A video posted to social media by a Texas lieutenant in the Department of Public Safety shows a young girl at the U.S.-Mexico border standing alone. She has traveled from El Salvador, and holds just a Post-It note with a phone number on it. "How old are you?" a trooper asks. The girl holds up two fingers. A second video posted by the same lieutenant shows 60 migrant children who journeyed by themselves to the U.S. arriving in Eagle Pass, Texas. Another image shows an accused smuggler running across the border with a 5-year-old in his arms, reportedly paid to bring the girl to her mother already in the states. The Texas Department of Public Safety, under Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, openly supports President-elect Donald Trump's push to dramatically tighten immigration. Lt. Chris Olivarez began posting photos and videos of child migrants around the time Tom Homan, Trump's point-person on the border, visited Eagle Pass. "I guarantee some are in forced labor, some are in sex trades," Homan said. "We're going to save those children." RELATED STORY | Trump announces former acting ICE Director Tom Homan as new 'border czar' The arrival of unaccompanied minors is not a new phenomenon. Thousands have journeyed across the Mexican border each year, including during the first Trump term, according to a Scripps News review of data from the Department of Health and Human Services. The flow of unaccompanied minors, however, reached record highs during the first years of the Biden administration, as undocumented immigration soared. The numbers have fallen since 2022 but remain elevated today. The federal government tries to quickly place child migrants with a sponsor already in the country, usually a parent or other close family member. The sponsor pledges to care for the minor while ensuring they go through immigration proceedings. However, it is an approach that does not always work. RELATED STORY | Trump's mass deportation plan targets specific groups of immigrants A 2023 joint investigation by Scripps News and the Center for Public Integrity found many children end up disappearing from their sponsor homes. Thousands of unaccompanied minors run away, some winding up in dangerous illegal child labor jobs, or worse. "They've simply vanished into a dark underworld of sex and drug trafficking, forced labor, gang activity and crime," said Rep. Tom McClintock, R-California, during a November congressional hearing. McClintock and other Republicans say the Department of Health and Human Services is to blame for failing to properly vet sponsors. A 2023 report by a Florida grand jury obtained by Scripps News found some sponsor addresses were in fact empty lots or a strip club. One address listed 44 kids assigned to it. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra says they are doing the best they can with a limited budget. "What we don't do is short-change the vetting process," Becerra said at a November hearing on Capitol Hill. "We make sure that we follow best practices in the child welfare field. "We do background checks on every individual," he added. RELATED STORY | The struggle to locate migrant children missing from US homes Just how many migrant children have disappeared from their sponsors is in dispute. Becerra says a frequently cited estimate of 85,000 missing kids is too high and doesn't account for many children who are safe but just not reachable by HHS officials who make three attempts to contact them. "They may be at school, they may be at a doctor's appointment, they may not have a phone working anymore," Becerra said. Homan and the rest of the Trump administration have not yet laid out what their policy will be for those children who make the perilous journey to the U.S. alone., but its fries have a major following too. These aren't your standard fried potatoes that are just salted and plated. Wingstop has its own special formula that its crew members shake on; it's a little sweet and very salty, peppery and something else. Although Wingstop proper has chosen not to disclose the ingredients of their fry seasoning, several versions exist on the internet and social media. There are even comments where alleged restaurant employees reveal the recipe for the fry seasoning. The recipes seem to have two ingredients in common — salt and sugar. However, extant variations include brown sugar, Stevia, oregano and other ingredients. The most popular seasoning recipe combinations are sugar, salt, pepper, chili powder, onion powder, garlic powder. A few recipes include paprika as well, which we certainly get a sense of when tasting. They're fries, after all, so if you just season sensibly you can't go wrong. There are a few key ingredients across the DIY recipes online The sweetness is key to the , but some people are not fans. Making your own seasoning mix is a good way to adjust the sugar in the fry seasoning. Adding brown sugar would bring a deeper, more molasses-like flavor that may be a little too intense for the Wingstop fry recipe. Stevia is a good substitute but comes with its own flavor limitations. Granulated sugar seems to be the best source of sweetness for those just looking to duplicate Wingstop fries. Pepper is another key ingredient that a few recipes omitted. The Wingstop fry seasoning obviously has black pepper. It's the one spice in the mix that can be visibly verified. The chili powder and/or paprika also seem to fill another visible component of the spice blend — the redness of the mix. Paprika and chili powder are also two spices that go well with one another. That's why it feels right to have paprika in the recipe. One usually follows the other in similar spice mixes. Make up a few different versions of the spice mix and set it aside in different containers. Then, fry store-bought frozen fries or . Air-fried fries may work, too. Sprinkle the spice mix on the fries and taste; until Wingstop gives us official word, any decent dupe will take some trial and error. RecommendedATLANTA — Already reeling from their November defeats, Democrats now are grappling with President Joe Biden’s pardoning of his son for federal crimes after the party spent years slamming Donald Trump as a threat to democracy who disregarded the law. The president pardoned Hunter Biden late Sunday evening, reversing his previous pledges with a grant of clemency that covers more than a decade of any federal crimes his son might have committed. The 82-year-old president said in a statement that his son’s prosecution on charges of tax evasion and falsifying a federal weapons purchase form were politically motivated. “He believes in the justice system, but he also believes that politics infected the process and led to a miscarriage of justice,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who along with Biden and other White House officials insisted for months that Hunter Biden would not get a pardon. That explanation did not satisfy some Democrats, angry that Biden’s reversal could make it harder to take on Trump, who has argued that multiple indictments and one conviction against him were a matter of Biden and Democrats turning the justice system against him. “This is a bad precedent that could be abused by later Presidents and will sadly tarnish his reputation,” Colorado Gov. Jared Polis wrote of Biden on the social media platform X. “When you become President, your role is Pater familias of the nation,” the governor continued, a reference to the president invoking fatherhood in explaining his decision. “Hunter brought the legal trouble he faced on himself, and one can sympathize with his struggles while also acknowledging that no one is above the law, not a President and not a President’s son.” Rep. Greg Stanton, D-Ariz., said on X: “This wasn’t a politically motivated prosecution. Hunter committed felonies and was convicted by a jury of his peers.” Certainly, the president has plenty of Democratic defenders who note Trump’s use of presidential powers to pardon a slew of his convicted aides, associates and friends, several for activities tied to Trump’s campaign and administration. “Trump pardoned Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort, as well as his son-in-law’s father, Charles Kushner — who he just appointed US ambassador to France,” wrote prominent Democratic fundraiser Jon Cooper on X. “Sorry, but Biden was right to pardon his son Hunter to protect him against Kash Patel’s weaponized FBI,” Cooper concluded, referring to Trump’s apparent plan to oust FBI Director Christopher Wray in favor of a loyalist who has talked of going after political opponents and journalists. First lady Jill Biden said Monday from the White House: “Of course I support the pardon of my son.” Democrats already are facing the prospects of a Republican trifecta in Washington, with voters returning Trump to the White House and giving the GOP control of the House and Senate. Part of their argument against Trump and Republican leaders is expected to be that the president-elect is violating norms with his talk of taking retribution against his enemies. Before beating Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump faced his own legal troubles, including two cases that stemmed from his efforts to overturn his defeat to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election. Those cases, including Trump’s sentencing after being convicted on New York state business fraud charges, have either been dismissed or indefinitely delayed since Trump’s victory on Nov. 5, forcing Democrats to recalibrate their approach to the president-elect. In June, President Biden firmly ruled out a pardon or commutation for his son, telling reporters as his son faced trial in the Delaware gun case, “I abide by the jury decision. I will do that and I will not pardon him.” As recently as Nov. 8, days after Trump’s victory, Jean-Pierre ruled out a pardon or clemency for the younger Biden, saying, “We’ve been asked that question multiple times. Our answer stands, which is no.” The president’s about-face came weeks before Hunter Biden was set to receive his punishment after his trial conviction in the gun case and guilty plea on tax charges. It capped a long-running legal saga for the younger Biden, who disclosed he was under federal investigation in December 2020 — a month after his father’s 2020 victory. The sweeping pardon covers not just the gun and tax offenses against the younger Biden, but also any other “offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014, through December 1, 2024.” Hunter Biden was convicted in June in Delaware federal court of three felonies for purchasing a gun in 2018 when, prosecutors said, he lied on a federal form by claiming he was not illegally using or addicted to drugs. He had been set to stand trial in September in a California case accusing him of failing to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes. But he agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanor and felony charges in a surprise move hours after jury selection was set to begin. In his statement Sunday, the president argued that such offenses typically are not prosecuted with the same vigor as was directed against Hunter Biden. “The charges in his cases came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election,” Biden said in his statement. “No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son. ... I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision.”download sg777 。

Stefanie Damron's disappearance in Maine being investigated by FBI with $15,000 reward offered

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minnesota Republicans filed a lawsuit Monday to try to force a rerun of a state House race where the incumbent Democrat won by 14 votes — but in which investigators concluded that election workers probably destroyed 20 valid absentee ballots after failing to count them. It's a race that could determine the balance of power in the Minnesota House, where leaders from both parties are working out the details of a power-sharing agreement that currently presumes a 67-67 tie when the Legislature convenes next month. A Republican victory in a special election could shift that balance to a two-vote, 68-66 GOP majority. Democrats have a one-vote majority in the state Senate. So regardless of the outcome in the disputed race, Minnesota will be returning to some degree of divided government in 2025 after two years of full Democratic control. “The actions of Scott County elections officials constitute a serious breach of not only Minnesota Election Law, but the public trust in our electoral system,” the lawsuit said. Democratic Rep. Brad Tabke was declared the winner last week of the swing suburban Shakopee-area District 54A race by 14 votes after a recount and the official canvass. But Scott County election officials had said earlier, after a post-election audit, that they were unable to account for 21 absentee ballots in the district southwest of Minneapolis. County Attorney Ronald Hocevar reported last Wednesday that his preliminary investigation determined that election workers most likely threw at least 20 of those absentee ballots away, and that they may have been in a paper bale that a recycler had already sent away for shredding. He wrote that they “most likely will not be recovered,” and that even if they were found, it's unlikely that an unbroken chain of custody could be proven to assure that they weren't tampered with. In Minnesota, absentee voters complete their ballots, place them in a security envelope to protect their privacy, then place that envelope inside a signature envelope with identifying information on the outside so that election workers can check those ballots in. Once the counting begins, the ballots are supposed to be removed from the security envelopes and tabulated. The county attorney concluded that the 20 ballots, all from the same precinct, were properly accepted for counting on Oct. 17, but “most likely were never removed from their secrecy envelopes,” and were probably still in them when those envelopes were thrown away. The investigation didn’t determine what happened to the 21st ballot, which was cast in a different precinct. It’s not the first time in recent years that absentee ballots have gone missing. When a small number of military ballots in Pennsylvania ended up in a trash can in 2020, President Donald Trump repeatedly seized on the case to support his claims of fraud heading into that election. After investigating, authorities found a temporary county election worker had mistakenly discarded seven military ballots in the trash and mishandled two others. The ballots were later retrieved from a garbage dumpster and counted, and the worker was fired. Minnesota House Republicans filed Monday's lawsuit on behalf of GOP candidate Aaron Paul, asking a court to declare the results invalid and Tabke's seat vacant, saying the “undisputed facts” make it impossible to rely on the results. The current House minority leader, Rep. Lisa Demuth, of Cold Spring, said a new election is the best way to protect the integrity of the process. "We appreciate the efforts by Scott County to investigate this matter and be transparent about their findings,” Demuth said in a statement. But House Democrats said they believe they will win the court challenge. “Rep. Brad Tabke won the election in District 54A by the count on Election Night and in the recount," current Speaker Melissa Hortman, of Brooklyn Park, said in a statement. "We expect Rep. Tabke will prevail again in the election contest.” Republicans also filed a lawsuit last month over a different House race, in the suburban Roseville area, where they allege the winner doesn't live in the district. Democrats deny that, and the district is heavily Democratic, so that case is unlikely to change the balance of power even if there's a special election. ___ Associated Press writer Christina Almeida Cassidy contributed to this story from Atlanta. ___ This story has been corrected to show the GOP House majority would be two votes, not one, if its candidate wins a special election, not . Steve Karnowski, The Associated Press

The Prime Minister insisted the UK will back Ukraine “for as long as it takes” as he made a speech at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet in London, but for the first time acknowledged the conflict could move towards a negotiated end. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has in recent weeks suggested he is open to a possible ceasefire with Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Kyiv and its European allies meanwhile fear the advent of Donald Trump’s return to the White House could result in American aid being halted. President-elect Trump has said he would prefer to move towards a peace deal, and has claimed he could end the conflict on “day one” of his time in power. As he attempts to strike up a good relationship with the incoming president, Sir Keir revealed he had told Mr Trump the UK “will invest more deeply than ever in this transatlantic bond with our American friends in the years to come”. In his speech at London’s Guildhall, the Prime Minister said there is “no question it is right we support Ukraine”, as the UK’s aid to Kyiv is “deeply in our self-interest”. Allowing Russia to win the war would mean “other autocrats would believe they can follow Putin’s example,” he warned. Sir Keir added: “So we must continue to back Ukraine and do what it takes to support their self-defence for as long as it takes. “To put Ukraine in the strongest possible position for negotiations so they can secure a just and lasting peace on their terms that guarantees their security, independence, and right to choose their own future.” Mr Zelensky told Sky News over the weekend he would be open to speaking with Mr Putin, but branded the Russian president a “terrorist”. He also suggested Ukrainian territory under his control should be taken under the “Nato umbrella” to try to stop the “hot stage” of the war with Russia. In a banquet speech focused on foreign affairs, the Prime Minister said it was “plain wrong” to suggest the UK must choose between its allies, adding: “I reject it utterly. “(Clement) Attlee did not choose between allies. (Winston) Churchill did not choose. “The national interest demands that we work with both.” Sir Keir said the UK and the US were “intertwined” when it came to commerce, technology and security. The Prime Minister added: “That’s why, when President Trump graciously hosted me for dinner in Trump Tower, I told him that we will invest more deeply than ever in this transatlantic bond with our American friends in the years to come.” He also repeated his commitment to “rebuild our ties with Europe” and insisted he was right to try to build closer links with China. “It is remarkable that until I met President Xi last month there had been no face-to-face meeting between British and Chinese leaders for six years,” the Prime Minister said. “We can’t simply look the other way. We need to engage. To co-operate, to compete and to challenge on growth, on security concerns, on climate as well as addressing our differences in a full and frank way on issues like Hong Kong, human rights, and sanctions on our parliamentarians,” he added. The Prime Minister said he wants Britain’s role in the world to be that of “a constant and responsible actor in turbulent times”. He added: “To be the soundest ally and to be determined, always, in everything we do. “Every exchange we have with other nations, every agreement we enter into to deliver for the British people and show, beyond doubt, that Britain is back.” Ahead of Sir Keir’s speech, Lord Mayor Alastair King urged the Prime Minister and his Government to loosen regulations on the City of London to help it maintain its competitive edge. In an echo of Sir Keir’s commitment to drive the UK’s economic growth, the Lord Mayor said: “The idealist will dream of growth, but the pragmatist understands that our most effective machinery to drive growth is here in the City, in the hands of some of the brightest and most committed people that you will find anywhere in the world.”Alberta RCMP officer charged with 2 counts of sexual assault