Brown and MIT shootings suspect found dead and more Epstein photos released: Morning Rundown

The suspect found dead in the Brown University shooting has a possible connection to the fatal shooting of an MIT professor. Trump says it's possible that the U.S. goes to war with Venezuela. And, "Dateline" anchor Lester Holt reflects on a story that brought him back to his reporting roots.

Here's what to know today.

The suspect in the Brown University mass shooting was found dead four days after the attack in a New Hampshire storage facility, four senior law enforcement officials said. He appeared to have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the officials said. Authorities identified the suspect as 48-year-old Claudio Manuel Neves Valente.

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The suspect accused of killing two Brown students was a Portuguese national and a former student at the university, Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez told reporters. Two guns were found at the scene where officials discovered the body of the suspect, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said.

A judge had signed an arrest warrant before the suspect's body was found, accusing him of interstate murder, Neronha said.

Valente was admitted to Brown's graduate school to study in the master of science Ph.D. program in physics on Sept. 1, 2000, university President Christina H. Paxson said. He took a leave of absence in April 2001 before formally withdrawing in July 2003, she said.

The suspect enrolled only in physics classes, Paxson said. The majority of physics classes have always been held in the Barus & Holley building, she said — which is the building where the shooting occurred.

The suspect in the Brown shooting is believed to have killed an MIT professor two days after the campus shooting, the U.S. attorney in Boston said. "He murdered Nuno Loureiro at Loureiro's home in Brookline, Massachusetts," Leah B. Foley, the U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts, said.

It is believed that Valente attended the same Portuguese university as Loureiro, an FBI official said.

Read the full story.

Follow the latest in our liveblog.

President Donald Trump, in an exclusive phone interview with NBC News, said he's leaving the possibility of war with Venezuela on the table, saying "I don't rule it out, no."

Trump recently ordered a "blockade" of sanctioned oil tankers coming and going from Venezuela, increasing pressure on the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro. The U.S. recently seized an oil tanker captured near Venezuela, as well.

The administration's campaign has already resulted in 28 boat strikes that have killed more than 100 people, including a "double tap" strike facing congressional scrutiny. Any Venezuela escalation could test MAGA's tolerance, analysts say.

Trump said, "I don't discuss it," when asked whether he rules out the possibility that these actions could lead to war. But when pressed, he confirmed it was a possibility and said there will be additional seizures of oil tankers. Trump declined to say if ousting Maduro was his ultimate goal.

Read the full interview.

• TikTok's CEO told its employees that its owner, China's ByteDance, has signed binding agreements to create a joint venture for the app in the U.S., as agreed to in a deal with the Trump administration.

• The government announced it would begin to take steps aimed at ending transition-related care for minors nationwide.

• Trump signed an executive order to fast-track the reclassification of cannabis, which would pave the way for the FDA to study its medicinal uses.

• The board of the Kennedy Center in Washington voted to rename it the Trump-Kennedy Center.

• Erika Kirk endorsed Vice President JD Vance in the 2028 presidential election.

The public has only seen a tiny fraction of the roughly 95,000 photographs the Jeffrey Epstein estate turned over to the House Oversight Committee. Democrats on the committee released 68 photos from the Epstein estate yesterday, including photos of the convicted sex offender with high-profile individuals.

The release and another one last week by Oversight Democrats include dozens of photos of Epstein posing with Trump, Steve Bannon, Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, Bill Gates, Woody Allen and other high-profile figures. All have denied any wrongdoing and none has been charged in relation to Epstein’s crimes.

The latest batch of photos comes just one day before today's deadline when the Justice Department will be required, under a new law, to release all of the government's Epstein files with very limited exceptions.

Read the full story.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is responding to questions about the war in Ukraine at his annual marathon news conference today.

Putin showed no sign of compromise, insisting his military was advancing and signaling that his terms to end the war were unchanged.

NBC News' Keir Simmons is in attendance.

Follow the latest in our liveblog.

• Former NASCAR driver Greg Biffle died with his wife, their two children and three other people in a plane crash at Statesville Regional Airport in North Carolina.

• John Travolta's youngest child is the great grandson of Elvis Presley, via an egg donation from Presley's granddaughter Riley Keough, filings in an ongoing lawsuit against the famed family alleged.

• Tory Lanez is seeking freedom from prison as his attorney alleged records in Megan Thee Stallion's civil defamation suit revealed that there may have been evidence that was never turned over during his 2022 shooting trial.

• The University of Michigan "will leave no stone unturned" in a thorough "evaluation of culture" in the school's scandal-plagued athletic department, its president said.

• The WNBA's players association announced that its members voted to authorize a strike if necessary as the extended Jan. 9 deadline for contract negotiations with the league looms.

• The National Women's Soccer League Players Association rejected a proposal from the league's board that would have allowed teams to circumvent salary cap restrictions to keep star Trinity Rodman from possibly moving abroad for more money.

"Dateline" anchor Lester Holt returned to his radio reporting roots to examine the case of Robert Roberson, who was convicted of shaking his daughter to death.

The case brought him to Palestine, Texas. It was a complicated story about an unspeakable tragedy that occurred in 2002: the death of a toddler who was allegedly shaken by her father. It was a case in which seemingly critical evidence had been ignored or discounted.

Read Holt's personal account on covering the story and the ways in which it differs from his last 45 years as a broadcast journalist. – Christian Orozco, newsletter and platforms editor

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