NTD News Today

Daniel Penny, the former U.S. Marine sergeant who used a chokehold to restrain Jordan Neely, a homeless man, on a New York City subway car was found not guilty of criminally negligent homicide on Monday.

The White House said officials are communicating with people on the ground in Syria to seek information about Austin Tice, an American journalist captured more than 12 years ago in Syria. The Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin personally approved asylum for Assad in Moscow.

A federal appeals court panel upheld a law on Friday that could lead to a ban on TikTok within weeks. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denied TikTok's petition to overturn the law—which requires TikTok to break ties with its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, or be banned by mid-January 2025.

The jurors in Daniel Penny’s fatal subway chokehold trial told the judge on Friday that they couldn't reach a unanimous verdict on the top charge of manslaughter. Judge Maxwell Wiley is considering whether to give them what's known as an Allen charge—an instruction urging them to make every possible effort to reach a verdict.

America’s job market rebounded in November, adding 227,000 workers in a solid recovery from the previous month—when the effects of strikes and hurricanes had sharply diminished employers’ payrolls. Friday’s report from the Labor Department showed that the unemployment rate ticked up from 4.1 percent in October to 4.2 percent last month.

The gunman is still at large and a manhunt is underway Thursday after UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot and killed in an ambush Wednesday in New York City. The New York Police Department released photos, asking for the public’s assistance in identifying the individual pictured.

The acting director of the Secret Service, Ronald Rowe, testified Thursday in front of a bipartisan House task force investigating the two assassination attempts against President-elect Trump. Rowe is promising accountability for what he called the agency’s “abject failure.”

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, co-heads of the Department of Government Efficiency, arrived on Capitol Hill on Thursday, for meetings with legislators behind closed doors about Trump's plans to slim down the federal government.

The CEO of UnitedHealthcare, Brian Thompson, was shot and killed in Midtown Manhattan on Wednesday morning in what appears to have been a targeted attack as he was about to attend the company’s annual investor conference at the New York Hilton Hotel. The gunman remains on the loose and a manhunt is underway.

President-elect Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that Peter Navarro will serve in his incoming administration as senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, while Adam Boehler will serve as special presidential envoy for hostage affairs. Trump also nominated Daniel Driscoll for Army secretary, and Jared Isaacman as NASA administrator.

The U.S. Supreme Court began hearing oral arguments on Wednesday in a landmark case that could determine whether states can ban transgender procedures for minors. The Biden administration is challenging Tennessee's ban on puberty blockers and hormone therapy for minors in United States v. Skrmetti.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law on Tuesday, vowing to eliminate “anti-state” forces as he struggles against an opposition that controls the country’s parliament and that he accuses of sympathizing with communist North Korea. The South Korean parliament has voted to defy the president and immediately lift his martial law declaration.

The Chinese Commerce Ministry announced on Tuesday that China will further tighten the export of several critical minerals destined for the United States—a day after Washington tightened restrictions on Beijing’s access to advanced semiconductors. The move bans the export of dual-use items related to gallium, germanium, antimony, and superhard materials to the United States.

President-elect Donald Trump said he will attend the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, which underwent extensive restorations following a devastating fire in 2019. This will be Trump’s first trip abroad since he won the Nov. 5 presidential election.

President Joe Biden began his long-promised visit to Africa on Monday to showcase a U.S.-backed railway project in Zambia, Congo, and Angola that he has pushed as a new approach in countering some of China's influence in the region. This marks the first time a U.S. president has visited Angola.

Closing arguments are set for Monday in the trial of Daniel Penny, a military veteran charged with recklessly choking to death Jordan Neely, a homeless man acting erratically on a New York subway train. Penny has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in the May 2023 death.

The Israeli military said Monday that an Israeli-American soldier who was believed to have been taken hostage alive on Oct. 7, 2023, was now presumed to have been killed during Hamas' attack and his body taken into Gaza. Omer Neutra, 21, was a New York native who enlisted in the Israeli military.

According to the National Retail Federation, a record 183 million people are expected to shop in-store and online between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday this year. Despite the convenience and ease of online shopping, about two-thirds of black friday shoppers surveyed plan to shop in stores on Friday.

At least six Democratic members of Congress from Connecticut said they were targeted by bomb threats on their homes, including Sen. Chris Murphy and all five House members — Reps. Jim Himes, Joe Courtney, John Larson, Jahana Hayes and Rosa DeLauro. Police who responded said they found no evidence of explosives on the lawmakers' properties.

The UK parliament gave initial support to a new bill to legalize assisted dying on Friday, opening the way for months of further debate. The bill would provide for mentally competent, terminally ill adults in England and Wales who doctors assess to have six months or less left to live the right to choose to end their lives with medical help.

The White House announced on Wednesday that three American citizens imprisoned for years in China have been released and are returning to the United States in a prisoner swap negotiated by the Biden administration. Mark Swidan, Kai Li, and John Leung had been designated by the U.S. State Department as wrongfully detained.

The Thanksgiving holiday rush is in full swing as the TSA expects to screen 18.3 million people at U.S. airports between Tuesday, Nov. 26 and Monday, Dec. 2. However, an Arctic blast in the Midwest and wet weather in the Eastern United States could disrupt travel over the next several days.

Ohio's Republican Gov. Mike DeWine signed a bill on Wednesday requiring the use of bathrooms aligning with one's biological sex at birth. The rule applies to bathrooms, locker rooms, and overnight accommodation at public and private schools, colleges, and universities.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet was scheduled to convene on Tuesday to discuss a proposed cease-fire with the Lebanon-based Hezbollah terrorist group. Among the remaining issues was Israel's demand to reserve the right to take military action should Hezbollah violate its obligations under the emerging deal.

Mexico and Canada reacted on Tuesday to President-elect Donald Trump's threat to impose 25 percent tariffs on all Mexican and Canadian goods if they don't stop what he described as the flow of drugs and illegal immigrants across their respective borders. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum suggested that Mexico could retaliate with tariffs of its own, while Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he would meet the premiers of Canada's 10 provinces this week to discuss the country's relations with the United States.

Former New York City mayor and former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani appeared in court in Manhattan on Tuesday for a hearing in a case over the handover of property to two Georgia election workers he was found to have defamed. Giuliani’s trial is scheduled for Jan. 16, 2025, but he asked for a delay in the proceedings to allow him to attend President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20.

The Israeli ambassador to the U.S. said on Monday that a ceasefire deal to end fighting between Israel and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah terrorist group could be reached “within days.” Among the issues that remain is an Israeli demand to reserve the right to act should Hezbollah violate its obligations under the emerging deal.

President Joe Biden tapped into his presidential pardon power Monday, granting clemency to a pair of lucky turkeys and kicking off the holiday season at the White House. Weighing in at 41 and 40 pounds, respectively, “Peach” and “Blossom” were hatched in Minnesota by John Zimmerman, chairman of the National Turkey Federation and a second-generation farmer.

Macy’s reported weaker-than-expected sales for the third quarter and said it’s delaying the release of its full quarterly results after it discovered an employee intentionally hid up to $154 million of expenses over several years. The department store chain said Monday that it identified an issue related to delivery expenses in one of its accrual accounts earlier this month.