Trump’s USDA pick could focus on foreign investments in agricultural land

WASHINGTON — Brooke L. Rollins is posed to tackle foreign investments in U.S. agricultural land if confirmed as Agriculture secretary, but she will face some limitations on the scope of her power to do so.

President-elect Donald Trump announced on Nov. 23 that he will nominate Rollins to lead the Agriculture Department. Rollins was a senior aide for Trump during his first administration and is the president and CEO of America First Policy Institute, a conservative think tank founded in 2021.

The AFPI has called on Congress to restrict China’s ability to own U.S. agriculture land. Rollins said in an AFPI video in October that the think tank’s agenda mirrors what “would have been the second-term agenda, which we had built out in the last year of the last White House.”

“We’ve had at AFPI the last few years been focusing on ag lands that the purchase of, you know, agricultural lands all over this country, some of them near our military bases,” she said in the video.

—CQ-Roll Call

Kai Trump shows Elon Musk awkwardly tutoring Trump in rocket science

Though just 17, Donald Trump’s granddaughter appears to relish her role as an aspiring, up-and-coming MAGA influencer, as she shares slickly produced videos on social media about the fun she has hanging out with her beloved, president-elect “grandpa.”

But there’s only so much that Kai Trump can do to soften the image of a man who has been compared by critics to history’s most dangerous fascists and who regularly hurls insults and makes profane remarks. His opponent in the election, Kamala Harris, received some 74 million votes to his 76 million.

With her latest video published Tuesday, the teen golf prodigy also showed “grandpa” looking a bit out of his element while a guest at Elon Musk’s SpaceX launch last week.

In one particularly “cringe-worthy” moment of Kai Trump’s behind-the-scenes video, Trump is seen sending Musk into “an awkward spiral” after he asks him whether a rocket booster can be reused — after it has crashed into Gulf of Mexico in a fireball, the Daily Beast reported.

—The Mercury News

Seals with shark bites spotted along Massachusetts South Shore: ‘Sharks are still close to our beaches’

BOSTON — As Thanksgiving approaches, white sharks are still trying to have a feast of their own in these local chilly waters.

Shark researchers have seen a higher number of seals with shark bites along the Massachusetts South Shore this fall.

Whale and Dolphin Conservation’s Marine Animal Rescue and Response team has responded to seven seals with shark bites between Hingham and Plymouth over the past several weeks — a seven-fold increase compared to the previous month.

“The important thing to note is that we are finding these seals because the predation attempts were likely happening close to shore, giving the seals a chance to escape to the beach, or for their carcass to wash ashore,” said Lauren Brandkamp, Whale and Dolphin Conservation’s stranding coordinator.

—Boston Herald

3 Americans released from Chinese custody in prisoner swap

China released three Americans as part of a prisoner swap between the Biden administration and the Chinese government, according to a person familiar with the matter, a rare moment of cooperation between the adversaries.

A statement from the National Security Council said the three Americans — Mark Swidan, Kai Li and John Leung — would be reunited with their families “for the first time in many years.” The three had been designated as wrongfully detained in China, and the U.S. statement said there were no longer any Americans held in the country with that status.

The NSC didn’t mention that the three were exchanged for Chinese citizens detained in the U.S. But a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing non-public information, said they were swapped for an unspecified number of Chinese.

Swidan is a Texas businessman who was on China’s death row for alleged drug trafficking, and Li is a naturalized U.S. citizen who imported solar energy technology. Leung, who is also a Hong Kong permanent resident, was arrested in 2021 and sentenced to life in prison last year on spying charges.

—Bloomberg News