Trump Says He Plans To Meet With NYC Mayor-Elect Mamdani To “Work Something Out”

Tyler Durden
Mon, 11/17/2025 – 18:25

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/trump-says-he-plans-meet-nyc-mayor-elect-mamdani-work-something-out 

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Monday he will sell F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia despite some concern within the administration that such a sale could lead to China gaining access to the U.S. technology behind the advanced weapon system.

The announcement came on the eve of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s highly anticipated Washington visit, his first to the United States in more than seven years.

“I will say that that we will be doing that,” Trump said when asked if he would sell the jets to Saudi Arabia. “We’ll be selling F-35s.”

The crown prince had been expected to arrive with a wish list that includes receiving formal assurances from Trump defining the scope of the U.S. military protection for the kingdom and an agreement to buy U.S.-made F-35 fighter jets, one of the world’s most advanced aircraft.

The Republican administration, however, has been wary about upsetting Israel’s qualitative military edge over its neighbors, especially at a time when Trump is depending on Israeli support for the success of his Gaza peace plan.

Another long-standing concern, which also derailed a potential similar sale to the United Arab Emirates, is that the F-35 technology could be stolen by or somehow transferred to China, which has close ties to both the UAE and Saudi Arabia, according to three administration officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations on the matter.

The Saudis and China last month held joint naval exercises hosted by the kingdom. And Beijing in 2023 helped mediate an agreement between the Saudi Arabia and Iran to reopen their embassies and exchange ambassadors amid ongoing tensions.

China surpassed the U.S. last year as Saudi Arabia’s top trade partner, but the United States has remained Riyadh’s favored nation for arms sales.

Bradley Bowman, senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said Congress could press the administration to detail what assurances Riyadh has given the White House about its relationship with China.

He added that the White House is likely to also face questions about plans to ensure Israel maintains its qualitative military edge.

The announcement by Trump comes at a moment in which he’s trying to persuade Saudi Arabia and Israel to normalize relations.

He has talked up his push to extend his first-term Abraham Accords — the project that formalized commercial and diplomatic ties between Israel and a trio of Arab nations — as key to his plan for bringing long-term stability to the Middle East as the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza continues to hold.

“I hope that Saudi Arabia will be going into the Abraham Accords very shortly,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday as he made his way to Florida for the weekend.

Yet Trump’s optimism that a U.S.-brokered deal could come soon is tempered by more sober internal assessments.

The Saudis have made clear that a guaranteed path to a Palestinian state remains a condition for the kingdom signing onto the accords — something Israel vehemently opposes.

The U.N. Security Council on Monday approved a U.S. plan for Gaza that authorizes an international stabilization force to provide security in the devastated territory and envisions a possible future path to an independent Palestinian state.

Still, Saudi Arabia is unlikely to sign on to the accords anytime soon, but there is cautious optimism that an agreement can be sealed by the end of Trump’s second term, the officials said.

“Let’s hope that President Trump makes clear that the first F-35 will not be delivered until Saudi Arabia normalizes relations with Israel,” Bowman said. “Otherwise, the president will undercut his own leverage.”

The Trump administration formally notified Congress in November 2020 that it planned to sell 50 stealth F-35 fighter jets to the United Arab Emirates as part of a broader arms deal worth $23 billion aimed at deterring potential threats from Iran, despite concerns raised by Israel.

The UAE announcement came shortly after Trump lost the 2020 election to Democratic Joe Biden and followed the signing of the Abraham Accords between and the UAE.

But Biden, soon after taking office in January 2021, put a hold on that sale.

Trump’s move is likely to receive scrutiny from human rights activists as Prince Mohammed’s trip marks his first visit to Washington since 2018.

On that visit, the crown prince went on a three-week U.S. tour aimed at improving the perception of his nation in the eyes of Americans concerned by the kingdom’s conservative social mores, its unequal treatment of women and the ignominious fact that 15 of 19 hijackers that took part in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States were Saudi citizens.

The Saudis’ reputation was further eroded months after Prince Mohammed’s last Washington visit with the killing and dismemberment of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Turkey, an operation targeting a critic of the kingdom that U.S. intelligence agencies later determined Prince Mohammed likely directed. The crown prince has denied he was involved.

But seven years later, the dark clouds in the U.S.-Saudi relationship have been cleared away by Trump, who has tightened his embrace of the 40-year-old crown prince he views as an indispensable player in shaping the Middle East in the decades to come.

“They have been a great ally,” Trump said.

AP Diplomatic writer Matthew Lee contributed reporting.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/17/trump-f-35-jets-saudi-arabia/ 

At least six Venezuelan nationals arrested in a controversial immigration raid on a South Shore apartment building in September are among hundreds who could soon be released on bond amid allegations that Operation Midway Blitz agents repeatedly violated a consent decree limiting warrantless arrests.

The immigrants from the Sept. 30 raid at 7500 S. South Shore Drive appeared on a list released Friday of some 614 arrestees identified in an ongoing lawsuit alleging the Department of Homeland Security ignored the terms of the 2022 in-court settlement that puts a higher bar on making arrests without a prior warrant or probable cause.

All six people from the South Shore raid who are on the list were confirmed to the Tribune by plaintiffs’ attorneys. They are all still in custody in the U.S. and were ranked in the “low” safety risk category, even by the government’s notably low standard.

The South Shore operation had been billed as an attempt to arrest gang members in the country illegally. But a low risk category indicates there is not only a lack of any serious criminal history in their background, but also no identifiable ties to gangs or other factors that would trigger mandatory detention.

The list was turned over by order of U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Cummings, who said he will grant a $1,500 bond to anyone who is still in custody in the U.S. and who is not confirmed by the government to be a safety risk or subject to a prior removal order.

Attorneys with the Department of Justice told Cummings on Friday they were not seeking to keep anyone marked “low” in custody, meaning the six are likely to be released on bond sometime this week, unless Cummings or the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals grants the government a stay on the order pending appeal.

Tyrone Billups shows a video of the raid at the 7500 South Shore Drive apartment complex in Chicago on Oct. 6, 2025. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)

The Trump administration has claimed the militaristic, middle-of-the-night South Shore raid, which included agents with high-powered weapons rappeling from helicopters and breaking down apartment doors, targeted known Tren de Aragua gang members and their associates.

The Tribune reported exclusively last month that no public criminal charges have been filed against anyone in connection with the raid.

Last week, ProPublica published a lengthy investigation that included interviews with several of the Venezuelan immigrants arrested that night, including three of the five on the list made public Friday.

One of them, Gabriel Enrique Gamarra Pérez, said in an interview with the outlet that agents showed him photos of about a half dozen men and asked if he knew them. Gamarra said one agent said about him and others he was with, “These aren’t the guys.”

Tren de Aragua is a gang known for its origins in a Venezuelan prison. President Donald Trump declared it a foreign terrorist organization earlier this year, reflecting his administration’s emphasis on deporting its members in the United States.

In the aftermath of the raid, though, it’s unclear how many — if any — of the 37 people ICE detained were gang members or associates.

Mark Fleming, the lead attorney in the ongoing consent decree litigation, said Monday the evidence trickling out about the raid shows it was “not about public safety or Tren de Aragua,” especially since most of the people arrested were already in civil immigration proceedings here.

“It doesn’t even seem to have been about criminal law enforcement,” Fleming told the Tribune. “It was about a show of force to feed the public perception.”

Cummings said he’d also order some form of monitoring of the arrestees, including electronic ankle monitors, pending the outcome of immigration proceedings. Most of those arrested were originally processed at the ICE processing center in west suburban Broadview, but have since been moved to jails around the country.

The judge also said he would not order the release of anyone who the government can show has a prior removal order or poses a significant risk to public safety.

Federal agents descended on an apartment building in the South Shore neighborhood of Chicago, breaking into apartments and detaining those who lived there on Sept. 30, 2025. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)

The list released Friday showed only 16 arrestees had criminal histories, or about 2.6% of the 614 people. Five involved domestic battery, two were related to drunken driving, and one allegedly had an unidentified criminal history in another country.

One person was deemed a national security risk, another had a narcotics conviction, and five more had been accused of various forms of battery, including two involving guns, the records indicated.

No one had any convictions for murder or rape.

Meanwhile, the other 598 people on the list had no criminal history listed at all, yet 42 of those were still classified by the DHS as having a “high” security risk. The reasons for that assessment were not explained.

The government said in a supplemental filing later Friday that those with a high risk should remain in detention.

The people on the list were all arrested by agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement prior to Oct. 7. In the coming days, the government was expected to produce a much lengthier list of more than 3,300 arrestees, including those arrested by Border Patrol later on in the operation.

Known as the Castañon Nava settlement agreement, the consent decree issued during the Biden administration bars agents from making warrantless immigration arrests unless they have probable cause to believe someone is in the U.S. unlawfully and that the person is a flight risk.

It was originally supposed to sunset in March. Instead, after the Trump administration began ramping up immigration enforcement efforts in January, lawyers for the National Immigrant Justice Center and ACLU alleged dozens of violations, mostly involving “collateral arrests,” or the detaining of individuals who are not targets.

In his Oct. 7 order extending the consent decree until February, Cummings said ICE had improperly told its field offices over the summer that the consent decree had been canceled. He also called into question the recent immigration raid on an apartment building in South Shore, where agents in military gear burst through doors and zip-tied residents regardless of citizenship.

And the judge also took particular issue with a practice by ICE agents of carrying blank I-200 warrant forms with them on missions and filling them out at the scene.

jmeisner@chicagotribune.com

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/17/venezuelan-migrants-south-shore-raid-could-be-released/ 

Por GREG BEACHAM

EL SEGUNDO, California, EE.UU. (AP) — LeBron James regresó a los entrenamientos con los Lakers de Los Ángeles el lunes, y está esperando ver cómo se siente después de la práctica antes de decidir si debutará el martes en la temporada.

Cuando James regrese a la alineación de Los Ángeles se convertirá en el primer jugador en la historia de la NBA en participar en 23 temporadas. Los Lakers reciben al Jazz de Utah el martes por la noche, pero no vuelven a jugar hasta el domingo.

“Solo estoy tratando de volver a sentirme como yo mismo otra vez”, afirmó James. “Tengo que ver cómo responde mi cuerpo en las próximas 24 horas o más”.

James, de 40 años, no había entrenado con los Lakers desde que desarrolló ciática antes del inicio del campamento de entrenamiento a finales de septiembre, y se perdió un partido inaugural de temporada por primera vez en su vida en el baloncesto.

El máximo anotador en la historia de la NBA se reincorporó a los Lakers después de su regreso de una gira de cinco partidos, pero James reconoció que aún tiene trabajo por hacer antes de estar en plena forma de juego.

“Mis pulmones se sienten como los de un bebé recién nacido”, expresó James. “Eso es lo más importante: tengo que recuperar mis pulmones a los de un hombre adulto. Mi voz ya está agotada después de un día de estar gritando instrucciones y asignaciones y cosas así. Tengo que hacer que mi voz funcione de nuevo. Será mucho té y descanso esta noche. Se siente bien estar aquí con los chicos. Los extrañé”.

James reveló que tuvo un primer episodio de ciática —dolor en los nervios que van desde las nalgas hasta la parte posterior de las piernas— durante la temporada baja hace dos años. También se torció un ligamento en su rodilla durante la derrota de los Lakers en la primera ronda de los playoffs ante Minnesota la primavera pasada, retrasando su régimen de entrenamiento de temporada baja un par de meses.

“No mucho después de eso (a mediados de junio), comencé a sentir el (dolor) en mi cadera y mi espalda, cosas de esa naturaleza”, comentó James. “Así que todo cambió un poco. Toda mi dinámica cambió en cuanto a cómo iba a prepararme para la temporada, pero todo es una bendición disfrazada”.

Cuando se le preguntó si está libre de dolor, James respondió: “No iría tan lejos”.

James se unió a los South Bay Lakers de la G League para practicar la semana pasada mientras aumentaba su actividad en la cancha con su primer trabajo de cinco contra cinco desde la primavera pasada. Su regreso al equipo principal el lunes fue una buena noticia para el entrenador JJ Redick.

James y Redick no tienen preocupaciones sobre la capacidad de James para encajar en la alineación de los Lakers en cualquier rol que obtenga. James ya está emocionado por trabajar un juego de dos hombres con Ayton y crear tiros para Doncic.

___

Deportes en español AP: https://apnews.com/hub/deportes

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/17/lebron-james-regresa-a-los-entrenamientos-con-lakers-pero-no-decide-si-debutar-el-martes/ 

LOS ANGELES — “That ’70s Show” actor Danny Masterson filed a petition Monday for his two rape convictions and long prison sentence to be thrown out, saying that his trial lawyer failed to call key witnesses and introduce essential evidence that might have exonerated him.

The petition for habeas corpus filed with California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal argues that lawyer Philip Cohen did not represent Masterson properly at the 2023 retrial that ended with the actor being convicted of raping two women at his Los Angeles home in 2003. He was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison.

The petition also argues that the trial judge demonstrated a bias against the Church of Scientology, allowing an “unconstitutional intrusion” into the church’s doctrine and a misinterpretation of its scripture.

Masterson is a member of the church, whose practices were a major issue at his trial, and the women are former members.

The petition says that Cohen spoke to only two of the 20 potential witnesses brought to his attention by his co-counsel and an investigator. It says the witnesses included some who would have testified that the women spoke favorably of the sexual relationships they had with Masterson. And they included psychological and pharmacological experts who would have testified about the effects of alcohol and drugs on memory.

The court filing says there was “unexpected and unreasonable failure of trial counsel to present any of the mountain of exculpatory evidence” that had been amassed by Masterson’s pretrial attorney Shawn Holley, and the result was a violation of his constitutional rights.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo declined to delay Masterson’s first trial to accommodate Holley’s representation of former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer against his own allegations of sexual misconduct. Cohen then took over as lead attorney.

Masterson’s first trial ended in a mistrial with a jury unable to reach consensus on any of three rape counts against him. He was promptly retried, and a jury found him guilty of two counts while failing to reach a verdict on the third.

Cohen did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the petition, nor did an attorney for the women.

“The unfairness of the second Masterson trial was the result of prosecutorial misconduct, judicial bias, and the failure of defense counsel to present exculpatory evidence,” Eric Multhaup, the attorney who filed the petition for Masterson, said in a statement. “The jury heard only half the story – the prosecution’s side. Danny deserves a new trial where the jury can hear his side as well.”

The petition says Olmedo erred in allowing the prosecution to negatively cast the Church of Scientology as a force of intimidation. It alleges that Cohen also did not present available evidence that would countered the portrayal.

Masterson’s new motion is separate from his main appeal to the same court, a process that is pending.

Masterson, 49, is serving his sentence at the California Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo. He will not be eligible for parole for more than 20 years.

Masterson starred with Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis and Topher Grace in “That ’70s Show” from 1998 until 2006. He had reunited with Kutcher on the 2016 Netflix comedy “The Ranch,” but was written off the show when the Los Angeles Police Department investigation was revealed the following year.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/17/actor-danny-masterson-rape/ 

BELEM, Brazil — Pope Leo XIV on Monday urged countries at United Nations climate talks to take “concrete actions” to stop climate change that is threatening the planet, telling them humans are failing in their response to global warming and that God’s creation “is crying out in floods, droughts, storms and relentless heat.”

In a video message played for religious leaders gathered in Belem, Leo said nations had made progress, “but not enough.”

“One in three people live in great vulnerability because of these climate changes,” Leo said. “To them, climate change is not a distant threat, and to ignore these people is to deny our shared humanity.”

His message came as the talks were moving into their second week, with high-level ministers from governments around the world arriving at the edge of the Brazilian Amazon to join negotiations. Monday was dominated by speeches, with several leaders from Global South nations giving emotional testimony on devastating costs of recent extreme weather and natural disasters.

Vulnerable nations have pressed for more ambition at these talks as world leaders have begun to acknowledge that Earth will almost surely go past a hoped-for limit — 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit in Earth’s warming since pre-industrial times. That was the target set at these talks in 2015 in the landmark Paris agreement.

Scientists say in addition to deadly heat, a warming atmosphere leads to more frequent and deadly extreme weather such as flooding, droughts, violent downpours and more powerful hurricanes.

Leo said there’s still time to stay within the Paris Agreement, but not much.

“As stewards of God’s creation, we are called to act swiftly, with faith and prophecy, to protect the gift He entrusted to us,” he said. And he added: “But we must be honest: it is not the Agreement that is failing, we are failing in our response. What is failing is the political will of some.”

Leo made history this year by becoming the first American pope, and has embraced Pope Francis’ environmental legacy, including dismissing climate skeptics.

The U.S., the world’s second-largest polluter, is skipping the conference. U.S. President Donald Trump called climate change “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world” during a speech to the U.N. General Assembly in September.

U.N. climate chief Simon Stiell said Leo’s words “challenge us to keep choosing hope and action.”

Leo “reminds us that the Paris Agreement is delivering progress and remains our strongest tool — but we must work together for more, and that bolder climate action is an investment in stronger and fairer economies, and more stable world,” Stiell said.

David Gibson, director of the Center on Religion and Culture at Fordham University in New York, said Leo is becoming the world’s most prominent moral leader against climate change.

“This message does stake Leo out as a voice for the rest of the world, especially the Southern Hemisphere where climate change is wreaking havoc with the vulnerable in Asia, Africa and Latin America,” said Gibson.

And he said it shows that Leo, who spent decades working as a missionary in Peru and is a naturalized Peruvian citizen, “has a Latin American heart and voice.”

The Laudato Si’ Movement, a Catholic climate movement that takes its name from a 2015 encyclical in which Pope Francis called for climate action, called Leo’s message “a profound moral intervention.”

“He reminds the world that creation is crying out and that vulnerable communities cannot be pushed aside. “His voice cuts through the noise of negotiations and calls leaders back to what truly matters: our shared humanity and the urgent duty to act with courage, compassion, and justice,” the group’s executive director, Lorna Gold, said.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/17/pope-leo-climate-action/ 

Man Stabbed In Broad Daylight In Times Square Collapses While Yelling “Save The Children”

Tyler Durden
Mon, 11/17/2025 – 18:00

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/man-stabbed-broad-daylight-times-square-collapses-while-yelling-save-children 

Jetonne Whitehead told jurors Monday she was something of a caretaker for her brother Deon Perry.

She went to his Gary apartment at the Willows on Clark Road nearly daily or multiple times a day to help him with things like his laundry.

A diabetic, Perry was suffering from presumed complications. He was blind in one eye and had neuropathy in his feet. He struggled to walk sometimes and sleep.

On Feb. 4, she left. When she returned the next day, her brother’s roommate, Jeremy Worley, was gone.

She found her brother’s body face down in a bedroom with something “black” wrapped around or near his neck.

“I knew he was dead,” she told prosecutors.

Worley, 50, is charged May 14 with murder and a habitual offender enhancement in the Feb. 4 or Feb. 5, 2024 death of Perry, 60, of Gary.

He has denied the allegations and pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors played her 911 call.

On cross-examination, defense lawyer Derrick Julkes questioned what he called inconsistencies in Whitehead’s testimony.

Chief among them was what time she left the apartment. On Feb. 4, she said after looking at past testimony that she left at 11 p.m.

Jelks said surveillance video appeared to show she went back to the apartment four more times, the last time was well after 2 a.m.

Jelks asked if he could zero in on potential reasons for why Whitehead had an inconsistent memory for some details. Judge Samuel Cappas rejected the request.

Gary police responded Feb. 5, 2024 to the apartment on the 400 block of Clark Road.

Perry’s sister last saw him around 11 a.m. Feb. 4 when she picked up his laundry. When she called back at 7 p.m., his roommate “Jay” answered Perry’s phone, claimed he was asleep and “would take care of him.”

The woman told police the TV’s volume was turned way up in the background.

The next morning, at 8 a.m., when she called, no one answered. She went back to drop off the laundry. She found Perry’s body on the bedroom floor. A sledgehammer was nearby. The apartment was “ransacked.”

Security footage from the apartment building showed a man, later identified as Worley, going into the unit around 9:38 a.m. with a garbage bag and suitcase, the affidavit states

He was later seen throwing the garbage bag over a fence by 5th Avenue and Clark Road into a vacant lot. Police later found Perry’s pill bottle, a bloody bleach bottle and bloody medical pads.

Perry loved “fast cars,” singing, and was “somewhat of a ladies’ man,” according to his obituary. He “always had a smile on his face” and loved making people laugh.

He is survived by six children.

mcolias@post-trib.com

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/17/i-knew-he-was-dead-woman-recalls-finding-gary-brothers-body-in-trial-testimony/ 

Illinois Senate President Don Harmon is facing a new challenge over a State Board of Elections staff finding that his campaign committee owes $9.8 million in fines for accepting campaign contributions in excess of state limitations.

The libertarian-leaning Liberty Justice Center, which frequently advocates on behalf of Republican causes, last week filed a citizen-initiated complaint with the election board regarding Harmon’s committee. The move could allow the matter to go to court and sidestep the bipartisan election panel’s stalemate on the issue.

The filing of the complaint comes as the eight-member election board, made up of four Democrats and four Republicans, convenes Tuesday to again consider their 4-4 deadlock vote last month on the Oak Park Democratic lawmaker’s attempt to appeal a hearing examiner’s recommendation that the fines be imposed for violating campaign limits.

Harmon’s attorney, veteran Democratic lawyer Michael Kasper, had argued that the board needs five votes to make a final decision. Absent that, Kasper said, any fines have not officially been imposed against the state Senate president and he could not go to court to mount an appeal.

Election board staff determined that the Friends of Don Harmon for State Senate campaign fund last year accepted more than $4 million above state campaign contribution limits. The board’s action was prompted by a Chicago Tribune inquiry about the committee’s fundraising activities.

At issue is a provision of Illinois campaign finance law that Harmon championed to even the playing field in contests involving a wealthy self-funding competitor. But legislative leaders and others have triggered the provision to allow them to collect unlimited campaign contributions.

Harmon contributed $100,001 to his own campaign in January 2023 and, in his appeal, indicated he thought the move allowed him to collect unlimited cash throughout the November 2024 election cycle. But board officials informed him the loophole would only remain open through the March 2024 primary, meaning any campaign cash exceeding the contribution limits that he received after the primary through the end of the year was not allowed.

Harmon was not a 2024 candidate but is on the ballot next year and contends that an election cycle runs until his office is up for election. Unlike state House members, who are up for election every two years, state senators run in staggered two- and four-year terms.

The complaint filed through the Liberty Justice Center follows along the staff-initiated finding that Harmon violated the law. But as a citizen-initiated complaint, it could allow a court to review whether the board followed state law or to seek a judicial mandate requiring the board to act.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/17/don-harmon-new-challenge-over-campaign-finance-fine/ 

ICE, Partners Launch Initiative To Protect 450,000 Children From Unvetted Sponsors

Tyler Durden
Mon, 11/17/2025 – 17:40

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/ice-partners-launch-initiative-protect-450000-children-unvetted-sponsors