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.

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/unprecedented-errors-are-eroding-credibility-trumps-justice-department-2025-12-17/
WASHINGTON, Dec 17 - As President Donald Trump's crime crackdown got underway in Washington, D.C., in August, federal agents and police spotted a man named Torez Riley tugging at his backpack inside a Trader Joe's store, searched it and recovered two firearms.
But federal prosecutors were forced to dismiss the charges after video surveillance revealed the search lacked probable cause and was unlawful.

In a subsequent legal opinion, a federal magistrate judge said the errors were part of a broader pattern of unprecedented prosecutorial missteps, resulting in a 21% dismissal rate of the D.C. U.S. Attorney's office's criminal complaints over eight weeks, compared to a mere 0.5% dismissal rate over the prior 10 years.
"It appears prosecutors charged and detained Riley before properly investigating the circumstances of his arrest," wrote the magistrate judge, Zia Faruqui.
In years past, it was relatively rare for a federal court to question the Justice Department's competency or good faith. But such questions are becoming more common, thanks to a growing pattern of legal missteps that have dogged the department since January, according to a Reuters review and legal experts.
The Justice Department declined to comment on any pending cases but a department spokesperson said:
"This Department of Justice is winning in court on behalf of the Trump Administration and the American People with 24 successful rulings at the Supreme Court emergency docket so far and multiple prominent indictments of transnational terrorists, violent criminals, and even politicians who have allegedly engaged in corruption."
A spokesman for the D.C. U.S. Attorney's office, Tim Lauer, said: “This office enforces the law as written and brings cases where the facts warrant action. While judges and juries decide outcomes, this office’s role is to hold offenders accountable.”

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/trump-orders-blockade-sanctioned-oil-tankers-leaving-entering-venezuela-2025-12-16/
WASHINGTON, Dec 16 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday ordered a "blockade" of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela, a move set to sharply escalate tensions between Washington and Caracas as he targets Venezuela's main source of income.
It is unclear how the Trump administration will impose the blockade against the sanctioned vessels, and whether he will turn to the Coast Guard to interdict vessels like he did last week. The administration has moved thousands of troops and nearly a dozen warships - including an aircraft carrier - to the region in recent months.

"For the theft of our Assets, and many other reasons, including Terrorism, Drug Smuggling, and Human Trafficking, the Venezuelan Regime has been designated a FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "Therefore, today, I am ordering A TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE OF ALL SANCTIONED OIL TANKERS going into, and out of, Venezuela."
U.S. crude futures climbed over 1% to $55.96 a barrel in Asian trading after Trump's announcement. Oil prices settled at $55.27 a barrel on Tuesday, the lowest close since February 2021.

Oil market participants said prices were rising in anticipation of a potential reduction in Venezuelan exports, although they were still waiting to see how Trump’s blockade would be enforced and whether it would extend to include non-sanctioned vessels.
"We don’t know how much or how quickly Trump will enforce this," said Rory Johnston, founder of oil markets-focused newsletter Commodity Context.

There has been an effective embargo in place after the U.S. seized a sanctioned oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela last week, with loaded vessels carrying millions of barrels of oil staying in Venezuelan waters rather than risk seizure.

The US economy added 64,000 jobs in November as the unemployment rate crept up to 4.6%, according to Labor Department data published Tuesday.

The unemployment rate is now at its highest level since September 2021.

The November jobs report, originally scheduled to be published Dec. 5 before the 43-day government shutdown delayed multiple economic data releases, comes as Americans stress over rising layoffs and a frozen job market that can feel impossible to break into. Tuesday’s report suggested those conditions persisted toward the end of the year.

Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had expected a gain of 50,000 jobs. The healthcare sector, which has fueled job growth this year, added 46,000 positions for the month.

"The US economy is in a hiring recession," Heather Long, chief economist at the Navy Federal Credit Union, wrote in a post on X.

"Almost no jobs have been added since April," Long added. "Wage gains are slowing. 710,000 more people are unemployed now versus November 2024."

The last official reading of the labor market, published in November, was pushed back by several weeks and had only offered data for September, showing an unexpected uptick in jobs after the economy actually lost jobs in August and June, marking the first negative employment months since 2020.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/unemployment-rate-hit-4-year-high-in-november-even-as-economy-added-jobs-133749371.html