The Trump transition team was informed about the DOJ's bribery investigation into Tom Homan, the former acting director of ICE whom Donald Trump tapped as his border czar shortly after he prevailed in the 2024 presidential election, a few days before Trump took the oath of office in January. Homan had not been subject to the traditional FBI background check before Trump announced him as border czar. In spite of the investigation into him, Homan nevertheless still obtained a security clearance and assumed the position Trump tapped him for upon his inauguration.
Russia's defence ministry released video footage on Wednesday of what it said was a downed drone at a briefing intended to show Ukraine tried this week to attack a presidential residence and challenge Kyiv's denials that such an attack took place.
Iran ground to a near standstill Wednesday as businesses, universities and government offices closed under a government-ordered shutdown amid protests caused by a growing political and economic crisis.
The Red Planet might be a lot more like Mad Max than we'd realized.
Two minutes: youtu.be
In the weeks after a widely shared video circulated online where politicians urged servicemembers to refuse illegal orders, a separate campaign began placing billboards near Florida military communities with a shorter message: "Obey Only Lawful Orders."
"It hasn't started yet. It starts sometime in the next two months. It'll be great. Everyone loves it," Trump told POLITICO when reached by phone from Mar-a-Lago. "They love the ballroom too. But they love the Triumphal Arch."
The proposed structure " modeled loosely on European victory monuments " is one of several high-profile projects Trump has personally championed as part of the semiquincentennial celebrations, a sprawling effort expected to include national and local events across the country.
Elon Musk said on Tuesday his artificial intelligence startup xAI has bought a third building to expand its infrastructure, aiming to boost training capacity to nearly 2 gigawatts of compute power.
Demonstrations across Iran, initially sparked by economic hardship and the sharp fall of the national currency, continued for a third day on Tuesday, drawing in university students as authorities deployed force and made multiple arrests. Protests spread across Iran on Tuesday, with universities and commercial districts emerging as key hubs amid a widening strike by shopkeepers in Tehran and other cities. Human rights and student groups said at least 11 protesters were arrested near Tehran's Shoush Square. Five students were also detained at universities in the capital, four of whom were later released. Read more
The Wall Street Journal published a bombshell report detailing Donald Trump's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. According to the Journal, Trump frequently arranged for spa employees""usually young women""to be sent on house calls to Epstein's mansion. While spa staff were occasionally sent to members' homes, Epstein was not a member; the visits occurred because Trump requested that Epstein receive special treatment. When one employee questioned why Epstein did not come into the spa like other guests, management warned her about Epstein's habit of exposing himself to employees. Despite repeated incidents, neither Trump nor Mar-a-Lago staff ever reported Epstein's criminal behavior to law enforcement. The Journal went on to report that the real reason that Epstein was finally banned from accessing club services after a teenaged employee complained to Human Resources that Epstein "had pressured her for sex".
How did so much get so terrible so rapidly? One simultaneous cause and consequence of the Minnesota swoon is outright fraud, the rotten fruit of a partnership between some of the state's leading politicians and sectarian interests that understand government not as a society's shared instrument to address its problems, but as a storehouse to pillage. Read more
Finnish police on Wednesday seized a ship sailing from Russia on suspicion of sabotaging an undersea telecoms cable running from Helsinki to Estonia across the Gulf of Finland, an area hit by a string of similar incidents in recent years.
Springfield town council rejected building a monorail and instead approved an AI data center.
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) is accusing President Donald Trump of blocking a non-controversial water project affecting her district after the lawmaker challenged Trump to force the release of the Epstein files in November. " ... Trump decided to veto ... a bipartisan bill that passed both the House and Senate unanimously. Why? Because nothing says America First' like denying clean drinking water to 50,000 people in Southeast Colorado, many of whom enthusiastically voted for him in all three elections," Boebert said, according to Colorado news reporter Kyle Clark. " ... I sincerely hope this veto has nothing to do with political retaliation for calling out corruption and demanding accountability. Americans deserve leadership that puts people over politics." "I thought the [Trump] campaign was about lowering costs and cutting red tape," Boebert added.
The U.S. has surpassed 2,000 measles cases for the first time in more than 30 years, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As of Dec. 23, a total of 2,012 cases have been reported in the U.S. Of those cases, 24 were reported among international visitors to the U.S. The last time the U.S. recorded more than 2,000 cases occurred in 1992, when there were 2,126 confirmed infections over the course of a year, CDC data shows. The CDC says 11% of measles patients in the U.S. this year have been hospitalized, over half of whom are under age 19. There have been 50 outbreaks reported across the U.S. in 2025, CDC data shows. By comparison, 16 outbreaks were reported during 2024.
Leavitt's comments signal a significant escalation in the federal government's response to pandemic-era fraud. The move prompts concerns about due process, potential targeting of immigrant communities, and the precedent such denaturalization efforts may set for U.S. citizens nationwide. Tensions are rising both locally and nationally as leaders debate appropriate measures, legality, and the impact on one of America's largest Somali diaspora communities. Read more
