Cease-fire: CBS News reported this morning that Israel is considering a cease-fire in the war with Hamas that would last three or five days and would be accompanied by Hamas releasing some of the hostages it is holding. The hostages would be women and children, not men. It was reported that as part of the deal Israel would release some Palestinian women and children it is holding. It was not reported when the temporary cease-fire and hostage release might take place.
Starbucks strike: After workers walked out at about 30 of Starbucks stores in the U.S. yesterday, the Workers United Union said that 5,000 more were expected to stage a one-day strike today at about 200 Starbucks stores. The union said workers are protesting Starbucks not having enough people at its stores to handle the level of business the chain is doing. Starbucks this month reported 2023 net revenues of $36 billion at its more than 38,000 stores globally. Its net profit for the year was $23.8 billion.
Manchin on Trump: Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia told reporters yesterday that if Donald Trump is returned to the White House he will destroy democracy in America. Trump carried West Virginia in both 2016 and 2020. Manchin said that Trump engages in visceral hatred when he speaks and believes that the law applies to everyone but him. Trump has taken credit for forcing Manchin to announce last week that he was not running for another term in the Senate.
Beating death: Eight high school students in Las Vegas have been arrested on murder charges in the beating death of a fellow student. Ten students were involved in the beating death but two were not immediately identified. The fight was over vaping paraphernalia. A judge determined that students over 16 will be charged as adults but had not yet ruled whether those under 16 also would be put on trial as adults.
Government funding: The Senate on a vote of 87 to 11 passed and sent to the White House for President Biden’s signature the stopgap bill that would fund half the government until Jan. 19 and the rest until Feb. 2. The bill, which was crafted by Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, passed the House with support from the Democrats. Conservative Republicans in the House did not support the bill because it did not contain the spending cuts they wanted.
Musk’s post: In an online post, Elon Musk has endorsed an antisemitic remark that someone posted on his internet site X, formerly known as Twitter. Musk wrote that a post saying Jewish people have been pushing hate against whites is “the absolute truth.” Musk has been called out in the past by the Anti-Defamation League and others for his own antisemitic and hate speech. Hate and antisemitic posts on the former Twitter have increased since Musk took over the company.
