WORLD NEWS
Syria without Assad is lighter
Jeremy BowenInternational Editor
BBC
A year ago, the war that President Bashar al-Assad seemed to have won was turned upside down.
A rebel force had broken out of Idlib, a Syrian province on the border with Turkey, and was storming towards Damascus. It was led by a man known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, and his militia group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
Jolani was a nom-de-guerre, reflecting his family’s roots in the Golan Heights, Syria’s southern highlands, annexed by Israel after it was occupied in 1967. His real name is Ahmed al-Sharaa.
One year later, he is interim president, and Bashar al-Assad is in a gilded exile in Russia.
Syria is still in ruins. In every city and village I have visited this last 10 days, people were living in skeletal buildings gutted by war. But for all the new Syria’s problems, it feels much lighter without the crushing, cruel weight of the Assads.
Getty Images
Syria is still in ruins. In cities and villages, many people are living in skeletal buildings gutted by war
Sharaa has found the going easier abroad than at home. He has won the argument with Saudi Arabia and the West that he is Syria’s best chance of a stable future.
In May, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia arranged a brief meeting between al-Sharaa and US President Donald Trump. Afterwards, Trump called him a “young attractive tough guy”.
At home, Syrians know his weaknesses and the problems Syria faces better than foreigners. Sharaa’s writ does not run in the north-east, where the Kurds are in control, or parts of the south where Syrian Druze, another minority sect, want a separate state backed by their Israeli allies.
On the coast Alawites – Assad’s sect – fear a repeat of the massacres they suffered in March.
AFP via Getty Images
Sharaa sits between two Syrian flags – Trump called him a ‘young attractive tough guy’
A year ago, the new masters of Damascus, like most of the armed rebels in Syria, were Sunni Islamists. Sharaa, their leader, had a long history fighting for al-Qaeda in Iraq, where he had been imprisoned by the Americans, and then was a senior commander with the group that became Islamic State.
Later, as he built his power base in Syria, he broke with and fought both IS and al-Qaeda.
People who had travelled to Idlib to see him said that he had developed a much more pragmatic set of beliefs, better suited to governing Syria, with its spectrum of religious sects. Sunnis are the majority. As well as Kurds and Druze, there are Christians, many of whom find it hard to forget Sharaa’s jihadist past.
Image of a man who outgrew his jihadist roots
In the first week of December last year, it was hard to believe that the HTS offensive was moving so fast. It took them three days to capture Aleppo, Syria’s northern powerhouse.
Compare that with the tortured years between 2012 and 2016, when the regime’s army and rebel militias had fought for control of the city: that had ended in victory for Assad after Russia’s president Vladimir Putin deployed his air force and artillery to add decisive firepower to the regime’s ruthless tactics.
When I visited the former rebel strongholds in eastern Aleppo a few weeks after they had fallen to the regime, large areas were devastated by Russian bombing. Some streets were blocked by rubble that went up to first-floor balconies.
But by the end of 2024, across the country, government troops had melted away. Both reluctant conscripts and regime loyalists were no longer prepared to fight and die for a corrupt and cruel regime that repaid them with poverty and oppression.
AFP via Getty Images
One year ago – celebrations marking the dawn of a new era for Syria
A few days after Assad fled with his family to Russia, I interviewed Syria’s victorious new leader in the presidential palace.
It perches high on a crag overlooking Damascus, designed as an ever-visible reminder for the city’s citizens of the all-seeing power of the Assads. By then Jolani had discarded his name, along with his combat fatigues.
Sharaa sat down in the chilly halls of the unheated palace wearing a smart jacket, pressed trousers and shiny black shoes. He told me that the country was exhausted by war and was not a threat to its neighbours or to the West, insisting that they would govern for all Syrians. It was a message that many Syrians and foreign governments wanted to hear.
Israel dismissed it, however. And jihadist hardliners branded Sharaa as a traitor, selling out his religion and his own history.
Watch: BBC speaks to Syrian rebel leader Ahmed al-Sharaa
I had packed in a hurry to report on a war, never expecting the regime to crumble so fast. My formal attire was back at home in London. After the interview one of his aides complained that I should have worn a suit to interview a national leader.
His grumble was about more than my sartorial choices. It was the continuation of a long campaign that had started years earlier as Sharaa built up his power in Idlib. The campaign was designed to present him as a man who had outgrown his jihadist roots to become a worthy leader of all Syria, a leader the rest of the world should take seriously and treat with respect.
A weakened IS in Syria
Sharaa took power amid huge uncertainty about what he might do, and what might be done to him by his enemies. Among them were dark fears that the jihadist extremists of Islamic State, still existing in sleeper cells, could try to kill him, or cause chaos with mass casualty attacks in Damascus.
Jihadists rage on social media about Sharaa’s charm offensive in the west. After he agreed to join the US-led coalition against Islamic State, prominent voices online branded him an apostate, a Muslim who had turned on his own religion. Extremists could take that as a licence to kill.
The reality is that IS in Syria is weak. Its attacks this year have been mostly against Kurdish-led forces in the north-east.
That has changed in the last few weeks, leading up to the anniversary of the fall of the Assad regime.
Getty Images
The war that President Bashar al-Assad seemed to have won was turned upside down one year ago
As security forces have raided IS cells, the jihadists have killed three soldiers and two former Assad operatives in cities controlled by the government, according to data collected by Charles Lister, a leading commentator on Syria, and published in the newsletter Syria Weekly. IS social media channels monitored by the BBC continue to tell Syrian Sunnis that Sharaa has betrayed them.
Without producing any proof, they have posted claims that he has been an agent of the US and UK, working to undermine the jihadist project.
Winning over Trump and the west
Sharaa’s overtures to the west have been remarkably successful.
Within two weeks of taking power in Syria, he received a delegation of senior American diplomats. Immediately, the Americans scrapped the $10 million bounty the they had put on his arrest.
Since then, sanctions imposed on Assad’s Syria have been steadily reduced. The most swingeing, the Caesar Act, has been suspended and could be repealed by the US Congress in the new year.
A major milestone came in November when Sharaa became the first Syrian president to visit the White House.
AP
Trump sprayed Sharaa with cologne, before presenting him with his own supply to take home
Trump’s welcome in the Oval Office was relaxed. He sprayed Sharaa with Trump-branded cologne, before presenting him with his own supply to take home for his wife, jokingly asking him how many he has. “One,” Sharaa answered, as he blinked away clouds of fragrance.
Away from the larking around for the cameras, Saudi Arabia as well as western governments see Sharaa as the best bet – the only one – to stabilise a country that sits at the heart of the Middle East.
If Syria slipped back into civil war, there would be zero chance of reducing the violent turbulence in the region.
One senior western diplomat told me that the conditions for civil war still exist. That is because of the lasting scars of half a century of dictatorship and 14 years of a war that started as an uprising against the Assads’ oppressive rule and turned into an increasingly sectarian fight.
AFP via Getty Images
Many western governments see Sharaa as the best bet to stabilise Syria. His minister for foreign affairs, Assad al-Shaibani is front right
Sharaa is a Sunni Muslim, Syria’s largest religious group. His government does not control the whole country. In the last year he has not been able to persuade, or force, Kurds in the north-east and Druze in the south to accept the authority of Damascus. On the coast, the Alawite community is nervous and restive.
The Alawites are a sect that originated in Shia Islam, with their heartland on Syria’s Mediterranean coast. The Assads are Alawites.
The founder of the regime, Bashar’s father Hafez al-Assad built his power on the Alawite minority, around 10% of the population. Just the sound of the Alawite accent, especially coming from a man in uniform – or worse, a leather-jacketed operative from one of the regime’s intelligence agencies – used to make other Syrians nervous.
Syria will not recover if sectarian killing continues. Stopping more serious outbreaks of violence in the next 12 months is the government’s most serious challenge.
The slow pace of justice
Just before the anniversary of Assad’s fall, the UN human rights office (OHCHR) expressed serious concern about the slow pace of justice. A spokesman said that “While the interim authorities have taken encouraging steps towards addressing past violations, these steps are only the beginning of what needs to be done.”
Some Syrians have taken matters into their own hands, along, at times, with government forces. The OHCHR said that the hundreds have been killed over the past year “by the security forces and affiliated groups, elements associated with the former government, local armed groups and unidentified armed individuals”.
They added: “Other reported violations and abuses include sexual violence, arbitrary detentions, destruction of homes, forced evictions, and restrictions on freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly.”
Alawite, Druze, Christian and Bedouin communities were mainly affected by the violence, the OHCHR said, which has been fed by rising hate speech both on- and offline.
Anadolu via Getty Images
A graduation ceremony for general security personnel last month
A big risk for 2026 is a repeat of last March’s sectarian violence in Alawite areas.
In the security vacuum that followed the fall of the Assad regime, the new government attempted to stamp its authority on the Syrian coast with a series of arrests. An investigation by OCHCR found that “pro-former government fighters responded by capturing, killing, and injuring hundreds of interim government forces”.
Damascus responded harshly and lost control of militant armed factions that carried a systematic series of deadly attacks on Alawites.
The UN found that some 1,400 people, predominantly civilians, were reported killed in the ensuing massacres. The vast majority were adult men, but victims included approximately 100 women, the elderly and the disabled, as well as children.
The Sharaa government cooperated with the UN investigation. Some of its forces managed to rescue Alawites and it has put some of the ringleaders of the massacres on trial.
Reuters
The UN found that some 1,400 people, predominantly civilians, were reported killed during sectarian violence in Alawite areas in March
The UN Syria Commission of Inquiry confirmed it had found no evidence the authorities had ordered the attacks. But the concern then and for the future was that the Damascus government could not control armed Sunni groups that had supposedly joined its security forces.
In July in the southern province of Sweida, serious violence between Druze and Bedouin communities shook the Sharaa administration to its roots. The Druze religion developed out of Islam around a thousand years ago, and its followers, who some Muslims believe are heretics, amount to around 3% of Syria’s population.
When government forces entered Sweida, supposedly to restore order, they ended up fighting Druze militias. Israel, which has its own Druze community that is fiercely loyal to the Jewish state, intervened. Its airstrikes included the near destruction of the ministry of defence in Damascus.
It took a rapid American intervention to force a ceasefire that stopped a spiral down into much worse violence. Tens of thousands of people were driven from their homes and remain displaced.
Getty Images
A UN inquiry found no evidence the authorities had ordered the attacks in March. But the concern was that the Damascus government could not control armed Sunni groups
The Israel question
It is still not clear whether Sharaa and his interim government are strong enough to survive another crisis as serious as that. Israel remains a looming and dangerous presence to Syrians.
After the fall of Assad, the Israelis launched a series of major air strikes to destroy what was left of the old regime’s military capacity. The IDF advanced out of the occupied Golan Heights to take control of more Syrian territory, which it still holds.
The Israelis were taking advantage of the chaos in Syria to weaken a country it saw as hostile, destroying weapons it said might be turned in its direction.
Attempts by the US to broker a security agreement between Israel and Syria have stalled in the last two months or so.
Syria wants to return to an agreement originally negotiated by Henry Kissinger when he was US Secretary of State in 1974. Netanyahu wants Israel to stay in the land it seized and has demanded that Syria demilitarises a large area south of Damascus.
In the last month Israel has intensified its ground incursions into Syria. Syria Weekly, which collects data on violence, calculates that there were more than twice as many as the monthly average for the rest of the year.
We visited the border village of Beit Jinn, which was raided by IDF troops on 28 November. The IDF said they were arresting Sunni militants who were planning attacks.
Local men fought back, wounding six Israelis as the raiding party was forced into a hurried retreat, abandoning a military vehicle that they later destroyed with an airstrike. The Israelis killed at least 13 local people and wounded dozens, state media reported.
It was a sign of how hard it will be to broker a security deal between Syria and Israel. The Damascus government called it a war crime. Calls for retaliation intensified.
Dia Images via Getty Images
The border village of Beit Jinn was raided by IDF troops on 28 November
In Washington, Trump was clearly worried by the raid. He posted on his Truth Social platform that he was “very satisfied” with Sharaa’s efforts at stabilising Syria.
He warned that it was “very important that Israel maintain a strong and true dialogue with Syria, and that nothing takes place that will interfere with Syria’s evolution into a prosperous state”.
In Beit Jinn I met Khalil Abu Daher on his way back from hospital, his arm in plaster after surgery for a bullet wound. He invited me to his home, which is close to where the Israelis were exchanging fire with village men.
Khalil told me he was here with his family when the Israelis entered the village at 03:30 am. They tried to find a safe place.
“I was in my house with my children. We went from one room to another. They shot at my two daughters. One was hit, and the other died instantly. When I picked her up, I was shot in the hand.”
The dead girl was 17-year-old Hiba Abu Daher, who was shot in the stomach. They sheltered, Khalil said, alongside Hiba’s dead body for two hours before they were rescued and taken to hospital.
When I visited, Khalil’s nine-year-old daughter was lying on a blanket on the sofa, recovering from surgery to take a bullet out of her hip.
Khalil’s nine-year-old daughter lying on the sofa, recovering from surgery to take a bullet out of her hip
The girls’ mother, Umm Mohammad, sat with the women of the family, desperately worried about the future.
“We want peace of mind,” she told me. “We want to live in our homes, and we want a clinic and medical staff because we don’t have one.
“We also want a doctor because there isn’t one in Beit Jinn, nor is there a pharmacy. We want security.”
‘We go to sleep and wake up afraid’
A year after the end of Assad’s rule, Syria’s new rulers have scored some important achievements.
They are still in power, which was not guaranteed when they took Damascus. President Trump has become Sharaa’s most important backer. Sanctions are being lifted. The economy is showing signs of life and business deals are being done, including modernising oil and gas installations and privatising the airports in Damascus and Aleppo.
But deals that are in the pipeline have not yet changed the lives of most Syrians. The government has no rebuilding fund. Reconstruction is up to individuals. Sectarian tensions are unresolved and could ignite again. The US-mediated dialogue with Israel has stalled.
NurPhoto via Getty Images
The government has no rebuilding fund. Reconstruction is up to individuals
Benjamin Netanyahu insists that Damascus might demilitarise a large area of southern Syria and shows no signs of ordering the IDF to pull back. Both points amount to a major violation of Syrian sovereignty. The Beit Jinn raid makes it harder for Damascus to offer concessions.
Government in Damascus is centred on Sharaa himself, assisted by the foreign minister Asaad al-Shaibani and a few trusted associates. No serious attempt seems to be happening to create an accountable framework of government.
Syria without the Assad family is a better place. But Umm Mohammad summed up the feelings of far too many Syrians.
“The future is difficult. We have nothing, not even schools. Our children are living in hell here. There is no safety for them. How will we live?
“We want safety. We go to sleep and wake up afraid.”
Top picture credits: AFP via Getty Images and Anadolu via Getty Images
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A woman with family ties to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has been released on bond by a U.S. immigration from ICE detention center in Louisiana.
The judge released Brazilian woman Bruna Ferreira, 33, on a $1,500 bond as she continues to argue her case against a potential deportation.
Ferreira shares custody of an 11-year-old son with her former fiancé Michael Leavitt, the brother of Trump’s press secretary.
ICE agents arrested Ferreira on November 12 while she was on her way to pick up her son from school. She has been detained at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center for the last month.
The Daily Mail has reached out to Leavitt’s White House for comment.
Immigration Judge Cynthia Goodman released Ferreira on the lowest possible bail amount on Monday.
Ferreira’s attorney Jason Thomas told the judge that the government’s claims that his client is a ‘criminal illegal alien’ with a prior arrest for battery is ‘both unfair and untrue.’
Ferreira claimed in a recent interview with Washington Post that Karoline Leavitt was chosen to be the child’s godmother.
Bruna Ferreira, seen here with her son Michael, has been left to languish inside an ICE Processing Center in Louisiana since her arrest
Ferreira said that she once saw White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt as a younger sister
Bruna Ferreira was nabbed by officers on November 12 while attempting to leave her condo in Revere, Massachusetts
The attorney representing the Department of Homeland Security, Lucas Vega, did not argue against the judge releasing Ferreira from ICE detention on bond.
The Trump administration typically has sought to limit bond for illegal immigrants in past cases.
Vega agreed with her defense council that Ferreira is not a danger to society or a flight risk.
Ferreira’s attorneys argued she still shares custody of her son with Karoline’s brother, and often is in frequent contact with the Leavitt family.
Ferreira has no prior criminal convictions and has been a longtime resident in Massachusetts.
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Karoline Leavitt’s family member is freed after ICE arrest
DISTRESSING CONTENT Rafis Khuzin has been accused of killing and then attempting to dismember his own wife during a brutal attack in Berezovsky, near Yekaterinburg in Russia
Rafis Khuzin allegedly killed and tried to dismember his wife(Image: Social media/east2west news)
Vladimir Putin has sent a man alleged to have killed and skinned his own wife after she refused to cook him chicken soup to the Ukraine frontline instead of a murder trial in a desperate bid to beef up Russian ranks in Ukraine.
Rafis Khuzin, 56, will not face justice for his twisted alleged crimes due to Russian battlefield losses, with the accused murderer set to join troops on the frontlines. The pardon will mean he is exempt from facing a murder trial, with Russian laws rewarding prisoners and would-be convicts conscripted during the war effort.
Khuzin, however, was accused of the particularly gruesome murder of his own wife, Olga Blinova, 49, who he reportedly stabbed to death with a large kitchen knife, before attempting to skin her.
READ MORE: NATO deploys fighter jets as ‘unidentified aircraft’ enters alliance’s airspaceREAD MORE: ‘Unpredictable’ Donald Trump could walk away from Ukraine peace deal, warns son
Khuzin allegedly killed his wife when she refused to help him chop chicken(Image: Social media/east2west news)
According to local reports, after killing Blinova, Khuzin is alleged to have skinned the upper part of her corpse before stashing it in his garden shed. He is said to have waited five days before eventually reporting the killing to law enforcement in Berezovsky, near Yekaterinburg.
The news outlet Baza reported that he had descended on his wife after she refused to cut up pieces of chicken while making a soup. After stabbing her, the outlet added that he had then attempted to dismember her lifeless body, but was unable to do so.
Instead, he was only able to “remove the skin from the upper part of her body”, it was alleged. Police attending the scene were “shocked by what they found” despite having “seen plenty of horrifying scenes over the course of their careers”, a police spokesperson said.
Blinova was allegedly killed by Khuzin as he made chicken soup(Image: Social media/east2west news)
Police spokesman Valery Gorelykh said: “Even the detectives, who have seen plenty of horrifying scenes over the course of their careers, were shocked by what they found when they arrived first at the scene.”
Additional reports claimed Khuzin’s wife had expected him to make the chicken soup while she was out. Alexander Shulga, of the Russian Investigative Committee, said the conflict arose after the woman came home from work and “criticised him for not preparing dinner”.
He demanded that she cut the chicken and make the soup but she refused. A source close to the investigation said the alleged killer had quickly conscripted before the murder trial could begin.
Khuzin took up a conscription deal before his trial began(Image: Social media/east2west news)
They claimed: “He didn’t wait for the trial and signed a contract with the military.” He had already pleaded guilty to a crime which could have seen him jailed for 15 years, but due to Russian laws passed following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, he will not face trial or any prison time.
After serving in the war, he will be a free man. The Russian Investigative Committee in Sverdlovsk declined to comment.
More than 100 people including 63 children were killed in attacks on a kindergarten and hospital in Sudan, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The attacks on 4 December began with repeated strikes on the kindergarten in South Kordofan state.
It continued even as parents and caretakers rushed to the wounded in a nearby hospital, WHO added.
It comes as Sudan‘s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) said today it had taken control of the strategic Heglig oilfield in the South Kordofan province, two and a half years into the country’s civil war.
WHO director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on X: “Repeated strikes in Sudan’s South Kordofan state hit a kindergarten and, at least three times, the nearby Kalogi Rural Hospital, killing 114 people, including 63 children, and injuring 35 people, according to WHO’s Attacks on Health Care monitoring system.
“Survivors from the 4 December attacks have been moved to Abu Jebaiha, in South Kordofan, for treatment, and urgent calls are being made for blood donations and other medical support.
“Disturbingly, paramedics and responders came under attack as they tried to move the injured from the kindergarten to the hospital.”
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‘Horrifying’ war in Sudan continues
Heglig, lying along Sudan’s south border, houses the main processing facility for South Sudanese oil, which makes up much of the revenue for South Sudan’s government.
Government forces and workers at the oil field withdrew from the area on Sunday to avoid clashes that could have damaged oil facilities, government sources told the news agency Reuters.
Read more:
Sudan’s RSF says it has captured Babanusa
Genocide unfolding in Darfur, warns Sudan government
As oil is transported through the Greater Nile pipeline system to Port Sudan on the Red Sea for export, it makes the Heglig site essential for Sudan’s hard-currency earnings – and for South Sudan.
The WHO added that a massacre also occurred in October in the city of al-Fashir.
Sudan’s Foreign Ministry condemned the attacks, which it says were carried out by the Rapid Support Forces using drones.
The WHO said a total of 114 people, including 63 children, were killed in the attacks, with heavy weapons used. 35 were also wounded.
The toll combines casualties from the kindergarten strikes, the transfer of patients to the adjacent rural hospital and attacks at the facility itself.
The RSF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
WORLD NEWS
Ukraine firefighters rush to rescue people, pets after Russian strike | Russia-Ukraine war
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Firefighters evacuated residents and their pets from a nine-storey apartment building in Ukraine’s Sumy region after a Russian drone strike. The strikes come as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with leaders of the UK, France and Germany in London to discuss the US peace plan.
Published On 8 Dec 2025
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US supreme court hears arguments in case that tests Trump’s ability to fire officials – live | US supreme court
Trump administration argues that decision stopping president from removing officers must be overruled
Arguments in the case that will decide whether Donald Trump can fire officials from independent agencies have started.
First up is solicitor general D John Sauer, arguing on behalf of the Trump administration.
He kicks off his opening remarks by arguing that the key 90-year precedent, known as the Humphrey’s Executor, “must be overruled”.
He describes the ruling as a “decaying husk with bold, and particularly dangerous pretensions” that ultimately creates a “headless fourth branch insulated from political accountability and democratic control”.
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Updated at 16.23 CET
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Justice Sotomayor says that most of the original powers of the FTC when Humphrey’s was decided are the same powers that exist today. She points out that the district judge outlined this as well.
The only power she’s identified that might be different is that the FTC’s cease and desist orders now have binding effect immediately, she says.
“So I think your point in response to Justice Alito is, if there’s a power that the FTC is wielding now that trenches inappropriately, the answer is not to do away with the ‘for cause’ removal; the answer is to eliminate that individual power,” she says. “So that should be the answer if there’s been an expansion of the powers inappropriately.”
Agarwal says that is correct and that is their position.
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Updated at 18.09 CET
A quick reminder that, in September, the supreme court granted a justice department request to block a lower court’s order that shielded Rebecca Slaughter, from being dismissed from the consumer protection and antitrust agency before her term expires in 2029. She will remain fired until the court issue their decision.
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While answering questions from justices today, Agarwal said that the “real world danger” if the administration is successful, is that “everything is on the chopping block”.
He added that there was “absolutely no principled basis” for “carving out” independent agencies from Congress’s purview.
“We’re talking about more than two dozen traditional independent agencies that have been established by statutes enacted by the people’s elected representatives and signed into law, all of them by democratically elected presidents,” Agarwal said.
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Updated at 17.44 CET
The bench just wrapped its questions to the administration’s lawyer, solicitor general D John Sauer.
Arguing on behalf of Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, the fired Democratic member of the FTC, is Amit Agarwal.
“Multi-member commissions with members enjoying some kind of removal protection have been part of our story since 1790,” Agarwal said in his opening remarks. “So if petitioners are right, all three branches of government have been wrong from the start.”
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Updated at 17.24 CET
Justice Jackson is now pushing back against the administration’s claims that these independent agencies aren’t answerable to Congress – which delegates their creation, oversight, budgets and laws.
“Part of your argument seemed to revolve around this notion that there’s some kind of thing happening with the independent agency that the reason why the president needs to control it is because they don’t answer to anybody,” she said.
“What I don’t understand from your overarching argument is why that determination of Congress, which makes perfect sense given its duty to protect the people of the United States, why that is subjugated to a concern about the president not being able to control everything.”
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Updated at 17.13 CET
As he responds to questions from justices today, Sauer has repeatedly argued that independent agencies like the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) are a “headless fourth branch” with limited government oversight.
When responding to questions from justice Brett Kavanaugh, the solicitor general said that these agencies exercise “a great deal of control over individuals and business” but “ultimately do not answer to the president”.
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Speaking now is the third liberal justice on the bench, Elena Kagan.
She says that what the administration is asking for would give the president “massive, unchecked, uncontrolled power” over independent agencies. It’s a role that Congress, with its Article I power, has controlled for 9o years.
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Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, also pushed back on the administration’s premise – in line with justice Sotomayor’s line of questioning.
“I appreciate that Article II has some language in it that you’re pointing to, but as Justice Sotomayor pointed out, the constitution does not speak specifically to removal,” she said. “I don’t know why we’d make that inference when the power to create agencies and set everything up lies with Congress.”
She went on to probe the solicitor general as to why he thought that Congress was “somehow less democratically accountable” for the way in which it constructs agencies and determines the terms of its officers.
“You seem to think that there’s something about the president that requires him to control everything as a matter of democratic accountability, when on the other side, we have Congress saying we’d like these particular agencies and officers to be independent of presidential control for the good of the people,” Jackson said.
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Updated at 16.53 CET
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, one of three liberal justices on the bench, seemed unconvinced with the administration’s argument off the bat.
“You’re asking us to destroy the structure of government,” she told solicitor general D John Sauer. “To take away from Congress its ability to protect its idea that a government is better structured with some agencies that are independent.”
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Updated at 16.41 CET
Trump administration argues that decision stopping president from removing officers must be overruled
Arguments in the case that will decide whether Donald Trump can fire officials from independent agencies have started.
First up is solicitor general D John Sauer, arguing on behalf of the Trump administration.
He kicks off his opening remarks by arguing that the key 90-year precedent, known as the Humphrey’s Executor, “must be overruled”.
He describes the ruling as a “decaying husk with bold, and particularly dangerous pretensions” that ultimately creates a “headless fourth branch insulated from political accountability and democratic control”.
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Updated at 16.23 CET
Supreme court to hear arguments in case testing Trump’s ability to fire officials
In less than an hour, the supreme court will here arguments in a landmark case that tests Donald Trump’s ability to fire officials.
Earlier this year, the president moved to fire Rebecca Slaughter, a Democratic member of the Federal Trade Commission. Trump actually appointed her to the position back in 2018, and she was re-confirmed for a second term under Joe Biden that was set to expire in 2029.
Rebecca Slaughter during a House judiciary committee hearing in Washington DC, 13 July 2023. Photograph: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images
One of the main questions the nine-justice bench will consider today is whether to overturn a key 1938 decision which established that the president requires Congress’ signoff to fire an official from an independent government agency, and it needs to be “for cause”.
Slaughter’s case is the latest emergency appeal that the supreme court will hear from the Trump administration, after a lower court judge blocked her firing, and an appeal court upheld that decision. A reminder that, in May, the court allowed Trump to remove two Democratic members of the National Labor Relations Board and Merit Systems Protection Board – despite job protections for these posts – while litigation challenging those removals proceeded. And in September, they deferred action on the Department of Justice’s request to allow Trump to fire Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, at least until it hears oral arguments on the case in January.
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Updated at 17.18 CET
My colleague, Jakub Krupa, is covering the latest out of Europe, particularly the London meeting between Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy and several Nato allies – France’s Emmanuel Macron, UK prime minister Keir Starmer, and Germany’s chancellor Friedrich Merz.
Jakub notes:
The sombre tone of the opening remarks was highly telling: it’s clear that this was not merely another photo opportunity designed to merely convey solidarity with Zelenskyy, but they face urgent – increasingly so – issues that need to be resolved soon.
A reminder that Donald Trump Jr warned that his father may walk away from the Ukrainian war in a lengthy tirade against the purpose of continued fighting in Ukraine, as he also claimed Ukraine’s “corrupt” rich had fled their country leaving “what they believed to be the peasant class” to fight the war.
Meanwhile, the president said on Sunday that Russia is “fine” with the peace proposal (although he didn’t elaborate if this was the same framework that Moscow seemed initially unhappy with during Steve Witkoff’s visit). Trump added: “But I’m not sure that Zelenskyy’s fine with it. His people love it. But he isn’t ready.”
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A quick update, a White House official confirms to the Guardian that the president’s roundtable will be to unveil an assistance package for American farmers. He’ll be joined by treasury secretary Scott Bessent and agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins.
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Updated at 15.14 CET
Donald Trump is in Washington today. At 2pm ET he’ll host a roundtable event at the White House. Bloomberg reports that he will unveil a much-anticipated $12bn support package for American farmers who have been hit by the president’s sweeping tariff policies. We’re waiting from confirmation from the White House, but will bring you the latest lines as they come in.
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More than 2,000 national guard soldiers have been in Washington since Donald Trump’s initial deployment in August, part of the president’s contentious immigration and crime crackdown targeting Democratic-led cities.
In what was seen by many as an example of federal overreach, the president federalised DC’s Metropolitan police department for the first time in its history over the summer.
Trump said he was declaring a public safety emergency and putting the police under the control of the attorney general, Pam Bondi.
This was despite violent crime in Washington DC actually having fallen sharply since 2023.
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Updated at 14.09 CET
Smith says ‘there comes a time when you just know it’s time’ to step down
Axios broke the news of Pamela Smith’s resignation. Speaking to the outlet, she said: “There comes a time when you just know it’s time.”
Smith, who has 28 years of law enforcement experience, said her decision is not related to the deployment of national guard troops to the city.
Speaking to Fox 5 about her decision to resign, the outgoing police chief said it was a “tough” decision and was made to spend more time with her family.
She said:
I have been going nonstop. I have missed many amazing celebrations, birthdays, marriages, you name it, within our family.
And being able to come home for thanksgiving two years after my mum passed really resonated with me and has allowed me to make a decision that I think is necessary not just only for me but also for my family.
Smith is expected to step down on 31 December and the mayor’s office will name an interim chief shortly, according to Axios.
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Updated at 14.02 CET
Natalie ShermanBusiness reporter
Warner Brothers Discovery
Warner Brothers Discovery is owner of HBO, known for shows like Sex and the City
Paramount Skydance has made another offer to buy Warner Bros Discovery as it seeks to trump a rival plan from Netflix to buy the company’s studio and streaming networks.
Paramount, which is backed by the billionaire Ellison family, said it was making a direct offer to shareholders of $30 per share to scoop up the whole of Warner Bros, including its traditional television networks.
It said its proposal was a “superior alternative” to Netflix’s, delivering more cash upfront to shareholders and greater prospect of approval by regulators.
President Donald Trump has said “there could be a problem” with Netflix’s purchase, pointing to competition concerns given the size of the companies.
The hostile bid from Paramount, a smaller player than Netflix which is known for brands such as CBS News, Nickelodeon and Mission Impossible, is the latest twist in a saga that started a few months ago, when Paramount started submitting offers to buy Warner Bros.
That eventually prompted Warner Bros, owner of HBO and classics from Looney Tunes to Harry Potter, to formally open a bidding process.
Warner Bros declared Netflix the winner of that auction on Friday, announcing a deal that valued its studio and streaming networks, including HBO, at about $83bn, including its debt.
It said the sale would proceed after a planned spin-off of other parts of Warner Brothers’ business, including CNN, into an independent company.
Paramount’s offer values the entire company at $108.4bn, which it said was a better deal.
In an interview on CNBC, Mr Ellison also talked up the benefits of his plan for the media industry, arguing that Netflix’s takeover of Warner Brothers Discovery would give one firm too much power over actors and other players in the industry.
“It’s a horrible deal for Hollywood,” he said.
Mr Ellison said he had had “great conversations” with Trump about the deal and believed the president cared about competition.
Any takeover is expected to face scrutiny from competition regulators in the US and Europe.
Analysts said Netflix’s plan would likely raise concerns about dominance in streaming, while Paramount’s proposal would prompt a review of the impact on advertisers and local television distributors, given the power of a combined company over sports and children’s networks.
Paramount had been seen by many on Wall Street as a strong suitor for Warner Bros, in part because the relationship between David and Larry Ellison, who is a Republican megadonor, and Trump was expected to help ease that process.
Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is among the financial partners Paramount is working with as part of the deal, according to paperwork submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Paramount’s plan to buy all of Warner Bros was also seen as a chance to achieve both scale and potential cost-savings, putting the traditional television networks owned by both companies on a better footing.
Mr Ellison said he thought Warner Bros’ plan to spin-off its traditional networks into an independent company would set them up to fail and ultimately prove a mistake for shareholders.
“I think [its shares are] going to be worth a lot less than people are claiming,” he said.
Shares in Warner Bros jumped more than 6% in opening trade on Monday, while Paramount shares were also up.
Shares in Netflix, however, dropped more than 3%.
Netflix is the biggest streaming company in the world, with more than 300 million subscribers. It said on Friday it believed the takeover would help supercharge its business and expressed confidence in winning approval from regulators.
Analysts said the move was also defensive, aimed at making sure rivals did not get their hands on the decades of content owned by Warner Bros and turn into more viable competitors.
More than 70% of HBO Max subscribers in the US also have Netflix, according to analysts at Raymond James, who said in a report on Friday that they expected further twists in the takeover story.
Ben Barringer, head of technology research at Quilter Cheviot, said he thought the deal made more sense for Paramount than for Netflix, calling it simply a “nice-to-have” for the streamer.
“Paramount ultimately needs this deal more than Netflix,” he said. “Paramount remains a legacy entertainment provider that lacks the scale required for the modern age.”
It’s long been a key slogan for Donald Trump, but ‘America First’ appears closer to reality than ever, after the release of a key US strategy document outlining the administration’s foreign policy.
“In everything we do, we are putting America first,” reads an introductory letter signed by the president in a recently-released 29-page document, titled ‘National Security Strategy of the United States of America.’
It sets out the US strategy as being “pragmatic without being ‘pragmatist,’ realistic without being ‘realist,’ principled without being ‘idealistic,’ muscular without being ‘hawkish,”’and restrained without being ‘dovish.’”
What is Donald Trump’s new National Security Strategy?
The National Security Strategy (NSS) does not determine policy but rather sets out the government’s foreign policy vision. It can, of course, be overtaken by world events. For example, as US foreign policy expert Andrew Payne points out, the 2022 version released during Joe Biden’s tenure made no significant mention of the Middle East.
US releases national security strategy
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But the NSS has a clear impact on how government resources are allocated and gives foreign governments a steer on US intentions.
“Whether or not the administration itself follows the principles and priorities laid out here, it is about the best source available to policymakers overseas seeking clarity on the direction of travel of an administration that has so far been inconsistent and unpredictable,” Payne, a research director at the international affairs think tank Chatham House told DW.
What does the National Security Strategy document say?
As well as plenty of self-congratulation and a rejection of traditional US foreign policy, Trump lays out a much stronger ‘America First’ blueprint than he did in his first NSS in 2017.
“After the end of the Cold War, American foreign policy elites convinced themselves that permanent American domination of the entire world was in the best interests of our country,” the introduction states. “Yet the affairs of other countries are our concern only if their activities directly threaten our interests.”
As such, the broad strokes of the strategy are a move away from American intervention abroad, multilateralism and international bodies, and towards national self-determination, at least where that suits the US.
The NSS calls for the US to have full control of its borders, the “world’s most powerful, lethal, and technologically advanced military” and “the most dynamic, most innovative, and most advanced economy” as well as keeping a “soft power” grip across the world for its own gain.
In global terms, it calls for a “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine, established in 1823 and concerned with self-determination for the US amid European intervention. It references preventing “an adversarial power from dominating the Middle East” and notes that ending the Russia-Ukraine war is a key goal, along with fighting drug trafficking in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean, while calling for other nations to take on more of the burden in global matters.
The targeting of suspected drug boats in the Caribbean is conentious for some, but Donald Trump plans to continueImage: Dave Decker/IMAGO
The document also says Europe faces the “prospect of civilizational erasure,” that some European countries will be “unrecognizable in 20 years or less” and questions whether they are “strong enough to remain reliable allies.”
The overall message of American isolationism is not always consistently applied. The NSS calls for US “preeminence” in the Western Hemisphere, and Latin America in particular, stating that: “We will reward and encourage the region’s governments, political parties, and movements broadly aligned with our principles and strategy.”
Is this a new foreign policy direction for the US?
While these strategic goals will not necessarily become policy, the explicit stating of them marks a sea change from the NSS released by Biden in 2022. Payne said it “represents a fundamental and explicit rejection of the national security strategies that have been developed since at least the end of the Cold War,” before adding that: “It is clearest in what it is not: the traditional liberal internationalist orthodoxy that has sustained US grand strategy for decades.”
It is, naturally, closer to Trump’s last attempt in 2017. But for Dr. Rubrick Biegon, an international relations lecturer at the Universtiy of Kent in England, that’s consistent with the broader changes in his second term.
“It does seem in keeping with the kind of shifts from Trump to Trump 2.0. I think that the strategy document is closer to Trump’s idiosyncratic worldview than the 2017 one,” he told DW, adding that this was partly because “Trump is more comfortable in his position this time around and has more of his own team around him, rather than establishment figures.”
European reactions to US strategy: ‘to the right of the extreme right’
In Russia, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov welcomed the document as “largely consistent with our vision” and a “positive step.”
Others in Europe were considerably more troubled. Former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt said the document “places itself to the right of the extreme right”.
US security plan: Kallas says US remains EU’s biggest ally
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The reaction from active European politicians has generally been to downplay the document. This is despite it doubling down on Trump’s attacks on Europe at his UN speech earlier this year when he said: “Europe is in serious trouble. They have been invaded by a force of illegal aliens like nobody has ever seen before.”
Germany’s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said his country does not need “outside advice” after the NSS was released but that the US remained “our most important ally in the [NATO] alliance” before adding that: “I believe questions of freedom of expression or the organization of our free societies do not belong [in the strategy], in any case at least when it comes to Germany.”
EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, struck a similar tone.
“I think we haven’t always seen eye to eye on different topics, but I think the overall principle is still there,” Kallas said. “We are the biggest allies, and we should stick together.”
Edited by: Carla Bleiker
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The Trump administration has reportedly ordered U.S. consular officers to apply heightened scrutiny to H-1B visa applicants and reject anyone found to have participated in “censorship or attempted censorship” of protected speech in the United States, according to an internal State Department cable.
Reuters reported that the directive, sent to all U.S. missions on Dec. 2, instructs consular officers to review resumes, LinkedIn profiles and any publicly available information to determine whether an applicant — or family members traveling with them — previously worked in areas including misinformation, disinformation, content moderation, fact-checking, compliance or online safety.
According to the cable cited by Reuters, officers should “pursue a finding that the applicant is ineligible” if they uncover evidence the individual was “responsible for, or complicit in, censorship or attempted censorship of protected expression in the United States.”
LABOR UNIONS SUE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION OVER SOCIAL MEDIA MONITORING OF VISA HOLDERS
New State Department policy adds speech-related roles, including fact-checking and content moderation, to the criteria for visa denial. (iStock)
While the directive applies to all visa categories, the cable calls for special scrutiny of H-1B applicants because they “frequently work in the technology sector, including in social media or financial services companies involved in the suppression of protected expression.” The vetting requirements apply to both new and repeat applicants.
Reuters also reported that the cable, not previously disclosed, instructs consular officers: “You must thoroughly explore their employment histories to ensure no participation in such activities.”
A senior State Department official told Fox News Channel’s Gillian Turner, “While we do not comment on allegedly leaked documents, make no mistake, the Administration has made clear that it defends Americans’ freedom of expression against foreigners who wish to censor them. We do not support aliens coming to the United States to work as censors muzzling Americans. In the past, the President himself was the victim of this kind of abuse when social media companies locked his accounts. He does not want other Americans to suffer this way. Allowing foreigners to lead this type of censorship would both insult and injure the American people.”
OVERWEIGHT FOREIGNERS SEEKING VISAS MAY BE REJECTED TO SAVE HEALTHCARE COSTS, TAXPAYER EXPENSE
The move comes as the administration intensifies its criticism of censorship in Europe. Vice President JD Vance responded on Dec. 4 to reports of a potential EU fine against X, posting on his official account: “Rumors swirling that the EU commission will fine X hundreds of millions of dollars for not engaging in censorship. The EU should be supporting free speech, not attacking American companies over garbage.”
Further underscoring the administration’s determination to fight censorship, Undersecretary of State Sarah Rogers posted a video on X responding to a European member of parliament stating she was “revisiting some remarks for which people in Europe and also the U.K. have been investigated or arrested or jailed by their governments over the past few years,” and listed examples from Germany, the U.K. and Sweden.”
The new screening rules target applicants who often work in the tech sector, including in content moderation and online safety roles.
She stated in part, “A German woman notoriously received a harsher jail sentence than a convicted rapist after the woman called the rapist ‘a disgraceful pig.'”
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In May, Rubio threatened visa bans for people who censor speech by Americans, including on social media, and suggested the policy could target foreign officials regulating U.S. tech companies. (Reuters)
The administration has already tightened vetting procedures for student visas by instructing officers to screen applicants’ social-media activity for posts hostile to the United States. President Donald Trump also imposed new H-1B fees in September as part of a broader immigration overhaul. The enhanced censorship-related screening represents the latest step in the administration’s effort to tie U.S. visa policy to its free-speech agenda.
Fox News Channel’s Gillian Turner and Reuters contributed to this report.
Efrat Lachter is an investigative reporter and war correspondent. Her work has taken her to 40 countries, including Ukraine, Russia, Iraq, Syria, Sudan and Afghanistan. She is a recipient of the 2024 Knight-Wallace Fellowship for Journalism. Lachter can be followed on X @efratlachter.
WORLD NEWS
Alex Murdaugh court clerk Becky Hill sentenced after admitting to leaking photos and lying about it
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A former court clerk who worked on Alex Murdaugh’s double murder trial has admitted to showing sealed court exhibits to a photographer and lying about it in court.
Former Colleton County Clerk of Court Mary Rebecca “Becky” Hill pleaded guilty Monday to four charges including obstruction of justice and perjury for showing a reporter photographs that were sealed court exhibits and then lying about it.
She also admitted to two counts of misconduct in office for taking bonuses and promoting through her public office a book she wrote on the trial.
Judge Heath Taylor sentenced Hill to a year of probation. The judge told Hill her sentence would have been much harsher if prosecutors had found that she had tampered with the Murdaugh jury.
Hill read a short statement where she asked the judge for a chance to do better.
open image in gallery
Former Colleton County Clerk of Court Mary Rebecca ‘Becky’ Hill awaits a court hearing on Monday, Dec. 8, 2025, in St. Matthews, S.C. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)
“There is no excuse for the mistakes I made. I’m ashamed of them,” she said.
Hill was in charge of taking care of the jury, overseeing exhibits and helping the judge during Murdaugh’s six-week trial that ended with murder convictions for killing his wife and son. Murdaugh’s family had lorded over his small South Carolina county for nearly a century.
Hill has played a prominent part as Murdaugh appeals his convictions and a sentence of life without parole. His lawyers said Hill tried to influence jurors to vote guilty and that she was biased against Murdaugh for her book.
During Monday’s hearing, solicitor Rick Hubbard told the judge that a journalist told investigators that Hill showed graphic crime scene photos to several media members. He did not name the journalist.
Murdaugh is also serving a separate sentence of decades in prison for admitting to stealing millions of dollars from settlements for clients who suffered horrible injuries or deaths — and from his family’s law firm.
An initial appeal by Murdaugh’s lawyers was denied. But Judge Jean Toal said she wasn’t sure Hill told the truth about her dealings with jurors and was “attracted by the siren call of celebrity” status.
Some of Hill’s charges concern Murdaugh’s murder trial. The arrest warrant said Hill violated a judge’s order to keep sealed photographs from the public. A second warrant said Hill lied to Toal during a January 2024 hearing when the judge asked: “Did you allow anyone from the press to view the sealed exhibits?”
One of the charges — misconduct in office — involved money that investigators said Hill took for herself. They said that included nearly $10,000 meant for bonuses from federal money meant to improve child support collection and about $2,000 in money from the Clerk of Court’s office.
The warrant on the other misconduct charge said Hill used her public role as clerk of court to promote her book on the Murdaugh trial on social media.
Hill was also accused last May of 76 counts of ethics violations. Officials said Hill allowed a photo of Murdaugh in a holding cell to be taken to promote her book on the trial and used county money to buy dozens of lunches for her staff, prosecutors and a vendor.
Hill also struck a deal with a documentary maker to use the county courtroom in exchange for promoting her book on the trial, which later she admitted had plagiarized passages, according to the South Carolina Ethics Commission complaint.
Hill resigned in March 2024 during the last year of her four-year term, citing the public scrutiny of Murdaugh’s trial and wanting to spend time with her grandchildren.
Joshua Michals, 26, has been found guilty of murdering Zhe Wang on March 20 last year – this is a breaking story
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