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.

FOX News [12/28/2025 12:49 PM, Staff, 40621K] reports Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin breaks down New Year’s Eve safety concerns, the crackdown on commercial driver’s licenses officials say were wrongfully issued and what DHS is signaling next on immigration enforcement. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

ABC News [12/28/2025 3:34 PM, Staff, 30493K] reports ABC News’ Olivia Rubin reports on the precautions being taken as law enforcement officials warn about the threat from lone wolves. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Breitbart [12/28/2025 11:10 AM, Elizabeth Weibel, 2416K] reports Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin criticized illegal migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia for "making TikToks" after a judge ordered he be released from detention, while DHS was placed "under" a gag order. In a post on X, McLaughlin noted that justice in the United States "ceases to function when its arbiters silence law enforcement and give megaphones to those who oppose" the nation’s legal system. McLaughlin’s post came in response to a post from conservative activist Benny Johnson, which shared a video of Abrego Garcia singing along to a Spanish song. "So we at @DHSgov, are under gag order by an activist judge and Kilmar Abrego Garcia is making TikToks," McLaughlin said. "American justice ceases to function when its arbiters silence law enforcement and give megaphones to those who oppose our legal system.” On December 11, Judge Paula Xinis, who was nominated by former President Barack Obama, ordered Abrego Garcia be released from the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The Daily Caller [12/28/2025 11:51 AM, Jason Hopkins, 835K] reports Abrego Garcia, also accused of being an MS-13 gang member and a repeat wife beater, has been battling the Trump administration in the courtroom since his deportation to El Salvador in March and subsequent return to the U.S. Federal prosecutors continue to seek his permanent removal from the country. The Salvadoran national’s lawyers in August demanded that the Trump administration stop publicly calling him an MS-13 gangbanger, serial wife beater, human trafficker or other monikers associated with the accusations against him. U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw — appointed to the bench in Tennessee by President Barack Obama — ordered federal prosecutors in October to warn Department of Justice and DHS employees against making any "prejudicial" statements about Abrego Garcia. U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis — also an Obama administration appointee — on Dec. 11 ordered Abrego Garcia’s "immediate release" from ICE custody, allowing him to go back to his Maryland home for the time being. Xinis later extended her temporary restraining order keeping the illegal migrant out of federal custody during the Christmas holiday season. Since his release from ICE custody, Abrego Garcia has made two TikTok videos, both of which are him mouthing along to Spanish-language songs, apparently in a suburban neighborhood. His most recent video, which has received nearly half-a-million views, shows him singing along to a song by Danny Berrios, an American singer popularly known for Spanish Christian music.

FOX News [12/28/2025 4:00 PM, Sarah Rumpf-Whitten, 40621K] reports violent crime declined nationwide in 2025, but a new survey shows several U.S. cities moving in the opposite direction, reporting increases in homicides, rapes, robberies or aggravated assaults even as the national trend improved. A survey from the Major Cities Chiefs Association (MCCA) covers violent crime reporting between January and September 2025 and the same period in 2024. The survey tracked four categories: homicide, rape or sexual assault, robbery and aggravated assault. The survey found that total violent crime nationwide decreased compared with the same period in 2024 across all four key categories: Homicide: 4,143 (2025) vs. 5,126 (2024), Rape: 20,407 vs. 21,728, Robbery: 66,501 vs. 81,860, Aggravated assault: 194,804 vs. 216,466. The association cautioned that the numbers are preliminary and based on voluntary reporting by participating law enforcement agencies.

Daily Caller [12/28/2025 12:55 PM, Harold Hutchison, 835K] reports Salem Radio Network host Scott Jennings told "This Week" guest host Jonathan Karl on Sunday that President Donald Trump’s efforts to address illegal immigration represented his "biggest" fulfillment of a campaign promise in 2025. Trump issued multiple executive orders to address illegal immigration Jan. 20, 2025, with some of the orders designating Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua (TdA), El Salvadoran prison gang MS-13, and Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, in addition to signing an executive order to prevent illegal immigrants from receiving social security services months later. Jennings noted just how many illegal immigrants departed the country since Trump took office. "I think on the immigration piece, it’s the biggest promise fulfilled," Jennings said after SCOTUSblog editor Sarah Isgur discussed the legal challenges to Trump’s efforts to enforce immigration laws. "We have had 2.5 million people deported. A significant number were self-deported, they used the government’s app or decided to leave the country altogether.” "When I talk to Republicans and Trump supporters around the country, they are more than thrilled with the aggressive nature of it," Jennings continued. "We haven’t passed any new immigration laws since Donald Trump became the president. We are just enforcing the laws we have, something the previous administration would not do. The left treated this as some big controversy. I don’t know what’s controversial about the president enforcing laws on the books.” The Trump administration touted in a Dec. 15 release that no illegal immigrants had been released into the United States for seven straight months, whereas the Biden administration previously released hundreds of thousands, according to figures released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The Department of Homeland Security announced in a Dec. 10 release that over 2.5 million illegal immigrants have left the United States, of which 1.9 million elected to self-deport via measures like the CBP Home app. "Illegal aliens are hearing our message to leave now," Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said in the release. "They know if they don’t, we will find them, we will arrest them, and they will never return.”

New York Post [12/28/2025 12:08 PM, John R. Lott Jr, 42219K] reports activists’ claims that illegal aliens commit crimes at lower rates than native-born Americans do may appear convincing, but new data from New York state shows that those here illegally commit crimes at a rate more than three times higher than that of legal residents. And it’s costing us billions. It’s true that if you lump all immigrants together, relatively few of them are accused and convicted of crimes committed here in the United States. Legal immigrants commit crimes at very low rates, so combining their crime data with that of illegal immigrants masks the latter’s higher criminal activity. Now, fresh data from the Department of Homeland Security offers a fresh look at this question. As The Post has reported, the department claims that 7,113 of those currently incarcerated in New York state prisons and jails are illegal immigrants. They’ve been convicted of committing 148 homicides, 717 assaults, 134 burglaries, 106 robberies, 235 dangerous drugs offenses, 152 weapons offenses, and 260 sexual predatory offenses, among other crimes. What’s more, New York’s failure to honor US Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainers has resulted in the release of 6,947 criminal illegal aliens since January.

New York Post [12/28/2025 9:50 PM, Sarah Rumpf-Whitten, 42219K] reports violent crime declined nationwide in 2025, but a new survey shows several US cities moving in the opposite direction, reporting increases in homicides, rapes, robberies or aggravated assaults even as the national trend improved. A survey from the Major Cities Chiefs Association (MCCA) covers violent crime reporting between January and September 2025 and the same period in 2024. The survey tracked four categories: homicide, rape or sexual assault, robbery and aggravated assault. The survey found that total violent crime nationwide decreased compared with the same period in 2024 across all four key categories: The association cautioned that the numbers are preliminary and based on voluntary reporting by participating law enforcement agencies. Here’s a list of cities and metropolitan areas where violent crime rose locally despite a nationwide decline. Omaha reported increases in all four violent crime categories; homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault, according to MCCA data. Atlanta saw year-over-year increases in rape, robbery and aggravated assault, bucking national declines across those categories. Columbus reported increases in robbery and aggravated assault, even as both crimes fell nationally. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department reported increases in rape and aggravated assault from 2024 into 2025, according to preliminary data from the MCCA survey. Tampa recorded increases in rape and robbery, two categories that declined nationwide during the same period. The suburban county east of New York City reported increases in homicide and robbery. Wichita saw year-over-year increases in homicide and rape, reversing the national trend in both categories. Pittsburgh reported increases in rape and aggravated assault, while other violent crime categories declined. Denver recorded an increase in rape, according to the MCCA. Philadelphia saw a rise in rape, even as national violent crime totals continued to decline. Violent crime is trending downward in major US cities as President Donald Trump continues to focus federal attention on combating violent crime. The administration has launched crime operations in cities across America, including Washington, DC, where he first deployed the National Guard to assist local police earlier this year.

Univision [12/28/2025 4:15 PM, Staff, 5004K] reports two helicopters crashed in New Jersey in what federal authorities said was a mid-air collision that killed one person and seriously injured another. Hammonton Police Chief Kevin Friel said rescuers responded to a report of an aviation crash around 11:25 a.m. Sunday, and police and fire crews later extinguished flames engulfing one of the helicopters. The Federal Aviation Administration described the accident as a mid-air collision between an Enstrom F-28A helicopter and an Enstrom 280C helicopter over Hammonton Municipal Airport. Only the pilots were aboard each aircraft. One person died and another was taken to a nearby hospital with serious injuries. Video footage from the scene showed a helicopter rapidly crashing to the ground. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

New York Times [12/28/2025 11:05 AM, Lydia DePillis and Campbell Robertson, 135475K] reports across the United States, someone is missing. One year into President Trump’s immigration crackdown, construction firms in Louisiana are scrambling to find carpenters. Hospitals in West Virginia have lost out on doctors and nurses who were planning to come from overseas. A neighborhood soccer league in Memphis cannot field enough teams because immigrant children have stopped showing up. America is closing its doors to the world, sealing the border, squeezing the legal avenues to entry and sending new arrivals and longtime residents to the exits. Visa fees have been jacked up, refugee admissions are almost zero and international student admissions have dropped. The rollback of temporary legal statuses granted under the Biden administration has rendered hundreds of thousands more people newly vulnerable to removal at any time. The administration says it has already expelled more than 600,000 people. Shrinking the foreign-born population won’t happen overnight. Oxford Economics estimates that net immigration is running at about 450,000 people a year under current policies. That is well below the two million to three million a year who came in under the Biden administration. The share of the country’s population that is foreign born hit 14.8 percent in 2024, a high not seen since 1890. But White House officials have made clear they are aiming for something closer to the immigration shutdown of the 1920s, when Congress, at the crest of a decades-long surge in nativism, barred entry of people from half of the world and brought net immigration down to zero. The share of the foreign-born population bottomed out at 4.7 percent in 1970. Stephen Miller, a top adviser to Mr. Trump, has extolled those decades of low immigration as the last time the United States was “an undisputed global superpower.” Whether or not restrictions will restore some of what Mr. Miller views as a midcentury idyll, there’s little doubt that major changes are in store. Immigration has woven itself so tightly through the country’s fabric — in classrooms and hospital wards, city parks and concert halls, corporate boardrooms and factory floors — that walling off the country now will profoundly alter daily life for millions of Americans.

Univision [12/28/2025 6:02 PM, Staff, 5004K] reports Camila Mendoza Olmos, 19, left her home on the morning of December 24 in northeast San Antonio, but never returned. From that date onwards, her family, friends and authorities embarked on a frantic search to find the whereabouts of the young Mexican-American woman. According to a report from the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office, Mendoza was last seen in the 11000 block of Caspian Spring leaving early in the morning from the home where she lived with her family. The report indicates that a video shows a person believed to be Mendoza looking for an object inside his car. “It is believed that he left the residence on foot, as his vehicle remained at the scene,” the report states. “The only items he is known to have had with him are his car key and possibly his driver’s license.” Speaking to ABC News on Sunday, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said the search for Mendoza continues with the support of local, state, and federal agencies. The official said the young woman had recently gone through a breakup, but that this is not believed to be the reason for her disappearance. He also confirmed that she is not in ICE custody, unlike other U.S. citizens detained because of their Hispanic appearance. However, although he declined to reveal further details about the lines of investigation, there is sufficient information to suggest that the young woman is in "imminent danger". "We definitely don’t want to overlook anything," Salazar stated. "The ground search is limited to a couple of square miles. We also haven’t ruled out the possibility that this case could take us beyond the continental United States." The search has, in fact, already crossed the border. The Attorney General’s Office of the state of Nuevo León issued a missing person alert with information about Mendoza Olmos, requesting any information that could help locate him. The sheriff in Texas said the lines of investigation include several hypotheses, including the possibility that he ran away of his own free will, kidnapping, or human trafficking. At the time of her disappearance, the young woman was wearing a light blue and black sweatshirt, light blue pajama pants, and white shoes. “Camila’s mother stated that Camila normally goes for a walk in the morning; however, she became concerned when Camila did not return within a reasonable time,” the report issued by the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office said. Mendoza Olmos’ mother, Rosario Olmos, told Univision 41 that the family is desperate to find the young woman. “Please give her back to us, or if my daughter is watching, please bring her back, that’s what we’re asking for,” she declared. Olmos said that the family members are baffled by the young woman’s disappearance. Destiny Mendoza, the young woman’s cousin, said the family is puzzled about how she left and didn’t return. “She’s a kind, polite girl. Please, come back, she has a family that loves her, she has a life to live,” he told Univision 41. The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office has activated the hotline 210-335-6000 for citizens to report information that could contribute to the search and also said that the Missing Persons Unit can be contacted at missingpersons@bexar.org. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

New York Post [12/28/2025 11:07 AM, Jonathan Wolfson, 42219K] reports this holiday season, nearly 18 million Americans are counting on the Transportation Security Administration to keep them safe during their flights. But what many don’t realize is that a large chunk of TSA can be distracted by union duties, which can waste time and taxpayer money instead of ensuring security. Good news: The Trump administration is about to change that. Starting in January, TSA’s 47,000-plus officers will be free of the Joe Biden-created collective bargaining that’s seriously distracting the agency from its vital mission. This month, the Department of Homeland Security announced that it’s returning to the agency’s original employment model and rescinding TSA’s collective-bargaining agreement. Secretary Kristi Noem made this move because, as she wrote in a September memo, collective bargaining is "not compatible with ensuring that the Agency maintains the maximum agility required to secure the traveling public from constantly evolving threats.” Contract negotiations cost hundreds of thousands of dollars every few years. In 2019, the TSA spent nearly $400,000 on negotiators for both sides. Under the agreement, Americans pay for TSA employees to work for the union, work that isn’t necessarily about protecting the American people from threats in the skies. In 2024, the agency spent more than $7.2 million on workers who focused solely on union-related matters — a labor handout known as "official time.” And since 2012, the union has filed 1,200 arbitration cases, costing taxpayers more than $850,000 in legal fees and other services alone. Some arbitrations have lasted more than a year and involved nationwide matters. The most recent took 19 months, nearly 7,000 attorney hours and nearly a month of senior management’s combined time. The secretary’s letter relates serious concerns of TSA leaders, including from career security directors who reported spending less time on security and management because they had to deal with arbitration matters. The Department of Homeland Security even found that, after last year’s TSA collective bargaining agreement went into effect, unscheduled absences by officers jumped by nearly a quarter.

FOX News [12/29/2025 5:00 AM, Amy Swearer and Hans A. von Spakovsky, 40621K] Video: HERE reports despite what some legal scholars are claiming, the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment does not extend citizenship to children born in the United States whose parents are illegal aliens, or for that matter, lawful aliens such as tourists or foreign diplomats. That includes our good friend, Professor John Yoo. On Dec. 10, he published an op-ed insisting that arguments for a more limited interpretation of the citizenship clause must "disregard the plain text of the Constitution, the weight of the historical evidence from the time of the 14th Amendment’s ratification and more than 140 years of unbroken government practice and judicial interpretation." Supporters of birthright citizenship ignore the contrary evidence that shows their interpretation is wrong. The language in the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment says "all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof" are citizens. Yet Yoo and others claim anyone born in the U.S. is a citizen, no matter the legal status of their parents. They dismiss any contrary position as a modern reinvention promulgated by a few outlier academics at the Claremont Institute. But there are many other scholars who have added their voices to a growing body of scholarship that runs counter to that preferred interpretation. In recent years we, as well as other respected legal scholars like Professors Kurt Lash, Ilan Wurman, Randy Barnett, and Samuel Estreicher, have produced substantive research that significantly undermines the birthright citizen claim. Supporters cite the 18th-century English jurist William Blackstone regarding the common-law rule on citizenship. But they omit any mention of prominent American jurist Joseph Story, who wrote in his 1834 legal treatise that one "reasonable qualification" on the common law rule would be to exclude the U.S.-born children of aliens who are only temporarily present in the country. Also, glaringly absent from most analyses is the Civil Rights Act of 1866 in which Congress first defined the limits on birthright citizenship and which served as the basis for the 14th Amendment. That statute made citizens only of persons born in the United States and "not subject to any foreign power." Sen. Lyman Trumbull — a principal author of the act’s citizenship clause and a sponsor of the 14th Amendment — explained that Congress intentionally crafted this language to exclude the U.S.-born children of parents who owed the nation only a qualified and temporary allegiance under the common law rule. That applies to all children born of alien parents who owe their primary and permanent political allegiance to their native land, not the U.S. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [12/28/2025 5:32 PM, Sophia Compton, 40621K] reports the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced Saturday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested some of the "worst of the worst" criminal illegal immigrants on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. While many Americans spent the holidays with their loved ones, ICE agents put "their lives on the line" to track down and arrest "gang members, murderers, drug traffickers, and violent thugs," according to DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin. "While families across the country joined together for Christmas celebrations, ICE continued delivering the American people the greatest gift of all: getting criminals out of our neighborhoods and protecting our families," McLaughlin said in a statement. The arrests included illegal immigrants from Mexico, Cuba, Somalia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Sudan, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela. All had past criminal convictions. "We are thankful for our law enforcement who sacrifice time with their family and put their lives on the line to remove the worst of the worst," McLaughlin added. DHS recently announced that more than 2.5 million illegal immigrants have left the U.S. since President Donald Trump returned to office this year, citing a sweeping immigration crackdown it says has led to the "most secure border in American history."

FOX News [12/28/2025 12:00 PM, Peter Pinedo Fox, 40621K] reports in President Donald Trump’s first year back in office, over 2.5 million illegal aliens have left the country, due in large part to the administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration and extensive deportation program. In its deportation push, the Department of Homeland Security has prioritized targeting violent criminal illegals. DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin has accused the media of "whitewashing" facts about the arrests of illegal immigrants with violent criminal histories and portraying them as victims. "As the media whitewashes the facts, day in and day out, our brave men and women of ICE risk their lives for the American people," McLaughlin said. From a "habitual" child predator to a beheading incident to another who strangled a taxicab driver to death, here are ten of the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens arrested with violent charges this year. Mohamed Sabry Soliman – Colorado Molotov cocktail terror attack. On June 1, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, an Egyptian national living in the U.S. on an expired visa, was arrested on federal charges of first-degree murder, first-degree assault and a hate crime after allegedly setting fire to people at a pro-Israel event in Boulder. Emiliano Garduno-Galvez – Fiery LA anti-law enforcement attack. Just days later, Emiliano Garduno-Galvez was arrested for attempted murder after he allegedly threw a Molotov cocktail at law enforcement during anti-ICE riots in Los Angeles. Gabriel Hurtado-Cariaco – Nebraska Tren de Aragua terrorist. On June 20, DHS announced that ICE arrested Gabriel Hurtado-Cariaco, a Venezuelan illegal immigrant and member of the infamous Tren de Aragua gang, which was designated a "foreign terrorist organization" by the Trump administration. Harjinder Singh – Florida illegal commercial driver crash. Also facing deportation is Indian illegal alien Harjinder Singh, who was arrested on August 12 after a Florida Turnpike crash in which investigators allege he made an unlawful U-turn with a semitruck, causing a wreck that killed three people. William Alexander Telles Amaya – Houston ‘habitual’ child predator. On Aug. 18, ICE arrested William Alexander Telles Amaya, a 35-year-old criminal alien from El Salvador, whom the agency described as a "habitual child predator.” Yordanis Cobos-Martinez – Dallas beheading suspect. In another major Texas city, Dallas, ICE arrested Cuban illegal Yordanis Cobos-Martinez on Sept. 10. According to the agency, Cobos-Martinez has a long criminal history, including child sex abuse, grand theft of a motor vehicle, false imprisonment and carjacking. Eduardo Aguilar – $10,000 TikTok bounties for dead ICE agents. DHS announced the Oct. 14 arrest of Eduardo Aguilar, a 23-year-old Mexican illegal alien residing in Dallas, after he called for the murder of ICE agents in a Spanish video posted on TikTok. Sergio Noe de Nova Duarte – Hammer-wielding kidnapping attack. Esteban Silva-Garcia – Pennsylvania strangulation and child endangering. Santos Paulino Vasquez-Ramirez – New York taxicab driver strangled to death.

NewsMax [12/28/2025 2:42 PM, Staff, 4109K] reports Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been forced to change tactics, shifting away from local jails and into neighborhoods and worksites as sanctuary policies shield illegal aliens from transfer to federal custody. It’s a change that has driven a surge in at-large arrests, The Washington Post reported Sunday. The Post reported that ICE logged roughly 17,500 at-large arrests in September and was on pace to exceed that figure in October, based on data updated through midmonth. Those totals far surpass any month in records dating to October 2011. By comparison, the previous high came in January 2023, when the Biden administration recorded about 11,500 such arrests. According to the Post’s analysis, ICE is making more than four times as many at-large arrests per week as it did during President Donald Trump’s first term. The change reflects a broader Department of Homeland Security push to increase deportations as the administration targets large-scale enforcement goals. The strategy began to take shape in June, when ICE launched a major enforcement operation in Los Angeles. Over the following five months, at-large arrests nationwide totaled about 67,800 — more than double the total from the previous five months, the Post reported. DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said 70% of those arrested by ICE have criminal convictions or pending charges in the U.S., with some also having records in their home countries. "This story only reveals how the media manipulates data to peddle a false narrative," McLaughlin told the Post, saying ICE continues to prioritize "the worst of the worst.”

San Diego Union Tribune [12/28/2025 9:43 AM, Michael Smolens, 1538K] reports the Trump administration is ratcheting up its deportation efforts with the hiring of human-tracking firms — a move critics call a “bounty hunter” program that is sure to increase the controversy surrounding immigration enforcement tactics. The federal government, offering up to $280 million, has recently signed at least two contracts with private surveillance firms to hunt down immigrants at their homes and places of work, according to various reports. One of the companies, BI Incorporated, is a subsidiary of GEO Group, a for-profit prison company that currently does business with the government jailing detained immigrants, according to The Intercept. Trump administration proposals to use private tracking and investigative services have been circulating for months. Lawmakers in two states, Missouri and Mississippi, introduced legislation to create their own bounty hunter programs, but those bills stalled. The new federal contracts broaden the administration’s use of the private sector in immigration enforcement. For instance, BI Incorporated has had past government contracts in immigrant surveillance with ankle monitor-based tracking. The new contracts, one of which goes to a company called AI Solutions 87, mostly seek software and artificial intelligence investigative services, but the door is open for on-the-ground tracking. However, reporting by The Intercept and 404 Media suggests once the immigrant targets are pinpointed, federal agents would move in to detain and arrest them. In requesting bids, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it was looking for private “Skip Tracing and Process Serving Services using Government furnished case data with identifiable information, commercial data verification and physical observation services . . .” In general, skip tracing is the process of tracking down people who are missing, unresponsive, or hard to find, according to Bosco Legal Services. Often, the practice is used to find individuals who have unpaid debts or failed to meet other obligations and may have “skipped” town. ICE considered “performance-based incentives” for the contractors, but the final proposal for request apparently did not include bonus language or specific per-head bounties, according to Snopes, nor did it include the term “bounty hunter.” But the contracts call for hunting down people for money. “Under ICE’s proposed system, vendors would be given 10,000 noncitizens to identify, verify, and/or serve with documents, with a potential to receive ‘further increments of 10,000 aliens,’” according to the Immigration Policy Tracking Project.

Daily Wire [12/28/2025 8:00 AM, Kassy Akiva, 2494K] reports the Daily Wire joined U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Acting Director Todd Lyons and his agents in Greater Boston as they hunted down criminal illegal aliens. The operation comes as President Donald Trump marks his first 100 days in office, and Border Czar Tom Homan vows to "go to Boston and bring hell with me" in an effort to arrest illegal aliens who have sexually assaulted children. "We did more arrests in these 100 days than the previous administration did last year," Lyons told The Daily Wire in his first interview. Lyons became the acting director of ICE in March after five years as Boston Field Office Director. He said morale is at an all-time high following the Trump administration giving the support needed to remove illegal aliens. ICE is focused on deporting the "worst of the worst" that the Biden administration ignored, like violent criminal illegal aliens or those who have been deported before. "It’s the worst crime in the world when you sexually assault a child," Homan said in a White House press briefing on Monday. "That’s why I made a statement that one time I was going to go to Boston and bring hell with me.” During the ride-along on Friday, ICE arrested 55-year-old Miguel Angel Chavez, who was convicted on two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 and deported in 2013. Chavez, a citizen of El Salvador, illegally re-entered the United States at an unknown place and time following his first deportation. The second arrestee during the mission was 69-year-old Jose Lazaro Ayala, who illegally entered the country undetected and was convicted in September of leaving the scene of an accident involving an injured person or death. Ayala is pending removal to El Salvador, according to ICE. "These aren’t the people you want in your neighborhood," Lyons said. "These arrests right here show what we’ve done these first 100 days and what Secretary Noem and President Trump have been really pushing for: that ICE gets the worst of the worst.” The Daily Wire witnessed firsthand the challenges ICE is facing in sanctuary jurisdictions during the ride-along. According to Lyons, migrants are attracted to places like Massachusetts because of its generous social service benefits. Numerous sanctuary cities make deportations more difficult by often refusing to cooperate with ICE. "One of the big difficulties operating in our sanctuary jurisdiction is that these are actual public safety threats," he said. "A jail, a police department, a sheriff’s department, and state police have deemed these individuals a public safety threat and locked them up. Yet instead of working with the federal government, they decide to release them back on the street.” Lyons said that in sanctuary jurisdictions, agents have to work harder to surveil targets and gather information about them to plan arrests.

Telemundo [12/28/2025 8:54 PM, Staff, 182K] reports a Cuban mother turned to Telemundo 51 for help after her husband was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, leaving her in charge of three minor children and without the sole breadwinner in the household. The detainee was identified as Yoendris Leyva Lambert, who, according to court documents consulted by Telemundo 51, had only a few traffic violations and was not facing any major criminal charges. However, his political asylum case had previously been denied by an immigration judge, and Leyva is now in immigration custody in El Paso, Texas. According to the detainee himself, he would not be deported to Cuba because the Cuban government does not accept his return, and the alternative that has been proposed to him would be possible deportation to Mexico. To corroborate this information, we contacted ICE, but they have not yet responded to our requests. "My life here in the United States is over. We depend on him completely," said his wife, Ana Maris Leyva, in tears, who says she feels lost after her husband’s arrest. From the detention center, Yoendris managed to contact his family and explained that he was transferred to Texas after refusing to sign a final deportation order. His arrest occurred on December 2, during a routine immigration appointment in the state of Georgia. The Cuban arrived in the United States in 2017 after setting sail in a rustic boat. However, his arrival coincided with the elimination of the wet foot, dry foot policy, a decision made days earlier by then-President Barack Obama, which sealed the fate of his immigration process. According to his wife, during the journey he lost key documents that would have allowed him to prove political persecution in Cuba, which influenced the court decision that culminated in a final deportation order under classification I-220B. Ana Maris claims that, due to his illegal departures from the country, her husband was constantly monitored and harassed by the Cuban regime. Today, with Cuba refusing to accept his return, his detention has left the family in a critical situation. The woman cares for her three children alone, including five-year-old Angelina, who suffers from cerebral palsy. "She doesn’t speak, she doesn’t hear, she doesn’t sit up, she can’t hold her head up," explains the mother, who says that this condition prevents her from working and earning an income. The urgency increases with the possibility of losing her home. "I’m packing up all my things, everything is in boxes. If he is deported, I won’t have any income, I won’t have anything," she says desperately. Ana Maris, who is a permanent resident, says she filed a family petition on behalf of her husband in 2022. Faced with this emergency, she created a fundraising campaign on GoFundMe to be able to support her children.

Univision [12/28/2025 6:02 PM, Staff, 5004K] reports Camila Mendoza Olmos, 19, left her home on the morning of December 24 in northeast San Antonio, but never returned. From that date onwards, her family, friends and authorities embarked on a frantic search to find the whereabouts of the young Mexican-American woman. According to a report from the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office, Mendoza was last seen in the 11000 block of Caspian Spring leaving early in the morning from the home where she lived with her family. The report indicates that a video shows a person believed to be Mendoza looking for an object inside his car. “It is believed that he left the residence on foot, as his vehicle remained at the scene,” the report states. “The only items he is known to have had with him are his car key and possibly his driver’s license.” Speaking to ABC News on Sunday, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said the search for Mendoza continues with the support of local, state, and federal agencies. The official said the young woman had recently gone through a breakup, but that this is not believed to be the reason for her disappearance. He also confirmed that she is not in ICE custody, unlike other U.S. citizens detained because of their Hispanic appearance. However, although he declined to reveal further details about the lines of investigation, there is sufficient information to suggest that the young woman is in "imminent danger". "We definitely don’t want to overlook anything," Salazar stated. "The ground search is limited to a couple of square miles. We also haven’t ruled out the possibility that this case could take us beyond the continental United States." The search has, in fact, already crossed the border. The Attorney General’s Office of the state of Nuevo León issued a missing person alert with information about Mendoza Olmos, requesting any information that could help locate him. The sheriff in Texas said the lines of investigation include several hypotheses, including the possibility that he ran away of his own free will, kidnapping, or human trafficking. At the time of her disappearance, the young woman was wearing a light blue and black sweatshirt, light blue pajama pants, and white shoes. “Camila’s mother stated that Camila normally goes for a walk in the morning; however, she became concerned when Camila did not return within a reasonable time,” the report issued by the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office said. Mendoza Olmos’ mother, Rosario Olmos, told Univision 41 that the family is desperate to find the young woman. “Please give her back to us, or if my daughter is watching, please bring her back, that’s what we’re asking for,” she declared. Olmos said that the family members are baffled by the young woman’s disappearance. Destiny Mendoza, the young woman’s cousin, said the family is puzzled about how she left and didn’t return. “She’s a kind, polite girl. Please, come back, she has a family that loves her, she has a life to live,” he told Univision 41. The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office has activated the hotline 210-335-6000 for citizens to report information that could contribute to the search and also said that the Missing Persons Unit can be contacted at missingpersons@bexar.org. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Los Angeles Times [12/28/2025 9:39 PM, Brittny Mejia, 14862K] reports that, days ahead of trial, a federal judge has dismissed an indictment against a TikTok streamer shot by ICE earlier this year, citing constitutional violations by the government. In a Saturday order, U.S. District Judge Fernando M. Olguin cited the deprivation of Carlitos Ricardo Parias’ access to counsel while held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention and the government’s failure to comply with discovery deadlines — including the timely release of body worn camera footage that captured the shooting. Federal authorities had accused Parias, a well-known TikTok streamer of local breaking news, of ramming his car into agents’ vehicles after they boxed him in and tried to arrest him during an immigration enforcement operation in South L.A. in October. An ICE officer opened fire, striking Parias in the arm and injuring a deputy U.S. marshal with a ricochet bullet. That same day, prosecutors charged Parias with assault on a federal officer. In November, he was indicted by a grand jury. Parias was scheduled to go to trial on Tuesday. Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, previously told the Times that Parias had "weaponized his vehicle" and said "fearing for the safety of the public and law enforcement, our officers followed their training and fired defensive shots." But newly obtained body worn camera footage raises questions about that claim. The video captures an ICE officer holding a gun in one hand and using the other to break open the window of Parias’ car. As the officer shouts at Parias to turn off the car, Parias raises his hands in the air and asks why he is being detained. The officer repeatedly tries to open the passenger side door, before moving the gun to his left hand, right before firing. At the time, Parias’ car did not appear to be moving. "Who shot?" someone asked. "I shot, I shot," the officer responded. In his 28-page order, Olguin dismissed the indictment with prejudice, meaning prosecutors cannot refile the same charges of assault on a federal officer using a deadly or dangerous weapon and depredation of government property. "In short, because the deprivation of Mr. Parias’s access to counsel during the critical period prior to his trial caused him actual and threatened prejudice, and because no other remedy could adequately cure his deprivation, the court agrees with defendant that dismissal of the indictment is warranted," Olguin wrote. A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles, the Department of Homeland Security and ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Federal Public Defender Cuauhtemoc Ortega and Deputy Federal Public Defender Gabriela Rivera, who represented Parias, said in a statement that they were "pleased that the court dismissed the charges against their client.” "While we remain quite confident that a jury would readily acquit Mr. Parias, the government prejudiced his right to a fair and speedy trial by denying him meaningful access to his defense team and failing to timely disclose the evidence they claimed supported the charges," they said in the statement. "We are grateful that Mr. Parias’s constitutional rights were vindicated.”

FOX News [12/28/2025 11:02 AM, Staff, 40621K] Video: HERE reports Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks breaks down the sharp decline in illegal crossings, pointing to stricter enforcement and a shift in policy under President Donald Trump.

NewsMax [12/28/2025 7:58 AM, Staff, 4109K] reports Arizona ranchers along the southern border say a dramatic drop in illegal crossings since President Donald Trump returned to office has brought long-awaited relief after years of cartel activity and drug trafficking, The Telegraph reported Sunday. For Sue and Jim Chilton, fifth-generation cattle ranchers operating on 50,000 acres near the Arizona-Mexico border, the change has been profound. Just last year, Sue Chilton, then 83, was home alone when four migrants bearing gang-style tattoos showed up at her door. Recognizing the markings, she refused to let them inside, instead preparing food for them to eat outdoors, she told The Telegraph. Her husband later joked that she had "hosted MS-13 for lunch.” Their ranch, located in the Tucson sector, had become a favored corridor for smugglers exploiting rugged terrain and gaps in the border wall. At the height of the crisis in early 2024, the sector became the busiest crossing point in the country, with more than 250,000 apprehensions in just four months. At times, hundreds of migrants crossed the Chiltons’ property in a single day.

Washington Examiner [12/28/2025 2:45 PM, Staff, 1394K] reports in President Donald Trump’s first year in office, illegal border crossings in Arizona plummeted to record lows. They represent roughly a 92% drop from illegal entries and a record number of gotaways reported in Arizona during the Biden administration. Under the Trump administration, illegal entries in Arizona this year were 66% less than the total number of gotaways that Border Patrol agents reported in Arizona during the Biden years, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data and gotaway data exclusively obtained by The Center Square. In fiscal 2025, 65,813 illegal border crossers were apprehended in Arizona, excluding gotaways, according to CBP data. The fiscal year goes from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30. By comparison, more than 775,000 illegal border crossers were reported in fiscal 2023, including nearly 577,000 reported by CBP and nearly 200,000 gotaways that Border Patrol agents reported and exclusively obtained by The Center Square at the time. Fiscal 2025 apprehensions represent a fraction of those apprehended in previous years, including 564,215 in fiscal 2024, 576,901 in fiscal 2023 and 571,720 in fiscal 2022, according to CBP data. These totals exclude gotaways, the official CBP term for those who illegally enter between ports of entry to evade capture, don’t file immigration claims and don’t return to Mexico. CBP doesn’t publicly report this data. The Center Square obtained gotaway data from Border Patrol agents, reporting it each month. At least two million gotaways were reported during the Biden administration nationwide, The Center Square exclusively reported. Many gotaways are known to have criminal records. Some are on the terrorist watchlist and many have previously been deported, law enforcement officers told The Center Square. Arizona and Texas CBP sectors were among the hardest hit during the Biden administration, each reporting unprecedented numbers. Arizona’s 378 miles of shared border with Mexico are divided into two CBP sectors: Tucson and Yuma. Tucson Sector’s 262-border miles extend from the Yuma County line to the Arizona-New Mexico state line. Yuma Sector’s nearly 182,000 square miles of primarily desert terrain extends from Imperial Sand Dunes in California to the Yuma-Pima County line.

FOX News [12/28/2025 11:32 AM, Staff, 40621K] Video: HERE reports San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond discusses border numbers reaching historic new lows under the Trump administration.

NPR [12/28/2025 3:28 PM, Kristin Wright, 28013K] reports an intense cyclone system is fueling a mix of severe weather, including a winter storm that will impact upper parts of the United States. Heavy snow, blizzards, extreme cold and damaging winds are likely to create hazardous conditions stretching from Montana east to Maine, and Texas north to Pennsylvania, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). More than eight million people were under winter storm warnings from the NWS on Sunday afternoon. Nearly two million people were under blizzard warnings. Meteorologists warn that after winter weather Friday and Saturday, an arctic front clashing with warm air could rapidly intensify into a ‘bomb cyclone’ over the Midwest and Great Lakes through Monday. A ‘bomb cyclone’ or bombogenesis is a rapidly deepening area of low pressure that creates harsh weather conditions. "We are anticipating some pretty big snows over the next 24 hours, especially across east central Minnesota to northern Wisconsin to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. A lot of those places will have 6-12 inches," NWS Lead Forecaster Bob Oravec told NPR on Sunday. Blizzard conditions will cause near zero visibility and possible power outages Sunday night though Monday evening in some locations in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, according to the NWS Marquette. A foot of snow or more is possible in areas along Lake Superior with 40 to 65 mile per hour winds, according to forecasts.

CNN [12/29/2025 2:00 AM, Briana Waxman, 18595K] reports a powerful, rapidly intensifying winter storm sweeping across the central and eastern US is bringing a messy mix of blizzard conditions, severe thunderstorms, tornadoes and a sharp reality check to winter-like cold, snarling travel during one of the busiest stretches of the holiday season. More than 30 million people are under winter weather alerts from the Midwest into the Northeast. In the Upper Midwest, blizzard warnings cover parts of Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin, where wind gusts of 40 to 60 mph are whipping heavy snow into whiteout conditions. Long stretches of Interstate 35 - a major highway stretching from Texas to Minnesota - have been closed or deemed unsafe to travel, and more than 125,000 customers were without power early Monday, more than half of them in Michigan, according to PowerOutage.US. Air travel has also taken a hit with thousands of flights delayed or canceled Sunday, including disruptions at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, where thunderstorms prompted a temporary ground stop. Parts of Michigan have received close to a foot of snow. Marquette, Michigan shattered its previous daily snowfall record of 8.5 inches, picking up 11.5 inches and counting as of late Sunday night. Farther south and east, the storm’s cold front sparked a line of severe thunderstorms Sunday afternoon and evening, with damaging winds and a few tornadoes reported in parts of Illinois. The storms developed along the sharp boundary separating unseasonably warm air from a frigid Arctic air mass moving in behind it. In Springfield, Illinois, temperatures dropped from the 70s into the 40s in just a couple of hours. Meanwhile, in St. Louis, Missouri, the high Sunday afternoon was 77 degrees. As the front passed through the city, the National Weather Service reported a 10 degree temperature drop in about 10 minutes. Eight hours later, St. Louis was experiencing snow and temperatures in the low 20s. The worst winter weather impacts across the Midwest continue overnight Sunday with dangerous travel lingering into early Monday. Officials urged people to avoid unnecessary travel, especially in areas under blizzard warnings where visibility may remain near zero at times. As the system pushes east Monday into Tuesday, the wintry side will shift north and east while much of the Ohio Valley and I-95 corridor will receive mainly rain. Parts of New England could deal with freezing rain late Sunday into Monday, raising the risk for icy roads and power outages. The National Weather Service warns that ice could build up at a rate of .06 inches per hour. Several spots in Michigan and northern New York have already reported ice accumulations of up to a half-inch. Behind the storm, a dramatic temperature swing arrives quickly. Much of the central and southern US will go from 20 to 30 degrees above average this weekend to 10 to 15 degrees below average by Monday and Tuesday, marking a return to colder, more seasonable conditions after the recent stretch of springlike warmth. Dangerous wind chills, as low as minus 30 degrees, across parts of North Dakota and Minnesota early Monday will make frostbite a real threat.

Univision [12/28/2025 11:58 AM, Staff, 5004K] reports the body of a man was recovered Friday from a partially submerged vehicle in a flooded area of Lancaster , north of Los Angeles County, following recent storms that caused severe flooding in Southern California . The discovery occurred around 9:45 a.m., when a Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) helicopter spotted a car trapped in a flooded area near East 58th Street and H-10 Avenue, while conducting an assessment overflight following the floods. According to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD), emergency crews responded to the scene after family members reported finding a relative’s vehicle, which had been reported missing, in rough, difficult-to-access terrain. The identity of the deceased has not yet been released, and the cause of death remains under investigation . The Sheriff’s Department indicated that the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner will determine the circumstances of the death and its connection to the recent storms.

CBS Los Angeles [12/28/2025 9:03 PM, Zach Boetto, Dean Fioresi, 39474K] reports a San Bernardino County resident is recounting the intense moments that he watched his neighbor get rescued from their home by helicopter when it was overcome with flooding waters during the recent winter storm. It happened on Christmas Eve, when severe flooding rushed through Phelan. Neighbors watched as the rescue efforts got underway. "I go, ‘Oh, my God, this is... they’re going to pull these people off the roof,’" said Robert Ralph, who recorded the rescue. His cell phone video shows a San Bernardino County Fire Protection District helicopter lowering onto the roof of their next door neighbor’s home after they got stranded on their roof by the flood. "This was a river," Ralph recalled. "It was rapids on both sides of this home and the fire crew was over there. ... They just coulnd’t get to him, except by a chopper.” Ralph’s wife, Ramona, said that the water was coming through so quickly, crews had nowhere to go but up. They say that the wash near the home crested due to the heavy downpour, which they said was the most intense rainstorm they’ve seen since moving to the area in 2021. Forecasters said that the uncharacteristic winter storm doused Southern California with several inches of rain. "Their house is trashed, it’s 100% unlivable," Ralph said. "It’s red-tagged. Ours is yellow-tagged.” Larissa Jackson’s father lives in the home that she says is now condemned. "I feel for my father even more, because the home that he’s known for over 20 years is no longer where he could call a home," Jackson said. "It’s sad, it’s heartbreaking.” She says that her father is still in the hospital recovering from injuries he sustained during the traumatic incident. A GoFundMe has been created to help them recover, which can be found by searching for the keywords: Support for Paul’s Flood Recovery.” As for the Ralphs and their neighbors in Phelan, they’re now getting ready to begin what they expect to be a long recovery process. "Could have very easily been us up on a roof or worse," Ralph said. "I’m just glad that Paul and everybody made it out okay. That’s all I really care about.”

Los Angeles Times [12/28/2025 9:00 PM, Staff, 14862K] reports a magnitude 4.7 earthquake shook Northern California on Sunday afternoon. The temblor was reported at 4:41 p.m. seven miles from Susanville in Lassen County, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The earthquake occurred 66 miles from Magalia, Calif., 68 miles from Reno, 69 miles from Paradise, Calif., and 73 miles from Chico, Calif. The earthquake was earlier reported as magnitude 5.0 by the USGS. Moderate shaking was reported near the quake’s epicenter, with light shaking reported as far east as Redding, north into Klamath Falls, Ore., and as far south as Sacramento. In the last 10 days, there has been one earthquake of magnitude 3.0 or greater centered nearby. An average of 25 earthquakes with magnitudes of 4.0 to 5.0 occur each year in California and Nevada, according to a recent three-year data sample. The earthquake occurred at a depth of 3.4 miles. Did you feel this earthquake? Consider reporting what you felt to the USGS.

Breitbart [12/28/2025 12:38 PM, Lucas Nolan, 2416K] reports Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has announced that a former customer service agent has been arrested in India in connection with a major security breach of the crypto trading platform that occurred in May. Bloomberg reports that Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has revealed that a former customer service agent for the US-based crypto exchange has been arrested in India. The arrest comes months after hackers successfully bribed Coinbase contractors or employees outside the United States to gain unauthorized access to sensitive customer information, a nightmare scenario for American companies that outsource operations to third world countries like India. The security breach, which took place in May, sent shockwaves through the crypto community as Coinbase, the largest US crypto exchange, found itself at the center of a major controversy. The hackers, after obtaining the stolen customer data, demanded a $20 million ransom from the company. At the time, Coinbase estimated that the incident could cost up to $400 million to remedy, highlighting the severity of the breach and its potential financial impact on the company. While the identity of the arrested former employee has not been disclosed, the development marks a significant step forward in the ongoing investigation into the security breach. The arrest is expected to shed light on the hackers’ modus operandi and potentially lead to further arrests and the recovery of stolen customer information.

Washington Times [12/28/2025 3:15 PM, Vaughn Cockayne and Ben Wolfgang, 852K] reports Rep. Mike Turner on Sunday defended the Trump administration’s Christmas strikes against Islamic State targets in Nigeria, arguing that they were consistent with U.S. foreign policy and are necessary to combat global extremism. In an interview with reporter Jonathan Karl on ABC’s “This Week,” Mr. Turner, Ohio Republican, said strikes like the ones carried out last week on targets in Nigeria would continue as long as ISIS and groups like them persist. “It’s been, you know, around the world, Iraq, Syria. You’re seeing it now in Nigeria,” said Mr. Turner, who also serves on the House Armed Services Committee. “We’re, of course, seeing that ISIS around the world has not been defeated but will continue to be a target and something that, with our allies, we’re going to have to continue to respond to, or they’re going to continue to be a threat.” U.S. forces struck numerous Islamic State targets in northwest Nigeria on Thursday in what Mr. Trump said was retaliation for the terror group’s years of attacks on Christian civilians. U.S. Africa Command said the attacks were carried out in coordination with the Nigerian government, which has struggled to contain ISIS and its various affiliates that are gaining strength in Nigeria. Mr. Turner’s comments are in line with other GOP lawmakers who took to social media to praise the White House for the Christmas strikes. Rep. Don Bacon, Nebraska Republican who serves on the House Armed Services Committee, said the move “saves innocent lives.” But Democrats like Michigan Rep. Debbie Dingell have questioned the legality of the attacks, insisting that only Congress has the authority to escalate conflict abroad. Democratic lawmakers are skeptical of the White House’s strategy in Nigeria and suggested the focus on Christians is unproductive and possibly dangerous.

FOX News [12/28/2025 8:20 AM, Staff, 40621K] reports former Trump attorney Jim Trusty joins ‘Fox & Friends Weekend’ to discuss the FBI’s decision to permanently close the J. Edgar Hoover building in Washington, D.C., and FBI director Kash Patel’s push for transparency. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Bloomberg [12/28/2025 2:20 PM, Staff, 18207K] Video: HERE reports President Donald Trump speaks on meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, discussing peace agreement involving the European Union.

NBC News [12/28/2025 2:03 PM, Staff, 34509K] reports President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke to reporters outside Mar-a-Lago before discussing a peace plan for the war between Russia and Ukraine. Trump said that he spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin before the talks and plans to speak with him after the talks.

Daily Wire [12/28/2025 12:33 PM, Virginia Kruta, 2494K] reports President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he believes Russia and Ukraine are "closer than ever" to reaching a peace deal that would finally bring about an end to the carnage and bloodshed of the last nearly four years of war. "In a few weeks, we will know one way or the other," Trump said in a Mar-a-Lago press conference alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, where he also revealed that he’d spoken at length to Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier in the day. "It’s been a very difficult negotiation." Trump went on to explain that Zelensky might need to take any deal upon which the leaders agreed to the parliament or to the people via a referendum — but, he added, "Everybody wants [the war] ended… I want it ended because I don’t want to see so many people dying.”

Washington Examiner [12/29/2025 4:00 AM, Naomi Lim, 1394K] reports President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are set to meet at a crucial moment for the ceasefire in Gaza, with Trump poised to push Netanyahu to prepare for Phase 2 of his 20-point peace plan despite lingering Israeli resistance. The two leaders will meet at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private club in Palm Beach, Florida, at a relative low point in their long-standing relationship as Israel seeks to pump the brakes on the plan’s rollout without further assurances. At the same time, Netanyahu has priorities of his own and wants the White House’s support for further military action against Iran. During a press briefing in Tel Aviv, Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel told the Washington Examiner that Netanyahu is expecting to discuss Phase Two of the peace deal with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, but underscored he wants to better “understand how Hamas is going to be disarmed because none of the peace forces want to enter into Gaza before Hamas is disarmed.” “Otherwise they’re going to collide,” Haskel said. “It needs to be a policy of the president and the prime minister of how the second stage is going to look like.”

FOX News [12/28/2025 9:25 PM, Emma Bussey, 40621K] reports Hamas is rebuilding a new Gaza terror apparatus and using the ceasefire with Israel to boost its military, restore a problematic leadership structure and recruit a new generation of teenage fighters, according to a leading national security analyst. Professor Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies and the Misgav Institute, told Fox News Digital that the pause in fighting has given Hamas breathing room to regroup. "Everything that is happening will continue happening as long as Hamas continues to effectively control the western part of the Gaza Strip," Michael said. "Generally speaking, Hamas now has full freedom of movement," he warned. Since Israeli forces withdrew from parts of Gaza in October under a new ceasefire framework, Hamas has moved to fill the power vacuum. At the time, police forces returned to the streets as Hamas fighters targeted and executed suspected opponents. Multiple reports indicate Hamas is now rebuilding across significant portions of Gaza, including areas where the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) previously operated. A December report by the Jewish News Syndicate found that Hamas is "actively rebuilding its regime of terror" in nearly half of the territory it controls. Hamas is also preparing to elect a new political leader following the deaths of Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel. According to The Jerusalem Post, senior Hamas figures Khalil al-Hayya and Khaled Mashaal are the contenders, with Hayya seen as the favorite because of his popularity in Gaza and his role in the West Bank. Michael said the leadership race is unlikely to alter Hamas’s already dangerous course. "Both leaders are problematic," he said. "Each one, in his own way, is considered to be more militant and more radical in his Gazan orientation and his support for armed resistance.” Even Mashaal, often described as more politically oriented, "is still in favor of the continuation of armed resistance," Michael added. "When it comes to Hamas, it doesn’t really matter who is going to be the next political leader of this terror organization.”

NewsMax [12/28/2025 7:02 PM, Staff, 4109K] reports Orit Strook, Israel’s settlements and national missions minister, sat down with Jewish News Syndicate at her Knesset office in Jerusalem and discussed the importance of ensuring the complete demilitarization of Gaza. "Regarding Gaza, we are seeing an effort by the Arab world — together with Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey — to sideline the plan’s central objective, which is the demilitarization of Gaza," she said. "This is the entry ticket to implementing the Trump peace plan. Suddenly, we are hearing that full demilitarization is not really necessary — that there could be partial demilitarization, in which only heavy weapons are seized while firearms remain, or that it could be done in stages, demilitarizing a bit and rehabilitating [the Strip] a bit. "We hear countries say they want to be part of the peace plan, but will not demilitarize Hamas. We hear Hamas itself say it will not demilitarize. This is what worries the government most today.” "There is no point in taking assault weapons and leaving them with firearms. It’s an organization that is not supposed to control Gaza at all — in any capacity, civilian or military. "That’s not me saying it; it’s Trump’s plan. There is no reason to leave them with toy weapons, let alone terror tunnels.” Strook noted that about 70% of Hamas’ terror tunnels remain usable. "The freed hostages who returned last October said that until the very last moment they were there, Hamas continued digging tunnels. They are digging tunnels now and producing weapons," she said. Strook stressed that no one is minimizing the importance of securing the return of the last remaining slain Israeli hostage held in Gaza, Ran Gvili, which she said could have been achieved earlier. "Hamas is dragging its feet in order to re-establish its rule, rearm, and build the conspiracy it is engaged in now — working jointly to bypass demilitarization. It’s a game aimed at achieving its strategic goal of canceling demilitarization," she said. Pivoting to Judea and Samaria, Strook indicated that all of the significant developments of recent years were initially approved under the Biden administration, including the return to northern Samaria, establishment of new towns and farms, the fight against the Fayyad plan [for the unilateral establishment of a Palestinian state], and the transfer of power from the Palestinian Authority in Areas A and B. "There should be a huge gap between Trump and Biden, but we don’t see it. We expected serious progress," she said.

New York Times [12/29/2025 12:48 AM, Chris Buckley and Amy Chang Chien, 135475K] reports China announced military exercises around Taiwan on Monday, mobilizing naval, air, ground and missile forces for what the People’s Liberation Army described as a “stern warning” to opponents of Beijing’s claims to the island. As part of the drills, Chinese authorities said that seven zones of ocean and air space around Taiwan would be sealed off for live-fire exercises to be held on Tuesday. The operation, called “Justice Mission 2025,” marked the first major military exercises around Taiwan since April by the People’s Liberation Army, or P.L.A. They appeared designed to display Beijing’s growing capabilities to encircle Taiwan. They also came after the administration of President Trump revealed a proposed package of arms sales to Taiwan earlier this month that would be worth more than $11 billion and include powerful high-mobility artillery rocket systems known as HIMARS. Senior Colonel Shi Yi, a spokesman for the Eastern Theater Command, the part of the Chinese military that is conducting the exercises, said it would simulate blockading ports and establishing Chinese dominance to the east of Taiwan — the direction from which any potential wartime support from the United States and its allies would likely come. Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said that it had deployed forces as a precaution in the heightened tensions. “These exclusion zones do seem to be a very realistic representation of where the P.L.A. would operate from to enforce a blockade of Taiwan,” said David Sacks, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who studies relations between the United States, China and Taiwan. Colonel Shi said the exercises were “a legitimate and necessary action to safeguard China’s sovereignty and national unity.” But Beijing gave no specific reason for holding the exercises now, and experts said several factors may have prompted China’s leader, Xi Jinping, to renew threats of an armed attack on Taiwan. “The timing of P.L.A. drills are increasingly disconnected from single political events,” said Amanda Hsiao, the director of China coverage at the Eurasia Group, a company that advises clients on global risks. “This drill may be as much intended for domestic audiences as much as Taiwan and U.S. ones.” China’s main state-run television broadcaster, CCTV, said the exercises, which began on Monday, included destroyers, fighter bombers and drones conducting “maritime and airborne search-and-destroy operations, simulated strikes on land and live-fire naval drills.” It also said Chinese forces were training to win air superiority and hunt submarines to the island’s east. Taiwan’s coast guard reported spotting four Chinese coast guard ships to the north and east of the island. China has often used its coast guard to assert territorial claims.

Reported similarly:
CNN [12/28/2025 8:57 PM, Simone McCarthy, Wayne Chang, Yong Xiong, Laura Sharman, 18595K]

CBS News [12/28/2025 10:18 AM, Anna Coren, 39474K] reports nestled deep in the mountains of South Korea, in a remote part of the country’s east, is one of the world’s largest deposits of a critical mineral. The Sangdong mine contains millions of tons of tungsten, known as a war metal that can withstand extraordinary temperatures, something the United States desperately needs for defense. Mining company Almonty Industries has reopened the mine after it was shut down more than 30 years ago when China priced almost every other tungsten producer out of business. "The U.S. is right to do this, there is no choice," Lewis Black, CEO of Almonty Industries, told CBS News. "The status quo cannot be returned to.” But China now dominates the rare earths and critical minerals industries that are necessary to power much of the technology that is used today. During the recent trade war, China threatened to use it as a stranglehold and cut off supply, which is why the U.S. is now desperately searching for alternative supplies. Tanks, fighter jets, armor-piercing ammunition, bunker-busting bombs and artificial intelligence missile guidance systems all need tungsten. Black guaranteed a supply on his visit last week to the White House. When asked by CBS News if he will be able to meet the U.S. government’s demand for tungsten, Black told CBS News, "For U.S. national security, yes.” This is not the first time tungsten has been used at the center of the war machine. During World War II, Allied countries fought to stop the flow of Spanish deposits to Nazi Germany.

{End of Report} RETURN TO TOP