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New boat strikes video sparked 'different understandings of what we saw,' senator says

admin - Latest News - December 4, 2025
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The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the commander who ordered the “double tap” strikes on an alleged drug trafficking boat in September briefed lawmakers on Capitol Hill after members on both sides demanded increased transparency about the second strike. NBC News Senior National Security Correspondent Courtney Kube reports on how lawmakers are reacting to the briefing.



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Dec. 4, 2025, 3:11 PM ESTBy Rebecca KeeganHollywood is feeling the lure of Saudi Arabian money. The stars are taking it, with many set to receive checks for attending this week’s Red Sea Film Festival. Studios are interested in it, with their executives traveling to the kingdom to meet about potential deals. And at the highest levels, Saudi money could end up helping to finance a massive media merger.For the entertainment industry, Saudi financing has become more appealing as other sources of money have dried up in the aftermath of the 2020 Covid pandemic, the 2023 dual actors’ and writers’ strikes, and shifting audience habits away from film and TV to social media. “Money is good, that’s Hollywood’s perspective,” said entertainment attorney Schuylar (Sky) Moore at Greenberg Glusker. “For the Saudis, it’s all about building their own film industry, and they’re trying to get the expertise and the people there.” But Saudi Arabia’s controversial human rights record makes the relationship an uneasy one for some in the West — and a sensitive topic to talk about in Hollywood, where more than a dozen insiders including agents, producers, executives, bankers and publicists declined to go on the record about the inrush of potential Saudi cash.For more on this story, tune in to Hallie Jackson NOW at 5:00 p.m. ET/2:30 p.m. PT on NBC NEWS NOW.This week, many of them are headed to the kingdom’s coastal city of Jeddah for the Red Sea Film Festival, which runs through Dec. 13. In recent years, the festival, a nonprofit organization financed by Saudi government money, has paid talent up to $2.5 million to attend at least part of the event, according to two sources with knowledge of the deals who were not authorized to speak on the record about them. A spokesperson for the Red Sea Film Festival contested the figure, calling it “inaccurate, and not representative.”“The festival does not disclose the details of any of its commercial arrangements, but we on occasion engage with talent on a contractual basis for work we ask them to do at the festival which includes labs, in conversations, mentorship sessions with emerging regional talent,” the festival said in a statement. “The Foundation is first and foremost committed to nurturing talent in underrepresented markets — as evidenced by our programme and the filmmakers we support year round.”This year, festival organizers announced that the nine-day event will feature a jury with Oscar-winning “Anora” director Sean Baker and actor Riz Ahmed; stage conversations with actors including Ana de Armas, Dakota Johnson, Kirsten Dunst, Jessica Alba and Adrien Brody; and tributes to actors Sigourney Weaver and Michael Caine. Many of the stars are being touted on the festival’s official Instagram page. A diverse slate of films is set to screen including “Couture” starring Angelina Jolie, Paramount’s “The Spongebob Movie: Search for Squarepants,” and Jordan’s Oscar submission, “All That’s Left of You,” which received financial support from the Red Sea Foundation.Saudi money is also behind a portion of Paramount Skydance’s more than $60 billion bid this week for Warner Bros Discovery, according to Variety, which cites multiple sources, and Bloomberg, which cited people familiar with the discussions. A spokesperson for Paramount declined to comment.Additionally, the kingdom is backing a $1 billion new independent content studio called Arena SNK launched in October by former Lionsgate executive Erik Feig, and a $55 billion deal for video game maker Electronic Arts announced in September. A representative for Feig declined to comment. Executives from Sony traveled to Saudi Arabia this fall for meetings, a spokesperson confirmed. Comcast CEO Brian Roberts also traveled to the country this fall to attend a conference and view a potential theme park site in Qiddiya, a tourism megaproject in Riyadh province, according to a source with knowledge of Roberts’ trip who was not authorized to speak on the record about it. (Comcast owns NBCUniversal, which is the parent company of NBC News.) While there are many deals in discussion, Moore noted that a major Hollywood studio has yet to actually close one with Saudi financing. If they do, the entertainment attorney said he suspects the deal will be contingent upon shooting in the region, to help build up the kingdom’s local production infrastructure. Hollywood’s not alone in its attempts to muster up funding from the Middle East — both the sports and gaming worlds have tapped into Saudi money. Critics, including Human Rights Watch, an international nongovernmental organization, and the Atlantic Council, a research institute, have accused the Saudi government of so-called “sportswashing,” investing in golf and soccer to improve its international image.Kirsten Dunst, Vin Diesel, Michael Caine, and Ana de Armas at the Red Sea Film Festival on Thursday.Daniele Venturelli / Getty Images for The Red Sea International Film FestivalIn 2027, WrestleMania will be held in Riyadh, marking the first time the WWE will hold its signature pay-per-view match outside North America. In a statement announcing the deal in September,Paul “Triple H” Levesque, WWE’s chief content officer, said that the General Entertainment Authority (GEA) in Saudi Arabia and its chairman, Turki Alalshikh, “have made a massive impact on the world of sports and entertainment.” He described them as “phenomenal partners to WWE.”Video gaming giant Electronic Arts announced in September that it will be acquired for $55 billion in an all-cash deal by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, Silver Lake and Affinity Partners (the investment company run by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner).From the Saudi perspective, the entertainment industry spending is a way to reduce the country’s economic dependence on oil and to improve their image globally, which is all part of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s modernization plan for the kingdom called Vision 2030. In September, the Saudi Film Fund rebranded as Riviera Content, with a mandate to finance and produce movies with major global studios, bolstered by a 40% tax incentive for production in the kingdom.“A lot of it is driven by a feeling in Saudi that their story isn’t being told well,” said one entertainment industry dealmaker who has done business in Saudi Arabia, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue.In 2018, the Saudi/Hollywood collaboration was just beginning to get underway when, according to U.S. intelligence services, Crown Prince Mohammed approved an operation to assassinate Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a fierce critic of his government. In the months before the murder, the crown prince had ended a 35-year ban on movie theaters and traveled to Los Angeles to meet with News Corp. mogul Rupert Murdoch and Disney CEO Bob Iger. The Saudi Film Council had delivered a splashy pitch at the Cannes Film Festival, handing out guides to Saudi film locations and a book with data on the young, digitally savvy Saudi audience. The Khashoggi murder chilled the nascent cultural relationship and led Endeavor Content, the film and TV company behind shows like “Severance” and “Killing Eve,” to back out of a $400 million deal with the Saudi government in 2019.Trump defends Saudi crown prince over journalist’s murder02:18Hollywood’s difficult financial environment and the reelection of President Donald Trump, who has a close relationship with Saudi Arabia, have reopened the door to conversations. In November, Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison attended a White House dinner for Crown Prince Mohammed, the Saudi leader’s first visit to the White House since the Khashoggi murder. For Western talent, however, the Saudi money still brings deeper questions. In September, American comedians like Dave Chappelle, Kevin Hart and Pete Davidson faced backlash from fans, human rights activists and fellow comics for performing at the Riyadh Comedy Festival.Human Rights Watch accused the Saudi government of using the event “to deflect attention from its brutal repression of free speech and other pervasive human rights violations.”In October, late night host Jimmy Kimmel pressed comedian Aziz Ansari about his decision to perform at the festival. “People, a lot of comedians especially, are very upset, because the people who paid the comedians to come to this are not good people,” Kimmel said. “It’s a pretty brutal regime. They’ve done a lot of horrible, horrible things.”“There’s people over there that don’t agree with the stuff that the government’s doing, and to ascribe like the worst behavior of the government onto those people, that’s not fair,” Ansari said of his decision, noting he asked his aunt who used to live in Saudi Arabia. “Just like there’s people in America that don’t agree with the things the government is doing.”The talent that is expected to attend the Red Sea Film Festival in the coming days have not publicly commented on their upcoming plans. Despite the stars in the lineup, many of the actors with films screening at Red Sea this year have declined to attend. That includes Jolie, whose representative did not say why she’s skipping the event, and Pierce Brosnan and Jude Law, whose representatives both cited scheduling issues.Rebecca KeeganRebecca Keegan is the senior Hollywood reporter for NBC News Digital, where she covers the entertainment industry.
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Nov. 8, 2025, 6:00 AM EST / Updated Nov. 8, 2025, 6:07 AM ESTBy Erik OrtizWithin days of her arrival at a Texas prison camp in early August, Ghislaine Maxwell gushed in emails to her friends and family over the cleanliness and safety of her new surroundings.“The institution is run in an orderly fashion which makes for a safer more comfortable environment for all people concerned, inmates and guards alike,” wrote Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for recruiting minors to be sexually abused by her longtime confidant, the wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein.Maxwell’s unexpected move to the all-women’s Federal Prison Camp Bryan, which houses inmates convicted of nonviolent offenses and white-collar crimes in dormitory-style quarters, drew immediate condemnation from current and former federal Bureau of Prisons employees. They said it was very unusual for prisoners with sex offenses on their records to be incarcerated in such an unconstrained setting, indicating Maxwell was receiving preferential treatment.For more on this story, watch NBC’s “Nightly News” tonight at 6:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. CTMaxwell, 63, had been in a low-security federal correctional institution in Tallahassee, Florida, following her conviction in December 2021 on federal sex trafficking charges. FCI Tallahassee is more restrictive than a camp like FPC Bryan, where inmates have access to work programs, recreation and other activities and are often serving shorter sentences. Maxwell was moved days after meeting with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche in July.Federal Prison Camp Bryan in Bryan, Texas, houses about 635 prisoners.Brandon Bell / Getty ImagesNBC News has reviewed emails Maxwell sent during her first few months at FPC Bryan, which were obtained by the House Judiciary Committee. The emails describe Maxwell’s relief at being in a calmer facility without violence, where staff was polite and the food was better. “My situation is improved by being at Bryan,” she wrote in one email. “The kitchen looks clean too — no possums falling from the celling to fry unfortunately on ovens, and become mingled with the food being served,” she wrote in another, complaining about her previous prison.Maxwell also praised prison camp warden Tanisha Hall, whom Maxwell called a “true professional.”“I feel like I have dropped through Alice in Wonderlands looking glass,” Maxwell wrote to a relative, adding, “I am much much happier here and more importantly safe.”#embed-20251107-maxwell-email-1 iframe {width: 1px;min-width: 100%}The emails were shared with the House Judiciary Committee after the top Democrat on the committee, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, wrote a letter to Hall on Oct. 30 asking about Maxwell’s perceived “VIP treatment.” The letter cited a Wall Street Journal report last month describing special accommodations for Maxwell’s visitors and other perks, such as meals sent to her dormitory room, late-night workouts and her ability to shower after other inmates were already in bed for the night.Raskin’s inquiry raised other accusations made by inmates to the Journal that they have been threatened with retaliation if they speak about Maxwell to the media. At least one inmate who spoke with the Journal was transferred out of FPC Bryan after speaking about Maxwell, the newspaper reported.“While prison officials may limit inmates’ First Amendment rights to preserve security and order, you have provided no such justification for why prison security requires a ‘Ghislaine Maxwell’ gag order,” Raskin wrote, asking Hall to respond to his inquiry by Nov. 13, provide documentation and coordinate a visit for his staff to speak with inmates about their experiences.The warden faces a similar inquiry and deadline from Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.The emails provided to NBC News and the House Judiciary Committee included messages from several inmates who expressed fear that they would be moved to higher-security facilities for mentioning Maxwell in phone calls or emails and said they believe she is receiving more care and attention than the typical prisoner. “They are even delivering her meals to her and NO inmates is allowed to prepare her meals,” one said.Hall, who began her career as a correctional officer at FPC Bryan in 1994 and has been its warden since 2023, did not respond to requests for comment. The Justice Department, which oversees the BOP, declined to comment.David Oscar Markus, a lawyer for Maxwell, said in response to NBC News’ request for comment about the congressional inquiries and the contents of her emails that “there’s nothing journalistic about publishing a prisoner’s private emails, including ones with her lawyers.”“That’s tabloid behavior, not responsible reporting,” Markus said in a statement. “Anyone still interested in that kind of gossip reveals far more about themselves than about Ghislaine. It’s time to get over the fact that she is in a safer facility. We should want that for everyone.”Ian Maxwell, Maxwell’s brother, said in an email to NBC News that messages between him and his sister are “personal and private by their very nature.”If those emails were sent to Congress and a reporter, he added, “then they were stolen and leaked without authorisation and represent a breach of intellectual property rights and the fundamental right of all citizens to privacy.”Maxwell’s emails indicate she’s able to access the warden for help, including arranging visits and communicating with her lawyers. In an email Maxwell sent to one of her attorneys in September, she noted that she spoke with the warden when she had a problem receiving documents by a deadline in her appeal before the Supreme Court.“Her creative solution was that you EM/scan it to her and she will scan back my changes!” Maxwell wrote, referring to her lawyer emailing the warden. “Of course that is fantastic as it saves days and days.”#embed-20251107-maxwell-email-0 iframe {width: 1px;min-width: 100%}Patrick McLain, a Dallas criminal defense attorney who has represented women at FPC Bryan, said it would be unusual for any warden to get involved with inmates’ cases and that “no way” would he expect Hall to give his clients at FPC Bryan the same personal attention as Maxwell described in the emails.“That’s a rare occurrence,” McLain said. “It would be like the head of a large corporation of a manufacturing plant regularly having contact with people on the assembly line.”FPC Bryan, located in a residential neighborhood and ringed with razor wire, houses about 635 prisoners.In other emails, Maxwell, a socialite and the daughter of a British media mogul, voiced her continued frustration with the media and “people selling rubbish stories and making money from their lies.”In October, when Sean “Diddy” Combs was sentenced to 50 months in federal prison on two counts of transporting former girlfriends for prostitution, Maxwell was paying attention, writing in an email: “What an intersting sentence for Diddy! Hmm.”Maxwell has been a central figure in the Epstein saga that has morphed into a major and ongoing political dispute.The guilty verdict in Maxwell’s sex abuse trial is read in a New York City courtroom on Dec. 29, 2021.Jane Rosenberg / ReutersEpstein died by suicide in a New York City jail in 2019 as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges. While President Donald Trump initially said he supports full disclosure of investigative files in Epstein’s case, his administration has said it would not release all of the documents, prompting outcry from Democrats, some Republicans and parts of the president’s own base who have fueled conspiracy theories and pushed unfounded narratives surrounding Epstein’s death.The intrigue around Epstein only grew when Blanche met with Maxwell in July for nine hours over two days in a federal courthouse in Tallahassee. The details of their discussion were not immediately made public, but in the days that followed, Maxwell was moved from her Florida prison to FPC Bryan.The Justice Department in late August released transcripts from Maxwell’s meeting with Blanche, in which she said she never witnessed any inappropriate conduct by Trump or any other prominent figures in Epstein’s orbit. Trump, whose name appeared in the unsealed records as a friend of Epstein’s before they had a falling out, has not been accused by authorities of any wrongdoing.Markus, Maxwell’s attorney, has previously said that she is “innocent and never should have been tried, much less convicted, in this case.”In October, the Supreme Court declined to hear Maxwell’s appeal of her criminal conviction, leaving presidential clemency as her best shot at being freed before her projected 2037 release date.Following the Supreme Court’s decision, Trump told reporters that he would speak with the Justice Department and “would have to take a look” at whether he would consider a pardon.Maxwell’s arrival at FPC Bryan — a camp described by employees as being lax with security — led prison officials to ramp up protective measures, including patrol cars and surveillance cameras along the perimeter. Members of the BOP’s Special Operations Response Team, who are highly trained on disturbances and security breaches at federal prisons, arrived to check IDs at the front entrance.A BOP official attributed the enhanced security to Maxwell’s presence, but could not say whether there had been any direct threats to her, other inmates or FPC Bryan itself.Maxwell’s transfer also rankled some community members, who questioned why she was selected to come to Bryan, given her conviction on a sex offense.“We want a better prison system for all, but why is she being shown privilege when there are other people who are trying and putting in the work, and they don’t get to be moved here?” asked Raequel Rogers, a co-organizer of the Brazos Valley Community Coalition, a grassroots group that demonstrated in front of FPC Bryan in August. “It’s brought a lot of attention to our town that we haven’t consented for. We don’t want a child sex trafficker here.”The BOP’s policy indicates Maxwell should be ineligible for incarceration at a minimum-security prison camp because she is a convicted sex offender. Sex offenders must be in at least a low-security prison, as Maxwell was in Tallahassee, unless a waiver is granted by the administrator of the BOP’s Designation and Sentence Computation Center.McLain, the Dallas defense attorney, said one of his clients, Julie Howell, was transferred out of FPC Bryan after she was quoted in a news article saying inmates were angry about Maxwell’s placement among them. McLain said Howell was vocal because she has helped law enforcement find sex traffickers. Maxwell’s arrival also disrupted the other inmates’ routines, McLain said.“It’s made their lives all topsy-turvy,” he said.Howell was initially transferred from FPC Bryan to a detention center in Houston. But on Friday, McLain said, he learned Howell had finally been moved to a halfway house to complete her sentence.It was a silver lining after what happened to her in Bryan, McLain added: “Fortunately, the system is not totally rife with corruption.”Erik OrtizErik Ortiz is a senior reporter for NBC News Digital focusing on racial injustice and social inequality.
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