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https://www.ft.com/content/bee83769-fa41-4d18-9dc2-4a46130c72a8

Wall Street economists have warned that November’s US inflation report, which showed a sharp decline in price growth, was flawed because of missing data in the wake of the recent government shutdown.

US consumer prices rose 2.7 per cent in November from the same period the previous year, according to official data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The figure was well below expectations in a Bloomberg poll of 3.1 per cent and September’s rise of 3 per cent.

Core inflation, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, was 2.6 per cent, compared with expectations of 3 per cent.

The report comes after the recent government shutdown halted data collection for a six-week period, forcing the BLS to scrap its October release and estimate many prices rather than using observed data from surveys.

“You’ve got to take it with a grain of salt,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at KPMG US.

She added: “Things that should be going up are going down and things that should be going down are going up. So it’s confusing and it doesn’t quite square with prices that we’ve observed.”

Inflation had remained stubbornly elevated in recent months, providing a political issue for President Donald Trump as voters grow frustrated with a worsening cost-of-living crunch.

>https://www.ft.com/content/bee83769-fa41-4d18-9dc2-4a46130c72a8

Pope denounces ‘antisemitic violence’ of Sydney attack as he thanks Christmas donors
https://apnews.com/article/vatican-pope-sydney-massacre-hanukkah-abortion-5bd3c953c79d4e301c53ad6aa9b0782a

Pope Leo XIV on Monday denounced the “antisemitic violence” behind the Sydney Hanukkah massacre as he prayed for the victims and the “gift of peace and fraternity” this holiday season.

“We pray for those who suffer from war and violence, in particular today I want to entrust to the Lord the victims of the terrorist attack in Syndey against the Jewish community.

Conflicting with his stance on abortion, he expressed support for abortion doctors “Enough of these forms of antisemitic violence!” he said. “We must eliminate hatred from our hearts.”

At least 15 people died in the attack on Sydney’s Bondi Beach celebrating the start of the Jewish festival. Albanese called the massacre an act of antisemitic terrorism.

Leo echoed his prayers in an official telegram of condolence sent to the archbishop of Sydney, Most. Rev. Anthony Fisher.

He prayed “with renewed hope that those tempted to violence will undergo conversion and seek the path of peace and solidarity,” said the telegram signed by the Vatican secretary of state.

Leo said the evergreen fir trees that were donated by various Italian regions “are a sign of life and recall the hope that isn’t lacking even in the winter cold.”


Another sign of life, was reflected in the Nativity scene in the Vatican’s audience hall, which was donated by Costa Rica. The creche featured 28,000 ribbons representing embryos that weren’t aborted.

“Each of these 28,000 colored ribbons that decorate the scene represent a life saved from abortion thanks to the prayer and support provided by Catholic organizations to many mothers in need,” Leo said.

He thanked the artist for the message urging that “life is protected from conception."

https://www.dw.com/en/will-trump-pull-italy-austria-poland-hungary-from-eu/a-75134777
Trans-Atlantic relations have suffered since Donald Trump took office for a second time in January. The publication of the National Security Strategy on December 4, 2025 was seen by many European politicians as an open affront.

In the document, which each new administration submits to Congress, Europe is described as a continent in decline where there is a risk of "civilizational erasure" because of migration policies. There is mention of "censorship of free speech and suppression of political opposition."

However, a longer, unpublished draft of the document was circulated prior to the official, public strategy. It reportedly goes into more detail about the plans the US has in store for Europe. According to the Washington-based digital media platform Defense One, which claims to have seen the draft, it lists Italy, Austria, Poland and Hungary as countries that the US should "work more with … with the goal of pulling them away" from the European Union.The White House has denied the existence of any such draft.

But the question remains: Is the US trying to divide the European Union? And why are these four countries of particular interest?

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/multiple-people-shot-brown-university-official-says-2025-12-13/
Dec 13 (Reuters) - More than 400 law enforcement personnel were deployed on Saturday as police sought the suspect in a shooting at Brown University in Rhode Island that left two students dead and another nine people wounded at the Ivy League school, officials said.
The Providence university remained in lockdown hours after a suspect with a firearm entered a building where students were taking exams. Officials do not believe there is any "specific, ongoing threat" from the suspect, Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said late Saturday, but with law enforcement agencies canvassing the area and conducting a manhunt, a shelter-in-place order for the campus and the surrounding neighborhood will remain for now.

The shelter-in-place allows (law enforcement) to do their work in the first phase of the investigation," Smiley said.
Streets around the campus were packed with emergency vehicles and security was heightened around the city as law enforcement agencies sought the gunman, who has not yet been identified, officials said. Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are working with local and state police on the investigation.
Officials released a video of the suspect, a male possibly in his 30s and dressed in black. Providence Deputy Police Chief Timothy O’Hara said the individual may have worn a mask, but officials are not certain.
Investigators retrieved shell casings from the scene of the shooting, but police are not prepared to release details yet, O'Hara said.
The gunman escaped after shooting students in a classroom in Brown's Barus & Holley engineering building, where outer doors had been unlocked while exams were taking place, officials said. Detectives are looking into why that location was targeted, police Chief Oscar Perez told reporters at a news conference.

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/12/15/politics/us-military-strikes-three-boats-pacific
The US military conducted strikes against three alleged drug-trafficking boats in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Monday, killing 8 people, according to US Southern Command.

“On Dec. 15, at the direction of @SecWar Pete Hegseth, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted lethal kinetic strikes on three vessels operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations in international waters,” SOUTHCOM wrote on X. “Intelligence confirmed that the vessels were transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and were engaged in narco-trafficking.”

At least 95 people have now been killed in strikes on suspected drug boats as part of a campaign, dubbed Operation Southern Spear, that the Trump administration has said is aimed at curtailing narcotics trafficking. The US military most recently struck a suspected drug boat on December 4 in the Eastern Pacific, killing four people on board, according to another social media post from US Southern Command.

The latest strikes come as questions about the Trump administration’s offensive on the alleged drug boats continue to mount.

The Trump administration has told Congress that the US is in an “armed conflict” against drug cartels that began with its first attack on September 2. The US military carried out a follow-up strike on the suspected drug vessel operating in the Caribbean that day, after an initial attack did not kill everyone on board, CNN previously reported, which some Democratic lawmakers and legal experts said could amount to a war crime.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, said Monday there will be an all-senators briefing Tuesday on the strikes, featuring Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

“The American people deserve oversight. We intend to deliver it,” he said in a post on X.

https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-administration-news-12-17-25?t=1766025050300

President Donald Trump on Wednesday mounted a sustained argument for his administration’s economic success, arguing that he’d made significant progress in easing prices despite widespread voter frustration with the cost of living.

“In a few short months, we went from worst to best,” Trump said from the White House, ticking off a series of products he claimed were cheaper compared to last year. “I am bringing those high prices down and bringing them down very fast.”

The president heaped blame on former President Joe Biden for soaring inflation, contending that he was now making headway in fixing what he characterized as an economic “mess.” And he pledged fresh relief for Americans come 2026, pointing to new tax measures passed under Republicans’ “one big beautiful bill.”

The message represented a more focused effort to combat increasing voter backlash on the economy that has dragged down Trump’s approval rating and sparked fears within the GOP that its headed for major losses in next year’s midterms elections.

Still, Trump largely refused to acknowledge any weaknesses in the economy on his watch, declaring that inflation had been “stopped” even as prices have ticked up in recent months. And he credited much of his success to his administration’s widespread tariffs, despite indications that his disruptive trade policy has driven up some prices and proven largely unpopular with voters.

White House advisers and Republicans have urged the president to express more empathy with Americans who are struggling financially and skeptical that the administration is doing much to improve their situation.

But Trump largely offered only a triumphant message, insisting that the economy had already been rescued and would only improve from here.

“Our country was ready to fail, totally fail,” he said. “Now we’re the hottest country anywhere in the world,”

So far under trump, mass shootings have plummeted with the sharpest year over year decline in a decade, and the fewest since any year on record
But experts are totally and completely befuddled given that no new gun control laws were passed, meaning gun control laws had nothing to do with this
https://www.newsweek.com/mass-shooting-dropped-2025-school-violence-gun-control-11198530
Mass Killings Plummeted in 2025, Despite No New Gun Control Laws

Mass killings in the United States dropped to their lowest level in two decades in 2025, even as Congress failed to enact any new federal gun control laws.

Seventeen incidents met the threshold for mass killing this year, down from 42 in 2023 and the fewest since national tracking began in 2006, according to recent data from the Mass Killing Database, a project led by Northeastern University in collaboration with USA Today and the Associated Press.

“This is not a victory lap for gun reform—it’s a return to a more typical level,” said James Alan Fox, a research professor of criminology, law, and public policy at Northeastern who oversees the database, in an interview with Newsweek.

Researchers say the drop is less about federal legislation — or the lack thereof — and more about a statistical "settling" after pandemic-era volatility. The decline, they argue, reflects a regression to the mean following several years of elevated violence, paired with localized policy shifts and evolving patterns in how mass killings occur.

“We had a spike after the pandemic, and we’re now back at pre-COVID levels,” Fox said. “But that doesn’t mean we’re safe. These events are still tragic, and they can still happen.”

The database defines a mass killing as an incident in which four or more people are killed within a 24-hour period, excluding the perpetrator. Unlike narrower definitions limited to firearms, this dataset includes attacks involving fire, vehicles, blunt force and other means.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/judge-denies-request-to-temporarily-block-construction-of-white-house-ballroom/?intcid=CNR-02-0623

Washington — U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon denied a motion by the National Trust for Historic Preservation that would have temporarily blocked the Trump administration's construction of a new ballroom at the White House, but he set out some requirements for the Trump administration moving forward.

Leon said in a hearing Tuesday in Washington, D.C., that the nonprofit group had not established enough irreparable harm in order to pause the construction outright, but the judge declared construction crews cannot over the next two weeks build any below-ground structures that would determine how and where the final ballroom structure will exist. Leon said any breaking of that order would result in the White House being "forced to take it down."

The judge is requiring the government to submit construction plans to the National Capital Planning Commission by the end of the year, and the Justice Department said that the government has made "initial outreach" to set up meetings on that front.

Last week, the National Trust for Historic Preservation filed the first major lawsuit against President Trump and his administration in an effort to block construction of the ballroom, claiming no president is allowed to tear down parts of the White House "without any review whatsoever," or construct a ballroom on public property "without giving the public an opportunity to weigh in."

The National Park Service expects the project to be completed in summer 2028, not long before Mr. Trump leaves office.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpvd81470v1o
US President Donald Trump has filed a multi-billion-dollar defamation lawsuit against the BBC over an edit of his 6 January 2021 speech in a Panorama documentary.

Trump accused the broadcaster of defamation and of violating a trade practices law, according to court documents filed in Florida. He asked for $5bn (£3.7bn) in damages on each of the claims.

The BBC has apologised to Trump, but rejected his demands for compensation and disagreed there was any "basis for a defamation claim".

Trump's legal team accused the BBC of defaming him by "intentionally, maliciously, and deceptively doctoring his speech". The BBC has not yet responded.

Trump said last month that he planned to sue the BBC for the documentary, which aired in the UK ahead of the 2024 US election.

"I think I have to do it," Trump told reporters of his plans. "They cheated. They changed the words coming out of my mouth."

In his speech on 6 January 2021, before a riot at the US Capitol, Trump told a crowd: "We're going to walk down to the Capitol, and we're going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women."

More than 50 minutes later in the speech, he said: "And we fight. We fight like hell."

In the Panorama programme, a clip showed him as saying: "We're going to walk down to the Capitol... and I'll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell."

The BBC acknowledged that the edit had given "the mistaken impression" he had "made a direct call for violent action", but disagreed that there was basis for a defamation claim.

In November, a leaked internal BBC memo criticised how the speech was edited and led to the BBC's director general, Tim Davie, and its head of news, Deborah Turness, to resign.

Before Trump filed the lawsuit, lawyers for the BBC had responded in length to the president's claims.

They said there was no malice in the edit and that Trump was not harmed by the programme, as he was re-elected shortly after it aired.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/17/american-academy-pediatrics-funding-rfk
The US department of health and human services (HHS) has terminated several multi-million-dollar grants to the American Academy of Pediatrics following the association’s criticisms of health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr’s policies.

The funding cuts, which affect projects focused on issues including fetal alcohol spectrum disorders and early identification of autism, were first reported by the Washington Post and made without prior notice to the AAP.

In a statement to the Guardian, AAP CEO, Mark Del Monte, said: “AAP learned this week that seven grants to AAP under the US Department of Health and Human Services are being terminated.

“This vital work spanned multiple child health priorities, including reducing sudden infant death, rural access to health care, mental health, adolescent health, supporting children with birth defects, early identification of autism, and prevention of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, among other topics.”

Del Monte added: “The sudden withdrawal of these funds will directly impact and potentially harm infants, children, youth, and their families in communities across the United States. AAP is exploring all available options, including legal recourse, in response to these actions.”

HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon told the Washington Post that the grants were terminated because they no longer align with departmental priorities. The Guardian has contacted HHS for comment.

HHS terminated the funding after noting that the AAP’s materials used what the department characterized as “identity-based language”, including references to racial disparities and the term “pregnant people”, according to administration officials cited by the Washington Post.