ALL QUIET: A cease fire is in effect in Gaza following the Israeli cabinet’s approval of a peace deal with Hamas militants. Israeli troops are repositioning while commanders say they will “continue to remove any immediate threat.” The Israeli air force was dropping bombs right up to the noon ceasefire.

  The remaining 20 hostages held by Hamas are expected to be released as soon as Monday. President Trump says he will go to the Middle East on Sunday, attend the signing of the peace deal, and address the Israeli Knesset.

  Not all the details have been worked out. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his government will not compromise on demands that Hamas disarm and that Gaza will be demilitarized. He said, “If this is achieved the easy way, so much the better. If not, it will be done the hard way.” 

THE PRIZE: The Nobel Peace Prize that Donald Trump desperately thought should be his was awarded to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, who built a powerful social movement and has been living in hiding since last year. 

  Machado in last year’s election had backed candidate Edmundo González against President Nicolás Maduro, who crushed protests and had dissidents arrested. Maduro clung to power in an election widely believed to have been rigged and Machado has been hiding out ever since.

  Reacting to winning the Nobel, Machado is reported to have said, “I’m in shock.”

  Thousands of people left the country after the Venezuela election and now tensions are mounting with the US over President Trump’s military campaign against suspected drug exporters. He has ordered the destruction of four boats in international waters the Pentagon says were carrying drugs. 

THE ENEMY WITHIN: The same federal grand jury in Virginia that indicted former FBI Director James Comey yesterday indicted New York Attorney General Letitia James on charges of mortgage fraud.

  The grand jury is steered by the recently appointed acting US Attorney Lindsey Halligan, who appears to be acting on orders from President Trump to bring charges against his political enemies. Career prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia had refused to bring these cases to indictments. Halligan has no prior experience as a prosecutor.

  James brought the civil case in New York against Trump in which he was found to have committed fraud in applications for business loans and insurance. Comey started the investigation into Russian influence on the 2016 election that Trump won.

  Also on the President’s target list are John Bolton, Trump’s first-term national security adviser, and California Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff, among others.

  The James indictment accuses her of buying a property in Norfolk, Virginia, and renting it out rather than using it as a primary residence as stated on the mortgage documents. Primary residences get more favorable mortgage rates.

  The prosecution would have to prove that James knowingly and with intent to defraud had lied on the mortgage documents. She has said that in parts of the application she made it clear the property would not be a primary residence. Her lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said he was “deeply concerned that this case is driven by President Trump’s desire for revenge.”

THE ICE AGE: A federal judge yesterday temporarily blocked the National Guard from deploying in the Chicago area, saying that the Trump administration’s version of events was “simply unreliable” and that the presence of troops would “only add fuel to the fire.”

  About 300 Illinois and 200 Texas guardsmen have been federalized to go deal with protesters at Immigration and Customs facilities. Despite an administration lawyer arguing in a hearing that the troops were needed to protect federal agents and property, Judge April Perry said she had “seen no credible evidence that there is a danger of a rebellion in the state of Illinois.”

  The government lawyer argued that the President’s decision is not reviewable by the courts.

  Breaking with President Trump and party leaders, Gov. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma, a Republican and the chairman of the National Governors Association, said the deployment of Texas National Guard troops to Illinois is a violation of federalism and “states’ rights.”

  In Republican Tennessee, there’s no objection from the government as the National Guard hits the streets of Memphis today in a Trump-ordered crackdown on crime.

SHOWDOWN, DAY 10: With no action in Congress this week, the government shutdown will continue into next week. The Democrats are sticking to their guns over demands that healthcare subsidies be extended before insurance doubles or triples for millions of Americans. 

THE REGIME:

— Pentagon beat reporters are refusing to sign on to conditions that they report only officially approved news and information as a condition of being able to work out of the Defense department press offices. No leaks.

  Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has been at war with the press since taking office … actually even while he was a host on Fox News. He is attempting to end a tradition of press access to the military going all the way back to the Civil War.

  Sean Parnell, the chief Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement that Hegseth “takes his message directly to the troops and the American people,” and that, “He doesn’t rely on the corrupt filter of the mainstream media.”

BELOW THE FOLD: Nobody disses with a beat like rap musicians … except maybe a federal judge.

  The lawsuit brought by Drake over Kendrick Lamar’s song “Not Like Us,” which purported to call Drake a pedophile, wasn’t actually dissed, it was dismissed. The two had an eight round battle of songs attacking each other and Lamar made his most accusatory song the centerpiece of his Super Bowl performance.

  Killing the music of litigation with her decision, Judge Jeannette Vargas wrote, “The average listener is not under the impression that a diss track is the product of a thoughtful or disinterested investigation, conveying to the public fact-checked verifiable content.”

  In other words, no one really listens to this stuff.

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