Dec. 19 (UPI) — A 12-person jury has found Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan guilty of obstructing federal agents attempting an immigration arrest near her courtroom in April.
The jury deliberated for more than six hours before delivering its guilty verdict on one count of obstruction, but acquitted her on a second count of concealment.
She could face up to five years’ imprisonment and a $250,000 fine when sentenced. A sentencing date has not been set.
The ruling is a victory for President Donald Trump and his administration, who have portrayed Dugan as an example of judges interfering with their immigration enforcement policies.
Dugan was arrested by FBI agents in late April and charged with knowingly concealing a person whose arrest warrant had been issued in order to prevent their apprehension, and corruptly endeavoring to influence, obstruct and impede the administration of law enforcement.
Federal prosecutors said she misdirected federal agents on April 18 to allow undocumented migrant Eduardo Flores-Ruiz to evade arrest.
Court documents state that she confronted federal agents in the court’s hallway after escorting Flores-Ruiz and his counsel out of her courtroom.
Flores-Ruiz was arrested by immigration enforcement agents following a foot chase.
The arrest came amid the early stages of Trump’s immigration crackdown, part of which was the rescinding of a Biden administration policy prohibiting immigration enforcement action in or near courthouses.
Critics and justice advocates — including nearly 150 former state and federal judges — rebuked the arrest as an effort to intimidate the judiciary, warning it threatened judicial independence and the Constitution.
Interim U.S. Attorney Brad Schimel for the Eastern District of Wisconsin told reporters following the jury verdict that while some have sought to make the case about a larger political battle, “it’s ultimately about a single day — a single bad day in a public courthouse.”
“The defendant is certainly not evil, nor is she a martyr for some great cause. It was a criminal case, like many that make their way through this courthouse every day,” he said.
“And we all must accept the verdict.”
Steven Biskupic, Dugan’s lead attorney, told reporters the defense was “obviously disappointed” with the verdict and that it does not make sense for his client to be found guilty on one count and acquitted on the other since they are based on the same elements.
“I would just say the case is a long way from over,” he said.
Norm Eisen, executive chair of the nonpartisan Democracy Defenders Fund, issued the same sentiment in a statement emailed to UPI.
“This case is far from over. Substantial legal and constitutional issues remain unresolved, and they are exactly the kinds of questions appellate courts are meant to address,” Eisen said.
“Higher courts will have the opportunity to determine whether this prosecution crossed the lines that protect the judiciary from executive overreach.”
Republicans and members of Trump’s administraiton swiftly celebrated the ruling, with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche remarking that “nobody is above the law” and Rep. Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin stating, “Now, lock her up.”
Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.
As military and economic pressure builds on Venezuelan dictator Nicholas Maduro,an E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft was tracked on FlightRadar24 flying close to the Venezuelan coast. To our knowledge, at least in recent days, these aircraft have not been present on flight tracking software in this increasingly high-activity area. And if they have popped-up, their presence has been impersistent at best. At the same time, E-3s are no stranger to this region though and have played a role in drug interdiction operations for years in this exact area.
🇺🇸🇻🇪⚡️- A U.S. Air force E-3C Sentry, airborne early warning and control aircraft, is currently loitering off the coast of Venezuela. pic.twitter.com/oujrc0CpxA
While E-3s may have been present but not trackable over the Caribbean in recent days, this one being trackable is not a mistake. U.S. military aircraft executing easily trackable sorties very near Venezuelan airspace has been a key component of the pressure campaign placed on Maduro.
The reappearance of the E-3s is a relatively important development, as they would be key to any major kinetic operation against Venezuela. While the carrier-based E-2D Hawkeye, which have been a staple of operations in the area for weeks, is extremely capable, and in some ways more so than the E-3, they are not as well suited for providing airborne early warning, data-sharing and command and control functions for a large and diverse force beyond the carrier air wing. The E-3 also has a higher perch for its radar and passive sensors to take advantage of. It can also better integrate with USAF forces.
Meanwhile, other U.S. combat aircraft made their closest and most sustained publicly-known presence near the northern Venezuelan coast on Thursday. It’s worth mentioning that we do not know how close aircraft with transponders turned off have been getting, as we can only see the flights that are publicly trackable. These missions are part of Operation Southern Spear, a counter-narcotics mission that morphed into one aimed at Maduro and Venezuelan oil, the country’s main source of income.
Amid all this aerial activity, President Donald Trump today said he was open to notifying Congress before a direct attack on Venezuela. His comments to reporters at the White House today came a day after the House of Representatives shot down measures requiring the president to obtain prior permission for such an action.
“I wouldn’t mind telling them,” Trump said when asked if he would seek permission from lawmakers for land and boat attacks against Venezuela. He added that prior notification is not required.
“I don’t have to tell them,” he posited. “It’s been proven, but I wouldn’t mind at all. I just hope they wouldn’t leak it. You know, people leak it. They are politicians, and they leak like a sieve, but I have no problem.”
BREAKING: Reporter: Will you be seeking any authorization from Congress for any land attacks on cartels in Venezuela?
Trump: I don’t have to tell them, but I would not mind it at all. I just hope they would not leak it. They are politicians, and they leak like a sieve. pic.twitter.com/UpFHPtt2vX
Trump’s views on Congressional authority have generated debate on Capitol Hill that broke down almost completely along party lines, with nearly all Republicans in agreement and Democrats opposed.
Under the 1973 War Powers Resolution, the Commander-In-Chief must notify Congress within 48 hours after“introducing United States Armed Forces into hostilities or into situations where imminent involvement is clearly indicated by the circumstances.” The Resolution also says any such actions are limited to 60 days without subsequent Congressional authorization, though the President can extend that timeline by 30 days with a written certification of the need for the continued use of force.
Donald Trump does NOT have the authority to carry out his current plans to use military force in the Caribbean without authorization from Congress.
If he acts without congressional authorization, the Senate will move a bipartisan resolution to prevent the unauthorized use of…
Trump, who ordered a blockade against sanctioned ships carrying oil to and from Venezuela, continues to assert that the U.S. has a right to that oil. On, Wednesday, Trump doubled down on his blockade warning, telling reporters that the U.S. is “not gonna let anybody go through that shouldn’t go through.”
Trump on Venezuela:
It’s a blockade, not gonna let anybody going through that shouldn’t be going through…
The blockade announcement sparked a separate debate in Congress and elsewhere about its legality.
“American presidents have broad discretion to deploy U.S. forces abroad, but Trump’s asserted blockade marks a new test of presidential authority,” international law scholar Elena Chachko of U.C. Berkeley Law School told Reuters.
Meanwhile, Venezuela condemned the blockade and said it would take its case to the United Nations.
Venezuela has released a statement. Here is the English translation of both pages:
On the night of today, December 16, 2025, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, violating International Law, free trade, and freedom of navigation, has issued a reckless and serious… https://t.co/dS3e4Yib1Xpic.twitter.com/Irf9ECnaux
Despite Trump’s pronouncement, several ships carrying oil byproducts from the South American country sailed from Venezuela’s east coast under escort from that country’s Navy “between Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning,” The New York Times reported.
“The ships transporting urea, petroleum coke and other oil-based products from the Port of José were bound for Asian markets,” per that story, citing anonymous sources. “The Venezuelan government imposed the military escort in response to Mr. Trump’s threats.”
🇻🇪🇺🇸 Venezuela’s government has ordered its Navy to escort ships carrying petroleum products from port following Trump’s blockade announcement.
Several ships sailed from the country’s east coast with a naval escort between Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, according to… pic.twitter.com/xY9huYtMqa
— Status-6 (Military & Conflict News) (@Archer83Able) December 17, 2025
The blockade announcement came after the U.S. government had already seized one sanctioned oil tanker, the M/T Skipper. That mission, which occurred on December 10, was led by the U.S. Coast Guard with elements of the U.S. military providing support.
Today, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, and the United States Coast Guard, with support from the Department of War, executed a seizure warrant for a crude oil tanker used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran. For multiple… pic.twitter.com/dNr0oAGl5x
A U.S. Sailor directs an F/A-18F Super Hornet onto a catapult during flight operations aboard the world’s largest aircraft carrier, USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), while underway in the Caribbean Sea in support of Operation Southern Spear (U.S. Navy photo) Petty Officer 3rd Class Gladjimi Balisage
The presence of aerial refueling tankers is also growing. KC-46 Pegasus tankers have been flying sorties out of the U.S. Virgin Islands for months, with a ramp-up in activity in recent weeks. There are now at least 10 KC-135 Stratotanker refuelers deployed to the Dominican Republic.
While these assets, along with about 15,000 deployed U.S. troops, are capable of limited sustained operations, it is far from the force that would be required for a land invasion or any large ground operation in Venezuela.
US Air Force KC-135 tankers forward deployed in the US Southern Command area of responsibility. USAF
Since September, U.S. military operations in the Caribbean Sea, as well as the Eastern Pacific, have already included nearly two dozen strikes on boats allegedly involved in drug smuggling. The first of these strikes, which came on September 2, has become the focus of particular controversy, including allegations that it may have constituted a war crime.
The Sept. 2 incidenthas spurred numerous Congressional briefings, but on Wednesday, the Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Mike Rogers, an Alabama Republican, said he was satisfied by testimony about that strike and that no further hearings would be held. It is unclear if there will be other Congressional action, though, since the Senate Armed Services Committee has also been investigating the matter.
The boat attacks continued on Wednesday, with another four suspected traffickers killed, bringing the total number of fatalities to about 100.
On Dec. 17, at the direction of @SecWar Pete Hegseth, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organizations in international waters. Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was transiting along a known… pic.twitter.com/Yhu3LSOyea
Amid all this tension, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva offered to serve as an intermediary between Trump and Maduro to “avoid armed conflict.”
Lula told reporters on Thursday that Brazil was “very worried” about the mounting crisis between Venezuela and the United States. He added that he told Trump that “things wouldn’t be resolved by shooting, that it was better to sit down around a table to find a solution.”
The Brazilian leader suggested that he may speak to Trump again before Christmas to reinforce this offer “so that we can have a diplomatic agreement and not a fratricidal war.”
“I am at the disposal of both Venezuela and the US to contribute to a peaceful solution on our continent.”
🇧🇷🇺🇸🇻🇪 | Lula da Silva: “Estoy pensando que, antes de Navidad, posiblemente tenga que conversar con el presidente Trump otra vez, para saber en que puede contribuir Brasil para que tengamos un acuerdo diplomático y no una guerra fraticida”
TikTok has finalized a deal with Oracle and two other investors that will allow the popular social video platform to continue its business in U.S.
The deal, expected to close on Jan. 22, will be 50% held by a new investor consortium that includes tech giant Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX, a technology fund in the United Arab Emirates (with each holding 15%). The rest of the group is made up of ByteDance owning 19.19% and affiliates of existing ByteDance investors holding 30.1%, TikTok said in a memo to employees.
“With these agreements in place, our focus must stay where it’s always been — firmly on delivering for our users, creators, businesses and the global TikTok community,” TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew wrote in his memo.
The company’s future for many years in the U.S. had been uncertain, amid security concerns among legislators about ByteDance’s ties to China. TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance had been under pressure to divest its ownership in the app’s U.S. operations or face a nationwide ban, due to a law Congress passed that went into effect in January. President Trump has signed orders that have allowed TikTok to keep operating in the country and in September signed an executive order outlining the new joint venture.
The venture, which would oversee U.S. data protection, algorithm security, content moderation and software assurance, would be governed by a seven-member board that is majority American, Chew said in his memo. Oracle will be the security partner responsible for “auditing and validating compliance with the agreed upon National Security Terms,” Chew wrote.
Oracle Chief Executive Larry Ellison is also a party in effort to buy Warner Bros. Discovery.
Oracle did not return a request for comment. Silver Lake declined to comment. The White House on Thursday referred questions about the deal back to TikTok. In September, Trump said that Chinese President Xi Jinping had approved the deal.
“These safeguards would protect the American people from the misuse of their data and the influence of a foreign adversary, while also allowing the millions of American viewers, creators, and businesses that rely on the TikTok application to continue using it,” Trump stated in his executive order.
The announcement will come as a relief to some creators and businesses who rely on TikTok to entertain and reach fans and customers.
“I hope it just stays true to the platform and the independence we get from it,” said Yasmine Sahide, who posts comedy videos on TikTok and has 2.4 million followers. “I hope we’re still able to monetize our videos the same way because without that, I think a lot of people would leave or feel uninspired.”
Keith Lee, a TikTok creator who posts videos about food, said he expects the algorithm to change.”I just hope that we can still stay connected with our community and reach an audience the same way as before,” said Lee, who has 17.3 million followers.
Many TikTok creators are based in Southern California, close to TikTok’s office in Culver City. Over the years when TikTok’s future appeared uncertain, some of those creators diversified, posting their content to other platforms like YouTube and Instagram.
“It’s a smart way to avoid ownership and data issues,” said Ray Wang, principal analyst at Constellation Research, of the deal.
If finalized, the deal would remove a persistent issue in Beijing-Washington relations and signal progress in broader talks. But it would also deprive China’s most valuable private company of total control of an American social media phenomenon.
ByteDance’s coveted algorithms are considered central to TikTok’s business. Under the the deal proposed by Washington, ByteDance will license its AI recommendation technology to a newly created U.S. TikTok entity, which will use the existing algorithm to retrain a new system that is secured by Oracle, according to Bloomberg. The algorithm will be retrained on U.S. user data by the U.S. joint venture, according to TikTok.
Some industry observers questioned whether the deal addresses the larger concerns surrounding TikTok in the law Congress passed.
“While these executive orders positively have allowed the platform to operate and maintain the venue for speech, they do not resolve the underlying concerns about the law, which could be applied to other platforms in the future and raise questions about executive power,” said Cato Institute senior fellow in tech policy Jennifer Huddleston in a statement.
“Just because TikTok remains available under such orders does not mean that the policy concerns about the underlying law have been resolved.”
Dec. 18 (UPI) — The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced new regulations on Thursday that restrict the ability for transgender minors to access gender-affirming healthcare.
The regulations work to “carry out President Trump’s executive order directing HHS to end the practice of sex-rejecting procedures on children that expose young people to irreversible harm,” a press release said.
The new rules will ban hospitals from “performing sex-rejecting procedures on children under age 18 as a condition of participation in Medicare and Medicaid programs.”
“These actions will ensure that the federal government in no way funds directly gender transition procedures on minors and also does not fund facilities that perform these procedures,” a department official told reporters Thursday.
The department said what it calls “sex-rejecting procedures” on children, including puberty blockers, hormones and surgery, “expose them to irreversible damage, including infertility, impaired sexual function, diminished bone density, altered brain development, and other irreversible physiological effects.”
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other department officials will offer details about the moves later Thursday.
Gender-affirming care is a holistic approach to treating gender-dysphoria and is supported by every major medical association as treatment for both adults and children.
It includes a range of therapies, from psychological and behavioral to medical interventions, with surgeries for minors being exceedingly rare.
The medical practice, however, has been a target for conservatives for years amid a larger campaign that civil rights organizations see as a threat to the rights of LGBTQ Americans.
St. Louis pediatrician Dr. Kenneth Haller called HHS’ actions “anti-science” during a Human Rights Campaign press briefing. He pointed out that these efforts still allow the treatments for children with other conditions that affect hormone production.
Haller said that as long as the condition doesn’t change a child’s gender, “these people don’t have a problem with [prescribing hormones]. That same care for kids who are transgender is what they say is wrong. There’s no science behind it.”
HHS said the Food and Drug Administration would send warning letters to manufacturers and sellers of breast binders for minors alleging they are doing illegal marketing, the department official said.
“Illegal marketing of these products for children is alarming, and the FDA will take further enforcement action such as import alerts, seizures, and injunctions if it continues,” FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary said in a statement.
The Human Rights Campaign said these rules infringe on the rights of families.
“Families deserve the freedom to go to the doctor and get the care that they need and to have agency over the health and wellbeing of their children,” said Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, in a statement. “But these proposed actions would put [President] Donald Trump and RFK Jr. in those doctor’s offices, ripping healthcare decisions from the hands of families and putting it in the grips of the anti-LGBTQ+ fringe.”
And Advocates for Trans Equality told UPI in an emailed statement that are a “discriminatory attack” that lacks credible medical or financial basis.
“These sets of rules mark a serious escalation in this administration’s ongoing efforts to dismantle healthcare programs and services for trans youth,” Fiadh McKenna, A4TE senior staff attorney, said in the statement.
“Targeting healthcare for trans people is unlawful and discriminatory; no one should be denied healthcare because of who they are.”
The new CMS rules will be finalized after a 60-day comment period on the Federal Register, the department official said.
Trump has issued several executive orders against transgender people. In May, the Pentagon began removing transgender service members from the military. In March, the Department of Veterans Affairs began phasing out medical treatments for gender dysphoria. In February, Trump signed an executive order banning transgender women from participating in women’s sports. In January, Trump signed an executive order that restricts gender-affirming care for minors.
President Donald Trump holds a signed executive order reclassifying marijuana from a schedule I to a schedule III controlled substance in the Oval Office of the White House on Thursday. Photo by Aaron Schwartz/UPI | License Photo
Dec. 18 (UPI) — Closing arguments began Thursday in the trial for Judge Hannah Dugan after the court heard testimony from fellow Milwaukee County judicial officials about a lack of court policy on immigration arrests in public areas.
The testimony came on Day 4 of Dugan’s trial. She pleaded not guilty earlier this year to federal charges including one count of obstructing an official proceeding and concealing a person from arrest, and another of concealing an individual to prevent his discovery and arrest.
The case stems from an incident on April 18, when Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials came to her courtroom and notified her they planned to arrest undocumented immigrant Eduardo Flores-Ruiz. They said she sent the agents to the chief judge’s office before going back to her courtroom, pushing Flores-Ruiz’s case to the front of her docket, then helped him and his lawyer leave from a private jury door.
The ICE agents ultimately found and arrested Flores-Ruiz outside the courthouse.
The defense called two fellow circuit court judges — Katie Kegel and Laura Gramling Perez — to the stand on Thursday to ask them about an email chain also involving Dugan. The email was about the courthouse and county policy on federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests on courthouse grounds.
Kegel said she sent the email after people were “snatched up out of my gallery while waiting for their hearing” and wanted to know about any policies on “detentions of any sort from inside the courtroom.” She said she saw someone who wasn’t in law enforcement clothing — whom she was later told belonged to a federal task force unrelated to immigration — carrying out activity in the gallery of her courtroom.
Grayling Perez said Chief Judge Carl Ashley had scheduled online training via Zoom about ICE activity in the courthouse and that Dugan had had trouble registering for the training session. Gramling Perez said the training indicated that ICE can conduct enforcement actions in public areas of the courthouse with certain “statutory and policy limitations.” She suggested the court develop a policy for such incidents, including a requirement that federal agents consult with the chief judge beforehand.
Gramling Perez said she had concerns about ICE operating in the courthouse, as did Dugan, USA Today reported.
“We are in some uncharted waters with some very serious and even potentially tragic community interests at risk in the balance,” Dugan wrote in an email as testified by Gramling Perez.
Defense attorneys also called former Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett to testify to Dugan’s character, describing her as “extremely honest” and someone who “will tell you how she feels. Barrett said he’s known Dugan for more than 50 years and that they went to high school together.
The defense rested its cause after hearing from Barrett and closing arguments were underway.
President Donald Trump delivers an address to the nation from the Diplomatic Room of the White House on Wednesday. Trump touted what he described as successes achieved by his administration during his first year back in office, while bashing his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, and the Democrats. Pool Photo by Doug Mills/UPI | License Photo
Dec. 18 (UPI) — The Powerball prize has risen again with $1.5 billion now up for grabs this weekend with an estimated to be $686.5 million in cash.
Saturday’s prize is the fifth-biggest Powerball and seventh-largest U.S. jackpot.
“This jackpot is set to deliver the ultimate windfall,” according to Matt Strawn, Powerball’s product group chair and the Iowa Lottery‘s CEO.
No ticket matched all six winning numbers — 25, 33, 53, 62, 66 and Powerball 17 — so the jackpot increased as a result.
Meanwhile, lottery officials urged players to check tickets as many still won cash prizes.
Six players across the United States won $1 million each by matching all five white balls with winning tickets sold in Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania and Tennessee.
Two more tickets sold in Arizona and Massachusetts doubled their prize to $2 million via Power Play. The drawing also yielded 72 winners of $50,000 and 14 winners of $200,000.
However, California prizes vary based on sales and number of winners.
A Florida ticket hit all five numbers in the Double Play draw that won $500,000. Double Play, a $1 Powerball add-on, gives players a second shot at prizes of up to $10 million in a separate live-streamed draw on Powerball.com.
Saturday marks the 45th Powerball drawing in the current jackpot streak and the longest in game history.
The last jackpot win was on September 6, when tickets in Missouri and Texas shared $1.787 billion.
This is just the second time Powerball has seen consecutive jackpots over $1 billion, the first being in 2023 when California winners claimed prizes of $1.08 billion in July and $1.765 billion in October.
“The jackpot grows with every $2 ticket sold, and a portion of each ticket supports local public programs and services. We encourage everyone to have fun and play responsibly,” Strawn added.
Paraguayan Foreign Minister Ruben Ramirez (shown) and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio signed a security cooperation agreement to strengthen efforts against organized crime, drug trafficking and other transnational threats, Photo by Juan Pablo Pino/EPA
Dec. 18 (UPI) — Paraguay signed a security cooperation agreement with the United States to strengthen efforts against organized crime, drug trafficking and other transnational threats, as Asuncion seeks to reinforce its role as a strategic partner of Washington in central South America.
The agreement was signed this week by Paraguayan Foreign Minister Ruben Ramirez Lezcano and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The document sets out general guidelines for joint work and must be sent to Paraguay’s Congress for review and approval.
Paraguay is a landlocked country between Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia. Its location has made it a key transit point for drug trafficking and smuggling routes across South America, which has led the government of President Santiago Pena to strengthen international security cooperation.
The agreement covers actions against transnational crime, training of military personnel, information sharing, humanitarian assistance and coordination in response to emergencies and natural disasters.
At the signing ceremony, Ramirez Lezcano highlighted the Paraguayan government’s commitment to shared goals with the United States.
“President Santiago Pena is deeply committed to continuing to work strongly on the relationship between our countries and on shared objectives such as fighting transnational organized crime, drug trafficking, human trafficking and corruption,” the foreign minister said.
He added that what is at stake “is not only security, but the freedom of people,” and said the agreement represents an important step to protect both values.
Rubio said the agreement also creates “the opportunity to train together, cooperate, exchange information directly and quickly, and respond to any humanitarian situation that may arise in the future, not only in Paraguay, but in the region.”
“It is a security agreement, but what also exists here is the opportunity to cooperate at the economic level, where there are many opportunities to use Paraguay’s potential so that it becomes a wealthier country,” Rubio said.
He added that Paraguayans are expected to have greater economic opportunities through cooperation with U.S. companies and interests “that are willing to invest responsibly and effectively in the economy and also help create jobs, work and sources of income for the citizens of your country.”
The United States and Paraguay have maintained decades of cooperation in areas such as security, counter-narcotics efforts, institutional strengthening and humanitarian assistance, according to official records from both governments.
Paraguay’s Foreign Ministry has said the relationship with the United States is strategic and has deepened in recent years amid a regional context marked by the advance of transnational organized crime.
The agreement signed in Washington adds to other bilateral instruments already in force and seeks to update cooperation mechanisms in response to emerging threats in South America.
WASHINGTON — Today’s political consensus crosses all ages, demographics and party lines: Three out of four Americans think the economy is in a slump. It is not just in their heads. Economic growth this year has been practically stagnant, save for one exception, economists say.
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Hundreds of billions of dollars invested by California-based tech giants in artificial intelligence infrastructure accounted for 92% of the nation’s GDP growth this year, according to a Harvard analysis, supported by other independent economic studies.
It is a remarkable boon for a handful of companies that could lay the groundwork for future U.S. economic leadership. But, so far, little evidence exists that their ventures are expanding opportunities for everyday Americans.
“You have to watch out for AI investments — they may continue to carry the economy or they may slow down or crash, bringing the rest of the economy together with them,” said Daron Acemoglu, an economics professor at MIT. “We are not seeing much broad-based productivity improvements from AI or other innovations in the economy, because if we were, we would see productivity growth and investment picking up the rest of the economy as well.”
Even in California itself, where four of the top five AI companies are based, the AI boom has yet to translate into tangible pocketbook benefits. On the contrary, California shed 158,734 jobs through October, reflecting rising unemployment throughout the country, with layoffs rippling through the tech and entertainment sectors. Consumer confidence in the state has reached a five-year low. And AI fueled a wave of cuts, cited in 48,000 job losses nationwide this year.
“It is evident that the U.S. economy would have been almost stagnant, absent the capital expenditures by the AI industry,” said Servaas Storm, an economist at the Institute for New Economic Thinking, whose own analysis found that half of U.S. economic growth from the second quarter of 2024 through the second quarter of 2025 was due to spending on AI data centers.
The scale of investments by AI companies, coupled with lagging productivity gains expected from AI tools, is spawning widespread fears of a new bubble on Wall Street, where Big Tech has driven index gains throughout the year.
The top 10 stocks listed in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index, most of which are in the tech sector, were responsible for 60% of the yearlong rally, far outperforming the rest of the market. And the few who benefited from dividends fueled much of the rest of this year’s economic growth, with the vast majority of U.S. consumption spending attributed to the richest 10% to 20% of American households.
“There were ripple effects into high-end travel, luxury spending, high-end real estate and other sectors of the economy driven by the financial elite,” said Peter Atwater, an economics professor at William & Mary and president of Financial Insyghts, a consulting firm. “It tells the average consumer that while things are good at the top, they haven’t benefited.”
Stan Veuger, a senior fellow in economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute and a frequent visiting lecturer at Harvard, said that slowing growth and persistently high inflation were diminishing the effects of the AI boom.
“Obviously, that’s not a recipe for sustainable growth,” he said.
U.S. growth today is based on “the hope, optimism, belief or hype that the massive investments in AI will pay off — in terms of higher productivity, perhaps lower prices, more innovation,” Storm added. “It should tell everyday Americans that the economy is not in good shape and that the AI industry and government are betting the farm — and more — on a very risky and unproven strategy involving the scaling of AI.”
Trump’s AI bet
The Trump administration has fully embraced AI as a cornerstone of its economic policy, supporting more than $1 trillion in investments over the course of the year, including a $500-billion project to build out massive data centers with private partners.
Trump recently took executive action attempting to limit state regulations on AI designed to protect consumers. And House Republicans passed legislation this week that would significantly cut red tape for data center construction.
Administration officials say the United States has little choice but to invest aggressively in the technology, or else risk losing the race for AI superiority to China — a binary outcome that AI experts warn will result in irreversible, exponential growth for the winner.
But there is little expectation that their investments will bear fruit in the short term. Data centers under construction under the Stargate program, in partnership with OpenAI and Oracle, will begin coming online in 2026, with the largest centers expected to become operative in 2028.
“AI can only fulfill its promise if we build the compute to power it,” OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman said at the launch of the Stargate project. “That compute is the key to ensuring everyone can benefit from AI and to unlocking future breakthroughs.”
In the meantime, the Americans expected to benefit are those who can join in the investment boom — for as long as it lasts.
“2025 has been a very good year for people who already have significant wealth, a mediocre year for everyone else,” said Kenneth Rogoff, a prominent economist and professor at Harvard. “While the stock market has exploded, wage growth has been barely above inflation.”
“Whether the rest of the economy will catch fire from AI investment remains to be seen, but near term it is likely that AI will take away far more good jobs than it will create,” Rogoff added. “The Trump team is nevertheless optimistic that this will all go their way, but the team is largely built to carry out the president’s vision rather than to question it.”
Dec. 18 (UPI) — The United States has approved a massive $11.1 billion arms deal with Taiwan, the self-government Asian island announced Thursday.
The U.S. Congress was informed of the sale on Wednesday, the president’s office said in a statement.
The package includes eight items, such as HIMARS rocket systems, TOW missiles, Javelin anti-tank missiles, anti-armor loitering munition systems, spare attack helicopter parts and the Taiwan Tactical Network military communication platform and Tactical Awareness Kit, among other lethal equipment.
Taiwan’s foreign ministry said in a statement that it “welcomed” the announcement and expressed its “sincere appreciation for the United States’ long-standing support for regional security and Taiwan’s self-defense.
The arms sale is the second to Taiwan of President Donald Trump’s second administration and comes as China increases its military pressure on the self-governing island.
Hours prior to the deal being announced, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said 40 sorties of Chinese fighter jets and eight navy vessels were detected operating around the island. Of the fighter jets, 26 had crossed the median line and entered Taiwan’s northern, central, southwestern and eastern Air Defense Identification Zone.
A day earlier, 23 sorties of fighter jets were detected and nine fighter jets and seven navy vessels were spotted a day before that.
China views Taiwan as a breakaway province and has vowed to take it back by force if necessary. Taiwan is a self-governing island that Beijing has never ruled.
The office of Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te said the arms deal highlights the close partnership between the two countries and demonstrates “the importance the U.S. government attaches to Taiwan’s national defense needs.”
Presidential Office spokesperson Karen Kuo added that due to increasing security concerns, Taiwan will raise defense spending to more than 3% of GDP next year and aims for it to be 5% by 2030.
“Taiwan will continue to reform national defense, strengthen whole-of-society defense resilience, demonstrate our determination for self-defense and maintain peace through strength,” Kuo said.
The U.S.-Taiwan Business Council said it was a record single U.S. security package for Taiwan and was in response to the threat posed by China and a potential Beijing ground invasion.
“We continue to see the prioritization of platforms and munitions that address a D-Day-style attack on the island,” USTBC President Rupert Hammond-Chamber said in a statement.
Dec. 17 (UPI) — In a relatively brief, campaign-style speech on Wednesday night, President Donald Trump touted what he described as successes achieved by his administration during his first year back in office, while bashing his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, and the Democrats.
Before Christmas trees and a Christmas laurel decorating the mantel of the Diplomatic Reception Room fireplace, the commander-in-chief said he has returned the United States from a place of destitution to a level of unparalleled success.
“Our country is back stronger than ever before. We’re poised for an economic boom the likes of which the world has never seen,” he said.
“We will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. There could be no more fitting tribute to this epic milestone than to complete the comeback of America that began just one year ago.”
The speech comes amid economic concerns and fears of war in the United States, though Trump only touched on the former during the address. A day earlier, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported unemployment had risen to its highest level since September 2021 during the pandemic. An ongoing U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean continues, and on Tuesday, Trump ordered a naval blockade of Venezuela oil tankers.
In the 18-minute speech, Trump described the country he inherited as a “mess” marked by inflation, high prices, rampant illegal immigration, unaffordability, transgender women playing women’s sports, “transgender for everybody,” censorship and crime.
“This is what the Biden administration allowed to happen to our country, and it can never be allowed to happen again,” he said.
“Our country was laughed at all over the world, but they are not laughing anymore.”
In the last 11 months, Trump said he has ushered more positive change into Washington “than any administration in American history.”
“There’s never been anything like it. And I think most would agree,” he said.
Trump also trumpeted his border policies, claiming they have resulted in “zero” undocumented migrants allowed to enter the United States. — an apparent reference to Customs and Border Protection data showing that, beginning in May, no migrants apprehended at the border were released into the U.S. interior.
“Do you remember when Joe Biden said he needed Congress to help with legislation to close the border?” he said. “As it turned out, we didn’t need legislation, we just needed a new president.”
MEXICO CITY — President Trump has ordered a partial blockade on oil tankers going to and from Venezuela, potentially crippling the nation’s already battered economy, and accused Caracas of stealing “oil, land other assets” from the United States — a significant escalation of Washington’s unrelenting campaign against the government of President Nicolás Maduro.
Asked about Venezuela on Wednesday, Trump said the United States will be “getting land, oil rights and whatever we had.”
“We want it back,” Trump said without further elaboration. It was unclear if Trump planned to say more about Venezuela in a televised address to the nation late Wednesday night.
The blockade, which aims to cripple the key component of Venezuela’s faltering, oil-dependent economy, comes as the Trump administration has bolstered military forces in the Caribbean, blown up more than two dozen boats allegedly ferrying illicit drugs in both the Caribbean and the Pacific, and threatened military strikes on Venezuela and neighboring Colombia.
“Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America,” Trump said in a rambling post Tuesday night on his Truth Social site. “It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before.”
Not long after Trump announced the blockade Tuesday night, the government of Venezuela denounced the move and other Trump efforts as an attempt to “rob the riches that belong to our people.”
Leaders of other Latin American nations called for calm and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, after a phone call with Maduro, called on U.N. members to “exert restraint and de-escalate tensions to preserve regional stability.”
Also Wednesday, Trump received rare pushback from the Republican-dominated Congress, where some lawmakers are pressuring the administration to disclose more information about its deadly attacks on alleged drug boats.
The Senate gave final approval to a $900-billion defense policy package that, among other things, would require the administration to disclose to lawmakers specific orders behind the boat strikes along with unedited videos of the deadly attacks. If the administration does not comply, the bill would withhold a quarter of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s travel budget.
The bill’s passage came a day after Hegseth and Secretary Marco Rubio came to Capitol Hill to brief lawmakers on the U.S. military campaign. The briefings left lawmakers with mixed reaction, largely with Republicans backing the campaign and Democrats expressing concern about it.
The White House has said its military campaign in Venezuela is meant to curb drug trafficking, but the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration data shows that Venezuela is a relatively minor player in the U.S.-bound drug trade.
Trump also declared that the South American country had been designated a “foreign terrorist organization.” That would apparently make Venezuela the first nation ever slapped with a classification normally reserved for armed groups deemed hostile to the United States or its allies. The consequences remain unclear for Venezuela.
Regional responses to the Trump threats highlight the new ideological fault lines in Latin America, where right-wing governments in recent years have won elections in Chile, Argentina and Ecuador.
The leftist leaders of the region’s two most populous nations — Brazil and Mexico — have called for restraint in Venezuela.
“Whatever one thinks about the Venezuelan government or the presidency of Maduro, the position of Mexico should always be: No to intervention, no to foreign meddling,” Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Wednesday, calling on the United Nations to look for a peaceful solution and avoid any bloodshed.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has also urged Trump to pull back from confrontation. “The power of the word can outweigh the power of the gun,” Lula said he told Trump recently, offering to facilitate talks with the Maduro government.
But Chile’s right-wing president-elect, José Antonio Kast, said he supports regime-change in Venezuela, asserting that it would reduce migration from Venezuela to other nations in the region.
“If someone is going to do it, let’s be clear that it solves a gigantic problem for us and all of Latin America, all of South America, and even for countries in Europe,” Kast said, referring to Venezuelan immigration.
In his Tuesday post, Trump said he had ordered a “complete blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers going into, and out of, Venezuela.” While potentially devastating to Venezuela’s economy, the fact that the blockade will only affect tankers already sanctioned by U.S. authorities does give Venezuela some breathing room, at least for now.
Experts estimated that only between one-third and one-half of tankers transporting crude to and from Venezuela are likely part of the so-called “dark fleet” of sanctioned tankers. The ships typically ferry crude from Venezuela and Iran, two nations under heavy U.S. trade and economic bans.
However, experts said that even a partial blockade will be a major hit for Venezuela’s feeble economy, reeling under more than a decade of of U.S. penalties. And Washington can continue adding to the list of sanctioned tankers.
“The United States can keep sanctioning more tankers, and that would leave Venezuela with almost no income,” said David A. Smilde, a Venezuela expert at Tulane University. “That would probably cause a famine in the country.”
The growing pressure, analysts said, will likely mean the diminishing number of firms willing to take the risk of transporting Venezuelan crude will up their prices, putting more pressure on Caracas. Purchasers in China and elsewhere will also likely demand price cuts to buy Venezuelan oil.
Trump has said that Maduro must go because he is a “narco-terrorist” and heads the “Cartel de los Soles,” which the While House calls is a drug-trafficking syndicate. Trump has put a $50 million bounty on Maduro’s head. Experts say that Cartel de los Soles is not a functioning cartel, but a short-hand term for Venezuelan military officers who have been involved in the drug trade for decades, long before Maduro or his predecessor and mentor, the late Hugo Chávez, took office.
In his comments on Tuesday, Trump denounced the nationalization of the Venezuelan oil industry, a process that began in the 1970s, when Caracas was a strong ally of Washington.
Echoing Trump’s point that Venezuela “stole” U.S. assets was Stephen Miller, Trump’s homeland security advisor, who declared on X: “American sweat, ingenuity and toil created the oil industry in Venezuela. Its tyrannical expropriation was the largest recorded theft of American wealth and property.”
Among those believed to be driving Trump’s efforts to oust Maduro is Secretary of State Maro Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants to Florida. Rubio has long been an outspoken opponent of the communist governments in Havana and Caracas. Venezuelan oil has helped the economies of left-wing governments in both Cuba and Nicaragua.
Christopher Sabatini, a senior fellow for Latin America at Chatham House, said Rubio has been on a long-time campaign to remove Maduro.”He has his own political project,” Sabatini said. “He wants to get rid of the dictators in Venezuela and Cuba.”
Staff writers McDonnell and Linthicum reported from Mexico City and Ceballos from Washington. Contributing was special correspondent Mery Mogollón in Caracas.
Dec. 17 (UPI) — Fears of risks to children’s mental health and development have two U.S. senators sounding an alarm and seeking information on toys that use artificial intelligence.
Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., jointly wrote a letter sent to executives in charge of Mattel, Little Learners Toys, Miko, FoloToy, Curio Interactive and Kayi Robot to obtain information on testing of their respective AI-powered toys, NBC News reported.
“These AI toys — specifically those powered by chatbots embedded in everyday children’s toys like plushies, dolls, and other beloved toys — pose risks to children’s healthy development,” they said in the letter signed on Tuesday.
“While AI has incredible potential to benefit children with learning and accessibility, experts have raised concerns about AI toys and the lack of research that has been conducted to understand the full effect of these products on our kids.”
The senators said many AI toys do not cultivate interactive play and instead expose kids to “inappropriate content, privacy risks and manipulative engagement tactics.”
“These aren’t theoretical worst-case scenarios,” Blackburn and Blumenthal said. “They are documented failures uncovered through real-world testing, and they must be addressed.”
The senators said many of the toys use the same AI systems that are dangerous for older children and teens, but are included in toys that are marketed for children and infants.
Chatbots that simulate human conversations with children are especially problematic, the senators said.
“These chatbots have encouraged children to commit self-harm and suicide, and now your company is pushing them on the youngest children who have the least ability to recognize this danger,” Blumenthal and Blackburn wrote.
By way of an example, they said one teddy bear toy responded to a researcher’s question regarding “kink,” and the toy detailed a variety of sexual situations, including between adults and children.
The same toy also provided instructions on how to light a match when asked, they said.
“It is unconscionable that these products would be marketed to children, and these reports raise serious questions about the lack of child safety research conducted on these toys,” Blackburn and Blumenthal said.
The senators also aired their concerns about the data colleed by AI-powered toys and the potential for using that data to design addictive toys for children.
They likened it to social media addiction among youth and asked the respective toy company executives to explain what, if any, safeguards are used to prevent inappropriate conversations and if independent testing is done by third parties.
Blumenthal and Blackburn also want to know if the toy manufacturers share data collected by AI-powered toys with third parties.
Officials for Curio Interactive said their “top priority” is children’s safety when contacted by The Hill.
“Our guardrails are meticulously designed to protect kids, and our toys can only be used with parent permission,” they responded.
“We encourage parents to monitor conversations, track insights, and choose the controls that work best for their family on the Curio: Interactive Toys app,” they explained.
“We work closely with KidSAFE and maintain strict compliance with COPPA and other child-privacy laws.”
Dec. 17 (UPI) — Chairman Brendan Carr said the Federal Communications Commission isn’t independent from the Trump administration in testimony Wednesday before Congress, during which the word “independent” was removed from the agency’s mission statement online.
Carr’s comment came as members on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee questioned him on who the FCC answers to in the wake of a controversy that led to the brief suspension of Jimmy Kimmel‘s late-night talk show on ABC.
The Walt Disney Co. suspended Jimmy Kimmel Live! from Sept. 17 through Sept. 22 in response to comments he made about the assassination of right-wing activist and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.
The controversy stemmed from Kimmel suggesting the alleged gunman who killed Kirk was a pro-Trump Republican.
The Make America Great Again “gang [is] desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” he said in his monologue.
There was some discussion in the early days after the shooting as to the alleged shooter’s political leanings — he came from a largely right-wing family but had made some more left-leaning comments in recent months.
Just before the suspension, Carr described Kimmel’s comments as “truly sick” and threatened action against the network. At the time, Nester Media Group, which owns multiple ABC affiliates, was awaiting approval from the FCC for its planned merger with Tegna, prompting some to view Kimmel’s suspension as political.
“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr said at the time. “These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel, or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
Carr denied that Kimmel’s suspension had anything to do with government censorship and instead blamed it on ratings.
Democrats on the committee questioned Wednesday if Carr was truly acting independently or if he was beholden to Trump’s politics, The Hill reported.
Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., asked, “Yes or no, is the FCC an independent agency?
“On your website, it just simply says, man, the FCC is independent. This isn’t a trick question.”
“Congress did not include for-cause removal in the Communications Act,” Carr said. “So, formally speaking, the FCC is not independent.”
During testimony, the FCC’s website was updated to change the wording of its mission statement, eliminating the word “independent.” When asked about the removal, an FCC spokesperson cited the change in the administration 11 months ago.
“With the change in administration earlier this year, the FCC’s website and materials required updating. That work continues to ensure that they reflect the positions of the agency’s new leadership,” the spokesperson said in a statement to CNBC.
Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., accused Carr of being the chairman of the “Federal Censorship Committee,” saying he made “mafia threats” toward station owners in the wake of Kimmel’s comments about Kirk.
“And these broadcasters, they feel that censorship,” Markey said.
Carr said the broadcasters involved issued statements saying they made their decisions to suspend Kimmel independently of what he said about Kimmel.
“If broadcasters understand, perhaps for the first time in years, that they’re going to be held accountable to the public interest, to the broadcast hoax rule, to the news distortion policy, I think that’s a good thing,” Carr said, according to ABC News.
President Donald Trump participates in a Hanukkah reception in the East Room at the White House on Tuesday. Photo by Yuri Gripas/UPI | License Photo
WASHINGTON — The Senate gave final passage Wednesday to an annual military policy bill that will authorize $901 billion in defense programs while pressuring Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to provide lawmakers with video of strikes on alleged drug boats in international waters near Venezuela.
The annual National Defense Authorization Act, which raises troop pay by 3.8%, gained bipartisan backing as it moved through Congress. It passed the Senate on a 77-20 vote before lawmakers planned to leave Washington for a holiday break. Two Republicans — Sens. Rand Paul and Mike Lee — and 18 Democrats voted against the bill.
The White House has indicated that it is in line with President Trump’s national security priorities. However, the legislation, which ran more than 3,000 pages, revealed some points of friction between Congress and the Pentagon as the Trump administration reorients its focus away from security in Europe and toward Central and South America.
The bill pushes back on recent moves by the Pentagon. It demands more information on boat strikes in the Caribbean, requires that the U.S. maintain its troop levels in Europe and sends some military aid to Ukraine.
But overall, the bill represents a compromise between the parties. It implements many of Trump’s executive orders and proposals on eliminating diversity and inclusion efforts in the military and grants emergency military powers at the U.S. border with Mexico. It also enhances congressional oversight of the Department of Defense, repeals several years-old war authorizations and seeks to overhaul how the Pentagon purchases weapons as the U.S. tries to outpace China in developing the next generation of military technology.
“We’re about to pass, and the president will enthusiastically sign, the most sweeping upgrades to DOD’s business practices in 60 years,” said Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Still, the sprawling bill faced objections from both Democratic and Republican leadership on the Senate Commerce Committee. That’s because the legislation allows military aircraft to obtain a waiver to operate without broadcasting their precise location, as an Army helicopter had done before a midair collision with an airliner in Washington, D.C., in January that killed 67 people.
“The special carve-out was exactly what caused the January 29 crash that claimed 67 lives,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), the chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, said at a news conference this week.
Cruz said he was seeking a vote on bipartisan legislation in the next month that would require military aircraft to use a precise location sharing tool and improve coordination between commercial and military aircraft in busy areas.
Boat strike videos
Republicans and Democrats agreed to language in the defense bill that threatened to withhold a quarter of Hegseth’s travel budget until he provided unedited video of the strikes, as well as the orders authorizing them, to the House and Senate Committees on Armed Services.
Hegseth was on Capitol Hill on Tuesday ahead of the bill’s passage to brief lawmakers on the U.S. military campaign in international waters near Venezuela. The briefing elicited contrasting responses from many lawmakers, with Republicans largely backing the campaign and Democrats expressing concern about it and saying they had not received enough information.
The committees are investigating a Sept. 2 strike — the first of the campaign — that killed two people who had survived an initial attack on their boat. The Navy admiral who ordered the “double-tap” strike, Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley, also appeared before the committees shortly before the vote Wednesday in a classified briefing that also included video of the strike in question.
Several Republican senators emerged from the meeting backing Hegseth and his decision not to release the video publicly, but other GOP lawmakers stayed silent on their opinion of the strike.
Democrats are calling for part of the video to be released publicly and for every member of Congress to have access to the full footage.
“The American people absolutely need to see this video,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.). “I think they would be shocked.”
Congressional oversight
Lawmakers have been caught by surprise by the Trump administration several times in the last year, including by a move to pause intelligence sharing with Ukraine and a decision to reduce U.S. troop presence in NATO countries in eastern Europe. The defense legislation requires that Congress be kept in the loop on decisions like those going forward, as well as when top military brass are removed.
The Pentagon is also required, under the legislation, to keep at least 76,000 troops and major equipment stationed in Europe unless NATO allies are consulted and there is a determination that such a withdrawal is in U.S. interests. Roughly 80,000 to 100,000 U.S. troops are usually present on European soil. A similar requirement keeps the number of U.S. troops stationed in South Korea at 28,500.
Lawmakers are also pushing back on some Pentagon decisions by authorizing $400 million for each of the next two years to manufacture weapons to be sent to Ukraine.
Cuts to diversity and climate initiatives
Trump and Hegseth have made it a priority to purge the military of material and programs that address diversity, anti-racism or gender issues, and the defense bill codifies many of those changes. It would repeal diversity, equity and inclusion offices and trainings, including the position of chief diversity officer. Those cuts would save the Pentagon about $40 million, according to the Republican-controlled House Armed Services Committee.
The U.S. military has long found that climate change is a threat to how it provides national security because weather-related disasters can destroy military bases and equipment. But the bill makes $1.6 billion in cuts by eliminating climate change-related programs at the Pentagon.
Repeal of war authorizations and Syria sanctions
Congress is writing a closing chapter to the war in Iraq by repealing the authorization for the 2003 invasion. Now that Iraq is a strategic partner of the U.S., lawmakers in support of the provision say the repeal is crucial to prevent future abuses. The bill also repeals the 1991 authorization that sanctioned the U.S.-led Gulf War.
The rare, bipartisan moves to repeal the legal justifications for the conflicts signal a potential appetite among lawmakers to reclaim some of Congress’ war powers.
U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson (L), D-Miss, pictured in December 2022 with then-U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., (R) at House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. On Wednesday, an ex-Senate aide announced his bid to unseat Thompson. File Photo by Ken Cedeno/UPI | License Photo
Dec. 17 (UPI) — Evan Turnage, a Jackson lawyer and ex-senate aide, is challenging Rep. Bennie Thompson in Mississippi’s 2nd District Democratic primary.
Turnage, 33, a Yale Law and Murrah High alumnus, formerly advised U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. He launched his campaign after returning home and hearing voters’ frustration over the district’s stagnant economy under Thompson’s long tenure, he said.
“I’ve talked to so many people and it’s clear that there’s an appetite for new leadership, an appetite for a fighter from Mississippi,” Turnage said in an interview.
Mississippi’s 2nd District covers Jackson and much of the Delta. With a majority-Black and solidly Democratic electorate, real competition happens in the primary and not the general election.
“This is the poorest district in the poorest state in the country. It was like that when he was elected, and it remains that way today,” he added.
Thompson, 77, has held the seat since 1993 as one of Mississippi’s longest-serving officials and has maintained broad support while gaining national recognition for civil rights issues, security and oversight.
Turnage joined Schumer’s team as chief counsel in early 2023, departing two years later to return to Jackson.
He said his time in the nation’s capital influenced his run for office, but a recent local Democratic runoff also shaped his decision.
“Grocery prices are the No. 1 economic concern I hear about,” Turnage said. “That experience in Washington showed me how much Congress can do when it’s willing to stand up to corporations.”
Turnage said his campaign will be focused on government reform, economic growth and protecting voting rights.
Mississippi’s Democratic primary is slated for March 2026.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is testifying before a Georgia state Senate committee Wednesday about her case against President Donald Trump. File Photo by Erik S. Lesser/EPA
Dec. 17 (UPI) — Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is facing a Georgia state Senate committee over her attempts to prosecute President Donald Trump in a 2020 election interference case as well as her hiring of Nathan Wade, with whom she had a romantic relationship.
Willis has fought the subpoena requiring her to appear before the committee since the summer of 2024. Her attorney is former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes, who said she maintains that the committee’s actions are politically motivated.
Barnes argued before the Georgia Supreme Court on Dec. 9 that the subpoena to testify issued by the committee is invalid because it was issued after the legislature adjourned.
The committee plans to ask about her decisions regarding the case against Trump and his supporters, some of whom pleaded guilty to charges. Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis, Kenneth Chesebro and Scott Hall took plea deals after agreeing to testify. Trump later gave them all federal pardons.
Wade and Willis were removed from the case, and Willis fought to stay on the case, but lost her appeal. The case against Trump was dropped after a new prosecutor took over the case.
President Donald Trump participates in a Hanukkah reception in the East Room at the White House on Tuesday. Photo by Yuri Gripas/UPI | License Photo
Dec. 17 (UPI) — There are no legal or national security justifications for the Trump administration’s attacks on ships in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean Sea, Sen. Chris Murphy said following a bipartisan classified briefing on the strikes.
At least 95 people have been killed in 25 military strikes on ships the Trump administration accuses of being used by drug cartels and gangs designated as terrorist organizations since Sept. 2.
The strikes have drawn mounting domestic and international condemnation and questions over their legality by both Democratic and Republican lawmakers.
The administration defends the strikes as legal under both U.S. and international law, arguing the United States is at war with the drug cartels who are flooding the country with deadly substances.
State Secretary Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth held a classified briefing on the strikes with members of Congress on Tuesday, with many Democrats, including Murphy, D-Conn., calling foul.
“While I obviously can’t tell you any classified information I learned, I can tell you this: that the administration had no legal justification for these strikes, and no national justification for these strikes,” Murphy said in a video posted to his X account.
On the national security front, the administration admitted to the lawmakers that there is no fentanyl coming to the United States from Venezuela and the cocaine that is coming from Venezuela is mostly going to Europe, he said.
“And so we are spending billions of your taxpayer dollars to wage a war in the Caribbean to stop cocaine from going from Venezuela to Europe,” he said. “That is a massive waste of national security resources and of your taxpayer dollars.”
On the legal front, the administration is justifying the strikes by stating they are targeting gangs and cartels that the Trump administration has designated as terrorist organizations.
Since February, President Donald Trump has designated 10 cartels and gangs as terrorist organizations, with Clan de Golfo blacklisted on Tuesday.
Murphy said that while the president has the power to designate groups as terrorist organizations, it does not give him the ability to carry out military strikes targeting them.
“A designated ‘terrorist organization’ allows the president to impose sanctions on those organizations and individuals,” he said. “Only Congress, only the American public, can authorize war. And there’s just no question that these are acts of war.”
Dec. 16 (UPI) — A suspect identified as Micah James Legnon has been arrested by agents from the FBI’s New Iberia office for allegedly planning an attack on federal agents.
Legnon, 29, was a member of the Turtle Island Liberation Front and had communicated with four members who were charged with allegedly planning a series of New Year’s Eve terrorist attacks in the Greater Los Angeles area on Monday, WDSU reported.
He is a resident of New Iberia and was arrested on Friday while driving to New Orleans after FBI agents saw him loading a military-style rifle and body armor into his vehicle and telling others in a Signal chat group that he was traveling to New Orleans.
New Iberia is located about 120 miles west of New Orleans, and Legnon allegedly shared a video that showed multiple firearms, gas canisters and body armor before leaving on Friday.
In that post, Legnon said he was “On my way to NOLA now, be there in about two hours,” but the FBI arrested him while driving east on U.S. Highway 90, according to WWL-TV.
In a Dec. 4 post, Legnon shared a Facebook post showing Customs and Border Protection agents arresting someone and said he wanted to “recreate Waco, Texas,” on the federal officers while referencing the 1993 federal siege on the Branch Davidians compound there.
He is a former Marine who was trained in combat and a self-professed satanist who used the alias “Black Witch” in group chats with four suspects accused of targeting locations throughout California.
Federal prosecutors filed a federal complaint against Legnon and asked the magistrate judge to seal it and related records due to an ongoing investigation.
They asked that it be unsealed on Tuesday, which is a day after the four suspects accused of planning the California terror attacks were charged with related crimes.
The FBI said Legnon had been communicating with the four suspects in California before the arrests were made and charges filed in the respective cases.
The Turtle Island Liberation Front is a far-left, anti-government, anti-capitalist and pro-Palestinian group, according to Attorney General Pam Bondi.
The National Weather Service on Tuesday issued wind and blizzard warnings for parts of Washington State amid flash flooding that has claimed at least one life. Image by the National Weather Service
Dec. 16 (UPI) — Officials are warning that conditions could worsen parts of Washington state already reeling from deadly flash flooding as a blizzard conditions approach amid evacuations and warnings of further flooding.
At least one person has been reported dead after the body of a 33-year-old male was recovered from a vehicle that was completely submerged in water at 1:30 a.m. PST on Tuesday in Snohomish County, ABC News reported.
“The vehicle left the roadway and entered a lower farmland/ditch area containing approximately 6 feet of water,” officials with Snohomish County Fire District 4 said in a prepared statement.
“Upon arrival, deputies located the vehicle in the water,” they said. “Fire rescue swimmers made contact with the vehicle and removed the driver from the car.”
The motorist had driven past road closure signs warning drivers of localized flooding and was pronounced dead at the scene after first responders attempted lifesaving treatment.
Two levees were breached as strong rainstorms passed through the Pacific Northwest in recent days. Weather conditions are now expected to take a turn for the worse.
The National Weather Service has issued wind and blizzard warnings in the same areas impacted by flash flooding.
Heavy rainfall is predicted to continue into Tuesday night before changing to snow after 1 a.m. on Wednesday.
Outdoor temperatures are expected to fall to 24 degrees, with a west wind of 28 mph creating a wind chill of between 7 and 17 degrees, according to the NWS.
Snow could be heavy at times on Wednesday and Thursday, with between 8 and 12 inches possible by Wednesday night and wind gusts of up to 49 mph on Wednesday. That’s on top of possibly between 4 and 8 inches of snowfall on Thursday and wind gusts of up to 31 mph.
Snow is expected through the next seven days, with lows in the low 20s and highs near 32 degrees.
The wind and blizzard warnings come as major flooding is possible on Wednesday morning along the Skagit River and potentially cresting on Thursday morning in Mount Vernon, the Seattle Times reported.
An estimated 2,100 residents of Pacific in the state’s King County are subject to an evacuation warning telling them to leave now due to a levee failure on the White River.
Highway 2 also could stay closed until further notice, while Highway 167 remained closed between Auburn and Kent, two small cities south of Seattle, on Tuesday morning.
Dec. 16 (UPI) — Tesla shares closed at a record-high $489.88 on Tuesday, days after CEO Elon Musk announced the company had been testing driverless vehicles in Texas.
Shares rose 3.1% for the day and were up 21% for the year, CNBC reported. This came after Tesla’s worst quarter since 2022 when it dropped 36% in the first quarter of this year.
Techstock² reported that in addition to the roboatxi announcement, Tesla saw a boost on the stock market in response to a fresh round of filings with the Securities Exchange Commission.
The filings showed that WT Wealth Management increased its Tesla stake by 178.7%, Carter Financial Group opened a new Tesla position, Orion Portfolion solutions increased its holdings of Tesla by 14.8%, National Wealth Management Group increased its stake by 26.3% and Momentum Wealth Planning purchased a new stake of 9,802 shares worth about $3.11 million.
Tesla also invested $1.2 billion in a battery cell plant in Berlin.
With Tuesday’s bounce, Tesla’s market cap reached $1.63 trillion, making it the seventh-most valuable company in trading behind Nvidia, Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon and Meta, CNBC reported.
FIFA announced an affordable admission pricing tier for every nation that’s qualified for the 2026 World Cup co-hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The supporter entry tier will make tickets available at a fixed price of $60 for every match, including the final, for each nation’s participating members associations.
The new tier comes after supporters’ groups from Europe called out FIFA on the dynamic pricing of tickets, which changes the value based on the popularity of the teams playing in each match.
“In total, 50% of each PMA allocation will fall within the most affordable range, namely supporter value tier (40%) and the supporter entry tier (10%),” FIFA said in a statement on Tuesday. “The remaining allocation is split evenly between the supporter standard tier and the supporter premier tier.”
FIFA will also waive the administrative fees for fans who secure participating member association tickets, but their teams do not advance and they seek refunds.
Before the new tier was introduced, the cheapest ticket for the World Cup final in MetLife Stadium in New Jersey would cost fans more than $4,000. The high prices raised concerns among European supporters.
“The prices set for the 2026 World Cup are scandalous, a step too far for many supporters who passionately and loyally follow their national sides at home and abroad,” the FSA, an organization of supporters for England and Wales, said in a statement posted on its website on Dec. 12. “Everything we feared about the direction in which FIFA wants to take the game was confirmed — Gianni Infantino only sees supporter loyalty as something to be exploited for profit.”
FIFA previously stated it adopted the variable pricing because it was common practice for major North America sporting events.
“What FIFA is doing is adapting to the domestic market,” a FIFA official said in the conference call. “It’s a reality in the U.S. and Canada that events are being priced as per the demand that is coming in for that event.”
A FIFA official told reporters before the first tickets went on sale that world soccer’s governing body expects to make more than $3 billion from hospitality and tickets sales and is confident the tournament will break the all-time World Cup attendance record set in 1994, the last time the competition was held in the U.S.
That 1994 World Cup featured just 24 teams and 52 matches. The 2026 tournament will be twice as large, with 48 teams and 104 games.
FIFA said it received 20 million requests during the random selection draw sales.
SoFi Stadium will host eight matches, beginning with the U.S. opener against Paraguay on June 12. The Americans will finish group play in Inglewood on June 25, playing the winner of a March playoff involving Slovakia, Kosovo, Turkey and Romania. Two Group G matches — Iran vs. New Zealand on June 15 and Iran-Belgium on June 21 — also will be played in SoFi, sandwiched around a Group B match between Switzerland and the winner of another European playoff, this one featuring Wales, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Italy and Northern Ireland.
The teams for the three knockout-stage games to be played at SoFi Stadium — round-of-32 games on June 28 and July 2 and a quarterfinal on July 10 — haven’t been determined, but the possibilities include Mexico, South Korea, Canada, Spain, Austria and Algeria.
Staff writer Kevin Baxter contributed to this report.
Dec. 16 (UPI) — Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced Tuesday a bipartisan settlement between 35 states and automakers Hyundai and Kia over selling millions of vehicles without standard anti-theft technology.
Hyundai and Kia’s alleged omission of standard security technology fueled a surge of car thefts, enabled further crime and caused deaths nationwide, including in Minnesota, Ellison’s office announced.
“Maintaining public safety means holding people who commit crimes accountable, but it also means holding corporations accountable when their greed helps criminals harm the people of Minnesota,” Ellison said in a statement.
A 2015 report found that just 26% of Kia and Hyundai cars sold in the U.S. had engine immobilizers, while other makers averaged 96%.
Under the settlement, Hyundai and Kia will give eligible owners free ignition cylinder protectors, add engine immobilizers to all future U.S. vehicles and provide up to $4.5 million in restitution for theft damages.
In addition, they will pay another $4.5 million to cover state investigation costs.
The settlement concludes Minnesota’s March 2023 investigation into Kia and Hyundai for knowingly omitting standard anti-theft tech from their manufactured cars.
Minnesota’s chief law enforcement official stated that Hyundai and Kia “unleashed a wave of auto thefts that cost Minnesotans their cars, their hard-earned money, and sometimes even their lives.”
“In short, they put their profits ahead of people’s safety,” he added.
The multi-state legal effort included Arizona, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont and Wisconsin.
Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown said in a statement that Tuesday’s settlement revelation “should prevent these thefts from continuing and provides additional relief” to victimized consumers.
In 2022, Minneapolis saw Kia and Hyundai thefts linked to a slew of violent crimes and hundreds of crashes, in addition to New York and multiple states.
On Tuesday, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said the manufacturer’s “lack of urgency and their desire to save money inexcusably prolonged this crisis.”
“Now, the companies must take measures to protect their vehicles from theft,” New York Attorney General Letitia James posted on X.
Meanwhile, consumers who had or were scheduled for software updates but still experienced theft or attempted theft on or after April may file a claim for related expenses.
