President-elect Donald Trump was joking when he suggested Canada become the 51st U.S. state during a dinner with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, a Canadian minister who attended their recent dinner said Tuesday. Fox News reported that Trump made the comment in response to Trudeau raising concerns that Trump’s threatened tariffs on Canada would damage Canada’s economy. Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, who attended the Friday dinner at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, said Trump’s comments were in jest. “The president was telling jokes. The president was teasing us. It was, of course, on that issue, in no way a serious comment,” LeBlanc told reporters in Ottawa.

Countering Iran is expected to dominate U.S. Middle East policy under President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration, according to a report released Tuesday by the Middle East Forum. The report, titled Reasserting American Power in the Middle East, outlines a strategic blueprint for the administration’s early actions, focusing on reversing prior policies and ramping up pressure on Tehran. The report anticipates that within the first 100 days, the Trump administration will leverage executive orders to reinstate measures such as the travel restrictions widely referred to as the “Muslim ban.” “The administration will prioritize immediate actions to reinforce border security, expand deportation programs, and strengthen oversight mechanisms,” the report states.

The Justice Department is ramping up efforts to address a crisis of suicides and systemic failures in federal prisons and jails, announcing sweeping reforms aimed at overhauling how mental health care is provided behind bars. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco outlined the measures in a memo and report Tuesday, directing the Bureau of Prisons to update suicide prevention protocols, improve mental health assessments for inmates, and adopt data-driven strategies to reduce deaths in custody. The reforms will also apply to facilities overseen by the U.S. Marshals Service, a broader effort to address chronic shortcomings across the federal detention system.

The founder and former CEO of the failed cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius Network could face decades in prison after pleading guilty Tuesday to federal fraud charges, admitting that he misled customers about the business. Alexander Mashinsky, 58, of Manhattan, entered the plea in New York federal court to commodities and securities fraud. He admitted illegally manipulating the price of Celsius’s proprietary crypto token while secretly selling his own tokens at inflated prices to pocket about $48 million before Celsius collapsed into bankruptcy in 2022. In court, he admitted that in 2021 he publicly suggested there was regulatory consent for the company’s moves because he knew that customers “would find false comfort” with that.

Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, was fatally shot outside a hotel in midtown Manhattan on Wednesday morning, according to a person briefed on the investigation. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the investigation. Police did not release the victim’s name, but said a 50-year-old was shot around 6:45 a.m. outside a Hilton before the shooter fled. He was taken to a nearby hospital but could not be saved. UnitedHealthcare is the insurance arm of the health care giant UnitedHealth Group Inc. The company was scheduled to have its annual meeting with investors Wednesday morning in New York City, according to a company media advisory.

Georgian police on Wednesday raided the offices of an opposition party and arrested its leader in an apparent attempt to squelch a wave of mass protests triggered by the governing party’s decision to suspend negotiations on joining the European Union. During the past six nights, riot police used water cannons and tear gas to disperse the demonstrators, who threw fireworks at police officers and built barricades on the Georgian capital’s central boulevard. More than 300 protesters have been detained since Thursday and over 100 people have been treated for injuries. On Wednesday, the Coalition for Change opposition party said that police raided its offices and detained its leader, Nika Gvaramia. It shared a video showing several officers dragging Gvaramia into a car.

President-elect Donald Trump dialed in to what was described as a “love fest” Tuesday with Senate Republicans as they begin laying the groundwork for control of government in the new year, and a potential first-30-days agenda. Trump’s brief call was more celebratory than a prescriptive policy agenda, according to those attending the private GOP retreat, encouraging the senators to confirm his Cabinet nominees as they launch an agenda of tax cuts, deportations and other priorities. “It was a love fest,” said Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo. “There was a real sense of unity in the room.” The virtual visit comes as Congress is finishing up the final weeks of what, by most measures, has been among the more chaotic sessions in modern times.

An IDF investigation has determined that six hostages abducted by Hamas were likely executed by their captors amid an airstrike on a Hamas tunnel in Khan Younis, Gaza. As YWN reported at the time, the bodies of the hostages were recovered on August 20, over three months after their deaths. YWN had reported at the time that they had been executed as their bodies were found riddled with bullets, and the IDF is releasing confirmed details now. The victims, identified as Alex Dancyg, 75, Yagev Buchshtav, 35, Chaim Peri, 79, Yoram Metzger, 80, Nadav Popplewell, 51, and Avraham Munder, 78, were taken hostage during Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

New Jersey interim Sen. George Helmy, a Democrat appointed when Bob Menendez resigned after a federal corruption conviction, is stepping down this weekend so Sen.-elect Andy Kim can be sworn in early. The move was expected and confirmed what Helmy and Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy announced during his appointment this summer — that Helmy would resign early so the winner of November’s election could get into office before the start of the new session of Congress next month. Murphy explained the arrangement, saying he wanted the “democratically chosen winner” of this year’s election to have a smooth transition into office. Kim defeated Republican businessman Curtis Bashaw on Election Day. He’ll become the first Korean-American in the Senate when he is sworn in on Monday.

South Korea’s main opposition party on Wednesday urged President Yoon Suk Yeol to resign immediately or face impeachment, hours after Yoon ended short-lived martial law that prompted troops to encircle parliament before lawmakers voted to lift it. Yoon didn’t make any immediate public response to the opposition’s demand. But his office said senior presidential advisers and secretaries for Yoon offered to resign collectively and the president also put off his official Wednesday morning schedule. In the capital, tourists and residents walked around, traffic and construction were heard, and other than crowds of police holding shields, it seemed like a normal sunny, cold December morning.