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The Trump administration designated several gangs and cartels, such as Tren de Aragua, MS-13 and the Sinaloa Cartel, as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs).

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a public notice set to be published in the Federal Register on Thursday, that he had concluded there is a ‘sufficient factual basis’ under section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act to designate eight groups as FTOs.

The eight groups consist of Tren de Aragua; Mara Salvatrucha, also known as MS-13; the Sinaloa Cartel; New Generation Cartel of Jalisco; United Cartels; Northeast Cartel; Gulf Cartel; and La Nueva Familia Michoacana, or LNFM, many of which go under multiple different names.

This comes after President Donald Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office to direct the State Department and other executive agencies to move to designate cartels and other criminal groups as FTOs.

The order specifically mentioned Tren de Aragua – which is also known as ‘TdA’ – as well MS-13, as groups needing to be designated as terror organizations.

Trump gave Rubio 14 days to make policy recommendations – in consultation with the secretaries of the Treasury and Homeland Security as well as the U.S. attorney general and director of national intelligence – to make a recommendation regarding the designation of criminal groups to be designated as terrorist organizations.

A foreign terrorist designation expands the government’s ability to crack down on criminal groups operating in the U.S., allowing all government agencies, including the Department of the Treasury, to target that group from every angle. 

The order stated that these groups ‘present an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States,’ and invokes the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEP) to declare a national emergency to ‘deal with those threats.’

‘It is the policy of the United States to ensure the total elimination of these organizations’ presence in the United States and their ability to threaten the territory, safety, and security of the United States through their extraterritorial command-and-control structures, thereby protecting the American people and the territorial integrity of the United States,’ the order read.

Joseph Humire, executive director of the Center for a Secure Free Society, authored a report on how to dismantle TdA in 2024. He previously explained to Fox News Digital that designating these groups as foreign terrorist organizations places them ‘at the highest level’ of U.S. national security interest, meaning their funding and any organizations enabling them can be targeted as well.

‘Trump just put all of them on notice,’ Humire said. ‘This said: ‘We know you’re here; we know you’re up to no good, and we’re going to come after you.”

Fox News Digital’s Peter Pinedo contributed to this report.

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Israel’s Hostages and Missing Families Forum said Wednesday that it had received the “heart-shattering news” that Shiri Bibas and her two young children, Ariel and Kfir, are among the four dead hostages expected to be released from Gaza on Thursday.

The body of Oded Lifshitz is also expected to be released on the same day, in what will be the first handover of dead hostages since the ceasefire deal with Hamas went into effect in January.

“This news cuts like a knife through our hearts, the families’ hearts and the hearts of people all over the world,” the forum said in a statement. “It is with great sadness that we received the news of the return of Shiri, Kfir and Ariel Bibas, along with Oded Lifshitz, who were kidnapped alive and will return deceased for eternal rest in Israel.”

But the announcement of the names was overshadowed by the Bibas family’s anger at the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, which they said had released the names without their approval.

The forum later released a statement at the request of the Bibas family asking the public not to “eulogize our loved ones until there is a confirmation after final identification.”

“This is a serious mistake in the conduct of the IDF liaison officers towards the Bibas family, which resulted from an unfortunate human error,” the source said.

Ahead of tomorrow’s releases, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that “my own heart is torn,” in a video address posted online Wednesday evening.

“Tomorrow will be a very difficult day for the state of Israel. A wrenching day, a day of grief. We are bringing home four of our beloved hostages, deceased,” he said.

Netanyahu added: “We are grieving, we are in pain, but we are also determined to ensure that such a thing never happens again.”

The Bibas children, Kfir and Ariel, were just nine months and four years old, respectively, when they were kidnapped in October 2023. Their family has become one of the most recognizable victims of the October 7 terror attacks.

Lifshitz was 83 years old when he and his wife Yocheved were kidnapped from their home in kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023. Yocheved was one of two hostages released by Hamas later that month, while Oded remained in captivity.

The forum said in a statement Wednesday that “along with the heavy sorrow, their return for burial creates certainty for their loved ones and closes the agonizing circle of uncertainty that has lasted for 502 days.”

“There are another 69 abductees being held captive by Hamas, for whom there is still no release date,” the forum said, adding that decision-makers should “expedite” the negotiations.

Lifshitz’s family said in a statement that “these are not easy times for us, after we were informed that our beloved Oded is on the list of the hostages who will return to Israel tomorrow, after being kidnapped alive from his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz.”

“For 502 days we hoped and prayed for a different ending, but until we receive absolute certainty, our journey will not end, and even after that we will continue to fight until the last hostage is returned,” the statement added.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

Republican lawmakers are backing President Donald Trump’s insistence that Ukraine hold elections, even if they don’t share his belief that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is a ‘dictator.’ 

‘I think you have to give them some space… There is a negotiation going on,’ said Sen. Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.

Trump on Tuesday night said Ukraine ‘never should have started’ the war, and doubled down by calling Zelenskyy a ‘dictator’ because Ukraine hasn’t held elections since Russia invaded the country in 2022.

‘Ukraine clearly did not start this war,’ Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., wrote on X. ‘The fact is that Russia invaded Ukraine and must be held accountable. Otherwise, aggressors will be encouraged in their bad actions.’

Still, the Nebraska senator commended Trump for trying to end the war.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., backed up the president’s push for elections.We held elections during World War Two. Britain held elections during World War Two. If they’re a democracy, they should hold elections. I don’t think that’s difficult,’ he told reporters Thursday. 

‘[Zelenskyy] is the elected leader of the country,’ said Hawley. ‘But, you know, at a certain point you’ve got to hold elections.’

Vice President JD Vance was on Capitol Hill for a lunch with Republican senators, but the president’s bold assertion about the Ukrainian leader was not a topic of discussion, according to Hawley. 

Zelenskyy was originally up for reelection in April 2024, but Ukraine’s constitution bars holding elections until the president lifts the martial law order he instituted after the 2022 invasion.

‘Well, we’ve got to have elections,’ Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said when asked about the comments.

‘When it comes to blame for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, I blame Putin above all others,’ Graham added in a post on X, claiming Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden were ‘pathetically weak in handling Putin and failed to protect Ukraine from invasion.’ 

Still, Graham called Trump Ukraine’s ‘best hope’ to end the war. Trump ‘will achieve this goal in the Trump way,’ he said. 

Graham spoke with Zelenskyy on Wednesday, according to the Ukrainian leader. ‘As always, Senator Graham is constructive and doing a lot to help bring peace closer,’ he said. 

‘Make no mistake about it, that invasion was the responsibility of one human being on the face of this planet. It was Vladimir Putin,’ Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., told reporters. 

Tillis said he believed Putin planned to roll through the Baltic States and ‘send the signal to China that now is the time’ they can take over Taiwan. 

‘That’s what this is about, and that’s what we have to communicate.’ 

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., signaled that he disagreed with Trump’s comments on Zelenskyy, calling Putin a ‘gangster’ and an ‘evil person.’

Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., called Zelenskyy the ‘duly elected president of Ukraine’ but said he did not believe U.S. policy was aligning with Ukraine. 

‘I think he’s factually wrong on those points,’ said Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-S.D.  ‘I also don’t know what his motive [is] behind it. As a negotiator, he’s always positioning, and he’s in a negotiating mood these days.’

Trump’s remarks came just after Secretary of State Marco Rubio, national security adviser Mike Waltz and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff traveled to Saudi Arabia to meet with their Russian counterparts. 

The team came back with an agreement to increase diplomatic presence in each other’s nation and an agreed-upon need for elections in Ukraine. 

Russia has insisted it will not sign a peace agreement until Ukraine agrees to hold elections, and the U.S. is now ‘floating’ the idea of a three-stage plan: ceasefire, then Ukrainian elections, then inking of a peace deal.

General Valerii Zaluzhny, likely Zelenskyy’s most formidable opponent in a reelection campaign, said he would not entertain the idea of running against Ukraine’s president until the war is over. 

‘When such conditions come, I will be ready to give an answer to such a question. For now, our task is to endure and save our nation. And only after that will we think about other things.’

Zelenskyy, according to Trump, ‘refuses to have Elections, is very low in Ukrainian Polls, and the only thing he was good at was playing Biden ‘like a fiddle.’’

‘A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left. In the meantime, we are successfully negotiating an end to the War with Russia, something all admit only ‘TRUMP,’ and the Trump Administration, can do,’ Trump said.  ‘Biden never tried, Europe has failed to bring Peace, and Zelenskyy probably wants to keep the ‘gravy train’ going. I love Ukraine, but Zelenskyy has done a terrible job, his Country is shattered, and MILLIONS have unnecessarily died.’ 

Dmitry Medvedev, a top Kremlin security official, remarked: ‘If you’d told me just three months ago that these were the words of the US president, I would have laughed out loud. [Trump] is 200 percent right [about Zelenskyy]. Bankrupt clown.’

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

: Senate Republican conference Chairman Tom Cotton, R-Ark., is set to meet with an embattled Trump nominee for a key position in the Department of Defense (DOD) after Cotton faced backlash from some MAGA-aligned figures over the weekend.

Cotton will meet with President Donald Trump’s nominee for Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, Elbridge ‘Bridge’ Colby, in the coming days, a source familiar shared with Fox News Digital. 

According to the source, senators on the Senate Committee on Armed Services (SASC) had come to Cotton with concerns regarding some of Colby’s stances, particularly past comments on Iran potentially obtaining a nuclear weapon. 

Turning Point USA founder and CEO Charlie Kirk told Fox News Digital in an exclusive statement, ‘I’m very happy to hear that Sen. Cotton is willing to meet with Bridge,’ touting the nominee’s accomplishments and ‘thoughtful’ approach.

Whether his own public pressure on the senator via X played a part in the meeting, he said, ‘Both public and private pressure are important. Ideally, these debates don’t play out in public, but sometimes it’s necessary.’

‘What has become very clear to me in recent days is that the base is paying close attention to this confirmation, and there will be political consequences for any senator who stands in the way of the personnel President Trump wants,’ Kirk continued, adding that he hopes Cotton will ultimately back Colby. 

The source told Fox News Digital that issues with Colby’s positions on the war between Russia and Ukraine had surfaced from some members. But what was ultimately fostering hesitance was his previously stated stance on Iran’s nuclear capabilities and whether the U.S. should contain a nuclear Iran.

As for Cotton, a source familiar explained that the GOP Conference and Intel Committee chairman is ‘comfortable’ with nominees who say they support Trump’s position in preventing Iran from accessing nuclear weapons. 

The anticipated meeting between the top Republican and Colby comes after Cotton was the target of ‘MAGA’ ire over the weekend for his hesitance to get behind the nominee. 

Figures such as billionaire White House advisor Elon Musk and Kirk, a fierce MAGA ally, took to X to discuss Colby’s nomination and Cotton’s purported hesitance. 

‘The effort to undermine President Trump continues in the US Senate,’ Kirk wrote. 

He further claimed Cotton ‘is working behind the scenes to stop Trump’s pick, Elbridge Colby, from getting confirmed at DOD.’

‘Colby is one of the most important pieces to stop the Bush/Cheney cabal at DOD. Why is Tom Cotton doing this? Comment below your theories,’ he added. 

X owner Musk replied, ‘Why the opposition to Bridge? What does he think Bridge will do?’

‘Senator Cotton is focused on ensuring all defense nominees commit to supporting President Trump’s position that Iran must not have a nuclear weapon, and Cotton will be addressing this in meetings and hearings with the nominees,’ a source familiar with the matter told Fox News Digital earlier this week as they awaited Colby’s paperwork to proceed with the nomination process.

The White House did not provide comment when asked by Fox News Digital whether Colby’s stance on a nuclear Iran had changed. 

Colby had written in an op-ed in 2010 that ‘[c]ontaining a nuclear Iran is an eminently plausible and practical objective.’

He did, however, cede that ‘preventing an Iranian nuclear capability should be the objective of Washington and the international community.’

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

Some key pro-life activists are raising ethical questions about President Donald Trump’s executive order to expand access to pricey in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures, arguing the technology ‘is not pro-life’ because some embryos ‘are destroyed’ in the process.

‘IVF doesn’t address the root causes of the infertility health crisis in America,’ Live Action founder Lila Rose wrote on X. ‘It’s a Big Pharma bandaid, with major ethical issues, like millions of frozen & destroyed embryos. If we want to Make America Healthy Again, we should invest in addressing and healing the underlying causes of infertility.’

Trump signed the executive order Tuesday, fulfilling part of a key campaign promise to mandate free IVF treatment for women. The order came shortly after Democrats criticized him for his role in appointing Supreme Court justices who reversed the landmark Roe v. Wade case, leaving abortion access up to each state,

Trump: I have been a ‘leader’ on IVF

IVF ‘offers hope to men and women experiencing fertility challenges,’ the executive order states, and ‘Americans need reliable access to IVF and more affordable treatment options’ as the cost for treatments can range anywhere from $12,000 to $25,000.  

‘Therefore, to support American families, it is the policy of my Administration to ensure reliable access to IVF treatment, including by easing unnecessary statutory or regulatory burdens to make IVF treatment drastically more affordable,’ the order states.

Patrick T. Brown, a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, explained that IVF raises a unique ethical issue within the conservative pro-life movement due to the technology’s potential to create new life, which is causing some splintering among some on the right.

‘I think that there are questions about what exactly are we doing with IVF, where we’re creating something that has the potential to become a human person,’ Brown said. ‘All of us were embryos at one stage or another, so they deserve some respect, at the very least, if not legal protection of some form or another.’

‘There’s actual guardrails that need to be pursued, rather than just going full speed ahead,’ he added.

Brown predicted that the most likely outcome is that after the White House comes up with a plan in the next three months, the Trump administration may consult with experts who have long been focused on IVF who are aware of the ethical concerns.

‘The U.S. allows people to select sex or to screen for different genetic traits in a way that most other countries don’t,’ Brown said. ‘We’re kind of the ‘Wild West’ when it comes to some of this stuff. And it opens the can of worms for eugenics and some of these other things that I don’t think President Trump actually intends. But, you know, it could actually go that way if we’re not careful about it.’

Several conservative social media influencers opposed Trump’s executive order on Tuesday. 

‘IVF ends more precious lives than it creates,’ Turning Point USA influencer Alex Clark wrote on X. ‘President Trump’s executive order pushing for expanded access is just fueling the same industry that competes with Planned Parenthood. More babies will also be born without a right to know both of their biological parents, and that’s a tragedy in itself.’

Conservative commentator Liz Wheeler, who is Catholic, called IVF ‘dreadful’ in another post. 

‘Over 90% of children created by IVF die, either left frozen and abandoned, destroyed due to eugenics, experimented on, or miscarried. Only 7% are born. It’s dreadful,’ she wrote.

Allie Beth Stuckey, an evangelical Christian who hosts The Blaze podcast ‘Relatable,’ wrote that IVF ‘is anti-MAHA,’ referring to the Make America Healthy Again movement.

‘It’s the perfect example of what’s wrong with much of modern medicine in America,’ she wrote. ‘Instead of getting to the root cause of infertility, it masks the symptoms with a ‘solution’ that is a threat to women’s health. The process almost always involves the destruction or indefinite freezing of embryos. It is unbelievably unregulated in the United States, and I fear this latest EO will only make it worse.’

IVF rose to become a high-profile issue during the presidential campaign. In February 2024, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are children, leading to paused IVF services in the state. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey later codified access to IVF services in state law a few months later.

‘When frozen embryos are thawed and prepared for transfer, there is a very small possibility that they may be damaged or destroyed and therefore unable to be successfully transferred,’ Joanne Rosen, a practice professor in Health Policy and Management at Johns Hopkins University, wrote in a blog post after the state’s high court ruling. ‘Even fresh embryos may be damaged and not able to be transferred. So there was real concern about the legal consequences given that these embryos, these in vitro embryos, have been declared persons under the law in Alabama.’

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the head of the Health and Human Services (HHS) department, wrote in a September post that while he and Trump are not opposed to IVF, ‘we are going to investigate the alarming decline in fertility.’

‘We will evaluate research implicating chemicals like glyphosate, BPA, heavy metals, xenoestrogens, endocrine-disrupting chemicals, and so on,’ he wrote. ‘We will look into nutritional factors too. Why are sperm counts declining year after year? Why are girls reaching puberty so early? Why are so many couples infertile? The American people deserve answers, and we will provide them. So yes, IVF – but this issue is so much bigger than IVF.’

Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment. 

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

The suspicion this was personal always lingered. But there was hope the greater good of both the US and Ukraine would win out.

The past 24 hours has seen US President Donald Trump’s slow-burn, apparent dislike for his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, belch out into the open. And with it comes a real and new uncertainty about the future of Ukraine, and more widely the security of Europe.

Last week, Trump hinted he felt Zelensky’s poll numbers were low and he would have to face elections, but Tuesday night he dug deeper, falsely stating the wartime leader was at 4 per cent favorability and Ukraine had started the war.

This is pretty close to Kremlin talking points. Moscow has been at pains to incorrectly suggest Ukraine’s imminent joining of NATO was behind its unprovoked attack in 2022, and that Zelensky is illegitimate as Ukraine has not undertaken the immense challenge of running elections in wartime.

Zelensky has for months flattered Trump as one who can bring peace through strength. Kyiv knew the Trump team’s rhetoric on the campaign trail spelt a likely sea change for Ukraine, but held out hope, with European allies, that Trump would seek to avoid an Kabul Airport Moment of collapse in security on the continent, and keep Russia back.

In the background, lingered the risk their contentious relationship in Trump’s first term – when Zelensky didn’t give Trump what he wanted in a “perfect” phone call that led to impeachment – was a dark, inescapable cloud that would hang over their future interactions. Now that cloud has loudly broken and Ukraine is getting wet.

Zelensky has tempered his remarks about Trump living in a “disinformation space” by adding he has great respect for this US president and the American people. But Trump sought no such caveats, even adding the “dictator” needed to move fast to save Ukraine and was on a “gravy train.”

Twice in five days this White House has dubbed European democratic leaders tyrants, falsely, while declining to mention the Kremlin’s authoritarian record in the same speech. US Vice President JD Vance at the weekend in Munich said Europe’s most democratic US allies were afraid of their voters. Now Trump says Russia’s greatest adversary is himself a “dictator” on the make. Putin’s army of propagandists are being outwritten on Pennsylvania Avenue.

The existential dilemma now for Ukraine is whether it even has the luxury of choice between its wartime president and its main military backer, the United States. Is enough left intact of either?

Zelensky is now the subject of withering posts by the world’s most powerful man, who is parroting a regular supply of Kremlin talking points stemming from somewhere yet unknown, altering the course of the largest war in Europe since the 1940s.

The Trump administration’s financial support for Ukraine – without which its survival is truly in doubt – is now endangered. Trump has repeatedly referred – falsely – to how Ukraine’s aid is “MISSING,” and somehow that Zelensky is on a “gravy train.” He is preparing a narrative for the American people that probably ends in the aid itself being curtailed.

So why doesn’t Zelensky, who has spent half of his six years in power fighting a war he did not initially believe was going to happen, just call a vote and be done with talk of his legitimacy? Elections in Ukraine have been tough in the past two decades, even in peacetime. Russia has sought to meddle, in 2004 stealing the vote and sparking huge protests that unseated its proxy candidate who stole the vote.

In wartime, elections are suspended during martial law. A ceasefire, proposed also by Trump’s team, could lead to this being suspended, and allowing soldiers to vote. But what of the millions of Ukrainians abroad as refugees? What of the electoral reform and emergency legislation needed for a legitimate, modern vote? Should it be rushed to get a quick result, or labored over to reach the full, gold standards of international legitimacy? What if a Russian drone assault or missiles derail the voting day? Everything could go wrong and almost certainly will.

The result would irrevocably be shrouded in doubt, further damaging the mandate Zelensky is falsely accused of lacking, or empowering an alternative who would also lack full legitimacy. It would sow chaos on the front lines, at the kitchen tables and in the coffee shops of Kyiv, and in the Ukrainian diaspora around Europe. This is exactly what the Kremlin wants: political torment to add to Kyiv’s woes across the front line.

It is becoming harder to divine Trump’s motives. You cannot bluff when it comes to geopolitical security and NATO; your opponents will hear weakness in an alliance, and not fear you more as you strike a hard negotiating pose against your own allies. You cannot force a flawed peace upon a country fearing for the survival of its own borders and people. You cannot undermine a wartime leader and not expect his troops to also falter on the front lines. Only one strategic interest has been served by Trump’s radical rewriting of the global order in the past fortnight. And it is that of the one adversary NATO was founded to confront.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

Trading resumes in:

Company: World Copper Ltd.

TSX-Venture Symbol: WCU

All Issues: Yes

Resumption (ET): 12:30 PM

CIRO can make a decision to impose a temporary suspension (halt) of trading in a security of a publicly-listed company. Trading halts are implemented to ensure a fair and orderly market. CIRO is the national self-regulatory organization which oversees all investment dealers and trading activity on debt and equity marketplaces in Canada .

SOURCE Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) – Halts/Resumptions

News Provided by PR Newswire via QuoteMedia

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Argentine President Javier Milei is facing withering criticism, including some calls for impeachment, after promoting a new cryptocurrency on his social media account.

In a since-deleted post from his personal account on X on Feb. 14, Milei shared a link to a site where users could purchase a cryptocurrency called $LIBRA, a coin attached to a new initiative called Project Libertad, whose website indicates funds from the coin launch were designed to support Argentine businesses. 

In his post, Milei indicated the coin and the project would help the country’s economy and small businesses. 

Soon after launching, the coin’s price rose from about $0.22 to more than $5. Yet within an hour of the launch, buyers began to notice sales from early purchasers, and the price tanked some 70%.  

According to crypto analytics firm LookOnChain, eight digital wallets linked to early trading of the coin cashed out a total of $107 million, while data reported by crypto news site ICOBench showed some 60 individual traders each lost more than $500,000, while 24 traders lost at least $1 million.     

Today, LIBRA coin is worth about $0.30 according to CoinMarketCap.com.

The timeline of events has led to accusations on social media that the coin’s developers, or those with early awareness of the project, executed a “rug pull” on later buyers, to whom they knew they could sell at a higher price. 

Representatives for the project did not respond to a request for comment.

The situation has drawn some parallels with President Donald Trump’s promotion of a cryptocurrency just prior to taking office; that coin, TRUMP, has fallen in value by some 80% to about $16 from its immediate post-launch high of nearly $78. 

However, while early backers of TRUMP coin also saw large windfalls, the project was more transparent about its ownership structure.   

In a post on X, Hayden Davis, an American, denied accusations of wrongdoing in launching LIBRA and accused Milei himself of reneging on the project. 

“It is crucial to recognize that memecoin investments are driven by trust and endorsement,” Davis wrote. “When Milei and his team deleted their posts, investors who had purchased the token based on their trust in his endorsement felt betrayed. This led to a wave of panic selling, further exacerbating the situation. The sudden loss of confidence had a catastrophic impact on the token’s market stability.”

Davis did not respond to a request for additional comment. 

On Saturday, Milei’s official account posted a lengthy description of what had occurred, stating that Milei himself has since invoked Argentina’s anti-corruption investigator to look into the matter, including the president’s own involvement.

In a television interview Monday, Milei admitted he had likely erred in promoting the coin.

“I’m a techno-optimist . . . and this was proposed to me as an instrument to help fund Argentine projects,” he said according to the Financial Times. “It’s true that in trying to help out those Argentines, I took a slap in the face.”  

His office said that while he had met twice with representatives of the project, he was never involved in its development.

“The most interesting lesson is that . . . I need to put up more filters, it can’t be so easy for people to reach me,” Milei said in the interview. 

While some analysts say getting enough votes to pass impeachment articles may be unlikely, Milei’s opposition is already pouncing on the incident, with one coalition calling it “a scandal without precedent” and another group for the creation of an independent commission, according to The New York Times.

Milei was the first foreign leader to meet Trump after the November election, and has developed what some have called a “bromance” with Elon Musk. Milei pioneered a new government agency, the Ministry of Deregulation and State Transformation, last year that has parallels with the Department of Government Efficiency Musk has spearheaded.   

Milei took office in December 2023 promising to tackle his country’s longtime inflation woes. Although some progress has been made, the country’s poverty rate has also increased.

This post appeared first on NBC NEWS

KFC is leaving Kentucky.

The fried chicken chain’s U.S. headquarters will move from Louisville, Kentucky, to Plano, Texas, owner Yum Brands said Tuesday.

About 100 KFC U.S. employees will be required to relocate over the next six months.

The relocation is part of Yum’s broader plan to have two corporate headquarters: one in Plano, the other in Irvine, California. KFC and Pizza Hut’s global teams are already based in Plano, while Taco Bell and the Habit Burger & Grill’s teams are located in Irvine.

Additionally, Yum’s U.S. remote workforce, roughly 90 workers, will also be asked to move to the campus where their work is based.

But Yum isn’t entirely abandoning Kentucky. The company and the KFC Foundation plan to maintain corporate offices in Louisville. Plus, KFC still plans to build a new flagship restaurant in its former hometown.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, many employers have been rethinking the location of their corporate headquarters, often spurred to move because of lower taxes and changes to office space needs due to the hybrid or remote workforce. With its business-friendly policies, Texas has been the most popular relocation choice, according to a 2023 report from CBRE.

In 2020, Yum rival Papa Johns moved its headquarters from Louisville to Atlanta. It later canceled plans to sell its old headquarters, instead opting to hold on to the building for the corporate workers who stayed in Louisville.

This post appeared first on NBC NEWS

For decades, popcorn has been a staple of the movie theater experience and exhibitors’ bottom lines. Now, the receptacle it comes in is becoming just as important.

As recently as three years ago, AMC Entertainment didn’t sell any merchandise. Last year it hawked novelty popcorn buckets, drink sippers and T-shirts to the tune of about $65 million in revenue.

“It started with us in a big way with our own movie, ‘Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour,’ that we released in October of 2023 and we sold just an incredible number of popcorn buckets,” said AMC CEO Adam Aron. “That sparked us to do it almost all the time … just literally every month.”

Other theater chains like Cinemark, Marcus, Regal and B&B Theatres have also embraced popcorn buckets, using these specialty items to drive concession purchases, create a sense of urgency to see big movies on opening weekend and add value to the theatrical experience.

“Post-Covid, we realized that the eventizing of cinema has never really been as important as it is now,” said Paul Farnsworth, executive director of communication and content at B&B Theatres. “We recognized during that time that the greatest casualty for our industry was people just fell out of the habit of going to movies.”

Hollywood production issues led to fewer theatrical releases and smaller ticket sales in 2024, with box office receipts down 3.4% from 2023 to $8.74 billion. Farnsworth noted that unique popcorn buckets can add value to a customer’s trip to the movies and creates a memory of the trip that can be taken home, propped up on a display shelf or repurposed for movie nights in.

“It is very good for the bottom line,” he said. “The big value for us is that people come in and there’s these fun things they get to take home and they’re taking pictures with them in the theater. There’s immense value in that.”

For Cinemark, the proof of concept came with the release of “Scream VI” in 2023.

“We made a ‘Scream’ popcorn bucket and it completely caught us by surprise,” said Sean Gamble, CEO of Cinemark. “This thing just had this huge uptake. We sold out of the thing immediately and we were basically selling them to people online afterwards.”

Commemorative popcorn buckets have long been a part of theme park merchandising, driving revenue of the likes of Disney and Universal both domestically and internationally. However, U.S.-based movie theaters were late to adopt the trend.

Marketing and merchandise company Zinc has been designing and manufacturing branded popcorn buckets and drink sippers for over a decade internationally, but turned its attention stateside in 2016.

“Theaters were reticent because the cups didn’t fit in the holders,” said Rod Mason, vice president of business development at Zinc Group, one of the biggest players in the premium popcorn space.

A shift came in 2019 with an R2-D2 popcorn bucket created for “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” Mason said.

“AMC took a punt on it,” he explained. “They took multiple tens of thousands of pieces. They sold through it in about three or four days at an incredibly high price. Nothing like that had ever been done before, and it was like ‘OK, well, this works.’”

A revamped version of the droid popcorn bucket was re-released for the 25th anniversary screenings of “Star Wars: Episode 1 — A Phantom Menace.”

The popcorn bucket and drink cup combo sold for $49.99.

However, the true watershed moment for the niche market came nearly five years later with a now-infamous popcorn bucket in honor of “Dune: Part Two,” released in last March. The bucket was modeled after the sandworms featured in the film but inspired crude comparisons to an adult product.

“The beauty of the ‘Dune’ bucket was it just wasn’t intended to be viral,” Mason said.

The $24.99 bucket sold out and found momentum on secondary markets. Receipts from eBay show these popcorn buckets sold for between $50 and $210 apiece on the reseller site.

“The popularity of the popcorn buckets on social media combined with the perception of limited supply of the popcorn buckets leads to a feeling of ‘fear of missing out’ among consumers who are driven to buy the buckets when [they] see them available,” said Lindsay Brookshier, content director at online Disney guide MickeyVist.com.

The “Dune” bucket inspired “Deadpool & Wolverine” actor and producer Ryan Reynolds to design a cheeky popcorn bucket for the release of his film.

“Years from now they will look back at 2024 as when the War of the Popcorn Buckets began,” Reynolds wrote on X to promote the concession container, which was shaped like Wolverine’s head with its mouth wide open to house the popcorn.

The $29.99 bucket was exclusively available at AMC and was released the same weekend as San Diego Comic-Con and the “Deadpool & Wolverine” film release.

Studios and theaters have been more proactive about working with companies like Zinc to create unique popcorn buckets for moviegoers.

“It’s a very competitive business,” said Mason. “Everyone is trying to outdo, and not just the companies like us, but also the companies that are buying it. They’re trying to make sure that they have the coolest item … that competition has been magnified over the last 12 months because there’s so many eyes on this segment of the business.”

And the movie industry is about to have an influx of blockbuster titles now that production delays from the pandemic and dual Hollywood strikes are in the rearview mirror.

Following “Captain America: Brave New World,” which debuted Friday, the 2025 calendar has “Thunderbolts*,” ” Mission: Impossible: The Final Reckoning,” “How to Train Your Dragon,” “Jurassic World Rebirth,” “Superman,” “Fantastic Four: First Steps,” “Wicked: For Good,” “Zootopia 2,” and “Avatar: Fire and Ash.”

And 2026 has equally promising tie-ins for popcorn buckets with a “Super Mario Bros.” sequel, “Avengers: Doomsday,” “The Mandalorian and Grogu,” “Toy Story 5,” “Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow,” “Minions 3,” “Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping,” “Ice Age 6″ and “Shrek 5.”

“We’ve missed out on a couple,” B&B’s Farnsworth said. “We didn’t have that crazy ‘Dune’ one. But that was kind of one of the hinge points for us. It was like, ‘Alright, we really have to pay attention.’”

B&B, the fifth-largest cinema chain in America with 58 locations, still has to be very intentional about which products it offers and how many it purchases. Films like “Wicked,” with a massive built-in audience craving merchandise, are a safer bet. But theaters have a very short window to sell the specialty items.

“Unlike our normal popcorn bags, which are evergreen, if you don’t sell the [product], you’re probably not going to sell them a month after the movie,” Farnsworth said.

Meanwhile, AMC is investing more heavily.

“One of the big things that we’re doing in 2025 is we’re significantly increasing the quantities,” Aron said, noting that AMC was already placing orders for 100,000 units or more. “We’re buying, because there’s no need for us to sell out on opening day. There’s plenty of people coming to see that movie for weeks and weeks.”

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.

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