aacj

Top 5 US news stories

December 22 2025

Greg Loving

22 Dec 2025 • 6 min read

A helicopter flies over the Centuries tanker, in an image from a video released by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on social media, on Dec. 20.Source: Kristi Noem/X

US Intensifies Venezuela Crackdown by Hunting Third Tanker to Choke Regime Funding

Dangerous Prescription Cocktails Expose Millions of Seniors to Health Risks

Current Conditions Survey Declines to the Lowest Level in History, As Sour Consumer Economic Sentiment Persists

Pentagon Fails Eighth Straight Audit

Europe to Lend $105 Billion to Ukraine, Without Touching Russian Funds

US Intensifies Venezuela Crackdown by Hunting Third Tanker to Choke Regime Funding

The US is still in pursuit of a third oil tanker near Venezuela, according to a US official, as President Donald Trump intensifies an oil blockade on Nicolás Maduro’s government. The Bella 1 tanker, a Panamanian-flagged vessel sanctioned by the US, was en route to Venezuela to load, said a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified. The attempted interdiction follows the boarding of the Centuries supertanker early Saturday and the Skipper on Dec. 10. A US official said the tanker being pursued Sunday is flying under a false flag and under a judicial seizure order. Earlier, people familiar with the matter said the Bella 1 had already been boarded. Trump has been stepping up pressure on Maduro by trying to choke off the regime’s main source of revenue. If Venezuela can’t export its oil, its storage tanks will fill up with stranded supply and state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA, will have to start closing oil wells, industry experts say. Trump also previously designated the Maduro government as a foreign terrorist organization, accusing it of involvement in drug trafficking. Saturday’s boarding was notable because the ship hadn’t appeared on the public US sanctions list. The Centuries tanker was flying a Panamanian flag, Bloomberg reported earlier, while a Chinese company holds title to the oil.

Bloomberg

Dangerous Prescription Cocktails Expose Millions of Seniors to Health Risks

One in six of the 46 million seniors enrolled in Medicare’s drug benefit, which pays for most drugs taken by older Americans, were prescribed eight or more medications. In 2022, 7.6 million seniors were simultaneously prescribed eight or more medications for at least 90 days. Of those seniors, 3.9 million took 10+ drugs at once. And more than 419,000 of them were prescribed 15+ drugs at the same time. Some of the drugs …are on a widely used list of medications that might be dangerous for seniors. The guidelines, maintained by the American Geriatrics Society and named the “Beers Criteria” after the doctor who first led their development, suggest some drugs should almost never be taken by older patients. Among the seniors in the Journal analysis who were taking eight or more drugs, 3.6 million had prescriptions for at least one medication that geriatricians say elderly patients should generally avoid. Among seniors prescribed 8+ drugs, 1.6 million got benzodiazepines, sedatives that appear on the Beers list. In addition, 568,000 of those seniors were prescribed gabapentin or a similar drug. Gabapentin can have sedating effects. More than 310,000 of the benzodiazepine patients also received muscle relaxants, another type of drug the Beers guidelines say seniors should avoid. The Journal found 147,000 seniors took all three categories of drugs at once. Mixing multiple medications that affect the central nervous system can magnify their side effects, leading to falls, say the Beers guidelines.

WSJ

Current Conditions Survey Declines to the Lowest Level in History, As Sour Consumer Economic Sentiment Persists

After a chaotic year filled with trade wars, market gyrations and the longest government shutdown in history, the U.S. economy has, once again, proved more resilient than many forecasters feared. But “resilient” isn’t quite the same thing as “good.” Many Americans are entering 2026 worried about their jobs, stressed about their finances and unconvinced that things will improve in the new year. The flow of official economic data resumed last week after a prolonged delay caused by the government shutdown. The reports were muddled by technical quirks related to the shutdown, but on balance they suggested the economy remained stuck in the same uneasy limbo it was in before the data blackout began. Job growth was decent in November, but unemployment rose. Retail sales were solid, but wage growth slowed. Inflation cooled, but remains elevated.

NYT

Pentagon Fails Eighth Straight Audit

The Pentagon failed its financial audit for the eighth consecutive year, the Defense Department said Friday, highlighting the ongoing systemic challenge the nation’s largest federal agency faces in fully accounting for its assets. The department has received a failing grade on every audit since Congress mandated annual reviews beginning in 2018, and is the only one of the government’s 24 major agencies never to pass. The Pentagon reported $4.65 trillion in assets and $4.7 trillion in liabilities, located across all 50 states and more than 40 countries.

Military Times

Europe to Lend $105 Billion to Ukraine, Without Touching Russian Funds

European leaders agreed early on Friday morning to keep Ukraine funded for two years with a loan of 90 billion euros, or about $105 billion, though they failed to agree on their first-choice option of using Russian state assets frozen on the continent as backing for the loan. That ambitious frozen-asset plan was killed at the 11th hour as European heads of state and government met in Brussels — a show of division that risked making the European Union appear indecisive at a key moment. Instead, European leaders announced that they will funnel money to Ukraine with a loan backed by the E.U. budget. Because the plan does not leverage the large stash of Russian savings immobilized in Europe, it is likely to cost more and could prove more difficult to quickly scale up than the original idea. But because it will still get needed cash to Kyiv, officials celebrated it as a win. The funding plan comes at a crucial moment, as Ukraine negotiates potential peace terms with the United States. And timing was important, with Ukraine expected to begin running out of money early in 2026. For months, European leaders had hoped to overcome Belgian concerns to clinch a deal on using the 210 billion euros of frozen Russian assets held in Europe to back the massive loan to Ukraine. The setup was supposed to fund much of Ukraine’s governing and war expenses in 2026 and 2027. But the idea of such a loan was always risky: Russia is already taking legal action over what it paints as the unlawful seizure of its assets. After weeks of back-and-forth, Belgium — where most of the assets frozen in Europe are held — remained unconvinced headed into Thursday’s meeting, worried that it could be on the hook for Russian retaliation. The guarantees that Belgium demanded to protect against that threat, however, proved too much for some other European countries to quickly accept.

NYT

December 22, 2001: “Shoe bomber” Richard Reid attempts to detonate bombs on Paris-Miami flight

Thhree months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Richard Reid, 28, a British citizen and Al Qaeda member, attempts to detonate homemade bombs hidden in his shoes while aboard American Airlines Flight 63 headed to Miami from Paris. The failed attack directly led to today’s Transportation Security Administration security rules—most visibly the requirement that passengers remove their shoes at airport checkpoints.

Found a mistake? Have a news tip or feedback to share? Contact our newsroom using the button below:

citizen journal offers three flagship products: a daily national news summary, a daily Kansas news summary, and local news and school board summaries from 34 cities across 5 states. Use the links in the header to navigate to national, kansas, and local coverage. Subscribe to each, some, or all to get an email when new issues are published for FREE!

Brought to you by (click me!)

Sources