President-elect Trump announced Saturday he has tapped the creator of "The Apprentice" to serve a diplomatic role in the United Kingdom.
In a Truth Social post, Trump named Mark Burnett, a British-American TV producer who was born in London, as the next U.S. special envoy to the United Kingdom.
"It is my great honor to appoint Mark Burnett as the Special Envoy to the United Kingdom," the president-elect said. "With a distinguished career in television production and business, Mark brings a unique blend of diplomatic acumen and international recognition to this important role."
In addition to creating Trump's former show "The Apprentice," Burnett also created "Shark Tank" and led production of other programs such as "Survivor" and "The Martha Stewart Show." In his Truth Social post, Trump said the producer had created some of the "biggest shows in Television History" and touted his achievements.
"He is the former Chairman of MGM, and has won 13 Emmy Awards!" the Republican wrote. "Mark will work to enhance diplomatic relations, focusing on areas of mutual interest, including trade, investment opportunities, and cultural exchanges. Congratulations Mark!"
No one is currently serving as a U.S. special envoy to the United Kingdom. Special envoy roles are typically temporary in nature and meant to fulfill a specific mission, though Trump did not specify the purpose of the role in his announcement.
Earlier in December, Trump tapped Warren A. Stephens to serve as the U.S. ambassador to the Court of St. James, also known as the U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom.
"Over the last 38 years, while serving as the president, chairman, and CEO of his company, Stephens Inc., Warren has built a wonderful financial services firm, while selflessly giving back to his community as a philanthropist," Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
"Warren has always dreamed of serving the United States full-time. I am thrilled that he will now have that opportunity as the top Diplomat, representing the U.S.A. to one of America’s most cherished and beloved Allies."
Burnett did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Fox News Digital's Greg Wehner contributed to this report.
President-elect Trump picked businessman and philanthropist Warren A. Stephens to serve as the U.S. ambassador to the Court of St. James, who, in simple terms, is the country’s representative to the U.K.
"Over the last 38 years, while serving as the president, chairman, and CEO of his company, Stephens Inc., Warren has built a wonderful financial services firm, while selflessly giving back to his community as a philanthropist," Trump said in a post on Truth Social. "Warren has always dreamed of serving the United States full-time. I am thrilled that he will now have that opportunity as the top Diplomat, representing the U.S.A. to one of America’s most cherished and beloved Allies."
Trump then congratulated Stephens, his wife Harriet, their three children, Miles, John and Laura, and their six grandchildren.
The announcement comes as Trump continues to fill several positions in his administration.
According to the Stephens Inc. website, Trump’s pick serves as the chairman, president and CEO of the privately owned diversified financial services firm headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Stephens is a graduate of Washington and Lee University where he received a BA in economics. He later earned an MBA from Wake Forest University.
Under Stephens’ leadership, the company expanded into major U.S. markets and opened offices in London, U.K., and Frankfurt, Germany.
Stephens has also served as chairman of the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) District Conduct Committee, and currently sits on the Board of Directors of Dillard’s Inc.
In terms of civic and community involvement, Stephens has chaired the board for the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts; the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts Foundation Board; the Episcopal Collegiate School Foundation Board; and served on the Board of Directors for the Central Arkansas Boys and Girls Club, among other things.
The Senate will have to confirm Stephens' position.
When President Abraham Lincoln first proclaimed Thanksgiving a national holiday, little did he know he was spelling the beginning of the end to the prominence of the original patriotic celebration held during the last week of November: Evacuation Day.
In November 1863, Lincoln issued an order thanking God for harvest blessings, and by the 1940s, Congress had declared the 11th month of the calendar year's fourth Thursday to be Thanksgiving Day.
That commemoration, though, combined with the gradual move toward détente with what is now the U.S.' strongest ally – Great Britain – displaced the day Americans celebrated the last of the Redcoats fleeing their land.
Following the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia in 1776, New York City, just 99 miles to the northeast, remained a British stronghold until the end of the Revolutionary War.
Captured Continentals were held aboard prison ships in New York Harbor and British political activity in the West was anchored in the Big Apple, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
However, that all came crashing down on the crown after the Treaty of Paris was signed, and new "Americans" eagerly saw the British out of their hard-won home on Nov. 25, 1783.
In their haste to flee the U.S., the British took time to grease flagpoles that still flew the Union Jack. One prominent post was at Bennett Park – on present-day West 183 Street near the northern tip of Manhattan.
Undeterred, Sgt. John van Arsdale, a Revolution veteran, cobbled together cleats that allowed him to climb the slick pole and tear down the then-enemy flag. Van Arsdale replaced it with the Stars and Stripes – and without today's skyscrapers in the way, the change of colors at the island's highest point could be seen farther downtown.
In the harbor, a final blast from a British warship aimed for Staten Island, but missed a crowd that had assembled to watch the 6,000-man military begin its journey back across the Atlantic to King George III.
Later that day, future President George Washington and New York Gov. George Clinton – who had negotiated "evacuation" with England's Canadian Gov. Sir Guy Carleton – led a military march down Broadway through throngs of revelers to what would today be the Wall Street financial district at the other end of Manhattan.
Clinton hosted Washington for dinner and a "Farewell Toast" at nearby Fraunces' Tavern, which houses a museum dedicated to the original U.S. holiday. Samuel Fraunces, who owned the watering hole, provided food and reportedly intelligence to the Continental Army.
Washington convened at Fraunces' just over a week later to announce his leave from the Army, surrounded by Clinton and other top Revolutionary figures like German-born Gen. Friedrich von Steuben – whom New York's Oktoberfest-styled parade officially honors.
"With a heart full of love and gratitude, I now take leave of you. I most devoutly wish that your latter days may be as prosperous and happy, as your former ones have been glorious and honorable," Washington said.
Before Lincoln – and later Congress – normalized Thanksgiving as the mass family affair it has become, Evacuation Day was more prominent than both its successor and Independence Day, according to several sources, including Untapped New York.
Nov. 25 was a school holiday in the 19th century and people re-created van Arsdale's climb up the Bennett Park flagpole. Formal dinners were held at the Plaza Hotel and other upscale institutions for many years, according to the outlet.
An official parade reminiscent of today's Macy's Thanksgiving Parade was held every year in New York until the 1910s.
As diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom warmed heading into the 20th century and the U.S. alliance with London during the World Wars proved crucial, celebrating Evacuation Day became less and less prominent.
Into the 2010s, however, commemorative flag-raisings have been sporadically held at Bowling Green, the southern endpoint of Broadway. On the original Evacuation Day, Washington's dinner at Fraunces Tavern was preceded by the new U.S. Army marching down the iconic avenue to formally take back New York.
Thirteen toasts – marking the number of United States – were raised at Fraunces, each one spelling out the new government's hope for the new nation or giving thanks to those who helped it come to be.
An aide to Washington wrote them down for posterity, and the Sons of the American Revolution recite them at an annual dinner, according to the tavern's museum site.
"To the United States of America," the first toast went. The second honored King Louis XVI, whose French Army was crucial in America's victory.
"To the vindicators of the rights of mankind in every quarter of the globe," read another. "May a close union of the states guard the temple they have erected to liberty."
The 13th offered a warning to any other country that might ever seek to invade the new U.S.:
"May the remembrance of this day be a lesson to princes."
U.S. Reps. James McGovern, D-Mass., and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., wrote a letter to President Biden calling on him to pardon WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to "send a clear message" that his administration will not target journalistic activity.
Assange, an Australian publisher, pleaded guilty in June and was sentenced to time served as part of a deal he reached with the U.S. Justice Department to end his imprisonment in London over charges for publishing classified U.S. military documents leaked to him by a source. Assange had spent years attempting to avoid extradition from the U.K. to the U.S.
"We write, first, to express our appreciation for your administration's decision last spring to facilitate a resolution of the criminal case against publisher Julian Assange and to withdraw the related extradition request that had been pending in the United Kingdom," the lawmakers wrote to Biden. "This brought an end to Mr. Assange's protracted detention and allowed him to reunite with his family and return to his home country of Australia."
Before his plea deal, Assange, 53, was facing 17 counts under the Espionage Act for allegedly receiving, possessing and communicating classified information to the public, as well as one charge alleging conspiracy to commit computer intrusion. The agreement helped him avoid the potential of spending up to 175 years in an American maximum security prison.
The charges were brought by the Trump administration's Justice Department over WikiLeaks' 2010 publication of cables leaked by U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, and the Biden administration had continued to pursue prosecution until the plea deal. The cables detailed alleged war crimes committed by the U.S. government in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, detention camp, as well as instances of the CIA engaging in torture and rendition.
WikiLeaks' "Collateral Murder" video showing the U.S. military gunning down civilians in Iraq, including two Reuters journalists, was also published 14 years ago.
The lawmakers told Biden, who is set to leave office in January, that they are "deeply concerned that the agreement that ended the case required Mr. Assange to plead guilty to felony charges under section 793 of the Espionage Act," highlighting that the decision to prosecute Assange under the Espionage Act "set off alarms" among members of Congress, as well as advocates for freedom of expression and freedom of the press.
In 2013, the Obama administration decided not to indict Assange over WikiLeaks' 2010 publication of classified cables because it would have had to also indict journalists from major news outlets who published the same materials.
President Obama also commuted Manning’s 35-year sentence for violations of the Espionage Act and other offenses to seven years in January 2017, and Manning, who had been imprisoned since 2010, was released later that year.
"Put simply, there is a long-standing and well-grounded concern that section 793, which criminalizes the obtaining, retaining, or disclosing of sensitive information, could be used against journalists and news organizations engaged in their normal activities, particularly those who cover national security topics. This risk reportedly informed the Obama administration's decision not to prosecute Mr. Assange," McGovern and Massie wrote.
Assange had been held at London's high-security Belmarsh Prison since being removed from the Ecuadorian Embassy on April 11, 2019, for breaching bail conditions. He had sought asylum at the embassy since 2012 to avoid being sent to Sweden over allegations he raped two women because Sweden would not provide assurances it would protect him from extradition to the U.S. The investigations into the sexual assault allegations were eventually dropped over lack of evidence.
He was the first journalist to be charged under the Espionage Act.
"The terms of Mr. Assange's plea agreement have now set a precedent that greatly deepens our concern," the letter reads. "A review of prosecutions under the Espionage Act makes clear that Mr. Assange's case is the first time the Act has been deployed against a publisher."
The congressmen said they share the view of Jodie Ginsberg, the chief executive of the Committee to Protect Journalists, who reacted to the plea agreement by saying: "While we welcome the end of his detention, the US’s pursuit of Assange has set a harmful legal precedent by opening the way for journalists to be tried under the Espionage Act if they receive classified material from whistleblowers."
"We therefore urge you to consider issuing a pardon for Mr. Assange," the lawmakers wrote. "A pardon would remove the precedent set by the plea and send a clear message that the U.S. government under your leadership will not target or investigate journalists and media outlets simply for doing their jobs."
Last year, as Assange was still in prison in London fighting extradition to the U.S., McGovern and Massie led a letter to Biden signed by a bipartisan group of congressional colleagues urging the president to drop the case against Assange.
Assange's brother, Gabriel Shipton, is returning to Washington, D.C., in January as part of a campaign calling on Biden to pardon the WikiLeaks founder before leaving office.
Shipton and Assange's wife, Stella, have asked Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who before the plea deal had called for an end to Assange's prosecution and said he had raised the case with Biden, to urge the president to issue a pardon in his farewell phone call with the outgoing commander in chief.
As a condition of his plea, Assange was required to destroy classified information provided to WikiLeaks.
During his sentencing hearing in June in federal court in Saipan, the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth in the Pacific, U.S. District Judge Ramona Manglona noted that the U.S. government admitted that there is no evidence that WikiLeaks' publications put anyone in harms way.
"The government has indicated there is no personal victim here. That tells me the dissemination of this information did not result in any known physical injury," the judge said at the time. "These two facts are very relevant. I would say if this was still unknown and closer to [2012] I would not be so inclined to accept this plea agreement before me. But it's the year 2024."
Famed Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling delivered one of her typical sports takes Tuesday.
The BBC awarded its annual Women's Footballer of The Year award to Zambian player Barbra Banda. Banda withdrew from the Zambian squad for the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco after failing to meet sex eligibility requirements in 2022, the BBC previously reported.
Banda was allowed to compete at the Paris Olympics and has become the second-leading scorer in the United States’ National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) this season, playing for the Orlando Pride.
Banda received the most votes from BBC readers after being shortlisted by a panel of what the BBC said were "experts involved in football," including coaches, players and non-BBC journalists.
Rowling spoke out in a post on X.
"Presumably the BBC decided this was more time efficient than going door to door to spit directly in women's faces," Rowling wrote.
Rowling has been one of the most vocal opponents of transgender rights and inclusion, especially in her home country of England.
Transgender participation in women's sports has become an internationally debated issue, and it became one of the most-discussed issues of the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
In June, a survey conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago asked respondents to weigh in on whether transgender athletes of both sexes should be permitted to participate in sports leagues that correspond to their preferred gender identity instead of their biological sex.
Sixty-five percent answered that it should either never be or rarely allowed. When those polled were asked specifically about adult transgender female athletes competing on women’s sports teams, 69% opposed it.
The United Nations says nearly 900 biological females have fallen short of the podium because they were beaten out by trans athletes.
The report said more than 600 athletes did not medal in more than 400 competitions in 29 different sports, totaling over 890 medals, according to information as of March 30.
"The replacement of the female sports category with a mixed-sex category has resulted in an increasing number of female athletes losing opportunities, including medals, when competing against males," the report said.
Banda was among the controversial cases involving athletes who previously failed sex eligibility tests at the Paris Olympics. Boxers Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan each won gold medals in their respective competitions and were allowed to compete despite failing sex eligibility tests at previous international events.
