Prepared for the Office of Public Affairs (OPA)
U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Editorial Note: The DHS Daily Briefing is a collection of news articles related to Department’s mission. The inclusion of particular stories is not intended to reflect their importance, nor is it intended to endorse the political viewpoints or affiliations included in news coverage.

The Washington Post [12/16/2025 1:09 AM, Tara Copp, Alex Horton, Noah Robertson, 24149K] reports U.S. forces killed eight alleged drug smugglers in three separate boat strikes in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Monday, raising the death toll in the Trump administration’s counternarcotics campaign to at least 95. The strikes occurred in separate locations along what U.S. Southern Command said were “known narco-trafficking routes.” The first strike killed three men, the second killed two men, and the third strike also killed three. In videos released by U.S. Southern Command on the social media platform X, the three boats are blown up in fiery explosions. The first was idling, and the other two were moving at a fast rate when they were struck. The strikes occurred as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other top military and administration officials are expected to brief the House and Senate this week amid ongoing fallout from a report by Washington Post on how U.S. forces struck the same suspected drug smuggling boat twice in September, killing two survivors of the initial strike. That revelation has led some lawmakers to question whether the officer leading the operation violated the law of armed conflict by striking “shipwrecked” survivors, or enemies who were out of the fight. In its annual defense bill, Congress plans to withhold 25 percent of Hegseth’s travel budget until he releases the full videos and other materials related to the boat strikes. The legislation has already passed the House and is likely to advance in the Senate on Tuesday. President Donald Trump is expected to sign it into law. Hegseth’s and Rubio’s appearance on Capitol Hill will mark the administration’s most comprehensive effort to date to brief lawmakers. Two weeks ago, Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Adm. Frank M. Bradley, who oversees U.S. Special Operations Command, appeared before top Republican and Democratic committee leadership to discuss the Sept. 2 strike. The strikes and massive military buildup of more than a dozen U.S. warships in the region have raised questions about whether the United States will expand its operations against what it says are Venezuelan cartels into possible military action in Venezuela. The buildup appears to be a pressure campaign to unseat Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who Trump has alleged directs traffickers and criminals to assault the U.S. Trump has said that Maduro’s “days are numbered.” The AP [12/15/2025 10:12 PM, Staff, 28013K] reports President Donald Trump has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States and asserted the U.S. is engaged in an "armed conflict" with drug cartels. But the Trump administration is facing increasing scrutiny from lawmakers over the boat strike campaign, which has killed at least 95 people in 25 known strikes since early September, including a follow-up strike that killed two survivors clinging to the wreckage of a boat after the first hit. The latest boat strikes come on the eve of briefings on Capitol Hill for all members of Congress as questions mount over the Trump administration’s military campaign. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other top national security officials are expected to provide closed-door briefings for lawmakers in the House and Senate. The campaign has ramped up pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who has been charged with narcoterrorism in the U.S. In a sharp escalation last week, U.S. forces seized a sanctioned oil tanker that the Trump administration has accused of smuggling illicit crude. Maduro has insisted the real purpose of the U.S. military operations is to force him from office. The U.S. military has built up its largest presence in the region in decades and launched a series of deadly strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean. Trump says land attacks are coming soon but has not offered any details on location. CNN [12/15/2025 10:02 PM, Piper Hudspeth Blackburn, 606K] reports that 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. 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. Rubio and Hegseth are also expected to provide a classified briefing for House lawmakers Tuesday, according to two sources familiar with the plans. The administration has labeled those killed "unlawful combatants" and claimed the ability to engage in lethal strikes without judicial review due to a classified Justice Department finding. NBC News [12/15/2025 10:40 PM, Courtney Kube, 34509K] reports that the Trump administration has defended the strikes, saying they’re critical in preventing the flow of fentanyl, the synthetic opioid often made with chemicals from China and trafficked through Mexico, into the country. Fentanyl is the nation’s leading cause of overdose deaths. "The declared intent is to stop lethal drugs, destroy narco-boats, and kill the narco-terrorists who are poisoning the American people," Hegseth said on X last month. "Every trafficker we kill is affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization.” On Monday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order designating fentanyl and its core precursor chemical as weapons of mass destruction.

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Politico [12/15/2025 5:32 PM, Eric Bazail-Eimil and Jack Detsch, 13586K] reports President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday classifying fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction, giving the U.S. government additional legal firepower in its efforts to combat illegal trafficking of the synthetic drug. The executive order cites the lethality of the drug, which kills tens of thousands of Americans every year, and the fact that transnational criminal groups the Trump administration has designated as foreign terrorist organizations use the sale of fentanyl to fund activities that undermine U.S. national security. Speaking in the Oval Office as he signed the order, the president said the amount of drugs coming into the U.S. by sea has decreased by 94 percent (most drugs, including fentanyl, enter the U.S. via land ports of entry). Trump added that drug flows are “a direct military threat to the United States of America.” The administration has focused considerable resources on combating fentanyl as part of its efforts to secure the U.S. border with Mexico. Top administration officials have argued that Trump’s strict immigration limits and border security measures have led to a drop in domestic consumption of fentanyl. “With a secure border, lives are being saved every day, sex trafficking has plummeted, fentanyl has plummeted,” White House border czar Tom Homan said Monday. While classifying a narcotic as a WMD is a nearly unprecedented presidential action, there has been public debate about characterizing fentanyl that way before. The Biden administration had previously faced pressure from a bipartisan contingent of attorneys general to classify fentanyl as a WMD. And fentanyl, even in tiny quantities, is potent enough to kill large numbers of people very quickly through overdoses. The synthetic drug, which has some limited legal pharmacological uses, mostly comes to the United States via Mexico, where drug cartels manufacture fentanyl using “precursor chemicals” imported from China. Fentanyl production is also booming in the Golden Triangle region of southeast Asia, which includes the countries of Laos, Myanmar and Thailand. Fentanyl can be easily made in makeshift labs, adding to the challenge authorities have faced in eradicating production within their borders. The administration, meanwhile, has accused cartels operating in Venezuela of trafficking fentanyl into the United States as a justification for the use of lethal force against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean Sea. Venezuela, while seen as a hub for cocaine trafficking, is not viewed as a major contributor to global fentanyl trafficking. FOX News [12/15/2025 6:36 PM, Stepheny Price Fox, 40621K] reports “Today, I’m taking another step to protect Americans from the scourge of deadly fentanyl flooding into our country," Trump said from the Oval Office on Monday. "With this historic executive order I’m signing today, we are formally classifying fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction — because that’s what it is.” The order asserts that illicit fentanyl is "closer to a chemical weapon than a narcotic," noting that as little as two milligrams — "an almost undetectable trace amount equivalent to 10 to 15 grains of table salt" — can be lethal. It states that hundreds of thousands of Americans have died from fentanyl overdoses and argues that the drug’s production and distribution by organized criminal networks now constitute a significant national-security threat. It describes cartel operations responsible for supplying fentanyl to the United States as fueling "lawlessness" across the Western Hemisphere and helping finance assassinations, terrorist acts, and insurgencies abroad. The order also highlights that the two dominant cartels involved in fentanyl trafficking "engage in armed conflict over territory," creating widespread violence that extends far beyond the drug crisis itself. It also warns of the potential for fentanyl to be weaponized in "concentrated, large-scale terror attacks" by hostile actors — a central justification for invoking WMD authorities. "As President of the United States, my highest duty is the defense of the country and its citizens," the order states. "Accordingly, I hereby designate illicit fentanyl and its core precursor chemicals as Weapons of Mass Destruction.” The directive outlines a broad interagency strategy to confront fentanyl trafficking using tools typically reserved for nuclear, chemical, and biological threats. It instructs the Justice Department, State Department, Treasury Department, the Department of War, and the Department of Homeland Security to take "appropriate action" to eliminate the threat posed by illicit fentanyl and its precursor chemicals. CNN [12/15/2025 6:09 PM, Kit Maher, 18595K] reports [Trump’s] announcement came as he was honoring US service members with medals "for their central role in the protection of our border." US law already makes it a crime to use, threaten or attempt to use weapons of mass destruction — an offense that carries a possible death sentence, depending on the circumstances. The law also offers a definition for weapons of mass destruction that includes "any weapon involving a biological agent, toxin, or vector." But Trump can’t change US law via executive order, and one former federal prosecutor specializing in national security matters questioned whether it would have any impact. The order — which claims "illicit fentanyl is closer to a chemical weapon than a narcotic" — directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to "immediately pursue investigations and prosecutions into fentanyl trafficking." It also directs Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to "pursue appropriate actions against relevant assets and financial institutions in accordance with applicable law for those involved in or supporting the manufacture, distribution, and sale of illicit fentanyl and its core precursor chemicals." The order casts the manufacturing and distribution of fentanyl as a threat to national security.

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Reuters [12/15/2025 12:37 PM, Sarah N. Lynch and Katharine Jackson, 36480K] reports four people are facing criminal charges in connection with what Attorney General Pam Bondi described on Monday as a foiled bomb plot that contemplated multiple targets, including U.S. immigration agents and their vehicles. The four individuals have been charged with conspiracy and possession of an unregistered destructive device, according to the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. "The Turtle Island Liberation Front — a far-left, pro-Palestine, anti-government, and anti-capitalist group — was preparing to conduct a series of bombings against multiple targets in California beginning on New Year’s Eve. The group also planned to target ICE agents and vehicles," Bondi said in a statement. The bombing plot called for planting explosive devices at five locations targeting two U.S. companies at midnight on New Year’s Eve in the Los Angeles area, the complaint said. The case comes not long after Bondi issued a memo to law enforcement agents and prosecutors, ordering them to ramp up investigations into "extremist" groups with leftist-leaning agendas. The four defendants named in the complaint are Audrey Illeene Carroll, 30, Zachary Aaron Page, 32, Dante Gaffield, 24, and 41-year-old Tina Lai. Reuters could not immediately determine who is representing them in the criminal case. According to a sworn statement in support of the complaint, Carroll in November presented an eight-page handwritten document to a paid confidential source titled "Operation Midnight Sun" that described a bomb plot. The Washington Post [12/15/2025 2:08 PM, Perry Stein and Jeremy Roebuck, 24149K] reports First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli — who is running the federal prosecutor’s office in Los Angeles — said the FBI arrested the suspects in a remote area as they were practicing how to make bombs. He said he does not believe that others were involved in the plot. The criminal complaint charging the two men and two women said that they were eyeing two companies at five different locations and described the companies as “engaged in activities affecting interstate and foreign commerce.” “Thankfully, that plot has been foiled,” Essayli said. Essayli said the suspects were expected to make their first court appearance in Los Angeles on Monday. The AP [12/15/2025 8:25 PM, Julie Watson and Christopher Weber, 31753K] reports that the four suspects were arrested Friday in the Mojave Desert east of Los Angeles as they were rehearsing their plot, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said during a news conference. Officials showed reporters surveillance aerial footage of the suspects moving a large black object in the desert to a table. Officials said they were able to make the arrests before the suspects assembled a functional explosive device. Officials did not describe a motive but said they are members of an offshoot of a group dubbed the Turtle Island Liberation Front. The group calls for decolonization, tribal sovereignty and “the working class to rise up and fight back against capitalism,” according to the criminal complaint. Officials also found “Free Palestine” flyers at the desert campsite where the suspects were working with the bomb-making materials. The charges against each suspect include conspiracy and possession of a destructive device. Essayli said additional charges were expected in coming weeks. The four suspects’ attorneys did not immediately return requests for comment, and The Associated Press was unable to reach family members. AP also sent Turtle Island Liberation Front’s social media accounts messages asking for comment but did not get a response. The Hill [12/15/2025 11:40 AM, Rebecca Beitsch, 12595K] reports Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel said they arrested members of the “Turtle Island Liberation Front,” describing it as a pro-Palestinian extremist group. “After an intense investigation, the Department of Justice, working with our @FBI, prevented what would have been a massive and horrific terror plot in the Central District of California (Orange County and Los Angeles). The Turtle Island Liberation Front—a far-left, pro-Palestine, anti-government, and anti-capitalist group—was preparing to conduct a series of bombings against multiple targets in California beginning on New Year’s Eve,” Bondi wrote, adding that the group also planned to target immigration officers and their vehicles. “We will continue to pursue these terror groups and bring them to justice.” CBS News [12/15/2025 3:13 PM, Melissa Quinn and Jacob Rosen, 39474K] reports Bill Essayli, who leads the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles, said at a press conference that the four individuals were arrested Friday in San Bernardino County, where they planned to construct and detonate test explosive devices in the desert. He said the suspects allegedly crafted a "detailed, coordinated plot" to bomb "multiple" U.S. companies on New Year’s Eve, with the devices exploding at midnight. Essayli did not name the companies but said they were "logistics centers." "This case is another reminder about the dangers that radicalized antifa-like groups pose to people, public safety and the rule of law," he said. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

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Washington Examiner [12/15/2025 4:54 PM, Mia Cathell, 1394K] reports a radical, pro-Palestinian group known as the Turtle Island Liberation Front plotted to carry out coordinated bombings against several targets in Southern California beginning on New Year’s Eve, according to federal authorities. The anti-government group, which is based in Los Angeles, where the mass uprisings against Immigration and Customs Enforcement erupted earlier this year, also allegedly planned to target ICE agents and vehicles. At recent anti-ICE protests, keffiyeh-wearing activists with the group’s founding Los Angeles chapter were seen carrying signs calling for “Death to ICE.” However, before federal prosecutors filed charges against several of the group’s members this week, the Turtle Island Liberation Front remained relatively unknown to the public. After an "intense" investigation into the Turtle Island Liberation Front’s alleged activities, the Department of Justice prevented what would have been "a massive and horrific terror plot" in Orange County and the Los Angeles area, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on Monday. Four Turtle Island Liberation Front members, including Audrey "Asiginaak" Carroll, Dante "Nomad" Garfield, Zachary "AK" Page, and Tina "Kickwhere" Lai, were arrested over the weekend and charged with conspiracy and possession of a destructive device for their alleged involvement in the now-thwarted bombings, according to a criminal complaint. A fifth individual believed to be connected to the Turtle Island Liberation Front was nabbed in New Orleans for allegedly planning a separate attack.

New York Post [12/15/2025 6:42 PM, Ryan King, 42219K] reports wealth for me — but not for thee! Despite their extremist anti-capitalist ideology, the suspects who were arrested for allegedly plotting a bombing campaign in and around Los Angeles on New Year’s Eve appear to hail from upscale areas. One of the suspects, Tina Lai, 41, lives in a 4-bedroom home in the affluent Los Angeles suburb of Arcadia, according to records. Arcadia has a median house price of almost $2 million, according to Realtor.com — which is 66% higher than the citywide median house price of $1,200,000. The home appears to be owned by a relative, ostensibly her father. Lai was listed as living in the 2,000-square-foot home about 13 miles from downtown Los Angeles as recently as this month. She was one of the four suspects the feds nabbed last Friday for allegedly hatching a plot for a coordinated bombing campaign in the Los Angeles area. The other three suspects were Audrey Ilene Carroll, 30; Zachary Aaron Page, 32; and Dante Gaffield, 24, all of whom were described as members of "Order of the Black Lotus," a splinter group from the America-hating extremist Turtle Island Liberation Front (TILF) organization. All of them have been charged with conspiracy and possession of an unregistered destructive device, according to officials. A fifth suspect was also apprehended in New Orleans for an alleged separate plot. Page lived in a 3-bedroom home in Oak Park as recently as June, according to records. The peaceful, Southern California suburb in Ventura County — located about 40 miles west of LA — has a median home price of $920,000, according to Realtor.com. Records indicate he isn’t the owner. Alongside Carroll, he allegedly led the radical splinter group and helped set up its Signal chat, where they plotted what one document dubbed "OPERATION MIDNIGHT SUN," according to officials who obtained the nefarious plans from a confidential FBI source. During a meeting on Dec. 7, Page indicated it was "100,000[%]" likely that the FBI was on their tail and urged members to be cautious. Officials also claim that she and Page mused about future follow-up terrorism, such as attacks against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

AP [12/15/2025 7:12 PM, Rebecca Santana and Travis Loller, 2416K] reports Kilmar Abrego Garcia wasn’t an activist and he didn’t choose to become locked in to what has become one of the most contentious immigration issues of the Trump administration, his lawyer told The Associated Press on Monday. But as he experiences some of the few days he’s had with his family since being sent erroneously to an El Salvador prison in March, his lawyer said he’s still hoping for a just resolution to his case. "He’s been through a lot, and he’s still fighting," said his lawyer Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg during an interview with AP following Abrego Garcia’s court-ordered release from detention last week. "What it is he can fight for is circumscribed by the law and by the great power of the United States government, but he’s still fighting.” Abrego Garcia’s mistaken deportation to El Salvador helped galvanize opposition to President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. He was held in a notoriously brutal prison there despite having no criminal record. U.S. officials claimed Abrego Garcia was an MS-13 gang member, an allegation he denies and which he wasn’t charged for. He was later charged with human smuggling, accusations his lawyers have called preposterous and vindictive. The Trump administration fought efforts to return him to the U.S. but eventually complied. Since then, his case has been a twisted turn of legal filings and wranglings that has seen Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national, released from detention once since March — and that time just for a weekend — while the government has pursued smuggling charges against him and announced plans to deport him to a series of African countries. Then last week, a federal district court judge in Maryland ordered him to be released and barred the government for now from detaining him again until a hearing can be held in his case, possibly as early as this week, said Sandoval-Moshenberg. The Department of Homeland Security criticized the judge’s decision to release him last week and vowed to appeal, calling the ruling "naked judicial activism" by a judge appointed during the Obama administration.

Washington Examiner [12/15/2025 8:00 AM, Anna Giaritelli, 1394K] reports the Department of Housing and Urban Development has sent federal employees into Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, to investigate federally administered aid programs following the discovery of a massive welfare fraud scheme believed to have been carried out by Somali immigrants. A HUD spokesperson told the Washington Examiner that the department is the latest federal entity, following U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to send in its own staff to ensure HUD-funded programs are being carried out appropriately. The HUD official said the department is putting the region "on notice, that we are taking enforcement and fiscal oversight seriously given the rampant fraud." HUD’s Washington headquarters will also be reviewing data from Minnesota’s public housing authorities to ensure all federal housing programs are not being defrauded. The Minneapolis Public Housing Authority spends $108 million annually on housing choice vouchers and public housing, while St. Paul spends $46 million. The arrival of HUD personnel comes after $1 billion in taxpayer dollars was siphoned from the state’s social services programs to line the pockets of primarily Somali descendants in the region. The Treasury Department said it is looking into whether the money also went to a terrorist group, al Shabaab. The primary scandal involved Feeding Our Future, a nonprofit organization that claimed to have provided millions of meals to children during the pandemic and received $300 million in reimbursement. HUD Secretary Scott Turner said on Saturday evening that the department has cut funding for Somalis who have Temporary Protected Status.

Telemundo Amarillo [12/15/2025 1:41 PM, Staff, 4K] reports that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) denied that any changes have been made to its immigration enforcement operations, following reports suggesting the agency would cease large-scale raids and focus solely on specific groups. According to those reports, the DHS would prioritize the detention of undocumented immigrants with convictions for serious crimes. However, the agency rejected this claim. In a statement, Tricia McLaughlin, a DHS spokesperson, asserted that the information circulating is incorrect and that federal agencies are continuing their usual operations. According to McLaughlin, ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) continue to reinforce their immigration law enforcement efforts nationwide. The spokesperson emphasized that no operational changes have been implemented and that, if any modifications to the strategy were to occur, they would be announced directly by the Department of Homeland Security through official channels. These statements come amid a climate of increasing scrutiny of immigration policies and their impact on communities such as the Atlanta metropolitan area, where organizations and residents remain vigilant regarding any adjustments to federal operations.

Breitbart [12/15/2025 5:45 PM, John Binder, 2416K] reports the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) has revealed that President Joe Biden’s mass migration agenda at the U.S.-Mexico border welcomed about 18,000 "known or suspected terrorists" to the United States in just four years. The report, detailed to Congress by National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) Director Joe Kent, identified thousands of known or suspected terrorists living in American communities whom the Biden administration released into the United States interior thanks to its border policies. Kent said Biden’s Operation Allies Welcome, which brought tens of thousands of Afghan nationals to the United States, often without having been vetted or interviewed in person, imported known or suspected terrorists as well.

FOX News [12/15/2025 8:00 AM, Charles Creitz, 40621K] Video: HERE reports former top Biden administration decision makers were silent on whether they stand by the vetting procedures deployed for "Operation Allies Welcome," the Afghan resettlement program that was utilized by the alleged National Guard attacker to get to the U.S. The heinous incident that claimed the life of one West Virginia National Guard member and gravely wounded another on Thanksgiving Eve sprung back to the forefront last week when House Homeland Security Committee ranking member Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., infuriated Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem when he referred to it as an "unfortunate accident.” The attack renewed questions over whether Democrats still stand by the vetting processes put in place by the previous administration — and whether officials involved in the Afghanistan withdrawal and refugee resettlement would revise those decisions today. Fox News Digital has reached out to several members of the Biden administration with roles directly or tangentially related to the Afghanistan withdrawal and the resettlement of Afghan refugees. Inquiries to former President Joe Biden’s office, former Vice President Kamala Harris and a second request to an individual listed as Harris’ literary agent were not returned within a week. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Daily Wire [12/15/2025 6:38 AM, Jennie Taer, 2494K] reports an Obama-appointed judge is facing mounting backlash for praising an illegal immigrant who raped a woman with cerebral palsy — and now he could be walking free sooner than expected. Honduran Edys Renan Membreño Díaz, 30, who entered the United States illegally seven times, pulled a woman with cerebral palsy and cognitive delays into the laundry room of her apartment building before sodomizing and raping her, according to The Detroit News. U.S. District Judge Judith Levy spared the illegal immigrant an additional two years in prison, calling him an "ambassador for living up to our immigration restrictions," the outlet reported. Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the judge’s decision showed "unspeakable depravity," calling it "truly wicked." Membreño Díaz was sentenced three years ago and could now walk free as soon as July 2028, according to The Detroit News. Federal prosecutors, however, requested two additional years on his sentence for his immigration crimes. But Levy didn’t budge, deciding that the five months he spent in federal custody were enough. She also lauded Membreño Díaz as a model immigrant. "I usually have almost no hope that a prosecution of this nature will discourage other people but in your unique case, you have expressed that you will be an ambassador for living up to our immigration restrictions and that you will communicate your experience to people back in Honduras and discourage them from coming here without documentation," Levy said during his sentencing in August. Prosecutors appealed the judge’s decision in October, requesting a resentencing.

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FOX News [12/15/2025 4:36 PM, Elizabeth Elkind, 40621K] reports the House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution honoring the two National Guard members attacked in Washington, D.C., late last month. The legislation passed the House by voice vote on Monday afternoon, meaning lawmakers did not take an individual roll call on their support. Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, were both shot by a gunman just blocks from the White House late last month, in what federal authorities are investigating as a terror attack. The alleged shooter is an Afghan refugee who came to the U.S. as part of Operation Allies Welcome during the military’s withdrawal from Kabul in 2021. Both Republicans and Democrats spoke in favor of the resolution — led by West Virginia’s two GOP House lawmakers, Reps. Carol Miller and Riley Moore — in a rare moment of bipartisanship for the current Congress.

FOX News [12/15/2025 9:42 AM, Ashley Carnahan, 40621K] reports the top police official in Washington, D.C., pressured commanders to lower classifications of crime and retaliated against those who reported spikes, creating a widespread culture of fear and distorted public data, according to a new congressional report. An interim report from the House Oversight Committee released on Sunday claims that outgoing Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Chief Pamela Smith, who announced her resignation on Dec. 8, oversaw an unprecedented system of intervention in crime reporting. The Republican-led committee alleges that Smith, who is expected to remain in the position through the end of the year, pressured commanders on numerous occasions, and at times instructed them to downgrade offenses and avoid classifications that would appear on the city’s Daily Crime Report. "By pressuring her command staff to alter classifications for the sole purpose of artificially reducing crime numbers reported out to the public, Chief Smith incentivized the manipulation of crime numbers, which do not adequately account for the crime taking place in D.C.," the report reads in part. The findings, based on eight transcribed interviews with MPD district commanders, describe a toxic management environment in which accuracy was sacrificed for optics, and career officials faced public humiliation or demotion for presenting Smith with unfavorable crime statistics. MPD did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment about the report.

Washington Post [12/15/2025 6:39 PM, Olivia George, 24149K] reports Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) on Monday lambasted a congressional report that accuses the D.C. police chief of incentivizing the manipulation of crime statistics, describing it in a letter to the leaders of the House Oversight Committee as “a rush to judgement to serve a politically motivated timeline.” In the letter, Bowser offered her strongest rebuke yet of Republican-led jabs at the leadership of Pamela A. Smith, who last week announced she would be stepping down as chief at the end of the year. "Rather than letting the investigation proceed and risk losing the opportunity for attention grabbing headlines if it were released after Chief Smith’s retirement after nearly three decades of law enforcement service, the Committee stooped to ad hominem attacks using cherry-picked quotes without providing additional relevant context," Bowser wrote in a letter reviewed by Washington Post. Though the investigation remains ongoing, the Republican-led House Oversight Committee published an "interim report" over the weekend with the stated goals of adding context to Smith’s resignation decision, informing residents and protecting witnesses from retaliation. The report arrived on the heels of a leaked Justice Department memo that portrayed Smith’s leadership in a similarly harsh light and claimed there were "data integrity issues" with the city’s crime stats. Both the congressional and Justice department probes began in August, the same month President Donald Trump deployed the National Guard to D.C. streets and temporarily seized control of the police department. Trump justified his declaration of a local emergency in part by casting doubt on the accuracy of statistics that show violent crime dropping to historically low levels since 2023. The national spotlight revived attention to complaints within the department about crime data that predate Smith’s tenure. Neither investigation has accused the chief of unlawful behavior. Neither appears to have conducted a detailed review of crime reports by reinterviewing witnesses or examining investigative work. And both have so far offered scant specifics about how much or whether the alleged toxic work environment Smith fostered affected overall crime data trends. In a statement Monday, U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro, whose office is overseeing the Justice Department investigation, said a "significant number of reports" had been misclassified, making crime appear artificially lower. "The conduct here does not rise to the level of a criminal charge. However, it is up to MPD to take steps to internally address these underlying issues," said Pirro, using the initials for Metropolitan Police Department, the force’s official name.

Washington Post [12/15/2025 8:20 PM, Matthew Choi, 24149K] reports two Republicans in Congress are calling for the mass expulsion of Muslims from the United States following the mass shooting at a Hanukkah celebration in Australia over the weekend, amplifying an increasingly brazen Islamophobic sentiment within the party. “It is time for a Muslim travel ban, radical deportations of all mainstream Muslim legal and illegal immigrants, and citizenship revocations wherever possible,” Rep. Randy Fine (R-Florida) posted on social media Monday. “Mainstream Muslims have declared war on us. The least we can do is kick them the hell out of America.” Fine’s comments echoed those of Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) in an X post on Sunday. “Islam is not a religion. It’s a cult,” Tuberville wrote on X. “Islamists aren’t here to assimilate. They’re here to conquer. … We’ve got to SEND THEM HOME NOW or we’ll become the United Caliphate of America.” Fine directly tied the sentiment to a mass shooting during the Hanukkah celebration in Australia that left 15 dead. A Muslim father and son are accused of carrying out the shooting. Muslim groups and Arab governments widely condemned the violence and expressed solidarity with Australia’s Jewish community. One of the shooters was tackled and neutralized by a Muslim bystander. “Muslim terrorists killed twelve innocent lives in Australia on the first day of Hanukkah,” Fine wrote. “How many more times is this going to happen until we wake up? Islam is not compatible with the West.” The comments garnered swift backlash for their blatant Islamophobia. But some other Republican lawmakers have made similar comments about Islam for months, calling the world’s second largest religion incompatible with American values and for Muslims to be removed from the country. Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas) said on X in November that Islam is “incompatible with our culture and our governing system” and that “not all cultures are morally equal.” Gill said the nation’s immigration system was “suicidal” by allowing Muslims to immigrate to the county. The ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus endorsed Gill’s remarks, posting on social media, “True.” Fine has shared anti-Muslim sentiments on social media on numerous other occasions. After Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota), a Somali American Muslim, criticized the Trump administration’s welcome of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington in July, Fine responded: “I’m sure it is difficult to see us welcome the killer of so many of your fellow Muslim terrorists.” President Donald Trump campaigned in 2015 on barring Muslims from entering the country and shortly after taking office in 2017 implemented a travel ban from seven Muslim-majority countries: Syria, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. He implemented a similar travel ban after taking office in January, though it included several non-Muslim majority countries, such as Laos and Cuba. Trump also took aim this year at Somali immigrants, most of whom are Muslim. He called Omar “garbage” and said Somali Americans “contribute nothing.” Trump expressed his ire at the community after a fraud scandal involving dozens of Somali Americans in Minneapolis.

Free Beacon [12/15/2025 7:15 PM, Andrew Kerr, 411K] reports as crime emerges at a flashpoint in the race for North Carolina’s vacant Senate seat, leading Democrat Roy Cooper, who served as the state’s governor from 2017 through 2025, doesn’t want to talk about the uptick of seemingly random stabbings on the Charlotte light rail by violent repeat criminals. Cooper refused to comment on the latest attack, which was committed by a twice-deported illegal immigrant from Honduras with a lengthy criminal rap sheet, with his campaign instead sending the Washington Free Beacon an unrelated statement attacking his Republican opponent as a "Big Oil lobbyist.” The illegal immigrant, Oscar Gerardo Solorzano-Garcia, boarded the Charlotte light rail on Dec. 5, consumed a large quantity of an alcoholic drink known as Beatbox, and began yelling indiscriminately before he stabbed another passenger in the chest with an "extremely large fixed-blade knife," according to documents charging him with attempted first-degree murder. Days later, the FBI revealed Solorzano-Garcia should have never been in the United States after having been convicted of robbery in 2012, arrested for aggravated battery with a deadly weapon in 2016, deported from the country in 2018, and deported again in 2021 after being convicted of illegal reentry. But the Cooper campaign did not address the incident when asked to comment on the latest Charlotte light rail stabbing, with a spokesperson instead providing a boilerplate statement attacking former RNC chairman Michael Whatley that the campaign has previously supplied verbatim twice to the Free Beacon and to several other news outlets dating back to September. Solorzano-Garcia’s unprovoked subway stabbing comes on the heels of the senseless stabbing murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on the Charlotte light rail in August at the hands of another repeat criminal, who boasted, "I got that white girl" during the unprovoked assault. Surveillance footage of Zarutska’s murder went viral in August, but Cooper waited three weeks to offer a statement on the incident, calling it a "horrible tragedy" as he accused his expected Republican challenger, Whatley, of using "her death for political points.”

Los Angeles Times [12/15/2025 5:52 PM, Sonja Sharp, 14862K] reports dozens of California National Guard troops under President Trump’s command apparently slipped out of Los Angeles under cover of darkness early Sunday morning, ahead of an appellate court’s order to be gone by noon Monday. Administration officials would not immediately confirm whether the troops had decamped. But video taken outside the Roybal Federal Building downtown just after midnight on Sunday and reviewed by The Times shows a large tactical truck and four white passenger vans leaving the facility, which has been patrolled by armed soldiers since June. About 300 California troops remain under federal control, some 100 of whom were still active in Los Angeles as of last week, court records show. Troops were spotted briefly later that day, but had not been seen again as of Monday afternoon, Martinez said. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued the order late Friday but softened an even more stringent edict from a lower court judge last week that would have forced the president to relinquish command of the state’s forces. Trump federalized thousands of California National Guard troops in June troops to quell unrest over immigration enforcement in Los Angeles. For now, the fate of 300 federalized California soldiers remains in limbo, though troops are currently barred by court orders from deployment in California and Oregon.

Univision [12/15/2025 5:15 PM, Isaias Alvarado, 5004K] reports that a New York judge rejected on Monday a proposal from the defense of Eva García de Joaquín, mother of the leader of the La Luz del Mundo church, to pay a $5 million bail and face charges of organized crime and sex trafficking while free. Eva García, 80, was arrested on September 10 at her luxurious home in California, as a result of an extensive investigation that also implicates her son Naasón Joaquín and other members of the congregation in a criminal scheme to abuse girls and enrich themselves with donations from followers. Eva García’s lawyers had asked District Judge Loretta Preska to release their client from the Essex County jail in New Jersey and place her under house arrest with an electronic monitoring device. They proposed paying a $5 million bail, which would be partially guaranteed by properties owned by eight of the woman’s relatives. Their main argument was that Eva García requires specialized medical attention that she would not be receiving adequately in jail. On Monday, the lawyers stated that the woman was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2023. To try to demonstrate Eva García’s alleged frailty, her defense presented Judge Preska with a photograph showing her in a wheelchair upon her return to Los Angeles at the end of August, a few days before her arrest, taken by a federal agent who was surveilling her. The image, however, also reveals her luxurious lifestyle, as she is seen traveling with a Louis Vuitton suitcase and handbag valued at more than $7,000.

Axios [12/16/2025 4:55 AM, Marc Caputo, 12972K] reports the U.S. is preparing to seize more sanctioned oil-filled tankers off Venezuela as the Trump administration opens a new phase of its pressure campaign on Nicolas Maduro’s regime, officials tell Axios. That new phase also could soon include "land strikes on Venezuela," President Trump said Friday. Impounding more tankers would threaten to further impoverish the already struggling oil-rich nation as Trump tries to force Maduro to leave office. Trump broke the seal on the latest U.S. strategy last week, when he authorized U.S. forces to conduct a first-of-its-kind seizure of a tanker with Venezuelan oil, the Skipper, in international waters. "The president has many tools in the toolbox, and this is a big one," a Trump adviser told Axios. The unprecedented U.S. armada offshore can effectively blockade Venezuela or form the launchpad of an invasion, which Trump so far hasn’t authorized. As many as 18 sanctioned oil-laden ships are in Venezuela’s waters now. Eight are classified as "Very Large Cargo Container ships" like Skipper, which can carry nearly 2 million barrels of Venezuelan crude, according to Samir Madani, co-founder of the firm Tanker Trackers that monitors global shipping. "It’s quite a buffet for the U.S. to choose from," Madani said. The U.S. military’s Operation Southern Spear campaign is ostensibly about stopping narcotics trafficking. Unofficially, it’s a regime-change effort and embodies the new National Security Strategy that asserts a "Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine" for economic and military dominance in this hemisphere.

NewsMax [12/15/2025 5:26 PM, Mark L. Cohen, 4109K] reports symbolism Doesn’t Build Institutions, Security Forces, or Economic Systems. This writer was asked a seemingly simple but consequential question: "Is a Palestinian state actually possible — especially today, after the antisemitic terror attack in Australia?". It’s a question too often answered with emotion, symbolism, or diplomatic slogans. Yet one principle should be obvious: the establishment of a new country in a region where conflict is ever-present cannot proceed if its likely consequence is the continuation of violence — including violence spilling far beyond the region itself. This question is returning forcefully to the center of public diplomacy, and after the events of this past weekend it will fuel intense political debate. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., stated plainly that affirmatively declaring a Palestinian state absent the definitive defeat of Hamas and a clear Palestinian acceptance of Israel would only invite further attacks against Jews and against Western values. Yet at the recent Doha Forum, Qatari and Saudi officials renewed calls for immediate Palestinian statehood, implicitly arguing that a war initiated by Hamas should now culminate in rapid political recognition. Prominent American political figures participated in that forum, underscoring a widening divergence within Western discourse. These sharply different lines of thinking expose a deeper divide: between those who see grave dangers in political posturing divorced from reality, and those — including Australia and several of America’s closest allies — who continue to demand immediate recognition of a Palestinian state, sometimes with the explicit aim of punishing Israel for what they consider unnecessary civilian casualties in Gaza. A serious approach must begin with reality. No Israeli government — left, center, or right — will accept the creation of a Palestinian state if it believes that such a state could become a launching ground for rockets or terrorism.

NewsMax [12/15/2025 11:58 AM, Charles Marino, 4109K] reports Rep. Bennie Thompson’s ‘Unfortunate Accident’ Comment Reveals the Democratic Party’s Perilous Disconnect with Reality. When Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the ranking Democrat on the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee, recently described the recent terrorist attack on two National Guard members in Washington, D.C. as an "unfortunate accident," he didn’t just misspeak. He revealed something far deeper — and far more troubling — about today’s Democratic Party. The attack left one guardsman dead and another critically wounded. Officials have described it as a deliberate ambush now being investigated for possible terrorist ties. Yet Thompson, standing in the very room charged with protecting the homeland, minimized it in words that could only be described as callous and tone-deaf. Even after pushback from U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem — who immediately corrected him, calling it a "terrorist attack" — Thompson stumbled through a half-hearted rephrasing, calling it instead an "unfortunate situation." But the damage was already done. This isn’t just about one congressman’s poor phrasing. It’s about a party that’s grown afraid to speak plainly about evil. Democrats have spent years redefining and relativizing violence — excusing riots as "mostly peaceful," framing border chaos as "humanitarian," and now, apparently, calling a targeted attack on the National Guard an "accident." It’s a mindset that puts ideology above reality. A terrorist ambush is not an "accident.” It’s a deliberate act of war against Americans in uniform. But to acknowledge that would require confronting uncomfortable truths about border security, immigration enforcement, and the resurgence of extremist threats that don’t fit the left’s preferred narratives.

FOX News [12/15/2025 7:00 AM, Rebecca Grant, 40621K] reports the ongoing investigations into fraud in the Somali community in Minnesota have another chilling angle: possible links to jihad. President Donald Trump’s new national security strategy wants to move on from the days when the Middle East dominated foreign policy. But the Minnesota welfare fraud schemes are a warning sign. Closing the door on radical Islam’s ideology – and its greedy tentacles here in America – may be harder than it looks. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was worried enough to launch an investigation into whether money was transferred from Minnesota to the infamous al-Shabaab jihadist group in Somalia. "A lot of money has been transferred from the individuals who committed this fraud," Bessent told Margaret Brennan on "Face the Nation" earlier this month. Much of that money "has gone overseas, and we are tracking that both to the Middle East and to Somalia to see what the uses of that have been," he said. The main motive, of course, was "pure, unmitigated greed," as U.S. District Judge Nancy E. Brasel said in her Aug. 6 sentencing of Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, who was convicted in a $250 million fraud scheme that exploited a federally funded child nutrition program during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the question is whether the sheer volume of remittances to Somalia may have directly or indirectly benefited terror networks.

New York Post [12/15/2025 9:00 AM, Mark Toth and Jonathan Sweet, 42219K] reports Venezuela is swiftly becoming ground zero of President Trump’s America First reshaping of US foreign policy. The United States seized the oil tanker Skipper off the country’s coast Wednesday, capping off months of heightened tensions. The sanctioned vessel has carried crude for Iran and had an estimated 1.1 million barrels on board. On the surface, the pressure’s been over ridding Caracas of illegitimate President Nicolás Maduro. Ditto ending government-sponsored narco-terrorists using Venezuela as a transit hub and safe haven to smuggle Colombian cocaine and other illicit drugs to North America and the Caribbean. But confronting Maduro is far more about Team Trump reasserting US dominance in the Western Hemisphere. Trump’s intended recipients? Beijing, Tehran and Moscow. Hands off. Trump signaled his reassertion of the Monroe Doctrine was coming just days before taking office in January. While the mainstream media obsessed about his comments about Greenland and the Panama Canal, they missed his point. He was warning about China’s short- and long-term intentions to create economic and military strangleholds on the Americas. This includes President Xi Jinping’s designs to dominate the Northern Sea Route by declaring China a "Near-Arctic State" in 2018. Nominally, the declaration was about "developing shipping, carrying out scientific research and exploiting the region’s oil, gas, minerals, fisheries and other resources," as the Wall Street Journal reported.

FOX News [12/15/2025 9:20 PM, Preston Mizell, 40621K] reports the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) revealed a list of 17 illegal migrants who were previously convicted of an array of charges, including murder and sexual exploitation of a minor, who were arrested over the weekend and are currently being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). DHS released the names as part of their "worst of the worst" campaign which exposes illegal migrants who have been convicted of serious felonies and crimes. "While Americans were at Christmas parties and celebrating the first night of Hanukkah, the patriotic heroes of ICE law enforcement were selflessly risking their lives to arrest the worst of the worst," DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News Digital in a statement. "This weekend, ICE arrested murderers, pedophiles, and drug traffickers. This holiday season, Americans can rejoice these monsters are out of their neighborhoods.” Some convictions included second-degree murder by Thai Lor, an illegal migrant from Thailand, sexual exploitation of a minor by Benevenuto Walter Lopez-Alonzo, an illegal migrant from Guatemala, lewd act with a child under 14 years old by Yovanny Dominguez-Herrera, an illegal migrant from Mexico, money laundering by Chi Ying, an illegal migrant from China, and pimping a minor over 16-year-old by Patricia Judith Diaz-Angel, an illegal migrant from Guatemala, DHS said. All 17 illegal migrants were convicted of their respective crimes while residing in the United States. The arrests come just days after the agency announced it had arrested over 10,000 illegal migrants in Los Angeles despite "violent rioters who assaulted our law enforcement, threw rocks and Molotov cocktails at them, and attempted to obstruct lawful arrests of criminal illegal aliens," as reported by Fox News Digital. Immigration officers and agents were met by rioters across Los Angeles over the summer, and many Democrats have been staunchly critical of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and the Trump administration’s approach to deporting illegal migrants. Noem and the Trump administration have stood firm in their campaign commitment to return the millions of migrants who crossed the border under President Joe Biden back to their home countries. "Follow the law and you’ll find opportunity. If you break it, you’ll find consequences," Noem said in a recent DHS advertisement.

New York Times [12/15/2025 3:20 PM, Amy Qin and Chris Buckley, 153395K] reports in 2020, a Chinese citizen had heard reports about China’s mass detention and surveillance of Uyghurs. But he wanted to see if they were true for himself. So the citizen, Heng Guan, 38, said that he made a hugely risky decision, driving across the country from eastern China to Xinjiang, where he tracked down and secretly shot video of hulking re-education and detention centers mostly holding Uyghurs, a Muslim ethnic group. The footage later became rare visual evidence of the scale and forcible nature of China’s clampdown, despite Beijing’s claims that they were voluntary re-education camps. In 2021, Mr. Guan fled to the United States, where he applied for asylum. Then, this August, as he was living in New York, he was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. His supporters and family members feared he might be sent back to China, where human rights activists say he would almost certainly face retribution from the government. On Monday, after a public outcry, the Trump administration moved to continue deportation proceedings against Mr. Guan, but argued that he should be sent to Uganda, which has close economic ties to China. At a virtual immigration hearing on Monday, Niles Gerry, a lawyer for the Department of Homeland Security, cited an agreement that allows asylum seekers in the United States who might face persecution in their home country to be removed to what the government calls safe third countries, where they can apply for asylum. Administration officials, under pressure from President Trump to carry out mass deportations, have moved swiftly to resume third-country deportations after the Supreme Court cleared the practice in July. Mr. Guan’s case underscores the immense breadth of Mr. Trump’s mass deportation campaign, which is ensnaring even those who would appear to have obvious claims to asylum.

Univision [12/15/2025 4:25 PM, Brianda Almanza, 5004K] reports Kimberlyn Menjivar hasn’t been able to hold her baby in her arms since September. From Honduras, hundreds of miles away, the young mother relives time and again the moment a routine appointment to receive her work permit ended in immigration detention, expedited deportation, and separation from her family. On September 29, the woman was separated from her son, who was born in the US and was only six months old at the time. And shortly afterwards, she was deported to Honduras, a country she left in 2021 fleeing persecution by gangs who, she says, sexually harassed her. Menjivar claims in an interview with Univision that she signed documents requesting to be deported along with her baby, but immigration authorities ignored it and sent her back to her country without the child. The 22-year-old Honduran woman has since been in limbo: she is trying to restart her life in Honduras, fighting to legally return to the United States with her son, and if she cannot, she is looking for ways to bring him with her.

NBC 10 Boston [12/16/2025 12:27 AM, Ella Adams, 43603K] reports Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey called on federal immigration officials Monday to stop using private aircraft at Hanscom Field airport to move people out of state "without due process of law." In a Dec. 12 letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Todd Lyons, Healey demanded the agency "immediately stop using any Massachusetts airports and private jets to deport residents and obstruct due process, and to halt this practice across this country." Asked how and when she became aware of the situation at Hanscom, Healey spokesperson Karissa Hand said that Healey "was alerted to it by advocates." ICE did not respond to a State House News Service inquiry about Healey’s claims, why the agency might be using Hanscom and when that use began. Located in Bedford, Hanscom Field is a regional aviation facility managed by the quasi-public Massachusetts Port Authority. Asked about details of ICE-related flights out of Hanscom, MassPort Director of Media Relations Jennifer Mehigan said "‘ICE flights’ refer to charter flights operated by fixed based operators at Hanscom. Massport does not receive prior knowledge of these flights, nor does the Authority have a role in their operation."

The New York Times [12/15/2025 6:42 PM, Julie Bosman, 135475K] reports the trial of Judge Hannah C. Dugan in Milwaukee began on Monday with prosecutors painting her as an official who stepped outside the law, a judge who was furious about immigration arrests taking place in the county courthouse under the Trump administration and decided to do something about it. “She is on trial today because those strongly held views motivated her to make a decision to cross the line,” Keith Alexander, an assistant U.S. attorney, said. The prosecutor said that Judge Dugan had even told a court reporter she would “take the heat” for steering an illegal immigrant out a side door in her courtroom in April as federal agents were hoping to arrest him. Judge Dugan’s lawyers described her differently, arguing that she was trying to do the right thing while protocols and national politics shifted all around her. Earlier this year, at the start of a second Trump term, immigration agents began making arrests inside the Milwaukee County Courthouse, alarming judges who worked there. Some judges asked the chief judge, Carl Ashley, to set a policy relating to such arrests, and Judge Dugan’s actions followed, defense lawyers said. “There was no corrupt intent,” said Steven Biskupic, a lawyer for Judge Dugan, adding that, according to a draft policy from the chief judge, court personnel were asked to refer immigration agents in the courthouse to their supervisor. “She’s struggling to follow the chief judge’s policy.” The trial is expected to last throughout the week in a large wood-paneled courtroom in the federal courthouse in downtown Milwaukee. On Monday, jurors listened intently as lawyers argued about what had transpired in Judge Dugan’s courtroom at the Milwaukee County Courthouse, only a mile away, where she heard a steady stream of misdemeanor cases. The jury of eight men and five women, including one alternate, heard audio recordings from Judge Dugan’s courtroom from that April morning. They captured casual banter and whispered conversations between court employees, interspersed with curt instructions from the judge, who was working through a calendar of dozens of cases before leaving to attend Good Friday services in the afternoon. The Wall Street Journal [12/15/2025 5:30 PM, Mariah Timms, 646K] reports Judge Hannah Dugan was charged in April after federal prosecutors alleged she obstructed law enforcement by directing a defendant to leave her courtroom via a back hallway when she knew immigration officers were in the courthouse looking for him. “The judicial robe that the defendant wore in the public hallway that morning did not put her above the law,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Keith Alexander said during opening arguments on Monday. Defense lawyers dispute that Dugan acted improperly, arguing she was trying to follow a policy issued by the court’s chief judge on how to interact with ICE in the courthouse. They say she acted within her powers as a judge and have called the case politically charged. During opening statements Monday, an attorney for Dugan, Steven Biskupic, said she and her colleagues exchanged numerous emails about wanting a clear policy for courthouse arrests by immigration authorities in the months after President Trump’s second inauguration, as the administration ramped up deportations. “Little did she know that it was her head that was going to be at risk under these policies,” said Biskupic, a former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin during the George W. Bush administration. “Normally she’s up on the bench making judgments. This week she’s on trial because the federal government wanted her to act a certain way about ICE and she didn’t act that way,” he added. The Washington Post [12/15/2025 3:51 PM, Patrick Marley, 24149K] reports that Dugan faces up to six years in prison if convicted on two counts. The extraordinary trial, which is expected to last a week, is the latest test of the Justice Department’s crackdown on anyone whom it sees as putting up barriers to President Donald Trump’s agenda. In the months since Dugan was charged, the department has pursued indictments against several Trump critics, including former FBI director James B. Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James (D). Courts have dismissed the charges against Comey and James, but the department has tried to revive them. A grand jury indicted Dugan in May, accusing her of obstructing an official proceeding and concealing a person from arrest over her handling of federal agents’ plan to apprehend Eduardo Flores Ruiz outside her courtroom. Flores Ruiz was charged with misdemeanor battery, and Dugan was preparing to conduct a hearing in his case when agents arrived outside her courtroom. She sent the agents down the hall to the office of the county’s chief judge and, while most of the agents were away, postponed the hearing and directed Flores Ruiz and his attorney out a back door in her courtroom that is typically used by staff and jurors. The Washington Examiner [12/15/2025 9:37 PM, Jack Birle, 1394K] Dugan is facing two obstruction charges in federal court over her actions in April, when she allegedly allowed Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, an illegal immigrant who appeared before her court, and his lawyer to exit her courtroom via a back door after federal immigration agents appeared at the courthouse to arrest him. The trial of the indicted state judge began Monday morning at a federal courthouse in Milwaukee, with Justice Department prosecutors using a recording of Dugan discussing federal immigration authorities outside her courtroom as part of their opening pitch to the jury. During opening arguments, DOJ lawyers played audio footage in which the judge and her court reporter can be heard discussing the presence of ICE officers outside her courtroom in the public hallway and whether to allow Flores-Ruiz and his lawyer to leave the courtroom through a back door and a non-public hallway. Dugan allegedly told her court reporter she would show the illegal immigrant and his lawyer where to go, saying, "I’ll do it. I’ll get the heat," per the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. DOJ lawyers stressed in their opening statement that Dugan’s actions were unlawful and amounted to creating an escape plan for the illegal immigrant to evade arrest by federal officers. "The judicial robe the defendant wore that morning did not put her above the law," Assistant U.S. Attorney Keith Alexander said, according to the outlet. Dugan’s lawyers stressed that the burden would be on prosecutors to prove Dugan unlawfully obstructed federal law enforcement, and they also discussed the confusion and uncertainty about immigration arrest procedures at the Milwaukee courthouse, according to local Milwaukee news station WITI.

Reported similarly:
Washington Post [12/15/2025 3:51 PM, Patrick Marley, 24149K]
Bloomberg [12/15/2025 11:10 AM, Alex Ebert, 803K]
Breitbart [12/15/2025 7:50 PM, Warner Todd Huston, 2416K]
AP [12/15/2025 3:29 PM, Todd Richmond, 31753K]
Reuters [12/15/2025 12:34 PM, Diana Novak Jones and Andrew Goudsward, 36480K]

Federalist [12/15/2025 7:33 AM, Daniel Lennington, 785K] reports Wisconsin has two sanctuary cities: Madison and Milwaukee. Officials in those jurisdictions won’t cooperate with ICE. Now Wisconsin could become a sanctuary state due to a new case pending at the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Contrary to media images of ICE agents rounding up illegal immigrants on street corners, most deportations originate with local law enforcement. A person is arrested on state charges (drunk driving, domestic abuse, or sex assault, for example) and then booked into the county jail. In Wisconsin, like most states, county jails are run by sheriffs. If the criminal is an illegal alien, and ICE learns of the arrest, then the agency will send the sheriff an "immigration detainer," also known as an "ICE hold." These detainers ask the sheriff to hold the alien for up to 48 hours after release from the state charges so that ICE has time to arrange for pickup. ICE detainers are common in Wisconsin. According to one estimate, there were 1,065 holds issued to Wisconsin jails in the first five months of 2025. Ironically, Wisconsin’s Democratic Gov. Tony Evers actually has a policy mandating that the state Department of Corrections comply with ICE holds. So as far as Gov. Evers is concerned, ICE detainers are just fine for those illegal immigrants held in state prisons. Earlier this month, the Wisconsin Supreme Court decided to hear a new case, Voces de la Frontera v. Gerber. The question presented is whether Wisconsin sheriffs have the power under Wisconsin state law to honor immigration detainers. The petitioners’ main argument is that sheriffs do not have the power to arrest for civil infractions, and because immigration detainers are essentially a civil process, these detentions exceed the powers of sheriffs.

NewsMax [12/15/2025 5:01 PM, Theodore Bunker, 4109K] reports Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., said federal immigration agents stopped her son over the weekend and required him to prove his U.S. citizenship, adding to mounting controversy over a heightened Immigration and Customs Enforcement presence. Omar said in a Sunday interview that her son, who is a U.S. citizen, was pulled over by ICE agents after leaving a Target store Saturday. The congresswoman said her son produced a U.S. passport that he routinely carries, and agents released him after confirming his citizenship. Omar said she is concerned that the operation, which she and Minnesota leaders have criticized as biased, is targeting "young men who look Somali that they think are undocumented." The Trump administration has significantly increased immigration enforcement activity in Minnesota under an initiative local officials and advocates called Operation Metro Surge. In a letter last week to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons, Omar described the enforcement push as exhibiting "blatant racial profiling" and an "egregious level of unnecessary force." The complaint cited detentions of U.S. citizens who produced documentation to prove they were lawfully present. Omar has also announced two formal congressional inquiries into the administration’s Minnesota enforcement operation, seeking details on how ICE officials are conducting the sweeps and whether civil rights violations have occurred. The letters were cosigned by several Democrat lawmakers.

Reported similarly:
The Hill [12/15/2025 2:00 PM, Lee Ann Anderson, 12595K]
Breitbart [12/15/2025 11:14 AM, Amy Furr, 2416K] Video: HERE
FOX News [12/15/2025 5:40 PM, Michael Sinkewicz, 40621K]
USA Today [12/15/2025 11:52 AM, Kathryn Palmer, 67103K]
Washington Times [12/15/2025 10:11 AM, Staff, 852K]

Houston Chronicle [12/15/2025 1:20 PM, Julián Aguilar, 2983K] reports that an Episcopal priest and former state prison guard who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement has chosen to voluntarily return to his native country instead of remaining at a detention center in Conroe. The Rev. James Eliud Ngahu Mwangi has been in ICE custody for nearly two months despite having a valid work permit, which he used to gain employment with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. He is originally from Kenya. Mwangi had a pending asylum case but was denied bond by an immigration judge, his attorney, Laban O. Opande, told the Houston Chronicle on Monday. "I don’t think justice is really being done in my client’s case. I mean, he feels like he’s in prison," Opande said. "He feels like he’s been confined unnecessarily. There was no need to deny bond.” Mwangi was first pulled over by local police in Huntsville, who then alerted ICE, Opande said. The attorney said it wasn’t clear why local police initiated the stop. "The community remains heartbroken by the trauma experienced by Father James and his family," the Episcopal Diocese of Texas said in a statement. "He is aware of the many calls, emails, and prayers offered on his behalf, and remains deeply grateful for the outpouring of love.”

Daily Caller [12/15/2025 5:31 PM, Jason Hopkins, 985K] reports an illegal migrant will be spending decades in prison after punching and strangling an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent. Diego Barron-Esquivel, a criminal illegal migrant from Mexico, was sentenced to two decades in federal prison for violently assaulting and choking out an ICE agent earlier this year in Wichita, Kansas, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) exclusively shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation. The sentence — which was the maximum penalty allowed — follows unprecedented violence against immigration officers. “This barbaric criminal illegal alien with a rap sheet a mile long, violently punched one of our officers in the face and head and then began strangling the officer with his own badge cord,” Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a prepared statement. “Our officers are facing a 1150% increase in violence against them as they arrest the worst of the worst.” “Secretary Noem has been clear: if you lay a hand on law enforcement, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” McLaughlin said.

Axios [12/15/2025 7:08 PM, Esteban L. Hernandez, 12972K] reports Denver City Council on Monday blocked Key Lime Air from expanding at DIA over the airline’s work with ICE. It’s the latest way elected officials in Denver are publicly and vociferously pushing back against President Trump’s policies. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s tactics have sparked legal challenges and come under scrutiny. Centennial-based Key Lime Air sought an additional 1,200 square feet of ground space at Denver International Airport for storing snow equipment and employee parking, city documents show. Council voted 11-1 to reject the proposed expansion. Councilmember Kevin Flynn was the lone supporter; he backed it because he said it would ensure the company would pay to use extra space. While the decision marks a political victory for immigrant rights groups who called on the council to reject the proposal, it won’t stop these kinds of flights, Councilmember Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez said.

CBS Colorado [12/15/2025 8:55 PM, Anna Alejo, 39474K] reports as immigrant rights activist Jeanette Vizguerra approaches nine months in detention by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, her attorneys are appealing for her release saying she’s eligible for military parole in place (PIP) and deferred action (DA). Her U.S. born daughter, Luna Baez Vizguerra, became an active-duty member of the U.S. Air Force on Nov. 18, according to documents filed in federal court in Denver on Monday. Vizguerra’s attorneys say that entitles their client to a stay of deportation under a discretionarily granted status that affords parents of active-duty members of the U.S. armed forces access to immigration benefits. They’re asking a federal judge to release Jeanette Vizguerra from ICE custody on the grounds that her removal from the country is now unlikely. "Ms. Vizguerra Ramirez thus notifies the Court of the aforementioned developments, which reduce her likelihood of removal and further demonstrate that her detention is unconstitutionally prolonged," the new petition states. Vizguerra has pending First Amendment free speech and habeas claims in federal court, seeking her release. Jeanette Vizguerra has been an outspoken critic of U.S. immigration policy and spent months seeking sanctuary in a church during President Trump’s first term. CBS Colorado reached out to U.S Citizenship and Immigration Services for comment on her new request for military parole, and will update this story when a response is received. Previously an ICE spokesperson said Vizguerra, a native of Mexico, had a final order of deportation issued by a federal immigration judge.

Los Angeles Times [12/15/2025 6:00 AM, Clara Harter and Brittny Mejia, 14862K] reports the 15-year-old girl was sitting in her bedroom when “Sociopath” and “Rohan” added her to a Discord chat that, several months later, would nearly end in her death. She said within hours of joining the chat on the online messaging platform in 2020, she became the target of a network of predators who, according to federal prosecutors in an indictment, specialize in coercing minors to perform sex acts and self-harm on camera. She said she initially met Sociopath, identified in the indictment as Kaleb Merritt, during the pandemic on Discord servers dedicated to online games. She said he offered her an upgraded version of Discord in exchange for a conversation. Then, he added her to the chat with Rohan — later identified in the indictment as Rohan Rane. The teen, whose name is being withheld because of safety concerns, had no idea she was being pulled into a highly organized and terrifying scheme that has ensnared minors across America, including girls in Los Angeles and San Bernardino, according to interviews with victims and federal agents, and a federal indictment in the Central District Court of California. Members of the sexploitation ring seek vulnerable girls, having found many in online communities dedicated to mental health or survivors of prior abuse, according to the federal agents. This year, Rane and Merritt were identified in the indictment as alleged leaders of a group called CVLT, which federal authorities say has since splintered and grown into an even more sprawling sexploitation network called 764. These violent online groups have allegedly abused hundreds of mostly female minor victims worldwide, according to Homeland Security Investigations. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s CyberTipline received more than 1,300 reports related to these online groups in 2024 alone. Rane, 29, was arrested in France in 2022. He is awaiting trial there for allegedly blackmailing French minors to perform acts of sexual torture on themselves. Merritt, 25, is currently serving a 33-year sentence for the 2021 rape and kidnapping of a 12-year-old girl from Virginia he met online. Both men were indicted on child exploitation charges in the Los Angeles-based federal court case on Jan. 17, with other alleged key members of CVLT — Clint Borge, 41, of Hawaii, and Collin Walker, 24, of New Jersey. Walker has since pleaded guilty and Borge is scheduled to do the same Wednesday. Merritt has pleaded not guilty, while Rane has yet to be arraigned in the U.S. as he remains in French custody.

HS Today [12/15/2025 8:30 AM, Staff, 38K] reports Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem has announced her decision to terminate the Temporary Protected Status designation of Ethiopia. “Temporary Protected Status designations are time-limited and were never meant to be a ticket to permanent residency,” said a USCIS spokesperson. “Conditions in Ethiopia no longer pose a serious threat to the personal safety of returning Ethiopian nationals. Since the situation no longer meets the statutory requirements for a TPS designation, Secretary Noem is terminating this designation to restore integrity in our immigration system.” Ethiopian nationals with no other lawful basis for remaining in the United States have 60 days to voluntarily depart the United States. DHS encourages aliens leaving the United States to use the U.S. Customs and Border Protection CBP Home Mobile App to report their departure from the United States. They say this is a safe, secure way to self-deport that includes a complimentary plane ticket, a $1,000 exit bonus, and potential future opportunities for legal immigration. After Feb. 13, 2026, the Department of Homeland Security may arrest and deport any Ethiopian national without status after their TPS has been terminated. If an alien forces DHS to arrest and remove them, they may never be allowed to return to the United States.

Breitbart [12/15/2025 4:26 PM, Hannah Knudsen, 2416K] reports the Trump State Department is ensuring that there are actual immigration vetting standards, Tommy Pigott, Principal Deputy spokesman at the U.S. Department of State, said during an appearance on Breitbart New Daily. Host Mike Slater pointed to recent remarks made by the former ambassador to India, Eric Garcetti. "Well, look, what we’re doing is making sure we actually have vetting standards that mean that every single one of those visas is someone that should be coming to the United States, is somebody that will not harm our national security, is somebody that will not break our laws or violate the terms of their visas," Pigott explained.

USA Today [12/15/2025 6:02 AM, Brie Anna J. Frank, 67103K] reports applicants for certain visas will have their online presence reviewed as part of a new State Department policy that went into effect on Dec. 15. The policy expands previous online review requirements, which applied to foreign students and exchange visitors, to include all H-1B applicants, who work in specialty occupations and are seeking temporary entry to the United States, as well as their dependents. The State Department announced the new policy in early December, saying applicants are "instructed to adjust the privacy settings on all of their social media profiles to ‘public’" to facilitate the review. "The Trump Administration is focused on protecting our nation and our citizens by upholding the highest standards of national security and public safety through our visa process," a State Department spokesperson told USA TODAY. "A U.S. visa is a privilege, not a right.” The change comes months after President Donald Trump introduced a $100,000 annual application fee for H-1B visas.

Breitbart [12/15/2025 5:00 PM, John Binder, 2416K] reports Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) is complaining that if President Donald Trump deports Haitian migrants whose Temporary Protected Status (TPS) will soon end, jobs will go "unfilled." DeWine, in an interview with local Ohio media, complained that DHS’s potentially deporting Haitian migrants — particularly from Springfield, Ohio, where the Haitian population has exploded — will open American jobs.

San Diego Union Tribune [12/15/2025 12:34 PM, Alexandra Mendoza, 1538K] reports sitting next to her husband at their home in Rancho Peñasquitos, Ukrainian mother Viktoriia Bulavina recalled on Friday the tense moments she experienced when she was detained by immigration authorities during an interview to obtain her green card last week. On December 4, she was handcuffed in front of her husband, a U.S. citizen, and taken away by federal immigration agents at the end of her interview for a green card through marriage at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services building in downtown San Diego. She initially thought she would be released within hours while her status was verified. However, she ended up spending five days in detention. Bulavina was released from the Otay Mesa Detention Center on Tuesday.

Breitbart [12/16/2025 2:30 AM, Staff, 2416K] reports President Donald Trump has awarded 13 soldiers and Marines the newly established Mexican Border Defense Medal for their contributions to safeguarding the U.S. southern border. The service members are the first to receive the commendation, created Aug. 13 in a memo signed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to honor those deployed to the U.S.-Mexico border. The commander-in-chief awarded the medals to the service members at the White House. "On day one of my administration, I signed an executive order making it [the] core mission of the United States military to protect and defend the homeland. And today, we’re here to honor our military men and women for their central role in the protection of our border," Trump said during the ceremony. Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has overseen crackdowns on immigration and crime that have included the deployment of troops to the U.S.-Mexico border. More than 10,000 U.S. military service members attached to Joint Task Force Southern Border have been deployed to the U.S.-Mexico border in support of the Department of Homeland Security, with the missions to secure the border, disrupt transnational criminal organizations and respond to national security threats. Trump said Monday that more than 25,000 service members have served in this "incredible and historic operation," which has overseen 13,000 patrols along the border. "They’ve spent night and day enduring scorching hot and bitter cold, and they’ve given up their holidays and their weekends, working with the offices of Customs and Border Protection," Trump said. "And today, we give these great warriors the recognition that they have earned — and they have really earned it.” The medal, according to the Department of Defense, is identical to the Mexican Border Service Medal awarded for service in 1916 and 1917 in the Mexican state of Chihuahua as well as the U.S.-Mexico border regions in New Mexico and Texas. It is bronze with a sheathed Roman sword hanging on a tablet on the front, which bears an inscription that reads: "For Service on the Mexican Border.” Those eligible for the award must have been permanently assigned to a designated Department of Defense military operation supporting CBP within the area of eligibility for at least 30 consecutive or non-consecutive days from Jan. 20 of this year. "We’re proud of this mission," Hegseth said during the White House event. "We’re proud to defend the American people and pinning these medals on is an example of how important it is to us.” The Trump administration states that its crackdown has resulted in more than 2.5 million undocumented migrants removed from the United States and the lowest level of illegal border crossings since 1970.

Federal News Network [12/15/2025 6:38 PM, Anastasia Obis, 986K] reports a group of lawmakers found the Pentagon has diverted at least $2 billion intended for barracks repairs, school upgrades for children of service members and training programs to support the southern border mission. In a report released last week, Democratic members of Congress say the Pentagon redirected funding from a range of military construction and infrastructure projects to support immigration operations, including elementary schools at Fort Knox, a medical and dental facility at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island in Washington, Marine Corps barracks in Japan and a jet-training facility in Mississippi. Funds originally allocated for the now-cancelled jet-training facility at Columbus Air Force Base and overseas barracks were reprogrammed to construct roughly 20 miles of border wall. In total, about $1 billion was shifted from barracks repairs to support border operations. The report, based on the Pentagon’s reprogramming requests to Congress and open source information, is the first comprehensive account to date of the known costs associated with using the military for immigration operations. In addition to the cost breakdown associated with providing military support to immigration enforcement, the lawmakers warned that military readiness "will suffer as a direct result of diverting" DoD resources for immigration enforcement, arguing that the role is "not consistent with DoD’s mission and that service members have neither signed up nor been trained for.” The Trump administration began detaining noncitizens at Fort Bliss, an Army post in Texas, in August. By September, the department had spent more than $363 million to support the Fort Bliss Montana Avenue facility in El Paso and a related Customs and Border Protection processing center. The facility initially opened with about 1,000 beds, with plans to expand its capacity to 5,000 by 2027 at an estimated cost of up to $1.2 billion. ICE’s detention oversight unit found the unfinished facility was already in violation of at least 60 federal immigrant detention standards, according to the report. The lawmakers also found that the department diverted at least $40.3 million to pay for military flights used to deport noncitizens, which are a lot more costly to operate than civilian aircraft. While it costs $28,500 an hour to fly a C-17, which was used to conduct deportation flights, a flight contracted by the Department of Homeland Security costs $8,500 an hour.

Axios [12/15/2025 12:22 PM, Courtenay Brown, 12972K] reports that Companies are suing to lock down the billions of dollars they might be owed if the Supreme Court rules against President Trump’s tariffs. Why it matters: Implementing the sprawling levies at the center of Trump’s economic agenda looks simple relative to the chaos of trying to undo it. This is one of the side effects of the White House’s unprecedented approach to imposing economically significant tariffs: Rolling it back could be chaotic, with potential economic consequences. Driving the news: In recent weeks, a slew of household-name firms — Costco, Revlon, Bumble Bee Foods, and the maker of Ray-Ban — have sued in the U.S. Court of International Trade to secure refunds, in the event that the highest court strikes down Trump’s tariffs.The intrigue: It is a milestone moment in a legal battle fought entirely by small businesses up until this point, as larger firms try to avoid the administration’s ire. Even if the Supreme Court rules in their favor, there is no guarantee that the high court will issue guidance on how the refund process will work — or who is entitled to them. "This year, [Customs and Border Protection] has been fast-tracking the tariff dollars to Treasury, which puts the question of potential rebates into question," policy analysts at TD Cowen wrote in a note Monday morning.

CBS News [12/15/2025 8:01 PM, Kati Weis, 39474K] Video: HERE reports new video out of Louisiana shows Border Patrol agents making arrests at a construction site about 40 minutes outside of New Orleans. CBS News national reporter Kati Weis has the details.

Chicago Tribune [12/15/2025 5:05 PM, Jason Meisner, 4829K] reports saying she had “serious concerns” about the safety of the community, a federal judge on Monday ordered a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent held without bond on charges he used his gun and badge to force his way into hotel rooms and rob and sexually assault at least four prostitutes in Chicago’s suburbs in 2022. Luis Uribe, 44, was charged in an indictment unsealed last week with 10 counts of deprivation of civil rights under color of law and one count of brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence. If convicted Uribe faces a mandatory minimum seven years in federal prison and a maximum of life. The Department of Homeland Security has declined to comment directly on Uribe’s case, citing federal privacy laws. Last week, the agency wrote in a statement that CBP “takes all allegations of employee misconduct seriously.”

Reported similarly:
CBS Chicago [12/15/2025 7:29 PM, Jeramie Bizzle, 39474K] Video: HERE

Washington Examiner [12/15/2025 2:11 PM, Ross O’Keefe, 1394K] reports that President Donald Trump will take part in a Mexican border defense medal ceremony around 3 p.m. Monday in the White House’s Oval Office. The president will award medals to members of the military who have deployed to operations supporting immigration enforcement at the Mexican border. Trump deployed 9,000 troops to the border in June, including combat troops from the Fourth Infantry Division. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Federal News Network [12/15/2025 2:36 PM, Michele Sandiford, 986K] reports that more than 60% of the government’s security clearance data last year was either inaccurate or incomplete. That’s according to a recent review conducted by the Government Accountability Office. In a new report, GAO said delays and issues with IT systems continue to make the security clearance process a top management challenge in the federal government. The issue has remained on GAO’s High Risk List since 2018. Amid the Trump administration’s workforce reductions, Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor touts that 92% of departing feds left voluntarily. But in response to Kupor’s comments, James Walkinshaw (D-Va) said calling the departures "voluntary" is misleading. Walkinshaw argues that many federal employees were coerced into leaving, rather than choosing to go on their own. Nothing about that, the congressman said, was voluntary. The Department of Homeland Security is moving to strip airport security screeners of union rights for the second time this year. The Transportation Security Administration said it will officially rescind a collective bargaining agreement for transportation security officers in early January. That decision comes after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem signed a new determination that TSA staff should not be allowed to participate in collective bargaining. In June, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction that blocked DHS’s previous attempt to dissolve TSA’s collective bargaining agreement. The American Federation of Government Employees has vowed to fight Noem’s latest action in court as well.

Univision [12/16/2025 2:24 AM, Staff, 5004K] reports the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) reported that it is providing ICE with the names of all airline passengers to locate those with deportation orders. Attorney Hugo Vera explains the impact of this collaboration. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Roll Call [12/15/2025 1:35 PM, John M. Donnelly, 548K] reports Senate Commerce Committee leaders vowed Monday to secure enactment of legislation to improve flight safety at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, and they said an appropriations measure next month could be a vehicle. Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., want Congress to delete a provision in the fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act that they say would undermine safety at Reagan National airport, known as DCA. They also want Congress to clear a bipartisan aviation safety bill, known as the ROTOR Act, which would require all aircraft near civilian airports to signal in real time their location to one another and to air traffic controllers. It seems unlikely that they will achieve either of those goals on the NDAA itself, which the Senate plans to clear this week. But they appear poised to move to the next potential legislative vehicle: appropriations. Most of the federal government is operating through Jan. 30 on a stopgap spending measure. To avoid another partial government shutdown, Congress must clear either another continuing resolution or new full-year funding bills. Policy language is generally not allowed on spending bills, but lawmakers allow it if there is sufficient support. "I’m seeking a vote on the ROTOR Act as part of any appropriations measure before the current continuing resolution expires at the end of next month," Cruz told reporters Monday. Cantwell said changing flight safety laws as part of the fiscal 2026 Transportation-HUD appropriations bill is another of several legislative options.

San Francisco Chronicle [12/15/2025 9:15 PM, Aidin Vaziri, 4722K] reports the scene once common at American airports — families lingering for one more hug at the gate, friends waving until a jet bridge door closed — is returning to Oakland, at least for travelers willing to plan ahead. Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport began offering what it calls an OAK Guest Pass on Monday, allowing members of the public without airline tickets to enter the post-security side of its terminals. The airport said the program is intended to let visitors meet arriving passengers at the gates, accompany departing travelers deeper into the terminal, and spend time shopping and dining beyond the checkpoint. The change recalls the airport arrival and departure scenes made famous by the 2003 holiday film "Love Actually," which opened with unscripted reunions at an arrivals gate — moments that largely disappeared from U.S. airports after security rules tightened in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. "We want OAK to become a meaningful experience for all of our visitors, not just a curbside drive-by experience," Kristi McKenney, Port of Oakland’s executive director, said in a statement. "The OAK Guest Pass allows families to spend more precious time with their loved ones as they see them off on their next adventure or welcome them home from one.” Make us a Preferred Source on Google to see more of us when you search. Under the new rules, visitors apply online either the same day or up to seven days in advance and must submit identifying information that matches a TSA-approved photo ID. The airport says the Transportation Security Administration reviews applications. Those applying in advance receive an approval email after midnight on the day of the visit, while same-day applicants can receive a decision in about 15 minutes. The pass is digital only and must be shown at the checkpoint along with identification. Guests are screened under the same security procedures as ticketed passengers, and access is limited and granted on a first-come, first-served basis, the airport says. Oakland also warns the program is not permanent and may be canceled or changed in response to security or operational needs.

Axios [12/15/2025 5:26 PM, Christine Clarridge, 12972K] reports King County emergency officials issued an urgent "Go Now" evacuation order Monday for some residents and businesses in Tukwila, Renton and Kent, after a breach in the Desimone Levee sent floodwaters into nearby neighborhoods. Western Washington is still reeling after a series of atmospheric rivers unleashed widespread flooding, evacuations and landslides across the region last week. Heavy rain further saturated the ground early Monday with another atmospheric river expected to arrive Tuesday into Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service. The National Weather Service Seattle issued a flash flood warning around noon Monday after a levee on the east side of the Green River failed, allowing water to flood into the industrial area in Tukwila, NWS meteorologist Kirby Cook told Axios. 46,000 people, two schools and one hospital are in the potential danger zone, per NWS. Emergency managers are monitoring conditions as crews work to assess the extent of the levee failure. No timeline has been given for when residents may be able to return.

SFGate [12/15/2025 4:09 PM, Olivia Hebert, 13945K] reports a burst of low magnitude earthquakes in Northern California is just the latest in a series of earthquake clusters raising questions about whether seismic activity is increasing in the region. On Monday morning, around 30 minor earthquakes erupted in a swarm near the Geysers geothermal field south of Clear Lake. The day before, seven quakes rattled Sonoma County, including a 4.0 quake. The recent uptick isn’t out of the ordinary, according to U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Susan Hough.

CNN [12/15/2025 7:40 PM, Devan Cole, 18595K] reports a Secret Service official involved in the construction of President Donald Trump’s massive new White House ballroom said Monday that any temporary pause on the project could hamper the agency’s ability to carry out its protective mission. The warning – made in a sworn statement by USSS Deputy Director Matthew Quinn – comes a day before a federal judge in Washington, DC, is set hold an emergency hearing to consider whether to order the White House to pause work on the ballroom pending a lawsuit challenging how the project has unfolded thus far. Quinn, who oversees USSS’ role in the ballroom project, said a contractor involved in the construction is still working to provide temporary security and safety measures around the site and that "any pause in construction, even temporarily, would leave the contractor’s obligation unfulfilled … and consequently hamper the Secret Service’s ability to meet its statutory obligations and protective mission.” The lawsuit filed last week by the nation’s top historic preservation group claims Trump is pursuing the project unlawfully because he hasn’t gotten approval from Congress or submitted his plans to the National Capital Planning Commission and the Commission of Fine Arts for review, which would give the public a chance to weigh in. The National Trust for Historic Preservation is asking Judge Richard Leon, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, to issue a temporary restraining order that would pause any further work on the ballroom until Congress authorizes it, the commissions review it and environmental assessments are completed. In a separate sworn statement filed by the government in the case on Monday, an official with the National Park Service, which is a named defendant in the case, revealed that above-ground work on the ballroom would not begin until at least April and said that efforts were underway for the White House to coordinate with the pair of commissions. That official, John Stanwich, noted that the Commission on Fine Arts does not currently have a quorum but that "plans are underway to appoint new members" to it. The White House fired all six members of the commission in October, CNN previously reported, amid Trump’s push to impose his style on the nation’s capital through a slate of construction projects, including the ballroom. The declaration also confirms the White House plans to bring the project before the National Capital Planning Commission before vertical construction begins, as officials have previously said.

Politico [12/15/2025 8:13 PM, Aaron Pellish, 13586K] reports a lawsuit seeking to block President Trump from building a ballroom on the site of the former East Wing of the White House has no legal basis and should be dismissed, the Trump administration said in a filing on Monday. The Department of Justice argued the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s request for an emergency injunction halting construction of the new ballroom would reverse precedent established by other presidents to modify the White House grounds. “The President possesses statutory authority to modify the structure of his residence, and that authority is supported by background principles of Executive power,” the DOJ said in the filing. In court papers, the administration revealed new details about the construction while offering a stern rebuke of the National Trust lawsuit filed Friday — the first significant legal effort to stop the ongoing renovation. In asking a Washington federal judge to reject an injunction, the Justice Department argued that stopping construction could create “security concerns” at the White House. “Improvements to the site are still needed before the Secret Service’s safety and security requirements can be met,” Secret Service deputy director Matthew Quinn said in a declaration included in the filing. “Any pause in construction, even temporarily, would leave the contractor’s obligation unfulfilled in this regard and consequently hamper the Secret Service’s ability to meet its statutory obligations and protective mission.” Trump has been enthusiastic about the project since he rolled out blueprints for the renovation earlier this year. He regularly invokes the ballroom’s construction at public events — including on Thursday, when he told lawmakers at the White House that “You’re going to have the best ballroom anywhere in the country.” The President has been intimately involved in the project, including taking part in discussions “regarding design and footprint and personally selecting the architect for the Project,” the Justice Department wrote. Images of the demolition of the East Wing sparked controversy, with historians mourning the destruction of the part of the White House traditionally used by the office of the First Lady.

Houston Chronicle [12/15/2025 1:54 PM, Mike Schneider, 2983K] reports that a man convicted of trying to assassinate President Donald Trump on a Florida golf course last year has decided to use an attorney during the sentencing phase instead of representing himself as he did for most of the trial. The sentencing hearing for Ryan Routh in Fort Pierce, Florida, was pushed back from this week to early February after he requested and was granted an attorney to represent him during the sentencing and appeal phases of the trial. The federal courtroom erupted into chaos in September shortly after jurors found Routh guilty on all counts, including attempting to kill a presidential candidate and several firearm-related charges. Routh tried to stab himself in the neck with a pen, and officers quickly dragged him out. The pen Routh used was flexible to prevent people in custody from using it as a weapon. Prosecutors said Routh, 59, spent weeks plotting to kill Trump before aiming a rifle through shrubbery as the then-Republican presidential candidate played golf on Sept. 15, 2024, at his West Palm Beach country club. At Routh’s trial, a Secret Service agent helping protect Trump on the golf course testified that he spotted Routh before Trump came into view. Routh aimed his rifle at the agent, who opened fire, causing Routh to drop his weapon and run away without firing a shot.

ABC News [12/15/2025 9:31 PM, Staff, 30493K] reports the U.S. Coast Guard has released video showing the moment a fisherman was rescued by helicopter off the coast of Florida after his boat caught fire - leaving him stranded on a life raft. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reuters [12/15/2025 9:59 AM, Marianna Parraga, 36480K] reports a tanker carrying Russian naphtha for Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA and at least four supertankers due to pick up crude cargoes in Venezuela have made u-turns after the U.S. seized a vessel carrying Venezuelan crude, ship monitoring data showed on Monday. The U.S. Coast Guard last week intercepted and seized a very large crude carrier (VLCC) carrying some 1.85 million barrels of Venezuelan heavy oil sold by PDVSA, a sign of increasing friction between Venezuela and the U.S., which has ramped up pressure on President Nicolas Maduro. The seizure left more than 11 million barrels stuck onboard other vessels in Venezuelan waters and has prompted some tanker owners to order u-turns to avoid problems, with an armada of U.S. ships patrolling the Caribbean Sea. Benin-flagged tanker Boltaris, which was carrying some 300,000 barrels of Russian naphtha bound for Venezuela, made a u-turn late last week and is now heading for Europe without having discharged, according to LSEG vessel monitoring data. At least four VLCCs that were in PDVSA’s schedules to load crude at Venezuelan ports in the coming weeks have also made u-turns in recent days, monitoring service TankerTrackers.com said. The U.S. pressure has almost paralyzed Venezuela’s oil exports since last week, with only tankers chartered by Chevron (CVX.N) setting sail carrying Venezuelan crude to the U.S. under an authorization previously granted by Washington, the data showed.

CyberScoop [12/15/2025 2:20 PM, Matt Kapko, 122K] reports Opexus admits it missed key red flags when it hired twins Muneeb and Sohaib Akhter, as it failed to learn about crimes the brothers pleaded guilty to in 2015, including wire fraud and conspiring to hack into the State Department — offenses committed while they were contractors for federal agencies. The federal government contractor nonetheless maintains it conducted seven-year background checks before hiring the brothers in 2023 and 2024. Opexus fired them in February, minutes before they allegedly stole and destroyed government data in retaliation. The background checks were “consistent with prevailing government and industry standards with additional requirements for more sensitive work. That said, we fully acknowledge that additional diligence should have been applied,” a spokesperson for Opexus told CyberScoop. Muneeb and Sohaib Akhter were arrested in Alexandria, Va., Dec. 3 for allegedly committing a series of insider attack crimes during a weeklong window in February that ultimately compromised data from multiple federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, Internal Revenue Service and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Opexus said it decided to terminate the twins’ employment upon learning of their prior criminal history, but it did not explain how it became aware of their previous crimes nor what prompted a deeper look into their past. The brothers’ previous crimes were widely reported at the time, including details that are readily available via search engine queries on their respective names. The Washington-based company, which provides services and hosts data for more than 45 federal agencies, admits it made multiple mistakes in the hiring and termination of Muneeb and Sohaib Akhter.

AP [12/15/2025 3:39 PM, David Crary, 31753K] reports that leading Jewish groups in the United States are urging all Jewish organizations to ratchet up security measures at public events — including restrictions on access — following the deadly mass shooting that targeted a Hanukkah celebration on a popular Australian beach. The groups — including three which specialize in security issues — said Jewish public events in the coming days should be open only to people who had been screened after preregistering. "Provide details of location, time, and other information only upon confirmed registration," the groups’ advisory said. "Have access control (locks and entrance procedures) to only allow known, confirmed registrants/attendees into the facility/event." Coinciding with this urgent appeal for increased precautions, some rabbis said their synagogues would proceed with large-scale celebrations, intended to demonstrate resilience. The mass shooting is the latest reminder of the Jewish community’s longstanding reality of having to factor security into religious practice. "This week, let us choose Jewish joy, communal strength, and courageous hope," said a message posted by Temple Beth Sholom, one of the largest synagogues in the Miami area. "We invite every member of our family ... to join us this week as we celebrate Chanukah. Let us gather to share the warmth of the candles and reaffirm our unbreakable connection."

Breitbart [12/15/2025 6:13 PM, Staff, 2416K] reports a gunman remained at large Monday after a weekend mass shooting at elite Brown University left two dead and nine wounded, with US authorities releasing new footage of a masked "person of interest" captured on surveillance cameras. The shooting took place Saturday in a building where exams were underway on the Ivy League campus in Providence, Rhode Island when a man with a rifle burst in and opened fire before fleeing. Authorities initially detained a man in connection with the shooting, but they later released him, saying he was unconnected. Police revealed at a Monday briefing newly acquired security camera footage of another person wanted in connection with the shooting, wearing a dark beanie hat and a mask along with a heavy black coat. The two students killed were Ella Cook, vice president of Brown’s Republican association, and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, originally from Uzbekistan, who had hoped to become a neurosurgeon. "We want to see the individual that pulled the trigger on these young kids identified, apprehended and brought the justice," Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee told the briefing Monday as the perpetrator remained at large. Local police earlier said that officers had "an enhanced presence in Providence neighborhoods" and that they were going door to door requesting surveillance camera footage. "This is a very active investigation, very complex investigation," Providence chief of police Oscar Perez said at the update. The FBI as well as agents from the US Department of Homeland Security were involved in tracking down the shooter, he added.

Reported similarly:
ABC News [12/15/2025 1:37 PM, Staff, 30493K]
Daily Caller [12/15/2025 10:05 AM, Hudson Crozier, 835K]

NewsMax [12/15/2025 10:55 PM, Mark Swanson, 4109K] reports the FBI on Monday announced a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspect in the killing of two Brown University students in a classroom shooting Saturday in Providence, Rhode Island. The bureau released three still images taken from video of a person of interest in the case, who it said is approximately 5 feet 8 inches tall with a "stocky build.” The Providence Police Department released the videos showing the person. Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez said at a Monday evening press conference that investigators believe the individual shown in the newly released photos and video is the same person seen in earlier footage. Police previously released video Saturday of a person of interest wearing dark clothing, which appears to match the individual in the latest images. The newly released photos and video were recorded between 2:08 p.m. and 2:53 p.m. ET on Saturday, before the shooting at Brown. The university later alerted students and faculty to an active shooter near the Barus and Holley Engineering building at 4:22 p.m. ET. Police went door-to-door Monday seeking home surveillance footage as investigators renewed the manhunt for the gunman. Officers knocked on doors asking residents whether they had seen anything or had cameras that may have captured the suspect. "No amount of information is too small or irrelevant," Ted Docks, FBI special agent in charge, said Monday, adding the individual responsible is believed to be "armed and dangerous.” Two students were killed in the shooting and nine others were injured. One of the victims was identified as Ella Cook, a sophomore from Alabama who served as vice president of the Brown University College Republicans, authorities said. Authorities identified the other victim as Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov. Umurzokov and his family are naturalized U.S. citizens originally from Uzbekistan who now live in Virginia. Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

AP [12/16/2025 12:18 AM, Helen Wieffering, Byron Tau, Jennifer McDermott and Brian Slodysko, 19051K] reports the ongoing effort to find a man who walked onto Brown University ‘s campus during a busy exam season and shot nearly a dozen students in a crowded lecture hall has raised questions about the school’s security systems and the urgency of the investigation itself. A day after Saturday’s mass shooting, officials said a person of interest taken into custody would be released without charges, leaving investigators with little actionable insight from the limited security video they had recovered and scrambling to develop new leads. Law enforcement officials were still doing the most basic investigative work two days after the shooting that killed two students and wounded nine, canvassing local residences and businesses for security camera footage and looking for physical evidence. That’s left students and some Providence residents frustrated at gaps in the university’s security and camera systems that helped allow the shooter to disappear. "The fact that we’re in such a surveillance state but that wasn’t used correctly at all is just so deeply frustrating," said Li Ding, a student at the nearby Rhode Island School of Design who dances on a Brown University team. Ding is among hundreds of students who have signed a petition to increase security at school buildings, saying that officials need to do a better job keeping the campus secure against threats like active shooters. "I think honestly, the students are doing a more effective job at taking care of each other than the police," Ding said. Kristy dosReis, chief public information officer for the Providence Police Department, said that at no point did the investigation stand down even after officials appeared to have a breakthrough in the case, detaining a Wisconsin man who they now believe was not involved. "The investigation continued as the scenes were still active. Nothing was cleared," said dosReis. Police and the FBI on Monday released new video and photographs of a man they believe carried out the attack. The man wore a mask in the footage captured before and after the attack. FBI Boston Special Agent in Charge Ted Docks said a $50,000 reward was being offered for information that would lead to the identification, arrest and conviction of the shooter. Docks described the investigation, including documenting the trajectory of bullets at the shooting scene, as "painstaking work.” "We are asking the public to be patient as we continue to run down every lead so we can give victims, survivors, their families and all of you the answers you deserve," Docks told reporters.

New York Times [12/15/2025 12:23 PM, Sarah Mervosh, 135475K] reports that with the Brown University shooter still at large, and no information about a motive in an attack that killed two students over the weekend, schools up and down New England were grappling with fear and uncertainty on Monday. Several private schools in the Providence, R.I., area canceled classes on Monday. Public schools in the area stayed open, but with a heightened police presence. At the University of Rhode Island, about 30 miles away in South Kingstown, in-person exams were canceled. Officials said there were no known threats to schools or colleges, but that decisions were made out of caution and in response to community concerns. On many campuses, students are wrapping up final exams this week. The shooting at Brown occurred around 4 p.m. Saturday, when a man with a face mask and a rifle burst into a classroom during a final-exam review session and opened fire. The news that a suspect detained by the authorities had been released and that officials did not know if the gunman was still in the city spiked new anxieties on Monday, in a geographically dense part of the country home to many universities and several Ivy League campuses all within driving distance.

FOX News [12/15/2025 1:55 PM, Michael Ruiz and Greg Norman, 40621K] reports that Brown University offered a "soft target" to the "psycho killer" who opened fire during a weekend study session, according to a criminal profiler, who cited unsecured doors, limited cameras and the fact that the gunman remained at large Monday. The unidentified gunman barged into a lecture hall at the campus in Providence, Rhode Island, around 4 p.m. Saturday, according to authorities, killing two students and injuring nine more. "College was a soft target — doors open and no security," said John Kelly, a criminal profiler and the president of STALK Inc. "The killer was familiar with the area, enraged, probably at the college or engineering program. Organized. Dressed for the occasion — and very comfortable with a semiautomatic." Authorities have said there were few security cameras in the Barus and Holley building, where the shooting took place. The FBI released surveillance video showing a person of interest wearing dark clothes at an intersection to the northeast of the crime scene. He remained at large Monday afternoon, after police questioned but released someone else in connection with the incident. "They don’t know if he’s 500 miles away or five doors down the street," Kelly told Fox News Digital. "What they do know is he’s a psycho killer and mass shooter. If they don’t get him, there is a lot of fear for people living there, and there will be a lot of scared kids returning to campus."

Daily Wire [12/15/2025 1:09 PM, Tim Pearce, 2494K] reports authorities have released new images and video of a suspect related to a mass shooting at Brown University while the FBI has offered a $50,000 bounty. Law enforcement have been attempting to track down a gunman who killed two students and injured nine others on Saturday. Authorities detained a "person of interest" early on Sunday, but released him after concluding he did not commit the shooting. The new video and reward offer come as law enforcement have continued a frenzied search to find the shooter. Local officials on Sunday asked residents in Providence, Rhode Island, for additional information, tips, videos, and images of the suspect after he was caught on CCTV footage in the area of the university. "The FBI and [the Providence Police Department] are releasing new images of a person of interest in the mass shooting at Brown University on 12/13/25. The [FBI] is offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to the identification, arrest, and conviction of the individual," the bureau’s Boston office said in a post on X. The Providence Police Department released additional videos of what appears to be the suspect dressed in black clothing with a mask on.

Washington Times [12/15/2025 4:13 PM, Jeff Mordock, 852K] reports President Trump said Monday the motivation for the mass shooting at Brown University remains unknown as he defended the FBI, which is once again facing criticism for prematurely touting its efforts to track down a person of interest. Speaking with reporters from the Oval Office, Mr. Trump said investigators don’t know if there was a specific target in the Saturday evening attack that killed two and injured nine at the Ivy League university. Asked about the criticism of FBI Director Kash Patel for his handling of the investigation, Mr. Trump expressed confidence that the bureau will “do a good job.” The president then quickly said questions about the investigation and security should be directed at Brown officials. After the shooting, Mr. Patel announced on X that the FBI had detained a “person of interest in a hotel room” in Coventry, Rhode Island, acting on a tip from the Providence police department. But the person of interest was released from custody hours later and the shooter remains at large. Local authorities said in a press conference Sunday night that a tip came in about a person of interest but the evidence wasn’t sufficient to keep the person, a 24-year-old from Wisconsin, in custody.

New York Post [12/15/2025 3:15 PM, David Propper, 42219K] reports Providence police released low-res new footage of a "person of interest" tied to the Brown University mass shooting as cops pleaded with the public for help Monday afternoon. The new video shows a person in all black walking briskly along a sidewalk around 4:05 p.m. Saturday — just minutes after the shooting, which left two promising students dead and nine others wounded. Police said they plan to release further footage as part of the ongoing probe. One person of interest was detained immediately after the shooting — but then released. On Sunday, the authorities nabbed a second person of interest, but he was also released after officials said the probe was turning in another direction.

FOX News [12/15/2025 6:09 PM, Adam Sabes, 40621K] reports police in Rhode Island are entering day three of their search for the individual who shot and killed two people, and injured nine students at Brown University. The shooting happened around 4 p.m. Saturday at Brown University’s Barus and Holley engineering building. While a person of interest was taken into custody early Sunday morning, that individual was later released. Ella Cook and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov died in the shooting. The FBI and Providence Police released new images and video of a person of interest, showing someone wearing dark clothing, captured from surveillance cameras. The person of interest was described as a male, approximately 5 feet 8 inches tall with a stocky build.

CBS News [12/15/2025 8:09 PM, Kiki Intarasuwan, 39474K] reports that, three days after two Brown University students were shot and killed and nine others were wounded in a mass shooting, the gunman remains at large — and students say the Ivy League college campus they had considered a safe place no longer feels the same. Talia Levine, a senior at Brown University studying international and public affairs, told CBS News on Monday that she was on the 11th floor of the Sciences Library with her friends when the shooting occurred at the nearby engineering building. "This has been my home for the past eight years, and I think it is so deeply concerning to feel unsafe here, probably for the first time in my life," the Providence, Rhode Island, local said. "Overall, the sentiment among students has just been deep-rooted distress and fear that this could happen in a place we consider so safe and our home.” Levine recalled barricading for two hours on Saturday before a SWAT team came and cleared the floor. The students were then transferred to the basement, where they waited for another two hours, she said. "We were in a state where Brown felt incredibly safe, and that bubble of safeness was completely popped when we were violated by a shooter entering our campus," Levine said. "I think it will take time and effort to be able to rebuild any sense of normalcy among students.” Another student, sophomore Aurna Mukherjee, said she had originally planned to go to an exam review session that was being held where the shooting occurred, but decided to study in her dorm instead. "Getting the text from Brown saying there’s an active shooter, if you see them run, hide, felt dystopian to me," Mukherjee told CBS News, saying she went to hide in her friend’s room and barricaded herself there because there was an issue with her door. "I never imagined being in a position where I would be having to hide from an active shooter on campus.” With final exams canceled, the majority of students had left campus by Monday. But those who remained were on alert, given that the shooter had not been caught. "I think everyone is really scared right now. And, and I think that there is a lot of fear," Eno Thomson-Tribe, a friend of one of the slain students, 18-year-old freshman Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, told CBS News. "To know that this person is still on the loose ... is very scary.” Thomson-Tribe described Umurzokov, whose family migrated from Uzbekistan when he was young, as "magnetic," caring and supportive of his friends. The other student who was killed, a 19-year-old sophomore from Alabama named Ella Cook, was remembered by Alabama Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth as a "devoted Christian and a committed conservative who represented the very best of Alabama. A bright future was ended much too soon.” [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

ABC News [12/15/2025 6:12 PM, Mary Kekatos, 30493K] reports as a deadly shooting took place on Brown University’s campus on Saturday, leaving two people dead and nine injured, the incident was unnervingly reminiscent for at least two students. In 2018, Zoe Weissman was a student at Westglades Middle School in Parkland, Florida, across the street from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 17 people were killed in a mass shooting on Valentine’s Day and 18 were injured. On Saturday, Weissman, 20, was in her dormitory room when a friend called her to tell her about the shooting. "I was first panicked, because fight or flight, I just want to make sure I was physically safe and then I messaged all my friends. They messaged me. We all made sure that we were all okay," she told ABC News’ "Good Morning America Weekend.” "And then I just kind of felt the same cycle of emotions I felt when I was 12 in Parkland ... just the numbness and I’m sure the sadness will come once we figure out who we lost as a community," she added. Weissman said she is upset that she is facing a second school shooting.

USA Today [12/15/2025 6:38 PM, Christopher Cann and N’dea Yancey-Bragg, 67103K] reports within hours of a gunman opening fire inside a classroom at Brown University, the FBI and local police announced they had detained a person of interest in the shooting, which left two students dead and nine others injured. But officials convened a late-night news conference later that day and made a surprise announcement: The detained man was being released because evidence "now points in a different direction.” "We have a murderer out there, frankly," Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha told reporters. A person being detained and released is not uncommon in large police investigations, said Scott Duffey, co-director for the Criminal Justice Institute at Wilmington University in Delaware. "It happens more times than not," said Duffey, a retired FBI agent who spent a decade focused on fugitive apprehensions. But the way officials announced the detention led people to believe investigators had more than they did, he and other experts said, and sparked confusion and backlash when the person was released and the manhunt continued. The back and forth drew parallels to the aftermath of the Charlie Kirk assassination, when the FBI announced a "subject of interest" had been detained, only to release the person hours later. Speaking about the mass shooting in an appearance on CNN, Rep. Seth Magaziner, D-R.I., noted the Kirk investigation and accused FBI Director Kash Patel and others of being "very eager to break news before they’re confident whether it’s true or not.” The FBI ‘gleefully’ reported a person had been detained. Police said that on the morning of Dec. 14, around 3:45 a.m., federal agents and local law enforcement arrived at a hotel in Covington, Rhode Island, about 20 miles from the Brown campus, and detained a man. Within a few hours, Brown University lifted its campus-wide shelter in place order. While authorities did not publicly identify the man, multiple news outlets citing law enforcement sources published the name of a Wisconsin native who formerly served in the U.S. Army. USA TODAY is no longer naming the person as they were neither named a suspect in the shooting nor charged.

Reported similarly:
Reuters [12/15/2025 1:30 PM, Staff, 36480K]

CBS New York [12/15/2025 5:31 AM, Staff, 39474K] reports the targeted attack on Jewish Australians at Bondi Beach has brought sadness, fear and anger to the Jewish community in New York City. The normally celebratory holiday of Hanukkah is now a somber moment, as Jews honor the lives lost on the other side of the world. As a result, the NYPD has vowed to increase its presence at related events. Amid heightened security, CBS News New York’s Naomi Ruchim attended a menorah lighting on the Upper East Side Sunday night. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said there will be more uniformed officers, specialized patrols, heavy weapons teams, community affairs officers, counterterrorism officers and bomb squads where necessary. "Jewish communities are being forced to confront a threat that is persistent, adaptive, and is evidenced yet again today, global in scope. That’s why the NYPD is acutely focused on prevention. We calibrate our presence to meet the threat, no matter where it lurks or whom it targets," Tisch said. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Blaze [12/15/2025 1:15 PM, Carlos Garcia, 1442K] reports that Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky revealed alleged details about the suspect arrested for the Jan. 6 pipe bomb plantings in Washington, D.C., that might undermine the official narrative of the incident. The mystery of the pipe bombs seemed to be solved on Dec. 4, nearly five years after they were found, when Justice Department officials announced that they had arrested 30-year-old Brian Cole Jr. of Woodbridge, Virginia. On Friday, Massie posted a long thread on social media claiming that information from an FBI whistleblower led him to conclude the suspect did not have the capability or motive to plant the bombs. "Last night I received a disclosure from a new FBI whistleblower regarding the J6 pipe bomb case," Massie wrote. "This is the third disclosure I’ve received from current and former employees of the government regarding the pipe bomb case in recent weeks." Massie said the suspect lived in a community with residents who worked with the FBI, Secret Service, and police. "He wanders around his neighborhood several times a day while walking a dog. Other than walking his dog, he doesn’t engage in any other activities outside his home," he wrote. "He does not interact with anyone," Massie added. "He doesn’t wave or acknowledge others or even say hello. He does not even look at other people when he walks by. He appears to live in his own world."

CNN [12/15/2025 6:00 AM, Rob Picheta, 18595K] reports in east Tennessee, at the end of a winding dirt road, a mother glances into the woods she roamed as a child. It’s a deep and dramatic vista: a patchwork of pines and oaks disappearing into an endless Blue Ridge mountain range. "We used to ride four wheelers all through the woods," said the woman, who spoke to CNN on the condition of anonymity due to fears for her safety. "We had secret hiding places, we’d just be gone for hours … our parents wouldn’t even know where we were." But things are different now. "I’m afraid to let my own kids do the same things I did," said the mother of three, who sternly warns her kids: "Whatever you do, don’t go to that side. Because I don’t know what they’re going to do." "(They’re) making us all scared to leave our houses." The woman is fearful of her new neighbors: a collection of White supremacists associated with the group Patriot Front. The group is one of the most active White nationalist societies in the US. Members of the organization – which the Southern Poverty Law Center has designated a hate group – hold rallies with hundreds of people in cities across the country wearing masks, brandishing riot shields and waving Confederate flags. Now CNN has tracked the group’s progress in building an Appalachian base, on a 124-acre compound outside the picturesque town on Tellico Plains. Over the course of that months-long reporting, a picture has emerged of the radical characters involved with the property, including a notorious neo-Nazi family and a pagan mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter. But our reporting has also highlighted the deepening divisions their presence has stirred among nearby residents, and the persistent threat of White supremacist activism across the county. Only three states – Texas, Alabama and Pennsylvania – saw more White Supremacist events last year than Tennessee, according to data compiled by the Anti-Defamation League. "They’re part of a broader network," said Daryl Johnson, a former senior analyst at the Department of Homeland Security and domestic extremism expert, told CNN of Patriot Front. "Whether it’s at rallies, or whether they have closed meetings (or) fight clubs, (members) can rub shoulders with members from other groups." In a worst-case scenario, Johnson said, "that’s how a secretive terrorist cell could form."

NewsMax [12/15/2025 7:46 PM, Michael Katz, 4109K] reports Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., said Monday it was a "badge of honor" to be labeled an anti-Muslim extremist by the Council on American-Islamic Relations. CAIR, which describes itself as the nation’s largest Muslim advocacy organization, announced it was adding Tuberville to its list of anti-Muslim extremists "in the wake of his increasingly hateful and dangerous attacks on Alabama Muslims, including his recent targeting of Alabama Muslim K-12 school children.” The organization recently criticized Tuberville’s comments opposing the Islamic Academy of Alabama’s effort to relocate a new school to a busy area in Hoover. Earlier this month, the Hoover Planning and Zoning Commission voted unanimously to deny the school’s request, following considerable pushback from Tuberville and city residents. Tuberville, who has announced he is running to replace term-limited Republican Gov. Kay Ivey in 2026, introduced two pieces of legislation in October aimed at banning the application of Sharia law in the United States. He also delivered a fiery speech on the Senate floor warning that radical Islamic extremism poses a national security threat to the country. "Sharia law is fundamentally anti-American and has no place in our country," Tuberville said at the time. "If you want to peacefully practice your religion, you have every right to do so under the Constitution. But if you want to come to the United States and advocate for the practice of Sharia law over U.S. law, you should not be here.

CBS News [12/15/2025 11:28 PM, Marvin Hurst, 39474K] reports night two of Hanukkah drew a lively crowd at Willow Bend Mall. Well over 100 were in the audience waiting for the lighting of the menorah. "I like to celebrate with my kids," Bnji Izak said. "To show the world that we’re not afraid.” Izak wasn’t the only person at the Jewish gathering pushing past the fear and anxiety. Shoshana Howard felt the insane tragedy in Bondi Beach, Australia, would not stop her holiday. "Unfortunately, we always have bad people who want to hurt us. And the only way to keep on living is to keep on living and not giving up," Howard said. Also, at the event to provide protection are members of Shomer Texas, a non-profit security group that protects Jewish interests. The organization was formed following the Gaza war on Oct. 7. "There is a rise in anti-Semitism, and it’s growing rapidly. It’s growing rapidly, growing fast," Yaakov Tenenbaum. "It’s a fire that’s not that easy to put out. If you have social media on your phone, then you could see it.” Tenenbaum said they had officers at the event in visible gear near the entrances, and plainclothes officers undetectable to the average eye. "Wherever there’s a gathering of Jews, you’ll see these guys stepping up, being called up to protect their community and their family," he said. Dads, doctors, lawyers, dentists, and Rabbis sign up to join the volunteer security service. The group said it already had a list of clients booked for December. Then, when the mass shooting happened in Bondi, Australia, phones would not stop ringing. "I mean, that morning, my phone was going off like crazy," Tenenbaum said. "People are reaching out to me, rabbis and event coordinators reaching out to me, texting me, calling me, and saying that they know it’s the last minute, but if there’s anything we could do to help." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

USA Today [12/15/2025 1:08 AM, Natalie Neysa Alund and Melissa Montoya, 67103K] reports that a father and son are suspected of having fired long weapons at a crowd of beachgoers, killing more than a dozen during a Hanukkah celebration on Australia’s Bondi Beach. The two are accused of opening fire on nearly 1,000 people at the holiday party on the popular pavillion on Sunday, Dec. 14. One of the alleged attackers, identified as the father, died after police shot him on the scene. The man’s son was hospitalized with critical injuries as of Monday, Dec. 15. The attack left at least 15 dead and dozens wounded. For up to 20 minutes during the shooting, the gunmen unleashed a barrage of bullets on men, women and children as terrified beachgoers fled, the New South Wales Police Force reported. Nearly 40 people were taken to the hospital, including two police officers and four children, one of whom later died from her wounds. The victims’ ages ranged between 10 and 87, police wrote in an update on the department’s website. Authorities investigating the mass shooting dubbed the attack an act of antisemitic "terrorism." Here’s what we know so far about the two suspects in the horrific mass shooting. Authorities identified the gunman who was killed as a 50-year-old man and said he was shot by police and died on the scene. Though officials did not name the father, Australian Broadcasting Corporation and other media, including the BBC, identified him as Sajid Akram. Akram had previously been investigated for ties to the Islamic State, according to The Independent. Two flags of the militant group the Islamic State were also found in the gunmen’s vehicle, the ABC reported.

Daily Caller [12/15/2025 7:08 PM, Mariane Angela, 835K] reports Democratic Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman said Monday that a "rot within the American left" has allowed antisemitic extremism to fester. At least 15 people were killed Sunday when a gunman opened fire during a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, where hundreds gathered for the annual Chanukah by the Sea event, according to Australian officials and media reports. Appearing on "The Record with Greta Van Susteren," Fetterman tore into his own party after the deadly shooting. He said Democrats have grown comfortable excusing extremist language instead of confronting terrorism against Jews. "Here in my own party, I’ve been incredibly disappointed. People are trying to pretend these kinds of words and terms like, ‘From the river to the sea’ or to ‘Globalize the Intifada’ and all those other things," Fetterman told host Greta Van Susteren. "We all know what this means. And I refuse to pander to that. And, for me, it’s been a rot within the American left and within my party. Call it what it is and stand with Israel, which is the one nation in the region that lives and protects those kinds of values.” Susteren pressed Fetterman on whether the media has met its responsibility to confront terrorism directed at Jews, Fetterman said the press failed that test. "I read virtually everything on the mainstream outlets, like New York Times, [you] constantly get a strong anti-Israel views on those things and other media as well too. Call it what it is," Fetterman said. Newly elected Democratic socialist mayor of NYC Zohran Mamdani declined to directly condemn the phrase "globalize the intifada."

NewsMax [12/15/2025 11:10 AM, Theodore Bunker, 4109K] reports President of the Zionist Organization of America Morton Klein said on Newsmax Monday that recent deadly shootings in Australia and the United States should be viewed as part of a broader pattern of antisemitic and Islamist violence. He also accused major media outlets of downplaying key details. Klein said the Bondi Beach shooting in Sydney and a separate shooting at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island both had antisemitic undertones. Australian authorities have described the Bondi Beach attack as an antisemitic terrorist act. Gunmen opened fire during a Hanukkah gathering near Bondi Beach, killing at least 15 people and injuring dozens more. Police said the victims were targeted because they were Jewish and attending a religious celebration. One suspect was killed by police and another was taken into custody. Explosive materials were also recovered at the scene. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemned the attack as terrorism and said Jewish communities across Australia would receive additional security protection. Klein said on Newsmax’s "Wake Up America" that the Bondi Beach killings were "intentionally targeting Jews on Hanukkah," adding that the attack should be recognized as part of a larger global trend of antisemitic violence. Klein also addressed the shooting at Brown University, where two students were killed and nine others wounded after a gunman opened fire on campus Saturday afternoon. Authorities in Rhode Island have not publicly identified a suspect or confirmed a motive.

FOX News [12/15/2025 1:10 PM, Alexander Hall Fox, 40621K] reports that New York Times columnist Bret Stephens argued in a piece Monday that the horrific shooting during a Hanukkah celebration in Australia is the ultimate manifestation of what "globalize the intifada" actually means. Police say a father and son were behind the horrifying mass shooting that left 15 victims dead and 40 people hospitalized during a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia. The attack on the Jewish community is being investigated as an act of terrorism. As many conservatives call out the Australian government for being unprepared to handle such an attack, Stephens, who is of Jewish ancestry himself, joined the fray with a piece headlined, "Bondi Beach Is What ‘Globalize the Intifada’ Looks Like." He claimed that the problem of anti-Jewish attacks does not just come from foreign, but from domestic sources. The phrase "Globalize the Intifada," according to the American Jewish Committee, "calls for people from around the globe to participate in rising up against Israel." The term became a major source of controversy for the past year after New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani initially defended its use. He relented in later months as the election approached.

AP [12/16/2025 2:04 AM, Charlotte Graham-McLay and Rod Mcguirk, 28013K] reports a mass shooting in which 15 people were killed during a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach was "a terrorist attack inspired by Islamic State," Australia’s federal police commissioner Krissy Barrett said Tuesday. The suspects were a father and son, aged 50 and 24, authorities have said. The older man, whom state officials named as Sajid Akram, was shot dead. His son was being treated at a hospital. A news conference by political and law enforcement leaders on Tuesday was the first time officials confirmed their beliefs about the suspects’ ideologies. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the remarks were based on evidence obtained, including "the presence of Islamic State flags in the vehicle that has been seized.” There are 25 people still being treated in hospitals after Sunday’s massacre, 10 of them in critical condition. Three of them are patients in a children’s hospital. Also among them is Ahmed al Ahmed, who was captured on video tackling and disarming one assailant, before pointing the man’s weapon at him and then setting it on the ground. Those killed ranged in age from 10 to 87 years old. They were attending a Hanukkah event at Australia’s most famous beach Sunday when the gunshots rang out. Albanese and the leaders of some of Australia’s states have pledged to tighten the country’s already strict gun laws in what would be the most sweeping reforms since a shooter killed 35 people in Port Arthur, Tasmania in 1996. Mass shootings in Australia have since been rare. Officials divulged more information as public questions and anger grew on the third day following the attack about how the suspects were able to plan and enact it and whether Australian Jews had been sufficiently protected from rising antisemitism. Albanese announced plans to further restrict access to guns, in part because it emerged the older suspect had amassed his cache of six weapons legally. "The suspected murderers, callous in how they allegedly coordinated their attack, appeared to have no regard for the age or ableness of their victims," said Barrett. "It appears the alleged killers were interested only in a quest for a death tally.” The suspects traveled to the Philippines last month, said Mal Lanyon, the Police Commissioner for New South Wales state. Their reasons for the trip and where in the Philippines they went would be probed by investigators, Lanyon said. He also confirmed that a vehicle removed from the scene, registered to the younger suspect, contained improvised explosive devices. "I also confirm that it contained two homemade ISIS flags," Lanyon said.

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NewsMax [12/15/2025 10:07 PM, Staff, 4109K]
USA Today [12/15/2025 3:17 AM, Kim Hjelmgaard, 67103K] r

New York Times [12/16/2025 1:08 AM, Jason Gutierrez and Sui-Lee Wee, 135475K] reports it has been eight years since the Philippines declared victory over the Islamic State, or ISIS. But the threat from ISIS has become smaller and fragmented, with lethal attacks by militants linked to the group rocking the country intermittently. On Tuesday, that threat came under fresh scrutiny. The suspects in the Bondi Beach massacre in Sydney, Australia, were motivated by ISIS and had traveled to the Philippines, Australian officials said. The Philippine authorities then said that the two men had traveled to the city of Davao last month. It remains unclear what they were doing there. Sajid Akram, an Indian national, and Naveed Akram, an Australian citizen, arrived in the Philippines together on Nov. 1 from Sydney, said Dana Sandoval, a spokeswoman for the Philippine Bureau of Immigration. The men left the country on Nov. 28, flying to Sydney via Manila, Ms. Sandoval added. Davao is the largest city on the southern island of Mindanao, where Muslim insurgents have long sought to carve out an independent state. In 2017, ISIS fighters held siege to the city of Marawi in Mindanao for five months, prompting the Philippine government to unleash an all-out war, killing key leaders and forcing combatants to surrender. Hundreds of Islamic State fighters remain in the Philippines, a Catholic-majority country, according to experts. The groups continue to recruit, leveraging local poverty and historical political grievances in Mindanao. The terror groups have shifted gears — they have become smaller and factionalized, but still hold an allegiance to the Islamic State. And they have continued to target police forces and Christian places of worship. In 2023, Islamic militants detonated an explosive device during a Catholic Mass at Mindanao State University in Marawi, killing four people and injuring dozens. Rommel Banlaoi, an antiterrorism expert in the Philippines, said there was a shift in militancy movements in the region after the Marawi siege. “Before, the focus was on creating an Islamic state. Now it has transformed to helping Muslims, Palestinians displaced by the Middle East violence,” Mr. Banlaoi said. In recent years, the government has sought to offer some of these fighters opportunities for peaceful reintegration. Many of these militants have surrendered because of exhaustion and disillusionment with the failed attempt to establish an Islamic caliphate. The Philippines also established the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao to give residents a sense of greater political autonomy and to strip extremist groups of their support base, even though the first local election was repeatedly delayed because of the fragile peace process.

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CNN [12/16/2025 12:40 AM, Jessie Yeung, Sandi Sidhu Profile, Jinky Jorgio, Todd Symons, 606K]
FOX News [12/16/2025 12:24 AM, Bradford Betz, 40621K]

Wall Street Journal [12/15/2025 11:16 AM, Max Colchester and Bertrand Benoit, 646K] reports European security officials now regularly broadcast a message nearly unimaginable a decade ago: Get ready for conflict with Russia. Rarely a week goes by now without a European government, military or security chief making a grim speech warning the public that they are headed toward a potential war with Russia. It is a profound psychological shift for a continent that has rebuilt itself after two world wars by trumpeting a message of harmony and joint economic prosperity. Over the weekend, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz compared Russian President Vladimir Putin’s strategy in Ukraine to that of Hitler in 1938, when he seized the German-speaking Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia before pressing on to conquer a large chunk of the continent. “If Ukraine falls, he won’t stop. Just like the Sudetenland wasn’t enough in 1938,” Merz told a party conference on Saturday. That came days after NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte made a speech warning that “conflict is at our door” and that “we must be prepared for the scale of war our grandparents or great-grandparents endured.” Rutte said that Russia could be ready to use military force against the North Atlantic Treaty Organization within five years. The head of the French military recently said that France was at risk “because it is not prepared to accept the loss of its children.” This sense of urgency has been amped-up as the Trump administration looks to broker an end to the war in Ukraine. There is concern in European capitals that Ukraine will be pushed by Trump into accepting a lopsided peace-deal that leaves Putin emboldened and Ukraine vulnerable to future Russian attack. Crucially, a cease-fire would free Russian military resources to focus on Europe, too, potentially paving the way for a future attack on its eastern flank. The warnings are accompanied by fear that a more isolationist Trump administration won’t come to Europe’s aid if an attack does materialize. The U.S. National Security Strategy, which was published this month, says that the U.S. government will aim to stop war spreading in Europe and “re-establish strategic stability with Russia.” For the first time in recent years, it makes no mention of Russia as an enemy.

Daily Caller [12/15/2025 7:43 PM, David Bossie, 835K] reports there are many reasons that the United States of America has allowed itself to be consumed by a $38 trillion national debt that’s now growing exponentially on a daily basis. The good news is that sometimes a scandal emerges from out of nowhere to become a catalyst for change. To put a fine point on our spending emergency, it took our great country 211 years to reach a $5 trillion debt, but we’ve managed to accumulate a mind-blowing $33 trillion in additional debt in just the past 25 years. Since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, federal spending has ballooned from an already whopping $4.4 trillion annually to a now unfathomable $7 trillion. This existential financial crisis — and top national security threat — has everything to do with ever-expanding entitlements like Social Security and Medicare that are speeding toward insolvency, and other grossly unchecked social safety net programs in dire need of common-sense reform, particularly in the wake of unprecedented COVID-19 era waste, fraud, and abuse. Unfortunately, this sinful mindset of carelessness and excess isn’t unique to the federal level. Look no further than the infuriating multi-year fraud investigations and prosecutions that are enveloping the state of Minnesota and the administration of radical left-wing Democratic Gov. Tim Walz and state Attorney General Keith Ellison. It’s alleged and methodically proven that more than a billion dollars in taxpayer money was stolen by non-profit groups, including Feeding Our Future, who were pocketing enormous sums of money from nutrition, housing, and healthcare programs instead of using the funds for legitimate purposes. This criminal activity has been described as "the largest pandemic relief fraud scheme" in the country and shines a bright, long overdue light on the shameful pattern of exploitation by those, both in and out of government, who took advantage of lax oversight during the fog of COVID-19 to maximize the abuse of taxpayer dollars while answering to no one.

CNN [12/15/2025 12:43 PM, Kevin Liptak, 18595K] reports that American officials on Monday described significant progress in talks to bring Russia’s war in Ukraine to an end, suggesting beefed-up security guarantees for Kyiv had advanced the peace talks — but that the US offer would not be on the table forever. The assessment came after two days of discussions in Berlin between officials from Europe, Ukraine and the United States. President Donald Trump was represented at the talks by his foreign envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner. The president plans to phone into a dinner of European leaders later Monday, one US official said, to discuss the developing agreement. He spoke twice with Witkoff and Kushner over the course of Monday’s discussions. "I would assess that he’s really pleased with where we are today," one of the officials said. Roughly 90% of the issues between Russia and Ukraine have been solved, one of the officials said, describing the issue of territorial concessions as a remaining sticking point. The US side offered "thought-provoking" ideas on how to resolve the impasse, the official said, including the development of an "economic free zone." Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday that Kyiv compromised on security guarantees instead of NATO membership. (NATO’s Article 5 calls on allies to assist any member that comes under attack.).

Wall Street Journal [12/15/2025 6:31 PM, Laurence Norman, Bertrand Benoit, and Anastasiia Malenko, 646K] reports the U.S. pledged to protect Ukraine from any future Russian attack, U.S. officials said, offering to support European security guarantees and seek Senate backing for Washington’s promised role, which it hasn’t yet publicly detailed. The American pledge, which Russian officials are likely to dispute, came on the second day of talks in Berlin among the U.S., Ukraine and European leaders and top officials. It remains unclear to what extent Washington would militarily intervene. The shift could lift one of the biggest obstacles to Kyiv signing up to a peace deal with Russia, but a bigger hurdle remains, over territory. Still unresolved is the issue of which contested territories Kyiv would keep and whether Ukraine would withdraw unilaterally from an area of the Donetsk region that it currently controls. European officials have for months offered Ukraine security guarantees to deter a future Russian attack but they have stressed the need to have some form of U.S. help to backstop those plans. European officials have advised Ukraine to tread carefully in agreeing to other major concessions until they had locked in clear U.S. military support. The U.S. officials said they had secured consensus with Ukraine on 90% of the issues being discussed after eight hours of face-to-face talks since Sunday between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and President Trump’s Russia envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law. Trump told reporters at the White House that the talks were “very good,” noting he has had numerous conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “At this moment, Russia wants to get in and the problem is they’ll want to get it ended, and then all of a sudden they won’t, and Ukraine will want to get it ended, and all of a sudden they won’t,” Trump said. “So we have to get them on the same page.” While U.S. officials insist they aren’t unduly pressuring Ukraine, the Trump administration wants a deal done by year-end, if possible. Ukrainian and European officials are skeptical an agreement can be reached so quickly.

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Bloomberg [12/15/2025 1:39 PM, Kate Sullivan, Michael Nienaber, Aliaksandr Kudrytski 18207K]
AP [12/15/2025 5:33 PM, Stefanie Dazio and Aamer Madhani, 31753K]
Washington Times [12/15/2025 1:15 PM, Jeff Mordock, 852K]

Bloomberg [12/16/2025 2:39 AM, Staff, 18207K] reports Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he has an agreement with the US to make security guarantees legally binding through a vote in Congress as part of a deal to end Russia’s war. He offered no details in online audio comments to Ukrainian media late Monday. The disclosure came hours after a US official said President Donald Trump’s administration had offered strong "Article 5-like" security guarantees to Ukraine in the latest negotiations, a reference to NATO’s mutual-defense clause.

Reuters [12/15/2025 12:28 PM, Steve Holland and Jeff Mason, 36480K] reports that Ukraine could receive security guarantees modeled on NATO’s Article 5 mutual defense pledge under a proposed peace deal with Russia, U.S. officials said on Monday — an unprecedented offer aimed at ending the war sparked by Moscow’s 2022 invasion. Officials described the proposed protections, discussed during two days of talks in Berlin, as "Article 5-like," signaling a strong commitment to Ukraine’s security even though Kyiv is not a NATO member. Two officials, speaking to reporters on a conference call after U.S. peace talks with Ukrainian and European officials, said the guarantees would not be on the table forever, as U.S. President Donald Trump presses for an end to the war sparked by Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The officials said there was broad agreement on 90% of the issues between Ukraine and Russia. But they acknowledged that territory and sovereignty would still have to be resolved by the parties themselves. Ukraine has said previously it would not cede territory to Russia. Opinion polls in Ukraine have shown that few Ukrainians are willing to accept territorial concessions, which remains a key Russian condition for ending its war. The Russians have shown little willingness to compromise on their demands. One U.S. official said Russia was open to Ukraine joining the European Union and that Trump wanted to prevent Russia from moving further west.

FOX News [12/15/2025 6:35 AM, Staff, 40621K] reports Hudson Institute senior fellow Aaron MacLean joined ‘Fox & Friends First’ to discuss President Donald Trump’s promise to retaliate after U.S. troops and an interpreter were killed in Syria and the latest on the effort to end the war in Ukraine. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CBS News [12/15/2025 7:10 PM, Staff, 39474K] Video: HERE reports two members of the Iowa National Guard, along with a civilian interpreter, were killed in what the Pentagon called an ambush attack by an ISIS gunman over the weekend. CBS News senior national security correspondent Charlie D’Agata reports.

FOX News [12/15/2025 7:16 PM, Staff, 40621K] Video: HERE reports Fox News chief national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin has the latest on President Donald Trump’s response to the deadly ambush of two National Guardsmen in Syria on ‘Special Report.

FOX News [12/15/2025 9:11 AM, Staff, 40621K] reports Syrian Emergency Task Force executive director Mouaz Moustafa joins ‘Fox & Friends’ to discuss President Donald Trump vowing retaliation after an ISIS ambush killed two American soldiers and an interpreter. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Breitbart [12/15/2025 12:37 PM, Lucas Nolan, 2416K] reports that the fate of TikTok’s U.S. operations remains uncertain as another deadline for the app’s sale approaches, leaving interested American investors in a state of limbo. China’s massively popular TikTok continues to face an uncertain future in the United States as the latest deadline for its sale looms. The app, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, has been at the center of a geopolitical battle between the U.S. and China, with American lawmakers expressing concerns over national security and the potential for Beijing to access user data. In 2024, Congress passed a law requiring ByteDance to sell TikTok’s U.S. operations or face a ban for American users. The law, signed by then-President Joe Biden, was upheld by the Supreme Court in early 2025. The U.S. has repeatedly delayed the deadline for the sale, with President Donald Trump appearing poised to extend it for a fifth time on Tuesday. Frank McCourt, a billionaire investor interested in acquiring TikTok’s U.S. operations, told BBC News that he and his group of investors have been left in limbo as they await the outcome. "We’re just standing by and waiting to see what happens," McCourt said. "But if the moment arrives, we’re prepared to move forward… we’ve raised the capital to buy it — we’ll see."

Reuters [12/15/2025 9:29 PM, Liz Lee, 36480K] reports China seized 430 kg of smuggled cocaine last month, acting on information from the United States, the Chinese Public Security Ministry said on Tuesday. Chinese authorities were able to seize the drugs from a "suspicious" international container at Yantian Port in the southern city of Shenzhen on November 26, the ministry said, based on information from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. The case is under further investigation, the security ministry said, giving no further details.

Reuters [12/15/2025 4:47 AM, Staff, 19051K] reports the Philippines said on Monday it will protest the Chinese coast guard’s "harassment and endangerment" of Filipino fishermen in a South China Sea shoal last week. Three Filipino fishermen were injured and two fishing vessels damaged when Chinese coast guard ships blasted water cannon and cut their anchor lines near Sabina Shoal on Friday, Manila’s coast guard said over the weekend. The Philippines said it was alarmed by the actions of China’s coast guard, saying the use of water cannons and dangerous manoeuvres that cause injury and damage "cannot be justified". "The Philippines will undertake the appropriate diplomatic response and register its strong objection to these actions and demand that China cease such aggressive acts," the Philippines’ maritime council said in a statement. Presidential press officer Claire Castro told reporters that the Philippines will file a demarche to the Chinese embassy on Monday, citing information from the foreign minister. Neither China’s foreign ministry nor its embassy in Manila responded immediately to a request for comment. On Friday, China’s coast guard said it had driven away multiple Philippine vessels and taken "control measures".

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