INTRO:

• A cease-fire deal has been reached in the Israel-Hamas war, with both Trump and Biden claiming credit.
• Biden’s SEC sues Elon Musk on a technicality involving his purchase of Twitter in 2022.
• Serbia and Hungary consummate a crude-oil deal with energy-rich Russia in defiance of U.S. economic sanctions.
• Huge concrete barriers and non-scalable fencing have been erected around the White House as the country prepares for Donald Trump’s inauguration
• And Mike Pence comes out against the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for secretary of Health and Human Services, citing Kennedy’s lack of pro-life credentials. But we’ll explain why Pence’s real reason for repudiating RFK has little to do with abortion.

All these stories and more when the Worldview Report begins, right now!

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Good evening and welcome to the Worldview Report.

Leading off tonight, a peace deal in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza has been reached.

While it’s great news for the hostages and their families, the peace deal itself is more of a temporary 43-day truce.

A more long-term peace deal is contingent upon certain requirements being met. But in the 43-day period, all hostages will be released.

This is more of a hostage trade and prisoner swap deal than a peace deal.

The deal promises the release of dozens of hostages held by Hamas in phases and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel, and it will allow hundreds of thousands of people displaced in Gaza to return to what remains of their homes. It also would flood billions in humanitarian aid into a territory ravaged by 15 months of war.

Both the Trump and Biden camps are claiming credit for brokering the deal.

Israeli media is clearly attributing achievement of the Gaza ceasefire deal to President-elect Donald Trump and his team. 

President Biden at one point in his Wednesday press conference acknowledged that he spoke as “one team” with Trump on the Gaza deal. 

According to The Times of Israel:

“A tense weekend meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and incoming Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff led to a breakthrough in the hostage negotiations, with the top aide to US President-elect Donald Trump doing more to sway the premier in a single sit-down than outgoing President Joe Biden did all year, two Arab officials told The Times of Israel on Tuesday.”

But that may have had more to do with who was offering the deal than what was in it.

If you’re Israel, why do a deal with the outgoing lame duck president when you can just as easily do the same deal with an incoming president you will have to contend with for the next four years?

During the meeting, Witkoff urged Netanyahu to accept key compromises necessary for an agreement, the two Arab officials on Monday told The Times of Israel on condition of anonymity. 

These were the same compromises offered by the Biden administration that Netanyahu had been rejecting for months.

Despite the obvious need for Trump to push the deal across the finish line, Biden scoffed when a reporter asked who was most responsible for brokering the deal, him or Trump?

WATCH VIDEO

https://x.com/clashreport/status/1879611981164077080

At some point down the road, Biden and Trump may not be so eager to take credit for this deal. That’s just a hunch on my part.

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Reuters is reporting that Donald Trump’s campaign promises to end the Ukraine war “in 24 hours” are going to be among the first of Trump’s promises to be broken.

They were driven by “a combination of campaign bluster and a lack of appreciation of the intractability” of the situation, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing sources within the Trump camp.

Trump repeatedly touted his ability to end hostilities between Russia and Ukraine while on the campaign trail, accusing Joe Biden of mishandling the crisis. Privately, members of the Trump team expect the timeline for resolving the conflict to be measured in months, the news agency said. 

Reuters spoke with two individuals on condition of anonymity, who described themselves as Trump associates who have discussed the issue with him.

The view aligns with public remarks by members of the incoming administration. Keith Kellogg, whom Trump has tapped to serve as a special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, told Fox News last week that he aims to mediate a resolution within 100 days after Inauguration Day on January 20.

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Hungary and Serbia will speed up construction of a new pipeline to supply Serbia with Russian crude oil via the Druzhba energy system.

Hungarian Foreign Ministry announced the project in an article at RT.com. 

The decision comes in the wake of the latest U.S. energy sanctions on Russia and Ukraine's refusal to transit Russian gas to other countries.

In October 2022, Hungary and Serbia agreed to construct a new pipeline to supply the Balkan nation with crude oil from the Russian Urals via the Druzhba energy system.

In a post on Facebook on Wednesday following a phone call with the Serbian Energy Minister, the Hungarian Foreign Ministry wrote that energy crises in recent years, often spawned by politics, have shown that countries need to cooperate closely to guarantee the security of their energy supplies.

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The Biden-Harris administration’s U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced a lawsuit on Tuesday against Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk just days before President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.

In a Tuesday press release, the SEC announced it had filed “an action” against Musk over claims that he “failed to timely file a beneficial ownership report with the Commission after acquiring beneficial ownership of more than five percent of the outstanding shares of Twitter, Inc. common stock.” 

The SEC claims that Musk’s failure to timely file a report with the SEC allowed him in 2022 to underpay for shares “by at least $150 million” prior to his purchase of the platform formerly called Twitter.

In the release, the SEC accused Musk of violating the “beneficial ownership reporting requirements” that fall under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

The Associated Press reported that Musk started acquiring Twitter shares in 2022 and owned over 5% of the company’s shares by March of 2022. The Biden-Harris administration’s SEC claimed that Musk was legally required to disclose his stake in Twitter; however, the SEC said he did not report his ownership until 11 days after he was required to.

The SEC wrote:

“After Musk failed to timely file a beneficial ownership report by March 24, 2022, he purchased more than $500 million worth of Twitter common stock between March 25, 2022 and April 1, 2022. As alleged, because Musk failed to timely file a beneficial ownership report with the SEC, he was able to make these purchases of Twitter common stock at artificially low prices from the unsuspecting public, who had not yet priced in the undisclosed material information of Musk’s beneficial ownership of more than 5 percent of Twitter common stock and investment purpose.”

In response to the SEC lawsuit, Alex Spiro, Musk’s lawyer, told Fox Business that the action taken Tuesday by the Biden-Harris administration is “an admission by the SEC that they cannot bring an actual case, because Mr. Musk has done nothing wrong and everyone sees this sham for what it is.”

Spiro added, “As the SEC retreats and leaves office, the SEC’s multi-year campaign of harassment against Mr. Musk culminated in the filing of a single-count ticky tack complaint against Mr. Musk under Section 13(d) for an alleged administrative failure to file a single form, an offense that, even if proven, carries a nominal penalty.”

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Huge concrete barriers and non-scalable fencing have been built around the White House as the country prepares for Donald Trump’s inauguration.

The heavy-duty stone blockades were installed around the president’s Washington D.C. residence during the early hours of the morning. Officials hope this ‘ring of steel’ will keep Trump safe at the ceremony on Monday, where he’ll take the oath of office in front of an expected crowd of 250,000 people.

Fears have grown about Trump’s security following the two high-profile assassination attempts while he was on the campaign trail last year. Officials said on Monday they were particularly concerned about the threat from a “lone actor” according to AP.

“We've been planning for this event for 12 months along with our partners. It's an ever-changing threat environment and so we stay flexible. If we see that, ‘Hey, we need to we need to shore this particular checkpoint up,’ we do that,” said Special Agent in Charge William McCool, of the U.S. Secret Service field office in the nation's capital.

The committee planning Trump’s inauguration released a schedule Monday comprising four days of events. So far, Trump has raised more than $170 million for the ceremony, which is a record amount. Tech executives and big donors in particular have eagerly written large checks to help bankroll the occasion.

The private donations collected thus far were confirmed by a person with firsthand knowledge of the fundraising who was not authorized to speak publicly, according to AP. The individual said Trump’s inaugural committee is expected to raise more than $200 million by the end of the effort.

The private donations are typically used to help pay for events surrounding the inauguration, such as costs related to the oath of office ceremony itself, along with a parade and glitzy inaugural balls. Money left over from the inaugural committee is expected to be used for a future Trump presidential library, according to the person.

The whopping amount raised thus far by Trump’s presidential inaugural committee is more than double the amount Joe Biden raised four years ago when he brought in nearly $62 million for his inauguration, according to Federal Election Commission records.

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Actor and comedian Michael Rappaport went off on California Governor Gavin Newsom in a video that’s gone viral on X.

If you haven’t seen it yet, we can’t play the entire thing here because there is some language. But here’s a clip of Rappaport taking Newsom to the woodshed over his bungling of the Los Angelese fire crisis.

WATCH VIDEO (clip first 1:59 to avoid unbleeped F bomb)

https://x.com/WayneTechSPFX/status/1879419899917078643

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Moving from the ridiculous to the sublime, this next story is worth giving your full attention to because it speaks volumes about why some of us prepare for worst-case scenarios, no matter where we live.

It comes to us by way of the Wall Street Journal and it’s about preppers in Los Angeles. Yes, I guess there were a few.

In the still-smoldering neighborhoods of Altadena, where fires destroyed more than 2,700 homes and businesses, about 80 people have defied orders to evacuate, staying behind to protect what is left of their properties from looters and more fires after losing faith in authorities.

These armed residents are patrolling their own streets and interrogating strangers. They are living in a dystopian world without electricity or clean drinking water. They are hemmed in by yellow caution tape at neighborhood entrances flanked by National Guard troops, Los Angeles County Sheriff deputies and California Highway Patrol officers.

They’re taking responsibility for their own neighborhoods, not relying on the police or fire departments.

Aaron Lubeley, a 53-year-old lawyer who is one of the holdouts and serves as an unofficial emissary with police and fire representatives, said:

“We do feel like we’re in the Wild West.”

If Lubeley and the others try to leave, they risk being unable to return. 

On Monday, one of Lubeley’s friends, Janely Sandoval, delivered essentials. The real-estate broker drove her white Mercedes SUV up to the neighborhood checkpoint and stacked supplies for Lubeley and others at the makeshift border: water, bagels, bananas, grain-free tortilla chips and other staples.

An officer could be heard barking at Sandoval as she finished. “Can you guys hurry up? We just got an order not to allow any supplies through.” 

Before Sandoval departed, Lubeley asked, “Can I hug my friend?” 

The officer nodded, and Lubeley and Sandoval embraced across the yellow caution tape.

EveAnna Manley, another one of the Altadena holdouts, had prepared for this moment. Her house has a natural-gas generator supplying 22 kilowatts of power, enough for several refrigerators, making her one of the few neighbors with electricity. She has 60 gallons of drinking water in the basement, as well as a reverse-osmosis water filter and hot water tanks for showering. 

“My old neighbor was a real prepper; I learned it from him,” said Manley, who runs an audio-equipment business. “I also replaced my wood shingles on my roof with concrete ones. I don’t know if that’s why my house survived.”

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Time now for our nightly Worldview Report commentary.

Former Vice President Mike Pence, who did not endorse or support President-elect Donald Trump during the 2024 election cycle, said Friday that he opposes Trump’s choice of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

He cited Kennedy's support for abortion. This, despite RFK Jr.’s recent pledge to continue the pro-life policies of Trump’s first term, such as cutting off taxpayer funding of abortions and ending the Biden policy of forcing pro-life doctors to participate in abortions against their conscience. 

Pence said in a statement that choosing Kennedy is a departure from what he framed as the Trump-Pence administration's general opposition to abortion access.

Pence wrote:

“I believe the nomination of RFK Jr. to serve as Secretary of HHS is an abrupt departure from the pro-life record of our administration and should be deeply concerning to millions of Pro-Life Americans who have supported the Republican Party and our nominees for decades.”

I can’t think of any situation where the federal government under Trump and Pence cut off anyone’s access to an abortion. They did cut off taxpayer funding of abortions, which Kennedy says he will support.

Here’s my take. I don’t’ think Pence’s rejection of RFK Jr. has anything to do with abortion. I think it has to do with the fact that Bobby Kennedy opposes everything that Pence stands for with regard to pandemic lockdowns, forced masking and vaxing, and allowing Big Agriculture to continue poisoning our food and water. 

In short, Mike Pence is a creature of the establishment and the deep state. 

Pence has never pushed against the deep state in his entire political career. As governor of Indiana, when he was threatened with boycotts by the NCAA and others that brought big events to his state, he caved and allowed the transgenderization of public bathrooms.

And, in fact, Pence’s own record on issues of life is sketchy at best. Because being pro-life involves more than just being against abortion.

Pence supports the mRNA death shots. He supports giving unfettered protection to vaccine manufacturers even as more of their toxic vaccines are pumped into our children, nearly 100 injections by the time they reach the age of 18. That’s why we are seeing so much autism and heart issues in children. How is that being pro-life?

Pence is also a neocon warmonger. He has over the years wholeheartedly supported using U.S. military power to intervene in foreign wars that have taken the lives of thousands of young men and women for absolutely no valid national security reason.

Did the war in Iraq make America safer?

Did the war in Afghanistan make us any safer?

No. These wars killed a lot of people, including women and children and other civilians, not to mention American soldiers.

Mike Pence is a hypocrite. In some ways, he’s the Republican version of Jimmy Carter. He wears his Christianity on his sleeve but applies his Christian principles selectively.

Call me old school. But in my book, that’s called a coward.

The fact that the corrupt corporate media outlets still run to Pence to publish his irrelevant opinions should tell us everything about the man.

Thanks for tuning in and supporting this broadcast.

Until next time…