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Dec. 31 (UPI) — Two African countries have announced travel bans against U.S. citizens in retaliation for President Donald Trump‘s travel bans against their own people.

The governments of Mali and Burkina Faso said on Tuesday that they were acting “in accordance with the principle of reciprocity.” They said Americans wanting to travel to their countries would see the same impositions that their citizens face in the United States. Niger’s state news agency announced a travel ban on Americans last week, though no official statement was released.

On Dec. 14, Trump announced travel bans on Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, South Sudan and Syria. He also created new restrictions on people seeking entry from Laos and Sierra Leone, as well as those with travel documents issued by the Palestinian Authority. There are now 19 countries on the list.

Mali’s foreign ministry said in a statement that it “regrets that such an important decision was taken without any prior consultation and in substance deplores the security grounds put forward, which contradict the actual developments on the ground, in an attempt to justify a decision whose motivation lies elsewhere.”

Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso are led by military juntas after recent coups, The New York Times said. Their leaders had all mostly cut ties with the United States and developed closer relations with Russia, China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

A United Nations report published on Dec. 18 said that the Sahel region — Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali — now accounts for more than half of the world’s terrorism-related deaths.

Laos and Sierra Leone were moved from partial travel restrictions to full bans. The administration put partial restrictions on 15 other countries.

The State Department ban does not affect lawful permanent residents, many existing visa holders, diplomats or athletes traveling for major sports events.

Dec. 31 (UPI) — A late-morning threat on Wednesday caused a temporary lockdown at Kansas City International Airport in Missouri that was lifted a little over an hour later.

Kansas City officials said the FBI and airport police were notified of a threat in a particular area within the airport, which was evacuated and searched, KCTV reported.

“Law Enforcement was able to determine no credible threat to the airport or those inside the terminal at this time. Once that determination was made, KCAD staff worked to resume normal operations and minimize disruptions,” city officials said in a statement.

Passengers were evacuated from the area of concern at 11 a.m. CST due to a “potential threat” in an unsecured area of the airport, according to WDAF TV.

They were let back in shortly before noon, and the airport was fully reopened by 12:30 p.m.

The nature of the threat was not announced, and the FBI is continuing to investigate the matter.

Despite the lockdown, the Federal Aviation Administration did not report any flight disruptions at the airport.

A separate threat also was investigated at the West Virginia International Yeager Airport in Charleston on Wednesday morning, WOWK reported.

The threat was “non-credible,” and the affected terminal was not evacuated, but a local bomb squad searched the area to ensure it was safe, local officials said.

Dec. 31 (UPI) — The Department of Justice is reviewing 5.2 million more pages of the Jeffrey Epstein files, which are to be made public in accordance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

The DOJ said it is assigning 400 attorneys to go through the files to review them and make required redactions before they are made available to the general public, NBC News reported. The review likely will run from Monday through Jan. 20.

“It is truly an all-hands-on-deck approach, and we’re asking as many lawyers as possible to commit their time to review the documents that remain,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said Wednesday in a post on X.

“Required redactions to protect victims take time, but they will not stop these materials from being released,” Blanche said. “The attorney general’s and this administration’s goal is simple: transparency and protecting victims.”

The DOJ is assigning its attorneys and those from the FBI, the Southern District of Florida and the Southern District of New York to review the files ahead of their release, according to The Hill.

Three batches of files totaling hundreds of thousands of pages have been released and can be searched and downloaded online at the DOJ’s Epstein Library.

The DOJ cautions library visitors that some of the contents contain descriptions of sexual assault and might not be appropriate for everyone.

The Epstein Files Transparency Act required the DOJ to make all files in the federal case against financier Jeffrey Epstein publicly available no later than Dec. 19, but the volume of materials and the need to review each for content and redactions delayed the full posting.

DOJ officials on Dec. 24 announced its attorneys were “working around the clock to review and make the legally required redactions to protect victims,” but the number of files was underestimated.

The resulting delay is further complicated by the discovery of the 5.2 million files yet to be reviewed and redacted.

Delays in posting all files by the federally required deadline have Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., considering holding Attorney General Pam Bondi in contempt.

Khanna and Massie co-sponsored the bill that became the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

Epstein was a convicted sex offender who hung himself while jailed in Manhattan and awaiting trial on federal charges accusing him of the sex trafficking of minors.

His assistant and former longtime companion Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted on related federal charges in 2021 and is serving a 20-year sentence in federal prison.

She was convicted of sex trafficking of a minor, transporting a minor for illegal sexual activity and three counts of conspiracy.

Dec. 31 (UPI) — Former special counsel Jack Smith denied targeting President Donald Trump ahead of the 2024 presidential election while testifying before the House Judiciary Committee on Dec. 17.

He firmly denied pursuing the dual prosecutions against Trump for political reasons, Axios reported.

“I entirely disagree with any characterization that our work was in any way meant to hamper him in the presidential election,” Smith said.

The committee hearing was done behind closed doors, but House Judiciary Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan. R-Ohio, on Wednesday released the transcript and a video of the hearing that lasted for 8 hours and 21 minutes.

Smith led the Biden administration’s effort to prosecute Trump for his handling of classified documents and efforts to overturn the 2020 election results after losing to President Joe Biden.

“The decision to bring charges against President Trump was mine, but the basis for nine of those charges rests entirely with President Trump and his actions, as alleged in the 10 indictments returned by grand juries in two different districts,” Smith told House Judiciary Committee members.

He said he was deciding whether to charge alleged co-conspirators for attempting to overturn the 2020 election results, but Trump’s election win in 2024 halted the investigation.

Smith said Rudy Giuliani and Boris Epshteyn were among the Trump associates his prosecutorial team had interviewed but did not charge with alleged crimes.

When asked why he didn’t charge those two and others with lesser crimes to force them to testify against Trump, Smith said the case had plenty of evidence and no other witnesses were needed.

Smith did not offer any information to the committee that was not already publicly available regarding Trump’s handling of classified documents because U.S. District Court of Southern Florida Judge Aileen Cannon ordered him to keep the relevant contents of a 137-page case report private, he told the committee.

He said Giuliani did not believe the claims that he had made regarding voter fraud during the 2020 election and “disavowed a number of the claims,” which he excused as “mistakes or hyperbole,” Smith said.

The former special counsel also acknowledged that testimony by former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson was based on hearsay and inadmissible in court.

Hutchinson claimed she was told Trump had become very angry when told that his driver was taking him to the White House instead of the Capitol and tried to grab the steering wheel of an SUV in which he was being transported during the Jan. 6, 2021, demonstration at the Capitol that devolved into a riot.

She made the claim privately and before an ad-hoc House select committee, the members of which then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., had chosen and mostly were Democrats.

Her account was not corroborated by others with firsthand information, Smith said.

He told the committee that Trump was the most responsible party for the Jan 6 demonstration that became a riot by stirring distrust and making false statements and refused to stop the riot.

Smith said he would pursue charges against the president again if given the chance to do so.

Dec. 31 (UPI) — The National Guard will be leaving Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland, Ore., but they likely will return, President Donald Trump said on Wednesday.

Trump announced the withdrawals after the Supreme Court ruled against a National Guard deployment in Chicago and amid legal challenges in California and Oregon.

The Supreme Court last week ruled the federal government cannot take control of respective state National Guard units to protect federal agents as they enforce immigration law, CNN reported.

We are removing the National Guard from Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland, despite the fact that crime has been greatly reduced by having these great patriots in those cities, and only by that fact,” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Wednesday.

Portland, Los Angeles and Chicago were gone if it weren’t for the federal government stepping in,” the president said.

He predicted the National Guard will return to those cities, though.

“We will come back, perhaps in a much different and stronger form, when crime begins to soar again,” Trump said, adding: “Only a question of time!”

Similar National Guard deployments in New Orleans and Memphis would not be affected because the respective governors in those states have okayed the deployments.

The National Guard has been deployed in Memphis to help reduce violent crime there, and National Guard units began arriving in New Orleans ahead of New Year’s Eve, the annual Sugar Bowl and Mardi Gras.

Local, state and federal law enforcement and the Louisiana National Guard seek to prevent a repeat of last year’s lone-wolf attack by an ISIS supporter, WWLTV reported.

Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, was a U.S. citizen from Texas who drove to New Orleans and shot and killed 14 during the early morning hours on Jan. 1.

An ISIS flag was found in his truck, along with weapons and a potential improvised explosive device, but local police shot and killed him before he could cause more harm.

He had placed two IEDs on Bourbon Street, where he also opened fire with a rifle and killed 14 before being shot and killed to end the attack.

Federal investigators found bomb-making materials in a rental home that Jabbar briefly occupied and tried to set on fire to conceal his crimes.

Dec. 31 (UPI) — SNAP users in some states face additional limits on what they can buy that take effect Thursday.

At least 18 states are banning sodas, sugary drinks and candy from being purchased with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program funds.

The new rules in Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska, Utah and West Virginia. The other 13 states have later start dates.

“President Trump has made it clear: we are restoring SNAP to its true purpose — nutrition. Under the [Make America Healthy Again] initiative, we are taking bold, historic steps to reverse the chronic diseases epidemic that has taken root in this country for far too long,” Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said in a statement.

“America’s governors are answering that call with courage and innovation, offering solutions that honor the generosity of the taxpayer while helping families live longer, healthier lives.

“With these new waivers, we are empowering states to lead, protecting our children from the dangers of highly processed foods and moving one step closer to the President’s promise to Make America Healthy Again.”

About 42 million people, about 12% of the U.S. population, used SNAP benefits each month during the 2024 federal fiscal year, the Department of Agriculture said.

States had to request waivers from the federal government for rules governing how people can spend their SNAP benefits.

Anti-hunger advocacy group Food Research and Action said the new laws in some states are too vague and put the burden to decide what’s allowed on retailers and shoppers.

“The items list does not provide enough specific information to prepare a SNAP participant to go to the grocery store,” the group said in a Monday blog post about Iowa’s new law.

The post pointed out that while a Snickers bar is not eligible, a Twix bar is because it contains flour. It said candy-coated fruit or nuts, including barbecue-coated peanuts and yogurt-coated raisins are not allowed, but cakes and cookies are.

“These restrictions will do nothing to make healthy food more affordable,” said blog authors Luke Elzinga and Gina Plata-Nino of Food Research and Action. “Instead, it will increase stigma for SNAP participants, create confusion at checkout counters [and] raise grocery prices for us all.”

SNAP users have also expressed concern.

“I agree, I would love to eat vegetables, I would love to eat hamburger, but I can’t store it,” said Marc Craig, a homeless Iowa man, USA Today reported. “And if you’re in a shelter, you can’t bring in outside food.

Soft drinks and “sweetened beverages” will be banned in all 18 of the states, though some call them “unhealthy drinks” or add energy drinks to the list.

Candy is banned in Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Indiana, Louisiana, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.

Iowa specifically bans any taxable food item, which eliminates vitamins and minerals. Iowans also can’t purchase drinks with 50% or less fruit or vegetable juice.

Florida and Missouri also ban “prepared desserts.”

Dec. 31 (UPI) — The nation’s new jobless claims exceeded expectations with fewer than 200,000 reported for the week ending on Saturday, marking the third straight week that new jobless claims fell.

The number of new jobless claims fell by about 16,000 and posted a seasonally adjusted 199,000, the Labor Department announced on Wednesday.

The term “seasonally adjusted” refers to a statistical method in which seasonal effects, such as weather and holidays, are factored to better show the direction in which the nation’s job market is moving.

Last week’s decline was the third straight week and the seventh of the past eight in which seasonally adjusted new jobless claims declined across the country, MarketWatch reported.

Economists responding to a Wall Street Journal poll had estimated 220,000 new jobless claims for the week.

The prior week’s new jobless claims were revised up by 1,000, from an initial estimated of 214,000 to the adjusted total of 215,000.

The Labor Department reported 269,953 unadjusted new jobless claims last week, which was up by 5,333 and 25 from the prior week ending on Dec. 20. Economists had predicted an increase of 26,612 for a 10.1% increase last week.

The unadjusted new jobless claims for last week were down from 283,488 during the same period in 2024.

Meanwhile, the number of people with previously established unemployment claims fell by 47,000 to 1.87 million for the week that ended on Dec. 20.

The number of continuing claims had risen since the pandemic due to a slowdown in hiring, but they have not grown in number in recent months, according to MarketWatch.

While new and existing jobless claims are down, some economists cautioned that the slow hiring pace since the summer might herald an economic slowdown.

The nation’s total unemployment rate rose to 4.6% in November, which was its highest rate since September 2021.

The states with the five highest unemployment rates for the week ending on Dec. 13 were Washington state at 2.5%, followed by New Jersey, 2.4%; Massachusetts and Minnesota, 2.2%, each; and California, Illinois and Rhode Island at 2.1%, each.

Dec. 30 (UPI) — U.S. Department of Health and Human Services officials have frozen federal child care funding to Minnesota amid accusations of fraud in that state and others.

HHS officials announced the action on Tuesday and credited a viral video that suggests rampant fraud is occurring at Minnesota child care centers that provide daycare services for few, if any, children.

“You have probably read the serious allegations that the state of Minnesota has funneled millions of taxpayer dollars to fraudulent daycares across Minnesota over the past decade,” said Jim O’Neill, HHS deputy secretary, in a social media post on Tuesday.

In response to the “blatant fraud that appears to be rampant in Minnesota and across the country,” O’Neill said HHS officials have taken three actions.

One is to require justification and a receipt or photo evidence before sending federal Administration for Children and Family funds to a state.

HHS also launched a fraud-reporting hotline and email address, and identified individuals shown in a viral social media video at Minnesota daycare centers that appeared to have no children.

“I have demanded from [Minnesota] Gov. Tim Walz a comprehensive audit of these centers,” O’Neill said. “This includes attendance records, licenses, complaints, investigations and inspections.”

Conservative activist Nick Shirley recorded and posted the viral video, which, along with FBI evidence, spurred U.S. Department of Homeland Security Sec. Kristi Noem on Monday to launch what she called a “massive investigation on childcare and other rampant fraud,” according to CBS News.

Minnesota Department of Children, Youth and Families Commissioner Tikki Brown told CBS News the department questions “some of the methods used in the video” but takes the fraud concerns raised in Shirley’s video “very seriously.”

State officials visited some of the daycare centers featured in the video and said two of them were closed earlier this year, but officials at one said they intend to resume operations.

CBS News looked at the records for several of the daycares cited and said all but two have active licenses to operate in Minnesota.

State records show all of the active locations had been visited by state regulators over the past six months, with no evidence of fraud found, but citations were issued for staff training, safety, equipment, and cleanliness violations.

The alleged daycare fraud comes amid federal investigations of 14 Medicaid-funded programs in Minnesota, but none involved child care.

Among them is an investigation into the Feeding Our Future program that was intended to feed at-risk children during the COVID-19 pandemic but has triggered dozens of federal fraud convictions and has embroiled Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., who helped to promote it.

That alleged fraud cost an estimated $250 million and largely occurred within the Somali community in the greater Minneapolis-St. Paul area, which prompted President Donald Trump to halt Temporary Protected Status for Somalians in Minnesota.

Dec. 30 (UPI) — Attorneys for Brian Cole Jr., the man accused of building and laying pipe bombs in Washington, D.C., at two political party headquarters, are arguing for his pre-trial release.

Cole, 30, has autism spectrum disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder, his attorneys said in a Monday night filing. He is scheduled for a detention hearing on Tuesday afternoon.

The attorneys argued that “government-induced excitement” around Cole’s arrest is premature and potentially violates court rules.

“The question is whether there is a present danger — a contention the government never actually makes, and something belied by the past four years in which Mr. Cole has lived without incident,” Cole’s attorneys argued in their filing. “No device detonated, no person was injured, and no property was damaged.”

“Whatever risk the government posits is theoretical and backward-looking, belied by the past four years where Mr. Cole lived at home with his family without incident. All of this weighs heavily against an inference of current danger to the community at large,” his attorneys wrote.

Cole was arrested Dec. 4 and hasn’t entered a plea. He is accused of placing two pipe bombs — that never detonated — outside of the Democratic National Committee headquarters and the Republican National Committee headquarters in Washington.

He faces charges of transporting an explosive device and attempted malicious destruction by means of explosive materials. The charges have a maximum sentence of 30 years.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Jones filed a request Sunday to keep Cole in jail while he awaits trial.

Cole is from Woodbridge, Va., where he lives with his mother and other family members.

Dec. 30 (UPI) — A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to reinstate temporary protected status against deportation for citizens of South Sudan.

U.S. District Court of Massachusetts Judge Angel Kelley, in a four-page ruling, ordered an administrative stay of the Trump administration’s decision to end TPS for those from South Sudan as of Jan. 6.

“Because of the serious consequences at stake, both for the plaintiffs and the defendants, the court finds an administrative stay appropriate as it would ‘minimize harm’ while allowing the assigned district court judge the time this case deserves,” Kelley said.

The stay does not represent the merits of the case and instead gives the court time to weigh arguments and evidence before rendering a decision.

Kelley, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden in 2021, gave plaintiffs through Jan. 9 to file their arguments and the Trump administration through Jan. 13.

She will rule on the matter after reviewing the respective arguments.

The federal lawsuit was filed on Dec. 22 by African Communities Together on behalf of four unnamed plaintiffs and all others similarly situated, which makes it a class action.

The defendants are the Department of Homeland Security, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the federal government.

African Communities Together says 232 South Sudanese nationals benefit from TPS, plus another 73 who have applied for TPS protection.

The Obama administration first provided TPS protection for those from South Sudan in 2011, and the status repeatedly was extended over the past 14 years.

South Sudan became an independent nation in 2011 in East Africa, but it has been subject to war and conflict since then.

Noem in November announced conditions in South Sudan have changed and no longer merit TPS status for its citizens in the United States.

TPS status enables recipients to stay in the United States and obtain work authorizations when their home countries are subject to armed conflict, environmental disasters and other “extraordinary conditions.”

While the plaintiffs oppose deportations of South Sudanese to their nation of citizenship, the Supreme Court recently approved the Trump administration’s deportation of eight others — seven of whom are citizens of other countries — to South Sudan.

Dec. 29 (UPI) — President Donald Trump on Monday confirmed that the United States struck a “dock area” that officials believe is used to transfer drugs to boats for international distribution.

The U.S. military has struck dozens of ships in the Caribbean near Venezuela, as well as in the Pacific, that are allegedly shipping drugs from South America to the United States and other countries, but the dock would be the first time that an onshore target has been struck.

Trump said Friday in a radio interview that a “big facility” had been “knocked out” in Venezuela that was not widely publicized until Monday when reporters at Mar-a-Lago asked him about it, ABC News and The New York Times reported.

According to CNN, the dock was targeted by the CIA in a drone strike based on intelligence from the U.S. Special Forces that it was being used by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua as a shipping facility for drugs.

A spokesperson for U.S. Special Operations Command told CNN that “Special Operations did not support this operation to include intel support,” the network noted, adding that the Special Operations Forces continue to be involved in Venezuela.

Despite officials offering few details about the strike, Trump, on Monday, appeared to confirm that U.S. forces struck a dock in Venezuela and why it was targeted.

“There was a major explosion in the dock area where they load up the boats with drugs,” Trump told reporters. “They load the boats up with drugs. So we hit all the boats, and now we hit the area, it’s the implementation area, that’s where they implement, and that is no longer around.”

The U.S. military for months has built up a military presence in the Caribbean in international waters offshore of Venezuela, culminating in the arrival of the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier and its carrier strike group in November.

A month before that, in mid-October, Trump told reporters that he had authorized the CIA to conduct operations in Venezuela, and noted that they had been doing so for months at that point.

He said at the time that the military had been striking ships because “a lot of Venezuelan drugs come in through the sea, so you see it,” but that the United States would “stop them by land, also” — acknowledging that the administration was considering strikes inside Venezuela.

The Ford’s presence, in addition to more than a dozen other warships, has built up a 15,000 troop presence in the Caribbean that the Pentagon has dubbed Operation Southern Spear.

In addition to striking alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and Pacific, Trump also has ordered a naval blockade to prevent Venezuela from shipping its sanctioned oil to Iran and China.

The administration so far has apprehended three oil tankers leaving Venezuela.

Trump has said he is aiming to depose Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro based on accusations that Maduro runs the Tren de Aragua gang, has emptied the country’s prisons and sent criminals to the United States to wreak havoc in the country, and is pumping drugs into the United States.

Dec. 29 (UPI) — The United States has pledged to contribute $2 billion to U.N. humanitarian efforts, slashing its funding to about one-fifth of its average annual financial commitment over the past decade, the U.S. State Department announced Monday.

The memorandum of understanding makes good on President Donald Trump‘s promises to dramatically reduce the amount of the United States’ foreign aid and save taxpayers’ money.

“The United States remains the most generous nation in the world for lifesaving humanitarian assistance — but under @POTUS’s leadership taxpayer dollars will never fund waste, anti-Americanism, or inefficiency,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a post on X.

“This new model will better share the burden of U.N. humanitarian work with other developed countries and will require the U.N. to cut bloat, remove duplication, and commit to powerful new impact, accountability and oversight mechanisms.”

In addition to reducing funding, the agreement narrows what countries and projects benefit from the U.S. aid. The $2 billion will go into a fund administered by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Among the areas not receiving any of the U.S. funding are Gaza, Yemen and Afghanistan.

“These agreements will focus funding on hyper-prioritized life-saving activities; provide for powerful new impact, accountability, and oversight mechanisms; enhance the efficiency and flexibility of humanitarian operations; and better share the burden of humanitarian work across major donors,” a release from the U.S. State Department said.

Tom Fletcher, the U.N. under-secretary-general for Humanitarian Affairs and coordinator for Emergency Relief, offered his thanks to the United States for the commitment as “a powerful act of leadership and generosity that will help save millions of lives.”

“At a moment of immense global strain, the United States is demonstrating that it is a humanitarian superpower, offering hope to people who have lost everything.”

The newly announced funding, though, is a dramatic decrease from annual U.S. contributions over the past decade — from $6.5 billion in 2017 to a high of $17.25 billion in 2022. The average yearly contribution over the decade ending in 2024 was around $10 billion, five times the size of the funding announced Monday, according to data on the OCHA’s Financial Tracking Service.

This reduction in U.S. aid comes weeks after the United Nations launched an appeal to raise $33 billion to support operations for 2026. OCHA said the total would provide aid to 135 million people in 23 countries, and six projects serving refugees and migrants.

“The highly prioritized appeal follows a year when humanitarian lifelines strained and, in some places, snapped due to brutal funding cuts,” a release from the OCHA on Dec. 7 said.

“Funding for the appeal in 2025 — $12 billion — was the lowest in a decade and humanitarians reached 25 million less people than in 2024. The consequences were immediate: Hunger surged, health systems came under crushing strain, education fell away, mine clearance stalled and families faced blow after blow: no shelter, no cash assistance, no protection services.”

Dec. 29 (UPI) — The Trump administration on Monday announced it will distribute $50 billion dollars to expand access to rural healthcare across all 50 states with investments in growing the workforce, modernizing facilities and introducing new models of care delivery.

States are set to receive first-year awards next year of roughly $200 million under the Rural Health Transformation Program, which Congress authorized earlier this year as part of the Working Families Tax Cuts bill, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said in a press release.

“More than 60 million Americans living in rural areas have the right to equal access to quality care,” said Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

“This historic investment puts local hospitals, clinics and health workers in control of their communities’ health care,” Kennedy said.

The CMS is set to distribute the $50 billion dollars over the next five years, from 2026 through 2030, as part of the program established by the bill, which is more commonly known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Each year, $5 billion will be distributed equally to each of the 50 states, while another $5 billion will be allocated based on the proportion of rural health facilities, situations at specific facilities in the state and other factors, the agency said on the program website.

The CMS announced each state’s 2026 allocation — Washington, D.C., and U.S. territories are not eligible for the funds — in the release, with the awards ranging from New Jersey’s $147 million to Texas’ $281 million.

The funds are meant to accomplish a range of goals to “make rural America healthy again,” including:

• expanding access to preventive, primary, maternal and behavioral health services;
• strengthening, growing and sustaining the clinical work force in rural areas;
• modernizing health infrastructure and technology;
• driving structural efficiency through streamlining operations and working to make more services available locally;
• and testing new primary care and value-based care models of delivery and payment.

The announcement comes after the American Hospital Association estimated earlier this year that rural hospitals could lose $50.4 billion in revenue from federal Medicaid funds over the next 10 years.

The reason is based on a Congressional Budget Office estimate earlier this year that the $1 trillion that was cut from Medicaid in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act could result in more than 7.8 million more people across the country becoming uninsured.

This loss of Medicaid coverage for patients affects revenue for healthcare providers, and the effects will be felt most acutely in rural areas.

These areas of the country currently include an estimated 16.1 million people with Medicaid coverage. Sparsely populated states such as Montana, Wyoming and Alaska have more than 50% of Medicaid recipients living in rural areas, the American Hospital Association says.

For many rural health facilities, a mixture of Medicare and Medicaid patients help them stay open, Sarah Hohman, director of government affairs for the National Association of Rural Health Clinics, told UPI in July.

“If the coverage losses pan out as they are estimated, that would mean that they are treating fewer patients that are covered by insurance,” Hohman said. “The more you have uncompensated care and individuals not able to pay, your balance gets concerning pretty quickly. That really threatens the financial viability in these areas.”

Dec. 29 (UPI) — A winter storm is hitting the Midwest with strong winds, snow, ice and canceled flights expected.

A winter rainstorm is happening in the northeast and the south. In Massachusetts and Maine, that rain could turn to freezing rain.

As of 3 p.m. EST Monday, about 1,231 flights had been canceled in the United States, and more than 23,393 others were delayed, according to FlightAware.

Delta Air Lines showed the highest number of affected flights, with 3% (128 flights) canceled, and 15% (507) flights delayed.

Buffalo Niagara International Airport had the highest number of outbound flights canceled at 48% (47 flights). The Buffalo, N.Y., area could see 1 to 3 feet of snow this week, and wind gusts up to 65 mph could create whiteout conditions.

Storms capable of creating blizzard conditions with near-hurricane-force winds in the Great Lakes will hit Monday night and bring cold temperatures to the Midwest and Northeast, Accuweather reported. The storms will also bring colder temps to the southern states.

In Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland, wind gusts of up to 45 mph are predicted, ABC News reported.

Gusts up to 65 mph are possible in Ohio, Michigan and parts of Pennsylvania.

There will also be lake-effect snow and clipper storms, which could make travel dangerous in the Midwest and Northeast.

Parts of Iowa, Wisconsin and the upper peninsula of Michigan are under a blizzard warning, and the areas are facing whiteout conditions. Minneapolis had a winter weather advisory Monday morning due to blowing snow.

East Champion, Mich., in the upper peninsula, has seen 24 inches of snow in the past 24 hours, the National Weather Service reported.

In the Northeast, the main danger Monday morning was ice. There is an ice storm warning in effect in New York and Vermont, where forecasters expect 0.4 to 0.7 inches of ice. That amount can bring down trees and powerlines, as well as make roads extremely dangerous. Rain, including possible freezing rain, will be affecting Boston and Maine on Monday afternoon.

Lake-effect snow is expected to continue around the Great Lakes throughout the week.

Dec. 29 (UPI) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit with President Donald Trump Monday in Florida to discuss the peace plan with Gaza.

Netanyahu is also likely to lobby the president for help with Iran as it continues its work on nuclear weapons.

The meeting will happen at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla. On Sunday, Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the resort to continue working on a peace plan between Ukraine and Russia.

Local officials have said that more than 400 people have been killed in Gaza since the cease-fire, NBC News reported.

The Trump administration wants to see progress on the plan’s second phase in January. That means a Palestinian technocratic government would be created. Hamas would disarm, and the Israeli Defense Forces would pull out of Gaza.

But some believe that Netanyahu will stall the process and demand Hamas fully disarm before the IDF withdraws. Hamas has said it will disarm as progress moves toward an independent Palestinian state.

Netanyahu and his staff have repeatedly rejected Palestinian statehood since October.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said last week that Israel will build settlements in Gaza and “never fully withdraw” even as Hamas disarms, the BBC reported. This would violate the cease-fire agreement.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet with Netanyahu before Trump’s meeting.

Two other tenets of the cease-fire haven’t yet emerged: A “Board of Peace” led by Trump is planned for governance of Gaza, and the International Stabilization Force, led by the United Nations, which will help with peacekeeping in Gaza.

Rubio has said those measures will be in place “very soon.”

Israeli officials are concerned that Iran is moving forward with its plans for ballistic missiles, and Netanyahu is expected to discuss options with Trump at Monday’s meeting.

Israel damaged the operations in June, but it wants to attack again, NBC News reported.

Dec. 28 (UPI) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday arrived at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump about a proposal for a cease-fire and end to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Zelensky and his entourage arrived Sunday to discuss a 20-point plan — that may include conceding territory and shared operation of a nuclear power plant — to potentially end the war that started more than three years ago with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Ahead of the meeting, Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone for more than an hour, during which reportedly agreed that a long-term peace deal is preferable to a cease-fire, with Putin calling for Zelensky to make a “courageous, responsible political decision,” The New York Times reported.

Zelensky arrives for the meeting as Russia has amped up its attacks on Kyiv and other parts of Ukraine in recent days, which some have called a tactic on Russia’s part to force the Ukrainians hand in making a peace deal.

“Given the situation on the front lines, Kyiv must not delay making that decision,” Yuri Ushakov, one of Putin’s foreign policy aides, said during a press briefing on Sunday.

Trump told reporters when he welcomed Zelensky to Mar-a-Lago that he believes “we have the makings of a deal,” and that both Putin and Zelensky are both serious about making a peace deal, CNN reported.

Zelensky, Trump and representatives from both of their administrations are negotiating the 20-point peace plan that Zelensky reworked from a U.S.-proposed 28-point plan earlier this year.

Plans have also been drawn up for a three-party security guarantee between Ukraine, the U.S. and Europe, as well as a bilateral deal with the United States, in addition to economic cooperation to rebuild Ukraine, which has been brutally battered by Russia for the last three years, the Kyiv Independent reported.

According to the BBC, Putin and Trump are likely to speak later on Sunday after the meeting at Mar-a-Lago.

Dec. 28 (UPI) — More than 30 years after New York City switched from tokens to the magnetic swipe of a MetroCard to ride its subways and buses, the card’s era is about to end.

Starting on Jan. 1, 2026, transiting residents and tourists alike will be required to move into the 21st century by using a contactless form of paying fares by tapping a phone, credit card or other device as they enter stations and buses.

Although the contactless system was introduced in 2019, 94% of subway and bus trips in the city already use the OMNY system for their travel payments, ABC News reported.

“New Yorkers have embraced tap and ride and we’re proud to see that as more and more people return to the city, they are choosing mass transit,” Shanifah Rieara, chief customer officer for New York City’s Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), said in a press release.

“As the end of MetroCard sales nears, we are focusing on reaching the remaining 6% to make the switch and unlock the benefits and convenience of tap and ride technology,” Rieara said.

According to the MTA, the last day to purchase or reload a MetroCard will be Dec. 31, while the last day to use one of the magnetic swipe cards will be some time in mid-2026.

The OMNY system offers three ways for riders to pay: with their phone using a digital wallet or contactless bank card, as well as a physical OMNY card that works with the digital system.

MTA said that by eliminating MetroCards and move to a single method of fare collection, the agency expects to save at least $20 million, as well as gain the ability to offer customer promotions and fare discounts more easily.

From 1953 until 1994, the New York City subway system’s main method for paying were dime-sized tokens with a hole in the middle shaped like a “Y,” which the MTA at the time said made it easier to increase fares without having to accept a variety of coinage, CNN reported.

In 1983, as other large cities had started using magnetic swipe technology for their public transportation systems’ payments, the MTA started moving toward the reloadable cards that have been an essential part of life for New Yorkers for more than three decades.

Dec. 27 (UPI) — The FBI Hoover headquarters in Washington soon will be vacant as the federal law enforcement agency prepares to make a permanent exit in favor of a more modern structure.

FBI Director Kash Patel plans to make a permanent move into the former headquarters of the recently closed U.S. Agency for International Development sometime soon, according to Bloomberg.

“After more than 20 years of failed attempts, we finalized a plan to permanently close the FBI’s Hoover headquarters and move the workforce into a safe, modern facility,” Patel said in a social media post on Friday.

Moving into the former USAID headquarters will save taxpayers almost $5 billion, which was allocated to build a new FBI headquarters that would not have opened until 2035, Patel said.

“We scrapped that plan,” he explained. “Instead, we selected the already-existing Reagan Building, saving billions and allowing the transition to begin immediately with required safety and infrastructure upgrades underway.”

When the improvements are done, Patel said the FBI staff will move into the Reagan Building, which is located at 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W., between the White House and the Capitol. He did not say when the move might occur.

The Hoover Building will be shut down after the FBI vacates it, the FBI director added.

While Patel said the move will save taxpayers billions of dollars, Maryland lawmakers are not happy about the change in plans.

Congress had approved the allocation to build a new FBI headquarters in Maryland during the Biden administration, but the change in plans has canceled that.

“Not only was this decision final, [but] the Congress appropriated funds specifically for the purpose of the new, consolidated campus to be built in Maryland,” the state’s Democratic Party Congressional delegation said in a joint statement in July.

“Now the Administration is attempting to redirect those funds — both undermining Congressional intent and dealing a blow to the men and women of the FBI — since we know that a headquarters located within the District [of Columbia] would not satisfy their security needs,” the delegation said.

Maryland officials in November filed a federal lawsuit accusing the Trump administration of improperly diverting $555 million when it announced the change of plans for the FBI headquarters.

“These actions flouted Congress’s explicit direction to choose a site from the three specified sites, as well as other specific statutory directives concerning the selection of the site and the use of the funds,” state attorneys say in the federal lawsuit.

The J. Edgar Hoover Building opened in 1974 and has been the FBI’s headquarters for the past 50 years.

Prior to that, the FBI was headquartered in the Justice Department building.

Dec. 27 (UPI) — A Nebraska man was arrested near Louisville, Ky., when police found 55 pounds of suspected methamphetamine in Christmas wrapping inside his vehicle’s trunk on Monday.

Jeffersontown Police Department officers arrested Jacob Talamantes, 23, while he was at a shopping center near the Bluegrass Parkway after a police dog detected drugs in his 2013 Chevrolet Malibu.

Police officers searched his vehicle and found the meth in gift-wrapped boxes inside the trunk and arrested him.

“No amount of festive wrapping can disguise the harm these drugs inflict on families and communities,” JPD Chief Richard Sanders said in a news release.

“The coordinated efforts of partner agencies ensured these holiday-wrapped packages never reached the streets,” Sanders said.

The police were conducting a drug investigation at the shopping center when the dog alerted them to the drugs when Talamantes arrived in the vehicle, WLWT reported.

He tried to walk away from the police, but they detained him.

Talamantes told officers he was driving from Iowa and intended to traffic the drugs, and he was arrested and charged with first-degree trafficking in a controlled substance.

The Drug Enforcement Agency and Kentucky State Police assisted with the arrest and are helping with the investigation into the matter.

Jeffersontown is located about 15 miles southeast of Louisville.

Dec. 27 (UPI) — President Donald Trump and Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent urged an end to the Senate filibuster rule ahead of an anticipated budget battle in January.

Bessent submitted an op-ed that The Washington Post published on Saturday and blames Senate Democrats and the filibuster for blocking passage of a resolution to keep the federal government open while negotiating the 2026 fiscal year budget and causing a record 43-day shutdown of the federal government.

“The American people are just now emerging from the longest and most devastating government shutdown in U.S. history,” Bessent said.

“While the blame lies squarely with Senate Democrats, we cannot ignore the weapon they used to hold the country hostage: the legislative filibuster,” Bessent wrote.

With the continuing resolution expiring on Jan. 30, Bessent said there is a strong likelihood that Senate Democrats again will use the filibuster to block passage of a budget and force the government to close again.

“Democrats inflicted tremendous harm on the nation, including $11 billion in permanent economic damage” as the federal government was “held for ransom by the left’s demands,” Bessent said.

He said the shutdown caused the nation to lose 1.5 percentage points in gross domestic product growth during the fourth quarter, triggered 9,500 canceled flights and caused 1.4 million federal workers to miss their paychecks.

He called the filibuster a “historical accident that has evolved into a standing veto for the [Senate] minority and a license for paralysis.”

The Constitution does not mention a filibuster, and its “framers envisioned debate, but they expect majority rule,” Bessent said.

He said the filibuster has its roots in an 1806 Senate rules decision that deleted a “previous question” motion, which unintentionally removed the Senate’s mechanism for ending debate with a majority vote.

Senators later realized they could “delay or block” legislative action with unending debate, and just the threat of a filibuster is enough to trigger the filibuster rule requiring a supermajority of 60 votes to end it, Bessent explained.

He said it is likely that Senate Democrats again will force the federal government to shut down at the end of January by blocking the 2026 fiscal year budget vote.

President Barack Obama called the filibuster a “‘Jim Crow relic,'” but Bessent said Senate Democrats always use it to their advantage whenever possible, and the president agrees.

“It’s time to end the filibuster,” Trump said while agreeing with Bessent in a social media post that includes Bessent’s op-ed.

He also told Politico that the GOP must end the filibuster when interviewed on Friday night.

Doing so will help his administration to undo damage that he said was caused by the Biden administration and led to very high inflation that he is trying to fix to make life more affordable in the United States, Trump said.

The president has urged Senate Republicans to end the filibuster as soon as possible and said Senate Democrats will do it the first chance that they get when they eventually win a majority in the Senate.

Senate Democrats in September and afterward overwhelmingly opposed a clean continuing resolution to keep the federal government open and instead submitted a resolution that would add $1.5 trillion in spending over the next 10 years to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies that expire at the end of December.

Senate Democrats control 47 seats, including two occupied by independents who caucus with Senate Democrats, while the GOP controls 53 seats, so neither party can overcome the filibuster rule without help from the other.

The Senate GOP could not muster the 60 votes needed to overcome the filibuster rule until eight Senate Democrats joined with most Senate Republicans to support the continuing resolution to end the 43-day government shutdown that began when the 2026 fiscal year started on Oct. 1.

Senate Democrats in 2022 tried to end the filibuster rule but could not obtain a simple majority due to opposition from Sens. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, both of whom were Democrats but have retired from politics.

Dec. 26 (UPI) — Winter Storm Devin is slowing road traffic and impacting flights amid post-holiday travel in the Great Lakes and Northeast, while torrential rain and localized flooding are affecting travel in California.

Airlines for America estimated a record 52.6 million airline passengers from Dec. 19 through Jan. 5, with Friday and Saturday seeing the most, CNBC reported.

The record number of flight passengers means a large number of passengers will be affected by flight cancellations and delays due to the stormy weather.

A total of 5,902 flights were delayed and 1,865 canceled so far at U.S. airports as of 5 p.m. EST on Friday, according to FlightAware.

The airport affected the most is John F. Kennedy International, with 153 outbound flights canceled and 143 delayed, and another 220 inbound flights canceled and 67 delayed and affecting about 45% of inbound and outbound flights.

Newark Liberty International in New Jersey has 104 outbound flights canceled and 163 delayed, and 140 inbound flights are canceled and 98 delayed.

New York City’s LaGuardia Airport also has a significant number of flights impacted, with 87 outbound flights canceled and 97 delayed, and 153 inbound flights canceled and 43 delayed.

The airlines most impacted are Delta Air Lines, JetBlue, Republic and Southwest, but virtually all airlines have scheduled flights affected, so travelers are advised to check well ahead and watch for updates before traveling to respective airports.

AAA earlier forecast 109.5 million people would travel more than 50 miles by car to reach their holiday destinations over Christmas, millions of whom could encounter very poor driving conditions while heading home.

Snow, sleet and freezing rain in the Northeast and Great Lakes have triggered an ice storm warning in central and western Pennsylvania, while southern New York and the Tri-State area are subject to a winter storm warning into Saturday.

Stormy weather also continues in Southern California and along the West Coast, with heavy rainfall causing flooding, mudslides and debris flows in low-lying areas and snowstorms at higher elevations.

Dec. 26 (UPI) — A federal judge has blocked the deportation of a British man targeted by President Donald Trump.

Imran Ahmed, founder and CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, was one of five people placed on a visa ban after the government accused him of censorship.

Ahmed filed suit against Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Attorney General Pam Bondi to prevent “the imminent prospect of unconstitutional arrest.”

The suit said the case comes from “the federal government’s latest attempt to abuse the immigration system to punish and punitively detain noncitizens for protected speech and silence viewpoints with which it disagrees.”

Ahmed is a legal permanent resident of the United States, where he lives with his American wife and child. He praised the judge’s decision.

“I will not be bullied away from my life’s work of fighting to keep children safe from social media’s harm and stopping antisemitism online,” Ahmed said.

The speed of the judge’s decision was telling, said his lawyer Roberta Kaplan.

“The federal government can’t deport a green card holder like Imran Ahmed, with a wife and young child who are American, simply because it doesn’t like what he has to say,” the BBC reported she said.

Rubio said in a statement Tuesday that the five had “led organized efforts to coerce American platforms to censor, demonetize and suppress” the views of Americans with whom they disagreed.

“These radical activists and weaponized NGOs have advanced censorship crackdowns by foreign states — in each case targeting American speakers and American companies,” Rubio said. He described the five as “agents of the global censorship-industrial complex.”

The others included in the ban are former European Union technology commissioner Thierry Breton; Anna-Lena von Hodenberg and Josephine Ballon of Berlin-based non-profit HateAid; Clare Melford, co-founder of Global Disinformation Index.

Ahmed told The Guardian that it was another attempt to deflect accountability and transparency.

“This has never been about politics,” he said. “What it has been about is companies that simply do not want to be held accountable and, because of the influence of big money in Washington, are corrupting the system and trying to bend it to their will, and their will is to be unable to be held accountable. There is no other industry that acts with such arrogance, indifference and a lack of humility and sociopathic greed at the expense of people.”

Ahmed said he had not formally received any notification from the government.

“I’m very confident that our first amendment rights will be upheld by the court,” he told The Guardian.

He is expected to be in court Monday, when the protective order will be confirmed.

In 2023, Elon Musk‘s company X sued the CCDH after it reported on a rise in hate speech on the platform since Musk’s takeover. The case was dismissed but X appealed the decision.