A federal judge on Tuesday night rejected the auction sale of Alex Jones’ Infowars to The Onion satirical news outlet, criticizing the bidding process as flawed and the amount of money that families of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary shooting stood to receive. The Onion was named the winning bidder on Nov. 14 over a company affiliated with Jones. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez’s decision following a lengthy two-day hearing in a Texas courtroom means Jones can stay at Infowars in Austin, Texas. The Onion had planned to kick Jones out and relaunch Infowars in January as a parody. The Onion offered $1.75 million in cash and other incentives for Infowars’ assets in the auction.

Rep. Chris Smith joined Martha MacCallum on Fox News to discuss his ongoing efforts to get answers about the unidentified drone activity storming New Jersey skies and his call for U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to provide all available capabilities to law enforcement officials to respond to the possible threats. In a letter, Rep. Smith urged U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to immediately provide all capabilities at his disposal to identify and address the widespread drone activity across New Jersey as serious concerns continue to mount over potential threats to the homeland. Smith’s letter came after he was briefed by a U.S.

President-elect Donald Trump is promising expedited federal permits for energy projects and other construction worth more than $1 billion. But like other Trump plans, the idea is likely to run into regulatory and legislative hurdles, including a landmark law that requires federal agencies to consider the environmental impact before deciding on major projects. In a post on his Truth Social site Tuesday, Trump said anyone making a $1 billion investment in the United States “will receive fully expedited approvals and permits, including, but in no way limited to, all Environmental approvals.” “GET READY TO ROCK!!!” he added.

A congressional task force investigating the attempts to kill Donald Trump during his presidential campaign is recommending changes to the Secret Service, including protecting fewer foreign leaders during the height of election season and considering moving the agency out of the Homeland Security Department. The 180-page report by the bipartisan task force released Tuesday is one of the most detailed looks so far into the July assassination attempt against Trump during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania and a second attempt in Florida two months later. Like the series of other investigations and reports, the task force railed at the agency tasked with protecting the top echelon of America’s democratic leaders.

Renewed negotiations for a potential hostage and ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas are reportedly under pressure from the United States and Egypt, with mediators urging Israel to withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border, according to Kan and Saudi news outlet Al Arabiya. According to Al Arabiya, the clandestine discussions involve a proposal for the Palestinian Authority (PA) to manage the Rafah Crossing between Gaza and Egypt. Meanwhile, Hamas has reportedly provided Egypt with a list of hostages it is holding, suggesting movement in the negotiations. However, Israel has consistently rejected the notion of withdrawing from the Philadelphi Corridor or granting the PA any governance role in postwar Gaza.

In a shocking and deeply troubling biosecurity incident, health authorities in Queensland, Australia, have revealed that 323 vials of live viruses, including extremely lethal pathogens, are missing. Among the unaccounted samples are nearly 100 vials of Hendra virus, two vials of Hantavirus, and 223 vials of Lyssavirus, all of them lethal to humans. Despite their disappearance in 2021, the breach was only confirmed in August 2023, and only announced this week, leaving critical questions unanswered for over two years. The breach occurred at Queensland’s Public Health Virology Laboratory when a freezer malfunctioned, forcing a transfer of the virus samples to another freezer.

Two bodies have been recovered amid debris from a fishing boat that reportedly capsized with five people aboard in rough seas in waters off southeast Alaska earlier this month. Authorities believe the two individuals had been on the boat based on evidence found at the site Monday, including buoys and other gear associated with the Wind Walker, Austin McDaniel, a spokesperson with the Alaska Department of Public Safety, said by email Tuesday. The bodies were being taken to the state medical examiner’s office for autopsies and positive identification, the department said. Relatives of the five people who were missing after the boat disappeared were notified that two bodies had been found, McDaniel said.

President-elect Donald Trump’s recent dinner with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his visit to Paris for the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral were not just exercises in policy and diplomacy. They were also prime trolling opportunities for Trump. Throughout his first term in the White House and during his campaign to return, Trump has spun out countless provocative, antagonizing and mocking statements. There were his belittling nicknames for political opponents, his impressions of other political figures and the plentiful memes he shared on social media. Now that’s he’s preparing to return to the Oval Office, Trump is back at it, and his trolling is attracting more attention — and eyerolls.

President-elect Donald Trump made another flurry of job announcements on Tuesday, selecting Andrew Ferguson as the next chair of the Federal Trade Commission, Ron Johnson was nominated to be ambassador to Mexico, and Kimberly Guilfoyle to be ambassador to Greece. Ferguson, who is already one of the FTC’s five commissioners, will replace Lina Khan, who became a lightning rod for Wall Street and Silicon Valley by blocking billions of dollars worth of corporate acquisitions and suing Amazon and Meta while alleging anticompetitive behavior.

The sheriff of the nation’s fifth-largest county on Tuesday defied a new policy to limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities, setting up a showdown over a new obstacle to President-elect Donald Trump’s mass deportation plans. Earlier Tuesday, San Diego County supervisors voted to prohibit its sheriff’s department from working with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on the federal agency’s enforcement of civil immigration laws, including those that allow for deportations. California law generally prohibits cooperation but makes exceptions for those convicted of certain violent crimes.