SHAKEN: Residents of western Japan were digging trapped people out of the rubble and assessing the damage after a powerful earthquake and mild tsunami. At least 48 people died.   The damage is widespread. Video showed houses swaying in unison. Cars bounced …

BALLOT ISSUES: Maine’s secretary of state ruled yesterday that Donald Trump cannot be on the Republican primary ballot because he was a party to the January 6th insurrection and the 14thAmendment says he cannot hold office again.   “I am mindful that no …

BORDER POLITICS: Mexican President Andrés Manuel López yesterday pressured the US to improve US relations with Cuba and Venezuela as well as providing more aid for South America in trade for help stemming the tide of migrants passing through his country. Cuba …

AT WAR: Israel’s military Chief of Staff said he expects the war in Gaza to continue for “many more months” despite international calls for a cease-fire. Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, said that Israeli forces had killed “many terrorists and Hamas commanders” …

AT WAR: The US abstained yesterday as the United Nations Security Council approved a resolution in support of an indefinite pause in fighting to allow the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza. The US had negotiated language that it would not …

PRISONER SWAP: The US has traded a man close to Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro for 10 Americans held in Venezuela as well as Leonard “Fat Leonard” Francis, who escaped the US after being convicted of bribing Navy officials.   Six of the Americans were …

December 20, 2023 Vol. 12, No. 2069 TRUMPED: In an historic first, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that Donald Trump cannot be on the state’s primary ballot next March because of his actions involving the January 6th insurrection. The court ruled that the …

FROM THE FRONT: A NY Times/Siena College poll found that 57 percent of registered voters disapprove of the way President Biden is handling the Israeli/Palestinian war and that 46 percent to 38 percent believe that Donald Trump could handle it better.  …

RUDY, OH RUDY!: A federal jury in Washington has ordered former New York mayor and Trump lawyer Rudolph Giuliani to pay $148 million in fines and restitution for emotional suffering for falsely accusing two Georgia election workers of switching votes in …

OFFICIAL PROCEEDINGS: The Supreme Court agreed to hear a case that could upend the prosecutions of hundreds of January 6th rioters and even dial back the federal charges against former President Donald Trump accusing him of attempting to overturn his election defeat. …