Donald Trump

Dec. 9 (UPI) — A federal judge in New York on Tuesday granted a Justice Department request to release the grand jury files from the indictment hearing of convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell.

Maxwell’s attorney David Oscar Markus had argued against releasing the grand jury evidence. In a filing, Markus wrote that Maxwell “does not take a position” on the Justice Department’s request to unseal the material, but said that releasing the material “would create undue prejudice” and prevent “the possibility of a fair retrial.”

U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer on Tuesday ordered the release of grand-jury transcripts and evidence from the case against Maxwell, who is serving 20 years in prison for sex trafficking of minors.

He also ordered the release of evidence shared between the prosecution and defense before Maxwell’s trial, but said that the Justice Department should take care not to release any identifying information on the victims. He said the Justice Department filed a motion to unseal grand jury materials in July but didn’t notify the victims. He ordered that a district attorney must “personally certify” that the material is “rigorously reviewed” before its release.

The new law passed last month by Congress requires the release of the Epstein files by Dec. 19. The Epstein Files Transparency Act was passed and signed by President Donald Trump on Nov. 19.

The new law’s language is “strikingly broad,” Engelmayer wrote. Congress’s “decision not to exclude grand jury materials despite knowledge as to their existence, while expressly excluding other categories of materials (such as classified information), indicates that the Act covers grand jury materials.”

On Dec. 5, U.S. District Judge Rodney Smith of Florida ordered the release of grand-jury transcripts from the investigation against Epstein from 2005 to 2007. That investigation was abandoned.

While awaiting trial in 2019, Epstein died by suicide in jail.

Dec. 9 (UPI) — A federal judge has ordered two senior Justice Department attorneys, including one fired by the Trump administration, to testify before the court in its inquiry into a March deportation flight that proceeded in defiance of court orders.

Chief Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., on Monday ordered Erez Reuveni, a former Justice Department attorney-turned-whistleblower, to testify the morning of Dec. 15. Drew Ensign, a senior Justice Department official, is to testify the afternoon of Dec. 16.

“Both sides shall appear in person at such hearings and will have the opportunity to question witnesses,” Boasberg said in his order.

The case centers on a March 15 deportation flight of 100 Venezuelans to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act, which was last used to deport Japanese Americans during World War II.

The flight departed amid litigation over President Donald Trump‘s invocation of the AEA. As it departed, Boasberg issued an order for the plane to return, which it did not occur.

Earlier this month, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem admitted she was responsible for allowing the plane to complete its flight, stating she made the decision prior to Boasberg issuing his temporary restraining order.

Boasberg has launched an inquiry to determine whether Noem’s decision was a willful violation of the court’s order.

In his order Monday, Boasberg said it “would be premature” to refer Noem for prosecution for criminal contempt and ordered the testimony of Reuveni and Ensign “to better understand the bases of the decision to transfer the deportees out of the United States’ custody in the context of the hearing on March 15, 2025.”

Reuveni, a 15-year DOJ veteran, was fired after acknowledging in court in April that the Trump administration wrongly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador.

After his firing, he filed a whistleblower complaint alleging that Emil Bove, a former criminal attorney on Trump’s personal defense team, directed the Trump administration to disregard a court order to stop the deportation flight.

Ensign is being asked to testify as the government’s attorney of record during the March 15 hearing.

Noem, in a brief Dec. 4 sworn statement to the court, said she made the decision for the deportation flight to continue, and had done so after receiving “privileged legal advice” from Trump administration counsel.

Dec. 9 (UPI) — Florida has designated the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations as foreign terrorist organizations, becoming the second GOP-led state in as many months to move against the Islamic groups.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a Monday statement that the designations were “EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY.”

“Florida agencies are hereby directed to undertake all lawful measures to prevent unlawful activities by these organizations, including denying privileges or resources to anyone providing material support,” the Republican governor and President Donald Trump ally said.

The executive order signed by DeSantis accuses the Muslim Brotherhood of supporting and being affiliated with “political entities and front organizations that engage in terrorism and funnel money to finance terrorist activities.”

CAIR, the order alleges, was founded by persons connected to the Muslim Brotherhood.

The order also designates them based on their alleged connections to Hamas, an Iran-backed militant group in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza.

The designations, issued under state authority and while mostly symbolic, can prohibit contracts with the groups and bar them state funds and resources, among other measures.

On the governor’s personal X account, DeSantis said that members of the GOP-controlled Florida legislature were “crafting legislation to stop the creep of sharia law, and I hope that they codify these protections for Floridians against CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood in their legislation.”

CAIR, and its Florida branch, were swift to respond, announcing they will sue Florida over the designation, which they called “defamatory and unconstitutional.”

The United States’ largest Muslim organization accused DeSantis of serving the Israeli government over residents of his state and of seeking to silence Americans critical of U.S. support for alleged Israeli war crimes.

“Gov. DeSantis knows full well that CAIR-Florida is an American civil rights organization that has spent decades advancing free speech, religious freedom and justice for all, including for the Palestinian people. That’s precisely why Gov. DeSantis is targeting our civil rights group,” CAIR National and CAIR-Florida said in a joint statement.

“We look forward to defeating Gov. DeSantis’ latest Israel First stunt in a court of law, where facts matter and conspiracy theories have no weight.”

The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in Egypt in the 1920s, renounced violence in the 1970s and now provides a mixture of religious teaching with political activism and social support, such as operating pharmacies, hospitals and schools, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.

CAIR was founded in 1994 with the mission to promote justice, protect civil rights and empower American Muslims. CAIR condemns all acts of terrorism by any group designated by the United States as a terrorist organization, including Hamas.

Neither the Muslim Brotherhood nor CAIR has been designated as terrorist organizations by the U.S. government.

However, President Donald Trump last month, via executive order, directed the Treasury and State Department to evaluate if any chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States should be blacklisted.

The Trump administration has accused the Muslim Brotherhood of fueling terrorism in the Middle East, highlighting actions by alleged members following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

The federal government, under Trump, has repeatedly taken action against individuals and organizations that have criticized Israel over its war in Gaza, including revoking visas from students studying in the United States and fining universities over alleged failures to protect Jewish students during pro-Palestine protests that erupted on their campuses.

Federal immigration authorities last month detained British journalist and political commentator Sami Hamdi, who was on a CAIR speaking tour in the United States. He was released a little more than a week later under an agreement with the United States to leave the country.

No explicit reason for his detention was given, though Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin had said “those who support terrorism and undermine American national security will not be allowed to work or visit the country.”

Texas was the first state to designate CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood on Nov. 18.

The arrest warrant for the country’s former president comes amid a closely-fought election.

Honduras’s top prosecutor has issued an international arrest warrant for former President Juan Orlando Hernandez, intensifying legal and political turmoil just days after the ex-leader walked free from a United States prison.

Attorney General Johel Antonio Zelaya announced the move on Monday in a post on X, saying he instructed the Agencia Técnica de Investigación Criminal, the main investigative body of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, and urged Interpol “to execute the international arrest warrant against former President Juan Orlando Hernández”.

Hemos sido lacerados por los tentáculos de la corrupción y por las redes criminales que han marcado profundamente la vida de nuestro país. Es por ello que en el marco del Día Internacional Contra la Corrupción que se conmemora mañana 9 de diciembre, informo al pueblo hondureño… pic.twitter.com/8V4cpyrKq2

— Johel Antonio Zelaya Alvarez (@jaza_hn) December 8, 2025

Zelaya’s announcement comes as Hernandez was released from a 45-year prison sentence in the US after President Donald Trump pardoned him.

Hernandez’s wife, who insists he is innocent, said he will not return to Honduras immediately due to safety concerns and that he is currently in a “safe place” in the US.

Hernandez was extradited to the US in 2022, where New York prosecutors had accused him of three drug- and weapons-related offences and alleged he used his presidency to transform Honduras into a “narco-state”.

US prosecutors later secured a conviction, saying Hernandez played a central role in moving cocaine through Honduras and onward to the United States. He was handed a 45-year prison sentence on the back of “one of the largest and most violent drug trafficking conspiracies in the world”, according to prosecutors.

At the same time, Hernandez has been at the centre of investigations in his country that have targeted current and former politicians suspected of diverting public money. In 2023, along with several former officials, he was charged with involvement in the alleged misappropriation of more than $12m in state funds for his political campaign.

Trump’s decision to pardon Hernandez came as he urged Hondurans to rally behind presidential candidate Nasry “Tito” Asfura, a member of Hernandez’s right-wing National Party, in the country’s November 30 presidential election.

“I will be granting a Full and Complete Pardon to Former President Juan Orlando Hernandez who has been, according to many people that I greatly respect, treated very harshly and unfairly”, Trump wrote in a social media post last week.

With 97 percent of ballots counted, Asfura held 40.52 percent of the vote, remaining ahead of centrist rival Salvador Nasralla by roughly 42,100 votes.

The tally had already been halted temporarily on Friday with 88 percent of ballots processed. According to the National Electoral Council (CNE), about 16 percent of tally sheets contained irregularities requiring further review, an issue it attributed to the company managing the vote-counting system.

International observers have urged authorities to speed up the counting process and take steps to reassure voters of its integrity.

US President Donald Trump has cleared the way for tech giant Nvidia to sell its advanced H200 chip to China, in a significant easing of Washington’s export controls targeting Chinese tech.

Trump said on Monday that he had informed Chinese President Xi Jinping of the decision to allow the export of the chip under an arrangement that will see 25 percent of sales paid to the US government.

Trump said exports would be allowed to “approved customers” under conditions that protect national security, and that his administration would take the “same approach” in relation to other chipmakers, such as AMD and Intel.

“This policy will support American Jobs, strengthen U.S. Manufacturing, and benefit American Taxpayers,” Trump said on Truth Social.

Nvidia, which is based in Santa Clara, California, said the move struck a “thoughtful balance” and would “support high paying jobs and manufacturing in America”.

Nvidia shares jumped more than 2 percent in after-hours trading on the news.

Trump’s announcement marks a major departure from the policy of former President Joe Biden’s administration, which confined Nvidia and other chipmakers to exporting downgraded versions of their products specifically designed for the Chinese market.

In his Truth Social post, Trump slammed the Biden administration’s approach, claiming it had led to US tech companies spending billions of dollars on downgraded products that “nobody wanted”.

The H200, launched in 2023, is Nvidia’s most powerful chip outside of the latest-generation Blackwell series, which Trump confirmed would continue to be restricted for the Chinese market.

While not Nvidia’s most advanced chip, the H200 is almost six times as powerful as the previous generation H20 chip, according to the Washington-based Institute for Progress, a non-partisan think tank.

Under an agreement with the Trump administration announced in August, Nvidia agreed to pay the US government 15 percent of revenues from its sales of the H20, which was designed to comply with restrictions imposed on the Chinese market.

Tilly Zhang, an expert on Chinese tech at Gavekal Dragonomics, said Trump’s decision reflected “market realities” as well as intense lobbying by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.

“The priority is moving away from purely blocking or slowing China’s tech progress, more towards competing for market share and securing the commercial benefits of selling their own tech solutions,” Zhang told Al Jazeera.

As blocking China’s tech advancement becomes increasingly unrealistic, “gaining more market share and revenue is turning into a higher priority”, Zhang said.

“That’s what this US move signals to me.”

Zhang said the race between China and the US to dominate artificial intelligence had shifted from export controls towards market competition.

“That might push chipmakers on both sides towards faster innovation, and bring more market dynamics,” she said.

Trump’s announcement drew a swift rebuke from Democratic lawmakers.

US Senator Elizabeth Warren, who represents Massachusetts, accused the Trump administration of “selling out US security”.

“Trump is letting NVIDIA export cutting-edge AI chips that his own DOJ revealed are being illegally smuggled into China,” Warren said on X, referring to multiple probes into illegal chip shipments carried out by the US Department of Justice.

“His own DOJ called these chips ‘building blocks of AI superiority’.”

Chris McGuire, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said Trump’s move was a blow to US efforts to stay ahead of China in the race to dominate AI.

“Loosening export controls on AI chips will allow Chinese AI firms to close the gap with frontier US AI models, and will allow Chinese cloud computing providers to build ‘good enough’ data centres around the world,” McGuire, who worked on tech policy in Biden’s White House, told Al Jazeera.

“This risks undermining the administration’s efforts to ensure the US AI stack dominates globally.”

Dec. 8 (UPI) — Dr. Gabrielle Henry suffered an intracranial hemorrhage when she fell from the stage as Miss Jamaica during preliminary competition of the Miss Universe pageant last month.

The Miss Universe Organization gave an update Monday in a news release, saying she suffered loss of consciousness, a fracture, facial lacerations “and other significant injuries” on Nov. 19.

That day, Miss Universe Jamaica posted on Facebook she was “not suffering any life-threatening injuries; however they continue to conduct tests to ensure her full recovery.”

The 28-year-old physician was caught on video in the fall while wearing a long, flowing orange dress on Nov. 19. She was admitted in intensive care at a hospital Bangkok, according the the release.

“Certain media reports suggesting that Dr. Henry contributed in any way to the incident are entirely inaccurate,” the organization said. “The Miss Universe Organization has never attributed blame to Dr. Henry and confirms that those suggestions are unfounded and do not reflect the facts.”

Henry has remained in critical condition under neurological monitoring and requires 24-hour specialist supervision, the organization said.

“From the time the incident took place, the Miss Universe Organization has stood beside Gabrielle and her family as if she were their own, assuming full and immediate responsibility without hesitation,” the release read.

In a few days, Henry will return to Jamaica with a full medical escort team and transferred directly to a hospital in her home country for continued treatment and recovery, the organization said.

The organization has covered all hospital, medical and rehabilitation expenses in Thailand, as well as the accommodation and living costs for her mother and sister.

The organization also said it’s paying for Henry’s medically escorted flight home to Jamaica and has committed to covering all future medical expenses from this incident.

“The Henry family is deeply grateful to the Miss Universe Organization for their unwavering compassion, presence and love shown,” the release said. “Their response so far has gone beyond professional responsibility and reflected devotion and protection of the family.”

The release ended: “Dr. Henry and her family extend their heartfelt thanks to the people of Jamaica, the Miss Universe community, and supporters worldwide for the overwhelming outpouring of love, prayers, and encouragement.”

Miss Universe Jamaica posted an updated profile of her on Jan. 9, 10 days before her fall.

Miss Mexico Fatima Bosch was crowned Miss Universe on Nov. 21. It was broadcast live on Telemundo and streamed on Peacock.

In early November, Miss Universe Thailand director Nawat Itsaragrisil called her “stupid” during a livestreamed speech to contestants on Nov. 4. Several contestants walked out after the comments.

The pageant has been marred by other controversies: Jakkaphong “Anne” Jakrajutatip of Thailandout as CEO, financial instability, accusations of rigged judging and resignations by two of them, and protests by several contestants.

The co-owners of the Miss Universe Organization are facing charges: Jakkaphong with failing to appear at a hearing involving fraud and Rocha Cantu of Mexico on accusations that include drug and fuel trafficking.

Thai police investigated allegations that event publicity included illegal promotion of online casinos.

Brigitta Schaback, who represented Estonia, announced that she was stepping down from her title.

The next day, Olivia Yace, who was the pageant’s fourth runner-up as Miss African and Oceania, also resigned. She added that she was also removing herself from “any future affiliation with the Miss Universe Committee.”

Days before the pageant began on Nov. 2, Mario Bucaro of Guatemala succeeded Jakrajutatip, who resigned from the position on June 20.

Donald Trump owned the pagent from 1996-2015 when he sold it to WME/IMG. In 2022, Thai media conglomerate JKN Global Group, led by Jakrajutatip, purchased the organization. In early 2024, JKN sold a 50% stake to Cantu’s Legacy Holding Group USA.

The Trump administration has accused ICEBlock of making federal agents vulnerable to attack and called for its removal.

The developer of a popular app used to monitor and share alerts about immigration enforcement activities has sued the administration of United States President Donald Trump for pressuring Apple to remove it.

ICEBlock, whose name refers to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), had one million users before it was dropped from Apple’s app store, according to a lawsuit filed on Monday.

Developer Joshua Aaron alleged in the complaint that the Trump administration’s campaign against the tracking app amounted to a violation of free speech.

“When we see our government doing something wrong, it’s our duty as citizens of this nation to hold them accountable, and that is exactly what we’re doing with this lawsuit,” Aaron said in the lawsuit.

The suit calls on the district court system to protect the Texas-based software company from “unlawful threats” under the Trump administration.

It also names as defendants some of Trump’s highest-level officials, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and ICE’s acting director, Todd Lyons.

First released in April, ICEBlock quickly became a widely used tool across the US as communities sought ways to share information about immigration raids.

Since returning to office for a second term, Trump has pushed a campaign of mass deportation, targeting a wide range of immigrants, many of whom are in the country legally.

Those raids, many carried out by heavily armed immigration agents in military-style attire, have also faced repeated accusations of human rights abuses.

Critics have questioned the violence used in some arrests, as well as the ICE officers’ use of face masks and plainclothes to conceal their identities.

There have also been reports of inhumane conditions once immigrants are in custody, including overcrowding, a lack of sanitation and faeces-smeared walls.

Human rights advocates have also questioned the speed with which deportations are being carried out, claiming the immigrants arrested have no opportunity to exercise their due process rights and are often prevented from contacting lawyers.

Even US citizens have been accidentally detained in the immigration sweeps. Some immigrants have been deported despite court orders mandating that they remain in the US.

The Trump administration has faced fierce criticism and judicial rebukes for its tactics.

But it maintains that software like ICEBlock puts federal immigration agents in danger of retaliation.

“ICEBlock is designed to put ICE agents at risk just for doing their jobs, and violence against law enforcement is an intolerable red line,” Attorney General Bondi has said.

In October, ICEBlock was pulled from Apple’s app store, a popular platform for downloading mobile software. The Justice Department confirmed that it had contacted Apple to push for the removal.

The lawsuit states that the tech company told Aaron the app had been removed following “information provided to Apple by law enforcement”.

Aaron has countered that the app is an exercise of essential free speech rights and is meant to help protect people from overbearing government activity.

“We’re basically asking the court to set a precedent and affirm that ICEBlock is, in fact, First Amendment-protected speech and that I did nothing wrong by creating it,” Aaron told The Associated Press news agency in an interview.

“I mean, these are people that are wearing masks — which is the antithesis of everything about this country — and they are not identifying themselves, and they’re zip-tying children, and they’re throwing women into vans.”

Dec. 8 (UPI) — Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a Democrat and fierce Trump critic, announced Monday she was launching a high-stakes U.S. Senate campaign in Texas, the same day Democratic primary opponent Colin Allred dropped out.

Crockett, who filed just hours before the deadline, will face Democratic Rep. James Talarico of Austin in the March 3rd primary, as she tries to turn incumbent Republican Sen. John Cornyn‘s seat from red to blue.

“For too long, Texas has elected senators who have defended politics as usual and protected the status quo, while Texans have paid the price,” Crockett said on her website. “We’ve had senators who have pushed the American Dream further and further out of reach.”

“I’m running for the U.S. Senate because I believe Texas deserves a senator who will be an independent voice for all 30 million Texans — not a rubber stamp or party line vote for Donald Trump.”

Crockett’s primary opponent Talarico on Monday welcomed her to the race after Allred dropped out.

“We’re building a movement in Texas — fueled by record-breaking grassroots fundraising and 10,000 volunteers who are putting in the work to defeat the billionaire mega-donors and puppet politicians who have taken over our state,” Talarico said. “Our movement is rooted in unity over division — so we welcome Congresswoman Crockett into this race.”

Rep. Allred of Dallas decided Monday not to run in the U.S. Senate primary and opted instead to run for the newly-drawn 33rd Congressional District in Dallas County after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last week that the redrawn map, which favors Republicans, could be used in the 2026 election.

In a statement, Allred admitted Crockett played a part in his decision to drop out.

“In the past few days, I’ve come to believe that a bruising Senate Democratic primary and runoff would prevent the Democratic party from going into this critical election unified against the danger posed to our communities and our Constitution by Donald Trump and one of his Republican bootlickers Paxton, Cornyn or Hunt,” Allred said earlier Monday.

The winner of the Democratic Senate primary will face one of three Republican primary opponents in the midterm elections, Republican incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, Attorney General Ken Paxton or U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt.

On Monday, Paxton commented in a post on X saying, “everyone knows Crockett will be soundly defeated,” as he also focused on Cornyn’s campaign spending and lower standing in the polls.

Paxton has been vocal about Texas’ redrawn district map and the order’s appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Last month, he predicted the Supreme Court would “uphold Texas’s sovereign right to engage in partisan redistricting,” after he criticized partisan gerrymandering in Democratic-led states, including California, Illinois and New York.

Texas Republicans have not lost a statewide office in more than three decades. Crockett’s decision to run for the Senate also opens up the 30th Congressional District seat she has held since 2023.

Dec. 8 (UPI) — U.S. President Donald Trump announced Monday a $12 billion dollar aid package to help American farmers hit hard by inflation, tariffs and China’s trade war to “provide much needed certainty” for next year’s crops.

Trump unveiled the aid package with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins at a White House roundtable, where they were joined by farmers in soybean, corn, rice, cattle, potatoes, sorghum and the cotton industry.

“I’m delighted to announce this afternoon that the United States will be taking a small portion of the hundreds of billions of dollars we receive in tariffs … We’re going to use that money to provide $12 billion in economic assistance to American Farmers,” Trump said.

“This relief will provide much needed certainty to farmers as they get this year’s harvest to market and look ahead to next year’s crops, and it’ll help them continue their efforts to lower food prices for American families,” Trump added.

Rollins said farmers can begin applying for the one-time funding within the next few weeks. The money will be distributed before Feb. 28.

A White House spokesperson said Monday’s rollout reflected Trump’s “commitment to helping our farmers, who will have the support they need.”

“We are going to create this bridge because, again, agriculture is all about the future, you’ve got to start financing for planting next year, when things will be very good,” Bessent said Sunday.

Monday’s aid announcement is the latest effort to help U.S. farmers negatively affected by the president’s tariff policies and other factors, such as a drop in crop prices. Farmers lost billions of dollars in sales after China stopped buying U.S. soybeans in May to retaliate against Trump’s tariffs.

The White House said last month that China plans to buy at least 12 million metric tons of soybeans, sorghum and “other farm products” before the end of the year, after Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping reached a preliminary trade agreement in October.

“Since my successful meeting in South Korea with President Xi, purchases have been made, and soybeans are being exported out of the United States to China as we speak,” Trump told Monday’s roundtable.

The Agriculture Department confirmed last week a half million more metric tons of soybeans, sorghum and wheat were being shipped to Chinese shores.

Last month, the American Farm Bureau Federation issued a warning that aid was “urgently needed” as the money needed to grow crops exceeded farming revenues and farm bankruptcies were starting to rise.

Monday’s package sets aside $11 billion in one-off checks for crop producers under the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farmer Bridge Assistance initiative, while another $1 billion is reserved for commodities that fall outside that program’s coverage.

“President Trump is helping our agriculture industry by negotiating new trade deals to open new export markets for our farmers and boosting the farm safety net for the first time in a decade,” stated White House spokesperson Anna Kelly.

Rollins revealed last week that the federal government was planning to issue the bridge payments to farmers.

“What you’ve been able to do is open those markets up and again, move toward an era where our farmers are not so reliant on government checks, but have the markets to sell their product,” Rollins said. “Having said that, we do have a bridge payment we’ll be announcing with you next week, as we’re still trying to recover from the Biden years.”

On Monday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, accused Trump of taking credit for fixing his own mess.

“Trump’s tariffs are hammering our farmers, making it more expensive to grow food and pushing farmers into bankruptcy,” Schumer said. “Farmers need markets to sell to — not a consolation prize for the ones he wrecked.”

On Monday, Iowa cattle and soybean farmer Cordt Holub told Trump he appreciated the bridge payments, saying, “it’s Christmas early for farmers.”

Farmers have been dogged by trade wars that have seen reduced purchases and increased prices on seeds and fertiliser.

United States President Donald Trump has announced a $12bn aid package to help farmers harmed by his hardline tariff policies.

Trump announced the package at a White House event on Monday, saying the money would come from funds raised by tariffs.

“What we’re doing is we’re is taking a relatively small portion of that, and we’re going to be giving and providing it to the farmers in economic assistance,” Trump said.

Since taking office, Trump has used emergency powers to pursue a sweeping tariff agenda, including imposing reciprocal tariffs on nearly all US trade and escalating a trade war with China.

While Washington and Beijing have since begun to de-escalate some of their tensions, the tit-for-tat has spelt a challenging year for farmers.

Despite record harvests in the US, China has increasingly turned to South America for agricultural products, notably soya beans and sorghum. They have also faced higher seed and fertiliser prices as a knock-on effect of the tariffs.

The Trump administration has been acutely aware of the impact, given Trump’s staunch support among many farmers during the 2024 election.

Trump referenced that support on Monday, saying, “We love our farmers.”

“And as you know, the farmers like me … because based on, based on voting trends, you could call it voting trends or anything else,” he said.

Before the White House event, a Trump administration official said up to $11bn in the new aid would go to the newly created Farmer Bridge Assistance, a programme for row crop farmers hurt by trade disputes and higher costs.

It was still being determined where the other $1bn would be allocated, the official said.

The Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute at the University of Missouri has estimated that net farm income could fall by more than $30bn in 2026 due to a decline in government payments and low crop prices.

Soya bean farmers, meanwhile, are expected to see their third consecutive year of losses in 2025, according to the American Soybean Association, a decline that preceded Trump’s tariffs.

The Trump administration has sought to paint a rosier picture, pointing to an agreement between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping for Beijing to buy 12 million metric tonnes of US soya beans by the end of the calendar year. Beijing also agreed to buy 25 million metric tonnes per year for the next three years.

While China has since purchased only a fraction of its promised total in 2025, White House officials have said it is on track to meet the target.

US farmers typically receive billions of dollars in federal subsidies each year.

All told, farmers were set to receive a near-record $40bn in government payments this year, fuelled by an array of disaster relief funding and economic aid.

Former Rep. Colin Allred is ending his U.S. Senate campaign in Texas and instead will attempt a House comeback bid, potentially paving the way for Rep. Jasmine Crockett to enter the race for Democrats’ nomination in a state that is critical for the party’s long-shot hopes to reclaim a Senate majority in next year’s midterm elections.

Crockett, a high-profile House member who has sparred with President Trump, is expected to announce her decision on Monday, the final day of qualifying in Texas. Democrats expect she will enter the race for the seat now held by Republican Sen. John Cornyn. Democrats need a net gain of four Senate seats to wrest control from Republicans next November, and Texas, which Republicans have dominated for decades, is part of their ideal path.

Allred said in a statement Monday that he wanted to avoid “a bruising Senate primary and runoff” that could threaten Democrats’ chances in November. He said he would instead run for the House in a newly drawn district in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, which he previously represented in Congress before he won the Democrats’ Senate nomination in 2024 and lost the general election to Sen. Ted Cruz.

The former congressman did not name Crockett or state Rep. James Talarico, who has launched his Senate bid already, in his explanation. But Allred’s decision aligns with Crockett’s expected entry into the race. Her campaign has scheduled a “special announcement” in Dallas at 4:30 p.m. CST.

Republicans also expect a hotly contested primary among the incumbent Cornyn, state Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton and U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt.

Allred says he wants to avoid a divisive Democratic primary

An internal party battle, Allred said, “would prevent the Democratic Party from going into this critical election unified against the danger posed to our communities and our Constitution by Donald Trump and one of his Republican bootlickers.”

Kamau Marshall, a Democratic consultant who has worked for Allred before and worked other campaigns in Texas, said Allred made the right call. But he said Talarico and Crockett both face distinct challenges and added that Democrats have work to do across the nation’s second-most populous state.

He said Crockett is a “solid national figure” who has a large social media following and is a frequent presence on cable news. That could be an advantage with Democratic primary voters, Marshall said, but not necessarily afterward.

“It’s going to be a sprint from now until the primary, but in Texas you have to think about the voter base overall in November, too,” Marshall said. “Who can do the work on the ground? After the primary, who can win in the general? … It’s about building complicated coalitions in a big state.”

Talarico, meanwhile, must raise money and build name recognition to make the leap from the Texas House of Representatives to a strong statewide candidate, Marshall said.

A winning Democratic candidate in Texas, Marshall said, would have to energize Black voters, mainly in metro Houston and Dallas, win the kind of diverse suburbs and exurbs like those Allred once represented in Congress, and get enough rural votes, especially among Latinos in the Rio Grande Valley.

Texas Democrats have big gaps to make up

The closest Democrats have come recently to a top-of-the-ticket victory in Texas elections was Beto O’Rourke’s challenge of Republican Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018. O’Rourke campaigned in all 254 counties — a notable feat for Texas Democrats — and got 48.3% of the vote. But that was still a statewide deficit of 215,000 votes. Just four years later, O’Rourke was the gubernatorial nominee and lost to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott by more than 880,000 votes, a gap of nearly 11 percentage points. In 2024, Allred lost the Senate general election by nearly 960,000 votes or 8.5 points.

Allred’s new House district is part of the new congressional map that Texas’ GOP-run Legislature approved earlier this year as part of Trump’s push to redraw House boundaries to Republicans’ advantage. It includes some areas that Allred represented in Congress from 2019-25. Most of the district is currently being represented by Rep. Marc Veasey, but he has planned to run in a new, neighboring district.

A former professional football player and civil rights attorney, Allred was among Democrats’ star recruits for the 2018 midterms, when the party gained a net of 40 House seats, including multiple suburban and exurban districts in Texas, to win a House majority that redefined Trump’s first presidency.

Besides avoiding a free-for-all Senate primary, Marshall said Allred is helping Democrats’ cause by becoming a candidate for another office, and he said that’s a key for the party to have any shot at flipping the state.

“The infrastructure isn’t terrible but it clearly needs improvement,” he said. “Having strong, competitive candidates for every office is part of building that energy and operation. Texas needs strong candidates in House races, for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general — every office — so that voters are hearing from Democrats everywhere.”

Barrow writes for the Associated Press.

Dec. 8 (UPI) — Former U.S. Rep. Colin Allred announced Monday he’s dropping his U.S. Senate campaign and will instead run for a newly redrawn district on the U.S. House of Representatives.

In a statement posted to X, Allred said he wants to avoid a “bruising” Democratic primary for the Senate.

“In the past few days, I’ve come to believe that a bruising Senate Democratic primary and runoff would prevent the Democratic Party from going into this critical election unified against the danger posed to our communities and our Constitution by [President] Donald Trump and one of his Republican bootlickers,” he said, referring to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn and U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt.

“That’s why I’ve made the difficult decision to end my campaign for the U.S. Senate.”

Allred is instead running for the 33rd Congressional District, which is currently represented in the House by Rep. Marc Veasey, a Democrat. But after Texas redrew its congressional map this year, Veasey’s base was no longer in the 33rd District; he plans to run for the 30th District next year, an unnamed source told The Texas Tribune.

Both the old and new boundaries of the 33rd District is a meandering region including parts of Dallas and Tarrant Counties, and the eastern half of Fort Worth. The new map, reaches farther north and changes some of the boundaries in western Dallas County.

Allred was elected in 2018 to the U.S. House to represent the 32nd District, which encompassed a swath of eastern Dallas County. He flipped the district from red to blue.

“The 33rd District was racially gerrymandered by Trump in an effort to further rig our democracy, but it’s also the community where I grew up attending public schools and watching my mom struggle to pay for our groceries,” Allred said in his Monday statement.

Voting rights advocates and Democrats took the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature to the Supreme Court over the redrawn congressional map, accusing the Republicans of gerrymandering based on racial population. The high court last week gave Texas permission to use the new map in the next midterm elections.

“On January 6th, I was prepared to physically fight to defend our democracy,” Allred said. “Today, the danger we face from Donald Trump is even greater and has added a level of corruption and rigging of our economy that has made it harder than ever for Texans.”

EU leader Costa and the German government have hit back at a US security strategy harshly critical of Europe.

European Council President Antonio Costa and the German government have lambasted a new US national security strategy that paints Europe as a troubled, declining power that may one day lose its usefulness as an ally to Washington.

The remarks on Monday from the European Union’s leading economy and one of its top officials delivered a stinging rebuke to the National Security Strategy released on Friday by the administration of US President Donald Trump.

The 33-page document contains scathing criticism of the continent, claiming it is facing the “prospect of civilisational erasure” due to migration, scorning it for “censorship of free speech” and suppression of anti-immigration movements, and suggesting that the US may withdraw the security umbrella it has long held over it.

The stoush over the strategy, playing out as Washington ramps up pressure on Ukraine to agree to a plan to end the war with Russia, reflects what EU leader Costa said was a “changed” relationship between the US and Europe.

“We need to focus on building a Europe that must understand that the relationships between allies and the post-World War II alliances have changed,” Costa said at the Jacques Delors Institute, a think tank in Paris.

In response to the strategy document’s comments on free speech, Costa warned, “There will never be free speech if the freedom of information of citizens is sacrificed for the aims of the tech oligarchs in the United States.”

Costa strongly criticised allegations that free speech is being censored in Europe and said only European citizens can decide which parties should govern them.

“What we cannot accept is this threat of interference in Europe’s political life. The United States cannot replace European citizens in deciding which are the right parties and the wrong parties,” Costa said.

“The United States cannot replace Europe in its vision of freedom of speech,” he noted, adding, “Our history has taught us that there is no freedom of speech without freedom of information.”

‘Ideology, not strategy’

In Berlin, Sebastian Hille, a deputy spokesperson for the German government, said some of the criticisms in the document were “ideology rather than strategy”.

“Political freedoms, including the right to freedom of expression, are among the fundamental values of the EU,” he said.

He said Berlin also disagreed with the document’s failure to classify Russia, which in February 2022 launched a full-scale invasion of neighbouring Ukraine, as a threat.

“We stand by NATO’s joint analysis, according to which Russia is a danger and a threat to trans-Atlantic security,” he added.

Divisions over Russia

The US strategy document makes clear that Washington wants to improve its relationship with Moscow, saying that it has a “core interest” in ending the conflict with Ukraine to “reestablish strategic stability with Russia”, while hitting out at European officials’ “unrealistic expectations” for a solution to the war.

An initial US plan for ending the war, which would have allowed Russia to hold on to large territories in eastern Ukraine, sparked criticism from European leaders amid concerns that Washington is trying to force Kyiv to accept unfavourable terms.

The plan has since been altered, first with input from Ukraine alongside its European allies and then in meetings between Ukrainian and US officials. The full details of the proposal as it stands have not been disclosed.

By contrast, Moscow has welcomed Trump’s strategy document.

Costa said that given the strategy document’s position on Ukraine, “we can understand why Moscow shares [its] vision.”

“The objective in this strategy is not a fair and durable peace. It’s only [about] the end of hostilities, and the stability of relations with Russia,” he said.

“Everyone wants stable relations with Russia,” Costa said, but “we can’t have stable relations with Russia when Russia remains a threat to our security”.

Trump has vowed to unleash AI competitiveness, but removing state oversight riles members of his Republican Party.

United States President Donald Trump has said he will sign an executive order creating “one rulebook” for artificial intelligence (AI) development.

The announcement on Monday via Trump’s Truth Social account represented the US president’s latest effort to remove AI barriers, a priority of his administration that has raised concerns related to oversight of the transformative technology.

Trump said the so-called “one rule executive order” would override state approvals of AI, although the legality of such a presidential action remained unclear.

“There must be only One Rulebook if we are going to continue to lead in AI,” he said. “We are beating ALL COUNTRIES at this point in the race, but that won’t last long if we are going to have 50 States, many of them bad actors, involved in RULES and the APPROVAL PROCESS.”

“THERE CAN BE NO DOUBT ABOUT THIS! AI WILL BE DESTROYED IN ITS INFANCY!” Trump added, employing his typical use of all-capital letters.

The announcement comes as the White House has pushed for provisions creating a federal AI framework to be added to this year’s defence budget.

The initiative has divided members of Trump’s Republican Party, which has traditionally strongly supported the rights of states and a smaller federal government.

Opponents included Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, formerly a staunch supporter of Trump, who has broken with him on several issues.

“States must retain the right to regulate and make laws on AI and anything else for the benefit of their state,” she wrote in November.

State lawmakers from across the political spectrum have also warned against federal actions that would override state policies.

“In recent years, legislatures across the country have passed AI-related measures to strengthen consumer transparency, guide responsible government procurement, protect patients, and support artists and creators,” they wrote in a letter to Congress in November.

“These laws represent careful, good-faith work to safeguard constituents from clear and immediate AI-related harms. A federal preemption measure on state AI laws risks sweeping these protections aside and leaving communities exposed,” they said.

Trump has maintained close ties with AI and tech leaders since taking office in January.

He has already signed an executive order calling for the removal of “barriers” to AI innovation. He has also published a so-called AI action plan and an AI “Genesis Mission”.

He compared the latter to the Manhattan Project programme, which led to the creation of the world’s first nuclear weapons.

Dec. 8 (UPI) — The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments Monday about President Donald Trump‘s firing of Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter in a case that could upend 90 years of precedent.

The high court’s decision, which is expected in the summer, could allow presidents to remove independent regulators without just cause. If the Supreme Court sides with Trump, it would go directly against the court’s 1935 ruling in Humphrey’s Executor vs. United States, which upheld the FTC’s protections from removal as constitutional.

According to the 1935 Supreme Court decision, FTC commissioners may only be dismissed from their jobs “by the president for inefficiency, neglect of duty or malfeasance in office.”

In March, Trump fired Democratic FTC commissioners Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya, both of whom claimed the terminations were illegal.

The FTC is a bipartisan, independent federal agency that works to protect consumers from questionable business practices. Slaughter said preventing the president from being able to terminate commissioners without just cause allows the FTC to remain independent.

“Independence allows the decision-making that is done by these boards and commissions to be on the merits, about the facts and about protecting the interests of the American people,” she said, according to NPR. “That is what Americans deserve from their government.”

Trump, meanwhile, insisted his executive power gives him the ability to fire workers at independent agencies. In September, the Supreme Court agreed with Trump, allowing him to fire Slaughter through a brief administrative stay on a lower court’s order blocking the termination.

Trump appointed Slaughter, a Democrat, to the FTC in 2018. Former President Joe Biden then appointed her to be acting chair of the agency before nominating her for a new term. The Senate confirmed that nomination, giving her a second seven-year term starting in 2024.

The Hill reported that U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer will represent the U.S. government in Monday’s Supreme Court hearing.

“The court should repudiate anything that remains of Humphrey’s Executor and ensure that the president, not multimember agency heads, controls the executive power that Article II vests in him alone,” Sauer said in court filings.

Chinese exports climb as exporters reroute shipments to other markets amid slump in shipments to the US.

China’s annual trade surplus in goods has topped $1 trillion for the first time, with plunging exports to the United States amid a tariff war more than compensated for by shipments to other markets, new data shows.

Figures released by China’s General Administration of Customs on Monday showed the trade surplus for the first 11 months of the year hit $1.08 trillion in November, as exports climbed 5.9 percent year-on-year that month, reversing a 1.1 percent decline the month prior.

The leap came despite a continued slump in exports to the US, which fell 28.6 percent to $33.8bn last month, the data showed.

Beijing and Washington have been locked in a bitter trade war involving hefty tariffs during the second administration of US President Donald Trump, forcing Chinese exporters to pivot to other markets – although the leaders of the world’s two largest economies agreed to pause the hostilities during a meeting in South Korea in October.

“China’s trade surplus this year has already surpassed last year’s level, and we expect it to widen further next year,” Zichun Huang of Capital Economics wrote in a note.

Huang said the weakness in exports to the US was “more than offset by shipments to other markets”.

Exports were “likely to remain resilient”, Huang added, due to trade rerouting and rising price competitiveness for Chinese goods, as deflation pushed down its real effective exchange rate.

French warnings over surplus

Exports have proven critical to China’s economy as it grapples with a debt crisis in the property sector and sluggish domestic spending, impacting its growth.

But China’s towering trade surplus has rankled leading Western trading partners, with French President Emmanuel Macron the latest to threaten action if the imbalance is not addressed.

Macron, fresh from a state visit to China, in an interview with the French newspaper Les Echos on Sunday, warned that Europe could follow the US in imposing tariffs on Beijing if the surplus were not reduced in the coming months.

Exports to the European Union grew by an annual 14.8 percent last month, while shipments to Australia rose 35.8 percent. Meanwhile, the fast-growing Southeast Asian economies took in 8.2 percent more goods over the same period.

That boosted China’s trade surplus to $111.68bn in November, the highest since June, from $90.07bn recorded the previous month, and above a forecast of $100.2bn.

Zhiwei Zhang, president and chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management, wrote in a note that November’s rebound of export growth had helped to “mitigate the weak domestic demand”, amid a slowdown in economic momentum being partly driven by weakness in the property sector.

In an indication of China’s weak domestic consumption, new customs data showed that imports rose 1.9 percent on-year in November, less than had been predicted.