“The State Department renewed its ‘do not travel’ advisory for Venezuela. Without edits, the travel advisory was reissued Wednesday, with the State Department citing a myriad of high risks related to crime, terrorism, detention and poor health infrastructure. ‘All U.S. citizens and Lawful Permanent Residents in Venezuela are strongly advised to depart immediately,’ the advisory says. In 2019, the U.S. severed diplomatic ties with Venezuela, closing its embassy. It says it no longer has the ability to provide emergency services or consular assistance to U.S. citizens in the country. ‘There is no safe way to travel to Venezuela,’ the advisory states, adding that people should avoid traveling to the country by any means.” (12/04/25)
“Layoff announcements this year have hit their highest level since 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic shut down the U.S. economy, consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas said Thursday. It’s only the sixth time since 1993 that announced job cuts through the month of November have surpassed 1.1 million. The last time was in 2020, when planned cuts totaled 2.3 million by this point in the year. U.S.-based employers announced 71,321 job cuts in November, Challenger reports. This is fewer than the overall number of layoffs announced in October, but more than in the same month a year ago. It’s the highest total for the month of November since 2022.” (12/04/25)
“There were hundreds, then dozens, and then just a few. Now there’s one Israeli hostage left in Gaza: Ran Gvili. Gvili, a 24-year-old police officer known affectionately as ‘Rani’, was killed while fighting Hamas militants during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war. After a series of ceasefire-mandated exchanges of hostages for Palestinians held by Israel, Gvili’s body still has not been recovered. His remains are somewhere in Gaza. On Thursday, as Israel woke to the news that remains militants returned the previous day belonged to another hostage, the country mourned Gvili as a hero who died fighting to save a kibbutz that was not his own.” (12/04/25)
“Britain sanctioned Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency and summoned Moscow’s ambassador on Thursday after an inquiry concluded that President Vladimir Putin was responsible for a nerve agent attack on British soil in 2018. The government said that the GRU was being sanctioned in its entirely for ‘reckless’ acts including the attack in the city of Salisbury that targeted Sergei Skripal, a former GRU officer who was imprisoned in Russia in 2006 for spying for Britain. He was released as part of a 2010 spy swap and settled in the U.K.” (12/04/25)
“The New York Times is suing the Department of Defense over the Pentagon’s new restrictions on press access. The lawsuit, set to be filed in federal court in Washington, DC, names the Defense Department, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the chief Pentagon spokesman, Sean Parnell, as defendants. The lawsuit seeks the repeal of a new policy, instituted in October, that prompted Pentagon beat reporters to turn in their press passes rather than sign onto the restrictions. ‘The policy is an attempt to exert control over reporting the government dislikes, in violation of a free press’ right to seek information under their First and Fifth Amendment rights protected by the Constitution,’ Times spokesperson Charlie Stadtlander said.” [editor’s note: The First Amendment doesn’t require “press access” to the Pentagon or anything else – TLK] (12/03/25)
“During a Wednesday interview on CNN’s ‘The Lead with Jake Tapper’, Rep. Ilhan Omar [D-MN] appeared to struggle to explain how fraud became ‘so out of control’ in Minnesota after federal officials announced an investigation into an alleged Somali fraud network operating in the state. After being pressed by Tapper to explain how fraud became so rampant within her state, the congresswoman gave a meandering response, attributing the problem to inadequate ‘guardrails’ for COVID relief funds that were subsequently exploited. ‘I think what happened, um, is that, you know, when you have these, kind of new programs that are, um, designed to help people, you’re oftentimes relying on third parties to be able to facilitate. And I just think that a lot of the COVID programs that were set up — they were set up so quickly that a lot of the guardrails did not get created,’ Omar told the host.” (12/04/25)
“Israel has identified the remains of the hostage it received from Hamas on Wednesday as Thai agricultural worker Sudthisak Rinthalak, the prime minister’s office said on Thursday. The body of Israeli police officer Ran Gvili, the last of the living and deceased hostages to be returned, is still in Gaza. The handover of the last hostages’ bodies in Gaza would complete a key condition of the initial part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to end the two-year Gaza war. Rinthalak’s body was transferred from Gaza by the Red Cross, and was handed over to the Israeli military to be sent for forensic identification, a statement from the prime minister’s office said.” (12/04/25)
“President Donald Trump has asserted executive privilege to prevent courtroom adversaries from accessing evidence in a long-running lawsuit that accuses him of stoking violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The Justice Department disclosed Trump’s secrecy claim Wednesday in a hearing related to that five-year-old lawsuit, brought by police officers injured while attempting to repel the violent mob that day. The officers say Trump’s incendiary remarks to a crowd of supporters — and his direction that they march on the Capitol — fueled the riot that nearly derailed the transfer of power from Trump to Joe Biden and left 140 officers injured. Trump’s decision to assert privilege adds to a concerted push to rewrite the story of his bid to subvert the 2020 election.” (12/03/25)
“The Trump administration has signed the first in what are expected to be dozens of ‘America First’ global health funding agreements that will prioritize combating infectious diseases in countries deemed to be aligned with the president’s broader foreign policy goals and positions. The five-year, $2.5 billion agreement with Kenya was signed Thursday by Kenyan President William Ruto and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to replace a patchwork of previous health agreements that had traditionally been run by the U.S. Agency for International Development for decades until the Trump administration dismantled it earlier this year. The elimination of USAID as a separate agency sparked widespread criticism and concern in the global health community as its immediate impact resulted in the defunding of multiple hundreds of programs focused on the developing world, including cuts to maternal and child care, nutrition and anti-HIV/AIDS programs.” (12/04/25)
“Russian President Vladimir Putin has said recent talks with United States negotiators over ending the war with Ukraine were ‘very useful,’ while doubling down on the maximalist demands and territorial designs that are standing in the way of a solution. In advance of a trip to New Delhi on Thursday, Putin told India Today TV that he planned to seize control of Ukraine’s [former, seceded] eastern Donbas region by force, confirming Kremlin reports that no consensus had been reached in the previous day’s talks with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. ‘It all boils down to this: either we will liberate these territories by force, or Ukrainian troops will leave these territories and stop fighting there,’ he said in comments from the interview that were carried by state news agency Tass on Thursday.” [editor’s note: He’s been trying unsuccessfully to secure the Donbas region “by force” for nearly four years now – TLK] (12/04/25)
