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Nov. 20 (UPI) — Charlotte, N.C., officials said Thursday that U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents have left the city, but the Department of Homeland Security insisted that agents are still enforcing immigration law there.

Shortly after the Mecklenburg, N.C., County sheriff announced that agents had left Charlotte, the Trump administration pushed back.

“Wrong. Operation Charlotte’s Web isn’t ending anytime soon,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said.

CBP had agents in Charlotte for nearly a week, and DHS said Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents would continue to enforce laws in the city while also transitioning CBP agents to New Orleans.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, CBP has been in touch with officials in Louisiana about mobilizing and deploying agents to New Orleans after Thanksgiving, NBC News reported.

The Department of Homeland Security’s immigration enforcement action known as “Operation Charlotte’s Web” resulted in the arrests of more than 250 people which prompted fear among residents and business owners, local media reported.

The Charlotte operation was the latest in a series of immigration enforcement actions in several large U.S. cities, including Los Angeles, Portland and Chicago, where many of those arrested did not have criminal records, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Local law enforcement and state leaders have pushed back on federal law presence in their cities, saying additional enforcement personnel are not necessary to police municipalities.

At least 250 Border Patrol agents are scheduled to begin arriving in New Orleans Friday, where officials have said they expect as many as 5,000 arrests, local media reported.

Nov. 20 (UPI) — A former congressional staff member has been accused of faking a violent attack against her at a New Jersey park, according to the criminal complaint.

Natalie Greene, 26, allegedly paid a body modification artist to etch wounds onto her skin and then claimed she had been assaulted in a politically motivated attack in July, according to the complaint announced Wednesday.

Greene, of Ocean City, N.J., has been charged with one count of conspiracy to convey false statements and hoaxes, and one count of making false statements to federal law enforcement, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey.

Greene previously worked for Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., his office told NBC News.

“We are deeply saddened by today’s news, and while Natalie is no longer associated with the Congressman’s government office, our thoughts and prayers are with her,” said Aaron Paxton, a spokesperson for Van Dew’s office. “We hope she’s getting the care she needs.”

Prosecutors allege that Greene and an accomplice called 911 on July 23, claiming that they had been attacked by three armed men at Egg Harbor Township state park.

Police located Greene in a wooded area bound with zip ties, with lacerations on her head and chest, according to the criminal complaint. A sexual slur referencing President Donald Trump and a statement calling her former employer a “racist” were written on her stomach, according to photos from the alleged crime scene included in the complaint.

“The investigation revealed that Greene had not, in fact, been attacked by three men at gunpoint on July 23,” the U.S. attorney’s statement said. “Instead, Green had paid a modification and scarification artist to deliberately cut the lacerations on her face, neck, upper chest and shoulder, based on a pattern that she had provided beforehand.”

Law enforcement agents who investigated the incident said they found zip ties in Greene’s car similar to the ones used in the alleged attack. Investigators also found a “zip ties near me” search on her co-conspirator’s phone, prosecutors said.

A search of Greene’s phone found messages with a body modification artist in Pennsylvania, who gave police $500 in receipts for the scarring and apparent injuries he did for Greene. Her phone also allegedly showed a Reddit profile that followed posts for “bodymods” and “scarification,” the court documents state.

Greene told an FBI agent after she was discovered following the attack that she had been receiving threatening messages at work. The alleged co-conspirator who called 911 relayed details of the incident to the dispatcher.

“They were attacking her,” they told the 911 operator. “They were like talking about politics and stuff. They were like calling her names. They were like calling her racist, calling her a whore,” the co-conspirator added.

Greene’s attorney, Louis Barbone, told ABC News that Greene is innocent until proven guilty.

“At the age of 26, my client served her community working full time to assist the constituents of the Congressman with loyalty and fidelity,” a statement from Barbone said. “She did that while being a full time student. Under the law, she is presumed innocent and reserves all of her defenses for presentation in court of law.

Following her arraignment Wednesday, Greene was released on a $200,000 bond, the U.S. attorney’s office said. She faces up to 10 years in prison and a $500,000 fine if convicted.

Nov. 20 (UPI) — Using digital devices creates a data footprint that endangers national security, U.S. military personnel and military operations, the Government Accountability Office said.

The Defense Department has cited publicly available data generated by defense platforms, personal devices and online activities as a growing threat that requires continual caution, the GAO reported on Monday.

“Massive amounts of traceable data about military personnel and operations now exist due to the digital revolution,” according to the report.

“When aggregated, these ‘digital footprints’ can threaten military personnel and their families, operations and, ultimately, national security.”

Such information could enable “malicious actors” to trace the movements of ships and aircraft and otherwise endanger military operations, according to Military Times.

The GAO report says 10 Defense Department components are vulnerable to security lapses that create “volumes of traceable data.”

The vulnerability is especially prevalent for training and security assessment within the U.S. Cyber Command, National Security Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency, Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency, U.S.Special Operations Command and every U.S. military branch, according to the GAO.

Only the U.S. Special Operations Command has consistently trained its personnel to minimize the risks created by digital information, the report says.

Most Defense Department agencies and offices also fail to undertake threat assessments targeting force protection, insider threats, mission assurance and operations security.

The GAO said information provided via press releases, news sources, online activities, social media posts and ship coordinates might be capable of telegraphing the routes of ships and aircraft and jeopardize their respective operations.

Only three of five offices within the Defense Department have issued policies or provided guidance to minimize the risks of digital information, but even those efforts are “narrowly focused” and insufficient, the GAO said.

The GAO report echoes concerns raised by federal lawmakers after a Signal app discussion of a pending military strike on Houthi targets on March 15 accidentally included The Atlantic journalist Jeffrey Goldberg.

Nov. 20 (UPI) — The Justice Department on Thursday ended its case against a woman who was shot after allegedly ramming a Customs and Border Protection vehicle in October.

Marimar Martinez, 30, and Anthony Ian Santos Ruiz, 21, were charged with assault for following and allegedly ramming a Chevrolet Tahoe driven by CBP agent Charles Exum on Oct. 4, the Chicago Sun Times reported.

U.S. Attorney for Northern Illinois Andrew Boutros filed court papers to end the prosecution on Thursday without citing a reason, though.

U.S. District of Northern Illinois Judge Georgia Alexakis granted the DOJ’s motion to dismiss the case against both defendants early Thursday evening, KTEN reported.

“Border Patrol law enforcement officers were ambushed by domestic terrorists that rammed federal agents with their vehicles,” the Department of Homeland Security said Thursday in a prepared statement, as reported by NBC News.

Martinez “was armed with a semi-automatic weapon and has a history of doxing federal agents,” the DHS added.

Her attorney agreed she had a firearm in her vehicle but argued that she was not brandishing it.

Both defendants pleaded not guilty, but evidence revealed Exum bragged in messages to others about shooting five times and causing seven wounds.

During a recent hearing, a defense attorney asked Exum why he apparently bragged about shooting Martinez while using the Signal messaging app.

He said he is a firearms instructor and “I take pride in my shooting skills.”

Exum was participating in Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s “Operation Midway Blitz” when Martinez and Ruiz allegedly boxed in the vehicle he was driving and then struck it.

The defendants said Exum struck them with the vehicle he was driving and then shot Martinez.

Nov. 20 (UPI) — A federal judge ruled Thursday that President Donald Trump‘s deployment of 2,000 National Guard soldiers to Washington was illegal, saying the president lacks the authority to dispatch troops “for the deterrence of crime.”

U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb said that while Trump is the commander in chief, federal laws constrain his power to federalize and deploy those troops, particularly in Washington, which Congress controls.

“The Court rejects the Defendant’s fly-by assertion of constitutional power, finding that such a broad reading of the President’s Article II authority would erase Congress’ role in governing the District and its National Guard,” Cobb wrote in her 61-page ruling.

Cobb also said that Trump also lacked authority to deploy out-of-state National Guard troops to Washington to assist in law enforcement.

Cobb’s ruling will not take effect until Dec. 11, giving the Trump administration time to appeal. The Supreme Court is on the verge of issuing its own ruling on the deployment of National Guard troops to Chicago. Federal appeals courts are also considering National Guard troop deployments to Portland, Ore., and Los Angeles.

Trump has justified his troop deployments by claiming, without evidence, that large-scale violence and chaos demands the presence of national troops to protect federal functions. State and local leaders, as well as municipal law enforcement officers, have said they don’t need federal help to protect their cities.

Nov. 20 (UPI) — Toys that use AI to interact with children might seem like a fun idea, but one organization is warning against them.

The nonprofit Fairplay released an advisory Thursday warning parents to avoid artificial intelligence-based children’s toys this holiday season.

AI toys are chatbots embedded in children’s toys — such as plushies, dolls, action figures, or kids’ robots — and use AI technology designed to communicate like a friend.

Examples include Miko, Curio Interactive’s Grok and Gabbo, Smart Teddy, FoloToy’s Kumma bear, Roybi and Keyi Technology’s Loona Robot Dog. Some of the toys are marketed to children as young as infants, Fairplay said in a statement.

“It’s ridiculous to expect young children to avoid potential harm here,” said Rachel Franz, a Fairplay program director, in a statement to NPR.

“Young children are especially susceptible to the potential harms of these toys, such as invading their privacy, collecting data, engendering false trust and friendship, and displacing what they need to thrive, like human-to-human interactions and time to play with all their senses. These can have long and short-term impacts on development,” she said

Singapore-based FoloToy suspended sales of its Kumma bear after it was found to give inappropriate advice to children, CNN reported Wednesday. The bear’s chatbot talked about sexual fetishes, how to find knives in the home and how to light a match.

FoloToy CEO Larry Wang told CNN that the company had withdrawn Kumma and its other AI toys and is now “conducting an internal safety audit.”

The Toy Association, which represents toy manufacturers, told NPR that toys sold by responsible manufacturers and retailers must follow more than 100 strict federal safety standards and tests, including the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, which governs children’s privacy and data security online.

“The Toy Association urges parents and caregivers to shop only from reputable toymakers, brands, and retailers who prioritize children’s safety above all else,” the statement said. The organization added that it offers safety tips for AI and other connected products.

Fairplay offered more reasons that AI toys are not safe for children.

AI toys are usually powered by the same AI that has already harmed children, and young children who use them are less equipped to protect themselves than older children and teens, Fairplay said.

AI chatbots have caused children to use them obsessively, engaged in explicit sexual conversations, and encouraged unsafe behaviors, violence against others, and self-harm.

AI toys may sabotage children’s trust by pretending to be trustworthy companions or “friends.” Young children are likely to treat connected toys and devices as if they were people and develop an emotional attachment to them.

These “relationships” can disrupt children’s real relationships and resilience by offering “genuine friendship,” which isn’t possible from a machine.

Probably most concerning is that AI toys can invade family privacy by collecting sensitive data using audio and video recording, speech-to-text technology, and even voice, gesture, and facial recognition software, Fairplay said.

A child might talk to the toy and tell it their personal thoughts, emotions, fears, and desires, which will be delivered to a third party. They could also record private family conversations or record other children in the room.

Some toys even have facial recognition and video recording, which could take video of children in the bath or getting dressed.

Nov. 20 (UPI) — Verizon said Thursday it will lay off thousands of jobs in a cost reduction measure.

The telecommunications giant said some 13,000 workers will be let go due to “cost structure limits” in order for Verizon to be “faster and more focused,” according to CEO Dan Schulman.

“Changes in technology and in the economy are impacting the workforce across all industries,” he said in a message. “We see it in our families and within our communities.”

The company began 2025 with a roughly 100,000 strong workforce.

Schulman told Verizon employees that “every part” of the company will experience “some level of change” as Verizon focuses on “delighting our customers.”

Last month, Schulman, who arrived from PayPal, took over the Verizon helm hoping to cultivate a “leaner” business operation.

A Verizon spokesperson reiterated that cuts do not target a specific department.

The layoffs will impact roughly 20% of Verizon’s non-union management in a pool of approximately 70,000 employees, Verizon spokesman Kevin Israel told USA Today.

Meanwhile, Verizon announced it unveiled of a $20 million career transition fund for its recently fired personnel for “reskilling.”

Nov. 20 (UPI) — The Trump administration announced that it plans to roll back protection for some animals and plants under the Endangered Species Act, changes that officials say will make the law less confusing.

The U.S. Department of the Interior proposed four rules under the act that it says will strengthen U.S. energy independence, improve regulatory predictability and ensure federal actions align with “the best reading of the law.”

“This administration is restoring the Endangered Species Act to its original intent, protecting species through clear, consistent and lawful standards that also respect the livelihoods of Americans who depend on our land and resources,” Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum said Wednesday in a press release.

The four proposed rule changes affect how endangered species are determined, listed and delisted; change the definitions for phrasing that describes the effects of a species being listed; eliminate the “blanket rule” in favor of requiring species-specific rules; and clarify how economic, national security and other impacts are weighed when deciding whether to list a species under the act.

In all four cases, the department is rolling back changes made under the Biden Administration to broaden the species that can be protected under the act. The Biden era changes were a restoration of changes made during the first Trump administration.

Although the changes are meant to simplify complying with the act, critics have challenged the changes are not about protecting animals to prevent them from going extinct.

“This isn’t about protecting endangered species,” Stephanie Kurose, deputy director of government affairs at the Center for Biological Diversity, told The Hill.

“This is about the biggest companies in the country wanting to drill for oil and dig coal, even if it causes wildlife like the polar bear and other iconic species to go extinct,” she said.

The proposed rules have been published in the Federal Register and are open for public comment for 30 days starting on Nov. 21.

Nov. 20 (UPI) — A Philippine judge on Thursday sentenced a former mayor convicted of human trafficking in connection with an illegal offshore gambling operation in her town, according to local reports.

Alice Guo, the disgraced 35-year-old former mayor of Bamban, Tarlac, located about 62 miles northeast of the capital Manila, was sentenced by the Pasig Regional Trial Court to life in prison, Rappler reported.

She was convicted along with seven co-defendants, while five others were acquitted. The case remains open.

“This eagerly awaited ruling is not only a legal victory but also a moral one,” the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission said in a statement.

“It delivers justice to victims, reaffirms the government’s united stance against organized crime and marks a defining moment in the country’s fight against large-scale trafficking and online scam syndicates.”

Guo was charged following a March 2024 raid on a Bamban casino operated by Chinese-owned Zun Yuan Technology Inc., rescuing nearly 800 people, more than half of them foreigners. Authorities alleged human trafficking was being perpetrated by the offshore gaming operator.

Prosecutors said the company that had leased the 7.9-hectare compound to Zun Yuan Technology was Baofu, which was incorporated by Guo. Rappler reported that her business partner in Baofu was Huang Zhiyan, a notorious Chinese gang leader wanted in China.

Guo said she had divested from Baofu before running for mayor, but it was proven in court that she did not do so. Guo was elected mayor of Bamban in 2022, but was removed from office after it was ruled that she was a Chinese citizen, born Guo Hua Ping.

She was arrested in September 2024 in Indonesia after fleeing the Philippines.

According to the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission, the court ordered the criminal forfeiture of the 7.9-hectare compound of the illegal offshore gambling operation that contains 36 buildings worth about $66 million.

The government continues to seek the civil forfeiture of additional assets linked to Guo, including 27 bank accounts holding $1.23 million as well as 18 vehicles and 14 properties, it said.

“The Alice Guo case is a story of a nation that refused to be deceived, of institutions that stood firm and of victims whose voices now echo through every courtroom decision,” PAOCC Executive Director Undersecretary Benjamin Acorda Jr. said in a statement.

“It is proof that no matter how elaborate the scheme, how powerful the mastermind or how long the deception, justice will find its way.”

Nov. 20 (UPI) — President Donald Trump announced he will meet New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani in the Oval Office on Friday.

Trump made the announcement on his social media platform Truth Social on Wednesday.

“Communist Mayor of New York City, Zohran ‘Kwame’ Mamdani, has asked for a meeting. We have agreed that this meeting will take place at the Oval Office on Friday, November 21st,” Trump said in the brief statement.

Mamdani was elected mayor Nov. 4, besting former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, historically a Democrat who ran as an independent with Trump’s endorsement, after losing the Democratic nomination to Mamdani.

Trump has been a vocal critic of Mamdani, and warned ahead of the election that if Mamdani won he would throttle federal funding to the city, calling him a “Communist Lunatic” who is “going to have problems with Washington like no Mayor in the history of our once great city.”

Trump also threatened to arrest Mamdani if he interfered with his federal immigration crackdown in New York City.

During the campaign, Mamdani positioned himself as someone who would stand up to Trump. A self-described social democrat, Mamdani has warned Trump against threatening to impose punitive measures against the city.

In his victory speech, Mamdani addressed Trump directly: “Hear me, President Trump, when I say this: To get to any of us, you will have to get through all of us.”

Mamdani spokesperson Dora Pekec confirmed in a statement that the meeting had been scheduled.

“As is customary for an incoming mayoral administration, the Mayor-elect plans to meet with the President in Washington to discuss public safety, economic security and the affordability agenda that over 1 million New Yorkers voted for just two weeks ago,” Pekec said.

In a Wednesday night interview with MS NOW, Mamdani said they did “reach out” to the White House to speak with Trump about fulfilling the campaign pledges he made to New Yorkers.

“I want to just speak plainly to the president about what it means to actually stand up for new Yorkers and the way in which New Yorkers are struggling to afford this city,” he said.

On Sunday, Trump told reporters that the White House was working on arranging a meeting with Mamdani.

“We’ll work something out,” Trump said. “We want to see everything work out well for New York.”

Nov. 19 (UPI) — Tech giant Nvidia on Wednesday posted record revenue and strong profit for the third quarter, beating Wall Street expectations, amid exploding growth in artificial intelligence.

Nvidia, which has the world’s largest market capitalization at $4.5 trillion, reported record sales. It said sales grew 62% in one year to $57 billion through Oct. 26. Wall Street had projected a $54.9 billion figure.

On Oct. 29, Nvidia became the first company worldwide with a $5 trillion cap one day before CEO Jensen Huang met with President Donald Trump in the White House.

“There’s been a lot of talk about an AI bubble. From our vantage point, we see something very different,” Huang said during a conference call with investors.

Fourth-quarter sales are estimated to be around $65 billion, contrasting with $61.66 billion by analysts.

Profit was up 65% from last year in the quarter to $31.9 billion or 78 cents per share, slightly ahead of expectations. The net income represents 58% of revenue.

NVIDIA will pay its next quarterly cash dividend of 1 cent per share on Dec. 26.

Nvidia builds chips and software platforms for the AI industry. The company, founded in 1993 in the Silicon Valley in California, pioneered the graphics processing unit, initially for 3D video games.

The chips are made in the United States by GlobalFoundries, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Samsung in South Korea. Taiwan’s new factory in Arizona focuses on chips for Nvidia.

The design work is done in the United States, GeekBitz reported.

Most AI companies’ technology runs on Nvidia’s chip, CNN reported.

Its best-selling chip is the Blackwell Ultra, a second generation. The company is banned from selling the new ones to China.

“Blackwell sales are off the charts, and cloud GPUs are sold out,” Huang said in a statement about its best-selling chip.

“Compute demand keeps accelerating and compounding across training and inference — each growing exponentially. We’ve entered the virtuous cycle of AI. The AI ecosystem is scaling fast — with more new foundation model makers, more AI startups, across more industries, and in more countries. AI is going everywhere, doing everything, all at once.”

In October, Huang said there were $500 billion in AI chip orders for 2025 and 2026 combined.

“The number will grow,” Nvidia finance chief Colette Kress said during the earnings call with analysts.

Nvidia said there were $51.2 billion in revenue in data center sales, a 66% rise year-over-year.That includes $43 billion in revenue was for “compute,” or the GPUs. The company said most growth was from GB300 chips.

Nvidia’s stock price rose 5.08% in after-hours trading on Wednesday night on NASDAQ. The stock was at $196.00, below the record $207.04 on Oct. 29.

The stock, with the ticker symbol NVDA, initially traded at $12 per share, through its Initial Public Offering on Jan. 22, 1999.

The strong Nvidia report boosted after-hours trading of tech firms Meta, Microsoft, Amazon and Google.

“This answers a lot of questions about the state of the AI revolution, and the verdict is simple: it is nowhere near its peak, neither from the market-demand nor the production-supply-chain sides for the foreseeable future,” Thomas Monteiro, senior analyst at Investing.com, said in emailed commentary following the report.

In September, Nvidia announced a $100 billion investment in OpenAI in exchange for chip purchases.

On Monday, Anthropic committed to buying $30 billion in computing capacity from Microsoft Azure in exchange for an investment in the AI lab from both tech giants.

Nvidia announced a collaboration with Intel to jointly develop multiple generations of custom data center and PC products with NVIDIA NVLink.

Nvidia has reviewed plans to accelerate seven new supercomputers, including with Oracle to build the U.S. Department of Energy’s largest AI supercomputer, Solstice, plus another system, Equinox.

Nvidia said it had $4.3 billion in gaming revenue, which is a 30% boost from one year ago.

Despite the boom, CEO of one of the world’s largest independent financial advisory organizations warnsthere is a “real risk” because of complacency.

“Exceptional results don’t remove the need for discipline,” Nigel Green of deVere Group in Britain said in an email to UPI. “The AI ecosystem is growing fast, but fast growth doesn’t protect anyone from the consequences of over-extension.”

He said the path from deployment to real commercial returns “remains untested” in many industries.

“Investors must examine whether business models can convert this scale of capital investment into sustained earnings,” he said. “Complacency could be a real risk.”

Nov. 19 (UPI) — The U.S. State Department has approved the possible sale of Patriot air defense launchers to Ukraine worth up to $105 million.

The Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which is within the Department of Defense, delivered the certification to the U.S. Congress, the agency said in a news release Tuesday.

DSCA’s primary mission is to support U.S. foreign policy to train, educate, advise and equip foreign partners to respond to shared challenges, including in Europe.

The Patriot system will not will not alter the basic military balance in the region, or the impact on U.S. defense readiness, the agency said.

The Patriot contractors are RTX Corp. of Arlington, Va., and Lockheed Martin of Bethesda, Md.

The United States first shipped Patriot systems to Ukraine in April 2023, more than a year after Russia invaded its neighbor under the direction of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“We’ve been talking about closing the sky since day one of this war,” Zelenskyy wrote on X on Nov. 10. “We understand that it’s our vulnerability. And we realize that Putin had a huge number of missiles, while we had very few air‑defense systems and only a small remaining stock of Soviet‑era missiles.

“These systems were no shield at all. Nevertheless, we built the air‑defense we could, and we continue to develop it.”

The Patriots are a deterrent to missiles and drones against military targets and civilian locations.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal applauded the decision, posting on X: “We are grateful to our American partners for such an important decision. Peace can only be achieved through strength!”

Zelensky has been pushing for more Patriot system.

“We want to order 25 Patriot systems from the United States,” Zelenskyy wrote in July. “For us, that’s a clear budget, and we understand the financial scope; however, certain elements are missing from the agreement.

“European colleagues can help us here — they can lend us their systems now and then take back ours once they arrive from the manufacturers. These systems are produced over several years, and we would not want to wait.”

Ukraine had requested an upgrade of M901 launchers to M903 configuration; classified and unclassified prescribed load lists and authorized stockage lists for ground support equipment; necessary ancillaries, spare parts, support, training and accessories; and other related elements of logistics and program support.

M903 launchers can carry up to PAC-3 missiles and other types of Patriot missiles, according to Lockheed Martin. The PAC-3 MSE has improved capabilities, such as updated software and systems that allow it to home in on and destroy an enemy target.

Implementation of this proposed sale will require five additional U.S. government and 15 U.S. contractor representatives to the European Combatant Command for up to one month to support training and periodic meetings.

The actual dollar value depends on final requirements, budget authority and signed sales agreement.

“The Patriots won’t solve all, or perhaps even many of the problems associated with Russia’s strikes against Ukraine, however they will provide an additional layer of coverage and redundancy that can help protect Ukraine’s civilian population, civilian infrastructure, and military forces,” Retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Amos Fox, now a fellow at Arizona State University’s Future Security Initiative, told the Kyiev Post.

Retired US Army Colonel Richard Williams, a former deputy director in NATO’s Defense Investment Division, also told the Kyiev Potg that European nations are “perhaps more suited to assist Ukraine with this threat.”

In July, the United States told Switzerland it would send Patriot systems intended for sale to the Swiss to Ukraine instead.

President Donald Trump made the announcement to reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland after attending the Club World Cup final at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium.

“They’re going to have some because they do need protection, but the European Union is paying for,” he said. “We’re not paying anything for it, but we will send it.”

Other nations have sent Patriots to Ukraine.

During a conference in Germany in July, NATO’s top commander said that he will send more Patriot systems to Ukraine.

Patriot production has been limited, with nations not wanting to send their systems and to maintain stockpiles.

The United States and other partner nations also need Patriot batteries elsewhere, including in the Middle East and Taiwan, which would use them against a possible Chinese invasion.

Nov. 19 (UPI) — The federal government said Wednesday that October’s full jobs report will not be released following the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics said instead it will unveil its October payroll data in addition to a full report for November.

October’s unemployment rate will not be included because, according to BLS officials, those figures “could not be collected” due to the shutdown.

Last week, the Trump administration warned the shutdown by the Republican-controlled congress may likely impact the Consumer Price Index and federal jobs reports slated to be released as expected.

The White House claimed the showdown “permanently damaged the federal statistical system, with October CPI and jobs reports likely never being released.”

But the bureau indicated it will bump its November jobs data release nearly two weeks to Dec. 16.

Some 42,000 jobs were added in October in companies with at least 250 workers following September’s drop of around 29,000, according to Automatic Data Processing Inc.

“Private employers added jobs in October for the first time since July, but hiring was modest relative to what we reported earlier this year,” Nela Richardson, ADP’s chief economist, said earlier this month.

Meanwhile, the lack of data fuels further speculation on Wall Street.

Nov. 19 (UPI) — Billionaire activist Tom Steyer announced his run for California governor after the former presidential candidate claimed no plans existed for him to again run for political office.

Steyer, 68, pointed to his business experience in a candidate video vying to replace term-limited Gov, Gavin Newsom, a Democrat and rumored 2028 presidential contender, saying he’s running because “Californians deserve a life they can afford.”

“Sacramento politicians are afraid to change this system. I’m not,” he added in a campaign launch video.

He joined the field with other gubernatorial candidates such as former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., ex-U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

A 2020 presidential candidate, Steyer said that his long business background separates him from other candidates.

“I wanted to build a business here. Now it’s worth billions of dollars. And I walked away from it because I wanted to give back to California,” Steyer said.

In 2010, Steyer signed the Giving Pledge vowing to donate half his massive fortune to charity during his lifetime.

On Wednesday, he said California needs to “get back to basics,” which he says meant “making corporations pay their fair share again.”

“Californians deserve a top 10 education state,” he added. “They deserve to be able to afford to live in a decent house. I will launch the largest drive to build homes that you can afford in the history of California.”

He revealed plans targeting the state’s high utility bills with California’s massive energy infrastructure, noting the west coast state has the second highest electricity rates in the United States.

Steyer, a former hedge fund manager and frequent Democratic donor in San Francisco, frequently crusades against big corporate money in politics. He later suspended his 2020 campaign in March after finishing third place in the South Carolina primary election won by Joe Biden.

“If we break up the monopolistic power of utilities, we’re going to unleash a complete wave of innovation and drop our sky-high energy prices,” Steyer continued in the video.

“This is about disrupting the way people think so we can get a completely different and much better outcome,” he said, adding it was “for the people of California.”

Nov. 19 (UPI) — A federal judge in Texas has ordered state schools to take down displayed posters of the Ten Commandments in supposed violation of the U.S. Constitution.

Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton directed schools across the Lone Star State to display the Ten Commandments less than a week after a federal court ruled in favor of 11 school districts that fought against the religious exhibition in classrooms.

On Tuesday, federal Judge Orlando L. Garcia issued a preliminary injunction that instructed the state’s districts to remove the display in violation of the Constitution’s Establishment Clause in the First Amendment.

“It is impractical, if not impossible, to prevent plaintiffs from being subjected to unwelcome religious displays without enjoining defendants from enforcing Senate Bill 10 across their districts,” he wrote.

Garcia’s order was effective December 1.

The case was brought on by 15 families of a multi-faith and nonreligious background.

“All Texas public school districts should heed the court’s clear warning: it’s plainly unconstitutional to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms,” said Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

It’s now the second time a court has ruled against the law signed into law in June by Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott, a Republican.

“Families throughout Texas and across the country get to decide how and when their children engage with religion — not politicians or public-school officials,” Laser continued.

Paxton has sued three school districts for refusing.

A legal representative for the American Civil Liberties Union in Texas said Garcia’s ruling was further affirmation of what’s already accepted legal truth: “the First Amendment guarantees families and faith communities — not the government — the right to instill religious beliefs in our children.”

Similar laws were struck down in Arkansas and Louisiana, which became the first state to pass the mandate in summer 2024.

Legal experts suggest the issue will eventually make its way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In 2015, a Ten Commandment monument was ordered by the state’s Supreme Court to be removed from the Oklahoma State Capitol grounds, arguing that Oklahoma’s constitution banned the use of public property for “the benefit of any religious purpose.”

“Our schools are for education, not evangelization,” Chloe Kempf, a staff attorney for the Texas ACLU, added in a statement. “This ruling protects thousands of Texas students from ostracization, bullying and state-mandated religious coercion.”

Every school district in Texas, she added, was “now on notice that implementing S.B. 10 violates their students’ constitutional rights.”

Nov. 19 (UPI) — Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers will resign from the OpenAI board of directors following intensified scrutiny over emails between him and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, he announced Wednesday.

“I am grateful for the opportunity to have served, excited about the potential of the company, and look forward to following their progress,” Summers told CNBC and CNN in a statement.

Summers, 70, revealed Monday that he will “step back” from all public duties, but it was initially unclear if that was to include his role with the artificial intelligence startup.

This week, Summers said he was “deeply ashamed” after emails released last week revealed years of correspondence with the late billionaire financier and convicted sexual predator Epstein.

The AI company said it respected his decision.

“We appreciate his many contributions and the perspective he brought to the board,” the OpenAI board of directors said in a statement.

Summers, former secretary of the United States Treasury under former U.S. President Bill Clinton, was later president of Ivy League Harvard University from 2001 to 2006 and director of the National Economic Council under then-President Barack Obama.

On Tuesday, Congress overwhelmingly passed a bill to release the Epstein files.

But it remains to be seen if President Donald Trump will sign the Epstein bill or if the White House will fully comply.

Nov. 19 (UPI) — Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott has designated two Muslim groups, including the United States’ largest, on accusations of being terrorist organizations.

The proclamation from Abbott, a Republican and President Donald Trump ally, designates the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist organizations and transnational criminal organizations.

The designation puts both organizations and their members under “heightened enforcement” while prohibiting them from purchasing or acquiring land in the Lone Star State.

Abbott blacklisted them by claiming they want to “forcibly impose Sharia law and establish Islam’s ‘mastership of the world.'” No proof of either claim was provided.

“These radical extremists are not welcome in our state and are now prohibited from acquiring any real property interest in Texas,” Abbott said in a statement.

CAIR, the United States’ largest Muslim advocacy group, 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 terrorism organization, including Hamas.

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 the Council on Foreign Relations.

CAIR said its Texas chapter will continue its civil rights work and that its lawyers are considering legal action, calling Abbott’s designation “defamatory and lawless.”

In response, CAIR sent Abbott a letter refuting his accusations while accusing his office of spending months “stoking anti-Muslim hysteria” to smear those critical of Israel over its war in Gaza.

“Unlike your office, which has unleashed violence against Texas students protesting the Gaza genocide to satisfy you AIPAC donors, our civil rights organization answers to the American people, relies on support form the American people and stands up for American values,” Robert McCaw, director of government affairs at CAIR, said in the letter.

State Rep. Ron Reynolds, a Democrat, chastised Abbott’s designation as “discriminatory, dangerous and an attack on Muslim families.”

“I will not stay silent while innocent Texans are targeted,” he said in a statement. “This is the moment to stand up, speak our and make good trouble.”

Nov. 19 (UPI) — The House voted Tuesday against censuring Delegate Stacey Plaskett and removing her from the Intelligence Committee following revelations she texted with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during a congressional hearing.

The late night 209-214 vote came hours after the House approved a bill directing the Justice Department to release the files from its investigation into Epstein. Three Republicans joined Democrats voting against the measure. Another three Republicans voted “present.”

Leading up to the vote to release the files, the House Oversight Committee began releasing troves of documents from Epstein’s estate that included his texts and other communications.

Those included copies of texts Epstein had with Plaskett as she was about to question Michael Cohen, the former personal lawyer of President Donald Trump, during a 2019 congressional hearing, The New York Times reported.

Republicans seized on the revelation, and Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., introduced the censure resolution accusing Plaskett of having “inappropriately coordinated” with Epstein, receiving suggested lines of questioning and congratulations from him. The resolution also would have directed the House Ethics Committee to investigate her ties to Epstein.

Plaskett, a Democrat, represents the U.S. Virgin Islands as a delegate. That means that while she may participate in many of the chamber’s functions while representing the territory, she cannot vote on the House floor.

She defended herself in a House floor speech, explaining that Epstein was a constituent she had been in contact with to get information, reported Politico.

“I know how to question individuals. I know how to seek information. I have sought information from confidential informants, from murderers, from other individuals because I want the truth,” she said.

Norman, however, told The Washington Post that it was “beyond comprehension” that Plaskett would work with the disgraced financier on House business.

“The American people expect honesty, the American people expect integrity and judgment from their elected officials,” he said in a floor speech, according to the Post. “They expect members of Congress to conduct themselves with one word — decency — not to seek advice from a predator who exploited minor children.”

Nov. 18 (UPI) — A federal court ordered Texas on Tuesday to throw out its redrawn Republican-friendly congressional maps for the 2026 election after finding it constituted an illegal racial gerrymander.

The 2-1 order by the three-judge panel in the U.S. District Court of Western Texas is a significant setback for Republicans after they pushed through an unusual redistricting of Texas’ congressional seats to insulate their slim House majority ahead of next year’s midterms.

President Donald Trump openly urged Texas state lawmakers to adopt the new congressional map in order to help the party’s prospects in Washington. Democratic lawmakers responded by fleeing the state in what was ultimately an unsuccessful attempt to deny Republicans the quorum needed to pass the new maps.

State Rep. Gene Wu, a Democrat who led the quorum break, welcomed the court’s ruling in a post on X.

“Texas House Dems stood up to Abbott & Trump,” he wrote. “We broke quorum & we fought in the courts! We did not back down.”

However, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wrote in a post on X that he would appeal the order to the U.S. Supreme Court. He criticized what he called partisan gerrymandering in Democratic-led states, including California, Illinois and New York. He added that he expects the Supreme Court to “uphold Texas’s sovereign right to engage in partisan redistricting.”

Republicans currently hold 25 of Texas’ 38 House seats, and the now-scrapped redistricting was expected to give the party an edge by diluting Democratic strongholds.

But U.S. Judge Jeffrey Brown, a Trump appointee, instead focused on how the new map would affect the racial makeup of Texas’ congressional districts.

“The public perception of this case is that it’s about politics,” Brown wrote. “To be sure, politics played a role in drawing the 2025 map. But it was much more than just politics. Substantial evidence shows that Texas racially gerrymandered the 2025 map.”

In his ruling, Brown cited a July letter from U.S. Department of Justice officials to Paxton and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, directing the state to correct four districts because they were illegal racial gerrymanders.

Brown wrote that the letter was difficult to assess because it contained “so many factual, legal and typographical errors.” But Brown pointed out that Abbott cited the letter as the reason he added congressional redistricting to the legislature’s special session earlier this year.

Nov. 18 (UPI) — The National Transportation Safety Board announced Tuesday that an incorrectly labeled wire caused a containership to collide with the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore last year.

The federal agency released the key finding of its investigation into the catastrophic collision that killed six highway maintenance workers, destroyed a major regional transportation artery and upended trade at one of the country’s busiest ports.

Jennifer Homendy, the board’s chair, said, “This tragedy should’ve never occurred” in her opening remarks at a public meeting.

“As with all accidents we investigate, this was preventable,” she said.

Federal investigators determined that the Dali containership crashed into the bridge after losing electricity. The cause of the blackout was a loose signal wire connection to a terminal block that investigators traced back to improperly installed wire-label banding.

The Dali lost its propulsion and steering, and the crew had little time to recover before the ship struck a southern pier that was supporting the bridge’s central span, investigators concluded. As a result, a “substantial portion” of the bridge collapsed into the Patapsco River.

Additionally, the investigation also faulted Maryland officials for not assessing the bridge earlier for potential vulnerabilities to collisions with ships. The “lack of effective and immediate communications” also contributed to the deaths of the highway workers, investigators found.

The Francis Scott Key Bridge was constructed before 1994, when bridges were mandated to meet safety criteria to reduce the risk of a collapse. State officials have since announced plans for a replacement bridge over the Patapsco River, which is estimated to cost at least $1.7 billion and be twice as high as the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

The city of Baltimore filed a lawsuit against Grace Ocean Private and Synergy Marine, the owners of the Dali, arguing that the 985-foot container ship was “a clearly unseaworthy vessel” and the companies “were grossly and potentially criminally negligent.”