Obama picks nominees for agriculture, defense posts
US President Barack Obama intends to nominate Kathleen Merrigan as deputy secretary of the Agriculture Department, the White House said on Monday.
Merrigan was the administrator of the Agricultural Marketing Service at the department from 1999 to 2001.
Obama also intends to nominate Ashton Carter for Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, the White House said in a statement.
Carter was assistant secretary of defense for international security policy from 1993 to 1996.
The White House announced a slate of other expected nominations.
Jon Cannon, who served at the Environmental Protection Agency during three previous administrations, was Obama's pick for the agency's deputy administrator.
Seth Harris, who served as counselor to the secretary of labor and assistant secretary of labor for policy under President Bill Clinton, was Obama's pick for deputy secretary of labor.
Tom Strickland, a former US Attorney in Colorado, is to be nominated for assistant secretary for fish and wildlife and parks at the Department of the Interior.
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Chinese ice cream brand under fire for products that don't melt
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Russia pounds rebel-claimed region, Ukraine pushes back
Russia redoubled its push for Ukraine's eastern Donbas region Wednesday, with the Ukrainian military claiming to have repelled some advances and both sides reporting casualties. The Ukrainian armed forces General Staff said troops stopped enemy units advancing towards Sloviansk, a city in Donetsk, one of two provinces in the Donbas whose capture is among Moscow's main goals. “Every crime will be punished,” he wrote on social media.
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FBI, MI5 chiefs warn of ‘immense’ China threat at rare joint address
FBI Director Christopher Wray and United Kingdom MI5 Director General Ken McCallum on Wednesday cautioned business leaders against threat from the Chinese government, in an unprecedented joint address at the British intelligence service's London headquarters. Speaking to an audience of officials and business executives in Thames House, Wray talked about “complex, enduring, and pervasive danger” to the innovative businesses from China.
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Elon Musk now father of 9, had twins last year with company executive: Report
Tesla chief Elon Musk is now believed to be the father of nine children as a Business Insider report has now claimed that Musk had twins in November 2021 with Shivon Zilis, a top executive at Elon Musk's Neuralink, a brain-chip startup. She has been working in the company since May 2017, the same month she was named a project director in artificial intelligence at Tesla where she worked until 2019.
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UK PM Boris Johnson fires ally and digs in despite calls to quit
Britain's scandal-hit Prime Minister Boris Johnson attempted a rearguard offensive late Wednesday against a cabinet and Conservative party revolt, firing a top ally and vowing to "fight on" despite dozens of his ministers resigning. The dismissal from the cabinet of "levelling up" secretary Michael Gove -- Johnson's right-hand-man in Britain's 2016 Brexit referendum campaign -- dramatically showed that the Conservative leader was not going to bow out without a fight.
