A Russian general was reportedly killed early today when a bomb detonated underneath his car in southern Moscow. www.themoscowtimes.com/2025/1...

A notification from CBS' 60 Minutes that a report scheduled to air in this evening's program about El Salvador's notorious Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT) mega-prison has been postponed.

Politico - At least six career staffers at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency were suspended with pay this summer after organizing a polygraph test that the agency’s acting director, Madhu Gottumukkala, failed. www.politico.com/news/2025/12...

(AP) — The US Coast Guard on Sunday was pursuing another sanctioned oil tanker in the Caribbean Sea as the Trump administration appeared to be intensifying its targeting of such vessels connected to the Venezuelan government.

Australian Prime Minister Albanese booed and heckled at vigil for terrorism victims. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12-2...

More than 130,000 PG&E customers in San Francisco are without power. abc7news.com/post/40000-pge-c...

Multiple US career ambassadors, appointed during the Biden administration, have been directed by phone call to vacate their posts by January 15 or 16. No explanation has been given for these recalls.

The atomic ensemble time scale at the NIST Boulder campus has failed.

(AP) — At least 16 files disappeared from the DoJ's public webpage for documents related to Jeffrey Epstein — including a photograph showing President Trump — less than a day after they were posted, with no explanation from the government and no notice to the public. apnews.com/article/release-ep...

At least seven elephants were killed after an express train this morning hit a herd of the pachyderms in Assam, India. www.ndtv.com/india-news/many-...

The Epstein files are out, and the lawmakers who forced their release are not satisfied. www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...

Cynthia Lummis, a staunch conservative Republican and Wyoming's first female US senator, announces she will not seek reelection after one term in office.

NYT - US begins major airstrikes against the Islamic State in Syria, fulfilling President Trump's vow to avenge the deaths of two Army soldiers killed in a terrorist attack in the central part of the country. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/12/...

"While spending precious time with my family this Christmas season, I have made the decision to suspend my campaign for Governor and will not seek re-election to Congress." - Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) on social media

DoJ begins releasing trove of documents connected to the deceased convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, partially complying with federal legislation that ordered officials to make the records public. www.washingtonpost.com/nation...

Terrifying headline if you don’t realize they are sports teams.

American Airlines just sent me an “exclusive” offer to obtain World Cup tickets. For the final match in New Jersey, a pair of the better seats can be obtained for 1.8 million frequent flyer miles (and the tickets cannot be resold).

Active shooter reported at Luke AFB in Arizona, according to authorities. ktar.com/arizona-news/luke-ai...

The livestream of a YouTube content creator talking about investments mysteriously appeared to take over a White House website. www.newser.com/story/380689/y...

It appears that the self-proclaimed acting CEO of the US Agency for Global Media, who (along with Elon Musk/DOGE) destroyed the Voice of America, isn't planning to stick around Washington.

H-1B visa holders who traveled back to India this month to renew their American work permits are now stranded. wapo.st/4s3bnZ8

“This may be the first time an ICE agent is incarcerated in his own ICE jail.” www.citybeat.com/news/update-...

Relocation to Belarus of the Russian Oreshnik IRBM system "is nearing completion. We understand where it will be deployed. We are sharing this information with our partners. The partners themselves can assess this threat and understand how to respond to it.” - Ukrainian President Zelenskyy

Updated signage evident the morning after a supposed renaming to “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.” www.washingtonpost.com/entertainmen...

(CNA) A 27-year-old man who allegedly carried out random attacks in Taipei using a smoke grenade and a knife, leaving two dead and seven injured, jumped to his death this evening. focustaiwan.tw/society/2025...

Hackers linked to China's government are blamed for a cyberattack on the UK Foreign Office, attempting to gain access to sensitive files in a breach that was later concealed by officials. www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

European leaders have decided to finance Ukraine's war effort for at least two years through a joint loan of €90 billion. www.france24.com/en/europe/20...

Because the Brown University shooter entered the US through the diversity lottery immigrant visa program and was granted a green card, DHS is pausing the DV1 scheme"to ensure no more Americans are harmed by this disastrous program," announces Secretary Kristi Noem.

The suspect in the mass shooting on the campus of Brown University has been found dead by suicide in a storage unit in New Hampshire. Authorities say 48-year-old Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, a former Brown student. www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/...

Newspaper offices in Dhaka vandalized as furious mobs react to news of the death of a prominent leader of the youth movement that ousted former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. bdnews24.com/bangladesh/ae9fa...

If US Attorney General Pam Bondi doesn't release the "Epstein Files" tomorrow, as ordered by the federal judiciary, she will be subject to prosecution for obstruction of justice, says Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability

Axios - TikTok has signed a deal to sell its US entity to a joint venture controlled by American investors. www.axios.com/2025/12/18/tikt...

WCVB - Police have identified a person they believe is connected to the mass shooting at Brown University and the killing of an MIT professor in Brookline earlier this week. www.wcvb.com/article/mit-...

For America's 250th anniversary next year, the "Patriot Games" will feature “one young man and one young woman from each state and territory,” announces President Trump in a video. youtu.be/zsykDQFIXao?...

(AP) — President Donald Trump’s handpicked board voted on Thursday to rename Washington’s leading performing arts center as the Trump-Kennedy Center. apnews.com/article/trum...

Former NASCAR driver Greg Biffle and family among those killed when a Cessna Citation crashed while landing at Statesville Regional Airport in North Carolina. www.cbs17.com/news/north-c...

"The Attorney General shall take all necessary steps to complete the rulemaking process related to rescheduling marijuana to Schedule III of the CSA in the most expeditious manner..." - Executive order signed by President Trump www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

When does a conversation with someone who holds extreme views illuminate their beliefs, which could serve the public interest, and when might it risk being interpreted as validation? theconversation.com/shaping-the-...

NYT - President Trump has tried to minimize his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, but documents and interviews reveal an intense and complicated relationship. Chasing women was a game of ego and dominance. Female bodies were currency. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/18/us...

Trump Media announces $6 billion merger with a nuclear fusion company. s3.amazonaws.com/b2icontent.i...

Ukrainian forces counterattacked near Lyman in Donetsk Oblast, destroying what they describe as an entire Russian regiment. kyivindependent.com/ukrainian...

Australia's opposition leaders calls for the prime minister to recall parliament to address the issue of antisemitism in the community in the wake of the Bondi terror attack. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12-1...

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 at 91. apnews.com/article/peter-arne...

In a nationwide address that major US TV networks are carrying live, President Trump announces 1,450,000 military members will receive a "warrior dividend" of $1776 before Christmas.

"I will be leaving my position with the FBI in January," announces Deputy Director Dan Bongino.

NYT - The Trump administration plans to ramp up efforts to strip some naturalized Americans of their citizenship. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/17/us...

(AP) — Months after President Trump refashioned a West Wing walkway into what he calls the Presidential Walk of Fame, he has added partisan and subjective plaques to the display. apnews.com/article/trump-plaq...

Politico - Former special counsel tells a House committee his team found evidence “beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and to prevent the lawful transfer of power.” www.politico.com/news/2025/12...

“The FCC is not an independent agency,” its chairman, Brendan Carr, responds to a question from Senator Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) who notes that the commission’s website says it is independent.

US Court of Appeals for DC unanimously agrees to allow federal troops to remain in the nation’s capital while the legality of the deployment is considered. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...