A New York intellectual and onetime liberal stalwart, his Commentary magazine became his platform as his political and social view turned sharply rightward.
President Trump praised his chief of staff as doing “a fantastic job,” and more than a dozen members of his cabinet have posted defenses of her on social media.
Didarul Islam and three others were killed when a gunman came to a Midtown skyscraper. The suit says the building had few physical barriers and lax surveillance.
US President Donald Trump has said he is ordering a "a total and complete" blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers going into and out of Venezuela.
In a post on Truth Social, he accused Venezuela of stealing US assets, such as oil and land, and of "Terrorism, Drug Smuggling, and Human Trafficking".
"Therefore, today, I am ordering A TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE OF ALL SANCTIONED OIL TANKERS going into, and out of, Venezuela," he added.
His post came a week after the US seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela – a move that marked a sharp escalation Washington's pressure campaign against Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro's government.
In the post, the US president said Venezuela was "completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America".
He added that it will "only get bigger" and "be like nothing they have ever seen before".
Trump also accused Maduro's government of using stolen oil to "finance themselves, Drug Terrorism, Human Trafficking, Murder, and Kidnapping".
Venezuela has not yet responded to Trump's latest remarks.
The Trump administration has repeatedly accused Venezuela of drug smuggling and since September the US military has killed at least 90 people in strikes on boats it has alleged were carrying fentanyl and other illegal drugs to the US.
In recent months, the US has also moved warships into the region.
Venezuela - home to some of the world's largest proven oil reserves - has, in turn, accused Washington of seeking to steal its resources.
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Watch: Prosecutor announces charges against Nick Reiner in parents' deaths
Prosecutors in Los Angeles have filed murder charges against a son of Rob and Michele Reiner, the Hollywood couple who were found dead in their home with multiple stab wounds on Sunday.
Nick Reiner, 32, is facing two counts of first-degree murder and could be sentenced to life in prison if found guilty. He will be brought to court to formally face charges after he is "medically-cleared" by prison officials, District Attorney Nathan Hochman said.
During a news conference on Tuesday, Mr Hochman also said no decision had yet been made about whether to seek the death penalty.
Rob Reiner directed several iconic films in a variety of genres, including This is Spinal Tap, Misery and A Few Good Men.
Michele Singer Reiner was an actress, photographer and producer, and the founder of Reiner Light, a photography agency and production company.
Their son Nick Reiner is facing two counts of first degree murder, "with a special circumstance of multiple murders," according to Hochman. That enhancement could lead to a stiffer sentence if he is later found guilty.
District Attorney Hochman said he also is accused of using a "dangerous and deadly weapon, that being a knife".
The suspect is currently undergoing medical testing to ensure that he can attend court. He is expected to appear before a judge later on Tuesday for an arraignment hearing, where he will be able to enter a plea of guilty or not guilty.
LA Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell also spoke during the news conference, describing how the case has reverberated throughout the city.
"This case is heartbreaking and deeply personal, not only for the Reiner family and their loved ones, but for the entire city," he said.
"We extend our deepest condolences to everyone affected by this tragedy."
Getty Images
Nick Reiner (right) is accused of killing his two parents
During the news conference, officials declined to say how the suspect was located, attributing his arrest to "good, solid police work".
District Attorney Hochman added that it is too early to say whether any "mental illness" played a role in the crime, and speculated that it could come up at trial.
"If there is evidence of mental illness, it will appear in court, in whatever details the defence seeks to present," he said.
President Donald Trump has expanded a US travel ban, barring nationals of five additional countries and people travelling on Palestinian Authority-issued documents from entering the US.
The White House said the restrictions were intended "to protect the security of the United States" and will come into force on 1 January.
Full-entry restrictions will be imposed on people from Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, South Sudan and Syria as well as Palestinian Authority passport holders.
The administration also moved Laos and Sierra Leone, which were previously subject to partial restrictions, to the full ban list and put partial restrictions on 15 other countries, including Nigeria, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.
Trump, who has tightened immigration controls since returning to the White House in January, said the expanded travel ban was necessary because of what his administration described as failures in screening and vetting systems overseas.
Officials cited high visa overstay rates, unreliable civil records, corruption, terrorist activity and a lack of cooperation in accepting deported nationals.
The announcement followed the arrest of an Afghan national suspected of shooting two National Guard troops over the Thanksgiving weekend, an incident the White House pointed to in highlighting its security concerns.
This is the third time Trump has imposed a travel ban.
During his first term, he introduced a similar order in 2017, which sparked protests and legal challenges at home and abroad. The policy was later upheld by the US Supreme Court.
The White House said the restrictions would remain in place until affected countries show "credible improvements" in identity management, information-sharing and cooperation with US immigration authorities.
A number of exceptions apply and the ban will not affect lawful permanent residents, many existing visa holders, diplomats, or athletes travelling for major sporting events. Officials said case-by-case waivers would also be available where travel is deemed to be in the national interest.
Countries with full restrictions:
Afghanistan
Burkina Faso
Burma
Chad
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Haiti
Iran
Laos
Libya
Mali
Niger
Republic of the Congo
Sierra Leone
Somalia
South Sudan
Sudan
Syria
Yemen
Individuals travelling on Palestinian Authority issued or endorsed travel documents are also subject to a full suspension of entry
Partial restrictions:
Angola
Antigua and Barbuda
Benin
Burundi
Côte d'Ivoire
Cuba
Dominica
Gabon
The Gambia
Malawi
Mauritania
Nigeria
Senegal
Tanzania
Togo
Tonga
Venezuela
Zambia
Zimbabwe
Special case:
Turkmenistan (restrictions remain for immigrants but have been lifted for non-immigrant visas)
The European Union has watered down its plans to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles by 2035.
Current rules state that new vehicles sold from that date should be "zero emission", but carmakers, particularly in Germany, have lobbied heavily for concessions.
Under the European Commission's new plan, 90% of new cars sold from 2035 would have to be zero-emission, rather than 100%.
According to the European carmakers association, ACEA, market demand for electric cars is currently too low, and without a change to the rules, manufacturers would risk "multi-billion euro" penalties.
The remaining 10% could be made up of conventional petrol or diesel cars, along with hybrids.
Carmakers will be expected to compensate for the extra emissions created by these vehicles by using biofuels and so-called e-fuels, which are synthesised from captured carbon dioxide.
They will also be expected to use low-carbon steel made in the European Union in the vehicles they produce.
Opponents of the move have warned that it risks undermining the transition towards electric vehicles and leaving Europe exposed in the face of foreign competition.
The green transport group T&E has warned that the UK should not follow the EU's lead by weakening its own plans to phase out the sale of conventional cars under the Zero Emission Vehicles Mandate.
"The UK must stand firm. Our ZEV mandate is already driving jobs, investment and innovation into the UK. As major exporters we cannot compete unless we innovate, and global markets are going electric fast", said T&E UK's director Anna Krajinska.
Susie Wiles is the first woman to hold the key office of Chief of Staff at the White House
White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles has disputed portions of a Vanity Fair article in which she paints an unflattering picture of the Trump administration and many of its top officials.
In the interview, Wiles described Donald Trump as having an "alcoholic's personality" and Vice President JD Vance as having been a "conspiracy theorist" for a decade.
But in a post on X, Wiles said that Vanity Fair disregarded "significant context" to create "an overwhelmingly chaotic and negative narrative" about the administration.
Wiles, 68, played a key part in Trump's successful 2024 presidential campaign before becoming the first woman to be White House Chief of Staff.
Over the course of nearly a dozen interviews with Vanity Fair, Wiles talked about a wide range of issues, including handling of Epstein files, Trump's legal actions against politcal rivals, and also about personalities around the president.
She admitted that "there may be an element of" retribution in Trump's efforts to pursue criminal cases against political adversaries or perceived foes.
"I don't think he wakes up thinking about retribution," she added. "But when there's an opportunity, he will go for it."
Wiles is widely considered among the most powerful members of the Trump White House in his second term.
Prior to becoming Chief of Staff, Wiles had a long history working with Trump, including as his campaign manager in Florida in 2016 and as the head of his fundraising apparatus, Save America.
In the interview, she credits her upbringing with an alcoholic father as what enabled her to work with the president.
"High-functioning alcoholics or alcoholics in general, their personalities are exaggerated when they drink," she said. "So I'm a little bit of an expert in big personalities."
While the president does not drink, she said Trump has "an alcoholic's personality" and governs with the mindset that "there's nothing he can't do. Nothing, zero, nothing".
Vance on report that Susie Wiles called him a 'conspiracy theorist'. Wiles disputes portions of the article.
Among the other figures that Wiles commented on was JD Vance, a one-time critic of Trump who has since become a close ally and vice-president.
Wiles suggested that Vance's shift in perceptions was "sort of political".
Speaking to reporters at an event on Tuesday, Vance said he had not read the article, but that he only believes in conspiracy theories that are "true" - citing reports of former President Joe Biden's ill-health as an example.
Her strongest comments were reserved for tech billionaire Elon Musk, who led cost-cutting efforts at the Department of Government Efficiency - or Doge - before leaving the government in May.
Shortly thereafter, Musk and Trump had a public spat that saw the two men trade barbs and insults over social media.
Wiles described Musk as an "avowed Ketamine [user]" who "sleeps in a sleeping bag in the EOB", the Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House.
"He's an odd, odd duck, as I think geniuses are," she said. "You know, it's not helpful, but he is his own person."
Looking back on Musk's cost-cutting efforts, Wiles said that she was against the gutting of the US Agency for International Development, or USAID, saying she was "initially aghast" at the idea.
"I think that anybody that pays attention to government and has ever paid attention to USAID believed, as I did, that they do very good work," she recalled.
"Elon's attitude is you have to get it done fast. If you're an incrementalist, you just won't get your rocket to the moon," Wiles said. "With that attitude, you're going to break some china. But no rational person could think the USAID process was a good one. Nobody."
On Tuesday morning - hours after the Vanity Fair article was published - Wiles took to X, accusing the magazine of "disingenuously framed hit piece" aimed at her, Trump and other cabinet members.
"Significant context was disregarded and much of what I, and others, said about the team and the President was left out of the story. I assume, after reading it, that this was done to paint an overwhelmingly chaotic and negative narrative about the President and our team," she wrote.
When contacted for comment on the story, the White House also defended Wiles.
In a statement sent to the BBC, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Wiles "has helped President Trump achieve the most successful first 11 months in office of any President in American history."
"President Trump has no greater or more loyal advisor than Susie," Leavitt added. "The entire administration is grateful to her steady leadership and united fully behind her."
Speaking to reporters outside the West Wing later in the day, Leavitt accused Vanity Fair of "bias of omission" by excluding other interviews conducted with White House staff and taking Wiles' words "wildly out of context".
Trump and Musk have yet to comment on the Vanity Fair piece.
A California doctor who sold ketamine to Friends star Matthew Perry has been sentenced to eight months of home detention and three years of supervised release, making him the second person to be sentenced in the actor's death.
Dr Mark Chavez is among five people - including another doctor and a dealer known as the Ketamine Queen - who have pleaded guilty to drug-related charges stemming from sitcom star's 2023 death at his Los Angeles home.
The San Diego-based physician admitted to obtaining ketamine from his clinic and a wholesale distributor through a fraudulent prescription and sold it to Dr Salvador Plasencia, who supplied the dissociative anaesthetic to Perry.
The multiyear federal investigation into Perry's death examined how the Emmy-winning actor acquired ketamine through an underground drug network in Hollywood.
Ketamine, a surgical anaesthetic, is used as a treatment for depression, anxiety and pain.
Perry, who had battled drug addiction and depression, had been prescribed the drug as part of his treatment but soon started seeking more than what he was allotted.
That ultimately led him to the drug ring that ensnared the two doctors, Perry's live-in assistant, a man named Erik Fleming and American-British dual-national Jasveen Sangha, the dealer known as the Ketamine Queen.
The latter three are due to be sentenced in the coming months.
A post-mortem examination of Perry found a high concentration of ketamine in his blood and determined that "acute effects" of the substance killed him.
Reuters
Mark Chavez, a doctor accused of supplying ketamine to 'Friends' actor Matthew Perry before his death, arrives in federal court in Los Angeles, California, on 2 October 2024.
Prosecutors said Perry's assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, worked with Chavez and Plasencia to provide the actor with more than $50,000 (£38,000) of ketamine in the weeks before his death.
In his plea agreement, Chavez admitted that he obtained ketamine from both his former clinic and a wholesale distributor through a fraudulent prescription. He submitted a fraudulent prescription for 30 ketamine lozenges under a former patient's name - without her knowledge or consent - to sell to Plasencia to give to Perry.
He confessed to selling 22 vials of liquid ketamine and nine ketamine lozenges to Plasencia, according to his October 2024 plea agreement.
The transaction was part of a broader scheme in which Chavez and Plasencia discussed exploiting Perry's addiction for financial gain by mocking him in their text exchanges.
"I wonder how much this moron will pay," Plasencia wrote to Chavez.
Chavez faced up to 10 years in federal prison. As part of his October 2024 plea deal, he surrendered his medical licence and passport.
US President Trump signed an executive order classifying fentanyl as a "weapon of mass destruction"
The United States has designated a notorious drug-trafficking organisation in Colombia as a terrorist group.
The US Treasury Department added the group, known as Clan del Golfo or Gulf Clan, to its list of Foreign Terrorist Organisations (FTOs).
The designation came just hours after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order classifying the drug fentanyl as a "weapon of mass destruction".
The two moves are seen as a further ramping-up of the Trump administration's war on drugs which has also seen it carry out more than 20 lethal strikes on boats suspected to be carrying drugs in the Caribbean and the Pacific.
Getty
The leader of the Clan del Golfo, Dairo Úsugas. was arrested in 2021, but the gang continued unde the leadership of a man known as Chiquito Malo
More than 90 people were killed in the strikes on the boats, which some legal experts say breach the law.
Clan del Golfo is the latest Latin American criminal group to be added to US Treasury's list of FTOs.
The group has been engaging in criminal activities for decades, mainly trafficking cocaine from Colombia - the largest producer of the drug - to destinations in the US and Europe.
But the Clan del Golfo, which is based in the northern Urabá region of Colombia, also plays a key role smuggling migrants through the Darién Gap, the expanse of jungle linking Colombia to Panama.
In a statement announcing its designation as an FTO, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the group was also behind terrorist attacks against public officials, law enforcement and military personnel, and civilians in Colombia.
It is estimated to have thousands of members and is thought to be the largest cocaine-trafficking gang currently operating in Colombia.
It joins three other Colombian criminal groups on the list of FTOs: the left-wing guerrilla group National Liberation Army (ELN), and two groups which broke away from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - a Marxist guerrilla force - when it signed a peace agreement with the Colombian government in 2016.
The FTO designation of the Clan del Golfo by the US comes less than a fortnight after Colombia's President, Gustavo Petro, signed a landmark agreement with the criminal group aimed at bringing peace to the areas under its control.
AFP via Getty Images
A Gulf clan negotiator reached a deal with the Colombian government in Doha less than two weeks ago
Petro campaigned on a promise to bring "total peace" to the South American country, which has for decades suffered from cartel and guerrilla violence.
But more than three years after he took office, talks with most of the armed groups in the country have stalled or fallen apart altogether.
The announcement earlier this month that Colombian government officials had reached an agreement with the Clan del Golfo for the group to start taking steps towards laying down their arms was a win for Petro.
Part of that deal was an understanding that members of the Clan del Golfo would not face extradition to the UN.
The US designating Clan del Golfo as an FTO is likely to complicate the talks the Colombian government was having with the group.
Petro has not yet reacted to the move, but relations between the Colombian leader and the Trump administration have been acrimonious.
EPA
Colombia's President, Gustavo Petro, has denounced the US strikes on alleged drug vessels
Petro has called the lethal strikes the US has carried out on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Pacific "murder".
In turn, Rubio has publicly labelled the Colombian president a "lunatic".
The immediate effect of the FTO designation is that the US will have more powers to punish the group.
Any assets the Clan del Golfo may hold at US financial institutions are frozen and individuals - even US citizens - who knowingly provide "material support" to the group can be prosecuted.
The move comes amid high tension in the region, with Trump repeatedly warning that "strikes on land" against "narco-terrorists" could soon follow those against alleged drug vessels at sea.
So far Trump has mainly homed in on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, whom he accuses of leading another group the US has designated as an FTO: the Cartel of the Suns.
But asked by journalists about his plans for Venezuela on Friday, he not only again invoked the possibility of attacking drug smugglers on land but also appeared to hint at the possibility of doing so in Colombia.
"Colombia has at least three cocaine factories. That's a different country," he said.
And later he added: "But it's not only land strikes on Venezuela, it's land strikes on horrible people that are bringing in drugs and killing our people."
Trump has argued that the strikes on the alleged drug boats are saving US lives by preventing the powerful opioid fentanyl from reaching the US.
Fentanyl abuse has triggered one of the worst public health emergencies to hit the US, with more than 110,000 drug-related deaths in the US in 2023.
While the number of fatal drug overdoses fell by 25% in 2024, tackling this crisis remains one of Trump's priorities.
Trump has said that every strike on an alleged drug boat "saves 25,00 American lives" but US officials have provided no evidence that any of the vessels they struck carried fentanyl, which is 50 times as powerful as heroin and much deadlier than cocaine.
Counternarcotics experts have pointed out that neither Colombia nor Venezuela produce fentanyl and have questioned the Trump administration's focus on those countries.
The executive order Trump signed on Monday classifying fentanyl as a "weapon of mass destruction" suggests he may be engaging in a twin-track approach, continuing to target boats suspected of carrying cocaine as well as expanding his administration's powers to fight fentanyl-smuggling.
However, the move has been met with criticism by Mexico's President, Claudia Sheinbaum.
The Mexican leader insisted that the causes of drug use must be addressed.
She added that fentanyl was also used legally in hospitals for pain relief and questioned what the unintended effects of the classification of fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction would be.
The speaker had planned to give moderate Republicans seeking an extension of the tax credits a vote on their proposal, but said on Tuesday it was simply “not to be.”
Speaker Mike Johnson had signaled openness to allowing debate on the proposal to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies, but ultimately rejected a bid to do so by politically vulnerable Republicans.
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