Friday morning news: December 13, 2024

White House: Israel-Hamas ceasefire may be imminent » The Biden Administration says there’s renewed momentum for a ceasefire and hostage deal to end the war between Hamas and Israel in Gaza.

White House National Security Spokesman John Kirby says, if you’re Hamas right now…

KIRBY: The options aren’t good. Your military capabilities have been all but decimated. Your main leader is gone.

National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan was in Israel Thursday making a last push for an end to the fighting.

He says Israel’s ceasefire in Lebanon with Hamas ally Hezbollah has caused Hamas to adapt its negotiating posture, and he’s hopeful the U.S. can broker a ceasefire in Gaza before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

SULLIVAN: I wouldn’t be here today if I thought this thing was just waiting until after January 20th. I am here today because I believe every day matters, and we are going to use every day we have to try to close the deal as soon as we possibly can.

Up next, Sullivan meets with Qatar and Egypt, two key co-mediators in the ceasefire talks.

Meanwhile, the fighting in Gaza isn’t letting up. An Israeli airstrike in the central Gaza strip killed at least 25 Palestinians and wounded dozens more Thursday.

American freed after 7 months as Syrian captive » An American citizen held hostage in Syria for 7 months is now free.

Travis Timmerman says he crossed into Syria on a Christian pilgrimage and was imprisoned by Bashar al-Assad’s government. But this week, the rebel group that toppled Assad’s oppressive regime freed him.

Here’s Timmerman describing his release, and elements of his captivity, to a reporter.

TIMMERMAN: I was imprisoned in a cell by myself. In the early morning of Monday, Monday of this week, they took a hammer and they broke my door down.
REPORTER: Did you hear the voices of torture (indecipherable) in the prisons? TIMMERMAN: Yes, I could hear the interrogations and the beatings.

The rebels say they’ll hand Timmerman over to U.S. authorities once his recovery’s complete. They also confirmed they’re searching for Austin Tice, an American journalist who went missing in Syria 12 years ago.

Jersey drone controversy latest » Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are pressing for more information about those unexplained drone sightings over New Jersey.

The Pentagon has dismissed claims by New Jersey Congressman Jeff Van Drew that the drones originated from a small Iranian vessel off the East Coast.

But whatever their origin, Senator Richard Blumenthal says it’s time for answers…and swift action.

BLUMENTHAL: We have no idea where these drones come from, who owns them. We should be doing some very urgent intelligence analysis, and take them out of the skies, especially if they're flying over airports or military bases.

New Jersey state representative Dawn Fantasia says the first sightings began on November 18th. Since then, she says there’ve been four to 180 reports a day… but the White House says none of them have been confirmed.

Trump is TIME Person of the Year » President-elect Trump is celebrating his second selection as TIME Magazine’s Person of the Year.

The official announcement came Thursday. TIME says it chose Trump for marshaling a comeback of historic proportions, for driving a once-in-a-generation political realignment, and for reshaping the American presidency & altering America's role in the world.

Trump celebrated by ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange, where he also touched on the eyebrow-raising news that he’s invited Chinese leader Xi Jinping to his inaugural.

TRUMP: I was even thinking about inviting certain people to the inauguration. And some people said, ‘Wow, that’s a little risky, isn’t it?’ And I said, ‘Maybe it is. We’ll see. We’ll see what happens.’ But we like to take little chances.”

The Associated Press reports it’s unlikely Xi would actually attend the ceremony.

TIME also named Trump its Person of the Year in 2016.

Report shows 26 confidential FBI human sources at J6 rally » A new report is shedding more light on what happened during the Jan. 6 Capitol attacks.

The report from the Justice Department’s inspector general finds there were no undercover FBI agents at the Capitol at the time of the riot.

But there were 26 paid federal informants in Washington that day, three of whom were there on assignment from the FBI.

Republican Congresswoman Kat Cammack says she wants to know why. She told Fox Business's The Evening Edit with Elizabeth MacDonald...

CAMMACK: When we have Donald J. Trump back in office, we will actually get the answers that the American people deserve, of what exactly the FBI knew, what their directives were and who issued them.

Some of Trump's supporters have suggested federal agents provoked the violence that day. But critics say the report's findings cast doubt on those claims.

NYC mayor meets with new border czar » New York City Mayor Eric Adams met with the incoming Trump Administration’s border czar Tom Homan Thursday.

While they didn’t get into deep talks about the president-elect’s mass deportation plans, Adams says…

ADAMS: We have the same desire to go after those who are committing violent acts, repeated violent acts, among innocent New Yorkers and among migrants and asylum seekers. That’s what I heard from him and I was pleased to hear that because we share the same desire.

Adams says he still needs more details to determine to what degree the New York Police Department will support federal deportation efforts.

Like many major cities, New York has been battling problems caused by a large influx of illegal immigrants. Adams says whether the Big Apple remains a sanctuary city is up to the city council.

I'm Mark Mellinger.

Straight ahead: John Stonestreet is standing by for Culture Friday. Plus, WORLD’s Collin Garbarino reviews a new animated film set in Middle Earth.

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