Important Takeaways:
- Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held his annual press conference in Moscow, and although he had criticism toward the UDS on a range of subjects, he did bring warm words of praise towards new President Trump.
- He especially commended Trump’s analysis pointing at NATO’s plan to include Ukraine as one of the root causes of the conflict.
- Lavrov reiterated that peace talks have to include ‘broader arrangements for security in Europe’.
- Associated Press reported:
- “Trump said Russia had it ‘written in stone’ that Ukraine’s membership in NATO should never be allowed, but the Biden administration had sought to expand the military alliance to Russia’s doorstep. Trump added that, ‘I could understand their feelings about that’.”
- Trump’s comments lift the seriousness of discussion, moving away from the tired old trope of denouncing Russia’s action as ‘an unprovoked act of aggression’.
- “’NATO did exactly what it had promised not to do, and Trump said that’, Lavrov said. ‘It marked the first such candid acknowledgement not only from a U.S. but any Western leader that NATO had lied when they signed numerous documents. They were used as a cover while NATO has expanded to our borders in violation of the agreements’.”
- “Lavrov also praised comments by Trump’s pick for national security adviser, Mike Waltz, who said Sunday it’s unrealistic to expect that Ukraine could drive Russian forces ‘from every inch of Ukrainian soil’.
- ‘The very fact that people have increasingly started to mention the realities on the ground deserves welcome’, Lavrov said during his annual news conference in Moscow.”
- “’Threats on the western flank, on our western borders, must be eliminated as one of the main reasons (of the conflict)’, he said. ‘They can probably be eliminated only in the context of some broader agreements’.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Agreement says 33 hostages are expected to be released over 42 days
- Israel and Hamas have agreed to a cease-fire deal that also ensures the release of hostages, Fox News has confirmed.
- “A Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal was reached following the Qatari Prime Minister’s meeting with Hamas negotiators, and separately Israeli negotiators in his office,” a source briefed on the matter told Fox News
- The conflict, which began with Hamas’ brutal attacks on October 7, 2023, has left over 1,200 Israelis dead, more than 250 taken hostage, and thousands of others killed on both sides.
- President-elect Donald Trump, who threatened last week if a deal wasn’t struck before his Inauguration Day that “all hell will break out” in the Middle East, quickly offered his praise.
- The deal, brokered by Qatari negotiators and facilitated by Egyptian intermediaries, also saw significant involvement from the United States. Both the outgoing Biden administration and the incoming Trump administration applied strategic pressure to finalize the agreement, despite concerns about Hamas re-arming and internal tensions within Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition.
- The agreement calls for the release of three hostages on the first day, followed by weekly batches. Women, children, and men over 50 will be prioritized initially, with younger men in humanitarian cases included later. Updates on hostages’ statuses will alternate between announcements of survivors and confirmation of those who did not survive captivity.
- Approximately 1,000 Palestinian prisoners will be freed in exchange, with murder convicts barred from returning to the West Bank. Instead, they will be sent to Gaza, Qatar, or Turkey.
- The cease-fire will also facilitate significant humanitarian aid to Gaza, with up to 600 trucks of supplies entering daily. By the 22nd day, displaced residents will be allowed to return to northern Gaza. Qatari and Egyptian teams will manage vehicle inspections, while pedestrian crossings will not require checks. The IDF will withdraw from the Nitzarim corridor but maintain a limited presence along the Philadelphi Route.
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Important Takeaways:
- During a special message at The Rosen Plaza Hotel in Orlando, Florida, Rabbi Jonathan Cahn gave a timely word regarding Trump’s future.
- Cahn notes that at this event, Donald Trump was going to be present, and he had been given the honor as one of the faith leaders to speak and meet with the president.
- Cahn explained to the president that he was called for the purpose of walking in an anointing like Jehu to bring hope and godliness back to the nation.
- “He called you according to the template of Jehu, the warrior king,” says Cahn. “He called Jehu to make His nation great again. Jehu came to the capital city with an agenda to drain the swamp. Jehu forged an alliance with the religious conservatives of the land. So it was your destiny to do the same. To come to power Jehu had to prevail against the nation’s former first lady. So to come to power you had to prevail against the nation’s former first lady. Jehu overturned the cult of Baal by which children were sacrificed. So God chose you to overturn America’s cult of Baal, Roe v. Wade, by which millions of babies were sacrifices, and you set it in motion on a day that was appointed from ancient times to cause a nation to turn away from its sin.”
- Cahn says that God had it planned all this time for Trump to walk in this same anointing and destiny as Jehu to help save America. However, Cahn gave Trump a warning, a caveat, of what the Lord needs of Trump to fulfill His plans through him.
- “For that to happen, you must seek Him with all your heart, follow Him with all your might,” Cahn says. “Jehu was born to make his nation great again by turning it back to God. So were you. America can only be great again if America turns back to God. You are a trumpet of God, and the trumpet can only fulfill its purpose if it’s filled with a breath of the one who holds it up and blows through it. God is the One who lifted you up, and He wills that you be filled with a breath of His Spirit.”
- Cahn warned Trump that this means being completely devoted to the Lord in all of his ways.
- “God is calling you to go all out for God, for Him, and if you do, then what follows will be the greatest and most glorious part. Then you will do what no president has ever done. You will be the vessel God used to bring America back to touch history and to change the world. For the Lord has spoken, ‘Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I set you apart. Now arise and shine, for your light is come and the glory has risen upon you,’” Cahn prophesies in the video.
- Cahn further said he believes this truly could be the last opportunity for America to have a revival, and we as the people of God must be praying for Donald Trump right now.
- “We need to pray for the president, that God will touch him and have His way, and that he will, this time, go all out for God, and we need to pray for revival as never before because only that can save the future.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Both the outgoing Biden administration and President-elect Trump’s people are pushing hard for a hostage deal and ceasefire agreement in Gaza. Many in Israel see reports about this possible deal as excruciating.
- The ceasefire-hostage deal is still up in the air, but the U.S. is talking optimistically.
- Media reports indicate 33 hostages would be released at the start of the deal, but Israel’s government is not sure how many of those will be live hostages.
- The release of more would be negotiated in later stages. Israel appears ready to sign the deal, but whether Hamas will is unknown.
- Some hostage families and their allies have marched in Jerusalem to protest any deal that doesn’t free all the hostages at once and in which Israel gives up hope of crushing Hamas in Gaza.
- Protester Tamar Gesundheit appealed, “Please President Trump, do not pressure us to give into Hamas. Pressure them to give into us.”
- Meanwhile, the fighting continues in Gaza, and the Houthis fired missiles at Israel again overnight.
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Important Takeaways:
- After all the talk about hostage talks over the past year, it appears that a deal may really happen before President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated.
- Trump is repeating for emphasis what he’s said will happen if Hamas doesn’t free all the hostages.
- “If they’re not back by the time I get into office, all hell will break out in the Middle East and it will not be good for Hamas and it will not be good, frankly, for anyone. All hell will break out,” the president-elect said on a podcast Tuesday with conservative Hugh Hewitt.
- Steve Witkoff, Middle East envoy in the next administration, remarked about Trump, “What he said, he expects. The red lines he’s put out there – that’s driving this negotiation.”
- Trump expressed anger about how Hamas has treated the hostages.
- “That beautiful girl where they (Hamas) threw her in the car, pulled her by her ponytail, and threw her in the car like she was a sack of potatoes,” he recalled. I said, what happened to her? So, she’s dead. Like a 19, 20-year-old beautiful girl.”
- Trump added, “They should have never taken them. There should have never been the attack of October 7th.”
- Witkoff’s taking part indirectly in the hostage talks in Doha, Qatar.
- “I think that we’ve had some really great progress,” Witkoff stated. “And I’m really hopeful that by the inaugural we’ll have some good things to announce.”
- Israel is taking part in the task force, and the only hold-up seems to be the unreasonable demands by Hamas.
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Important Takeaways:
- First, President-elect Donald Trump tweaked Canada’s far-left Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about becoming governor of the 51st state of the United States of America. Then he said that the Panama Canal should once again come under American control. Make that the 52nd state. And now, are you ready for a 53rd state? Last month, Trump renewed a call he made during his first term: that the United States should buy Greenland from Denmark. Could the man possibly be serious?
- [Trump’s] question to Trudeau was pointed, and remains unanswered: “So your country can’t survive unless it’s ripping off the U.S. to the tune of $100 billion?”
- Trump explained that the Panama Canal “was given to Panama and to the people of Panama, but it has provisions, you gotta treat us fairly and they haven’t treated us fairly.”
- “If the principles, both moral and legal, of this magnanimous gesture of giving are not followed, then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to the United States of America in full, quickly, and without question.”
- Regarding Greenland, it’s once again the same story. Harvard International Review noted in an August 2024 article:
- “While Greenland remains closely linked to Scandinavia as an autonomous region of Denmark, global powers such as the United States, China, and Russia are racing to extend military and economic influence in the region as it becomes more habitable.”
- There’s the bottom line: if the United States doesn’t control the Panama Canal and Greenland, China or Russia likely will, and the consequences could be severe both for the American economy and for national security.
- Trump is playing the great power game at a time when the left wants nothing more than for America to stand down and let China be the world’s great power. It’s yet another reason why leftists hate him so passionately.
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Important Takeaways:
- President Joe Biden has banned all future offshore oil and gas drilling in a last-ditch effort to stop Donald Trump from keeping his promise to expand offshoring drilling.
- It’s a blatant move to try and sabotage the incoming Trump administration as the MAGA die hard has pledged to reverse Biden’s climate change policies when he takes office in 14 days.
- Trump campaigned on a ‘drill baby, drill’ slogan and has pledged to throw out all of Biden’s green energy policies on Day One.
- In an effort to get ahead of Trump, Biden declared he is using his authority under the 70-year-old Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to block all future oil and natural gas leasing in most U.S. coastal waters.
- The ban would stop offshoring drilling in all federal waters off the East and West coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and portions of the northern Bering Sea in Alaska.
- Biden’s order will not affect large swaths of the Gulf of Mexico, where most U.S. offshore drilling occurs, but it would protect coastlines along California, Florida and other states from future drilling.
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Important Takeaways:
- Unless you have lived under a rock or never dared to venture beyond MSNBC or CNN or the front page of the New York Times as your source of ‘news’, none of this will come as a surprise at all…
- But, for those that have lived blinkered from the truth about the border for the past four years, MSNBC just sent your minds to ’11’ on the ‘cognitive dissonance’ scale as they dared to show a chart that – hold your breath here for a moment – shows a massive surge in illegal immigration during Biden’s reign (especially compared to Trump’s).
- “The border was not Biden’s finest moment, frankly,” former Obama administration official Steve Rattner sheepishly admits while showing the dramatic chart, shocking his co-host on MSNBC’s Morning Joe by admitting that:
- “you can see what happened here and Trump is not wrong when he talks about how border crossings were quite low.”
- “They were running about 74,000 a month when he left office. And they, in fact, did shoot up. Some of it was some things Biden said and some ways that they put a moratorium, for example, on deportations.”
- “But in fact, we did get up here almost to 300,000 a month,” Rattner continued.
- As a reminder, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas claimed that the border is secure on multiple occasions prior to a March 2024 impeachment vote in the House of Representatives, despite the fact that the Border Patrol encountered millions of illegal immigrants since the start of fiscal year 2021, according to figures released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
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Important Takeaways:
- The deal, thrown together during daylong negotiations between different ideological corners of the House Republican Conference and President-elect Donald Trump’s team, failed 174 to 236, with one voting present and 20 absences.
- An astonishing 38 Republicans voted against the hastily assembled, Trump-endorsed deal, with nine not voting.
- Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance stepped in Wednesday afternoon to drive the final stake in the heart of a previous deal negotiated by House Speaker Mike Johnson and Democrats. Support for that deal was deteriorating rapidly ahead of Trump taking action to reframe the debate, insisting the deal should have included a debt limit increase to take the tricky issue off his administration’s plate next Congress.
- The new deal removed over a thousand pages of pork and other provisions unrelated to keeping the government open.
- As a result, only two Democrats supported it, with one voting present and eleven not voting.
- Republicans must now decide on a path forward, not only for funding the government but who can lead them through this and future battles
- It is rare for so many Republicans to buck a bill backed by Trump. Multiple sources tell Breitbart News that many of the 38 nays are a protest vote on Johnson’s continued leadership of the conference.
- The deadline to pass a spending bill is Friday at midnight.
- Republicans must act fast if they want to get a funding bill through — and if they want to get on the same page before Trump takes office.
- They face some difficult questions on how best to move forward.
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Important Takeaways:
- President-elect Donald Trump is weighing his options to stop Iran from building a nuclear weapon, including preemptive airstrikes that would end years of containing Tehran with sanctions, according to a new report.
- Members of Trump’s transition team are reviewing the military strike option more closely now following the recent upheavals in the Middle East, including the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria and Israel’s decimation of Tehran terror proxies Hezbollah and Hamas, the Wall Street Journal reported.
- Uzi Rabi, director of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Tel Aviv University, said Trump has a “great opportunity” to end the Middle East conflict and halt Iran’s nuclear weapon ambitions.
- Trump recently said in his interview with Time magazine that America could go to war with Iran after investigators found that Tehran had once plotted to assassinate him.
- The US could also sell additional advanced weapons to Israel, including bunker-busting bombs, to pressure Tehran with a foe that has hit its nuclear facilities in the past.
- “Anything can happen,” he told the magazine that named him 2024 Person of the Year. “It’s a very volatile situation.”
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