A court in Romania has sentenced American rapper Wiz Khalifa to nine months in jail on drug possession charges. The ruling on Thursday came more than a year after he took part in a music festival in the Eastern European country. Khalifa was stopped by Romanian police in July 2024 after allegedly smoking cannabis on stage at the festival in Costinesti. Prosecutors said the rapper was found in possession of more than 18 grams of cannabis and that he consumed some on stage. The Constanta Court of Appeal handed down the sentence. The decision is final. It isn’t clear whether Romanian authorities will seek to file an extradition request since Khalifa is a U.S. citizen and doesn’t reside in Romania.

Democrats won't issue a postelection report on their 2024 shellacking after all. The Democratic National Committee head has decided not to publish a formal assessment of the party’s defeat that returned Donald Trump to power and gave Republicans complete control in Washington. Ken Martin had ordered a thorough review of what went wrong and what could be done differently. Martin now says there's no value in a public release of findings that he believes could lead to continued infighting and recriminations before the 2026 midterms when control of Congress will be at stake.

U.S. officials are proposing new restrictions that would effective ban gender-affirming care for minors. The announcement from Department of Health and Human Services is the latest step by the Trump administration cracking down on transgender Americans. The sweeping proposals include cutting off federal Medicaid and Medicare funding from hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to children. The HHS Office of Civil Rights will also propose a rule excluding gender dysphoria from the definition of a disability. The proposals are not final or legally binding. They must go through a lengthy rulemaking process and are likely to face legal challenges. They also contradict the recommendations of major medical groups including the American Medical Association.

A U.S. official says a Kremlin envoy will travel to Florida to discuss a U.S.-proposed plan to end the war in Ukraine. The American official said on Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s adviser Kirill Dmitriev is to meet with President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner in Miami on Saturday. The official said that Witkoff and Kushner will sit down with Dmitriev after meetings with Ukrainian and European officials in Berlin earlier this week in which they discussed U.S. security guarantees for Kyiv, territorial concessions and other aspects of the U.S. plan to end the war.

A Boston-area man has been sentenced to life in prison for murdering his wife, whose body has never been found after she disappeared nearly three years ago. Brian Walshe was sentenced Thursday in the killing of Ana Walshe. He was convicted Monday of first-degree murder. He pleaded guilty separately to misleading police and illegally disposing of a body. Investigators relied on Walshe’s online searches about dismemberment and disposing of a body to secure the murder conviction. Surveillance video shows a man resembling Walshe throwing heavy trash bags into a dumpster. Many items were recovered from the dumpster bearing their DNA and including Ana Walshe’s vaccination card.

Turning Point is beginning its annual Christian youth conference, the first event since the assassination of founder Charlie Kirk. The four-day meeting in Phoenix kicking off Thursday gathers thousands of young supporters of the MAGA movement, which faces internal debates over its future. A year ago, the conference celebrated President Donald Trump’s victory. Now the movement faces challenges, including debates over antisemitism. Turning Point is being led by Kirk’s widow and is confronting its own future. The event features MAGA influencers like Donald Trump Jr. and Tucker Carlson. Erika Kirk has stepped into the spotlight, addressing conspiracy theories surrounding her husband's death.

U.S. inflation decelerated unexpectedly last month according to new data that had been delayed by the government shutdown. The Labor Department reported Thursday that its consumer price index was up 2.7% in November from a year earlier.  The report was delayed eight days by the federal government’s 43-day shutdown, which also prevented the Labor Department from compiling overall numbers for consumer prices and core inflation in October.  Thursday’s report gave investors, businesses and policymakers their first look at CPI since the September numbers were released on Oct. 24. Consumers prices had risen 3% in September from a year earlier, and forecasters had expected the November CPI to match that year-over-year increase.

Josh Pyles grew up on the farm where he now lives in Port Royal, Kentucky. His wife, Ashley Pyles, had never farmed before. But both are fully committed at their Blue Meadow Beef farm, where they and their three children…

It’s been called an “epidemic” of loneliness and isolation. The “bowling alone” phenomenon. By any name, it refers to Americans’ growing social disconnection. Americans are less likely to join civic groups, unions and churches than in recent generations. They have fewer friends, are less trusting of each other and less likely to hang out in a local bar or coffee shop. For all that, it’s not surprising that many feel lonely or isolated much of the time. Such trends form the backdrop to The Associated Press’s report on small groups working to restore community connections.

The Associated Press has documented 145 incidents in what Western officials say is a campaign of disruption across Europe masterminded by Russia since President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Officials say the campaign aims to deprive Ukraine of support, create divisions among Europeans and identify the continent’s security weak spots. Officials say each act sucks up valuable security resources. While the campaign places a heavy burden on European security services, officials say it costs Russia next to nothing. That’s because Moscow is carrying out cross-border operations that require European countries to cooperate extensively — while often using foreigners with criminal backgrounds as cheap proxies for Russian intelligence operatives.

Pope Leo XIV has made a significant U.S. appointment by naming Bishop Ronald Hicks as the next archbishop of New York. Hicks, currently the bishop of Joliet, Illinois, replaces the retiring Cardinal Timothy Dolan. Dolan, a prominent conservative figure, recently finalized a $300 million fund to compensate victims of sexual abuse who had sued the archdiocese. Hicks will lead one of the largest U.S. archdioceses as it navigates relations with the Trump administration and its immigration policies. This appointment marks an important step for the church in addressing these challenges.

The Trump administration has announced a massive package of arms sales to Taiwan valued at more than $10 billion, including medium-range missiles, howitzers and drones. The statement drew an angry response from China. The State Department announced the sales late Wednesday during a nationally televised address by President Donald Trump, who made scant mention of foreign policy issues and did not speak to trade or other issues with China. The eight arms sales agreements cover 82 high-mobility artillery rocket systems and 420 Army Tactical Missile Systems, similar to what the U.S. had been providing Ukraine during the Biden administration to defend itself from Russia. Those systems are worth more than $4 billion.