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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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Savewith a NBCUniversal ProfileCreate your free profile or log in to save this articleOct. 23, 2025, 1:46 PM EDT / Updated Oct. 23, 2025, 1:56 PM EDTBy Alexandra MarquezPresident Donald Trump said Thursday that he is calling off plans to deploy federal troops to San Francisco after speaking to the city’s mayor.“The Federal Government was preparing to ‘surge’ San Francisco, California, on Saturday, but friends of mine who live in the area called last night to ask me not to go forward with the surge in that the Mayor, Daniel Lurie, was making substantial progress,” Trump’s post said.He added that some of the “friends” who asked Trump to hold off on deploying the National Guard in San Francisco included the CEO of Nvidia, Jensen Huang, and the CEO of Salesforce, Marc Benioff.“The people of San Francisco have come together on fighting Crime, especially since we began to take charge of that very nasty subject. Great people like Jensen Huang, Marc Benioff, and others have called saying that the future of San Francisco is great. They want to give it a ‘shot.’ Therefore, we will not surge San Francisco on Saturday,” the president wrote.In a separate statement, Lurie confirmed that he spoke to Trump last night, saying, “I told him the same thing I told our residents: San Francisco is on the rise.”“We have work to do, and we would welcome continued partnerships with the FBI, DEA, ATF, and U.S. Attorney to get drugs and drug dealers off our streets, but having the military and militarized immigration enforcement in our city will hinder our recovery,” the mayor added. “We appreciate that the president understands that we are the global hub for technology, and when San Francisco is strong, our country is strong.”Lurie also said that he spoke to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Thursday and she confirmed that the president was calling off plans for a federal deployment in San Francisco.Alexandra MarquezAlexandra Marquez is a politics reporter for NBC News.
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Dec. 6, 2025, 5:00 AM ESTBy Melanie Zanona, Sahil Kapur and Jonathan AllenWASHINGTON — Congressional Republicans are starting to publicly and privately sound the alarm about their party’s disjointed strategy to address Americans’ affordability concerns, with some growing increasingly frustrated with President Donald Trump’s sometimes cavalier attitude toward the subject.While Republicans say the high cost of living is a problem they inherited from President Joe Biden, many GOP lawmakers still think their party needs to sharpen its own message and platform ahead of the midterms — or else it could cost them their tenuous majorities in Congress.“If we don’t do that, we would be morons, because the economy is very much on people’s minds,” Rep. Tony Gonzales, a Texas Republican, told NBC News. Democrats “failed to really hammer the economy, and it cost them the election,” he added. “If we as Republicans fail to do the same, it wouldn’t surprise me if we had a similar turnout.”Nearly two dozen Republican senators, House members, strategists and congressional aides shared their concerns about their party’s handling of affordability in interviews with NBC News. Another six acknowledged the issue but said the party will settle on the right strategy to address it.Their comments come after Democrats have secured wins in many of this year’s elections, with voters citing economic concerns, and as Trump has dismissed the issue as a Democratic “hoax,” rhetoric that has privately frustrated some Republicans.Voters in key swing states raise concerns over high prices and affordability12:31Even some of the most MAGA Republicans are calling for a pivot. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said it’s not enough to fix the message: He said Republicans can only improve their standing by delivering real results to lower costs and grow wages.“People aren’t dumb,” Hawley said. “They know when they go to the grocery store what it costs and what it doesn’t. They know what their rent costs. They know what their prescription drugs cost. And all of that stuff is too high. And they can’t afford it. And they know that. So we’ve got to deliver.”Some Republicans have voiced their concerns to GOP leaders in private conversations, phone calls and meetings, according to two Republican lawmakers with direct knowledge of the discussions. One of those lawmakers said they also delivered a similar message to White House aides.And at least one House Republican — Rep. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey — said he directly raised the issue with Trump during a call last week, though they were primarily focused on health care costs, which are set to skyrocket if Congress doesn’t act before the end of this year.“Dozens of members and senators have been voicing concerns for several months to anyone that will listen,” said a Republican strategist who works with congressional candidates. “Senior White House aides have been a part of many of those discussions. Whether those aides have ever relayed the level of consternation to the president, that’s the unknown.”Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who was one of Trump’s top allies in Congress until recently, has been among the vocal Republicans complaining that Trump has spent too much time on foreign policy and not enough on domestic issues like the cost of living. Her frustrations led to a public falling-out with the president, which prompted her to announce she’ll resign next month.The public and private warnings come as Republicans have grown increasingly nervous about Trump’s standing and the broader political environment. Trump’s 36% approval rating in the latest Gallup poll, the lowest mark in his second term, alarmed some in the GOP.“I do think there’s challenges in a midterm year with our party in power,” Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., who represents a swing district and is retiring after this term, said in an interview. “It’s always hard. And then, you know, the president’s poll numbers today were 36% in Gallup, and I don’t think our side should ignore that.”The Gallup poll found Trump’s approval declining significantly among Republicans and independents. Trump’s handling of the economy — long a strength for him — was at just 36% approval, while his handling of health care and the federal budget were at 30% and 31%, respectively. “I think there’s red flags, and our party should take that threat serious,” Bacon said.The results of a special election in Tennessee this week, where the Republican candidate prevailed by 9 points in a district Trump carried by 22 points just last year, have also fueled the GOP’s anxiety. Multiple voters who spoke with NBC News cited the cost of living as a top concern that drove them to the polls in that race.“It’s certainly a wake-up call that the Democrats are gonna be ready to go, and we need to pick up our game on the issues that matter,” Rep. Scott DesJarlais, a Tennessee Republican, told NBC News. “It’s always the economy, but health care has been put on the front burner, and we need to address that.”The Republican candidate in the race, Rep. Matt Van Epps, even acknowledged the issue during his victory speech in Nashville on Tuesday night.“Together we’ll bring down the cost of living,” he said. “I’m tired of too many Republicans ceding affordability to Democrats.”Republican leaders urge calmRepublican leaders have sought to calm members by assuring them that Americans will start to feel better about the economy once key provisions from Trump’s tax law fully kick in next year, such as no tax on tips or overtime and an increase for the child tax credit.Pressed by NBC News on whether Republicans are doing enough to address affordability concerns among Americans, Speaker Mike Johnson said his message to everybody is to “relax.”“We are exactly on the trajectory of where we’ve always planned to be. Steady at the wheel, everybody, it’s going to be fine,” Johnson said. “Our best days are ahead of us. Americans are going to be feeling a lot better in the early part of next year.”But one senior House Republican, granted anonymity to share their views more candidly, believes it would be a mistake to rely on their mega law to assuage affordability concerns, arguing “no one in America knows what’s in that bill.”This lawmaker also complained that Johnson wasted almost two precious months of their majority — time they could have used to pass more cost-of-living bills or find a health care solution — by keeping the House out of session during the government shutdown. The speaker has defended his strategy, arguing it helped keep the pressure on Senate Democrats to fold, which they ultimately did.“There’s no key kind of strategic messaging about these major wins in the ‘one big, beautiful bill,’” the senior House Republican said. “This is a blown majority.”Trump, meanwhile, has repeatedly called affordability a “hoax,” a “con job” and a “scam” by Democrats, to the consternation of some Republicans. In an interview with NBC News this week, Vice President JD Vance said that Trump “certainly understands that prices got way too high” but that Democrats are blaming his administration for not immediately solving “affordability problems caused by Democrats.”“The hoax is the idea that it’s our fault and not the Democrats’ fault. And I do think that’s a totally bulls— narrative,” Vance said. Johnson made a similar point.A White House official insisted that the president’s policies have bolstered the economy, pointing to fuel standards and lowering drug prices among the policies that show the president’s ongoing commitment to affordability.But there are signs the White House knows it needs to show more sensitivity to voters’ perceptions about the economy. Next week, Trump will travel to northeast Pennsylvania — in a competitive area of the battleground state — to tout his economic agenda.“We’re now cleaning up what they still don’t have any actual solutions for,” the White House official said, referring to Democrats. “It’s more of a narrative thing than a substantive thing. With the trip coming up here, it’s more to reiterate or underscore that we’ve been working on this since Day 1. That’s not changing anytime soon.”On Capitol Hill, House GOP conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain, of Michigan, told Republicans during a closed-door meeting this week that leadership plans to stay laser-focused on passing bills to tackle costs and vowed to stay on message on the issue, according to two GOP sources in the room. Directly following that meeting, she then touted the GOP’s “affordability agenda” during a weekly press conference and highlighted low gas prices.Republicans also received a presentation during a Republican Study Committee lunch this week from Trump’s pollster, Tony Fabrizio, who advised them to focus on topics like reducing drug prices when talking about health care and to be cognizant of voters’ feelings about the economy, according to attendees.“Part of the message from Fabrizio is just identifying things that people relate to. They don’t want to hear about frivolous things. They want to hear about what things that affect them,” said Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Calif., who delivered a floor speech on affordability on Thursday.Changing how voters ‘feel’One of the challenges for Republicans is that while things like gas and egg prices are on the decline, many Americans are still feeling the squeeze from inflation, interest rates and a tightening job market. The Biden administration similarly struggled with whether and how to address voters’ sour perceptions about the economy while some key economic indicators were improving. The reality is, it’s difficult to tell voters how they should feel.“The economy has to feel better, and feeling better sometimes is subjective,” said Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., who was Trump’s interior secretary in his first term.Zinke says that in order for that to happen, interest rates need to come down and tariffs need to actually result in trade deals. Trump’s tariffs have contributed to the high prices and been another source of consternation inside the GOP.Another challenge is that a major piece of Trump’s tax law was just an extension of the current tax rates, meaning voters won’t feel much of a difference. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, thinks his party needs to do a better job reminding voters what would have happened if Republicans hadn’t acted.“We do need to say that a lot more, and remind people, ‘Do you know you were about to lose thousands of dollars of your paycheck, and we stopped it?’” he told NBC News.Yet it’s far from clear Republicans have an agenda that can meaningfully ease the pain voters feel — at least in the coming year.Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said hopes that prices will come down are misplaced, at least as long as the U.S. keeps adding trillions in debt each year.“For prices to actually go down — people kind of misinterpret this — we’d have to actually have deflation,” he said. “And what we have is less inflation. So it’s better that prices go up 2% a year than 9%. … But it’s not like slowing down inflation all of a sudden means you go to the grocery store and it’s less. It means it’s just not going up as rapidly, which isn’t that satisfying.”Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, who faces voters next year, cited “permitting reform” first when asked what Congress should do to lower costs. He said that would make it easier to build utility lines and generate energy.“Things like that, that we have control over, are on the agenda,” he said. “They’re just not yet accomplished, and they need to get accomplished.”Hawley has pitched his new plan to allow out-of-pocket spending on insurance premiums to be deducted from taxes and to create a $25,000 deduction for medical expenses. He said he’d also like to pursue a cap on prescription drug spending and raise the federal minimum wage, a cause opposed by most Republicans.Johnson has also promised to hold a vote on a health care proposal before the end of the year. But it’s unclear whether Republicans will be able to get a health care bill to Trump’s desk, especially before Affordable Care Act subsidies expire in January.If the GOP doesn’t pass an alternative and the ACA tax credits expire — which looks almost certain to happen at this point — that means millions of Americans’ health care premiums will surge next year.“It is frustrating. It’s a big deal,” Van Drew said, when asked about the prospect of his party letting the ACA subsidies expire. “Affordability, it’s the new buzzword now. And I think the thing that we can do the most immediately right now is the health care issue.”Melanie ZanonaMelanie Zanona is a Capitol Hill correspondent for NBC News.Sahil KapurSahil Kapur is a senior national political reporter for NBC News.Jonathan AllenJonathan Allen is a senior national politics reporter for NBC News.
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