- Wednesday January 8th, 2025
- "It Is Not A Question of Who Is Right Or Wrong But What Is Right Or Wrong That Counts."
- --Geoff Metcalf
- Providing an on line Triage of the news since 1998
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World & Nation
US Believes Only 20 Hostages Still Alive in Gaza
Multiple intelligence and security sources at the highest levels of the
U.S. and Israel confirm that authorities believe only about 20 of the
251 hostages taken alive by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, remain alive.
One U.S. government source said that 20 is the "working number" of
those believed to be alive in ongoing negotiations underway in Qatar
between Israel and Hamas.
The figure of 20 is approximate and includes only civilians and female Israeli soldiers taken prisoner.
"If the number included Israeli male soldiers, it could go higher," one
senior Israeli source told Newsmax, but suggested it would not be a
large increase.
Some public assessments, however, say the number of remaining hostages could be closer to 40.
Trump asks Supreme Court to block his criminal hush money sentencing
President-elect Donald Trump has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to
prevent Friday's sentencing in his New York criminal hush money case.
In a filing Wednesday morning, defense lawyers argued that sentencing
Trump -- who has attempted to halt the case based on a claim of
presidential immunity -- would damage "the institution of the
Presidency and the operations of the federal government."
"Most fundamentally, forcing President Trump to defend a criminal case
and appear for a criminal sentencing hearing at the apex of the
Presidential transition creates a constitutionally intolerable risk of
disruption to national security and America's vital interests," Trump's
lawyers said.
The Supreme Court has asked for a response from prosecutors in New York by Thursday at 10 a.m. ET.
The Manhattan district attorney's office, when asked for comment, said they will respond in court papers.
AG Merrick Garland intends to release Special Counsel Jack Smith report on Trump election case
A Florida judge had temporarily blocked the release of Jack Smith's final report on his Trump cases
Attorney General Merrick Garland will release Special Counsel Jack
Smith's report on the 2020 election interference case against
President-elect Trump, according to a court filing.
The Department of Justice told the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals
on Wednesday that Garland intends to release Volume One of Smith's
final report to Congress and the public, which covers the allegations
that Trump attempted to illegally undo the results of the 2020
presidential election.
However, Garland will not release Volume Two, which covers the
classified documents case against Trump, as two defendants in that case
still face criminal proceedings. Only the chairmen and ranking members
of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees will be permitted to view
Volume Two, and they will be prohibited from discussing the report
publicly.
CNN: Trump Mulls Economic Emergency for Tariffs
President-elect Donald Trump is considering declaring a national
economic emergency to provide legal justification for a series of
universal tariffs on allies and adversaries, CNN reported Wednesday,
citing sources familiar with the matter.
Urgent: Trump Moves Back Into Putin's Crossfire... Read More Here
The move will allow Trump to build a new tariff program by using the
International Economic Emergency Powers Act, which authorizes a
president to manage imports during a national emergency, the report
said.
"Nothing is off the table," a source familiar with the matter told CNN,
acknowledging that a discussion had taken place over declaring a
national emergency.
Trump ramps up threats to seize Greenland as Panama tells president-elect that Canal will ‘stay in our hands’:
Donald Trump gave his first rambling press conference of the new year
at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday, bafflingly leaping from one topic to another.
Ostensibly arranged to announce new foreign investment in the US, the
president-elect took the opportunity to attack Joe Biden over the
transition process and refused to rule out using military or economic
coercion to take control of Greenland and the Panama Canal.
Trump further railed against windmills, electric heaters, water
pressure, soap, dishwashers, Canada and the legal cases brought against
him in 2023.
At one point, he said he wanted to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the
“Gulf of America” and then claimed Hezbollah might have been at the US
Capitol on January 6 2021.
Meta, Facebook End Fact-Checking Program
In a victory for free speech on social media, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg
on Tuesday announced a series of major changes concerning the
monitoring of content on its platforms.
The move comes less than two weeks before President-elect Donald Trump
takes office and his new administration says they will make dealing
with censorship a priority.
The changes will affect Facebook and Instagram, two of the world's largest social media platforms.
Biden admits he might not have lasted another term if he'd been re-elected: 'Who the hell knows?'
'So far, so good. But who knows what I'm going to be when I'm 86 years old?' Biden says
President Biden acknowledged concerns about his age and discussed his
legacy in an interview with USA Today in the Oval Office, still
claiming he would have won another term if he'd run against Donald
Trump but admitting he's not sure if he could have lasted four more
years.
"Do you think you would've had the vigor to serve another four years in office?" USA Today's Susan Page asked.
"I don't know," Biden said. "That's why I thought when I first
announced, talking to Barack [Obama] about it, I said I thought I was
the person. I had no intention of running after [my son] Beau died –
for real, not a joke. And then when Trump was running again for
re-election, I really thought I had the best chance of beating him."
Mexico disperses migrant caravans heading to US ahead of Trump inauguration
President-elect Trump has threatens Mexico with 25% tariffs on goods — unless it stops illegal crossings
The Mexican government is working hard to break up migrant caravans
trying to make the treacherous journey north to the U.S. ahead of
President-elect Trump’s inauguration in less than two weeks' time.
Faced with the prospect of massive tariffs on goods under the new
administration, Mexico has been dispersing migrants throughout the
country to keep them far from the U.S. border, including dropping them
off at the once vibrant tourist hotspot of Acapulco, a beach resort
town on Mexico's Pacific coast made famous by the jet set in the 1950s
and ’60s.
The Mexican government has embraced a policy of "dispersion and
exhaustion" to reduce the number of migrants reaching the U.S. border.
Authorities let migrants walk for days until they're exhausted and then
offer to bus them to various cities where they say their immigration
status will be reviewed.
US Strikes Houthi Weapon Facilities In Yemen After Attacks On Navy Warships: CENTCOM
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces have conducted precision
airstrikes against two Houthi weapon storage facilities in Yemen,
responding to recent attacks on U.S. Navy warships and commercial
vessels in the Red Sea.
The strikes targeted underground facilities used to store advanced
conventional weapons (ACW) in Houthi-controlled territory. CENTCOM
stated that these facilities were used to launch attacks against U.S.
and international shipping in the southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
The strikes were carried out with precision munitions to minimize the
risk of civilian casualties. CENTCOM confirmed that there were no
injuries or damage to U.S. personnel or equipment during the operation.
This action comes amid heightened tensions in the region, with
Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen increasingly targeting commercial
shipping and U.S. naval vessels. The Houthis have employed a variety of
weapons, including missiles and explosive-laden drones, in these
attacks.
Palisades fire: Worst is ‘yet to come’ as winds gain speed, ground aircraft
Fearsome winds forced crews to ground firefighting aircraft in the
battle against the Palisades fire on Tuesday night, making it even more
challenging for firefighters to get a handle on the fast-growing blaze.
The use of aircraft was halted shortly before 8 p.m., and Los Angeles
fire officials said they would continually reassess weather conditions
to determine when they might be used again, said Margaret Stewart with
the Los Angeles Fire Department.
The fire remained 0% contained at 11 p.m. Tuesday as “extreme fire
behavior” continued to challenge firefighters, according to the L.A.
County Fire Department. Wind gusts up to 60 mph were expected to
continue through Thursday.
Don’t let Facebook off the hook for its pro-censorship past so easily
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, overlord of Facebook’s war on speech, just offered a mea culpa.
In a video posted Tuesday, Zuck announced that Meta is dropping its
third-party fact-checking system, which he acknowledged is riddled with
lefty bias, and replace it with X-style “community notes.”
“It’s time to get back to our roots around free expression on Facebook
and Instagram,” he said, admitting that the content-moderation system
had “shut down opinions and shut out people with different ideas” and
“gone too far.”
It’s a win for open discourse and more evidence that the left’s vice-tight grip on cultural spaces is weakening.
Jan. 6 pardons: Weigh every individual case
Count us opposed to a mass pardon for all Jan. 6 defendants: Some
plainly did receive unfair treatment, but others in the mob committed
real and significant crimes.
If Republicans mean to remain the party of law and order, the blanket
clemency that President-elect Donald Trump has floated is the wrong way
to go: The new Justice Department and/or White House lawyers need to do
a case-by-case review.
For several hours, the mob disrupted the orderly transfer of
presidential power, posing a real threat to the safety of Vice
President Mike Pence and others.
Capitol police, simply doing their sworn duty, suffered beating and
injuries as they sought to protect members of Congress by holding back
the mob.
