Republican representative Thomas Massie has posted this video on X this afternoon outlining what he says people can “expect in advance of tomorrow’s statutory disclosure deadline” for the attorney general to release the Epstein files.
The FBI 302 forms in the files will contain the names of “at least 20 men” implicated in sex crimes, sourced to victim lawyers, Massie says in the video. He goes on:
If we get a large production on December 19th and it does not contain a single name of any male who is accused of a sex crime or sex trafficking or rape or any of these things, then we know they haven’t produced all the documents, it’s that simple.
The day so far
House oversight Democrats released a new batch of photos from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate, in a last-ditch effort to pressure the DOJ to abide by tomorrow’s deadline to release its files related to the convicted sex offender. The images are undated and lack captions or context, and the appearance of people in the photos is not evidence of wrongdoing. Among them are photographs of what appear to be lines from the novel Lolita written on different parts of a woman’s body. There are also photographs of Bill Gates posing with a woman whose face has been redacted, and of the prominent linguist and philosopher Noam Chomsky sitting on a plane with Epstein. Other images show Woody Allen, the director; Steve Bannon, Trump’s former adviser; and David Brooks, the author and New York Times opinion columnist, among others. The batch also includes photos of a number of foreign passports, with the information redacted, as well as Epstein’s US passport. There is also a screenshot of a text message conversation from a unknown sender referring to an 18-year-old from Russia. The sender says “I have a friend scout she sent me some girls today” then sends “But she asks 1000$ per girl”. Following messages read “I will send u girls now”, and “Maybe someone will be good for J?”.
In a statement after the release, Robert Garcia, a US representative and ranking member of the committee on oversight and government reform, said: “Oversight Democrats will continue to release photographs and documents from the Epstein estate to provide transparency for the American people.” “As we approach the deadline for the Epstein Files Transparency Act, these new images raise more questions about what exactly the Department of Justice has in its possession. We must end this White House cover-up, and the DoJ must release the Epstein files now.”
Elsewhere, Robert F Kennedy Jr unveiled new actions aimed at eliminating transition-related medical care for minors across the US, referring to such treatments as “sex-rejecting procedures”. As part of the effort, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will initiate a rule-making process that would prevent hospitals from offering puberty blockers, hormone treatments, or surgical procedures to minors if they wish to participate in Medicare or Medicaid. The proposal would also prohibit Medicaid funds from being used to cover this type of care. Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (Chip) together cover nearly half of all American children. More here.
Trump also signed an executive order to move marijuana out of the most restrictive drug category, a change that would loosen limits on research and certain regulations but stop short of making marijuana legal nationwide. “I’m pleased to announce that I will be signing an Executive Order to reschedule marijuana from a Schedule I to a Schedule III controlled substance with legitimate medical uses,” the president said from the Oval Office. “This reclassification order will make it far easier to conduct marijuana-related medical research, allowing us to study benefits, potential dangers and future treatments,” Trump added. “It’s going to have a tremendously positive impact.” The action allows for a pilot program that reimburses Medicare patients for products containing CBD, a widely used cannabis-derived compound that does not produce a high. Under the order, marijuana would be shifted from Schedule I, a category that includes heroin, to Schedule III, which also includes ketamine. The move, however, would not legalize marijuana as some states have done, and would not change how law enforcement agencies handle marijuana-related arrests, according to senior administration officials who spoke to the New York Times. More here.
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Further on the next Fed chair, Trump said he could announce his pick “over the next couple of weeks”. He added he wasn’t sure it would be before the end of the year, but it would be “pretty soon”.
Trump says 'getting close to something' on US-Russia talks on Ukraine
Trump also said he felt they were “getting close to something” ahead of a US meeting with Russian officials this weekend in Florida.
“I hope Ukraine moves quickly,” Trump added.
US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner plan to meet a Russian delegation in Miami this weekend, as they continue their efforts to reach an agreement between Russia and Ukraine to end Putin’s invasion.
Witkoff and Kushner met a Ukrainian delegation over two days in Berlin earlier this week and US officials said they came away with a belief that the two sides are not far apart. However the stickiest issue, Russia’s insistence on gaining Ukrainian territory in any settlement, remains outstanding.
“There is a chance we can get this done, maybe soon,” Trump said.
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Asked if he would be seeking authorization from Congress for any planned land attacks on drug cartels in Venezuela, Trump said he “wouldn’t mind telling them, but it’s not a big deal”.
I don’t have to tell them, it’s been proven. But I wouldn’t mind at all … I have no problem doing that.
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Trump said he was “honored” by the Kennedy Center’s board - all of whom he appointed – voting to rename it the “Trump-Kennedy Center”. He added that they had “saved” the center, claiming it had been “in very bad shape”.
Trump also told reporters he had interviewed Federal Reserve governor Christopher Waller a day earlier as a candidate to succeed Jerome Powell as Fed chair, praising him as “great”.
The president said “three or four” people remain in contention for the post. Asked for his thoughts on Fed governor and vice-chair Michelle Bowman, Trump called her “fantastic”.
Taking questions from reporters after the signing in the Oval Office, Trump said he was looking at declaring a national emergency over housing.
“I’m looking at it,” Trump said. “I want to take care of the people that have houses, that have a value to the house that they never thought possible, that have sort of made them wealthy and happy, especially in their later years. I want to keep them up. At the same time, I want to make it possible for people to go buy houses.”
Further to my earlier post about Trump’s executive order downgrading marijuana, the president said shortly before signing that his order was “not the legalization of marijuana in any way, shape or form, and in no way sanctions its use as a recreational drug”.
Here’s my colleague Marina Dunbar’s story:
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A reminder that the latest release of 70 images from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate by House oversight Democrats falls on the eve of the justice department’s congressionally mandated deadline to publish a vast trove of files related to the convicted sex offender by tomorrow.
Representative Ro Khanna, one of the Epstein Files Transparency Act’s co-sponsors, said yesterday morning that he was giving the justice department the “benefit of the doubt” that it would make the Epstein files public on time – but warned there would be repercussions if it didn’t.
Under the act, if the information is not made public by Friday then “the justice department officials would be breaking the law”, he said.
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Trump signs executive order reclassifying marijuana as less dangerous drug
Donald Trump has signed an executive order this afternoon to reclassify marijuana to a Schedule III drug, loosening research and other restrictions in a decision that could be one of the most significant federal changes to cannabis policy in decades – though it stops short of legalizing weed.
Reuters notes that the move “could reshape the cannabis industry, ease criminal penalties, unlock billions in research funding and lead to the opening of doors long closed to banks and investors”.
But marijuana will still be illegal at the federal level, and subject to a patchwork of local laws across the country. Indeed, the move would “not affect law enforcement’s approach to making arrests connected to marijuana”, senior administration officials told the New York Times.
Senior administration officials told Reuters the primary purpose of the order was to increase medical research of marijuana and related products to understand their risks and potential for treatment. Trump is also expected to announce plans for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to allow some beneficiaries to use hemp-derived CBD products, including cancer patients.
Marijuana, which was listed as a Schedule I on par with the likes of heroin and ecstasy, is the most widely used illicit drug in the US, with nearly one in five residents using it a year, according to the CDC.
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Trump's handpicked board votes to rename Kennedy Center the 'Trump-Kennedy Center'
The Kennedy Center’s board, all of whom were handpicked by Donald Trump, has voted to rename it the “Trump-Kennedy Center”, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has announced.
In a post on X, Leavitt said:
I have just been informed that the highly respected Board of the Kennedy Center, some of the most successful people from all parts of the world, have just voted unanimously to rename the Kennedy Center to the Trump-Kennedy Center, because of the unbelievable work President Trump has done over the last year in saving the building. Not only from the standpoint of its reconstruction, but also financially, and its reputation. Congratulations to President Donald J. Trump, and likewise, congratulations to President Kennedy, because this will be a truly great team long into the future! The building will no doubt attain new levels of success and grandeur.
As the New York Times notes, it’s unclear what effect the vote will have as officially changing the center’s name will require an act of Congress.
The latest release also includes multiple redacted photos of passports and identity documents of women from various countries including Ukraine, Morocco, Italy and South Africa.
The release also included a screenshot from an unknown sender that said:
I have a friend scout she sent me some girls today. But she asks 1000$ per girl. I will send you girls now. Maybe someone will be good for J?
The sender went on to include details of the apparent girl, with information including name, age, height, measurements, weight, departure city and whether she has a Schengen visa.
Other pictures include Epstein being surrounded by multiple women in different settings including on a plane and in front of a laptop.
In one of the photos, Epstein appears to be putting on what looks either like a black watch or band around a woman’s wrist while another woman is crouched in front of him. A third woman is standing next to Epstein with hand on his shoulder and another in his shirt.
Steve Bannon also features in this latest drop, pictured speaking to Jeffrey Epstein sitting opposite him at a desk. In the previous round of images released by the committee, the former White House chief strategist and Epstein were pictured sitting around the desk from a different angle.
In both pictures, a framed photograph of a woman (with her face redacted) lying down is visible on the desk.
Another photograph from the previous drop depicted Bannon and Epstein taking a picture together in a mirror.
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New York Times columnist David Brooks is also featured in the latest release of photos from the Jeffrey Epstein files.
The release comes as Brooks notably wrote an op-ed last month titled: “The Epstein story? Count me out.”
In the op-ed, Brooks links the public scrutiny towards the Epstein files with “the QAnon mentality [that] has taken over America”.
He went on to say Democrats were “hopping on this bandwagon” of conspiracy thinking, adding: “They may believe that the Epstein file release will somehow hurt Trump. But they are undermining public trust and sowing public cynicism in ways that make the entire progressive project impossible.”
In a statement from the New York Times on Thursday, the outlet said:
As a journalist, David Brooks regularly attends events to speak with noted and important business leaders to inform his columns, which is exactly what happened at this 2011 event. Mr. Brooks had no contact with him before or after this single attendance at a widely-attended dinner.
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Top Democrat urges justice department to 'release the Epstein files now'
In a statement accompanying the latest release, Robert Garcia, House oversight committee ranking member, said:
“Oversight Democrats will continue to release photographs and documents from the Epstein estate to provide transparency for the American people. As we approach the deadline for the Epstein Files Transparency Act, these new images raise more questions about what exactly the Department of Justice has in its possession. We must end this White House cover-up, and the DOJ must release the Epstein files now.”
According to the House oversight committee, the Epstein estate “did not provide context for any of the 95,000 images they transmitted and therefore the images are presented as received”.
The committee also said that it still had in its possession “thousands of images, both graphic and mundane”.
“Oversight Democrats redact images and personally identifiable information from victims and survivors, and of young women when it is unknown whether they are a victim of Epstein’s abuse,” the committee added.
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Other photos include Jeffrey Epstein on a private plane, chatting with Noam Chomsky, as well as Bill Gates posing with various women.
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House oversight committee releases new photos from Jeffrey Epstein estate
The House oversight committee has released a new trove of pictures from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate.
Among the release are closeup photos of words written across various parts of a woman’s body - including a foot with the novel Lolita in the background.
“She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock,” said the words written on the foot.
Another photo featured words that appeared to be written down someone’s back. “She was Dolores on the dotted line,” the words said.
Another photo showed what appeared to be a woman’s neck with the words “She was Dolly at school”.
Update: we corrected this post. An earlier version said Polly, instead of Dolly.
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If you’re just joining us, Trump’s health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has proposed to effectively ban gender-affirming care for children across the United States in federal programs, threatening to cut federal funding from any hospitals offering those treatments.
He proposed that Medicaid and children’s health programs would be prohibited for paying for such treatments, and hospitals providing the treatments would be considered in violation of the conditions for receipt of all Medicaid and Medicare funding.
He also said the FDA has issued warning letters to 12 manufacturers of breast binders for what Kennedy called “illegal marketing” of the products to children as a treatment for gender dysphoria.
Kennedy also announced that HHS is moving to reverse the inclusion of gender dysphoria within the definition of a disability.
He said gender-affirming care (or “sex-rejecting procedures) was “not medicine, it is malpractice”, and claimed it was “neither safe nor effective” treatment for children.
RFK Jr announces moves to cut off gender-affirming care for children
To sum up, Kennedy has just announced proposals to cut access to gender-affirming care for children. The rules he’s put forward would prohibit hospitals that deliver such care from Medicare and Medicaid programs and also prohibit Medicaid and children’s health programs from funding it.
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HHS is also moving to reverse the inclusion of gender dysphoria within the definition of a disability, he says.
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The FDA is also issuing warning letters to 12 manufacturers of breast binders that “the illegal marketing of breast binders to children for the purpose of treating gender dysphoria commits significant regulatory violations and requires swift corrective action”, Kennedy says.
If they don’t comply they could face enforcement actions including product seizures, he adds.
The second rule prohibits federal Medicaid dollars from funding those procedures on minors.
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The first rule he proposes is to prohibit hospitals that participate in Medicare and Medicaid from performing these procedures.
He says that this morning he signed a declaration saying that “sex-rejecting procedures are neither safe nor effective treatment for children with gender dysphoria”.
“Medical professionals or entities providing sex-rejecting procedures to children are out of compliance with the standards of healthcare,” he says.
“So-called gender-affirming care has inflicted lasting physical and psychological damage on vulnerable young people,” he says.
“This not medicine, it is malpractice,” he says, adding: “We’re done with junk science driven by ideological pursuits, not the wellbeing of children.”
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RFK Jr is speaking now. He says that doctors are “obligated to protect children”, but across the country are performing “needless, irreversible sex-rejecting procedures that violate their sacred Hippocratic oath and endangering the very lives they are sworn to safeguard”.
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The series of regulatory actions RFK Jr is about to announce are designed to effectively ban gender-affirming care for minors, building on the Trump administration’s broader restrictions on transgender Americans, the Associated Press reports.
The sweeping proposals – the most significant moves this administration has taken so far to restrict the use of puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgical interventions for transgender children – include cutting off federal Medicaid and Medicare funding from hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to children and prohibiting federal Medicaid funding from being used on such procedures.
More than half of US states already ban or restrict gender-affirming care. But today’s announcement imperils access in nearly two dozen states where drug treatments and surgical procedures remain legal and funded by Medicaid, which includes federal and state dollars.
It’s important to note that the proposals RFK Jr is going to announce are not final or legally binding. The federal government must go through a lengthy rule-making process, including periods of public comment and document rewrites, before the restrictions becoming permanent. They are also likely to face legal challenges.
But the proposed rules will probably further intimidate healthcare providers from offering gender-affirming care to children and many hospitals have already ceased such care in anticipation of federal action.
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RFK Jr set to announce moves to cut off transgender care for children
Per our earlier post, health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr is due to hold a press conference shortly at which he is expected to announce two measures to block doctors and hospitals from performing medical care to transgender patients younger than age 18. I’ll bring you all the key updates here.
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Explainer: Deadline nears for release of Epstein files – what we know so far
by Victoria Bekiempis and Will Craft
A reminder that in less than 48 hours, Donald Trump’s justice department must release most of the files related to Jeffrey Epstein in its possession.
Last month, Congress passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which required the release of those materials by 19 December, except in narrow cases where they would jeopardize current investigations, harm national security or foreign policy goals, or reveal information about Epstein’s victims.
Since Trump signed the legislation, his administration has been silent on its progress. Earlier this month, a bipartisan group of lawmakers asked Pam Bondi, the attorney general, for a briefing on the department of justice’s progress, but she did not provide one. Two Democratic senators among that group subsequently pledged to block some civilian nominees, because they were concerned the administration “is gearing up to disregard the law we led the fight in the Senate to pass, which overwhelmingly passed both chambers of Congress”.
It’s not clear what remedy could follow if the justice department does not heed the law mandating disclosure, though such a move would surely provoke a political firestorm. If the files are released, they could contain hundreds of thousands of pages related to investigations into the late sex trafficker, including additional victims’ claims and the names of his high-profile associates. The documents might also lift the veil on how Epstein – who counted Trump and the former prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor among his powerful friends – evaded justice for decades.
Here’s a rundown of the key moments from this past year that have led to this new release of files:
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According to the president’s schedule, Trump will be signing an executive order at 1.30pm ET in the Oval Office, that’s closed to press right now but could change. Later at 4.15pm he’s taking part in a Christmas reception in the grand foyer, and signing the National Defense Authorization Act at 6pm.
The Senate passed the bill yesterday with broad bipartisan support (77-20), authorizing a record $901bn in military spending for next year. A key aspect of the bill that was a clear rebuke to Trump is a stipulation from lawmakers that some of defense secretary Pete Hegseth’s travel budget will be restricted until he hands over the unedited videos of strikes against alleged drug-smuggling boats to Congress.
The legislation, running at over 3,000 pages long, represents a compromise between the two parties. For instance, it codifies key parts of Trump’s agenda, including abolishing DEI efforts in the military and authorizing the use of active-duty troops at the southern border. But it also requires the US to retain its current troop levels in Europe and includes some aid to Ukraine ($400m for military assistance for fiscal years 2026 and 2027), among other things.
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Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr will hold a press conference at 11am at the headquarters of the Department of Health and Human Services, at which he is expected to announce two measures to block doctors and hospitals from performing medical care to transgender patients younger than age 18.
Dr Mehmet Oz, leader of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, Dr Marty Makary, chief of the Food and Drug Administration, and Dr Jay Bhattacharya, who leads the National Institutes of Health, will also attend the press conference.
Kennedy has been working on rules that would block federal Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement for doctors and hospitals providing gender-affirming care to transgender patients younger than age 18.
The rule change comes a day after a bill introduced by Representative Marjorie Taylor Green passed narrowly in the house to criminalize gender-affirming care to transgender minors, punishable by a fine or prison time of up to 10 years. A bill scheduled for a vote today from the Republican representative Dan Crenshaw of Texas would prohibit Medicaid reimbursement for pediatric gender-affirming care. Neither bill has passed the Senate.
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Reacting to a poll released yesterday suggesting Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez would defeat Vice-President JD Vance in a head-to-head presidential election in 2028, the congresswoman sounded optimistic.
“Listen, these polls three years are – they are what they are,” she said. “But let the record show … I would stomp him. I would stomp him!” she added, laughing.
The Argument/Verasight poll from December 5-11 shows AOC ahead by 51% to Vance’s 49% in a direct match-up. AOC posted a link to the poll results on X. Asked later by the Independent’s Eric Garcia why she did that, she replied, “because JD Vance is a goober, man”.
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Democrats to release more Epstein photos if justice department fails to meet deadline
Democratic lawmakers will release more photographs from evidence gathered from the estate of Jeffrey Epstein if the Department of Justice fails to meet the Friday deadline to disclose investigative documents, Congressman Robert Garcia told CNN yesterday.
Speaking to Erin Burnett, Garcia said a petition to the federal court by Ghislaine Maxwell – Epstein’s convicted accomplice - to have her conviction on sex trafficking charges thrown out and to obtain a pardon do not trigger an exemption to the law Congress passed mandating a release of documents by the DoJ.
“We don’t know what the DoJ is going to do tomorrow,” Garcia said. “Now the DoJ has the chance to do the right thing. But they haven’t done that in the past.”
Garcia rejected the suggestion that Democrats on the committee on oversight and government reform has somehow altered or manipulated documents they’ve released.
”Anything that has been put out by … Democrats on the committee has been essentially the documents sent to by the estate, which we will continue to put out,” he said.
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The threat to Taiwan from China has been increasing over recent years, with Beijing conducting large military drills and frequent incursions into its waters and airspace.
Military analysts have said China has used the incursions to probe Taiwan’s defences, exhaust its air force and voice displeasure over western support for Taipei, especially the US.
The huge military package to Taiwan is likely to be approved by Congress given the strong bipartisan support for the country.
Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te’s government has vowed to ramp up defence spending to more than 3% of the GDP next year and 5% by 2030, following US pressure.
Although Taiwan is a strong US ally, the Trump administration has pushed the country to do more to protect itself.
The announcement of the $11bn arms sales package could reverse a cooling in US-China relations, coming under two months since Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping – leaders of the world’s two largest economies – agreed somewhat of a truce (albeit a temporary one) in the trade war that led to huge global business uncertainty after rounds of tariffs.
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Beijing condemns weapons package, saying US 'using Taiwan to contain China will not succeed'
China’s foreign ministry has strongly condemned the move, saying it would violate diplomatic agreements between Beijing and Washington, seriously harm China’s sovereignty, security and territorial integrity; and undermine regional stability.
Foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun was quoted as having said:
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 …
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 US support for ‘Taiwan Independence’ through arms will only end up backfiring. Using Taiwan to contain China will not succeed.
Taiwan’s defence ministry thanked the Trump administration for the package, saying it would help the island in “rapidly building robust deterrence capabilities”.
The announcement of the huge arms sales comes as Taiwan is facing an increasing amount of pressure to prepare itself against the threat from China, which sees the self-governed country as part of its territory and has not ruled out using force to “reunite” with it.
The US recognizes only Beijing and not Taiwan, where the Chinese mainland’s defeated nationalists fled in 1949 after losing the civil war to the communists and which has since turned into a flourishing democracy and technology hub.
Under US law, the US is required to provide Taiwan weapons for its self-defense but Washington has been deliberately ambiguous on whether it would use force to defend Taiwan.
Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden repeatedly suggested he would order the US military to intervene if China moved on Taiwan.
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US announces $11bn arms sales to Taiwan
In other news, the Trump administration has announced a huge arms sale worth about $11bn to Taiwan.
If approved by Congress, it would be the largest-ever American weapons package to Taiwan, exceeding the total amount of $8.4bn in US arms sales to Taiwan during the Biden administration.
The state department, which announced the package on Wednesday, said the sales served “US national, economic, and security interests by supporting the recipient’s continuing efforts to modernize its armed forces and to maintain a credible defensive capability”.
As per reporting from the Associated Press, the eight arms sales agreements announced cover 82 high-mobility artillery rocket systems, or Himars, and 420 Army Tactical Missile Systems, or Atacms – similar to what the US had been providing Ukraine during the Biden administration to defend itself from Russia – worth more than $4bn. They also include 60 self-propelled howitzer systems and related equipment worth more than $4bn and drones valued at more than $1bn.
Other sales in the package include military software valued at more than $1bn, helicopter spare parts worth $96m and refurbishment kits for Harpoon missiles worth $91m.
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FBI deputy director Dan Bongino to step down in January
Jenna Amatulli is the deputy head of news for Guardian US
The FBI deputy director, Dan Bongino, has confirmed that he is stepping down in January.
In a statement posted on social media, Bongino thanked Donald Trump, Kash Patel, the FBI director, and Pam Bondi, the attorney general he reportedly clashed with over her decision not to release files from the federal investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, the late sex offender who socialized with Trump for more than a decade.
“Dan did a great job,” Trump told reporters earlier, when asked about reports that Bongino, a former Secret Service agent turned podcaster, planned to resign.
“I think he wants to go back to his show,” the president said …
In May, Bongino cried during an appearance on Fox News where he complained about the sacrifices he made to take up his role as FBI deputy director.
“I gave up everything for this. I mean, you know, my wife is struggling … I stare at these four walls all day in DC, you know, by myself, divorced from my wife. Not divorced, but I mean, separated. And it’s hard,” he said.
You can read the full story here:
Trump announces 'warrior dividend' for troops
Trump announced on Wednesday he would be issuing checks to US service members for $1,776 (£1,329), calling the payment, which he said would be paid for, in part, by his tariffs, the “warrior dividend”.
In a televised address to the nation, the president said the cheques for 1.45 million US service members should arrive before Christmas.
“1,450,000 military service members will receive a special, we call, warrior dividend before Christmas. A warrior dividend. In honor of our nation’s founding in 1776, we are sending every soldier $1,776,” Trump said.
“And the checks are already on the way,” he added.
Trump credited his sweeping tariffs for bringing in money to the US, but did not set out details about how the initiative would be funded in full.
The defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, who has regularly outlined his visions for a cultural shift at the Pentagon and a so-called greater “warrior ethos”, directed the Pentagon to pay out $2.6bn as a “one-time basic allowance for housing supplement to all eligible service members in pay grades O-6 and below,” a senior official told CNN.
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The Trump administration is not only conducting deadly strikes on alleged Venezuelan drug-smuggling boats, the president has also targeted the country’s main source of income: the oil industry.
Venezuela has the world’s largest proven oil reserves and produces about 1m barrels a day. The country’s economy depends on the industry, with more than 80% of output exported.
Trump said earlier this week that he had instituted a blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela, as he accused Caracas of using oil to fund drug trafficking and other crimes and vowed to escalate the US’s military buildup.
Here is an extract from a useful explainer by the Guardian’s energy correspondent, Jillian Ambrose, on the reaction to Trump saying on Tuesday he was ordering a “total and complete blockade” of all oil tankers that are under sanctions entering and leaving Venezuela, which came only a week after the US seized an oil tanker off the country’s coast:
Market analysts at Goldman Sachs said the loss of Venezuelan crude exports owing to Trump’s blockade could cause the market to tighten slightly in the short-term, which would lead to higher prices.
But in the longer-term, a political upheaval that would allow for an influx of western oil companies into the country could mean an increase in oil exports and greater supplies in the market.
The blockade prompted a sharp rise in the international oil price as traders factored in the growing possibility of disruption to global supplies.
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Russia says it hopes Trump will not make 'a fatal mistake' on Venezuela after latest deadly vessel strike
Good morning, and welcome to our live coverage of US politics. Russia’s foreign ministry said this morning that it hopes the Trump administration will not make a “fatal” mistake over Venezuela after the US military carried out its latest lethal strike on a vessel in the eastern Pacific on Wednesday, killing four men.
“We hope that the D. Trump administration, which is characterized by a rational and pragmatic approach, will not make a fatal mistake,” the Russian foreign ministry said.
The ministry said that Moscow was concerned about the potential impact of US military action on international navigation, and said it hoped the US would not wade into a situation that would have “unpredictable consequences for the entire western Hemisphere”.
On Wednesday, the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, said the “lethal kinetic strike” on the vessel allegedly engaged in “narco-trafficking operations” had killed four people.
The US has over 20 vessels in the Pacific and the Caribbean near Venezuela as part of Donald Trump’s escalating campaign in the region, which he says is targeting drug trafficking without publishing evidence to justify his claims.
Since September, the US military has killed about 100 people with its strikes on boats that were allegedly transporting illegal drugs to the US. Legal experts have accused the US of conducting an unchecked campaign of extrajudicial killings in international waters.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, in power since 2013, has said that Trump wants to remove him from office and warned that Venezuelan citizens and the military will resist any such attempt.
We will have more on this story, and other political developments in the US, shortly.
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