“A Pakistani anti-terrorism court sentenced a senior leader of a banned Islamist party to 35 years in prison for inciting violence, more than a year after the cleric publicly called for the killing of the country’s then-chief justice, court officials and a defense lawyer said Tuesday. Zaheerul Hassan Shah, a leader of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, was arrested last year after a video circulated on social media showing him offering 10 million rupees ($36,000) to anyone who beheaded then-Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa. Isa had faced criticism from hardline religious groups last year after he granted bail to a man from the minority Ahmadi community in a blasphemy case.” (12/16/25)
“The White House rushed to defend chief of staff Susie Wiles on Tuesday after her blunt private views on President Trump’s first year were revealed in a series of stunning on-the-record interviews. Wiles is the most powerful aide in the White House — credited with running a more disciplined, loyal and effective operation than Trump’s first term, which was routinely undercut by leaks and internal feuds. That makes her candid commentary to Vanity Fair — in which she questioned the judgment, execution or consequences of many of Trump’s most aggressive policies — all the more striking.” (12/16/25)
“PayPal is the latest company looking to become a bank in the US. On Monday, the company announced it had submitted applications for PayPal Bank to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Utah Department of Financial Institutions (UDFI). PayPal is already a bank in Europe, based in Luxembourg. … Applications to become a bank have popped up left and right this year, with approval odds increasing under the Trump administration. On Friday, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announced that five cryptocurrency companies, including BitGo, Circle and Ripple, received conditional approval to become federally charted trust banks.” (12/16/25)
“A wildlife photographer stumbled upon one of the oldest and largest known collections of dinosaur footprints, dating back about 210 million years to the Triassic Period, high in an Italian national park near the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympic venue of Bormio, officials announced Tuesday. The discovery in the Stelvio National Park was striking for the sheer number of footprints, estimated at as many as 20,000 over some five kilometers (three miles), and the location near the Swiss border, once a prehistoric coastal area, that has never previously yielded dinosaur tracks, experts said. … The dinosaur prints are believed to have been made by long-necked bipedal herbivores that were up to 10 meters (33 feet) long, weighing up to four tons, similar to a Plateosaurus, Dal Sasso said. Some of the tracks were 40 centimeters wide, with visible claws.” (12/16/25)
“US job growth remained sluggish in November and the unemployment rate rose to a four-year-high, pointing to a continued cooling in the labour market after a weak October. Nonfarm payrolls increased 64,000 in November after declining 105,000 in October, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. The unemployment rate was 4.6 per cent last month, up from 4.4 per cent in September. The BLS had to forgo publishing an October jobless rate because it was unable to retroactively collect that data following the government shutdown. … The advance in November payrolls was driven by health care and social assistance as well as construction. Private payrolls increased by 69,000 in November after adding 52,000 jobs the prior month. Employment fell in transportation and warehousing as well as leisure and hospitality.” (12/16/25)
“Former President Joe Biden requested executive privilege amid the Congressional investigations into his administration’s use of the autopen, with the Trump administration rejecting the request Tuesday, Fox News Digital learned. ‘I am concerned that disclosure of these materials would damage important institutional interests of the Presidency, including by impairing the ability of future Presidents to receive robust, candid advice from their close advisers. For these reasons, I hereby assert executive privilege over the documents listed,’ Biden wrote in a letter to Archival Operations Division of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) Oct. 1, 2025, according to a copy of the letter obtained by Fox News Digital. … White House Counsel David Warrington responded Tuesday to the request in a letter to NARA, denying the calls for executive immunity. Such immunity protects government officials, notably the president, from lawsuits or prosecution over actions conducted while performing official duties.” (12/16/25)
“Despite concessions from the European Commission, including a safeguard clause that is due to be adopted by the European Parliament on December 16, Paris has called for a ‘postponement’ of the free trade agreement between the EU and countries in the South American trade bloc. … The issue of a free trade agreement with countries in the Mercosur bloc has always been highly sensitive in France, where part of the farming sector is categorically opposed to the deal, as well as nearly the entire political spectrum. France’s industrial sector, which might benefit from the export opportunities the deal would entail, has supported it, but only in a hushed way. Against this backdrop, an outbreak of contagious nodular dermatitis among France’s livestock, uncertainty about the 2026 state budget, and the upcoming local elections, set for March 2026, have convinced the president to hit the brakes.” (12/16/25)
“The Trump administration on Tuesday designated another Latin American drug cartel as a foreign terrorist organization, increasing financial pressure on its members and opening the door to potential military action against them. The U.S. State Department said Clan del Golfo, which is based in Colombia, has been listed both as a foreign and a global terrorist group, calling it a ‘violent and powerful criminal organization’ that uses cocaine trafficking to fund violent activities. ‘Clan del Golfo is responsible for terrorist attacks against public officials, law enforcement and military personnel, and civilians in Colombia’, the statement said. The designation comes after the Trump administration in September added Colombia to a list of nations failing to cooperate in the drug war for the first time in almost 30 years.” (12/16/25)
“A man was injured in what the Alexandria Police Department is calling a self-defense shooting on Marthas Drive …. APD said officers responded to a shooting call in the 5900 block of Marthas Drive. They learned that Avery Lewis, 31, had been shot after he jumped into a parked delivery truck in a threatening manner, and the driver, Robin Volson, shot him in self-defense. Volson then called the police. Lewis was moderately injured and was taken to a hospital.” (12/15/25)
“Canada will now extend automatic citizenship to children born or adopted abroad to a Canadian parent also born outside the country. There are conditions to the ‘Lost Canadian’ rules that came into effect on Monday – the Canadian parent must show a substantial connection’ to the country by having spent at least three years there prior to their child’s birth or adoption. ‘Lost Canadians’ refers to people who lost or never acquired citizenship because of what Ottawa deemed ‘outdated provisions’ of its citizenship laws. The changes on Monday stem from a 2023 Ontario court decision that ruled parts of the law limiting citizenship by descent were unconstitutional. The court ruling came after the federal government under former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper passed a law in 2009 that removed the automatic right to citizenship for descendants of Canadians born abroad.” (12/16/25)
