Economy — Weekly unemployment claims (Dec. 24, 2025)
- The Labor Department’s advance figures for the week ending Dec. 20 show 214,000 seasonally adjusted initial claims and a four‑week moving average of 216,750. The advance, seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate for the week ending Dec. 13 was reported at 1.3 percent, with 1,923,000 people receiving insured unemployment. A comparable week in 2024 recorded 275,557 initial claims. (Advance weekly claims report published Dec. 24, 2025; Reuters summary of the report.)
Global health & diplomacy — America First Global Health MOUs (Dec. 2025)
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The State Department announced a series of multi‑year bilateral Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) under the administration’s "America First Global Health Strategy." The releases describe MOUs signed with multiple countries, and cite four landmark MOUs with Madagascar, Sierra Leone, Botswana, and Ethiopia. The announcements state that the U.S. will front‑load more than $30 million in 2026 to strengthen Sierra Leone’s disease surveillance, laboratory capacity, health workforce, and data systems, with Sierra Leone to assume most commodity, workforce and laboratory costs by 2030.
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Targeted outcomes cited in the State Department releases include a goal to reduce malaria deaths by 75% and to ensure that 98% of people know their HIV status and are on treatment by 2030 in relevant partner countries; the Madagascar MOU cites an objective to raise antenatal care attendance from about 40% to 75% by 2030. (U.S. State Department MOU announcements, Dec. 2025.)
Pacific — Deputy Secretary Landau’s call with Palau (Dec. 23–24, 2025)
- Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau spoke with Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr. to reaffirm the U.S.–Palau partnership. The readout and media reporting state the call addressed U.S. support to strengthen Palau’s health‑care infrastructure, increase Palau’s capacity to combat transnational crime and drug trafficking, and to bolster Palau’s civil‑service pension system. (State Department readout; Reuters reporting, Dec. 24, 2025.)
Homeland security & immigration — DHS: Laken Riley Act arrests (Dec. 24, 2025)
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The Department of Homeland Security announced that, under the Laken Riley Act, more than 17,500 non‑citizens have been arrested and detained for crimes covered by the law. The DHS release states that ICE arrested 1,030 criminal non‑citizens during a two‑week nationwide enforcement operation called Operation Angel’s Honor.
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The DHS release lists a series of named cases and convictions or charges (including convictions for larceny, burglary, drug offenses, aggravated assault, homicide, sexual assault and kidnapping) describing individuals from multiple countries who were arrested under the operation and broader enforcement. (DHS press release, Dec. 24, 2025.)
Western Hemisphere — U.S. statement on Honduras election (Dec. 24, 2025)
- The State Department posted a release congratulating Honduras’ president‑elect, Nasry Asfura, on his electoral victory. (State Department release, Dec. 24, 2025.)
Sources/caveats
- Items above summarize U.S. federal releases and contemporaneous media reporting published Dec. 24, 2025. Several State Department release pages were posted as official readouts; a small number of State Department pages displayed technical access errors at the time of collection but are cited using their public release URLs and associated summaries.