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  • A new round of confusing economic data is muddying the picture

    A new round of confusing economic data is muddying the picture

    A barrage of post-shutdown data this week has left economists with more questions than answers about the state of the U.S. economy.

    Unemployment rose to a four-year high in November, inflation improved more than expected, and retail sales appeared surprisingly resilient in October — though economists say all of that is likely to be bogged down by low response rates, disruptions in data collection and other shutdown-related complications.

    The result: More confusion about an economy that’s already confounded policymakers, politicians, and business owners for much of the year.

    “We knew we’d have to take this data with a grain of salt; I just didn’t know we’d have to make it this salty,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at KPMG. “This week’s data really adds more confusion than clarity.”

    Employment data on Tuesday showed a decline of 41,000 jobs in October and November, while the unemployment rate inched up to 4.6%, offering a sobering picture of an already slowing labor market. Two days later, the Consumer Price Index came with more optimistic economic news: Inflation, it said, had cooled from 3% in September to 2.7% in November. But economists largely shrugged off both reports, saying they were unlikely to be reliable snapshots because the 43-day government shutdown had upended the way federal agencies gather data.

    The Labor Department’s monthly household survey, used to calculate the unemployment rate, was scrapped altogether for October. The data for November was far less reliable than usual, with a survey response rate of 64%, the lowest on record. (Two years ago, by comparison, 70% of households responded.) As a result, some said they weren’t putting much stock into the 4.6% unemployment rate. It’ll take a few more months of data, they said, to get a better read on the job market.

    “Yes, the unemployment rate rose, but I didn’t pay too much attention to it, to be honest,” said Kathy Bostjancic, chief economist at Nationwide. “The survey process was completely disrupted by the shutdown.”

    That was also the case for Thursday’s Consumer Price Index. Economists widely dismissed the figures, saying it was probably skewed lower by delays in data collection. Government officials didn’t begin tabulating prices until Nov. 14, when many items had already been marked down for Black Friday sales and other holiday promotions. More significantly, a third of the inflation index looks lower than it otherwise would because the government’s data appears to show no increase at all in rent and homeowners’ housing costs for October.

    “This inflation data was flawed, at best — and I think it would be inappropriate to be making policy or investment decisions based off the November report,” said Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM US. “We have definitely entered a season of noise in economic data that isn’t likely to clear until early spring.”

    A third government report this week, a delayed retail sales reading, showed that spending picked up at grocery stores, furniture shops, and online retailers in October but declined at restaurants, gas stations, and hardware stores. Economists, though, cautioned against reading too much into the findings, calling them “unusually noisy” because of the shutdown.

    Even data unaffected by the government closure did little to shed light on exactly what’s happening. A consumer sentiment reading from the University of Michigan on Friday showed Americans’ views on the economy inched up slightly in December but are down significantly from last year, with 63% saying they expect worsening unemployment in the coming year.

    Although the U.S. economy generally seems to be on stable footing, economists are concerned that weakness in the job market, worsening inflation, or a pullback in consumer spending could easily tip the scale toward recession.

    President Donald Trump has also recently shifted his focus back to the economy, kicking off an “affordability tour” and addressing the nation in a prime time address this week, saying he is “bringing those high prices down and bringing them down very fast.” He was expected to speak about the economy again Friday evening in North Carolina.

    The next snapshot of the economy comes Tuesday, with a Gross Domestic Product report that is expected to show another three months of brisk growth between August and October.

    The lack of clarity is a particular challenge for the Federal Reserve, which is looking to the job market and inflation for clues on whether it should continue lowering interest rates early next year. Fed Chair Jerome H. Powell last week cautioned that upcoming economic reports should be viewed with a “skeptical eye” because they “may be distorted by very technical factors.”

    “We’re going to get data, but we’re going to have to look at it carefully and with a somewhat skeptical eye,” he said at a news conference this month.

  • In tribute to late wife, husband rebuilds her snowman village at Kansas mall

    In tribute to late wife, husband rebuilds her snowman village at Kansas mall

    The hundreds of snowman figurines on display at a Kansas mall might look alike, but each was important to Kathy Allen Duncan.

    Some are skiing, others are caroling in front of houses or lounging in the snow made from cotton. A handful are using the bathroom.

    For five decades, Kathy created detailed snowman displays in her home with the roughly 1,000 figurines she collected. But the tradition was in peril when Kathy, 73, died in September of complications from diabetes.

    Kathy created a snowman display each year in her home over five decades.

    Her husband, R.E. “Tuck” Duncan, looked back at photos of Kathy’s displays before her funeral. He recalled thinking, “We need to build one more, one last one.” He wanted to share it not just with his family, but also with all of Topeka, Kan.

    Tuck, 74, rented a vacant store at a local shopping mall where he and other family members created an exhibit showing hundreds of Kathy’s snowmen — which she called “snowpeople” — enjoying the winter. There’s a banner that reads: “KATHY ALLEN DUNCAN’S SNOWPEOPLE VILLAGE.” Another poster shows Kathy’s obituary.

    Kathy’s family said their goal was to spread joy — something they said Kathy did daily — to as many people as possible. They exceeded their expectations.

    Thousands of people have visited the free exhibit, Tuck told the Washington Post. More than 1 million people have seen photos of it on social media, where one user wrote:

    “Guys I’m sobbing a local woman passed away in September and her husband/family rented a whole store at the mall to show off her Christmas decorations nothing is for sale it’s literally just so everyone can see it and it’s so beautiful I love.”

    Kathy took decorating seriously as a way to express love for the people she cared for, said Joro Martin, who was raised by Kathy and Tuck after he said he left a troubled household.

    “Mom was a safe space for so many people, and what is created there is a safe space to share,” Martin said about the mall exhibit.

    Kathy and Joro Martin, whom she helped raise, in the early 1990s.

    Kathy built her first snowman display on a card table in a one-bedroom apartment in December 1974, shortly after she and Tuck got married. There were only a handful of figurines — she had picked up the hobby of collecting them from her grandmother — and she hoped they would bring smiles to visitors.

    Kathy collected more snowman figurines over the years from antique booths, craft shows, flea markets, and Hallmark stores.

    Kathy’s snowman figurines displayed at the mall.

    There’s a wax candle shaped like a snowman — one of Kathy’s oldest figurines — which has faded paint. There’s one with glasses that Kathy joked was the snowman version of Tuck, an attorney, so the figurine always stood outside a law office in her displays.

    Some are dressed as firefighters, nurses, police officers, chefs, and musicians. Others wear crimson-and-blue clothes to match the colors of her alma mater, the University of Kansas.

    They are built from a wide range of materials, including yarn, plastic, ceramic, cotton, and wood.

    Tessa Olorunfemi, Kathy’s granddaughter, with her 2008 snowman display.

    Kathy started building the display each year after Thanksgiving and finished around Christmas Eve, when the family ate dinner off snowman-themed tableware. She started the display by covering the table with cotton and sprinkling artificial snow on top, then she placed shelves in the back to resemble mountains.

    The displays moved from the roughly 34-by-34-inch card table to a 3-by-6-foot table to two adjoining 3-by-6-foot tables.

    Kathy changed the setting each year. She created rural towns with recreational vehicles, cities with clustered buildings, and ice skating rinks with bridges. One year — even though Kathy pointed out that snowmen can’t survive warm weather — she let their youngest son, Ryan Duncan, build a beach.

    Kathy’s snowman display in 2021.

    Outside the holidays, Kathy and Tuck initially rented a storage unit for the figurines. For the past two decades, snowmen filled half of their garage. But that didn’t mean the snowman decorations were absent in the condo: Kathy had a four-foot-tall metal snowman in the atrium that waved year-round.

    “I can’t remember a Christmas, a holiday — shoot, I can’t remember a July — without something with snowmans in it,” Ryan said.

    About a month after Kathy died, Tuck rented the second-floor space in Topeka’s West Ridge Mall near a Petland and a Spencer’s store. Tuck hired movers to transport 60 plastic boxes of snowman figurines there.

    From left, R.E. “Tuck” Duncan, Martin, and Kathy.

    Tuck and his family placed plywood, a foam board, buffalo cotton, and white and blue sparkles atop a 8-by-16-foot table.

    At the front of the display, they set up a water tower with a snowman head serving as the tank. There’s a lake made of foil. Houses and trees are scattered throughout. Some small pieces of cotton even represent snowman poop.

    The family finished the display and opened the room Nov. 25. Local news WIBW-TV covered the story.

    A Christmas tree with snowman-themed ornaments in the room at the mall in Kathy’s honor.

    There’s a Christmas tree by the front window that holds about 50 snowman ornaments and eight tables on the edges of the room displaying more figurines and snowman-themed items like calendars and quilts.

    “The snow people you see throughout this village and around the room were lovingly collected by Kathy Allen Duncan over the past fifty years,” a poster in the room reads. “In her honor, the Duncan and Allen families have gathered them here with the same care and affection, celebrating the joy they brought to her life.”

    The project cost about $15,000, Tuck said, “and it’s worth every penny.” Many people are learning about his wife, who he said fed peanuts and corn to wild squirrels and who, even in her final days, was still asking about the well-being of others.

    Kathy’s family members wrote a note to welcome visitors to the exhibit.

    A family member opens the mall room every morning and closes it at night. While the exhibit evokes memories that make Tuck emotional — like remembering his 5-foot tall wife trying to grab boxes of snowman figurines from the top of the garage — Tuck said talking about Kathy with visitors has been cathartic.

    More of Kathy’s snowman figurines at the mall.

    He has an ornament on his Christmas tree that says, “Those we love don’t go away, they walk beside us everyday.”

    The display will close on Christmas Eve. Afterward, family members — including the couple’s oldest son Spencer, the mayor-elect of Topeka — will take the snowmen back to their homes. Then, the whole family plans to build their own small snowman displays in Kathy’s memory.

  • A ‘recession’ is arriving for people who want jobs in technology

    A ‘recession’ is arriving for people who want jobs in technology

    Newly released jobs market data paints a murky picture ahead for the tech industry, which continues to slash workers.

    The unemployment rate for tech jobs has been steadily rising since May, ticking up to 4% in November, according to an analysis by CompTIA, a company that offers IT training and certifications. Between October and November, the number of technology workers across different industries fell 134,000, while the number of people working in the tech industry declined by more than 6,800. Tech job postings were also down by more than 31,800, the report found, citing data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and California-based market intelligence firm Lightcast.

    “The data is pretty definitive that the tech industry is struggling,” said Mark Zandi, Moody’s chief economist. “There’s a jobs recession in the industry, and it feels like that’s going to continue given the slide in postings.”

    Over the last year, the tech industry has been reshaping itself amid economic uncertainty, reorganization around artificial intelligence, and a push to become more cost-efficient. Big Tech companies including Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft cut thousands of workers while raking in soaring revenue and making big investments in AI. Economists said the new data signals headwinds ahead even as some tech companies continue to hire, especially for AI roles.

    “For the longest time, tech was the tailwind to jobs and the broader job market,” Zandi said, adding that it’s been a source of high-paying jobs. “That tailwind has now turned into a headwind, and that headwind feels like it may just blow harder going forward.”

    The U.S. economic outlook has continued to be uncertain, with the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates earlier this month for the third time this year, citing a softening labor market. The unemployment rate in the tech industry still sits below the national rate, which in November hit 4.6%, the highest since 2021. However, that gap has been narrowing, with tech unemployment rising faster in recent months than is the case nationally.

    In the tech industry, jobs for software, cybersecurity, and web development consultants have been among the roles to get axed, according to CompTIA. This is likely because companies are spending less on tech projects, and there’s been a pullback in government contracts and the ability to sell services overseas, said Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA.

    Herbert said companies struggling from a slowing economy might put tech consulting on hold, which could serve as an insight into companies in other industries. “In some cases, it can be a bellwether on how other types of companies are performing when they stop hiring tech consulting services.”

    Employers are largely in “wait and see” mode when it comes to hiring given the current uncertainties surrounding the economy and impact of AI, so they’re likely to delay backfilling, Herbert said citing CompTIA’s surveys of chief information officers. But Justin Wolfers, professor of public policy and economics at the University of Michigan, said uncertainty is likely to continue in the foreseeable future.

    “I’m feeling substantially more pessimistic,” Wolfers said, recalling that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell recently suggested that federal job numbers may be overstated. “That’s pretty grim.”

    Technology companies have announced more than 141,000 job cuts so far this year, representing a 17% increase from the same period last year, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. At the same time Big Tech companies like Google, Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon have announced plans to invest up to $375 billion in AI infrastructure this year.

    Though job postings declined in November, companies continued to hire, with high demand for workers in engineering and tech support. And AI is quickly becoming a requirement, with 41% of all active job postings representing AI roles or requiring AI skills, according to CompTIA’s analysis.

    “If you have AI skills, there seems to be jobs,” Zandi said about the employment market. “But if you don’t, I think it’s going to feel like you’ve been hit by a dump truck.”

    Herbert cautioned that it will be important to watch how the job numbers change over the next several months, as one month’s data may not provide a full picture.

    AI will likely have a different impact depending on the sectors and jobs, Wolfers said. Coders and translators, for example, may feel the squeeze much sooner than other professions, he noted.

  • Maxey, Edgecombe help the 76ers hand the Knicks their second home loss of the season

    Maxey, Edgecombe help the 76ers hand the Knicks their second home loss of the season

    NEW YORK — Tyrese Maxey scored 30 points, VJ Edgecombe had 23 and the 76ers became just the second visiting team to win at Madison Square Garden this season, beating the New York Knicks 116-107 on Friday night.

    Andre Drummond, starting with Joel Embiid out because of an illness and right knee injury management, had 19 points and 13 rebounds. The center was 3 for 4 from 3-point range.

    The 76ers snapped the Knicks’ six-game winning streak by outscoring them 28-20 in the fourth quarter, when Maxey scored 11 points and Jalen Brunson missed all five of his shots and was scoreless.

    Brunson finished with 22 points, nine assists and six rebounds, but shot 7 for 22 a night after making the go-ahead 3-pointer with 4.4 seconds left in a victory at Indiana. Karl-Anthony Towns also scored 22 points and grabbed 11 rebounds.

    In their first home game since winning the NBA Cup on Tuesday, the Knicks fell to 13-2 at home. They had been off to their best start at MSG since 1992-93.

    They celebrated the Cup title before the game, though they have chosen not to hang a banner to commemorate it, as previous champions the Lakers and Bucks did.

    The Knicks wasted Mitchell Robinson’s best game of the season. The center had season highs of 21 points and 16 rebounds and was a stunning 7 for 8 at the free-throw line after he came into the game 6 for 27 (22.2%) for the season.

    Mikal Bridges also scored 21 points.

    Maxey and Edgecombe combined for 18 points in the fourth quarter after the 76ers led by one going into the period. The Knicks were 1 for 8 on 3s in the quarter.

  • U.S. military launches strikes in Syria against Islamic State fighters after American deaths

    U.S. military launches strikes in Syria against Islamic State fighters after American deaths

    WASHINGTON — The Trump administration launched military strikes Friday in Syria to “eliminate” Islamic State group fighters and weapons sites in retaliation for an ambush attack that killed two U.S. troops and an American interpreter almost a week ago.

    A U.S. official described it as “a large-scale” strike that hit 70 targets in areas across central Syria that had IS infrastructure and weapons. Another U.S. official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive operations, said more strikes should be expected.

    The attack was conducted using F-15 Eagle jets, A-10 Thunderbolt ground attack aircraft, and AH-64 Apache helicopters, the officials said. F-16 fighter jets from Jordan and HIMARS rocket artillery also were used, one official said.

    “This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance. The United States of America, under President Trump’s leadership, will never hesitate and never relent to defend our people,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on social media.

    President Donald Trump had pledged “very serious retaliation” after the shooting in the Syrian desert, for which he blamed IS. The troops were among hundreds of U.S. troops deployed in eastern Syria as part of a coalition fighting the terrorist group.

    Trump in a social media post said the strikes were targeting IS “strongholds.” He reiterated his support for Syrian President Ahmad Al-Sharaa, who he said was “fully in support” of the U.S. effort to target the militant group.

    Trump also offered an all-caps threat, warning the group against attacking U.S. personnel again.

    “All terrorists who are evil enough to attack Americans are hereby warned — YOU WILL BE HIT HARDER THAN YOU HAVE EVER BEEN HIT BEFORE IF YOU, IN ANY WAY, ATTACK OR THREATEN THE U.S.A.,” the president added.

    The attack was a major test for the warming ties between the United States and Syria since the ouster of autocratic leader Bashar Assad a year ago. Trump has stressed that Syria was fighting alongside U.S. troops and said al-Sharaa was “extremely angry and disturbed by this attack,” which came as the U.S. military is expanding its cooperation with Syrian security forces.

    Syria’s foreign ministry in a statement on X following the launch of U.S. strikes said that last week’s attack “underscores the urgent necessity of strengthening international cooperation to combat terrorism in all its forms” and that Syria is committed “to fighting ISIS and ensuring that it has no safe havens on Syrian territory and will continue to intensify military operations against it wherever it poses a threat.”

    IS has not claimed responsibility for the attack on the U.S. service members, but the group has claimed responsibility for two attacks on Syrian security forces since, one of which killed four Syrian soldiers in Idlib province. The group in its statements described al-Sharaa’s government and army as “apostates.” While al-Sharaa once led a group affiliated with al-Qaida, he has had a long-running enmity with IS.

    Syrian state television reported that the U.S. strikes hit targets in rural areas of Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa provinces and in the Jabal al-Amour area near Palmyra. It said they targeted “weapons storage sites and headquarters used by ISIS as launching points for its operations in the region.”

    Trump this week met privately with the families of the slain Americans at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware before he joined top military officials and other dignitaries on the tarmac for the dignified transfer, a solemn and largely silent ritual honoring U.S. service members killed in action.

    The guardsmen killed in Syria last Saturday were Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, 25, of Des Moines, and Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard, 29, of Marshalltown, according to the U.S. Army. Ayad Mansoor Sakat, of Macomb, Mich., a U.S. civilian working as an interpreter, was also killed.

    The shooting nearly a week ago near the historic city of Palmyra also wounded three other U.S. troops as well as members of Syria’s security forces, and the gunman was killed. The assailant had joined Syria’s internal security forces as a base security guard two months ago and recently was reassigned because of suspicions that he might be affiliated with IS, Interior Ministry spokesperson Nour al-Din al-Baba has said.

    The man stormed a meeting between U.S. and Syrian security officials who were having lunch together and opened fire after clashing with Syrian guards.

    When asked for further information, the Pentagon referred AP to Hegseth’s social media post.

  • Rep. Elise Stefanik says she’s suspending her campaign for New York governor, won’t seek reelection

    Rep. Elise Stefanik says she’s suspending her campaign for New York governor, won’t seek reelection

    ALBANY, N.Y. — Rep. Elise Stefanik announced Friday that she is suspending her campaign for New York governor and will not seek reelection to Congress, bowing out of the race in a surprise statement that said “it is not an effective use of our time” to stay in what was expected to be a bruising Republican primary.

    Stefanik, a Republican ally of President Donald Trump, said in a post on X that she was confident of her chances in the primary against Bruce Blakeman, a Republican county official in New York City’s suburbs. But she said she wanted to spend more time with her young son and family.

    “I have thought deeply about this and I know that as a mother, I will feel profound regret if I don’t further focus on my young son’s safety, growth, and happiness — particularly at his tender age,” she said.

    Stefanik has been an intense critic of incumbent Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, who is also seeking reelection but faces a primary challenge from her own lieutenant governor, Antonio Delgado.

    The announcement marks an abrupt end, at least for now, for a once-promising career for Stefanik. She was the youngest woman ever elected to Congress when she won her first campaign in 2014 at just 30 years old, representing a new generation of Republicans making inroads in Washington. She ultimately rose to her party’s leadership in the House when she became the chair of the House Republican Conference in 2021.

    First viewed as a moderate when she came to Washington, Stefanik became far more conservative as Trump began to dominate the party. Once someone who refused to say Trump’s name, she became one of his top defenders during his first impeachment inquiry. She would go on to vote against certifying the 2020 election results, even after a violent mob stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6.

    Stefanik was expected to have a bitter Republican primary against Blakeman, who also counts himself as an ally of Trump. The president had so far seemed keen on avoiding picking a side in the race, telling reporters recently: “He’s great, and she’s great. They’re both great people.”

    Stefanik’s decision follows a clash with Speaker Mike Johnson, whom she accused of lying before embarking on a series of media interviews criticizing him. In one with The Wall Street Journal, she called Johnson a “political novice” and said he wouldn’t be reelected speaker if the vote were held today.

    The tumultuous early December episode appeared to cool when Johnson said he and Stefanik had a “great talk.”

    “I called her and I said, ‘Why wouldn’t you just come to me, you know?’” Johnson said. “So we had some intense fellowship about that.”

    Still, Stefanik, the chairwoman of the House Republican leadership, has not fully walked back her criticisms. A Dec. 2 social media post remains online in which, after a provision she championed was omitted from a defense authorization bill, Stefanik accused Johnson of falsely claiming he was unaware of it, calling it “more lies from the Speaker.”

    State Republican Chairman Ed Cox said the party respected Stefanik’s decision and thanked her for her efforts.

    “Bruce Blakeman has my endorsement and I urge our State Committee and party leaders to join me,” Cox said in a prepared statement. “Bruce is a fighter who has proven he knows how to win in difficult political terrain.”

  • Justice Department releases limited set of files tied to Epstein sex trafficking investigation

    Justice Department releases limited set of files tied to Epstein sex trafficking investigation

    WASHINGTON — The Justice Department released thousands of files Friday about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein but the incomplete document dump did not break significant ground about the long-running criminal investigations of the financier or his ties to wealthy and powerful individuals.

    The files included a small number of photos of President Donald Trump, sparing the White House for now from having to confront fresh revelations about an Epstein relationship that the administration for months has tried in vain to push past.

    It did, however, feature a series of never-before-seen photos of Bill Clinton from a trip that the former president appears to have take with Epstein decades ago.

    Reaction to the disclosures broke along mostly partisan lines. Democrats and some Republicans seized on the limited release to accuse the Justice Department of failing to meet a congressionally set deadline to produce the Epstein files. White House officials on social media gleefully promoted a photo of Clinton in a hot tub with a person with a blacked-out face. The Trump administration touted the release as a show of its commitment to transparency, ignoring the fact that the Justice Department just months ago said no more files would be released. Congress then passed a law mandating it.

    The records, consisting largely of pictures but also including call logs, grand jury testimony, interview transcripts, and other documents, arrived amid extraordinary anticipation that they might offer the most detailed look yet at nearly two decades worth of government scrutiny of Epstein’s sexual abuse of young women and underage girls. Their release has long been demanded by a public hungry to learn whether any of Epstein’s associates knew about or participated in the abuse. Epstein’s accusers have also sought answers about why federal authorities shut down their initial investigation into the allegations in 2008.

    Yet the release, replete with redactions. seemed unlikely to satisfy the public clamor for information given how many investigative records the department indicated it was continuing to withhold.

    In a letter to Congress obtained by The Associated Press, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche wrote that the Justice Department was continuing to review files in its possession and expected additional disclosures by the end of the year. The department also said it was withholding some documents under exemptions allowed in the law and was redacting names of victims. The department expects to complete its document production by the end of the year, Blanche said.

    Bowing to political pressure from fellow Republicans, Trump on Nov. 19 signed a bill giving the Justice Department 30 days to release most of its files and communications related to Epstein, including information about the investigation into his death in a federal jail. The law’s passage, which set a deadline for Friday, was a remarkable display of bipartisanship that overcame months of opposition from Trump and Republican leadership.

    Limited details about Trump

    The released files include a small number of photos of Trump, which appear to have been known for decades, including two in which Trump and Epstein are posing with now-first lady Melania Trump in February 2000 at an event at Trump’s Palm Beach club, Mar-a-Lago, before the pair’s friendship ruptured.

    Trump was friends with Epstein for years before the two had a falling-out. Neither he nor Clinton has ever been accused of wrongdoing in connection with Epstein, and the mere inclusion of someone’s name in files from the investigation does not imply otherwise.

    Attorney General Pam Bondi said last month that she had ordered a top federal prosecutor to investigate Epstein’s ties to Trump’s political foes, including Clinton. Bondi acted after Trump pressed for such an inquiry, though he did not explain what supposed crimes he wanted the Justice Department to investigate.

    In July, Trump dismissed some of his own supporters as “weaklings” for falling for “the Jeffrey Epstein hoax.” But both Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) failed to prevent the legislation from coming to a vote.

    Trump did a U-turn on the files once it became clear that congressional action was inevitable. He insisted that the Epstein matter had become a distraction to the Republican agenda and that releasing the records was the best way to move on.

    After nearly two decades of court action and prying by reporters, a voluminous number of records related to Epstein had already been public well before Froday, including flight logs, address books, email correspondence, police reports, grand jury records, courtroom testimony, and transcripts of depositions of his accusers, his staffers and others.

    New photos of Clinton

    Senior Trump White House aides took to X to promote photos in the Epstein files that show Clinton with women whose faces are redacted.

    Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, wrote “Oh my!” and added a shocked face emoji in response to a photo of Clinton in a hot tub with a woman whose face was redacted.

    “They can release as many grainy 20-plus-year-old photos as they want, but this isn’t about Bill Clinton,” Clinton spokesman Angel Ureña said in a statement.

    “There are two types of people here,” he said. “The first group knew nothing and cut Epstein off before his crimes came to light. The second group continued relationships after that. We’re in the first. No amount of stalling by people in the second group will change that.”

    The Epstein investigations

    Police in Palm Beach, Fla., began investigating Epstein in 2005 after the family of a 14-year-old girl reported she had been molested at his mansion. The FBI joined the investigation, and authorities gathered testimony from multiple underage girls who said they had been hired to give Epstein sexual massages.

    Ultimately, though, prosecutors gave Epstein a deal that allowed him to avoid federal prosecution. He pleaded guilty to state prostitution charges involving someone under age 18 and was sentenced to 18 months in jail.

    Epstein’s accusers then spent years in civil litigation trying to get that plea deal set aside. One of those women, Virginia Giuffre, accused Epstein of arranging for her to have sexual encounters, starting at age 17, with numerous other men, including billionaires, famous academics, U.S. politicians, and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, then known as Britain’s Prince Andrew. Mountbatten-Windsor denied ever having sex with Giuffre, but King Charles III stripped him of his royal titles this year after Giuffre’s memoir was published after she died.

    Prosecutors never brought charges in connection with Giuffre’s claims, but her account fueled conspiracy theories about supposed government plots to protect the powerful. Giuffre died by suicide at her farm in Western Australia in April at age 41.

    Federal prosecutors in New York brought new sex trafficking charges against Epstein in 2019, but he killed himself in jail a month after his arrest. Prosecutors then charged Epstein’s longtime confidant, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, with recruiting underage girls for Epstein to abuse.

    Maxwell was convicted in late 2021 and is serving a 20-year prison sentence, though she was moved from a low-security federal prison in Florida to a minimum-security prison camp in Texas after she was interviewed over the summer by Blanche. Her lawyers argued that she never should have been tried or convicted.

    The Justice Department in July said it had not found any information that could support prosecuting anyone else.

  • Rubio is hopeful about Russia-Ukraine and Gaza peace efforts but clear about the challenges

    WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Marco Rubio was hopeful but clear about the challenges facing the Trump administration’s Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas peace efforts and defended increasing U.S. military pressure on Venezuela during a marathon end-of-year news conference Friday.

    In a freewheeling exchange with reporters running more than two hours, Rubio offered no predictions for timing or success on any of those three issues. He also said he was proud of President Donald Trump’s radical overhaul in foreign assistance and that the administration was working to reach a humanitarian ceasefire in Sudan in time for the new year.

    Rubio’s rare and lengthy appearance in the State Department briefing room came as key meetings on Gaza and Russia-Ukraine are being held in Miami on Friday and Saturday after a tumultuous year in U.S. foreign policy. Rubio has assumed the additional role of national security adviser and emerged as a staunch defender of Trump’s “America First” priorities on issues ranging from visa restrictions to a shakeup of the State Department bureaucracy.

    Talks on Ukraine and Gaza are planned

    Rubio spoke about peace efforts as national security officials from Britain, France, and Germany were taking part in talks in Florida with Ukraine’s lead negotiator, Rustem Umerov, and envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to discuss the latest iteration of Trump’s Ukraine-Russia peace proposal.

    A White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said Witkoff and Kushner, who is Trump’s son-in-law, also would see Egyptian, Turkish, and Qatari officials Friday for talks on how to get to the next phase of Trump’s plan to end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

    Progress on Trump’s Gaza ceasefire plan has moved slowly since it was announced in October. U.S. officials have been pushing to get the plan implemented by setting up a “Board of Peace” that would oversee the territory after two years of war and create an international stabilization force that would police the area.

    “I think we owe them a few more answers before we get there,” Rubio said when asked about contributions to the stabilization force. After establishing the Board of Peace and a Palestinian technocratic group to govern Gaza, “that will allow us to firm up the stabilization force, including how it’s going to be paid for, what the rules of engagement are, what their role will be in demilitarization.”

    In a whirlwind of diplomacy, Witkoff and Kushner are also set to meet Saturday with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s adviser Kirill Dmitriev in Miami, officials said. Rubio, who will be at his home in Florida for the holidays, said he would probably attend the meeting.

    But he said there would be no peace deal unless both Ukraine and Russia can agree to the terms, making it impossible for the U.S. to force a deal on anyone. Instead, the U.S. is trying to “figure out if we can nudge both sides to a common place.”

    “We understand that you’re not going to have a deal unless both sides have to give, and both sides have to get,” Rubio said. “Both sides will have to make concessions if you’re going to have a deal. You may not have a deal. We may not have a deal. It’s unfortunate.”

    The U.S. proposal has been through numerous versions with Trump seesawing back and forth between offering support and encouragement for Ukraine and then seemingly sympathizing with Putin’s hard-line stances by pushing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to agree to territorial concessions. Kyiv has rejected that concession in return for security guarantees intended to protect Ukraine from future Russian incursions.

    Rubio defends U.S. policy toward Venezuela

    On Venezuela, Rubio has been a leading proponent of military operations against suspected drug-running vessels targeted in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean since early September. The actions have ramped up pressure on leftist Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who has been charged with narcoterrorism in the U.S.

    Rubio defended Trump’s prerogatives on Venezuela and said the administration believes “nothing has happened that requires us to notify Congress or get congressional approval or cross the threshold into war.” He added, “We have very strong legal opinions.”

    In an NBC News interview Friday, Trump would not rule out a war with Venezuela. Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have publicly maintained that the current operations are directed at “narcoterrorists” trying to smuggle deadly drugs into the United States. Maduro has insisted the real purpose is to force him from office.

    Rubio sidestepped a direct question about whether the U.S. wants “regime change in 2026” in the South American country.

    “We have a regime that’s illegitimate, that cooperates with Iran, that cooperates with Hezbollah, that cooperates with narcotrafficking and narcoterrorist organizations,” Rubio said, “including not just protecting their shipments and allowing them to operate with impunity, but also allows some of them to control territory.”

    Other peacemaking efforts at risk

    Trump has spoken of wanting to be remembered as a “peacemaker,” but ceasefires his administration helped craft are already in trouble due to renewed military action between Cambodia and Thailand as well as Rwanda and Congo. Rubio, however, said those deals created a list of commitments that can now be used to push the parties back to peace.

    “Those commitments today are not being kept,” Rubio said of the Thailand-Cambodia conflict, which now threatens to reignite following Thai airstrikes. “The work now is to bring them back to the table.”

    In a departure from his predecessors who often limited questions to just four, Rubio responded to queries, including a handful in Spanish, from nearly every reporter seated in the 59-seat briefing room, which has not been used since the State Department ended its twice-weekly press briefings in August.

    Since taking over the department, Rubio has moved swiftly to implement Trump’s “America First” agenda, helping dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development and reducing the size of the diplomatic corps through a significant reorganization. Previous administrations have distributed billions of dollars in foreign assistance over the past five decades through USAID.

    Critics have said the decision to eliminate USAID and slash foreign aid spending has cost lives overseas, although Rubio and others have denied this, pointing to ongoing disaster relief operations in the Philippines, the Caribbean and elsewhere, along with new global health compacts being signed with countries that previously had programs run by USAID.

    “We have a limited amount of money that can be dedicated to foreign aid and humanitarian assistance,” Rubio said. “And that has to be applied in a way that furthers our national interest.”

  • Kennedy Center adds Trump’s name to building

    Kennedy Center adds Trump’s name to building

    The Kennedy Center began updating signage on the exterior of the building Friday morning, a day after its board voted to rename the institution “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.”

    A blue tarp was stretched across a portion of the building as a small team on scaffolding started the work. Loud drilling could be heard nearby. Inside the building, large letters spelling “Trump” could be seen on the floor of the entry hall, according to a photograph obtained by the Washington Post. Signage elsewhere around the exterior of the institution remained unchanged.

    Thursday’s vote by the board of trustees marked a dramatic change to a building established as a “living memorial” to a slain president. The announcement drew swift condemnation from Kennedy family members and Democratic leaders, who called it illegal and said only Congress could change the center’s name.

    For months, Trump had repeatedly joked about the name change, including at the Kennedy Center Honors earlier this month. The center has seen a year of upheaval since Trump overhauled the institution in February, sparking a wave of firings and resignations. Ticket sales have fallen sharply, according to an October analysis by The Post, and many artists have said they will no longer perform there. The new leadership has boasted of hefty fundraising tallies and has begun to ramp up bookings for Christian and right-wing events.

    “The Trump Kennedy Center shows a bipartisan commitment to the Arts,” Kennedy Center President Richard Grenell wrote Thursday on X. Officials did not cite an authority for the board’s ability to change the institution’s name.

    The current board consists of loyalists to Trump following a purge of trustees appointed by former President Joe Biden. They met Thursday in Palm Beach, Florida.

    This is not the only building to which Trump’s name has been added in recent weeks in Washington. Earlier this month, his administration renamed the building that houses the U.S. Institute of Peace downtown, emblazoning “Donald J. Trump” in several areas of the structure.

    “Boy, that is beautiful,” Trump said at the time, thanking Secretary of State Marco Rubio for putting his name on the building.

  • Hunger monitor says Gaza is still seeing acute malnutrition but not famine

    Hunger monitor says Gaza is still seeing acute malnutrition but not famine

    JERUSALEM — The Gaza Strip is no longer facing famine in any of its regions after humanitarian and commercial food deliveries surged following an October ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, but more than three-quarters of the population, or 1.6 million people, still experience acute food insecurity and malnutrition, the global authority on hunger said Friday.

    The report from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) was the first to be published since the international group of experts declared in August that the Gaza City region was experiencing “man-made” famine as a result of two years of war, displacement, and harsh Israeli restrictions on food and other aid. Although the IPC had projected that by September, more than 600,000 people would experience Phase 5, or “catastrophic” levels of starvation and malnutrition, that figure dropped to 100,000 by the end of November after Israel began loosening the flow of aid as part of an Oct. 10 ceasefire agreement brokered by the United States, according to the latest report.

    Israel has come under intense international criticism this year for choking the flow of humanitarian aid, which Israeli officials said was being stolen by Hamas fighters and resold, prolonging the conflict. In a statement Friday, the Israeli government said the latest report showed “even the IPC had to admit that there is no famine in Gaza” and criticized the group’s findings as based on incomplete data.

    Between “600 and 800 aid trucks enter the Gaza Strip every day, 70% of them carrying food — nearly five times more than what the IPC itself said was required for the Strip,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement that criticized the latest IPC report as “deliberately distorted.”

    The IPC said that although the nutrition situation has improved since its August report, acute malnutrition is considered “critical,” or Phase 4 in its five-tier classification, in Gaza City and “serious,” or Phase 3, in the Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis regions. North Gaza is also believed to be suffering from malnutrition, the report warned, adding that conditions remain severe for the most vulnerable populations.

    “Over the next 12 months, across the entire Gaza Strip, nearly 101,000 children aged 6-59 months are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition and require treatment, with more than 31,000 severe cases,” the report found. “During the same period, 37,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women will also face acute malnutrition and require treatment.”