One of Syria’s most notorious jails contains evidence of the Assad regime’s brutal crackdown on dissent. The suspect accused in the UnitedHealthcare CEO death is expected to plead not guilty. And inside one man’s involvement in the shadowy U.S. body trade.
Here’s what to know today.
After Assad’s ouster, evidence of unspeakable cruelty and an Israeli advance
Saydnaya military prison is Syria’s most notorious gulag, a dungeon of tiny concrete cells nicknamed “the human slaughterhouse.” During the Assad family’s 50-year rule, prisoners were “regularly tortured through severe beatings and sexual violence,” Amnesty International claimed in a 2017 report, and “total silence is enforced” to inflict psychological suffering.
Now, days after Bashar al-Assad’s regime was toppled, Syrians have flocked to the jail in the rocky hills outside the capital, Damascus. They used pry bars, pickaxes and their bare hands in a desperate search to see if their loved ones were still alive. One woman NBC News spoke to had come in search of her son who had been missing for a decade. He was accused of being a militant; she said he was a nurse. Evidence of barbaric conditions was everywhere — one room had an iron device that some people referred to as an “execution press,” used to crush inmates to death.
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While Syrians grapple with the end of the regime, the country’s neighbor Israel moved into its territory in a new offensive. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that he had ordered the military to establish a “sterile defense zone” in southern Syria as Israeli forces seize control of the demilitarized buffer zone between the two countries.
Hundreds of airstrikes have been conducted on research centers, arms depots and military infrastructure across Syria, and Israel claims it destroyed Syria’s naval fleet. Israel says its actions are aimed at preventing Assad’s arsenal from falling into the hands of extremists, but its advance has raised alarm about further instability.
More Syria coverage:
- Russia is providing sanctuary to former leader Bashar al-Assad, the country’s foreign minister said in an exclusive interview.
Suspect in CEO shooting expected to plead not guilty
Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old suspect accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, will plead not guilty to charges in Pennsylvania and is expected to do the same in New York on a murder charge, his lawyer said. “Listen, I haven’t seen any evidence that says he’s the shooter,” Thomas Dickey, Mangione’s attorney in Pennsylvania, told reporters.
In a hearing yesterday, Mangione was denied bail, and confirmed he would contest extradition to New York. When he arrived at the Blair County Courthouse in Pennsylvania, Mangione emerged from a sheriff’s car shouting and slammed into a wall. He also yelled to reporters: “It’s completely out of touch and an insult to the intelligence of the American people and their lived experience!”
Meanwhile, investigators are still learning more about the suspect through his writings and social media presence. They’re also looking at whether there is any connection between a back injury Mangione suffered and Thompson’s killing. Here’s what else we know.
More on the suspect:
- The brother of Ted Kaczynski, the domestic terrorist also known as the “Unabomber,” said he hopes Kaczynski wasn’t a “key model” for Mangione.
GOP undecided on how to advance Trump’s 2025 agenda
President-elect Donald Trump has said he wants to act quickly to advance core components of his agenda, including border security, energy policy and an extension of his 2017 tax cuts. But whether congressional Republicans will tackle his agenda in a single package or across two, smaller bills through a process called “reconciliation” has lawmakers divided.
Reconciliation will allow Republicans to pass major legislation without the need for any Democratic support. With 53 seats in the Senate and 220 in the House next year, nearly every Republican will need to agree for legislation to succeed.
Incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune has been pushing for a two-bill strategy, arguing that the GOP should pass a bill with “things we know we can do quickly” and tackle other agenda items in a package “later this year.” Meanwhile, the House’s top tax writer, Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith, argues that splitting up Trump’s agenda into two bills, particularly the tax policy, risks jeopardizing it. Read the full story here.
More Trump transition and politics news:
- Trump said he will nominate Fox News personality Kimberly Guilfoyle and his longtime billionaire friend Tom Barrack to serve as ambassadors to Greece and Turkey.
- The House task force that investigated the assassination attempts against Trump released a final report that included recommendations for the Secret Service.
- New York Attorney General Letitia James rejected Trump’s request to drop her $486 million civil fraud judgment against him.
- Sen. Mitch McConnell said he was “feeling good” after he fell and sustained minor injuries yesterday.
- A potentially critical political storyline is brewing in Michigan, where a gubernatorial candidate’s decision to run as an independent sends a message about the political establishment, Chuck Todd writes. Read the full analysis.
Body brokers thrive with little oversight
Obteen Nassiri was in need of a new line of work. After losing his chiropractor’s license following allegations that he had misled patients and defrauded insurers out of millions, he dove into an industry with virtually no guardrails or barriers to entry — the shadowy U.S. body trade.
Operating out of a beige strip mall in Las Vegas between a tattoo parlor and a psychic, Nassiri’s new company, Med Ed Labs, acquired corpses from funeral homes and medical schools, then sold or leased them at a markup to groups seeking human remains for medical training, including the U.S. military.
Within just a few years, he had built a national network of suppliers and clients. He also left a trail of scandal and alleged ethical failures, including complaints that he mishandled human remains. Read the full story here.
Read All About It
- The Bureau of Labor Statistics today will release the consumer price index for November, with analysts expecting 0.3% growth month over month. That stalled progress could factor into whether the Fed cuts interest rates next month.
- A bankruptcy judge rejected a bid by The Onion’s parent company to buy Alex Jones’ Infowars and far-right media empire, ruling the auction process was unfair.
- The wind-fueled Franklin Fire in Malibu, California, has burned around 3,000 acres and prompted evacuation orders for about 20,000 people.
- A judge blocked a $25 billion bid by supermarket giant Kroger to take over rival Albertsons, saying that the merger would hurt customers.
- Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow’s home was burglarized, adding to a recent string of break-ins targeting high-profile athletes.
Staff Pick: Small business owners deal with alleged Covid loan blunder
For millions of small businesses, a federal loan program provided a lifeline that helped them stay afloat during the pandemic. But with repayment of those U.S. Small Business Administration Covid disaster loans now coming due, some business owners told me their loans have been wrongly deemed delinquent or sent to collections.
A spokesperson for the agency said it has worked hard to be flexible and responsive to borrowers while handling a record surge of disaster loans and says its payment systems are “functioning properly.” But several borrowers and the consultants they’ve hired said that the SBA’s own blunders — from lost payments to misfiled loans — have led to months of frustration or worse. As a result, one consultant said some of his clients have faced tarnished Social Security benefits, withheld tax refunds and negative reports to their credit records. — Lewis Kamb, FOIA reporter
NBC Select: Online Shopping, Simplified
If you need your gifts in a hurry, check out these last-minute gifts that will arrive quickly. Plus, for your astrology-loving friends and family, here are the best gifts to buy for every Zodiac sign.
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