President Joe Biden sat down with MSNBC for a final televised interview of his presidency. 
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- Israel and the Hamas terrorist group reached a ceasefire deal which includes the release of hostages held by Hamas.
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President Joe Biden sat down for a final televised interview of his presidency. Here are the five takeaways from his exchange with MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis named Ashley Moody, Florida’s attorney general, as the replacement for Sen. Marco Rubio in the U.S. Senate. Rubio is leaving the Senate to serve as Trump’s secretary of state.
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California abandoned its plan for a forced transition from diesel to zero-emission trucks.
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For one hunter, a lifetime of exploring and hunting has imparted precious lessons about our relationship with nature and each other.
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☀️ It’s Friday. Thank you for reading Morning Brief. |
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President Joe Biden (Mandel Ngan/Getty Images) |
One day after delivering his farewell address, President Joe Biden sat down for the last interview of his presidency. The Oval Office interview, which was recorded earlier in the evening on Thursday, saw the outgoing president in a friendly exchange with MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell. The two discussed Biden’s economic record, his confrontation with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, and the new ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Biden addressed the new ceasefire and hostage release agreement between Israel and Hamas. Biden said he had not spoken to Trump about the ceasefire negotiations in the previous two weeks. Pressed by O’Donnell, he said he had discussed it “very, very briefly” with Trump after the election. “I did really put together—if it doesn’t work, I’ve got to take the blame for it—a plan with my national security team,” Biden said. The president said he did not believe Israel’s prime minister, Bibi Netanyahu, had delayed a ceasefire to help Trump.
Biden discussed the Russia-Ukraine war and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Against the backdrop of the Russia-Ukraine War, NATO admitted Finland and Sweden to the alliance. “We tightened NATO—made it stronger,” Biden said.
The president said the enlarged alliance has weakened Russia’s position in Ukraine, which it initially invaded in February 2022, a little more than a year after he took office.
Echoing his farewell address, Biden warned of an “enormous concentration of wealth and power,” saying that it threatened democracy.
The ultra-wealthy, he said, were gaining leverage over the media as well as the economy. (More) More Politics |
- President Biden has signed an executive order to strengthen the United States’ cybersecurity capabilities following several high-profile hacks from state-sponsored actors in China.
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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Thursday asked for an extension on a deadline for a potential TikTok ban to allow time for those who use the app to support their livelihood to find a “workable solution.”
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The Supreme Court may issue decisions on Friday in pending cases, which could include TikTok’s request to block a law forcing it to change owners or shut down on Jan. 19.
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President-elect Trump is exploring ways to save TikTok.
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Sixty-one House Democrats joined all of the chamber’s Republicans to pass a bill mandating the deportation of illegal aliens who commit domestic violence or sexual assault.
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Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has settled the lawsuit with the former Georgia election workers who successfully sued him for defamation and have been seeking to satisfy the judgment in federal court.
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Senators questioned six more of President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees in confirmation hearings on Thursday. Our colleagues have the key takeaways for each: |
Three iconic actors, Jon Voight, Mel Gibson, and Sylvester Stallone, will serve as Trump’s special envoys to Hollywood, the president-elect announced.
Trump unveiled four high-profile nominations on Thursday, with three focused on shaping energy and national security policy and one dedicated to tackling housing issues.
Need Not Apply—The president-elect also released a list of Republicans association with whom is a disqualifier for anyone looking to work with the incoming administration. |
- The list of performers for the inaugural events includes a famous band which backed Kamala Harris.
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Attendance: Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and the TikTok CEO are coming. Rep. Nancy Pelosi is not.
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Portraits: The Trump transition team released the official portraits for the president-elect and vice president elect.
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California’s Air Resources Board reversed course on its plan for a forced transition to zero-emission trucks in the state.
The board sent a letter earlier this week to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, withdrawing its prior waiver request that would have forced a transition from diesel to zero-emission trucks in the state.
The federal environmental agency responded to the board’s withdrawal request on Jan. 14 with notice that no further action will be taken, and the matter is considered closed. State regulators had previously requested in November 2023 that the agency approve a waiver to allow the state to enforce stricter rules for automobiles and diesel trucks. Federal authorities agreed to some of the requests, but those related to the diesel truck rules were not yet decided.
“California has withdrawn its pending waiver and authorization requests that U.S. EPA has not yet acted on,” Liane Randolph, chair of the air resources board, said in a statement emailed to The Epoch Times. (More) More U.S. News |
- The seventh test flight of SpaceX’s unmanned Starship rocket ended with another successful catch of the returning booster and an explosion which wiped out the rocket.
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More arson suspects were behind bars and charged on Thursday as Los Angeles remained under a state of emergency facing multiple ongoing wildfires and extreme weather conditions.
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American Express has agreed to pay more than $247 million to resolve criminal and civil investigations into alleged deceptive marketing and fraudulent sales tactics related to its wire transfer and credit card products
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The Department of Transportation filed a lawsuit against Southwest Airlines alleging the company has harmed its customers due to chronic flight delays.
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The Florida City of Melbourne has joined a growing number of municipalities across the United States in moving to halt the addition of fluoride to drinking water, after a federal judge last year ruled that the compound may pose a risk to children’s mental development.
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Parents filed six lawsuits earlier this week against toothpaste companies alleging that fluoride in their children’s dental products poses dangerous health risks.
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A proposed amendment to the Wisconsin State Constitution requiring voters to present a photo ID card before casting a ballot is headed for a vote of the people in April.
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The National Weather Service has issued warnings for more chilling and snowy conditions for the eastern half of the United States this weekend.
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North Dakota’s new governor has outlined a plan he said could eventually eliminate property taxes in the state.
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Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire deal on Friday which includes the release of hostages held by Hamas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has instructed his Security Cabinet to convene, with the government expected to approve the deal after the cabinet meeting. Netanyahu has directed a special task force to coordinate preparations for receiving the hostages upon their return to Israel. Families of the hostages have also been informed of the agreement reached with the terrorist group.
The Israeli Cabinet was initially scheduled to meet on the morning of Jan. 16 to ratify the deal, which was later delayed due to last-minute demands from Hamas
Netanyahu’s office said on Thursday that Hamas reneged “on parts of the agreement reached with the mediators and Israel in an effort to extort last-minute concessions.” In response, Hamas leader Sami Abu Zuhri rejected Netanyahu’s claims and urged the U.S. government to oblige the Israelis to implement the cease-fire agreement.
The agreement includes a three-phase cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners. (More) More World News: |
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Anti-corruption officials who are investigating South Korea’s suspended president, Yoon Suk Yeol, over his short-lived martial law declaration, said on Jan. 16 that he had failed to attend a second round of questioning.
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Chinese radio systems manufacturer Hytera pleaded guilty in a federal court in Chicago on Monday to conspiring to steal digital walkie-talkie technology from Illinois-based Motorola Solutions.
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Apple and Samsung smartphone shipments declined in the fourth quarter of 2024 because of fierce competition from China-based smartphone makers.
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🎤 American Thought Leaders: Bribery, lawfare, and media smears are parts of the CCP’s campaign to destroy a religious group in America. (Watch)
🎧Podcast: All the best interviews from American Thought Leaders are now available as a podcast. Listen to the latest episode.
✅Facts Matter: A new Social Security increases benefits for millions. (Watch)
🍿 Documentary: Last Supper Artifacts documents an investigation into the age-old mystery surrounding the identity and character of Mary Magdalene, one the Bible's best known women. (Watch free on Gan Jing World)
✍️ Opinion: Pillaged by Paper Money by Jeffrey A. Tucker 🍵 Health: This pizza spice doubles as an infection fighter. 🎵 Classical Music: Berlioz: Hungarian March From The Damnation of Faust (Listen)
📷 Photo of the Day: The sun rises behind the U.S. Capitol on January 16, 2025 in Washington, DC. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect Sen. 👇
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Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images |
Donnie Vincent is an explorer, biologist, hunter, conservationist, and filmmaker. (SICMANTA) |
What does it mean to be fully alive? For hunter, filmmaker, and adventurer Donnie Vincent, it means climbing inside an abandoned grizzly den and discovering the nest of twigs a bear made for the long winter days ahead. Or getting close to a venomous eastern brown snake, learning firsthand of its lightning-fast strike.
Or climbing to the peak of a mountain to scour the landscape for elk. It means enveloping himself in the windy, wild, inhuman environments of our world in order to more fully embrace his humanity.
That internal drive leads Vincent to forgotten places full of a pristine loveliness rarely witnessed by human beings.
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- “The first time I was in the Arctic, hearing that silence when the airplane was gone and seeing this wide open landscape and wildlife that I’d only seen on TV was incredibly inspiring,” he says.
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“I remember the first time I stood next to a crystal-clear river with thousands of salmon stacked up and swimming upstream.”
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Vincent—a rugged-looking man with long graying hair, thick mustache and beard, and clear green eyes that have looked out on many expanses of wilderness—yearns to discover such moments of supreme beauty out in the wild. The Wisconsin-based outdoorsman has made a life of hunting, exploring, and documenting those experiences in writing and on film, such as the widely acclaimed and artistically rendered “Winds of Adak,” produced by Vincent’s company, SICMANTA.
Read the full article by our colleague Walker Larson here.
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