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Top 5 US news stories

December 18 2025

Greg Loving

18 Dec 2025 • 6 min read

An oil tanker near Maracaibo, Venezuela, recently. HENRY CHIRINOS/EPA/SHUTTERSTOCK

Maduro Deploys Naval Escorts to Defy U.S. Blockade, Risking High-Seas Conflict to Protect Black Market Oil

Senate Approves $900 Billion Defense Act

President Trump Defends Economic Record, Allocates Tariff Revenue for Troop Bonuses in Prime-Time Address

Manhunt for Brown University Shooter Continues Five Days After Deadly Attack

Trump Administration Seeks $11 Billion Taiwan Arms Deal

BREAKING…Dan Bongino Says He Will Step Down From F.B.I. in January…

1. Maduro Deploys Naval Escorts to Defy U.S. Blockade, Risking High-Seas Conflict to Protect Black Market Oil

A. Nicolás Maduro, the leader of Venezuela, ordered his navy to escort ships carrying petroleum products from port, risking a confrontation with the United States on the high seas as he defied President Trump’s declaration of a “blockade” aimed at the country’s oil industry. Several ships sailed from Venezuela toward Asia with a Venezuelan naval escort between Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, said three people familiar with the transits. None of the commercial vessels are on the list of sanctioned tankers the United States is threatening to target.

B. Venezuela has long used the same playbook as Russia and Iran to get around crippling American sanctions on its oil industry, tapping a shadowy fleet of aging vessels to carry crude to customers. President Trump’s partial oil blockade threatens to devastate this black market, which U.S. officials say lines Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro’s pockets and props up the impoverished country’s fragile economy. U.S. officials said the military would be going after a network of ships already sanctioned by the Treasury Department. Such tankers account for about 70% of Venezuela’s oil exports, mostly sent to Asian buyers who pay in cryptocurrencies Losing access to that network of ships would reduce Venezuelan revenue by some $8 billion a year

NYT / WSJ

2. Senate Approves $900 Billion Defense Act

The Senate on Wednesday gave final approval to a $900 billion defense policy bill, clearing legislation that advances the bulk of President Trump’s national security agenda and modernizes the way the U.S. military buys weapons and supplies, while also seeking to reassert congressional oversight of military operations. The 77-to-20 vote reflected bipartisan support in Congress to continue to spend robustly on defense, including on new submarines, fighter jets and drone technology. The bill also includes a pay raise of 3.8 percent for military personnel. While the Trump administration has made steep cuts to the federal government over the past year, the price tag on the bill was $8 billion above what the White House had requested for the Pentagon for the next year. The measure puts bipartisan pressure on the Pentagon to be more transparent with Congress about the boat strikes the Trump administration has carried out in international waters; officials have said, without offering public evidence, they are targeting people trafficking narcotics to the United States. The legislative provision would mandate the release of the specific orders behind the strikes and unedited videos of the attacks to lawmakers, and withhold 25 percent of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s travel budget if the administration does not comply. The bill would also block the Trump administration from withdrawing U.S. troops from Europe, after a recent decision to reduce the Pentagon’s footprint in Germany, Romania and Poland drew ire from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. The legislation also overcame resistance from hard-right Republicans, who have long criticized funding the defense of foreign allies, and authorizes another $800 million in military aid for Ukraine, as well as millions more for Israel, Taiwan, Iraq and other allies. The bill does not rename the Department of Defense the Department of War, the preferred moniker of the Trump administration.

NYT

3. President Trump Defends Economic Record, Allocates Tariff Revenue for Troop Bonuses in Prime-Time Address

WASHINGTON—President Trump on Wednesday defended his handling of the economy during a rare prime-time speech and announced a $1,776 “warrior dividend” check for active-duty servicemembers that he said would be paid for with tariff revenue. “Military servicemembers will receive a special, we call warrior dividend before Christmas, a warrior dividend in honor of our nation’s founding in 1776,” Trump said, speaking from the Diplomatic Room of the White House, which was decorated for the holidays. “Nobody deserves it more than our military.” Trump’s speech was aimed at marking almost a year in office and assuaging mounting voter concerns about rising prices. The president claimed that he has brought down the prices of products like eggs and Thanksgiving turkey, and he touted legislation that extended tax cuts, boosted defense and border spending, and reduced spending on domestic programs. “Eleven months ago, I inherited a mess, and I’m fixing it,” Trump said.

WSJ

4. Manhunt for Brown University Shooter Continues Five Days After Deadly Attack

Five days after a shooting at Brown University killed two people and injured nine others, state and federal authorities were still seeking the gunman whose identity remains unknown. “He could be anywhere,” Col. Oscar Perez, the chief of police in Providence, R.I., said at a news conference on Wednesday afternoon. He added that investigators had recovered DNA evidence from the scene and that they were also seeking a second man, who appears to have crossed paths with the possible gunman in the hours before the attack.

NYT

5. Trump Administration Seeks $11 Billion Taiwan Arms Deal

The Trump administration asked Congress on Wednesday to approve an arms package for Taiwan valued at more than $11 billion, in what would be a huge injection of military aid to the self-governing democratic island bracing for a long-feared invasion by China. If approved by Congress, as is likely given Taiwan’s strong bipartisan support, the package would exceed the $8.4 billion in arms sold to Taiwan during the Biden administration, according to figures recently compiled by the research arm of Britain’s House of Commons. And it would be equivalent to more than half the $18.3 billion in arms sold to Taiwan during President Trump’s first term in office. The size of the proposal is likely to reassure China hawks in Washington who have grown uneasy about Mr. Trump’s commitment to defending Taiwan as he seeks to cut trade and economic deals with Beijing. The arms sales cleared by the State Department include more than $4 billion each for high mobility artillery rocket systems, known as HIMARS, and M109A7 self-propelled howitzers. The package would also include more than $700 million for Javelin and TOW anti-armor missiles, as well as Altius kamikaze drones made by the military technology company Anduril.

NYT

December 18, 1620: Mayflower arrives at Plymouth Harbor

The famous Mayflower story began in 1606, when a group of reform-minded Separatists in Nottinghamshire, England, founded their own church, separate from the state-sanctioned Church of England. Accused of treason, they were forced to leave the country and settle in the more tolerant Netherlands. After 12 years of struggling to adapt and make a decent living, the group sought financial backing from some London merchants to set up a colony in America. On September 6, 1620, 102 passengers—dubbed Pilgrims by William Bradford, a passenger who would become the first governor of Plymouth Colony—crowded on the Mayflower to begin the long, hard journey to a new life in the New World.

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