Axios

President Trump on Tuesday expanded his administration's travel ban with full restrictions against five new countries and people with Palestinian Authority-issued travel documents, as well as partial restrictions on 15 countries.

Why it matters: The move is part of the administration's crackdown on travel and immigration into the U.S.

The White House rushed to defend chief of staff Susie Wiles on Tuesday after her blunt private views on President Trump's first year were revealed in a series of stunning on-the-record interviews.

Why it matters: Wiles is the most powerful aide in the White House — credited with running a more disciplined, loyal and effective operation than Trump's first term, which was routinely undercut by leaks and internal feuds.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday that the Pentagon would not publicly release the much-discussed video showing a deadly second strike on an alleged drug boat off Venezuela on Sept. 2.

Why it matters: Some Democrats and legal experts have described the strike on two survivors who were clinging to the boat as a war crime. The administration denies that, and President Trump initially said he had "no problem" making the video public before backtracking.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Policy and economic leaders said the U.S. must rapidly accelerate how it commands artificial intelligence, develops energy sources, and protects key manufacturing materials, at a Dec. 11 Axios Live event.

Why it matters: Access and control over those resources shape the United States' position in the geopolitical hierarchy, with China as a key competitor during a period of major foreign policy upheaval.

Axios' Mike Allen and Colin Demarest spoke with Jarrod Agen, deputy assistant to the president and executive director of the National Energy Dominance Council; USA Rare Earth CEO Barbara Humpton; and, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.). The event was sponsored by JPMorganChase.

Case in point: China currently controls the market on crucial supplies necessary for magnets, Humpton said, adding that "our Air Force turns into paperweights without the magnets that support the rotating equipment inside those vehicles."

• "Permanent magnets and critical minerals are in nearly every aspect of our economy. and we don't have stockpiles."

Driving the news: President Trump recently announced on Truth Social that his administration will allow Nvidia to sell H200 chips to China — lifting a prior blockade.

What they're saying: Krishnamoorthi warned that the decision is surrendering a technological advantage the U.S. has over China right now.

• "Semiconductors, interestingly, are the main choke point for the [Chinese Communist Party]. … They still have not been able to come up with the world's leading chips."
• "I think that we are putting ourselves at risk by basically assisting the CCP with their military modernization and the perpetration of human rights abuses by selling these highest-end chips."

Agen emphasized the need to move quickly cross-industrially.

• "It's an urgency. It's throwing out the old playbook and completely rewriting how we tackle something like critical minerals, and [Trump] wants to do that on energy across the board."

Content from the sponsored segment:

In a View from the Top conversation, Douglas Petno, co-CEO of JPMorganChase's commercial and investment bank, said America faces "a strategic imperative to win the AI race," and that it's going to take time to compete effectively.

"The size and scale of our challenges [are] daunting, and the time to correct a lot of the challenges that we have in front of us is not an overnight fix."

People in the year 2100 will be younger in Africa, and dramatically older in East Asia and Europe, as power tilts sharply toward the global South, per the U.S. Census Bureau's latest global population projections.

Why it matters: This radical reshaping, with mega-nations rising in Africa while China risks the steepest population decline in recorded history, will upend today's geopolitical order.

The deadly terrorist attack at Sydney's Bondi Beach that officials said targeted Jewish people was "motivated by Islamic State ideology," Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Tuesday morning local time.

The big picture: Albanese said in an interview there's "no evidence" that the father and son suspected of killing at least 15 people and wounding over 40 others in the shooting were part of a "terrorist cell," but it seems they became "radicalized" and inspired by ISIS.

President Trump sued the BBC on Monday, seeking $10 billion in damages and alleging that a documentary, which aired shortly before the 2024 election, defamed him by editing his speech from Jan. 6, 2021, in a misleading way.

Why it matters: It marks the third lawsuit the president has waged against a media company while in office.

The U.S. military said it struck three more alleged drug boats in the Eastern Pacific on Monday and killed eight men suspected of being "narco-terrorists."

The big picture: The Trump administration's military drive targeting suspected drug boats has resulted in the deaths of an estimated 95 people since September and triggered congressional investigations into the legality of the action.

Two gunmen opened fire at a Hanukkah celebration at Australia's iconic Bondi Beach in Sydney on Sunday, killing at least 15 people in what officials have declared a terrorist attack targeting the Jewish community.

The big picture: The assault that injured dozens of people in Australia's most populous city comes amid a surge in antisemitic violence that has alarmed Jewish communities worldwide.

Two days of intense negotiations between Ukraine, the U.S. and European officials resulted in clear progress on security guarantees for Ukraine but left significant gaps on the issue of territory, U.S. officials told reporters on Monday.

Why it matters: The U.S. side wants to finalize a deal with Ukraine that they can turn around and present to the Russians. The two main friction points during several weeks of talks have been the security guarantees Ukraine would receive from the U.S. and its European allies, and the location of the post-war lines of control.

Companies are suing to lock down the billions of dollars they might be owed if the Supreme Court rules against President Trump's tariffs.

Why it matters: Implementing the sprawling levies at the center of Trump's economic agenda looks simple relative to the chaos of trying to undo it.

The White House sent a stern private message to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressing that the killing of a top Hamas military commander over the weekend constituted a violation of the ceasefire agreement brokered by President Trump, two U.S. officials tell Axios.

Why it matters: The angry message from the White House comes amid growing tensions between the Trump administration and the Netanyahu government around the next phase of the agreement to end the war in Gaza and over Israel's broader regional policy.

ICE agents pulled over Rep. Ilhan Omar's (D-Minn.) son and asked him to provide proof of citizenship, the Somalia-born Democrat said in an interview Sunday.

The big picture: Omar raised racial profiling concerns as she announced last week two congressional inquiries into ICE's immigration crackdown in Minnesota targeting undocumented Somalis after President Trump said "I don't want 'em in our country."

A Hong Kong court found pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai guilty of sedition and colluding with foreign forces in a landmark national security trial on Monday morning local time.

The big picture: The founder of Hong Kong's now-defunct pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily and critic of China's ruling Communist Party was charged in 2020 after Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on the Asian financial hub in response to pro-democracy protests a year earlier.

The mass shooting at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, prompted police in New York and Los Angeles to step up security protections for the first night of the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah on Sunday.

The big picture: While there were no known threats locally, police departments in N.Y. and L.A. announced enhanced protections during Hanukkah celebrations in the wake of the Sydney terrorist attack that killed 15 people as about 1,000 people gathered for a "Chanukah by the Sea" event.