Quote:Authorities have identified a person of interest in the mass shooting at Brown University and are searching for the individual, multiple sources familiar with the investigation told CBS News.

The Context

Two students were killed, and nine others were wounded, on Saturday when a gunman opened fire inside a classroom at the Ivy League school in Providence, Rhode Island, authorities said. The shooting occurred in the Barus & Holley engineering building during final exams.

Police said the male suspect fled the building after the shooting. In the days that followed, local police and the FBI released grainy surveillance images and video showing a man they described as a person of interest walking through a nearby neighborhood several hours before the first 911 calls were made.

Latest on Brown University Shooting

Thursday's potential breakthrough, reported by CBS News, citing sources familiar with the investigation, presents a major step forward, with a search for the individual underway.

Six days after the fatal shooting rocked the Providence community, police have faced increasing pressure to find fresh leads and demonstrate meaningful progress in the search for the shooting suspect.

The matter was exacerbated by the initial detainment and then release of a primary person of interest, identified as former U.S. Army Specialist Benjamin Erickson, followed by surveillance images and video that provide the only public insight into the investigation.

The FBI has offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to the identification, arrest, and conviction of the person responsible for the shooting.

What We Know About the Shooting Suspect

The only information authorities have confirmed publicly about the suspect is that they are looking for a male who was dressed in black clothing and wore a facemask. None of the footage or images released has provided a clear picture of the suspect.

What Have Police Said About the Suspect Search?

Unnamed law enforcement sources told Fox News and The New York Times that investigators found DNA and fingerprints on shell casings at the scene of the shooting. However, they are still in the process of "examining that evidence," Colonel Oscar Perez of the Providence Police Department told Fox News.

“And yes, we have some DNA that we manipulated and so it just progresses everyday," Perez said, adding: “It progresses every day with forensics, it progresses everyday with witness statements and so yeah, we're just trying to find out and we are going to do our best.”

Quote:Authorities are investigating a possible connection between last weekend’s mass shooting at Brown University and the killing of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor two days later, three people familiar with the matter told the Associated Press Thursday.

There has been no further detail on what kind of connection may be between the two shootings.

Two of those three people, none of whom were authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity, also said investigators have identified a person of interest in the Brown shooting and are actively searching for that individual.

The shooting Saturday at Brown killed two students and wounded nine others before the attacker fled. About 50 miles away, MIT professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro was fatally shot at his home on Monday and died at a hospital on Tuesday.

Newsweek reached out to the Providence Police Department, the Rhode Island Attorney General's office, and the FBI for comment via email Thursday afternoon. The Norfolk District Attorney's Office in Massachusetts declined to comment.

Why It Matters

The FBI had previously said that there were no known links between the two cases. While other high-profile cases have seen suspects identified and captured within days, officials have yet to officially identify a suspect in either the Brown or MIT cases.
What To Know

The reports of a potential link between the two cases came as frustration mounted with no suspect identified in either case, and no clear image had been released of a person of interest.

At Brown, there are over 1,200 cameras on campus, but the attack happened in a part of the engineering building with little to no coverage. Loureiro, meanwhile, was shot on a residential street near his home.

In Providence on Wednesday, officials asked locals for their own home security footage, with police chief Colonel Oscar L. Perez, Jr. saying officers could be looking for a split second of footage that could lead them to the suspect.

Several videos from the hours and minutes before and after the shooting have been released. Police said the person shown matched descriptions of the shooter, but a clear view of their face was not possible. They also released a photo of a person they wanted to speak with who may have been close to the shooter.

Up in Brookline, investigators only gave details of the professor's death, but no description of a suspect was given.

Quote:The suspect in Saturday's mass shooting at Brown University, in which two students were killed and nine others injured, has been found dead, according to police. The suspect was identified as Claudio Valente, 48, who was a Portuguese national with a last known address in Miami. He took his own life, authorities said.

The shooting began on Saturday afternoon when a masked gunman entered Brown's Barus and Holley Building during a review session for final exams, opened fire and fled. The two students killed were Ella Cook, 19, a sophomore from Alabama, and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, 18, a freshman from Uzbekistan.

Colonel Oscar L. Perez Jr., chief of the Providence Police Department, said the shooter acted alone. Authorities added that he attended Brown University in the early 2000s. University President Christina Hull Paxson said Valente formally withdrew in 2003, adding that he did not have an active affiliation with the school.

What To Know

• Authorities also confirmed that Valente is the suspected gunman in the killing of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro, who was shot at his home on Monday and died in hospital the following day.
  
• Valente was found dead in a storage facility in New Hampshire with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials said.
  
• The U.S. is set to pause its diversity visa lottery program after Valente entered the country via the program in 2017 and later obtained a green card, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said.
  

This looks highly suspicious indeed.

Quote:Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna of California said that Attorney General Pam Bondi could be "held in inherent contempt of Congress" or would be "subject to impeachment" if files related to Jeffrey Epstein are not released by this week's deadline.

Newsweek reached out to the Department of Justice (DOJ) via online form on Thursday for comment.

Why It Matters

The anticipated imminent release of documents related to the late sex offender Epstein, compelled by bipartisan congressional action and signed into law by President Donald Trump, has reignited debate over transparency in high-profile federal investigations.

Bondi is tasked with overseeing the disclosure, drawing scrutiny from both parties amid fears that political considerations or ongoing investigations could delay or limit the public release. The extraordinary consensus behind the Epstein Files Transparency Act shown by Congress reflects intense public and legislative demand for a full accounting of Epstein’s connections and activities.

What To Know

The Epstein Files Transparency Act, passed with near-unanimous bipartisan votes in both chambers, mandates the release of all files on Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, including travel records and communications, by December 19, 2025. Exemptions allow for redaction to protect victims' identities and ongoing federal investigations.

As the deadline approached, House Democrats released a new batch of 68 images from Epstein’s estate, depicting influential figures such as Noam Chomsky, Steve Bannon, and Bill Gates, among others. The House Oversight Committee acquired thousands of images connected to the case, with newly revealed materials encompassing photographs, site plans for Epstein’s Caribbean property, and redacted personal documents. There is no indication of wrongdoing by those pictured.

In a video posted to X by Khanna, he highlights the Friday deadline of midnight that is looming.

"Three federal judges have ordered the release of all of these files in Maxwell and Epstein's grand jury. Here is the reality, any Justice Department official who does not comply with this law will be subject to prosecution for obstruction of justice. If Pam Bondi does not comply with the law, she will be held either in inherent contempt of Congress or subject to impeachment. We will not rest until the law is complied with and justice is served."

Quote:Ghislaine Maxwell, the former girlfriend and longtime associate of Jeffrey Epstein, asked a federal judge Wednesday to overturn her sex trafficking conviction and release her from a 20-year prison sentence, arguing that newly surfaced evidence shows her trial was tainted by constitutional violations.

Why It Matters

Maxwell’s filing came two days before a large set of records from her case was scheduled to be made public under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which President Donald Trump signed into law earlier this year. The measure, passed after months of political and public pressure, requires the Justice Department to release Epstein-related records by Friday.

What To Know

In a habeas corpus petition filed in Manhattan federal court, Maxwell said information that would have led to her acquittal at her 2021 trial was withheld from the defense and that jurors were presented with false testimony. She argued that the cumulative impact of those alleged violations deprived her of a fair trial and resulted in what she called a “complete miscarriage of justice.”

Maxwell said the evidence, which she contends emerged after her conviction, comes from related civil lawsuits, government disclosures, investigative reports and previously unavailable documents. Taken together, she said, the material demonstrates that no reasonable jury would have convicted her had it been presented at trial.

A habeas petition is a legal mechanism that allows someone in custody to challenge the legality of their detention, typically after appeals have been exhausted. Such petitions often allege constitutional violations, including ineffective legal representation or prosecutorial misconduct, and can seek a new trial or release from custody.

The Justice Department has said it plans to disclose 18 categories of investigative materials gathered during the sprawling sex trafficking investigation, including search warrants, financial records, interview notes from victims and data recovered from electronic devices.

Epstein, a wealthy financier with connections to prominent figures, was arrested in July 2019 on federal sex trafficking charges. He died the following month in a New York federal jail in what authorities ruled a suicide. Maxwell, a British socialite, was arrested in July 2020 and convicted in December 2021 of recruiting and grooming underage girls for Epstein. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Earlier this year, Maxwell was interviewed by the Justice Department’s second-in-command and was later transferred from a federal prison in Florida to a prison camp in Texas.

After prosecutors asked a federal judge to allow grand jury and discovery materials from Maxwell’s case to be unsealed, her attorney, David Markus, said she did not oppose the release but warned it could severely prejudice any potential retrial. Markus said the records include “untested and unproven allegations” and that public disclosure could make it impossible for Maxwell to receive a fair proceeding if her conviction is overturned.

Quote:President Trump delivered a prime‑time speech on Wednesday, insisting inflation is easing, even as new data showed consumer prices rising 2.7 percent over the past year. The remarks come as the White House faces voter frustration over high costs and a slowing labor market.

What to Know:

• In a Wednesday night address, Trump insisted the economy is booming despite voter concerns over high living costs, previewing housing reforms and announcing a $1,776 “warrior dividend” for 1.4 million service members.
  
• CPI rose 2.7% in November, below forecasts but still elevated, and core inflation slowed to 2.6% from 3.1%.
  
• Trump announced a $1,776 “warrior dividend” for 1.4 million service members.
  
• The November jobs report showed just 64,000 new positions, and unemployment rose to 4.6%.
  
• Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, called the CPI report an “absolute blockbuster,” though Fed officials urged caution.
  
• Separately, the Trump administration asked Congress to approve an $11 billion arms package for Taiwan, including rocket systems, howitzers, drones, and missile kits — the largest U.S. weapons sale to the island to date.
  
• Trump is also set to finalize a $900 billion defense bill with bipartisan backing, boosting military spending and tightening Pentagon oversight.
  

Quote:President Donald Trump said he was offered $250 million to run for a third term during a light-hearted exchange with major Republican donor Miriam Adelson at the White House on Tuesday.

Trump had called on Adelson to address guests gathered for the annual Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony because of her previous donations to his campaign. During her speech, the billionaire said she had discussed the legality of a Trump third term with lawyer Alan Dershowitz, leading to chants of "four more years" from the audience.

The pair then embraced before Trump returned to the microphone and said: “She said, ‘Think about it, I’ll give you another $250 million,’ prompting laughter from the audience, to which Adelson responded, "I will give."

The White House referred Newsweek to past comments made by Trump about a third term. Newsweek attempted to contact Adelson via the Adelson Clinic.

Why It Matters

Although the moment appeared playful, it has reignited debate over whether the president would consider running again despite the two-term constitutional limit. The 22nd Amendment, which was added to the U.S. Constitution in 1951, says that “no person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.”

The 12th Amendment also states that "no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of president shall be eligible to that of vice president of the United States."

Directly addressing speculation in October, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that the Constitution is "pretty clear," adding: "I’m not allowed to run. It’s too bad...but we have a lot of great people.” He also ruled out the possibility he might try to serve a third term by running for vice president first.

Former Trump strategist Steve Bannon has repeatedly claimed there is a plan to ensure the president remains in the White House after the next election in 2028. But it is not an idea that all Trump 2024 voters have welcomed. According to polling by The Economist/YouGov between November 28 and December 1, 45 percent of Trump voters do not want him to take office again, while 43 percent do. A further 11 percent said they were not sure.

Quote:Millions of Americans face the prospect of huge rises in health insurance premiums in the new year.

On Wednesday, House Republicans passed a GOP health care package which outlined an alternative, among other policies, to the Obamacare Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies.

Rather than choosing to extend the enhanced tax credits, the GOP health care package proposes a number of new policies and reforms that many Republicans argue will reduce health care costs for more Americans than the ACA subsidies.

While the bill has passed through the House, it is not certain if it will have the same success in the Senate, meaning—in the absence of legislation to extend the subsidies—it seems inevitable that millions will face extremely high increases in ACA premiums in the New Year.

Why It Matters

The enhanced tax credits, which gave millions more Americans access to ACA-compliant health plans on the Marketplace, have been a key point of contention in Congress.

They sat at the forefront of debate between the parties while they tried to pass stopgap funding legislation during the shutdown, and they continue to be an issue that lawmakers are struggling with.

If the subsidies expire at the end of the year, which will happen if no legislation is passed to extend them before the New Year, premiums for ACA plans are expected to go up by an average of 75 percent, according to analysis by the Peterson Center on Healthcare and KFF.

What To Know

The GOP bill, titled the Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act, included proposals to expand association health plans, which enable small businesses in the same industry to join together to offer a large group coverage, and to fund cost-sharing reductions, which is a provision of the ACA that reduces out-of-pocket costs for Silver plan enrollees who have household incomes up to 250 percent of the federal poverty level.

The latter move will reportedly reduce ACA premium costs by 11 percent.

It would also expand access to "stop-loss" policies for employers, which protect them against catastrophic health claims—such as transplants, surgeries, cancer care and more—at a time when these kinds of claims are becoming increasingly common amid the rise of chronic health conditions, according to the consulting firm Mercer.

These changes, among others proposed in the bill, are predicted to increase the uninsured population by 100,000, while saving the government $35.6 billion over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The main cost saver would be allowing the ACA subsidies to expire while implementing the cost sharing reductions.

In the vote on December 17, the bill passed by 216-211, but it is thought that it's success will stop when it reaches the Senate.

Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky was the only Republican to vote against the bill. Massie's press office pointed Newsweek to his post on X when approached for comment: "Why I voted No on the 'placebo' GOP health care bill: Despite being sold as 'market-based reform' and codifying Association Health Plans, it keeps core Obamacare rules intact and prevents true price competition. @SenRandPaul has a far better solution we should have voted on!"

If the ACA subsidies expire, it is thought that millions will lose their health care coverage—a CBO projection predicts that up to 4 million Americans would lose coverage.

Those earning between $50,000 and $75,000 annually will be particularly affected and have to face much more expensive premiums, according to the American Journal of Managed Care.

However, the decision by the GOP to exclude an extension of the ACA subsidies from its legislation has prompted uproar among some Republicans, who signed a Democratic discharge petition that would enforce a vote on extending the enhanced tax credits for three years.

House Speaker Mike Johnson has said that the discharge petition will get a vote in the first week of January.

Quote:A group of Democratic lawmakers announced legislation on Thursday aimed at barring local police departments from collaborating with federal immigration authorities to apprehend migrants without legal status.

The PROTECT Immigration Act would terminate the federal 287(g) program, repealing its statutory authority and clarifying that state and local law enforcement do not have inherent authority to investigate, detain, or arrest individuals for suspected immigration offenses.

Illinois Democratic Representative Mike Quigley is leading the bill. Speaking to Newsweek on Thursday, he explained what had inspired the legislation.

"It was what I witnessed in my home city during the Operation Midway Blitz," he said, referring to the DHS operation in Chicago. "You know, I walked with young immigrant kids from a shelter to school, and they talked to me about their lives and how happy they were, and they had no idea that I was walking them with other adults because their parents couldn't."

Why It Matters

Since President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January 2025, the number of 287(g) agreements, which allow state and local law enforcement officers to cooperate with federal immigration authorities, has risen sharply. While some communities have clearly embraced the cooperation, others have raised concerns that immigrants, regardless of legal status, will now be afraid to report crimes and seek help from local law enforcement.

What To Know

The legislation specifies that only federal immigration officers and authorized Department of Homeland Security employees would retain immigration enforcement authority.

At the end of 2024, there were about 135 active 287(g) agreements; by mid-2025, that number had climbed into the several hundreds, reflecting the administration’s effort to expand local involvement in immigration enforcement. By September 2025, the Department of Homeland Security said that more than 1,000 287(g) partnerships across dozens of states, a marked increase compared with the end of the previous administration.

Supporters argue this growth boosts federal enforcement capabilities while addressing public safety concerns, while critics raise concerns about civil rights and community trust.

Quigley told Newsweek that it was important for ICE agents to work within the law, to arrest and deport illegal immigrants, particularly those who have allegedly committed crimes, but that blurring the lines by bringing in local police and sheriff's departments was upsetting the balance.

"There's important functions here. There's security at airports, border security, those are important things and in terms of deporting someone who really should because they are a risk, that's kind of what the American people expect," he told Newsweek. "But they don't expect them to stop a soccer mom, break her windows, drag her out in front of her kids... They've gotten carte blanche to go after anybody with brown skin, and they have, despite what they've said, they have detained U.S. citizens."

Starting October 1, 2025, participating law enforcement agencies will have reimbursement opportunities from ICE, which will cover the annual salary and benefits of each eligible trained 287(g) officer, including overtime of up to 25 percent of the officer’s annual salary.

Agencies may also receive quarterly monetary performance awards based on the successful location of individuals without legal status and overall support of ICE’s mission, with amounts ranging from $500 to $1,000 per eligible task force officer, depending on performance levels.

Quigley is the lead sponsor of the bill, alongside other Democratic Representatives Pramila Jayapal of Washington, Sarah McBride of Delaware, Valerie Foushee of North Carolina, Eleanor Holmes Norton as Washington, D.C., delegate, Sara Jacobs and Robert Garcia of California, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Sylvia Garcia of Texas, Henry "Hank" Johnson of Georgia, Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey, and fellow Illinoisans Delia Ramirez, Danny K. Davis, and Robin Kelly as co-sponsors.

Quote:One of New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s recent appointees has resigned after social media posts she made more than a decade ago resurfaced and drew criticism for featuring antisemitic tropes, the mayor-elect’s office said Thursday.

Catherine Almonte Da Costa, who had been tapped this week to join the incoming administration, said in a statement that she deeply regretted the posts, which date to 2011 and 2012 and were recently circulated online by the Anti-Defamation League.

Why It Matters

Mamdani, a self-proclaimed democratic socialist, has faced sustained scrutiny from some Jewish groups and political opponents over whether his criticism of Israel’s military actions in Gaza crosses into antisemitism. During the campaign, he drew criticism for declining to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada,” though he has since said he discourages its use and opposes antisemitism in all forms.

A majority of New York City Jewish voters backed Andrew Cuomo, a former Democrat running as an independent, in the mayoral race, with 63% supporting him compared with 33% who voted for Mamdani, according to a CNN poll released following Mamdani’s victory. Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa received support from 3% of Jewish voters, the poll found.

What To Know

Da Costa had been selected to lead Mamdani’s office of appointments, a role responsible for shaping talent recruitment and staffing strategy for the new administration. She previously worked in the mayor’s office more than a decade ago and has more recently held positions at a private communications firm and at the auction house Sotheby’s, according to Mamdani’s office.

Mamdani accepted her resignation, a spokesperson confirmed.

The Anti-Defamation League declined to comment following Da Costa’s resignation. The Jewish advocacy organization had shared three posts attributed to Da Costa, saying they “echo classic antisemitic tropes and otherwise demean Jewish people.”

After Mamdani’s election victory in November, the group announced it was launching a new tool to track and monitor policies and personnel decisions made by the incoming mayor, who has been sharply critical of Israel.

Quote:Estonia has started constructing concrete bunkers along its border with Russia as nations on NATO's eastern flank rushes to build up land defenses.

Why It Matters

The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania signed an agreement in January 2024 to beef up protection along their land borders with Russia and Moscow's key ally, Belarus.

Estonia said at the time there would be a "network of bunkers, support points and distribution lines" along the border as part of what became known as the Baltic Defense Line. Poland has also launched its own initiatives to shore up defenses on the edge of its territory.

Intelligence assessments from NATO nations differ, but several have warned Russia could be able to launch an armed attack on an alliance member in the next few years.

Some officials have suggested Moscow may try to take territory from a Baltic state in a small-scale land grab just over the border. The countries forming NATO's eastern flank have stormed ahead of other nations in the alliance in raising defense spending.

What To Know

Estonia hopes to install 28 bunkers on the border by the end of 2025, Krismar Rosin, an official with the Estonian Centre for Defence Investment—the main procurement agency for the country's defense ministry—told the Defense News outlet in an article published on Friday. The first bunkers will sit on Estonia's southeastern border.

Estonia's ERR public broadcaster reported earlier this month the bunker installation had been delayed by almost a year and would be completed by the end of 2027. The country's government plans to lay down roughly 600 bunkers mainly designed to protect soldiers from artillery rounds.

It is "extremely important to carefully choose the locations of both the bunkers and the trenches," Kadi-Kai Kollo, an official also with the Centre for Defence Investment, told the broadcaster.

Sections of the Baltic Defense Line are funded individually by each country, and will include different types of defenses like "dragon's teeth" anti-tank fortifications. Dragon's teeth are concrete blocks used to halt tank advances and prevent mechanized infantry from gaining territory. This type of anti-tank fortification has littered Ukraine.

Latvia has said it started reinforcing its eastern border in March 2024 and will spend a total of €303 million ($355.7 million) over five years. Lithuania's Defense Ministry said in August it would build multi-stage defenses up to 50 kilometers, around 30 miles, from the border line, using easily demolished bridges, trenches and ditches.

The leaders of the three Baltic countries are weighing up dismantling railways linking the nations to Russia and Belarus, the regional Delfi outlet reported earlier in December.

Quote:The threat that Russia poses to NATO’s eastern flank “won’t ever stop,” former Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström has told Newsweek, as European leaders contemplate a drone wall to protect the continent from acts of hybrid warfare.

Billström said that regardless of the outcome in Ukraine, Moscow will remain a threat to Europe, which needs to urgently scale up its capacity to defend against Russian aggression, amid growing alarm at drones encroaching on alliance airspace.

Russia has been implicated in drones entering NATO territory, flying over key infrastructure in Poland, Belgium and Denmark, in moves which have focused the minds of European leaders on a proposed drone wall to protect alliance territory.

"Even after the war, we really do have to be aware of the threat that Russia will pose those countries like Sweden and its neighbors on that flank of NATO, " Billström said.

Newsweek reached out to the Russian Foreign Ministry for comment.

NATO's Warning

Billström was Sweden’s top diplomat when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 and when Stockholm became NATO’s newest member in 2024, which was spurred by Moscow’s aggression, after years of non-alignment.

He warned that even when hostilities end, Europe must be prepared for a long-term policy of containing Russia in the coming years, part of which will require an increase in the ability to counter Moscow's hybrid warfare.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte issued a stark warning on Thursday that Russia could use military force against the alliance within the next five years, saying members “must be prepared for the scale of war our grandparents or great-grandparents endured."

That half-decade time frame for a future Russian attack has also been cited by other European military leaders, with German Germany's chief of defense, General Carsten Breuer saying in June it could be even by 2029, given Moscow's heightened military production, which according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, numbers around 150 tanks and 550 infantry fighting vehicles, as well as 120 Lancet drones per month.

The United States is pushing for a peace deal in Ukraine, which could pressure Kyiv to surrender occupied territory, though President Volodymyr Zelensky has rejected it. Billström said that Russia is likely to use any halt in hostilities to reconstitute its military and its hybrid capabilities. 

“Regardless of the outcome in Ukraine, Russia will be either revanchist if it fails completely or it will still pose a threat if it were to even get a partial success,” Billström said.

“If you don't put a stop to Russia's attempts to recreate its empire at the expense of smaller states on its borders, this will just continue, the undermining, the hybrid attacks, the cyber-attacks, all the things which we are seeing.”

This is why it was important not to waste time to build “the kind of defense that will be necessary” said Billström, who is now director of strategy and government affairs, of Nordic Air Defence (NAD), a Swedish firm whose Kreuger 100XR drone interceptor he hopes will be part of the proposed drone wall for Europe and wider defense for the continent.

A full-scale Russian invasion of Europe right now would, he said, hopefully never take place, but the hybrid threat would still be present.

Quote:Former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is living in near-isolation in Russia, sidelined by President Vladimir Putin, one year after fleeing Syria following the collapse of his rule, according to a detailed report by The Guardian.

Once one of the Middle East’s longest-serving leaders, Assad is studying Russian and attempting to revive his career as an ophthalmologist while gradually building a private life in Moscow, largely removed from politics and the public eye.

Newsweek has contacted the Kremlin for comment via email.

Why It Matters

Assad’s exile underscores the dramatic fall of a leader who ruled Syria for decades and survived years of civil war with decisive Russian backing. His current circumstances highlight how quickly political relevance can vanish once power is lost, even for figures once seen as indispensable to regional strategy.

The report also offers insight into how Russia manages former allies who are no longer politically useful. While Moscow guarantees Assad’s safety and financial security, it imposes strict limits on his movement, communications, and ability to engage in public or political activity.

What to Know

A closer look at Assad’s life in Russia reveals how dramatically his daily routine and responsibilities have changed since leaving Syria:

Location and Lifestyle

Assad and his immediate family are primarily based in Moscow, with occasional stays in the United Arab Emirates. They are believed to live in Rublyovka, an elite gated district west of the capital that houses senior political figures and wealthy businessmen. Despite their financial security, the family lives in near-total isolation under Russian supervision. “It’s a very quiet life. He has very little, if any, contact with the outside world,” a family friend told The Guardian.

Resuming Ophthalmology and Studying Russian

Assad has resumed practicing ophthalmology, the profession he trained in before entering politics, and is also studying Russian. “He is learning Russian and refreshing his knowledge in ophthalmology. It is a field he loves. Clearly, he does not need the money. Even before the war in Syria, he regularly practiced ophthalmology in Damascus,” a source said. Observers suggest Moscow’s wealthy elite could eventually become his patients.

Political Status and Supervision

Sources close to the Kremlin told The Guardian that Assad is no longer politically relevant in Russia. “Putin has little patience for leaders who lose their grip on power, and Assad is no longer seen as a figure of influence or even an interesting guest to invite to dinner,” another source said. He has minimal contact with former regime officials and remains in touch with only a handful of palace aides.

Quote:Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused Germany and other European countries of reviving Nazism, claiming the continent is being unified and mobilized against Russia in a way he likened to the eras of Adolf Hitler and Napoleon Bonaparte.

Speaking in an interview with Iranian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Corporation, Lavrov said Monday the “theory and practice of Nazism” are reemerging in Europe.

"The saddest and most dangerous thing is that in Europe, primarily in Brussels, but also in Berlin, London, Paris, not to mention the Baltics, the theory and practice of Nazism is being revived," Lavrov told Iran's state broadcaster.

Why It Matters

The remarks reflect Moscow’s long-running rhetoric seeking to justify its war in Ukraine by portraying Western support for Kyiv as a continuation of historical aggression against Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly cited supposed neonazism in Ukraine as one of the reasons behind his full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022, which remains ongoing.

What To Know

Lavrov alleged told Iran's state broadcaster that European leaders are ignoring what he described as “openly Nazi approaches” in Ukraine while supplying Kyiv with money, weapons and intelligence. He claimed Europe is once again fighting Russia indirectly, this time “with the hands and bodies of Ukrainians,” under what he called a Nazi banner.

"Openly Nazi approaches, a blatant disregard for the fact that the Nazi regime in Ukraine is doing exactly the same thing as Hitler did, and Napoleon before him," he continued.

As U.S.-led peace talks continue, Russia launched 153 drones of various types at Ukraine overnight into Monday, Ukraine’s air force said, adding that 133 were intercepted or otherwise neutralized while 17 struck their targets.

In Russia, the Defense Ministry said its forces destroyed 130 Ukrainian drones overnight, with another 16 downed between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. local time. The ministry said 18 drones were shot down over Moscow, prompting temporary flight suspensions at Domodedovo and Zhukovsky airports as a safety precaution.

Officials said details on damage and casualties were not immediately available.

U.S. and European officials estimate that hundreds of thousands of soldiers have been killed or wounded on both sides since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, with Russian military casualties believed to exceed those of Ukraine. The United Nations says tens of thousands of civilians have been killed or injured, most of them in Ukraine, while millions have been displaced by fighting and sustained attacks on cities and infrastructure.

Quote:Russia has signaled it may be open to Ukraine joining the European Union as part of a potential peace agreement to end the war, United States officials said Monday.

The officials briefed reporters after U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met in Berlin with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and officials from the United Kingdom, France and Germany over the past two days. They said such a move would represent a significant concession by Moscow, although Russia has previously said it does not oppose Ukraine’s membership in the EU.

The officials, who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the United States has also agreed to provide unspecified security guarantees to Kyiv as part of the proposed deal. They cautioned, however, that the offer would not remain open indefinitely.

Newsweek reached out to the U.S. Department of State for comment via contact form on Monday afternoon.

Why It Matters

The Trump administration has been seeking to bridge the divide between Russia and Ukraine since January, with mixed results. Before he returned to office, President Donald Trump said he wanted to end the conflict within the first few days of his second term, but NATO and EU memberships, as well as seemingly strained relations between Trump and Putin, have slowed progress.

What To Know

The latest round of talks between Zelensky and U.S. envoys ended Monday as Kyiv faces Washington’s pressure to swiftly accept a U.S.-brokered peace deal while confronting an increasingly assertive Moscow.

Ukraine's lead negotiator, Rustem Umerov, said on social media that “real progress” had been achieved at the talks in Berlin with Witkoff and Kushner as well as European officials. The talks lasted roughly 90 minutes, after a five-hour session on Sunday.

The U.S. government said in a social media post on Witkoff’s account after Sunday's meeting that “a lot of progress was made.”

The search for possible compromises has run into major obstacles, including control of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, which is mostly occupied by Russian forces.

Zelensky has expressed readiness to drop Ukraine’s bid to join the NATO military alliance if the U.S. and other Western nations give Kyiv security guarantees similar to those offered to NATO members. But Ukraine’s preference remains NATO membership as the best security guarantee to prevent further Russian aggression; however, this option doesn’t currently have full backing from all allies.

Still, Ukraine has continued to reject the U.S. push for ceding territory to Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin wants Ukraine to withdraw its forces from the part of the Donetsk region still under its control as one of the key conditions for peace.

Zelensky's itinerary on Monday also included meetings with German and other European leaders. French President Emmanuel Macron’s office confirmed he would travel to Berlin later Monday.

The latest round of talks concluded Monday as Ukraine faces mounting pressure from Washington to move quickly toward a U.S.-brokered agreement while contending with a more assertive Russia on the battlefield and in negotiations.

The Russian president has cast Ukraine’s bid to join NATO as a major threat to Moscow’s security and a reason for launching the full-scale invasion in February 2022. The Kremlin has demanded that Ukraine renounce the bid for alliance membership as part of any prospective peace settlement.

Zelensky emphasized that any Western security assurances would need to be legally binding and supported by the U.S. Congress.

The Kremlin said Monday it expected to receive an update on the Berlin talks from the U.S. side.

Quote:WASHINGTON — President Trump thinks Russian dictator Vladimir Putin wants much more than what’s on the table in talks to end the Russia-Ukraine war, according to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles.

“The experts think that if he could get the rest of Donetsk, then he [Putin] would be happy,” Wiles told Vanity Fair in August, according to a report published Tuesday. “Donald Trump thinks he wants the whole country.”

Trump’s team has been pushing Ukraine to give up some of the Donbas region, a key sticking point in the talks, and they’re now trying to sell Russia on the peace plan. Moscow has not yet agreed to these terms and Ukraine is loath to cede any territory without security guarantees from the United States.

Trump for months has been convinced Putin is hellbent on taking over the entirety of Ukraine with his nearly four-year-old war there — disagreeing with advisers who felt that giving him Ukraine’s easternmost region would be enough, Wiles signaled.

A senior US official told The Post the same late last month as the latest US peace plan push was just kicking off. When asked what concessions Russia would have to make in a peace deal, the person said it was simply getting Russia to accept that it can’t take over all of Ukraine.

“I mean, look, everyone knows Vladimir Putin wants to take the whole country,’’ the official said of the Russian dictator. “That’s his been his long-sought goal. That is something he’s made quite clear. The president is very aware of that.”

Trump is not alone, according to the Vanity Fair report. Secretary of State Marco Rubio suspected similarly — at least in October — that even a maximalist deal forking over parts of the Donbas that Russia has been unable to seize in more than 11 years of war in that region would not be enough to stop Putin.

“There are offers on the table right now to basically stop this war at its current lines of contact, okay?” Rubio told Vanity Fair. “Which include substantial parts of Ukrainian territory, including Crimea, which they’ve controlled since 2014. And the Russians continue to turn it down.”

“And so … you do start to wonder, well, maybe what this guy wants is the entire country,” he added.

Quote:Russian President Vladimir Putin said his troops had won the "strategic initiative" all along the front lines of the Ukraine war and that they are "grinding down" Kyiv's NATO-trained and equipped forces.

Russia and Ukraine, as they pursue United States-brokered peace negotiations, are jostling for control of the narrative to strengthen their positions at the diplomatic table.

Ukraine is emphasizing the effectiveness of its strikes on Russian oil infrastructure, the central pillar of the Kremlin's economy, and the robustness of its defense in the face of a much stronger aggressor. But Russia points to its steady battlefield advances, which it says will continue until victory unless Kyiv agrees to its territorial demands.

“The Russian army has gained and firmly maintains the strategic initiative along the entire front line during the special military operation,” Putin said at a high-level Defense Ministry meeting on Wednesday, the Interfax news agency reported.

Russia calls its war in Ukraine a "special military operation." Both sides have suffered huge losses of manpower in the war.

“I would note that the outgoing year has become an important stage in accomplishing the tasks of the special military operation. The Russian army has gained and firmly maintains the strategic initiative along the entire front line,” Putin said.

“Our troops are confidently advancing forward and are ‘grinding down’ the enemy—its groupings and reserves—including so-called elite units and formations that have undergone training in Western military centers and are equipped with modern foreign equipment and weapons.”

Putin also claimed that Russian forces had taken control of 300 Ukrainian settlements in 2025.

Ukraine has disputed previous claims by Russia that it has taken control of certain settlements along the front line, notably Pokrovsk, the key logistics hub in Donetsk.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited his troops near Kupiansk last Friday after Kyiv's forces said they had recaptured several settlements in the northeastern Kharkiv Oblast and encircled a Russian group, a rare battlefield gain amid Moscow's advances elsewhere.

Zelensky, sharing a video on his Telegram, said in Ukrainian that "our warriors" are "achieving results for Ukraine here" that he could use in the diplomatic efforts to secure a just peace.

Quote:Russian President Vladimir Putin said a medium-range system armed with Moscow's latest Oreshnik hypersonic missiles would be placed on combat duty by the end of the year, after the weapon was used for the first time in the war on Ukraine back in November 2024.

Putin was speaking at a high-level Defense Ministry meeting in Moscow on Tuesday. As Russia seeks to demonstrate its military dominance over Ukraine, Moscow is pressuring Kyiv to give in to its demands for peace, and its technological advances in weaponry, as it tries to impose itself at the top table of powers in an emerging multipolar world order.

“The high level of training of units and formations, and their ability to carry out the most complex tasks, is also confirmed during regularly conducted exercises, including those involving our foreign allies and partners, to whom we are passing on the experience gained during the special military operation," Putin said, originally in Russian, state news agency TASS reported.

The Russian leader also said tests of Russia's new nuclear-powered Burevestnik strategic cruise missile had been successful, along with the unmanned underwater vehicle, Poseidon, also nuclear-powered and nuclear-capable. The Kremlin says the Burevestnik has an unlimited range.

"Thanks to the use of a nuclear power plant, these systems will remain unique and one of a kind for a long time; they will ensure strategic parity, security, and Russia’s global position for decades to come," Putin said. "We will continue working on these systems—we will further refine and improve them—but they already exist."

Touting the weapons is also a clear warning to European allies, who say Russia is preparing for a continental war within the next few years through its heavy rearmament over the course of its invasion of Ukraine. They also accuse Russia of already waging hybrid warfare against them, through means such as sabotage, cyberattacks, and disinformation campaigns.

Moscow denies wanting war with Europe or NATO, and says Western allies are the ones seeking conflict, citing their own rapid rearmament and ongoing military assistance to Ukraine. Putin called accusations that the Kremlin wants war with Europe "hysteria" and a "lie."

Russia's Oreshnik, Burevestnik, and Poseidon Weapons

Back in November 2024, Putin confirmed that the Oreshnik—"the hazel"—had been used for the first time in an attack on Dnipro, Ukraine.

In its analysis at the time, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a nonprofit research group and think tank, identified the Oreshnik as "an experimental medium-range ballistic missile with reentry vehicles—likely a modified RS-26 'Rubezh' intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM)" fired from Astrakhan Oblast into central Ukraine.

The Rubezh missile, which was never officially entered into service and is classed as under development, can carry a nuclear or conventional payload containing the warheads, or have multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles that transport explosives to numerous targets.

The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation reported that a medium-range missile can travel 620 miles to 1,860 miles, though Russian sources claimed that the Oreshnik has a range of up to 3,100 miles.

The Burevestnik, also known by its NATO moniker, SSC-X-9 Skyfall, is a ground-launched, nuclear-powered cruise missile. It was first unveiled by Putin in March 2018 with a host of other next-generation weapons, including the so-called "doomsday device" Poseidon, a nuclear-powered, nuclear-tipped torpedo.

Russia says the Burevestnik has a range long enough to strike the U.S. and is able to dodge Western air defenses.

Quote:Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko announced Thursday that his country will deploy Russia's new intermediate-range hypersonic missile system.

Newsweek reached out to the Pentagon via email and to the State Department via a submission form for comment.

Why It Matters

The Oreshnik system was revealed in late 2024. It derives from Russia's previous RS-26 Rubezh system and is capable of hitting hypersonic speeds of Mach 10, according to the BBC.

The information about the missile system comes from Russian President Vladimir Putin's announcement of the weaponry shortly after its first combat use against Ukraine last year. The system's proper nature and full capabilities remain unclear.

What To Know

In an address to the nation and parliament on Thursday, Lukashenko said that his forces received the Oreshnik system on Wednesday and will begin "combat alert duty," according to the BelTA news agency.

"The first positions have been prepared for Oreshnik missile systems," Lukashenko said.

Earlier this week, Putin announced that the system would be placed on "combat duty" by the end of the year. This month, he pledged to mass-produce the Oreshnik system, the Kyiv Independent reported.

Speaking at a high-level Defense Ministry meeting in Moscow on Tuesday, Putin said that Russian forces were conducting exercises "involving our foreign allies and partners, to whom we are passing on the experience gained during the special military operation."

This occurs as Russia continues testing its nuclear-powered Burevestnik strategic cruise missile system, which Putin said has thus far proven successful and has an unlimited range, along with the unmanned underwater vehicle Poseidon.

Russia continues denying it seeks any war with Europe or NATO, instead accusing the West of seeking conflict and calling any such accusations against the Kremlin "hysteria" and a "lie."

So Russia recently finished developing a new missile, and Belarus is already get some of those missiles any time soon?  When did they start mass-producing them?  Now not only the Baltic nations but the rest of Europe would be in serious danger in the next few weeks or months...

Quote:Russian border guards crossed into Estonia without permission using hovercrafts, authorities in Tallinn have said, in a move which will add to concerns about Moscow’s provocations near the border with NATO. 

Estonian media reported that three Russian border guards entered Estonian territory on Wednesday on the Narva River, which both countries share.

Estonia's Foreign Ministry told Newsweek it had summoned the Russian chargé d’affaires to express its protest. Newsweek reached out to Estonia’s Interior Ministry and Russia’s Foreign Ministry for comment. 

Why It Matters

Estonia is among the members along NATO’s eastern flank that have repeatedly warned of the threat posed by Russian hybrid warfare measures, which include its aircraft buzzing its airspace, GPS jamming and drones entering its territory.

It is unclear whether Wednesday's incident was an accident or a deliberate provocation from Moscow, but it is likely to add to speculation that Moscow is trying to test NATO's resolve.

What to Know

Estonian media reported that around 10 a.m. local time on Wednesday, three Russian border guards crossed the Estonian-Russian border and were in the NATO member for about 20 minutes without permission. The guards were spotted by surveillance equipment on a hovercraft on the Narva River near the Vasknarva breakwater, located on both Russian and Estonian territory in Ida-Viru County. 

Video released by the Estonian Police and Border Guard (PPA) purports to show the guards disembarking at the entrance to Lake Peipu and then walking along the structure. They returned to the hovercraft and returned to the Russian side of the river. 

Estonian Interior Minister Igor Taro told local news outlet ETV that Tallinn did not know the motive for the incident and that there was no direct security threat, but the police and border guard had significantly increased their presence and patrols.

To reach Lake Peipus via the Narva River, Russian vessels must request permission to pass through Estonian territory, but for some reason, they did not inform Tallinn this time, he said. Taro added that the Russians were not arrested because they had already returned to Russian territory before that could happen.

Quote:WASHINGTON — Top Senate Republicans are pressing President Trump to allow Ukraine to purchase American weapons using the roughly $5 billion in frozen Russian funds in the US as the Kremlin resists the White House’s peace plan to end the war.

The move would help push Europe to unleash $162 billion in Russian assets frozen on the continent to Ukraine — at least half of which could be invested in the US defense sector, according to Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman James Risch (R-Idaho), Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) and Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.)

“Once seized, these funds from Europe will be used to purchase weapons from US manufacturers to provide to Ukraine,” the Republicans wrote Wednesday to Trump in a letter obtained by The Post. “This is a good deal for America; it will bring in orders that will help accelerate our domestic defense industry and help ensure Ukraine’s ability to defend itself in the near future.”

“US and European taxpayers should not continue to foot this bill indefinitely, and leveraging Russian sovereign assets from Europe would significantly ease the burden,” they said of tapping the 2024 REPO Act to send Ukraine the frozen Russian funds.

The push comes as Europe on Thursday met to discuss releasing the $162 billion in Russian assets. While most countries were in support of the idea, some — such as Vladimir Putin ally and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán — were hesitant.

“Some in Europe are using US inaction in seizing Russian sovereign assets in the United States as an excuse to justify their own inactions,” the senators wrote.

Russian dictator Putin has so far resisted the US peace plan, declaring in a speech Wednesday that Moscow will settle for nothing less than Ukraine to surrender “unconditionally.”

That demand came despite Special Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner having settled roughly “90%” of the most difficult issues in their latest discussions, a senior US official said Tuesday.

Europe’s talk of giving away frozen Russian assets has also enraged Putin, with the dictator lashing out by calling the continent’s leaders, “little pigs.”

“Everyone believed that Russia would be destroyed and collapsed in a short period of time,” Putin said. “And the European piglets immediately joined in this work of the former American administration, hoping to profit from the collapse of our country.”

Quote:The European Union (EU) has agreed on a €90 billion ($105 billion) loan to Ukraine to help it through Russia's ongoing invasion, a vital financial lifeline for Kyiv as it bears the vast cost of Moscow's ongoing invasion.

But it is an immediate compromise on what many of Ukraine's European allies had hoped for, which is to use frozen Russian assets to finance a reparations loan—a decision fraught with legal and financial risk that has been punted into the future pending yet more discussions.

What To Know

• The European Council said it has approved a €90 billion ($105 billion) loan to Ukraine, financed by EU borrowing. To secure that agreement, Czechia, Hungary, and Slovakia, which all opposed sending more EU funds to Kyiv, will see no impact on their financial obligations to the bloc's budget.
  
• But Ukraine will only repay the loan once Russia has compensated it for the destruction wrought by Moscow's war. Until then, the €210 billion ($247 billion) Russian assets within the EU will remain frozen. The Kremlin has accused Europeans of stealing the assets and threatened to retaliate.
  
• The Europeans could not come to an agreement on seizing the Russian assets for a reparations loan as originally hoped. Belgium, where most of the assets are held, expressed strong concerns about the political and legal blowback, as well as the threat of a severe Russian response. Instead, officials will "continue working on the technical and legal aspects".
  
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed gratitude to the EU, which Kyiv hopes to join within the next couple of years, calling it "significant support that truly strengthens our resilience. It is important that Russian assets remain immobilized and that Ukraine has received a financial security guarantee for the coming years."
  
• Dmitry Medvedev, a top Kremlin security official and a former president and prime minister of Russia, lashed out in a Telegram post, writing in Russian that the European Council summit was "a thieves’ gathering" of "EU mobsters" and that they "have not abandoned their plans to carry out a robbery or theft in the future".
  
• The push for peace continues, as does the brutal war. The Kremlin is awaiting the latest set of proposals from Ukraine and Europe, mediated by the U.S., on a potential settlement to end the conflict. There remain acute differences between Russia and Ukraine on territorial concessions and security guarantees.
  

Quote:Russia's Foreign Ministry issued a new warning to the Trump administration on Thursday amid escalating tensions between the United States and Venezuela.

"We note continuous and deliberate attempts to escalate tensions with our ally Venezuela. Unilateral decisions creating a threat to international shipping are particularly alarming," the ministry said in a statement, per Russia's Tass news agency.

"Hopefully, the Trump administration, known for pursuing a rational and practical policy course, will stop short of making a fatal mistake and refrain from escalating things down a path that may cause unpredictable consequences for the entire Western Hemisphere."

Why It Matters

President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that the U.S. had imposed a "total and complete" blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela, saying that the country had taken what was rightfully the U.S.'s oil, land, and other assets. Russia has been a longtime ally of Venezuela, as has Iran, and the country has the world's largest oil reserves, meaning Trump's actions in the region will have a global impact.

What To Know

Moscow's message comes after Trump said on Tuesday that the U.S. military build-up around Venezuela would continue to grow until it returns the "oil, land, and other assets that they previously stole from us."

Concern has been growing in the U.S. and around the world that Trump is on the verge of declaring war with Venezuela after months of targeted deadly strikes on alleged drug smuggling vessels in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean led up to a Venezuelan oil tanker being seized by the U.S.

On Wednesday, another lethal strike was carried out in international waters in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, according to the U.S. Southern Command, killing four alleged smugglers. In all, 98 people have been killed by U.S. forces.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has insisted the operations are lawful. He has framed them as “lethal, kinetic strikes” intended to destroy “narco-boats” and kill “narco-terrorists,” while asserting that every trafficker killed was tied to a designated terrorist organization.

Speaking about the blockade on Wednesday, Trump cited the lost U.S. investments in Venezuela when asked about his newest tactic in a pressure campaign against leader Nicolás Maduro, suggesting his administration’s moves are at least somewhat motivated by disputes over oil investments, along with accusations of drug trafficking. Some sanctioned tankers are already diverting away from Venezuela.

Russia's Foreign Ministry affirmed Thursday its solidarity with Venezuelans, and the Maduro administration's efforts to protect the country's national interests and sovereignty. Iran has shared similar messages of solidarity, as the U.S. has moved military resources closer to the South American nation.

Quote:Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro ordered his navy to escort ships carrying petroleum products out of port — a brazen challenge to President Trump’s newly declared “blockade” targeting the country’s lifeblood.

The Venezuelan navy on Tuesday and Wednesday escorted three tankers carrying Venezuelan urea, petroleum coke and other oil-based products to Asia, according to the New York Times, which cited three sources familiar with the ships’ movements.

None of the vessels that left with the Venezuelan navy were on the US sanctions list — at least for now. But Maduro’s move has increased the risk of a military confrontation, US defense analysts have warned.

Until now, the Venezuelan president has avoided responding with force, and his calling up of the navy to assist in bucking Trump’s blockade represents a new escalation from Caracas’ side as Trump aims to drain the dictator’s oil revenues with his blockade announcement on Tuesday.

“Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America,” Trump said in his announcement on Truth Social. “It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before — Until such time as they return to the United States of America all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us.”

“The illegitimate Maduro Regime is using Oil from these stolen Oil Fields to finance themselves, Drug Terrorism, Human Trafficking, Murder, and Kidnapping,” he added.

Maduro’s naval orders came after four Panama-flagged ships headed for Venezuela turned around on Dec. 11 — just one day after the US military seized an oil tanker headed for the country last week, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.

One of the four vessels, known as “Bella 1,” was already on the US sanctions list for transporting Iranian oil. The others were Seeker 8, Karina and Eurovictory, according to data from maritime intelligence firm Kpler.

The seized tanker is now located near Cuba, according to the latest maritime tracking, apparently headed for Florida’s coast after Trump said the US would take its oil.

Quote:Amal Clooney’s public image is one of a trailblazing human rights lawyer unafraid to hold world leaders to account, who just happens to be married to a movie star.

But critics say the British barrister and professor is selective in her approach, favoring causes that are at odds with the state of Israel, while questioning her choice to work with a hardline Muslim group.

Eyebrows rose when it emerged last week that Amal may have had a hand in drafting a constitution for Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, which President Trump is in the process of designating a terrorist group.

It came to light in a resurfaced video clip of an interview between her actor husband, George Clooney, and Drew Barrymore in 2022.

Speaking about calling his wife soon after they met in 2012, George said he invited the London-based barrister on a date.

“She said, ‘Yeah, I am at a meeting at the Muslim Brotherhood right now. I’ll come right over,’ because she was in the middle of trying to redo a constitution for the Egyptians. Her life and my life are very different,” the actor told Barrymore.

Those Egyptians would have been linked to Mohamed Morsi, who had come to power in June 2012 as the country’s first democratically elected president. He was a longtime prominent member of the Muslim Brotherhood and head of the Freedom and Justice Party, the Brotherhood’s political front.

Morsi previously described Zionists as “bloodsuckers” and descendants of apes and pigs in a series of Arabic-language interviews in 2010.

He was ousted by the Egyptian military in July 2013. Months later, the government banned the Muslim Brotherhood and froze its assets.

“Presumably, any constitution of the Muslim Brotherhood would never be inclusive and fair and follow the harsh rules of sharia law,” said a New York-based professor of American foreign policy and constitutional law who did not want to be identified, noting that establishing a caliphate ruled by Sharia law dictated by the Quran has long been one of the Brotherhood’s goals.

“I am sure Amal Clooney was included to put a sweet face on the proceedings,” they added.

Despite her husband’s words, there is no official record of Amal Clooney being involved with the writing of the Brotherhood’s constitution. It is also possible she could have met with them in an advisory capacity or to give legal advice.

Quote:Automakers are losing ground in the world’s most important market, China. American, Scandinavian and European car companies are scrambling to catch up as their Chinese competition sets new speed milestones, rolls out new products and keeps what’s already working fresh with frequent technology and appearance updates.

Audi, Porsche, BMW and Mercedes-Benz have all seen annual sales drops in China over the last five years, with the larger volume automakers seeing the biggest falls.

While mass market car companies are pulling back from their original product and sales plans, and thoughtfully and relatively slowly moving forward, German luxury automakers are pressing forward with a sense of unprecedented urgency, not just in a bid to stabilize their market share, but in hopes of making gains.

Mercedes-Benz plans to launch 40 vehicles in the next two years, 20 new and 20 refreshed. There’s new architecture on the horizon and a reinvigorated AMG performance brand lineup coming. Equally as important is the company’s push for new engines, those that are far more efficient than what is in the market today.

“The main strategy to ensure that Mercedes-Benz remains competitive for the next 140 years is to build the world’s most desirable cars,” a spokesperson for Mercedes-Benz told Newsweek. “This means that Mercedes-Benz must deliver an exclusive combination of exceptional design and advanced technology, outstanding refinement and craftsmanship, a sublime ride and drivetrain and world class safety systems.”

China’s residents are open to multiple powertrain types including hybrids, plug-in hybrid, extended range electric and battery-electric models. Unlike the European Union and the U.K., China has not set strict regulations for emissions that would force buyers into pricey, zero emissions replacements for their daily driver.

Research by EY’s Mobility Lens Forecaster, an artificial intelligence-enabled forecasting model, suggests that a decade from now, battery-electric vehicles will represent just 50 percent of the sales in Europe, China and the U.S. despite major pushes from automakers and governments.

EY expects China to have over 50 percent of new vehicle sales of battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) by 2033, and more than 81 percent of the market by 2044. EY calls full BEV adoption in China "elusive" before 2050.

By 2032, BEVs will account for over 50 percent of vehicle sales in Europe, the company predicts, but will strengthen to 95 percent market share by 2041.

With the impact of the Big, Beautiful Bill being felt nationwide, the U.S.'s 50-percent new EV purchase rate has been pushed back five years, to 2039, predicts EY.

Audi is pursuing a product cadence similar to Mercedes-Benz. By the end of 2025, Audi will have introduced 20 new models in 24 months, but the company admits that it has stumbled.

Quote:President Donald Trump said he is planning to announce "some of the most aggressive housing reform plans in American history" next year, in an effort to address the ongoing affordability crisis.

It is not the first time that the president has promised to address the country’s housing problems, which include rising prices and soaring costs, a decades-long shortage of homes, and the restrictive local zoning keeping new construction low.

But it is the first time that Americans are being given a deadline for at least the announcement of his proposed solution to these problems—at some undefined point in 2026.

What Has Caused The Current Crisis?

U.S. home prices skyrocketed during the pandemic, when low borrowing costs sparked a home-buying frenzy across the country and this surge in demand clashed with chronically low inventory nationwide.

Between 2019 and 2024, median single-family home prices rose by 48 percent nationally at more than twice the rate of median income, which rose by 22 percent, according to the Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) at Harvard University.

Rising home prices, combined with elevated borrowing costs, higher property taxes, homeowners association (HOA) fees, and homeowners insurance premiums, have pushed many prospective homebuyers to the sidelines of the market. In the second quarter of 2025, the U.S. homeownership rate fell to 65 percent, the lowest level since late 2019, according to the Census Bureau.

What Did Trump Say About It?

Addressing the nation from the Diplomatic Room of the White House on Wednesday, Trump played up his administration’s achievements during the last 11 months, though polls show that Americans are getting frustrated with the lack of results in bringing down prices, especially when it comes to housing.

"Our nation is strong. America is respected, and our country is back stronger than ever before. We’re poised for an economic boom the likes of which the world has never seen," he said.

While offering no details on what might be included in his housing reform plans, Trump blamed immigrants for rising housing costs in the U.S., as he did during his 2024 presidential campaign.

"A major factor in driving up housing costs was the colossal border invasion," he said, accusing the Biden administration of bringing in "millions and millions of migrants" and giving them "taxpayer-funded housing" while costs increased for Americans.

Trump said during his 2024 presidential campaign that he would free housing inventory through mass deportations of illegal migrants. The White House now claims that his administration has deported more than 605,000 people and induced the so-called "self-deportation" of another 1.9 million. 

"For the first time in 50 years, we are now seeing reverse migration as migrants go back home, leaving more housing and more jobs for Americans," Trump said on Wednesday.

While this year inventory has risen in the U.S. market, this has primarily happened because demand has dwindled as many Americans cannot afford to buy a home or think this is not a great time to buy. Home prices are still rising and mortgage rates, despite the recent cuts to interest rates by the Federal Reserve, remain historically high.

As of December 18, the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 6.21 percent, down from 6.72 percent a year earlier.

Trump said on Wednesday that "mortgage payments will be coming down even further early in the new year."

Quote:President Donald Trump on Friday defended his administration's jobs record again in a Truth Social post, in which he claimed the rising unemployment figure is due to cuts in government jobs.

"100% OF OUR NEW JOBS ARE IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR! I could reduce Unemployment to 2% overnight by just hiring people into the Federal Government, even though those Jobs are not necessary," Trump wrote, adding, "I wish the Fake News would report the 4.5% correctly."

"The only reason our Unemployment ticked up to 4.5% is because we are reducing the Government Workforce by numbers that have never been seen before," Trump wrote.

Why It Matters

Unemployment rose to 4.6 percent in November, raising concerns of a cooling market. The Trump administration has struggled with the public reception on jobs numbers, especially after a few significant corrections on previously reported numbers, which led to Trump firing the Commissioner of Labor Statistics in August due to the July jobs number coming 73,000 jobs short of expectations.

What To Know

The president's post on Friday came a few days after the DOL revealed that the economy shed 105,000 jobs in October and failed to rebound with only 64,000 added in November. The unemployment rate had risen from 4.4 percent in September to 4.6 percent.

Analysts have said that the figures show a labor market that is losing steam, rather than accelerating, but the president has insisted that his policies are working, especially as he looks to downsize the federal government as promised.

Some elements are working, with Tuesday’s figures in part coming in ahead of expectations, with healthy gains were made in private payrolls.

However, a downward revision to past months’ data and the four-year high unemployment rate contrasted with the White House’s recent labor market appraisal—issued following last month’s report—that “President Trump’s pro-growth, America First agenda is already making great progress.”

The president has also argued that his economic policies will take time to bear fruit, but with rising costs and a seemingly slowing job market, there are signs that tactics may need to change.

Quote:Former Utah Senator Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, endorsed a longtime progressive call to raise taxes on the wealthy in a New York Times opinion piece on Friday, writing, “On the tax front, it’s time for rich people like me to pay more.”

Why It Matters

Romney’s remarks place a prominent Republican voice on the same side of an issue long championed by some progressive Democrats, underscoring shifting political dynamics around taxes and wealth inequality.

As a party figure, both in the Senate and governorship, traditionally associated with tax cuts and fiscal conservatism, Romney’s call for higher taxes on the wealthy challenges party orthodoxy and highlights growing bipartisan acknowledgment of public concern over deficits, economic inequality and the concentration of wealth.

His comments come as tax policy is at the center of debate in Washington D.C., with lawmakers weighing the future of how to fund federal priorities amid mounting national debt amid public concern about the economy.

What To Know

The former senator, who served from 2019 to 2025, framed his argument as a break with traditional partisan lines, writing, “Typically, Democrats insist on higher taxes, and Republicans insist on lower spending. But given the magnitude of our national debt as well as the proximity of the cliff, both are necessary.”

He then said he had reversed a long-held view on raising the income cap on which Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) payroll taxes are applied, writing in his opinion article, “I long opposed increasing the income level on which FICA employment taxes are applied (this year, the cap is $176,100). No longer; the consequences of the cliff have changed my mind.”

From there, Romney pointed to how capital gains are treated at death, using a hypothetical involving billionaire Elon Musk, and argued the current system allows some of the wealthiest Americans to avoid paying taxes on billions of dollars, saying it should be “sealed for mega-estates over $100 million.”

He maintained his pro-capitalist views but argued, “I believe in free enterprise, and I believe all Americans should be able to strive for financial success. But we have reached a point where any mix of solutions to our nation’s economic problems is going to involve the wealthiest Americans contributing more.”

He ended by urging Republicans to adopt the approach, writing, “If my party wants to be the one to give working- and middle-class Americans greater opportunity — to be the party that is trying to restore some sense of confidence in our capitalist system — this would be a start.”

Quote:Nuno Loureiro should be remembered as a devoted husband and father of three as well as a gifted physicist, a friend and former colleague told Newsweek.

Bruno Soares Gonçalves, president of Portugal’s Institute of Plasmas and Nuclear Fusion at Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon, worked closely with Loureiro, 47, from 2009 through 2015 before he became a faculty member at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and later led its Plasma Science and Fusion Center.

“He was a brilliant researcher — very rigorous scientifically, very focused on scientific excellency,” Gonçalves said Friday during an interview from Lisbon. “But he was at the same time, someone that was nice to be around … someone with a very good sense of humor [and] also someone that when working with other people, was always trying to push the people to do their best.”

Loureiro, a married father of three daughters originally from Viseu, Portugal, became a “kind” and affable mentor to many young minds after becoming a principal investigator at the Institute for Plasmas and Nuclear Fusion in 2009. The talented researcher went on to lead the institute’s theory and modeling group before departing for MIT, Gonçalves said.

“And of course, after he went to MIT, there was still a strong relationship,” he said. “He kept these links; we kept discussing things, people would meet him at conferences and meetings.”

Gonçalves said he last saw Loureiro, who was found fatally shot Monday at his apartment in Brookline, Massachusetts, about a year ago at an International Atomic Energy Agency conference in Rome. But the pair stayed in touch and emailed frequently — last connecting in July, he said.

“He was always willing to speak with his Portuguese colleagues and spend time with us if he had the opportunity,” Gonçalves said.

Investigators believe Claudio Neves Valente, 48, fatally shot two students and wounded nine others at Brown University in Rhode Island on Saturday. Two days later, Valente, who previously attended Instituto Superior Técnico alongside Loureiro, killed his former classmate, police said.

Gonçalves said he was unaware of any ties between Loureiro and Brown University, but his former colleague took the same physics course load as Valente while they both attended Instituto Superior Técnico between 1995 and 2000.

“And likely, they went to the same physics courses at IST,” he said of Loureiro and Valente, who later attended Brown University. “It’s likely that they would know [each other] from that period.”

Gonçalves said he couldn’t fathom why anyone would harm Loureiro.

“I cannot even imagine what the link would be or why someone would do something of that sort,” he said. “It was such a violent crime … It doesn’t want any sense at all.”

Gonçalves said he wants Loureiro to be remembered as a doting father in addition to being an esteemed theoretical physicist and fusion scientist.

Quote:President Donald Trump's White House responded after his Department of Justice (DOJ) released many of its files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell.

“By releasing thousands of pages of documents, cooperating with the House Oversight Committee’s subpoena request, and President Trump recently calling for further investigations into Epstein’s Democrat friends, the Trump Administration has done more for the victims than Democrats ever have,” White House spokeswoman, Abigail Jackson said, the Associated Press reported. She also said the Trump administration is the “most transparent in history.”

Why It Matters

The release comes after bipartisan legislation passed the U.S. House and Senate overwhelmingly a month ago requiring the disclosure. That effort succeeded after the Trump administration for months had fought the release, with the president routinely calling it a "hoax."

The administration's opposition came after Trump, who was friends with Epstein decades ago before having a falling out, had promised during his 2024 campaign that the files would be released. While Trump has long been known to be mentioned in the files, he and his allies have consistently said he was not involved in Epstein's criminality, and no evidence had emerged to show that he was.

What to Know

The DOJ released thousands of records tied to Epstein on Friday, marking a significant public disclosures in the case. The release came as a result of the bipartisan Epstein Files Transparency Act, which required the government to make the documents available by December 19.

The bipartisan legislation passed after Representatives Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, and Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, spearheaded the effort and utilized a discharge petition to force a vote, despite the objections of House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican. Despite the opposition of Trump and Republican leaders, the legislation ultimately passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in the House and Senate last month.

The release is divided into four massive data sets. Files are available under the “Epstein Files Transparency Act” section on the DOJ website The disclosures include thousands of records, including photos, call logs, grand jury testimony and interview transcripts. Many of the documents have been redacted and at least some have already been in the public domain.

Epstein and Maxwell feature heavily in the images. Meanwhile many celebrities make an appearance including Kevin Spacey, Chris Tucker and Bill Clinton, among others.

It does not appear that the DOJ has fully complied with the law, as not all the files have been released. Earlier on Friday, Deputy Attorney General Todd blanche said not all the files would come today but that more would be released within the coming weeks.

Epstein and Trump were known to be close decades ago. However, they ultimately had a falling out, which was reportedly tied to a real estate deal. The president has said he also got upset because Epstein "stole" a young woman working at his Mar-a-Lago club.

The deceased financier, who was a convicted child sex offender, was well-connected, and was closely associated with many high-profile individuals, including former President Bill Clinton, former Prince Andrew, economist Lawrence Summer, Bill Gates, Trump ally Steve Bannon and many others. Ahead of the DOJ release, House Democrats and Republicans have release some files tied to Epstein, including photos of many of these individuals with him.

A new Quinnipiac University survey released this week found widespread dissatisfaction with Trump’s handling of the Epstein files. Just 26 percent of respondents said they were satisfied with his performance on the issue, underscoring public frustration over the administration’s approach to the disclosures.

Quote:Representative Elise Stefanik, a New York Republican, announced on Friday that she not only will suspend her bid for New York governor but will not seek reelection to Congress.

Newsweek reached out to House Speaker Mike Johnson's office via email on Friday for comment.

Why It Matters

Stefanik’s decision to suspend her campaign for governor and not seek reelection to Congress marks a significant shift in state and national Republican politics. The move comes as Republicans strategize to challenge a vulnerable Democratic incumbent, Kathy Hochul, in a state where they have not held the governorship since George Pataki left office on December 31, 2006.

Stefanik, a prominent ally of President Donald Trump and a rapidly rising star in national politics, had been viewed as the likely GOP front-runner. Her departure opens up the primary field and potentially alters the dynamics of the 2026 gubernatorial race while also triggering potential repercussions in House Republican leadership and representation in New York’s 21st Congressional District.

What To Know

In an email statement sent out Friday afternoon, Stefanik said she made the decision after spending some time with her family and cited concerns about spending "generous resources" on "an unnecessary and protracted Republican primary, especially in a challenging state like New York."

"While many know me as Congresswoman, my most important title is Mom," Stefanik wrote. "I believe that being a parent is life's greatest gift and greatest responsibility.

"I have thought deeply about this, and I know that as a mother, I will feel profound regret if I don't further focus on my young son's safety, growth, and happiness—particularly at his tender age [4].

"Thank you for your support and encouragement as my family and I look forward to the next meaningful personal and professional chapter."

Stefanik’s withdrawal follows Republican Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman’s announcement that he would challenge her for the GOP gubernatorial nomination, with party leaders divided over the prospect of a divisive primary. Trump, who counts both as allies, refrained from endorsing either candidate, saying in part: “He’s great, and she’s great. They’re both great people. We have a lot of great people in the Republican Party.”

Quote:Colombian President Gustavo Petro has rejected a plea from Venezuelan counterpart Nicolás Maduro for military support against the United States.

"I cannot give orders to the Venezuelan army, nor can anyone there give orders to the Colombian army," Petro told reporters at a press conference at the Casa de Nariño, the official presidential residence in Bogotá, on Thursday.

Facing U.S. pressure and the possibility of armed conflict between the U.S. and Venezuela, Maduro appealed to Colombia for a military alliance.

Petro said cooperation between Panama, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela can only happen through popular support and constitutional legitimacy.

Why It Matters

Petro's comments come at a time where Venezuela seeks support from international allies, including diplomatic backing from Russia, China and Iran. Tensions have raised questions about the legality and legitimacy of U.S. military action against alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean and about diplomatic relations with Latin American neighbors.

American naval and air force forces remain on Maduro's doorstep under President Donald Trump's escalating pressure campaign, which included a major oil blockade and tanker seizure this week, putting extra strain on Venezuela's economy.

Tensions between Washington and Bogotá are also rising over the broadened U.S. military presence in the Caribbean region and Washington's approach to drug trafficking, particularly controversial boat strikes that have killed more than 100 people so far.

What To Know

Petro called for a negotiated, peaceful, Venezuelan-led political solution to the crisis in the Caribbean, saying he does not support "invasion," although he did not explicitly name the U.S. This came after Maduro addressed a public plea Wednesday to Colombia’s citizens, social movements, political and military groups, according to state-owned Venezuelan outlet El Correo del Orinoco.

While describing Maduro’s regime as a dictatorship that he does not support, Petro has challenged U.S. claims of the Venezuelan president's involvement in drug trafficking, saying that Colombia has found no evidence that he is a drug trafficker.

"Maduro is a dictator for concentrating powers; there is no evidence in Colombia that he is a narco. That is a narrative of the USA," the Colombian president posted to his X account Wednesday.

Like Maduro, Petro believes oil is at the core of the U.S. pressure campaign on Venezuela and has warned against Washington expanding threats to Colombia. Trump has increasingly hardened his rhetoric toward Colombia and warned Petro he could “be next," having previously issued threats aimed at Maduro.

The State Department designated Colombia’s Clan del Golfo as a foreign terrorist organization on Tuesday. The group is Colombia’s largest drug cartel and is currently negotiating with Petro’s government as part of broader peace talks with the country’s armed groups, according to El País.

Quote:Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday insisted that the Trump administration has not needed congressional approval for the strikes on boats in the Caribbean that were allegedly smuggling drugs into the U.S.

Rubio told reporters at his year-end press conference that he would not speculate "about things that haven't happened and may never happen," but that "to this point, nothing has happened that requires us to notify Congress or get congressional approval or cross the threshold into war."

Why It Matters

The Trump administration over the past few months has continued to escalate its rhetoric and actions towards Venezuela, starting with strikes on alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean, and culminating with the seizure of an oil tanker off the coast of the South American nation.

President Donald Trump then ordered a blockade on Venezuela's oil tankers, as he alleged that Venezuela uses oil revenues to fund drug trafficking and crime. Trump pledged to continue adding pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro until his government hands over "oil, land, and assets" he claims have been stolen from the United States.

What To Know

Rubio covered a range of topics, but reporters continued to circle back to the boat strikes, particularly the legality of the strikes and the mixed messaging it presented as Rubio stressed the administration's goal to make the U.S. the mediator of peace around the world, following the president's peace deals agreed to over the past 11 months.

He defended the administration's approach and stressed that the strikes fall under the administration's purview to defend national security and ramp up pressure on Maduro.

"We are presenting every single one of these as justified," Rubio said. "We know who is on those boats, we've been tracking them from the very beginning. We know everything about them, OK?"

Quote:U.S. Air Force personnel have joined forces with their Ecuadorian counterparts at a base in Manta in Ecuador for a temporary anti-narcotics operation.

"This short-term joint effort is carried out as part of our long-term bilateral security strategy, in line with the currently valid agreements in accordance with Ecuadorian law," the U.S. Embassy stated on X this week.

Newsweek has contacted the U.S. State Department and Ecuador's foreign ministry for further comment.

Why It Matters

Ecuadorian voters recently rejected a referendum to allow permanent foreign military bases, reaffirming the ban on foreign bases like the one the U.S. previously operated in Manta. The vote came after Ecuador’s president sought U.S. military assistance and supported the opening of U.S. military bases in the ports of Manta and Salinas following Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's visit to the Manta military base in November.

The latest move comes amid tensions over the U.S.’ expanded military presence in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific under President Donald Trump’s intensified anti-drug campaign and potential military action against Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro.

What To Know

Ecuador and the U.S have activated a temporary operation at the Manta air base, which Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa described as "part of a long-term bilateral security strategy," on his X account.

The move comes as Ecuador faces an unprecedented surge in drug-related violence, with homicide rates rising sharply over the past three years and criminal groups expanding their control over coastal trafficking routes. In an operation earlier this month, U.S. special forces under Southern Command assisted Ecuador’s 4th Army Division in a counter‑narcotics action in Esmeraldas on December 3, seizing 1.4 tons of cocaine with a value of about $98 million.

Manta, a strategic Pacific port city, previously hosted a U.S. forward operating location until 2009, when Ecuador banned foreign military bases. Several U.S. allies, including El Salvador and the Dominican Republic, have backed U.S. operations, granting American forces access to local bases and airports. Washington has also expanded its regional footprint by reopening Puerto Rico’s Roosevelt Roads Naval Station and sending additional forces to the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Other governments, such as that of Colombia have been more critical, and tensions between Trump and Colombian President Gustavo Petro have also emerged.

Quote:Dramatic video released Friday shows a Russian oil tanker being blown up by Ukrainian drones in an “unprecedented special operation” in neutral waters in the Mediterranean Sea.

The footage of the attack showed the shadow fleet tanker being obliterated more than 1,200 miles from Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine said.

The out-of-area operation marks the first time Kyiv has struck in neutral waters, according to officials. Until now, Ukraine’s security service has only claimed responsibility for drone attacks in the Black Sea.

The Qendil vessel, which was empty at the time, is said to have suffered critical damage.

Ukraine insisted the strike “posed no threat” to the environment, claiming the vessel wasn’t carrying cargo at the time.

The tanker had unloaded oil at the Indian port of Sikka earlier this month and was en route back when the strike was carried out, according to officials.

Quote:Ukraine has expanded its campaign against Russian oil shipping, striking a “shadow fleet” tanker in the Mediterranean Sea for the first time using long-range aerial drones. Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed retaliation for the attack. Speaking at his end-of-year conference, Putin warned that attacks on civilian infrastructure would “always” draw a response from Moscow.

What to Know:

• The Oman-flagged tanker Qendil was hit in neutral waters off Crete, sustaining heavy damage.
  
• The vessel was empty and en route from India’s port of Sikka to Russia’s Ust Luga terminal.
  
• Ukraine’s SBU security service said the operation involved “multi-stage” measures but gave no details.
  
• Kyiv has recently escalated strikes on Russian oil infrastructure, including rigs in the Caspian Sea and tankers in the Black Sea.
  
• Putin condemned the attack, calling it an effort to raise insurance costs, and vowed Russia would respond.
  
• India remains a major buyer of Russian oil despite U.S. pressure to reduce imports.
  
• Maritime analysts say the strike marks a significant expansion of Ukraine’s drone capabilities against Russia’s sanctioned export network.
  

Quote:Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Botswana’s Foreign Minister Phenyo Butale reaffirmed plans to deepen cooperation in international forums, including the United Nations, according to a statement from Moscow’s foreign ministry. The announcement came during the second ministerial conference of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum in Cairo.

The ministry said both sides confirmed their intention to expand collaboration on multilateral platforms and held substantive talks on bilateral priorities. Discussions included prospects for strengthening political, economic, and investment ties, with particular focus on healthcare, tourism, education, and training in civilian fields.

Quote:Sergey Naryshkin, director of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), warned that what he called the European Union and the United Kingdom’s policy of “Russophobia” will lead to political and social decline. Speaking in an interview with TASS, Naryshkin argued that the EU has failed to keep pace with global dynamics and is falling behind other powers, including the United States.

He said the bloc’s economic and political struggles have made European integration “less attractive” and damaged the EU’s international reputation. According to Naryshkin, the recently published U.S. National Security Strategy underscores the EU’s waning influence.

Quote:WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday said neither Ukraine nor Russia is anywhere close to surrendering, meaning a negotiated settlement is the only realistic way to stop the bloodshed.

“Wars end generally in one of two ways: surrender by one side or a negotiated settlement,” Rubio told reporters at a lengthy year-end briefing– as US-led talks were set to stretch into the weekend in Miami.

“We don’t see surrender anytime in the near future by either side, and so only a negotiated settlement gives us the opportunity to end this war.”

Rubio laid out the assessment as Russian President Vladimir Putin in his own four-hour-long press conference insisted he would accept nothing short of Ukraine’s unconditional capitulation, fueling doubts about whether the Kremlin is serious about compromise.

“The only thing I want to say is that we have always said this: We are ready and willing to end this conflict peacefully, based on the principles I outlined last June at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and by addressing the root causes that led to this crisis,” Putin said, referring to his demands that Ukraine surrender its entire Donbas region and change its constitution to rule out NATO membership.

But Rubio said he pays little mind to what the Russian dictator says in public and instead is focusing on plausible outcomes.

“I’m just saying there’s what people say and then what people do in the end,” Rubio said. “We’re not going to base our approach … on the basis simply of what people are saying. We’re going to base it on what people are willing to agree to, what countries are willing to agree to.”

US officials are pressing ahead with diplomacy this weekend despite what Rubio acknowledged are starkly incompatible public positions from both sides.

The discussions — which Rubio said have been ongoing “every single day” through meetings, back-channel discussions and phone calls — will continue this weekend in Miami with separate meetings with Russian and Ukrainian negotiators, even as expectations for a breakthrough remain modest.

“What we’re trying to figure out here is, what can Ukraine live with and what can Russia live with?” Rubio said. “And see if we can sort of drive them towards each other to some agreement.”

Rubio stressed repeatedly that Washington is not imposing a deal — and cannot force either side to sign on.

“There is no peace deal unless Ukraine agrees to it,” he said. “But there’s also no peace deal unless Russia agrees to it. In the end, the decision will be up to Ukraine and up to Russia. It will not be up to the United States.”

Quote:The unemployment total for young Chinese city‑dwellers stood at roughly 20 million, or about 12 percent, according to a Newsweek analysis of the latest statistics from China's statistics bureau.

The figure is a sign that the general economic recovery and a raft of stimulus measures have not eased the economic pressure facing China’s young people.

Why It Matters

The world’s second‑largest economy has had a bumpy ride since the end of its strict COVID‑era lockdowns, amid slowing growth, tepid consumer demand and a years‑long real estate downturn.

Youth, defined in China as ages 15 to 24, have been particularly hard hit, as job competition intensifies amid record numbers of university graduates—a trend that analysts warn could threaten the Chinese Communist Party’s top priority: social stability.

Newsweek reached out to the Chinese Foreign Ministry by email with a request for comment.

What To Know

Just under 17 percent of Chinese aged 15 to 24 living in urban areas were jobless last month, according to a National Bureau of Statistics report—a five‑month low, but still an increase of 0.8 percentage points from a year earlier.

The 25‑to‑29 age group fared better, with an unemployment rate of 7.2 percent, just marginally higher than the 6.1 percent logged in December 2023.

A conservative estimate suggests at least 20 million urban Chinese youth aged 15 to 29 are out of work—or just over 12 percent of that demographic, excluding students—according to Newsweek’s analysis of available official data. The real figure is likely higher.

After months of sky‑high rates in 2023, exceeding 21 percent by some measures, China’s government briefly halted youth unemployment reporting, then resumed six months later with a revised methodology.

Since January 2024, the main statistics agency has excluded students from youth unemployment data and no longer counts those with part‑time jobs—even if they worked one hour per week—or unemployed youths who are not actively looking for work.

At the time of the change in methodology, Chinese officials said adding the 25‑to‑29 age group—departing from the international standard youth definition of 15 to 24—would help statisticians reflect the fact that more young people pursue higher education and only enter the job market in their mid‑20s.

Quote:China has unsettled Iran by backing the United Arab Emirates in a decades-old dispute over three strategically located islands in the Persian Gulf.

Beijing’s position has revived a sensitive sovereignty issue for Tehran and sharpened scrutiny of China’s regional balancing act, as it seeks to expand ties with Arab Gulf states while maintaining its much touted strategic partnership with Iran.

Newsweek has contacted Iran and China's foreign ministries for comment.

Why It Matters

The episode highlights the limits of Iran’s reliance on China at a time when Tehran increasingly looks east to counter Western pressure and sanctions. While Iranian officials have portrayed ties with Beijing as a pillar of foreign policy, China’s stance on the islands underscores its willingness to prioritize broader regional and energy interests.

The dispute also carries wider implications for regional stability. The three islands sit near the Strait of Hormuz, a vital maritime chokepoint through which about one-fifth of the world’s total oil consumption passes, making their status a recurring concern for global energy markets.

What to Know

Tensions surfaced this week after a joint statement was issued following Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s visit to Abu Dhabi, in which Beijing expressed “support for the efforts of the UAE to reach a peaceful solution to the dispute” over Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb and Abu Musa.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei responded by criticizing what he described as the UAE’s “insistence on misusing every diplomatic delegation’s visit” to advance its claims. While Baqaei did not explicitly name China, Iranian media interpreted the remarks as a diplomatic setback for Tehran.

Media Backlash

Although Baqaei did not directly criticize China, Iranian media and political figures were far more pointed in their assessments, framing Beijing’s stance as a challenge to Iran’s sovereignty. Hard-line newspaper Kayhan, argued that China’s position amounted to a contradiction of its own red lines, writing that Beijing “has implicitly accepted that its own claim over Taiwan is disputable and should be resolved through negotiations.”

Ahmad Naderi, a member of the presiding board of Iran’s conservative-leaning parliament, accused China of applying a “double standard,” arguing that Beijing could not insist on strict adherence to its One China policy while questioning Iran’s territorial integrity.

State-affiliated Mehr news agency framed the issue in similar terms, noting that China considers “any mention of its territorial integrity a violation of its security red line,” and argued that Beijing’s endorsement of the joint statement “is unjustifiable and cannot be ignored.”

Quote:New satellite imagery shows recent activity at a uranium enrichment facility in Iran that was damaged during June's 12-day war with Israel when U.S. and Israeli airstrikes targeted several of the country’s nuclear sites.

The image raises concerns that Tehran may be working to restore or recover aspects of its nuclear program, according to the U.S.-based Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS). The image suggests Iran is taking steps to shield and access the damaged site, highlighting continued uncertainty over its nuclear intentions.

Newsweek has contacted Iran's Foreign Ministry for comment via email.

Why It Matters

The Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant (PFEP) at Natanz is a key site within Iran’s nuclear complex, historically used for advanced enrichment research and development. Although the facility "likely held several kilograms of highly enriched uranium," ISIS stressed that such material is “not negligible” in the broader context of Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

Renewed activity at PFEP comes amid longstanding U.S. and Israeli concerns that Iran’s nuclear program, which Iran insisted it has never sought nuclear weapons, could bring it closer to weapons-grade capability. The fact that U.S. airstrikes targeted multiple sites during the June conflict before a ceasefire was agreed on June 24 underscores the strategic importance of these facilities and the potential risks associated with their recovery.

What to Know

ISIS, a think tank focused on nuclear nonproliferation, reported that satellite imagery from December 13 show panels placed on top of the remaining anti-drone structure at PFEP, providing cover for the damaged facility.

Although partially sealed, a large hole remains where the drone cage was penetrated. The think tank suggested the new covering allows Iran to examine or retrieve materials from the rubble while limiting external observation. “This indicates Iran wants to explore the rubble out of sight of prying eyes,” it wrote.

ISIS posted the satellite image on X on Thursday, highlighting the renewed activity at the damaged facility.

Other Sites Remain Quiet

While PFEP shows renewed activity, ISIS said it has not observed similar signs at other major nuclear sites, including the underground Fordow facility also damaged in June by airstrikes. The targeted focus on PFEP may reflect its role in research and development of advanced centrifuges and enrichment processes.

IAEA Access Restrictions

Meanwhile, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi said inspectors have returned to some facilities but remain barred from those struck by the U.S.

“We are only allowed to access sites that were not hit,” he told Russia’s RIA Novosti earlier this week.

Quote:The U.S. has announced that it carried out a series of strikes in Syria against ISIS fighters, infrastructure, and weapons sites as retaliation for a lethal attack on American servicemembers earlier this month.

"This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance," Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth wrote on X. "The United States of America, under President Trump’s leadership, will never hesitate and never relent to defend our people."

Newsweek reached out to the Pentagon by email outside of normal business hours on Friday evening for comment.

Why It Matters

An Islamic State (ISIS) gunman ambushed U.S. troops in Syria last week, killing three U.S. servicemembers—two Iowa National Guard soldiers and a civilian interpreter. The assault marked the first deadly attack on U.S. troops in Syria since the fall of President Bashar Assad.

The U.S. Army identified the soldiers just days after the attack as Sergeant Edgar Brian Torres Tovar, 25, of Des Moines, and Sergeant William Nathaniel Howard, 29, of Marshalltown. The interpreter was identified as Ayad Mansoor Sakat, 54, of Macomb Township, Michigan.

The interim government and its military forces have committed themselves to helping the U.S. fight the presence of the Islamic State militant group (ISIS). The U.S. had no diplomatic relations with Syria under Assad, but the Trump administration has courted closer ties between the two countries, even hosting interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa in Washington last month.

What To Know

President Donald Trump and Hegseth confirmed the attack and deaths of the servicemembers and the ISIS gunman before swearing to retaliate last week, making good on their promise on Friday with a dozen strikes on ISIS targets.

A U.S.-led coalition carried out the airstrikes and ground operations, including participation from Syria's security forces, according to Reuters.

Hegseth praised the operation and reiterated that the U.S. will never let the deaths of U.S. servicemembers go unpunished. He labeled the strikes as "OPERATION HAWKEYE STRIKE."

"As we said directly following the savage attack, if you target Americans — anywhere in the world — you will spend the rest of your brief, anxious life knowing the United States will hunt you, find you, and ruthlessly kill you," Hegseth continued.

"Today, we hunted and we killed our enemies. Lots of them. And we will continue," he added.

Trump also posted about the strikes, saying that Syria was "fully in support" of the U.S. strikes, and he praised al-Sharaa for "working very hard to bring Greatness back to Syria."

Quote:WASHINGTON — President Trump on Monday announced plans to build new battleships for the first time in more than 80 years — and is naming them after himself.

The new ships will represent an upgrade to the Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers — with the current models costing more than $2 billion apiece to build.

The shipbuilding will begin “immediately” and will take approximately two-and-a-half years to complete, the president said.

While the term “battleships” is commonly used to describe any kind of warship, the term technically refers to a heavily armored Navy ship armed with large guns and capable of serving as the command vessel in a naval attack campaign.

The US has not commissioned a battleship-class vessel since the USS Missouri in 1944. The previous US battleships were named after states.

“They will have 100 times the force, the power [of earlier warships], and there’s never been anything like these ships,” Trump said. “These have been under design consideration for a long time, and it started with me and my first term.”

The new class of battleships will be named the “Trump-class” and will be capable not only of attacking naval targets, but also will be armed with nuclear-capable Tomahawk missiles — adding to the nation’s nuclear triad.

“These cutting-edge vessels will be some of the most lethal Surface Warfare ships,” Trump said. “Each one of these will be the largest battleship in the history of our country, the largest battleship in the history of the world ever built.”

While the Navy traditionally names ships after the first built in a series, the initial battleship will take the name USS Defiant.

It was not immediately clear how many of the new ships will be built, what new capabilities they might have or whether legislation will be required to finance the initiative.

There are 74 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers in service — built beginning in the late 1980s, and they serve versatile functions including air defense, aircraft carrier escort and as a launch pad for Tomahawk cruise missiles.

Quote:The Trump administration is recalling more than two dozen ambassadors from posts around the world, The Post has learned.

The removal of 29 envoys from positions in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and Central America follows an initial mass dismissal of appointees of former President Joe Biden in the early months of President Trump’s second term.

“This is a standard process in any administration,” a senior State Department official told The Post Monday. “An ambassador is a personal representative of the president, and it is the president’s right to ensure that he has individuals in these countries who advance the America First agenda.”

The latest recalls would leave the US without envoys in key global hotspots — including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Nigeria, and Somalia in Africa as well as Armenia, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Slovakia in Europe.

The diplomatic reshuffle was first reported by Politico Friday. Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin posted a list of 48 countries where the chief of mission was ostensibly on the chopping block Monday morning, only to delete his post “because I was told by State Department officials that it was not accurate.”

The Post obtained an updated list of recalls from a source familiar with the situation at midday Monday.

John Dinkelman, president of the American Foreign Service Association, complained to Politico Friday that the recalls “undermine the confidence in the professional Foreign Service’s ability to effectively carry out the policies of the elected leadership of our nation.”

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has yet to nominate permanent ambassadors to key allies and partners, including Australia, Germany, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, and Ukraine.

“We have about 80 vacant ambassadorships,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told Politico. “Yet, President Trump is giving away US leadership to China and Russia by removing qualified career ambassadors who serve faithfully no matter who’s in power.”

The Associated Press reported late Sunday that chiefs of mission were told last week that their terms would be up in January.

Those affected by the shake-up are not losing their foreign service jobs but will be offered other assignments upon their return to DC, two department officials told the wire service.

Africa is the continent most affected by the removals, with ambassadors from 14 countries being removed; followed by Asia, with ambassadorial changes coming to six countries.

Quote:The DOJ on Monday released shocking footage that appeared to be a recreation of Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide in his Manhattan jail cell — and it briefly set the Internet on fire until it was revealed to be fake.

The video was posted without explanation to the Justice Department’s website as part of its Epstein file dump — with the footage just the latest item among a trove of documents and images to be revealed after the complete horde was ordered released in November.

The grainy, 12-second, computer-generated clip showed a white-haired man in an orange jumpsuit struggling and jerking his head about while kneeling at the base of a jail-cell bunk bed.

The time stamp on the video was 4:29 a.m. Aug. 10, 2019 — two hours before the pedophile’s body was found in his cell that day at the Metropolitan Correctional Facility.

The scene in the video seemed to match Epstein’s cell, where officials determined he hung himself while awaiting trial for a litany of sex-trafficking charges.

But a closer examination of the clip showed things were not quite right – with a pile of orange prison clothes strewn about the ground looking like puddles without any texture, and the door to the jail cell not matching the one in Epstein’s behind-bars compartment.

It soon was revealed in another dumped document that the clip was in fact a fake video that circulated on 4chan and was flagged by investigators by a Florida conspiracy theorist.

A Trump administration official later confirmed to The Post that the video was bogus and has been on YouTube for years. It was eventually taken down from the DOJ’s site Monday.

But its appearance had already caused a flurry of interest online, with many viewers thinking footage of Epstein’s death had finally been revealed.

That would have flown in the face of investigators’ long-standing narrative that the cameras watching Epstein’s cell malfunctioned on the night of his death and that no footage existed.

The lack of video has been one of the primary sources of conspiracy theories around Epstein’s death, with some people using it to fuel stories that the disgraced onetime powerful financier was murdered by shadowy forces.

Those theories were fanned during the first dump of Epstein files earlier this year, when a clip from outside Epstein’s cell block on the night he died was finally released – but a minute was missing just before midnight.

The DOJ insisted nothing was afoul and that the so-called “missing minute” was merely the result of the jail’s camera system recycling. A version was finally released to show that nothing nefarious happened during those 60 seconds.

Epstein had been on suicide watch before he died but was taken off and was supposed to have a cellmate living with him.

His cellmate was transferred off just a day before Epstein’s death.

The two guards who were supposed to be watching him at the time of his death also were sleeping on the job, and later admitted to falsifying reports to hide their blunder.

Quote:President Trump revealed that he does not like the Justice Department’s release of embarrassing photos of a half-naked Bill Clinton swimming with late sex predator Jeffrey Epstein’s madam, Ghislaine Maxwell.

“No, I don’t like the pictures of Bill Clinton being shown,” he told reporters Monday. “I don’t like the pictures of other people being shown. I think it’s a terrible thing.”

“But you probably have pictures being exposed of other people that innocently met Jeffrey Epstein years ago.”

The DOJ has been forced to release the Epstein files due to a law Trump signed last month amid mounting political pressure. The Epstein Files Transparency Act had cleared the House and Senate nearly unanimously, with only one vote against it.

The law gave the DOJ a deadline of Dec. 19 — last Friday — to release all the files with redactions to protect the notorious pedophile’s victims.

While the Trump administration released thousands of pages of files, many more remain sealed, and top officials have said they will be released on a rolling basis.

One of the headline-making disclosures was the photo of Clinton in a jacuzzi with Maxwell. Another picture showed him next to Epstein and Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger.

Notably, the disclosures had few new images of Trump. There was one photo of him in a batch on Friday that the DOJ scrubbed from its website due to concerns from several of Epstein’s victims, according to US Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.

Clinton’s team fired back at the Trump administration, highlighting how there’s a deluge of documents still outstanding.

Quote:As if things couldn’t get worse for Ghislaine Maxwell.

The madam who trafficked young girls for Jeffrey Epstein was proudly snapped flashing her crotch, baring her breasts and shoving her face in another man’s lap during the heyday of her and the disgraced financier’s disturbing sex trade.

Maxwell was featured in thousands of photographs released Friday as part of a massive Department of Justice document dump.

In one shot, the now convicted felon is seen suggestively sitting in the driver’s seat of a luxury sports car, wearing nothing but a smirk and a white robe — and has her legs raised just enough to show off her crotch to the cameraman.

Several other images apparently taken on the same night show Maxwell, who is currently serving 20 years for the sick scheme, cuddling up with celebrity magician David Copperfield.

The pair are seen hugging one another and laughing, with one shot showing Copperfield standing behind Maxwell and comfortably wrapping his arms around her.

Copperfield could not immediately be reached for comment.

In one of the more explicit photos, Maxwell is seen leering down for the camera and showing off her breasts — while another, unidentified person from outside the camera’s shot shoves their foot between her cleavage.

In another, Maxwell has her head shoved into the lap of a mystery man aboard what appears to be the Lolita Express — as Epstein laughs joyfully beside her.

Lawyers for Maxwell did not respond to The Post’s request for comment regarding the images.

There are plenty of other pictures of Maxwell with Epstein galavanting around the world, presumably enjoying the splendor that their sick sex trade wrought them.

She is seen celebrating birthdays, fooling around with Russian soldiers and enjoying the Ascot’s Royal Box in June 2000 with disgraced Prince Andrew.

The former Royal Highness is also featured heavily throughout the trove of images, including in one where he is seen sprawling out across the laps of numerous young women — as Maxwell smirks in the background.

Quote:A photo of the creepy lookalike puppet that then-Prince Andrew is accused of using to grope sex accuser Virginia Giuffre has been unveiled in the newly released Jeffrey Epstein files.

The doll — fashioned in the now-disgraced royal’s likeness from satirical British TV show “Spitting Image” — was spotted in the background of a snap of his sex-trafficking pal Ghislaine Maxwell inside Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse.

The existence of the puppet first emerged nearly a decade ago when Giuffre, Epstein’s most prominent victim, alleged in court papers that the then-prince had used it to grab her breasts when she was just 17.

The claim surfaced again in her posthumous memoir, “Nobody’s Girl,” which was published in October — months after Giuffre died by suicide.

“When Andrew cupped my breast with a doll made in his image, I only giggled away,” she wrote, adding that she had to pretend she was entertained by the “lewd gestures.”

Giuffre had alleged for years that she was trafficked and forced to have sex with Andrew three times as a teen at Maxwell’s London home, Epstein’s New York townhouse, and his private Caribbean island, Little St. James.

The accusations — and his disastrous attempts to address them — led to him losing all his royal duties and titles. He now goes by the commoner name of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

Andrew has long vehemently denied Giuffre’s claims, but reached a settlement thought to have been worth $12 million to drop a civil lawsuit before her death.

Quote:A group of 98 Minnesota mayors raised concerns with state leaders in a letter about their state's fiscal policies, saying they have impacted their cities and residents, noting a disappearing $18 billion surplus and a projected $2.9 billion to $3 billion deficit for the 2028-29 biennium.

In a letter to state lawmakers and Gov. Tim Walz, the 98 mayors expressed concern and frustration, said the state was slipping in national economic rankings.

"Fraud, unchecked spending, and inconsistent fiscal management in St. Paul have trickled down to our cities—reducing our capacity to plan responsibly, maintain infrastructure, hire and retain employees, and sustain core services without overburdening local taxpayers," the letter states.

Cities across the state now face workforce shortages, slowed business investment, rising operational and construction costs, and families choosing to leave Minnesota altogether, the letter states.

In addition, the mayors noted potential property tax increases as a result of unfunded state mandates and costs that force cities to shift the burden to residents and businesses.

"There is a growing disconnect between state-level fiscal decisions and the strain they place on the cities we lead, the letter said. "When the state expands programs or shifts responsibilities without stable funding, it is our residents—families, seniors, businesses, and workers—who ultimately bear the cost."

Unfunded mandates include requests for schools, health and human services, and public safety.

Minnesota Republican lawmakers put the blame on Walz and Democrats.

"Governor Walz and Democrats passed unaffordable spending and tax increases along with unfunded mandates on the promise it would make life more affordable," state Republican Sen. Andrew Lang, who serves as the Lead on the Senate State and Local Government Committee, said in a statement. "In reality they just passed down the costs to local governments, schools, and small businesses, who in turn pass down costs to local taxpayers and consumers.

"Minnesota Counties sounded the alarm early last session about the proposals to shift costs onto their budgets, so I’m not surprised that nearly 100 mayors across the state are raising their own concerns. This letter is a warning that we must reduce state spending, stop the massive fraud plaguing our state, and remove unnecessary mandates to keep life affordable for everyone."

Fox News Digital has reached out to Walz's office.

The mayors noted that a state statute requires a balanced budget but that relying on one-time surplus dollars has created structural strain.

Quote:Lawmakers left town.

Last Thursday was the final day Congress met until early January. And despite health care dominating the conversation on Capitol Hill since late summer and through the autumn, Congress failed to execute a legislative fix for soaring health care premiums set to spike in January.

It was a Congressional jailbreak around 3 pm et Thursday as the House called its last vote and lawmakers sprinted for the exits, piling into cars on the Capitol plaza.

"Don't send us home without a vote," implored House Minority Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., on the House steps earlier in the day.

"Our message to (House Speaker) Mike Johnson, R-La., is clear," said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. "You can run. But you cannot hide."
Lawmakers packed up for December, practically channeling partisans of the (once) hapless Chicago Cubs, declaring "Wait til next year."

"I'm optimistic that we still have a chance to do better in 2026," forecast Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio.

"I think before the end of January, we really do want to do something," said Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D.

There’s a reason why 2026 is fundamentally different from 2025.

"It's an election year," observed Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo. "I think that Members of Congress are going to start hearing from their constituents."

Freshman Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, R-Pa., beat former Rep. Susan Wild, D-Pa., by one point in 2024, flipping the district from blue to red. Last week, Mackenzie became one of four House Republicans who rebelled against top Republican leaders –  and aligning with Democrats – to renew Obamacare subsidies.

The "Fed Up 4" signed what’s called a "discharge petition." This is a maneuver to go around the Speaker and put a bill on the floor – if the Speaker won’t. Democrats pushed a discharge petition to re-up the expiring subsidies for three years. But they needed four Republicans to join them in their parliamentary guerilla tactic to take this out of the hands of the Speaker.

"There is no silver bullet. If there was, either party would have done it," said Mackenze.

When asked about the politics of this in his battleground district, Mackenzie replied that "we have a long way to go before the midterms."

Discharge petitions don’t ripen for a vote immediately. The House must wait seven legislative days before consideration. The House is out until January 6, 2027. After two days to trigger the discharge petition, the House may consider this maneuver around January 8 or 9.

But even one top House Republican believes this coalition of Democrats and few Republicans will succeed in January.

"My gut tells me that the COVID era subsidies, because we had the four members of the House sign onto that discharge petition, that it probably will pass," predicted House Republican Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain (R-MI) on Fox Business.

But the Senate blocked a similar plan earlier this month. That’s why Democrats are skeptical that Congress can fix the problem once premiums explode in the new year.

"Huge damage has already been done. And nothing we do after January 1st can undo so much of that damage," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

Some Republicans advocate a complete legislative overhaul of health care next year.

"What is different, though, about 2026 on health care compared to 2025 about health care? Why does this suddenly change?" yours truly asked Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

Quote:At least 20% of Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s transition committee members have ties to radical anti-Zionist groups that “openly promote terror and harass Jewish people,” the Anti-Defamation League found in a stinging report Monday.

The ADL pinpointed several activists who have downplayed the horrors of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel or were involved in the anti-Israel encampments that sprung up on New York City college campuses last spring.

Roughly 80 of the 400 people named to staff Mamdani’s 17 transition committees “have a documented history of making or sharing anti-Zionist or anti-Israel statements,” the report found.

A handful were also found to have ties to the Nation of Islam or its antisemitic leader Louis Farrakhan, including Jacques Léandre, a member of the transition’s Committee on Legal Affairs, the ADL said.

The revealing report came less than a week after Mamdani’s director of appointments, Catherine Almonte Da Costa, was forced to resign when decade-old antisemitic and anti-police remarks she made on social media resurfaced — including rants about “money hungry Jews” and defunding NYPD “piggies.”

The ADL said that and the new findings in its report raise questions about the vetting process for Mamdani’s appointments, and whether the “concerning statements, associations and activities” had been identified by his transition team.

“Many of Mayor-Elect Mamdani’s Transition Committee appointments are inconsistent with his campaign commitments to prioritize the safety of New York’s Jewish community,” the ADL wrote in the report.

“The composition of these Transition Committees will directly influence the administration’s policies and approach to Jewish community concerns, and the current appointments raise serious questions as to whether those concerns will not be adequately represented or addressed.”

Mamdani, who takes office Jan. 1, insisted Monday that he’s “always spoken out against antisemitism and hatred in any form.”

The democratic socialist has faced ongoing criticism over his staunch criticism of Israel – but has worked to earn support from more of New York’s Jewish community since getting elected, including appearing in a recent Hanukkah video with actor Mandy Patinkin. 

The ADL found about 80 transition members who have been involved with virulent anti-Zionist groups that “openly promote terror and harass Jewish people,” like Students for Justice in Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace and Within Our Lifetimes — all of which have helped spur fiery anti-Israel protests across the Big Apple.

Quote:Ebenezer Scrooge has nothing on Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is thwarting cancer treatment for kids in a possibly futile attempt to get Congress to pass his priorities.

Last week, the Vermont socialist was the sole vote opposed to fast-tracking legislation that will make it easier for kids with cancer to access treatments and clinical trials and incentivize companies to develop pediatric therapies.

His complaint: the Mikaela Naylon Give Kids a Chance Act, named for a teen cancer patient who died while advocating for its passage, is a pared-down version of a previous package that included other health-care measures as well, including funding for community health centers.

Without those add-ons, he’s withholding support of a bill that was teed up to pass easily — and that even he otherwise supported.

Yet without his vote, it didn’t win unanimous backing, so it’ll now have to make its way through a much more arduous procedural process when Congress reconvenes next year.

That is, Sanders blocked an urgently needed bill in a perhaps futile attempt to get his pet projects passed.

Pray it doesn’t cost the lives of any kids who could’ve benefited. But make no mistake: This is super-villain behavior, as more rational lawmakers pointed out.

Right-wing Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who also supports funding community health centers, fumed: “To say that you’re not going to give a chance for children to have a cure for cancer if you don’t get what you want” is “selfish” and “tragic.”

Amen to that.

Too many hard-lefties think that way: Zero compromise, zero realism; just legalistic, ideology-driven insistence that things get done their way — or else. (Exhibit A: the recent government shutdown.)

Sanders has been similarly loony about data centers, claiming they’ll cost jobs. It’s the kind of logic that would have kept the world driving horse-pulled buggies.

Quote:Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials apprehended over 1,030 illegal aliens using its authority under the Laken Riley Act during its two-week Operation Angel’s Honor, The Post has learned.

The sweeping operation, which wrapped up Monday, was conducted in memory of Laken Riley, a nursing student who was brutally bludgeoned to death last year by an illegal immigrant while out for a jog.

“These criminals will face justice and be removed from our country,” Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said in a statement.

“We can never bring Laken back, but we can do everything in our power to bring these heinous criminals to justice. I am so proud of what our brave men and women of ICE have done to remove these criminals from America’s streets.”

The Laken Riley Act, which was named after Riley, sought to prevent repeats from happening by mandating that illegal immigrants who get caught committing crimes such as theft, assaulting a law enforcement officer, and more are arrested.

Riley’s murderer, José Antonio Ibarra, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela who was convicted last year and sentenced to life in prison, had a rap sheet that included shoplifting, acting in a manner to injure a minor, and more.

The law is intended to prevent illegal immigrants such as Ibarra, who have a record, from roaming the streets. It was the first bill President Trump signed during his second term.

Some of the illegal immigrants nabbed by ICE under Operation Angel’s Honor had committed egregious crimes such as rape, assault with intent to cause injury to an officer, indecent liberties with a child, and more.

“This operation, while a massive success, also serves as a solemn reminder of the profound impact that immigrant violence and crime can have on victims and their loved ones,” ICE Director Todd Lyons said.

“ICE’s mission is to ensure that no more Americans will fall victim to illegal alien crime.”

Quote:"The View" had a total of 341 guests in 2025, but only two of them were conservative, while 128 were liberal, according to a new study conducted by the Media Research Center.

"The View" aired its final new episode of the year on Friday, so the MRC analyzed how the ABC News program presented political discussions to its audience. The conservative media watchdog found that the daytime gabfest chatted with 128 liberal guests, including 25 Democratic politicians, but only spoke to a pair of conservatives the entire year.

"Their noticeable lack of right-leaning guests is just like their search for someone to fill the ‘conservative seat’ in the panel. They don’t want to have anyone on the show who’s going to lead to embarrassing moments of their leftist cast members being held to account for the wild and controversial things they say or call them out on their hypocrisies," MRC associate editor Nicholas Fondacaro told Fox News Digital.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, Sen. John Fetterman, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Rep. Jasmine Crockett, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Gov. JB Pritzker, Sen. Elissa Slotkin, Sen. Chuck Schumer, Sen. Cory Booker, Sen. Raphael Warnock, Gov. Wes Moore, former President Joe Biden and former First Lady Jill Biden, former Mayor Rahm Emanuel, former Rep. Anthony Weiner, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, Sen. Joe Manchin, former Vice President Kamala Harris, then-mayoral candidate Zohan Mamdani, then-mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo and Sen. Bernie Sanders were all guests on "The View" in 2025.

Obama staffers turned "Pod Save America" hosts Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett and Tommy Vietor were also guests on the show, and Biden press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre appeared twice. "The View" also welcomed Sarah Kate Ellis of left-leaning GLAAD and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

When it came to conservative guests, only actress Cheryl Hines — who is married to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., appeared on the program.

Fondacaro noted that Hines isn’t truly even a conservative.

"While having left-wing politics herself, she was forced to defend her husband’s — and, by extension, the Trump administration’s — policies. Thus, she was counted as right-leaning," he wrote when detailing his findings. 

"They only had Greene on because she was being a headache for Congressional Republican leadership during the government shutdown. The cast also tried to recruit her to become a Democrat," Fondacaro wrote, adding that he doesn’t expect things to change anytime soon.

Quote:A Mexican Navy aircraft conducting a medical support mission crashed near the Galveston Causeway in Texas on Monday, prompting a multi-agency response from local law enforcement and Texas officials as investigators began working to determine the cause.

The Mexican Navy secretary said on X that one of the Navy’s planes was conducting a medical mission in coordination with the Michou and Mau Foundation when it experienced an incident during its approach near Galveston, Texas.

The Mexican Navy said in a statement that the aircraft involved was a King Air ANX 1209.

According to the Mexican Navy, eight people were on board the aircraft – four naval crew members and four civilians – when it crashed during its approach near Galveston.

Search and rescue protocols were immediately activated following the crash in coordination with the U.S. Coast Guard, which has rescued six people so far. Four were found alive, while two deaths have been confirmed. Efforts remain underway to rescue two additional people still believed to be inside the wreckage, the Mexican Navy said.

According to the Michou and Mau Foundation’s website, its vision is to "provide assistance so that children with severe burns have the best advanced treatment programs and multidisciplinary care."

The Mexican Navy added that search and rescue efforts were immediately activated in coordination with local authorities.

The Galveston County Sheriff’s Office said its personnel also responded to the plane crash near the base of the causeway.

"Sheriff’s Office personnel, including the dive team, crime scene unit, drone unit and patrol are assisting at the scene," the sheriff’s office said, adding that the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) is leading the crash investigation with the help of the sheriff’s office and Galveston Police Department.

Fox News Digital has reached out to DPS and the Michou and Mau Foundation for additional information about the crash.

Quote:House Speaker Mike Johnson warned on Sunday that President Donald Trump could be impeached if Republicans lose the majority in the House of Representatives in the 2026 midterm elections.

"If we lose the House majority, the radical left, as you’ve already heard, is going to impeach President Trump. They’re going to create absolute chaos. We cannot let that happen," Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, said at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest conference.

Kiersten Pels, the Republican National Committee's national press secretary, told Newsweek, "Democrats have made it clear that if they regain power, their agenda won’t be bringing down costs or securing the border — it will be launching partisan impeachment crusades against President Trump and his administration. If Democrats take back Congress, Americans can expect obstruction, impeachments, and government shutdowns instead of the safer streets and lower prices they voted for last year.”

Why It Matters

Even if Democrats win the House majority in the upcoming midterm elections and vote to impeach Trump, it is unlikely he would face removal in the Senate. Removal requires a two-thirds majority vote.

Trump was impeached twice during his first term, once in 2019 and again in 2021. The Senate voted to acquit Trump both times, allowing him to remain in office.

What To Know

Earlier this month, 140 Democrats in the House of Representatives voted against tabling a motion to impeach Trump.

The effort failed to receive the majority needed to move forward, with 214 House Republicans voting to table the measure. Six Republicans did not vote. Additionally, 23 Democrats voted to table the resolution and 47 Democrats voted "present."

Representative Al Green, a Texas Democrat, filed the articles of impeachment. The resolution listed two articles. The first accused Trump of abusing presidential power in a Truth Social post accusing several Democratic lawmakers of "SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH." The White House said Trump was not seeking their executions.

The second article accused Trump of threatening judicial independence by attacking federal judges online.

While the majority of House Democrats voted against tabling the resolution, top House Democrats voted "present."

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Democratic Whip Katherine Clark and Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar said in a joint statement before the vote, "Impeachment is a sacred constitutional vehicle designed to hold a corrupt executive accountable for abuse of power, breaking the law and violating the public trust. The effort traditionally requires a comprehensive investigative process, the collection and review of thousands of documents, an exacting scrutiny of the facts, the examination of dozens of key witnesses, Congressional hearings, sustained public organizing and the marshaling of the forces of democracy to build a broad national consensus. None of that serious work has been done, with the Republican majority focused solely on rubber stamping Donald Trump’s extreme agenda."

Quote:The United States has stopped a vessel off the coast of Venezuela, Reuters and the Associated Press reported on Saturday citing U.S. officials.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed the actions in an X post, writing on Saturday, "In a pre-dawn action early this morning on Dec. 20, the US Coast Guard with the support of the Department of War apprehended an oil tanker that was last docked in Venezuela."

The Pentagon referred Newsweek to the White House on the matter when contacted for comment. Newsweek has reached out to the White House and U.S. Coast Guard for comment via email on Saturday.

Why It Matters

President Donald Trump has ordered a large-scale U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean and South American waters, including the deployment of an aircraft carrier, fighter jets and tens of thousands of troops, as part of what his administration has framed as expanded counter-narcotics and sanctions enforcement.

Reuters first reported the incident, writing that U.S. forces were intercepting and seizing the vessel, which would make it the second vessel seized by the U.S. in recent weeks. On Tuesday, Trump ordered a blockade on Venezuela's oil tankers, as he alleged that the South American country uses oil revenues to fund drug trafficking and crime.

Caracas has called the U.S. seizure of an oil tanker earlier this month an “act of international piracy,” adding that the move was part of a long-running strategy to take control of its natural resources.

What To Know

Reuters first reported that a vessel off Venezuela's coast was being seized by the U.S. The outlet noted the Coast Guard was the leading agency on the matter. The AP reported that the tanker stopped voluntarily and allowed U.S. forces to come on board, citing a U.S. official who described it as "consented boarding."

Since Trump’s Tuesday announcement ordering a “total and complete blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers going into, and out of, Venezuela,” many loaded vessels have stayed in Venezuela waters instead of risking potential seizure.

Venezuela has the largest known oil reserves in the world. Its crude oil exports have dropped off following Trump’s announcement. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has said Trump is trying to seize the country’s oil and force him from office.

In a statement obtained by the AP, Venezuela's government said in a Saturday statement: "The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela categorically denounces and rejects the theft and hijacking of another private vessel transporting Venezuelan oil, as well as the enforced disappearance of its crew, perpetrated by United States military personnel in international waters."

Quote:The US Coast Guard is pursuing an oil tanker in international waters near Venezuela, officials told Reuters on Sunday, in what would be the second such operation this weekend and the third in less than a week.

One of the officials said the tanker was under sanctions. The officials, who were speaking on the condition of anonymity, did not give a specific location for the operation.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday.

President Trump last week announced a “blockade” of all oil tankers under sanctions entering and leaving Venezuela.

Trump’s pressure campaign on Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro has included a ramped-up military presence in the region and more than two dozen military strikes on vessels in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea near the South American nation. At least 100 people have been killed in the attacks.

The White House’s National Economic Council Director, Kevin Hassett, said on Sunday that the first two oil tankers seized were operating on the black market and providing oil to sanctioned countries.

“And so I don’t think that people need to be worried here in the US that the prices are going to go up because of these seizures of these ships,” Hassett said. “There’s just a couple of them, and they were black market ships.”

But one oil trader told Reuters that the seizures raise geopolitical risks and probably will push oil prices higher when Asian trading resumes on Monday. On the other hand, expectations of an end to the war in Ukraine could help keep oil’s price gains in check, the trader said.

Quote:Cuban agents are protecting Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro as tensions flare with the US — as American forces seized a third oil tanker in the Caribbean on Sunday.

The counterintelligence forces from Cuba have been making sure the embattled Maduro is surrounded by security around the clock and no one around him carries phones or other electronic devices, according to reporting by the Wall Street Journal.

“They are taking very good care of Nicolás Maduro and his immediate successors,” said Thomas A. Shannon Jr., a former high-ranking US diplomat who spoke to the Journal. “The Cubans are not going to go quietly into the dark night.”
The seizing of oil vessels could create a crisis-level shortage in Cuba, which gets a majority of its oil from longtime longtime community ally Venezuela.

Cuban agents have long been a presence in the country but recently ramped up protection of Maduro as President Donald Trump has criticized the country’s government, built up US military presence in the ocean near the South American country and announced a “blockade.”
Earlier this month, American forces seized a ship carrying over 1 million barrels of oil to Cuba, and on Saturday a Bella 1 tanker flying a Panamanian flag was seized as it headed to Venezuela to load up, according to Bloomberg.

Without oil imports, experts warn the Cuban energy grid is on the brink, with frequent power outages plaguing the island.

In response to mounting tensions between Caracas and Washington, Maduro has sought to keep appearances up, posting consistently on Tiktok. On Saturday, he posted a video of himself singing “No War, Yes Peace” – a hit remix of his voice – to some parrots at a zoo.
@nicolasmadurom
Se pierde de vista la hermosura de Venezuela. Estamos en el país más bello y bendecido. ¡Venezuela es Tierra de Dios!

A Quick Translation of Maduro's Words:
You lose sight of the beauty of Venezuela. We live in the most beatiful and blessed country. Venezuela is God's Land!

Quote:WASHINGTON — President Trump on Monday warned Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro against taking military action against the United States, telling reporters from Florida that “if he plays tough, it’ll be the last time he’s ever able to play tough.”

The remark came after Trump was asked why Maduro should take “seriously” Washington’s pressure campaign to force him to leave office after stealing the past two presidential elections in that country and running a narcoterrorist state.

“He could do whatever he wants. We have a massive Armada formed; the biggest we’ve ever had, and by far the biggest we’ve ever had in South America,” Trump said. “He could do whatever he wants. It’s alright, whatever he wants to do.”

It came hours after US Southern Command showed off the efforts of roughly 2,200 Marines training in the Caribbean this month in a series of eye-popping photos on Monday as the Trump administration ramps up pressure on Maduro.

Part of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Force, the troops were pictured firing mortar systems in live-fire drills during “reconnaissance, selection and occupation of position” maneuvers recently and training on first-person view attack drones in Puerto Rico, as well as conducting flight operations aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima in the Caribbean Sea.

The photos — taken between Nov. 20 and Dec. 16 — tell a story of a combat-ready force as the US builds pressure on Maduro’s authoritarian, narcoterrorist regime, the Atlantic Council’s Alex Plitsas told The Post on Monday.

“It’s meant to demonstrate capability and capacity, and in some cases, it can also be signaling to adversaries,” he said.

Still, the former senior US intelligence officer and Iraq war veteran said the 2,200-strong force is not nearly large enough to conduct a ground invasion into Venezuela to overthrow Maduro by force and keep the country stable in its aftermath.

“It’s more pressure to try to get him to step down … but it appears that the administration is still trying to [get Maduro to] step down voluntarily without having to take military action,” Plitsas said, noting that it would take an estimated 100,000 troops to invade Venezuela.

But that doesn’t rule out the possibility of airstrikes on land targets, which President Trump has floated multiple times as a possibility, he added.

Asked whether he believes the US’ pressure campaign on Venezuela would be enough to “force Maduro from power,” Trump said “probably.”

“I can’t tell — that’s up to him, what he wants to do,” Trump said. “I think it would be smart for him to do that. But again, we’re going to find out.”

Also on Monday, the Associated Press reported that the Russian government — which signed a security agreement with Venezuela this year and has been accused of shipping military equipment to the US adversary — has begun evacuating the families of its diplomats in the South American country.

The report, which cited unnamed European officials, said that Russian Foreign Ministry officials assess the situation in Venezuela “in very grim tones.”

Quote:Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov warned that NATO and his nation had moved dangerously close to direct conflict in 2025, warning of the "catastrophic consequences" of nuclear-powered nations going to war.

The ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin pointed to actions viewed as aggressive from the United States and its allies.

"This was actively supported by some of the most hawkish European NATO members, notably Britain and France, whose actions were particularly aggressive," Ryabkov warned, Russia's Tass news agency reported on Monday.

Why It Matters

Russian officials have issued several warnings in recent weeks over global conflicts and diplomatic decisions, as tensions around whether a wider conflict between Russia and Europe, or other nations, could erupt have continued. Last week, as the Trump administration made bolder moves in the Caribbean, Russia said it would be a fatal mistake for the U.S. to escalate its actions against longtime ally Venezuela.

What To Know

Pointing to concerns about direct military confrontation between nuclear-powered nations, Ryabkov said: "It’s redundant to emphasize, especially for this audience, that such a conflict would have catastrophic consequences."

The comments came as part of a discussion at the Valdai Discussion Club, where the official spoke of moves by former U.S. President Joe Biden at the end of 2024, seeking a "strategic defeat" of Russia, that he said were highly provocative.

For much of 2025, Russia has been involved in negotiations with the Trump administration and Ukraine, all seeking an end to the war between the two nations that began with Russia's invasion on February 24, 2022. While some progress has been made, attacks have continued from both sides, while the U.S. and other NATO nations have cautioned of the potential for the fighting to spread and escalate, with the threat of nuclear weapons.

On Monday, Ukrainian forces hit an oil terminal, a pipeline, two parked fighter jets and two ships as part of a series of strikes on Russian soil, as they struggle to hold back Russia's army on home territory. A top Russian general was killed in a car bomb in Moscow, with investigators suspecting that Ukraine was behind the attack.

NATO nations have largely thrown their support behind Ukraine, rather than Russia, and that has added to the already-strained ties between Moscow and the likes of France, Germany and the U.K.

Quote:Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said negotiations toward a potential peace agreement with Russia have produced a “solid” 20-point framework that includes proposed security guarantees involving the United States and European allies.

Speaking as Ukraine’s negotiating team returned from talks in Miami, Zelensky said in a post on X that the core elements of the plan and related documents are largely complete, though key issues remain unresolved. He described the drafts as dignified and close to a real outcome while acknowledging that some provisions are unacceptable to both Kyiv and Moscow.

U.S. officials, he said, are continuing discussions with Russian representatives and are expected to relay feedback to Ukraine.

Why It Matters

The potential for a comprehensive ceasefire in the war between Russia and Ukraine that began with the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022, has drawn international attention, given the devastating human and economic costs of the conflict and its impact on regional security.

The U.S.-steered negotiations reflect Washington's commitment to forging a settlement, and the proposed 20-point plan, with substantial security guarantees, could shape the future security architecture of Eastern Europe.

A breakthrough, if achieved, may influence global energy markets, international law and future NATO-EU security arrangements.

What To Know

Zelensky said Monday that initial U.S. proposals "meet many of Kyiv's demands," with nearly 90 percent of Ukraine's requests incorporated into the draft agreements. The core of the latest peace effort is a 20-point plan, which serves as the foundation of ongoing discussions between Ukraine, Russia, the United States, and European allies.

According to Zelensky, recent negotiations held in Florida have produced framework documents on both multilateral and bilateral security guarantees for Ukraine, with major provisions still under debate.

The plan reportedly includes stipulations that the Ukrainian army remains at a peacetime size of 800,000, as well as steps toward European Union membership for Ukraine.

Security in the air, on land, and at sea would be guaranteed by European forces under the leadership of France and the U.K., with a "backstop" from the United States.

European countries would also contribute to Ukraine’s energy, financial, and civil infrastructure security. Zelensky said that the bilateral security document with the U.S. should undergo review by Congress, with classified annexes shielding sensitive details.

While diplomatic talks continue, military activity has not abated. Ukrainian armed forces have claimed to strike multiple targets deep inside Russian territory and in Russian-occupied areas, aiming to disrupt the war effort and contest Russian claims of strength at the negotiation table.

Russian forces, meanwhile, have kept up their attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. Both sides reported escalating drone strikes and missile exchanges overnight, with civilian infrastructure again in the crosshairs.

According to Ukrainian officials, a central point of the peace framework is the involvement of the U.S. and Europe in future security guarantees for Ukraine. Zelensky insisted on congressional review for any binding document, while suggesting some annexes remain classified due to sensitive information or national security concerns.

Quote:A Russian general was killed in Moscow Monday by a bomb planted on his car  — and local authorities say they think Ukrainian intelligence could be responsible.

The blast happened early Monday morning on Yaseneva Street in a middle-class neighborhood. Images from the scene showed officers and investigators establishing a perimeter around several damaged cars.

Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, 56, who heads the Operational Training Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces’ General Staff, died of his wounds, authorities said.
He’s the third senior military leader killed in a bombing attack inside Russia this year.

“Investigators are pursuing numerous lines of inquiry regarding the murder. One of these is that the crime was orchestrated by Ukrainian intelligence services,” said Svetlana Petrenko, a spokesperson for Russia’s Investigative Committee.

Savarov was a veteran of the war in Chechnya and took part in Moscow’s military campaign in Syria, Russia’s defense ministry said.

Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the bombing, and Russian President Vladimir Putin was informed about Sarvarov’s death, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

Kyiv did, however, take responsibility for a similar bombing last December in which Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, head of Russia’s nuclear, biological and chemical protection force was killed by a bomb planted in a scooter a day after Kyiv leveled criminal charges against him.

Putin called Kirillov’s killing a “severe blunder,” and said Russian special services must redouble their efforts to prevent similar attacks moving forward.

In April, Russian military officer Lt. Gen. Yaroslav Moskalik also died in a car bombing in Moscow, after which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he had been briefed about the successful “liquidation” of Russian military leaders, but did not directly mention Moskalik.

The latest bombing targeting the upper echelons of Russia’s military comes amid tenuous peace talks between Russia, Ukraine and the US, with Russian officials saying the negotiations were advancing “constructively” despite recent missile attacks in the Ukrainian port city of Odesa.

Quote:Vice President JD Vance glumly assessed that the Trump administration’s efforts to peacefully resolve the bloody war in Ukraine could go either way.

“We’re going to keep on trying to negotiate. And I think that we’ve made progress, but sitting here today, I wouldn’t say with confidence that we’re going to get to a peaceful resolution,” the veep bluntly assessed in an Unheard interview.

“I think there’s a good chance we will, I think there’s a good chance we won’t.”

Vance’s candid assessment is one of the more gloomy ones he’s given about the chances of ending the war over recent months.

It comes after Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters last Friday that there is a “ways to go” on getting a final deal across the finish line.

Late last week and over the weekend, special envoy Steve Witkoff met separately with Russian and Ukrainian negotiators in a bid to inch forward progress on a potential peace deal. Vance was briefed on those talks.

“The breakthrough that I do feel that we’ve made is that all of the issues are actually out in the open,” the VP told the outlet. “There’s [initially] a little bit of a game of obfuscation, of hiding behind fake issues, not actually revealing your hand.”

“The Russians really want territorial control of the Donetsk,” he continued.”The Ukrainians understandably see that as a major security problem, [even as] they privately acknowledge that eventually, they’ll probably lose Donetsk — but, eventually: it could be 12 months from now, it could be longer than that.”

By some estimates, the Russians control between 80% and 90% of Donetsk, but crucially lack possession of strategic cities such as Kramatorsk and Slovyansk.

The VP also noted that other issues, such as ethnic Russians and Ukrainians being in the other country, control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, and reconstruction, have also proven to be tough sticking points.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that his country’s constitution percludes him from surrendering land that hasn’t been conquered.

Zelensky has dangled the possibility of placing 15% of the Donbas — Donetsk and Luhansk — that Ukraine still controls into a neutral free economic zone. Russia has rejected that.

Quote:WASHINGTON — Iran launched a fresh round of ballistic missile tests Monday — six months after its 12-day war with Israel — leading officials from the Jewish state to warn the Trump administration that Tehran may be rehearsing another attack.

Missile launches were seen in the cities of Tehran, Isfahan, Mashhad, Khorramabad and Mahabad, according to Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency. State-affiliated broadcaster Nournews also broadcast videos that appeared to show projectiles being fired.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his government was “aware that Iran is conducting military exercises. We are monitoring this and making the necessary preparations.

“I want to make it clear to Iran,” Netanyahu added in a statement, “any action against Israel will be met with a very harsh response.”

Tehran launched more than 500 ballistic missiles at Israel during the June 13-June 24 war, killing 28 Israelis.

That conflict, which began with Israel’s “Operation Rising Lion” bombing campaign on Iranian nuclear and military sites, ended after President Trump ordered US strikes on three major nuclear facilities June 22 and followed that by pressing both combatants to agree to a cease-fire.

Half a year later, Iran is rejecting any notion that the theocratic regime would disarm — with Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei telling reporters Monday that the continuance of the country’s missile program is non-negotiable.

“Iran’s defensive capabilities are by no means an issue that can be discussed,” he said.

Over the weekend, Israeli officials warned the US that the missile tests could provide cover for a new barrage targeting Tel Aviv, Axios reported Sunday.

“The chances for an Iranian attack are less than 50%, but nobody is willing to take the risk and just say it is only an exercise,” an Israeli source told the outlet.

Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Iran program, said Monday that while missile tests are “nothing new in Iran,” the “strategic context” is cause for concern.

“The Islamic Republic’s high level of interest in missiles was underscored by the war in June, as they were the only element of its security architecture that proved effective,” Ben Taleblu said in a statement. “That’s why the regime continues to invest in these systems.”

Monday’s tests “highlight the need for the US and Israel to rapidly replenish their stocks of defensive missile interceptors,” added FDD senior director of government relations Tyler Stapleton.

Quote:A former Hamas hostage told Fox News Digital that he warned Australian leaders to take antisemitism more seriously months before the deadly shooting at Bondi Beach.

Eli Sharabi, who spent 491 days as a hostage in Gaza, said the attack on Bondi Beach was “crazy,” but far from unpredictable.

Sharabi told Fox News Digital that while in Australia in June, he met with Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles and Foreign Minister Penny Wong and warned them that rising antisemitism would lead to something worse.

Sharabi recalled telling the officials that a hate crime would take place in Australia and that he would “see the fears” of Jewish people walking on the streets.

He urged them to speak out against antisemitism before it was too late.

He recounted to Fox News Digital the moment he told Marles and Wong, “When it happens, a hate crime here, it will be your responsibility because you have to have a stronger voice against antisemitism.”

Though, Sharabi said he did not know why he told them that at the time.

“Unfortunately, it happened. And that’s crazy, it’s crazy. Really, I’m so sorry for that,” he said.

A spokesperson for Wong said that she “deeply appreciated her meeting with Eli Sharabi and thanks him for sharing his insights and experiences.”

“Minister Wong has consistently condemned antisemitism and antisemitic attacks,” the spokesperson said.

“In response to the horrific antisemitic terror attack at Bondi, we are further strengthening laws against those who spread antisemitism and online abuse, ensuring our education system properly responds to antisemitism, and lowering the threshold to cancel visas for those who come to Australia to spread antisemitism.”

The spokesperson also conveyed Wong’s sympathies to the loved ones of the Bondi Beach shooting victims.

Quote:Richmond, California’s socialist Mayor Eduardo Martinez sported a red hat emblazoned with “Death Death to the IDF” and spewed antisemitic rhetoric at a pro-Palestinian conference earlier this year — that also gave a microphone to a well-known terrorist.

Martinez, who came under fire this week for sharing conspiracy theories about the Bondi Beach terror attack, has a disturbing, documented history of hate.
The proud member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) opened the Detroit conference in August and drew tremendous applause when he explicitly justified Hamas’s bloodthirsty attacks on Israel that killed over 1,200 people on Oct. 7, 2023.

The mayor proclaimed, “If Palestine were a schoolyard playground, I would be a Palestinian. And that part of me, that part of me that couldn’t endure the abuse anymore, would be Hamas,” according to The Jewish News of Northern California.

“After so much torture, I couldn’t help but lash out. I was filled with frustration, and it came out with the ferocity of retaliation,” he added.

Meanwhile, social media posts from the event show Martinez in a hat with the initials “DD TT IDF” — an acronym for “Death Death to the IDF” — and a big smile on his face.

Convicted terrorist Hossam Shaheen, a member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades who served more than 20 years in an Israeli prison for attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder in relation to a failed terror plot, also spoke at the conference, the Jerusalem Post reported.

Shaheen was freed as part of a temporary Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement in early 2025.

Martinez has also posted other eyebrow-raising content on social media.

The Bay Area mayor announced his Richmond Mayor’s Office would be closed “in solidarity with this week’s global strike for Palestine” in January 2024. Over 4,400 people praised the post.

His office also raised a Palestinian flag over the California State flag in what he said was “in commemoration of our new sister city partnership with Sabastia, Palestine.”

A picture posted on Instagram shows the flag flying above the California State flag, again to high praise, with over 12,000 likes.

Quote:President Trump touted his second term accomplishment Wednesday in a Christmas Eve message, wishing all Americans – including “the Radical Left Scum,” a Merry Christmas.

“Merry Christmas to all, including the Radical Left Scum that is doing everything possible to destroy our Country, but are failing badly,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“We no longer have Open Borders, Men in Women’s Sports, Transgender for Everyone, or Weak Law Enforcement,” the president continued. “What we do have is a Record Stock Market and 401K’s, Lowest Crime numbers in decades, No Inflation, and yesterday, a 4.3 GDP, two points better than expected.

“Tariffs have given us Trillions of Dollars in Growth and Prosperity, and the strongest National Security we have ever had.”

Trump argued that under his leadership the United States is “respected again, perhaps like never before.”

“God Bless America!!!” he added.

Quote:President Trump took to Truth Social Wednesday to wish Americans a "MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!"

Trump will be spending the holiday at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

Last week, Trump took executive action to ensure federal workers get Christmas Eve and the day after Christmas off from work.

Trump had previously given federal workers the day off on Christmas Eve, but his action Thursday goes a step further and adds Dec. 26 to the list for the 2025 calendar year.

Previous presidents have given full or half days on Christmas Eve. Trump did so in 2019 and 2020. But adding Dec. 26 off as well is unique for this year.

Quote:Federal agents were attempting to get in touch with 10 alleged Jeffrey Epstein “co-conspirators” a day after he was arrested on sex-trafficking charges in 2019, according to an email in the latest batch of case documents released by the Justice Department.

The highly-redacted July 7, 2019 email references contact or attempts to make contact with several of them in New York and Boston, but only mentions three by name: Ghislaine Maxwell, Jean-Luc Brunel and Leslie Wexner.

The only known Epstein co-conspirator mentioned in the email is Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence on sex trafficking charges.

Brunel, a French modeling agent who allegedly scouted girls for Epstein, was found dead in his prison cell in Paris in 2022.

Wexner, the billionaire retail titan behind such brands as Victoria’s Secret, The Limited and Abercrombie & Fitch, had his money managed by Epstein until he cut ties with the disgraced financier in 2007 after he was indicted in Florida on sex trafficking charges.

Wexner’s lawyer told the New York Times that the 88 year old is not the target of a federal investigation or considered a co-conspirator, claiming he only gave federal prosecutors background information on Epstein and was never contacted again.

In response to an inquiry by The Post, Victoria’s Secret said Wexner “has no current business connections” to the brand.

The email blacks out who sent the message, but the reply included in the document has the words “FBI New York” in the signature line.

Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer, who is among those accusing the Justice Department of slow-rolling the document dump, called upon the DOJ to unveil more details about the alleged Epstein co-conspirators.

Quote:Convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s fake passport, one of the most intriguing pieces of evidence in the federal sex-trafficking case against the late financier, is included in the latest trove of records released by the Trump Justice Department early Tuesday.

The green passport, purporting to be issued by Austria, gives a date of issue as May 21, 1982, and states that it is good for the next five years.

The passport photo is a younger version of Epstein, but the bearer’s name is given as Marius Fortelni, a real estate developer who records show lived in New York before moving to Palm Beach, Fla. Attempts to reach a number linked to Fortelni’s business in Florida were not immediately successful.

Most intriguingly, the passport lists Epstein/Fortelni’s residence as Dammam, Saudi Arabia.

The travel document was included in a list of evidence recovered by the feds from Epstein’s Upper East Side townhouse following his arrest in July 2019.

Attorneys for Epstein claimed that he never used the passport and it was only “for personal protection in the event of travel to dangerous areas, only to be presented to potential kidnappers, hijackers, or terrorists should violent episodes occur.”

Prosecutors rejected that claim, and photos included in the document release show stamps granting the bearer entry to France, Spain, and the United Kingdom on multiple occasions in 1982 and 1983.

Yet another stamp, from the Saudi Consulate in Vienna, appears to grant the bearer entry for two months.

The existence of the passport has led to speculation that Epstein was employed by one or more intelligence agencies; however, there is no evidence that this was the case.

Quote:The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) has ruled against President Donald Trump’s plans to federalize and send 300 Illinois National Guardsmen to the sanctuary city of Chicago to help protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from violent rioters.

In October, Trump had sought to deploy the National Guard to assist ICE agents, but a federal judge, appointed by former President Joe Biden, blocked the effort with a temporary restraining order.

When the Trump administration asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit to stay the judge’s order, the panel of judges denied the administration’s plea.

That is when the Trump administration asked SCOTUS to stay the federal judge’s order so National Guardsmen could be deployed to Chicago.

On Tuesday, SCOTUS ruled in a 6-3 decision that the Trump administration “has failed to identify a source of authority that would allow the military to execute the laws in Illinois,” and therefore the administration’s application for a stay was denied:

At this preliminary stage, the Government has failed to identify a source of authority that would allow the military to execute the laws in Illinois. The President has not invoked a statute that provides an exception to the Posse Comitatus Act. Instead, he relies on inherent constitutional authority that, according to the Government, allows him to use the military to protect federal personnel and property. But the Government also claims—consistent with the longstanding view of the Executive Branch—that performing such protective functions does not constitute “execut[ing] the laws” within the meaning of the Posse Comitatus Act. If that is correct, it is hard to see how performing those functions could constitute “execut[ing] the laws” under §12406(3). (“This Court does not lightly assume that Congress silently attaches different meanings to the same term in the same or related statutes”). Thus, at least in this posture, the Government has not carried its burden to show that §12406(3) permits the President to federalize the Guard in the exercise of inherent authority to protect federal personnel and property in Illinois. We need not and do not address the reviewability of findings made by the President under §12406(3) or any other statute. The application for stay is denied. [Emphasis added]

Justices John Roberts, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Amy Coney Barrett, and Ketanji Brown Jackson seemingly backed the unsigned order while Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote a concurring opinion.

Justices Samuel Alito wrote a dissenting opinion, which Justice Clarence Thomas joined. Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote a dissenting opinion as well.

“Whatever one may think about the current administration’s enforcement of the immigration laws or the way ICE has conducted its operations, the protection of federal officers from potentially lethal attacks should not be thwarted,” Alito wrote in his dissenting opinion. “I therefore respectfully dissent.”

As Breitbart News has chronicled for months, violent rioters have descended on an ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois, where agents have not only been attacked, but rioters have chanted “Kill ICE!” and “Shoot ICE!”

The case is Trump v. Illinois, No. 25A443 in the Supreme Court of the United States.

Quote:South Carolina Republicans won all three special elections in the state’s legislature on Tuesday, with the party saying the results “send a clear message.”

Incumbent Reps. John Lastinger, Dianne Mitchell, and Sen. Lee Bright all handily won their races, with 8,729 ballots cast.

Mitchell and Bright garnered over 70 and 67 percent respectively, with no one else on either ballot. The remainder of the votes went to various write-in candidates. 

Lastinger, a pastor, beat Democrat retired Army Col. Joseph “Chuck” Hightower 62-37, with less than one percent going to write-in candidates.

Voter turnout was low, with just about seven percent of registered voters in State House Districts 21 and 88 and State Senate District 12 casting a ballot.

“Republicans won all three special elections and that success belongs to the voters who showed up,” the South Carolina Republican Party wrote on X:

“While Democrats hoped low turnout would hand them a win, Republicans proved them wrong at the ballot box. We didn’t sit this one out. We showed up, voted, and protected conservative leadership across South Carolina,” the SCGOP continued. “Thank you to every voter who took time away from family gatherings, travel, and holiday plans to make your voice heard. That commitment is why we win.”

“Tonight’s results send a clear message: South Carolina Republicans show up when it matters and we’re heading into 2026 organized, energized, and stronger than ever.”

Quote:President Donald Trump’s newly appointed envoy to Greenland said Tuesday that the administration wants to open a dialogue with residents of the semi-autonomous Danish territory about its future, seeking to ease concerns stirred by Trump’s past statements about U.S. control of the strategically important Arctic island.

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, named to the envoy role earlier this week, made his first extended public remarks in an interview on Fox News. He said the administration is not seeking to seize Greenland or undermine its sovereignty, despite Trump’s repeated assertions that the United States needs to take control of the island for national security reasons.

“We’re not going in there trying to conquer anybody or take over anybody’s country,” Landry said on Fox News' Will Cain Show. Instead, he said the focus should be on engaging directly with Greenland’s residents. “What are they looking for? What opportunities have they not gotten? Why haven’t they gotten the protection that they actually deserve?”

Why It Matters

The announcement of Landry’s appointment has renewed unease in Denmark and across Europe, where officials have warned that Trump’s language threatens long-standing norms governing national sovereignty.

What To Know

Landry’s comments appeared to contrast with Trump’s own rhetoric. The president has repeatedly argued that U.S. jurisdiction over Greenland is necessary to counter growing Russian and Chinese influence in the Arctic and has declined to rule out the use of military force to secure control of the mineral-rich territory.

Trump announced he had appointed Landry, a Republican, in a Truth Social post late on Sunday. The president said Landry "understands how essential Greenland is to our National Security, and will strongly advance our Country’s Interests for the Safety, Security, and Survival of our Allies, and indeed, the World."

In his own public message on X directed at the president, Landry called it “an honor” to serve in what he described as a “volunteer position to make Greenland a part of the U.S.” He did not elaborate on what this might entail, but added that the role “in no way affects” his duties as governor.

Denmark’s foreign minister said Tuesday he would summon the U.S. ambassador for talks, underscoring the seriousness with which Copenhagen views the issue. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland’s premier, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, issued a joint statement reiterating that Greenland is not for sale.

Trump revived the Greenland issue during his presidential transition and in the early months of his second term. In March, Vice President JD Vance visited a remote U.S. military base on the island and accused Denmark of failing to adequately invest in Greenland’s defense and infrastructure.

Although the controversy faded from public view in recent months, it resurfaced in August after Danish officials summoned the top U.S. diplomat in Copenhagen following reports that individuals linked to Trump had conducted covert influence efforts in Greenland.

According to a Danish government official, the Trump administration provided no advance notice of Landry’s appointment. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. A congressional aide said lawmakers also have not received formal details about the role or its scope.

Trump’s renewed focus on Greenland comes as his administration faces multiple foreign policy challenges, including efforts to preserve a fragile truce in Gaza and negotiations aimed at ending Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Quote:The State Department is barring five “egregious” European figures in the “global censorship-industrial complex” from entering the US, it revealed Tuesday.

State Department officials contended that those five Europeans flouted a visa policy rolled out in May restricting those who work to censor protected speech in the US from entering the country.

“For far too long, ideologues in Europe have led organized efforts to coerce American platforms to punish American viewpoints they oppose,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared Tuesday.

“The Trump Administration will no longer tolerate these egregious acts of extraterritorial censorship. Today, [the State Department] will take steps to bar leading figures of the global censorship-industrial complex from entering the United States.”

“We stand ready and willing to expand this list if others do not reverse course.”

The five Europeans blocked from entering the US are: former EU Commissioner Thierry Breton; Imran Ahmed, chief executive of the Centre for Countering Digital Hate; Clare Melford, who is in charge of the Global Disinformation Index; and Josephine Ballon and Anna-Lena von Hodenberg, leaders at the Germany-based HateAid.

Sarah Rogers, the undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, revealed the five Europeans being blocked on Tuesday.

“Our message is clear: if you spend your career fomenting censorship of American speech, you’re unwelcome on American soil,” she posted on X.

“Our targets are foreign, but you’ll notice that some collaborated with U.S. bureaucrats on Murthy-style speech suppression. Don’t worry: we’re pursuing transparency, truth, and reconciliation at the [State Department] too.”

“Murthy-style speech suppression” refers to the 2024 US Supreme Court case Murthy v. Missouri, in which the court addressed back-channel efforts by governments to limit free speech online.

Quote:President Donald Trump’s administration is forcing down the huge crime waves overseen by Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, according to a crime report posted by Axios.com.

“U.S. murders on pace for largest one-year drop on record,” says Axios.com’s coverage of the data collected by the Real Time Crime Index site, which compiles data from 570 law enforcement agencies.

The site shows almost 7,300 murders during the 12 months up to October 2025, compared to 8,852 in the 12 months before the May 2020 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minn.

The murder rate spiked to 12,000 in the subsequent 12 months of Democratic cheerleading for a “racial reckoning” and “Black Lives Matter.”

Trump’s lower 2025 murder rate is below the 8,192 seen in the 12 months before April 2019.

That record is saving the lives of thousands of Americans compared to Biden and Obama, who helped trigger a crime wave just before the 2014 mid-term election by endorsing claims that police officers were shooting many African-Americans.

Trump’s emphasis on law and order — plus his nationwide crackdown on illegal migration — has also forced down auto theft by almost one-quarter, murder by 20 percent, robbery by 18 percent, burglary by 15 percent, and violent crime by 10 percent.

The crackdown is helping push murder numbers back to the levels before the 1960s crime explosion.

Since January, Trump’s deputies have deported roughly 600,000 migrants, including many with long criminal records.

His team has also helped persuade many other migrants to quietly go home.

Quote:A Delaware state trooper who was shot to death at a DMV office was described Thursday as dependable and professional on the job and steady and kind at home.

Cpl. Matthew “Ty” Snook, 34, of Hockessin, Delaware, was working an overtime assignment at a DMV office near Wilmington on Tuesday when he was shot by a 44-year-old gunman, state police said. Authorities said Snook pushed a nearby employee to safety before he was shot again.

He died later at a hospital, as did the gunman, who was shot by another officer.

Snook, who is survived by his wife and their 1-year-old daughter, was a Delaware native. He graduated from the University of Maryland, where he was a member of the wrestling team, and had been a trooper for 10 years.

“He was known as a dependable, professional, and committed trooper,” state police said in a press release that also described him as a trusted partner and beloved community member and extended condolences to Snook’s family.

“We are forever grateful to them for sharing “Ty” with us and for the sacrifices they made in support of his service to the citizens of Delaware,” the agency said.

An official fund established to support the family describes the officer as a “loving husband, a devoted father, and a deeply cherished friend.”

“Those who knew him remember his steady presence, his kindness, and his unwavering commitment to the people he loved,” the fundraiser’s organizer wrote.

“Family meant everything to Ty, and he worked every day to provide, protect, and be present for those closest to him.”

Authorities have not yet publicly identified the gunman or disclosed a possible motive for the shooting.

Quote:LOS ANGELES — Nepo-baby junkie Nick Reiner checked into a trendy beach hotel with an indoor fire pit and sweeping views of bougie Santa Monica allegedly after slitting the throats of parents Rob and Michele Reiner.

The privileged accused-killer son of the legendary Hollywood director was in enough of a frame of mind to find his way to the Pierside Hotel, just steps from the tony California town’s iconic pier, in the pre-dawn hours of Dec. 14 — sometime after law-enforcement sources say he is believed to have killed his parents in their Los Angeles mansion roughly 5 miles away.

Nick, 32, would have strolled past the hotel lobby’s quaint Christmas tree, upscale restaurant and cozy fire-pit sitting area featuring wicker chairs to get to the check-in desk to rent a $300-a-night room at the primely located lodging between the pier and a light-rail station — which has a line leading directly to the location where he was arrested later that night.

He couldn’t have picked a more public place to hunker down for awhile — although at that time of morning and in the typically teeming area, he wouldn’t have registered on anyone’s radar.

But he was jittery, appearing “tweaked out,” when he arrived, witnesses told TMZ — and thus likely oblivious to the hotel’s features, including its lobby with floor-to-ceiling windows offering a semi-panoramic view of the local area.

The accused murderer’s second-floor room would have also afforded him his own private stunning view of the ritzy seaside enclave — although at some point, he hanged bed sheets over all the windows, blocking the sight, authorities have said.

Law enforcement later blocked off a section of the hallway where Nick’s room was located as the investigation continues, a staff member told The Post.

After Nick left the hotel sometime that day, never formally checking out, cleaners found the shower and bed in his room covered in blood. But witnesses noted that Nick had no visible blood on him when he walked in, according to TMZ.

The deeply disturbed son is accused of killing his icon father, 78, and photographer mother, 70, sometime between an embarrassingly public blow-up the three had at Conan O’Brien’s holiday party Saturday night and when his sister Romy found their parents’ body at the family’s mansion in Brentwood on Sunday afternoon.

Law-enforcement sources have said they believe Nick killed Rob and Michelle between leaving the party and arriving at the hotel.

Quote:Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano erupted again on Wednesday for the 39th time in a year, continuing to be among one of the world’s most active volcanoes.

The eruption began on the anniversary of Episode 1 at around 8:10 p.m. HST, marking the one-year anniversary of a continuous on-off volcano eruption.

The U.S. Geological Survey’s webcams captured more than 1,400 feet of lava spewing into the air from the north and south vents of the volcano.

The USGS reported that the gas and ash plumes from the episode were so large that they were seen from space.

“You can see, very subtly, the low-level gas plume drifting to the southwest following low-level winds and spreading to the southern part of the island,” said the USGS.

“Higher-level ash plume is much more obvious and reaches 20,000 feet. High-level winds are carrying that material to the southeast.”

As of 2:13 a.m. HST, the volcano stopped erupting after a 6-hour episode.

According to the National Park Service, Kilauea is the youngest and most active volcano on the island of Hawai’i.

In the past, the volcano has only had a short period of repose, but it has covered almost 90% of its surface in lava flows within the last 1,000 years.

The last significant episode, the 38th eruption, took place earlier this month and lasted close to 12 hours.

Many of these episodes have lasted a day or less and are separated by pauses of several days.

Quote:WASHINGTON — Accused DC National Guard shooter Rahmanullah Lakanwal could face the death penalty after he was hit with federal first-degree murder charges on Tuesday.

Prosecutors also alleged that the Afghan refugee tried to buy even more guns before his attack on American troops on Nov. 26.

The criminal complaint, filed in DC US District Court, brought the gun-related, assault and murder counts against the 29-year-old father of five for the shooting of West Virginia National Guard soldiers Sarah Beckstrom, who later died, and Andrew Wolfe, who is still recovering from his wounds.

Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney for the District of Columbia, said the case is transferred from Superior Court to the District Court in an escalation of possible consequences for the alleged shooter.

The action “ensures that we can undertake the serious, deliberate, and weighty analysis required to determine if the death penalty is appropriate here,” Pirro said. “Sarah Beckstrom was just 20 years old when she was killed and her parents are now forced to endure the holiday season without their daughter. Andrew Wolfe, by the grace of God, survived but has a long road ahead in his recovery.”

The FBI revealed that Lakanwal purchased a stolen .357 Magnum Smith & Wesson revolver for the shooting about two weeks before he drove across the country from his home in Bellingham, Wash.

On Oct. 15, he also contacted an individual to “find” even more firearms for him — including an AR-15 rifle and a stockless, AK-47-style “Draco” pistol — but only ended up being able to get his hands on a revolver, the affidavit alleged.

It had previously been reported stolen from a home in Washington state.

Lakanwal claimed he needed a gun “for protection in his vehicle as a Lyft and Uber driver,” but the person he discussed getting the weapons from noted he remarked of the revolver: “only five rounds?”

On Nov. 15, he bought a box of .357 Magnum rounds from Big 5 Sporting Goods in Bellingham, according to CCTV footage and a purchase receipt.

Lakanwal is accused of shooting Wolfe, a 24-year-old Air Force staff sergeant who has since made a “miraculous” recovery at a nearby hospital, and Beckstrom, a 20-year-old Army specialist who died from the gunshot wound on Thanksgiving Day.

Quote:A powerful winter storm swept across California on Wednesday, with heavy rains and gusty winds bringing mudslides and debris flows that has led to some water rescues and evacuation orders.

Forecasters said Southern California could see its wettest Christmas in years and warned about flash flooding and mudslides.

Areas scorched by January’s wildfires were under evacuation warnings, and Los Angeles County officials said the previous day that they delivered about 380 evacuation orders to especially vulnerable homes.

San Bernardino County firefighters said they rescued people trapped in their cars when mud and debris rushed down a road leading into Wrightwood, a mountain resort town in the San Gabriel Mountains about 80 miles northeast of Los Angeles. It was not immediately clear how many were rescued.

Firefighters also went door to door to check on residents, and the area was under a shelter-in-place order, officials said. Lytle Creek, also in the San Gabriel Mountains, was under evacuation orders in the afternoon as rains continued to pummel the area.

Debris and mud were seen cascading down a road in Wrightwood in a video posted by county fire officials. Another video showed fast-moving water rushing through the front porch of several homes.

The storm stranded Dillan Brown with his wife and 14-month-old daughter at a rented cabin in Wrightwood with almost no food and only enough diapers for about another day. By the morning, roads leading off the mountain and to a grocery store were blocked by rocks and debris, Brown said.

“I came across (a road) where there was a car sucked away by the water and realized we were trapped here,” he said.

A resident learned of his situation and posted a call for help in a Facebook group, and in less than an hour, neighbors showed up with more than enough supplies to ride out the storm, including bread, vegetables, milk, diapers and wipes.

“I think we’re a little sad and upset that we’re not going to be home with our families,” Brown said, but the “kindness shown is definitely an overwhelming feeling.”

Janice Quick, president of the Wrightwood Chamber of Commerce and a resident of the mountain town for 45 years, said a wildfire in 2024 left much of the terrain without tree coverage and “all this rain is bringing down a lot of debris and a lot of mud from the mountain area.”

Quote:Apple chief Tim Cook bought shares worth about $3 million in Nike, a move that nearly doubled his personal stake in the sportswear maker and signaled confidence in the turnaround strategy laid out by CEO Elliott Hill.

Shares of the company closed 4.6% higher on Wednesday after a regulatory filing showed that Cook, who has been on Nike’s board since 2005, bought 50,000 shares at $58.97 each.

As of Dec. 22, he held about 105,000 shares, according to the filing released on Tuesday.

It was the largest open market stock purchase for a Nike director or executive and possibly the largest in more than a decade, said Jonathan Komp, analyst at Baird Equity Research.

“(We see) Cook’s move as a positive signal for the progress under CEO Elliott Hill and Nike’s “Win Now” actions,” Komp said.

The purchase comes days after Nike reported weaker quarterly margins and weak sales in China even as CEO Hill tries to revive demand through fresh marketing plans and innovation focused on running and sports, while phasing out lagging lifestyle brands.

He has also attempted to mend Nike’s ties with wholesalers such as Dicks Sporting Goods to increase visibility among shoppers amid stiff competition from newer brands.

“For Tim Cook to be an inside buyer is a modest positive,” said David Sowerby, portfolio manager at Ancora Advisors. The investment firm said it sold its stake in Nike over a year ago due to the “lingering effect of an ineffective CEO,” as well as excess inventory, weak innovation in key categories such as running and loss of market share to competitors.

However, the strategy has strained Nike’s margins, which have been declining for over a year, while its efforts to win back its premier position in discount-friendly China appears to be faltering.

Nike’s shares have slumped nearly 13% since it reported results on Dec. 18 and are on track for the fourth straight year of declines. They were trading at $60.19 on Wednesday.

Quote:Vice President JD Vance had two choice words for racist troll Nick Fuentes and others like MS NOW host Jen Psaki, who have made revolting comments about the second lady: “Eat s–t.”

“Let me be clear. Anyone who attacks my wife, whether their name is Jen Psaki or Nick Fuentes, can eat s–t,” Vance told UnHerd in an interview published Sunday.

“That’s my official policy as vice president of the United States.”

Fuentes, a 27-year-old, far-right white supremacist and Holocaust denier, called Vance a “race traitor” for marrying Usha Vance, the daughter of two Indian immigrants, and has used hateful terms to describe her.

“Who is this guy, really? Do we really expect that the guy who has an Indian wife and named their kid Vivek is going to support white identity?” Fuentes said after Vance was selected as President Trump’s running mate.

On the other side of the political spectrum, Psaki, who served as President Joe Biden’s press secretary, commented in October that Usha needed to be rescued from Vance.

“I always wonder what’s going on in the mind of [Vance’s] wife. Like, are you OK? Please blink four times. Come over here. We’ll save you,” Psaki said during an appearance on the “I’ve Had It” podcast.

During the same interview, Vance strongly came out against antisemitism and all racism, drawing a hard line over what’s unacceptable on the right.

Quote:Russia fired a barrage of missiles and drones at Ukraine in a large-scale attack Tuesday that left three people dead, including a 4-year-old child – just one day after President Volodymyr Zelensky warned against strikes over the Christmas period.

The onslaught, which saw more than 650 drones and three dozen missiles fired, struck homes and wiped out power in 13 Ukrainian regions – causing widespread power outages in already frigid temperatures, officials said.

Zelensky decried the latest attack on families preparing to celebrate Christmas, saying it was proof Russian dictator Vladimir Putin wasn’t serious about bringing an end to the nearly four-year-old war.

“A strike before Christmas, when people want to be with their families, at home, in safety. A strike, in fact, in the midst of negotiations that are being conducted to end this war. Putin cannot accept the fact that we must stop killing,” Zelensky wrote on X.

The Ukrainian leader added the strikes meant “the world is not putting enough pressure on Russia” and that “now is the time to respond.”

Ukrainian emergency services said the child who died was killed in Ukraine’s northwestern Zhytomyr region.

A separate drone attack killed a woman in the Kyiv region, while another civilian died in the western Khmelnytskyi region, according to officials.
At least five were reported wounded in the Kyiv strikes, the Ukrainian officials said.

Ukraine’s air force said its air defenses managed to stop 587 drones and 34 missiles.

The strike – the ninth large-scale Russian attack on Ukraine’s energy system this year alone — left scores of people without power early Tuesday, Ukraine’s energy ministry said.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s largest private energy supplier, DTEK, said the attack targeted thermal power stations in what it noted was the seventh major strike on its facilities since October.

Authorities in the western regions of Rivne, Ternopil and Lviv, as well as the northern Sumy region, also reported damage to energy infrastructure or power outages in the wake of the strikes.

Russia, for its part, admitted to attacking Ukrainian energy and military facilities and captured two villages along the front line.

Kyiv, which often disputes Russian reports of territorial gains, didn’t immediately comment.

Quote:“War on Christmas” will be reality this year for many Ukrainians, despite the Trump administration’s best efforts to end the nearly four-year conflict in time for the holy holiday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday warned that Russia may be plotting a massive strike on Kyiv for Christmas, as hopes for a holiday miracle cease-fire deal appear far-off with the latest deadly attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure knocking out power, leaving civilians shivering in the cold.

“We understand that precisely on these days they may – this is in their nature – carry out massive strikes on Christmas,” he said of the Russians in an X post. “And today we had a Staff meeting on this, and the number one issue was air defense: the protection of our cities, villages, and communities, especially on the 23rd, 24th, and 25th.”

US and international allies had earlier proposed a temporary Christmas cease-fire for a brief peace in honor of the holiday, but Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected the idea.

That prompted Zelensky to instruct Ukraine to be on guard.

“This needs to be paid attention to. The military must pay attention directly, ensure protection as much as they can,” he said in a post to X. “Everything is very difficult, because there is, unfortunately, a shortage of air defense systems.

“And people also need to pay attention – serious attention – during these days, because these ‘comrades’ may launch such strikes. There is nothing sacred for them,” he added.

His remarks proved true hours later, when Moscow launched more than 650 drones and three dozen missiles into Ukraine that night, killed at least three people — including a 4-year-old child — and wiping out power in 13 regions in frigid temperatures.

Russia celebrated the military assault, with the defense ministry touting the “massive strike by ground-based and airborne long-range precision weapons” on “Ukraine’s military-industrial sector and their energy facilities.”

“The goals of the strike were achieved. All the designated targets were hit,” the Russian defense ministry said in a statement.

Zelensky said the attack shows Moscow has little interest in stopping bloodshed. Instead, Russia has continued targeting critical infrastructure in what Ukrainian officials say is an effort to break civilian morale during the coldest months of the year.

Quote:Three people were killed by a bomb in Moscow on Wednesday after two police officers approached a man acting suspiciously near the site where a senior general was killed two days ago by a car bomb that Russia said was planted by Ukrainian intelligence.

A string of Russian military figures and high-profile supporters of the war in Ukraine have been assassinated during the nearly four-year-old conflict. Ukrainian military intelligence has said it was responsible for a number of the attacks.

Russia’s State Investigative Committee said that when two police officers approached a man who was acting strangely, they were killed by an explosive device, adding that a third person was also killed. It did not specify who the third person was.

It said it opened criminal cases under clauses dealing with the murder of law enforcement officers and the illegal trafficking of bombs.

“There was an explosion,” Alexander, a resident who lives nearby, told Reuters television. “It was loud bang – like with the car a few days ago.”

Another resident named Roza said she was woken up by the explosion in the early hours and that the entire building appeared to shake.

Unofficial Russian Telegram news channels said the bomber was one of those killed and that he detonated the bomb when approached by the officers. Reuters could not independently confirm those details.

The blast took place very close to where Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov, head of the Russian General Staff’s army operational training directorate, was killed on Monday.

Russia said it suspected Ukraine was behind the killing.

There was no official comment from Ukraine.

Myrotvorets, an unofficial Ukrainian website that provides a database of people described as war criminals or traitors, updated its entry on Sarvarov to say the 56-year-old general had been “liquidated.”

Quote:Ukraine's SBU domestic security service has released new footage it says shows the country's preparations for attacking a Russian submarine in the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk earlier this month.

Why It Matters

The SBU said on December 15 it had struck a Kilo-class Russian submarine using underwater drones "for the first time in history." The agency operates its SeaBaby waterborne drones and said modified underwater versions, referred to as "Sub SeaBaby" uncrewed vehicles, were responsible for targeting the submarine.

The submarine "suffered critical damage" and was taken "out of action," the SBU said. Russia's Black Sea Fleet denied the submarine had sustained damage.

What To Know

Ukraine struck a modernized Il-38N reconnaissance aircraft at the Yeysk air base in Russia's Krasnodar region which "actively opposed the work of the SBU naval drones," the agency said in a statement released on Tuesday. Novorossiysk, south of Yeysk, is on the Krasnodar coastline and one of Russia's main bases for its Black Sea Fleet that has been repeatedly caught in Kyiv's crosshairs.

The video shared by the SBU appears to show a brief generic clip of an Il-38N in flight before cutting to satellite footage appearing to show one of the aircraft visible on the tarmac at a Russian air base. The video then displays what appears to be a feed from a Ukrainian drone approaching a stationary Il38N aircraft.

The footage briefly shows a port area before an explosion rocks up from the water. The SBU said the video captured the moment it targeted Russia's submarine in Novorossiysk. Newsweek could not independently verify the clip.

The spy agency said Russia had just one operational reconnaissance aircraft able to pick up the underwater drones as they homed in on the submarine. "The disabling of this anti-submarine aircraft ensured the successful execution of the main part of the special operation," the SBU said.

Each Il-38N reconnaissance aircraft cost in the region of $24 million, the spy service said.

A spokesperson for the Black Sea Fleet said on December 15 Ukraine's "attempt to carry out sabotage using an unmanned underwater vehicle did not achieve its objectives." Satellite imagery released after the attack appears to show some damage to the Novorossiysk base but it is hard to discern how the Kilo-class submarine was affected.

Kyiv said in August 2024 its forces had destroyed Moscow's Rostov-on-Don Kilo-class submarine in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol in Crimea. Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and Kyiv has vowed to reclaim the peninsula. Many Ukrainian attacks on Russia's military capabilities have focused on Crimea.

Quote:NATO member Poland scrambled fighter jets overnight as Russia launched strikes on Ukraine, Warsaw's military said on Tuesday.

Poland also put ground-based air defense and radar reconnaissance systems on "the highest state of readiness" to protect NATO territory bordering Ukraine, Poland said.
...
What To Know

On Tuesday, Poland's military said its actions were "of a preventive nature" to secure the country's airspace, "especially in areas adjacent to the threatened zones."

A spokesperson for the German military told Newsweek German aircraft were not scrambled overnight. Germany has sent a detachment of five fighter jets to northern Poland for a rotation of NATO air policing. A Polish military spokesperson declined to specify which aircraft—and how many—were involved, citing operational security.

Ukrainian officials reported that aerial attacks in several regions had killed at least three people, including in Kyiv.

One person was killed and three were injured in the capital, Ukraine's state emergency service said. The injured were in the west of the city, according to Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko.

Vitaliy Bunechko, the governor of the Zhytomyr region west of Kyiv, said a child had been killed in the strikes, while another four people were injured. Serhiy Tyurin, who leads the western Khmelnytskyi region, said one person had died overnight.

"Since last night, Russia has been carrying out a massive attack on Ukraine—primarily targeting our energy sector and civilian infrastructure, essentially the entire infrastructure of daily life," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said early Tuesday.

The Ukrainian leader said Russia had launched more than 650 drones and 30 missiles.

Ukraine's energy ministry said Russia had targeted the country's energy infrastructure and that power outages were affecting several regions. A similar message was shared by Ukraine's state electricity transmission system operator, Ukrenergo.

Oleh Kiper, the governor of Ukraine's southern Odesa region, said Russia had "carried out another massive attack with strike UAVs [uncrewed aerial vehicles]."

The attacks damaged the region's energy, port, transport and industrial infrastructure, as well as residential areas, Kiper said.

Romania's Defense Ministry said it had detected two unspecified aerial targets in Ukrainian airspace moving toward its border.

Radars also picked up a different group of drones heading for Romania following a series of explosions on Ukrainian territory, Bucharest said.

Authorities issued alerts for those living in the north of the Tulcea county area bordering Ukraine and the southeastern Galati county. The warnings were rescinded at 2:15 a.m. local time.

Quote:KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters that he would be willing to withdraw troops from the country’s eastern industrial heartland as part of a plan to end Russia’s war, if Moscow also pulls back and the area becomes a demilitarized, free economic zone monitored by international forces.

The proposal marks the clearest indication yet of the compromises the Ukrainian leader would be willing to make on the Donbas region, control of which is a major sticking point in peace negotiations.

A similar arrangement could be possible for the area around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is currently under Russian control, Zelenskyy said. He said that any peace plan would need to be put to a referendum.

Zelenskyy spoke to reporters Tuesday to describe a 20-point overarching plan that negotiators from Ukraine and the U.S. hammered out in Florida in recent days, though he said that many details are still being discussed.

Russia has given no indication that it will agree to any kind of withdrawal of its troops from land it has seized. In fact, Moscow has insisted that Ukraine relinquish the remaining territory it still holds in the Donbas – an ultimatum that Ukraine has rejected. Russia has captured most of Luhansk and about 70% of Donetsk – the two areas that make up the Donbas.

Asked about the plan, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that Moscow would set out its position based on information received by Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev, who met with U.S. envoys in Florida over the weekend. Peskov declined to share further details.

American negotiators have engaged in a series of talks with Ukraine and Russia separately since U.S. President Donald Trump presented a plan to end the war last month – a proposal widely see as favoring Moscow, which invaded its neighbor nearly four years ago. Since then, Ukraine and its allies in Europe have worked to pull the plan closer to Kyiv’s position.

Zelenskyy said that figuring out control of the Donbas region is “the most difficult point.”

Meanwhile, on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the U.S. has proposed creating a consortium with Ukraine and Russia, in which each party would have an equal stake. Zelenskyy countered with a proposal for joint venture between the U.S. and Ukraine, in which the Americans would be able to decide how to distribute their share, including giving some of it to Russia.

Zelenskyy acknowledged that the U.S. has not yet accepted Ukraine’s counterproposals.

“We did not reach a consensus with the American side on the territory of the Donetsk region and on the ZNPP,” Zelenskyy said, using an acronym for the power plant in Zaporizhzhia. “But we have significantly brought most of the positions closer together. In principle, all other consensus in this agreement has been found between us and them.”

Creating a free economic zone in the Donbas would require difficult discussions on how far troops would be required to move back and where international forces would be stationed, Zelenskyy said, adding that it should discussed at the leaders level.

The working U.S.-Ukraine draft also proposes that Russian forces withdraw from the Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv, Sumy, Kharkiv regions. Zelenskyy envisions that international forces could be located along certain points of the contact line within the free economic zone to monitor the implementation of the agreement.

“Since there is no faith in the Russians, and they have repeatedly broken their promises, today’s contact line is turning into a line of a de facto free economic zone, and international forces should be there to guarantee that no one will enter there under any guise – neither ‘little green men’ nor Russian military disguised as civilians,” Zelenskyy said.

Ukraine is also proposing that the occupied city of Enerhodar, which is the closest city to the Zaporizhzhia power plant, become a demilitarized free economic zone, Zelenskyy said.

This point required 15 hours of discussions with the U.S., he said, and no agreement was reached.

Quote:“This is my house, I have to defend it.”

That’s what Kevin McCallister said as he bolted his front door and began fortifying the home against invaders in one of the most iconic scenes from “Home Alone” — a scene where “Carol of the Bells” plays prominently, helping to make the song an American Christmas staple.

The song wasn’t always associated with Christmas, however, but the scene is a remarkably apt parallel to its true origins: an anthem of Ukrainian defiance against Russian invaders.

And it’s especially poignant today, as Ukrainian forces are fighting through the holiday to throw Russian soldiers out of Pokrovsk, the very city where composer Mykola Leontovych lived and was inspired to write the melody.

“It was never just a Christmas song, but a Ukrainian cultural message to the world, a greeting card of the nation’s deep-rooted spirituality and resilience in the face of threat,” Leontovych biographer Larysa Semenko told Politico.

“The same threat our nation is fighting today,”

Leontovych lived in Pokrovsk during the first years of the 20th century, and it was there he began to make a name for himself as a composer while teaching music and running a local choir.

And it was around that time that he repurposed a local folk tune to write Carol of the Bells — then called Shchedryk — and after World War I it became the anthem of Ukrainian nationalists hoping to gain independence from Russia, which had controlled the country’s people for centuries.

A short-lived independent Ukrainian government even sent a choir on a tour of Europe in 1922 to showcase its culture with the song and promote its independence from Russia — and it was a sensation across the world.

“Shchedryk, which was a hit and always played as an encore, enchanted Europe and America, and helped Ukrainians to declare their nation and state to the world,” said author Anatoliy Paladiychuk.

But Leontovych paid dearly for his defiance of the Russian yoke.

After the Bolsheviks retook swaths of Ukraine during the Russian Civil War, he was tracked down by Soviet agents and murdered in a 1921 assassination that was covered up until the 1990s.

“Just like they do in occupied territories of Ukraine now, Russian authorities saw a threat in Ukrainian culture,” Semenko told Politico.

Quote:Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has issued a dire warning to government staff — predicting that 2026 “will be much worse” than 2025.

The straight-talking conservative populist, 48, made the not-so-festive forecast on Tuesday during her traditional Christmas greeting exchange to staff at the Presidency of the Council of Ministers.

“The end of 2025 has been difficult for all of us. Don’t worry, because next year will be much worse,” Meloni said, as reported by Italian outlet Ansa.
“So rest properly during these holidays, because we must continue to give answers to this extraordinary nation,” she continued.

Speaking from the Government Palace in Rome, Meloni described 2025 as a year defined by constant struggle — framing her administration as a “family” that had been fighting on multiple fronts.

The speech is part of an annual tradition in which Italy’s leader usually delivers a message of hope to the nation.

For example, last year, Meloni wished a “merry Christmas,” to those who “can’t be with their families” during the holidays, including essential service workers such as the armed forces, police, doctors and nurses.

Her comments came as Italy’s government prepares to debate extending arms sales to Ukraine at the final Cabinet meeting of the year.

The Northern League, a right-wing junior partner in Italy’s ruling coalition, is trying to impose restrictions on further weapons sales.

Quote:Professional protester Greta Thunberg was arrested Tuesday in Central London while part of a mass gathering backing the Palestine Action terrorist group.

The 22-year-old Swede was detained as she expressed support for the proscribed organization.

In a video shared by the Prisoners for Palestine protest group, Thunberg can be seen holding a sign reading “I support the Palestine Action prisoners. I oppose genocide” at the demonstration outside the central London offices of Aspen Insurance.

Two activists sprayed red paint over the front of the building before police arrived and made arrests.

Prisoners for Palestine said its protest had targeted the offices of Aspen Insurance because the company provided services to Israeli-linked defence firm Elbit Systems UK.

A City of London Police spokesperson confirmed to LBC: “At around 7am this morning hammers and red paint were used to damage a building on Fenchurch Street.

“A man and a woman have been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage. They glued themselves nearby and specialist officers are working to release them, and bring them into police custody.

“A little while later, a 22-year-old woman also attended the scene. She has been arrested for displaying an item (in this case a placard) in support of a proscribed organisation (in this case Palestine Action) contrary to Section 13 of the Terrorism Act 2000.”

The arrests follow a similar response at another protest earlier this year, as Breitbart London reported.

The UK government in July proscribed Palestine Action under the UK’s Terrorism Act of 2000.

This followed several acts of vandalism, including against two planes at a Royal Air Force base, which caused an estimated £7 million ($10 million) in damage.

Thunberg also joined a pro-Palestinian protest in central London last night where she was seen shouting “we support the hunger strikers.”

She said in a video posted on her Instagram: “We are witnessing with pure and utter disgust how the UK government is handling this situation.”

Quote:Politico is framing the celebration of Christmas as a “far-right” front in Europe, arguing that Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her party have made it a “spectacle.”

Conservative social media users blasted the left-wing outlet’s Wednesday article, “How the far right stole Christmas,” authored by Rome correspondent Hannah Roberts.

“Not a ‘far right’ concept.. politico is such a joke,” wrote podcast host Mel K:

“Wow, imagine marking Christmas as being Christian. Revolutionary thinking in Europa,” wrote former Breitbart News journalist Chris Tomlinson:

In the Christmas Eve piece, Roberts wrote that the holiday “is becoming a new front line in Europe’s culture wars,” with so-called “far-right” parties and politicians “claiming the festive season as their own.”

The evidence?: Meloni’s defense of public Nativity scenes and other long-standing Christmas traditions in her majority-Catholic country.

“In Italy, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has made the defense of Christmas traditions central to her political identity. She has repeatedly framed the holiday as part of the nation’s endangered heritage, railing against what she calls ‘ideological’ attempts to dilute it,” Roberts wrote.

She continued to frame Europe’s conservative parties as “far-right” for preserving Christian culture, writing, “France’s National Rally and Spain’s Vox have similarly opposed secularist or ‘woke’ efforts to replace religious imagery with neutral seasonal language, and advocated for nativity scenes in town halls.”

“In Germany, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) has warned that Christmas markets are losing their ‘German character,’ amplifying disinformation about Muslim traditions edging out Christian ones,” she stated.

Former Republican congressional candidate Robby Starbuck wished Politico a “Merry Christmas” while calling them “commies.”

“‘Those dang Christians claiming the celebration of their Savior’s birth as their own.’ You might want to ask yourself why you’re being ratioed,” wrote Ellie A:

“Jesus is the reason for the season,” said Dustin Grage. “Cry harder.”

Quote:Russia plans to build a power plant on the moon within the next decade to support its lunar ambitions and a joint research base with China, as major world powers intensify efforts to establish a long-term presence on Earth’s only natural satellite.

Russia’s state space corporation, Roscosmos, said this week it aims to complete construction of the lunar power facility by 2036, according to Reuters. Roscosmos has signed a contract with the Lavochkin Association, a major Russian aerospace company, to carry out the project.

While Roscosmos did not explicitly describe the facility as nuclear, it said the effort involves Rosatom, Russia’s state nuclear corporation, and the Kurchatov Institute, the country’s leading nuclear research center.

Why It Matters

The announcement comes as Russia seeks to reassert itself as a major space power after a series of setbacks. Once a global leader in space exploration following Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin’s historic flight in 1961, Russia has fallen behind the United States and, increasingly, China in recent decades. Its ambitions suffered a major blow in August 2023 when the unmanned Luna-25 spacecraft crashed while attempting to land on the moon.

What To Know

Roscosmos said the plant would supply energy for Russia’s lunar program, including robotic rovers, a scientific observatory and infrastructure for a joint Russian-Chinese International Lunar Research Station. The agency described the project as a shift from short-term missions toward a permanent scientific presence on the moon.

Roscosmos chief Dmitry Bakanov said in June that placing a nuclear power plant on the moon is one of the agency’s strategic goals, along with renewed exploration of Venus, often referred to as Earth’s “sister planet.”

The moon’s distance from Earth — about 384,400 kilometers (238,855 miles) — and its harsh environment make reliable energy generation a central challenge for long-term human or robotic activity. Nuclear power has increasingly been viewed by space agencies as a practical solution, particularly in regions where sunlight is limited or intermittent.

Russia is not alone in pursuing such plans. NASA announced in August that it intends to deploy a nuclear reactor on the moon by the first quarter of fiscal year 2030. U.S. officials have framed the effort as part of a broader strategic competition with China.

International agreements prohibit the placement of nuclear weapons in space but allow the use of nuclear energy sources, provided they comply with established safety and regulatory standards.

Interest in the moon has grown as scientists and governments eye its potential resources. NASA estimates the lunar surface may contain up to a million metric tons of helium-3, a rare isotope on Earth that could be used in future energy technologies. Studies have also identified rare earth elements on the moon, including scandium, yttrium and the lanthanides, which are critical to modern electronics and advanced manufacturing.

Quote:Embattled Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese apologized to the Jewish community Monday, a day after he was loudly booed at a vigil for the 15 killed in the Bondi Beach terrorist attack — admitting he feels the “weight of responsibility” for the hate-filled antisemitic massacre.

The embattled lefty leader — who has been widely accused of failing to curb surging antisemitism — voiced regret after his humiliating reception from thousands of mourners marking a week since ISIS terrorists shot up a Jewish Hanukkah celebration.

“Emotions were raw, and a lot of people in the community are hurting and angry, and some of that anger was directed towards me, and I understand that,” Albanese said as he addressed the crowd’s furious reaction toward him.

“As prime minister, I feel the weight of responsibility for an atrocity that happened while I’m prime minister,” he added.

“And I’m sorry for what the Jewish community and our nation as a whole has experienced.”

Albanese has faced widespread backlash in the wake of last week’s bloodshed after critics accused his center-left government of failing to curb a surge in antisemitism since the war in Gaza broke out.

Albanese’s apology came soon after he announced a review of the country’s law enforcement and intelligence agencies following the attack.

He said the review, which will be led by a former chief of Australia’s spy agency, would investigate whether federal police and intelligence agencies have the “right powers, structures, processes and sharing arrangements in place to keep Australians safe.”

Jewish leaders, however, have called for a royal commission — the most powerful type of Australian government inquiry — to be set up to investigate the attack.

Albanese defended the move for a review into security agencies rather than a royal commission — insisting it would be faster.

“The … review will enable action to take place,” he said.

Quote:Israeli President Isaac Herzog will soon be invited to pay a state visit to Australia, in the aftermath of the Dec. 14 mass shooting at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, Herzog’s office said on Tuesday.

“President Herzog was invited to visit Australia by the Australian government and the Jewish community,” according to the statement.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese “advised President Herzog that, upon the recommendation of the Australian government and in accordance with protocol, the Governor-General of Australia will issue an invitation to President Herzog to visit Australia as soon as possible,” it continued.

Herzog said that he would accept the invitation and mentioned that the President of the Zionist Federation of Australia had also sent him an official invitation, according to the statement.

Albanese said he felt “profound shock and dismay” over the terror attack, which an alleged jihadist is accused of carrying out with his father. The son survived exchanges of fire with the police, though he sustained serious injuries.

His father, who was born in Pakistan, was killed. Forty people were wounded in the attack, the deadliest antisemitic incident in Australia’s history.

Herzog expressed his “deep horror and shock over the catastrophic terror attack at the Jewish community Chanukah event on Bondi Beach,” Herzog’s office said, adding that he conveyed his “profound condolences to the families of the victims and his wishes for a speedy recovery for all those injured.”

Quote:An Australian man allegedly praised the ISIS-loving father and son accused of carrying out the antisemitic Bondi Beach massacre on social media — and found himself behind bars when police uncovered a stockpile of guns, ammo, and terrorist flags in his home.

Martin Thomas Glynn, 39, was arrested Tuesday after police found six rifles, about 4,000 rounds of ammunition, and banners belonging to terror groups Hamas and Hezbollah inside his Perth home.

Cops also seized disturbing notebooks referencing Hitler and the Holocaust, along with a “shopping list” of materials to make explosives, authorities alleged at a court hearing Wednesday, NBC News reported.

“There is no place in Australia for antisemitism, hate and violent ideologies,” embattled Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a statement Wednesday on Instagram.

“I thank the work of the WA Police in quickly identifying this individual and acting immediately.”

Glynn’s home was raided after he made a series of antisemitic posts, including one where he pledged his support to alleged terror suspects Sajid Akram, 50, and his 24-year-old son Naveed Akram for killing 15 and injuring dozens more at a Hanukkah celebration at the famed Sydney Beach on Dec. 14.

“I just want to say that I, Martin Glynn, 100 per cent support the New South Wales shooters,” he said in one of the alarming Instagram posts, police told the court, the outlet reported.

Naveed is charged with 59 offenses, including 15 counts of murder, 40 counts of causing harm with intent to murder in relation to the wounded survivors and one count of committing a terrorist act.

His father, who legally owned six rifles and shotguns, died at the scene after being taken out by cops.

In another chilling post, the deranged suspect allegedly wrote that he had “no sympathy for any casualties,” citing Palestinians killed by Israel in Gaza, authorities added.

Quote:President Trump announced Thursday that the US military hit ISIS terrorists in Nigeria targeting Christians with “numerous” deadly airstrikes.

“Tonight, at my direction as Commander in Chief, the United States launched a powerful and deadly strike against ISIS Terrorist Scum in Northwest Nigeria, who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen for many years, and even Centuries!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“I have previously warned these Terrorists that if they did not stop the slaughtering of Christians, there would be hell to pay, and tonight, there was,” the president continued.

“The Department of War executed numerous perfect strikes, as only the United States is capable of doing.

“Under my leadership, our Country will not allow Radical Islamic Terrorism to prosper. May God Bless our Military, and MERRY CHRISTMAS to all, including the dead Terrorists, of which there will be many more if their slaughter of Christians continues.”

US Africa Command said the Christmas Day strike was carried out in Sokoto state and initial assessments indicate “multiple ISIS terrorists were killed in the ISIS camps.”

The Department of War shared unclassified footage of a missile being launched from the deck of a military vessel after Trump announced the operation.
The Pentagon coordinated with the Nigerian government ahead of the strikes.

“The Department of War worked with the government of Nigeria to carry out these strikes,” a War Department official told The Post.

“These strikes were approved by the government of Nigeria.”

Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that the strike was carried out as part of ongoing security cooperation with the US, which includes the exchange of intelligence and strategic coordination to take out militant groups.

“This has led to precision hits on terrorist targets in Nigeria by air strikes in the North West,” the ministry said in a statement.

War Secretary Pete Hegseth noted that Trump “was clear last month: the killing of innocent Christians in Nigeria (and elsewhere) must end.”

“The [Department of War] is always ready, so ISIS found out tonight — on Christmas. More to come…” Hegseth wrote on X.

“Grateful for Nigerian government support & cooperation,” he added. “Merry Christmas!”

The US military had reportedly been conducting intelligence-gathering flights over large swaths of Nigeria since late last month, according to Reuters.

Quote:Ukraine dealt Russian dictator Vladimir Putin a humiliating Christmas Day blow when it routed Kremlin troops to wrest back control of its key eastern city of Kupyansk, a vital railroad hub, Kviv said.

The staggering setback for the Kremlin occurred as fighting continued between both sides for nearly the fourth straight year and a US-brokered peace plan remained stalled.

“Kypyansk currently has several dozen [Russian troops], they are surrendering, Viktor Trehubov, the spokesman for Ukraine’s Joint Forces, told the Kyiv Post on Thursday. “There have even been cases of foreigners — foreign mercenaries for the Russians — giving themselves up.

“Even Russian propagandists have switched to a line acknowledging that the city is no longer under their control,” Trehubov said. “In reality, it was never fully taken by them in order to be lost, aside from a short period in 2022.”

Adding insult to injury, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky took a shot at Putin in a Christmas message to his countrymen, wishing, “May he perish.”
Russian military bloggers had already grown critical of Moscow’s recent claims of military gains in Kupyansk, charging that Kremlin brasshad “prematurely” moved troops from the city, “leaving the town vulnerable to Ukrainian infiltrations,” the Institute for the Study of War said this week.

Putin’s embarrassing setback in Kupyansk came as the two sides exchanged a barrage of military drones over the holiday, with Russia launching more than 130 drones overnight.

The Russian attacks caused major power outages in Odesa, Ukraine’s most important port, and inflicted heavy damage in the city and surrounding areas, CNN reported Thursday.

Zelensky called the Russians “barbarians” for the attacks.

Quote:Amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in Halifax on Saturday during a stopover before traveling to the United States for peace talks with President Donald Trump, according to the CBC.

During the meeting, Carney announced an additional $2.5 billion CAD ($1.8 billion USD) in economic aid for Ukraine in its fight against Moscow, which he said will help the country unlock financing from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

The meeting came hours after Russia launched a massive attack on Kyiv with ballistic missiles and drones, killing at least one person and wounding 27, including two children, according to the Associated Press.

Newsweek reached out to Carney's office via email on Saturday for comment.
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What To Know

Russia targeted Ukraine with 519 drones and 40 missiles on Saturday, Ukraine's air force said. The Russian Defense Ministry said it carried out a "massive strike" using "long-range precision-guided weapons from land, air and sea, including Kinzhal hypersonic aeroballistic missiles" and drones, targeting energy infrastructure facilities used by Ukraine's forces and military-industrial enterprises, according to the AP.

However, more than 10 residential buildings were damaged, Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said. The attacks hit seven locations across the capital and knocked out electricity and heating in some districts. A fire broke out in an 18-story residential building in the Dnipro district, and a 24-story residential building in the Darnytsia district was also struck.

Poland scrambled fighter jets and temporarily closed airports in Lublin and Rzeszow near the border with Ukraine during Russia's attacks, though there was no violation of Polish airspace.

Zelensky told reporters in Kyiv that he and Trump will discuss security guarantees for Ukraine, an "economic agreement," and "territorial issues" during Sunday's talks, particularly concerning the Donetsk region and the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. Speaking by audio note in a WhatsApp chat with journalists, Zelensky said he would prioritize discussing security guarantees and aim to ensure there were "as few unresolved issues as possible" while respecting Ukraine's red lines, the AP reported.

He has indicated that in the draft peace plan, the U.S. has committed to providing guarantees that mirror Article V of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which means an attack on Ukraine would trigger a collective military response from the U.S. and its allies. However, key details must be worked out in a bilateral agreement.

Earlier this week, Zelensky indicated willingness to withdraw troops from Ukraine's eastern industrial heartland as part of a peace plan, but only if Russia also pulls back and the area becomes a demilitarized zone monitored by international forces. Moscow has demanded that Ukraine relinquish remaining territory in the Donbas region where Russia has captured most of Luhansk and approximately 70 percent of Donetsk.

Zelensky spoke with Carney by phone on Friday, updating the prime minister "on the status of our diplomatic efforts with the United States," the CBC reported. The prime minister's office confirmed Saturday's meeting, which began at approximately 1 p.m. AT (Atlantic Time).

Quote:European nations are preparing for war with Russia, Moscow's foreign minister has said, ahead of a planned meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Florida.
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What To Know

"After a new administration came to power in the United States, Europe and the European Union emerged as the main obstacles to peace," Russia's veteran Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Russia's Tass state news agency in an interview published on Sunday. "They are making no secret of the fact that they are getting ready to fight it out with Russia on the battlefield."

European countries watched on with some anxiety as the Trump administration took office in January and pursued a rapprochement with Moscow, largely a pariah state for many nations in Europe since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.

Concern has continued to mount in European capitals and Kyiv that U.S.-backed peace talks could end up producing a deal to end the war that puts Ukraine on the back foot and could be seen as rewarding Moscow.

Alongside the negotiations, fears have risen in the alliance, particularly along NATO members on the eastern flank pressed up against Russia, that Moscow could use an end to fighting to regroup and prepare an attack beyond Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed this as "nonsense."

NATO pledged back in June to raise defense spending to 3.5 percent of GDP on "core" defense capabilities like tanks or other hardware, and another 1.5 percent on related security and defense spending, such as infrastructure. This was a major surge from recent years, when NATO members struggled to dedicate 2 percent of GDP to defense. Experts say Russia spends above 7 percent of its GDP and about a fifth of all government money on its military.

"We are not at war, but we are no longer at peace," Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in September this year. "We are no longer in the time that was so beautiful and so quiet and so peaceful."

European officials have raised the alarm over "hybrid attacks" often blamed on Russia. This refers to operations that fall short of open warfare, like weaponizing migration, carrying out cyberattacks or damaging critical infrastructure.

Quote:Ukraine struck a Russian oil refinery overnight, Kyiv's military said on Sunday, just ahead of a planned meeting between the country's President, Volodymyr Zelensky, and U.S. President Donald Trump in Florida this weekend.
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What To Know

Ukraine struck the Syzran oil refinery in Russia's Samara region, southeast of Moscow, with long-range drones, the Ukrainian military said in a statement. The attack caused a fire at the site, according to Kyiv, but Ukrainian authorities said the extent of the damage was still being assessed.

Russia's Defense Ministry said early on Sunday its air defenses had detected and taken out 25 Ukrainian drones overnight, nearly half of which were intercepted over Samara. Moscow did not reference an attack on oil facilities in the region.

Ukraine said the site is capable of processing almost 9 million tons of oil each year and was supporting Russia's military.

Kyiv also attacked Syzran in early December. Reuters reported that the strikes earlier this month had forced the refinery to temporarily stop processing.

Kyiv said on Sunday it had hit "a number of other facilities," including a site for strike drones in the Russian-controlled city of Makiivka, in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, and storage for uncrewed boats in western Crimea.

Ukraine had said on Thursday its forces had attacked the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery in Russia's Rostov region, bordering eastern Ukraine, using British air-launched Storm Shadow missiles.

Hours later, Russian Telegram channels separately reported explosions in the Russian city of Volgograd late on Thursday in an area hosting a major oil refinery operated by the country's energy giant, Lukoil. Ukraine said on Sunday the strike had damaged a pipeline and part of the processing plant at the site.

Russia launched 48 drones at Ukraine overnight, Ukraine's air force said in a separate statement on Sunday. The Ukrainian military intercepted 30 of the drones, but 18 struck nine unspecified locations across the country, according to the air force.

Ukrainian officials said one person had been injured in "massive shelling" in the southern Kherson region overnight and a residential building had caught fire after a drone attack in the southern Odesa area. Ukraine's Energy Ministry said Russia had attacked the country's infrastructure into Sunday and tens of thousands of people had no access to power.

Large-scale drone and missile strikes the previous night largely targeted Ukraine's capital, killing at least one person and injuring 32 others, according to officials. Zelensky said these attacks were evidence Russia does "not want to end the war."

Quote:President Trump on Sunday suggested he would be willing to go to Ukraine to convince its parliament to concede land to Russia in a bid to end the war after meeting with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky —while declaring peace is “closer than ever before.”

The two leaders held a wide-ranging discussion over lunch at Mar-a-Lago on Sunday afternoon about how to end the nearly four-year-old conflict, which Trump called “the biggest war, certainly the deadliest war, since World War II.”

Trump, asked by a reporter at a post-summit press conference about whether he would go to Ukraine to help end the war, replied, “I’d have no problem with doing it.

“I don’t anticipate it. I would like to get the deal done and not necessarily have to go,” he said.

But “I’ve offered to go and speak to their parliament,” Trump said, specifically referring to the potential need by Ukraine to concede some of the Donbas region to Russia.

Trump said the US and Ukraine were “95 percent” in agreement about much of Zelensky’s proposed 20-point peace plan but acknowledged that certain issues, such as control of Ukraine’s contested Donbas region, would be tough to resolve.

“There are one or two very thorny issues, very tough issues,”  Trump said, citing Donbas in particular as an “issue they’re gonna have to iron out, but I think it’s moving in the right direction.

“I think the land — you’re talking about — some of that land has been taken,” he said, referring to Russia’s incursion.

“Some of that land is maybe up for grabs, but it may be taken over the next period of a number of months — and you’re better off making a deal now.”

Throughout the peace talks, Zelensky has maintained that he lacks the authority to cede land to Russia on his own, casting doubt on territorial concessions.

During the press conference, the Ukrainian leader explained that his country’s parliament could potentially vote on the issue or they could put it up for a referendum.

“It’s their land,” Zelensky explained, referring to the Ukrainian people. “The land, not of one person, it’s the land of our nation for a lot of generations.”

Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin has been adamant that Ukraine cede the rest of Donbas, despite the Kremlin so far failing to conquer that territory by force throughout the deadly war.

Ukraine’s newly revamped 20-point plan is a pared-down version of a previous US 28-point plan, which was viewed as much more pro-Russian.

The revised plan, which Zelensky has described as “the main framework for ending the war,” includes proposals for security guarantees from the US, NATO and European allies should Russia try to invade Ukraine again, as well as steps to reaffirm Ukraine’s sovereignty and a proposed non-aggression pact between the sides.

Zelensky pointed to Ukraine obtaining security guarantees as the “key milestone” to achieving lasting peace.

“We discussed all the aspects of the peace framework, which includes the 20-point peace plan — 90% agreed, and  U.S.-Ukraine security guarantees — 100% agreed. U.S.-Europe-Ukraine security guarantees — almost agreed. Military dimension — 100% agreed,” Zelensky said.

Trump said he believes Russia will play a role in rebuilding Ukraine after hostilities conclude and that the Kremlin “wants Ukraine to succeed.”

Zelensky looked visibly uncomfortable and seemingly bit his tongue when Trump made that remark.

Ukrainian leaders have been careful to refrain from doing anything that could set Trump off. At one point, Trump briefly appeared to make a quick reference to the infamous Feb. 28 Oval Office blow-up with Zelensky that has kept Ukrainian officials on edge when dealing with the famously mercurial Trump.

As for peace, Trump said, “There’s nothing more important.

Quote:Violent crime declined nationwide in 2025, but a new survey shows several US cities moving in the opposite direction, reporting increases in homicides, rapes, robberies or aggravated assaults even as the national trend improved.

A survey from the Major Cities Chiefs Association (MCCA) covers violent crime reporting between January and September 2025 and the same period in 2024. The survey tracked four categories: homicide, rape or sexual assault, robbery and aggravated assault.

The survey found that total violent crime nationwide decreased compared with the same period in 2024 across all four key categories:

• Homicide: 4,143 (2025) vs. 5,126 (2024)
  
• Rape: 20,407 vs. 21,728
  
• Robbery: 66,501 vs. 81,860
  
• Aggravated assault: 194,804 vs. 216,466
  

The association cautioned that the numbers are preliminary and based on voluntary reporting by participating law enforcement agencies.

Here’s a list of cities and metropolitan areas where violent crime rose locally despite a nationwide decline.

Omaha, Nebraska

Omaha reported increases in all four violent crime categories; homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault, according to MCCA data.

Atlanta, Georgia

Atlanta saw year-over-year increases in rape, robbery and aggravated assault, bucking national declines across those categories.

Columbus, Ohio

Columbus reported increases in robbery and aggravated assault, even as both crimes fell nationally.

Los Angeles County, California

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department reported increases in rape and aggravated assault from 2024 into 2025, according to preliminary data from the MCCA survey.

Tampa, Florida

Tampa recorded increases in rape and robbery, two categories that declined nationwide during the same period.

Suffolk County, New York

The suburban county east of New York City reported increases in homicide and robbery.

Wichita, Kansas

Wichita saw year-over-year increases in homicide and rape, reversing the national trend in both categories.

Quote:The FBI has deployed personnel and resources to Minnesota to “dismantle large-scale fraud schemes exploiting federal programs,” FBI Director Kash Patel said on Sunday.

Patel’s comments come after a video from independent journalist Nick Shirley that documented visits to multiple day care centers in Minnesota went viral on X, garnering more than 100 million views. One center visited by Shirley reportedly received millions of dollars in state funding but appears to be inactive. Newsweek could not locate the state records showing these payments or independently verify any of Shirley's claims.

Responding to the allegations and the video posted by Shirley, a spokesperson for Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat, told Fox News the governor has spent years working to “crack down on fraud” and strengthen oversight of state programs, including launching investigations into the facilities.

Newsweek contacted Walz’s office via an email sent outside regular business hours for comment.
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What To Know

In a post on X, Patel said the FBI had increased personnel in Minnesota “even before the public conversation escalated online.”

The latest allegations follow a series of fraud cases involving government programs in the state. The firestorm over alleged mass fraud began earlier this year, intensifying in December after the state’s acting U.S. Attorney said $9 billion or more in federal funds allocated to 14 state-run programs since 2018 may have been stolen. AP, citing the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Minnesota, reported that Somali Americans made up 89 percent of those that had been charged in connection with the case as of December 19. Trump has repeatedly criticized the state's Somali community in recent weeks.

Investigations into large-scale fraud have already resulted in convictions and shed light on the scale of misappropriated funds. One prominent case involved Feeding Our Future, a federally funded nonprofit which the Department of Justice says stole $250 million during the pandemic. The case led to 78 indictments to date, according to Patel's post, as well as 57 convictions.

One day care center visited by Shirley, the Quality Learning Center in South Minneapolis, allegedly received millions of dollars in state funding but appeared to be inactive. The center also displayed a sign that misspelled “learning” as “learing.”

In the video, Shirley shows the day care abandoned in the middle of the day, despite it being licensed to serve up to 99 children, and displays what appears to be a receipt for $1.9 million in payments to the center from Minnesota’s Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP). Newsweek could not locate the records detailing these disbursements or independently verify any of Shirley’s claims.

Quote:Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz pushed back against the ever-growing fraud allegations levied against him in the disastrous aftermath of a viral video in which an independent journalist cracked open a crucial part of the alleged Somali aid scheme.

A spokesperson for Walz, a Democrat who frequently provokes President Trump’s ire, addressed a bombshell video posted by conservative YouTuber Nick Shirley.

“The governor has worked for years to crack down on fraud and ask the state legislature for more authority to take aggressive action. He has strengthened oversight — including launching investigations into these specific facilities, one of which was already closed,” the spokesperson told Fox News.

The spokesperson added that Walz has “hired an outside firm to audit payments to high-risk programs, shut down the Housing Stabilization Services program entirely, announced a new statewide program integrity director, and supported criminal prosecutions.”

In the 43-minute video published on Friday, Shirley and a Minnesotan named David travel around Minneapolis and visit multiple child care and learning sites allegedly owned by Somali immigrants.

Many were either shuttered entirely, despite signage indicating they were open, or helmed by staff who refused to participate in the video.

One of the buildings they visited displayed a misspelled sign reading “Quality Learing Center.” The “learning” center is supposed to account for at least 99 children and funneled roughly $4 million in state funds, according to the video.

Shirley appeared on Fox News’ “The Big Weekend Show” Sunday evening and boasted about his findings. He joked that the alleged scheme was “so obvious” that a “kindergartner could figure out there is fraud going on.”

“Fraud is fraud, and we work too hard simply just to be paying taxes and enabling fraud to be happening,” Shirley said.

Quote:Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz bragged about making it easier for people to get into the child care business during last year’s vice presidential debate with JD Vance, awkward resurfaced footage shows — as the state’s Somali immigrant community has been accused of bilking millions of dollars in aid meant for day care centers.

“We have to make it easier for folks to be able to get into [the child care] business and then to make sure that folks are able to pay for that. We were able to do it in Minnesota,” Walz said on stage as he proposed a federal paid family medical leave program.

The debate clip resurfaced following a mega-viral video from independent journalist Nick Shirley that exposed the vast scale of alleged fraud in the North Star State.

Many of the child care centers he visited had their doors shuttered despite receiving millions in aid from the state over the last several years, records reportedly show — including a day care with a misspelled sign that got $4 million in taxpayer money despite being empty.

The video prompted a response from FBI Director Kash Patel, who claimed yesterday the allegations were “just the tip of a very large iceberg” as he threatened convicted Somali scammers with denaturalization and deportation.

Critics were quick to drag Walz for the resurfaced debate comments.

“Yes Tim, you sure did make it easy for people to open childcare businesses. They don’t even need to provide childcare to get paid,” one person wrote on X, alongside the clip.

“Tim Walz was saying the quiet part out loud… If we only knew then what we know now,” another chimed in.

The alleged fraud schemes date back to 2015, when day care centers were accused of overcharging Minnesota’s Child Care Assistance Program.

More recent alleged scams have involved Medicaid-funded disability schemes, including a housing program that helps seniors and disabled people find and move into housing.

Quote:Gov. Kathy Hochul has her priorities twisted, according to Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, who ripped the Democrat as more worried about helping illegal migrants than driving down costs for everyday New Yorkers.

“I want to make sure that we can bring down the cost of government so that people, taxpayers, don’t have to spend money on things that don’t benefit them — and, in fact, hurt them — like spending $4.5 billion on illegal migrants, which is what Gov. Hochul did,” the Republican candidate for governor told billionaire WABC-AM radio owner John Catsimatidis on his “Cats Roundtable” show Sunday.

“[This] is money that could have been spent on infrastructure, hospitals and, more important, schools and cutting taxes.”

“[NYC] spent about $8 billion [on migrants]. Between the [city and state], it’s over $12 billion on illegal migrants,” said Blakeman, who has the backing of President Trump.

”It’s a tremendous amount of money, and it’s for people who didn’t earn it. They’ve been here for 15 minutes. They’re here illegally.”

Blakeman has previously attacked Hochul over the state’s spending to provide migrants services and has positioned himself as a conservative candidate who staunchly opposes sanctuary policies.

“Bruce Blakeman is Donald Trump’s No.1 cheerleader for his attacks on New York families — after Trump gutted Medicaid and SNAP and jacked up costs with expensive tariffs, Blakeman said Trump was doing an ‘amazing job,’” claimed Hochul campaign spokesperson Sarafina Chitika.

“That’s exactly how Blakeman would govern: importing Trump’s cost-hiking agenda to New York and running our hospitals into the ground the same way he did on Long Island.”

Quote:A Utah judge ordered a secret hearing be made public in the criminal case against Tyler Robinson for allegedly assassinating conservative firebrand Charlie Kirk.

Judge Tony Graf announced during a roughly 20-minute hearing held over video that a transcript for an Oct. 24 closed-door hearing in Robinson’s case will be released with certain redactions by the end of the day Monday. He will also be releasing the audio of that hearing but said it could take two weeks for that to be made public.

Robinson did not appear on screen during the video hearing, but was heard saying, “Yes, your honor,” when Graf asked him if he was present for the Monday hearing.

The Oct. 24 hearing was held in private to review whether Robinson would be allowed to appear in future hearings in civilian clothing and unshackled. Graf ruled that he could wear non-jail clothes but would have to remain restrained in court for safety reasons.

Earlier this month Robinson, 22, appeared in person in the case for the first time for his lawyers to argue that the press shouldn’t be allowed to film hearings in the case because it could prejudice potential jurors and lead to an unfair trial. However, several hours of the hearing was conducted in private outside of the presence of the press and the public.

Defense lawyer Staci Visser blasted media outlets, claiming they failed to follow Graf’s order when they allegedly captured Robinson on camera in his shackles.

“We don’t want the chaos that is out in the media in this courtroom,” Visser claimed at the time
Robinson is facing seven felony charges of aggravated murder, discharge of a firearm causing serious bodily injury, obstruction of justice, two counts of witness tampering and commission of a violent offense in the presence of a child.

Kirk, 31, was struck by a single bullet to the neck in front of a crowd of thousands at a speaking engagement at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10.

He was the co-founder of Turning Point USA and had been at the event as part of his American Comeback Tour. The rising MAGA star is survived by his wife, Erika, and two young kids.

Quote:Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi revealed Sunday that she didn’t intend to tear up President Donald Trump’s 2020 State of the Union address — the moment that went viral at the time when she was Speaker of the House.

During a conversation with ABC’s Jonathan Karl, Pelosi said her defining moments in her relationship with the president were “spontaneous.”

“People like the tearing up of the speech. I didn’t intend to go to the speech to tear it up. I just, the first part of it, I tore a page because he was lying. And then the next page, then the next page. I thought it was a manifesto of lies all throughout, so I better tear up the whole speech. Now, the speeches are on strong paper, so you have to do it a few times to get it done. But I had no intention of doing that. I thought my staff was going to die,” Pelosi said.

She also talked about an image of her pointing a finger at Trump during a 2019 meeting that included the cabinet.

The former House Speaker said she gets more requests to sign that image than anything.

“You know what I’m saying when I go out the door? I’m leaving here because I’ve had it with you, Mr. President. With you, all roads lead to Putin,” she told Karl, who noted that the White House put the picture out and called Pelosi “crazy.”

“They did me a favor,” she added.

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.

Pelosi announced in November that she would not seek re-election after completing her current term.

Karl also asked what she wanted to be remembered for.

“I’m very proud of the Affordable Care Act. I think it just made a big change in terms of what working families need for their health and their financial health. We will continue to have that fight. It’s not a value that is shared with the Republicans. The healthcare bill was a way of not only meeting health needs but the national needs of families. If I were to be remembered for one thing, it’s the Affordable Care Act,” she said.

Quote:Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, publicly criticized President Donald Trump on Sunday for scheduling meetings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "Zelensky today. Netanyahu tomorrow. Can we just do America?" Greene wrote on X.

Trump met with Zelensky on Sunday in Palm Beach, Florida, and is scheduled to meet with Netanyahu on Monday as part of his ongoing diplomatic efforts to address major international conflicts.

Newsweek reached out to the White House via email on Sunday for comment.
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What To Know

Throughout the beginning of his second term, Trump has heavily involved himself in conflicts affecting both Ukraine and Israel, pushing for an end to some of the most notable foreign conflicts in recent years.

Greene has consistently opposed military aid to both countries, breaking with traditional Republican foreign policy positions. Earlier this year, Greene criticized the Trump administration for signing a deal with Ukraine to provide additional funding for the war in exchange for critical minerals. She has referred to Zelensky as "a dictator who canceled elections" and became the first Republican to label the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza a "genocide."

Last month, Greene announced she would be stepping back from Congress, stating she did not want to be a "battered wife" following her fallout with Trump. In a lengthy statement, she said she had "too much self respect and dignity, love my family way too much, and do not want my sweet district to have to endure a hurtful and hateful primary against me by the President we all fought for, only to fight and win my election while Republicans will likely lose the midterms."

Quote:Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters Monday that the US is currently offering Ukraine a 15-year security guarantee in the latest draft plan to end Russia’s long-running invasion.

Zelensky, answering questions via WhatsApp one day after his high-stakes meeting with President Trump at the latter’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., said he had told Trump that Kyiv would like the guarantee to be extended for up to 50 years.

“I raised this issue with the president. I told him that our war is still going on, and it has been almost 15 years,” Zelensky said.

“Therefore, we would really like the guarantees to be longer. I told him that we would very much like to consider the possibility of 30, 40, 50 years. And that would then be a historic decision by President Trump.”

According to the Ukrainian president, Trump said he would “think about” the request.

The exact form of the security guarantees have not been made public, but Zelensky said Monday they would include monitoring for violations of any cease-fire as well as some sort of “presence” by the US and European nations.

“I believe that the presence of international troops is a real security guarantee, it is a strengthening of the security guarantees that our partners are already offering us,” the Ukrainian leader said Monday.

The Post reported last week that the 20-point outline calls for a coordinated military response by the US, NATO and other European countries in the event the Russian invasion restarts.

Russia has previously said it would not accept deployment of troops from NATO countries inside Ukraine, and Moscow’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, told the Tass news agency Sunday the Kremlin would view those forces as “a legitimate target.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump were expected to speak in the near future but there was no indication the Russian leader would speak to Zelensky anytime soon.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Kyiv’s allies will meet in Paris in early January to “finalize each country’s concrete contributions” to the security guarantees. It was not immediately clear whether the US would send a representative to that meeting.

Zelensky emphasized that the guarantees were required to lift the state of martial law that has been in effect since the Russian invasion began in February 2022. Under the Ukrainian constitution, elections cannot take place under martial law — meaning the presidential and parliamentary ballots scheduled for 2024 were postponed indefinitely.

“Without security guarantees, this war has not really ended,” he said Monday. “We cannot recognize that it has ended.”

Following Sunday’s meeting, Trump said he would be willing to travel to Ukraine to try and convince its legislators to support the eastern Donbas region becoming an internationally monitored, demilitarized “free economic zone.”

“I think the land — you’re talking about — some of that land has been taken [by Russia],” said the US president, adding: “Some of that land is maybe up for grabs, but it may be taken over the next period of a number of months — and you’re better off making a deal now.”

Russia has captured most of Luhansk and about 70% of Donetsk — the two areas that make up the Donbas.

Ukraine’s post-Soviet constitution requires changes to the country’s borders to be approved via a nationwide referendum — which cannot be held until a cease-fire is in effect for 60 days, a period that the Kremlin has not indicated it is willing to wait.

Quote:President Trump directed a public rebuke at Ukraine Monday after Russia claimed that Kyiv had attacked one of Vladimir Putin’s official residences with 91 long-range drones overnight — despite Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissing the report as “typical Russian lies.”

Ahead of a bilateral meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump initially told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort that “I don’t know about” the reported assault on the Kremlin tyrant’s home in the Novgorod region before adding “that would be too bad, that would not be good.”

The president then confirmed that his Russian counterpart had “told me about” the assault on a Monday morning phone call that White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt had described as “positive.”

“This is not the right time,” Trump said about the alleged drone incursion. “It’s one thing to be offensive, it’s another thing to attack his house. I was very angry about it.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claimed to reporters that all 91 drones had been shot down, and there were no immediate reports of other damage or casualties.

In a statement on social media, Zelensky charged that Moscow was laying the groundwork for strikes on Ukraine following Zelensky’s Sunday meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago.

“Russia is at it again, using dangerous statements to undermine all achievements of our shared diplomatic efforts with President Trump’s team. We keep working together to bring peace closer,” Zelensky wrote on X.

“This alleged ‘residence strike’ story is a complete fabrication intended to justify additional attacks against Ukraine, including Kyiv, as well as Russia’s own refusal to take necessary steps to end the war. Typical Russian lies.”

Lavrov claimed Russia would review its negotiating position in talks to end its nearly four-year-old invasion of Ukraine as a result of the overnight attack — but did not say the Kremlin was walking away from the table.

“Ukraine does not take steps that can undermine diplomacy. To the contrary, Russia always takes such steps. This is one of many differences between us,” Zelensky insisted.

“It is critical that the world doesn’t stay silent now. We cannot allow Russia to undermine the work on achieving a lasting peace.”

It was not immediately clear whether Putin was at the residence at the time of the supposed drone attack.

The Novgorod region is located in northwestern Russia, roughly halfway between Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Quote:China's foreign ministry spokesman has warned that anyone crossing a red line in Taiwan would be met with a forceful response, as Beijing forces conducted military exercises close to the island.

China Daily, an English-language daily newspaper owned by the Central Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party, has also made it clear the war games were intended as a deterrent to anyone tempted to cross the line.

The drills, known as “Justice Mission 2025,” began Monday and involve the People’s Liberation Army Eastern Theater Command operating in the Taiwan Strait and in areas surrounding the island.

They were framed as a response to recent U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and as a signal to the administration of Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te. China Daily said the exercises underscore Beijing’s readiness to counter external interference and separatist moves related to Taiwan.

Newsweek reached out to the U.S. State Department, and Chinese and Taiwanese officials in the U.S. for comment via contact form email Monday afternoon.
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What To Know

In a clear warning to the U.S, China's Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lin Jian said in a briefing Monday that when it comes to Taiwan, "anyone who crosses the line or makes provocations on the question will be met with China’s firm response."

He also warned the island's administration that it was "turning Taiwan into a powder keg." He added: "Their massive and desperate arms purchase further reveal their true nature as provocateurs, saboteurs of peace and war-mongers. Anyone who tries to arm Taiwan to contain China will only embolden the separatists and push the Taiwan Strait closer to the peril of armed conflict."

The China Daily report highlighted the U.S.' recent $11.1 billion arms sale to Taiwan, calling it a deep contradiction between the words and actions out of Washington, D.C. The article claimed that the U.S. does not back Taiwanese independence, but then has shown support for the island.

Under former President Joe Biden, the official line was that the U.S. backed a "One China" principal, with the State Department previously writing on its website that it did not support Taiwan independence. That was tweaked in February 2025, under President Trump, but the government did not appear to back any real change in status for either nation.

The Chinese outlet said that by carrying out the drills China was conducting its legitimate right to defend national sovereignty, because arms sent to Taiwan had increased the risk of conflict in the region.

This week's drills are the fourth such major exercise surrounding Taiwan since 2022, when then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taipei in a high-profile show of support, despite opposition from the White House at the time over concerns that it would give Beijing cause to ramp up military pressure against the island's leaders.

Quote:North Korea announced Monday it had fired a pair of long-range strategic cruise missiles into the sea the previous day.

Kim Jong Un, who oversaw the exercise, emphasized the need to test the country’s nuclear deterrent amid what he described as growing threats to its security, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Newsweek reached out to the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and the North Korean embassy in China via email for comment.
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What To Know

The cruise missiles followed their predetermined flight path over the Yellow Sea, known in the Koreas as the West Sea, for 10,199 and 10,203 seconds before striking their target.

"The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un expressed great satisfaction, saying that the result of the launching drill is a practical verification and clear demonstration of the absolute reliability and combat readiness of our strategic counterattack capability," KCNA wrote.

Kim reportedly stated that the government would devote all its efforts to the ongoing development of a “nuclear combat force.”

The KCNA report comes on the heels of the December 24 launch of a long-range missile, which was followed the next day by Kim’s visit to the construction site of the country’s first nuclear-powered submarine.

In recent years, Pyongyang has tested a range of increasingly advanced weapons, including solid-fueled missiles, highly maneuverable hypersonic reentry vehicles, nuclear-capable warheads, and intercontinental ballistic missiles with extended range.

While many analysts believe the regime still faces technical hurdles in some areas, such as guidance precision, they also note steady advances. U.S. intelligence officials believe Kim has prioritized modernizing his missile force and could pose a threat to U.S. and allied forces.

Analysts have also raised concerns that Pyongyang is receiving technological assistance on its missile programs from Russia, possibly in exchange for North Korean contributions of munitions and troops to Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Quote:President Donald Trump on Sunday touted the peacekeeping role the United States has played in the world since his return to office, calling it the "real United Nations" and pointed to the renewed deal between Thailand and Cambodia as proof of his administration's accomplishments.

"I am pleased to announce that the breakout fighting between Thailand and Cambodia will stop momentarily, and they will go back to living in PEACE, as per our recently agreed to original Treaty," the president wrote on Truth Social.

Newsweek reached out to the White House by email on Sunday morning outside of normal business hours for comment.
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What To Know

The new ceasefire agreement between Thailand and Cambodia stipulates that the two countries must observe a 72-hour period of peace before other provisions come into effect, including the repatriation of 18 Cambodian soldiers, "joint humanitarian demining operations," and eliminating propaganda and disinformation.

However, Trump has already started celebrating the deal, marking it as another conflict he ended since returning to office, although it's unclear if he's counting it as a separate conflict from the first one he claimed to end earlier this year.

"I want to congratulate both great leaders on their brilliance in coming to this rapid and very fair conclusion. It was FAST & DECISIVE, as all of these situations should be! The United States of America, as always, was proud to help!" Trump wrote.

He continued: "With all of the wars and conflicts I have settled and stopped over the last eleven months, EIGHT, perhaps the United States has become the REAL United Nations, which has been of very little assistance or help in any of them, including the disaster currently going on between Russia and Ukraine. The United Nations must start getting active and involved in WORLD PEACE!"

The president has helped push through several ceasefires and peace deals across the past 11 months, even though some of the parties involved dispute the degree to which the U.S. was actually involved in negotiations.

The Trump administration also helped broker deals between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Israel and Iran, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as Israel and Hamas in their two-year war.

Trump has claimed credit for helping broker a deal between India and Pakistan, however Indian leaders have disputed any involvement from the U.S. in the ceasefire mediations.

Trump will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday in Miami as he seeks to push a deal between Russia and Ukraine over the finish line in their near four-year war, with Zelensky indicating the new deal could see a vote in Ukraine after finding "new ideas" on how to reach a deal with U.S. negotiators.

Quote:Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to push back hard against any attempt by the Trump administration to move on to phase two of the cease-fire plan for the Gaza Strip when the two leaders sit down at Mar-a-Lago later Monday.

Reports from multiple Israeli media outlets indicate that Netanyahu is expected to ask President Trump and his point men in the Middle East — special envoy Steve Witkoff and first son-in-law Jared Kushner — to provide firm assurances that Hamas will be disarmed and Gaza demilitarized before any further steps are taken.

Another sticking point is the failure by Hamas to return the body of Israeli counter-terror police Master Sgt. Ran “Rani’’ Gvili, who was murdered during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack against the Jewish state and is believed to be the last victim of that atrocity whose remains are still in the Gaza Strip.

Gvili’s mother and brother have joined Netanyahu’s retinue in Florida, according to Ynet, which reported that Israeli officials are hopeful that Trump will meet the pair at some point.

The second phase of the cease-fire calls for the creation of a so-called International Stabilization Force (ISF) that would take over policing the Strip, and Netanyahu is expected to question Trump closely on details of how it will operate.

Earlier this month, officials from the US, Egypt, Qatar and Turkey met in Miami to discuss plans for the force — though Israel has said it would not accept Turkey taking part due to its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, cultivating close ties to Hamas throughout his tenure.

The US and Israel want the ISF to have a “commanding role” in security duties, including disarming Hamas and other militant groups. But countries being courted to contribute troops fear that mandate will make it an “occupation force,” a Western diplomat told the Associated Press.

Hamas has said it is ready to discuss “freezing or storing” its arsenal of weapons, but insists it has a right to armed resistance as long as Israel occupies Palestinian territory. One US official told AP that a potential plan might be to offer cash incentives in exchange for weapons, echoing a “buy-back” program Witkoff has previously floated.

Governance of Gaza will initially be overseen by a so-called Board of Peace chaired by Trump, with the Palestinians later forming a “technocratic, apolitical” committee to run daily affairs under Board of Peace supervision.

The Board of Peace would oversee Gaza’s reconstruction under a two-year, renewable United Nations mandate. Its members had been expected to be named by the end of the year and might even be revealed following Monday’s meeting, but the announcement could be pushed into next month.

Trump and Netanyahu may also discuss next steps regarding Iran following a report over the weekend by independent outlet Iran International that the Islamic Republic is developing biological and chemical warheads that could be attached to ballistic missiles targeting Israel.

Quote:President Trump gave gushing praise to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Monday — denying reported friction with his counterpart and vowing to “knock the hell out of” Iran if it rebuilds its nuclear program.

“I hear that Iran is trying to build up again, and if they are, we’re gonna have to knock them down. We’ll knock them down. We’ll knock the hell out of them,” Trump said while welcoming Netanyahu to his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla.

“But hopefully that’s not happening. I heard Iran wants to make a deal. They want to make a deal that’s much smarter. You know, they could have made a deal the last time before we went through a big attack on them, and they decided not to make a deal. They wish they made that deal.”

Trump said the men would focus on about five major issues, including the implementation of the Trump-brokered October peace deal in Gaza and Israeli relations with the new Syrian government.

The second phase of the peace deal should begin “as quickly as we can,” but “there has to be a disarming of Hamas,” said Trump, amid reported unease among US officials about Netanyahu’s commitment to keeping the deal intact.

Gaza is a “tough neighborhood,” but reconstruction would start “pretty soon,” added Trump, who said “we’re already starting certain things” such as sanitation.

The US president separately said in response to a reporter that he would endorse Israeli airstrikes if Iran continues to develop its ballistic missile technology in the aftermath of Israeli and US airstrikes on nuclear sites in June.

Trump said that his relationship with Netanyahu was strong.

“If they will continue with missiles? Yes. If nuclear, fast. Okay? One will be ‘yes, absolutely,’ the other was, ‘we’ll do it immediately,'” Trump replied.

Trump hailed Netanyahu’s leadership during a press availability and even claimed he had secured from Israeli President Isaac Herzog an agreement to pardon the longtime leader to head off corruption allegations.

“He’s a wartime prime minister who is a hero. How do you not give a pardon? … I spoke to the president, and he tells me it’s on its way,” Trump said.

Quote:Iran’s military has vowed to deliver a "far harsher, more crushing and more damaging" response to any hostile action, following remarks by the country’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, declaring Iran to be effectively at war with the United States.

In a statement issued Monday, the General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces warned it would not tolerate threats to the nation’s security or its people, according to Iran's Tasnim News Agency.

Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment via email Monday morning.
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What To Know

Iranian commanders said the nation's armed forces remain on full readiness and cautioned that any future miscalculation by enemies would be met with overwhelming force.

Over the weekend, Pezeshkian said his country was also at war with Europe and Israel, referencing his country's previous, elongated war with Iraq in which he said it was clear what was happening, with missiles being fired. Now, he said, the situation had shifted to one involving sanctions and blockades.

The U.S. and many European countries have imposed extensive sanctions on Iran for years, including on its oil industry and financial sector, often in response to Iran's nuclear program. Earlier this month, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on 29 vessels allegedly engaged in the covert delivery of Iranian oil and petroleum worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

In June, both Israel and the U.S. struck sites connected with Tehran's nuclear industry and military during the 12-day war between Israel and Iran. An Iranian official said more than 1,000 people were killed in Iran and several thousands more injured. Twenty eight people were killed in attacks on Israel.

Following the June attacks, Trump insisted Iran's nuclear capabilities had been obliterated, but Israeli officials have expressed their concerns that Iran is rebuilding nuclear facilities.

Quote:Mohammad Reza Farzin, head of Iran’s Central Bank, resigned on Monday after the nation’s currency, the rial, plunged to an all-time low against the U.S. dollar, triggering widespread protests by traders and shopkeepers in several major cities, according to multiple media outlets.

Images show roads in Iran's capital city, Tehran, filled with protesters on Monday, disrupting traffic and clogging roadways.

The resignation came days after Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian said that the country was in a "full-scale war" with the U.S., Europe and Israel.

The Context

The rapid decline of the rial—down from around 430,000 to the dollar when Farzin took office in 2022 to 1.38 million per dollar this week—has intensified economic hardships for average Iranians, increasing the cost of food, medicine and daily essentials, The Associated Press (AP) reported.

The currency crisis has pushed the inflation rate to 42.2 percent year-over-year, with food prices soaring by 72 percent and health and medical items by 50 percent, intensifying fears of approaching hyperinflation.

The simultaneous protests in traditional bazaar districts also invoke historical echoes of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, highlighting the potential for significant institutional change when economic grievances unite diverse segments of society.

What To Know

Iran’s state television reported Farzin's resignation after days of escalating speculation about his position, as per the AP.

Within hours, Iran’s national currency tanked, with the rial dropping to 1.42 million against the dollar on Sunday before rebounding slightly to 1.38 million Monday.

In contrast, when Farzin assumed leadership in 2022, the exchange rate was 430,000 rials per dollar, demonstrating the extent of the current crisis.

Hundreds of traders and shopkeepers took to Saadi Street in central Tehran on Monday, along with other commercial districts such as Shush, near the city’s Grand Bazaar, a historic site of protest and political change.

Demonstrations quickly spread to Isfahan, Shiraz and Mashhad, with similar gatherings confirmed by Iran's official IRNA news agency. In several areas, police deployed tear gas to disperse crowds, while reports indicated widespread shop closures as business owners demanded economic reforms.

The depreciation of the rial has been exacerbated by ongoing international sanctions, the fallout from the shuttered 2015 nuclear deal and the threat of increased taxation and gasoline prices.

Quote:President Donald Trump briefly addressed the recent strike on a Venezuela facility during a joint press availability with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, saying in part, "There was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs."

The pair spoke to reporters ahead of their scheduled meeting at Mar-a-Lago in Florida.

The strike, which Trump described as the destruction of a key drug facility along the Venezuelan coast, marked an escalation in ongoing efforts by the United States to stem illegal narcotics shipments.

While the president said the facility "is no longer around,” he did not specify the location, level of destruction, or possible casualties.

Newsweek reached out to the White House, the Venezuela UN Mission and the Venezuela's Trinidad Embassy by email on Monday for comment.
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What To Know

During a radio interview with WABC on Friday, the president said, "We just knocked out—I don't know if you read or you saw— they have a big plant or a big facility where...the ships come from. Two nights ago, we knocked that out."

The president, however, did not mention Venezuela by name.

On Monday, Trump said U.S. forces had recently struck a “major facility” used for loading drug shipments onto boats, which he called the “implementation area” when asked by a reporter about the "explosion in Venezuela."

The attack followed a four-month campaign involving at least 29 strikes by U.S. military vessels targeting boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific allegedly engaged in drug trafficking. According to defense sources, these operations have resulted in at least 105 deaths, the Associated Press reported.

The U.S. Coast Guard, with Navy support, has also pursued and seized oil tankers believed to be part of Venezuela’s so-called "shadow fleet," used to circumvent U.S. sanctions. Notable vessels, such as Centuries and Skipper, both Panama-flagged, have been taken under U.S. judicial order.

The administration justified these actions by saying they prevent drugs from reaching the U.S. and undermine the Maduro regime’s finances.

Quote:Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said the country has spent weeks under threat from a "Goliath," as the United States ramps up military operations in the region and signals a more aggressive posture toward Caracas.
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What To Know

"Venezuela has been under threat from Goliath for 27 weeks, and for 27 weeks our Military Force has been deployed with intelligence, wisdom, and strategic patience," Maduro said, addressing the Bolivarian National Armed Forces on Sunday.

Venezuela has deployed thousands of troops to its border and urged citizens to join its Bolivarian militia, with Maduro framing U.S. pressure in September as the greatest threat the continent has seen in 100 years, according to El País. The Venezuelan Army swore in 5,600 soldiers in December.

The White House has ordered U.S. forces to focus on a maritime "quarantine" of Venezuelan oil exports, interdicting tankers and tightening restrictions on sanctioned vessels in Caribbean waters.

United Nations experts denounced the U.S.'s partial maritime blockade on Venezuela as illegal, saying it violated international law and constituted armed aggression under the U.N. Charter. "As such, it is an armed attack under article 51 of the Charter—in principle giving the victim State a right of self-defense," the experts said in a news release.

The U.S. has seized at least two Venezuelan‑linked oil tankers carrying crude under sanction, which Maduro described as piracy.

Trump aides say military options remain even as the emphasis shifts toward economic pressure on Caracas.

In a Friday interview with New York's WABC radio, Trump said the U.S. had "knocked out" a "big facility where the ships come from" two nights earlier as part of its anti-drug campaign in Latin America. U.S. officials later said Trump was referring to a drug-related site in Venezuela, but gave no details. The move could be the operation's first known land strike in the country.

Quote:President Trump joyously posted a video clip Saturday ridiculing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro – airing his rival’s previous taunts in a mocking clip hours after saying the US will now “run” Venezuela.

“Venga por mi!” the now ousted dictator shouts in a 2024 speech.

English subtitles below translate his quote while stark music plays. “Come for me,” Maduro taunts while addressing a crowd. “I’m waiting for you here in Maraflores! Don’t take too long to arrive, coward!”

Miraflores is a reference to the presidential palace in Caracas.

The video then does a quick cut to another emotional clip – this one of actor Kevin James at the 2007 Dayton 500, in a clip meant to juxtapose “Maduro” and “Trump,” making clear who is getting the last laugh.

“I’ve just got three things to say. God Bless our troops. God Bless America. And Gentlemen, start your engines!” Trump roars – with images of a Bald Eagle.

The clip also shows videos of the US attack that seized Maduro and his wife, first lady Celia Flores, and deposited them on the USS Iwo Jima to bring them to New York to face charges.

The clip had been making the rounds on Facebook before Trump posted it, hours after declaring the operation a success while calling Maduro a “dictator” and a “tough cookie.”

It wraps the Venezuela operation in the American flag at a time when some Democrats including “squad” leader Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and new Mayor Zohran Mamdani are ripping it.

An August Yahoo News fact check on the video claims that Maduro’s fiery speech was not taunting the US after the Justice Department announced a $50 million reward for information leading to his capture, but was actually tearing into opposition rival Edmundo González Urrutia, who blasted the integrity of the 2024 election that allowed Maduro to stay in power.

The US under the Biden administration recognized González as the legitimate winner.

Quote:Ousted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, touched down in New York City Saturday night after being captured by US forces — and were greeted by jeers of “Down with the dictator.”

The pair — who landed at Stewart Air National Guard Base in Upstate Newburgh around 5 p.m. — arrived via helicopter at a Manhattan heliport just before 7 p.m. and were hauled away in a heavily armed tactical vehicle called a “Bearcat” surrounded by a small motorcade.

Maduro, 63, and Flores, 69, will first be transported to the Drug Enforcement Administration Headquarters in Chelsea, where he was processed before returning to the West 30th Street Heliport and choppered to Brooklyn, sources told The Post.

He took off after 8 p.m., and was seen on video being flown down the West Side of Manhattan and past the Statue of Liberty before heading to Brooklyn.

In Brooklyn, a motorcade was set to take the couple to the Metropolitan Detention Center, as they are set to face narco-terrorism charges in the Southern District of New York, sources said.

Outside a large crowd of opponents of his regime gathered to give him a Bronx cheer in Brooklyn, yelling things like “Shame on you” and “Dirty Scumbag!”
The tyrant is expected in the federal court as early as Monday.

The Venezuelan leader and his wife were captured by US forces during a high-stakes military operation Saturday morning in Caracas, leaving the South American country in a constitutional crisis.

Maduro and Flores were charged with narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy and weapons offenses.

Maduro’s son, Nicholas Ernesto Maduro Guerra, who’s known as “The Prince,” was also charged alongside his parents for the illegal trafficking of thousands of tons of cocaine.

Trump said the couple will face the “full wrath of American justice.”

The US will run the embattled nation until a transition government is in place, “until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” he added.

Quote:President Trump issued a thinly-veiled warning to Mexico’s president Saturday while announcing the capture of Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro Saturday.

Trump, who also had strong words for the leaders of Colombia and Cuba,  said the attack on Venezuela wasn’t meant to be a warning for Mexico, but said “something’s going to have to be done” about the cartel-run country.

Trump has clashed with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo over trade tariffs, and blamed the US neighbor for allowing illegal immigration and narcotics to flow across the southern border.

“We’re very friendly with her, she’s a good woman,” Trump told Fox & Friends Saturday. “But the cartels are running Mexico — she’s not running Mexico.”

Sheinbaum said Mexico “strongly condemns and rejects” US military action in Venezuela and urged the US to end “all acts of aggression against the Venezuelan government and people,” in a statement released Saturday.

Trump also doubled down on his warning to Colombian President Gustavo Petro.

“He has cocaine mills, he has factories where he makes cocaine. And yeah, I think I stick by my first statement: He’s making cocaine,” Trump said of Petro.

“They’re sending it to the United States. So he does have to watch his ass,” Trump said at Mar-a-Lago shortly after slamming Maduro as a “narco-terrorist.”
The warning came weeks after Trump branded Petro a “troublemaker” and said he “better watch it.” Petro has been repeatedly posting criticisms online of the US operation in Venezuela.

Trump also labeled Cuba – which relies on Venezuelan oil and furnished Maduro with security guards – and its president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, a “failing nation.”

“Cuba, as you know, is not doing very well right now. That system has not been a very good one for Cuba.

The people there have suffered for many, many years, and I think Cuba is going to be something we’ll end up talking about, because Cuba is a failing nation right now.

“It’s very similar in the sense that we want to help the people in Cuba, but we want to also help the people that were forced out of Cuba and living in this country.”

Quote:Florida Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart blasted a reporter who suggested that he was not backing Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado in the wake of Nicolas Maduro’s capture.

The reporter’s question came shortly after President Trump dismissed the idea of Machado, who previously said she was dedicating her Nobel Peace Prize to him, taking the reins.

“Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa,” Díaz-Balart (R-Fla.) raged, visibly irked by the reporter’s question. “You’re talking to us? When have we ever not supported her?”

“Do not put words in my mouth,” he went on. “I will not tolerate putting words in my mouth or my colleagues’ mouths. We have been consistent from day one.”

“The next democratically elected president of Venezuela is going to be Maria Corina Machado.”

Díaz-Balart’s two GOP colleagues, Reps. Carlos Giménez (R-Fla.) and Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) nodded on in approval as he ripped into the reporter.

All three House members are Cuban-American and have been outspoken in their criticism of Maduro — whose regime is propping up the communist government of Cuba.

Earlier in the day, Saturday, Trump had publicly cast doubt on the idea of Machado leading Venezuela.

“I think it’d be very tough for her to be the leader,” Trump said during a press conference celebrating Maduro’s capture. “She doesn’t have the support or the respect within the country. She’s a very nice woman, but she doesn’t have the respect.”

Machado had won a primary in 2023 to be the opposition standard-bearer in the 2024 general election, but was barred from running by Venezuela’s government.

Quote:Many world leaders whined Saturday over the capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro and his wife, claiming the clandestine US mission was an unnecessary use of force — despite a legal precedent for it.

Allies Russia, Iran, China and Colombia were among the nations lining up Saturday to demand the Trump administration release Maduro and first lady Cilia Flores, who were headed to New York City to face federal charges of narcoterrorism.

“In view of the confirmed reports about Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his spouse being in the United States, we strongly urge the US leadership to reconsider their position and release the legitimately elected president of a sovereign country and his spouse,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“We highlight the need to create conditions for resolving any existing issues between the United States and Venezuela through dialogue.”

The United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said through a spokesperson that it was “deeply alarmed” by the use of US military force. The operation sets a “dangerous precedent” and may have violated international law, the UN warned.

The US military unleashed a stunning show of force early Saturday morning to apprehend Maduro, deploying more than 150 aircrafts, elite ground troops and overwhelming airpower, part of a massive operation that began in August. 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio called Maduro an illegitimate president — he was indicted by the US in 2020 — and a “fugitive of American justice” before his arrest.

Maduro was provided “multiple, very, very, very generous offers” to avoid his high-profile arrest but instead chose to “act like a wild man” and “play games,” said Rubio.

Maduro’s arrest is bolstered by legal precedent dating back to 1989, when the first Bush administration invaded Panama to capture dictator Manuel Noriega.

The US courts, at the time, ruled the military can physically remove someone from another country and bring them to a courtroom stateside to answer criminal charges.

Maduro’s capture was celebrated by leaders of some nations, including Argentinian President Javier Milei, who posted on social media in Spanish the caption “La Libertad Avanza,” or “Freedom advances.”

Kaja Kallas, a European Union diplomat, said Saturday she had spoken with Rubio and the EU’s ambassador in Caracas and that the EU was “closely monitoring the situation.”

She also noted the EU has “repeatedly stated that Mr. Maduro lacks legitimacy” but added, “we call for restraint. The safety of EU citizens in the country is our top priority.”

The Russian Foreign Ministry also fired off an earlier statement demanding a full meeting of the UN Security Council over Maduro’s capture, claiming the US “committed an act of armed aggression against Venezuela.”

Both Russia and China, in particular, consider oil-rich Venezuela key allies in South America.

On Friday, Maduro met with a special envoy for Chinese President Xi Jinping at the presidential palace in Caracas to reaffirm ties with China amid the escalating tensions with the US.

Quote:Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was in the crosshairs long before he was taken into custody during a U.S. military strike Saturday morning.

A former bus driver, Maduro, 63, grew up in a working class family in Caracas with both parents coming from leftist backgrounds. He followed his father into union activism and politics.

A leftist radical with close ties to Cuba, Maduro rose up through the ranks of elected office to be named Venezuela’s vice president by tyrannical President Hugo Chavez in 2012, the year before the strongman died of cancer. He was then named interim president.

Shortages and decreased living standards in the South American country led to protests in 2014 that escalated into daily marches nationwide, government oppression of dissent, and a decline in Maduro’s popularity.

Maduro, a burly moustachioed leader, was often portrayed as a clown who simply repeated Chavez’s bombastic rhetoric, but he still won a narrow victory in that year’s presidential election for a six-year term.

Maduro has been repeatedly accused over the years of leading a drug and weapons trafficking organization called Cartel of the Suns made up of high-ranking Venezuelan officials working under him. 

The allegations led Maduro to be charged in the Southern District of New York on narco-terrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine and possession of machine guns charges in March 2020.

There’s been a standing reward for him for years, which Trump upped to $50 million in 2025 after declaring the Cartel of the Suns a terrorist group and Maduro its leader.

But Maduro has denied being a cartel leader, and has accused the US of using the “war on drugs” as a reason to try to depose him and obtain his country’s vast oil reserves.

Political opposition, including from now-Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado, who is favored to follow Maduro as president, has led to continued street protests in Caracas and other cities, which have led to violent suppression and casualties.

During his 13 years as president, Maduro was often flanked by his wife, Cilia Flores, who held various high ranking positions in his administration, including attorney general. She was taken into custo[d]y with her husband.

Maduro survived an assa[s]sination attempt when drones detonated explosives near him during a televised address in 2018 injuring several soldiers, but was declared victor in the country’s election that year.

But in 2019 the National Assembly of Venezuela declared he had wrongfully seized control and was not the country’s legal president. That led more than 50 countries, including the United States, to refuse to recognize him as Venezuela’s leader.

Quote:Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, who was sworn in on Saturday, is not the country’s legitimate leader, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.

Rubio spoke with Rodriguez — the country’s vice president — after the US conducted a daring military operation to capture the former Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro.

However, he suggested the US will not support her staying in power. He called for elections to determine the next leader of the beleaguered South American country.

“This is not about the legitimate president. We don’t believe that this regime in place is legitimate via an election,” Rubio told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. “And that’s not just us. It’s 60-something countries around the world that have taken that view as well.”

“Ultimately, legitimacy for their system of government will come about through a period of transition and real elections,” he continued. “It’s the reason why Maduro is not just an indicted drug trafficker. He [was an] illegitimate president. He was not the head of state.”

Rubio revealed that the Trump administration will leverage its oil quarantine on Venezuela to force Caracas to make changes.

“I cannot overstate how crippling this is for their future, [and] that, on the other hand, there’s an alternative to that … an oil industry that actually benefits the people,” the secretary of state said.

Trump suggested Saturday that Rodriguez was the country’s proper interim leader — claiming she was cooperating with the US. However, she was quick to condemn America’s action in Venezuela as she swore loyalty to Maduro.

Rodriguez, 56, is a staunch socialist who is known for her avid support of Maduro alongside her brother, Jorge Rodriguez, who currently presides over Venezuela’s congress.

The new leader has been described as a ruthlessly ambitious and Machiavellian politician willing to do whatever is necessary to move up in the ranks, former colleagues and US officials told the Wall Street Journal.

“They are very, very manipulative,” Andrés Izarra, a former minister under Maduro who now lives in exile, told the outlet about the Rodriguez siblings.

“I think they will maneuver to stay in power as long as they can,” Izarra.

Rodriguez also maintains a close relationship with Cuba and its intelligence agency, which Maduro relied on to help rule the country and protect himself.

Rodriguez is also the daughter of Jorge Antonio Rodriguez, the mastermind behind the 1976 kidnapping of American business executive William Niehous, who was held captive for three and a half years before being released.

With Rodriguez taking a stand against the US, it remains unclear who exactly the US will back to lead the nation prior to any democratic election.

While many have backed opposition leader and Nobel Prize winner María Corina Machado or Maduro’s 2024 opponent Edmundo González to take over, Trump said he believes Machado isn’t strong enough.

Rubio also demurred. The secretary of state also tried to pour cold water on claims that the operation in Venezuela will result in a repeat of America’s prolonged war in the Middle East.

Quote:Former Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday evening condemned the Trump administration’s capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro and his wife, calling the operation both “unlawful” and “unwise.”

In a lengthy post on X, Harris acknowledged that Maduro is a “brutal” and “illegitimate” dictator but said that President Donald Trump’s actions in Venezuela “do not make America safer, stronger, or more affordable.”

“Donald Trump’s actions in Venezuela do not make America safer, stronger, or more affordable,” Harris wrote. “That Maduro is a brutal, illegitimate dictator does not change the fact that this action was both unlawful and unwise. We’ve seen this movie before.

“Wars for regime change or oil that are sold as strength but turn into chaos, and American families pay the price.”

Harris made the remarks hours after the Trump administration confirmed that Maduro and his wife were captured and transported out of Venezuela as part of “Operation Absolute Resolve.”

Quote:Socialists of a feather flock together.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s comrades in the Democratic Socialists of America want deposed Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro returned to power.

The Democratic Socialists of America put out a lengthy statement demanding “the return of President Nicolas Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores to Venezuela.”

Meanwhile, the DSA is starting a “join our “Hands Off Venezuela” to get the “imperialist” United States out of the socialist, oil-rich country.

“Solidarity with the people of Venezuela! Solidarity with the Bolivarian Revolution!”, separate DSA International Committee policy statement says.

In its statement on the removal of Maduro, the DSA claims the Trump administration has started “an illegal war” against Venezuela.

“This is a nakedly imperialist war to install a US puppet government that will give Venezuela’s oil resources over to US corporations and to force US hegemony over Latin America — the new `Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. This war is illegal both under international law and the laws governing the declaration of war within the United States,” the left-wing group’s statement says.

“Trump’s war has nothing to do with drug trafficking. There is no substantiated evidence that high-level members of the Venezuelan government are `narco-terrorists.’ Yet, the Trump administration is using this claim as the pretext for this illegal war.”

DSA likened the US military’s action to the “failed” war against Iraq, claiming it will only “impoverish the people of Latin America.”

DSA demands:

• A return of Maduro to Venezuela and restoration of diplomatic relations with the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela — the Maduro-led regime
  
• An immediate end to “military violence” against Venezuela and a total withdrawal of all US forces and operations from the Caribbean
  
• Ending sanctions against Venezuela and suspending the failed “war on drugs”
  
• A US foreign policy centered on peace, multilateralism, and respect for national sovereignty and self-determination
  

Quote:White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt warned Wednesday that “people will be in handcuffs” as fallout grows from expansive fraud allegations under Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s watch.

“President Trump is not going to let Governor Walz off the hook,” Leavitt told “Fox & Friends,” echoing arguments that responsibility lies with the governor as the alleged fraud occurred under his administration.

Leavitt said the Trump administration has surged federal resources into Minnesota, with multiple agencies conducting investigations tied to the alleged fraud.

Among them, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is conducting door-to-door operations at alleged fraud sites, a key federal effort ICE Director Todd Lyons discussed Tuesday on the Fox News Channel.

“This is a top priority for the administration,” Leavitt reiterated.

“The Department of Justice, as we speak, is continuing to execute search warrants and subpoenas… The Department of Homeland Security is conducting door-to-door investigations on the ground at potential fraud sites, and they’re also conducting continued deportations of illegal aliens in Minnesota’s communities.”

“We’re also not afraid to use denaturalization,” she continued.

“That’s a tool at the president and the Secretary of State’s disposal, and it’s one this administration has previously used before.”

The Health and Human Services, Agriculture and Labor Departments are also involved, with one cutting off childcare funding to Minnesota until the investigation is fully explored, another digging into the unemployment insurance program and the third writing a letter demanding Walz hand over the name of every SNAP recipient in the state.

Quote:A man was found dead at Disney World over the weekend – the sixth death to rock the “Most Magical Place on Earth” in recent months, authorities said.

The body was found around 9 p.m. Friday night in Disney Springs, a shopping center in the sprawling Florida amusement park.

Little has been released about the condition the body was found in, but officials suspect the incident was a suicide.

“Deputies responded to the Disney Springs Orange Garage on East Buena Vista Drive and discovered a man who was deceased,” the Orange County Sheriff’s Office told News 6.

“This incident is being investigated as a possible suicide. We have no additional information to release and will have no further updates this weekend,” they added.

The death was the first to at Disney World of the new year, but was just the sixth to happen there since October.

Quote:Plaintiffs claim the beloved McRib is a big McFib.

McDonald’s, purveyor of America’s favorite rack-of-ribs-shaped sandwich, has been hit with a federal class-action suit accusing the chain of misleading millions of customers by falsely marketing its McRib as containing real pork rib meat.

At the heart of the complaint, filed Dec. 23 in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, is the name and presentation of the product, which plaintiffs argue would lead a reasonable consumer to believe it contains actual rib meat when in fact it does not.

The primary ingredient of the sandwich, which has found a cult following thanks in part to its on-again, off-again status on McDonald’s menu, is restructured pork composed of parts like shoulder, heart, tripe and scalded stomach.

Included among the suit’s 16 legal claims are allegations of fraud, breach of warranty, contract violations and violations of state consumer protection laws. It also alleges the McRib’s fleeting inclusion on the fast-food giant’s menu dissuades customers from scrutinizing its ingredients.

Plaintiffs Peter Le, Charles Lynch, Dorien Baker and Derrick Wilson are seeking federal class certification on behalf of millions of McRib purchasers over the last four years, as well as subclass certifications in California, New York, Illinois and Washington, DC.

A McDonald’s spokesperson told The Independent that the McRib doesn’t use hearts, tripe or scalded stomach — and that its only ingredients are 100 percent boneless pork, barbecue sauce, onions and pickles.

“This lawsuit distorts the facts and many of the claims are inaccurate. Food quality and safety are at the heart of everything we do – that’s why we’re committed to using real, quality ingredients across our entire menu,” the spokesperson said.

Quote:Former President Joe Biden’s long career in politics allowed him to retire with the largest taxpayer-funded pension of any ex-prez in US history — $417,000, or more than his presidential salary, an expert says.

Biden, 83, was in line to rake in the massive amount from two pension funds in his first year as former president, according to an analysis by National Taxpayer Union Foundation Vice President Demian Brady.

“It’s pretty unusual, historically unusual, to have such a large pension amount,” Brady told The Post.

“I would have to say that it’s the largest,” the taxpayer advocate said when asked to compare Biden’s pension to his predecessors.

The hefty estimated annual sum is double what Biden’s former boss, Barack Obama, has received in retirement pay after leaving the White House and $17,000 more than Biden’s $400,000-per-year presidential salary.

It also reflects Biden’s “unique situation” as a former senator, vice president and president, a career path that has allowed him to take advantage of a “loophole” letting him tap into multiple taxpayer-backed retirement funds, Brady said. 

Biden, who once described himself as “one of the poorest members” of Congress, is able to collect the lucrative payouts by double-dipping in benefits established under the Former Presidents Act of 1958 as well as the Civil Service Retirement System for ex-senators.

Annual pay in the CSRS pension plan is determined by a formula that takes into account Biden’s 44 years in the Senate and as vice president, as well as his three highest years of salary during that span.

“Biden’s starting pension could be as much as $166,374, including an $18,186 set aside in the program for the spousal portion of benefit,” according to Brady, who noted his estimate assumes Biden sought to maximize the size of his Senate pension.

The former prez would have raked in more than $254,000 in annual benefits from CSRS if not for a cap limiting his annual payouts to 80% of his highest salary, which was $230,700 a year as vice president and president of the Senate.

Quote:The Bail Project has poured more than $90 million into bailing suspects out of jail, including individuals who later killed people while free on bail.

The organization says its mission is to provide “free bail assistance” and “reunite families.” In multiple instances, however, defendants bailed out by the organization later killed someone, at times shortly after being released from jail. In total, the organization claimed in a 2024 report that it has provided $91 million in “bail assistance” to defendants.

Below are individuals accused or convicted of murder after The Bail Project paid their bail.

Donnie Allen

Donnie Allen allegedly murdered 27-year-old Benjamin McComas at a Cleveland rail station around 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 14, according to FOX 8.

Allen was previously charged with drug possession, breaking and entering, vandalism, obstructing official business and possessing criminal tools in relation to a separate incident at a Cleveland rail station on Dec. 4.

His bond was initially set at $15,000, but Judge Joy Kennedy lowered it to $5,000 on Dec. 8.

The Bail Project provided the $500 for Allen to be bonded out of the Cuyahoga County Jail.

Five days after being released from jail, Allen was arrested for the alleged murder of McComas.

Two family members told Fox News Digital they had told The Bail Project that Allen shouldn’t be released, because he would continue to reoffend and needs professional help or to remain incarcerated.

The group ignored their warnings, they said.

“We knew that he would end up in [jail] anyway, because he does break into people’s cars and whatnot. We just, we’ve always wanted the best for him. Whenever he starts doing good, he self-sabotages and just ends up back in jail. And that’s the reason why we felt the need to let them know that they shouldn’t post his bail,” one family member told Fox News Digital. “I just feel like the whole situation could have been avoided and a life would be living had they listened to what we had to say when they asked.”

Quote:Government whistleblowers who reported widespread fraud in Minnesota were retaliated against on the job by having their vacations and promotions denied — and their every keystroke at work monitored, The Post has learned.

Rep. Kristin Robbins, a Republican who chairs the state’s Fraud Prevention and State Oversight committee, told The Post that whistleblowers who have come forward to report fraud to her committee and to their agencies claimed to be “electronically surveilled” after news stories about the Somali daycare center scams went viral.

“The group of whistleblowers that I interact with claim that they’ve been denied vacations, promotions, and that it’s hurt their careers,” said Robbins, who is running for governor against the incumbent and former Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz.

“As recently as a couple of weeks ago they told me that every time [fraud] flares up [in the news] they can tell — two of them their job is in the IT world — can tell that they’re being surveilled on the computers in the department’s chat function for words like ‘fraud’ or ‘reporting’ and there’s sort of a chilling effect of knowing that they are looking for people who are talking about fraud,” Robbins said.

These whistleblowers are reporting instances of fraud in the health services industry, including child daycares, adult daycare centers, and autism centers, according to Robbins.

The gubernatorial hopeful revealed the group of whistleblowers she interacts with goes to extreme lengths to maintain their anonymity.

“It’s a really large group,” Robbins said. “When I meet with them it’s electronic and they’re all behind a screen and they have one person who is unidentified who then relays questions to the group.”

She added: “When they call, it’s a blocked number. I just know to pick up when it’s a blocked number now. They’re very protective of themselves.”

The group has good reason to be protective, with two high profile whistleblowers previously facing repercussions for reporting fraud.

Quote:Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for the United States to detain Russian President Vladimir Putin — after US forces captured ousted Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro in an overnight operation.

Zelensky didn’t hold back when pressed about the US toppling Maduro’s regime after President Trump ordered airstrikes on military sites around the Venezuelan capital of Caracas early Saturday morning.

“How should I react to this? What can I say?” the Ukrainian leader told reporters after meeting with European national security advisers Saturday.

“If it’s possible to deal with dictators this way, then the US knows what to do next,” he added, suggesting that Trump should handle Putin the same way, as Russia continues its attacks on Ukraine three years after invading the war-torn country.

Russia was among several nations Saturday that demanded the Trump administration release Maduro and his wife, Celia Flores, after they were captured from their home in the South American country.

“In view of the confirmed reports about Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his spouse being in the United States, we strongly urge the US leadership to reconsider their position and release the legitimately elected president of a sovereign country and his spouse,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

“We highlight the need to create conditions for resolving any existing issues between the United States and Venezuela through dialogue.”

The couple arrived in New York City Saturday night to face federal narco-terrorism charges.

Trump said the couple will face the “full wrath of American justice.”

Quote:A Russian drone barrage left six people injured, including three children, after the bombs hit apartment buildings in southern Ukraine on Wednesday, officials said.

At least four apartment buildings were hit in the city of Odessa, with a toddler listed among the wounded children, regional military administration head Oleh Kiper said.

Kipler slammed the overnight attacks as “further evidence of the enemy’s terror tactics, which deliberately target civilian infrastructure.”

The bombardment also targeted the city’s energy grid, with two facilities sustaining significant damage, according to the DTEK power provider.

The company said 10 substations that help power the greater Odessa region have been damaged in December as Russia piles on its attacks on Ukraine’s energy grid during the winter. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Moscow of intensifying its attacks on Kyiv’s energy infrastructure as a means to freeze out Ukrainian residents during the bitter winter months.

The ever-escalating attacks have also marked one of the deadliest years of the war yet.

Between January and November 2025, more than 2,300 Ukrainian civilians were killed by Russia’s attacks, with more than 11,000 others injured, according to the United Nations.

That represents a 26% increase from the previous year, and a 70% increase from 2023.

Wednesday’s strike comes just days after President Trump met with his Ukrainian counterpart to discuss the ongoing cease-fire proposal.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed confidence that he will achieve victory in the nearly four-year war. 

“We believe in you and our victory,” Putin told his troops during his traditional New Year’s address.

Quote:Russia accused Ukraine on Thursday of killing at least 24 people, including a child, in a drone strike on a hotel and cafe where civilians were seeing in the New Year in a Russian-controlled part of Ukraine’s southern Kherson region.

Ukraine’s military, which has accused Russia of killing many civilians in its own attacks on Ukrainian cities, did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-installed governor of the region, first made the accusation about the strike in a statement. Russia’s Foreign Ministry and senior Russian politicians later accused Ukraine of carrying out “a terrorist attack”.

Reuters was not able to immediately verify photographs of what Saldo’s press service said was the aftermath of the attack or the allegation.

At least one dead body was visible in the images beneath a white sheet. The building showed signs that a fierce fire had raged and there were what looked like blood stains on the ground.

Saldo said in his statement that three Ukrainian drones had struck the site of New Year celebrations in Khorly, a coastal village, in what he said was a “deliberate strike” against civilians. He said that many people had been burnt alive.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said initial information indicated that 24 people, including one child, had been killed, and that 50 people had been injured, including six minors who were being treated in hospital.

“There is no doubt that the attack was planned in advance, with drones deliberately targeting areas where civilians had gathered to celebrate New Year’s Eve,” the ministry said in a statement, calling the attack “a war crime”.

So were Russian politicians and military men expecting this war to be one-sided only?  That would be laughable  indeed.

Quote:Russian athletes at the upcoming Winter Olympics in Milan will be barred from competing for the Kremlin — no matter what.

Even if a peace deal is reached with invaded neighbor Ukraine, Russian competitors at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games will not be able to compete under their national flag, International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera on Friday.

“At this stage, nothing would change the Committee’s decision,” Coventry told the outlet ahead of the games, which run from Feb. 6-22.

The IOC will be upholding the sanctions introduced nearly four years ago due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

“The channel is open with the Olympic Committees of Russia … ,” Coventry replied when asked if the IOC has been speaking with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin.

The continued ban means that athletes with Belarusian or Russian passports can only participate as Individual Neutral Athletes (AINs), representing themselves.

They are prohibited from using their country’s flags, anthems, or team uniforms — and are not permitted to compete in team events or participate in the opening ceremony.

The decision on whether AINs will be allowed to partake in the closing ceremonies is still to be determined and “will be taken during the Games, taking into consideration that it is not teams that take part in the Closing Ceremony, but all the athletes jointly together,” the Olympics website explained.

Quote:Russian President Vladimir Putin’s wild claim that a swarm of Ukrainian drones targeted his home was a “bold-faced lie” made out of “desperation” to undermine peace negotiations, retired Army Gen. Jack Keane argued Friday.

“He’s not capable of taking Ukraine … He knows that the economy is crunching in on him,” Keane, a Fox News military analyst, said of Putin during an appearance on “Fox & Friends.”

In contrast, the retired four-star general observed that President Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, have appeared unified and made progress on “coming to an agreed position” to end the war.

Putin “resented” what was taking place and resorted to lying to Trump about the purported drone attack in an effort to derail talks, according to Keane.

“In desperation, he talks to the president about Ukraine attacking his residence and he’s shutting down negotiations – that is a bold-faced lie,” Keane said.

Keane cited an analysis conducted by the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War, which determined there is no evidence to back up the Kremlin’s claim that Putin’s country home in Russia’s northwest Novgorod region was targeted by 91 Ukrainian drones.

“No social media in the neighborhood blowing up on the social media sites like they always do when there is a major drone attack,” the retired general noted.

“No air defense systems firing anything, no evidence of any damage, no evidence of any drones on the ground being destroyed,” he continued. “And now the United States government, I think, is leaking the fact that this did not happen.”

CIA Director John Ratcliffe briefed Trump about the alleged attack on Wednesday, a source told The Post. That afternoon, Trump posted a link to The Post’s editorial arguing that Putin was likely lying about the alleged assault.

Quote:Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced Friday two major changes to his government, bringing on Ukraine’s drone czar Mykhailo Federov as Kyiv’s new minister of defense and naming intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov to run the presidential office, placing some of Ukraine’s most popular figures at the heart of its war strategy and political apparatus.

Fedorov, 34, has served as Ukraine’s deputy prime minister and minister of digital transformation since 2019, spearheading Kyiv’s impressive drone warfare efforts early in the war and revolutionizing digital defense efforts.

He will take over for former Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, who was named to the Defense Ministry role in July.

“Mykhailo is deeply involved in the issues related to the Drone Line and works very effectively on digitalizing public services and processes,” Zelensky said. “Together with all our military, the army command, national weapons producers, and Ukraine’s partners, we must implement defense-sector changes that will be of help.”

Meanwhile, 39-year-old Budanov accepted the post that is roughly equivalent to White House chief of staff, calling it an “honour and a profound commitment, especially at this decisive moment in our country’s history, to focus on issues critical to Ukraine’s strategic security” in a statement on X.

The decorated lieutenant general has led Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence since August 2020 and become a household name for masterminding covert operations deep behind Russian lines.

The new appointments continue Zelensky’s pivot to staffing his administration with security and military figures from the civilian operatives who dominated Ukraine’s politics before Moscow’s February 2022 invasion.

Both Fedorov and Budanov are popular among the general Ukrainian public, as well as with Western officials.

On Thursday, Ukraine’s intelligence services released a video of Budanov speaking to Denis Kapustin, a far-right Russian militant and key enemy of Vladimir Putin, after pulling off an elaborate scheme faking Kapustin’s assassination by drone.

'We are free, we are happy'
Venezuelans around the world celebrate the capture of Maduro

Olivia Christie, DailyMail UK Wrote:Venezuelans around the world are celebrating the capture of President Nicolas Maduro after he was flown out of the country and indicted on drugs charges in the United States.

More than eight million citizens have fled Venezuela since 2014 due to rampant violence, inflation, gang warfare and shortages of food and medicine. 

As a result, the country has been left facing one of the largest displacement crises in the world, according to the United Nations.

So while Maduro's capture sent shockwaves around the world, jubilant Venezuelans spilled out onto the streets today to welcome the news with singing and dancing.

Many were pictured holding both US and Venezuelan flags in a gesture to Donald Trump, who ordered the special forces operation to capture Maduro.

One person celebrating in Chile said: 'I've come to celebrate because the dictatorship has fallen, Maduro's drug trafficking has fallen, and Nicolas Maduro and Diosdado Cabello.

'We are free, we are all happy that the dictatorship has fallen and that we have a free country.'

Another in Doral, Florida, added: 'Today, justice is being served. Justice is being served for all the Venezuelans who left our country to demonstrate who we are.

Many people were pictured holding both US and Venezuelan flags in a gesture to Donald Trump, who ordered the special forces operation to capture Maduro

Venezuelans living in Chile celebrate the capture of Nicolas Maduro in Santiago on January 3

'We are fighters, we entrepreneurs, we are good people but we want to return to our country and rebuild, move forward and continue being that force that we have always been.

'Long live Venezuela.'

Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were seized by the US Army's elite Delta Force unit during airstrikes in Caracas at around 2am local time on Saturday.

Explosions rang out across the city, with flames seen billowing into the air.

Speaking to The New York Times, nine minutes after he announced the raid, Trump said: 'A lot of good planning and lot of great, great troops and great people.

'It was a brilliant operation, actually.' Asked if he had consulted Congress prior to authorizing the strike, Trump said: 'We'll discuss that.'

The security-conscious Maduros were having their location tracked by the CIA in the days leading up to their capture, CNN reported.

Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez has demanded 'proof of life,' suggesting he fears Maduro and Flores may have been killed during the operation.

Venezuelans around the world are celebrating the capture of President Nicolas Maduro

.    .    .

President Trump says Maduro and his government have conspired to flood the United States with illegal drugs.

Maduro was indicted in 2020, during Trump's first term as president, on charges of importing cocaine into the United States.

Trump offered a $15million reward for his arrest at the time.

That rose to $25million during the final days of former President Joe Biden's administration and was doubled to $50million in August 2025 after Trump began his second term as president.

Trump alleges Maduro is leader of a drug running organization called Cartel de los Soles and has designated the group a foreign terrorist organization.

On Saturday morning, United States Attorney General Pam Bondi said Maduro 'will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts'.

She said Maduro will face multiple weapons charges in addition to the drug counts he is facing.

.    .    .

Venezuelans in South Florida mark Maduro's ouster as 'day of freedom'

Valentina Palm, Hannah Phillips, Antonio Fins Palm Beach Post/USA Today Wrote:PALM BEACH, FL — Miriam Hidalgo woke at 3 a.m. on Jan. 3 to the phone call the 66-year-old Venezuelan-American has waited decades to receive: The U.S. had taken Nicolás Maduro, her homeland's president, into custody.
 
The move filled the Palm Beach County, Florida, resident — who moved to the U.S. in 1995 to raise her two daughters away from the instability she felt brewing in the place she was born — with relief and joy.
 
“After 30 years living in this country, to see the government doing something so wonderful, it makes me so happy,” Hidalgo said as she stood hours later with other supporters near Mar-a-Lago, the Palm Beach estate where President Donald Trump gave the order to make the military action happen.
 
Hidalgo was one of thousands of people across South Florida to stop and celebrate the ouster of a man whose government they say is marked by corruption, authoritarian tactics, widespread food shortages, the collapse of public services, hyperinflation and, U.S. prosecutors say, narco-terrorism.

Reaction from Palm Beach County after US Operation in Venezuela

'Today is the day of freedom'
 
Edgar Rodriguez got his call about the operation in Caracas two hours before Hildago. He stood in a sea of Venezuela's colors — red, blue and yellow — outside the El Arepazo restaurant in Doral, Florida, and said the ouster of the South American nation's strongman had him hoping that one day, he might return home.
 
“It’s 26 years of a nightmare,” Rodriguez, a coordinator for Vente Venezuela, the political party many say ousted Maduro from the presidency in the 2024 election. “So many innocent people have died. There are so many tortured political prisoners and families separated by people being forced to flee the country.”
 
“Today is the day of freedom,” Rodriguez added. “Today, that nightmare finally comes to an end.”
 
The scene around Rodriguez grew more festive as more than 100 people descended on the restaurant, a landmark that stands about a mile northwest of Trump National Doral Miami golf club.
 
Some draped the Venezuelan flag on their backs, others held posters saying “Freedom for Venezuela” and “Until the end," and much of the crowd of more than 100 put their hands on their chests and sang their nation's anthem, "Gloria Al Bravo Pueblo," in unison. 
 
“USA! USA! USA!" they chanted as they finished.

Quote:WASHINGTON — The White House said Tuesday that the US military could seize Greenland — after President Trump again expressed interest in acquiring the Danish-ruled island.

“The President and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal, and of course, utilizing the U.S. Military is always an option at the Commander in Chief’s disposal,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement first reported by Reuters.

“President Trump has made it well known that acquiring Greenland is a national security priority of the United States, and it’s vital to deter our adversaries in the Arctic region,” Leavitt said.

Trump’s long-held desire to annex the world’s largest island resurfaced shortly after the American raid Saturday that captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Former Trump administration official Katie Miller, the wife of deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller, tweeted a map of Greenland covered with the US flag hours after the military operation — drawing outrage from Copenhagen and the semi-autonomous island’s leaders.

Responding to reporter questions, Trump said Sunday: “We’ll worry about Greenland in about two months. Let’s talk about Greenland in 20 days.”

“Right now, Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place,” Trump said in the press cabin of Air Force One.

“We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security. And Denmark is not gonna be able to do it, I can tell you. You know what Denmark did recently to boost up security in Greenland? They added one more dog sled.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told members of Congress that an invasion of Greenland, home to about 57,000 people, is not imminent and that the goal is to buy the island, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Denmark in 1917 sold the Danish West Indies — now the US Virgin Islands — to Washington in exchange for $25 million in gold.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Monday that a US military takeover would end the NATO alliance.

“If the United States chooses to attack another NATO country militarily, then everything stops,” she said. “That is, including our NATO and thus the security that has been provided since the end of the Second World War.”

Greenlandic premier Jens Frederik Nielsen, meanwhile, called Miller’s tweet “disrespectful” and declared “our country is not for sale.”

In a joint statement, European leaders stressed that “Greenland belongs to its people,” and maintained the importance of Arctic security.

Quote:WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Marco Rubio is jumpstarting President Trump’s long-sought bid to acquire Greenland after the daring capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro has given the administration just the right “machismo” to purchase the strategically located island.

Rubio told reporters Wednesday that he was scheduled to meet with officials from Denmark, which colonized Greenland in the 1700s and still exerts control over its affairs, as soon as next week — but declined to confirm reports that Trump hopes to buy the island.

The White House and Cabinet officials have supported the move to obtain the world’s largest island — and sources familiar with the administration’s discussions expressed that Trump is “extremely serious” about purchasing it being the best way.

“The United States is eager to build lasting commercial relationships that benefit Americans and the people of Greenland,” a State Department spokesperson said. “Our common adversaries have been increasingly active in the Arctic. That is a concern that the United States, the Kingdom of Denmark, and NATO Allies share.”

Details of the US-Denmark summit were not immediately forthcoming, but the price tag for Greenland could come out to at least $3.3 billion, per the World Bank, less than 1% of the federal government’s total projected $7 trillion in spending this fiscal year.

However, that price tag doesn’t include the market price of its untapped mineral reserves.

A Cold War-era pact granted that positioning to American troops, with the military’s Pituffik Space Base already located far to the northwestern side of Greenland, leading some critics to question the prudence of nabbing the Danish-controlled island — whether through diplomacy or military force.

The Greenland agreement, signed in April 1951, allows the US to “construct, install, maintain, and operate” more military bases on the island as well as “house personnel” and “control landings, takeoffs, anchorages, moorings, movements, and operation of ships, aircraft, and waterborne craft,” The New York Times first reported.

“The president keeps his options open, but diplomacy is always the first,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a press briefing.

Quote:WASHINGTON — President Trump said Friday that the US will acquire Greenland “whether they like it or not” because “if we don’t do it, China or Russia will.”

Trump vowed Denmark would transfer Greenland “the easy way” or “the hard way.”

“Ownership” is necessary, Trump insisted at the White House, because “you don’t defend leases the same way — you have to own it.”

The remarks were Trump’s most forceful to date on taking the world’s largest island and come just three days after White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said military action was “always an option.”

The setting of the comments, notably, was a forum with oil executives to discuss divvying up Venezuela’s oil resources following the Saturday US raid that captured that country’s president Nicolas Maduro.

On Greenland, Trump ruled out compromises such as Copenhagen allowing for an enhanced US military presence or a free-association compact with an independent local government.

“When we own it, we defend it. You don’t defend leases the same way. You have to own it,” Trump said.

“Countries can’t make nine-year deals, or even 100-year deals. Countries have to have ownership. And you defend ownership, you don’t defend leases, and we’ll have to defend Greenland. If we don’t do it, China or Russia will — not going to happen.”

Greenland, home to about 57,000 people, would be the largest US territorial acquisition in history — exceeding the land area of the 1803 Louisiana Purchase from France and the 1867 Alaska Purchase from Russia.

Although the billionaire developer-turned-president is said to pine for a record-breaking real estate deal to plant Old Glory in the Land of Ice and Snow, he insisted Friday he’s not currently considering a price.

“I’m not talking about money for Greenland yet. I might talk about that, but right now, we are going to do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not, because if we don’t do it, Russia or China will take over Greenland, and we’re not going to have Russia or China as a neighbor,” Trump said.

Quote:From May until late July, Greenland experiences 24 hours of daylight. In spite of that, there is so much about the world’s largest island that remains a mystery.

And despite the fact that 80 percent of Greenland is under a 1.6-mile-deep icecap, the place is currently hot. Since his return to office in 2025, President Trump has made it very clear he wants the vast frozen land to become part of the US.

So eager is Trump to take it over that, according to the White House this week, “utilizing the US military [is] an option.”

But given that almost the entirety of the frozen island is uninhabitable, why?

“Greenland is key for technology, security and space exploration,” Tom Dans, who leads the United States Arctic Research Commission, told The Post.

“Trump has a long-term perspective on this region.”

The only problem is that the island — which has a population of just 60,000, a quarter of whom live in the capital city, Nuuk — is already taken.

Although geographically part of North America, Greenland is a self-governing territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, a member of the European Union and a US ally.

Both Denmark and EU members have been firm in saying the land is not for sale, and they wouldn’t react too well to a military invasion — although what they would potentially do about it remains a question mark.

The US already has one military base in Greenland, but Trump wants it all. Although he initially floated military action, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has downplayed that, saying the US would prefer to work through diplomacy with Denmark and Greenland and buy out the land. 

As Trump himself put it aboard Air Force One, “Right now, Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place. We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security.”

Justina Budginaite-Froehly, a nonresident senior fellow of the Atlantic Council, explained that the island’s location is “strategic,” particularly for monitoring adversaries such as China and Russia.

“If you are controlling the territory, you can, with new technology, build sensors there; Greenland is a huge platform for observing,” said Budginaite-Froehly.

“You can build infrastructure to establish situational awareness of that area and project further power.

Budginaite-Froehly also noted the “Greenland, Iceland and UK gap,” two vast expanses of sea between the three countries, through which Russia can launch, via its northernmost ports, nuclear submarines into the waters off Europe or the US.

Quote:Danish troops must open fire — even without direct orders — if invaders try to capture Greenland by force, Denmark’s Defense Ministry said as the US weighs military action to annex the land.

The ministry confirmed Wednesday that soldiers are required to uphold a Cold War-era rule to  “immediately take up the fight” against any foreign force threatening Danish territory, local Berlingske reported.

The 1952 directive explicitly states that troops must fight without waiting for commands, even if their leaders are unaware of a formal declaration of war, Denmark’s Defense Command and Ministry told the outlet.

The order was initially created as a result of the Nazi attack on Denmark in 1940, when the country’s communication system partially collapsed and military units were left unsure of how to respond to the invading army.

The order has since remained standing in Denmark, which oversees Greenland and has rejected President Trump’s proposals for the US to purchase or seize the island.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen slammed the Trump administration’s latest attempts to claim the island as a US territory, saying an attack on the autonomous territory would mark an end to the NATO defense alliance.

“If the United States chooses to attack another NATO country militarily, then everything stops,” Frederiksen said on Monday.

The Joint Arctic Command, Denmark’s military authority in Greenland, is the agency that would ultimately assess what constitutes an attack on the island.

The warning comes after the White House said Tuesday that the US could use military action to seize Greenland.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has since been tasked with meeting with Danish officials to reportedly jumpstart efforts to purchase the island nation.

Quote:ROME — Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said she did not believe the United States would use military force to seize Greenland, warning on Friday that such a move would have grave consequences for NATO.

At her traditional New Year’s press conference, Meloni said a reinforced NATO presence in the Arctic would help address U.S. concerns about rival powers gaining influence in the region, reducing pressure for unilateral action by Washington.

“I continue not to believe in the hypothesis that the United States would launch a military action to take control of Greenland, an option I would clearly not support,” said Meloni, one of U.S. President Donald Trump’s closest allies in Europe.

Her comments come amid rising tensions over U.S. policy in the Arctic and Europe’s role in shaping security policy, after last weekend’s U.S. swoop on Venezuela rekindled concerns about Trump’s intentions towards Greenland.

Threat to NATO

While most EU leaders criticised the United States for grabbing President Nicolas Maduro in a daring military raid, Meloni said she had supported the operation.

“I agreed with Trump on Venezuela. I do not agree with him on Greenland,” she said, adding that it would not be in anyone’s interest for the United States to seize the vast territory, which is strategically located between Europe and North America.

“I think it would not even be in the interest of the United States of America, to be clear,” Meloni added.

The White House said on Tuesday that the U.S. was considering a range of options to acquire Greenland, including the use of military force.

The Italian leader said it was “clear to everyone” that any U.S. move on Greenland would have a significant impact on NATO, adding this was the reason she did not think Washington would follow through on its threats.

Quote:Billions of dollars in alleged fraudulent healthcare spending is being investigated in California, specifically probing foreign nationals operating illegal hospice facilities — officials announced Friday in a bombshell press conference.

“We have witnessed a sevenfold increase in hospice in LA County, sevenfold. That doesn’t happen naturally,” Dr Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services told The Post during at the press conference.

“There is not seven times more deaths in LA County than there were five years ago. These are fraudsters, and these do tend to be foreign influences, either Russian and Armenian gangs, mafia, that are leading a lot of these efforts.”

Fraudsters who run these facilities are working with about “100 bad doctors,” who convince a patient they’re dying to enroll them in hospice care, Dr Oz said, adding about 100,000 people have handed over their Medicare numbers.

“We are major focused on this issue, and I think our suspicion, our belief, is that the fraud in California will magnify whatever’s happening in Minnesota,” United States Attorney Bill Essayli said. “What’s happening in Minnesota pales in comparison to the level of fraud that we believe is occurring in California.”

Dr Oz said the Trump administration is also cracking down on taxpayer money being used to treat illegal immigrants for elective procedures.

“We’ve already identified about $1.3 billion of federal dollars spent to take care of illegal immigrants,” Dr Oz said. “The state is giving that money back.”

Hundreds of billions of dollars flow through California’s healthcare system, according to Essayli, who said $10 billion is for “illegal immigrant health care.”

“No federal dollars is supposed to be used for that,” said Essayli, who back in April launched a task force investigating corruption in the state, specifically focused on homelessness.

And even so Newsom won't stop spending tax payers' money like crazy.

Quote:California Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled a record-high $350 billion state budget Friday that makes “historic” investments in areas like education — but kicks the can on paying down federal debt, foisting costs onto struggling employers.

Newsom’s budget incorporates a $43 billion windfall tied to the stock market that he touted in his State of the State speech Thursday, bringing his office’s estimated deficit down to $3 billion — the state’s fourth deficit in a row. The budget plows billions into maintaining education, health care, and other programs but ignores a $20 billion federal loan for Covid unemployment payments — a situation one legislator called “alarming.”

Ignoring the loan means small businesses are on the hook for the state’s debt, said state Sen. Roger Niello of Fair Oaks.

“We already have the highest unemployment in the nation and we’re putting this additional burden on our employers. It makes absolutely no sense,” Niello said.

The budget includes $662.2 million in mandatory interest payments, but there is no money going towards the principal.

Since July, the total balance has ballooned to $21.3 billion, and private employers in California pick up the tab under federal rules. Employers pay an $42 extra per employee this year and growing, per KCRA

Every state expect California has paid off the Covid-era loans.

“That is an alarming thing because [Newsom is] basically saying that businesses and employment are not a priority to him and that’s troubling,” Niello added.

At 5.5%, California’s unemployment rate was the highest in the country as of November.

Newsom’s $350 billion budget proposal is about $30 billion higher than this year’s budget, thanks largely to federal healthcare cuts that forced costs onto the state and mandatory set-asides in areas like education.

Quote:New York is suing President Trump’s administration over its move to freeze $10 billion in child care and social services funding to Democrat-led states — calling it “cruel.”

The spending halt amounted to an unconstitutional act of political retribution that would have “devastating” impacts on low-income and vulnerable families, the scathing federal lawsuit filed Thursday by state Attorney General Letitia James and four of her blue-state peers contended.

Gov. Kathy Hochul revealed the lawsuit during a PIX11 interview, harshly condemning the cuts.

“Donald Trump is literally declaring war on kids,” she said. “They’re just using this as a fishing expedition to go after New Yorkers.”

Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services this week froze the funding to five states — California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York — over concerns that the benefits were fraudulently funneled to non-citizens.

The move followed heightened scrutiny over a long-simmering fraud scandal in Minnesota.

But James and her fellow attorneys general argued in the lawsuit that Trump officials already had ways to handle potential fraud without resorting to a freeze.

Instead, the Trump administration took a “shoot first ask questions later” approach cutting off funding while asking the states to provide evidence that could confirm officials’ fraud suspicions, the lawsuit argues.

“In short, Defendants have publicly stoked allegations of fraud, including Plaintiff States purportedly providing unlawful benefits to undocumented immigrants, regardless of whether they have been substantiated, and used those speculative allegations as a pretextual justification to punish perceived political enemies of the Trump Administration by unlawfully withholding critical funding pending purported fraud detection measures unauthorized by any statute,” the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court seeks an order declaring the freeze illegal and putting a stop to it.

Quote:Christopher Raia, the head of the FBI’s New York field office, will replace Dan Bongino as deputy director of the bureau, an FBI spokesperson said Friday.

Raia, a career agent, was asked to take the FBI’s No. 2 position and he accepted, the bureau spokesperson said.

Raia will report to Washington, DC, on Monday to start the new job.

As deputy director, Raia will assist FBI Director Kash Patel and Co-Deputy Director Andrew Bailey manage the bureau’s more than 30,000 employees.

Raia’s hiring means the unusual three-person leadership structure at the FBI – implemented when Bailey was hired in August amid reports of infighting at the bureau surrounding the handling of an investigation into pedophile Jeffrey Epstein – will remain in place.

The new deputy director has been with the bureau since 2003 and served as the FBI’s top counterterrorism official before leading the New York Field Office.

It’s unclear who will replace Raia in New York.

Raia’s predecessor at the New York field office, James Dennehy, was forced to retire in March as part of sweeping changes to the bureau made by the Trump administration.

Bongino announced in December that he would leave his position at the FBI in January, after less than a year on the job.

“I want to thank President Trump, AG [Pam] Bondi, and Director Patel for the opportunity to serve with purpose,” he wrote in an X post announcing his decision. “Most importantly, I want to thank you, my fellow Americans, for the privilege to serve you.”

After Bongino’s announcement, President Trump told reporters, “Dan did a great job. I think he wants to go back to his show.”

Quote:A blistering anti-police, anti-ICE screed played out inside Los Angeles City Hall Friday — not as a protest gone rogue, but as a fully sanctioned event, greenlit and hosted by far-left DSA Councilwoman Eunisses Hernandez.

The presentation took place behind what is widely regarded as a “sacred” area of City Hall, a space reserved for official proceedings and accessible only with approval from council leadership. The event was allowed to proceed uninterrupted for 15 minutes, with speakers calling to “abolish police,” denouncing law enforcement funding and urging the city to divest from LAPD.

The event centered on the New Year’s Eve shooting of Keith Porter, who was fatally shot by an off-duty ICE agent after allegedly firing a rifle into the air, an illegal and dangerous practice city officials warn can seriously injure or kill bystanders when bullets fall back to the ground.

Porter’s family and advocates argue the ICE agent overreacted.

Inside City Hall, speakers and attendees wore “Abolish Police” jackets and shirts reading “F— the police.” One attendee wore a keffiyeh, a polarizing symbol increasingly visible at far-left demonstrations.

Black Lives Matter Los Angeles activist Joseph Williams used the official forum to demand divestment from law enforcement and to blame both federal immigration enforcement and local policing for Porter’s death.

“We must move money away from law enforcement,” Williams told councilmembers, calling on them to hold the mayor accountable and redirect city resources.

Williams is no stranger to City Hall confrontations. He previously helped lead Black Lives Matter protests that clashed with LAPD officers in riot gear during the council’s leaked-audio scandal, when demonstrators attempted to force their way into the building and accused police of brutality.

Hernandez, the far-left District 1 councilmember who swept into office in 2022 on a police-abolition platform, presided over the presentation. A former community organizer, Hernandez has repeatedly positioned herself against traditional law enforcement, opposing police raises and voting against Mayor Karen Bass’s 2023 city budget because it devoted roughly a quarter of city spending to the LAPD.

Quote:The madman charged with randomly pummeling a beloved security guard to death at a Brooklyn subway station has been found mentally unfit to stand trial, a court heard Friday.

David Mazariegos, 25, will be committed to a state psychiatric hospital after flunking a mental health exam — following the alleged merciless, unprovoked Oct. 7, 2025 killing of Nicola Tanzi, a 64-year-old security guard at MetroTech.

Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge Dineen Riviezzo revealed that Mazariegos — a struggling artist with an escalating rap sheet before the attack — had been “found unfit” for trial before wishing the maniac good luck.

“We will see you at some point at which you are better. Good luck with your treatment,” the judge said during a brief hearing, just before Mazareigos was handed over to the custody of mental health professionals.

Mazareigos, who appeared subdued and sleepy while wearing an orange prison outfit, will face first-degree murder and other charges if or when he’s deemed mentally fit to stand trial at a later date.

Prosecutors said Mazareigos punched Tanzi in the face at a security gate in the Jay Street-MetroTech station, near where the God-fearing Italian immigrant had worked for 15 years.

Mazareigos then allegedly repeatedly stomped on Tanzi until his body went “totally limp” — leaving him with a skull fracture, a crushed nasal bone and multiple other injuries to his face, prosecutors have said.

Tanzi, a devout Catholic, died a few hours later.

Quote:The Ukrainian spy chief known for orchestrating the bold drone attack on bombers deep behind Russian lines was shockingly forced out by President Volodymyr Zelensky — and questions have swirled over the reason for his ouster.

Vasyl Malyuk, who had officially been designated a “Hero of Ukraine,” resigned from his post leading the Security Service of Ukraine Monday, after initially refusing Zelensky’s orders to step down over the weekend, the Guardian reported.

Malyuk will not be completely pulled from services, but will continue organizing Ukraine’s “asymmetric operations” against Russia.

“I am leaving my post as head of the Security Service. I will stay in the system to carry out operations that continue to inflict maximum damage on the enemy,” he wrote in a telegram post after his resignation. “A strong, modern intelligence service is key to our state’s security.”

Zelensky echoed the statement, explaining Malyuk would be put to work focusing on operations similar to Operation Spiderweb, the behind-the-lines June strike that saw drones stashed in Russian trucks emerge and destroy a fleet of strategic bombers.

“I had a meeting with Vasyl Maliuk. I thanked him for his combat service and proposed that he focus on this line of work specifically,” Zelensky said. “This is where Vasyl is at his strongest, and this is exactly what he will continue to do within the Security Service of Ukraine.”

But some critics within Ukrainian leadership have argued that removing Malyuk will only diminish the effectiveness of the spy agency, which has also made headlines for numerous high-profile assassinations of Russian officials.

Zelensky has said he is simply looking to surround himself with new voices as the war approaches the four-year mark, but some reports suggest there may have been other motivations.

Malyuk’s ousting could be related to corruption allegations that have dogged members of Zelensky’s inner circle, according to the outlet Ukrainska Pravda, which cited sources that said Malyuk was forced out by the president’s former chief of staff Anriy Yermak.

Yermak’s home was searched as part of a corruption probe in November, according to the Guardian. He was not officially accused of any crimes, and resigned after the investigation.

Quote:President Trump slapped down the Kremlin’s accusation that Ukraine targeted a residence of Russian strongman Vladimir Putin last week, saying Sunday night that he doubted such an attack ever took place.

“I don’t believe that strike happened. There is something that happened fairly nearby, but had nothing to do with this house,” Trump, 79, told reporters aboard Air Force One as he returned to Washington after spending the holidays at Mar-a-Lago.

The president had initially scolded Ukraine over the alleged drone assault, saying Dec. 29 he “was very angry about it” following a call with the Russian leader.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had denied the allegation, calling it “typical Russian lies,” and the CIA had also assessed that the attack never happened.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov publicly alleged that 91 long-range drones targeted Putin’s home in the Novgorod region, roughly halfway between Moscow and St. Petersburg, and that they had been shot down.

“This is not the right time,” Trump said shortly after Lavrov went public with his claims. “It’s one thing to be offensive, it’s another thing to attack his house.”

On Sunday, Trump defended his initial reaction, contending that he didn’t know better at the time.

“Because nobody knew at that moment,” the president said. “That was the first I heard about it. He said that his house was attacked.”

“We don’t believe that happened, now that we’ve been able to check. But that was the first we ever heard about it.”

Russia claimed it was reevaluating its participation in peace negotiations with its western neighbor, which Moscow invaded in February 2022.

Trump also suggested Sunday that he could ratchet up tariffs on India to pressure New Delhi to back off its purchases of Russian oil, a critical source of funding for Putin’s war machine.

“[Prime Minister Narendra] Modi is a good guy. He knew I was not happy, and it was important to make me happy,” Trump warned.

“They do trade, and we can raise tariffs on them very quickly.”

Quote:WASHINGTON — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will meet Tuesday in Paris with US peace envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner — one day after naming a critic of President Trump as his new economic adviser, calling her “highly skilled,” despite Trump describing her as “toxic” and “terrible.”

The summit is expected to focus on Zelensky’s request for “security guarantees” and will include meetings with major European leaders, some of whom have offered peacekeeping troops to ensure a negotiated peace remains in effect.

It’s unclear what effect Zelensky’s choice of former Canadian finance minister Chrystia Freeland as his new economic adviser will have on the Russia-Ukraine peace talks, but the US president has repeatedly made clear that he detests her.

Freeland resigned as then-Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s finance chief in December 2024 after clashing with Trump over his tariff threats.

Trump said at the time: “Her behavior was totally toxic, and not at all conducive to making deals which are good for the very unhappy citizens of Canada. She will not be missed!!!”

Trump remembered her derisively in May when he hosted current Prime Minister Mark Carney in the Oval Office, saying “I didn’t like” Freeland, whom he called a “terrible person” who caused a “bad relationship” by trying to “take advantage” of the US.

Freeland, meanwhile, gloated about Trump disliking her during her unsuccessful bid in January to lead Canada’s Liberal Party, which she lost to Carney — even clipping footage of the US president dissing her to use in her campaign videos.

“I want to let you in on a little secret: Donald Trump doesn’t like me very much,” she said in an ad. “Donald Trump and his billionaire buddies think they can push us around. Trump thinks we’re for sale, that he can take what isn’t his. Well, we’re not going to let him.”

Zelensky announced that Freeland’s surprising new role on X Monday.

“Today, I appointed Chrystia Freeland as an Advisor on Economic Development. Chrystia is highly skilled in these matters and has extensive experience in attracting investment and implementing economic transformations,” Zelensky wrote.

“Right now, Ukraine needs to strengthen its internal resilience – both for the sake of Ukraine’s recovery if diplomacy delivers results as swiftly as possible, and to reinforce our defense if, because of delays by our partners, it takes longer to bring this war to an end. I am grateful to everyone who is ready to support our state and our engagement with partners. Glory to Ukraine!”

Quote:WASHINGTON — President Trump’s peace envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner signed onto a five-point plan with European leaders in Paris Tuesday to enhance “security guarantees” for Ukraine if it reaches terms to end Russia’s nearly four-year invasion.

The joint statement by major NATO allies and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is vague on some details but represents a step forward, including specifying a “US-led ceasefire monitoring and verification mechanism” that would “address any breaches, attribute responsibility, and determine remedies.”

Other points pledge “critical long term military assistance” to Kyiv, a “European-led” multinational peacekeeping force, additional military aid and sanctions in the “case of a future armed attack by Russia,” as well as “mutually beneficial defence [sic] cooperation with Ukraine.”

Key points remain unresolved, including Zelensky’s recent proposal for both Ukrainian and Russian forces to withdraw from frontlines in order to establish a demilitarized zone — as an alternative to agreeing to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s demand that Ukraine cede the north of Donetsk province.

UK and French leaders separately firmed up their offer to dispatch troops to monitor the frontlines if a cease-fire is reached.

Witkoff said in a statement that he and Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, would have further talks with Zelensky on Tuesday night and into Wednesday — teasing business pledges to rebuild Ukraine.

“We think we’re largely finished with security protocols, which are important so that the people of Ukraine know that when this ends, it ends forever,” Witkoff said at a press conference alongside Zelensky, French President Emmanuel Macron, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chanceller Friedrich Merz.

“We also think critically that we are very, very close to finishing up as robust a prosperity agreement as any country has ever seen coming out of conflicts like this,” Witkoff said.

“It will aspirationally mean large, large possibilities for the Ukrainian people, for people coming home from war who will find wonderful jobs out there. We’re working with BlackRock, Larry Fink, in this endeavor, and we think it’s going to be very, very important for the people of Ukraine, and we believe that a robust economy correlates and works directly with these security protocols.”

Witkoff said that resolving land disputes with Russia remains a sticking point.

Quote:The Russian foreign ministry said President Donald Trump had released the two Russian nationals who were part of the crew of the Marinera oil tanker seized in the North Atlantic after it had broken through the U.S. blockade of Venezuela.

Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the foreign ministry, said Trump decided to release the pair in response to an appeal from Moscow, which had earlier accused the U.S. of an "illegal use of force" and disputed that it fell under the jurisdiction of Washington's sanctions on Venezuela.

"We welcome this decision and express our gratitude to the U.S. leadership," Zakharova said in a statement on Friday. "We are beginning immediate action on all issues related to ensuring the prompt return of our fellow citizens to their homeland."

U.S. European Command (EUCOM) said the Marinera, originally named Bella 1, was seized on Wednesday because the vessel had violated American sanctions. The Trump administration said the vessel tried to disguise itself as a Russian vessel to avoid the U.S. sanctions on Venezuela where the White House is asserting control over the oil industry under its "Donroe Doctrine."

In an interview with Jesse Watters of Fox News that aired Wednesday night, Vice President JD Vance said the Marinera "was a fake Russian oil tanker. They basically tried to pretend to be a Russian oil tanker in an effort to avoid the sanctions regime."

The sudden Russia-U.S. clash over Venezuela—including the capture of Nicolás Maduro from Caracas last week—came despite a thawing of relations during negotiations over Moscow's war in Ukraine.

Quote:Russia rejected the Coalition of the Willing's plan to put Western peacekeeping troops into Ukraine once the war ends to deter future aggression by the Kremlin, saying those forces would be "legitimate military targets" for Moscow's forces.

Ukraine had hailed the plan as vital security guarantees for a peace agreement with Russia.

Two key members of the coalition, the United Kingdom and France, also NATO allies, signed a "declaration of intent" with Ukraine at the meeting in Paris on January 6 to deploy forces to Russia's neighbor once a ceasefire is in place.

U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also participated in the coalition meeting and endorsed its outcome.

Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said in a statement Thursday morning that the "deployment on Ukrainian territory of military units, military facilities, warehouses, and other infrastructure of Western countries will be classified as foreign intervention posing a direct threat to the security not only of Russia, but also of other European countries."

"All such units and facilities will be regarded as legitimate military targets of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation," Zakharova said, originally in Russian. "These warnings have been voiced repeatedly at the highest level and remain relevant."

She added: "The new militaristic declarations of the so-called coalition of the willing and the Kyiv regime form, in their person, a genuine 'axis of war.'"

The Trump administration is trying to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine. Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, having initially invaded in 2014 to annex Crimea and occupy parts of the east.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that a peace deal is 90 percent done, but sharp disagreements over control of the eastern Donbas region and of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant remain blockers to an agreement.

Quote:NATO is strengthening the defense of its northern flank with the deployment of additional military forces from the U.K.

Royal Marines will return in force to the Arctic Circle as part of the Lunna House Agreement, a major defense pact signed by the U.K. and Norway in December 2025.

Under the agreement, the U.K.’s Commando Force—led by the Royal Marines—will operate in Norway year-round. They were previously only deployed in the country during the winter months.
...
What To Know

The U.K. Commando Force previously established an operations hub, Camp Viking, in the village of Øverbygd, 40 miles south of Tromsø, in 2023. This year, the team will return with a deployment of 1,500 personnel, along with all-terrain vehicles and helicopters from Commando Helicopter Force.

The commandos will operate across the coastlines and mountains of Northern Norway and take part in Exercise Cold Response—the largest military exercises in the country in 2026. It has been organized to serve as a demonstration of the unity of NATO and the alliance’s ability to deter threats in the high north.

The U.K. forces will operate closely not only with their Norwegian hosts, but also Marines from the Netherlands, as they train to defend this strategically important region across fjords and mountains.

Quote:The United States has warned that it received information of a "potentially significant" air attack on Ukraine in the next few days. 

The U.S. embassy in Kyiv warned American citizens to immediately shelter in place in the event of such a strike.

The warning, issued on Thursday, did not give any further details and Ukrainian media noted that it did not mention that Russia would be responsible.
...
What To Know

The waring from the U.S. embassy on Thursday was the first by the mission since November 3, when American citizens in Ukraine were told "to exercise heightened caution" due to recent attacks from Russian missiles and drones hitting Ukraine's critical civilian and energy infrastructure.

Russian overnight attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure left the Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia regions nearly without power and created a "national emergency," Dnipro Mayor Borys Filatov said Thursday.

Meanwhile, Russia's Defense Ministry said on Thursday that it had used the Oreshnik missile to hit energy infrastructure and drone production facilities. The weapon is a Russian intermediate-range ballistic missile that Putin has touted as a new, hard-to-intercept system designed to carry nuclear weapons.

Ukrainian authorities did not confirm that the weapon had been used, but said at least four civilians had been killed and 19 others injured across the country during Russian attacks overnight. 

It comes as U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner discussed Washington's peace plan for with Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev in Paris on Wednesday, according to Axios, citing an unnamed source.

Quote:Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a fresh call for U.S. President Donald Trump to take action against Russia after the latest deadly strikes by Kremlin forces—including with their new hypersonic Oreshnik missile—in Moscow's revenge for an alleged attack on Russian President Vladimir Putin's state residence that Kyiv and Washington say did not happen.

"A clear reaction from the world is needed. Above all from the United States, whose signals Russia truly pays attention to," Zelensky said in an X post on Friday. "Russia must receive signals that it is its obligation to focus on diplomacy, and must feel consequences every time it again focuses on killings and the destruction of infrastructure."

What To Know

• Russia's defense ministry said it used an Oreshnik missile system as part of its "massive attack" on Ukraine in retribution for the alleged attempt to strike Putin's state residence in Novgorod in late December. The U.S. and Kyiv have said no such attempt to attack Putin's residence happened.
  
• At least four were killed in Kyiv, Ukraine's emergency services said, and dozens more were injured in the latest Russian attack. Lviv was also struck by what was likely an Oreshnik missile, knocking out gas supplies in the area, which is close to the border with Poland, a NATO ally.
  
• Zelensky said the Qatari embassy in Kyiv was damaged during the attack, noting that Doha was supporting efforts to bring peace to Ukraine. The U.S. Embassy in Kyiv had earlier warned of a looming air attack and advised Americans to seek shelter.
  
• The Ukrainian leader said the strike is "a very loud reminder" to Kyiv's partners that "supporting Ukraine’s air defense is a permanent priority. Not a single day can be lost in deliveries, in production, or in agreements." He said Kyiv will speak to partners today about what they need.
  
• The strike and Zelensky's appeal to Trump come at a time of worsening relations between the U.S. and Russia over Venezuela, after the capture of Moscow's ally Nicolas Maduro from Caracas by American forces, and the U.S. seizure of a Russian-flagged vessel in the North Atlantic that had broken through Washington's blockade.
  

Quote:President Donald Trump responded to a question from a reporter on Friday about whether he would consider sending in the U.S. military to capture Russian President Vladimir Putin following the capture of Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro last week.

Newsweek has reached out to political analysts via email for comment on Friday.
...
What To Know

Fox News' Peter Doocy asked Trump, referencing recent remarks by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whether he would ever order a mission to capture Putin.

Trump responded, in part, "I don't think it's going to be necessary...I've always had a great relationship with him [Putin]. I'm very disappointed. I settled eight wars; I thought this was going to be in the middle of the pack or maybe one of the easier ones."

Trump added: "The last month, they've lost 31,000 people, many of them Russian soldiers and the Russian economy is doing poorly."

After Maduro's capture, Zelensky said the U.S. "knows what to do next" when it comes to "capturing dictators."

What People Are Saying

Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, on X this week: "Trump's actions in Venezuela and his Administration's national security strategy are making our nation—and the world—less safe. They're setting a dangerous precedent, and you can bet Putin and [Chinese President] Xi are taking note."

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, on X this week: "Trump/Russia? Greenland gambit attacks NATO, as Putin wants. Venezuela gambit emboldens Putin on Ukraine, may be a de facto swap. Support for EU far right aligns with Putin. Please let’s not pretend there’s no Trump/Russia happening."

Vice President JD Vance on X earlier this month: "The president offered multiple off ramps, but was very clear throughout this process: the drug trafficking must stop, and the stolen oil must be returned to the United States. Maduro is the newest person to find out that President Trump means what he says. Kudos to our brave special operators who pulled off a truly impressive operation."

In a follow up post, Vance added: "And PSA for everyone saying this was 'illegal': Maduro has multiple indictments in the United States for narcoterrorism. You don't get to avoid justice for drug trafficking in the United States because you live in a palace in Caracas.

Quote:The manager of the Swiss resort bar where 40 people died in a New Year’s Eve fire allegedly fled with the night’s cash as patrons desperately tried to escape — with both owners now accused of destroying evidence in the aftermath.

Jessica Moretti, 40, is accused of abandoning terrified partygoers as flames engulfed Le Constellation and was seen by multiple witnesses carrying the cash register, Italy’s La Repubblica reported.

Moretti and her husband, Jacques Moretti — both French nationals who have co-owned the swanky Crans-Montana nightclub since 2015 — are under investigation for manslaughter and causing bodily harm to 119 others who suffered horrific burns while celebrating in the Swiss Alps.

After the fire, Jessica Moretti said she sustained “slight burns on one arm” as she escaped while the flames tore through her nightclub, according to La Repubblica.

As investigators reviewed cellphone footage, security camera video from inside the bar and footage from streetlight-mounted cameras outside to reconstruct what happened, the couple is now accused of destroying evidence by blocking social media accounts after the fire.

Romain Jordan, a lawyer representing some of the 116 injured — many of them teenagers left with catastrophic burns — said Le Constellation suspended its Facebook and Instagram accounts while rescue operations were still underway, according to the Times of London.

Jordan said the fire broke out around 1:30 a.m. New Year’s Day and claimed the club blocked its social media accounts between 3 a.m. and 6:30 a.m., while its website was also taken offline as emergency services worked to extinguish the flames and rescue victims.

He said the suspended accounts contained videos of the packed holiday party and earlier festivities, arguing that their removal showed security concerns “came to the managers’ minds straightaway.”

“My clients want answers,” he said. “They want the chain of responsibility that led to this drama to be clearly established. The managers are being investigated, but the council must be investigated, too. No questions must be ignored.”

The fire tore through Le Constellation after sparklers attached to champagne bottles ignited the ceiling during the boozy celebration.

Following the tragedy, Jacques Moretti, 49, told Swiss outlet La Tribune de Genève that “everything was done according to the regulations” and claimed the nightclub had been inspected three times over the past 10 years. He was not inside the nightclub at the time of the fire.

Quote:The owner of the Swiss nightclub where 40 New Years Eve revelers died in a horrific fire was arrested Friday for manslaughter and detained as a possible “flight risk,” authorities said. 

Jacques Moretti, 49, who ran the ski resort hotspot Le Constellation in the ritzy town of Crans-Montana, was cuffed and taken into custody at a pre-trial detention center, chief prosecutor Beatrice Pilloud said, according to Sky News.

Meanwhile, his wife and co-owner of the club, Jessica Moretti, 40, was placed on house arrest.

They both face charges of manslaughter by negligence, involuntary bodily harm and arson by negligence — after a sparkler lit the ceiling of the basement-level club shortly after midnight on Jan. 1, killing 40 people and injuring 116.

The blaze tore through the club as trapped partygoers smashed windows in a desperate attempt to escape.

The bar had not undergone any annual safety inspections in the past six years and owners were considered reckless, authorities in Crans-Montana said this week.

“There was a culture of reckless risk-taking”, Nicolas Féraud, the municipal chief of Crans-Montana, said at a press conference. “This endangered customers and staff.”

Moretti allegedly fled with the night’s cash as flames engulfed the bar and is accused of destroying evidence in the aftermath of the fire, La Repubblica reported —  though he had not been charged with crimes linked to those accusations Friday.

“My constant thoughts are with the victims and those who are fighting today. This is an unimaginable tragedy,” Moretti told reporters outside the prosecutor’s office Friday.

Moretti and his wife met with prosecutors in Switzerland’s Valais region before the arrest.

Quote:Iranian protestors demonstrating against the theocratic regime will face harsh punishment with absolutely zero leniency, Iran’s top judge has warned — as footage emerged Friday of mosques burning on the streets of Tehran amid the ongoing riots.

Chief Justice Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, the head of Iran’s judiciary, issued the stark warning after President Trump vowed to back those peacefully demonstrating across the country.

Signaling a potentially violent crackdown, Ejei vowed the punishment for rioters would “be decisive, maximum and without any legal leniency.”

The remarks, which were made earlier in the week and broadcast on state TV on Friday, came as Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei condemned Trump’s support for the protesters — claiming the president’s hands were now “stained with the blood of Iranians.”

“Iranians must maintain their unity,” Khamenei said in televised remarks as an audience chanted “Death to America!”
Protesters are “ruining their own streets … in order to please the president of the United States,” he added.

“Because he said that he would come to their aid. He should pay attention to the state of his own country instead.”

There was no immediate response from Trump or Washington regarding the latest threats from Iran.

Despite Iran cutting off internet and phone lines in recent days, footage emerged online early Friday of a burning mosque in Tehran as anti-government protestors took to the streets overnight.

Multiple burnt out cars and debris could be seen strewn across the street outside the mosque.

The protests, which broke out Dec. 28, began over Iran’s ailing economy but have since morphed into the most significant challenge to the government in years.

Quote:Honduran opposition lawmaker Gladis Aurora Lopez was injured on Thursday after an explosive device was thrown near her at the National Congress, her National Party said in a statement, as tensions remain high following the country’s disputed presidential election.

The conservative National Party alleged the device was thrown by members of the ruling Liberty and Refoundation Party (Libre), and said the blast detonated “centimeters” from Lopez, wounding her.

A representative for the Libre Party did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Video verified by Reuters showed the lawmaker seated, with a white button-down shirt pulled away to reveal stripes of blood and apparent bruising on her back.

The incident comes amid political mistrust after the November 30 vote, in which centrist Salvador Nasralla has appealed to the Electoral Justice Tribunal seeking recounts in multiple departments after the electoral authority declared National Party candidate Nasry Asfura the winner by less than 1% of the vote.

Both were seeking to unseat the leftist Libre Party of President Xiomara Castro, whose candidate Rixi Moncada trailed in third in the elections.

Asfura is due to take office on January 27.

Quote:The Trump administration announced Wednesday it’s taking U.S. taxpayer dollars away from 66 globalist organizations, nearly half of them affiliated with the United Nations and all of which are identified as “contrary to the interests of the United States.”

Most notable is the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the parent treaty underpinning all major international climate agreements, AFP reports.

The treaty adopted in 1992 is a global pact by nations to cooperate to drive down planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impacts of so-called “climate change.”

A despairing European Union climate chief Wopke Hoekstra said the UNFCCC “underpins global climate action” and brings nations together in the collective fight against the crisis.

“The decision by the world’s largest economy and second-largest emitter to retreat from it is regrettable and unfortunate,” Hoekstra said in a post on LinkedIn.

“We will unequivocally continue to support international climate research, as the foundation of our understanding and work. We will also continue to work on international climate cooperation.”

Trump, who has thrown the full weight of his domestic policy behind fossil fuels, has openly scorned speculation human activity is warming the planet, deriding it as a “hoax.”

His administration sent no representative to the most recent U.N. climate summit in Brazil in November, which is held every year under the auspices of the UNFCCC.

Now Trump is making sure U.S. taxpayer dollars are no longer spent at the discretion of the U.N. and its associated globalist affiliates. The AFP reports on just some of the organizations impacted:

The memo also directs the United States to withdraw from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the UN body responsible for assessing climate science, alongside other climate-related organizations including the International Renewable Energy Agency, UN Oceans and UN Water.

As in his first term, Trump has also withdrawn the United States from UNESCO — the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization — which Washington had rejoined under Biden.

Trump has likewise pulled the US out of the World Health Organization and sharply reduced foreign aid.

California Governor Gavin Newsom said the move was made by a “brainless president” who is “surrendering America’s leadership on the world stage and weakening our ability to compete in the economy of the future — creating a leadership vacuum that China is already exploiting.”

Quote:Socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani has quietly made it harder for federal agents to monitor Tren de Aragua and other brutal gangs in Rikers Island.

Mamdani revoked Executive Order 50 on his first day in office — which gave federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, the ability to monitor the brutal Venezuelan gangbangers inside the city jail.

Hizzoner killed the initiative as part of a broad directive that repealed all executive orders issued by his predecessor, Mayor Eric Adams, between Sept. 26 and Dec. 31.

The feds worry the gang could now beef up its capabilities inside the jail, a federal source said.

“The federal government has long been worried about Tren de Aragua in Rikers Island because they have a more robust communication system to get information to the outside world,” the source said.

The gang relies on corrupt prison guards, released inmates, and visitors to ferry messages in and out of the lockup, the source said.

Federal agents are worried because this is the first time the gang’s thugs in the US are just 15 miles apart from their leader, Venezuelan strongman Nicholas Maduro, who’s locked up in a federal jail in Brooklyn.

“Zoran kills exec order No 50 just as we should be more focused on the Venezuelan gang in Rikers — did he know that? Does he think that the gang should have one less pair of eyes,” the source said.

“With dad away, the kids will play. Instead of Zohran making sure there’s a babysitter, he took one away,” the source said. 

Quote:Stephen A. Smith is arguably the most-well known sports commentator in the country. But the outspoken ESPN commentator's perspective outside the sports arena has landed him in a firestorm.

The furor is due to his pointed comments defending an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who fatally shot a Minneapolis woman driving away from him.

Just hours after the shooting on Wednesday, Smith said on his SiriusXM "Straight Shooter" talk show that although the killing of Renee Nicole Good was "completely unnecessary," he added that the agent "from a lawful perspective" was "completely justified" in firing his gun at her.

He also noted, "From a humanitarian perspective, however, why did he have to do that?"

Smith's comments about the agent being in harm's way echoed the views of Deputy of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who said Good engaged in an "act of domestic terrorism" by attacking officers and attempting to run them over with her vehicle.

However, videos showing the incident from different angles indicate that the agent was not standing directly in front of Good's vehicle when he opened fire on her. Local officials contend that Good posed no danger to ICE officers. A video posted by partisan media outlet Alpha News showed Good talking to agents before the shooting, saying, "I'm not mad at you."

The shooting has sparked major protests and accusations from local officials that the presence of ICE has been disruptive and escalated violence. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frye condemned ICE, telling agents to "get the f— out of our city."

The incident, in turn, has put a harsher spotlight on Smith, raising questions on whether he was reckless or irresponsible in offering his views on Good's shooting when he had no direct knowledge of what had transpired.

An angered Smith appeared on his "Straight Shooter" show on YouTube on Friday, saying the full context of his comments had not been conveyed in media reports, specifically calling out the New York Post and media personality Keith Olbermann, while saying that people were trying to get him fired.

He also doubled down on his contention that Good provoked the situation that led to her death, saying the ICE agent was in front of Good's car and would have been run over had he not stepped out of the way.

Quote:Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey dismissed a newly released video showing the moments before anti-ICE activist Renee Nicole Good was fatally shot, saying the federal agent “walked away with a hop in his step.”

The 44-year-old Democrat was shown the video — which was filmed by ICE agent Jonathan Ross and first shared by Alpha News — in a report that aired during “ABC World News Tonight” on Friday.

“He walked away with a hop in his step from the incident,” Frey said. “There’s another person that’s dead. He held on his cell phone. I think that speaks for itself.”

The video shows the 37-year-old Good in the driver’s seat of her plum-colored Honda as her wife, Rebecca, stands outside the car on the street antagonizing ICE officers, at one point telling Ross, “You wanna come at us? I say go get yourself some lunch, big boy. Go ahead.”

The tense situation reached a deadly crescendo when another ICE agent instructed Renee to get out of her SUV, prompting her to reverse and then hit the gas as her wife encouraged her to flee.

“Drive, baby, drive, drive!” Rebecca yelled.

Ross fired off three shots as Renee drove off and clipped the agent, fatally striking the mom of three.

Frey said his perspective on the deadly shooting didn’t change after he watched the video, insisting only an official report would change his view.

“I think an investigation could change or affirm my perspective,” Frey said. “But we’ve (all got) two eyes, and I can see a person that is trying to leave. I can see an ICE agent that was not run over by a car. That didn’t happen.”

Later on Friday, hundreds of anti-ICE protesters surrounded a Minneapolis hotel where federal agents were believed to be staying during the operations in the city.

The frenzied crowd flooded the outside of the Hilton Canopy Hotel — and some parts of the interior — blowing whistles and banging on drums while chanting “f–k ICE” and waving various signs calling for the federal agency to “GET THE F–K OUT OF MN,” according to social media videos and the Daily Mail.

“They need to get the hell out of our city,” a pink-haired demonstrator, 27, told the outlet.

“I don’t know for sure they are here but we will do whatever it takes to keep Minneapolis safe.”

Quote:A Bill Gates-backed nuclear reactor dubbed “Cowboy Chernobyl” by critics is barreling toward approval in rural Wyoming, alarming residents and nuclear safety experts as regulators fast-track the project under a Trump-era order.

TerraPower, founded by the Microsoft guru, is seeking federal approval to build the western hemisphere’s first Natrium nuclear reactor in Kemmerer, a coal town of roughly 2,000 people near the Utah border and about two hours north of Salt Lake City.

The plant would use liquid sodium rather than water to cool the reactor, a design pitched as safer and more efficient.
Critics say it introduces new risks while cutting corners on containment.

The United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission completed its final safety evaluation in December, concluding there were no issues that would block issuance of a construction permit.

The five-member commission is expected to vote on the permit later this month. TerraPower still needs a separate operating license before the reactor can run.

Local residents say the fast pace has left them uneasy.

“We’re probably two hours away from that place when it comes to how long it takes the wind to get here,” Patrick Lawien of Casper told the Daily Mail. “Obviously, if anything goes wrong, it’s headed straight for us.”

TerraPower began building the non-nuclear portion of the 44-acre site in June 2024, near the retired Naughton coal plant, which shut down at the end of 2025.

The company says the reactor will generate 345 megawatts of power, with the ability to reach 500 megawatts during peak demand. It aims to have the plant operating by 2030.

Quote:Builders contracted by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are installing roughly 50 “doggie doors” in sections of the US-Mexico border wall along Arizona and California.

And, as if on cue, wildlife experts are up in arms.

They argue the openings — about the size of an 8-by-10-inch piece of paper — are too small and will prevent larger animals from moving in their natural migratory patterns while also disrupting ecosystems. Experts fret population declines and even starvation.

Animals like skunks, badgers, foxes, opossums, weasels, rabbits, snakes, and desert tortoises can get through. But larger creatures — including mountain lions, jaguars, deer, and bighorn sheep — will be affected by their inability to move to the other side, according to National Geographic Magazine.

They’re also concerned about the low number of “doors” for such a long, sprawling fence.

The southern US border with Mexico is roughly 1,933 miles long, stretching from the Pacific Ocean to the tip of South Texas. Some 700 miles already have fencing in place, according to CNN, and the rest are undergoing the lengthy process of being contracted and built.

“This has got to be an obscene joke,” said Laiken Jordahl, an advocate for public lands and wildlife with the environmental group Center for Biological Diversity, bemoaning that only there’s “only fifty of these tiny openings.”

Christina Aiello and Miles Traphagen, two of the researchers for Wildlands Network, went to the wall to see the conditions up close and came away shaking their heads.

“We came out to look at the condition of the border where they plan on building a border wall,” Traphagen told KTSM El Paso news in a Border Report. “We can’t simply be throwing away all of our biodiversity and our natural history heritage to solve a problem we could do more constructively, with, you know, overhauling our immigration programs.”

To keep building the wall, the DHS is waiving several environmental laws to expedite the work.

“This is necessary to ensure the expeditious construction of physical barriers and roads. Projects executed under a waiver are critical steps to secure the southern border and reinforce our commitment to border security,” the agency said in a statement.

In response to the criticism, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) spokesperson Matthew Dyman said the agency worked closely with the National Park Service and other federal agencies to pick the best placements for the passages, relying on existing data about the distribution of species and migration routes.

Quote:Portland Police Chief Bob Day wiped away tears Friday as he addressed new information showing that two illegal immigrants shot during a federal immigration enforcement encounter had ties to the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA).

Day confirmed a Department of Homeland Security statement identifying the two individuals — Luis David Nico Moncada and Yorlenys Betzabeth Zambrano-Contreras — as Venezuelan criminal illegal aliens with suspected ties to TdA.

Both were shot by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent after Moncada, the driver of the vehicle, allegedly "weaponized his vehicle" and attempted to run over agents, prompting an agent to fire in self-defense, according to DHS.

"They do have some nexus to involvement with TDA. We can confirm that," Day said, pausing and choking up.

Day said he initially hesitated to disclose the suspected gang connection, citing what he described as the "historic injustice of victim blaming" by law enforcement, including within his own agency.

"I want to speak for just a moment, specifically to my Latino community," Day said.

"It saddens me that we even have to qualify these remarks because I understand or at least have attempted to understand your voices, your concern, your fear, your anger," Day said, removing his glasses mid-sentence and wiping tears from his eyes.

"This information, in no way, is meant to disparage or to condone or support or agree with any of the actions that occurred yesterday," the chief added.

Day emphasized that he was disclosing the suspected gang ties for transparency only and that the information should not be interpreted as excusing or justifying the shooting, which remains under investigation.

"But it is important that we stay committed to the rule of law, that we stay committed to the facts, that we stay a trustworthy and legitimate police department for all Portlanders," he said.

Day said both suspects remain hospitalized in stable condition and are in federal custody.

"They are in custody of federal law enforcement, but they appear to be on the road to recovery, and I’m grateful for that," Day said.

It's ridiculous to cry or sob because of 2 criminals being arrested. Even the Latino community is a little bit safer now than before the arrests took place. Or did they ignore on purpose how members of Tren de Aragua have killed other Latinos like a young girl in other states?

Quote:Venezuela’s top lawmaker and brother of interim President Delcy Rodriguez on Thursday announced that Caracas would release certain political prisoners held captive, following demands from the US.

“The Bolivarian government, together with state institutions, has decided to release a significant number of Venezuelan and foreign individuals, and these release processes are taking place as of this very moment,” Venezuelan National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez said.

The Trump administration had previously privately asked for the prisoners’ release in their dealings with Delcy Rodriguez since toppling dictator Nicolas Maduro with an arrest raid on Saturday, multiple sources familiar told The Post.

“This is one example of how the President is using maximum leverage to do right by the American and Venezuelan people,” White House deputy spokeswoman Anna Kelly said.

More than 800 political prisoners are believed to be held captive, including at least five Americans, according to advocates.

The announcement comes as Delcy Rodriguez has been under pressure to release prisoners — who are often subjected to torture — as a show of “goodwill” that they are willing to work with Washington.

Quote:U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has told Reuters that additional U.S. sanctions on Venezuela could be lifted as soon as next week to facilitate oil sales, and that he will also meet next week with the heads of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank on their re-engagement with Venezuela.

Bessent said in an interview late on Friday that almost $5 billion worth of Venezuela’s currently frozen IMF Special Drawing Rights monetary assets could be deployed to help rebuild the country’s economy.

“We’re de-sanctioning the oil that’s going to be sold,” Bessent said during a visit to a Winnebago Industries engineering facility. The Treasury was examining changes that would facilitate the repatriation of sale proceeds of the oil stored largely on ships back to Venezuela.

“How can we help that get back into Venezuela, to run the government, run the security services and get it to the Venezuelan people?” he said of the Treasury’s sanctions analysis.

Asked when more sanctions could be removed from Venezuela, Bessent said, “It could be as soon as next week,” but did not identify which ones.

The moves are part of the Trump administration’s effort to stabilize Venezuela and encourage the return of U.S. oil producers to the country a week after U.S. forces captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro in Caracas and brought him to New York to face drug trafficking charges.

U.S. sanctions have banned international banks and other creditors from engaging with the Venezuelan government without a license. The institutions have cited this as an impediment to a complex $150 billion debt restructuring widely viewed as a key to the return of private capital to Venezuela.

On Friday evening, President Donald Trump signed an executive order blocking courts or creditors from impounding Venezuelan oil revenue held in U.S. Treasury accounts, declaring that these funds should be safeguarded to help Venezuela create “peace, prosperity and stability.”

IMF, World Bank Re-engagement

Bessent, who controls the dominant U.S. shareholding in the IMF and World Bank, said that the two institutions had already reached out to him about Venezuela.

The Treasury chief said that the U.S. Treasury would be willing to convert Venezuela’s IMF Special Drawing Rights held at the Fund to dollars for use in rebuilding Venezuela.

Venezuela currently has about 3.59 billion SDRs, which are worth about $4.9 billion at Friday’s exchange rate, but it cannot currently access them. SDRs are made up of dollars, euros, yen, sterling and Chinese yuan.

Quote:WASHINGTON — The US used a powerful mystery weapon that brought Venezuelan soldiers to their knees, “bleeding through the nose” and vomiting blood during the daring raid to capture dictator Nicolas Maduro, according to a witness account posted Saturday on X by the White House press secretary.

In a jaw-dropping interview, the guard described how American forces wiped out hundreds of fighters without losing a single soldier, using technology unlike anything he has ever seen — or heard.

“We were on guard, but suddenly all our radar systems shut down without any explanation,” the guard said. “The next thing we saw were drones, a lot of drones, flying over our positions. We didn’t know how to react.”

Moments later, a handful of helicopters appeared — “barely eight,” by his count — deploying what he estimated were just 20 US troops into the area.

But those few men, he said, came armed with something far more powerful than guns.

“They were technologically very advanced,” the guard recalled. “They didn’t look like anything we’ve fought against before.”

What ensued, he said, was not a battle, but a slaughter.

“We were hundreds, but we had no chance,” he said. “They were shooting with such precision and speed; it felt like each soldier was firing 300 rounds per minute.”

Then came the weapon that still haunts him.

“At one point, they launched something; I don’t know how to describe it,” he said. “It was like a very intense sound wave. Suddenly I felt like my head was exploding from the inside.”

Quote:Exiled Iranian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi is calling on President Donald Trump to intervene after the Islamic regime implemented a nationwide internet blackout amid intensifying anti-government protests. He said the president has proven himself to be a "man of peace and a man of your word."

"Mr. President, this is an urgent and immediate call for your attention, support, and action. Last night you saw the millions of brave Iranians in the streets facing down live bullets. Today, they are facing not just bullets but a total communications blackout. No Internet. No landlines," Pahlavi wrote on X.

"Ali Khamenei, fearing the end of his criminal regime at the hands of the people and, with the help of your powerful promise to support the protesters, has threatened the people on the streets with a brutal crackdown," Pahlavi added. "And he wants to use this blackout to murder these young heroes."

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei recently took a swipe at Trump, saying that protesters in Iran were "ruining their own streets" to appease the U.S. president, according to The Associated Press.

Pahlavi added that he believed Trump's threat to intervene if the Iranian government used violence against protesters "kept the regime's thugs at bay" during Thursday night's protests. The prince called on the people of Iran to demonstrate on Thursday night and renewed his call for more protests on Friday night.

Recently, Pahlavi predicted that the regime was "very close to collapsing" amid the nationwide unrest.

"Over a hundred cities and millions of people on the street chanting ‘Death to the dictator,’" Pahlavi told "Hannity" on Tuesday. "The regime is crumbling and is very close to collapsing," he added.

He said the movement is "unprecedented" and differs from past efforts, pointing to participation from Iran’s powerful merchant class.

As of Friday, at least 36 people had been killed, including 34 protesters and two members of security and law enforcement forces, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency.

Trump said in a Truth Social post on Jan. 2 that the U.S. was "locked and loaded and ready to go" defend protesters if the regime used violence against them.

Quote:As anti-regime protests continue to spread across Iran and questions swirl about the durability of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s rule, a central question looms: Who would actually take power if the Islamic Republic were to collapse?

The answer, according to regional experts and Iranian opposition figures, is far from clear. It may depend less on ideology than on how the regime falls and whether Iran’s security forces fracture or hold.

Collapse matters as much as succession

Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said the critical variable is not simply whether the regime collapses, but how it happens.

"Despite being supreme leader, one has to wonder, especially post-war and with limited public appearances, how much Khamenei is directly governing the affairs of the country," Ben Taleblu told Fox News Digital. He warned Western governments against backing a cosmetic transition that merely reshuffles elites.

"One thing I fear is the Western temptation for a Maduro-type or Egypt-type model," he said, referring to scenarios in which entrenched security forces retain power under new leadership. "That will only be playing musical chairs at the top and will not provide the Iranian people a pathway for meaningful change."

Ben Taleblu argued that Iran’s opposition faces a logistical challenge more than an ideological one: translating sustained street protests into organized political power before security forces reassert control.

The decisive role of security forces

Multiple experts agreed that Iran’s future hinges on whether the regime’s coercive apparatus, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Basij militia and the regular military, remains intact.

Ben Taleblu said the key factor is whether segments of the security forces defect, refuse orders or fragment. "What has to be chipped away is the regime’s coercive power," he said, adding that a transition would require sustained protests, economic strikes and cracks within security units.

Without that, analysts warn, Iran could see a scenario in which clerical figureheads disappear but real power remains in the hands of armed institutions.

"That’s the fear," Ben Taleblu said. "If the state plays musical chairs, the street will not settle for it. That means a bumpier road ahead."
Could the military take over?

Some analysts point to historical precedents, including Egypt, where the military stepped in amid unrest. Benny Sabti, an Iran expert at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, said a military-led transition cannot be ruled out, but would be fraught.

"IRGC generals could theoretically attempt a coup," Sabti told Fox News Digital, stressing that Iran’s military institutions are not monolithic. He distinguished between the IRGC, which he described as an ideological and asymmetric force, and the regular army, which he said is more professional and nationally oriented.

Sabti highlighted former armed forces chief Habibollah Sayyari as an example of a figure who has voiced limited criticism from within the system. Still, he cautioned that criticism alone does not make a leader and said charisma matters deeply in Iranian politics.

"There is a problem of charisma," Sabti said. "In Iran, it is very important."

Political prisoners and internal leaders

Despite international attention on jailed activists, experts are skeptical that Iran’s next political leadership would emerge from within the country’s prison system.

Ben Taleblu said decades of repression have made it nearly impossible to cultivate political leadership inside Iran. "What will come from within are the forces of revolution," he said. "Political leadership has to be built outside."

Sabti echoed that view, saying freed prisoners would likely become part of a broader system rather than dominant leaders.

"There won’t be leaders coming out of prison," he said. "They will be part of a new system, but not charismatic leaders."

The exiled opposition and the Pahlavi question

Supporters of Reza Pahlavi say he is emerging as a focal point for opposition mobilization amid escalating unrest. On January 8, Pahlavi publicly called on Iranians to chant at 8 p.m. from their homes or in the streets and his aides said large crowds responded across multiple cities, including Tehran, Mashhad, Isfahan, Ahvaz and Tabriz.

Those close to Pahlavi describe him as advocating a secular, democratic Iran committed to human rights, while rejecting claims that he is seeking to restore the monarchy. Pahlavi has repeatedly said the form of Iran’s future system should be decided by the people through a free constitutional process.

"My role is not to tip the scales in favor of either monarchy or republic," Pahlavi said. "I will remain entirely impartial in the process to help ensure that Iranians finally have the right to choose freely."

Banafsheh Zand, an Iranian-American journalist and editor of the "Iran So Far Away" Substack, told Fox News Digital that Pahlavi is the only viable unifying figure capable of guiding a transition, a view strongly contested by others in the diaspora.

Quote:Staff at hospitals in Iran said their facilities have become overwhelmed with injuries — including people suffering from gunshot wounds — as anti-government protests rage across the Islamic Republic, a report said.

A doctor from Tehran’s Farabi Hospital, the city’s main eye specialist center, told the BBC late Friday the center entered crisis mode with emergency services slammed and non-urgent admissions suspended.

A medic from a hospital in the city of Shiraz also told the network that large numbers of injured people were being brought in despite the hospital not having enough surgeons to treat them. He added that many of those wounded had gunshot injuries to the head and eyes, according to the BBC.

As of Saturday, the death toll in the protests has grown to at least 72 with over 2,300 others detained, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.

The protests began late last month with shopkeepers and bazaar merchants demonstrating against accelerating inflation and the collapse of the rial, which lost about half its value against the dollar last year. Inflation topped 40% in December. The unrest soon spread to universities and provincial cities, with young men clashing with security forces.

At a news conference in Washington, D.C., Friday, President Donald Trump said Iran was facing mounting pressure. 

"Iran’s in big trouble," Trump said. "It looks to me that the people are taking over certain cities that nobody thought were really possible just a few weeks ago. We’re watching the situation very carefully."

Trump warned that the United States would respond forcefully if the regime resorts to violence.

"We’ll be hitting them very hard where it hurts. And that doesn’t mean boots on the ground, but it means hitting them very, very hard where it hurts."

Quote:Armed protesters clashed Friday with security forces in the Tehranpars neighborhood of Iran’s capital, as nationwide two-week-long anti-regime demonstrations became more violent in the country.

Repeated gunfire could be heard for minutes in cellphone video sent to Iranian TV and shared with Fox News Digital as Iran’s State Security Forces clashed with so-called "rebellious youth." 

In the video, people on the streets were seen running and shouts of "Death to Khamenei!" "Death to the dictator!" "Shame on you!" and "We are all together!" could be heard.

The protests entered their 14th day on Saturday, with 65 killed, including children, and 2,311 arrested by Friday, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency in Iran.

Authorities imposed a sweeping internet blackout this week that largely cut the country off from the outside world and escalated threats of harsh punishment while anti-regime protests spread.

The protests expanded to 190 cities in Iran by Saturday, according to the National Council of Resistance in Iran.

"By defending the demonstrators, the rebellious youths did not allow the flames of the uprising to be extinguished," dissident politician Maryam Rajavi said in a statement. " They have shown their determination to triumph over the regime."

At a news conference in Washington, D.C., on Friday, President Donald Trump said Iran was facing mounting pressure as unrest spreads across the country.

"Iran’s in big trouble," Trump said. "It looks to me that the people are taking over certain cities that nobody thought were really possible just a few weeks ago. We’re watching the situation very carefully."

Quote:The Trump administration is reportedly preparing preliminary plans for an attack on Iran, including the option of large-scale airstrikes.

Officials are considering how to follow through on President Trump’s recent elevated threats against the Islamic Republic, including what sites might be targeted, insiders told the Wall Street Journal.

A massive aerial strike campaign on multiple Iranian military targets is one option being considered — although Washington has not reached consensus on a plan of action.

No military equipment or personnel have been moved for a potential attack, the insiders said.

The conversations do not indicate that the US will strike, with the sources explaining that the planning is routine.

Trump, however, teased that the US was gearing up to retaliate should Tehran continue killing protesters in a post on Truth Social.

“Iran is looking at FREEDOM, perhaps like never before,” he wrote Saturday. “The USA stands ready to help!!!”

A US attack on Iran would not be unprecedented — Trump ordered the first-ever US strike on Iranian territory back in June.

The US dropped at least six “bunker buster” bombs across three sites, including Iran’s Fordow nuclear enrichment plant, a deeply fortififed facility hidden nearly 300 feet beneath a mountain.

The bombing came after Iran threatened to use its nuclear muscle against Israel during their 12-Day War, and was coordinated with the Jewish state’s own extensive attacks on Tehran’s military infrastructure.

The US military’s threat to intervene follows repeated warnings by Trump that the Washington would repsond in support of protestors should the Iranian regime continue to show violence against its civilians.

“You better not start shooting because we’ll start shooting too,” Trump warned Friday.

In response, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused Trump of having hands “stained with the blood of Iranians” in remarks aired Friday.

Quote:The U.S. military has launched airstrikes against the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria, U.S. officials confirmed to Fox News.

The operation marks the second time the U.S. military has struck Islamic State targets in Syria since Dec. 19 following the killing of two Iowa National Guard soldiers and their American interpreter by a lone ISIS gunman.

The strikes come as U.S. Special Envoy for Syria Tom Barrack said he met in Damascus with Syria’s new leadership to discuss the country’s future.

"Today, on behalf of President Donald J. Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, I met with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani, and members of their team in Damascus," Barrack wrote.

U.S. Central Command said the strikes were carried out "at approximately 12:30 p.m. Eastern Time" and targeted "multiple ISIS targets across Syria."

In a statement, CENTCOM said the operation was part of Operation Hawkeye Strike, which it said was launched Dec. 19 "in direct response to the deadly ISIS attack on U.S. and Syrian forces in Palmyra, Syria."

Barrack said the talks focused on "recent developments in Aleppo and the broader path forward for Syria’s historic transition," adding that the United States "welcomes Syria’s historic transition and extends its support to the Syrian government under President Ahmed al-Sharaa."

Quote:Parts of Kyiv are still without heat as temperatures plunged into the single digits Saturday, following timed Russian strikes that left half of the capital city in darkness.

The shelling that began overnight Thursday was among the heaviest of the war, as Russia pounded Ukraine with dozens of missiles and hundreds of drones.

The attack left more than 6,000 apartment buildings — half of the city’s housing stock — without heat, according to Kyiv’s mayor, who urged residents to flee the frigid capital.

“The combined attack on Kyiv last night was the most painful for the capital’s critical infrastructure,” Vitali Klitschko wrote on Telegram Friday.

“Weather conditions, unfortunately, according to forecasts, will be difficult in the coming days. I appeal to residents of the capital who have the opportunity to temporarily leave the city, where there are alternative sources of power and heat, to do so.”

By Saturday morning, heat was restored to half the houses that had lost it, the mayor said — only for the state grid operator to order the system shut down by noon after it became overloaded.

With the accumulated damage to the grid from four years of constant war, the utility operator has put the country on rolling power outages, making this winter the coldest and darkest of the brutal conflict yet.

“We hope they will give us heat,” said Galina Turchin, a 71-year-old living on Kyiv’s eastern bank. “If not power, then at least heat.”

But the cold is bringing with it additional challenges. With temperatures expected to drop below zero, it will be difficult to repair heat and power units even in the absence of new strikes, a power engineer told the Kyiv Post.

“The attack is exactly when a significant cold snap occurs,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Telegram. “It is against the ordinary life of ordinary people.”

Russian strongman Vladimir Putin’s troops also launched assaults on Zelensky’s hometown in central Ukraine.

Quote:British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said that while he signed a declaration of intent on Tuesday to deploy UK troops into Ukraine following a potential peace deal with Russia, Members of Parliament will be given the opportunity to vote on the matter before any soldiers are sent to the war-torn country.

In a meeting of the so-called “coalition of the willing” in Paris on Tuesday, Prime Minister Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky agreed that British and French soldiers would be sent as a peacekeeping force in Ukraine, with the United States providing a backup insurance force should they come under attack, as a part of the security guarantees sought by Kyiv before inking any armistice agreement with Moscow.

While firm details on the scope and scale of the operation were not made public, President Macron said that the Anglo-Franco force would number in the “thousands”, providing a deterrence against further Russian aggression and protection for “military hubs” to house defensive stockpiles of weapons and equipment in case of another incursion.

During Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons on Wednesday, Prime Minister Starmer vowed to put the matter of troop deployments before MPs for a vote.

However, according to the BBC, a Downing Street spokesman refused to comment on whether such a vote would be binding, given that the Prime Minister does not require parliamentary approval for military actions. Indeed, the public broadcaster noted that Starmer has previously authorised the use of the Royal Air Force to target Houthi terrorists in Yemen without a vote from Parliament.

The head of the opposition Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, accused the Prime Minister of a “lack of respect” for parliamentarians by failing to give a full briefing to the House of Commons on the deployment of British troops.

The potential for British troops to be sent on the ground in Ukraine — in addition to the UK Special Forces apparently already operating in the country — has been floated since last March.

However, there have been questions about Britain’s ability to project military force in Ukraine, given the years of neglect and underfunding of its Armed Forces. Indeed, last year, the number of active British Army troops fell below 73,000 for the first time since the Napoleonic era.

Brexit’s Nigel Farage reacted with incredulity to the plan on Wednesday afternoon, asking of the boots-on-the-ground plan at a time where Britain’s military is contracting: “what boots? What equipment?”. He compared the idea to the previous British occupation of mainland Europe, the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR), which existed at a time when well-north of five per cent of GDP was spent on defence and just the deployed force was the size of the whole British Army today.

On top of the chronic underfunding of the military — as Britain and other European allies became increasingly reliant on the United States to underwrite their defence as they ploughed money into domestic welfare schemes — the UK has also been facing a major recruiting crisis to replenish its forces.

There have been suggestions that many young people in Britain are souring on the notion of putting their lives on the line for a country which is apparently intent on demographically displacing them, with white Britons set to become a minority in their homeland by the 2060s amid the desperate drive from the establishment towards multiculturalism through mass migration.

At the same time, the military has had a number of significant public relations blunders, including in 2023 when it was revealed that Royal Air Force staff were reportedly told to focus on recruiting more ethnic minorities and women instead of “useless white male pilots”, who have been traditionally the largest cohort within the British force.

A poll in June found that nearly half of Britons (48 per cent) would not take up arms for their country under any circumstances, compared to 35 per cent who say they would.

Quote:The British government has announced that it has allocated £200 million to begin preparing the UK Armed Forces for deployment to Ukraine as part of a peacekeeping force in the event of an armistice between Kyiv and Moscow.

Following the signing of a declaration of intent by the British and French governments with Ukraine in Paris this week, the Ministry of Defence said on Friday that £200 million has been allocated to help British troops be “ready to deploy if required” to Ukraine.

Additionally, the funds will go toward upgrading military vehicles and communication systems, as well as purchasing new counter-drone protection systems for the British arm of the Multinational Force for Ukraine (MNFU).

The MoD said that the funds demonstrate “a clear signal to allies and adversaries of the UK’s intent to lead the MNFU, fulfil our promises to secure the peace in Ukraine and deliver a ‘new deal’ for European security to make Britain safer.”

Speaking during a visit to Kyiv, Defence Secretary John Healey MP said: “As we approach the fifth year of Putin’s full-scale invasion, the Ukrainians continue to fight with huge courage – civilians and military alike.

“We are surging investment into our preparations following the Prime Minister’s announcement this week, ensuring that Britain’s Armed Forces are ready to deploy, and lead, the Multinational Force Ukraine, because a secure Ukraine means a secure UK.

“As we look towards a potential peace deal, we continue to step up for Ukraine in the fight today – strengthening its air defences while backing British industry, jobs and innovation at home.”

The announced investments, which will be drawn from Britain’s core defence budget, come amid concern about the UK and other European NATO allies’ ability to project military power internationally after years of chronic underinvestment and low recruitment. Indeed, last year, the number of active troops in Britain fell to just 73,000, the lowest since the Napoleonic Era.

It remains to be seen how many troops the UK will be willing to deploy to Ukraine if a peace agreement is reached between Kyiv and Moscow. However, reports have emerged about the potential deployment size of Britain’s main partner in the planned operation, France.

Following a meeting in Paris this week between President Emmanuel Macron and the heads of the major parties in the National Assembly, it was leaked that the French government is planning to send around 6,000 troops to the Eastern European country, Le Figaro reported.

Although President Macron held the meeting under a confidentiality condition, the parliamentary leader of the far-left La France Insoumise (France in Rebellion/LFI) party, Mathilde Panot, briefed the Paris press on the planned number of soldiers. The leftist MP said that she “does not agree that French soldiers could be deployed under these conditions.”

The declaration of intent to deploy “coalition of the willing” troops to Ukraine was signed this week, with the assumption that the United States will provide backstop insurance, meaning that the American military would come to the aid of the British and French should they come under attack from Russia.

Meanwhile, according to Ukrainian President Zelensky, a bilateral agreement with the United States concerning security guarantees for Ukraine “is now essentially ready for finalization at the highest level with the President of the United States.”

On top of a security agreement, Kyiv and Washington are also working on a “prosperity” deal that would see around $800 billion in loans, investments, and grants issued to jump-start the Ukrainian economy and rebuild the war-torn country. London’s Daily Telegraph reported that the deal is expected to be signed later this month at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

Quote:Some 45,000 homes were left without power after an attack on transmission cables on Saturday, the latest such act of sabotage against a European city in recent years, but the first in which authorities showed any outward intent to figure out who is responsible.

Federal prosecutors took over control of the investigation on Tuesday evening of the Berlin power sabotage attack, seizing it from city prosecutors, and adding potential terrorism charges after targeted arson against an electricity cable bottleneck left 45,000 households and 2,200 businesses.

The final 19,000 homes were only reconnected on Wednesday morning, after having been deprived of power and, in some cases, heat for four days in freezing weather. The return of schools and businesses is being delayed to avoid overloading the new, temporary power lines laid to neighbourhoods including Wannsee, Zehlendorf, and Nikolassee.

Berlin’s regional government hailed the reconnection taking place ahead of schedule, saying this was possible because of the declaration of a major emergency, which allowed the central allocation of resources and effort. German Army field kitchens were deployed to Berlin to serve hot meals, supermarkets with backup generators opened their doors, and the nation’s THW civil defence body was activated.

Police patrols focussed on detecting criminal gangs taking advantage of the darkness to loot homes in wealthy areas.

The Berlin attack is only the latest in a long series of similar acts of sabotage targeting the delicate systems that underpin the modern world and urban life. As reported, the radical left, ultra-environmentalists, and Antifa have persistently claimed responsibility for these acts, but governments across Europe remarkably have shown little inclination to discover who is behind the strikes. Even months or years later, high-profile incidents like the Paris Olympics sabotage remain officially unsolved, and the perpetrators free from personal consequence.

This may be finally about to change, however, with prosecutors saying they are considering terrorism law charges for the new Berlin attack, alongside accusations of “unconstitutional sabotage”, arson, and disruption of public services. The nature of the allegedly left-wing authors of the sabotage has also become a subject of spirited public discussion for the first time, in contrast to the prevailing establishment narrative best described in an op-ed in Germany’s Die Welt, which argued that “left-wing extremism is an exaggerated problem” and consequently unworthy of investigation or study.

Extremism expert Professor Hendrik Hansen spoke out this week against this paradigm, stating: “It was a mistake that in the past, politicians focused very one-sidedly on right-wing extremism and neglected Islamism and left-wing extremism”. Berlin has become a “safe haven” for anarchists, he said, warning it would take “a considerable commitment of personnel in the security authorities” to take on such entrenched, rarely-monitored, and little-understood groups.

Indeed, the Vulkangruppe (Volcano Group), which claimed responsibility for this set of Berlin attacks, has been sabotaging power infrastructure and publishing public letters taking responsibility for the strikes for 15 years without the German authorities taking the time to discover who they are. As noted in that dispatch, in Germany, concern about power blackouts has for years been rubbished as the sole concern of right-wing conspiracy theorists, and a narrative used only to smear the nation’s transition to green energy.

That this has now happened has exposed a “credibility trap” for the authorities, it was stated, with the op-ed continuing:

Quote:(AFP) — A protester briefly replaced the flag of the Islamic Republic of Iran on its London embassy with a former flag, flown before 1979, during a demonstration Saturday, witnesses told AFP.

A video posted to social media showed a man on the balcony of the embassy, near Hyde Park, replace the country’s current flag with one used during the rule of the ousted shah to cheers from hundreds of demonstrators below.

The flag — tri-coloured, with a lion and sun, surrounded by a wreath and crown — was a ceremonial one used in Iran before the Islamic revolution.

It stayed in place for several minutes before being removed, witnesses on site told AFP.

“Democracy for Iran. Shah Reza Pahlavi. Justice for Iran,” chanted the demonstrators, referring to the son of the late shah of Iran who now lives in the United States. Some also held placards reading “Free Iran”.

“I’m here to support Iranians, my loved ones inside Iran — they’ve been protesting for two weeks today,” said one demonstrator, Taraneh, 33, who declined to give her last name.

“The internet has been shut down … We get very little information from inside Iran,” she added.

“But, you know, people are still in the streets. They’re being attacked. The Islamic Republic is murdering people,” she said. “I want this regime to go. I just want to be able to go back.”

London police, in an online post, said that after the flag incident “additional officers are being deployed to prevent any disorder” and to protect the Iranian embassy.

They said they had arrested two people, “one for aggravated trespass and assault on an emergency worker and one for aggravated trespass” and they were seeking another another individual for “trespass”.

Iran has been roiled by street protests since December 28, which have since taken hold nationwide.

Initially triggered by a devaluation of the country’s currency and growing concerns over the cost of living, they have since spiralled into mass demonstrations calling for an end to the Islamic Republic.

Iranian authorities have cut off internet access in the country, and NGOs and monitoring organisations say they fear that blackout will be used to crack down on the protesters.

At least 51 people have been killed so far, including nine children, with hundreds wounded, according to the Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights.

Quote:The United Arab Emirates has removed British universities from its generous foreign study funding programme, reportedly over fears its young people could be influenced by the Muslim Brotherhood on radicalised UK campuses.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said “Decent Muslim countries cannot believe how weak the UK is on extremism” as it was claimed the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was blocking its young people from going to university in Britain over extremism fears. The Financial Times states the UAE revised its approved list of foreign universities where young Emirates could take advantage of their government’s well-funded grant scheme, and no British universities now feature, despite many of them being among the highest-regarded in the world.

The very best-performing students studying abroad from the Emirates get their tuition fees, flights, living costs, and health insurance paid if they study a programme their government considers useful. Previously, the UK had been among the favourites for UAE students.

The report states when the change was noticed the British government approached the UAE for clarity, and was told it was not a mistake but a deliberate decision.

The Times states the UAE has cited the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood on British campuses as a major reason for the change. The Brotherhood has been called an “incubator of Sunni Islamic terrorism” and is banned by the UAE’s comparatively liberal government as a terrorist organisation.

In 2025, the French government leaked a major internal report on the Muslim Brotherhood, finding it had spent decades infiltrating institutions in Europe and migrant communities to defeat the Western world. Both the United Kingdom and France have considered banning the Brotherhood in decades past, but have never made the move. Brexit’s Nigel Farage has said he would do so if elected to power, a move for which he has received accusations of being influenced by the UAE.

Farage’s London mayoral candidate Laila Cunningham, who is of Egyptian-heritage and professes Muslim faith, expressed her concern about the influence of the Brotherhood in the UK. She said: “The Muslim Brotherhood is outlawed across the Middle East because they know exactly what it is. The ideological backbone of Islamist terror.

“Yet Britain lets it operate freely and even grants asylum to its convicted bomb makers. We are sitting ducks. It’s treason against the British people.”

Quote:LONDON (AP) – Thousands of homes and businesses across northern France and southern England were without power Friday morning and residents faced widespread travel delays after a storm swept in off the Atlantic, bringing high winds, rain and snow to the region.

The low-pressure system, named Storm Goretti, pummeled the Isles of Scilly overnight with wind gusts up to 99 mph (159 kph) recorded in the archipelago off the southwestern tip of England. Local government officials reported blocked roads, unstable buildings and power outages that left some people without water.

More than 57,000 were without power across southwestern England, the Midlands and Wales, according to National Grid, which runs the country´s electricity transmission network.

As the storm moved across the United Kingdom it collided with an existing mass of Arctic air, bringing snow to northern areas and heavy rain to the south.

That extended the misery in northern Scotland, where snowplows have been working overtime to keep roads open after more than half a meter (20 inches) of snow fell earlier in the week. More than 250 schools across Scotland were closed on Friday, with some remaining shut for a fifth straight day.

National Rail warned people across the U.K. to check before traveling because the storm had disrupted services across England, Scotland and Wales. Birmingham Airport, which closed briefly due to snow, said had reopened with “reduced runway operations.”

The disruptions came after the Met Office, Britain´s national weather service, issued a rare red weather warning – its highest – in southwestern England for Thursday evening.

Red warnings are issued when the forecaster considers it “very likely” there will be life-threatening conditions.

Strong winds from Storm Goretti also battered northwestern France on Friday.

Quote:A whistleblower from within the Swedish Migration Agency has claimed that the majority of staff deciding who is allowed into the country are foreign and that clan-like networks have developed, in which ethnic and religious compatriots are given special consideration.

In an interview with the Swedish news outlet Samnytt, a source within the country’s Migration Agency, which has the power to determine who is granted asylum, residency, work permits, and citizenship, has claimed that the federal agency has seen a drastic overhaul since the 2015 Europe Migrant Crisis.

The whistleblower said that not only did the Migration Agency’s culture see significant changes, in which “values” of multiculturalism were prioritised, but also in the makeup of the staff, claiming that ethnic Swedes now represent a minority within the very agency supposedly tasked with controlling the nation’s borders.

The source said that many officials do not even have Swedish citizenship themselves and that it has become commonplace for multiple other foreign languages to be spoken within the office. This, the whistleblower said, has incentivised the formation of “clannish” networks of certain ethnicities within the board.

“What has the biggest impact is that everyone speaks their own language, so you don’t understand what is being said between groups and employees,” the informant explained.

“It has a fairly big impact, because groups sit together with those who speak their own language. Kurds normally sit together with other Kurds, even if there are different clans among the Kurds, Somalis sit with other Somalis and Syrians with other Syrians and so on.”

The impact of multiculturalism being played out within the Migration Agency itself has not only impacted the social cohesion of the office, the source said, claiming that the development of ethnic networks within the agency sees them prioritise immigration from their own groups over others in order to strengthen their ethnicity’s position within Sweden.

“It’s not just the language that affects this, that people don’t understand each other or what is being said, but it also causes different groups to form within the agency, clans that are committed to bringing their own clan members or relatives from their home countries here. The clan mentality of the Middle East has been brought here, into the agency,” the whistleblower claimed.

According to the source, around one-third of all Migration Agency employees are Muslims, many of whom have allegedly become more radical in the wake of the October 7th terror attacks on Israel, after which the source saw “more and more” Muslim women wearing hijabs at the office.

“Muslims are also divided into many different clans and faiths, so it is mainly clan affiliation that is decisive, but when it comes to views on Jews and Israel, they come together more. There is clearly a closeness between Muslims.”

The informant said that the only solution would be to “shut down the entire agency,” arguing that it “cannot be changed”.

“If you change the name or transfer responsibility to other agencies, the same people will follow. It will be the same thing again. If you want to change this, you have to take a completely new approach, with new people.”

Quote:Some leaders of a farmer’s union opposed to a massive European Union free trade deal that could wipe out agriculture on the continent have been arrested as tractors overwhelmed police roadblocks to drive into the centre of Paris.

Farmers across Europe turned out to protest the so-called Mercosur deal due to be voted on by the European Union on Friday, a massive free trade agreement with South America which would so flood the continent with cheap food the agricultural sector fears it would all but wipe out farming in Europe. Highways have been blocked in Greece and convoys of tractors are descending on Paris, leading to tense standoffs with police ordered to seize tractors from drivers who disobey commands.

The French government called the protest in Paris “illegal” and “unacceptable” on Thursday, after farmers overwhelmed and sidestepped police roadblocks to get into the city, against government orders. Tractors have been used to block key roads, and “we will not die in silence” protest farmers have set up camp around key junctions and landmarks including the Arc de Triomphe and outside the National Assembly parliament buildings.

Many more tractors are on the outskirts of Paris, in showdowns with riot police deployed by the interior ministry. Police are ordered, reports Le Figaro, to arrest farmers who are not cooperative and to seize their tractors. This itself has become a major point of contention between farmers and the government in recent months, as the seizures are of equipment farmers need to do their jobs.

Some farmers brandished ‘Frexit’ signs, signalling opposition to the European Union’s trade policy so strong that total withdrawal from the bloc is preferred.

Overnight, regional leaders of one of the more militant right-wing farmers unions Coordination Rurale were arrested, leading to yet more farmers to blockade the city of Rodez in response. Separately, a fuel depot has been blockaded in the Bordeaux region.

As it is, the French government is likely to vote against the Mercosur deal at the European Union, but protesters say it lacks conviction and hasn’t fought for them hard enough in Brussels. France also lacks allies in the bloc to defeat the deal, which is strongly backed by Brussels and wealthy European nations as it would open South America to high-tech and industrial exports in return for food. The leader of France’s centre-right Republicans has warned President Emmanuel Macron that he will impeach the government if they vote for the deal.

In neighbouring Germany, Mercosur protesters also saw tractors take to the highways, with the A4 and A9 motorways blocked by farmers. In the eastern city of Dresden, farmers called a protest in the centre today, with tractors due to descend on the famed Frauenkirche later today, local media reports. In Catalonia, Spanish farmers built blockades across major roads to support the protests.

Across the continent in Greece farmers are also protesting on Thursday. Convoys of tractors are enacting a 48-hour nationwide blockade of key highways and junctions to protest Mercosur, but did clash with police as the nation’s conservative government ordered officers to stand back, reports the Associated Press. It notes the government made last-minute concessions to farmers including a tax cut on Wednesday night to smooth over divisions.

Quote:Paris and Berlin are reportedly coordinating efforts to craft a European plan to respond to overtures from the Trump administration regarding the prospect of the United States acquiring Greenland from the Kingdom of Denmark.

Renewed focus has been placed on the fate of the semi-autonomous island of Greenland this week in the wake of Washington’s bold military operation to overthrow socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, in what the White House has described as a demonstration of the Monroe Doctrine, which asserts that America has hegemonic control over the Western Hemisphere and it is therefore within its rights to take action against any foreign incursion into its sphere of influence.

Naturally, questions quickly arose over the status of Greenland, which, despite being in the Western Hemisphere and a part of North America, remains under the jurisdiction of the Kingdom of Denmark as a self-governing territory.

Despite Greenland not being a member of the European Union, and even withdrew from the preceding European Community in 1985 to become an Overseas Country and Territory (OCT) associated with the bloc through Denmark, EU nations have been vocally opposed to the stated aims of the Trump administration to acquire the island and have reacted with exasperated indignation over suggestions from the White House that the U.S. would be willing to use force to achieve its goal.

On Tuesday evening, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement: “President Trump has made it well known that acquiring Greenland is a national security priority of the United States, and it’s vital to deter our adversaries in the Arctic region… The president and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal, and of course, utilising the U.S. military is always an option at the commander in chief’s disposal.”

In response, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said, in comments reported by Reuters, that Paris will partner with Berlin and Warsaw this week to craft a response to the United States, saying: “We want to take action, but we want to do so together with our European partners.”

The news wire service went on to cite an unnamed German government source who said that Berlin is “closely working together with other European countries and Denmark on the next steps regarding Greenland.”

Although much focus has been placed on President Trump’s apparent hardline negotiating stance, top administration figures such as Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller have downplayed the likelihood that America would actually need to use military force to obtain Greenland.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that Secretary of State Marco Rubio informed lawmakers in a closed hearing this week that the administration’s public posturing around military force was intended to bring Denmark to the negotiating table for a sale of the island.

Quote:Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand and Governor General Mary Simon are reportedly planning a visit to Greenland early next month to open a new Canadian consulate, in a show of Ottawa’s opposition to President Donald Trump’s move to acquire Greenland for the United States.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney met with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen at the Canadian embassy in Paris on Tuesday, where both were attending a meeting on Ukraine. Carney declared Canada’s support for Denmark’s sole authority to decide the fate of Greenland.

Anand posted a video of the Carney-Frederiksen meeting on social media and said she would be on hand to open a new Canadian consulate in the Greenland city of Nuuk next month, as a “concrete step in strengthening our engagement in support of Denmark’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, including Greenland.”

The Canadian government is relying heavily on Simon’s presence in Nuuk to get the diplomatic mission taken seriously. Simon is Canada’s first governor general of indigenous descent, and was the ambassador to Denmark before she became governor general in 2021. Greenland’s sparse population includes a large portion indigenous people, most of them Inuits. Simon’s mother was Inuk, while her father was English.

Simon’s position also makes her a representative of British King Charles III, who is officially the Canadian head of state, adding a bit more international clout to her prospective trip to Greenland. She said on Monday that Prime Minster Carney personally asked her to make the trip.

Carney on Tuesday signed a joint statement with Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland, and the United Kingdom declaring that only Denmark and the people of Greenland should “decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland.”

The statement took a careful tone, urging all of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to work together on Arctic security, including the United States, Denmark, and Greenland. The statement hailed the United States as “an essential partner in this endeavor, as a NATO ally and through the defense agreement between the Kingdom of Denmark and the United States of 1951.”

European and Canadian leaders rushed out their joint statement after President Trump restated his “very serious” desire to acquire Greenland, although he said he had “no timeline” for doing so. Fredericksen panicked and warned that if Trump uses force to annex Greenland, it would destroy NATO.

Quote:NUUK, Greenland (AP) – Greenland’s party leaders have rejected President Donald Trump’s repeated calls for the U.S. to take control of the island, saying that Greenland’s future must be decided by its people.

“We don’t want to be Americans, we don’t want to be Danes, we want to be Greenlanders,” Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen and four party leaders said in a statement Friday night.

Trump said again on Friday that he would like to make a deal to acquire Greenland, a semiautonomous region that’s part of NATO ally Denmark, “the easy way.” He said that if the U.S. doesn’t own it, then Russia or China will take it over, and the U.S. does not want them as neighbors.

“If we don’t do it the easy way, we’re going to do it the hard way,” Trump said, without explaining what that entailed. The White House said it is considering a range of options, including using military force, to acquire the island.

Greenland’s party leaders reiterated that “Greenland’s future must be decided by the Greenlandic people.”

“As Greenlandic party leaders, we would like to emphasize once again our wish that the United States’ contempt for our country ends,” the statement said.

Officials from Denmark, Greenland and the United States met Thursday in Washington and will meet again next week to discuss the renewed push by the White House for the control of the island.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has warned that an American takeover of Greenland would mark the end of NATO.

The party leaders’ statement said that “the work on Greenland’s future takes place in dialogue with the Greenlandic people and is prepared on the basis of international laws.”

“No other country can interfere in this,” they said. “We must decide the future of our country ourselves, without pressure for quick decision, delay or interference from other countries.”

The statement was signed by Nielsen, Pele Broberg, Múte B. Egede, Aleqa Hammond and Aqqalu C. Jerimiassen.

While Greenland is the largest island in the world, it has a population of around 57,000 and doesn’t have its own military. Defense is provided by Denmark, whose military is dwarfed by that of the U.S.

It’s unclear how the remaining NATO members would respond if the U.S. decided to forcibly take control of the island or if they would come to Denmark’s aid.

Quote:A former head of Britain’s MI6 intelligence agency has argued that it would be good for “European security” if U.S. President Trump succeeds in taking control of Greenland.

Amid increasing speculation over the fate of the island, with suggestions that the U.S. would be willing to either provide financial compensation to the 57,000 Greenlanders or potentially use military force to annex the strategically important Danish territory, European leaders have reacted with shock and indignation.

However, former British Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service Sir Richard Dearlove has argued that it would be in Europe’s interests to cede control of Greenland to the United States, as only America has the military prowess necessary for long-term deployments in the Arctic territory or the might required to deter hostile actors such as Communist China or Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

Speaking to TalkTV, Sir Richard said: “There is a strong argument for reinforcing Europe’s security by putting a much greater representation of American forces, which are the only ones that can effectively cope up in Greenland.

“Now, I would have thought that it’s possible for Denmark and the United States to make some agreement. Why the hell don’t the Danes lease them Greenland for a hundred years?

“I think it’s really important that we look at this, not in terms of, ‘Gosh, isn’t Trump doing dreadful stuff?’ It’s about European security and the safety of the area in which we live.”

Ownership of Greenland, which has been under the control of the Kingdom of Denmark to varying degrees for centuries, has long been a goal of U.S. administrations, with attempts to acquire the island dating back to the 1860s.

The issue has become more pressing in recent years, however, with relations with Moscow deteriorating after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine and similarly with Beijing amid the ongoing trade dispute.

Several strategic elements have been cited as motivations for the White House’s keen interest in the island, including securing its large mineral deposits, protecting against intercontinental missiles, access to the Arctic, and protecting the

GIUK gap, a naval choke point between Greenland, Iceland, and the United Kingdom, the control of which would be critical in fending off any attempts by the Russian navy to attack the mainland United States or indeed much of Western Europe.

Dearlove said that American control of the island would “make the Northern approach a hell of a lot safer for all Europeans, and it keeps the Chinese out too, which is also massively important.”

Quote:Australia’s left-wing Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Thursday finally caved to public pressure and announced a wide-ranging national inquiry into antisemitism. His capitulation comes 25 days after two terrorist gunmen opened fire on a Jewish holiday event at Bondi Beach in an Islamic State-inspired atrocity that claimed the lives of 15 people.

The Royal Commission will investigate the nature, prevalence and drivers of antisemitism generally as well as the circumstances of the Bondi mass terror shooting, Albanese told reporters in Canberra, AP reports.

It will also make recommendations for law enforcement countering the spread of extremism, coming as increasing numbers of Australians despair at the Albanese government and its embrace of forces that represent antisemitism around the globe.

An Australian Royal Commission has broad, coercive powers to gather evidence and information, which are often greater than those of a judge in a standard court case.

The commission can compel individuals to appear before it to give evidence, either publicly or in private and witnesses are typically required to swear an oath or make an affirmation to tell the truth.

It will be led by former High Court judge Virginia Bell, Albanese said.

A report is due by Dec. 14, which will be a year to the day since the shooting during a Hanukkah celebration at the Sydney landmark.

That tragedy followed other examples of antisemitism that have roiled the country under Albanese’s Labor government.

“This was an antisemitic terrorist attack, aimed at Jewish Australians, inspired by ISIS, the deadliest that has ever occurred on Australian soil,” said Albanese, referring to the Islamic State group and its role in inspiring the Bondi Beach atrocity.

Following the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had sent a letter to Albanese in August, accusing the left-wing leader of pouring fuel “on this antisemitic fire” by recognising Palestine as a state.

“It encourages the Jew hatred now stalking your streets. Antisemitism is a cancer. It spreads when leaders stay silent; it retreats when leaders act. I call upon you to replace weakness with action, appeasement with resolve,” Netanyahu said he wrote.

The surviving suspect, Naveed Akram, 24, faces dozens of criminal charges including murder and terrorism.

Quote:Do as you are told, obey your “legal obligation” and keep sending U.S. taxpayer dollars. That was the message delivered Thursday to the Trump administration from U.N. headquarters in Manhattan, New York City, in the hours after the White House announced it is withdrawing billions in financial support from 66 organizations affiliated with the globalist entity.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, a former Portuguese Socialist Party leader and prime minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002, said he regretted President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the U.N.-related agencies but no avenue exists for it to stop paying its dues.

These include the U.N.’s population agency and the U.N. treaty that establishes international climate negotiations, AP reports.

The U.S. also intends to exit dozens of other global organizations or initiatives not affiliated with the U.N. but still reliant on massive U.S. funding, as Breitbart News reported.

“As we have consistently underscored, assessed contributions to the United Nations regular budget and peacekeeping budget, as approved by the General Assembly, are a legal obligation under the U.N. Charter for all Member States, including the United States,” Stephane Dujarric, a spokesperson for Guterres, said in a statement before reaffirming the U.S. cannot withdraw its funding.

“All United Nations entities will go on with the implementation of their mandates as given by member states.”

As Breitbart News reported, the Trump administration announced Wednesday it’s taking U.S. taxpayer dollars away from 66 globalist organizations, nearly half of them affiliated with the United Nations and all of which are identified as “contrary to the interests of the United States.”

Most notable is the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the parent treaty underpinning all major international climate agreements.

The treaty adopted in 1992 is a global pact by nations to cooperate to drive down planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impacts of so-called “climate change.”

Trump, who has thrown the full weight of his domestic policy behind fossil fuels, has openly scorned speculation human activity is warming the planet, deriding it as a “hoax.”

His administration sent no representative to the most recent U.N. climate summit in Brazil in November, which is held every year under the auspices of the UNFCCC.

Now Trump is making sure U.S. taxpayer dollars are no longer spent at the discretion of the U.N. and its associated globalist affiliates.