President Trump disparaged Democrats and insisted the economy is booming despite concerns about the cost of living.

The move may reassure China hawks who are uncertain about the presidents commitment to the self-governing democracy.

Beijing is using its messaging tools to show off its prowess at building infrastructure and project power, taking advantage of what it says is deep anxiety in U.S. policies.

The attack on Wednesday brings the total number killed to at least 99 since the Trump administration began bombing boats suspected of ferrying drugs in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., meets with reporters as Republicans struggle with a plan to address growing health care costs, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)2025-12-16T21:48:35Z WASHINGTON (AP) House Republican leaders are determined to push ahead with a GOP health care bill that excludes efforts to address the soaring monthly premiums millions of Americans will soon endure as pandemic-era tax credits for people who buy insurance through the Affordable Care Act expire at years end.Speaker Mike Johnson had discussed the prospect of allowing more politically vulnerable GOP lawmakers a chance to vote on their amendment that would temporarily extend pandemic-era subsidies for ACA coverage. But after days of private talks, leadership sided with the more conservative wing of the conference, which has assailed the subsidies as propping up a failed ACA marketplace.We looked for a way to try to allow for that pressure release valve, Johnson said Tuesday at the Capitol. In the end, it was not an agreement wasnt made. The maneuvering surrounding the health care vote all but guarantees that many Americans will see substantially higher insurance costs in 2026. In the Senate, a bipartisan group was still trying to come up with a compromise to extend the subsidies, which fueled this years government shutdown. But senators made clear that any potential legislation would likely wait until January, after the holiday break. Instead, House Republicans will pursue their 100-plus-page health care package that focuses on long-sought GOP proposals designed to expand insurance coverage options for small businesses and the self-employed. A test vote is expected Wednesday. The Republicans package would clamp down on middlemen called pharmacy benefit managers who work to manage drug costs and process claims for insurance plans. The bill would also expand access to whats referred to as association health plans, which would allow more small businesses and self-employed individuals to band together and purchase health coverage. An analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation estimates the package would decrease the number of people with health insurance by an average of 100,000 per year over a 2027-2035 window, while reducing the federal deficit by $35.6 billion. Failing to address expiring insurance subsidies political malpractice Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., blasted the leaderships decision to not allow for a vote to temporarily extend the health insurance subsidies, saying it amounted to political malpractice.Lawler, who hails from a competitive district, noted that most people who get their health coverage through the Affordable Care Act live in states that President Donald Trump won and said the changes proposed for a temporary extension were conservative reforms. He also criticized Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries for not pushing Democrats to support a pair of bipartisan extension efforts.You have two leaders who are not serious about solving this problem, Lawler said of Johnson and Jeffries.Still, the centrist Republicans indicated they would not try to block the Republican leaderships measure from coming to a vote. Johnson defended the House GOPs bill, which includes priorities that Republicans have been working on for several years. We have a long list of things that we know will reduce premiums, increase access and quality of care, Johnson said. The Democrats have zero ideas, zero concepts and zero legislative plans on anything theyll propose other than just subsidizing the broken system.Democrats said even if the bill passes the House, it will not pass the Senate, where it would need 60 votes and bipartisan support to advance. They said it was not a serious effort to address rising costs.Millions will be priced out of their coverage, and those who can still afford it will get less while paying more, said Rep. Suzan DelBene, chair of the House Democratic campaign arm. Republicans are ignoring the pain, the pain were seeing across the country for everyday Americans. And make no mistake, it is going to cost them the majority. GOP bill focuses on insurance options and cost-sharingDuring Trumps first term, his administration sought to expand access to association health plans that dont have to offer the full menu of benefits required under current law. The option offers lower premiums for small businesses and self-employed people, but the policies are likely to cover fewer benefits. A federal judge who struck down the administrations effort in 2018 said the plans were were clearly an end-run around consumer protections required by the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.The House Republican plan would also restore government funding for cost-sharing reductions, or CSRs, a type of financial help that insurers give to low-income ACA enrollees on silver-level plans that reduces their share of costs like deductibles and copays.From 2014 until 2017, the federal government reimbursed insurance companies for CSRs but in 2017, the Trump administration stopped making those payments. To make up for the lost funds, insurance companies hiked premiums for silver-level plans -- a complicated move that ended up increasing the financial assistance many enrollees get to help pay for premiums. As a result, health analysts say that while restoring funding for CSRs would likely bring down silver-level premiums, it could also have the unwelcome ripple effect of increasing many peoples net premiums on bronze and gold plans.The provisions related to pharmacy benefit managers require the middlemen to disclose certain data about their operations to group health plans, with the hope that more transparency would reduce prescription drug costs.Senators revive talks of action in the new yearAlmost two dozen Republicans and Democrats met late Monday to talk about a last-minute fix on the ACA tax credits after the Senate rejected two partisan health care bills last week. They emerged from the meeting discussing ways to end the stalemate, including a possible two-year extension of the subsidies with reforms that would narrow who could receive them. They also discussed adding some version of a GOP proposal to create new health savings accounts that would help people purchase insurance.Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican who led the bipartisan meeting, said the group would like to announce a proposal this week. But there were still significant unresolved issues, including whether to include stricter language on abortion funding. Disagreements over abortion were one of the main sticking points in earlier talks that derailed a compromise.Senate Majority Leader John Thune said theres a potential pathway to an agreement in January, but acknowledged, were not going to pass anything by the end of this week.-Staff writers Mary Clare Jalonick and Ali Swenson contributed to this report.

Jimmy Kimmel called the presidents last-minute speech a surprise prime-time episode of The Worst Wing tonight on every channel.

Sydneys devastated Jewish community gathered for the funeral of Matilda Bee, an ebullient, smiling 10-year-old girl.

The president cited misleading statistics to insist, wrongly, that prices were coming down.

The president sharply attacked his predecessor while insisting that his own record contained nothing but victories.

Nick Reiner, facing murder charges in the deaths of his parents, Rob and Michele Reiner, appeared at an arraignment that lasted just minutes before it was rescheduled for January. He has not entered a plea.

Lincoln, California City Councilwoman Holly Andreatta told a group of high school conservatives that childhood trauma turned her daughter into a lesbian. When video of her comments began circulating online, Andreatta first said video of her talk had been deceptively edited and then apologized for her comment, claiming she doesnt actually believe what she said in the video.My oldest daughter had a lot of trauma as a child, Andreatta said at the first meeting of Twelve Bridges High Schools new Club America, a chapter of Turning Point USA, an organization that encourages its members to harass progressive educators. Something really terrible happened to her when she was young that I would hope would never happen to any other child. And as a result of it, shes a lesbian. Shes gay. Shes married to a woman. Related MAGA pastor says Jesus called people fa***t because he was not afraid to speak up Andreatta then said she believes marriage is only between a man and a woman and also agrees with the Bibles condemnation of homosexuality, but added that she experiences internal conflict about this because she loves her daughter.In other comments, Andreatta called anti-racism leader Martin Luther King Jr. a Marxist whose civil rights victories were not really helpful. Insights for the LGBTQ+ community Subscribe to our briefing for insights into how politics impacts the LGBTQ+ community and more. Subscribe to our Newsletter today As videos of Andreattas comments spread online, Andreatta wrote in a since-deletedFacebookpost, that videos of her comments had been altered by artificial intelligence. She wrote, I am the same person I have always been, kind, principled, inclusive and committed to respectful dialogue. A manipulated video does not change the truth.In a public Facebook post pubished last Sunday, Andreatta wrote, I want to publicly apologize to my daughter. Her story is hers alone, and I should not have shared personal details about her trauma, adding, To be absolutely clear: I did not say that trauma causes homosexuality. I never said that, nor would I ever say that or think that. I was referring to a very specific personal experience. Students and families attended the Western Placer Unified School District Board meeting last Tuesday to call for the clubs disbandment and for Andreattas censure by fellow council members.After her comments circulated online, the clubs student-president Garrett Culp said he and his groups members have been ruthlessly attacked online, called horrible names, [and] harassed at school, CBS News reported. The schools sophomore class president, Eliot Armstrong, is also spearheading a signature drive to ban the club from the school, though a school district spokesperson said the drive wont compel the district to disband the club.High school students in Lincoln are petitioning to disband a new Club America chapter at Twelve Bridges HS after Mayor Holly Andreatta spoke at its inaugural meeting and made remarks many students viewed as racist, homophobic, historically inaccurate, & inflammatory. placerdems pic.twitter.com/YMANBYQfM2 Jean Jacques Dessalines (@JeanJacquesDes7) December 15, 2025 Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

Meg ONeill of Australias Woodside Energy will lead the London energy giant, replacing Murray Auchincloss, who will exit after less than two years in the role.

Chelsea could be about to re-sign 41-year-old defender Thiago Silva before the World Cup. Transfer Talk has the latest news and rumors.

A Taiwan national flag flutters near the Taipei 101 building at the National Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall in Taipei, Taiwan, Feb. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying, File)2025-12-18T02:47:16Z WASHINGTON (AP) The Trump administration has announced a massive package of arms sales to Taiwan valued at more than $10 billion that includes medium-range missiles, howitzers and drones, drawing an angry response from China.The State Department announced the sales late Wednesday during a nationally televised address by President Donald Trump, who made scant mention of foreign policy issues and did not speak about China or Taiwan at all. U.S.-Chinese tensions have ebbed and flowed during Trumps second term, largely over trade and tariffs but also over Chinas increasing aggressiveness toward Taiwan, which Beijing has said must reunify with the mainland.The eight arms sales agreements announced Wednesday cover 82 high-mobility artillery rocket systems, or HIMARS, and 420 Army Tactical Missile Systems, or ATACMS similar to what the U.S. had been providing Ukraine during the Biden administration to defend itself from Russia worth more than $4 billion. They also include 60 self-propelled howitzer systems and related equipment worth more than $4 billion and drones valued at more than $1 billion. Other sales in the package include military software valued at more than $1 billion, Javelin and TOW missiles worth more than $700 million, helicopter spare parts worth $96 million and refurbishment kits for Harpoon missiles worth $91 million. In separate but nearly identical statements, the State Department said the sales serve U.S. national, economic, and security interests by supporting the recipients continuing efforts to modernize its armed forces and to maintain a credible defensive capability. Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel. Follow on The proposed sale(s) will help improve the security of the recipient and assist in maintaining political stability, military balance, and economic progress in the region, the statements said. Chinas Foreign Ministry attacked the move, saying it would violate diplomatic agreements between China and the U.S.; gravely harm Chinas sovereignty, security and territorial integrity; and undermine regional stability. The Taiwan independence forces on the island seek independence through force and resist reunification through force, squandering the hard-earned money of the people to purchase weapons at the cost of turning Taiwan into a powder keg, said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun.This cannot save the doomed fate of Taiwan independence but will only accelerate the push of the Taiwan Strait toward a dangerous situation of military confrontation and war. The U.S. support for Taiwan Independence through arms will only end up backfiring. Using Taiwan to contain China will not succeed, he added.Under federal law, the U.S. is obligated to assist Taiwan with its self-defense, a point that has become increasingly contentious with China, which has vowed to take Taiwan by force, if necessary.Taiwans Defense Ministry in a statement Thursday expressed gratitude to the U.S. over the arms sale, which it said would help Taiwan maintain sufficient self-defense capabilities and bring strong deterrent capabilities. Taiwans bolstering of its defense is the foundation for maintaining regional peace and stability, the ministry said. Taiwans Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung similarly thanked the U.S. for its long-term support for regional security and Taiwans self-defense capabilities, which he said are key for deterring a conflict in the Taiwan Strait, the body of water separating Taiwan from Chinas mainland.The arms sales comes as Taiwans government has pledged to raise defense spending to 3.3% of the islands gross domestic product next year and to reach 5% by 2030. The boost came after Trump and the Pentagon requested that Taiwan spend as much as 10% of its GDP on its defense, a percentage well above what the U.S. or any of its major allies spend on defense. The demand has faced pushback from Taiwans opposition KMT party and some of its population. Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te last month announced a special $40 billion budget for arms purchases, including to build an air defense system with high-level detection and interception capabilities called Taiwan Dome. The budget will be allocated over eight years, from 2026 to 2033. The U.S. boost in military assistance to Taiwan was previewed in legislation adopted by Congress that Trump is expected to sign shortly.Last week, the Chinese embassy in Washington denounced the legislation, known as the National Defense Authorization Act, saying it unfairly targeted China as an aggressor. The U.S. Senate passed the bill Wednesday.___Mistreanu reported from Beijing. AP video journalists Olivia Zhang in Beijing and Johnson Lai in Taipei, Taiwan, contributed to this report. SIMINA MISTREANU Mistreanu is a Greater China reporter for The Associated Press, based in Taipei, Taiwan. She has reported on China since 2015. twitter mailto RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

Family carry the coffin following a service for Bondi Beach mass shooting victim 10-year-old Matilda, whose last name is being withheld at the request of her family, in Sydney, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Steve Markham)2025-12-18T03:55:56Z SYDNEY (AP) Hundreds of mourners bearing bright bouquets and clutching each other in grief gathered at a funeral in Sydney on Thursday for a 10-year-old girl who was gunned down in an antisemitic massacre during a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach.Matilda, whose last name is being withheld at the request of her family, was enjoying a petting zoo at the festivities on Sunday just before she was killed along with 14 other people in a mass shooting targeting Jews. The suspects, a father and son, were inspired by the Islamic State group, Australian authorities have said.Beaming photos of Matilda have become a focal point for Australias grief at one of the worst hate-fueled attacks ever committed in the country. The massacre has prompted a national reckoning about antisemitism and questions about whether the countrys leaders took seriously enough the threat to Australian Jews. Matildas parents, who arrived in Australia from Ukraine, moved away from war-torn Eastern Europe to come here for a good life, Rabbi Dovid Slavin told The Associated Press as he entered the service.They did something that a parent is OK to do, take their child to a family event at Bondi beach, he added. If it ended this way, its something for collective responsibility for every adult in this country. Albanese vows to enact fresh hate lawsSpeaking to reporters in Australias capital Canberra at the same Matildas service began, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese unveiled a tranche of legislative plans he said would curb radicalization and hate. Among his proposals were measures to broaden the definition of hate speech offenses for preachers and leaders who promote violence, to bolster punishments for such crimes, to designate some groups as hateful, and to allow judges to consider hate as an aggravating factor in cases of online threats and harassment.Officials would have greater powers to reject or cancel visas for those who spread hate and division in this country, or would do so if they were allowed to come here, Albanese added. He didnt suggest a timeline for the reforms, citing their legal complexity. There have been organizations which any Australian would look at and say their behavior, their philosophy and what they are trying to do is about division and has no place in Australia, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke told reporters.And yet for a generation, no government has been able to successfully take action against them because they have fallen just below the legal threshold.The announcement followed Albaneses pledge to tighten Australias gun controls, which are already some of the toughest in the world. State leaders, too, have promised additional initiatives on firearms and stricter rules for protest gatherings.Still, the fact that Albanese has not attended any of the victims funerals so far with local media reporting he has not been invited, despite the presence of other political leaders hints at the fury among some Australian Jews feel toward the leader. Albanese said measures his government has already enacted, including a ban in February on Nazi salutes, show that he has taken the threat of antisemitism seriously.I of course acknowledge that more could have been done and I accept my responsibility for the part in that as prime minister of Australia, Albanese said Thursday. But what I also do is accept my responsibility to lead the nation and unite the nation. A probe into suspected shooters unfoldsMeanwhile, investigators continued to probe the suspected gunmens links in Australia and their travel to the Philippines before the attack, said Krissy Barrett, the countrys police chief. Authorities earlier divulged that the younger shooting suspect, Naveed Akram, 24, was investigated for six months by Australias security services in 2019.The older shooter, Sajid Akram, 50, who was shot dead on Sunday, had amassed the guns used in the massacre legally. His gun license was granted in 2023, after his son came to the attention of authorities.Philippine National Security Adviser Eduardo Ao told The Associated Press on Thursday that there was no indication that the two received any training for the attack in the Philippines. He said that the suspected gunmen had stayed in a budget hotel in downtown Davao city for the whole of their visit in November. Ao, a former military chief of staff, said in a statement that the duration of their stay would not have allowed for any meaningful or structured training.Naveed Akram is being treated at a Sydney hospital and was charged Wednesday with 59 offences, including murder and committing a terrorist act. He has not entered a plea and many details of the case against him are suppressed by a judge.Health authorities said Thursday that 16 other people are being treated in hospitals across Sydney. Two are in critical condition, with the status of one having deteriorated to critical that morning. Mourners attend funeral after funeralAs the investigations unfolded, Sydneys closely-knit Jewish community made their way to funeral after funeral. As well as the service Thursday for the youngest person killed, Matilda, mourners attended a funeral for the oldest, 87-year-old Alex Kleytman.The Holocaust survivor was protecting his wife when he was shot dead, she told reporters outside a hospital this week. Others slain included rabbis, a man shot while throwing bricks at one of the gunman, and a married couple who were killed when they tried to tackle one shooter as he got out of his car to begin the attack.At Matildas funeral, a rabbi read a tribute from teachers at the 10-year-olds school, who described her as our little ray of sunshine. Matilda, who had been delighted to win a national literacy prized two days before she died, had an incredible gift to bring joy to those around her, her schools tribute said. Grief overflowed as the coffin was carried out of the hall. Around the mourners, bumblebee balloons bobbed in the afternoon breeze, a reference to her family nickname Matilda Bee.Mourners and reporters alike were handed stickers featuring a smiling cartoon bumblebee holding a menorah. Above the image was Matildas name printed in purple, her favorite color.I dont want to sound selfish, Slavin said. But I and many others are thinking, this could have been my child.___Graham-McLay reported from Wellington, New Zealand, and Lavalette from Perth, Australia. CHARLOTTE GRAHAM-MCLAY Graham-McLay is an Associated Press reporter covering regional and national stories about New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific Islands by putting them in a global context. She is based in Wellington. twitter mailto KRISTEN GELINEAU Gelineau is a global investigative reporter for The Associated Press, based in Sydney. She covers human rights issues across the Asia-Pacific. twitter mailto

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, right, and Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz, left, attend a round table meeting on migration at the EU Summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Olivier Hoslet, Pool Photo via AP)2025-12-18T04:51:21Z BRUSSELS (AP) Belgium insisted on Thursday that its European Union partners must provide ironclad guarantees that it will be protected from Russian retaliation before it would back a massive loan for Ukraine.At a high-stakes EU summit in Brussels, the 27-nation blocs leaders are set to decide on whether to use tens of billions of euros in frozen Russian assets to underwrite a loan to meet Ukraines military and financial needs over the next two years.The bulk of the assets some 193 billion euros ($227 billion) as of September are held in the Brussels-based financial clearing house Euroclear. Russias Central Bank sued Euroclear last week.Give me a parachute and well all jump together, De Wever told members of the Belgian parliament just before the summit began. If we have confidence in the parachute that shouldnt be a problem. Belgium raises its concerns as it faces Russian pressureBelgium fears that Russia will strike back and would prefer that the bloc borrow the money on international markets. It wants frozen assets held in other European countries to be thrown into the pot as well, and for its partners to guarantee that Euroclear will have the funds it needs should it come under legal attack.European officials say Russia is waging a campaign of sabotage and disruption across the continent. The Central Bank lawsuit ramped up pressure on Belgium and its European partners ahead of the summit.The reparations loan plan would see the EU give 90 billion euros ($106 billion) to Ukraine. Countries like the U.K., Canada and Norway would make up any shortfall.Russias claim to the assets would still stand, but the assets would remain locked away at least until the Kremlin ends its war on Ukraine and pays for the massive damage its caused over four years of war.In mapping out the loan plan, the European Commission set up safeguards to protect Belgium, but De Wever remains unconvinced. I have not yet seen a text that could satisfactorily address Belgiums concerns, he said. I hope to see one today.De Wever insisted that Belgium remains a faithful ally of Ukraine and wants to continue to help.Allies maintain support for UkraineWhatever method they use, the leaders have pledged to meet most of Ukraines needs for the next two years. The International Monetary Fund estimates that would amount to 137 billion euros ($160 billion). The war-ravaged country is at risk of bankruptcy and needs the money by spring.We have to find a solution today, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters. We will not leave the European Council without a solution for the funding of Ukraine for the next two years. EU Council President Antnio Costa, who is chairing the meeting, has vowed to keep leaders negotiating until an agreement is reached, even if it takes days.Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said: Now we have a simple choice. Either money today or blood tomorrow. He insisted that all European leaders have to rise to the occasion. EU envoys have worked around the clock in recent weeks to flesh out the details and narrow differences among the 27 member countries. If enough countries object, the plan could be blocked. There is no majority support for a plan B of raising the funds on international markets. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that he hopes Belgiums concerns can be addressed.The reactions of the Russian president in recent hours show how necessary this is. In my view, this is indeed the only option. We are basically faced with the choice of using European debt or Russian assets for Ukraine, and my opinion is clear: we must use the Russian assets.Hungary and Slovakia oppose von der Leyens plan for a reparations loan. Apart from Belgium, Bulgaria, Italy and Malta are also undecided.I would not like a European Union in war, said Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbn, who sees himself as a peacemaker. Hes also Russian President Vladimir Putins closest ally in Europe. To give money means war. Orbn described the loan plan as a dead end, and said that the whole idea is a stupid one.___Associated Press Writer Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin contributed to this report. SAM McNEIL McNeil covers Europe and beyond with a focus on conflict and the environment. twitter instagram facebook mailto RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

The rise in judicial threats is being fueled by the political rhetoric of the Trump administration, a judge argues.

2025-12-18T10:29:31Z BEIRUT (AP) Israel carried out a series of airstrikes on southern and northeastern Lebanon on Thursday as a deadline looms to disarm the militant Hezbollah group along the tense frontier.The strikes came a day before a meeting of the committee monitoring the enforcement of a U.S.-brokered ceasefire that halted the latest war between Israel and Hezbollah a year ago. It will be the second meeting of the mechanism after Israel and Lebanon appointed civilian members to a previously military-only committee. The group also includes the U.S, France and the U.N. peacekeeping force deployed along the border.In Paris, Lebanons army commander Gen. Rodolph Haikal is scheduled to meet on Thursday with U.S., French and Saudi officials to discuss ways of assisting the army in its mission to boost its presence in the border area.The Lebanese government has said that the army should have cleared all the border area south of the Litani river from Hezbollahs armed presence by the end of the year. The Israeli military said the strikes hit Hezbollah infrastructure sites and launching sites in a military compound used by the group to conduct training and courses for its fighters. The Israeli military added that it struck several Hezbollah military structures in which weapons were stored, and from which Hezbollah members operated recently. Lebanons state-run National News Agency said the intense airstrikes stretched from areas in Mount Rihan in the south to the northeastern Hermel region that borders Syria. Shortly afterward, a drone strike on a car near the southern town of Taybeh inflicted casualties, NNA said. This is an Israeli message to the Paris meeting aiming to support the Lebanese army, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said about the strikes. The fire belt of Israeli airstrikes is to honor the mechanisms meeting tomorrow, Berri added during a parliament meeting in Beirut. The latest Israel-Hezbollah war began Oct. 8, 2023, a day after Hamas attacked southern Israel, after Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel in solidarity with Hamas. Israel launched a widespread bombardment of Lebanon in September last year that severely weakened Hezbollah, followed by a ground invasion.Israel has carried out almost daily airstrikes since then, mainly targeting Hezbollah members but also killing 127 civilians, according to the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.Over the past weeks, the U.S. has increased pressure on Lebanon to work harder on disarming Hezbollah.

Sidney Reid, 44, of Washington, poses for a portrait near where she was arrested while protesting immigration detentions, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)2025-12-18T05:03:48Z WASHINGTON (AP) The federal agent described her wounds as boo-boos.Nevertheless, the Justice Department aggressively pursued the alleged perpetrator. They jailed Sidney Lori Reid on a charge of felony assault, accusing her of injuring the agent during a July protest of President Donald Trumps immigration crackdown in Washington, D.C.When grand jurors thrice declined to indict the 44-year-old on the felony, prosecutors tried Reid on a misdemeanor.Body camera footage played at trial revealed that Reid had not intentionally struck the agent. Instead, the agent had scratched her hand on a wall while assisting another agent who had shoved Reid and told her to shut the f- up and mind her own business.It took jurors less than two hours to acquit the animal hospital worker. It seemed like my life was just going to be taken away from me, said Reid, who spent two days in jail and worried she would lose her new job and apartment. It broke my heart because this is supposed to be a good and fair country and I did not see anything surrounding my case that was good or fair at all for anybody. Sidney Reid, 44, of Washington, poses for a portrait near where she was arrested while protesting immigration detentions, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) Sidney Reid, 44, of Washington, poses for a portrait near where she was arrested while protesting immigration detentions, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Reids case was part of the Justice Departments months-long effort to prosecute people accused of assaulting or hindering federal officers while protesting Trumps immigration crackdown and military deployments. Attorney General Pam Bondi has ordered prosecutors to charge those accused of assaulting officers with the highest provable offense available under the law. In a recent statement, Bondi pledged that offenders will face severe consequences. The Justice Department has struggled to deliver on that commitment, however. In examining 166 federal criminal cases brought since May against people in four Democratic-led cities at the epicenter of demonstrations, The Associated Press found: Of the 100 people initially charged with felony assaults on federal agents, 55 saw their charges reduced to misdemeanors, or dismissed outright. At least 23 pleaded guilty, most of them to reduced charges in deals with prosecutors that resulted in little or no jail time. More than 40% of the cases involved relatively minor misdemeanor charges, a figure that appears to undermine Trumps claims that many of those accused are domestic terrorists. All five defendants, including Reid, who went to trial so far were acquitted. Prosecutors have successfully secured felony indictments against at least 58 people, some initially charged with misdemeanors. Those people have been accused of an assortment of assaults that include throwing rocks at federal vehicles, and punching or kicking officers. Those cases are awaiting trial. Several factors help explain the mixed record. Sometimes prosecutors have failed to win grand jury indictments required to prosecute someone on a felony. In other instances, videos and testimony have called into question the initial allegations, resulting in prosecutors downgrading offenses. In dozens of cases, officers suffered only minor injuries, or no injuries at all, undercutting a key component of the felony assault charge that requires the potential for serious bodily harm. Felonies carry stiff sentences, often years in prison. A misdemeanor conviction, on the other hand, typically results in no jail time or only a few weeks or months behind bars. Have a news tip?Contact APs global investigative team at [emailprotected]. For secure and confidential communications, use the free Signal app +1 (202) 281-8604. Former prosecutors and law professors said the APs analysis raises questions about how the Justice Department has prosecuted protesters. Its clear from this data that the government is being extremely aggressive and charging for things that ordinarily wouldnt be charged at all, said Mary McCord, a former federal prosecutor who is the director of Georgetown University Law Centers Institute for Constitutional Advocacy. The other thing that is missing here from the way the federal government appears to be looking at these protests is there seems to be no respect for First Amendment rights. They appear to want to chill people from protesting against the administrations mass deportation plans. National Guardsmen patrol in front of the Washington Monument on the National Mall, Friday, Nov. 28, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File) National Guardsmen patrol in front of the Washington Monument on the National Mall, Friday, Nov. 28, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Randall Eliason, a former federal prosecutor and former adjunct professor at the George Washington University Law School, said Justice Department officials could be working on other cases instead of minor, minor misdemeanors.Many of these cases also show how the rhetoric on Twitter and in press releases and statements is not surviving the courtroom, he said. What that tells you is that the Trump administration is hoping to send a message and chill future protests, not pursue serious criminal cases that need to be prosecuted.The Justice Department said it will continue to seek the most serious available charges against those alleged to have put federal agents in harms way.We will not tolerate any violence directed toward our brave law enforcement officials who are working tirelessly to keep Americans safe, said Natalie Baldassarre, a department spokesperson. Those who attack law enforcement will be held fully accountable for their actions, despite the best efforts of activist liberal judges who would rather see violent criminals walk free. From the start of Trumps second term through Nov. 24, the Department of Homeland Security says there have been 238 assaults on Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel nationwide, up from 19 during the same period last year. The agency declined to provide its list or provide details about how it defines assaults.The assaults have occurred amid a pair of shootings targeting immigration detention facilities in Texas and the deadly attack on National Guard troops in Washington by a former Afghan soldier who had worked for the CIA.The specter of antifa A protester confronts a line of U.S. National Guard members in the metropolitan detention center of downtown Los Angeles, Sunday, June 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer, File) A protester confronts a line of U.S. National Guard members in the metropolitan detention center of downtown Los Angeles, Sunday, June 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer, File) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More The administration has deployed or sought to deploy troops to the four cities where AP examined the criminal cases: Washington, D.C, Los Angeles, Portland and Chicago. Judges have blocked the deployments in Portland and Chicago, citing a lack of credible evidence there is any organized rebellion and finding that Trump administration officials had often exaggerated or lied about threats posed by protesters. A district judge and appeals court have gone back and forth over whether Trump must give control of the troops in California back to the state.Trump and his administration have sought to justify the military deployments, in part, by painting immigration protesters as antifa, which the president has sought to designate as domestic terrorist organization. President Trump will not turn a blind-eye to the sustained campaign of violence destroying American cities perpetrated by leftists and those who enable them, said Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman. Short for anti-fascists, antifa is an umbrella term for far-left-leaning protesters who confront or resist neo-Nazis and white supremacists, sometimes clashing with law enforcement.The APs review found only a handful of references to antifa in court records for any of the 166 cases it reviewed. Federal prosecutors wrote in court papers that a defendant in Portland was someone who claims a loose association with Antifa. In another case, an FBI agent wrote in an affidavit that conservative influencers had described a protester as an Antifa helper or agitator.The AP found no case in which federal authorities officially accused a protester of being a domestic terrorist or part of an organized effort to attack federal agents.In affidavits for many of the Portland cases, federal agents referred to so-called black bloc protesters who wear all black clothing but did not use the word antifa to describe them.In at least one press release, DHS has alleged a protester was a suspected member of antifa. That person was arrested outside a Chicago-area ICE facility in October while allegedly carrying a firearm. He has not yet been charged with a crime, court records show.Five people pleaded guilty last month to terrorism-related offenses stemming from a July 4 shooting that wounded a police officer outside an immigration detention center near Dallas. Prosecutors in that case accused the defendants of being part of an antifa cell. It was not included in APs analysis because it did not occur in one of the four cities where Trump has sought to deploy troops.Rioters and other violent criminals have threatened our law enforcement officers, thrown rocks, bottles, and fireworks at them, slashed the tires of their vehicles, rammed them, ambushed them, and even shot at them, said DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin.Evaporating Felonies Federal immigration enforcement agents detain a protester in the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago on Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025. (Anthony Vazquez/Chicago Sun-Times via AP, File) Federal immigration enforcement agents detain a protester in the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago on Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025. (Anthony Vazquez/Chicago Sun-Times via AP, File) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More The APs analysis showed that dozens of people charged with felonies have seen their offenses reduced to misdemeanors. Among them was Dana Briggs, a 70-year-old Air Force veteran who was charged in September with assault after a protest in Chicago. Prosecutors first downgraded the charge to a misdemeanor. After video footage emerged of federal agents knocking Briggs to the ground, prosecutors dropped the case. Prosecutors declined to say why they dismissed it.In Portland, 28-year-old Lucy Shepherd was charged in November with felony assault after she batted away the arm of a federal officer who was attempting to clear a crowd outside the citys ICE facility. Her lawyers argued in court filings that a video of her arrest proved there had not been an assault. The video, they wrote, showed she brushed aside an officer with too little force to have been intended to inflict any kind of injury on the officer whatsoever. Prosecutors dropped the case.The office of the U.S. attorney for Oregon declined to comment.Prosecutors are not required to disclose why they sought to downgrade a charge, and much of that process is cloaked in secrecy. Legal experts said prosecutors typically take such action when they learn the evidence is weaker than expected or uncover facts that do not support a felony charge.Court records showed that prosecutors have secured felony indictments against people who are accused of assaulting federal officers and agents in a host of ways. They have been accused of hurling rocks and projectiles at officers, punching or kicking them and shooting them with paintballs.How a case dissolvedMarimar Martinez, a 30-year-old teaching assistant at a Montessori school, was arrested and charged in October with a felony, accusing her of trying to use her car to ram into a Border Patrol agent in a southwest Chicago neighborhood. A DHS press release asserted that she and the driver of another car involved in the incident were domestic terrorists.In court papers, an FBI agent alleged that Martinez and the other driver were aggressively driving and chasing a Border Patrol vehicle. When Border Patrol agents got out of their vehicle, the FBI agent wrote, Martinez drove at one of the agents. The agent was forced to open fire, the agent alleged, striking Martinez at least five times. She was treated at a hospital and released. Inside Martinezs car, authorities recovered a loaded firearm, the agent wrote.DHS noted in a press release that Martinez had been armed with a semi-automatic weapon. Martinez and a 21-year-old man were charged with assaulting a federal officer with her vehicle, which was classified as a dangerous weapon. They faced up to 20 years in prison. Then the case fell apart.It turned out Martinez legally owned the gun, and her attorneys contended that video footage from security cameras and body cameras worn by Border Patrol officers undermined the official narrative. The videos showed a Border Patrol agent steering his vehicle into Martinezs truck, rather than the other way around, her attorney said. Text messages showed the federal agent bragging about his marksmanship after the shooting.I fired 5 rounds and she had 7 holes, read a text message that the agent, Charles Exum, sent to colleagues. Put that in your book boys. Twenty-four hours after the shooting, Exum texted, Cool, Im up for another round.Federal prosecutors last month dismissed all charges against Martinez and the other driver. Martinezs attorney celebrated the move but emphasized that his clients life is changed forever due to her physical injuries, trauma and long-term impacts of being publicly branded a domestic terrorist.They call this Operation Midway Blitz, but I call it Operation Midway Bust because this and every case that has come out of this has fallen apart, said the lawyer, Christopher Parente.Joseph D. Fitzpatrick, an assistant U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, said prosecutors are constantly evaluating evidence to ensure the interests of justice are served in each and every case.Legal experts said dropping cases or reducing charges are not straightforward victories for the accused. They noted that defendants have to hire lawyers and may face significant legal expenses. They may also be held in jail for days or weeks, potentially losing jobs and seeing their families disrupted. Lost at trial Katherine Carreo stands for a portrait Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Allison Dinner) Katherine Carreo stands for a portrait Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Allison Dinner) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Former federal prosecutors and defense attorneys said they were surprised that the Justice Department took at least five misdemeanor cases to trial. Such trials eat up resources, and those convicted frequently receive little jail time. The experts said they were also shocked DOJ lost all five cases at trial, a sign that the cases were particularly weak. When the DOJ tries to take a swing at someone, they should hit 99.9% of the time. And thats not happening, said Ronald W. Chapman II, a defense attorney with extensive experience in the federal courts. The highest-profile loss involved Sean Charles Dunn, a Washington, D.C., man who tossed a Subway-style sandwich at a Border Patrol agent he had berated as a fascist. Dunn was acquitted Nov. 6 after a two-day trial.Katherine Carreo was arrested in August on a felony assault charge, accused of striking a federal officer in Los Angeles. The 32-year-old was protesting with a group outside the downtown federal building when DHS security officers asked them to move out of the way of a vehicle that was trying to enter a gate, according to a criminal complaint.Carreo, a paralegal, said it was one of many times she had gone to demonstrate in front of the federal complex where immigrants were being detained.An officer gave two loud commands to move back, which all protesters did except Carreo, the complaint alleged. The officer pushed her away from the vehicle, and Carreo raised her hand and brought it down in a slapping/chopping motion onto the officers arm. She did this twice before being detained, the complaint said.Prosecutors reduced the charge to a misdemeanor and took her to trial.Social media video shown to jurors showed an officer striding toward Carreo and pushing her back. She was not standing in front of the vehicle but to the right and slightly forward of it. The video did not show whether Carreo hit the officer.The officer said she did not push Carreo. Some jurors, pointing to the video evidence, said they disagreed. It took them just under five hours to reach their verdict not guilty. ___Ding reported from Los Angeles, Fernando from Chicago, Rush from Portland, Oregon, and Foley from Iowa City, Iowa.___Contact the APs global investigative team at [emailprotected] or https://www.ap.org/tips/ MICHAEL BIESECKER Biesecker is a global investigative reporter for The Associated Press, based in Washington. He reports on a wide range of topics, including human conflict, climate change and political corruption. twitter instagram mailto JAIMIE DING Ding covers California breaking news for The Associated Press. She focuses on law enforcement and the courts, and is based in Los Angeles. twitter mailto CLAIRE RUSH Rush is an Associated Press reporter covering Oregon state government and general news in the Pacific Northwest more broadly. twitter mailto RYAN J. FOLEY Foley covers national news for The Associated Press and is based in Iowa City, Iowa. A 21-year AP veteran, he was part of the AP team honored as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in investigative reporting for the 2024 series, Lethal Restraint. twitter mailto

A dealer watches computer monitors at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)2025-12-18T05:26:32Z BANGKOK (AP) World shares were mixed on Thursday after declines for AI stocks dragged the U.S. market to its worst day in nearly a month. Traders were waiting for an update later in the day on U.S. inflation, and on a decision Friday by Japans central bank on interest rates. The Bank of Japan is expected to raise its key rate by 0.25 percentage point to tamp down price pressures, despite a contraction in the July-September quarter. Germanys DAX edged 0.2% higher to 24,007.33, while the CAC 40 in Paris gained 0.4% to 8,114.30. Britains FTSE 100 was up 0.3% to 9,800.00. The future for the S&P 500 gained 0.3%, while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average inched up 0.1%. In Asian trading, Tokyos Nikkei 225 lost 1% to 49,001.50, with technology shares leading the decline. Technology and telecoms giant SoftBank sank 4%. Computer chip maker Tokyo Electron lost 3.2% while chip testing equipment maker Advantest dropped 3.3%. Honda Motor Corp. fell 2.2% after reports said it was suspending production at some plants in Japan and China due to shortages of computer chips. South Koreas Kospi sank 1.5% to 3,994.51, also pulled lower by selling of shares in electronics companies and automakers. LG Electronics declined 3.1%, while Samsung Electronics lost 0.3%. Chinese markets were mixed. Hong Kongs Hang Seng bounced back from early losses to gain 0.1%, closing at 25,498.13. The Shanghai Composite index edged 0.2% higher, to 3,876.37. Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel. Follow on In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 was nearly unchanged at 8,588.20. Later Thursday, the U.S. government will report on inflation last month. Economists expect that report to show prices for U.S. consumers continue to rise faster than anyone would like. On Wednesday, the S&P 500 fell 1.2% and the Dow dipped 0.5%. The Nasdaq composite dropped 1.8%.Slightly more stocks rose within the S&P 500 than fell, but they got drowned out by the drops for companies in the artificial-intelligence industry. The sector is being pressured by questions over whether Big Tech companies share prices have shot too high, whether all the investment in AI will be profitable and productive enough to justify the costs, and by worries over stratospheric levels of debt some companies are taking on to pay for it all.Broadcom dropped 4.5%, Oracle fell 5.4% and CoreWeave sank 7.1%. Nvidia, the chip company thats become Wall Streets most influential stock because of its tremendous size, fell 3.8% and was the days heaviest weight on the S&P 500.Power companies that jumped earlier in the year on expectations for stronger demand from electricity-sucking data centers also lost some of their shine. Constellation Energy fell 6.7%.On the winning side of Wall Street were oil companies, after President Donald Trump ordered a blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers into Venezuela. That sent the price of a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude higher by 1.2% to $55.94. just a day after it sank to its lowest level since 2021. Early Thursday, U.S. crude was up 12 cents at $55.93 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, gained 8 cents to $59.76 per barrel. It had climbed 1.3% on Wednesday. Oil prices have been falling for most of this year on expectations that companies are pumping more than enough crude to meet the worlds demand.Netflix added 0.2% after Warner Bros. Discoverys board said it still recommends shareholders approve a buyout offer from the streaming giant for its Warner Bros. business, rather than a competing hostile bid from Paramount Skydance for the entire company. Warner Bros. Discovery fell 2.4%, while Paramount Skydance dropped 5.4%. In other dealings early Thursday, the U.S. dollar rose to 155.92 Japanese yen from 155.70 yen. The euro slipped to $1.1727 from $1.1743. ELAINE KURTENBACH Based in Bangkok, Kurtenbach is the APs business editor for Asia, helping to improve and expand our coverage of regional economies, climate change and the transition toward carbon-free energy. She has been covering economic, social, environmental and political trends in China, Japan and Southeast Asia throughout her career. twitter mailto RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

Associated Press correspondent Peter Arnett, left, marches with Vietnamese troops in Vietnam, Nov. 11, 1965. (AP Photo, File)2025-12-18T01:57:46Z LOS ANGELES (AP) Peter Arnett, the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who spent decades dodging bullets and bombs to bring the world eyewitness accounts of war from the rice paddies of Vietnam to the deserts of Iraq, has died. He was 91. Arnett, who won the 1966 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting for his Vietnam War coverage for The Associated Press, died Wednesday in Newport Beach and was surrounded by friends and family, said his son Andrew Arnett. He had been suffering from prostate cancer.Peter Arnett was one of the greatest war correspondents of his generation intrepid, fearless, and a beautiful writer and storyteller. His reporting in print and on camera will remain a legacy for aspiring journalists and historians for generations to come, said Edith Lederer, who was a fellow AP war correspondent in Vietnam in 1972-73 and is now APs chief correspondent at the United Nations.As a wire-service correspondent, Arnett was known mostly to fellow journalists when he reported in Vietnam from 1962 until the wars end in 1975. He became something of a household name in 1991, however, after he broadcast live updates for CNN from Iraq during the first Gulf War. Associated Press correspondent Peter Arnett stands with gear that he carries out in field while covering the Vietnamese army 1963, in Saigon, Vietnam. (AP Photo, File) Associated Press correspondent Peter Arnett stands with gear that he carries out in field while covering the Vietnamese army 1963, in Saigon, Vietnam. (AP Photo, File) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More While almost all Western reporters had fled Baghdad in the days before the U.S.-led attack, Arnett stayed. As missiles began raining on the city, he broadcast a live account by cellphone from his hotel room. Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel. Follow on There was an explosion right near me, you may have heard, he said in a calm, New Zealand-accented voice moments after the loud boom of a missile strike rattled across the airwaves. As he continued to speak air-raid sirens blared in the background.I think that took out the telecommunications center, he said of another explosion. They are hitting the center of the city. Reporting from VietnamIt was not the first time Arnett had gotten dangerously close to the action.In January 1966, he joined a battalion of U.S. soldiers seeking to rout North Vietnamese snipers and was standing next to the battalion commander when an officer paused to read a map.As the colonel peered at it, I heard four loud shots as bullets tore through the map and into his chest, a few inches from my face, Arnett recalled during a talk to the American Library Association in 2013. He sank to the ground at my feet.He would begin the fallen soldiers obituary like this: He was the son of a general, a West Pointer and a battalion commander. But Lt. Colonel George Eyster was to die like a rifleman. It may have been the colonels leaves of rank on his collar, or the map he held in his hand, or just a wayward chance that the Viet Cong sniper chose Eyster from the five of us standing in that dusty jungle path. FILE - Newly-landed U.S. Marines make their way through the sands of Red Beach at Da Nang, Vietnam, on their way to reinforce the air base as South Vietnamese Rangers battled guerrillas several miles south of the beach, April 10, 1965. (AP Photo/Peter Arnett, File) FILE - Newly-landed U.S. Marines make their way through the sands of Red Beach at Da Nang, Vietnam, on their way to reinforce the air base as South Vietnamese Rangers battled guerrillas several miles south of the beach, April 10, 1965. (AP Photo/Peter Arnett, File) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More FILE - A paratrooper of the U.S. 173rd Airborne Brigade clutches his helmet as he takes cover during a North Vietnamese mortar attack in Vietnam, Nov. 21, 1967. (AP Photo/Peter Arnett, File) FILE - A paratrooper of the U.S. 173rd Airborne Brigade clutches his helmet as he takes cover during a North Vietnamese mortar attack in Vietnam, Nov. 21, 1967. (AP Photo/Peter Arnett, File) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More FILE - A South Vietnamese army medic feeds a wounded North Vietnamese prisoner in Xuan Loc, Vietnam, April 13, 1975. (AP Photo/Peter Arnett, File) FILE - A South Vietnamese army medic feeds a wounded North Vietnamese prisoner in Xuan Loc, Vietnam, April 13, 1975. (AP Photo/Peter Arnett, File) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Arnett had arrived in Vietnam just a year after joining AP as its Indonesia correspondent. That job would be short-lived after he reported Indonesias economy was in shambles and the countrys enraged leadership threw him out. His expulsion marked only the first of several controversies in which he would find himself embroiled, while also forging an historic career. At the APs Saigon bureau in 1962, Arnett found himself surrounded by a formidable roster of journalists, including bureau chief Malcolm Browne and photo editor Horst Faas, who between them would win three Pulitzer Prizes. FILE - Associated Press correspondent Peter Arnett, front center right, poses for a photo with other AP staff members at the AP Saigon bureau in Vietnam, April 18, 1972. The staff includes, front row from left, George Esper, Carl Robinson, Arnett, and Ed White and back row, from left, Hugh Mulligan, chief Vietnamese reporter Huynh Minh Trinh, Holger Jensen, Richard Blystone, Max Nash and Richard Pyle. (AP Photo, File) FILE - Associated Press correspondent Peter Arnett, front center right, poses for a photo with other AP staff members at the AP Saigon bureau in Vietnam, April 18, 1972. The staff includes, front row from left, George Esper, Carl Robinson, Arnett, and Ed White and back row, from left, Hugh Mulligan, chief Vietnamese reporter Huynh Minh Trinh, Holger Jensen, Richard Blystone, Max Nash and Richard Pyle. (AP Photo, File) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More He credited Browne in particular with teaching him many of the survival tricks that would keep him alive in war zones over the next 40 years. Among them: Never stand near a medic or radio operator because theyre among the first the enemy will shoot at. And if you hear a gunshot coming from the other side, dont look around to see who fired it because the next one will likely hit you.Arnett would stay in Vietnam until the capital, Saigon, fell to the Communist-backed North Vietnamese rebels in 1975. In the time leading up to those final days, he was ordered by APs New York headquarters to begin destroying the bureaus papers as coverage of the war wound down.Instead, he shipped them to his apartment in New York, believing theyd have historic value someday. Theyre now in the APs archives.A star on cable newsArnett remained with the AP until 1981, when he joined the newly-formed CNN.Ten years later he was in Baghdad covering another war. He not only reported on the front-line fighting but won exclusive, and controversial, interviews with then-President Saddam Hussein and future 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden.In 1995 he published the memoir, Live From the Battlefield: From Vietnam to Baghdad, 35 Years in the Worlds War Zones.Arnett resigned from CNN in 1999, months after the network retracted an investigative report he did not prepare but narrated alleging that deadly Sarin nerve gas had been used on deserting American soldiers in Laos in 1970.He was covering the second Gulf War for NBC and National Geographic in 2003 when he was fired for granting an interview to Iraqi state TV during which he criticized the U.S. militarys war strategy. His remarks were denounced back home as anti-American. After his dismissal, TV critics for the AP and other news organizations speculated that Arnett would never work in television news again. Within a week, however, he had been hired to report on the war for stations in Taiwan, the United Arab Emirates and Belgium.In 2007, he took a job teaching journalism at Chinas Shantou University. Following his retirement in 2014, he and his wife, Nina Nguyen, moved to the Southern California suburb of Fountain Valley.Born Nov. 13, 1934, in Riverton, New Zealand, Peter Arnett got his first exposure to journalism when he landed a job at his local newspaper, the Southland Times, shortly after high school. Associated Press correspondent Peter Arnett sits for a portrait in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, March 18, 1963. (AP Photo, File) Associated Press correspondent Peter Arnett sits for a portrait in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, March 18, 1963. (AP Photo, File) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More I didnt really have a clear idea of where my life would take me, but I do remember that first day when I walked into the newspaper office as an employee and found my little desk, and I did have a you know enormously delicious feeling that Id found my place, he recalled in a 2006 AP oral history.After a few years at the Times, he made plans to move to a larger newspaper in London. En route to England by ship, however, he made a stop in Thailand and fell in love with the country.Soon he was working for the English-language Bangkok World, and later for its sister newspaper in Laos. There he would make the connections that led him to the AP and a lifetime of covering war.Arnett is survived by his wife and their children, Elsa and Andrew.He was like a brother, said retired AP photographer Nick Ut, who covered combat in Vietnam with Arnett and remained his friend for a half century. His death will leave a big hole in my life.___AP journalist Audrey McAvoy contributed to this report.

Subscribe nowLast Friday, we published a short clip of me interviewing Chet Hesson, the athletic director at Monroe Public Schools in Michigan. Hesson had recently been named in a Title IX complaint against the school district, which was spurred on by the participation of an allegedly trans girl on the girls volleyball team at Skyline High School in Ann Arbor. Hesson spoke as an individual, saying his heart goes out to the girl for being at the center of a national controversy.The very next day, the district put him on administrative leave.Donate to Uncloseted MediaSince then, Uncloseted has become the center of a media firestorm. For OutKick, reporter Dan Zaksheske called us a radical pro-LGBTQ media outlet. Substack journalist Dave Bondy misidentified our outlet as a podcast while covering Hesson being placed on administrative leave. And far-right activist Riley Gaines reposted part of the clip to X, saying it was amazing to watch grown men [Hesson and me] act like calling a boy a boy is the worst atrocity a human is capable of committing.Having worked as a journalist in the U.S. for more than a decade, tit-for-tat journalism rooted in culture wars, angertainment and opinion rather than fact has always been central to how America covers the news.But in 2025, it feels like thats all were consuming: partisan opinions rooted in fluffy talking points rather than rigorous journalism and fact-driven reporting. Disproportionate coverage is given to stories that media outlets see as red meat, likely to rile up their base and generate lots of engagement.In a way, I sympathize with the figureheads who do this because it makes sense: More engagement means more money, which equates to sustainability. Its almost necessary for survival in for-profit journalism. And in the current media landscape, its so easy to be seduced by viral hits that result in three and a half hours of Twitter fame and dopamine bursts on what otherwise would be a boring Tuesday night.But the thing is, these stories matter so much and the media arent getting them right. The people at the center of this story are children who didnt sign up for this. So its critical that facts are correct and partisan puff words arent used frivolously for the sake of clicks.Uncloseted Media intentionally launched as a nonprofit newsroom so we dont have to depend on clicks for a return on investment. We still havent been perfect and Ill admit its tempting to throw out Instagram slides that are almost guaranteed to go viral but that are not necessarily newsworthy. But we do our best every day to be balanced and accurate in the stories we tell, no matter who were interviewing.Subscribe nowAll this is to say that we dont want to engage in culture wars or gratuitous feuds with folks who are trying to use a debate with us to create an us-versus-them dynamic, as though you should be rooting for one team.We should always, without question, be cheering on journalism that is rooted in a commitment to the truth and a focus on stories that are newsworthy and that matter to all Americans.Lets turn the temperature down.Donate to Uncloseted MediaI joined the This News is So Gay podcast with host Ken Schneck alongside journalists from The Advocate and HuffPost to unpack the latest stories affecting LGBTQ Americans. Listen here: House sets votes on gender-affirming care penalties (Axios)The U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on two bills this week that would crack down on gender-affirming care for transgender minors, including criminal penalties for providers and bans on Medicaid funding for treatments like hormone therapy and puberty blockers.Marjorie Taylor Greenes trans care ban gets vote in House (The Washington Post)Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greenes long-standing Protect Childrens Innocence Act, which would outlaw gender-transition care nationwide, has finally reached the House floor. Medical experts and LGBTQ advocates warn the bill could jeopardize the health and well-being of trans youth, even though its unlikely to pass in the Senate.Pam Bondi directs FBI to target radical gender ideology (Them.US)A controversial Department of Justice memo from Attorney General Pam Bondi instructs the FBI to step up efforts against groups labeled as domestic terrorists, including some that support trans and nonbinary rights and even offers cash rewards for tips. Civil liberties groups say the move could chill activism and free speech.San Antonio to remove rainbow crosswalks after state denial (San Antonio Express-News)Texas transportation officials rejected San Antonios request to keep its rainbow pride crosswalks, forcing the city to plan their removal by January 15. Local LGBTQ advocates are exploring legal options, arguing the crosswalks are symbols of community identity and inclusion.Netflix cancels LGBTQ+ military drama Boots amid political backlash(Decider)Netflix has axed its acclaimed LGBTQ+ military dramedy Boots after one season. The show faced public criticism from Pentagon officials who branded it woke garbage, illustrating how political pressures are affecting queer storytelling in mainstream entertainment.Over the next week, be on the lookout for new Uncloseted reporting: While the controversy around the allegedly trans volleyball player in Michigan may seem to have come out of nowhere, thats not necessarily the caseits the product of several months of pot-stirring coverage by right-wing media outlets. We dug into the reporters who turned a random girls volleyball team into a national news story and spoke with top journalism ethics experts to see if their coverage holds up. After a year marked by unprecedented attacks on LGBTQ rights, Uncloseted Media turns toward something brighter: hope. Drawing from our national Messages of Hope campaign, which we launched in September, you will hear voicemails from parents, allies, and queer elders and LGBTQ kids across the country. The culmination of our campaign was the installation of a rotary phone at the historic Stonewall Inn. This project delivers a clear message to LGBTQ youth: you are not alone, you are deeply loved and a better future is being built.Thanks for reading! Feel free to email me with questions, complaints and story ideas! Spencer Macnaughton, Editor-In-Chief spencer@unclosetedmedia.comIf objective, nonpartisan, rigorous, LGBTQ-focused journalism is important to you, please consider making a tax-deductible donation through our fiscal sponsor, Resource Impact, by clicking this button:Donate to Uncloseted Media

Nature, Published online: 18 December 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-03673-6The rise of AI scientists, missions to explore the moons of Earth and Mars and a massive ocean-floor drill are among the developments set to shape research in 2026.

Nature, Published online: 18 December 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-04078-1Some cycads warm up their reproductive organs to attract specially equipped pollinating beetles in the dark.

Nature, Published online: 18 December 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-04139-5Andrew Robinson reviews five of the best science picks.

The appointment of Bishop Ronald A. Hicks is expected to bring a markedly different leadership style to New Yorks archdiocese.

Dmitri N. Kozak had worked with President Vladimir V. Putin for three decades before quitting in September. His associates described his break with the Russian leader.

Nick Reiner, charged with murdering his parents, Rob and Michele Singer Reiner, spent much of his life battling drug addiction, an affliction that millions of Americans face.

A rallying cry for Democrats taps into frustration over the inaccessibility of a modestly nice American existence even for those with a decent income.

Early decision isnt just for the rich, as long as people with lower incomes can get accurate price quotes before agreeing to attend if they get in.

Can this year's CFP match 2024's first round? It certainly won't lack for storylines.

Five of the head coaches in the playoff worked under and learned from Alabama's legendary leader.

Plus, dont blame the dogs in strollers.

Mr. Musk has ambitions to remake education, but his latest effort to open an elementary school in Texas appears to have faltered.

The president has tried to minimize their friendship, but documents and interviews reveal an intense and complicated relationship. Chasing women was a game of ego and dominance. Female bodies were currency.

The president cited misleading statistics to insist, wrongly, that prices were coming down.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York attends a news conference at the North American College in Rome, May 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File)2025-12-18T11:08:22Z VATICAN CITY (AP) Pope Leo XIV on Thursday made his most important U.S. appointment to date, naming a fellow Chicagoan as the next archbishop of New York to lead one of the biggest U.S. archdioceses as it navigates relations with the Trump administration and its immigration crackdown.Bishop Ronald Hicks, the current bishop of Joliet, Illinois, replaces the retiring Cardinal Timothy Dolan, a prominent conservative figure in the U.S. Catholic hierarchy. Hicks takes over after Dolan last week finalized a plan to establish a $300 million fund to compensate victims of sexual abuse who had sued the archdiocese.Dolan had submitted his resignation in February, as required when he turned 75. But the Vatican often waits to make important leadership changes in dioceses if there is lingering abuse litigation or other governance matters that need to be resolved by the outgoing bishop. The handover, though, represents a significant new chapter for the U.S. Catholic Church, which is forging a new era with the Chicago-born Leo as the first American pope. Leo and the U.S. hierarchy have already shown willingness to challenge the Trump administration on immigration and other issues, and Hicks is seen as very much a Leo-style bishop. A call for solidarity with immigrantsHicks, 58, grew up in South Holland, Illinois, a short distance from the suburban Chicago childhood home of Leo, the former Robert Prevost.Like Prevost, who spent 20 years as a missionary in Peru, Hicks worked for five years in El Salvador heading a church-run orphanage program that operated in nine Latin American and Caribbean countries.Taking a new position as archbishop of New York is an enormous responsibility, but I can honestly say that Bishop Hicks is up to the task, said the Rev. Eusebius Martis, who has known Hicks since the mid-1980s and worked with him at Mundelein Seminary, the Chicago archdiocesan seminary. He said New York was lucky to have him.He is a wonderful man, always thoughtful and attentive to the needs of seminarians, Martis, professor of sacramental theology at the Pontifical Liturgical Institute of SantAnselmo, the Benedictine University in Rome, said in an email.In November, Hicks endorsed a special message from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops condemning the Trump administrations immigration raids, which have targeted Chicago in particular.In a statement then urging Catholics to share the message, Hicks said it affirms our solidarity with all our brothers and sisters as it expresses our concerns, opposition, and hopes with clarity and conviction. It is grounded in the churchs enduring commitment to the Catholic social teaching of human dignity and a call for meaningful immigration reform.A similar hometownThough they both hail from Chicago, Hicks only met the future pope in 2024, when then-Cardinal Prevost visited one of Hicks parishes and took part in a question and answer conversation for the public.Hicks, who sat in the front pew, said he learned that day what sort of future pope Leo would be and said he liked what he saw both in his public remarks and then in their private conversation. Five minutes turned into 10 minutes and the 10 minutes turned into 15 and the 15 turned into 20, Hicks told local Chicago WGN-TV news after Leos May election. He said he recognized their shared backgrounds and priorities to build bridges. We grew up literally in the same radius, in the same neighborhood together. We played in the same parks, went swimming in the same pools, like the same pizza places.Hicks served as a parish priest in Chicago and dean of training at Mundelein Seminary before Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich made him vicar general of the archdiocese in 2015. Three years later, Hicks was made an auxiliary bishop, and in 2020 Pope Francis named him bishop of Joliet, serving around 520,000 Catholics in seven counties.Cupich, seen as a progressive in the U.S. church, has been a close adviser to both Francis and Leo, and Hicks appointment to such a prominent job likely could not have come without Cupichs endorsement. A pastor for New YorkThe New York archdiocese is among the largest in the nation, serving roughly 2.5 million Catholics in Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island in New York City, as well as seven counties to the north. The gregarious Dolan is one of the most high-profile Catholic leaders in the United States and a prominent voice in the city.Dolan is widely viewed as conservative, writing a 2018 Wall Street Journal column headlined The Democrats Abandon Catholics. Yet in 2023, he also wrote a letter of welcome to a conference at Fordham University celebrating outreach programs aimed at LGBTQ+ Catholics, and he welcomed LGBTQ+ participation in the citys annual St. Patricks Day parade.Dolan has ties to the current Republican administration. As archbishop of New York, Dolan hosted the annual Al Smith white-tie dinner that raises millions of dollars for Catholic charities. It has traditionally offered candidates from both parties the chance to trade lighthearted barbs ahead of Election Day, though in 2024 only Donald Trump participated since Democratic nominee Kamala Harris declined the invitation. Trump, who has long-standing connections to his native New York City, later had the cardinal pray at his inauguration and appointed Dolan to his new Religious Liberty Commission.Dolan was Trumps pick to succeed Pope Francis, though Dolan did criticize the president for sharing an AI-generated image of Trump, who is not a Catholic, dressed up as a pope before the May conclave that ultimately elected Leo.Dolan was named archbishop of New York by Pope Benedict XVI in February 2009 after serving as archbishop of Milwaukee. He was made cardinal in 2012 and headed the U.S. bishops conference from 2010-2013.A first task to oversee abuse settlementsIn one of his biggest first tasks, Hicks will have to oversee the implementation of the abuse settlement fund that Dolan finalized, which is to be paid for by reducing the archdiocesan budget and selling off assets. The aim is to cover settlements for most, if not all of the roughly 1,300 outstanding abuse claims against the archdiocese.Hicks is no stranger to managing the fallout of the abuse scandal, after the Joliet diocese under his predecessors and the rest of the Illinois church came under scathing criticism by the states attorney general in 2023.A five-year investigation found that 451 Catholic clergy abused 1,997 children in Illinois between 1950 and 2019. Hicks had been appointed to lead the Joliet church in 2020. The attorney generals report was generally positive in recognizing the dioceses current child protection policies, but documented several cases where previous Joliet bishops moved known abusers around, disparaged victims and refused to accept responsibility for their role in enabling the abuse.___Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the APs collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. NICOLE WINFIELD Winfield has been on the Vatican beat since 2001, covering the papacies of St. John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI and the Francis pontificate and traveling the world with them.

I inherited a mess, and Im fixing it, President Donald Trump said at the start of his 20-minute Wednesday evening national address, soon adding, We had men playing in womens sports, transgender for everybody, barely a minute into his speech. For the last four years, the United States was ruled by politicians who fought only for insiders, illegal aliens, career criminals, corporate lobbyists, prisoners, terrorists and, above all, foreign nations, he said, They indoctrinated your children with hate for America. Related Major journalist who covered Trump for years now says hes off his f**king rocker We have broken the grip of sinister woke radicals in our schools, he continued before saying he had returned control of schools to our great and loving states, a likely reference to his attempt to unilaterally eliminate the Department of Education without congressional consent, even though the Republican-led Supreme Courts shadow docket permitted him to.Ive ended the war in Gaza, bringing for the first time in 3,000 years peace to the Middle East, he lied. Since the U.S.-brokered ceasefire began on October 10, 2025, at least 394 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza by Israeli attacks, according to the Gaza Health Ministry and the United Nations sources. Insights for the LGBTQ+ community Subscribe to our briefing for insights into how politics impacts the LGBTQ+ community and more. Subscribe to our Newsletter today He then claimed to have secured a record-breaking $18 trillion of investment into the United States experts say that amount is a lie. He then lied about his executive order reducing future prescription drug prices by as much as 400, 500, and even 600% a mathematical impossibility (reducing a price by 100% would mean that it costs nothing).He then repeated racist statements, accusing undocumented immigrants of invading and stealing American jobs and housing. (Both claims are untrue, according to the Economic Policy Institute and PolitiFact). Trump also continued his racist attacks against Somali immigrants living in Minnesota for committing billions in fraud. In actuality, the ringleader of the scam was a white woman named Aimee Bock (and only some of her accomplices, now facing criminal charges, were Somali, according to CBS News).Trump uttered numerous, regularly disproven lies during the rest of his speech. Writer Zach Beauchamp at Vox.com said of the speech, It reeks of desperation, as Trump lacks a coherent strategy for addressing rising healthcare and cost-of-living expenses for tens of millions of Americans.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

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Scientists have discovered the underwater ruins of huge stone structures erected by humans at least 7,000 years ago in the coastal waters of France, according to a new study published in the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology.The submerged granite ruins near Sein Island, a Breton island in the Atlantic Ocean, are among the oldest large stone structures ever found in France, and may have inspired an ancient local legend about a city called Ys that vanished under the waves.The structures vary in size from small stone dams, which were probably fish traps, to large monoliths and slabs that protrude six feet from the seafloor and extend 400 feet in length, which perhaps once served as a protective seawall.Yves Fouquet, a geologist who works with the Society for Maritime Archaeology and Heritage (SAMM), first noticed hints of these long-lost megaliths in LiDAR data collected by the Litto3D program, a national initiative to create a precise 3D digital reconstruction of the entire French coastline. Fouquet and his colleagues confirmed the existence of the mysterious structures, and mapped out their locations, across dozens of dives carried out by ten SAMM divers between 2022 and 2024.The detailed analysis of these maps to redraw the underwater geological map of this area (faults, rock types) has made it possible to identify structures that did not appear natural to a geologist, Fouquet said in an email to 404 Media.Brittany, a peninsular region of northwest France, is home to the oldest megaliths in the nation and some of the earliest in Europe, which date back some 6,500 years. The team estimated that the submerged stone structures off Sein Island may predate these early megaliths in Brittany by about 500 years, based on their estimation of when the stones would have last been above sea level. But it will take more research to home in on the exact age of the megaliths.We plan to continue the exploration and carry out more detailed work to understand the architecture and precise the age of the structures, Fouquet said. The discovery of these stones opens a new window into the societies living in Brittany during the Mesolithic/Neolithic Transition, a period when hunter-gatherers began to shift toward settled lifestyles involving fishing, farming, and the construction of megaliths and other buildings.Photos of the structures in Figure 7 of the study. Image: SAMM, 2023The peoples who made these structures must have been both highly organized and relatively abundant in population in order to erect the stones. They were also sophisticated marine navigators, as the waters around Sein Island are notoriously dangerousprone to swells and strong currentswhich is one reason its underwater heritage has remained relatively poorly explored.Our results bear witness to the possible sedentary lifestyle of maritime hunter-gatherers on the coast of the extreme west of France from the 6th millennium onwards, said Fouquet and his colleagues in the study. The technical know-how to extract, transport, and erect monoliths and large slabs during the Mesolithic/Neolithic transition precedes by about 500 years the megalithic constructions in western France in the 5th millennium.The discovery raises new questions about the origins of these megalithics structures, which may have had a symbolic or religious resonance to these past peoples. the team added. This discovery in a high hydrodynamic environment opens up new perspectives for searching for traces of human settlement in Brittany along the submerged coastline of the period 60005000 years cal. BCE.The researchers also speculate about a possible link between these structures, and the prehistoric people who made them, and local legends about sunken cities that may date back thousands of years.Legends about sunken cities, compared with recent data on rising sea levels, shows that the stories of ancient submergences, passed down by oral tradition, could date back as far as 5,000 to 15,000 years, the team said, citing a 2022 study. This suggests that oral traditions that may have preserved significant events in memory that could well be worthy of scientific examination. These settlements described in legend reveal the profound symbolic significance of maritime prehistory, which should not be overlooked.In particular, the people of Brittany have long told tales of the lost city of Ys, a sunken settlement thought to be located in the Bay of Douarnenez, about six miles east of Sein Island. The sunken megaliths off Sein Island allow us to question the origin of the history of the city of Ys, not from the historical legends and their numerous additions, but from scientific findings that may be at the origin of this legend, the team said.Its extremely tantalizing to imagine that the long-hidden ruins of these peoples, who appear to have been expert seafarers and builders, are the source of tales that date back for untold generations in the region. But while the researchers raise the possibility of a link between the stones and the story, they cannot conclusively confirm the connection.Legend is legend, enriched by all the additions of human imagination over the centuries, Fouquet said in his email. Our discoveries are based on what can be scientifically proven.Subscribe to 404 Media to get The Abstract, our newsletter about the most exciting and mind-boggling science news and studies of the week.

Shaking hands is getting downright dangerous for Republicans. Just last week, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Donald Trump has shaken so many peoples hands that his right hand is constantly injured, something she came up with after a reporter pressed her on why we always see Trump in public with bruises on his right hand, or makeup or bandages to cover the bruises. Related Trumps new pick to head the CDC will make you sick President Trump is a man of the people, Leavitt said last Thursday. The president is literally constantly shaking hands. The Oval Office is like Grand Central Terminal. He is meeting with more people than any of you even know about on a daily basis.Trump is obviously not the first person to shake a lot of hands, and getting bruised up from normal handshakes is, frankly, bizarre. The bruising started earlier this year and has been noticed by photojournalists every single month this year, leading to speculation that Trump is suffering from a serious medical condition that causes bruising. Dive deeper every day Join our newsletter for thought-provoking commentary that goes beyond the surface of LGBTQ+ issues Subscribe to our Newsletter today The story is reminiscent of another instance of a Republican who recently claimed to be injured by a dangerous handshake. In late 2024, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) got a foster advocate who she referred to as a pro-tr*ns man arrested for allegedly shaking her hand so hard that she needed to wear a brace for her arm.Witnesses to the handshake said that it was a normal handshake that didnt look like an assault or intended aggression. The charges were dropped several months later. I was injured, intentionally, and I am still in pain, Mace said of the too-firm handshake. I filed charges, and they were inexplicably ignored. But I will not be. I will not back down. I will not be intimidated. And I sure as hell wont stay silent.Obviously, I have not witnessed all this violent handshaking, but its interesting to see how it was brought up in both situations. For Trump, the handshaking is being used as an excuse for a persistent injury of some kind and presented as a sign of his strength. Trump isnt sick, hes just really social! Trump has always been concerned about projecting strength, which, to him, means being free of disease.Who can forget when Trump stood on the White House balcony in October 2020 after he was hospitalized for 72 hours for COVID-19? He left Walter Reed National Military Medical Center early in a move that even CNN called reckless at the time, and to prove to everyone that he wasnt sick, he stood on the balcony without a mask for a photo op as he looked like he was about to collapse. But getting those pictures in and making people believe he wasnt sick was more important than protecting his actual health.Maces dangerous handshake served the exact opposite purpose. Shes 48, and theres no reason to believe that shes not in good health. She should be able to handle a handshake just fine, and it seems unlikely that an advocate for foster kids would shake her hand that hard and do it in such a way that no one at the crowded event would notice. And yet she went out of her way to make it seem like she really was so feeble that she was injured by the handshake, with a story so exaggerated that a court wasnt even willing to pursue a case that involved a sitting member of Congress as the victim.Feigned weakness has been central to Maces message for the past year, ever since she claimed that she would be in danger if forced to share a restroom with trans Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE), who appears, by the way, to be one of the nicest people ever to get sent to Congress. Even this past week, as Mace was called out by police for her temper tantrum at an airport that involved her allegedly cursing out police officers, she wanted everyone to know that she is the real victim. If youre conservative, if youre well known, if you have fought the transgender community like I have, exponentially in the wake of Charlie Kirks public assassination the death threats, the amount of political violence, the celebration of the killing of conservatives, is deeply disturbing, she said on Fox News last week when pressed on her alleged meltdown.The handshake, here, is a symbol for authoritarians conflicting desire when it comes to projecting (or not projecting) strength. They want to be seen as strong so people will respect and follow them. But they also want to have the moral power that comes from being an underdog so they argue that they are the real victims here, facing a malevolent force thats usually a small, historically oppressed class of people.And that class is always simultaneously weak and strong. Gay people are weak sissies whose sexuality and desire are a threat to everyones well-being. Trans people are a tiny portion of the population that can and should be ignored by everyone else, but theyre also very powerful and a threat to women and children, and even allowing them to appear in public could cause Western civilization to collapse. Conservatives talk like this about other historically marginalized groups, like immigrants, who come to America to steal all the jobs and buy up all the housing while they are also lazy and shiftless and a drain on public funds.There is a kind of power in being seen as both strong and dominating as well as weak and oppressed. Being seen as strong can make others respect and fear you, but being seen as oppressed can pull on peoples hearts.The goal of movement conservatism is the accumulation of power, not ideological coherence. True believers on the right are willing to say whatever they need to say in order to get a win, who cares if it makes sense?And perhaps Leavitt and Mace believe that, post-COVID, we all forgot what normal handshakes are like, and that they can let their imaginations run wild.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

With each passing day, Donald Trump further affirms his quest to become an authoritarian leader, this time by threatening to arrest a sitting governor amid clashes between the state and the federal government. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has been speaking out against the Trump administrations utilization of the National Guard at immigration protests in Los Angeles. Newsoms administration is now suing the Trump administration for doing so. Related Trumps use of the National Guard in LA is an ominous sign for the future Amidst the chaos, Trumps border czar Tom Homan threatened to arrest Newsom for interfering with immigration enforcement efforts by the federal government. Insights for the LGBTQ+ community Subscribe to our briefing for insights into how politics impacts the LGBTQ+ community and more. Subscribe to our Newsletter today Trumps border czar is threatening to arrest me for speaking out.Come and get me, tough guy.I don't give a damn.It wont stop me from standing up for California.pic.twitter.com/DvVQljAgir Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) June 9, 2025Trump said Homan should do it. The President of the United States just called for the arrest of a sitting Governor.This is a day I hoped I would never see in America.I dont care if youre a Democrat or a Republican this is a line we cannot cross as a nation this is an unmistakable step toward pic.twitter.com/tsTX1nrHAu Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) June 9, 2025In a different interview, a reporter asked Trump what crime Newsom committed, and Trumps answer is chilling: He ran for governor.Trump: What crime did Newsom commit? He ran for governor pic.twitter.com/Hitpd7yqAd Acyn (@Acyn) June 9, 2025 Despite Newsoms resolve to stand up to the administration over this issue, he made waves earlier this year for telling MAGA influencer Charlie Kirk that its deeply unfair to allow transgender female athletes to compete against other girls and women. Newsom known as an LGBTQ+ rights pinoeer also agreed that Trumps 2024 campaign ad criticizing then-Vice President Kamala Harris support of taxpayer-funded gender-affirming surgeries for trans inmates was devastating for her presidential bid. I think [the trans athlete question is] an issue of fairness, I completely agree with you on that. its deeply unfair, Newsom told Kirk, the first guest of his new podcastThis is Gavin Newsom. I am not wrestling with the fairness issue. I totally agree with you.Later on in Newsoms discussion with Kirk, Newsom who famously ordered San Francisco county clerks to issue same-sex marriage licenses in 2004, 11 years before the U.S. Supreme Court legalized the unions nationwide compared his position on trans athletes to conservatives who oppose same-sex marriage on principle,Politicoreported. Newsom praised Kirk and other conservatives for continuing to oppose same-sex marriage despite the widespread legal and social acceptance of such unions.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.