By Aditi Sangal, CNN

(CNN) — Multiple human rights organizations are petitioning the National Basketball Association (NBA) to drop Dubai’s government-owned Emirates airline as a sponsor of the league’s in-season tournament, the Emirates NBA Cup, due to allegations of sportswashing.

“The NBA is letting itself be used as a pawn to distract people from what the UAE is doing in the world. This partnership is not innocent – it is sportswashing and it hides the suffering of millions of Sudanese people behind a trophy,” the Speak Out On Sudan petition, which is co-sponsored by 14 organizations, says on its website.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has repeatedly denied that it is playing any role in Sudan’s civil war, particularly accusations that it provides military, financial and logistical support to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has been accused of crimes against humanity by a number of human rights organizations.

Sportswashing is the practice of a government or organization supporting sports or organizing sports events to enhance its reputation. The term was popularized by the Sport for Rights campaign in 2015.

After years of strategic planning, the NBA developed an in-season tournament to drum up excitement among fans ahead of the marquee Christmas fixtures and make the entirety of the marathon 82-game season more relevant to viewers. It was not sponsored for its first edition in 2023 but has subsequently been named after international airline Emirates over the last two seasons.

The UAE wants to project a modern image and invests a lot of money into curating that brand while it faces accusations of complicity in atrocities in Sudan, said Jeremy Konyndyk, president of Refugees International, the organization that is leading the Speak Out On Sudan petition in collaboration with Sudanese groups and leaders.

The NBA and Emirates airline did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.

The NBA Cup final takes place at 8:30 p.m. ET Tuesday between the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs in Las Vegas.

What is happening in Sudan?

For nearly three years, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary RSF have viciously competed for territory. In January this year, the United States accused the RSF militia of committing genocide. Later, in a case at the International Court of Justice, Sudan’s acting justice minister, Muawia Osman, alleged that the RSF had “the support and complicity” of the UAE.

The UAE has been repeatedly accused of supplying weapons to the RSF. The UAE has vehemently denied the allegations, even though an expert panel appointed by the United Nations Security Council said last year they were “credible.”

Earlier this year, top members of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee called for the RSF to be official

By Chris Isidore, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump has a tiny solution to a big problem: have US factories manufacture very small cars, like the ones found in Asia and Europe, to drive down giant price tags.

“Manufacturers have long wanted to do this, just like they are so successfully built in other countries,” Trump said in a Truth Social post after meeting with auto executives in early December. “START BUILDING THEM NOW!”

But even the mini cars’ mini price tags aren’t likely to solve pricing issues, experts say. While Trump claims to have rolled back regulations that he blames for keeping small cars off US roads, the truth is there is no minimum-size rule for vehicles sold in America as long as they meet safety standards.

What stops automakers, both foreign and domestic, from building such cars here, or even importing them, is much simpler: Americans have shown, repeatedly, they just don’t want those cars.

The “kei” cars, popular in many parts of Asia, can cost as little as $8,000 or $10,000. In contrast, the average price of a new car in the United States is currently around $50,000.

Having new cars that cheap would be an answer to affordability issues for many car buyers — and a major political headache for Trump. The problem is, there just isn’t enough demand to sell those cars in America, let alone building them at US factories instead of importing them from countries where they are popular.

That’s because American car buyers have long demonstrated that they prefer SUVs and trucks. It’s also great for automakers, because those larger models carry bigger profit margins.

Americans like bigger cars and often don’t feel comfortable driving smaller vehicles alongside larger counterparts on streets and highways, said Ivan Drury, director of insights at car-buying site Edmunds.

The small vehicles are “a niche of a niche of a niche of the car buying market,” Drury said. “If you ask (Americans) if you’d rather spend $50,000 or $10,000, they’d choose $10,000 every day, but it’s what you get for that price that makes it non-viable.”

The vanishing subcompact

Most automakers did sell compact and subcompact cars in the US — until demand withered. US compact car sales have plunged 59% over the last 10 years, according to Cox Automotive, while subcompact cars sales have plummeted 90%. Only four subcompact models remain for US buyers and they are all built overseas: the Nissan Versa, the Mitsubishi Mirage, the Fiat 500 and the Mini Cooper. Many tiny car models, like the two-seater Smart car, are no longer available in the United States.

The cheapest subcompact, the Versa, starts at $18,635 with an automatic transmission. But Nissan only sold 41,000 in the first nine months of this year, or about one quarter of the sales of its Rogue SUV, its best-selling model.

At the December meeting, Trump also announced a rollback in fuel economy rules. Ford CEO Jim Farley said that day the change would allow Ford “to invest in affordable vehicles made in the US, which we will take the lead on.”

Ford last week announced a new smaller, cheaper electric vehicle. But the EV, made in partnership with European automaker Renault, will be exclusively sold in Europe due to limited US demand.

Stellantis, the parent company of Jeep, Ram and Dodge, is planning to sell a new tiny electric Fiat in the United States. But it will be imported from Morocco, since that’s closer to foreign markets with greater demand.

And it barely qualifies as a car — it’s considered a “quadricycle,” or a cycle with four wheels.

Kei cars not OK for US roads

Kei cars don’t currently meet safety standards for US roads. That means tho

By Alicia Wallace, CNN

(CNN) — The November jobs report is landing at an odd time – on a Tuesday in mid-December, instead of (what’s usually) the first Friday of the month – due to the lingering impact of the historically long government shutdown.

The 43-day federal funding lapse resulted in a flash-freeze of crucial economic data at a critical juncture for American businesses and households.

The slow, steady thaw of deferred data over the past month, is building more into a deluge this week: In the next three days, major reports on retail sales, inflation and the labor market will be released.

And the latter two come with a bit of a holiday bonus: The jobs report and the Consumer Price Index release for November both will be packaged with roughly half of October’s data.

If it wasn’t so unprecedented, it would be quite fitting in a season filled with buy-one-get-one-50%-off deals.

Tuesday morning’s jobs report is expected to show that just 40,000 jobs were added last month and the unemployment rate held steady at 4.4% – historically low but still higher than in recent years.

Still, economists say the report could be more than a little muddled this time around.

“These government shutdowns don’t come around very often, and so there’s always a little bit of uncertainty when you have an operation as large as what the [Bureau of Labor Statistics] does for the jobs report,” said Daniel Zhao, chief economist at Glassdoor. “So, I think it bears being humble going into the report and being prepared for anything.”

Why one and a half jobs reports?

The BLS’ monthly snapshot of the labor market is generated from two robust surveys: One of businesses and public sector entities (tracking payroll, wages and hours) and the other of households (tracking labor force status with demographic detail). The latter survey is conducted in partnership with the US Census Bureau, whose workers interview households and collect the raw data from in-person visits, phone calls, emails and online.

However, the major federal statistical agencies effectively went dark during the shutdown that lasted from October 1 to November 12. The vast majority of workers were furloughed, and the agencies themselves suspended the collection, processing and distribution of practically all data.

“In practice, it’s surprisingly hard to ask people what they were doing in the past,” Zhao said. “Their recall diminishes pretty quickly. And so, instead, it’s reasonable just to start looking at the data moving forward.”

With no workers able to conduct the household interviews during the survey week, the BLS later announced that October labor force data – including the unemployment rate – would not be available and the agency would not release a separate jobs report for that month. Instead, October data collected electronically would be included with the November jobs report.

For November, the collection period for both surveys was extended, and extra processing time was afforded, BLS said. As a result, the November jobs report was pushed back from December 5 to December 16.

The asterisks

“I think there’s a placid pace of jobs growth that seems most likely for the report,” Zhao said. “There is, of course, a big asterisk on that.”

That’s because the impact of the shutdown disruptions should become much clearer on Tuesday: The BLS, which has robust transparency practices, inserts box notes into reports when important context or technical matters warrant.

While more than 700,000 federal workers were furloughed during the 43-day shutdown, a large negative number for October and a subsequent employm

Por Kit Maher, CNN

El presidente Donald Trump firmó este lunes un decreto que clasifica el “fentanilo ilícito y sus principales precursores químicos” como armas de destrucción masiva, aunque no estaba inmediatamente claro qué efecto práctico podría tener la medida.

“Hoy doy un paso más para proteger a los estadounidenses del flagelo del fentanilo mortal que inunda nuestro país con esta histórica orden ejecutiva”, afirmó Trump en la Oficina Oval, y agregó: “Ninguna bomba hace lo que esta hace”.

Su anuncio se produjo mientras honraba a los militares estadounidenses con medallas “por su papel central en la protección de nuestra frontera”.

La ley estadounidense ya tipifica como delito el uso, la amenaza o el intento de uso de armas de destrucción masiva, un delito que puede conllevar la pena de muerte, según las circunstancias.

La ley también ofrece una definición de armas de destrucción masiva que incluye “cualquier arma que contenga un agente biológico, una toxina o un vector”.

Pero Trump no puede cambiar la ley estadounidense mediante un decreto, y un exfiscal federal especializado en asuntos de seguridad nacional cuestionó si tendría algún impacto.

La orden, que afirma que “el fentanilo ilícito se asemeja más a un arma química que a un narcótico”, ordena a la secretaria de Justicia Pam Bondi “iniciar de inmediato las investigaciones y el procesamiento judicial por tráfico de fentanilo”.

También ordena al secretario de Estado Marco Rubio y al secretario del Tesoro Scott Bessent “adoptar las medidas pertinentes contra los activos e instituciones financieras pertinentes, de conformidad con la legislación aplicable, contra quienes participen o apoyen la fabricación, distribución y venta de fentanilo ilícito y sus precursores químicos principales”.

La orden considera la fabricación y distribución de fentanilo una amenaza a la seguridad nacional.

“La producción y venta de fentanilo por parte de organizaciones terroristas extranjeras y cárteles financia las operaciones de estas entidades, que incluyen asesinatos, actos terroristas e insurgencias en todo el mundo, y permite que estas entidades erosionen nuestra seguridad interna y el bienestar de nuestra nación”, apunta el decreto.

Dennis Fitzpatrick, exfiscal de seguridad nacional del Distrito Este de Virginia, calificó la medida como un “ejercicio político” y argumentó que hará que sea “más difícil” para los agentes y fiscales trabajar bajo los estatutos existentes sobre tráfico de drogas.

“Ya contamos con estatutos probados, con los que fiscales y agentes están acostumbrados a trabajar, y son muy claros y logran los mismos objetivos”, declaró Fitzpatrick a CNN. “No hay ninguna razón práctica para etiquetar el fentanilo como arma de destrucción masiva. Es un ejercicio político”.

Añadió que dicha medida debería ser competencia del Congreso. “Es una legislación pura y dura, y este es un ámbito donde el Congreso tiene la autoridad y la responsabilidad”, manifestó Fitzpatrick.

Las muertes por sobredosis de drogas en Estados Unidos registraron el año pasado una disminución sin precedentes, alcanzando su nivel más bajo en cinco años, según una estimación del Gobierno federal publicada en mayo.

L

By Adam Cancryn, Alayna Treene, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump bragged to Pennsylvanians last week that he’d delivered an “unbelievable” economy. Now, it’s up to Vice President JD Vance to explain why they’re not yet feeling the benefits.

Vance will return to the swing state on Tuesday to tout Trump’s economic agenda, marking the latest attempt to address the affordability concerns dragging down the president’s standing — and driving fears among Republicans that they’re careening toward a midterm disaster.

The cost-of-living crunch in the US, including rising housing and grocery prices, has become a daunting political problem for the GOP, and one that many White House officials acknowledge they need to fix with 2026 right around the corner.

But it’s also an issue that Trump himself has refused to fully acknowledge, insisting instead that the economy is already booming and that voters’ own financial anxieties are overblown.

Speaking in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, last week on the first leg of a so-called affordability tour that is expected to kick into high gear early next year, Trump largely ignored his prepared remarks in favor of a digression-filled speech that only occasionally touched on cost-of-living concerns. And he relentlessly blamed former President Joe Biden for any negativity associated with the economy.

That’s left it to Vance to deliver the more nuanced, empathetic message that Trump did not, as administration officials try to reach the broader coalition of voters who put Trump back in the White House — and who are now increasingly skeptical of his vow to usher in an economic “golden age.”

Trump advisers workshopping the administration’s affordability rhetoric have emphasized the need to call for patience and instill hope that the economic tide will soon turn, rather than dismissing or downplaying Americans’ struggles.

“You have to take people seriously. I don’t think you can argue away what they’re feeling,” said Tomas Philipson, a former senior Trump economic appointee. “They’re not experts on the causes of why they’re feeling squeezed, but they’re certainly experts on whether they’re having a difficult time or not.”

In remarks in Lehigh County on Tuesday, the vice president is expected to echo much of the case he laid out during a Breitbart News event last month, when he addressed Americans’ affordability concerns head-on. He argued that the administration had made “incredible progress” on inflation, while also acknowledging that people were still struggling and asking for patience to allow for Trump’s policies to settle in.

“As much progress as we’ve made, it’s going to take a little bit of time for every American to feel that economic boom, which we really do believe is coming. We believe that we’re on the front end of it,” Vance said at the event.

A Vance spokesperson reiterated that message when previewing the vice president’s speech to CNN.

“The benefits of the Trump economic agenda have only begun to kick in and there is more work to be done in the new year,” they said. “Expect Vice President Vance to emphasize the fact that making America affordable again is the No. 1 priority of the Trump administration.”

Inside the White House, aides contend the economy’s fundamentals are stronger than most voters believe, pointing to the rising stock market and wave of private-sector investment commitments since Trump took