HOSTAGE DEAL: Hamas militants say they would free 50 Israeli women and children held hostage in trade for a pause in fighting, increased humanitarian aid, and freedom for an unspecified number of Palestinians held in Israeli jails. 

  Israel is reported to be considering the deal.

  President Biden said that he was “deeply involved” in negotiations over apotential hostage release with Israel and the government of Qatar, which is serving as a go-between for Hamas.

  Biden also said that at the end of the fighting there must be a recognized Palestinian state. “I can tell you, I don’t think it ultimately ends until there’s a two-state solution,” Biden said.

  The Israeli military is still trying to rout out deeply embedded Hamas fighters in Gaza. The military said they found a Hamas command center, weapons, and other equipment belonging to the militants inside the Al-Shifa Hospital compound in Gaza City, the territory’s largest medical center. 

  The Israelis say they killed four militants Hamas fighters on the street outside the hospital before entering. 

   President Biden confirmed what Israel said, telling reporters, “Hamas does have headquarters, weapons, materiel in this hospital and, I suspect, others.” 

CHINA SYNDROME: President Biden said his talks with President Xi Jinping of China in San Francisco produced “important progress” in stabilizing relations between the two powers and vowed to resolve future disagreements by picking up the phone rather than head toward conflict. 

 Biden described the hours-long conversation with Xi as the “most constructive and productive” between the two so far and announced modest agreements to resume direct military communications to avoid misunderstandings, and fight the spread of fentanyl that has killed thousands of Americans. “We’re in a competitive relationship, China and the United States,” Biden said at a news conference in Woodside, California. “But my responsibility is to make this rational and manageable so it doesn’t result in conflict.” 

  Biden didn’t go soft on Xi, renewing his assessment that the Chinese leader is a dictator. “Well, look, he is,” Mr. Biden said to reporters, “here’s a guy who runs a country that’s a communist country.”

ORANGE ALERT: Defense lawyers have filed for mistrial in Donald Trump’s New York civil fraud trial, accusing Judge Arthur Engoron’s clerk Allison Greenfield of bias.

  Trump has already been found liable for fraud in his financial statements and now stands to be fined up to $250 million and lose control of his New York Empire. 

  One of the reasons Trump was put under a gag order was his attacks on Greenfield, accusing her of influencing the judge against the former president. Trump’s 30-page motion for mistrial says, “Greenfield’s unprecedented role in the trial and extensive, public partisan activities, would cause even a casual observer to question the court’s partiality. Thus, only the grant of a mistrial can salvage what is left of the rule of law.”

EXPRESS MOB: The phenomenon of flash mob looting took a turn over the weekend with the looting of delivery trucks. Flash mob looting is when a crowd floods a store, overwhelming security and staff, grabbing all the goods they can before running away.

  On Sunday, looters in Atlanta plundered an Amazon delivery van.

  And Saturday night in Memphis, several cars in a coordinated move blocked a FedEx truck before dozens of people descended, broke into the trailer, and grabbed as many boxes as they could. When the cops arrived, several cars sped off and boxes were left scattered in the road.

CARROT AND STICK: Residents of the agricultural Cuyama Valley in California are calling for a carrot boycott, specifically of the agri-giants Grimmway Farms and Bolthouse Farms. Together the two account for 65 percent of all pumped groundwater in the valley where ground water is over drafted and becoming endangered.

  The Los Angeles Times reports that the conflict is rooted in the 2021 lawsuit in which the two big growers sued valley property owners over how much water each was allowed to pump, running up big legal bills for family farms and ranches. “Our blood, sweat and tears are in this land,” farmer Chris Wegis told the LA Times. “And for someone to come in and try to rob us of our livelihood and take it from us, for their own profit, it’s unrighteous. I mean, it’s just criminal.”

THE SPIN RACK:  The Senate yesterday passed the House’s stopgap funding bill, avoiding a possible government shutdown until early next year. Money for some agencies would run out on January 19th and the rest on February 2^nd. — The Virginia mother whose 6-year-old son shot his first-grade teacher in the face was sentenced yesterday to 21 months in prison after pleading guilty to using marijuana while owning a gun and lying about using drugs. — As part of its investigation into the Gambino crime family, the FBI is digging for bodies on two horse farms north of New York City, The NY Post reports. 

 BELOW THE FOLD: San Francisco cleaned up its act for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference this week, even putting on a media hospitality campaign.

  But a Czech television reporter unfortunately captured the full picture of San Francisco as it really is.  Bohumil Vostal and his cameraman were shooting a portrait of San Francisco including a visit to Chinatown and a ride in a vintage Volkswagen bus to the Golden Gate Bridge.

  At their last stop in front of the famed City Lights bookstore they were robbed at gunpoint of $18,000 worth of camera gear.

  Vostal and his photographer were treated to free drinks and sympathy and were loaned some gear to keep working. “I don’t know when, but we will return,”  Vostal pledged. “And we will produce very nice reports about San Francisco.”

-30-