NATIONAL HEADLINES

Did you know you can get breaking newz as it happens?   We update breaking news on our Facebook page often during the day.  Always on.  Always free.  Always ad free.  LIKE US on Facebook to get breaking news as it happens. 

As 2025 wraps up, it's another in a string of years after the 2020 pandemic in which most Americans consistently voiced negative views about the economy amid ongoing concerns about costs — a topic that looks poised to dominate 2026, too.   That's because in the eyes of many Americans today, the U.S. is an expensive place to live.  Click here for more on this story.  

Click here to read about how Republican Sen. Rand Paul on Sunday criticized President Donald Trump's military mission off Venezuela's coast, calling the seizures of multiple oil tankers in the Caribbean Sea "a provocation and a prelude to war."  "I'm not for confiscating these liners. I'm not for blowing up these boats of unarmed people that are suspected of being drug dealers. I'm not for any of this," Paul told ABC News' "This Week" co-anchor Jonathan Karl. 

Click here to read about how Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Monday that the FBI disrupted a "massive and horrific terror plot" by an anti-government extremist group allegedly planning a series of bombings against multiple targets in Orange County and Los Angeles, California, beginning on New Year's Eve.  

Construction of the White House's planned $300 million ballroom is expected to be completed in the summer of 2028, just months before President Trump leaves office, according to an environmental assessment prepared by the National Park Service in late August.  Click here for more.  

The U.S. has seized a tanker off the coast of Venezuela, President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday, amid escalating tensions between the administration and the South American nation.  "It's been a very interesting day, from the standpoint of news. As you probably know, we've just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela," Trump said as he kicked off a roundtable event at the White House.  Click here for the full story.  

Just like South Texas, The Trump administration is adding another militarized zone to the southern U.S. border to support border security operations — this time in California.  The Department of Interior on Wednesday said it would transfer jurisdiction along most of California’s international border with Mexico to the Navy to reinforce “the historic role public lands have played in safeguarding national sovereignty.”  The newly designated militarized zone extends nearly from the Arizona state line to the Otay Mountain Wilderness.  Click here for the full story.