon's chief spokesman, said in a statement. "As we've said repeatedly, nobody was texting war plans and the success of the Department's recent operations - from Operation Rough Rider to Operation Midnight Hammer - are proof that our operational security and discipline are top notch." Rough Rider is the name of the operation to bomb Houthi rebels in Yemen who have attacked ships in the Red Sea. The Houthis agreed not to target U.S. ships after heavy bombardment there. Midnight Hammer is the name for the U.S. attack on Iran's nuclear sites.
