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Trump Praises Saudi Prince, Meta's Big Win & Santa's Helpers Needed- Wednesday, November 19, 2025
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Today is Wednesday, November 19th. We'll tell you about the votes in Congress to make the Epstein files public. But what could still get in the way of their release. Also, how President Trump defended Saudi Arabia's crown prince despite US Intelligence linking him to a murder. Plus, why some key functions of the Department of Education are being handed over to other agencies, how so called ghost job postings may be deceiving you. And calling all Santas. What to know about a classic effort to spread holiday cheers. Those stories and even more news coming up. Welcome. Welcome to the Newsworthy. All the day's news in around 10 minutes. Fast, fair, fun and on the go. I'm Erica. Mandy, thanks so much for being here. You ready? Let's do this. Well, Congress has overwhelmingly approved releasing the Epstein files. Lawmakers passed a bill that tells the Justice Department to release all the files related to its investigation of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in the house. It passed 427 to 1. Only Congressman Clay Higgins voted against it, saying he did so to protect the victims, witnesses, undercover law enforcement, and others who could be revealed and ultimately hurt. Just days ago, only four Republicans joined, all Democrats signing a petition to force the vote. Then many more seemed to change their tune after President Trump dropped his opposition. And yesterday, some actually spoke out against the bill even as they were voting for it, saying they just needed to avoid the political backlash they'd get for voting no. Shortly after it sailed through the House, the Senate agreed to pass the bill with unanimous consent AKA without a formal vote. So this means it's now up to President Trump to sign it, which he has said he plans to do, though there are still questions about what the Justice Department will ultimately release. Under the bill that just passed, the DOJ would still be able to withhold documents that would, quote, jeopardize an active federal investigation. And remember, even though the DOJ said case closed earlier this year, Trump this week ordered the department to investigate Democrats linked to the Epstein and Attorney General Pam Bondi agreed. Also, the DOJ and FBI have said the files include images of Epstein and victims who were minors, as well as more than 10,000 videos and images of illegal child sex abuse material and other pornography. So many records could still be exempt for that reason as well. To be continued, Saudi Arabia's crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, better known as mbs, got a royal welcome at the White House. The arrival ceremony included an elaborate military display, complete with a military flyover, cannons, horses, a military band and a red carpet. Then, in the Oval Office, President Trump called MBS a very good friend and said his record on human rights is commendable, even though the US State Department has a long list of concerns over human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia. For example, disappearances, torture and unlawful killings like the one of Washington Post journalist jamal Khashoggi in 2018. In the US the CIA determined the crown prince had ordered his death. MBS denies that, but still says he takes responsibility since the murder was committed by people who worked for the Saudi government. Trump agreed MbS did not know about it. And when a reporter asked about Khashoggi in the Oval Office yesterday, President Trump defended the crown prince, saying, quote, a lot of people didn't like that gentleman that you're talking about, end quote. Whether you like him or didn't like him, things happen. Well, during that same meeting, MBS promised to spend even more money in the US in increasing his commitments from $600 billion, as announced in the spring, to nearly a trillion dollars now. Later in the day, the White House held a black tie dinner for the crown Prince. President Trump is also planning to attend a Saudi business summit today. The Texas governor is now labeling two Islamic groups as terrorist and criminal organizations. We're talking about the Muslim Brotherhood as well as the Council on American Islamic Relations, AKA Cairns. And with that, Governor Greg Abbott says the groups and their members should be banned from owning land in his state. CAIR responded by calling the designation anti Muslim bigotry. It points out how it has actually condemned all forms of unjust violence and said in doing so, their national director has become a target of isis. So the organization says it's ready to mount a legal challenge. Separately, also in Texas, a panel of federal judges blocked the new U.S. house map the state was planning to use for next year's midterms. It's the one that was meant to flip as many as five Democratic seats to Republican. But this week the court decided it was an illegal gerrymander based on race, since in the new map there are fewer districts where Hispanic and black voters are a majority. Well, Governor Abbott called the ruling absurd and his administration immediately filed a notice of appeal to the US Supreme Court. Meanwhile, other states like California and Virginia are still planning to move ahead with new maps more geared toward Democrats, while states like Missouri and North Carolina are doing the same with maps that lean Republican. Stay tuned. The U.S. department of Education is once again downsizing. Yesterday, it unveiled a plan to move key legally required functions to other federal agencies. For example, the oversight of Title I, its core program for low income schools, is now moving to the Department of Labor. The international education and foreign language studies programming will move to the State Department. The program that offers childcare on college campuses to low income students will move to the Health Department, and so on. It's seen as a way to eventually get rid of the Education Department entirely without having to get Congress involved, since the congressional mandated parts of the department will technically still be intact. Though some critics say Congress should still be involved, as they argue the programs need to be kept in the agency with the relevant experience to handle them. Already earlier this year, the Trump administration moved other responsibilities to the Labor Department, and Education Secretary Linda McMahon says it's a way to, quote, peel back the layers of federal bureaucracy, partnering with other agencies to manage certain programs and letting state and local leaders oversee the rest. Legal challenges are expected. More news is still coming up, but first, this episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. For some people, the holiday season can be a time for gathering. For others, it can be a time of stress or loneliness, or maybe it's a little bit of both. So check in on friends, reconnect with loved ones, and remind people in your life that you're there whether or not you agree on everything. I always feel better after sending that text to someone I'm thinking about, or bringing that coffee to a friend who could use a pick me up, or even telling someone when I'm extra stressed out. And just like those things can take a little extra effort and courage, so can reaching out for therapy. But I've found it's worth it. We're all healthier when we have Support. With over 30,000 therapists, BetterHelp is one of the world's largest online therapy platforms. BetterHelp therapists work according to a strict code of conduct, and if you aren't happy with your match, you can switch to a different therapist at any time from their tailored recommendations. This month, don't wait to reach out. Whether you're checking in on a friend or reaching out to a therapist yourself, BetterHelp makes it easier to take that first step. Our listeners get 10% off their first month@betterhelp.com newsworthy. That's betterhelp.com newsworthy. Now back to the news you may have noticed parts of the Internet went down yesterday. Outages and other issues were reported on sites and apps like X, Spotify, Amazon, DoorDash, Uber, OpenAI Square, and more. Well, it turns out the problems had to do with the Internet infrastructure platform cloudflare. The company says it didn't see any evidence of a cyber attack, that instead it came down to a settings file that got bigger than it was supposed to, overwhelming the system that handles Cloudflare traffic, making it crash. Cloudflare was able to fix the issues within about four hours, and as of this morning, everything seems to be running as normal. Meta notched a major win in court this week that helps it hold onto its share in the social media market. A federal judge ruled Meta did not break antitrust laws when it bought Instagram and WhatsApp years ago, and with that it won't be forced to give up two of its biggest apps, which have billions of users worldwide. This ends a years long legal battle that started during the first Trump administration when the FTC argued the tech giant was stifling competition and breaking antitrust laws. It it wanted Meta to spin off Instagram and WhatsApp into separate companies to give rivals more room to compete and to give users more choices. On the other side, Meta argued the social media market has evolved to become much more competitive, with apps like TikTok and YouTube giving users plenty of options. And in the judge's decision, he agreed, saying even if Meta did have a monopoly in the past that it doesn't have that power now. While the Trump administration criticized that ruling, calling it political, the FTC is now reviewing its options. Google seems to be stepping up the chatbot race Google says its latest AI model, Gemini 3, is better at coding, creating apps and generating images. It's also supposed to be more creative and give people better answers to more complex questions by actually being able to figure out the context and intent behind each request. Gemini 3 is being integrated into the Gemini app, but more significantly, it's rolling out to Google search over the next few weeks, tapping a huge market. Of course. OpenAI kicked off the generative AI chatbot boom in late 2022 with the public launch of ChatGPT, and OpenAI is still regularly issuing updates to be more intelligent. With 800 million active users each week, ChatGPT still far outpaces Gemini, but it still doesn't come close to the popularity of Google Search and other online products like Gmail, Google Docs and so on that are all getting infused with AI. Santa is starting to look for some helpers for the 2025 holiday season. This week, the US Post launched its Operation Santa program that's been running since 1912. With Operation Santa, kids and families send letters to Santa Claus. Many of them ask for gifts like toys, clothes or even groceries. The letters are then posted online with the personal details removed. At that point, it's up to people, families or businesses to adopt letters and respond with a note and gift. The idea is to promote kindness and connection so no one feels forgotten during the holiday season. If you want to participate this year, we included a link in today's episode notes on thenewsworthy.com and that's it for the main news today. So now it's time for Work Wednesday when we break down one interesting career or work related news story every Wednesday. But first I want to thank our sponsor Haya Health. As a parent, there's so much to keep up with and try to get right. But let's be real with a four year old that can feel like a moving target when it comes to nutrition. Some days he eats great, other days it seems like he's surviving on crackers and bread. And many kids vitamins seem to basically be sugar gummies. But Haya is different. My son takes both the daily vitamin and the probiotic every day and the best part is he's actually excited about it. He loves the taste, he loves adding stickers to the bottle and I love knowing it's made with zero sugar, zero gummy junk and all the essentials that kids often miss. Plus every batch is third party tested for heavy metals and microbials in a qualified GMP compliant lab. And by the way, Haya now also has the Kids Daily Greens plus Superfoods, a chocolate flavored greens powder specifically for kids. Packed with over 55 whole food ingredients you scoop, shake and sip with milk or a non dairy alternative for a nutritious boost your kids will actually enjoy. We've worked out a special deal with Hiya for their best selling children's vitamin receive 50% off your first order. To claim this deal you must go to Hiyahealth.com newsworthy this deal is not available on their regular website. Go to h I y-a h E-A-L-T-Comnewsworthy and get your kids the full body nourishment they need to grow into healthy adults. Now back to work Wednesday. If getting a job feels kind of impossible right now, it might be because for some jobs it actually is. The employment assistance platform MyPerfectResume analyzed federal data and found out one in three job postings are now for so called ghost jobs. Those are the job postings that show up online but never seem to actually lead to hires. A career expert at MyPerfectResume pointed out how ghost jobs waste job seekers time and also cloud the data that policymakers rely on to steer the economy. So why are there so many of them? Reports say Some companies post jobs just to keep an inventory of potential workers for positions that may open up in the future. They just want to see how many candidates might be interested and what salaries they might expect. Others are actually hoping to hire someone but don't actually have the final approval yet and the budget might not support it. And then there are apparently some companies that need to show a certain number of active job postings to satisfy internal HR metrics or convince investors they're growing. So how can you make sure you don't waste time on so called ghost jobs? Experts recommend making networking a priority so you can be connected directly to hiring managers instead of having to rely on online posts at all. And if you do want to go for an online post, look for specifics like detailed requirements and steer clear of vague job descriptions. They also suggest checking the dates of all job listings since ones that have been open for more than a month are more likely to be ghost jobs. And if nothing else they say, don't let these fake jobs impact your confidence. If you have an application that goes nowhere, remember it might not have anything to do with you, just the system. Well, thank you so much for listening today and sharing the show. If you found it helpful, we'll be back tomorrow with the latest news to know. Until then, have a great day.