Trump announced plans for “Patriot Games,” a four-day athletic event next fall featuring one male and one female high school athlete from each state and territory as part of the nation’s 250th anniversary celebrations in 2026.

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TikTok has signed a deal to sell its U.S. operations to a joint venture controlled by American investors, ending a years-long national security standoff.

Oracle, Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi–based MGX will own 45% of the new entity. Affiliates of existing ByteDance investors will hold about one-third, while ByteDance will retain just under 20%.

Source: Axios

Frustration is growing inside the Justice Department as lawyers race to redact thousands of pages of Jeffrey Epstein–related files before a Friday deadline mandated by Congress.

Attorneys are working through massive volumes with limited guidance, inconsistent direction, and duplicate documents, raising concerns about errors or excessive redactions.

Source: CNN

NEW: Trump has signed the $900 billion National Defense Authorization Act into law.

BIG: The legislation’s enactment also lifts the Caesar Act sanctions on Syria.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has ordered a pause on the DV1 (Diversity Immigrant Visa) program.

The U.S. military said it carried out kinetic strikes on two drug-smuggling vessels in the Eastern Pacific, killing five suspected narco-terrorists. No U.S. forces were injured, according to U.S. Southern Command.

NEW: The EU agreed to provide Ukraine with a €90 billion interest-free loan to cover military and budget needs for 2026–2027.

The money will be raised through joint EU borrowing and backed by the EU budget.

Ukraine is expected to repay the loan only if Russia pays war reparations; otherwise, the EU reserves the option to use frozen Russian assets in the future.

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The suspect in the Brown University mass shooting was found dead by suicide in New Hampshire after a multi-day manhunt.

Authorities say he also killed an MIT professor days later.

Suspect: Claudio Neves Valente, 48, Portuguese national, former Brown grad student (2000–01).

Brown attack: 2 students killed, 9 wounded in a lecture hall.

MIT killing: Professor Nuno F. G. Loureiro shot at his home near Boston; investigators believe Valente acted alone.

Connection: Both men had overlapping academic history in Portugal.

Motive: Still unknown.

Fallout: Trump announced suspension of the green card lottery program after the suspect’s identification.

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Western and Ukrainian intelligence say Russia is using its “shadow fleet” of oil tankers not just to evade sanctions, but for espionage and hybrid warfare in European waters.

The fleet gives Moscow plausible deniability while.

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Netanyahu to the Australian Government:

Damn it, wake up. You don't need any more warnings. You've already received enough.

Netanyahu:

After October 7th, governments that recognized and called for a Palestinian State basically rewarded Hamas.

The message that was heard by this action was: kill Jews, you’ll get rewarded.

Netanyahu on the Bondi Beach shooting:

Just imagine if you had on that beach, on that Hanukkah gathering, several armed people.

If you had several armed guards — ten, fifteen, even five — it would be over.

That saves the day. And that’s required right now.

Netanyahu blames “hate marches” for the Bondi Beach shooting.

Netanyahu:

It starts with the Jews, but it never ends with the Jews. Anti-semitism is a virulent disease and it consumes the societies who don’t fight it.

Netanyahu:

They hate Jews. Let me tell you, they also hate Australia… they’ll burn your flag and they’ll burn you.

They are against our common civilization.

Netanyahu:

The Maccabean revolt that we celebrate made Judaism possible and that made Christianity possible.

When we celebrate Hanukkah, we’re celebrating the victory that saved Judeo-Christian civilization, which is the basis of our free civilization today.

Netanyahu:

Join us, Australia, in fighting the terrorists and fighting the enemies of civilization and fighting the barbarians.

If we join forces together, I have no doubt we shall win.