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McConnell’s hospitalization raises questions for GOP’s future

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McConnell’s hospitalization raises questions for GOP’s future

Senate Republicans discovered themselves shaken and disoriented Thursday after discovering out their chief, Sen. Mitch McConnell (Ky.) was within the hospital after tripping at a non-public occasion, elevating questions on his well being and future management of the GOP convention.  

McConnell, who in January grew to become the longest serving social gathering chief in Senate historical past, has led the Senate GOP convention since 2005 and has helped information his colleagues via a number of the largest moments in current historical past — the 2008 monetary collapse, the close to default of the U.S. authorities in 2011, the fiscal cliff of 2012, the 2 impeachment trials of former President Trump and the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol.

McConnell fell after attending a non-public dinner on the Waldorf Astoria in Washington and was taken to the hospital by an ambulance and is being handled for a concussion. 

The 81-year-old Kentucky senator’s sudden absence got here solely a day after he helped Republicans obtain an enormous political victory by stampeding Democrats into voting to dam a District of Columbia crime invoice. And it left some GOP senators feeling unsettled and nervous concerning the future.

“I’m an enormous fan of Mitch McConnell. I feel he has the flexibility to guide a really numerous group of people in a approach that’s masterful,” stated one GOP senator who requested anonymity to debate the affect of McConnell’s damage on the Senate GOP convention.  

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“I feel, who could be our subsequent chief and what sort of chief would that particular person be?” the senator added. “Yeah, I do fear about that.”  

“He’s at all times pondering forward when it comes to initiatives. He’s eager about how the gamers on his crew can match. He’s obtained a knack for that that I don’t suppose you discover in lots of others,” the lawmaker stated.

Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.), former Senate GOP Whip John Cornyn (Texas) and Senate Republican Convention Chairman John Barrasso (Wyo.) are considered as McConnell’s three most certainly successors. 

However there hasn’t been any critical dialogue of a future Senate GOP management race amongst Republican senators themselves as a result of McConnell has a safe grip on the job and hasn’t dropped any trace about planning to retire.

He simply defeated former Nationwide Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Rick Scott (Fla.) by a lopsided vote of 37 to 10 when Scott tried to capitalize on Republican disappointment over the 2022 midterm election by difficult McConnell for the highest job.  

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Scott, who has feuded with McConnell over social gathering technique since that race, tweeted on Thursday that he and his spouse are holding the chief and his household “in our prayers” and wished him “a speedy restoration.”

Senators had been at midnight

The information that broke Wednesday night time that McConnell had been rushed to the hospital after tripping and falling at a dinner occasion left Republican senators scrambling the subsequent morning for extra details about the severity of his accidents.

Hypothesis veered in all totally different instructions, and the shortage of particulars from McConnell’s workplace had lawmakers questioning about how unhealthy the scenario was.

McConnell’s high deputies, Thune and Cornyn, didn’t get an opportunity to speak to their chief earlier than being pressed for particulars by reporters within the Capitol’s hallways.  

Thune, wanting somber Thursday morning, solely stated: “Don’t know lots but.”  

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Thune rushed straight to the ground earlier than taking every other questions to make certain he first addressed his Senate colleagues, telling them that his “ideas and prayers are with Chief McConnell” in addition to “along with his household” and “along with his crew.”  

Cornyn was additionally at midnight.

“I perceive that he’s resting up, however I don’t have any particulars,” he stated.  

McConnell’s workplace disclosed at lunchtime on Thursday that he was being handled for a concussion and would stay within the hospital for a number of days of remark and remedy.

What precisely occurred

Because the day went on, a number of different particulars leaked out concerning the accident.  

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McConnell was on the Waldorf earlier within the night to attend a reception for the Senate Management Fund, the tremendous PAC that he’s affiliated with and performed a significant position within the final election by spending $290 million.

The reception was a thank-you occasion for the tremendous PAC’s supporters, and several other GOP senators attended. 

“I feel it was extra of a thanks to the folks that had helped with the fund within the final election cycle,” stated Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). “It was a reasonably good displaying of Republican colleagues. I don’t know what number of confirmed up, but it surely appeared like there was quite a lot of us.”  

McConnell later attended a small, non-public dinner that an individual acquainted described as “adjoining” to the reception. He tripped and fell after that dinner.

McConnell’s important affect

A second Republican senator who requested anonymity to debate the delicate matter stated McConnell’s hospitalization raises questions concerning the future management of the Senate GOP convention however emphasised, “It’s not time to be speaking about [it].” 

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“My ideas and prayers are with Elaine and Mitch and I hope it’s not too critical,” the senator stated, referring to McConnell’s spouse, former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao. 

“I haven’t discovered something good about getting previous,” the senator quipped.  

McConnell has been such a significant political power in Republican politics for therefore lengthy that his GOP colleagues have come to depend on his skill to pump enormous sums of cash into Senate battleground states and to insulate them from the turbulence in conservative politics that has roiled the Home GOP convention.  

He management is particularly valued by mainstream and reasonable Republicans corresponding to Sen. Susan Collins (Maine), certainly one of McConnell’s closest associates within the Senate, as a result of he offers them area to work with Democratic colleagues and apply the fashion of Republican politics they see as finest suited to their residence states. 

Colleagues additionally worth McConnell’s skill to get their social gathering out of powerful political conditions.  

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One instance of that got here within the fall of 2021, when he rounded up his management crew and different allies to supply the 11 GOP votes wanted to pave the way in which for Democrats to move laws to boost the debt restrict.  

McConnell took huge warmth from Trump and different critics for the vote, but it surely took the hazard of a federal default off the desk.  

And McConnell has traditionally proven a willingness to inject himself in Senate Republican major politics to pave the way in which for candidates he views as probably the most electable in a basic election — an method he adopted after Republicans fumbled away their probabilities to win seats in Delaware, Nevada, Missouri and Indiana within the 2010 and 2012 elections.  

Even senators who voted to oust him from his management job in November, admit their respect and admiration for his toughness in battle.  

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“He’s a tricky previous crow. My cash’s on him,” stated Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). 

Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This materials might not be printed, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Russia launches Christmas Day attack on Ukraine’s energy system

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Russia launches Christmas Day attack on Ukraine’s energy system

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Russia has carried out a Christmas Day attack on Ukraine’s energy system, leaving more than half a million people without heating, water and electricity. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the attack, the 13th large-scale assault of 2024 on the country’s grid, was “deliberate” and not a coincidence. “What could be more inhuman?” he wrote on X.

About 50 of the 70 missiles fired in the attack were intercepted, along with a “significant” portion of the more than 100 attack drones deployed, he added.

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This year Ukrainians marked Christmas Day on December 25 for the second time, after switching to the western Gregorian calendar last year. The decision to stop celebrating Christmas on January 7 in line with the Orthodox calendar was made by Kyiv to break with Russian influence.

Oleh Syniehubov, governor of Ukraine’s eastern Kharkiv region, told Ukraine’s national television news that the attack had left more than 500,000 people without heating, water and electricity.

Temperatures across Ukraine are around freezing point.

Heating supplies were also cut in some areas of Ukraine’s Ivano-Frankivsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions, in the west and south of the country. 

Ukraine’s energy grid operator, Ukrenergo, urged consumers to limit consumption by not switching on multiple appliances at once, adding that the system was still recovering from the previous Russian attack on December 13.

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Ukraine’s largest private energy company, DTEK, said that its power stations had been damaged and one of its long-term employees killed.

Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andriy Sybiha, said on X that the attack reflects Russian President Vladimir Putin’s response to “those who spoke about illusionary ‘Christmas ceasefire’”.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said last week that Zelenskyy had rejected his proposal for a ceasefire and prisoner exchange on the January 7 Orthodox Christmas.

Ukraine denied that such a proposal was ever on the table, asking Hungary to “refrain from manipulations” regarding the war. On Friday, Heorhii Tykhyi, spokesperson for Ukraine’s foreign ministry, described it as “PR, a move” by Orbán.

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American Airlines lifts ground stop that froze Christmas Eve travelers

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American Airlines lifts ground stop that froze Christmas Eve travelers

An American Airlines agent talks to a customer at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, Ill., last week. On Tuesday, the airline issued a national halt to flights.

Kamil Krzacznski/AFP via Getty Images


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Kamil Krzacznski/AFP via Getty Images

American Airlines passengers across the U.S. endured a sudden disruption of service on Christmas Eve, as a “technical issue” forced the airline to request a nationwide ground stop of its operations.

“The ground stop has now been lifted,” the Federal Aviation Administration told NPR shortly after 8 a.m. ET.

On Facebook and X, passengers shared stories of boarding planes early on Christmas Eve — only to be left waiting on the tarmac. In some cases, they described being told the flight would return to its gate so everyone onboard could deplane.

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The ground stop lasted for about one hour, according to the airline.

 “We sincerely apologize to our customers for the inconvenience this morning,” the airline said.

In a statement sent to NPR, American says the widespread delays were caused by a “vendor technology issue” affecting systems that are needed for a flight to be “released” — one of the final key steps before a plane takes off from an airport.

Early circumstances around Tuesday’s outage seemed ominous, reminding travelers of a nightmare scenario that played out two years ago when computer problems fueled a meltdown for Southwest Airlines as it tried to cope with bad weather during the holidays.

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Southwest stranded millions of travelers — and was later ordered to pay a $140 million civil penalty.

Aviation industry veterans like George Hamlin, a consultant, notes that Southwest took the brunt of the blame for the meltdown — but, he adds, “now we’re finding out that it’s a larger, more endemic problem than that.”

Delayed American Airlines passengers who posted to social media Tuesday said pilots blamed the slowdown on a computer system that aims to ensure an optimal center of gravity by balancing planes’ cargo weight and other factors.

Winter weather also threatens to snarl Christmas Eve travel, including storms along the East and West Coasts of the U.S.

The FAA’s operations page shows nearly a dozen airports were deicing planes Tuesday morning, including at Philadelphia International, and Dulles International and Reagan National outside Washington, D.C.

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If you’re flying, the FAA recommends checking your airline’s flight status updates for potential delays. As of 9 a.m. ET, the FlightAware website’s “Misery Map” showed some 544 flights had been delayed and five canceled since 6 a.m. Nearly 120 of those delays were at Charlotte, N.C.’s, airport.

Nearly 12.7 million passengers are expected to fly on American Airlines this winter holiday season, comprising more than 118,000 flights, according to the airline. The most-traveled days in that span are both Fridays, ahead of and just after Christmas.

NPR’s Joel Rose contributed reporting.

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Private equity payouts fell 50% short in 2024

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Private equity payouts fell 50% short in 2024

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Private equity funds cashed out just half the value of investments they typically sell in 2024, the third consecutive year payouts to investors have fallen short because of a deal drought.

Buyout houses typically sell down 20 per cent of their investments in any given year, but industry executives forecast that cash payouts for the year would be about half that figure.

Cambridge Associates, a leading adviser to large institutions on their private equity investments, estimated that funds had fallen about $400bn short in payments to their investors over the past three years compared with historical averages.

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The data underline the increasing pressure on firms to find ways to return cash to investors, including by exiting more investments in the year ahead.

Firms have struggled to strike deals at attractive prices since early 2022, when rising interest rates caused financing costs to soar and corporate valuations to fall.

Dealmakers and their advisers expect that merger and acquisition activity will accelerate in 2025, potentially helping the industry work through what consultancy Bain & Co. has called a “towering backlog” of $3tn in ageing deals that must be sold in the years ahead.

Several large public offerings this year including food transport giant Lineage Logistics, aviation equipment specialist Standard Aero and dermatology group Galderma have provided private equity executives with confidence to take companies public, while Donald Trump’s election has added to Wall Street exuberance.

But Andrea Auerbach, global head of private investments at Cambridge Associates, cautioned that the industry’s issues could take years to work through.

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“There is an expectation that the wheels of the exit market will start to turn. But it doesn’t end in one year, it will take a couple of years,” Auerbach said.

Private equity firms have used novel tactics to return cash to investors while holdings have proved difficult to sell.

They have made increasing use of so-called continuation funds — where one fund sells a stake in one or more portfolio companies to another fund to another fund the firm manages — to engineer exits.

Jefferies forecasts that there will be $58bn of continuation fund deals in 2024, representing a record 14 per cent of all private equity exits. Such funds made up just 5 per cent of all exits in the boom year of 2021, Jefferies found.

But some private equity investors are sceptical that the industry will be able to sell assets at prices close to funds’ current valuations.

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“You have a huge amount of capital that has been invested on assumptions that are no longer valid,” a large industry investor told the Financial Times.

They warned that a record $1tn-plus in buyouts were struck in 2021, just before interest rates rose, and many deals are carried on firms’ books at overly optimistic valuations.

Goldman Sachs recently noted in a report that private equity asset sales, which had historically been done at a premium of at least 10 per cent to funds’ internal valuations, have in recent years been made at discounts of 10-15 per cent.

“[Private] equity in general is still over-marked, which is leading to this situation where assets are still stuck,” said Michael Brandmeyer of Goldman Sachs Asset Management in the report.

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