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Trump taps Musk-allied big tech critic Brendan Carr to head FCC
President-elect Donald Trump tapped Republican Brendan Carr, an Elon Musk-backed critic of big tech, to lead the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), calling Carr a “warrior for Free Speech” in a statement on Sunday.
Carr has “fought against the regulatory Lawfare that has stifled Americans’ Freedoms” and will “end the regulatory onslaught that has been crippling America’s Job Creators and Innovators, and ensure that the FCC delivers for rural America,” Trump said in the statement.
Carr said on Musk’s social platform X that he was “humbled and honored” to take on the role of FCC chairman.
“We must dismantle the censorship cartel and restore free speech rights for everyday Americans,” he wrote in another post Sunday.
Alex Wong / AP
It is a phrase he has used repeatedly, posting on Friday: “Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft & others have played central roles in the censorship cartel,” adding that it “must be dismantled.”
Carr was already the senior Republican on the FCC, an independent agency that regulates licenses for television and radio, pricing of home internet, and other communications issues in the United States.
The five-person commission will have a 3-2 Democratic majority until next year, when Trump will get to appoint a new member, The Associated Press points out, adding that Carr has also been the commission’s general counsel and was confirmed unanimously by the Senate three times and nominated by both Trump and President Biden to the commission.
Long rumored as a contender for FCC chair, he has built an alliance with billionaire Musk — Trump’s wealthiest backer, whose Starlink satellite internet service could benefit from access to federal cash.
The New York Times reported that Starlink received an $885 million grant in late 2020 from the FCC — but that the Democrat-led commission later revoked it because the service couldn’t prove it would reach enough unconnected rural homes.
Carr “vociferously” opposed the decision, the newspaper reported.
“In my view, it amounted to nothing more than regulatory lawfare against one of the left’s top targets: Mr. Musk,” he wrote in a Wall Street Journal opinion article last month.
Carr has also publicly agreed with the incoming Trump administration’s promises to slash regulation and punish television networks for what they say is political bias.
Trump has repeatedly called to strip major broadcasters such as ABC, NBC and CBS of their licenses.
During the 2024 campaign, he singled out CBS, saying its license should be revoked after its flagship news program “60 Minutes” aired an interview with his Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris. Trump had declined to sit for a similar interview.
Trump sued CBS News, alleging the network’s “deceitful” editing of the 60 Minutes interview of Harris misled the public and unfairly disadvantaged him. In a statement, CBS News called the former president’s claims “completely without merit” and said the network intended to vigorously defend against the lawsuit.
Carr also wrote a chapter on the FCC in the controversial Project 2025 document that purported to lay out a vision for a second Trump administration, in which he also called for the regulation of the largest tech companies, such as Meta, Google and Apple.
The FCC needs to bring new urgency to four main goals: reining in big tech, promoting national security, “unleashing” economic prosperity and ensuring FCC accountability, he wrote in the document by the conservative Heritage Foundation.
Carr was a strong foe of the FCC’s reinstatement in April of landmark net neutrality rules that were repealed during the first Trump administration, the Reuters news agency notes. The Biden FCC rules were in turn put on hold by a federal appeals court.
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Tel Aviv — After more than a year of bombing and homelessness, Gazans are looking to a new administration in Washington for help. President-elect Donald Trump’s election victory has raised hopes and fears among the five million residents of the Palestinian territories — the warn-torn Gaza Strip and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Gaza resident Rakan Abdul Ahman told CBS News he wants the new U.S. president to make Israel end the war.
“We’ve witnessed enough killing of women and children,” he said. “I’m looking for Trump to end the suffering in the Gaza Strip.”
Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu/Getty
In the eyes of Ahmed Harb, a Gazan journalist, the incoming Trump administration faces a real test. In his victory speech, Trump said he’d end wars. Harb hopes that means the one in Gaza.
“I hope he was telling the truth,” he told CBS News, adding: “But he shouldn’t stop the war at the expense of the Palestinian people.”
That is the big worry for Palestinian politicians, too, including Mustafa Bargouti. Still a practicing physician, he leads the Palestinian National Initiative, a party that champions democratic government for all Palestinians in both the West Bank and Gaza.
The question, Bargouti said, is “how you stop the war? Do you stop it by annexing occupied territories? By ethnically cleansing Palestinians? Or do you stop the war by forcing Israel to end its illegal policy of settling Israelis on our land?”
Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, sparked by the U.S. and Israeli-designated terrorist group’s massacre of some 1,200 people on Oct. 7, 2023, has diverted international attention away from growing violence in the West Bank by Israeli settlers determined to encroach on what has been Palestinian land.
In 2023, there were a record number of so-called outposts — makeshift Jewish encampments set up by settlers in what has been Palestinian land. They can be as simple as a couple of shipping containers that function as a de-facto Jewish real estate claim. The settler groups then lobby Israel’s courts and government to retroactively make the outposts official Jewish settlements.
Right-wingers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet support Jewish expansion, including the outposts, in the West Bank. They openly advocate driving the Palestinians out, and annexing the whole area for Israel. Not only would that be illegal under international law, Bargouti warns that it would also lead to even more conflict.
“We will struggle for our rights,” he said. “It will take time. We will suffer. We know that. But what’s the alternative? To cease to exist? It’s ethnic cleansing. We cannot accept that.”
Palestinians everywhere are watching Trump’s choosing of pro-Israeli officials for key positions with dismay, especially Mike Huckabee, the president-elect’s pick to serve as the next U.S. Ambassador to Israel.
Huckabee, an evangelical Christian, is on the record as saying, “there’s really no such thing as a Palestinian.”
“When you hear a person like Huckabee saying there is no occupation, and there are no settlements, they are just Israeli communities…. he might as well say there is no international law,” said Bargouti.
During Trump’s first term, he opposed the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and, in 2020, proposed what he called “the deal of the century” — a template for a long-sought Palestinian state.
Under his proposal, the new state would have been a scattering of isolated Palestinian lands, each surrounded by Israel. The plan was rejected by both the Palestinians and by Jewish settlers and, since then, both sides have dug in.
Even if the new Trump administration revives some version of its proposal for a Palestinian state, it will face Palestinians and their Arab allies whose resolve has only been hardened by a devastating year of war in Gaza that has killed almost 44,000 people.
On the Israeli side, hardliners in Netanyahu’s government oppose any form of Palestinian sovereignty. Netanyahu himself has flatly rejected the prospect repeatedly.
Bargouti, however, sounded ready for the fight.
“I’m sure it will be a rough year for everybody,” he told CBS News. “But whatever happens, we, the Palestinian people, will never give up our right to struggle for our freedom.”
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Victoria Kjær Theilvig is crowned Miss Universe, becomes first contestant from Denmark to win competition
Victoria Kjær Theilvig of Denmark has been crowned Miss Universe.
Kjaer, an animal protection advocate who works in the diamond selling business, beat out Miss Nigeria at the end of 73rd edition of the competition in Mexico City. Miss Mexico placed third.
It is the first time a Danish contestant has won Miss Universe.
Raquel Cunha / REUTERS
The pageant was held in the Mexico City Arena, an indoor venue with a capacity for 20,000 people. Supporters inside shouted and waved flags from countries around the world.
The ceremony began with 131 mariachi musicians and singer Taboo of the Black Eyed Peas playing “Mexicana,” a song created by Emilio Estefan for the contest.
The gala was hosted by Mario López; Olivia Culpo, Miss Universe 2012; presenter Zuri Hall; and Catriona Gray, Miss Universe 2018.
Organizers said that there were more than 120 contestants.
“We can’t wait to see the incredible impact she’ll make as our new Miss Universe,” the competition wrote on social media, along with video of the winning moment. “Congratulations Victoria Kjaer Miss Universe 2024.”
This year some countries were represented for the first time, such as Belarus, Eritrea, Guinea, Macau, Maldives, Moldova and Uzbekistan.
This is the third time that Mexico has hosted Miss Universe.
Miss Nicaragua Sheynnis Palacios won the previous Miss Universe competition in El Salvador, the first to wear the crown from her country.
R’Bonney Gabriel from the United States was crowned the 71st Miss Universe.
