The Latest: Legislators Finalize Budget, Now Heads To Cooper

“Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina is set to leave office on New Year’s Day after two terms that began with his effort to undo the state’s ‘bathroom ban’ for transgender people and ended with him muscling through a Medicaid expansion,” the New York Times reports. “Now Mr. Cooper, 67, has plenty of options.

“Social media posts by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy arguing in favor of expanding the visa program for highly skilled workers have set off a debate among supporters of President-elect Donald Trump over how the program should fit into the incoming administration’s aggressive immigration agenda,” CNN reports. “Musk and Ramaswamy, whom Trump has tapped to lead his Department of Government Efficiency, defended companies who use workers on H-1B visas, arguing tech companies — including those owned by Musk — depend on foreign workers to operate.

“Israel’s attorney-general has ordered an investigation into Sara Netanyahu, the prime minister’s wife, on suspicion of harassing witnesses and obstructing justice in her husband’s corruption cases,” the Financial Times reports.

Israeli and U. S. officials involved in the negotiations for a Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal say they are concerned that the odds of an agreement before President-elect Donald Trump takes office are slim, Axios reports. Trump threatened that there would be “hell to pay in the Middle East” if Hamas did not release the hostages held in Gaza by Jan.

“Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is walking an old tightrope into 2025: He is trying to avoid appearing confrontational with Donald Trump, even though some of his colleagues are signaling unease that the president-elect’s policies might rekindle inflationary pressures,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “The difficult balancing act was on full display over the last two months.

“Jetliners being accidentally blasted out of the sky has become the leading cause of commercial-aviation deaths over recent years, marking a new trend running counter to an otherwise improving safety picture,” the Wall Street Journal reports.