Politics
Jordan refers former Jack Smith aide to Department of Justice
House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) referred a top aide to former special counsel Jack Smith to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution over obstruction of a congressional investigation. Thomas Windom, who was senior assistant special counsel under Smith, sat for an interview with congressional investigators in June and a deposition in September…
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SEATTLE — In late May, Greg Moriarty formally presented his credentials to President Donald Trump as Australia’s man in Washington. But it wasn’t until mid-June that Moriarty encountered one of the U.S. officials he most needed to meet: Energy Secretary Chris Wright, whose department plays a key role in critical-minerals deals between the two countries.
Moriarty’s encounter with Wright did not take place at the Energy Department’s headquarters just off the National Mall in Washington, or at any of its many facilities around the country. Rather the men met at Lumen Field in Seattle, at last Friday’s crucial World Cup match between their countries, where Wright led the U.S. delegation — an auspicious occasion for an envoy to make connections in a new post.
“The United States is a very sports-mad country, so is Australia, so [it’s] a great opportunity to get to know them on a different level, because you might touch on one or two items of business,” Moriarty said in an interview. “But it’s generally just so that you can both enjoy the spectacle and the connection that we both have through sports.”
Moriarty also introduced himself to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a figure of particular fascination in Australia given that country’s embrace of harsh Covid-era lockdowns, as well as members of Congress in attendance. Moriarty, a former defense secretary and national security adviser, will work to keep Washington’s foreign-policy establishment focused on the Indo-Pacific in a year when its attention has drifted alternately to the Arctic, Caribbean and Persian Gulf.
“The United States is a superpower. It clearly has global commitments and global responsibilities,” said Moriarty. “But Australia, we think that the United States’s commitment to the Indo-Pacific is very solid.”
In Seattle, however, business was front of mind for Moriarty, who finds himself fighting a new 12.5 percent tariff that the Trump administration has imposed on countries accused of not doing enough to prevent slave labor in their supply chains. At the waterfront Edgewater Hotel, Moriarty joined corporate leaders — including Microsoft’s Australian-raised Deputy General Counsel Antony Cook, who has taken a leading role in the company’s approach to AI regulation, and Mikaël Limapalaër of heavyweight pension fund Australian Super — to discuss the future of the bilateral trade relationship.
Moriarty is unusual among Australia’s ambassadors to Washington for not having been a politician — his immediate predecessor, Kevin Rudd, previously served as the country’s prime minister — but he already shows a deft instinct for intertwining economic ties, military alliances and cultural affinity. At one point, he linked a coming National Football League game in Melbourne to the arrival of nuclear submarines as part of the AUKUS security partnership.
“We’re really keen to sort of see how we can use American football to grow an audience in Australia, that will again be really good for the business connections and the people-to-people connections,” said Moriarty.
“Australia will be ready to host the first rotation of U.S. submarines by the end of next year, and we’re hoping that all the Americans who come down to and live down in Western Australia bring their own love of football.”
OTTAWA — Mark Carney may be Canada’s loudest booster at the World Cup, but some of his countrymen fear he may be hurting more than helping — because he always does when it comes to sports.
In March 2025, the new prime minister joined the Edmonton Oilers for a pre-game skate. That night the Oilers fell to the Winnipeg Jets, followed by a wave of injuries on the team. Former Oiler and “Spittin’ Chiclets” podcast host Ryan Whitney took to X: “The Carney Curse is real for Edmonton. What the hell just happened. Guy is on the ice with the Oil this morning and now everyone is injured.”
Now some Canadians are worried that their prime minister has brought the “Carney Curse” to the World Cup, blaming him for Canada’s defeat against Switzerland on Wednesday. His country’s only only goal coincided with a moment that Carney left his box seat at Vancouver’s BC Place.
For a brief, glorious moment last week, the Ottawa fishbowl wondered if the curse had been broken. Carney skipped Canada’s World Cup opener against Bosnia-Herzegovina. But then, after days of anxious whispers over whether he’d jinx the squad, the prime minister witnessed Canada thrash Qatar. If Canada had beaten or tied the Swiss, the team could’ve played as many as two elimination games in Vancouver. With the loss, they fell to runner-up — and a knockout-round game in Los Angeles against South Africa on Sunday.
Canada’s men’s soccer team joins an ever-growing list of inadvertent “victims” of prime-ministerial fanhood, including: the Toronto Blue Jays, who lost the World Series after Carney visited the team; the Canadian women’s rugby team, for whom he traveled to the United Kingdom to cheer on at the World Cup last summer; and the Montreal Canadiens, whom he dubbed “Canada’s team” during the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas danced with Netherlands fans to their famous song “Links Rechts” ahead of the Orange Walk in Kansas City’s Power & Light District on Thursday. The Dutch supporters — along with the Scots and the Norwegians — have been some of the most exuberant in backing their team around the U.S. One local told the Kansas City Star that the experience topped a Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl parade.
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