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.

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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.

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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.

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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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Paramount has launched a $108.4bn hostile bid for Warner Bros, challenging Netflix, which had reached a $72bn takeover deal with the company.

Paramount said on Monday that it was going straight to Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) shareholders with a $30 per share in cash offer for the entirety of the company, including its Global Networks segment, asking them to reject the deal with Netflix.

On Friday Netflix struck a deal to buy WBD, the Hollywood giant behind “Harry Potter” and HBO Max

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The agreement means Warner Bros Discovery’s library of film and TV successes including Harry Potter and Game Of Thrones will come under the same roof as Stranger Things and Squid Game.

The cash and stock deal is valued at $27.75 per Warner share, giving it a total enterprise value of $82.7 billion, including debt.

But Paramount says its deal will pay $30 cash per share, representing $18 billion more in cash than its rivals are offering.

In a statement, Paramount said it was making a “strategically and financially compelling offer to WBD shareholders” and a “superior alternative to the Netflix transaction”.

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File pic: iStock

David Ellison, chairman and CEO of Paramount, said: “WBD shareholders deserve an opportunity to consider our superior all-cash offer for their shares in the entire company.

“Our public offer, which is on the same terms we provided to the Warner Bros. Discovery Board of Directors in private, provides superior value, and a more certain and quicker path to completion.

“We believe the WBD Board of Directors is pursuing an inferior proposal which exposes shareholders to a mix of cash and stock, an uncertain future trading value of the Global Networks linear cable business and a challenging regulatory approval process.

“We are taking our offer directly to shareholders to give them the opportunity to act in their own best interests and maximize the value of their shares.”

Paramount said it had submitted six proposals to WBD in the course of 12 weeks, but that they were never “meaningfully” engaged with.

It’s not the first difficulty the proposed Netflix deal has run into, with Donald Trump raising the spectre of government intervention on Sunday.

The US president said the combined market share of the resulting company “could be a problem” and that he would be involved in the decision about whether to approve the deal.

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In a resolution issued on November 20, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) called on Iran to “extend full and prompt cooperation” to the agency, which is seeking clarity on the status of Iran’s enriched uranium stockpiles and safeguarded nuclear facilities.

Since the 12-day war between Israel and Iran, Tehran has not granted IAEA inspectors access to the facilities that were attacked by a US strike in June.

And while this dispute continues, Moscow is expanding its nuclear cooperation with Tehran.

“Our cooperation has reached an unprecedented level,” Russia’s ambassador to Tehran, Alexei Dedov, said in November.

According to the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA), Dedov emphasized that Moscow supports Tehran on its nuclear program.

Big promises, little nuclear progress

At the end of September, Russia and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding for the construction of small-scale nuclear power plants.

Two days later, Russian state atomic energy corporation Rosatom finalized a $25 billion (€21.4 billion) deal with Tehran to build four nuclear power plants in Iran. 

“Russia is the most important international partner in Iran’s nuclear program,” said David Jalilvand, who leads the Berlin-based policy consulting firm Orient Matters. 

“As far as the further expansion of Iran’s nuclear program is concerned, Moscow has so far promised much and delivered little,” Jalilvand told DW.

Iran currently has only one operating nuclear power plant, built by Russia in the southern Iranian city of Bushehr. The construction of a second reactor in Bushehr was announced in 2016, but has not yet been implemented. 

Jalilvand considers it unlikely that the new memorandum of understanding will be realized anytime soon.

“Russia has little interest in strengthening Iran’s strategic position in the Middle East, partly because of its relations with Israel, the Gulf states, and Turkey,” he said.

Russia-Iran alliance under fire

During the recent 12-day Israel-Iran war, Tehran received little support from Moscow.

In January, Russia and Iran signed a strategic partnership treaty, which aimed to bolster collaboration across various sectors — including military, nuclear energy, advanced technology and financial cooperation to combat international sanctions.

The deal built on the 20-year strategic agreement initially signed in 2001, which has been periodically renewed and serves as the foundation for collaboration in the energy, defense, and military sectors. 

Tehran has supplied drones and weapons for Russia’s war in Ukraine, becoming one of Moscow’s most important supporters at the expense of its relations with Europe.

In return, Iran ordered several Russian Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets, among other things, to modernize its air force.

However, these aircraft are still in production. And the recent war with Israel clearly exposed the weaknesses of Iran’s air defense.

“The strategic agreement with Russia has proven to be a farce,” criticized Mohammad Sadr, a member of Iran’s powerful Expediency Discernment Council. 

“Russia is not trustworthy; to believe that it would stand by us or take on the US is absurd.”

Iran and Russia look to forge stronger ties against West

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The image of Russia in Iranian society is correspondingly negative. 

“People know that Russia abandons Iran at crucial moments,” a university professor in Tehran who requested anonymity, told DW.

“Many are convinced that the government clings to Moscow only to maintain power, not in the interest of the people.”

Iran conservatives push Russia ties

Despite the lessons learned from the 12-day war, conservative forces in Iran are calling for a further deepening of cooperation with Moscow.

“Russia’s influence in Iran’s centers of power is undeniable,” said Afshar Soleimani, a former Iranian ambassador in Azerbaijan.

“Conservative forces support Russia, the delivery of Iranian drones to Moscow, and ongoing tensions with the US,” Soleimani told DW.

“This shows how strong their influence is. As long as this political movement remains in power, little will change — and the population will bear the consequences.”

Kamran Ghazanfari, a conservative member of the Iranian parliament’s internal affairs committee, even claimed that Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian president and prime minister who is currently deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, has hinted indirectly that Russia might be willing to supply Iran with nuclear weapons.

Nuclear mediation or power politics?

Jalilvand considers such a prospect extremely unlikely.

“Russia has no interest in expanding the circle of nuclear powers in the already unstable Middle East,” the expert said.

It is conceivable that Moscow could supply technologies that Tehran could theoretically also use for a military program, however, direct support in the construction of a nuclear bomb is considered out of the question.

Russia is primarily using the “Iran card” strategically as part of its negotiating position with the United States.

Tehran claims to have temporarily halted uranium enrichment, but whether Moscow will be able to persuade Iran to reduce its uranium stockpile remains unclear.

“Russia has repeatedly positioned itself as a mediator in the past,” explained Middle East expert Jalilvand.

“This is unlikely to be motivated by an interest in resolving the nuclear conflict. Rather, in light of the war in Ukraine, Moscow is attempting to position itself as a supposedly constructive partner to the US, thereby [further] driving a wedge between Washington and Europe.” 

Danyal Babayani contributed reporting

This article was originally published in German 

IAEA asks Iran for whereabouts of nuclear material

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President Donald Trump said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has yet to read the updated peace plan to end the war with Russia amid several rounds of talks between U.S. and Ukrainian officials in Miami.

“I’m a little bit disappointed that President Zelenskyy hasn’t yet read the proposal, that was as of a few hours ago,” Trump told reporters at the Kennedy Center on Sunday. “His people love it, but he hasn’t.”

“Russia, I guess, would rather have the whole country when you think of it, but Russia is, I believe, fine with it, but I’m not sure that Zelenskyy is fine with it,” Trump added.

Zelenskyy said Saturday that he held a “long and substantive phone call” with U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and the trio covered many points, including how to end Russia’s war and how to ensure Moscow will not invade again.

PUTIN CALLS TRUMP’S PEACE PLAN A ‘STARTING POINT’ AS HE WARNS UKRAINE TO PULL BACK OR FACE ‘FORCE’

Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner attend talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Senate Palace of the Kremlin in Moscow on Dec. 2, 2025. (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

The Ukrainian leader said he was waiting for members of his negotiating team to brief him in person on the latest round of talks.

Rustem Umerov, the head of the Ukrainian delegation and secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said Monday that he and Ukraine’s military chief of general staff, General Andriy Hnatov, would brief Zelenskyy on the latest developments, including the takeaways from Witkoff and Kushner’s five-hour meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Putin arrived in New Delhi last week for a state visit with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and gave an interview to the India Today news channel, where he said the negotiations with the Americans were long but productive.

Vladimir Putin and Narendra Modi pose for a photo during their talks at Hyderabad House in New Delhi on Dec. 5, 2025. (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

EX-CIA STATION CHIEF WARNS PUTIN USING TALKS TO GAIN LEVERAGE AS UKRAINE DELEGATION MEETS TOP TRUMP OFFICIALS

“Sometimes we said, yes, we can discuss this, but with that one we cannot agree,” said Putin, according to a transcript of the conversation released by the Kremlin.

The Russian leader stuck to his maximalist demands in the interview, arguing his war will only end when his country takes Ukraine’s eastern Donbas or Ukrainian troops withdraw.

Servicemen carry the coffin of 22-year-old volunteer soldier Yukhym Agafontsev during a farewell ceremony in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Dec. 2, 2025. (Dan Bashakov/AP)

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Zelenskyy is set to meet with European leaders in London Monday to discuss the U.S.-led peace plan. His arrival comes amid a new wave of Russian drone and missile barrages that have targeted Ukraine’s civilian and energy infrastructure.

Zelenskyy said in the last week alone, Russia launched more than 1,600 drones, roughly 1,200 guided aerial bombs, and nearly 70 missiles of various types against Ukraine.

Ashley Carnahan is a writer at Fox News Digital.

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Amid the intense and bitter bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery and as Paramount Skydance felt it had the inside edge due to its owners’ friendly relationship with Donald Trump, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos privately met with the president to make his company’s case, according to multiple reports.

Meanwhile, on Monday morning, the scorned Paramount leadership launched a hostile takeover bid, offering a significantly higher cash price for Warner.

“The Paramount offer for the entirety of WBD provides shareholders $18 billion more in cash than the Netflix consideration,” the company said in a statement. “WBD’s Board of Directors recommendation of the Netflix transaction over Paramount’s offer is based on an illusory prospective valuation of Global Networks that is unsupported by the business fundamentals and encumbered by high levels of financial leverage assigned to the entity.”

Paramount, led by chairman David Ellison, pointed out that it was taking its offer public, spelling out that this was a hostile bid to force the Warner Bros. board’s hand.

“We believe the WBD Board of Directors is pursuing an inferior proposal which exposes shareholders to a mix of cash and stock, an uncertain future trading value of the Global Networks linear cable business and a challenging regulatory approval process,” the company asserted. “We are taking our offer directly to shareholders to give them the opportunity to act in their own best interests and maximize the value of their shares.”

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Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos privately met with Donald Trump last month to discuss his company’s pending merger with Warner Bros. (Getty)

According to the offer, Paramount is bidding $30 per share, all of it in cash. Netflix’s offer, meanwhile, is $27.75 per share and a mix of cash and stock. Shareholders will also get a stake in the linear TV spinoff company that will split from Warner Bros. Discovery next year.

Because it is a tender offer, Netflix will have to convince Warner Bros. Discovery stockholders to accept this deal rather than the Netflix deal approved by the WBD board. To make his case, Ellison has launched a website outlining the Paramount deal and arguing that it is better for Hollywood and the media landscape.

During the White House confab in mid-November, which reportedly lasted for two hours, Sarandos argued that Netflix wasn’t an “all-powerful monopoly” and had even suffered subscription losses in recent years, adding that merging with WBD would make the company about the size of YouTube.

Bloomberg also reported that the president told Sarandos that Warner Bros. should go to the highest bidder, leaving the impression that Netflix wouldn’t face immediate pushback from the White House. The acquisition will combine the streaming pioneer with Warner’s film and television studios, including HBO and HBO Max, and give it access to WBD’s popular franchises, such as Harry Potter and Game of Thrones.

Paramount chief David Ellison, meanwhile, had suggested throughout the sale process that he had the easiest regulatory path to seal the deal because of his and his father Larry Ellison’s ties to the president. The elder Ellison, who backed his son’s purchase of Paramount and would be heavily involved in the Warner merger, is the founder of Oracle and a close Trump ally.

Sarandos seemingly came out of the meeting feeling that he’d “received some sort of blessing by Trump,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. At the same time, based on Paramount’s presumption that it could likely underbid for Warner due to the Ellisons’ “Trump card,” Sarandos saw the opening for Netflix’s winning offer.

In the end, Netflix shocked the media and entertainment landscape when it agreed to buy Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion, most of it in cash. The agreement, which won’t close until after Discovery Global separates from WBD in late 2026, will see Netflix paying $27.75 per share to Warner stockholders.

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Paramlount chairman David Ellison has now launched a hostile takeover bid of (AFP/Getty)

The deal also includes a massive $5.8 billion breakup fee if government regulators do not approve the deal, above the $5 billion that Ellison had offered in Paramount’s latest proposal. Meanwhile, there are still a number of hurdles for Netflix to clear before the streaming giant can merge with one of Hollywood’s oldest and largest studios.

The deal, for instance, is contingent on WBD spinning off its declining cable television properties, which had been in the works before Warner CEO David Zaslaz put a “for sale” sign on the company. The standalone company Discovery Global, which will not be under the Netflix umbrella, will include cable news network CNN, TNT Sports, TBS and Discovery, along with streaming and digital properties Bleacher Report and Discovery+. The spinoff is scheduled for the third quarter of 2026.

Additionally, the merger is facing vocal opposition from Hollywood’s powerful labor unions, including the Writers Guild of America West and Writers Guild of America East. “The world’s largest streaming company swallowing one of its biggest competitors is what antitrust laws were designed to prevent,” the WGA said in a statement. “This merger must be blocked.”

On top of that, Paramount has now implemented “Plan B” and is going directly to Warner Bros. shareholders in an effort to launch a hostile takeover.

“We believe our offer will create a stronger Hollywood,” Ellison wrote on Monday. “It is in the best interests of the creative community, consumers and the movie theater industry. We believe they will benefit from the enhanced competition, higher content spend and theatrical release output, and a greater number of movies in theaters as a result of our proposed transaction. We look forward to working to expeditiously deliver this opportunity so that all stakeholders can begin to capitalize on the benefits of the combined company.”

Paramount’s executives have already been in DC lobbying against Netflix, and Ellison hinted at the strategy in a blistering letter to the Warner Bros. board last week, which was sent just before the Netflix deal was announced.

“It has become increasingly clear, through media reporting and otherwise, that WBD appears to have abandoned the semblance and reality of a fair transaction process, thereby abdicating its duties to stockholders, and embarked on a myopic process with a predetermined outcome that favors a single bidder,” the letter to the board stated, adding that the bidding process had become “tilted and unfair.”

Finally, though Sarandos may have left his meeting with Trump with renewed confidence, the unpredictable Trump could still step in and try to kill the deal. Speaking to reporters ahead of Sunday’s Kennedy Center Honors, the president signaled that he could still intervene in the sale of Warner Bros. to Netflix.

Though he praised Netflix as a “great company” and Sarandos as a “fantastic man,” all while confirming that he’d recently met with the Netflix chief, the president said that the combined size of the two companies “could be a problem” and he might have to step in.

“I have a lot of respect for him, but it’s a lot of market share, so we’ll have to see what happens,” Trump said, adding: “They have a very big market share and when they have Warner Bros, you know, that share goes up a lot, so, I don’t know. I’ll be involved in that decision, too. But they have a very big market share.”

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NEED TO KNOW

• Kate Middleton invited guests from around the U.K. to her “Together at Christmas” carol service
• The Princess of Wales included some people from one of her newest causes, Ty Hafan in South Wales
• It was the fifth year that the Princess of Wales held the carol service

Kate Middleton’s fifth carol service was a “really special” moment for uniting everyone from those the royals have worked with this year, to rewarding charitable community work.

A guest among the 1,600-strong congregation tells PEOPLE that seeing Princess Kate, 43, and her husband, Prince William, and their three children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, walk in and take their seats amid the grandeur of Westminster Abbey on Dec. 5, was “monumental.”

Emily Taylor, who had been invited along with her husband, James, to help represent kids’ hospice Tŷ Hafan in South Wales, watched from a few pews back as the Prince and Princess of Wales, both 43, arrived and took their seats.

“It was one of those moments when you’re trying to take everything in. To actually see the Prince and the Princess and their children walking in together in these grand surroundings. It felt so monumental. I was just trying to take it all in,” Emily tells PEOPLE.

“You see them, and they are a parent and their children. You just realize they are just humans, a mum and a dad with their children,” she adds.

Princess Kate arriving at the Together at Christmas carol service at Westminster Abbey, London on Dec. 5, 2025.

Jordan Pettitt – Pool/Getty

Emily, whose daughter Violet had a rare genetic disorder called TBCK Syndrome and died at 11 months old in August 2023, joined a small group from Tŷ Hafan children’s hospice in Wales, including fellow parents Candice Jones and Anton Griffiths. The two couples had met Princess Kate in January when she visited the hospice and was announced as the new royal patron.

“I got the impression [that] they cared about the community and the people who were there. They have got two boys and a little girl. Me and Candice both said it was bittersweet for us. We have two boys, and we lost our little girl,” Emily adds. “There is that connection with them. To even have the invite and then to be in the presence of them as a family was really special.”

The poignancy continued throughout the performances and special renditions and readings, she says – including Love Actually actor Chiwetel Ejiofor’s rendition of “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” or T’was The Night Before Christmas. “I was thinking to myself, how has my life ended up here? The reason I was there was because of my daughter and how sad that is that happened but how grateful I was to be there,” Emily says. “So there were lots of different emotions.”

Princess Kate meeting (from left) Candice Jones and Anton Griffiths, Emily and James Taylor at Tŷ Hafan in Jan. 2025.

Andrew Parsons / Kensington Palace

Also at the event was Eugene Levy, who had William as a guest on an October episode of his Apple TV series The Reluctant Traveler, and Ted Lasso star Hannah Waddingham. Kate, William and their staff had invited them, and many others whom they met and worked with over the last 12 months, to recognize the humanitarian and selfless work carried out in the communities around the U.K. “They cared about the community and the people who were there,” Emily says.

“It was lovely to be able to sit there and see all the different people, all the charities and organizations, and you could make all the connections why that person has been invited,” she adds. “All those people who have brought kindness — all these people from all the different backgrounds and reasons for being there. It was just really special to have everyone come together.”

Since Princess Kate became a patron of the hospice on the South Wales coast near Cardiff, she has had an awareness-raising impact, Emily says. “She shines such a spotlight on Tŷ Hafan. Back before I needed them, I was a family in South Wales. I had children. But I didn’t understand. To me, children didn’t die, so you didn’t need a children’s hospice.”

Princess Kate with, from left, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis at Westminster Abbey, London on Dec. 5, 2025.

Andrew Parsons / Kensington Palace

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“Children with life limiting conditions just wasn’t my world. Her being the patron has given that recognition that Tŷ Hafan needed.”

She adds, “People still ask me about meeting her back in January and talk about that day. It all feels so fresh. To have that with Candice and Anton as well, who we have been with from the start since our girls were poorly. I’m just really grateful that Tŷ Hafan has got that, and we were able to tell her about Tŷ Hafan, as I can’t ever repay what they did for Violet and for us, so it was nice to have the chance in some small way tell her exactly what they have done.”

PEOPLE’s updated Christmas at the Palace edition is now available!

People Magazine, Christmas at the Palace.

People Magazine

Princess Kate penned a special letter for guests, reminding them of how simple acts of kindness can have an enormous positive impact.

“This carol service offers a moment of collective togetherness, a chance to celebrate the spirit of community and service, and to honour the visible and invisible bonds that unite us all,” the royal said. “The time, care and compassion you give, often quietly and unspoken, and without any expectation or recognition, make an extraordinary difference to the lives of others.”

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Naijil Paul has been sentenced to almost 8 years in jail after the former care home manager was extradited to the UK from India following his sickening crimes



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