MAGA backlash as Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy defend visa program for skilled workers: Live updates – UK Times

Podcast host Joe Rogan said he believes that current and past presidents, such as President-elect Donald Trump, know “something” about extraterrestrial life but won’t reveal what it it.

Rogan told filmmaker James Fox, whose documentaries often focus on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), that he caught that feeling after asking Trump about it.

“When I confronted Mr. Trump, he was very cagey,” Rogan said on Tuesday’s episode of The Joe Rogan Experience. “Very cagey.”

Another volley has been fired in the ongoing MAGA civil war that’s been playing out online between hardcore “America First” acolytes and Trump-backing Silicon Valley oligarchs over an immigrant worker visa program — and now Elon Musk is being accused of personally punishing his critics.

Laura Loomer and other far-right activists who have railed against the X (formerly Twitter) owner and his DOGE co-chair Vivek Ramaswamy for supporting H-1B visas and criticizing American work culture allege that Musk removed their X verification badges and ability to monetize their accounts in an act of retribution.

“[Musk] has removed my blue check mark on X because I dared to question his support for H1B visas, the replacement of American tech workers by Indian immigrants, and I questioned his relationship with China,” Loomer posted on Thursday night.

There are “indications” that Russia took down the Azerbaijan Airlines flight that crashed in Kazakhstan on Christmas Day, the White House has said.

“We have seen some early indications that would certainly point to the possibility that this jet was brought down by Russian air defense systems,” John Kirby, the National Security Council spokesman, told reporters, according to The Washington Post.

He added that the evidence goes beyond the images shared online.

The investigations’ preliminary findings revealed that the plane crashed “due to external physical and technical interference.”

Azerbaijani Minister of Digital Development and Transport Rashad Nabiyev told his country’s media, “This is evidenced by the appearance of the plane’s wreckage on the ground and eyewitness testimony.”

“The type of weapon used for the interference will be established by the investigation,” Nabiyev said.

Taylor Cagnacci moved from California to Tennessee with hopes of starting a new chapter in a state that touts a low cost of living and natural beauty.

But she’s infuriated by Tennessee’s meager social services, which leave her and many other moms struggling in a state where abortion is banned with limited exceptions.

“I was going to have my child no matter what, but for other women, that’s kind of a crappy situation that they put you in,” said Cagnacci, a 29-year-old Kingsport mom who relies on Medicaid and a federally funded nutrition program. “You have to have your child. But where’s the assistance afterward?”

Former Freedom Caucus chair Rep. Scott Perry has said that he wants to keep his “options open” before committing to voting for Rep. Mike Johnson for speaker for another term in the House.

“I think that Mike has done an admirable job under tough conditions, but I’m going to keep my options open,” Perry said during a Friday morning appearance on Fox Business. “I want to have a conversation with Mike.”

This comes after the current chair of the Freedom Caucus, Rep. Andy Harris, said Thursday that the GOP has to consider if the leadership in place is “what we need.”

He added that he’s “undecided” on who should lead the Republicans in the coming year, according to Politico.

“We’ve just got to make sure that we get the best person for the job under the circumstances,” Perry added. “And I’ll tell you the one that might be able to make the difference is, quite honestly, President Trump. Whoever the president backs is likely to be the speaker, regardless.”

Donald Trump’s sweeping victory in the US presidential race, off the back of promises to end the war in eastern Europe in 24 hours, seemingly even if that means forcing Kyiv to cede territory to Russia, seems to spell the end of the West’s long-held policy of helping Ukraine defeat Vladimir Putin’s forces entirely. Negotiations with Russia, after years of silence, are back on the agenda.

This is causing significant stress in Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada. As Kira Rudik, a Ukrainian opposition leader, puts it: “The world needs to understand how crucial it is not to end the war on any idea of negotiating with Russia.”

Elon Musk started 2024 as the controversial owner of a social media platform, but ends it as one of the most powerful individuals in the world and a key adviser to the incoming US president.

The debate around the billionaire has moved on dramatically over the last 12 months, from whether the way he was running X, formerly Twitter, would be viable or sustainable in the long-term, to whether Mr Musk’s own influence over global politics through his wealth and social media megaphone made him a threat to democracy.

The biggest story of 2024 around Mr Musk has been has dramatic swing behind the US President-elect Donald Trump ahead of the November election and how Mr Musk effectively reconfigured X into a vehicle to support the Republican candidate, alongside his personal fortune.

Russia, the US and China are all undertaking major modernisations of their nuclear weapons just as the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) of the Cold War era between the Soviet Union and the US is starting to fall apart.

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and President-elect Donald Trump’s“first buddy,” revealed on Christmas night that he was using the medication Mounjaro for weight loss while dubbing himself “Ozempic Santa” in a holiday-themed social media post.

The revelation also comes just a couple of weeks after he clashed with Trump’s designated Health and Human Services chief Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over the widespread use and long-term benefits of GLP-1 inhibitors in battling obesity.

Posting to his social media platform X (formerly Twitter), Musk shared an image of himself dressed as Santa Claus next to a Christmas tree alongside the caption “Ozempic Santa.” The post quickly went viral, gathering over 200,000 likes and 26 million views.

“Like Cocaine Bear, but Santa and Ozempic!” Musk added in a separate tweet.

Elon Musk has declared that “hateful, unrepentant racists” should be removed from the Republican Party “root and stem” as the in-party feud over H-1B visas intensifies.

Conversations around H-1B visas have divided Donald Trump’s party, with his Department of Government Efficiency heads Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy on one side and other allies like Laura Loomer on the other. The Space X founder escalated the feud on Friday night when he called for some “contemptible fools” in the GOP to be removed.