5 things to know for Dec. 9: Syria civil war, CEO shooter manhunt, Trump transition, TikTok ban, Notre Dame reopens
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Merriam-Webster’s word of the year is “polarization” — a word that has been used incessantly to describe the fraught state of American politics. Earlier this month, the Oxford Dictionary announced that “brain rot” was its word of the year, while the Cambridge Dictionary declared “manifest” its lead word of 2024. Here’s what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day. The long rule of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is over after rebels swept into the capital of Damascus on Sunday. Assad and his family are known for a brutal dictatorship, which since 2011 has been devastated by a civil war that turned it into a breeding ground for the extremist group ISIS while sparking a refugee crisis that saw millions displaced from their homes. Assad’s removal was celebrated by Syrians as the ousted leader fled to Russia. President Joe Biden vowed to support the region amid a moment of instability. The US military said it struck more than 75 ISIS targets in the country on Sunday to prevent the terrorist group from taking advantage of the situation there. The NYPD is working with law enforcement agencies in several states to locate a still-unidentified suspect in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. While authorities say they believe the gunman has long left New York City after the shooting on Wednesday, they feel confident he will be captured. Meanwhile, photos of the suspect have been circulated to airports and border patrol stations along the Mexican and Canadian borders in the hope he won’t slip out of the country. The FBI is offering up to $50,000 of reward money for information leading to his arrest and conviction. The NYPD has added another $10,000. President-elect Donald Trump previewed a sweeping agenda for his second term in an interview with NBC News that aired Sunday. Trump vowed to pursue pardons for January 6 defendants and raised the possibility that some of his political opponents could face jail time. He outlined how his administration will prioritize mass deportations but said he’s open to working with Democrats to preserve the legal status of “Dreamers” — an often-used term for immigrants who were brought to the US as children. Trump also doubled down on his campaign promise to end birthright citizenship, which is guaranteed by the 14th Amendment, and suggested he may attempt to overturn the right through executive action. “We have to end it. We’re the only country that has it,” he falsely said. As CNN has reported, about three dozen countries provide automatic citizenship to people born on their soil. TikTok recently lost its bid to strike down a law that could result in the platform being banned in the US starting on January 19, 2025. A US appeals court on Friday upheld the law that requires TikTok to be sold off from its Chinese parent company ByteDance or face a ban, dealing a major blow to the social media platform that’s used by more than 170 million Americans. Under the law, app stores could face major fines if they continue to host TikTok following the deadline if it’s not sold. TikTok indicated that it plans to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court. The ban could be delayed or avoided with support from President-elect Donald Trump after he takes office. President Joe Biden could also technically grant a one-time, 90-day extension of the deadline, although he has not indicated that he will do so.
Speaker Mike Johnson is a political survivor, weathering crisis after crisis since his unlikely ascent two years ago.
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Elena Kagan are well matched, rhetorically forceful opposites. And they have been clashing for more than a decade over an increasingly relevant question of presidential power: How easy should it be for the president to fire the heads of independent agencies?
The Army gynecologist described in a recent lawsuit as a “predator in uniform” is now being held in the Bell County Jail in Texas, “after apparently violating conditions of liberty imposed by his commander,” according to an Army spokesperson.
Brian Walshe on Thursday came face-to-face for the first time with the man who had been having an affair with his wife before her death, as he took the stand to testify in Walshe’s murder trial.
The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed Texas to use a congressional map that will boost President Donald Trump’s effort to keep Republicans in control of Congress, blocking a lower court decision that found the new boundaries were likely unconstitutional because they were drawn based on race.
The US military carried out a strike Thursday on a suspected drug boat in the Eastern Pacific, killing four people on board, according to a social media post from US Southern Command.
A grand jury voted against indicting New York Attorney General Letitia James after being asked to look at the mortgage fraud case against her a second time, according to multiple people familiar with the development Thursday.
National Guard troops deployed to Washington, DC, can remain there for now, after a federal appeals court on Thursday temporarily froze a judge’s ruling that would have soon required them to leave the city’s streets.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s bad week just got worse. That’s after the long-awaited release Thursday of an inspector general’s report on his sharing of highly sensitive military attack plans on the unclassified app Signal earlier this year.
President Donald Trump has hired a new architect for the White House ballroom amid disputes between the president and his architect originally contracted to complete the project, several sources have told CNN.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth risked compromising sensitive military information that could have endangered US troops through his use of Signal to discuss attack plans, a Pentagon watchdog said in an unclassified report released Thursday. It also details how Hegseth declined to cooperate with the probe.
If nothing else, the controversy over the Trump administration’s second strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean has surfaced a long-overdue debate about its already legally dubious first strikes.
Two top House lawmakers emerged divided along party lines after a private briefing with the military official who oversaw September’s attack on an alleged drug vessel that included a so-called double-tap strike that killed surviving crew members, with a top Democrat calling video of the incident that was shared as part of the briefing “one of the most troubling things” he has seen as a lawmaker.