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Former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernández freed after Trump pardon TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernández, sentenced last year to 45 years in prison for his role in a drug trafficking operation that moved hundreds of tons of cocaine to the United States, was released from prison following a pardon from President Donald Trump, officials confirmed Tuesday. https://apnews.com/article/honduras-us-hernandez-trump-pardon-099332ff4b81bafa3a32c642368ca665?

Why Blowhard Pentagon Pete Just Put Himself in the Crosshairs White House efforts to defend Pete Hegseth have stirred up a hornet’s nest of real life warriors. Pete Hegseth says he is all about the “warrior ethos.” As a Jewish guy from New Jersey, I am far better equipped to discuss the worrier ethos. This explains why I was from the get-go deeply concerned about Trump appointing a Fox News mannekin to run the Department of Defense. And it is now why, if I were Hegseth, I’d be worried about being able to hang on to that job much longer. Ironically, it now seems likely that it’s folks with real warrior ethos coming for the poseur who is their boss–precisely because he’s too chickensh-t to take responsibility for his own terrible judgment. You could tell that Pentagon Pete was going to be a disaster from the start. Having never run anything successfully in his life, he was completely unequipped for the job—one of the toughest in the world. His prior track record in business was, to put it politely, undistinguished; he was coming to the Capitol from the Island of Broken Media Toys where, despite competition that consisted primarily of failed beauty queens and the kind of loudmouthed blowhards you would move far away from at a bar, he had not made the cut to be even a weekday afternoon anchor. No, he handled weekend duties, the equivalent of a military command assignment in Greenland—before it became a cool MAGA tourist destination. Worse, we already knew what it might all mean if he ever got the kind of power he now has having read his book. This book, The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free, essentially lays out why Hegseth had spent a chunk of his career defending and actively advocating on behalf of soldiers accused of committing war crimes. It makes clear he feels that international law and the U.S. Uniform Code of Military Justice are just ‘woke’ obstacles to the murdering and maiming that real killing machines are entitled to once they put on the uniform of the United States. In fact, one of the first things Hegseth did when he got to his big office on the third floor in the E Ring of the Pentagon was to fire a bunch of the military’s JAG officers—lawyers whose job it was to keep DoD operations within the bounds of the law. In the months since assuming his role, Hegseth has been a serial disaster. Some of his greatest hits have included revealing sensitive information about battle plans on a messaging app, alienating many of his own staff to the point that’ve left their posts, banning Defense Department employees from speaking at think tanks in other forums where they could interact with experts and, infamously, convening top military brass to Quantico for a lecture on why they should not have beards. Oh, and he also happily signed off on President Trump’s efforts to deploy the military to cities across the U.S. Another place, of course, where massive military assets have been deployed has been the Caribbean, notably off the coast of Venezuela. Never mind that there was neither a war nor a threat to U.S. national security anywhere in the vicinity; Trump has been aching to invade somewhere since before he took office. Greenland, Canada and Panama had all been on the list at one time or another. Hegseth has been happy to play along. When that plan grew to include sinking small speedboats that were alleged, without evidence, to be carrying drugs, Hegseth was all for it. (Trump, Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and co. have created an elaborate argument that somehow the boats are part of a massive “narco-terrorist” operation linked to Venezuela’s president Nicolas Maduro, and demand military intervention.) Others, including the combatant commander of the U.S. Southern Command, were not. He quit. Hegseth, like the White House, has been proudly boasting about the military prowess involved in our war against these powerboats, never mind that it pits relatively tiny vessels against the full might of the U.S. Navy—including a carrier battle group led by the most advanced aircraft carrier in the world, the USS Gerald R. Ford. The Washington Post has reported that Hegseth was so hands-on with these attacks—which have claimed over 80 lives—that when overhead surveillance images following an early strike revealed survivors amid the wreckage, he gave the order to “kill them all.” The order, and the murders that followed, are precisely the kind of illegal action Democratic lawmakers had warned that U.S. military officers were obligated by law and their oaths not to follow. Unfortunately for Hegseth, this incident very quickly ceased to be seen as partisan. Republican lawmakers have now joined in calls for investigations into what happened and whether Hegseth really did issue the fatal command. Trump has denied, in an interview on Air Force One, that this was the case—but also, tellingly, indicated that he wouldn’t have issued the order in question either. And the White House now, according to a follow-up Post story, looks like it is trying to shift the blame for the incident to the military commander who was carrying out Hegseth’s orders. Unfortunately, for Hegseth, the Post story makes it very clear that top military brass are not going to stand for the scapegoating. That is in part true because of Hegseth’s record to date. But it is also because the guy who Pentagon Pete is trying to hide behind is the real deal, with a career that has won him deep respect among his colleagues. His name is Admiral Frank Bradley and he is a former Navy SEAL and currently the head of U.S. Special Operations Command. In other words, he’s the kind of guy Hegseth supposedly admires and emulates. But now, at the first sign of incoming fire from the D.C. press corps, senior military officials are worried he’s a figure Trump, Hegseth and the White House are perfectly ready to sacrifice. Collateral damage. Trump has reportedly considered letting Hegseth go several times over the past year, dating back to the leak of battle intelligence via that Signal group chat with a journalist. While the White House’s defense of Hegseth may suggest he is not ready to pull the plug on his Secretary of Defense at the moment, the military leaks to the press and bipartisan calls for further investigations suggest that the party may soon be over for the frat boy atop our military establishment. Will that happen in the middle of the illegal war with Venezuela that appears to be looming? Perhaps not. But given that invading Venezuela for no defensible reason is also likely to trigger many in Trump’s “America First” base; given that all the attacks on the alleged “drug smuggling” speedboats are likely to be violations of the law; and given that Hegseth has now stirred up a hornet’s nest of real-life warriors, it also seems likely that Trump, who never assumes responsibility for any problem, is going to need a fall guy. And that, for the first time in his checkered career, is a role for which Hegseth was tailor-made. https://www.thedailybeast.com/pete-hegseths-reckless-drug-boat-strikes-put-his-future-squarely-in-the-crosshairs/?

December 3, 2025 The current issue(December 2025) of the Adventist Journey, contained ain interesting article by Paul Douglas, titled "Mission Emphasis Informs Treasurer's Report at Annual Council, beginning on page 6. * It reported that on a worldwide basis 35.7% of the tithe was used for pastoral support, and 29.2% was used for operational expenses. * on a basis of a worldwide median calculation, 30.7% was used for operational support and 36.4% for pastoral support. My understanding of the above leads me to conclude that we need to restructure our use of tithe, reduce our operational expenses and increase our support of pastoral ministry. I would want to work to reduce our operational expenses to no more than 50% of that provided to pastoral support . In other words, 2/3 of tithe to pastoral ministry and 1/3 to operational, at the most. It would be a good start. I do not believe that we need to have every aspect of our organizational structure on every level of the organized Church. AAs an example, I can agree that we need to have ACM and Religious Liberty represented on the Division level. But, I do not think it is needed on the GC level. Yes, I know that people can always fine "busy work" to do. Further, think that we may need to re-think exactly what is needed at the levels that we establish organizational support. IOWs, we may, at some levels, be spinning our wheels in not providing exactly the support that is needed. But, that is for another time and discussion.

Pentagon Pete Throws Elite Commander to the Wolves Over ‘Illegal’ Order Hegseth is deflecting blame for the lethal strikes on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean earlier this year. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the White House shifted responsibility for controversial strikes on an alleged Venezuelan drug boat to a decorated Navy admiral. The second of the September strikes in the Caribbean has been called “illegal” by some because of how two survivors were seen clinging to the vessel, but were then killed, according to The Washington Post. While Hegseth has been criticized after the Post claimed the embattled 45-year-old authorized an elite military force to kill all those on board, those in Trump’s orbit are beginning to shift responsibility. Hegseth on Monday night said that Frank Mitchell Bradley, the commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command, “is an American hero, a true professional, and has my 100% support.” Hegseth claimed Bradley made the “combat decisions” during the attack. “I stand by him and the combat decisions he has made — on the September 2 mission and all others since,“ Hegseth, 45, wrote on X. ”America is fortunate to have such men protecting us. When this @DeptofWar says we have the back of our warriors — we mean it." Among Bradley’s decorations are the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, and the Combat Action Ribbon. An Afghanistan War veteran, he held several military command roles before assuming his current position in early October. Bradley, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday, was authorized by Hegseth to conduct the Sept. 2 strikes. “Secretary Hegseth authorized Admiral Bradley to conduct these kinetic strikes. Admiral Bradley worked well within his authority and the law directing the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed and the threat to the United States of America was eliminated,” Leavitt said. “This administration has designated these narco terrorists as foreign terrorist organizations.” Yet critics of the strikes have come from both sides of the aisle. “The idea that wreckage from one small boat in a vast ocean is a hazard to marine traffic is patently absurd, and killing survivors is blatantly illegal,” Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton, a Democrat, told the Washington Post, which first reported on the order to “kill everybody” on board. “Mark my words: It may take some time, but Americans will be prosecuted for this, either as a war crime or outright murder.” Meanwhile, attorney and conservative commentator Andrew McCarthy wrote for National Review that if the Post’s report was correct, what had happened was “at best, a war crime under federal law.” “I say ‘at best’ because, as regular readers know, I believe the attacks on these suspected drug boats — without congressional authorization, under circumstances in which the boat operators pose no military threat to the United States, and given that narcotics trafficking is defined in federal law as a crime rather than as terrorist activity, much less an act of war — are lawless and therefore that the killings are not legitimate under the law or armed conflict," McCarthy argued. On Monday night, Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy said Hegseth was clearly “passing the buck.” “He sort of sees the freight train that is coming, right, that both Republicans and Democrats are coming to the conclusion that this was an illegal, wildly immoral act,” he told CNN’s Erin Burnett. “And he is shifting the blame. It‘s the opposite of the buck stops here. And boy, it‘s a chilling signal to everyone in the chain of command that the secretary of defense does not have your back.” https://www.thedailybeast.com/pentagon-pete-throws-elite-commander-to-the-wolves-over-illegal-order/? ps:He's learned really well how to throw others under the bus!!

Why Trump’s Presidency Is All But Over: James Carville Democratic strategist James Carville is already writing President Trump’s political obituary. Democratic strategist James Carville says Donald Trump’s presidency is circling the drain as voters sour on him and his Cabinet’s fiascos—with more trouble on the horizon. “The power’s going out of Trump by the minute,” the famed strategist, 81, said on The Daily Beast Podcast. “You can just feel it oozing out.” A new Gallup poll released on Friday found Trump’s approval rating dropping to just 36 percent—the lowest mark he’s recorded in Gallup’s polls in his second term. “The public has turned on him. It turned on him decisively,” Carville told host Joanna Coles, arguing that voters are increasingly blaming the 79-year-old president for their economic woes. At the same time, Trump’s Cabinet, mired in a string of scandals, is fueling a sense of “disorder” around Trump, Carville said. “I don’t see how this gets better for them, I really don’t,” said the strategist behind Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign, and its winning slogan: “It’s the economy, stupid.” Carville pointed out that healthcare premiums are set to soar for more than 20 million people in the new year, a consequence of Trump and the GOP’s refusal to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies. Noting Trump’s “catastrophic” numbers, Carville said, “I don’t know how much lower you can go. I think his presidency, in terms of, like, anything significantly done, is over.”He predicted that Democrats would ride Trump’s missteps to 2026 midterm victories and leave him a lame duck president. “He’s going to definitely deal with a Democratic House. I think it’s more likely that he’ll be dealing with a Democratic Senate.” Carville pointed to the scope of Democrats’ Nov. 4 victories in states across the country, calling the results “stunning, not just in the depth, but the breadth of it.” Last week, Carville declared in a New York Times opinion piece that Democrats must embrace a “platform of pure economic rage” to respond to the “economic pain” of the current era. “I am now an 81-year-old man and I know that in the minds of many, I carry the torch from a so-called centrist political era. Yet it is abundantly clear even to me that the Democratic Party must now run on the most populist economic platform since the Great Depression,” he wrote. Trump has so far struggled to deliver on his campaign promises to “vanish” inflation and “make America affordable again.” At the same time, he has presided over a weakening job market, and his erratic tariff strategy has hurt farmers and caused market volatility. He has also devoted himself to decorating the White House in gold and building a massive $300 million ballroom that he says he and his billionaire friends will pay for. In his piece for the Times, Carville said “the French Revolution is in the American wind.” Asked by Coles to elaborate on what he’d meant, Carville pointed to America’s skyrocketing economic inequality and Trump’s coziness with the billionaire class. “Young people see no future. They can’t imagine themselves ever buying a house. They can’t imagine themselves ever affording an education. Meanwhile, savers and old people have just run off with the whole stack,” Carville said, noting that Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill slashes Medicaid while giving tax breaks that overwhelmingly benefit wealthy Americans. “And the young people are going to see us, and they’re going to figure out that, ‘Hey, these people stole everything from us, so let’s go get our fair share.’ And that’s how unrest starts,” he said. “And the best thing to do is get ahead of it and try to even this thing out a little bit.” The White House did not immediately respond to the Daily Beast’s request for comment. https://www.thedailybeast.com/why-donald-trumps-presidency-is-all-but-over-james-carville/? ps:Obviously! If only because he can't run again!!

Donald Trump Posts Once a Minute in Unhinged Late-Night Spree The president went posting-crazy, even for him. Donald Trump has gone on a relentless Truth Social posting spree that is unhinged even by his standards. The 79-year-old spent Monday evening posting almost non-stop on his social media account, including regularly doubling up through what seemed to be an automatic quote-tweet of the post that immediately preceded the last, clogging his feed. Incredibly, Trump posted over 160 times between 7:09 p.m. ET and 11:57 p.m. ET, with most posts shared twice. At one point the president was firing off more than a post a minute. Most of the posts involved sharing MAGA-friendly content from right-wing sources including Fox News, YouTuber Benny Johnson, and broadcasters Scott Jennings and Alex Jones. The video Trump shared by conspiracy theorist Jones was a clip from his InfoWars program with the bizarre caption: “Michelle Obama may have used Biden’s autopen in the final days of his disastrous administration to pardon key individuals.” As part of his perpetual string of posts, Trump shared videos targeting his usual list of enemies: California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Gov. Tim Walz and Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, former presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, former FBI chief James Comey, former Attorney General Eric Holder, and Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff. One video Trump shared was headed “Make Christmas Great Again” and included footage of his acting role alongside Macaulay Culkin in 1992’s Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, while he broke up his clips of his enemies with one dedicated to his wife Melania.Before he went on his run of sharing other people’s content, Trump did fire off a few angry posts from his own hand.Trump continued his attack on Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, a former Navy captain and NASA astronaut whom the president called a “traitor” after he appeared with fellow Democratic lawmakers in a video reminding members of the Armed Forces and intelligence community they had a constitutional duty to refuse illegal orders. Trump called them the “Seditious Six” and even posted that the lawmakers had committed “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” On Monday, Trump ranted, “Mark Kelly and the group of Unpatriotic Politicians were WRONG to do what they did, and they know it!” He added, “I hope the people looking at them are not duped into thinking that it’s OK to openly and freely get others to disobey the President of the United States!” Trump shared videos of himself explaining his concept of “reverse migration,” which he launched after plotting an immigration blitz in the wake of the fatal Washington D.C. shooting last week in which the sole suspect is an Afghan national. The president also proudly shared the Thanksgiving video of him calling a female reporter “stupid” after she questioned him on when the Afghan suspect had been granted asylum in the U.S. Trump also lent his support for the push to release Tina Peters, a former Republican clerk from Colorado who was found guilty last year for her role in a scheme that aimed to prove Trump’s claims of mass voter fraud in 2020. She is serving a nine-year sentence in Colorado. While Trump has pardoned other allies, only Colorado’s Democratic governor has the power to pardon Peters. During his Monday night spree, Trump posted “Colorado, FREE TINA PETERS, NOW.” Earlier in the evening, he was watching Jesse Watters Primetime on Fox News, posting that the guest, former U.S. Army Special Forces member Jim Hanson, had done a “great job” discussing Trump’s “WAR AGAINST DRUGS!” The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment on the spree. https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-melts-down-in-unhinged-late-night-posting-spree/?

December 2, 2025 By Sam Sifton Good morning from New York City. Across southern Asia, typhoons and seasonal monsoon rains have produced severe flooding, killing at least 1,350 people. In Moscow, President Trump’s envoy is scheduled to meet with Vladimir Putin to talk about a peace proposal. And children who have a smartphone by age 12 are at higher risk of depression and obesity, according to a new study. We’ll get to the rest of the news below, including an interview with Joe Kahn, the executive editor of The Times. But before we do, I’d like to look at Trump’s recent pardon for Juan Orlando Hernández — a former president of Honduras who was convicted in the United States of a vast drug-trafficking conspiracy that prosecutors said raked in millions. It helps explain Trump’s novel use of his clemency powers. President Trump Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times Pardon power It is difficult to sketch a philosophy of Trump’s use of presidential pardon power. As my colleague Tyler Pager told me yesterday afternoon, most administrations come up with a process for these things. “With Trump, it often comes down to winning him over — or at least his family or closest advisers.” he said. “And because there are many ways to get in his good graces — donating to his political committees, helping fund the construction of the White House ballroom, having one of his friends vouch for you — there is a cottage industry of lawyers and lobbyists seeking to exploit those avenues.” And so Trump has given clemency to political supporters like Michael Grimm and George Santos, two New York Republicans who pleaded guilty to financial crimes. He has pardoned lawyers who advised him on his 2020 campaign and tried to reverse the results of that election. He has pardoned donors and even the child of a donor, commuting the sentence of Paul Walczak, a tax-evading owner of nursing homes, after Walczak’s mother raised millions for Trump. Changpeng Zhao, NBA YoungBoy, Paul Walczak and Michael Grimm. Grant Hindsley for The New York Times, Graham Dickie for The New York Times, Bill Ingram/Imagn Images, Seth Wenig/AP He has pardoned stars of reality television who defrauded banks of millions of dollars; the hip-hop artist NBA YoungBoy, who possessed a gun despite a felony conviction; and two commercial divers from Florida who freed sharks hooked by fishermen. (They said they were rescuing the sharks from an illegal poaching operation. The jury didn’t buy it.) And he has pardoned those who benefited his family, such as Changpeng Zhao, who let his crypto platform be used for child sex abuse, drug trafficking and terrorism. (You could file that under Enemies of My Enemies as well. Joe Biden’s team convicted Zhao as it sought to limit the illicit uses of cryptofinance. When Trump issued his pardon, the White House press secretary said, “The Biden administration’s war on crypto is over.”) A kingpin Some of those decisions track with Trump’s larger political aims — to oppose strict gun measures or aggressive I.R.S. enforcement, for instance. But the pardon over the weekend for Honduras’s former president exposes a contradiction, Tyler said. Juan Orlando Hernández Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Since late August, the United States has built up a military presence in the Caribbean, it says, to battle drug cartels in the region. It has rained ordnance down on more than 20 boats it says are smuggling drugs there, killing more than 80 people. It calls Venezuela’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, a cartel boss. (The administration says it is engaged in formal armed conflict with the cartels. Members of Congress from both parties are skeptical.) On Saturday, Trump declared the airspace above and surrounding Venezuela “CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY.” And then, on Friday afternoon, “a Full and Complete Pardon” for Hernández. The juxtaposition, Tyler wrote the other day, “displayed a remarkable dissonance in the president’s strategy, as he moved to escalate a military campaign against drug trafficking while ordering the release of a man prosecutors said had taken ‘cocaine-fueled bribes’ from cartels and ‘protected their drugs with the full power and strength of the state.’” I asked Tyler about that yesterday. What’s remarkable about the pardon, he told me, is how directly it appears to contradict one of the main goals of the administration. Related: Trump said the U.S. would “not be throwing good money” at Honduras if his favored candidate didn’t win an election there. THE LATEST NEWS International In Indonesia. Binsar Bakkara/Associated Press Sri Lanka and Indonesia are experiencing the worst of flooding in the region, with millions of people affected. Climate change has made the monsoon season worse. See photos from the region. Trump’s negotiator Steve Witkoff is expected to meet with Putin today in Moscow and present Putin with a peace proposal that American and Ukrainian officials recently discussed. El Chapo’s son pleaded guilty to charges that included the abduction of his father’s former cartel partner. Britain agreed to pay more for drugs, after Trump complained that wealthy countries paid too little for them. Hong Kong officials said contractors at the apartment complex where a fire killed more than 150 people had blanketed buildings with substandard scaffold netting and then tried to hide it from inspectors. In Hong Kong. Lam Yik Fei for The New York Times Boat Strikes The Trump administration defended the legality of a Sept. 2 attack on a boat in the Caribbean as calls grew in Congress to examine whether a follow-up missile strike to kill survivors amounted to a war crime. Officials said Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered a lethal attack but did not specifically order a follow-up attack to kill survivors. More on Politics Alina Habba Kenny Holston/The New York Times A federal judge said the U.S. attorney Trump appointed for New Jersey, Alina Habba, was in the job unlawfully. Her case could reach the Supreme Court. There’s a special election today to fill a vacant House seat in Tennessee. New rules unveiled since an Afghan national was accused of shooting two National Guard members have radically changed immigration policy. They could upend the status of as many as 1.5 million migrants with pending asylum cases in the country. The Trump administration revoked the accreditation of thousands of training centers for truck drivers as it tries to limit noncitizens in the trucking industry. MEET JOE KAHN Joe Kahn, the executive editor of The Times, leads our newsroom of more than 2,000 journalists. We recently asked readers for questions about his work and our coverage. Patrick Healy, an assistant managing editor, put them to Joe. Here are some excerpts from their chat. Patrick: Joe, most of our reader questions were about President Trump. Some readers want us to call the president a fascist; others want us to portray him as a patriot. There’s a desire out there for us to referee the news. How do you navigate all of that? Joe: Readers already have access to a vast amount of opinion and commentary on the internet that can validate their worldviews. That’s not our role. Our approach is to report deeply and thoroughly, surface facts and a range of perspectives on the news, help people understand the world and deliver accountability journalism on issues of public concern. Sometimes that means presenting people with information and ideas that challenge their own preconceptions and beliefs. We regularly scrutinize Trump’s questionable assertions of power and his disregard for democratic or legal norms. That kind of reporting is a more important service than applying labels. Some readers feel that our coverage is biased toward Israel. Others see it as pro-Palestinian. Some critics say we’re mouthpieces for Hamas. Others appreciate our reporting. How do you think about those conflicting reactions? The core principles of our journalists in the region, like any other, are reporting widely, covering the news, putting events in context and doing in-depth investigative work for a broad and diverse global audience. Good news reporting isn’t aimed at either pleasing or displeasing partisans. Our focus is on producing journalism that matters to understanding a divisive, complicated story more fully, regardless of a reader’s personal point of view. We do come under intense scrutiny and often are accused of having a bias in favor of one side or another in that conflict. Some critics tend to assume that if we’re not clearly on their side, we must be on the other side. But when passions run high, producing an authoritative account of the facts, relevant to the broadest possible audience, has even greater value. What keeps you up at night? The most challenging part of the job is producing an independent news report when some readers really want a more partisan one. We’re committed to independent journalism, unencumbered by ties to political parties, government, corporations or private interests, at a time when partisanship seems more intense than ever. Our readers of course have their own beliefs and loyalties, and some want to see more coverage that aligns with their views. To practice independent journalism, you need a thick skin. Read the whole exchange here. OPINIONS Today is Giving Tuesday, an annual celebration of charitable giving. To mark the day, the Opinion section has put together this guide. The Times’s Community Fund, a charity that distributes 100 percent of donations, is back. This year, it’s focused on education, the editorial board writes. Nicholas Kristof is giving to charities in Africa and Asia. Lydia Polgreen is donating cash directly to those in need. David French asks you support a Chicago ministry that provides care for immigrants. Frank Bruni is giving to an organization that trains assistance dogs for disabled people. Morning readers: Save on the complete Times experience. Experience all of The Times, all in one subscription — all with this introductory offer. You’ll gain unlimited access to news and analysis, plus games, recipes, product reviews and more. MORNING READS Peter Fisher for The New York Times ‘A race against time’: Much of the nation’s musical legacy has been recorded on magnetic tape, which was used regularly from the 1940s into the digital age. But as those analog strips age, they grow fragile. Now one audio engineer, using unconventional machinery, is trying to save as much as he can. Your pick: The most clicked link in yesterday’s newsletter was about the 50 best clothing stores in the U.S. A preacher: Reginald T. Jackson, a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, used his church’s political power to encourage voting and promote civil rights. He died at 71. TODAY’S NUMBER 120 — That’s the weight, in pounds, of this year’s official White House gingerbread house. SPORTS Softball: Maya Brady, the niece of Tom Brady, was chosen first in the Athletes Unlimited Softball League draft on Monday. She will join the Oklahoma City Spark for the league’s second season in 2026. College football: The 25-year-old rapper Nau’Jour Grainger, who goes by the stage name Toosii, has committed to play football at Syracuse. RECIPE OF THE DAY Christopher Testani for The New York Times Here’s a recipe for a sausage rice casserole to make this evening and feast on for the rest of the week. It calls for country-style pork sausage. That’s breakfast sausage for many of us. Fried, then cooked with celery, bell pepper and onion before mixing with spices, rice and chicken stock, the sausage adds a silky gloss to the rice. The dish evokes last week’s Thanksgiving stuffings, but it’s more substantial, more delicate, more fragrant, more awesome. Please do not stint on the nutmeg. It’s the secret ingredient! THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR The New York Times The New York Times Book Review has unveiled its 10 best books of 2025. The list is the product of a full year of reading and what you might call vigorous discussion among the Book Review editors. (You can hear them chop it up about all the nominees on the latest episode of the “Book Review” podcast.) Take a look at the list. Which have you read? Which do you want to read? To accompany the list, our critic A.O. Scott went deep on one of the fiction winners, with a very close read of a single long paragraph in “The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny,” by Kiran Desai. In bringing the paragraph alive, he helps us understand not just the dazzling excellence of Desai’s prose about the star-crossed lovers of the title, but its purpose. “The point of fiction is to assert that the world is true,” A.O. writes, “and to remind us that it is vast, strange and astonishing.” Click the video below to see my colleagues talk about the list. The New York Times More on culture A memoir by the journalist Olivia Nuzzi, “American Canto,” is out today, as a scandal over her alleged romantic entanglements with politicians she covered, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., plays out in the press. The book is, in the words of our critic Alexandra Jacobs, “chapterless and scattershot,” “an attempted letter from Trump’s America in the style of a would-be Joan Didion (on Adderall rather than Elavil).” Not a rave. Here’s a saga for you: Sean Combs, formerly known as Diddy, asked a videographer to capture his final days before he was arrested on sex trafficking charges. In a twist, that footage has ended up in the hands of a team run by his longtime rival, 50 Cent — and is in a four-part series scheduled to drop on Netflix today. Combs’s lawyers are demanding Netflix cancel the release. “In the beginning were the Bible movies,” our critic Alissa Wilkinson writes. “As with films in any genre, their popularity has ebbed and flowed, but right now, it’s a flood.” To understand why, she argues, it helps to look at Hollywood history. The film industry has been telling us Bible stories since the start. Late night hosts defended Tim Walz, the Minnesota governor Trump criticized online for welcoming immigrants. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS New York Times Cooking Chop, bake and grill your way through the 14 best cookbooks of the year, chosen by my colleagues on New York Times Cooking. Embrace the holiday season and stream “Candy Cane Lane,” starring Eddie Murphy as a laid-off suburban family man whose obsession with winning the neighborhood’s lights and display contest leads him to strike a deal with a malevolent elf. It’s on Amazon Prime. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was downlink. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Sports Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. See you tomorrow. — Sam Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — The landmark federal antitrust trial against NASCAR opened Monday with three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin breaking down in tears minutes into his testimony as the first witness in a case that could upend the venerable stock car series. https://apnews.com/article/nacar-lawsuit-michael-jordan-be9ff391ece0891c69255af35c9d2b79?

Starbucks to pay $35M to NYC workers in settlement as ongoing strike draws pols to picket line NEW YORK (AP) — Starbucks will pay about $35 million to more than 15,000 New York City workers to settle claims it denied them stable schedules and arbitrarily cut their hours, city officials announced Monday, hours before Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders visited striking baristas on a picket line. https://apnews.com/article/starbucks-settlement-labor-law-wages-nyc-dfe280b1505fde8b23a847a342757155?

USA Gymnastics and Olympic sports watchdog failed to stop coach’s sexual abuse, lawsuits allege IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Two gymnasts who say they were sexually abused at an elite academy in Iowa filed lawsuits Monday against the sport’s oversight bodies, alleging they failed to stop Sean Gardner from preying on girls despite repeated complaints about the coach’s behavior. https://apnews.com/article/usa-gymnastics-safesport-gardner-chow-sex-abuse-ef927fb1d1813070d5cc820c6882fc44?

US-Russia talks on Ukraine were ‘constructive’ but work remains, Putin adviser says Talks between Russia and the U.S. on ending the nearly four-year war in Ukraine were constructive, but much work remains, Yuri Ushakov, a senior adviser to President Vladimir Putin, told reporters on Wednesday. https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-envoy-witkoff-zelenskyy-ireland-91d8a82058a80521f0f9491105fba8e1? ps:There shouldn't be any meetings unless both Russia and Ukraine are together in the room! Period!!

Palestinians in the West Bank fear more attacks by Israeli settlers During October’s olive harvest, settlers across the territory launched an average of eight attacks daily, according to the United Nations humanitarian office, the most since it began collecting data in 2006. The attacks continued in November. Read more. What to know: Settlers burned cars, desecrated mosques, ransacked industrial plants and destroyed cropland. Israeli authorities have done little beyond issuing occasional condemnations of the violence. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the attackers as a minority that did not represent most settlers in the West Bank. Palestinians and human rights workers say Israeli soldiers and police routinely fail to prosecute attacks by violent settlers. About 94% of all investigation files opened by Israeli police into settler violence from 2005 to 2024 ended without an indictment, according to Israeli rights group Yesh Din. RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Photos capture West Bank olive harvest as villagers fear more violence by Israeli settlers Israeli fire kills 4 Palestinians in Gaza and West Bank

White House says admiral ordered follow-up strike on alleged drug boat, insists attack was lawful The White House said Monday that a Navy admiral acted “within his authority and the law” when he ordered a second, follow-up strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean Sea in a September U.S. military operation that has come under bipartisan scrutiny. Read more. What to know: White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt offered the justification for the Sept. 2 strike as lawmakers announced there will be congressional review of the U.S. military strikes against vessels suspected of smuggling drugs in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific Ocean. The lawmakers cited a published report that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order for a second strike that killed survivors on the boat. Her explanation came after President Donald Trump a day earlier said he “wouldn’t have wanted that — not a second strike” when asked about the incident. Leavitt said Hegseth has spoken with members of Congress who may have expressed some concerns about the reports over the weekend. RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Experts explain what the law says about killing survivors of a boat strike Outlets that reach millions denied access to rare Pentagon news briefings this week Doctor says Trump had preventative screening MRI on heart, abdomen with ‘perfectly normal’ results Babson College supports student deported flying home for Thanksgiving surprise US air travelers without REAL IDs will be charged a $45 fee 2 conservative operatives get probation for robocalls to discourage Black Detroit voters in 2020 Indiana Republicans could win 2 more US House seats under a new proposed map GOP-led states settle lawsuit against federal government over checking citizenship status of voters WATCH: Melania Trump, Usha Vance assemble holiday care packages for US troops

THIS DAY IN HISTORY December 02 2001 Enron files for bankruptcy On December 2, 2001, the Enron Corporation files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a New York court, sparking one of the largest corporate scandals in U.S. history. An energy-trading company based in Houston, Texas, Enron was formed in 1985 as the merger of two gas companies, Houston Natural... read more Sponsored Content by REVCONTENT 21st Century 2006 649-day tree sit-in at the University of California, Berkeley begins American Revolution 1776 George Washington arrives at the banks of the Delaware 1777 Philadelphia midwife overhears British plans to attack Washington’s army Arts & Entertainment 1972 The Temptations earn their final #1 hit with “Papa Was A Rolling Stone” 1997 “Good Will Hunting” premieres Cold War 1954 Joseph McCarthy condemned by Senate 1961 Fidel Castro declares himself a Marxist-Leninist Crime 1991 William Kennedy Smith’s rape trial begins European History 1804 Napoleon crowned emperor Inventions & Science 1999 Researchers unravel the genetic code of an entire human chromosome Middle Eastern History 1971 The United Arab Emirates is formed Slavery 1859 Abolitionist John Brown is hanged U.S. Government and Politics 1970 Environmental Protection Agency opens U.S. Presidents 1823 Monroe Doctrine declared World War II 1942 Physicist Enrico Fermi produces the first nuclear chain reaction

Nearly a third of Florida professors looking for work in another state Citing state policy on tenure, elimination of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, and the cost of living, Florida faculty laid out their frustrations in a recent survey. https://floridaphoenix.com/2025/09/05/nearly-a-third-of-florida-professors-looking-for-work-in-another-state/? Florida Democratic House Leader calls plan to redraw congressional map ‘illegal’ President Donald Trump’s unprecedented plan to redraw state congressional maps to preserve the GOP’s narrow majority in the House ahead of the 2026 election has hit some bumps, but Republicans appear confident they can flip several Democratic seats in Florida, where the first steps in that process will begin this week. https://floridaphoenix.com/2025/12/01/florida-democratic-house-leader-calls-plan-to-redrawn-congressional-map-illegal/? ps:What are they afraid of? Do they not think that they can win?? Floridians who harm, sexually abuse animals near children could face 5 years in prison Criminals who persuade children to harm or sexually abuse animals could face up to five years in prison under a new bill filed with the support of Gov. Ron DeSantis. https://floridaphoenix.com/briefs/floridians-who-harm-sexually-abuse-animals-near-children-could-face-5-years-in-prison/? Florida Bar opens disciplinary file on a Miami Beach candidate The Florida Bar last week opened a disciplinary file on a Miami Beach City Commission candidate accused of defaming a local filmmaker who reported on her lasting affinity for her father, the serial killer inspiration for “Dexter” executed in 2012. https://floridaphoenix.com/2025/12/01/florida-bar-opens-disciplinary-file-on-daughter-of-executed-serial-killer-a-miami-beach-candidate/?

⚽ 1 for the road: U.S. Soccer's big plans Illustration: Gabriella Turrisi/Axios The U.S. Soccer Federation is undertaking ambitious and sprawling projects around next year's World Cup to boost the game from the youth ranks to the pros, AP reports. Why it matters: The organization's ultimate aim is to spread the sport at the youth level through school and community programs, expand fundraising efforts and position the U.S. professional leagues and national teams for future success. 🧠 Between the lines: The growth potential in the U.S. is enormous. This structural shift could reshape the talent pipeline. Soccer Forward, the federation's legacy project announced last year, has begun selling schools on expanded soccer programs and bringing mini-fields into communities where the sport doesn't have a big footprint. The last time the U.S. hosted the World Cup in 1994, the U.S. Soccer Federation built on the financial infusion and the public's excitement to help launch Major League Soccer two years later. Keep reading.

🗳️ Driving the day: Unlikely House battleground Tennessee's 7th Congressional District was designed just a few years ago to hand Republicans an easy win — but this year it has become an unlikely battleground with a credible Democratic candidate vying for an upset, Axios Nashville's Adam Tamburin writes. Why it matters: Republicans and Democrats alike are looking at today's special election for the seat as a critical bellwether heading into the 2026 midterms. Trump won the district by 22 points in 2024. But the race has gotten surprisingly tight, drawing national attention and a flurry of last-minute campaigning. The latest Emerson College poll shows Republican Matt Van Epps leading Democrat Aftyn Behn by only 2 points, within the margin of error. 👓 Between the lines: Democrats are emboldened by a wave of big wins in November that saw liberals of all stripes outperforming expectations across the country. Behn's campaign message has been laser-focused on affordability.

👀 Israel's strikes in Syria alarm Trump Via Truth Social The Trump administration is concerned that Israel's repeated strikes inside Syria — including on Friday — risk destabilizing the country and undermining hopes of an Israel–Syria security agreement, two senior U.S. officials tell Axios' Barak Ravid. "We are trying to tell Bibi he has to stop this because if it continues, he will self-destruct," one of those officials said, referring to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 🎨 The big picture: Supporting President Ahmed al-Sharaa's efforts to stabilize Syria and encouraging him to engage in a peace process with Israel are key elements of the Trump administration's Middle East strategy. President Trump and his team have repeatedly sided with Syria's government in disputes with Israel — the only country in the region for which that's the case. Keep reading.

👀 White House: Admiral, not Hegseth, directed hit Officials in Congress and the Pentagon "are increasingly concerned that the Trump administration intends to scapegoat the military officer" who directed a follow-up strike on two survivors of an attack on a suspected drug smuggling boat in the Caribbean, The Washington Post's Noah Robertson and Tara Copp report. Why it matters: Lawmakers have vowed to investigate whether a second strike during the Sept. 2 attack — the first of approximately 20 such strikes so far — could constitute a war crime. 🏛️ Admiral Frank "Mitch" Bradley, who White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said yesterday ordered the second strike, is expected to provide a classified briefing Thursday to key lawmakers overseeing the military. The Washington Post reported last week that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had given a spoken directive "to kill everybody" and that the commander "ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth's instructions." The story was murky about the timing of Hegseth's order. Five U.S. officials told the N.Y. Times that "Hegseth's directive did not specifically address what should happen if a first missile turned out not to fully accomplish all of those things. And, the officials said, his order was not a response to surveillance footage showing that at least two people on the boat survived the first blast." Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth via X Leavitt said yesterday that Bradley, the officer who oversaw the attack, "worked well within his authority and the law, directing the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed." Bradley is a Navy SEAL officer who is the commander of the U.S. Special Forces Command. Keep reading (gift link).

₿ Charted: Bitcoin's brutal stretch Data: CoinGecko. Chart: Axios Visuals Bitcoin is down nearly 32% from its all-time high of $126,080 in October, Axios' Pete Gannon and Madison Mills write. Why it matters: Crypto is proving to be the ultimate risk-on asset — a term for assets that attract investment when confidence is high. It has fallen hard at any sign of market trouble. ⚡ Bitcoin briefly dipped below $85,000 in yesterday's crypto rout. Early today, it was trading around $86,650.

📊 Mass killings hit lowest level in 19 years Bullet holes near the site of a mass shooting Saturday at a banquet hall in Stockton, Calif. Four people were killed, including children ages 8, 9 and 14. Photo: Jeff Chiu/AP A shooting this past weekend at a children's birthday party in Northern California, which left four dead, was America's 17th mass killing this year — the lowest number since 2006, according to a database maintained by AP and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University. Mass killings — incidents in which four or more people are killed in a 24-hour period, not including the killer — are down 24% this year compared to 2024, which was a 20% drop from 2023, AP reports. 82% of this year's mass killings involved a gun. 💡 Between the lines: Factors likely include an overall decline in homicide and violent crime rates, which peaked during COVID. Improvements in the immediate response to mass shootings and other mass casualty incidents could also be playing a part. 🎒 More states are funding school threat assessments, with 22 states mandating the practice in recent years, and that could be preventing some school shootings. None of this year's mass killings took place in schools. Only one mass killing at a school was recorded in 2024. Reality check: Experts warn the drop doesn't necessarily mean safer days are here to stay. The Gun Violence Archive says there have been 381 mass shootings so far this year — distinct from mass killings. James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University who manages the database, said the current drop is likely what statisticians call a "regression to the mean" — a return to more average crime levels after an unusual spike in mass killings in 2018 and 2019. James Densley, chair of criminology at Metro State University in Minnesota, warned that a small change in a year's data "could look like a wave or a collapse ... 2025 looks really good in historical context." Keep reading.

📝 Scoop: The letter behind Trump's pardon The opening paragraphs of Juan Orlando Hernandez's four-page letter to President Trump. From a U.S. prison cell, Honduras' ex-president secured a likely pardon for drug trafficking thanks to a letter he penned praising President Trump — whom he called "Your Excellency" — and a persistent lobbying campaign by longtime Trump pal Roger Stone, Axios' Marc Caputo writes. Why it matters: The surprise announcement of Juan Orlando Hernandez's looming pardon is a window into the unorthodox, norm-shattering way Trump grants clemency. Trump's announcement came just ahead of elections in Honduras, where the White House backed the right-wing National Party that Hernandez led as president from 2014 to 2022. 🔬 Zoom in: Shortly after Trump took office in January, Stone wrote three separate Substack posts calling for the pardon of Hernandez, who was indicted the day he left office in 2022 and extradited to the U.S. to face cocaine-trafficking and weapons charges. Stone cast Hernandez as a victim of leftist "lawfare" in Honduras and in President Biden's administration. 🥊 Stone told Caputo that on Friday, he reached out to Trump and reiterated those points. Stone claimed a pardon announcement would energize the right-wing party and called Trump's attention to Hernandez's four-page letter begging for clemency. Keep reading ... Read the letter.

Trump's purest form of power Photo illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios. Photo: Stephen Nadler/ISI Photos via Getty Images President Trump has embraced clemency as an expression of raw political power, seizing on a unique authority designed to go unchecked by Congress, the Constitution or the courts, Axios' Zachary Basu writes. Why it matters: No presidential power is more absolute than the pardon. And no president has wielded it more openly as a tool of personal and ideological loyalty than Donald Trump. 🔎 Zoom in: Trump's extraordinary move to pardon former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández — convicted last year of flooding the U.S. with tons of cocaine — is among the clearest examples yet. Prosecutors said Hernández, who led Honduras from 2014 to 2022, conspired with cartels to pave a "cocaine superhighway" into the U.S. — posing as an anti-drug conservative while running his country like a narco state. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called it a "clear Biden over-prosecution." Between the lines: The Hernández pardon fits squarely within Trump's view of justice — serious criminal conduct matters far less than whether the defendant pledges loyalty, flatters the president or aligns with his ideological project. While the right-wing Hernández walks free from his 45-year prison sentence, left-wing Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro — indicted on charges of narcoterrorism — faces the threat of a U.S. military invasion. 🔭 Zoom out: The dynamic extends to Trump's domestic orbit, where MAGA-friendly financiers, operatives and celebrity allies have had their convictions wiped away with the stroke of Trump's pen. Changpeng Zhao ("CZ"): The billionaire founder of crypto giant Binance was pardoned despite pleading guilty in 2023 to money laundering violations. Trump — whose family's crypto venture has ties to Binance — later claimed he did not know CZ, saying on "60 Minutes": "I heard it was a Biden witch hunt." George Santos: The disgraced former GOP congressman — convicted of defrauding donors and lying to the House — had his seven-year sentence commuted by Trump after spending less than three months in prison. Paul Walczak: Trump pardoned the former nursing home executive, who pleaded guilty to tax crimes, less than three weeks after his mother attended a $1 million-per-person fundraising dinner at Mar-a-Lago. A White House official claimed Walczak was "targeted by the Biden administration over his family's conservative politics." Fake electors: Trump granted sweeping pardons to Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows and more than 70 other allies tied to efforts to overturn the 2020 election, including the "alternate electors" scheme.

Global GLP-1 Guidance The World Health Organization yesterday issued its first-ever guidance on treating obesity with glucagon-like peptide-1 therapies, conditionally recommending the drug class for long-term use in nonpregnant adults alongside a healthy diet, regular exercise, and medical counseling. The guidance comes as global demand for drugs mimicking the hunger-curbing GLP-1 hormone has surged since 2021, when regulators began approving Wegovy (brand name for semaglutide) for weight loss. US spending on GLP-1 agonists reached $71.7B in 2023, an over 500% increase from 2018, when the drugs were primarily used to treat diabetes. A monthlong course in the US can cost upward of $1K, and the WHO estimates GLP-1 therapies will be inaccessible to over 90% of the more than 2 billion people projected to be affected by obesity in 2030. The WHO's guidance calls for expanded access through measures such as tiered pricing and urges strong oversight to curb the spread of counterfeit drugs.

Cox v. Sony The Supreme Court heard oral arguments yesterday in Cox Communications v. Sony Music—a case that could determine internet service providers’ level of responsibility for pirated content on their networks. In 2023, pirated movies and TV shows were downloaded nearly 19 billion times, costing the US economy more than $29B, per industry estimates. That same year, music piracy sites saw more than 17 billion visits. Most internet service providers are part of a voluntary alert system to crack down on piracy. Cox—the US’ third-largest broadband provider—is not. Entertainment companies say Cox's inaction has allowed customers to illegally distribute over 10,000 copyrighted works. In 2019, a jury sided with Sony, compelling Cox to pay $1B in damages. Cox is appealing the verdict, saying it should not be held liable for actions it does not take. The Supreme Court is expected to rule on the case by June of next year.