Iranian soldiers ambush ISIS terrorists who were attempting to enter Iranian borders. Dec 16, 2014.

Japan’s government is finalizing a 21.3 trillion yen ($135.38 billion) stimulus package to help households manage persistent inflation, marking the country’s largest economic relief plan since the COVID pandemic, Reuters reports.

The U.S. House of Representatives voted unanimously tonight to repeal a controversial provision in the government funding law that allowed Senators to sue the Justice Department for up to $500,000 if their phone records were obtained without their knowledge. The provision had been implemented after Senate Republicans released FBI records tied to “Arctic Frost,” an investigation into the 2020 election.

The Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has sharply condemned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to southern Syria today, calling it a grave violation of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

U.S. President Donald J. Trump is weighing an Executive Order that would preempt state-level artificial intelligence laws, warning that states attempting to restrict AI development could face federal lawsuits or the loss of federal funding. The order would also direct Attorney General Pam Bondi to create an AI Litigation Task Force. According to *Reuters*, the order would instruct the Department of Commerce to review state AI laws and develop guidelines that could, in some cases, lead to the withholding of broadband funding. The move comes after the Senate voted 99–1 earlier this year to reject an effort to block states from passing their own AI regulations.

Israel launched a major wave of airstrikes on the Gaza Strip earlier tonight, targeting what was reported to be a meeting of Hamas leaders in Gaza City along with several other militant sites in both northern and southern Gaza. According to the Israel Defense Forces, the strikes—carried out despite the ongoing ceasefire—were a response to a Hamas violation earlier in the day, when shots were fired at Israeli soldiers in Khan Yunis.

A fire broke out Wednesday at an oil project in eastern Venezuela where the Petrocedeno crude upgrader operates, according to local media reports and a source at state oil company PDVSA.

U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla has halted the Trump administration’s attempt to end temporary deportation protections and work permits for more than 6,100 Syrians, ruling that the measures must remain in place while the legal challenge moves forward.

U.S. Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll met today with Ukraine’s Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal in Kyiv to discuss ongoing and future cooperation on defense development — including air-defense systems, as well as long-range drones and missiles — between Ukraine and the United States. The sharp contrast between Driscoll’s visit and the behind-the-scenes maneuvering involving Special Envoy Witkoff highlights the chaotic state of foreign policy within the Trump Administration.

Reuters reports that four sources say Keith Kellogg, President Donald Trump’s Special Envoy for Ukraine, has informed associates he intends to leave the administration in January — a move that would remove one of Kyiv’s strongest advocates inside the Trump administration.

Elon Musk on future energy for AI: “I expect that within five years, running AI systems in space will be far more economical than running them on Earth. Well before we run into energy constraints here, the lowest-cost option for large-scale AI will probably be solar-powered compute satellites. My guess is we’re about four to five years away from that.” NVIDIA’s Jensen Huang added: “Look at the supercomputers we’re building now. Each rack weighs around two tons — and about 1.95 tons of that is cooling alone. Now imagine shrinking that entire system down to a tiny, ultra-efficient unit. That’s what the next generation of GB300 racks could look like.”

At the U.S.–Saudi Investment Forum, President Donald J. Trump delivered sharp remarks about Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, saying: “Rates are falling in spite of the Fed. Scott, you’ve got to deal with this guy — he’s got serious issues. Something is wrong with him. Honestly, I’d love to fire him. He should be fired. He’s completely incompetent, and he ought to be sued for spending four billion dollars on a tiny building. I’m putting up a ballroom that costs a fraction of that and is bigger than the whole thing. Scott, you need to get this under control. The only thing you’re messing up is the Fed. Rates are too high, Scott — and if you don’t fix it fast, I’m going to fire you.”

Trump praises his chief of staff, Susie Wiles: "Most powerful woman in the world. She can take out a country,  destroy, take out a country with one phone call. That’s power. I don’t know if I could do that, but she could."

Germany’s Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt on Wednesday defended Berlin’s move to revoke a man’s citizenship over alleged support for Hamas, saying that naturalized citizens should lose their nationality if they are found to be acting against German values.

Putin: Life expectancy may reach 150 years, but even that would not be enough. What matters most is how you live those years and for what purpose.

According to Reuters, U.S. officials are privately signaling that the long-promised semiconductor tariffs may not be imposed anytime soon, potentially pushing back a key pillar of President Donald Trump’s economic agenda.

Trump: Turkey is down 33%, and I am not talking about the country. Erdogan is fine, he is doing good. He is a friend, we need to take care of our friends.

The House Oversight Committee has subpoenaed J.P. Morgan and Deutsche Bank for financial records related to Jeffrey Epstein.

U.S. Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll has released a memo titled “Just Pick Up During the Holidays,” a message that resonates deeply and deserves to be adopted across every military branch. While the holidays are joyful for many, they can also be an incredibly difficult time for countless Servicemembers. Driscoll urges troops to check in on their Battle Buddies, squads, squadrons, and shipmates throughout Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s — because you never truly know what someone is facing until it’s too late.

Axios has confirmed the Financial Times’ reporting on a rushed ceasefire proposal brokered by White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian Envoy Kirill Dmitriev — a plan that would grant Russia additional territory in eastern Ukraine and restrict Ukraine’s military capabilities, in exchange for U.S. security guarantees for Ukraine and Europe against future Russian aggression. The 28-point proposal would give Russia full de facto control over the entire Donbas region — Luhansk and Donetsk — and would see the U.S. and other countries formally recognize both areas, along with Crimea, as part of the Russian Federation. Ukraine itself would not be required to recognize the annexations. According to a Ukrainian official, the proposal also included caps on the size of Ukraine’s armed forces and limits on long-range weapons in return for American security assurances. Witkoff was scheduled to travel to Ankara on Wednesday for a trilateral meeting with President Zelensky and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan. But officials say the meeting was called off after it became clear that Zelensky was retreating from understandings reportedly reached by his National Security Adviser, Rustem Umerov, during a private meeting with Witkoff in Miami last weekend. Zelensky, they say, is no longer willing to discuss the Trump plan and instead headed to Turkey with an alternative proposal developed with European partners — one U.S. officials insist Russia will never accept.