Source: Yahoo! Finance
“President Trump on Monday unveiled $12 billion in aid to US farmers, as the agricultural sector deals with the fallout from his sweeping tariff policies. Trump and other top administration officials discussed the package at a roundtable event with farmers at the White House. … Trump said the money for farm relief would come from a ‘small portion’ of tariff-related revenues.” (12/08/25)
Source: The New Arab [UK]
“Israeli forces raided the headquarters of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in occupied East Jerusalem on Monday morning, in the latest assault on the body by Israeli authorities. Troops stormed the premises, carried out searches and confiscated the phones of security guards, witnesses told Palestinian news agency WAFA. The Jerusalem Governorate said security guards were detained during the raid, which occurred during the early hours of the morning. … ‘The unauthorised and forcible entry by Israeli forces is an unacceptable violation of UNRWA’s privileges and immunities as a UN agency,’ said agency spokesperson Tamara Alrifai.” (12/08/25)
https://www.newarab.com/news/israeli-forces-raid-unrwa-headquarters-east-jerusalem
Source: CoinDesk
“Bitcoin attempted a late weekend rally, but even those small gains were mostly reversed in early U.S. action Monday, with the price quietly settling in near the $90,000 area for the remainder of the day. Trading around $90,500 as U.S. stocks closed, bitcoin was lower by about 1% over the past 24 hours. Altcoin majors also struggled to hold on to their gains. … While the crypto action was muted, long duration government bond yields spiked amid fears of trouble in Japanese bonds spilling over to the other markets. The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield surged to 4.19%, its highest level in about three months, while U.K. and other European countries’ government debt also sold off.” (12/08/25)
Source: Politico
“Congress is using its marquee defense [sic] bill to force the Pentagon into turning over videos of strikes against suspected drug-smuggling boats off the coast of Latin America. Lawmakers plan to withhold a quarter of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s travel budget until the Pentagon provides them with the videos. The demand, quietly tucked into the final draft of the annual defense [sic] policy bill, calls for ‘unedited video of strikes conducted against designated terrorist organizations in the area of responsibility of the United States Southern Command’ to the House and Senate Armed Services Committees. Congressional leaders released their final draft of the defense [sic] bill Sunday, which is expected to be approved — without changes — by the House later this week and then the Senate.” (12/08/25)
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/12/08/ndaa-boat-strikes-congress-hegseth-without-funds-00680679
Source: Reuters
“British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and the leaders of France and Germany discussed the ‘positive progress’ made to use frozen Russian sovereign assets to support Ukraine, Downing Street said on Monday. ‘The leaders all agreed that now is a critical moment and that we must continue to ramp up support to Ukraine and economic pressure on Putin to bring an end to this barbaric war,’ said a spokesperson for Starmer.” (12/08/25)
Source: New York Times
“For six months, Apple distributed an app called ICEBlock that allowed users to alert people when they saw Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. But after the Trump administration complained that the app endangered officers, Apple removed it. On Monday, the app’s developer, Joshua Aaron, sued top Trump administration officials, accusing them of pressuring Apple to stifle his free speech and his right to create, distribute and promote ICEBlock. The suit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, claimed that Attorney General Pam Bondi abused the government’s power when the Justice Department contacted Apple and demanded it remove the app, which she said she had done in a statement to Fox News in October. She said that Apple removed the app after her request.” (12/08/25)
Source: CBS News
“Peruvian journalist Fernando Nunez, whose reporting dug into municipal corruption cases, was shot and killed by hitmen while returning from an assignment, Peru’s National Association of Journalists (ANP) said Sunday. Nunez, a reporter for the digital outlet Kamila TV, ‘was attacked by hitmen while riding a motorcycle with his brother’ on Saturday, the ANP said in a statement on social media. Nunez died instantly and his brother was in critical condition. Nunez is the third journalist killed by organized crime in Peru in 2025, following the slayings of journalists Gaston Medina and Raul Celis.” (12/08/25)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hitmen-kill-reporter-covered-corruption-peru-journalist-group/
Source: Bloomberg
“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)
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“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)
Source: Associated Press
“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)
https://apnews.com/article/becky-hill-alex-murdaugh-court-clerk-5e25491cb1dc802f9a0a8e1c0151dda8