A rising Republican star tipped by many to be Donald Trump‘s running mate should he win the presidential nomination has been involved in a clandestine affair for years, multiple sources tell DailyMail.com.

Married South Dakota governor Kristi Noem, 51 – who stresses her belief in ‘family values’ – and Trump advisor Corey Lewandowski, who is also married, began carrying on in 2019, if not before.

Now news of the relationship threatens to wreck Noem’s chances of joining Trump’s ticket in a potential rematch with President Joe Biden.

Neither denied the affair when asked by DailyMail.com. The Governor issued a statement attacking us for the timing of the article, while Lewandowski did not respond to a request for comment

However, after the initial publication of the article, Noem’s spokesman Ian Fury vehemently insisted the pair had never had an affair.

The two met up on Friday last week when Lewandowski traveled with Trump to Rapid City, South Dakota, for a campaign rally. But the pair – who were made aware of a pending story about their relationship – were careful to have no public interaction in contrast to previous occasions, as DailyMail.com’s exclusive photos show.

Glamorous Noem – who served four terms as her state’s only member of the US House of Representatives – won the governorship in 2018 promising to uphold the wholesome family values that she said South Dakotans have ‘long embraced’.

Defending ‘traditional marriage’, which she defined as ‘a special, God-given union between one man and one woman’, was particularly important to her.

It was the foundation for her beliefs, policy priorities and the ideals she lives by, said Noem, who has a son and two daughters with her husband Bryon who she married in 1992.

She has long been linked with Lewandowski, 49, who has been pushing hard for Trump to add her to his ticket.

‘He may not be very smart, but it takes big balls to lobby to have your mistress named one of the most powerful people in the country,’ one GOP operative told DailyMail.com. 

The far-right website American Greatness claimed in 2021 the two had been romantically involved, although it gave no details.

At the time she scornfully dismissed the story as ‘total garbage and a disgusting lie’, and said she loved her husband and was ‘proud of the God-fearing family’ they had raised, and the story quickly died.

But a DailyMail.com investigation has uncovered extensive evidence of the couple’s romantic relationship: Dozens of trips that mixed business with pleasure, flights on donors’ private planes, and stays at luxury resorts where their intimacy was observed and noted.

Former Trump operative Charles Johnson wrote in a Substack post that he had seen them acting ‘in a very flirtatious manner’ at the August 2020 meeting of the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) at The Cloister resort on Sea Island, Georgia.

Johnson told DailyMail.com he had seen Noem discreetly take Lewandowski’s hand and put it in her lap. Lewandowski put his arm on her back at the same time.

The pair ‘seemed to be dating despite being married to other people’, Johnson wrote on Substack.

Two other sources who were at the RAGA event were surprised by the obvious affection between Noem and Lewandowski. 

‘A lot of people were talking about it,’ says one, a conservative political strategist who saw the two as they were headed off for a long walk on the beach.

Event organizers were happy to have Noem on hand because of her star quality, but her presence was unexpected as South Dakota’s then-attorney general, Jason Ravnsborg, was there to represent the state.

Noem and Lewandowski have often traveled together – frequently on private planes provided by Republican power brokers.

‘We often had no idea where she was, or even if she was in state or out of state, she would simply disappear,’ one staffer in Pierre, the South Dakota capital, told DailyMail.com.

Fury, the governor’s spokesman said in his initial statement: ‘This is so predictable that you would attack Governor Noem less than a week after she endorsed Donald J. Trump as the 47th President of the United States.

‘As Governor Noem said during that endorsement speech: “Yes, I will be attacked for speaking the truth to all of you tonight. Yes, I expect Joe Biden, these candidates, their political operatives, and the media will perpetuate ugly, hateful misinformation in an attempt to destroy me and my family because of my opinions. 

‘It’s nothing new. I’m getting used to it honestly.” ‘

Lewandowski, who married 9/11 widow Alison Hardy in 2005 and has four children, did not respond to requests for comment.

He allegedly had an affair with campaign press secretary Hope Hicks, and in the run-up to the 2016 election he was arrested for manhandling Breitbart News reporter Michelle Fields at a press conference in Florida. Charges were later dropped.

After Trump’s election, Lewandowski gained a reputation for being a loose cannon. 

‘Corey was always running his mouth off, and after a few drinks you could see the pin starting to fall out of the grenade,’ a defense contractor who knew him said.

Following a party at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, singer Joy Villa filed a police report against Lewandowski for sexual assault, saying he ‘smacked my ass really hard’, and that it was ‘almost violent in nature’.

By 2019 he was a key advisor to Noem and the pair went on a deep-sea fishing trip hosted by the late conservative billionaire and GOP mega-donor Foster Friess, who along with his wife, Lynn, ranked among Noem’s top political and financial supporters.

In October 2019, when her state was blanketed by an early snowstorm, the governor, accompanied by Lewandowski, embarked on at least a week of travel that included stops at three political events.

Noem’s appearance at these affairs doesn’t seem to have been essential, especially as she had been in office for only 10 months at that point and was already drawing criticism over the time and money she was spending on out-of-state travel.

On October 5, the duo attended the Denim & Diamonds Gala fundraiser in Carmel, Indiana, which raises money for the agricultural industry.

Four days later, they were at another fundraiser, in Lake Charles, Louisiana, for a conservative website called The Hayride. 

From there they traveled to AmpFest, a regular gathering of the MAGA hard core held at a Trump property in Miami.

Noem’s appearance at AmpFest, which stretched over parts of at least two days, seems particularly superfluous.

Her presence wasn’t even announced and a source who was also there reported she spent much of her time leisurely accompanying Lewandowski on his rounds and sharing food, drink and other VIP perks.

‘It was not an A-tier event,’ says the source, a Trump Administration official. ‘It was weird to see a governor from the other side of the country be there.’

The two spent so much time at AmpFest cozily secluded, the official concluded that they were a couple happily in love.

He spotted them several times when he drove a golf cart to a remote building on the property where Lewandowski and other VIPs were lodged. 

‘I had met Corey a few times, but that was the first time I saw Kristi,’ he recalled. ‘I told Corey it was nice to meet his wife.

‘He looked at me and said, ‘That’s not my wife’.’

In the months leading up to the 2020 election, Noem and Lewandowski became virtually inseparable companions on the Trump campaign trail.

By then, their relationship was an open secret at the White House and among high-level GOP lobbyists and political consultants.

‘It became a joke,’ says the Trump Administration employee who had first seen them at AMPFest.

‘Every time someone said something about how Kristi would be a savior to the conservative movement, someone else would say, ‘Right, the savior that’s f**king Corey Lewandowski’.’

In summer 2021, Noem and Lewandowski were at the Republican Governors Association event at the St. Regis in Aspen, Colorado.

According to sources on hand or who heard directly about what transpired from multiple people that were, Noem missed several events she was expected to attend.

The reason, said one, was she was ‘holed up’ with her companion, who had been given a room at the nearby Hotel Jerome, much to Noem’s annoyance.

‘She raised a stink about it with event organizers and succeeded in getting Lewandowski transferred to a room at the St. Regis near hers,’ another source said.

In September that year Lewandowski and Noem were off again, this time to a Las Vegas fundraiser for an organization that fights substance abuse.

Noem was the keynote speaker at the event, which was held at a Benihana restaurant – Lewandowski officially attended in his capacity as head of the super-PAC Trump had appointed him to the prior year.

According to published accounts, after quickly getting drunk, Lewandowski was escorted to a banquet table where he joined dignitaries including Trashelle Odom, wife of a major Trump donor, construction executive John Odom.

Lewandowski propositioned Odom after disclosing that he had once stabbed two people to death, that his penis was way longer than normal, and showed her his hotel key.

In a complaint to police, Odom said Lewandowski’s ‘statements, demeanor and aggressive behavior’ made her ‘intimidated and frightened and fearful for my safety and that of my family members.’

When Odom tried to change the subject by asking Lewandowski about his wife, he told her he satisfied his sexual needs ‘elsewhere’.

He also shared that he found Governor Noem ‘hot’.

Odom fled the table after Lewandowski touched her behind, but he chased after her, threw a drink at her, and called her ‘stupid’.

Trump immediately fired him from his super-PAC post and Noem announced she was axing him too from his role as her senior political advisor.

Yet Noem didn’t sever the relationship. 

In fact, the morning after the Benihana incident, the two flew on a private plane, provided by a donor, to Santa Barbara, California, where Noem spoke at a Young America’s Foundation event at Rancho del Cielo, President Reagan’s vacation home.

‘When Las Vegas happened, she fired him without really firing him,’ a source revealed. ‘He never left.’

Noem didn’t want word to leak that Lewandowski was still working for her and that they continued to spend after-hours time together, especially to her family. 

‘Her husband would have lost his mind,’ the source said, so Noem ‘only told staffers that needed to know’.

The source described Lewandowski’s Las Vegas clownery as par for the course at the governor’s office as well.

He’d make comments about Noem’s appearance – ‘that she was hot or had a nice ass’, said the source.

‘Kristi would make excuses for his behavior and apologize to staffers for him.’

Six months after the Vegas incident, Noem and Lewandowski made plans to book a hotel room together in Seattle while there for an event to raise money for Republican candidate Jesse Jensen, an informed source said.

Then in April 2022 they went together to a Houston fundraiser for GOP candidate Greg Travis.

Travis posted a photograph on Twitter of himself and his wife standing with the couple. Lewandowski was beaming. Noem did not look so happy.The following month, Politico reported that the governor had officially brought Lewandowski back as a political adviser.

Noem then implemented additional procedures – including instructing staffers not to share her private schedule with her husband – in hopes of minimizing more information seeping out about the scope of his role or their personal relationship, two former staffers told DailyMail.com.

They continued to travel together when she was promoting her memoir in July 2022.

Last week when Lewandowski traveled to South Dakota, Noem greeted the arrivals on the tarmac, but she and Lewandowski were careful to have zero interaction in public. 

The presence of Noem’s husband Bryon – who is said to ‘detest’ the operative – and her mother Corinne Arnold may have contributed to the apparent snub.

‘The governor and her husband welcomed everyone as they disembarked in Rapid City – first Secret Service and then other members of the team who had traveled with the former President,’ said one onlooker.

‘When Lewandowski began coming down the stairs Noem was looking in the other direction. He clearly registered her and almost immediately he looked away and off to the left. 

‘As he did Noem looked over towards him before she too immediately looked the other way.’

‘But unlike other members of Trump’s party, Lewandowski walked straight past the state’s first couple. ‘He can hardly have had time to say ‘Hi’,’ said the witness.

One political operative told DailyMail.com the ethics and propriety of a  romance between Noem and Lewandowski is in some ways in the eye of the beholder.

‘I’m a cynical political consultant, so I assume everybody is f**king somebody,’ he said, and in his personal case, he wasn’t surprised or bothered by the idea that Noem would have an extramarital affair while simultaneously promoting her brand as a conservative Christian.

‘But,’ he concluded, ‘if I put on my normal-person hat, especially in a state like South Dakota, where family values are important, yes, I think a lot of people would be mind-blowingly angry.’

As news of a South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem’s secret affair with Corey Lewandowski came to light, questions have swirled about the state’s First Gentleman.

Bryon Noem, who says ‘marrying Kristi was the best decision he ever made,’ has stayed silent amid the explosive revelations.

Bryon has often loomed in the shadows as Noem ascended through politics – eventually taking the helm of South Dakota as their 33rd governor in 2018 when she promised to uphold the wholesome family values the state has ‘long embraced.’

According to the governor’s website, The 33rd First Gentleman grew up on a farm near Bryant where he says his love of small towns began. 

Bryon is an American businessman, rancher and insurer but is best known for his role as Noem’s second half.

Graduating from Northern State University with a degree in business and finance Bryon worked on the family farm, coached basketball and eventually moved into the world of insurance.

He met Noem in high school when she had aspirations of becoming a farmer and rancher. 

Together the pair operated a farm and ranch, opened an ice cream store helped manage a family restaurant, and pursued numerous other business ventures together.

While photographs of the couple show them beaming as they embrace and in front of the cameras, at least, showing a united front.

The pair had three children which they describe as their ‘greatest accomplishment’ –  Kassidy, Kennedy, and Booker.

As the glamorous Noem takes center stage, most recently endorsing Trump at a party fundraiser in Rapid City, Bryon continues to operate an insurance agency in Bryant and Watertown and coaches basketball.

His focus as First Gentleman of South Dakota has always been to keep small towns thriving given his personal history.

‘I am proud to be from rural South Dakota. It’s where I learned the values of hard work and self-reliance, where Kristi and I chose to raise our kids, where we started an insurance business and hunting lodge, and where my family has farmed and ranched for a century,’ he explained on his bio.

‘But many small towns like ours are struggling today. Class sizes are dropping. Businesses can’t afford to stay open. And fewer kids are coming home to farm or ranch. 

‘While South Dakota has grown by more than 100,000 people since 2000, rural populations have decreased. 

He added that seeing the larger communities flourish is ‘exciting’ but didn’t want to ‘lose South Dakota’s rural culture.’

‘I want to remind people that these are some of the best places to raise a family or start a business,’ he said.

‘I want to show that our way of life here is worth celebrating and promoting. I want to listen to peoples’ stories and learn from their experiences, then share them with others.’

News of the affair between Married Noem and Lewandowski, who is also married, broke on Friday.

The clandestine relationship could threaten to wreck Noem’s chances of joining Trump’s ticket in a potential rematch with President Joe Biden.

Neither denied the affair when asked by DailyMail.com. The Governor issued a statement questioning the timing of the article, while Lewandowski did not respond to a request for comment. 

However, after the initial publication of the article, Noem’s spokesman Ian Fury vehemently insisted the pair had never had an affair. 

The two met up on Friday last week when Lewandowski traveled with Trump to Rapid City, South Dakota, for a campaign rally. 

But the pair – who were made aware of a pending story about their relationship – were careful to have no public interaction in contrast to previous occasions, as DailyMail.com’s exclusive photos show.

Glamorous Noem – who served four terms as her state’s only member of the US House of Representatives – won the governorship in 2018 promising to uphold the wholesome family values that she said South Dakotans have ‘long embraced’.

Defending ‘traditional marriage,’ which she defined as ‘a special, God-given union between one man and one woman’, was particularly important to her.

It was the foundation for her beliefs, policy priorities and the ideals she lives by, said Noem, who has a son and two daughters with her husband Bryon who she married in 1992.

She has long been linked with Lewandowski, 49, who has been pushing hard for Trump to add her to his ticket.

The far-right website American Greatness claimed in 2021 the two had been romantically involved, although it gave no details.

At the time she scornfully dismissed the story as ‘total garbage and a disgusting lie’, and said she loved her husband and was ‘proud of the God-fearing family’ they had raised, and the story quickly died.

But a DailyMail.com investigation has uncovered extensive evidence of the couple’s romantic relationship: Dozens of trips that mixed business with pleasure, flights on donors’ private planes, and stays at luxury resorts where their intimacy was observed and noted.

Lewandowski, who married 9/11 widow Alison Hardy in 2005 and has four children, did not respond to requests for comment.

He allegedly had an affair with campaign press secretary Hope Hicks, and in the run-up to the 2016 election he was arrested for manhandling Breitbart News reporter Michelle Fields at a press conference in Florida. Charges were later dropped.

Donald Trump was in South Dakota on Friday night for a party fundraiser that doubled as an opportunity for the state’s governor, Kristi Noem, to showcase herself as a potential vice presidential pick.

Trump joined the South Dakota Republican Party for a ‘Monumental Leaders Rally’ in Rapid City. 

Noem appeared alongside the former president and endorsed him, creating an image of the pair that Noem’s allies hope make her look like vice presidential material. 

Sources have told the New York Times that she has her eye on a vice presidential spot. 

Noem, 51, has been touted as a future presidential candidate – with a spell in the White House certain to bring her to national prominence and help turbocharge any future presidential ambitions. 

Trump’s decision to headline the event underscores his dominance in the Republican race even as he faces four separate indictments and 91 felony counts.

South Dakota holds a late primary and isn’t competitive in a general election. 

With a huge lead in the polls, Trump is skipping much of the traditional primary campaign.

Instead of large-scale rallies, he is relying on state party events that offer large, friendly audiences at no cost to his campaign, while his political organization pays millions of dollars in legal expenses.

Friday’s visit by Trump was something of an audition for Noem. 

She planned the event as a way to both offer her endorsement and maximize face time with Trump as he considers potential 2024 running mates and cabinet members, according to one of the Republicans who spoke anonymously. A spokesman for the governor has declined to comment.

Noem will be term-limited in 2026 and, after declining to run for president this year, is eyeing her next move to maintain prominence in the GOP.

‘I think Donald Trump has a 50-50 shot of getting elected at this point, so why not hitch your wagon to him if you can?’ said Michael Card, a longtime observer of South Dakota politics who suggested Noem might also make a future National Rifle Association president or conservative commentator.

Voting won’t begin for several months and Trump’s indictments and upcoming criminal trials create an unprecedented situation that many strategists argue could influence the race in unexpected ways. 

That hasn’t stopped those who are keen to be considered as Trump’s running mate from openly jockeying for the position and trying to curry favor with him and his aides.

Aides caution it is far too early for serious discussions, but Trump has indicated in conversations that he is interested in selecting a woman this time around, having fallen out with his former Vice President Mike Pence.

Aides say Trump has little interest in choosing a VP and views the role as a largely ceremonial one that’s vastly inferior to that of the president, according to the outlet.

But prospective candidates like Noem realize that it could still be used as a stepping stone to the top job. 

Joe Biden and George HW Bush are among nine former vice presidents who later became presidents.

Among the other names that have been floated: New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn. Florida Rep. Byron Donalds and Sen. Tim Scott have also been mentioned.

Trump will be in Iowa, the first state on the GOP nomination calendar, on Saturday to attend the college football game between Iowa and Iowa State.

‘What we’re focused on is just locking up this primary and pivoting towards the general election,’ said campaign spokesman Steven Cheung.

Noem was long considered a potential White House contender in her own right and had told The New York Times in November that she didn’t believe Trump offered ‘the best chance’ for the party in 2024. 

She has since said she saw no point in joining the crowded field running for the nomination given Trump’s dominant position.

‘I would in a heartbeat,’ she told Newsmax when asked this week about whether she would consider joining a potential Trump ticket if asked. 

‘President Trump needs a strong partner if he’s going to take back the White House, and he’s going to need somebody who knows what it’s like to run a business, to be an employee, earn a paycheck, but also having a wife, mom and a grandma isn’t bad either.’

It will be Trump’s first visit to South Dakota since the summer of 2020, when he headlined a Fourth of July fireworks celebration at Mount Rushmore on the eve of Independence Day. 

The then-president had been looking for a venue to turn the page after a summer of pandemic lockdowns and racial justice protests. 

Noem’s event at Mount Rushmore was notably devoid of pandemic restrictions.

She also gifted him a miniature replica of Mount Rushmore with his likeness carved alongside George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt.

‘I don’t know exactly,’ Trump said Thursday when asked if Noem will endorse him. ‘But I am going. I like her a lot. I think she’s great. Kristi’s done a great job.’ 

He has often praised her handling of the pandemic, saying again on Thursday she had done ‘a fantastic job.’

A former member of Congress, Noem in 2018 squeezed out a surprisingly close win over a Democratic challenger to become South Dakota’s first female governor. 

She rose to national prominence with a mostly hands-off approach to the pandemic and tacked closely to the urgings of Trump to return to life as normal.

She handily won reelection last year, even as she performed worse than other Republicans on the ballot.

Despite not running for president, Noem has continued to position herself nationally.

She has been an outspoken champion for the National Rifle Association, even bragging at a spring convention for the gun-rights group that her one-year-old granddaughter ‘already has’ firearms. 

She has also defended South Dakota’s abortion ban and will appear at a Michigan fundraiser later this month to support Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers.

During the first GOP presidential debate, she appeared in an ad to encourage businesses and families to move to what she calls ‘the freest state in America.’

Friday’s event is expected to draw protesters targeting both Trump and Noem, said Annie Bachand, CEO of the South Dakota-based group Liberty & Justice for All.

‘The reason that we show up is to demonstrate to other people that we’re not alone,’ Bachand said. 

‘Kristi Noem has spent more time out campaigning for I don’t know what than she has in South Dakota. She has more interest in her own self-interest than she does in taking care of the people of South Dakota.’

South Dakota GOP chair John Wiik said he expects about 7,000 people to attend the sold-out fundraiser. 

The event was first planned as a Lincoln Day-style fundraising dinner commonly held by local Republican groups, Wiik said, but it later ballooned into a rally with proceeds going to the state party.

‘I did get a lot of questions at first,’ Wiik said about Trump’s decision to travel to his state just as the primary season kicks into its traditional post-Labor Day overdrive.

‘But the more you look at it, Trump is a media event wherever he lands,’ Wiik said. 

‘He could do a rally on the moon and he’d spread his word and get just as many people, so I’m just glad he chose South Dakota.’

Hawaii‘s governor said on Thursday that the death toll from the Maui wildfires was likely to rise substantially, saying that it could eclipse the 1960 tsunami which killed 61 people.

The death toll is currently at 53, and a little earlier, with the toll at 36, Josh Green said it would rise. Officials will provide an update at 9:30pm EST on Thursday.

‘I’ll tell you, by the time this disaster is all described, I’m sure there will be dozens of people that lost their lives and billions of dollars of property that was destroyed,’ said Green.

He told CNN‘s Wolf Blitzer that 1,700 buildings were probably destroyed in the fire.

He said most buildings in Lahaina, a historic town in Maui, are completely gone, some of them still smoldering. 

Only some stone buildings are still standing, he said.

‘We also are only now getting some of our search and rescue personnel into other houses,’ Green said, adding that helicopters are also surveying the area.

The cause of the wildfire remains unknown.

The National Weather Service said dry vegetation, strong winds, and low humidity fueled them. 

Green said it was likely to prove a worse natural disaster than the tsunami of May 1960, sparked by an earthquake in Chile.

That tragedy left 61 people dead.

Hawaii is not immune to wildfires: in 2018, a total of 30,000 acres burnt, with flames fanned by Hurricane Lane.

This time, strong winds were caused by Hurricane Dora, which passed south of the islands. 

Wildfires occur every year in Hawaii, according to Thomas Smith, an environmental geography professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science – but this year’s fires are burning faster and bigger than usual.

Neighborhoods and businesses have been razed to the ground, and vehicles burned to a crisp across the western side of the island as the wildfires cut off most roads out of Lahaina. 

The town is one of Maui’s prime attractions, drawing two million tourists each year, or about 80 per cent of the island’s visitors.

The wildfires took most of Lahaina’s residents and visitors by surprise when they broke out late on Tuesday, forcing some to run for their lives and jump into the ocean to escape the fast-moving inferno.

Nicoangelo Knickerbocker, a 21-year-old resident of Lahaina, had just awoken from a nap on Tuesday evening when he saw the fires burning through his hometown. 

His mother and sister fled, while he and some and friends went to neighbors’ houses, helping people pack belongings and trying in vain to stem the flames with garden hoses.

‘It was so hot all around me, I felt like my shirt was about to catch on fire,’ he told AP from one of the four emergency shelters opened on the island. 

The shelters are housing more than 2,100 people, Hawaii News Now said.

Knickerbocker heard cars and a gas station explode, and soon after fled the town with his father, bringing with them only the clothes they were wearing and the family dog. 

‘It sounded like a war was going on,’ he said.

At least 20 people suffered serious burns, and several were airlifted to Oahu for medical treatment, said Ed Sniffen of the Hawaii Department of Transportation.

More than 11,000 visitors were evacuated from Maui.

Though at least 16 roads were closed, the airport was operating fully, he said.

Most of the roughly 400 evacuees at the War Memorial shelter on Thursday morning had arrived in shock, with an ’empty look,’ said Dr. Gerald Tariao Montano, a pediatrician who volunteered to work a six-hour shift on Wednesday night.

‘Some haven’t fully grasped that they lost everything,’ he said. 

He pleaded for donations of clothes, supplies, food, baby formula and diapers.

The fate of some of Lahaina’s cultural treasures remains unclear. 

The historic 60-foot-tall banyan tree marking the spot where Hawaiian King Kamehameha III’s 19th-century palace stood was still standing, though some of its boughs appeared charred, according to a Reuters witness.

Joe Biden approved a disaster declaration for Hawaii, allowing affected individuals and business owners to apply for federal housing and economic recovery grants, the White House said in a statement.

US Senate ask Saudi governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan and PGA Tour head Jay Monahan to appear before it on July 11 for inquest into shock LIV Golf merger

• The Senate want a response from  Yasir Al-Rumayyan by June 28 on appearing
• Jay Monahan recently stepped away from PGA duties due to a health issue 
• DailyMail.com provides all the latest international sports news

By Jack Bezants For Dailymail.Com

Published: 14:00 EDT, 21 June 2023 | Updated: 15:16 EDT, 21 June 2023

Reserve Bank boss cops a subtle dig at his academic credentials – as his misleading advice that interest rates would not rise until 2024 is slammed

• Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe’s PhD credentials downplayed by MPs
• Hansard and parliamentary report refer to him as a ‘Mr’ even though he has PhD
• Labor MPs with doctorates Daniel Mulino, Andrew Charlton referred to as a ‘Dr’ 
• Parliamentary report slammed Lowe’s vow that rates would stay still until 2024  

By Stephen Johnson, Economics Reporter For Daily Mail Australia

Published: 22:07 EDT, 22 December 2022 | Updated: 22:42 EDT, 22 December 2022

Fresh from baiting Governor Ron DeSantis with political adverts in Florida, now California‘s Democratic leader Gavin Newsom is running full-page newspaper ads in Texas on abortion and guns.

The cheeky campaign will fuel speculation that Newsom is laying down his 2024 credentials as a presidential candidate who is prepared to take the fight to Republican culture warriors.

And in an interview to coincide with the launch he criticized other members of his party for playing softball with opponents. 

The new slate of ads will run will run in the Austin American-Statesman, Houston Chronicle and El Paso Times.

They target Governor Greg Abbott, who recently said abortion was costing the lives of children in Texas. 

It changes his line to say instead that gun violence is responsible for killing children in California.

‘If Texas can ban abortion and endanger lives, California can ban deadly weapons of war and save lives. If Governor Abbott truly wants to protect the right to life, we urge him to follow California’s lead,’ the ad reads. 

It comes after Newsom sparked 2024 speculation with a $105,000 ad buy on Fox News hitting DeSantis, before last week criticizing Democratic timidity in Washington last week.

He told NBC News that Democrats had to get tougher in the wake of the Supreme Court decision overturning nationwide abortion rights.

‘I think Democrats have been playing a little soft,’ he said.

Taking the moral high ground could only take the party so far, he added. 

‘It’s absolutely true that I’d much rather follow, “When they go low, we go high,” he said, in reference to the philosophy of former first lady Michelle Obama.

‘But I also think we’d be completely missing the moment we’re living in. The door’s open.

‘It’s now fair play. The Supreme Court left the door open.’

To that end, Newsom is due on Friday to sign into law a gun control law that is modeled on the Texas abortion law by allowing citizens to sue anyone who makes or sells banned weapons.

His Florida ad already had Newsom sounding like a national player.

‘I urge all of you living in Florida to join the fight – or join us in California, where we still believe in freedom,’ he said in the July 4th ad, which has the feel of a political campaign spot.

The following week he was in the nation’s capital to meet with First Lady Jill Biden at the White House. 

He said the two spoke ‘all things education’ including ‘what’s going on in many of those red states.’ 

He also collected an award from the Education Commission of the States.

The award comes ‘in recognition of its coordinated approach to educating all students from preschool to postsecondary, with explicit attention toward whole-child supports and services, as well as its historic financial investments to ensure educational equity,’ according to the group. 

The state is on the way to achieving universal pre-K by 2025. 

Newsom, 54, used the platform to blast GOP attacks on Critical Race Theory, at a time when some Demcrats are calling on Biden to more forcefully confront his critics.

‘What’s happening now–banning books? Suppressing speech? The other-ing of our students, teachers, parents? It’s alarming,’ he said.

He also said President Biden should run for reelection. 

It comes on a trip where he planned to meet administration officials – with plans to meet with Vice President Kamala Harris in DC on Friday.

The trip came while President Biden was out of the country on a trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia and a day after Biden tore into a reporter who brought up a New York Times / Sienna College poll that showed two-thirds of Democrats want someone else as the party nominee.

‘You guys are all the same’ he said, telling his questioner to ‘read the polls, read the polls. They want me to run.’

He cited a different poll question showing 92 per cent of Democrats would vote for him. The poll also showed him narrowly beating former President Donald Trump. 

‘Read the polls. Read the polls, Jack. You guys are all the same,’ said Biden. 

 ‘A majority of Democrats say the don’t want you to run in 2024,’ the reporter countered. Biden shot back:  ’92 percent said I did, they’d vote for me.’

In his Independence Day ad, Newsom went straight at DeSantis and national party leaders.

Republican leaders are ‘making it harder to vote, restricting speech in classrooms, even criminalizing women and doctors,’ he said in he ad.

Donald Trump rages at Texas Governor Greg Abbott for not standing by the state’s impeached Attorney General: ‘MISSING IN ACTION!’

• Trump said Texas Gov. Greg Abbott was ‘MIA’ for failing to back AG Ken Paxton
• The Texas House of Representatives voted to impeach Paxton on Saturday
• Trump voiced his support for Paxton before the debate even began

By Neirin Gray Desai For Dailymail.Com

Published: 17:22 EDT, 28 May 2023 | Updated: 17:30 EDT, 28 May 2023

The Reserve Bank governor has warned higher interest rates are unavoidable to tame inflation – arguing doing nothing would risk unemployment doubling to levels unseen since the 1990s.

Philip Lowe, a $1million-a-year banker, has already presided over nine consecutive interest rate rises, taking the cash rate to a new 10-year high of 3.35 per cent.

He hinted on Friday that further raises are required to tackle inflation which is running at 7.8 per cent – the highest level since 1990 when interest rates soared to 17.5 per cent, triggering a deep recession.

Dr Lowe was wearing a more budget-friendly Fossil watch, worth about $400 as he spoke on Friday, having also worn that watch on Wednesday as he faced a separate Senate hearing.

He normally wears a IWC watch, which retails for thousands of dollars.

The economist told a House of Representatives economics committee hearing in Canberra on Friday that if interest rates did not reverse inflation, then unemployment would surge to 8.5 per cent – the worst since 1997 – from last month’s near 48-year low of 3.7 per cent.

‘We will pay a serious, long-term cost,’ he said.

‘All the evidence from the 70s and the 1980s is if inflation stays here for a run of years, to get it back down again, to get inflation back down four or five percentage points requires a steep downturn in the economy and probably a rise in unemployment of five percentage points.

‘So the unemployment rate goes from three-and-a-half to eight-and-a-half or nine – that’s what happened in the United States, it happened in Australia, it happened in some European countries.

‘That’s the cost you’ve got to pay to get inflation back down again and that comes with high interest rates as well.’

He acknowledged the rate rises had particularly hurt home owners who are now struggling to pay their mortgages.

‘The instrument that we have to achieve this is interest rates which, I acknowledge, can be a blunt instrument,’ Dr Lowe said.

‘We are very conscious that the impact is being felt very unevenly across the community.’

Dr Lowe also reiterated interest rates would keep on rising in 2023, with ANZ and NAB both now expecting three more rate rises by May to a new 11-year high of 4.1 per cent.

‘We need to make clear to the community we’re not done yet,’ he said.

‘There’s a risk that we haven’t done enough and inflation proves more persistent and doesn’t come down.’ 

The Reserve Bank chief said he was prepared to make the tough decisions that politicians do not, arguing Parliament would be reluctant to raise taxes to arrest inflation.

‘It’s hard for the political class to take the short-term decisions to manage the cycle,’ he said.

A tax increase by ministerial regulation lasts for a year but needs to pass both houses of parliament to become permanent.

Without such parliamentary approval, it left monetary policy as the main tool to battle inflation.

‘We’re raising interest rates. It’s become very unpopular, it’s easier for me to be unpopular than maybe some people in this building so there’s that element, and there’s also the argument that fiscal policy is not particularly nimble,’ Dr Lowe said.

Dr Lowe told the hearing that, given the uproar over his address to Barrenjoey Capital last week, he promised he would no longer give economic forecasts to financial insiders.

The comments he made in the private address led to a sharp rise in bond yields and saw the futures market predict a 4.1 per cent cash rate in 2023. 

‘If you speak to me, you want to have trust that I’m not going to go and blab to the press the next day and I expect the same courtesy,’ Dr Lowe said.

‘That courtesy wasn’t extended after that Barrenjoey lunch and I decided that given that, we would not be doing further functions for them for quite some time.

‘There’s nothing untoward here but we need to have conversations with people without the other side of that conversation running off to the press and when that happens, it destroys trust and there are consequences from that.’

Dr Lowe also noted 880,000 fixed rate mortgages worth a combined $350billion were expiring in 2023, and the protection those homebuyers had so far enjoyed was about to expire.

‘These borrowers will face very significant increases in loan repayments,’ he said.

‘This is a challenging environment for many people. 

‘We recognise that the full effect of higher interest rates is yet to be felt, with some borrowers still benefiting from low-interest fixed-rate loans.’

Brad Jones, an assistant governor of the RBA, said one third of variable rate borrowers were two years ahead on their mortgage with just 10 per cent having no spare cash to deal with rate rises. 

He said just 0.5 per cent of mortgage holders were in negative equity, meaning they owed more on their property than its market value.

That would rise to 1 per cent if house prices fell 10 per cent and would go to 4 per cent if real estate values dropped by 20 per cent. 

Borrowers with a 25-year loan face this year moving from an ultra low fixed rate of 1.92 per cent to a ‘revert’ rate of 7.18 per cent, which would see an abrupt 65 per cent increase in monthly repayments, RateCity calculated. 

Dr Lowe was appearing before a parliamentary hearing for the second time in two days, having appeared before a Senate economics committee on Wednesday.

ANZ on Thursday joined NAB in predicting the RBA would raise rates three more times to an 11-year high of 4.1 per cent by May.

This would mean rate rises in March, April and May, adding $283 a month to repayments on an average, $600,000 loan.

That would be on top of the $997 increases imposed since May last year, with Commonwealth Bank variable rates today increasing another 0.25 percentage points to reflect the RBA’s February increase.

That $1,280 jump in monthly repayments would add up to $15,360 over a year – marking a 55 per cent increase since May 2022.

The typical borrower is now paying $3,303 a month on their repayments, a 43 per cent increase compared with $2,306 less than nine months ago.

ANZ economists Felicity Emmett, Catherine Birch and Adelaide Timbrell had previously expected a 3.85 per cent RBA cash rate peak, like the Commonwealth Bank and Westpac now.

But with inflation last year surging by 7.8 per cent – the steepest pace in 32 years – they are expecting it to stay above the RBA’s 2 to 3 per cent target until the end of 2024.

By that time, the Reserve Bank is expecting unemployment to have risen to 4.25 per cent.

‘Given that price pressures are intense and look to remain stronger for longer, we have lifted our 2023 inflation and wage growth forecasts and see the higher cash rate as necessary to return inflation to the top of the target band by late-2024,’ the ANZ economists said.

Virginia officials have launched a war on fentanyl, vowing to greatly reduce the number of deaths from fentanyl in his state.

Gov Glenn Youngkin, a Republican who entered office in 2022, called fentanyl a ‘weapon of terrorism’. 

Fentanyl was responsible for killing at least 70,600 Americans in 2022 and caused more than 1,950 deaths in Virginia alone. 

The synthetic opioid enters the US through the southern border and contaminates the illicit drug supply, ravaging local communities and major cities alike. 

The Republican governor issued a laundry list of initiatives to fulfill his goal of reducing opioid overdoses in Virginia by 20 percent during his term in office.

Gov Youngkin signed the executive order on Tuesday directing the Department of Health to develop a plan for wastewater surveillance ‘to detect the frequency, potency, and occurrences of fentanyl use in specific locations’.

The order also granted individual counties within the state more leeway to secure kits of the overdose reversal ‘miracle’ drug naloxone and directs law enforcement to step up efforts to interdict drug shipments into the state.

It also directed relevant state departments including those for health, social security, and corrections, to improve fatal overdose surveillance, drug interdiction, and public awareness.  

Opioids, particularly the ultra-potent synthetic fentanyl, have taken a significant toll on Virginians, who have seen the number of fatal fentanyl overdoses increase 20-fold since 2013, Gov Youngkin said. 

He added: ‘We cannot stand by as Virginians lose their lives when there are steps we can take to combat this deadly fentanyl poisoning crisis. We must act.’

Richmond, Virginia’s capital, is among the hottest spots for fatal overdoses due to opioids, with 272 deaths in 2022 and 262 of those due to fentanyl.

Fatal overdoses due to all opioids in Virginia in 2022 reached 2,104, slightly down from the 2021 tally of 2,229 but well above the 2019 total, 1,298.

The vast majority of those deaths were caused by fentanyl. 

The drug was introduced in the 1960s as a pain reliever and an IV anesthetic. By the 1990s, drug companies developed fentanyl patches that deposited the medicine into the body through the skin to treat severe pain in cancer patients. 

But it has increasingly been found in the illicit drug supply often as a pollutant in other drugs including cocaine, methamphetamine, and benzodiazepines, meaning many people ingest it unknowingly. 

Just two milligrams of fentanyl, equal to around 10 to 15 grains of table salt, can be lethal.

Preliminary figures from the state show that the synthetic drug 50 times stronger than heroin killed more than 1,950 people last year and more than 2,000 the year before.

John Littel, Virginia’s health secretary said: ‘Today, five Virginians will die from fentanyl. 

‘Tomorrow and every day this year, an average of five Virginians will die from this deadly drug. 

Within the next four months, the state health department will need to devise a cost-effective way to monitor the sewer system for concentrations of opioids including fentanyl and heroin. 

The objective is to use the surveillance data to inform resource allotment, meaning the communities with the highest presence of opiates will get greater access to naloxone and drug treatment options. 

The order also directs the Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security to scale up the state’s law enforcement system’s ability to interdict illicit drug shipments into and throughout the state.

Youngkin further ordered a cadre of state agencies such as the Department of Social Services, and the Department of Criminal Justice Services to come up with a more effective, thorough way to record and report fatal and nonfatal opioid overdoses ‘to allow for immediate interdiction, education, and abatement efforts’ in the neighborhoods experiencing the biggest spikes in overdoses. 

Fentanyl has blighted American cities and towns of all sizes. A recent government report shows that fatal overdoses involving synthetic opioid more than tripled from 2016-2021, rising from 5.7 per 100,000 in 2016 to 21.6 in 2021.

In Virginia specifically, that rate is around 22 per 100,000 persons, according to preliminary 2022 numbers. In 2021, it was nearly 24 per 100,000, up from about 19 in 2020.

The fentanyl overdose rate spiked in the first year of the Covid pandemic, having hit 11.3 per capita in 2019, the highest on record pre-Covid.

The rise of fentanyl has especially affected teens in recent years. Analysis of official overdose data show there were just nine fatalities from fentanyl among those aged 20 years and under in 1999. But by 2021, this had jumped to 1,550. 

Virginia is just one of 50 states and DC contending with the scourge of deadly fentanyl on their streets. 

Neighboring West Virginia has the highest death rate of all, coming in at about 91 per 100,000 total population, according to 2021 figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

Northwestern Virginia has consistently shown the highest rates of overdoses caused by opioids excluding heroin. But Southwestern Virginia has seen the highest rates of heroin overdoses. 

Spots two and three went to Tennessee and Louisiana with 56.6 deaths per 100,000 and 55.9 deaths per 100,000, respectively.

To address the ongoing crisis, rooted in a long history of poor regulation and malfeasance by the pharmaceutical industry, federal regulators have taken steps to make the nasal spray version of naloxone more accessible to the people who need it, as well as to good samaritans who have it on them in the event that someone nearby begins to overdose.

The appeal of the nasal spray, marketed as Narcan, is a combination of its efficacy and the ease of use. 

The plunger that sends 4mg of misted naloxone hydrochloride up the nose resembles an over-the-counter allergy medicine and it begins to work immediately.

A recent study by Brigham and Women’s hospital in Massachusetts found that over 93 percent of people given naloxone survived their overdose. 

Still, they require additional medical assistance immediately after because the effects do not last long.

When inhaled, the medicine is absorbed through mucous membranes in the nose, rapidly entering the bloodstream and traveling to the brain.

Once there, the medicine competes with opioids attaching themselves to receptors in the brain.

It attaches to the brain’s receptors, replacing the opioid. This blunts the effects of opiates on the brain, stopping an overdose from progressing.

Fentanyl is an incredibly insidious substance, often added as an adulterant to drugs like cocaine, ecstasy, and meth because it is both cheap and powerful and keeps users coming back for more.

But often, users of heroin and non-opiate drugs do not know they are taking fentanyl and may not have naloxone on hand. 

For this reason, the federal government aims to make the antidote ubiquitous without the necessity of talking to a pharmacist everywhere from big box retailers to vending machines.