By Piper Hudspeth Blackburn, CNN

(CNN) — The Trump administration has signaled to the Smithsonian Institution that the White House could withhold federal funding from the museum organization if it does not comply with the administration’s unprecedented, sweeping review.

In a Thursday letter to Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch III, White House officials said funds are available only “for use in a manner consistent” with President Donald Trump’s executive order from March, which tasked aides with rooting out “ideological indoctrination or divisive narratives” within the organization.

Tensions between the White House and the Smithsonian ramped up in August, when the administration asked the organization to turn over an array of materials, including gallery labels, future exhibition plans and internal communications about artwork selection.

The White House officials said materials the Smithsonian handed over in September “fell far short of what was requested, and the overwhelming majority of requested items remain outstanding.”

CNN has reached out to the Smithsonian for comment.

The letter, penned by White House Domestic Policy Council Director Vince Haley and Trump’s budget chief Russ Vought, urged the Smithsonian to align itself with the administration’s push to get rid of what it considers anti-American propaganda.

“The American people will have no patience for any museum that is diffident about America’s founding or otherwise uncomfortable conveying a positive view of American history, one which is justifiably proud of our country’s accomplishments and record,” the officials said.

While the Smithsonian, a unique public-private trust, does not consider itself an executive agency, the federal government supplies two-thirds of its budget. It’s a potential vulnerability for the 179-year-old institution, which has tried to maintain its independence despite unprecedented scrutiny of its programming by the Trump White House.

Federal funding has emerged as a major leverage point for the Trump administration, which, through the Vought-led Office of Management and Budget, has gutted agencies and initiatives that don’t align with the president’s agenda.

Trump directed his attorneys in August to conduct the review, claiming the Smithsonian was “out of control” and that “everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been.”

The museum complex now has until January 13 to turn in the rest of the requested documents, which include organizational charts, curatorial manuals, proposals for future exhibitions, and in-depth information about its programming for the US’ 250th anniversary next year.

The Washington Post has reported that Bunch, the institution’s secretary since 2019, committed to sharing information in a letter responding to the White House on Friday. He also noted that the recent

By Steve Contorno, CNN

Phoenix (CNN) — This weekend’s gathering of young Republicans and conservative influencers in the Arizona desert offered a glimpse into the divisions already fraying President Donald Trump’s coalition even before its lame-duck leader is out of the picture.

Enter Vice President JD Vance, a figure many in the movement view as the man who can keep the party’s big tent together through the Trump era and beyond.

Speaking Sunday at Turning Point USA’s annual conference, AmericaFest, Vance not only addressed head-on the friction pulling at the party, but he also encouraged attendees to embrace it.

“I know some of you are discouraged by the infighting over any number of issues. Don’t be discouraged,” Vance said. “Would you rather lead a movement of free thinkers who sometimes disagree than a bunch of drones who take their orders from George Soros?”

As the party’s No. 2, Vance has spent the past year cautiously treading through the GOP’s arising tensions, taking care not to alienate any corner of the party’s growing tent. He has largely maintained credibility with Israel’s allies and its skeptics, Big Tech billionaires and artificial intelligence alarmists, immigration hardliners and green-card advocates, isolationists and foreign policy hawks, populists and establishment Republicans.

But the four-day Phoenix summit, the first since a gunman killed Turning Point’s founder, Charlie Kirk, exposed the challenge ahead for Vance. Speakers bad-mouthed one another from the stage, clashed over whether to engage with conspiracy theorists, argued over who belongs in the GOP and America and sparred openly over Israel’s influence on US foreign policy.

Vance is familiar with adapting to his party’s changing winds. He once aligned with “Never Trump” Republicans before becoming a vocal supporter — a transition that White House chief of staff Susie Wiles acknowledged to Vanity Fair appeared politically expedient. And he remains the Republican best positioned to emerge from these internal struggles in 2028. A new CNN poll found 22% of Republican and right-leaning independents would like to see Vance run for president.

No other GOP figure eclipsed 5%. And on the opening night of AmericaFest, Kirk’s widow and Turning Point’s new leader Erika Kirk endorsed Vance for president, even though he has yet to formally launch a bid.

Vance urged Turning Point attendees to help pressure the Republican-led Senate to approve Trump’s judges so there can be “more prosecutions” and “swifter justice.” He hurled insults against Democrats heading into the midterms and even launched some early missives at some of the minority party’s rumored 2028 contenders that he may one day face.

In a deeply partisan speech dripping in Christian nationalism, Vance called on the movement to turn its ire outward, instead of inward.

“I’m not saying you have to be a Christian to be an American,” Vance said. “I’m saying something simple and truer: Christianity is America’s dream.”

An early 2028 endorsement

Should he run, Vance will now carry into the primary a key base of support from an organization credited with boosting Trump’s successful courtship of millennial and Gen Z voters. Turning Point also brought in $84 million in the 2024 fiscal year, according to its most recent tax filings, and has field operations that were battle-tested during the last election cycl

By Mohammed Tawfeeq, CNN

(CNN) — The remaining 130 schoolchildren kidnapped by gunmen from a Catholic school in Nigeria’s north-central Niger State in November have been released, a presidential spokesman said on Sunday, confirming that all abducted pupils are now free.

“Another 130 abducted Niger State pupils released, none left in captivity,” spokesman Sunday Dare said in a post on X, accompanied by a photograph showing the smiling children.

The spokesman did not provide details on the circumstances surrounding their release.

The students were taken in November when armed bandits stormed St. Mary’s Private Catholic School, abducting a total of 303 children and 12 teachers, according to the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN). The victims included both boys and girls, some as young as 10.

Less than 48 hours after the abduction, 50 students managed to escape and return to their families, CAN said at the time. Earlier this month, the Nigerian government announced that security forces had rescued 100 of the kidnapped victims.

Dare’s post on Sunday put the last students being held at 130 – slightly fewer than were thought to remain in captivity. CNN has reached to the office of Nigerian President for clarification.

The November abduction was the latest in a wave of attacks by armed groups targeting vulnerable civilian populations, particularly schools, and carrying out mass kidnappings for ransom. Violence in the country has repeatedly erupted from communal and ethnic tensions, as well as from disputes between farmers and herders over limited access to land and water resources.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

The post Nigeria says 130 more children released nearly a month after being kidnapped from school appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

The post Flood Watch Issued for Santa Barbara County and Central Coast as Major Atmospheric River Targets Region appeared first on edhat.

By Ibrahim Dahman, Max Saltman, Thomas Bordeaux, CNN

(CNN) — The Israeli military said it shot dead a Palestinian “suspected of hurling a block” at soldiers on Saturday during an operation in the occupied West Bank town of Qabatiya.

Video reviewed by CNN shows a soldier shooting the teen when he is just feet away. In an earlier statement, the military did not use the word “suspected,” and said the person “hurled a block toward the soldiers.”

The Palestinian was identified as 16-year-old Rayan Muhammad Abdul Qader Abu Mualla by the Ministry of Heath, citing the Palestinian General Authority of Civil Affairs (PGACA), who said his body is still being held by Israel after he was killed in the Al-Sab’aneh neighborhood in Qabatiya.

A 26-second security camera video shared on social media and geolocated by CNN to Al-Sab’aneh, shows what appears to be the moment Israeli troops shot Abu Mualla.

In the video, a person walks down an alley towards two helmeted soldiers crouched partially behind a corner. The person is just about to reach the corner when one soldier raises his rifle and fires at point blank range, causing the person to collapse backwards.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in its initial statement that its soldiers had been attacked by a “terrorist.” The video shows the 18 seconds before the shooting, in which time nothing appears to be thrown from the alley the Palestinian teenager comes from. His left hand, however, is obscured. It was not immediately clear who captured the footage, who initially released it, or what happened before the video begins.

On Saturday, the Israeli news site Ynet published what it says is a photo of Abu Mualla’s left hand clutching a chunk of concrete, taken after his death. CNN could not verify whether the photo is of the same person in the security footage.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said that Israeli troops blocked its emergency workers from reaching the scene of the shooting.

A set of videos geolocated by CNN show an a