Total casualty counts since ceasefire: Since October 11, the first full day of the ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 449 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 1,246, while 710 bodies have been recovered from under the rubble, according to the Ministry of Health.
Gaza officials report 32 deaths from cold and collapsing shelters: One Palestinian was killed and one injured as a result of a building collapse, bringing the total number of deaths from building collapses since the onset of winter to 25, according to the Ministry of Health. At least seven children have also died from exposure to the cold this winter. Health officials and doctors say hospitals are overwhelmed as they face shortages of medicines and medical supplies, rising malnutrition among mothers and children, and a surge in respiratory illnesses, while Israeli restrictions continue to limit the entry of essential health items.
UNICEF says more than 100 children have been killed in Gaza since the October ceasefire: More than 100 children, including 60 boys and 40 girls, have been killed in Gaza since the October ceasefire, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund. Speaking from Gaza, UNICEF representative James Elder said children are still being killed by airstrikes, drones, tank shelling, and live fire, while others are dying in tent shelters from exposure to winter storms.
Dropsite News: The Gaza Genocide, West Bank, and Israel
Zelensky to Declare State of Emergency in Ukraine’s Energy Sector
President Volodymyr Zelensky declared a state of emergency in Ukraine’s energy sector on Wednesday – prompting a review of Ukraine’s regional curfew rules and the establishment of an energy headquarters in Kyiv among other special measures.
In recent weeks, Russian missile attacks have created disasters verging on a humanitarian crisis by targeting energy infrastructure across Ukraine. Early Tuesday, a massive overnight Russian drone attack on Kryvyi Rih knocked out heat to more than 700 apartment buildings as temperatures dropped to –7°C (+19°F).
Writing on Telegram, Zelensky announced plans to combat the “severe” consequences of Russian strikes on energy infrastructure and worsening weather conditions in three main areas.
Firstly, he said, a special headquarters will be established in Kyiv to coordinate a full-time response to the energy crisis.
Claudette Colvin, US civil rights pioneer arrested for not giving up bus seat, dies aged 86
US civil rights pioneer Claudette Colvin, arrested at age 15 for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white woman in Montgomery, Alabama, nine months before Rosa Parks’s similar but more famous act of defiance, died on Tuesday at age 86.
Although she remained a largely unsung figure in the civil rights movement for decades, Colvin’s 1955 act of rebellion inspired Parks and others and helped form the basis for the federal lawsuit that outlawed racial segregation in US public transportation.
Her death, under hospice care in Texas, was confirmed by Ashley Roseboro, a spokesperson for her family and the Claudette Colvin Foundation.
In one of the first publicized acts of civil disobedience against Montgomery’s Jim Crow rules governing city bus seating by race, Colvin refused to relinquish her seat for a white woman, as ordered by the driver, and stayed put until she was dragged off the bus by police.
According to accounts of her testimony in court, Colvin recalled she had been studying anti-slavery abolitionist heroes in school, and felt that she had Harriet Tubman on one shoulder, Sojourner Truth on the other, and “history had me glued to the seat.”
Suspended Michigan autoworker who heckled Trump gets outpouring of donations
Tens of thousands of dollars have been raised for an autoworker at a Ford plant in Michigan who was suspended without pay after heckling Donald Trump.
TJ Sabula is said to have called the president a “pedophile protector” as Trump toured the automotive giant’s River Rouge complex on Tuesday.
Trump then appeared to give Sabula the middle finger, according to a video published by celebrity news and gossip site TMZ, which claimed that Trump also yelled obscenities prior to making the gesture.
In an interview with the Washington Post, Sabula said “as far as calling him out” he had “definitely no regrets whatsoever”. But he said he was concerned about his job security after the incident, claiming he had been “targeted for political retribution” and for “embarrassing Trump in front of his friends”.
FBI Raids Home Of Washington Post Reporter Hannah Natanson
FBI agents searched the home of a Washington Post reporter Wednesday as part of an investigation into a government contractor accused of leaking classified information, the Justice Department claimed.
Journalist Hannah Natanson was told she is not a target of the probe, the Post said. Federal agents nevertheless seized her personal and Washington Post-issued laptop, her phone and a Garmin watch in what the paper called a “highly unusual and aggressive” law enforcement act.
Natanson covers how the Trump administration is reshaping the federal government. In December, along with fellow government reporter Meryl Kornfield, she co-bylined a deep dive into how the so-called Department of Government Efficiency and the White House “broke the federal government,” based on interviews with more than 1,200 current and former federal workers.
The Post didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, but former executive editor Marty Baron called the search “a clear and appalling sign that this administration will set no limits on its acts of aggression against an independent press.”
‘Rot In Hell’: Trump Blasts Governor For Not Honoring His Pretend Pardon
President Donald Trump used his downtime Wednesday to attack the Colorado officials who refuse to honor his pretend pardon of Tina Peters, going so far as to label Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) a “Scumbag” and calling for him and a Republican district attorney to “rot in hell.”
Peters, a former Colorado county clerk, was convicted of state crimes in 2024 for orchestrating a criminal scheme with election deniers to breach voting machine data, driven by baseless conspiracies of fraud in the 2020 election that were, in turn, planted by Trump.
“God Bless Tina Peters, who is now, for two years out of nine, sitting in a Colorado Maximum Security Prison, at the age of 73, and sick, for the ‘crime’ of trying to stop the massive voter fraud that goes on in her State,” Trump wrote on social media.
“Hard to wish her a Happy New Year, but to the Scumbag Governor, and the disgusting ‘Republican’ (RINO!) DA, who did this to her (nothing happens to the Dems and their phony Mail In Ballot System that makes it impossible for a Republican to win an otherwise very winnable State!), I wish them only the worst. May they rot in Hell. FREE TINA PETERS!”
U.S. Suspending Immigrant Visa Processing From 75 Countries
The State Department said Wednesday it will suspend the processing of immigrant visas for citizens of 75 countries whose nationals are deemed likely to require public assistance while living in the United States.
The State Department, led by Secretary Marco Rubio, said it had instructed consular officers to halt immigrant visa applications from the countries affected in accordance with a broader order issued in November that tightened rules around potential immigrants who might become “public charges” in the U.S.
The suspension, which will begin Jan. 21, will not apply to applicants seeking non-immigrant visas, or temporary tourist or business visas.
“The Trump administration is bringing an end to the abuse of America’s immigration system by those who would extract wealth from the American people,” the department said in a statement. “Immigrant visa processing from these 75 countries will be paused while the State Department reassess immigration processing procedures to prevent the entry of foreign nationals who would take welfare and public benefits.”
US completes first sale of Venezuelan oil
The Trump administration has completed its first Venezuelan oil sale, valued at $500 million, an administration official confirmed to The Hill on Wednesday.
The official also said additional sales are expected in the coming days and weeks.
Semafor first reported the deal, including that revenue from it is being held in bank accounts, including one in Qatar, that are controlled by the U.S. government.
The announcement comes after President Trump announced last week that Venezuela would turn over between 30 and 50 million barrels of oil to the U.S.
Supreme Court rules House Republican can challenge mail ballot deadline
The Supreme Court on Wednesday revived an Illinois Congress member’s lawsuit over a state mail-in ballot law, paving the way for political candidates nationwide to challenge election laws more easily in their states.
The justices ruled 7-2 that Rep. Mike Bost (R-Ill.) has the legal right to sue Illinois over its ability to count mail-in ballots received after Election Day, a practice targeted by President Trump and his allies.Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion over the dissents of two of the court’s liberals: Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
“Candidates, in short, are not ‘mere bystanders’ in their own elections,” Roberts wrote. “They have an obvious personal stake in how the result is determined and regarded.”
The legality of the Illinois mail-in ballot practice was not before the justices. But lower courts ruled Bost did not have standing to bring the case after finding the votes likely would not much impact his own race.
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