Follow NewsClips channel at Brighteon.com for more updatesSubscribe to Brighteon newsletter to get the latest news and more featured videos: https://support.brighteon.com/Subscribe.html

Israel and Hezbollah have agreed to a ceasefire to their ongoing conflict in southern Lebanon. President Joe Biden announced the ceasefire Tuesday, and it is set to go into effect 4:00 a.m. (local time) Wednesday. “​​This is designed to be a permanent cessation of hostilities,” Biden stated in his announcement. “What is left of Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations will not be allowed, I emphasize, will not be allowed, to threaten the security of Israel again.” “Civilians on both sides will soon be able to safely return to their communities, and begin to rebuild their homes, their schools, their farms, their businesses and their very lives,” Biden added. The ceasefire will create a 60-day truce, during which both sides will withdraw their forces from southern Lebanon. The Israeli army will withdraw back into Israel, ending its two-month long incursion into Lebanon, while Hezbollah will withdraw to north of the Litani river. The Lebanese army and United Nations peacekeepers will monitor the truce and fill the vacuum in southern Lebanon. The ongoing conflict between Hezbollah and Israel has resulted in the deaths of over 3,000 Lebanese and 100 Israelis. Over a million Lebanese and tens of thousands of Israelis have also been displaced. The post Hezbollah and Israel Agree to Ceasefire appeared first on The American Conservative.

UTL COMMENT:- This video says it all...!

Supermarket giants could be subjected to fines of up to $10M for breaching the Food and Grocery Code of Conduct in new laws aimed at holding the supermarket sector to account. Set to be introduced into parliament on Wednesday, the legislated fines will be the highest corporate penalties under any industry code, which navigates how supermarkets conduct business with their suppliers. Penalties for violating the code will be set at the highest amount calculated at either three times the amount of...

President-elect Donald Trump is threatening to impose steep tariffs on America's biggest trading partners unless they do more to stop the flow of illegal drugs and immigrants. In social media posts Monday, Trump vowed to impose a 25% tax on all imports from Mexico and Canada, along with an additional 10% tax on imports from China, as one of his first orders on taking office. If he makes good on the threat, the impact would be...

The Biden administration’s “climate envoy,” John Kerry, claimed that the United States was “on the brink of needing to declare a climate emergency.” During a forum hosted by the Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics last week, when asked what people who care about the climate and are concerned about the future “should be doing,” Kerry stated that people needed to “start focusing” on the arguments that went with President-elect Donald Trump’s transition. Kerry added that there were “...

A former San Francisco real estate broker and two of his aides were sentenced to federal prison and ordered to pay more than $3 million Tuesday for fabricating documents that inflated homebuyers’ apparent incomes and helped them qualify for loans. The broker, Tjoman Buditaslim, 52, was sentenced to two years in prison by U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer. Jose De Jesus Martinez, 59, of Daly City, a former real estate agent, was sentenced to 14 months, and Jose Alfonso Tellez, 27, of San Jose,...

On Monday, the internet was full of discussion about Kamala Harris. And yes, you are permitted to wonder why. Let’s face it, nobody in America gives a damn about her, and nobody should. She’s an utterly forgettable hack politician, a blithering incompetent who demonstrated beyond doubt that she can’t give honest or thoughtful answers even in a friendly interview. Worse, she showed off a complete lack of ethics, throwing out bile-filled charges that Donald Trump was a fascist dictator in the making as a means of, at least, scaring Democrat voters to the polls or, more accurately, attempting to gin up one of her party’s crazies to assassinate him. It was no surprise that Harris, who had slept her way to the middle and DEI’d her way to the top, turned into a Hollywood-“girlboss”-remake version of Icarus on election night as her party burned and crashed, not just at the top of the ticket, but in Senate and House races as well. The Democrats are now mired in the political wilderness for at least the next two years and — even worse for them — Trump The Fascist Dictator now has a near 60 percent approval rating for the appointments and direction his transition team has embarked on. And that direction is as close to a 180-degree turn from what Kamala Harris had on offer as it’s possible to have. In fact, the secret to Trump’s spike in popularity is his pledge to sic Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy on government waste, to have Pete Hegseth restructure the Department of Defense, to have Tom Homan round up and deport as many illegals as possible (a CBS poll found 73 percent agreement that it’s a priority and 57 percent agree with deporting all of the illegals), and have Robert F. Kennedy Jr. make America healthy again by completely overhauling the public health bureaucracy, among other giant changes. Prior to Trump’s victory earlier this month, it wasn’t considered possible to move this far. The Overton Window definitely shifted on Nov. 5. The world changed. And Kamala Harris, and a political party that would hand her its nomination for president without any demonstration of political viability on her part, no longer fit within that window. Democrats won’t escape the wilderness until they come up with a new brand and a new definition. Eventually, they will, as all parties do upon losing. But sometimes, it takes a while. Let’s remember that when Industrial Age Republicanism, in the personage of Herbert Hoover, was roundly repudiated in the 1932 election by Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal Democrat Party, the GOP didn’t recapture the White House for 20 years — and when it did, virtually all of the basic assumptions about politics that FDR had put in place were facts of life not to be substantially altered. It would be a massive boon to America’s future prospects if the kinds of reforms being contemplated by Trump’s transition team were to replace those New Deal political realities. We’d have a smaller and less intrusive government, we’d be less likely to send young men and women off to die on some stupid globalist adventure, and we’d stop pretending that a trace gas in the atmosphere, best understood as plant food, will cook the planet. We’d be more prosperous and have a healthier democracy and we’d likely live longer and be less sick. And that’s why we should all root for Kamala Harris. Politico ran a piece over the weekend which was clearly commissioned by what’s left of her team. It suggested she’s actually the Democrats’ leading political figure with 2028 sitting over the horizon: Kamala Harris has been lying low since her defeat in the presidential race, unwinding with family and senior aides in Hawaii before heading back to the nation’s capital. But privately, the vice president has been instructing advisers and allies to keep her options open — whether for a possible 2028 presidential run, or even to run for governor in her home state of California in two years. As Harris has repeated in phone calls, “I am staying in the fight.” She is expected to explore those and other possible paths forward with family members over the winter holiday season, according to five people in the Harris inner circle, who were granted anonymity to discuss internal dynamics. Her deliberations follow an extraordinary four months in which Harris went from President Joe Biden’s running mate to the top of the ticket, reenergizing Democrats before ultimately crashing on election night. “She doesn’t have to decide if she wants to run for something again in the next six months,” said one former Harris campaign aide. “The natural thing to do would be to set up some type of entity that would give her the opportunity to travel and give speeches and preserve her political relationships.” It’s eminently desirable that the foreign potentates and World Economic Forum billionaires, who grubstaked her campaign as it bribed Hollywood celebrities and friendly legacy media shills, put together the funding for this “entity” of Kamala’s. By all means she should have the opportunity to grift on a level, if not quite that of the Clintons and Obamas, then at least such that she might still fly private and collect six-figure checks to give word salad speeches pandering to unions and non-profit leftist advocacy groups until such time as she returns to the campaign trail. This would seem like a very good thing for Alex Soros, Larry Fink, and Reid Hoffman to put their money into. Especially since another Democrat moneybag, trial lawyer supreme John Morgan, has begun furiously billowing smoke signals from outside the reservation… We need Kamala Harris cemented as the face and voice of the Democrat Party as long as possible, or at least until Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez can take over. Should that happen, the promise of making the Trump transition the new reality in American politics can be realized. But is this actually possible? Well, maybe. Says Politico… A snap poll of the 2028 field found Harris at 41 percent, a significant lead over the others: Gavin Newsom, Josh Shapiro, Tim Walz, Pete Buttigieg, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Gretchen Whitmer, JB Pritzker, Andy Beshear and several others who all were in single digits. Now, we’ve been here before. Harris went into the 2020 cycle as the clubhouse favorite, and she crashed and burned even before Iowa. Is she more marketable now? Who else can push the Obamunist platform of unlimited ruling-elite cultural, economic, and political power, Chinese ascendancy, and obeisance to Davos’ dictates at the expense of the American working class? J.B. Pritzker and his family’s sick transgenderist legacy? I’m thinking no. It might just have to be Kamala, at least until the Democrats decide to fully divorce from Obamunism. And if it is, that’s just fine. Even if it does turn the utterly depraved James Carville into a raving madman. Which has already happened. This is Thanksgiving week. Let’s give thanks for Kamala and wish her a bright future as the leader of the Democrat Party for as long as they can stand her and then some. READ MORE from Scott McKay: Jim VandeHei’s Captain Phillips Moment Isn’t It Time for Jasmine Crockett to Shut Up? Saving The Country With Russ Vought Five Quick Things: Trump’s Cabinet Picks Are a Political Sea Change The post Dear Kamala, Please Stick Around appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

Matt Gaetz never served as attorney general, but his nomination served many purposes.  How can this seeming circle be squared?  Simply look closely at all involved — from Trump to Gaetz to many others — and you will find many beneficiaries.  In short, it would be a mistake to assume that this early step was simply a misstep. Matt Gaetz’s nomination set off an immediate firestorm.  Jaws dropped. Democrats flipped.  After all, this was the same congressman who was still under investigation by the House Ethics Committee and had been by the Department of Justice.  The charges were salacious to say the least.  Nor was Gaetz’s baggage all personal — he also carried much from having toppled Kevin McCarthy from the Speakership and thrown the House into prolonged turmoil. Critics immediately harkened back to 2016, when in the wake of Trump’s surprise victory, they insisted that he was not up to the task of governing.  Today’s critics would be well disposed to take a close look at the players and how the Gaetz nomination played out. Counterintuitive as it may seem, Gaetz benefited from this.  His nomination ended the House Ethics Committee probe.  Clearly, as his nomination withdrawal proves, the probe’s details were going to be damaging.  His nomination gave him the best possible cover to “get while the getting was good.”  He did so by receiving a promotion.  Certainly, there were some leaks of the probe’s details, but these were far less than what would have occurred if a full report had been released. Trump benefitted too.  Gaetz’s nomination put an exclamation mark on the point all of his administration picks have made: Loyalty is paramount.  Gaetz’s nomination underscored that nothing outweighs this.  Nor will that message be lost on those remaining and those yet to come. Trump got to make his point without paying a price for it. His transition ratings, even with the Gaetz nomination, are higher than his popular vote victory and his opposition less.  Nor will Trump have to live with it: Gaetz is gone. Trump also communicated that disruption is his goal.  Gaetz’s nomination didn’t just make that point — it was the point.  Nor was it an accident that Trump made this point with the Department of Justice, which has been used as a weapon against him. Speaker Johnson benefitted as well.  He faces a razor-thin majority and the job of shepherding a contentious agenda.  He can ill afford losing someone in the heat of legislative battle.  Gaetz’s withdrawal from the House and the nomination allows for as close to an orchestrated replacement as possible — in a seat Gaetz won by over 30 percentage points.  It also removes someone Johnson would certainly have had doubts about — witness again, what happened to his predecessor. The Senate’s more moderate Republicans also benefitted.  They have gotten to voice their opinions, thereby showing their independence.  Yet they never had to cast a vote against Trump’s nominee — thereby alienating that important base.  Having taken their stand, they can now more easily go along with Trump on more important matters. Trump’s other nominees also came out ahead.  The fire Gaetz took is fire that was diverted from them.  And while the establishment media and Democrats have unlimited fire to train on Trump, the public has only so much attention span.  For most Americans, the most controversial nominee is gone, and their interest will similarly follow.  For the public, hearing the same drumbeat continually in the same cadence soon becomes “white noise.”  Until it is no noise at all.  Attempts to go after other Trump nominees are therefore less likely to succeed precisely because they seemingly succeeded with Gaetz. And yes, Trump won at the Department of Justice.  In fact, he probably won most of all there.  If there were any doubts that he was coming to disrupt the way things have been done, even the insulated Department of Justice can no longer have them.  While they still do not know who to prepare for, they know beyond doubt what to prepare for.  A rush to the exits only vindicates Trump and leaves openings for him to fill. The Gaetz nomination and his subsequent withdrawal shows that Trump did not run to become commander-in-chief.  He ran to become disruptor-in-chief.  He is doing that.  Already.  Two months before he takes office.  His transition has been the political version of shock and awe. Trump has four years in office.  He intends to make the most of them.  The Gaetz nomination proves that.  And it did not cost Trump anything. J.T. Young is the author of the new book, Unprecedented Assault: How Big Government Unleashed America’s Socialist Left, from RealClear Publishing and has over three decades’ experience working in Congress, Department of Treasury, and OMB, and representing a Fortune 20 company. READ MORE from J.T. Young: Biden’s Perfect Payback Democrats Double Down on Elitism Americans’ Justified Media Mistrust The post Don’t Mistake the Gaetz Nomination for a Misstep appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

Countries finally struck a deal Sunday at the annual United Nations climate summit, COP29. The terms? Developed countries will shell out $300 billion per year to developing countries. Even though the deal tripled the amount that wealthy countries are doling out to poorer countries for climate-focused efforts, many of the poorer countries were entirely displeased. They had lobbied for $1.3 trillion a year in payments. The delegates from poorer countries reasoned that wealthier countries should pay up because they are most at fault for the global temperature increase of 1.1 degrees Celsius. Soon upon the announcement that a deal had been struck, India’s delegate, Chandni Raina, said, “The amount that is proposed to be mobilized is abysmally poor. It’s a paltry sum” and that India “could not accept it.” The African Group of Negotiators, meanwhile, said the deal was “too little, too late.” Nkiruka Maduekwe, the delegate from Nigeria, complained, “If we walk back home with $300 [billion dollars], and we say that the developed countries are taking the lead, this is an insult to what the convention says.” Bolivia, Cuba, Indonesia, Kenya, the Marshall Islands, Malawi, and Pakistan additionally put out statements complaining that they hadn’t been promised more money. Richer countries funding poorer countries in this manner resembles climate change reparations. An article in the Financial Times explained: “All nations will be affected by climate change, and all bear some share of the responsibility — but some bear far more than others, because they have polluted far more over the years, and have got rich while doing so. It’s therefore fair, parties agreed in 1992, for those countries to help poorer nations pay for adapting to climate impacts.” One climate activist organization after the other has denounced the deal. For instance, the Center for International Environmental Law said in a statement: “The 29th UN Climate Conference (COP29) concluded today, with an atrociously inadequate new climate finance goal of $300 billion, after wealthy nations refused to pay up in line with their legal obligations to provide sufficient climate finance to the Global South.” Additionally, Mohamed Adow, the director of the think tank Power Shift Africa, said the deal was “a disaster for the part of the world that is on the road to development. It is a betrayal of the people and the planet.” (READ MORE: The Real Climate Change Disaster) The activist reaction to the billions in payments matched the attitude of the crowds of climate change protesters who descended upon the conference. Many of those protesters wrote the phrase “Pay Up” on their hands and over their mouths. Some protesters held signs that read “Global North: Pay Up Trillions Not Billions.” Delegates from poorer countries conducted themselves throughout the negotiations as though developed countries were doing them a grave injustice by not giving them billions more. At one point over the weekend, a group of countries’ delegates summarily left a negotiation room in protest. In sum, the conference had turned into a forum for lobbyists from developing countries to use wealthier countries’ sanctimony on climate change to get investments for their countries. Notably, there is no agreement on who exactly will provide these billions upon billions — and how. China will be exempt from having to provide such payments because it is still classified as a developing country by the U.N. The country said, however, that it would participate in the payments to the developing countries. And President-elect Donald Trump is unlikely to go along with any such payments. The U.N. Secretary-General, António Guterres, argued against those who viewed the payments as handouts. “Finance is not a handout,” he said. “It’s an investment against the devastation that unchecked climate chaos will inflict on us all.” READ MORE from Ellie Holmes: DEI Proponents at the University of Michigan Are Panicking but Refusing to Budge Newsom Trades Sacramento for $9 Million Luxury Living Biden Desperately Tries to Save His Legacy The post COP29 Delivers Huge Reparations to Poorer Countries — But They Still Want More Cash appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.