Trump claims inflation win in Pennsylvania; US jets edge near Venezuela

A new pitch on prices. President Trump hits Pennsylvania with a full court press, saying he's turning the inflation story around

Plus, the clock's almost up. Health care subsidies for millions about to expire. And Washington, nowhere close to a deal

And Elon Musk unfiltered. Looking back at the department that axed thousands, would he take the Doge gig again

The stories that matter, clear and credible, from across the country to around the world

These are your unbiased updates from Straight Arrow News. Good morning, I'm Craig DeGrelli. President Trump is offering a new message on the economy this

morning. After weeks of dismissing the country's affordability problems as a Democratic hoax

he's now saying inflation is no longer a problem at all under his watch

At a rally-style event in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, the president struck two notes at once

calling affordability a term invented by Democrats, while also insisting he has no higher priority than making the country more affordable

They gave you high prices. They gave you the highest inflation in history

and we're bringing those prices down rapidly, lower prices, bigger paychecks. You're getting lower prices, bigger paychecks

We're getting inflation. We're crushing it. And you're getting much higher wages

I mean, the only thing that's really going up big, it's called the stock market and your 401ks

It's going up. The president's message comes, as economists say, the opposite has been true in recent months

pointing out that inflation picked up again after his sweeping global tariffs took effect in April

And while inflation is far below the 2022 peak of just over 9 percent, consumer prices were still rising, up 3 percent year over year in September

New numbers delayed by the government shutdown are now expected after the Federal Reserve meeting that happens later today

Meanwhile, voters appear to be growing more skeptical. A CBS News YouGov poll from November found nearly two-thirds of Americans believe the president's policies are making grocery prices go up

As tensions between the United States and Venezuela continue to climb, American fighter jets just made their closest known approach to Venezuelan airspace in years

The Pentagon flew two F-A-18 fighter jets over the Gulf of Venezuela on Tuesday

The nearest U.S. military aircraft have come to the country's airspace since the Trump administration

launched its expanded anti-drug mission in the region. A U.S. defense official told Fox News the flight was a routine training mission meant to show how far the aircraft can operate, but it comes amid a broader buildup

American forces were also seen unloading trucks and heavy equipment from military ships in Puerto Rico a visible expansion of the U footprint in the Caribbean President Trump has said land operations are coming

though he's offered no timeline on specifics. Since September, the U.S. has carried out multiple strikes

on what it says are drug smuggling boats off Venezuela's coast. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro claims

the U.S. is using those missions as cover to try to force him from power

And now one of those early strikes is facing scrutiny on Capitol Hill

Lawmakers are demanding Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth release the full, unedited video of a follow-up strike that killed two survivors of the initial attack

Hegseth said Tuesday he's still deciding whether to make that footage public

A new turn this morning in the push for Ukraine to get on board with a peace deal

President Zelensky now says Ukraine will present its updated plan to the United States today

And he's drawing a hard line. No land will be given to Russia

After a whirlwind tour through London, Rome, and meetings with European leaders

Zelensky made it clear Ukraine has no legal or moral right to give up territory

Not Donbass, not any of it. In a statement on X, he says the revised peace framework is ready for Washington, writing

together with the American side, we expect to swiftly make the potential steps as doable as possible

This comes as President Trump ramps up public pressure, again suggesting Ukraine must play ball and arguing Zelensky is losing the war

after Russia seized large stretches of territory years before Trump returned to office

Well, he's going to have to get on the ball and start accepting things

You know, when you're losing, who's losing? Do you think Ukraine has lost this war

Well, they've lost territory long before I got here. They lost a whole strip of seafront, big seafront

On Tuesday, a rare and striking rebuke from Pope Leo after meeting Zelensky outside Rome

The pope condemned Trump's recent remarks in that Politico interview about European leaders being weak

and the president suggesting the U.S. scale back support for Ukraine. I think, unfortunately, some parts of it that I have seen make a huge change in what was for many, many years a true alliance between Europe and the United States

The remarks that are made about Europe, also in interviews recently, I think are trying to break apart what I think needs to be a very important alliance today and in the future

Zelensky also met with Italy's Georgia Maloney, who reiterated Europe's support as talks with

the U.S. remain bogged down over the Trump administration's proposal that Ukraine surrendered

Donbass, a demand that Kyiv and Europe have flatly rejected. A high-stakes healthcare

fight is about to break open on Capitol Hill with dueling plans from Republicans and Democrats heading for back votes on Thursday And neither side is expected to hit 60 Republicans walked out of their lunch Tuesday ready to push their own proposal

a bill from Senators Cassidy and Crapo that doesn't extend the expiring ACA subsidies

but instead sends that money straight into health savings accounts for people on bronze-level plans

Here's the majority leader. This is a failed program, and it does nothing but drive premiums up

And the increase in premiums, who's that going to? That's going to the insurance companies

So the proposal we'll put out there will bring insurance premiums down

It will be fiscally responsible. And it'll get us away from the practice of giving the money all to the insurance companies

and put it back in the hands of the patients. John Thune says the GOP plan saves money and lowers costs

while Democrats, he argues, are staging a show vote to extend the current subsidies for three more years

Those subsidies are set to expire at the end of the year, now just three weeks away

a change that could mean double-digit premium increases for millions of Americans

Here's Senator Richard Blumenthal. The American people are not dumb. They see that these sham proposals for health care savings accounts and tax credits

are simply a ruse and a sham by Republicans to disguise the fact they are blocking

extension health care subsidies that make insurance affordable. Democrats say their plan is the fastest, cleanest fix. No gimmicks, no strings

and everyone in their caucus is on board. Republicans, meanwhile, are scrambling for unity

even floating several competing ideas in recent days. But with 53 GOP seats, no proposal

Democratic or Republican, is expected to cross the necessary 60-vote finish line for passage

Tomorrow, side-by-side votes will, however, force every senator to take a position before premium

spike. Six months after walking away from Doge, the Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk

is now reflecting on his time running one of the most controversial projects of the Trump

administration and whether he would do it again. On a podcast hosted by former Trump aide Katie

Miller must describe Doge as kind of a made-up department, even saying its name came from an

internet joke. And he made one thing pretty clear. If he had to do it all over again

he would not take the job, even if he thinks the mission had some wins

Would you do Doge again, knowing what you know now? I mean, the thing is, I think instead of doing Doge, I would have basically built

I worked in my companies, essentially. So, and the cars, they wouldn't have been burning the cars

Do you think you were successful? We a little bit successful We were somewhat successful I mean we stopped a lot of funding for that really just made no sense

That was just entirely wasteful. For example, there was probably $100, maybe $200 billion worth of zombie payments per year

President Trump created Doge on day one of his second term. tasking Musk with slashing federal spending, shutting down what he called wasteful programs

and driving massive workforce cuts through layoffs and buyouts. In some cases

entire agencies were eliminated, including the U.S. Agency for International Development. Finally this morning, a prehistoric surprise out of Bolivia. Scientists say Tyrannosaurus Rex and

its relatives loved this part of South America about 60 million years ago. A team of paleontologists

has documented more than 16,000 dinosaur footprints. Look, the largest collection of theropod tracks ever recorded

It's amazing. They are bipedal and mostly meat-eaters, a group that includes the T-Rex

Researchers found the prints across ancient shorelines and lake beds near Toro Toro

No, not the lawnmower. A village and national park in Bolivia's Andes Mountains

They also uncovered nearly 1,400 footprints preserved in mud. evidence that these dinosaurs were wading and splashing through rising lake waters

And the size range is wild, from tracks belonging to a creature roughly 33 feet tall

to prints just a single foot long, likely from smaller dinosaurs traveling with the herd

A remarkable window into prehistoric life and the closest thing we'll get

to watching a T-Rex take a morning stroll. How do you like that? That is fascinating

A busy day in Washington. Here's what we're tracking. starting this morning at the Supreme Court, where justices take up a major case on how IQ testing should affect death penalty eligibility

Later, senators dig into America's health care problems, hearing from industry groups and everyday ACA enrollees

This afternoon, all eyes on the Fed wrapping up its final policy meeting of the year with a likely rate cut and new signals about 2026

In Florida, a key House redistricting committee meets again as a new map takes shape

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Go to san.com slash newsletters. Before we go, I wanted to make mention, you see the dark background

We here in Omaha are experiencing like 50 mile an hour winds

and we took a power hit mid-broadcast during Unbiased Updates. But thanks to you for sticking with us

Thanks to our crew behind the scenes for scrambling to get us up, and we soldiered on

So there you go. All right, those are your unbiased updates for this Wednesday. For all of us here at Straight Arrow News, I'm Craig DiGrelli

Have a great day