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WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump's allies on Capitol Hill rallied Thursday around Pete Hegseth, Trump's Pentagon favorite, at the same time as recent details emerged about allegations that he sexually assaulted a girl in 2017.

The GOP endorsement of Hegseth got here as one other controversial Trump nominee, Matt Gaetz, withdrew his candidacy for attorney general. Gaetz said it was clear he had change into a “distraction” because the House of Representatives was pressured to release an ethics report into allegations of his own sexual misconduct. A lawyer for 2 women said his clients told House Ethics Committee investigators that Gaetz had paid them for sex multiple times since 2017, when Gaetz was a congressman in Florida.

New questions on the 2 candidates' pasts and their treatment of ladies emerged as Republicans got here under pressure from Trump and his allies to quickly confirm his Cabinet. At the identical time, his transition has to date failed because of the traditionally required vetting and background checks.

While few Republican senators have publicly criticized any of Trump's nominees, it became clear after Gaetz's withdrawal that many had private concerns about him. Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin, who served within the House with Gaetz, said it was a “positive step.” Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker said it was a “positive development.” Maine Sen. Susan Collins said Gaetz “put the country first and I am pleased with his decision.”

However, after meeting with Hegseth, Republicans rallied around him. “I think he'll be in pretty good shape,” said Wicker, who is predicted to chair the Senate Armed Services Committee in the following Congress.

Republican senators' cautious words and their initial reluctance to publicly query Trump's decisions highlighted not only their fear of retaliation from the brand new president, but additionally a few of their hopes that the confirmation process can proceed normally, with proper vetting and background checks, which could disqualify problematic candidates sooner. Gaetz withdrew after meeting with senators on Wednesday.

Senator Thom Tillis said Gaetz was “in a pressure pot” when he decided to withdraw, but suggested it might have little impact on Trump's other nominees. “Transactions – one at a time,” he said.

As Hegseth's nomination moves forward, Republicans also seem like betting that they won't face much backlash in the event that they publicly deny the allegations of sexual misconduct – especially after Trump won the election after being found guilty of sexual abuse last 12 months had been.

Hegseth held a series of personal meetings with recent Vice President JD Vance on Thursday to shore up support, telling reporters afterward: “The matter has been fully investigated and I've been fully cleared, and I'll leave it at that.”

A 22-page police report released late Wednesday provided the primary detailed account of the allegations against him. A lady told police that she was sexually assaulted by Hegseth in 2017 after he took her phone, blocked the door to a hotel room in California and refused to permit her to go away. The report cited police interviews with the alleged victim, a nurse who treated her, a hotel worker, one other woman on the event and Hegseth.

Hegseth's attorney, Timothy Palatore, said the incident was “fully investigated and police have determined the allegations are false.” Hegseth paid the lady in 2023 as a part of a confidential settlement to avert the specter of what he called a baseless lawsuit, Palatore said.

Wicker downplayed the allegations against Hegseth, a former Fox News host, saying, “Since no charges have been filed by authorities, all we have are press reports.”

Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., said after his meeting with Hegseth that he shared with him “the fact that I was saddened by the attacks coming his way.”

Hagerty dismissed the allegations as “a he said, she said thing” and called it a “disgrace” that they were even made.

The senator said attention should as a substitute deal with the Defense Department, which Hegseth would lead. It is one of the complex parts of the federal government, with greater than 3 million employees, including military personnel and civilians. Sexual assault is a persistent problem within the military, although Pentagon officials are cautiously optimistic that they may see a decline in reported sexual assaults amongst active-duty military personnel and at military academies.

Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, who shall be the No. 2 Republican within the Senate next 12 months, said after his meeting with Hegseth that the candidate was a robust candidate who “promised that the Pentagon will deal with strength and hard power – “Not on the current.” The government’s woke political agenda.”

Senate Republicans are under pressure to carry hearings as soon as they take office in January and to substantiate nominees once Trump is inaugurated, although there are doubts about whether Trump's decisions shall be properly scrutinized or whether some, like Hegseth, have enough experience for the job.

Senate Armed Services Chairman Jack Reed, who shall be the highest Democrat on the panel next 12 months, said the reports about Hegseth “highlighted the need for a thorough investigation by the FBI in light of all nominees.”

A straightforward majority is required to approve Cabinet nominations. This implies that if all Democrats were against a candidate, 4 Republican senators would also should resign for a Trump decision to be rejected. Trump has made it clear that he’s willing to place maximum pressure on Senate Republicans to provide him the nominees he wants — and even suggested at one point that they might allow him to easily approve his nominees without Senate votes appoint.

But senators insist, for now, that they usually are not giving up their constitutional say.

“The president has the right to make the nominations he sees fit, but the Senate also has the responsibility to advise and consent,” said Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota. In Gaetz's case, he said, “I think advice was given rather than consent.”

“dune“, is widely considered one among the best science fiction novels of all timecontinues to influence how writers, artists and inventors imagine the long run.

Of course there are the visually stunning movies by Denis Villeneuve: “Dune: Part One” (2021) and “Dune: Part Two(2024).

But Frank Herbert's masterpiece also helped the Afrofuturist novelist Octavia Butler Imagine a future crammed with conflict within the midst of an environmental catastrophe. it inspired Elon Musk Building SpaceX and Tesla and propelling humanity toward the celebs and a greener future; and it's hard to not see parallels on this George Lucas' “Star Wars” franchise, particularly her fascination with desert planets and giant worms.

And yet, when Herbert set to work writing “Dune” in 1963, he wasn’t fascinated by how he could leave Earth behind. He thought of how he could put it aside.

Herbert desired to tell a story concerning the environmental crisis on our own planet, a world pushed to the brink of ecological catastrophe. Technologies unthinkable just 50 years ago had brought the world to the brink of nuclear war and the environment to collapse; Huge industries sucked wealth from the bottom and spewed toxic fumes into the sky.

When the book was published, these themes were also front and center for readers. After all, they lived within the wake of each the Cuban Missile Crisis and the publication of “Silent source“, conservationist Rachel Carson's groundbreaking study of pollution and its threat to the environment and human health.

“Dune” soon became a beacon for the young environmental movement and a rallying flag for the brand new science of ecology.

Indigenous wisdom

Although the term “ecology” was coined almost a century earlier, it was the primary textbook on ecology only written in 1953and the sphere was rarely mentioned in newspapers or magazines on the time. Few readers had heard of the emerging science and even fewer knew what it said concerning the way forward for our planet.

When I used to be studying Dune for a book I'm writing concerning the history of ecology, I used to be surprised to learn that Herbert never learned anything about ecology either as a student or as a journalist.

Instead, he was inspired to explore ecology by the conservation practices of tribes within the Pacific Northwest. He came upon about it primarily through two friends.

The first was Wilbur Ternyika descendant of Chief Coboway, the Clatsop leader who welcomed explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on the time their expedition reached the west coast in 1805. The second, Howard Hansenwas an art teacher and oral historian of the Quileute tribe.

Ternyik, who was also an experienced field ecologist, took Herbert on a tour of the Oregon dunes in 1958. There he explained his work constructing huge sand dunes from beach grasses and other deep-rooted plants to stop the sand from being blown away to the nearby city of Florence – a terraforming technology described intimately in “Dune”.

As Ternyik explains in a handbook he wrote for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, his work in Oregon was a part of an effort to heal landscapes scarred by European colonization, particularly the massive river wharves built by early settlers.

These structures disrupted coastal currents and created vast expanses of sand, turning parts of the Pacific Northwest's lush landscape into desert. This scenario is reflected in “Dune,” which is the setting of the novel the planet Arrakiswas also devastated by its first colonizers.

Hansen, who became godfather to Herbert's son, had closely examined the equally drastic effects of logging on the homelands Quileute people on the Washington coast. He encouraged Herbert to rigorously study the ecology, and gave him a replica of Paul B. Sears' “”Where there may be life,” from which Herbert gathered one among his favorite quotes: “The highest function of science is to give us an understanding of consequences.”

The Fremen of “Dune,” who live within the deserts of Arrakis and thoroughly manage the ecosystem and wildlife, embody these teachings. In the fight to avoid wasting their world, they skillfully mix ecological science and indigenous practices.

Treasures hidden within the sand

But the work that had essentially the most profound influence on Dune was Leslie Reid's 1962 ecological study “The sociology of nature.”

In it, Reid explained ecology and ecosystem science to a large audience, illustrating the complex interdependence of all living things within the environment.

“The deeper ecology is examined,” writes Reid, “the clearer it becomes that interdependence is a governing principle, that animals are bound to one another by unbreakable bonds of dependence.”

In the pages of Reid's book, Herbert found a model for the Arrakis ecosystem in a surprising place: the Guano Islands in Peru. As Reid explains, the bird droppings amassed on these islands were ideal fertilizer. Home to mountains of manure which can be described as “new”.White gold” and some of the worthwhile substances on earth, the guano islands became the positioning of a series of resource wars within the late nineteenth century between Spain and several other of its former colonies, including Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Ecuador.

The plot of “Dune” centers on the fight for control of “spice,” a useful resource. Harvested from the sands of the desert planet, it’s each an opulent flavoring for food and a hallucinogenic drug that permits some people to change space, enabling interstellar travel.

There is a certain irony within the incontrovertible fact that Herbert got here up with the concept for a spice created from bird droppings. But he was intrigued by Reid's careful depiction of the unique and efficient ecosystem that produced a worthwhile—if harmful—commodity.

As the ecologist explains, the cold currents within the Pacific Ocean push nutrients to the surface of nearby waters, helping photosynthetic plankton thrive. These are home to an incredible fish population that feeds not only whales but additionally hordes of birds.

In early drafts of “Dune,” Herbert combined all of those stages within the life cycle of the enormous sandworms, football field-sized monsters that roam the desert sands and devour every little thing of their path.

Herbert initially imagines each of those fearsome creatures as small, photosynthetic plants that become larger “sand trout.” Eventually they develop into giant sandworms that churn up the desert sand and spit spices to the surface.

In each the book and Dune: Part One, soldier Gurney Halleck recites a cryptic verse that comments on this reversal of sea life and dry extraction regimes: “For they will suck from the bounty of the seas and the treasure hidden therein.” Sand.”

“Dune” revolutions

After “Dune” was published in 1965, it was eagerly embraced by the environmental movement.

Herbert spoke at the primary Earth Day in Philadelphia in 1970 and in the primary edition of the Catalog of the Entire Earth – a famous DIY manual and bulletin for environmental activists – “Dune” was promoted with the slogan: “The metaphor is ecology.” The Theme Revolution.”

At the start of Denis Villeneuve's first adaptation, “Dune,” Chani, an indigenous Fremen played by Zendaya, asks an issue that foreshadows the violent conclusion of the second film: “Who will our next oppressors be?”

The immediate cut to the sleeping Paul Atreides, the white protagonist played by Timothée Chalamet, expresses the pointed anti-colonial message like a knife. In fact, each of Villeneuve's movies skillfully explore the anti-colonial themes of Herbert's novels.

Unfortunately, the severity of their environmental criticism has weakened. But Villeneuve did it suggested that he could adapt too”Dune Messiah” for his next film within the series – a novel by which the ecological damage to Arrakis is glaringly obvious.

I hope that Herbert's prescient ecological warning, which resonated a lot with readers within the Nineteen Sixties, comes through in Dune 3.