Four Israeli hostages were released in exchange for 200 violent prisoners in the ceasefire deal in the Middle East. Secretary of State Marco Rubio heads to Central America next week, including Panama, for talks on the canal and illegal immigration. Military and DoD analysts Del Wilber and Nate Cain are here on the top stories, including Vice President Vance breaking the tie in the Senate; Pete Hegseth is now the new Secretary of Defense.
Hamas frees four female Israeli soldiers as part of the Gaza ceasefire in exchange for 200 prisoners | They were released from 477 days in Hamas captivity as part of the first stage of a ceasefire deal with the Palestinian terror group. The four Israelis smiled broadly as they waved and gave the thumbs-up from a stage in Gaza. They were likely acting under duress, with previously released hostages saying they were held in brutal conditions and forced to record propaganda videos.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office later said Israel would not allow displaced Palestinians to begin returning to northern Gaza, which had been expected to begin by Sunday, because a civilian hostage who was supposed to be released by Hamas had not been freed. It said Israel would not allow Palestinians to begin returning to northern Gaza, which had been expected to begin by Sunday, until Arbel Yehoud was freed. A senior Hamas official said the group has informed mediators that Yehoud will be released next week. (AP)
Pete Hegseth Confirmed as Secretary of Defense | The Senate confirmed Pete Hegseth as the new secretary of defense in a late-night session on Friday that came down to a tiebreaker from Vice President JD Vance. Axios has a headline: How Pete Hegseth’s nomination came back from “90% dead.” They went onto say – “Pete isn’t 100% dead. But he might be 90% dead,” Vance said at the start of December, according to a transition official who heard the remark. Hegseth’s nomination was on life support at the time, as he was getting wrecked in the press for alleged sexual misconduct and alcohol abuse. Trump was courting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as a possible replacement, and some GOP lawmakers thought Hegseth was going the way of former Rep. Matt Gaetz’s nomination as attorney general. Trump told Hegseth to fight. Vance told the nominee to attack the allegations head-on and to get on TV. Donald Trump Jr. then rallied a network of online MAGA influencers to come to Hegseth’s defense. Hegseth took the advice. He began his turnaround with a defiant televised gaggle with reporters on Dec. 5. Trump loved it. (Axios)
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to visit Panama next week amid rising tensions over President Donald Trump’s vow to take back the Panama Canal. The Rubio trip — scheduled to run from late January to early February — also includes Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic, the officials said. Rubio is expected to use the travel to cover at least two issues at the top of MAGA foreign policy agenda: curtailing illegal migration and Trump’s push to reclaim the Panama Canal, according to one of the current officials and the former official. “The Panama Canal belongs to Panama and will continue to belong to Panama,” Panama’s president, José Raúl Mulino, said at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week. “The Panama Canal is not a concession or a gift from the United States.” (Politico)
Pardons, promises, and exposing corruption: A new era unfolds | Nate Cain unpacks President Biden’s flurry of last-minute pardons and the potential implications for the nation’s justice system. Biden pardoned in his last day in office: (America Out Loud)
– Brother James Biden and wife Sara
– Sister Valerie and her husband, John Owens
– Brother Francis
– Dr. Anthony Fauci
– Ret Gen Mark Milley
– Jan 6 Committee Members include Liz Cheney
President Donald Trump virtually addresses the
World Economic Forum in Davos
https://www.youtube.com/embed/wyWzlUx7vNc?si=-rvfPlS6wSMZamwG
Nate Cain is a military veteran and an expert in cybersecurity for over 26 years and has worked extensively on election integrity, having been called on as an expert witness and cyber forensic investigator by the Trump White House after the 2020 election debacle. Nate is a host of Unleashed! The Political News Hour. Nate is the Tuesday host of Unleashed! The Political News Hour on America Out Loud Talk Radio.
D.W. Wilber is a former undercover employee of the Central Intelligence Agency who served overseas in Eastern and Western Europe and the Middle East. He currently consults on counterterrorism, writes columns, and appears as a guest on several programs.
Gavin Newsom meets the new President on the tarmac. Trump toured the fire-ravaged state and called out LA Mayor Karen Bass at the conference. Climate experts Tom Harris and Ron Stein say that the California fires were caused by Woke policy choices, NOT Climate Change.
Newsom meets the new President on the tarmac | Newsom said that Trump was with California “during COVID. I don’t forget that.” The encounter marked the first face-to-face interaction Newsom and Trump have had since Trump was sworn in as president Monday. Trump said he appreciated Newsom greeting him after he arrived, adding, “I think you’re going to see some very good progress” on fire recovery. “We want to get the problem fixed,” Trump said. “It’s like you got hit by a bomb.” (Fox News) “Gavin Newscum should resign. This is all his fault!!!” Trump charged in a social media post on Jan. 8.
California fires caused by Woke policy choices, NOT Climate Change | Claims that the devastating fires in Los Angeles are caused by, or made worse by, man-made climate change are not based on reliable science. What is based on reliable science is the fact that if you leave a forest untended for years, as woke, Democratic politicians have done in LA, it becomes a tinderbox, ready to explode into raging fires as soon as ignition occurs. Making matters worse, despite a publicly supported proposition on the issue years ago, city authorities did not re-fill the reservoirs needed to supply water to fire hydrants across the region. So when the grossly undermanned fire department tried to douse the flames, it ran out of water in a matter of hours. The debris built up, leaving the forest a tinder box ready to quickly ignite into a raging inferno. Making matters worse, when a fire takes hold, it now often creates a “base fire” which is very difficult to extinguish — the heat allows such fires to burn into the ground and kill the trees and, days after a fire is supposedly out, it will flare up again. (America Out Loud)
Trump hits home run with climate change executive orders | President Donald Trump is to be congratulated for the many important and worthwhile actions he took in his day-one executive orders (EO) and other “Presidential Actions.” The original problem, indeed, the beginning of international efforts to address climate change, was the 1992 UN climate treaty, officially called the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change [FCCC], often simply referred to as “the Convention.” Based on the Convention came a slew of UN agreements and initiatives that hurt the US and steered hundreds of billions of “American taxpayer dollars to countries that do not require, or merit, financial assistance in the interests of the American people.” (America Out Loud)
Tom Harris is the executive director of the Ottawa, Canada-based International Climate Science Coalition and the co-host of The Other Side of the Story on America Out Loud Talk Radio.
Ronald Stein, P.E. is an engineer, energy consultant, speaker, author of books and articles on energy, environmental policy, and human rights, and Founder of PTS Advance, a California-based company. Author of the Pulitzer Prize-nominated book “Clean Energy Exploitations – Helping Citizens Understand the Environmental and Humanity Abuses That Support Clean Energy.