“President Donald Trump said he would approve an executive order this week to establish ‘ONE RULE’ on artificial intelligence regulation and limit state-level policies regulating the technology. ‘I will be doing a ONE RULE Executive Order this week. You can’t expect a company to get 50 Approvals every time they want to do something,’ Trump posted on social media Monday. The forthcoming order marks the latest bid by Trump to put his imprint on policy for AI, a technology that is rapidly developing and seen increasing adoption by business, government and the public.” (12/08/25)
“Two armed men have stolen eight engravings by French artist Matisse and at least another five by Brazilian painter Cândido Portinari from a library in São Paulo. Brazilian officials say the thieves held up a security guard and an elderly couple who were visiting the library before making off with the artworks on foot. … The heist comes less than two months after the art world was rocked by a brazen break-in at the Louvre museum in Paris, where thieves made off with priceless jewels. … Bibilioteca Mário de Andrade is the country’s second largest library and officials say that its building in the centre of São Paulo had cameras with facial recognition technology. The mayor of São Paulo told local media the thieves had already been identified but so far they remain on the run.” (12/08/25)
“The former court clerk in South Carolina who helped out with the murder trial of attorney Alex Murdaugh pleaded guilty Monday to criminal charges for showing sealed court exhibits to a photographer and lying about it in court. Former Colleton County Clerk of Court Mary Rebecca ‘Becky’ Hill pleaded guilty in Colleton County Circuit Court to four charges — obstruction of justice and perjury for showing a reporter photographs that were sealed court exhibits and then lying about it — as well as two counts of misconduct in office for taking bonuses and promoting through her public office a book she wrote on the trial. Judge Heath Taylor sentenced Hill, 58, to three years of probation.” (12/08/25)
“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is warning that Illinois officials are releasing violent criminal illegal [sic] aliens despite active immigration detainers, a move the agency says is putting the public at risk. In the letter shared with Fox News Digital, Todd Lyons, ICE’s senior official performing the duties of director, said Illinois has ‘tens of thousands of criminal illegal [sic] aliens’ in custody – individuals who, he noted, have committed crimes ranging from murder and rape to child pornography and armed robbery. Lyons said these offenders ‘should be swiftly removed from the United States … and not be returned to our streets to wreak havoc on law-abiding citizens’. According to data provided by ICE, Illinois has released 1,768 criminal aliens with active detainers since January 2025. ICE said the crimes tied to those offenders include homicides, assaults, burglaries, weapons offenses and sexual-predatory crimes.” (12/08/25)
“The U.S. Supreme Court is set on Monday to weigh the legality of Donald Trump’s firing of a Federal Trade Commission member in a major test of presidential power that could imperil a 90-year-old legal precedent. The court will hear arguments in the Justice Department’s appeal of a lower court’s decision that the Republican president exceeded his authority when he moved to dismiss Democratic FTC member Rebecca Slaughter in March before her term was set to expire. The case gives the court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, an opportunity to overturn a New Deal-era Supreme Court precedent in a case called Humphrey’s Executor v. United States that has shielded the heads of independent agencies from removal since 1935.” (12/08/25)
“About 100 children who were abducted from a Catholic school in central Nigeria last month have been freed. They arrived in the Niger state capital, Minna, in a fleet of minibuses escorted by military vans and armoured vehicles, and were received by Governor Umar Bago. Details about their release remain unclear, including whether it was secured through negotiation or by force, and whether any ransoms were paid.” (12/08/25)
“Mexican authorities on Sunday said at least five people died and three more were injured after a car exploded near a police station in the restive western state of Michoacan. The explosion took place shortly before noon local time on Saturday in front of the police headquarters in the coastal city of Coahuayana, according to Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office, which has taken over investigation of the case. The state prosecutor’s office raised the initial toll from three fatal victims to five, adding that three of them were local police officers. … At least three of the six drug cartels that the Trump administration has designated as terrorist organizations – Jalisco New Generation, United Cartels and The New Michoacan Family – operate in Michoacán, in addition to a slew of homegrown armed splinter groups, some supported by the Sinaloa Cartel.” (12/08/25)
“The apparent leader of a failed coup in Benin remained on the run and the fate of hostages remained unclear on Monday, a day after a group of soldiers attempted to overthrow the government of the West African nation. The soldiers, calling themselves the Committee for Refoundation, stormed the national television station on Sunday morning. Led by Lt. Col. Pascal Tigri, eight soldiers appeared in a broadcast announcing the removal of President Patrice Talon, dissolution of the government and suspension of state institutions. Before the coup, Tigri was a member of Talon’s protection detail. As an artillery officer, he commanded a National Guard battalion between 2023 and 2025. By Sunday afternoon, the coup was foiled by Benin’s military, supported by Nigerian air and ground forces, which launched attacks against fleeing mutineers. At least a dozen soldiers were arrested, while others remained at large. Tigri’s whereabouts weren’t known.” (12/08/25)
“Center-right politician Ciprian Ciucu will be Bucharest’s new mayor after defeating a far-right candidate in Sunday elections. Ciucu, the candidate of the center-right National Liberal Party and a close ally of Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan, won roughly 36 percent of the vote. Ciucu defeated Anca Alexandrescu, a TV presenter backed by Romania’s largest far-right party (AUR), who finished second with about 22 percent. The Social Democratic Party’s candidate Daniel Băluță came third, despite being projected to win in many opinion polls.” (12/08/25)
“Environmental and economic justice advocates alike have been sounding the alarm for months regarding the Trump administration’s push to built massive data centers to support artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency in communities across the United States (regardless of local opposition) and on Monday Congress heard from a coalition of more than 200 groups demanding action to stop what they called ‘one of the biggest environmental and social threats of our generation’. Led by Food and Water Watch (FWW), which originally demanded a moratorium on new AI data centers in October, more than 230 organizations have signed a letter warning that thus far, Congress has failed to take action to stop the rapid expansion despite the fact that ‘the harms of data center growth are increasingly well-established, and they are massive.'” (12/08/25)
