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Treasury secretary says there won't be a recession in 2026

admin - Latest News - November 23, 2025
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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in an exclusive interview with “Meet the Press” that he remains “very confident” and “optimistic” about the U.S. economy in 2026 despite some sectors experiencing signs of recession.



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Savewith a NBCUniversal ProfileCreate your free profile or log in to save this articleNov. 23, 2025, 6:00 AM ESTBy Minyvonne BurkeOver the course of two decades, Ryan James Wedding went from a promising snowboarder competing in the Olympics to someone who officials have said is one of the most violent and ruthless criminals in the world, responsible for orchestrating murders and running a billion-dollar cocaine cartel.FBI Director Kash Patel compared the 44-year-old — whose nicknames include “El Jefe,” “Public Enemy” and “Giant” — to Pablo Escobar and Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. Wedding is accused of ordering a hit on a witness in the U.S. government’s case against him and enlisting assassins to murder rival traffickers.Canada’s Ryan Wedding competes in a snowboarding event at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City.Tony Marshall – EMPICS / PA Images via Getty ImagesCourt documents say that Wedding’s crime spree began in 2008, six years after his failed Olympic debut. They detail the alleged dark journey of a young man in his 20s, who got into trouble following a drug deal gone wrong, to a callous criminal on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.It’s believed that Wedding is hiding in Mexico and is being protected by the cartel, federal officials said at a Wednesday news conference, announcing a $15 million reward for information that leads to his arrest and/or conviction.‘From shredding powder … to distributing powder’Wedding was born in Thunder Bay, Canada, a small city on the north shore of Lake Superior surrounded by wilderness and the Nor’Wester Mountains. It’s known for outdoor activities and breathtaking scenery. His parents were wealthy, Los Angeles Magazine reported, and his grandparents owned Mount Baldy ski resort in Thunder Bay. It was at the resort where Wedding learned to shred, according to the magazine.In 2002, he represented Canada at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. He didn’t perform his best, placing 24th in the parallel giant slalom event. With his Olympic debut failing to lead to fame and fortune, Wedding turned to a life of crime.“Wedding went from shredding powder on the slopes at the Olympics to distributing powder cocaine on the streets of U.S. cities and in his native Canada,” Akil Davis, the assistant director of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, said in a March press release.’I guess I lost my way’In 2008, federal prosecutors said Wedding traveled to San Diego with two other men to buy cocaine, court documents show. The dealer they had arranged to meet with was working undercover for the FBI. They were arrested, and Wedding’s case went to trial in November 2009.In opening statements, Wedding’s lawyer painted him as someone who had been “duped by an experienced drug dealer and career criminal,” according to court documents. The lawyer said Wedding was made out to be the “main guy.”A surveillance photo of Ryan Wedding provided by the FBI.FBIA jury found him guilty of conspiracy to distribute cocaine, according to the court documents. At his sentencing in May 2010, Wedding apologized to the court and his family for his “stupid and irresponsible decisions” and said the idea of making easy money had lured him, even though he didn’t need the money.“I knew it was wrong, and I did it anyway,” he said, according to a transcript of the hearing.“In the past 24 months I’ve spent in custody, I’ve had an opportunity to see firsthand what drugs do to people, and honestly, I’m ashamed that I became a part of the problem for years,” he said. “I guess I lost my way.”The judge was so moved by Wedding’s apparent remorse that he imposed a lighter sentence, court records show. He was sentenced to 48 months in federal prison, but with time served, he was released in December 2011.Wedding’s regret was apparently short-lived. After his release, he founded his criminal drug enterprise, federal law enforcement said in an indictment unsealed Wednesday, charging him with murder, witness tampering and intimidation, money laundering and drug trafficking.Attorney General Pam Bondi stands near wanted poster for Canadian fugitive Ryan James Wedding as she speaks with reporters during a news conference at the Department of Justice in Washington on Nov. 19.Mark Schiefelbein / APLargest distributor of cocaine in CanadaIn Wednesday’s unsealed indictment, law enforcement detailed how Wedding’s organization, working with members of Mexican drug cartels, allegedly used boats and planes to move hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia to Mexico. The organization then began using semitrucks to smuggle the drugs across the border from Mexico to its “hub” in Southern California, the indictment said. The cocaine would then be transported to Canada and other states, federal officials said.At the Wednesday news conference, Attorney General Pam Bondi said Wedding’s organization is responsible for importing about 60 metric tons of cocaine a year into Los Angeles.“He controls one of the most prolific and violent drug-trafficking organizations in this world,” she said. “He is currently the largest distributor of cocaine in Canada.”The indictment said Wedding’s organization “promoted a climate of fear” and is known for retaliating against rival drug traffickers, targeting people Wedding considered enemies and putting out hits on people cooperating with law enforcement.He allegedly put out a “multimillion dollar bounty” on a federal witness who was going to testify against him in a criminal case, according to the indictment. Wedding is alleged to have used a now-defunct Canadian website to post pictures of the witness and his wife to locate him, officials said.The witness was shot and killed in January at a restaurant in Medellín, Colombia, before he could testify, the Justice Department said in a news release.Wedding is also alleged to have enlisted the services of a Canadian-based assassin crew to kill another victim and directed the murders of two members of a family in Canada in retaliation for a stolen drug shipment, according to the press release. A third family member survived the attack but was left with serious injuries.The wife, the ‘General’ and the attorneySeveral people, including Wedding’s wife, are alleged to have contributed to his reign of terror, the U.S. Treasury Department said in a news release.Edgar Aaron Vazquez Alvarado, known as “the General,” allegedly provides protection for Wedding in Mexico, according to the release. Officials said Vazquez is believed to be a former Mexican law enforcement officer and uses law enforcement sources to find targets for Wedding.Wedding’s wife, Miryam Andrea Castillo Moreno, allegedly launders money for him and “has helped him conduct acts of violence,” the department said.A Canadian attorney named Deepak Balwant Paradkar allegedly provides what officials say is a “range of illegal services” that fall outside of the scope of a typical attorney. He is alleged to have helped Wedding with bribery and murder and introduced him to his drug traffickers, the Treasury Department said.Paradkar, 62, was arrested Tuesday.Minyvonne BurkeMinyvonne Burke is a senior breaking news reporter for NBC News.
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Savewith a NBCUniversal ProfileCreate your free profile or log in to save this articleNov. 23, 2025, 10:10 AM ESTBy Freddie ClaytonEven as the Titanic slipped beneath the icy North Atlantic, one story of devotion survived the disaster — and now it has made history at auction.A gold pocket watch that once ticked on the wrist of first-class passenger Isidor Straus, who drowned alongside his wife Ida, has sold for a record-breaking £1.78 million ($2.32 million). It is the highest price ever paid for Titanic memorabilia, auctioneers said.The 18-carat Jules Jurgensen watch, engraved and given to Straus for his 43rd birthday in 1888 — the same year he became a partner in New York’s iconic department store Macy’s — was recovered from his body after the ship sank on its maiden voyage in April 1912.The couple, played by Lew Palter and Elsa Raven in James Cameron’s 1997 film “Titanic,” refused to separate in their final moments and were last seen by witnesses arm in arm on the deck of the sinking ship.The watch of Isidor Straus, recovered from his body after the sinking of the Titanic in 1912.Handout / Henry Aldridge & Son AuctioneersStraus had been offered a seat on a lifeboat due to his age, but he insisted that other men go first. Ida Straus refused to leave his side. They were among the very few first-class passengers to perish in the disaster that claimed 1,500 lives.The watch remained in the Straus family for more than a century before being sold at Henry Aldridge & Son Auctioneers in the British town of Devizes.Other Titanic treasures auctioned off on Saturday include a letter written by Ida Straus aboard the Titanic, a passenger list and a gold medal awarded to the RMS Carpathia’s crew by survivors, with the auction bringing in a total of £3 million ($3.92 million) on Saturday.“Every man, woman and child had a story,” auctioneer Andrew Aldridge told NBC News on Sunday. “And we’re retelling those stories 113 years later.”The Strauses, in particular, “have been dramatized in every Titanic movie that’s been made,” he added, calling theirs an “incredible love story.””Obviously you’re looking at what the object is,” he said. “But one of the most crucial elements to their value is who they belong to.”The previous record was set last year when another gold pocket watch, presented to the captain of a boat that rescued more than 700 passengers from the liner, sold for £1.56 million.Isidor Straus, born in 1845 into a Jewish family in Otterberg, Bavaria, emigrated to the United States in 1854. The couple was traveling home from a trip when they boarded the doomed Titanic in Southampton, heading for New York.Freddie ClaytonFreddie Clayton is a freelance journalist based in London. 
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Savewith a NBCUniversal ProfileCreate your free profile or log in to save this articleOct. 4, 2025, 7:30 AM EDTBy Steve KopackThe humble soybean is the latest flashpoint in the Trump administration’s campaign to reshape global trade.Used in everything from animal feed to fuel, soybeans regularly rank among the most valuable U.S. agricultural exports, towering over higher-profile crops like corn and cotton. More than $30 billion worth of American soybean products were exported in fiscal year 2024, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.For American soybean farmers, their top overseas market has long been China, which bought around a third of the export crop — approximately $12 billion worth of American soybean products — in the last calendar year, USDA data shows.But not anymore.As President Donald Trump’s trade war leaves U.S.-China relations somewhere between frosty and openly hostile, America’s soybean farmers appear to be an early casualty.An embargo in all but nameSo far, China has not purchased any U.S. soybeans during this year’s main harvest period, with sales falling to zero in May. This has pushed many American farmers reliant on soybeans nearly to the breaking point. It has also complicated the Trump administration’s plans to provide billions in foreign economic aid to Argentina. Buenos Aires recently sold more than 2.5 million metric tons of soybeans to Beijing, after briefly suspending its export tax on the soy products. Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Tuesday.Greg Baker / AFP – Getty ImagesU.S. officials blame China for the looming crisis facing American soybean producers. “It’s unfortunate the Chinese leadership has decided to use the American farmers, soybean farmers in particular, as a hostage or pawn in the trade negotiations,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday on CNBC.Farmers view the situation differently, however. They want Trump to reach a trade deal with China that ends the unofficial embargo on soybeans. But instead, what they see is the White House preparing to bail out one of their chief rivals for the Chinese export market.“The frustration is overwhelming,” American Soybean Association President Caleb Ragland said in a recent statement.Meanwhile, China — the world’s biggest buyer of soybeans —indicated last week that it won’t resume U.S. purchases unless more Trump tariffs are lifted. “As for soybean trade, the U.S. side should take proactive steps to remove relevant unreasonable tariffs, create conditions for expanding bilateral trade, and inject more stability and certainty into global economic development,” Commerce Ministry spokesperson He Yadong told reporters in Beijing.Emergency relief is comingThe Trump administration will announce new support for farmers, “especially the soybean farmers,” on Tuesday, Bessent said.“We’re also going to be working with the Farm Credit Bureau to make sure that the farmers have what they need for the next planting season,” he added.Bessent personally owns as much as $25 million worth of farmland in North Dakota that produces corn and soybeans, according to his recent financial disclosures.He said soybeans would be a topic of discussion at the upcoming meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum later this month.Mark German loading soybeans into a truck in Dwight, Ill., in August.Scott Olson / Getty Images fileTrump is also aware of the impact his trade policies are having on American farmers, starting with soybean growers.“The Soybean Farmers of our Country are being hurt because China is, for ‘negotiating’ reasons only, not buying,” the president posted Wednesday on Truth Social.“We’ve made so much money on Tariffs, that we are going to take a small portion of that money, and help our Farmers,” Trump added.The question is whether this aid will come soon enough to save this year’s massive harvest of soybeans.At the center of the firestorm is Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, who warned this week that “this moment of uncertainty in the farm economy is real.” Speaking on Fox Business Network, she emphasized that Trump has long supported U.S. farmers.Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins outside the White House on Tuesday.Aaron Schwartz / Sipa USA via AP“President Trump and Secretary Rollins are always in touch about the needs of our farmers, who played a crucial role in the President’s November victory,” the White House said in a statement Thursday. “He has made clear his intention to use tariff revenue to help our agricultural sector, but no final decisions on the contours of this plan have been made.”The Argentina factorThe current U.S.-China stalemate over soybean exports is also complicating another American foreign policy conundrum: what to do about Argentina’s faltering economy.As U.S. soybean exports to China screech to a halt, Argentina’s farmers jumped at the opportunity to sell China their own soybeans. From their perspective, a potential U.S. economic aid package has nothing to do with their soybean exports, and everything to do with the personal and political alliance between Trump and libertarian President Javier Milei. Milei was the first foreign leader to visit Trump after his 2024 election victory, and he has become a familiar face at U.S. political events attended by the president’s MAGA supporters.At a Conservative Political Action Conference outside Washington, D.C. in February, Milei gifted then-Department of Government Efficiency chief Elon Musk a red chainsaw. Musk then waved it around onstage, calling it “the chainsaw for bureaucracy.” Elon Musk holding a chainsaw onstage at a CPAC conference in Oxon Hill, Md., in February.Andrew Harnik / Getty ImagesEight months later, Milei’s popularity with voters has plunged, raising doubts about the future of his market-friendly economic reforms and strict austerity measures.Local elections in early September dealt a blow to Milei’s party, triggering massive turmoil in Argentina’s stock and currency markets. A few weeks after the market plunge, Bessent announced on social media that the U.S. was prepared to deploy billions of dollars to support the South American country.A presidential delegation from Buenos Aires is expected to visit the White House next week to finalize the U.S. foreign aid deal.This has infuriated the soybean farmers. “U.S. soybean prices are falling, harvest is underway, and farmers read headlines not about securing a trade agreement with China, but that the U.S. government is extending $20 billion in economic support to Argentina while that country drops its soybean export taxes to sell 20 shiploads of Argentine soybeans to China in just two days,” Ragland said.President-elect Donald Trump with Argentine President Javier Milei at the America First Policy Institute gala at Mar-a-Lago in November.Carlos Barria / Reuters fileMeanwhile, Milei has also secured a currency swap line for Argentina from China, a situation that gives pause to some in Washington. In response, Milei has said Argentina will maintain its mutually beneficial trade and economic relationship with China. Tensions inside the Trump administration over China, Argentina and the soybean farmers broke into the open last week.While attending the U.N. General Assembly, Bessent received a text message from a contact labeled “BR.”“We bailed out Argentina yesterday … and in return, the Argentine’s removed their export tariff on grains, reducing their price, and sold a bunch of soybeans to China at a time when we would normally be selling to China,” read the message, widely presumed to come from Rollins.“Soy prices are dropping further because of it. This gives China more leverage on us,” the message concluded.Spokespeople for Bessent and Rollins did not respond to questions about the text message exchange.
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Savewith a NBCUniversal ProfileCreate your free profile or log in to save this articleNov. 19, 2025, 9:32 PM ESTBy Gordon Lubold, Courtney Kube and Dan De LuceWASHINGTON — The senior military lawyer for the combatant command overseeing lethal strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats near Venezuela disagreed with the Trump administration’s position that the operations are lawful — and his views were sidelined, according to six sources with knowledge of the legal advice.The lawyer, who serves as the senior judge advocate general, or JAG in military parlance, at U.S. Southern Command in Miami, raised his legal concerns in August before the strikes began in September, according to two senior U.S. officials, two senior congressional aides and two former senior U.S. officials.His opinion was ultimately overruled by more senior government officials, including officials at the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, the six sources said. Other JAGs and military lawyers at various levels of seniority weighed in on the boat strikes, as well. It’s unclear what each of their opinions were, but some of the military lawyers, including civilians and those in uniform, also expressed concerns to senior officials in their commands and at the Defense Department about the legality of the strikes, the two senior congressional aides and one of the senior former U.S. officials said.The JAG at Southern Command specifically expressed concern that strikes against people on boats in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean, whom administration officials call “narco-terrorists,” could amount to extrajudicial killings, the six sources said, and therefore legally expose service members involved in the operations.The opinion of the top lawyer for the command overseeing a military operation is typically critical to whether or not the operation moves forward. While higher officials can overrule such lawyers, it is rare for operations to move forward without incorporating their advice. Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement: “The War Department categorically denies that any Pentagon lawyers, including SOUTHCOM lawyers, with knowledge of these operations have raised concerns to any attorneys in the chain of command regarding the legality of the strikes conducted thus far because they are aware we are on firm legal ground. Our current operations in the Caribbean are lawful under both U.S. and international law, with all actions in complete compliance with the law of armed conflict.”A spokesperson for Southern Command referred questions to the Defense Department, which the Trump administration calls the War Department. A spokesperson for the White House did not respond to a request for comment.The JAG is Marine Col. Paul Meagher, according to three people familiar with the matter. Attempts to reach Meagher for comment were unsuccessful. The strikes on alleged drug boats have drawn support from Republicans, as well as criticism from members of both parties, NBC News has reported. The opinion of the Southern Command JAG, which has not been previously reported, adds a new dimension to concerns that lawmakers, retired military officers and legal experts have raised about the administration’s legal justification for striking alleged drug boats. Those concerns have centered on questions about whether the strikes violate international and U.S. law.Since Sept. 2, it says, the administration has killed 82 people in 21 strikes on small vessels it says were transporting drugs bound for the United States.Administration officials have not put forward any specific evidence backing up their claims.The administration has told members of Congress that President Donald Trump determined the United States is in “armed conflict” with drug cartel members, NBC News has reported. The administration designated some drug cartels in Latin America as foreign terrorist organizations this year.Trump has argued that drugs from the region pose a significant threat to American citizens. He has linked the boats to fentanyl to argue that the military strikes have saved tens of thousands of American lives, although fentanyl is typically smuggled into the United States by land across the Mexican border. Cocaine, which is most often moved via sea, is considered far less lethal than fentanyl.JAGs’ opinions on possible military operations are usually shared with higher authorities, including the Defense Department’s general counsel, Justice Department officials and ultimately the White House, according to current and former U.S. officials familiar with the process. JAGs typically play an integral role in defining the legal parameters of any military operation, and often their collective advice would be the primary guiding principle as political leaders decide whether to take such action, according to the current and former U.S. officials familiar with the process. In the Trump administration’s campaign against alleged drug boats, politically appointed lawyers at senior levels have often defined the legalities of the operations with minimal lower-level legal input, according to the two senior congressional aides and one of the former senior U.S. officials. There have been other signs of disagreement within the administration over the strikes. The head of Southern Command, Adm. Alvin Holsey, plans to step down after less than a year in a job that typically lasts about three years.Holsey announced in October that he will depart next month. In addition to concerns about the legality of the strikes, Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill have complained that the administration has not provided them enough information about the legal rationale or the intelligence used to target the vessels and people the administration purports are bringing drugs into the United States. “There is no world where this is legal,” said a current JAG, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly.Congress has not declared war or authorized the use of military force against the drug traffickers, and U.S. law allows the president to take military action without lawmakers’ approval only if there is a national emergency due to an attack on the country or American forces.Dan Maurer, an associate professor of law at Ohio Northern University and a former Army JAG, argued that the drug cartels’ narcotics smuggling and other actions are crimes but do not qualify as an armed attack on the United States as defined by U.S. and international law.“These drug cartels may be violent, they may be aggressive, they may be transnational,” Maurer said in an interview. “They may be doing terrible things within their own countries; they may be importing terrible things into our country that have bad consequences. But all of those are crimes, and none of which meets the traditional meanings of an attack or invasion.”Maurer and other former military lawyers and experts believe the Trump administration’s legal rationale for the strikes is so tenuous it could put commanders and troops in legal peril after Trump leaves office in 2029.Trump administration officials have defended the legality of the strikes and argued that they have shared ample information about them with members of Congress.The legal debate about the strikes is likely to intensify if Trump decides to hit targets inside Venezuela, as he has threatened to do. The current legal rationale for strikes on vessels does not apply to any strikes on land, a senior administration official told lawmakers in a closed-door briefing last week, according to two additional congressional aides.Some of the military’s strikes on boats have killed people who critics of the operations say may be noncombatants or even immigrants who are hitching rides on the vessels and have nothing to do with the drug trade. Two survivors of a strike were captured and repatriated to Colombia and Ecuador rather than taken into U.S. custody, a decision that one of the congressional aides said raises questions about whether there is sufficient evidence to prosecute them for a crime.The internal differences over the legality of the boat strikes echo a similar debate more than 20 years ago. During President George W. Bush’s administration, senior military lawyers for the Army, the Air Force and the Marines raised objections over proposed “enhanced” interrogation techniques in 2003 and later testified to Congress about their concerns. They warned that U.S. courts could find those techniques amounted to torture and were illegal. John Yoo, the controversial legal architect of Bush’s “war on terror” after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, now argues the Trump administration’s boat strikes risk crossing the line between “crime fighting and war.”“Americans have died in car wrecks at an annual rate of about 40,000 in recent years; the nation does not wage war on auto companies,” he wrote recently in an op-ed in The Washington Post. “American law instead relies upon the criminal justice or civil tort systems to respond to broad, persistent social harms.” Gordon LuboldGordon Lubold is a national security reporter for NBC News.Courtney KubeCourtney Kube is a correspondent covering national security and the military for the NBC News Investigative Unit.Dan De LuceDan De Luce is a reporter for the NBC News Investigative Unit. 
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