CEASE FIRE: As Israeli forces kept up ferocious bombing in Lebanon yesterday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli government agreed to a cease-fire to suspend fighting against Hezbollah militants for 60 days and possibly longer if both sides hold fire.

  The deal brokered by the US and France gives President Joe Biden a diplomatic victory before his exit. 

  Israel has pounded southern Lebanon from the air and sent in troops on the ground, killing roughly 4,000 people. Thousands of the more than one million residents of southern Lebanon who fled have begun to return home.

   “The length of the cease-fire will depend on what happens in Lebanon,” Netanyahu said in a televised address. “With the full understanding of the United States, we are preserving full military freedom of action — if Hezbollah breaks the agreement and seeks to arm itself, we will attack.”

  Under the agreement Israeli forces would pull back south of the Israel-Lebanon border, while Hezbollah would move north of the Litani River, about 18 miles, allowing the Lebanese army to be a buffer force.

  Hezbollah’s agreement to a cease fire indicates that both they and their Iranian backers are defeated. Israel has wiped out Hezbollah leadership with bombs from the air and explosives planted in pagers. They eliminated Iran’s Russian-made air defense batteries, damaged their ballistic missile and fuel production capabilities, as well as elements of Iran’s developing nuclear weapons.

TRADE WAR OF WORDS: Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum said her country would retaliate with its own tariffs if Donald Trump delivers on his promise to impose 25 percent tariffs on goods coming from Mexico. Trump has said the tariffs would be leverage for Mexico to clamp down on illegal immigrants and drugs crossing into the US.

  “President Trump, it isn’t with threats or tariffs that we resolve the migratory phenomenon or the abuse of drugs in the United States,” Sheinbaum said at her morning news conference, reading a letter she wrote the president-elect. “What’s needed to confront these great challenges is cooperation and understanding.”

  Few countries just stand and take it when their goods are subject to heavy import taxes. They tax the goods coming from the country that taxes theirs.

  Trump has threatened steep tariffs on goods coming from Canada, Mexico and China. That would raise prices on such things as lumber and aluminum from Canada, household cleaners and supplies from Mexico, and a wide array of electronics made in China.

UNWOKE: Under pressure from the right wing, Walmart is dialing back its diversity and equity efforts, announcing that the company will no longer use the terms DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) and Latinx in official communications. 

  Walmart joins Tractor Supply and John Deere in backing away from DEI efforts to please a customer base heavily populated with guys who wear their ball caps backwards. A lot of companies are also concerned about lawsuits targeting DEI programs following the 2023 Supreme Court decision striking down race-conscious college admissions.

  Amber Madison, co-founder of Peoplism, a DEI consulting firm, told The NY Times, “If Walmart’s assessment of the Trump administration is that it will protect his friends and go after its enemies, this is Walmart showing they’re a friend.”

  Robby Starbuck, an anti-DEI activist, posted on Twitter/X, “America just voted, and we voted against ‘wokeness.’” 

MEDICAL BREAKTHROUGH: Donald Trump has appointed Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford physician and economist who was a contrarian to the lockdown policy during the Covid pandemic, to head the National Institutes of Health. If he is confirmed, along with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, a big shakeup is coming in public health and medical research.

RUDY TOOT TOOT: Former New York mayor and Trump adviser Rudy Giuliani lost his cool during a federal court hearing yesterday inquiring why he has yet to turn over valuable assets to the two Georgia election workers who won a $148 million judgement against him.

  But first, Giuliani lost his lawyers. At the opening of the hearing federal Judge Lewis Liman granted the Giuliani lawyers’ request to be excused citing an unspecified “professional ethics” concern. Then stepping up to represent the man who was once a federal prosecutor was Joseph Cammarata, a former cop. 

  Judge Liman noted that Giuliani has yet to surrender his $6 million apartment and noted that although he turned over his Mercedes convertible, it was worthless without the title and keys.

   “I have applied for the title,” Giuliani said “I haven’t gotten it yet. What am I supposed to do, make it up myself?”

   “I don’t have a car,” he whined. “I don’t have a credit card. I don’t have cash.” 

Judge Liman warned Mr. Giuliani to let his lawyer do the talking.

  “Somebody has to tell the truth!” Mr. Giuliani fired back.

  “Next time, he’s not going to be permitted to speak,” Judge Liman said, “And the court will have to take action.”

CHILL OUT: The long hot summer and unusually warm fall of 2024 is about to plunge into the single digits or lower as a mass of cold air from Russia is about to descend from the Northwest. It’s going to get really cold in about two dozen states, mostly in the northern central and eastern states.

THE SPIN RACK: As some states  begin to look into pregnancy-related deaths following the implementation of abortion bans and limits, the Texas committee that examines such deaths in the state will not review cases from 2022 and 2023, the first two years after the state’s near-total abortion ban took effect, leaving any deaths possibly related to abortion bans uninvestigated. The Texas Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee said the change was made to “be more contemporary.” — Airlines have made millions of dollars with “junk fees” on such things as seat selection and forcing fliers to check bags, according to a Senate subcommittee report.

BELOW THE FOLD: We have no advice about how to cook a turkey.

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