A day after Michigan cut him loose, Sherrone Moore was arraigned on charges that read like the final act of a career in freefall.

playPete Thamel: Very 'surreal' to see Sherrone Moore awaiting arraignment (1:08) Pete Thamel joins "SportsCenter" to give an update of Sherrone Moore's arraignment Friday. (1:08)Dec 12, 2025, 12:54 PM ET ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Former Michigan football coach Sherrone Moore faces three criminal charges, as his arraignment Friday revealed details of his actions that led to him being arrested and jailed hours after he was fired Wednesday. Prosecutors charged Moore with felony third-degree home invasion and two misdemeanors: Stalking in a domestic relationship and breaking and entering. Moore was released from jail after meeting the $25,000 bond. The arraignment and charges offered a window into Moore's actions after he was fired for cause due to an "inappropriate relationship with a staff member." Prosecutors said Friday that Moore forced entry into the woman staff member's apartment and said, "I'm going to kill myself. I'm going to make you watch. My blood is on your hands. You ruined my life." Moore appeared by videoconference at the arraignment, stating his name and clearly answering two questions with, "Yes, your honor." He wore a white jumpsuit, his expression sullen and his hands folded on his lap. He appeared to wince as the prosecutor went through the timeline of his actions. First assistant prosecutor Kati Rezmierski detailed the timeline of Moore's actions after the firing, as he "barged his way" into the woman's apartment. He went to a drawer in the kitchen and "grabbed several butter knives and a pair of kitchen scissors" before threatening to take his own life. The prosecutor also detailed that Moore had an "intimate relationship" with the woman he worked with for "a number of years" before she ended the relationship Monday. The split prompted a flurry of calls and texts from Moore that the woman did not return. Moore is married to another woman, and they have three children. Moore's actions in the wake of his former lover breaking up with him led her to go to officials at Michigan and detail their relationship. The school had previously investigated a tip about the situation, sources have told ESPN but could not prove it occurred. The woman's admission and supporting evidence led the school to quickly dismiss Moore for cause, saying he violated both his contract and university policy. Michigan will not have to pay Moore the nearly $12.3 million remaining on his deal because he was fired for cause. The woman called police after Moore barged into her apartment. Rezmierski called Moore's behavior "a series of very, very threatening and intimidating and terrifying statements and behaviors." Some of the conditions that are part of Moore's $25,000 bond include GPS tether monitoring, no contact with the woman, and orders to not go to the woman's residence. There is a probable cause conference set for Jan. 22. Moore's defense attorney, Joe Simon, declined to say where Moore would stay upon release. He also wouldn't comment on Moore's state of mind or mental health. Simon said that Moore had undergone a mental health evaluation and was turned back over to law enforcement. GAMBLING PROBLEM? CALL 1-800-GAMBLER, (800) 327-5050 or visit gamblinghelplinema.org (MA). Call 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Please Gamble Responsibly. 888-789-7777/visit ccpg.org (CT), or visit www.mdgamblinghelp.org (MD). 21+ and present in most states. (18+ DC/KY/NH/WY). Void in ONT/OR/NH. Eligibility restrictions apply. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino & Resort (KS). Terms: sportsbook.draftkings.com/promos.Copyright: © 2025 ESPN Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved.Illustration by ESPN Like255 ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- When Navy quarterback Blake Horvath returned to his dorm room during Army-Navy week last season, he found pictures of Army quarterback Bryson Daily taped all over his door. Elsewhere, banners had mysteriously appeared in the dining hall, reading, "GO ARMY, BEAT NAVY." The likely suspects? West Point cadets spending a semester in Annapolis, Maryland, as exchange students. It's a program that will celebrate its 50th anniversary this year -- one of several enduring traditions between the two academies. "I can neither confirm nor deny if that was us that evening," Army senior cadet Jayram Suryanarayan said, "but I can say we were up to some shenanigans -- so it could have been." The shenanigans were unfolding simultaneously in West Point, where the Navy exchange students' clothes and uniforms had disappeared and been replaced by costumes -- including a smelly fish outfit and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle -- to wear the entire week. "They bought a Marine Corps raincoat, cut it as fabric, and then sewed -- and then this is what impressed me because it took time and skill -- they sewed together a miniskirt for me to wear and they got a Marine Corps sweatshirt and they cropped it," Navy senior Michael Middleton said. "They stole all of my uniforms, all of my civilian clothes. It wasn't just to school -- I had to work out in it. It was really quite a scene. It was really fun." (Last year's antics were relatively tame compared to "Operation Black Knight Falling" in 2022, when five Navy midshipmen led three flight crews in formation over the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York, and dropped thousands of BEAT ARMY ping-pong balls and leaflets on campus.)Courtesy of United States Military Academy, West Point After spending a semester at their rival school, the tradition culminates when the exchange students stand front and center on the 50-yard line ahead of the Army-Navy football game in what is casually referred to as a "prisoner exchange." The men and women on the field who annually participate in that program embody everything that follows in the global game -- tradition, respect, pageantry, precision -- and a deep understanding that one of college football's longest and strongest rivalries is also about an immeasurable bond that infiltrates beyond the field. "Army and Navy, West Point and Annapolis, we're not that different," said Middleton, who will be a ground officer in the United States Marine Corps after graduation. "We like to have this friendly banter, and we say we're going to beat Army by a million because that's what we're going to do -- that's a fact you can quote that -- but really it's one fight and one team. "We're all in the Department of War," Middleton said. "We all work for each other. If we're in some far-flung place, having to do a job the nation has called us to do, I don't care where you graduated because we're all out there for each other." On Saturday at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, this year's group of exchange students will be released to their classmates and hoisted back into the stands to watch the 126th Army-Navy game together. It's one of many traditions from America's Game that don't involve the players: From the "demonstration of discipline" as thousands of classmates from each academy "March On," to the grit and fortitude of the relay teams who deliver the game balls after running from their schools along backroads, through states and cities, and into the stadium. It's the thoughtful, historically accurate and detailed uniforms, which this season will celebrate respectively the 250th anniversaries of the United States Army and Navy. It's the nearly 800 celebrities and high-ranking dignitaries, including President Donald Trump, who will attend. It's the live mascots -- one mule and two goats -- who need careful delivery and their own parking spaces. The players earn the spotlight in the final and most emotional tradition -- singing their alma maters on the field after the game. And woe to the team that lost and has to sing first. "You just feel like you not only let yourself down, your teammates down," Army center Brady Small said, "but you feel like you let the Army down." While you might be familiar with some or all of these traditions from watching the game on TV, ESPN interviewed more than a dozen people from both academies who make it all come together, taking you behind the scenes for how each tradition unfolds and what it means to be a part of them. Jump to section: Alma mater | Uniforms Ball run | March On Mascots | Presidential visitAlma mater In preseason camp, every Army football player is tested on the school's alma mater. It's something they learn from the "Book of Knowledge," which is required reading during Cadet Basic Training and has been published since 1908. It includes the history and traditions of West Point. "I can't tell you the exact page number," said receiver Noah Short of where the alma mater appears, "but it's definitely in the first few pages." Hail, Alma Mater dear, To us be ever near. Help us thy motto bear Through all the years. Let Duty be well performed. Honor be e'er untarned Country be ever armed. West Point, by thee. "I make them write it down," Army coach Jeff Monken said, "they have to write it out." "If you don't do it right -- literally word for word -- Coach Monken will not travel you," Army linebacker Kalib Fortner said. Both schools sing their alma maters at other games and events, but the tradition of singing it after the Army-Navy football game is unlike any other. The winner sings second. "It's awesome," Monken said, "and there's just so much emotion and relief that we're the ones standing there singing second. ... It's equally as gut-wrenching and emotionally just rips you apart to have to stand there and mumble the words of your alma mater if you've gotta do it first." Horvath, Navy's quarterback, said the Midshipmen are quizzed on their alma mater about four days into their plebe summer. They'd sing it before they went to bed each night around 10 p.m. Now colleges from sea to sea May sing of colors true But who has better right than we To hoist a symbol hue For sailors brave in battle fair Since fighting days of old Have proved the sailor's right to wear The Navy Blue and Gold "Singing first, it physically hurts a little bit," Horvath said. "You know that your fans aren't singing with as much enthusiasm, you're not singing with that same sort of loudness and excitement as you would if you were singing second. It's sort of, as a player, an embarrassment to sing first. On the flip side, singing second, you can feel the joy and excitement like after the Army-Navy game last year. It's the loudest I've ever heard our alma mater sung."Uniforms Army and Navy reveal special uniforms each season, but don't bother trying to sneak a peek at either before they're publicly announced -- it's classified, for a whopping two years. "We don't really keep files stored here, we just kind of keep things very hush-hush," said Mike Resnick, associate athletic director in charge of internal operations at West Point. "Nike's really good on the shipping. It's West Point; we have some trustworthy people here." Just for added security, though, some nondisclosure acts are signed along the way. There are only about 14 or 15 people who know what Army's uniform will look like -- including the history department. "We don't let the Pentagon know," Resnick said. "We keep it pretty close to the vest." As parts of the uniform and other sideline gear are shipped, Navy stores everything in a warehouse on the other side of the Severn River. The artist who handpaints their helmets is in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, so when Navy played at Temple this year, a few members of the equipment staff visited him to check on the progress.Twitter embed Every detail in both uniforms has a meaning. For Navy, the six strands of rope on the helmets represent the six original frigates of the U.S. Navy, and the knots were a spin-off of the 126 knots on the sides of the pants to represent and pay homage to the 126th Army-Navy game. On the jersey, there are 250 knots around the neck and sleeves to represent 250 years of the Navy. "The guys always want hints," Navy senior associate athletic director Greg Morgenthaler said. "From our first team meeting with Coach Newberry. I talked to the team in November about expectations and stuff, and they're all like, 'What are we wearing this year? G, what are we wearing?'" Around noon on Nov. 17, Navy players, coaches and staff started to file into the auditorium in Ricketts Hall. It wasn't a mandatory team meeting, but nobody was going to miss the highly anticipated uniform reveal for the Army-Navy game. "Nobody's posting anything regarding the unis, everybody good?" Newberry said. "Yessir!"Twitter embed Army's marble print uniforms are designed to mirror the marble headstones at Arlington National Cemetery and the ultimate sacrifice that has been made. The Great Seal on the right shoulder indicates Army's duty to the United States in peace and war. There is an old guard espontoon etched into each helmet to symbolize Army's role as the tip of the spear, starting on the back of the helmet and culminating in a tip on the front. Lieutenant Colonel John Zdeb teaches in the department of History and War Studies at West Point and has been helping with the accuracy of the football team's uniforms for five years. He's a graduate of the academy and also had two deployments to Iraq, one to Afghanistan, another to Eastern Europe and another to Kuwait. "There's always different elements where they're asking us, my team in particular, 'Hey, the way we've depicted this, is it historically accurate? Is it representing the historical event in the correct way? And if it is going to veer away from that a little bit, is that a creative liberty that makes sense? That's worth doing?' And so we have a lot of feedback."Ball run At 3:30 a.m. Thursday morning, a group of 17 cadet marathoners, four officers and three vans departed from the West Point superintendent's house on campus to run 240 miles across four different states -- all while carrying an Army game ball to be delivered to M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore at 2 p.m. ET on Friday. On Saturday, each of the teams will jog the ball onto the field at a designated time and present it to their First Captain or Brigade Commander. At approximately 7 a.m., on Thursday the team will pass from New York into Mahwah, New Jersey, and then continue along Route 202 into Pennsylvania. The marathon team will then run through southeastern Pennsylvania before entering Maryland, near Rising Sun. The final portion of their journey will lead them to downtown Baltimore via Route 1. "The ball itself is always in a cadet's hands and is moving nonstop from when we leave up until we reach the stadium," said senior cadet Michael Clay, who is part of his fourth Army-Navy relay team and estimated he has run about 90 miles total to the past three stadiums. The Navy relay team has a slightly more advantageous route this week -- by more than 200 fewer miles from Annapolis to Baltimore. The Midshipmen will meet in front of Bancroft Hall on Friday before leaving at noon and heading out Gate 8. They will arrive at Fort McHenry in Baltimore at sunset and finish the final few miles to the stadium on Saturday. Watch your favorite events in the newly enhanced ESPN App. Learn more about what plan is right for you. Sign Up Now "It's kind of fun because we have the rest of the company there waiting at the stadium for the ball to get there, and then the people that are running that last leg kind of run up to the stadium," Midshipman Connor Mollberg said. "The whole company's there. It's a big celebration that we got the ball there." Though not without someone occasionally fumbling along the way. "It never intentionally hits the ground," Clay said, "especially in those subfreezing temperatures with gloves on, it can be really hard to tell how firm of a grip you have on the ball. So yes, it has been dropped, but never intentionally -- and never more than 13th company." The tradition began with Navy's 13th company, which has about 120 Midshipmen in it, and while nobody is required to participate in the ball run, "people are usually more than willing to run the ball a couple of miles and help out," said Mollberg, who is on Navy's parachute team -- not track or cross country. While Army's relay team is much smaller because it comprises the school's marathon team, they tend to pass the ball around with anyone who joins them for the last few miles -- typically members of the community, first responders and high-ranking West Point officers. Because Army has a longer trek, their runners will aim for between six and 13 miles per stretch, while Navy will run seven legs of four miles per runner. Along their way, they have both cultivated relationships with small communities they routinely pass through. Elementary and school-aged kids line the streets, cheering for both teams along the way -- even at 2 or 3 a.m. when the runners least expect it. "They let us know who they're rooting for pretty early on," Clay said. "Certainly a healthy mix."'March On'AP Photo/Matt Rourke The spectacle of watching roughly 3,000 cadets and another 4,000 Midshipmen march onto the field in unison before the Army-Navy game -- entire schools of uniform-clad future military leaders taking their seats in the stadium -- is one of the most recognizable traditions of the pregame ceremonies. The cadets and midshipmen will start to march from Camden Yards about a half-mile away. Navy will be on the first-base side, Army will be in left field, and will come down Ravens Walk before entering the stadium at noon. "We use it as a demonstration of discipline within the corps, everybody moving in the same uniform, at the same time, in the same place," said Adam Brady, who has done this as a cadet and now as the Operations Officer at Army. "It's one of the few times when we have the entire corps of cadets marching." At Army, it's the same 30-inch step. It's the same arm movements for thousands of students who must keep in line with the person to the right. They guide right (keep the group moving in a straight line), dress right (fine tune everyone's position so the formation looks perfectly straight), and are centered on the person in front of them. It's something they practice for a total of four or five hours on one of the campus athletic fields.AP Photo/Matt Rourke Aden Alexander, a plebe at Navy, will be marching onto the field for the first time and said a key to staying in line is listening to the drum beats. "Typically over the plebe summer we're taught with a cadence, so our detailers will be saying out loud, 'left, right, left, right,'" Alexander said. "And we'll have little ditties or songs that we'll sing along to get our brains trained to walk in-step, so we've gotten pretty good at that." Everything is a competition. "Army always marches on better than Navy," said Jeff Reynolds, Chief of Protocol, United States Military Academy, West Point. "That's our first win of the day."MascotsEmily Stapleton It might be the only game on the planet where two goats and a mule get together before kickoff. The Army has two mules -- Paladin and Ranger IV -- but only Paladin will be traveling to Baltimore. Army has an equestrian team, and cadets whose members earn the positions of "mule wranglers." At Navy, there are eight Midshipmen in the Goat Squad, the group that takes care of Bill(s) the Goat(s) at events and games. Once you're chosen, the job is yours until graduation. The identity of the daily caretaker, who keeps the goats on a nearby farm, is classified. Senior Myles Brown leads the Goat Squad and has been a member since his sophomore year. He said the two goats -- both named Bill -- will arrive at the Stadium around 10 a.m. and be available in the parking lot to visit with fans. The Goat Squad will enter the stadium between noon and 12:30 p.m., and they'll look for a spot on the field secluded from the football players "so they're not overstimulated." After Bill 37 retired, Bill 38 took his place -- and Bill 39 is the new addition (for anyone who might be counting). "They like to be together," said Brown, who worked on a sheep farm during high school in Georgia. "They're a lot more calm when they're around each other." The goats will be on leashes, with two handlers per goat, one person to clean up any messes they leave behind (literally), one to carry water and treats, and everyone else is "crowd control." Though the goats will eat just about anything, Brown said, "they really like animal crackers." The mules eat hay and the mule wranglers will bring four bales for Paladin to travel with as well as a hay net filled for him to eat on the field. "I always think about Bevo," said LTC Adam Brady, of the Texas Longhorns' mascot. Brady is a member of the commandant's staff responsible for training and operations. "Nobody cares about Bevo until something goes wrong. We've got to be aware of that. They're a huge draw. Kids love them, parents love them. People try to get on them. But they are something that we are concerned about. We have to take care of the animals, but we also do have to recognize that they are wild animals, and they're significantly larger than the Navy goat." "There are some things we have to be aware of," Brady said. "Logistically, some of that is, hey, can we even get them in the stadium? Just from a safety perspective, how can I get a spooked mule out of a stadium safely? We have to evaluate that, whether it's here at home with our construction that we've been doing, or the different stadiums. The sidelines are a lot tighter than you'd expect." This year, one other live mascot might try to steal their spotlight. Chesty, an English bulldog who is the mascot of the United States Marine Corps, could make a surprise appearance during the coin toss. "That's what we're planning," said Ann McConnell, the Naval Academy's director of protocol. "However, that may change. The Secretary of War may come over to our side to walk out with the President. That's still a little bit in flux."Presidential visit Dear Mr. President: On behalf of the Department of the Navy and the Department of the Army, we are honored to invite you and Mrs. Trump to attend the 126th Annual Army-Navy football game, on Saturday, December 13, 2025, at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland. The home team sends the official invitation to the White House and this year that is Navy. Both schools confirmed President Trump will attend -- along with hundreds of other high-ranking officials, dignitaries and celebrities. It's a massive coordination effort that takes a year of planning and above all else -- security. Jeff Reynolds, Chief of Protocol, United States Military Academy, West Point, said he was expecting close to 800 celebrities and dignitaries in Baltimore, and is in charge of credentialing more than 600 seats on Army's 50-yard line -- extending from the first row up to the first few rows on the upper deck. Throughout his career, Reynolds has credentialed Elon Musk, Phil Knight, Gary Sinise, Rachel Ray, Charles Barkley, Mark Wahlberg, Peyton and Eli Manning. There's one person, though, at the top of his list -- Army superintendent Lieutenant General Steven W. Gilland, "who for me, outranks everybody else. I work directly for him. I got to make sure he's taken care of." Reynolds, whose first Army-Navy game was in 2008 when President George W. Bush attended, has worked with Presidents Bush, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Joe Biden and Trump. "The challenging part is to try to make sure the fan experience is still great," Reynolds said. "We want everybody coming to the stadium to have a great time, to enjoy America's Game. "But the logistics," he said. "The White House staff determines the itinerary of the President. The Secret Service's job is to make sure that itinerary is secure for the President -- and everybody -- but really they're focused on the President. My job is to meld all that into the fan experience and the team, so they can still take the field at the right time, do whatever the coaches need them to do." Ann McConnell, who has worked in the Naval Academy's protocol office for 27 years and been its director for nine, said there would be an additional 500 distinguished visitors (DVs) on Navy's 50-yard line and will include senators, congressmen, cabinet members, and senior military leaders. This year's coin toss will include: President Trump, the secretary of the Navy, chief of naval operations, master chief of navy, command master chief at naval academy, president from USAA, superintendent, commandant of marine corps, and the sergeant major of marine corps. (And Chesty.) While most of the dignitaries start to arrive between 11 a.m. and noon, the President typically comes just before kickoff for security reasons. "I actually don't ever sit," said McConnell, who enlisted in the Navy in 1992 as a yeoman to follow in her father's footsteps. "I am constantly moving. I am down on the field making sure everyone's where they need to be for the coin toss and the crossover. I am up in the Midshipmen's seats when our [distinguished visitors] come up to interact with the Midshipmen, I am down on our seating section making sure everyone has what they need. I am up in the warming room making sure everyone is all set. Sometimes I end up at gates making sure people that can download the tickets are able to get in. So I really from the time we arrive at eight o'clock, I do not sit until I get in my car at seven and head home."Army; Navy GAMBLING PROBLEM? CALL 1-800-GAMBLER, (800) 327-5050 or visit gamblinghelplinema.org (MA). Call 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Please Gamble Responsibly. 888-789-7777/visit ccpg.org (CT), or visit www.mdgamblinghelp.org (MD). 21+ and present in most states. (18+ DC/KY/NH/WY). Void in ONT/OR/NH. Eligibility restrictions apply. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino & Resort (KS). Terms: sportsbook.draftkings.com/promos.Copyright: © 2025 ESPN Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved.

Updated Dec. 12, 2025, 1:06 p.m. ET Skip Ad The National Trust for Historic Preservation filed a lawsuit on Dec. 12 aimed at blocking the construction of President Donald Trump's new White House ballroom, alleging it is unlawful and asking the court to halt further construction until the plans go through a legally-mandated review process. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, names Trump, the National Parks Service and several other administration officials involved in a fast-expanding project that already included the demolition of the East Wing and prompted the ire of preservationists and former first ladies including Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama. "No president is legally allowed to tear down portions of the White House without any review whatsoever—not President Trump, not President Biden, and not anyone else," the lawsuit says. "And no president is legally allowed to construct a ballroom on public property without giving the public the opportunity to weigh in." The 90,000 square-foot ballroom project has a price tag of $300 million and is expected to accommodate about 1,000 people. That's an increase from earlier plans in July for a ballroom that cost $200 million and would seat 650 people. The National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, which requires reviews of projects that affect historic buildings, exempts the White House, Supreme Court building and U.S. Capitol. Carol Quillen, National Trust’s CEO, said in a statement that submitting the project to the National Capital Planning Commission, the only planning body that has reviewing authority over the construction, for review will protect the "iconic historic features" of the White House campus as it progresses. "Inviting comments from the American people signals respect and helps ensure a lasting legacy that befits a government of the people, by the people, for the people,” she added. The White House on Dec. 12 rejected the premise of the lawsuit. “President Trump has full legal authority to modernize, renovate, and beautify the White House – just like all of his predecessors did,” White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said. While the lawsuit claims that construction has already begun, the White House has also repeatedly said that is not the case. The sound of pile-drivers that Trump recently talked about - noting first lady Melania Trump's irritation - was from the still ongoing demolition process, Ingle said. The Trump White House maintains that the NCPC does not have jurisdiction over demolition of a federal building, only the construction. Under previous administrations, even minor renovations or changes to structures, such as a shed, have gone through a review process. Will Scharf, the Trump-appointed chairman of the National Capital Planning Commission, said on Dec. 4 that the White House will be submitting plans for review this month. The commission, which oversees development of federal property in the Washington, DC, region, was not consulted when the East Wing was demolished in October to make way for the ballroom. Soon after the East Wing demolition began on Oct. 20, Quillen argued that Trump's project “will overwhelm the White House itself,” which is 55,000 square feet, adding: “(The addition) may also permanently disrupt the carefully balanced classical design of the White House with its two smaller, and lower, East and West Wings.” (This story has been updated with more information.)

Measles outbreaks are spreading across the U.S., and the nation is likely to lose its status as a country where the disease is eliminated, something that infectious disease specialists say is directly related to President Trump’s appointment of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). South Carolina this week quarantined at least 254 people after confirming more than two dozen measles cases in the state. It’s the latest in what has been the worst year for measles in the U.S. in recent history. An outbreak in West Texas this year saw more than 700 confirmed cases since January and the deaths of two children. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there have been 47 reported outbreaks in the country this year. “This is a very clear example of the damage that the anti-vaccine movement has done in the United States,” said Fiona Havers, adjunct associate professor at the Emory School of Medicine and a former infectious disease staffer at the CDC. Kennedy was one of the country’s most well-known anti-vaccine advocates when Trump named him to lead the HHS. Since taking power, Kennedy has moved to remake the nation’s vaccine advisory board and other parts of the government to reflect his vision. A nation loses its distinction as a country where measles has been eliminated when it sees at least 12 months of sustained transmission. Measles spiked in Canada and Mexico this year as well, with the former officially losing its measles elimination status last month. The U.S. declared measles to be eliminated in 2000, but Jan. 20 of next year will mark 12 straight months of uninterrupted measles transmission and reaching that day with continued spread looks all but certain. Havers called this situation “extremely embarrassing” for the U.S. “There are a number of things that have made these ongoing outbreaks very difficult to control. One is that the decades of false information about measles vaccines that [Kennedy Jr.] and other people in the anti-vaccine movement have been spreading has led to a decline in vaccination rates,” Havers said. Haver acknowledged that containing measles outbreaks is becoming more difficult as the vaccination rate continues to decline in the U.S. “But I do think a different administration — what we would have seen is a CDC director giving weekly updates to the press about the status of the measles outbreaks,” she said. “We would have seen money pumped out to the states, with airwaves and billboards being blanketed about measles vaccination and how that’s the most important way of controlling things.” After the death of an 8-year-old girl in Texas due to measles, Kennedy publicly stated that the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine was the “most effective way to prevent the spread of measles.” This was a significant admission for Kennedy, who for decades cast doubt on the safety and efficacy of vaccines. The secretary previously claimed that the MMR vaccine has an “unconscionably high injury rate” and causes “all the illnesses that measles itself causes.” He has long argued there could be a potential connection between the MMR vaccine and autism, though no causal has been found. At the same time, Kennedy promoted vitamin A supplements, cod liver oil and the steroid budesonide to treat the virus. Infectious disease experts said that while these likely would not cause harm, they didn’t offer any added benefits. When he was confirmed, Kennedy made it clear he would shift the HHS’s priorities away from infectious disease and focus more on chronic illness. Strictly speaking, a country losing its measles-elimination status is a technicality that recognizes the spread of measles has gone uninterrupted for at least one year. According to Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, the imminent deadline isn’t as important when “we can already say the damn house is on fire.” “We don’t need to wait for one more smoke alarm to go off to know that’s happening,” said Osterholm. “Whether we formally lose that elimination status, to me, isn’t even that important in the sense of we already know we’ve got a terrible, terrible problem on our hands.” Osterholm noted that in Canada’s population of roughly 41 million people, there have been more than 5,000 cases this year. “You’re almost 6,000 cases for 40 million people. Do the math for 340 million people, and you can get a sense of just how big this could get,” he said, warning that the next 12 to 18 months could present extreme challenges in terms of fighting infectious diseases. When Canada lost its measles elimination status, it announced it would be coordinating with the Pan American Health Organization to reverse the development. Regaining measles elimination requires that transmission of the current strain be interrupted for at least 12 months. Osterholm said the uptick in measles activity would have occurred regardless of who was in office, though he added, “This administration is only pouring more gas on the fire with the kind of comments that are coming out of HHS.” When asked whether she believes the HHS and CDC under Kennedy’s rule will prioritize regaining measles elimination status, Haver said she was “not optimistic.” “This administration is far more focused on any risks associated with vaccines, without looking at any of the risks associated with the deadly diseases that they prevent.” “I do think that this is far worse than it would have been under another administration,” she added. “It is not a coincidence that the first year where we’ve had we will have had 12 months of continuously circulating measles in the first 12 months of this administration.” When reached for comment, HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said, “Elimination status depends on evidence of continuous transmission for 12 months, and our current assessment is that we have not met that criteria.” “Secretary Kennedy has been very clear that vaccination is the most effective way to prevent measles. Any attempts to spin this are baseless. Individuals should consult with their healthcare provider on what is best for them,” he added. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

MOUNT VERNON, Wash. (AP) — Days of torrential rain in Washington state caused historic floods that have stranded families on rooftops, washed over bridges and ripped at least two homes from their foundations, and experts warned that even more flooding expected Friday could be catastrophic. Washington is under a state of emergency and evacuation orders are in place for tens of thousands of residents. Gov. Bob Ferguson on Thursday urged everyone to follow evacuation instructions as yet another river neared record levels. READ MORE: Torrential rain triggers floods, mudslides and evacuations in Washington state “I understand that many in our state have experienced significant floods in the past,” he said on the social platform X. “However, we’re looking at a historic situation.” About 78,000 residents of a major agricultural region north of Seattle were ordered to evacuate the floodplain of the Skagit River, which was expected to crest Friday morning. The floods were impacting large parts of the state, with several bridges flooded and some major roads inundated or washed out. Some roads had no alternate routes and no estimated reopening time, including a large part of state Route 410. A landslide blocked part of Interstate 90 east of Seattle, with photos showing vehicles trapped by tree trunks, branches, mud and standing water. In the north near the U.S.-Canada border, the cities of Sumas, Nooksack and Everson were evacuated after being inundated. The border crossing at Sumas was closed and Amtrak suspended trains between Seattle and Vancouver, B.C. WATCH: Vermont town debates rebuilding on higher ground after devastating floods Sumas Mayor Bruce Bosch said much of the city has been “devastated” by the high waters just four years after a similar flood. Flooding rivers break records The Snohomish River surged nearly a foot (30 centimeters) higher than its record Thursday in the picturesque city that shares its name, while the Skagit River rose just above its record Thursday night in Mount Vernon, according to the National Water Prediction Service. Earlier Thursday, the Skagit just missed its previous record as flooding surged through the mountain town of Concrete. The waters stopped just short of getting inside Mariah Brosa’s raised riverfront home in Concrete, but the raging river still slapped debris against her home and totaled her fiancé’s work car, she said. “I didn’t think it would come this high,” she said. Flooding from the Skagit has long plagued Mount Vernon, the largest city in Skagit County with some 35,000 residents. Flooding in 2003 displaced hundreds of people. A floodwall that protects downtown passed a major test in 2021, when the river crested near record levels. Water was at the foot of the floodwall as of late Thursday morning, Mayor Peter Donovan said. In nearby Burlington, officials hoped dikes and other systems would protect their community from catastrophe, said Michael Lumpkin, with the police department. Officials respond to flooding Authorities across Washington state in recent days have rescued people from cars and homes after an atmospheric river soaked the region. Helicopters rescued two families on Thursday from the roofs of homes in Sumas that had been flooded by about 15 feet (4.6 meters) of water, while the city’s fire station had 3 feet (91 centimeters) of water, according Frank Cain JR., battalion chief for Whatcom County Fire District 14. In nearby Welcome, erosion from the floodwaters caused at least two houses to collapse into the Nooksack River, he said. No one was inside at the time. In a football field in Snoqualmie, a herd of elk swam and waded through neck-high water. East of Seattle, residents along Issaquah Creek used water pumps as rushing floodwaters filled yards Thursday morning. Yellow tape blocked off a hazardous area along the creek. Climate change has been linked to some intense rainfall. Scientists say that without specific study they cannot directly link a single weather event to climate change, but in general it’s responsible for more intense and more frequent extreme storms, droughts, floods and wildfires. Another storm system is expected to bring more rain starting Sunday. Rush reported from Portland, Oregon. Associated Press writers Gene Johnson and Hallie Golden in Seattle; Martha Bellisle in Issaquah, Washington; Mark Thiessen in Anchorage, Alaska; and Mead Gruver in Fort Collins, Colorado, contributed to this report. Support trusted journalism and civil dialogue.

The Department of Veterans Affairs plans to abruptly eliminate as many as 35,000 health care positions this month, mostly unfilled jobs including doctors, nurses and support staff, according to an internal memo, VA staffers and congressional aides.Upgrade for 3 extra accounts to sharePremium comes with extra access for friends and family, plus more benefits.See more details The cuts come after a massive reorganization effort already resulted in the loss of almost 30,000 employees this year. Agency leaders have instructed managers across the Veterans Health Administration, the agency’s health care arm, to identify thousands of openings that can be canceled. Employees warn that the contraction will add pressure to an already stretched system, contributing to longer wait times for care. The decision comes after Veterans Affairs Secretary Douglas A. Collins, under political pressure from Congress, backed away from a plan to slash 15 percent of the agency’s workforce through mass firings. Instead, VA lost almost 30,000 employees this year from buyout offers and attrition. The agency hopes that the cuts will reduce the health care workforce to as little as 372,000 employees, a 10 percent reduction from last year, according to a memo shared with regional leaders last month and obtained by The Washington Post. Details of the cuts came into focus in recent days, according to 17 staffers at VA and congressional aides who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they didn’t have permission to share plans. VA spokesman Pete Kasperowicz confirmed the planned cuts for unfilled positions. He said the health care system is eliminating about 26,400 of its open jobs, which he described as “mostly covid-era roles that are no longer necessary.” “The vast majority of these positions have not been filled for more than a year, underscoring how they are no longer needed,” he wrote in response to questions. “This move will have no effect on VA operations or the way the department delivers care to Veterans, as we are simply eliminating open and unfilled positions that are no longer needed.” The nation’s largest government-run health care system has struggled to fill vacancies amid a broader national shortage of health care workers and a strained federal workforce. Job applications to the agency have also fallen 57 percent from last year, according to the agency’s workforce report last month. This reorganization comes in advance of an expected announcement next week that Collins plans to also shrink the network of 18 regional offices that administer the nation’s VA hospitals and medical centers, according to four people familiar with the plan. Staff at those regional offices help determine policies and manage staffing. Collins and others have been critical of the agency’s top-heavy administrative offices, arguing that staffing cuts there will free up more resources for health care. The health system grew by tens of thousands of employees under the Biden administration as more veterans enrolled in VA health care after passage of the PACT Act, which expanded benefits for veterans exposed to toxic burn pits. Then-secretary Denis McDonough urged veterans to be seen by VA doctors rather than request referrals to private practitioners outside the system. But the Trump administration has said it wants more veterans to seek treatment outside the government system. Political appointees at VA and their allies have also said they favor a leaner health care workforce because they think physicians and other health care providers could be more productive, said one former appointee who is close to the Trump team. Collins stood down from planned mass firings this year after a bipartisan mix of lawmakers expressed concerns about cuts affecting patient care. The agency said mission-critical positions were exempted from the buyouts and retirement offers. Since then, lawmakers have sought greater oversight of the agency’s staffing plans. In the agreement to reopen the government last month, lawmakers allocated $133 billion in discretionary funding for the VA with conditions, including that the agency could not reduce staffing for suicide prevention programs, would provide updates on staffing counts and would maintain the staff necessary to meet certain thresholds for processing benefits and providing healthcare. The House also approved a measure Thursday overturning President Donald Trump’s executive order eliminating union rights at federal agencies, including VA, where the union had said it was harder to protect jobs without collective bargaining. Thomas Dargon Jr., deputy general counsel of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents more than 320,000 VA employees, said the union has not been consulted by the agency about the cuts but has heard about concerns from its members. “The VA has been chronically understaffed for years, and employees are obviously going to be facing the brunt of any further job cuts or reorganization that results in employees having to do more work with less,” Dargon said. Sharda Fornnarino, a VA nurse in Colorado and local head of her nurses’ union, said her facility continues to lack the necessary staff to keep up with demand, and she urged lawmakers to restore collective bargaining so nurses could advocate for safer working conditions. The measure is unlikely to pass the Republican-held Senate. Meanwhile, at the VA’s regional offices, leadership is determining which roles they would need to cancel, and several health care workers said they had been warned their hospitals would be affected. Regional leaders were told to ensure their organizational charts are updated by next week, according to the memo reviewed by The Post. In Phoenix, 358 openings will be eliminated, including nurses and doctors, according to a nurse who said the losses will hit as they are already behind in scheduling doctors appointments. “They specifically said no department would be spared,” she said. In another Mountain West hospital, health care workers were told at a town hall last week that no current employees would lose their jobs, though if anyone leaves, they would need to determine whether they could keep those jobs, according to a recording of the meeting. The bad news arrived last Friday for employees of the VA San Diego health care system, in an exclamation mark-filled email from director Frank Pearson. He wrote that he’d been expecting this year to fill 734 job vacancies with new nurses, doctors and other staff, to help care for the almost 90,000 veterans that the San Diego system regularly serves. But sometime this fall, he wrote, higher-ups decided to “do some housekeeping and cleanup of the books” — informing the San Diego system that it only had the budget to retain 4,429 employees going into fiscal year 2026. That meant, Pearson wrote in bold, all-caps, underlined letters, that “322 VACANT POSITIONS need to be eliminated.” One of the VA employees who received the email said that, in the mental health section alone, there were 78 open positions as of this month — about half of which will now go away. Currently, the employee noted, veterans in the San Diego area are waiting between 60 and 90 days to access VA mental health services. Staff are already strained and exhausted after a difficult year, the employee said, and were counting on reinforcements. “We are all doing the work of others to compensate,” she said. “The idea that relief isn’t coming is really, really disappointing.”

U.S. Navy aircraft pictured Friday at a naval base in Puerto Rico. Ricardo Arduengo/Reuters The U.S. military is moving more weapons and units into the Caribbean that give President Trump powerful new options to escalate his pressure campaign on Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and potentially bring him down. After weeks of deadly boat strikes and the seizure of an oil tanker, the Pentagon is sending assets that could enable land strikes, disable Venezuela’s defenses and enforce an oil embargo—posing a direct threat not only to Maduro but to his regional allies such as Cuba. F-35A stealth jet fighters, EA-18G Growler electronic warfare planes, HH-60W rescue helicopters and HC-130J rescue planes are being staged in Puerto Rico, according to photographs and flight tracking data. Tanker aircraft that can refuel bombers and jet fighters midair have been moved to the Dominican Republic in recent days. Such aircraft could play a key role in any potential attacks on land, analysts say. The deployments add to the significant amount of combat power that the U.S. has already shifted to the region in recent months, including 11 warships, MQ-9 Reaper drones, F-35B jet fighters and P-8 Poseidon spy planes, among other weaponry. The arrival of the USS Gerald R. Ford last month brought dozens of aircraft into the region that could also be used in airstrikes. Some of the latest aircraft movements were reported by the War Zone. Trump has threatened to up the ante by attacking targets on land after months of bombing alleged drug-smuggling boats off the coast of Venezuela and beyond. The administration also seized an oil tanker full of Venezuelan crude earlier this week, opening a new front in the White House’s pressure campaign. The USS Gerald R. Ford with dozens of jet fighters deployed to the Caribbean last month. handout/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images Trump has also said that he has authorized covert CIA operations in Venezuela. “We’ve been watching the efforts to intimidate us,” Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino said in an address Friday, referring to American aircraft near Venezuelan territory. “We ask humbly, don’t be mistaken. We’re ready to defend this country. You’re not going to intimidate us.” Military analysts say the recent movement of equipment further signals the administration’s intent to carry out combat operations. The buildup also means the U.S. has the resources in place to seize more oil tankers if Trump chooses to do so. “I think what’s important about the forces and capabilities that are moving into the theater is that they are optimized to conduct precision, stealthy strikes that can minimize collateral damage,” said Heather Penney, a former fighter pilot and director of studies and research at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, an aerospace think tank. “All of them together work in concert to open up the battlespace and conduct precision strikes with minimum risk to U.S. forces. And of course, you have a search-and-rescue team there just in case.” Regional analysts and former government officials have warned that U.S. military action in Venezuela could spiral into a wider crisis across Latin America. Cuba, which suffers from a fragile economy and severe energy shortages, relies on Venezuela for oil. Any conflict could also quickly spill across the porous borders with Colombia, where armed groups rule much of the frontier. “This could be devastating, not only for Venezuela, but also for the region,” said Francesca Emanuele, senior international policy associate at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington. “These actions would almost certainly lead to a civil war or a prolonged, devastating conflict.” President Nicolás Maduro was in Caracas this week to commemorate a historic battle. Federico Parra/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images The next step in the U.S. campaign against Maduro may not be actual combat but enforcing an oil embargo on Venezuela—either a physical one or a de facto one, if ships steer clear of the country, said Evanan Romero, a Houston-based energy consultant and former Venezuelan deputy oil minister. The U.S. has sanctioned Venezuelan crude oil, giving the Trump administration a basis to more strictly enforce those measures. Only Chevron legally exports Venezuelan oil, but a vast fleet of tankers still carry it, using false flags and opaque ownership to shield their operations. “You get rid of the oil, we’re talking about the final collapse,” said Romero, who is advising opposition leader María Corina Machado on an oil-sector recovery plan. Inside Venezuela, port officials said local authorities had warned them that American strikes are likely. An official at Venezuela’s airport in Valencia said antiaircraft guns have been deployed near the runway and storage buildings. He said more than 80% of flights have been canceled over the past two weeks. The port officials said ship traffic is nearly at a standstill. On Friday at least a dozen containerships and tankers reversed course as they were approaching to dock. A tanker off the coast or Maracaibo, a Venezuelan hub for oil exports. henry chirinos/epa/shutterstock/Shutterstock Trump hasn’t ruled out a land invasion, but military experts said even the large number of forces in the Caribbean falls far short of what would be needed to conquer a country as large as Venezuela. White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that “prolonged war is definitely not something this president is interested in.” Targeted airstrikes on land targets are far more probable. Such an operation would likely begin with cyber operations and satellite jamming to disable the Venezuelan military’s ability to use its relatively sophisticated Russian air-defense systems. These efforts may already be under way to help prepare the battlefield, analysts said. Southern Command, which oversees U.S. troops in the region, declined to comment on the movement of equipment. Analysts say it would make sense to station electronic warfare systems as close to the battlefield as possible. That equipment, which could be operated even closer to Venezuela by ship, could potentially jam satellite uplinks and downlinks to cut off Venezuela’s access to communications and navigation systems. Following electronic warfare efforts, the U.S. could send in a first wave of stealth F-35 fighter aircraft to destroy Venezuela’s defenses, command and control facilities and electricity infrastructure, analysts say. Tanker aircraft, like those recently positioned in the Dominican Republic, would be needed to refuel the aircraft as they fly toward Venezuela and back. Tomahawk missiles fired from warships in the Caribbean could also be used in such an attack. In following waves, the U.S. would likely send in “strike packages” of aircraft and other munitions to attack targets on land. Growler electronic warfare planes that can jam enemy defenses would play a key role, with other jet fighters and bomber aircraft flying alongside them depending on the mission. A Growler electronic warfare plane took off from Puerto Rico on Friday. Ricardo Arduengo/Reuters A diplomatic track has been unfolding in parallel with the U.S. military pressure campaign. Last month, Trump held a phone call with Maduro in which they discussed general amnesty for him, his family and his senior aides, many of whom face U.S. sanctions or criminal indictments, people familiar with the matter said. Trump warned Maduro that if he didn’t leave Venezuela willingly, the U.S. would consider other options including the use of force, according to people familiar with the discussion. Write to Shelby Holliday at [email protected] and Costas Paris at [email protected]

Billionaire Elon Musk had an ominous prediction about MAGA strategist Steve Bannon on Friday after a newly released batch of photos showed President Donald Trump's former senior aide with the late financier and convicted child offender Jeffrey Epstein. Musk responded to an X post from user Shadow of Ezra, suggesting that Bannon was apparently meeting with Epstein to advise him on how to "rehabilitate his public image" at his office where a "trafficking victim's photo" appeared to sit on Epstein's desk, alleging that Epstein took photos of his victims, which "were viewed by many as 'trophies' or a form of leverage." Musk had a chilling response to the post: "Only a matter of time before Bannon goes back to prison," Musk wrote. Musk did not elaborate further in his post. Bannon has previously served time in prison for refusing to submit to a congressional subpoena related to his role as a top aide to Trump during his first term. Musk and Bannon have had a rocky relationship in the past, including public spats over MAGA strategies and Musk's interest in a proposed third party. After the images were released on Friday, lawmakers have signaled that they are investigating the more than 90,000 images released by the Epstein estate to the House Oversight Committee and have "pictures of people engaged in sexual acts." It's unclear who or which people are in the photos. The images released Friday were just 20 or so of the thousands of images the committee was investigating and now congressional leaders have questions for many of the people in the photos, including the ones who have not been identified.

American and Syrian forces came under fire on Saturday during a joint patrol near the ancient city of Palmyra, according to the Syrian state news agency SANA. At least two members of the Syrian security forces and some U.S. forces were wounded, the agency said, citing a security source. A U.S. military official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of a lack of authorization to speak publicly about the operation called it “a serious situation” and said more details would probably be forthcoming as the Pentagon gets updates from commanders in the field. Subscribe to The Times to read as many articles as you like.

From battlefield concessions to broken job data, refinery dreams to a Bay Area blast, press-room battles to ICE overreach—plus a bonus clash over AI rules.

Ukraine cedes land, Trump shoots for Venezuela’s oil, a Hayward blast raises safety lapses, ICE is rebuked, Trump attacks the press, Powell on faulty jobs data, and Washington moves to muzzle AI laws

Maxim Shemetov/File Photo/Reuters The head of the International Monetary Fund this week urged Chinese authorities to address economic imbalances, adding to criticism that Beijing weakens its currency to benefit its exporters. The EU Chamber of Commerce noted recently that the renminbi had fallen to its lowest in a decade against the euro, despite trade patterns that should have helped it appreciate, while Goldman Sachs said in a note to clients that the currency was around 25% undervalued and its strengthening was among the bank’s “highest conviction views.” Even Chinese economists — typically loath to contradict Beijing — have argued that the renminbi needs to appreciate. “If this does not happen,” a Chatham House expert warned, “then protectionist sentiment in the West is likely to build.” — Prashant Rao A waiter in Rome. Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters. The UN declared Italian food an “intangible cultural heritage,” the first time a national cuisine has been awarded the status, which Rome hopes will help boost tourism and fight gastronomic “fakes.” UNESCO, the UN’s cultural arm, regularly names historic sites and artifacts as cultural property, physical examples of a society’s heritage: Examples include Stonehenge or the Pyramids of Giza. But it also endorses non-physical things such as traditional dances or religious rites. Specific foods — including Neapolitan pizza-making — have been included before, but never an entire national cuisine; Italy’s government campaigned for the move, in part to help it in an ongoing fight against “fake” Italian food. No doubt the nation will celebrate the decision with a can of Spaghettios. — Tom Chivers Brendan McDermid/Reuters Reddit sued Australia’s government over the country’s social media ban. Canberra enacted the world’s first social media age limit this week, blocking all under-16s’ accounts. Reddit said that the law breached Australia’s constitution, which establishes freedom of political communication; a separate lawsuit from two Australian teens argues the same. Other countries are watching Australia with great interest — partly to see if the lawsuits are successful, but also to see if the ban has the desired effect of safeguarding mental health. Previous legal efforts, for example South Korean and Chinese laws banning video games at night, were found to be flops. Australia’s ban is a “natural experiment,” researchers wrote in Nature, and should be carefully observed. — Tom Chivers Al Drago/Reuters US President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at banning states from regulating AI. Several state governments have tried to place guardrails on the technology, which the AI industry and the White House say creates a legal patchwork that hampers innovation. But Congress has twice failed to pass a moratorium on state-level regulation. Trump’s order cannot override state laws, but directs federal agencies to circumvent them, The Verge reported. It will almost certainly face legal challenges, NPR reported, and drew criticism from some Republicans trying to pass laws limiting children’s AI use. The order will have the greatest impact on California, which passed a wide-ranging law in September and is home to many of the world’s largest AI firms. — Tom Chivers Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara. Issouf Sanogo/AFP via Getty Images Ivory Coast reportedly wants the US to station spy planes in the country to help it fight jihadists who have gained territory across much of West Africa in recent months. Extremist groups, including some linked to al-Qaida, have turned the region into the world’s terrorism epicenter, forcing millions to flee and further destabilizing some of the world’s poorest regions. Their territorial expansion has been aided by several regional countries breaking long-term security alliances with Western nations, replacing their assistance with help from Russia, which analysts say is a far weaker partner. Some experts now fear that fighting between jihadi groups could turn West Africa into an “insurgency corridor” spanning 1,000 miles, Bloomberg reported. — Jeronimo Gonzalez Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images The US and Japan conducted joint military drills, a symbolic boost for Tokyo, which is locked in a tense feud with Beijing. Japan has accused China of stepping up naval activity in disputed waters, and has said it could get involved if Taiwan were threatened, remarks that triggered economic boycotts and efforts at defense intimidation by Beijing. Japan has reportedly voiced frustration that the US has not offered its high-level support, and Washington may be changing its tune: The countries’ defense ministers agreed recently that China’s activities were “not conducive to regional peace,” while US jets — including two nuclear-capable bombers — took part in the drills and an American aircraft carrier docked at a Japanese port. — Prashant Rao

A reporter brutally fact-checked one of President Donald Trump's favorite claims about one of his administration's bombing campaigns during a press conference in the White House on Thursday. Trump held a ceremony for an executive order he signed banning states from enacting laws that regulate artifi...

A federal judge on Friday barred U.S. immigration authorities from re-detaining Kilmar Abrego García, acting on fears raised by his lawyers that officials intended to take him into custody just hours after he was ordered released.Upgrade for 3 extra accounts to sharePremium comes with extra access for friends and family, plus more benefits.See more details Those concerns arose in response to government maneuvers in the wake of U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis’s ruling Thursday that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had been unlawfully detaining Abrego for months. Abrego, a 30-year-old undocumented immigrant and longtime Maryland resident, became a flash point in the Trump administration’s efforts to crack down on illegal immigration. The White House had repeatedly called Abrego a smuggler and “a proven gang member,” though those allegations are still pending in the courts, and threatened to deport him to countries in Africa or Central America. Xinis’s Thursday ruling hinged on the fact that at no point in Abrego’s immigration proceedings — from 2019 to today — had there ever been a final deportation order entered in his case. Hours after that ruling, an immigration judge entered such a deportation order, and ICE officials notified Abrego he was required to check in at a Baltimore field office Friday morning. “The Government chose to pursue this path only after losing … and only through a process that denied [Abrego] any opportunity to be heard,” his attorneys wrote in a court filing early Friday morning. Abrego entered ICE’s Baltimore field office about 7:30 a.m. and walked out about an hour later, flanked by advocates from the immigrants rights group CASA. Members of the group in maroon clothing cheered as he came down the steps and entered a plaza outside. “Everyone is extremely, extremely happy about this,” his lawyer, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, told reporters outside the building. Xinis granted their request barring Abrego from being detained again in an unusual early-morning order just moments before Abrego arrived at his check-in at the ICE field office. She foreclosed the possibility that officials could take Abrego back into custody before a hearing she said she intends to hold after Wednesday.

That's not to say that US companies would not be interested. At the moment, Chevron is the only American oil producer still active in Venezuela, after receiving a licence under former President Joe Biden in 2022 to operate, despite US sanctions. The Trump administration extended the firm another waiver this year, though it has revoked exemptions for other firms, such as Spain's Repsol, in a bid to curb the flow of funds to the Maduro regime. Today, Chevron accounts for about a fifth of Venezuela's oil production. Analysts say Chevron would be among those best-placed to benefit, should the US start to lift its barriers against dealing with Venezuela. Refiners in the US, particularly those around the Gulf Coast, are also hungry for the “heavier” type of crude that Venezuela produces, which tends to be less expensive and therefore more profitable to process. “It has been problematic for US Gulf Coast refiners in recent years that Venezuela has been under sanctions and been reducing production, because it means there's less of that heavy crude available,” says Matt Smith, oil analyst at Kpler. “Even if they weren't getting involved in the production side of things, they would be a keen buyer of it.” While any expansion of oil exports from Venezuela could help bring down prices in the US, analysts say that would take time, with its current output too limited to make a significant impact. And restoring Venezuela's oil industry to its former glory would be a heavy lift. According to a recent Wood Mackenzie report, improved management and some modest investments could help boost oil production in Venezuela to about two million barrels per day over the next two years. But analysts warned it would take tens of billions of dollars – and potentially a decade – to raise output more significantly. They also said companies could be put off by potential complications like its membership in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec). Another risk is the outlook for oil demand, as it becomes relatively less important as an energy source, says David Oxley, chief climate and commodities economist at Capital Economics. “Oil demand is not going to fall off a cliff but it is no longer growing as it was. We see it as subdued and will start falling in the late 2030s,” he says. “Anyone investing in the Venezuelan oil sector would have to think, is it worth it?” Even if Maduro were ousted or US barriers were to lift, Mr Oxley says it is not clear how willing companies would be to commit the time and money it would take to bring Venezuela's oil back online. “On the oil side, you'd need to see lots and lots of investment. Certainly in the billions,” he says, “‘Drill, baby, drill' – that's fine but private companies are only going to come in and do it if it's profitable.”

Updated Dec. 11, 2025, 5:47 p.m. ET The NASCAR antitrust trial has ended without an official winner. And without an official loser either. Michael Jordan and the other plaintiffs settled with the sanctioning body of stock car racing, ending a fierce legal battle over whether NASCAR has used anticompetitive practices and harmed Jordan's racing team. The refusal to settle over the past year led to a showdown in federal court between NASCAR and the plaintiffs: 23XI Racing, co-owned by Jordan and driver Denny Hamlin, and Front Row Motorsports. But on Thursday, Dec. 11, with the high-stakes trial moving closer to a verdict, the settlement brought the case to an abrupt halt at U.S. District Court of the Western District of North Carolina in Charlotte. The trial was in its ninth day. Meegan Hollywood, an attorney with Shinder Cantor Lerner law firm who specializes in antitrust cases, told USA TODAY Sports on Wednesday, Dec. 10 that a settlement would not be a surprise. The alternative was to leave the outcome in the hands of the jury. "It’s risky on both sides," Hollywood said. Barak Orbach, a professor at the University of Arizona with an expertise with antitrust law, told USA TODAY Sports “one possibility to consider is that this entire trial (was) part of negotiation strategy.’’ Details from the settlement One concession NASCAR is making as part of the settlement is “evergreen’’ charters, according to a joint statement from NASCAR, 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports that Jeff Gluck of The Athletic posted on X. Before the antitrust case, the charters – which guarantee teams a spot in the Cup Series races and a portion of NASCAR’s income – were subject to renegotiation. "As a condition of the settlement agreement, NASCAR will issue an amendment to existing charter holders detailing the updated terms for signature, which will include a form of 'evergreen’ charters, subject to mutual agreement,'' the joint statement reads. The financial terms of the settlement are confidential and will not be released, according to a joint statement. What Michael Jordan said On the steps outside the courthouse, Jordan stood next to NASCAR CEO Jim France and addressed the media. “We’re like two competitors obviously,’’ he said. “…The only way this sport’s going to grow is we have to find some synergy between the two entities, and I think we’ve gotten to that point.’’ Said France, “I feel like we made a very good decision here.’’ A reporter asked Jordan what was the impetus that led to the settlement today and not earlier? “Level heads,’’ Jordan said, drawing laughter from reporters. “In all honestly, when you get to the finish line, sometimes you have to think not for yourself but think about the sport as a whole. And I think both parties got to that point and we realized we can have an opportunity to settle this and we dove and we actually did it.’’ Jordan also released an official statement after the settlement was agreed to. "From the beginning, this lawsuit was about progress," Jordan's statement began. "It was about making sure our sport evolves in a way that supports everyone: teams, drivers, partners, employees, and fans. With a foundation to build equity and invest in the future and a stronger voice in the decisions ahead, we now have the chance to grow together and make the sport even better for generations to come. I'm excited to watch our teams get back on the track and compete hard in 2026." What NASCAR CEO Jim France said Jim France, NASCAR CEO and chairman, had testified for two days on Tuesday Dec. 9 and Wednesday, Dec. 10 after being called as a witness by the plaintiffs before the parties reached a settlement. "This outcome gives all parties the flexibility and confidence to continue delivering unforgettable racing moments for our fans, which has always been our highest priority since the sport was founded in 1948," France said in a statment. "We worked closely with race teams to create the NASCAR charter system in 2016, and it has proven invaluable to their operations and to the quality of racing across the Cup Series. Today's agreement reaffirms our commitment to preserving and enhancing that value, ensuring our fans continue to enjoy the very best of stock car rcing for generations to come. We are excitd to return the collective focus of our sport, teams and racetracks toward and incredible 78th seaosn that begins with the Daytona 500 on Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026." France, 81, is the son of NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. and brother of former CEO Bill France Jr. The largest motorsports series in the United States, NASCAR remains privately owned by the France family. Denny Hamlin remarks On his X account (formerly Twitter), Hamlin wrote, “Standing up isn’t easy, but progress never comes from staying silent. The reward is in knowing you changed something." The X account of the Loose Is Fast Podcast responded with photo of Hamlin after winning a race and the words, “I beat your favorite lawyer," an inside joke among NASCAR fans. Hamlin, a three-time champion of the Daytona 500, has won 60 career races in the NASCAR Cup Series (tied for 10th all time) and has become notorious for taunting fans by saying, “I beat your favorite driver." What was the NASCAR antitrust lawsuit about? The lawsuit accuses NASCAR of restraining fair competition and violating the Sherman Antitrust Act, preventing teams from competing "without accepting the anticompetitive terms" it dictates. Filed in 2024, the lawsuit also asserts the "France family and NASCAR are monopolistic bullies." Jordan has not entered this battle alone. Denny Hamlin, a driver for Joe Gibbs Racing, and longtime Jordan business adviser Curtis Polk are co-owners of 23XI Racing, which just completed its fifth season on NASCAR’s Cup Series. Front Row Motorsports, another NASCAR team, is a plaintiff. The case centers on multimillion-dollar charter agreements, which guarantee teams spots in every race of the Cup Series – the major league of NASCAR – and entitles them to a share of NASCAR’s revenue from sponsorship and media deals. In 2024, NASCAR offered teams a seven-year charter agreement that would increase media revenue and also increase the annual cost of charters to $8.5 million from $5 million. While there were reported rumblings among NASCAR racing teams that had existing charters, only Jordan’s 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports refused to sign the new contracts. Take it or leave it is how the antitrust lawsuit characterized NASCAR’s deal. What is a NASCAR charter? NASCAR instituted the charter system in 2016 after an agreement with the Race Team Alliance, a collection of all the individual race teams in the Cup Series. Charters were designed to provide teams with an increased business certainty and long-term stability. According to NASCAR, the agreement led to 36 charter teams with these key points:A charter guarantees entry (and therefore, a portion of the purse) into the field of every NASCAR Cup Series points race.Teams may sell their charters on the open market.Charter owners may transfer their charter to another team, for one full season, once over the first five years of the agreement.Charter teams are held to a minimum performance standard. If a charter team finishes in the bottom three of the owner standings among all 36 charter teams for three consecutive years, NASCAR has a right to remove the charter.Organizations now have a hard cap of four cars; there no longer is the ability to run a fifth car for rookie drivers.NASCAR Cup Series fields consist of 40 cars — a change made, from 43 cars previously, when the charter system was initially announced. That means 36 charter teams are guaranteed to make every points race, and four non-charter (or “open”) teams will complete the rest of the field. NASCAR minimizes potential damage By reaching a settlement, NASCAR eliminated the possibility of more than $1 billion in monetary damages. Edward Snyder, a professor of economics who worked in the antitrust division of the Department of Justice, testified that NASCAR owed 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports a combined $364.7 million in damages, according to the Associated Press. A verdict against NASCAR would have led those damages to be trebled to more than $1 billion, excluding legal fees. Orbach, the professor from Arizona, said injunctive relief imposed by the judge would have been an even bigger problem with NASCAR. “Once you have the injunction NASCAR cannot continue operating as it has been operating,’’ Orbach said. “So even without (monetary) damages, the injunctions themselves (would) likely to require NASCAR to transform its operations.’’ Although both sides disclosed there will be changes with charter agreements, NASCAR no longer is subject to the judge’s orders. Denny Hamlin, partners celebrate after settlement Hamlin took to his Instagram account Thursday, Dec. 11 following the settlement agreement with NASCAR, sharing a photo of 23XI Racing's owners and lawyers celebrating. The photo was posted on Hamlin's Instagram live story and captured by Associated Press reporter Jenna Fryer. When is the next NASCAR race? NASCAR is currently in its offseason after Kyle Larson won the 2025 Cup Series championship in early November, outdueling Hamlin in an overtime finish. Drivers and teams are enjoying a winter break before returning to action in February when they will hit the track Feb. 1 for the exhibition Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. From there it's on to Daytona Beach, Florida, as prepartions begin for the 68th annual Daytona 500. Daytona Speedweeks begin the week of Feb. 9, beginning with Daytona 500 pole qualifying on Wednesday, Feb. 11. The Duel at Daytona will take place Thursday, Dec. 12, followed by the 2026 Daytona 500 on Sunday, Feb. 15. ∎ Click here to view the the full 2026 NASCAR Cup Series schedule.

Business News/ Global / Fed Chair Jerome Powell says U.S. may be drastically overstating jobs numbers Matt Grossman , The Wall Street Journal , The Wall Street Journal Powell said that Fed staffers believe federal data could be overstating job creation by up to 60,000 jobs a month—which suggests the jobs market might be shrinking. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell speaks at the Federal Reserve, Gift this article Fed Chair Jerome Powell pointed on Wednesday to a job-market risk that economists have been worried about for months: Official statistics could be drastically overstating recent hiring. Fed Chair Jerome Powell pointed on Wednesday to a job-market risk that economists have been worried about for months: Official statistics could be drastically overstating recent hiring. Powell said that Fed staffers believe that federal data could be overestimating job creation by up to 60,000 jobs a month. Given that figures published so far show that the economy has added about 40,000 jobs a month since April, the real number could be something more like a loss of 20,000 jobs a month, Powell said. “We think there’s an overstatement in these numbers," Powell said in a press conference following the central bank’s two-day policy meeting. Published data already show the labor market has slowed significantly this year, down from rapid hiring after the Covid-19 pandemic. This slower pace means big data revisions can more easily reveal the economy is shedding jobs, not adding them. “It’s a complicated, unusual, and difficult situation, where the labor market is also under pressure, where job creation may actually be negative," Powell said. That concern provided some of the backing for the Fed’s decision to cut interest rates at a third straight meeting, Powell said—despite a labor market that still looks healthy on the surface, with unemployment at a relatively modest 4.4% in September and a net gain of 119,000 jobs that month. Next week, the Labor Department will report fresh jobs numbers for October and November, as well as possible revisions for previous months. Powell’s concern involves a quandary that the Labor Department faces when measuring hiring: how to judge the number of jobs added or destroyed when new businesses are created or close down. Those jobs can’t be surveyed directly because it’s difficult for the government to reach out to brand-new companies or companies no longer in business. Instead, Labor’s data arm, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, must use a statistical model to make a guess. In the past few years, that technique, called the birth-death model—referring to the births and deaths of businesses—has overstated job creation by hundreds of thousands of jobs a year, forcing significant downward revisions later. Last month, the BLS laid out a plan to change how it uses the birth-death model, which could make the real-time numbers more accurate starting in February. But for now, Powell suggested, the Fed is concerned that monthly employment stats have been too good to be true—part of the rationale for continuing to cut interest rates even though inflation remains above target. The difficulty with the birth-death model is just one among a handful of problems the BLS has faced in delivering accurate economic statistics on time, and is complicating the Fed’s job as it tries to steer an economy facing dual challenges of elevated inflation and rising unemployment. A falling number of timely responses to the labor surveys has increased the scale of a different set of monthly job-stats revisions, required after some companies hand in their payroll numbers late. A yearslong budget crunch and staffing shortages have also weighed on the agency’s capabilities. And, most recently, the extended government shutdown that ended in November set the agency’s work back by more than a month. The Labor Department’s struggles have spilled into politics, prompting President Trump to blame data problems on what he called efforts to manipulate figures for political ends. He fired the BLS’s commissioner, Erika McEntarfer, after sharp revisions in August ate into springtime jobs growth, leaving the agency in the hands of a nonpartisan career official who is serving as its acting leader. Write to Matt Grossman at [email protected] and Harriet Torry at [email protected] Topics You May Be Interested In Catch all the Business News, Market News, Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates.

Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year] Updated 11:30 AM PST, December 10, 2025 Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. The New York Times, attacked by President Donald Trump for reporting about his physical condition, said on Wednesday that it wouldn’t be deterred by “false and inflammatory language” that distorts the role of a free press. The president had posted on his Truth Social platform that he believed it was “seditious, perhaps even treasonous” for the Times and other media outlets to do “FAKE” reports on his health. “They are true Enemies of the People, and we should do something about it,” Trump wrote. The 79-year-old president wouldn’t specify, but the newspaper has posted a handful of reports about his health in recent weeks. In a Nov. 25 story headlined “Shorter Days, Signs of Fatigue: Trump Faces Realities of Aging in Office,” reporters examined Trump’s public and travel schedules to conclude Americans were seeing less of him than they were used to. A story on Dec. 2, accompanied by a video, said that Trump “appeared to be fighting sleep” during a Cabinet meeting that day. Trump says he hasn’t slowed down Columnist Frank Bruni discussed these reports in a Dec. 8 opinion piece headlined “Trump’s Approval Ratings Have Declined. So Has His Vigor.” Bruni wrote that Americans “might want to brace ourselves for some presidential deja vu. He’s starting to give President Joe Biden vibes.” Biden, who was in his early 80s, dropped out of the 2024 race for the White House after a disastrous debate with Trump that raised doubts about the then-incumbent’s fitness for office. Trump, in his post, said he was history’s hardest-working president with a lengthy list of accomplishments. He said he went out of his way to do “long, thorough and very boring” medical examinations, including three cognitive tests that he “ACED.” “The New York Times, and some others, like to pretend that I am ‘slowing up,’ and maybe not as sharp as I once was, or am in poor physical health, knowing that it is not true,” the Republican president said. The health of American presidents has long been a delicate and sometimes thorny issue between the White House and the press that covers it — from Grover Cleveland’s secret tumor surgery to Woodrow Wilson’s debilitating stroke to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s polio to Dwight D. Eisenhower’s heart attack. Trump has frequently critiqued the cognitive fitness of his predecessor, Biden. Trump has fought back against some reports Trump already has a $15 billion defamation lawsuit pending against the Times. In the suit, filed in September, Trump targeted four Times journalists about three articles that discussed his finances. He has also been involved in legal cases involving The Associated Press and CBS News, among others. Nicole Taylor, a spokeswoman for The New York Times, said the outlet’s reporting on Trump’s health is heavily sourced, based on interviews with people close to the president and with medical experts. “Americans deserve in-depth reporting and regular updates about the health of the leaders they elect,” Taylor said. “Mr. Trump welcomed our reporting on the age and fitness of his predecessors; we’re applying the same journalistic scrutiny to his vitality.” Taylor said that “we won’t be deterred by false and inflammatory language that distorts the role of a free press.” ___ David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.

BALTIMORE (AP) — A federal judge blocked U.S. immigration authorities on Friday from re-detaining Kilmar Abrego Garcia, saying she feared they might take him into custody again just hours after she had ordered his release from a detention center. The order came as Abrego Garcia appeared at a scheduled appointment at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office roughly 14 hours after he walked out of immigration detention facility in Pennsylvania. His lawyers had sent an urgent request to the judge, warning that ICE officials could immediately place him back into custody. Instead, Abrego Garcia exited the building after a short appointment, emerging to cheers from supporters who had gathered outside. Speaking briefly to the crowd, he urged others to “stand tall” against what he described as injustices carried out by the government. Abrego Garcia became a flashpoint of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown earlier this year when he was wrongly deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador. He was last taken into custody in August during a similar check-in. Officials cannot re-detain him until the court conducts a hearing on the motion for the temporary restraining order, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland said. She wrote that Abrego Garcia is likely to succeed on the merits of any further request for relief from ICE detention. “For the public to have any faith in the orderly administration of justice, the Court’s narrowly crafted remedy cannot be so quickly and easily upended without further briefing and consideration,” she wrote. Abrego Garcia on Friday stopped at a news conference outside the building, escorted by a group of supporters chanting “We are all Kilmar!” Abrego Garcia says he has ‘so much hope’ “I stand before you a free man and I want you to remember me this way, with my head held up high,” Abrego Garcia said through a translator. “I come here today with so much hope and I thank God who has been with me since the start with my family.” He urged people to keep fighting. After Abrego Garcia spoke, he went through security at the field office, escorted by supporters. When Abrego Garcia’s attorney, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, announced to the crowd assembled outside that his client would walk back out the field office’s doors again, he stressed that the legal fight was not over. “Yesterday’s order from Judge Xinis and now the temporary restraining order this morning represent a victory of law over power,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said. The agency freed him just before 5 p.m. on Thursday in response to a ruling from Xinis, who wrote federal authorities detained him after his return to the United States without any legal basis. Mistakenly deported and then returned Abrego Garcia is a Salvadoran citizen with an American wife and child who has lived in Maryland for years. He immigrated to the U.S. illegally as a teenager to join his brother, who had become a U.S. citizen. In 2019, an immigration judge granted him protection from being deported back to his home country, where he faces danger from a gang that targeted his family. While he was allowed to live and work in the U.S. under ICE supervision, he was not given residency status. Earlier this year, he was mistakenly deported and held in a notoriously brutal Salvadoran prison despite having no criminal record. Facing mounting public pressure and a court order, President Donald Trump’s Republican administration brought him back to the U.S. in June, but only after issuing an arrest warrant on human smuggling charges in Tennessee. He has pleaded not guilty to those charges and asked a federal judge there to dismiss them. A lawsuit to block removal from the US The 2019 settlement found he had a “well founded fear” of danger in El Salvador if he was deported there. So instead ICE has been seeking to deport him to a series of African countries. Abrego Garcia has sued, claiming the Trump administration is illegally using the removal process to punish him for the public embarrassment caused by his deportation. In her order releasing Abrego Garcia, Xinis wrote that federal authorities “did not just stonewall” the court, “They affirmatively misled the tribunal.” Xinis also rejected the government’s argument that she lacked jurisdiction to intervene on a final removal order for Abrego Garcia, because she found no final order had been filed. ICE freed Abrego Garcia from Moshannon Valley Processing Center, about 115 miles (185 kilometers) northeast of Pittsburgh, on Thursday just before the deadline Xinis gave the government to provide an update on Abrego Garcia’s release. He returned home to Maryland a few hours later. Immigration check-in Check-ins are how ICE keeps track of some people who are released by the government to pursue asylum or other immigration cases as they make their way through a backlogged court system. The appointments were once routine but many people have been detained at their check-ins since the start of Trump’s second term. The Department of Homeland Security sharply criticized Xinis’ order and vowed to appeal, calling the ruling “naked judicial activism” by a judge appointed during the Obama administration. “This order lacks any valid legal basis, and we will continue to fight this tooth and nail in the courts,” said Tricia McLaughlin, the department’s assistant secretary. Sandoval-Moshenberg said the judge made it clear that the government can’t detain someone indefinitely without legal authority. Abrego Garcia has also applied for asylum in the U.S. in immigration court.Charges in Tennessee Abrego Garcia was hit with human smuggling and conspiracy to commit human smuggling charges when the U.S. government brought him back from El Salvador. Prosecutors alleged he accepted money to transport within the United States people who were in the country illegally. The charges stem from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee for speeding. Body camera footage from a Tennessee Highway Patrol officer shows a calm exchange with Abrego Garcia. There were nine passengers in the car, and the officers discussed among themselves their suspicions of smuggling. However, Abrego Garcia was eventually allowed to continue driving with only a warning. A Department of Homeland Security agent testified at an earlier hearing that he did not begin investigating the traffic stop until after the U.S. Supreme Court said in April that the Trump administration must work to bring back Abrego Garcia. ___ Associated Press writer Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia contributed to this report.

The order creates a Justice Department task force to challenge state AI laws and directs the Commerce Department to pull future broadband funding from states that pass “onerous” legislation.

At least six people were transported to the hospital Thursday morning after a massive explosion caused a large fire in Hayward, fire officials say. HAYWARD, Calif. (KGO) -- A gas explosion set off a major fire in a Hayward neighborhood on Thursday after obliterating at least one home, blowing out windows and shaking nearby homes. Six people were taken to hospitals for injuries, fire officials said. The Alameda County Fire Department says crews were dispatched to the 800 block of East Lewelling Blvd. for reports of a natural gas leak. Firefighters arrived on scene at 7:50 a.m. and officials said they were cleared by PG&E crews at 7:55 a.m. Just a couple of hours later, at 9:38 a.m., firefighters were called back out to the same location after reports of an explosion and fire. Dramatic footage captured by a home's doorbell camera showed a large excavator being used to dig in front of the home that exploded as a worker stood nearby. Within moments, a massive explosion and flames blew out the walls and the roof of the home. People nearby appeared to be dazed for a few seconds, before running toward the home to search for any victims. Several workers lifted a large piece of debris from where it landed near the excavator. "We were sitting in the house and it just... everything shook. Stuff fell off the walls and when we looked at the camera, it was like you were watching a war video," Brittany Maldonado, who provided the doorbell cam footage, told ABC7 News. MORE: Witnesses describe seeing victims walk out of home after Hayward explosion: 'Blood all over' Two homes were impacted by the explosion and fire, and a workshop in the back of one of them. Another home has some damage on the side facing the explosion. The neighborhood is a mixed housing and business area right off Highway 238. Fire officials believe two of the six people injured were workers in the street. Hospital officials say all the victims were taken to Eden Medical Center, and three of six victims are in serious condition. PG&E, Cal/OSHA, NTSB and several other agencies have launched investigations following Thursday's explosion.Why weren't residents immediately evacuated? ABC7 News I-Team reporter Melanie Woodrow is investigating why first responders didn't evacuate people from the area upon arrival. She talked to a fire expert about what the standard protocol is in situations like this. ABC7 News I-Team reporter Melanie Woodrow is investigating why first responders didn't evacuate people from the area upon arrival. She talked to a fire expert about what the standard protocol is in situations like this. At 7:35 a.m., PG&E says it learned a 3rd party had struck an underground gas line and immediately dispatched crews. At 9:25 a.m., PG&E stopped the flow of gas. The explosion happened 10 minutes later. PG&E says "it's a process" to stop the flow of gas. "We did have to isolate the lines and the damaged lines," said PG&E spokesperson Tamar Sarkissian. Richard Meier is a fire and explosion investigator. We asked him for insight on how long it usually takes to turn off the gas. "To me, it's not reasonable; it's understandable why it takes them so long, but I don't think it is reasonable in that they could do a better job identifying the locations where their valves are, put them in more accessible places where they are easier to access," said Meier. Another big question: why didn't PG&E or first responders evacuate the area? "It is not something that we typically do; it is something that first responders usually do," said Sarkissian. But first responders pushed back on that. "When our crews showed up two hours prior, we did not smell gas, detect gas, or see any reason for an emergency, so we waited to speak to PG&E, and PG&E said they could handle the situation, so our crews released at that point," said Alameda County Fire Deputy Chief Ryan Nishimoto. "It is the responsibility of the gas company to evacuate people in the event of a known leak; they can't just push that off onto the fire department. What if no one had called the fire department and they're the only ones there?" said Meier. The Associated Press contributed to this article. Stay with ABC7 News for updates on this developing story. Copyright © 2025 KGO-TV. All Rights Reserved.

What does it say that the President doesn’t even feel he needs to hide his most profane and radical views anymore?

The Morning Sixpack Podcast: Power, Pressure, and Policies on the Edge

Democrats need to move right to win back voters in 2026 and 2028—that’s the conventional wisdom from a slew of Democratic think tanks and Beltway strategists. To make their case, they’ve released reports and polling trying to prove that voters are more moderate on many social and cultural issues—like trans athletes in school sports and immigration—than the party’s far-left activists. But an exhaustive new report, made available exclusively to The New Republic, makes a convincing counterargument. More importantly, it provides a road map for Democratic candidates that doesn’t require throwing vulnerable members of their coalition under the bus. 1/1 Skip Ad Continue watchingafter the adVisit Advertiser websiteGO TO PAGE The report comes from Way to Win, a left-leaning “strategic donor collaborative and strategy hub” founded after the 2016 election. The report, a compilation and analysis of the surveys and focus groups they’ve done since the 2024 election, looks not just at swing voters but the entire coalition, including those who voted for President Biden in 2020 and then sat out the 2024 election. This presents a fuller picture than analyses that simply conclude the electorate swung right last November. While some Biden 2020 voters did vote for Trump last year, a substantial number stayed home. This changed the composition of the electorate, and made it look more Republican than it really was. Those who sat it out in November are much more politically aligned with Democrats but weren’t motivated to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris and downballot Democrats. Determining what they want from future candidates tells a different story than centrists might hope. Way to Win pointed to three main problems that cost Democrats last year: Voters were upset not just about rising prices but about longer-term economic trends, and wanted change; Republicans and the far right have a built-in media advantage, thanks to years of investments, which made it harder for Democrats to break through; and movements on the left around issues like Gaza, racial and economic justice, and immigration weren’t aligned with the party. Fundamental to the report is an important corrective. While many observers have argued that Democrats lost last year because the party had moved too far left, Way to Win makes the case that voters don’t actually apply neatly defined ideological frames when they evaluate candidates’ policies and choose whom to vote for. Their decisions are more complex and filtered through their social, family, and work lives—a conclusion supported by much political science research. “When you go knock on doors, you hear all kinds of stories, but they almost never have to do with detailed policies or ideological framing,” the report says. This suggests a different path forward from moderating on some issues, like immigration, the environment, or trans rights. While it might be true that the party’s positions are to the left of the majority on some specific issues, there’s no evidence that those are the issues that drove most voters to make their decisions last November. It’s not that these issues don’t matter at all, but they aren’t decisive, and there’s room to persuade voters, as well. “When we actually talk to voters and listen to them, which we did over the course of this year, it’s that the other issues that we highlight in our report are just much bigger factors,” said Jenifer Fernandez Ancona, a co-founder and vice president of Way to Win. This was especially true of those who skipped voting in 2024. In the important Sunbelt states, these voters were 13 percent of the 2020 coalition, and a majority said they would have voted for Harris if they’d voted in 2024 rather than sitting out. These voters didn’t want Democrats to moderate. They wanted a stronger economic message and wanted Democrats to fight for them. But they often felt like they’d been supporting Democrats for years and hadn’t gotten results. In fact, moderating on some positions was more likely to reinforce Republican talking points and make Democrats seem weak, according to the report. “If we want to build a bigger coalition, it’s actually going to make it worse if we keep trying to look more like Republicans, or we keep trying to go in this triangulation direction,” Fernandez Ancona said. “It’s not that we’re not saying we need to move more left and be more socialist.… We’re really saying we need to actually go towards strength, which is what we define in the report as basically standing for what you believe in.” The perception of Democrats as weak was partly shaped by Republican attacks rather than Democratic messages themselves. As an example, voters surveyed by Way to Win said that Harris’s campaign was mostly concerned with trans issues. In reality, it wasn’t a big part of her campaign, Fernandez Ancona said. But trans issues played a starring role in ads from the opposition. Harris didn’t work to counter that impression—and her actual campaign messages didn’t break through, either. Voters didn’t hear her messages on the economy as much. They also want Democrats in general to talk more about the bigger issues facing the economy, like inequality. “One of the top performing policies or issues that were motivating for the skippers was strengthening enforcement against wealthy tax cheats and making the wealthy pay what they owe,” Fernandez Ancona said. “It’s making the case that the system is not working for a lot of people because of this inequality and this imbalance, and we have to make that more fair.” Too often, Democratic messages end up reinforcing the story that Republicans are telling, Way to Win says. The report pointed to the losing campaigns of Senators Sherrod Brown in Ohio and Jon Tester in Montana, who touted their support of conservative immigration policies. Instead, Democrats need to tell their own story when it comes to immigration, one that highlights the contributions immigrants make and argues that legal immigration should be easier. This report is in line with other work from researchers across the left showing that moderation doesn’t necessarily win Democrats more seats. G. Elliott Morris (a former colleague of mine from 538, the now-defunct political analysis site), published a post on his Substack analyzing moderate candidate performance when compared to candidates further to the left. “I estimate that strategic moderation in 2024 could have increased a Democrat’s vote share by 1-1.5 points and their chance of winning by just 10%—not enough to overcome the uncertainty driven by other factors in the election. This is not to say that moderation doesn’t matter, but lots of other factors matter more,” he wrote. And Anat Shenker-Osorio, a political strategist and messaging consultant, has made the same arguments. She says Democrats need to embrace “magnetism,” which is similar to the “strength” that Way to Win advocates: staking out forceful positions that risk pushing some voters away but are also much more likely to attract voters than simply taking whatever positions the polls suggest. These arguments are strengthened by the wins of Zohran Mamdani in New York City, Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey, and Abigail Spanberger in Virginia. Those candidates all had ideological differences, but they shared an approach to politics that was combative on behalf of their constituents, one that promised to tackle big issues like affordability and work hard to deliver without ceding ideological ground to Republicans. “They actually went after it head-on by standing up for their values and who they were,” said Fernandez Ancona. “The playbook going forward is, name it, call it out for what it is—because the voters also don’t like this fear and division. We hear that from them a lot. They’re tired of it.” This could also help motivate the Democratic base, which performs an important function: When grassroots movements and reliable voters align with the party, they help build excitement and spread the word on behalf of candidates. Granted, the havoc and wreckage of the second Trump administration is sufficiently motivating voters to come out for Democrats, as we saw in the November elections and this past Tuesday. That may well remain true in 2026 and 2028. But to win big and, more importantly, hold onto power, the Democrats need to work harder to build a party brand that answers voters’ real concerns and differentiates them from Republicans. That doesn’t mean behaving like a weather vane, turning in whichever direction the political winds blow. It means having the courage and strength to make your own weather.

A home is shown for sale in The Heights in Houston, Monday, Oct. 27, 2025. Home prices have finally come down compared with last year, though just fractionally, according to daily reads from Parcl Labs, which looks at high-frequency listing data on single-family homes, condos and townhomes, both new and existing. They may stay softer, though, as home prices are down 1.4% in just the last three months. On a national level, home prices have not gone negative since mid-2023, a year after the Federal Reserve first brought rates up from zero, and mortgage rates moved sharply higher. From March 2022 to June 2023, the average rate on the popular 30-year fixed mortgage went from 3.9% to just over 7%, according to Mortgage News Daily. But even then, prices were negative on a year-over-year basis for just a few months. It was nothing like the great financial crisis when home prices dropped 27% from their peak in 2006 to their trough in 2012, according to the S&P Case-Shiller National Home Price Index. “More recently we have seen a period of national softness emerging after the rapid run-up during the Covid years, 2020 to 2022,” said Jason Lewris, co-founder of Parcl Labs. “The sharp increase in mortgage rates in 2022 and 2023 created an affordability shock: buyers were priced out, sales volumes dropped, and sellers had to adjust expectations. Historically, that combination of a credit or affordability shock, weaker demand, and more inventory than the market can easily absorb is what tends to produce broad national price declines.” Inventory today is still historically low, but it has come off its near-record lows of recent years. Active listings in November were nearly 13% higher than November 2024, but new listings were just 1.7% higher, according to Realtor.com. Sellers are also pulling their homes off the market at an unusually high rate. Prices nationally are down less than 1%, but certain markets are seeing more significant drops: Prices in Austin, Texas, are down 10% from last year; in Denver, they’re down 5%, according to Parcl Labs. Tampa, Florida, and Houston both saw prices fall 4%, and Atlanta and Phoenix saw price decreases of 3%. There are also markets seeing gains: in Cleveland, prices gained 6%; Chicago and New York City both saw price increases of 5%; Philadelphia saw prices rise 3%; and Pittsburgh and Boston both saw 2% price gains, according to Parcl. CNBC’s Property Play with Diana Olick covers new and evolving opportunities for the real estate investor, delivered weekly to your inbox. Subscribe here to get access today. While other home price indexes and surveys measure just existing home values, this one measures both new and existing. There has been no government data on housing starts, building permits or sales of newly built homes since before the government shutdown started, so it’s difficult to paint any kind of supply picture in the price forecast. That said, builders reporting quarterly earnings have indicated that demand is still relatively weak and incentives are still necessary. Homebuilder sentiment is still well into negative territory. “We continue to see demand-side weakness as a softening labor market and stretched consumer finances are contributing to a difficult sales environment,” said Robert Dietz, NAHB’s chief economist, in a November release. “After a decline for single-family housing starts in 2025, NAHB is forecasting a slight gain in 2026 as builders continue to report future sales conditions in marginally positive territory.” Mortgage rates have not moved much in the last three months, and had very little reaction to the latest Federal Reserve rate cut Wednesday. Home prices, therefore, are unlikely to do much either. “Our base case from here is not a deep national downturn, but a period where prices hover around zero, with small positive or small negative year over year changes, rather than the double digit gains of the pandemic era,” said Lewris. “How far they move in either direction will depend mainly on mortgage rates and the broader health of the economy.”