Trump gives Johnson ‘complete and total endorsement’ ahead of speakership fight
President-elect Donald Trump gave his “complete” and “total” endorsement of Mike Johnson ahead of next month’s expected fight to hold onto the House speakership. “The American people need IMMEDIATE relief from all of the destructive policies of the last Administration. Speaker Mike Johnson is a good, hard working, religious man,” Trump wrote on TRUTHSocial Monday. “He will do the right thing, and we will continue to WIN. Mike has my Complete & Total Endorsement. MAGA!!!” Trump, championing the GOP as “the Party of COMMON SENSE,” also included a warning to Republicans. “We ran a flawless campaign, having spent FAR LESS, with lots of money left over. They ran a very expensive ‘sinking ship,’ embracing DOJ & FBI WEAPONIZATION against their political opponent, ME. BUT IT DIDN’T WORK, IT WAS A DISASTER!!!” Trump wrote, adding: “LETS NOT BLOW THIS GREAT OPPORTUNITY WHICH WE HAVE BEEN GIVEN.” JOHNSON ALLIES URGE TRUMP TO INTERVENE AS MESSY SPEAKER BATTLE THREATENS TO DELAY 2024 CERTIFICATION Deeming his win as the culmination of a “magnificent and historic Presidential Election of 2024,” Trump reiterated how he and Vice President-elect JD Vance picked up seven swing states, 317 electoral college votes and the popular vote by millions of voters. Trump also decried how it took several weeks after Election Day before the state of California certified its results. THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO FAILING TO ELECT A HOUSE SPEAKER QUICKLY He pointed out how Vice President Kamala Harris’ failed presidential campaign shelled out millions of dollars for celebrity endorsements. “Republicans are being praised for having run a ‘legendary’ campaign! Democrats are being excoriated for their effort, having wasted 2.5 Billion Dollars, much of it unaccounted for, with some being used to illegally buy endorsements,” he wrote. ($11,000,000 to Beyoncé, who never even sang a song, $2,000,000 to Oprah for doing next to nothing, and even $500,000 to Reverend AL, a professional con man and instigator, who agreed to ‘interview’ their ‘star spangled’ candidates, Kamala and Joe).” This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Jimmy Carter nears the top of America’s ‘Most Admired Man’ list, according to Gallup
When it comes to Gallup’s “Most Admired Man list,” Jimmy Carter is number three in the top 10 finishes, behind only Rev. Billy Graham and Ronald Reagan. From 1946 to 2020, Carter made the list 29 times, according to Gallup. Carter, the nation’s 39th president, died Sunday, Dec. 29, at the age of 100. He served a single term as president, and will also be remembered for his decades of humanitarian work. “When Gallup asked Americans to retrospectively evaluate Carter’s presidency in June 2023, 57% said they approved of the job he did, and 36% disapproved,” a Gallup blog reads. “His retrospective approval ranks in the bottom half of presidents, better than Nixon and Trump, but similar to George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.” JIMMY CARTER, 39TH PRESIDENT, REMEMBERED FOR HIS INTEGRITY AND DEVOTION TO HUMANITY Carter earned a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development,” its website states. The Plains, Georgia, native undertook peace negotiations, campaigned for human rights and worked for social welfare while President George W. Bush was planning war on Iraq in the fall of 2002. BIDEN TAKES JAB AT TRUMP WHILE APPLAUDING JIMMY CARTER’S DECENCY, SHARES FONDEST MEMORY WITH LATE PRESIDENT “According to the Chairman of the Nobel Committee, Carter ought to have been awarded the Prize as early as in 1978, when he successfully mediated a peace agreement between Egypt and Israel,” the Nobel Prize website says. “As ex-President, Carter conducted an active peace and mediation campaign which sometimes seemed to run counter to official US policy.” The Carter Center, which Carter opened with his wife, Rosalynn, in 1982, has been a pioneer of election observation, monitoring at least 113 elections in Africa, Latin America, and Asia since 1989. In perhaps its most widely hailed public health effort, the organization recently announced that only 14 human cases of Guinea worm disease were reported in all of 2021, the result of years of public health campaigns to improve access to safe drinking water in Africa. For his humanitarian work, Craig Shirley, a Reagan biographer and historian, said Carter will be remembered as “one of the best ex-presidents of the 20th century.” “We’re going to remember him kindly. He was a terrific former president with what he did with the Carter Center and the various initiatives around the country. His book writing stands out [as does] his charitable works. So, he goes down in his history as an extraordinarily good former president.” The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The end of fear in Syria
Damascus and Aleppo, Syria – Until the fall of the al-Assad regime, the word “dollar” was forbidden in public. Instead, people used anything green – my favourite substitute was “molokhiyeh”, the green leaf eaten in a stew in Arab countries. This was a story I heard many times from Syrians when reporting from Aleppo and Damascus in the days following the regime’s overthrow. Under the former regime, the walls had ears and anyone could be listening on a street corner or the other end of the phone line. The wrong phrase or word – “dollar”, for example – could land you in one of al-Assad’s notorious prisons. Now, with the House of al-Assad in exile, a sudden freedom burst through that had not been possible in the last five and a half decades of dynastic family rule. Syrians I met understood how fragile and fleeting such freedom of expression could be – many telling me a few days of experiencing it were enough to never want to go back. “Before, you would get your rights through connections and bribery,” Yamen Sheikh Mukhaneq, 21, said, standing outside the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus on the first Friday prayer after the regime’s collapse. Advertisement A smile beaming on his face as worshippers pushed past us, the law student added: “Now, God willing, because of this liberation, I have hope.” Fighters on a tank in Aleppo [Ali Haj Suleiman/Al Jazeera] While I’ve reported on Syria a lot since I started in 2011, and spoken to many Syrians in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkiye, Egypt, the United States, France and elsewhere, I’d never reported from Syria itself. Walking under pomegranate and lemon trees in the streets of Old Damascus and peering into abandoned courtyards brought to life, so many stories I’d heard from Syrians of what had been taken away from them in exile sprang to my mind. It was surreal, something I could never have imagined even two weeks earlier. I began to imagine an alternative reality where my wife and I would take day trips to Damascus from Beirut to visit friends or marvel at the historic neighbourhoods, or even drive through Syria to Iraq, Jordan or Turkiye. No more one-man rule Syria is free and open, and in this renewed nation, there is much hope. Fighters I interviewed in Aleppo, who had been exiled as children and returned as liberators, expressed unbridled joy at being able to stand once again at the footsteps of the city’s historic Citadel. But with new freedom, there are concerns and pitfalls. After all, any Syrian in the country who is less than 60 years old will not know what life is like under anything other than a repressive, autocratic authority. On Friday, December 20, I pushed through the packed crowd at the Citadel of Aleppo with Yousef Ahmad, a professor of accounting at Aleppo University. Advertisement Ahmad was buoyant that the old regime had fallen but wary of repeating old mistakes. The most important thing, he told me, is not to place any individual above the country. An image of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad is damaged by bullet holes [Ammar Awad/Reuters] The cult of personality around the al-Assads must never be replicated with a new leadership, he said. Until now, the new administration’s Commander-in-Chief Ahmed al-Sharaa’s image has been limited to an occasional car with his likeness in its rear window. The poisonous cult of personality is a central part of the al-Assad legacy, as is the brutal police state which disappeared thousands, led to millions of displaced, and deeply policed any expression, including the word “dollar”. While US dollars (and Turkish lira) are now being accepted in establishments around the country, there are still concerns that free expression and other hard-won rights will be lost. In Saadallah al-Jabri Square, in Aleppo’s city centre, families pushed strollers between street vendors selling the green, white and black flags of Syria. Many were euphoric, speaking of the need for a democratic Syria that represented all its sects and ethnic groups. ‘I tell you, Syria will be fine’ One older couple had come to the square with their adult son to check out the atmosphere. They told me they were happy to be rid of the regime. “For 13 years, he sat on his chair and didn’t do anything,” they told me. Still, as Christians, they worry about their vulnerability as minorities. Because of that, they didn’t want to share with me their names or have my colleague, Ali Haj Suleiman, take their photos. Advertisement Until now, the new administration run by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s Ahmed al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Julani, had made only positive moves, they told me. “We want to get rid of the idea of sectarianism that was planted 15 years ago,” their son, a hairdresser, said. At a bar in the city, people joked about armed fighters shooting up their establishment. A few people, dressed conservatively, had come around to ask if the bar served alcohol, the owner said, adding that he was never sure if they were coming for a drink or for less amicable reasons. Father Hanna Jallouf lived under HTS in Idlib [Ali Haj Suleiman/Al Jazeera] Father Hanna Jallouf, the Apostolic Vicar of Aleppo and the Roman Catholic Church’s leading religious figure in Syria, is also concerned. I found Jallouf’s history interesting in that he lived under HTS in Idlib and had even been kidnapped by Jabhat al-Nusra in 2014 for five days. Jabhat al-Nusra was al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria but broke with it in 2016 and reformulated itself as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. Jallouf said he understands the fear in his followers and other minorities but that he had received assurances that Christian religious symbols would not be touched. He also has personal experience with Ahmed al-Sharaa, having lived in Idlib while al-Sharaa led the administration there, and has also met with the HTS leader. “The man was first of all honest and wants what is best for his country,” Jallouf said.
As Pakistan, Afghanistan attack each other, what’s next for neighbours?
Islamabad, Pakistan – A sharp escalation in hostilities between Pakistan and Afghanistan over the past week has resulted in the death of at least one member of the Pakistani security forces and dozens of civilians in Afghanistan. This latest round of cross-border fighting stems from what Pakistan insisted was its response to regular attacks by the armed group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which Islamabad said has found sanctuary across the border in Afghanistan. The most recent TTP attack, on December 21, led to the deaths of at least 16 Pakistani soldiers. Pakistani military sources confirmed to Al Jazeera that on Tuesday, Pakistan launched air strikes in Afghanistan’s Paktia province, which borders Pakistan’s tribal district of South Waziristan. Pakistani jets reportedly targeted hideouts where TTP fighters had sought refuge. However, Afghanistan’s Taliban government, in power since August 2021, accused Pakistan of killing at least 46 civilians, including women and children, in the air strikes. Advertisement In response, the Afghan government promised “retaliation”. On Saturday, Afghan Taliban forces claimed to have targeted “several points” near the Durand Line, the contested border between the two nations. However, as the guns quiet down on both sides, a familiar question has arisen: What is next for these two neighbours, entangled in a decades-long, fraught and fragile relationship? Cooperation and conflict For decades, Pakistan was considered a patron of the Afghan Taliban, who first came to power in 1996. Pakistan was believed to wield significant influence over the group, providing it with shelter, funding and diplomatic backing. After the United States-led invasion of Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks, many Afghan Taliban leaders sought refuge in Pakistan. Amid American drone strikes in Pakistan’s border regions, the TTP, often called the Pakistan Taliban, emerged. Despite sharing ideological ties with the Afghan Taliban, the TTP launched a violent campaign against the Pakistani state. The Pakistani military has conducted several operations to eliminate the TTP, pushing many of its leaders into Afghanistan. When the Afghan Taliban regained control of Kabul in 2021, Pakistan hoped to leverage its historic ties to curb TTP activity. However, a surge in attacks within Pakistan since then suggests these efforts have failed. A former Pakistani ambassador and special representative to Afghanistan, Asif Durrani, believes the Afghan Taliban face significant challenges in managing the TTP and other groups, such as the ISIL (ISIS) affiliate in Khorasan Province. Advertisement “The Afghan Taliban must decide whether to support the TTP or prioritise their relationship with Pakistan,” Durrani told Al Jazeera. “They often reject assistance to tackle these groups while boasting about their ability to handle them independently.” Journalist and analyst Sami Yousafzai, who has extensively reported on the region, said that keeping the conflict at a simmer suits both governments, even if discourse on social media appears to indicate that a major escalation is right around the corner. “I don’t think either side wants to worsen the situation. However, the Pakistani military faced pressure – both public and internal – following repeated TTP attacks and needed to demonstrate retaliatory action, even if it didn’t significantly weaken the TTP,” Yousafzai told Al Jazeera. This is not the first time Pakistan has targeted alleged TTP hideouts in Afghanistan. Similar air strikes occurred in March but did not provoke a direct response from Afghanistan’s government. However, the latest tit-for-tat has evoked comparisons with what transpired between Pakistan and Iran in January when the two countries bombed each other’s border areas. Manzar Zaidi, a Lahore-based researcher on conflict in the region, said neither side can afford to escalate this conflict into anything bigger. “Compared to the exchange of strikes with Iran earlier this year, Pakistan has much higher stakes with Afghanistan, and air strikes last week can be seen as sending a message rather than a serious attempt at escalation,” Zaidi told Al Jazeera. Advertisement “As we saw with the Iranian strikes, these led to dialogue between the two countries, and there is a chance that the two countries could get on the negotiating table,” he added. Failing diplomacy? The latest air strikes occurred while Mohammad Sadiq, Pakistan’s special representative to Afghanistan, was in Kabul meeting with senior Afghan officials. Both nations have engaged in high-level diplomatic meetings over the past two years, including visits by Pakistan’s defence minister and chief of its intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), in February last year. Three months, acting Afghan Minister for Foreign Affairs Amir Khan Muttaqi made a trip to Islamabad, where he also held talks with General Asim Munir, the Pakistani army chief. Despite these efforts, violence within Pakistan has continued unabated. According to Pakistan’s Ministry of Interior, more than 1,500 violent incidents in the first 10 months of this year killed at least 924 people, including 570 law enforcement personnel and 351 civilians. The Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies reported 856 attacks in 2024, surpassing the 645 incidents recorded in 2023. Durrani said the Afghan Taliban needs to understand the consequences of strained relations with Pakistan. “They must recognise that they are no longer ‘freedom fighters’ but a government with significant responsibilities toward their people and neighbours. No country will tolerate Afghan soil being used against them,” he said. Zaidi echoed this sentiment, noting that the Afghan Taliban’s aspirations for international legitimacy could prevent further escalation. Advertisement “Afghanistan also seeks stronger ties with China, Pakistan’s key ally, which incentivises them to de-escalate,” Zaidi said. However, Yousafzai cautioned that Pakistan also needs to act more responsibly as a democratic and nuclear-armed state. “There may be frustration in Pakistan’s strategic circles. After decades of supporting the Afghan Taliban, they haven’t received the outcomes they anticipated,” Yousafzai said. “Missiles and air strikes will not resolve this conflict – something that should have been learnt during the US’s so-called war on rerror.” The one plausible path for reconciliation, according to Yousafzai, is for Pakistan to stop “pursuing their doctrine of strategic depth” in Afghanistan. Historically, the Pakistani military has sought to maintain influence in Afghanistan, providing patronage to armed groups to hold leverage against India, its
‘Global silence and abandonment’ as Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital destroyed
The sound of tanks rumbling through the streets outside of Kamal Adwan Hospital woke everyone up, they were already on edge after enduring months of direct Israeli attacks. Then came the loudspeakers ordering everyone to evacuate – the sick, the wounded, medical staff, and displaced people seeking shelter – early on Friday morning. It was clear that the medical complex in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahiya was about to face an Israeli raid, like so many had before it as Israel seemed to systematically destroy all healthcare in Gaza. It didn’t matter that, according to the World Health Organization, the hospital was the last major health facility operational in northern Gaza, an area that has been suffocatingly besieged and decimated by Israel in its ongoing war. Nor that it was a refuge for hundreds of Palestinians whose homes had been destroyed by Israel and had nowhere else to go. Numbers written on their chests At about 6am, patient Izzat al-Aswad heard Israeli forces summoning Dr Hussam Abu Safia, the hospital director, over their loudspeakers. Advertisement Dr Abu Safia came back and told people in the hospital they had been ordered to evacuate. Abu Safia himself, who was a rare voice exposing what Israel was doing to the hospital, was taken by Israel, which has refused to release him despite calls to do so from the UN, humanitarian NGOs and international health organisations. A little later, al-Aswad said Israeli soldiers demanded that all the men strip down to their underwear to be allowed to leave. Shivering, frightened, many of them injured, the men were ordered to walk to a checkpoint the Israelis had set up about two hours away, al-Aswad recounted by phone. At the checkpoint, they gave their full names and had their photographs taken. Then a number was scrawled on their chest and neck by a soldier, indicating they had been searched. Some of the men were taken for interrogation. “They beat me and the men around me,” al-Aswad said. “They hit the injured people like me directly on our injuries.” Izzat al-Aswad was beaten badly by Israeli soldiers who had made him strip down to his underwear [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera] Shorouq al-Rantisi, 30, a nurse in Kamal Adwan’s laboratory department, was among the women taken from the hospital. The women were told to walk to the same checkpoint, which was in a school, and then waited for hours in the cold. “We could hear the men being beaten and tortured. It was unbearable.” Then the searches started. “The soldiers were dragging the women by the head towards the search area,” al-Rantisi said. “[They] shouted at us, demanding we remove our headscarves. Those who refused were beaten badly.” Advertisement “The first girl called for searching was told to strip. When she refused, a soldier beat her and forced her to lift her clothes. “A soldier dragged me by the head and then another soldier ordered me to lift the top of my clothes, then the bottom, and checked my ID,” she said. Shrouq al-Rantisi, a laboratory nurse at the hospital, was dragged by the head to be interrogated by Israeli soldiers [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera] Abandoned patients Al-Rantisi said the women were eventually taken, left at a roundabout, and told they could not go back to Beit Lahiya. “How could we leave and abandon the patients? None of us ever thought of leaving until we were forced to,” she said on the phone. Israel assaulted the hospital for many weeks before the raid. “The hospital and its courtyard were bombed relentlessly, day and night, as if it was normal,” al-Aswad said. “Quadcopters fired at anyone moving in the courtyard … they targeted generators and water tanks, while medical staff were struggling to care for patients.” The night before the raid was “terrifying”, al-Aswad added, with Israeli attacks all around, including on the “al-Safeer” building. “Witnesses say about 50 people were in there, including nurses from the hospital. No one could rescue them or retrieve their bodies, they’re still there,” he recounted. Al-Aswad and the men who were not taken for interrogation were released after a full day of abuse and humiliation. “The soldiers ordered us to go west of Gaza City and never come back,” he said. “We walked through destruction and rubble, freezing, until people came to meet us near Gaza City, offering help and blankets.” Fadi al-Atawneh was injured, so he stayed behind in the hospital hoping for help that never came [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera] ‘Betrayed’ and ‘abandoned’ Israel’s raid merely compounded “the global silence and abandonment” Palestinians in Gaza have been faced with throughout more than a year of relentless Israeli attacks that killed more than 45,000 people, al-Rantisi said. Advertisement “Over 60 days of relentless shelling – quadcopters, artillery, and targeted strikes on generators,” she said. “Dr Hussam’s pleas went unanswered until the hospital was stormed and emptied. How does the world allow this to happen?” “I feel we were all betrayed,” Fadi al-Atawneh, 32, said bitterly on the phone. “I was wounded, so I stayed in the hospital, hoping that the World Health Organization would evacuate or protect us, but it never happened,” al-Atawneh said. “I am deeply saddened by what happened to us and the fate of Dr Abu Safia. We’re left alone in the face of this aggression.” Adblock test (Why?)
Trump accuses former Speaker Kevin McCarthy of ‘one of the dumbest political decisions made in years’
President-elect Donald Trump took aim at former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, describing the debt ceiling suspension approved in 2023 as “one of the dumbest political decisions made in years.” But while targeting the former top House GOP lawmaker, Trump tempered the criticism by describing McCarthy as a friend and a good person. “The extension of the Debt Ceiling by a previous Speaker of the House, a good man and a friend of mine, from this past September of the Biden Administration, to June of the Trump Administration, will go down as one of the dumbest political decisions made in years. There was no reason to do it – NOTHING WAS GAINED, and we got nothing for it – A major reason why that Speakership was lost. It was Biden’s problem, not ours. Now it becomes ours,” Trump declared in the post. DEBT CEILING IS ‘LAST TOOL’ IN DEMOCRATS’ TOOLBOX TO OBSTRUCT TRUMP AGENDA: KAROLINE LEAVITT “I call it ‘1929’ because the Democrats don’t care what our Country may be forced into. In fact, they would prefer ‘Depression’ as long as it hurt the Republican Party. The Democrats must be forced to take a vote on this treacherous issue NOW, during the Biden Administration, and not in June. They should be blamed for this potential disaster, not the Republicans!” he added. A deal passed by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden last year suspended the debt limit through Jan. 1, 2025, but Trump has been calling for the ceiling to be increased before he takes office. “In June 2023, the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 was enacted, suspending the debt limit through January 1, 2025. On January 2, 2025, the new debt limit will be established at the amount of outstanding debt subject to the statutory limit at the end of the previous day,” Treasury Sec. Janet Yellen wrote in a recent letter to congressional leaders. “Treasury currently expects to reach the new limit between January 14 and January 23, at which time it will be necessary for Treasury to start taking extraordinary measures. I respectfully urge Congress to act to protect the full faith and credit of the United States.” PRESIDENT BIDEN SIGNS STOPGAP FUNDING BILL INTO LAW, NARROWLY AVERTING SHUTDOWN Earlier this month, Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance pressed for the limit to be raised as part of a stopgap government spending proposal. “The most foolish and inept thing ever done by Congressional Republicans was allowing our country to hit the debt ceiling in 2025. It was a mistake and is now something that must be addressed,” the two men said in a statement. “Increasing the debt ceiling is not great but we’d rather do it on Biden’s watch. If Democrats won’t cooperate on the debt ceiling now, what makes anyone think they would do it in June during our administration?” But the measure that eventually passed did not raise the ceiling. Responding to Trump’s post about McCarthy, Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, wrote in a post on X, “Sadly, this bad debt ceiling extension was opposed by only 71 House Republicans 18 months ago (notably opposed by virtually the entire @freedomcaucus).” TRUMP-BACKED SPENDING BILL TO AVERT GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN FAILS HOUSE VOTE “Democrats did vote on the recent debt ceiling increase proposal on 12/19: 197-2 against it (their price to support is very high – more spending/taxes),” Roy added. “Yes, we can & should address the debt ceiling – thru reconciliation in January with mostly GOP votes – but with real, meaningful spending cuts.”
Six aircraft crashes this month: Know which is the SAFEST seat on airplane
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