By Aleena Fayaz, CNN

(CNN) — GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Tuesday slammed President Donald Trump for his comments on the murders of Rob and Michele Reiner, as she predicted more Republicans will follow her lead in breaking with Trump.

“I thought that statement was absolutely completely below the office of the president of the United States, classless, and it was just wrong,” Greene told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on “The Source.”

Trump on Monday in a Truth Social post lambasted the beloved director for his left-leaning politics and suggested Reiner had brought his demise upon himself.

“MAGA faithful reacted big time and they called it out,” she said.

Greene, who is retiring from Congress in January after a bitter falling out with Trump, suggested the cracks in the Republican Party are growing wider.

“I think the dam is breaking,” she warned, pointing to recent Republican breaks with Trump.

Last week, 13 House Republicans – in a rare rebuke of the president – voted with Democrats to restore collective bargaining rights he had stripped from about 1 million federal workers earlier this year.

“Those 13 Republicans that voted to take down his executive order last week, literally that same evening put on their tuxedos and their evening ballgowns and went to the White House Christmas party. That’s pretty bold,” Greene told Collins.

In the same week, Indiana Senate Republicans rejected Trump’s push to redraw the state’s congressional districts to produce two more GOP-friendly seats.

“That is a sign where you’re seeing Republicans, they’re entering the campaign phase for 2026, which is a large signal that lame duck season has begun,” Greene said. “He’s got real problems with Republicans within the House and the Senate that will be breaking with him on more things to come.”

The Georgia Republican who has long been one of Trump’s most ardent supporters before their recent falling out cautioned that two more issues threaten to derail her party’s hopes for the midterm elections — affordability, which Trump has called a “Democrat hoax” and health insurance.

CNN previously reported that many Republicans worry Trump is missing the mark on both topics, as he continues to insist that the economy is booming. “What I would like to see from the president is empathy for Americans,” Greene said. “Donald Trump is a billionaire, and he’s the president of the United States. When he looks into a camera and says affordability is a hoax and just totally tries to make nothing out of inflation, he’s talking to Americans that are suffering, and have been suffering for many years now, and are having a hard time makin

By Helen Regan, CNN

(CNN) — Mourners gathered in Sydney on Wednesday as the first funerals began for some of the 15 people killed in Australia’s worst mass shooting in almost three decades.

There were emotional scenes outside the Chabad of Bondi in Sydney, where large crowds paid their respects ahead of the service for Rabbi Eli Schlanger, who was killed in Sunday’s massacre that targeted Jewish families celebrating the first night of Hanukkah.

Family members wept as Schlanger’s coffin, draped in black velour, was wheeled into the synagogue.

Schlanger, 41, organized the “Chanukah by the Sea” event at Bondi Beach and served as assistant rabbi at the Chabad of Bondi. He was a father of five, whose youngest son is only two months old.

Known as the “Bondi Rabbi,” Schlanger has been described as a devoted and beloved chaplain who worked tirelessly “to support Jewish life in the Bondi community” through Chabad, a global Jewish organization that seeks to promote Jewish identity and connection, the organization said.

During the service, Schlanger’s father-in-law broke down in tears as he described him as “the best husband, the best father, the best son.”

“Whatever I say today will be an understatement to what you mean to everyone and to your family and to me personally,” Rabbi Yehoram Ulman said. “You are my son, my friend, my confidant.”

“A day without you is impossible.”

The funerals come as Sydney residents continued a massive outpouring of grief and support, laying flowers and lighting candles at the Bondi Pavilion, next to the world-famous beach where Sunday’s massacre unfolded.

Australian authorities say the suspected attackers, a father-and-son duo, were driven by “Islamic State ideology,” and Australian counterterrorism officials believe the pair underwent military-style training while in the southern Philippines last month, in an area known for Islamist extremism, public broadcaster ABC reported on Tuesday.

Mal Lanyon, police commissioner of New South Wales state, told a local Australian radio station that the younger suspect, Naveed Akram, had woken from a coma on Tuesday and that police were expected to charge him later Wednesday, ABC reported.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) Santa Barbara City Council is considering rent stabilization within the city limits.

But they have not come up with an ordinance, yet.

In October, Councilmembers Kristen Sneddon and Wendy Santamaria presented a memo requesting consideration of an ordinance.

City Administrator Kelly McAdoo proposed getting feedback instead on a proposed rent stabilization work plan that staff has been working on.

The issue has led to rallies and packed council meetings that pit renters against landlords.

Tuesday was no different.

The meeting agenda item started at 5 p.m. to allow 9-5 workers to attend.

It was standing room only, with dozens of people in an overflow room watching the meeting on television.

Some people want to see a compromise to help people who work in the city afford to live in the city.

Although no concrete decisions will be made this month renters and landlords shared their stories and signed up to publicly comment.

Trish Ainsworth has lived in Santa Barbara since the 1950s.

She said a grown child of her first landlord is now in control and has been raising her rent each year.

Like many renters she said she pays about $1,750 for her place a month, but only receives $2200 in social security.

Rick Lang is a landlord with several units but he is considering selling them.

Lang noticed prices go up when the city started talking about rent stabilization ideas.

Lang said more than half the money goes to the mortgage with the rest going to property taxes, repairs and other bills.

He said he is not getting rich.

Lang said there are always unintended consequences.

A city program could include a cap on rent increases and a rental registry.

Members of the nonprofit CAUSE sent spokespeople to the meeting from Ventura County.

Cause Associate Police Director Jennifer Hernandez said she would like to see a rent freeze until something final is done.

The city council agenda said goal is to have an ordinance the staff has worked on presented to the council for consideration by July 2026.

That's a lot of months of rent before a vote.

But people concerned about the high price of living in Santa Barbara said they have already waited for years and that an ordinance would be worth the wait

We will have more on the topic tonight on the news.

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FILLMORE, Calif. (KEYT) – Jose Zavala of Fillmore was sentenced to 100 years to life in state prison, the maximum sentence available, for the continuous sexual abuse of two children he knew through family.

On Nov. 10 of this year, Zavala was found guilty by a Ventura County jury of three counts of lewd acts on a child and one count of continuous sexual abuse as well as several special allegations including that he took advantage of a position of trust and that the survivors were particularly vulnerable.

Zavala molested two children, one was six and the other was ten when the abuse started in 2019, regularly over several years noted the Ventura County District Attorney's Office.

He gained access to the children through a family relationship added the Ventura County District Attorney's Office.

In 2023, both survivors shared the abuse with mandated reporters who then reached out to law enforcement detailed the Ventura County District Attorney's Office.

"The imposition of the maximum sentence is warranted by the extreme and horrifying nature of
these crimes," said Senior Deputy District Attorney Michael Kern who prosecuted the case. "It further sends an unmistakable message that abuse of this kind will not be tolerated in our community."

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By Kit Maher, Kevin Liptak, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump said Tuesday he was ordering a “total and complete blockade” of sanctioned oil tankers coming to and leaving from Venezuela, ratcheting up pressure against leader Nicolás Maduro’s regime and suggesting an economic motive to the US’ military campaign in the region.

Punctuating the words “total and complete blockade” in capital letters in a Truth Social post, Trump pointed to the large collection of US military assets in the region, suggested more could be coming and took aim at Maduro’s regime by name. He also suggested Venezuela give up land, oil and assets to the United States, making clear that one aim of his military campaign is not just about countering the drug trade.

“Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America. It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before — Until such time as they return to the United States of America all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us,” Trump said Tuesday night.

Combined with Trump’s threat of land strikes on Venezuelan soil, the move ratcheted up pressure on Caracas by going after its economic lifeline, which had already come under strain after new sanctions on the oil sector earlier this year and last week’s seizure of a tanker full of Venezuelan oil.

It also underscored Trump’s focus on the country’s oil, which he has said the US should have access to if Maduro is ousted. State-owned Petróleos de Venezuela controls the country’s petroleum industry. Houston-based Chevron is the only US firm drilling in Venezuela and pays a percentage of its output to PDVSA under a sanctions carve-out.

American companies had a much larger presence in Venezuela’s oil fields until the country put the sector under state control in the 1970s. Trump has made little secret his desire for the US to return to the country’s oil industry.

Venezuela’s oil reserves are the world’s largest but operate well below capacity due to international sanctions. Much of the country’s oil is sold to China.

The US government has imposed sanctions on Venezuela since 2005, and the first Trump administration in 2019 effectively blocked all crude exports to the United States from PDVSA. Then-President Joe Biden in 2022 granted Chevron a permit to operate in Venezuela as part of an effort to lower gas prices. Trump revoked that license in March but later reissued on condition that no proceeds go to the Maduro government.

In his Truth Social post, Trump accused “the illegitimate Maduro regime” of using stolen oil to “finance themselves, drug terrorism, human trafficking, murder, and kidnapping.”

The Trump administration has launched strikes at suspected drug vessels in the Caribbean, and the president has said repeatedly strikes on land will come soon. Officials had largely framed the operation as being about countering the narcotics trade, but on Tuesday, Vanity Fair published interviews in which White House chief of staff Susie Wiles indicated the effort was about putting pressure on Maduro to step aside.

CNN has reached out to the White House and US Southern Command, responsible for military operations in most of Latin America and the Caribbean, for more information on the blockade.

Speaking before Trump’s announcement, Maduro praised Venezuela for having “proven to be a strong country” against the US pressure campaign.

“Venezuela has [spent] 25 weeks denouncing, confronting and defeating a campaign of multidimensional aggression, ranging from ps