Greetings! Happy Winter Solstice to those celebrating.

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🇵🇸 Israeli Cabinet greenlights 19 new West Bank settlements. Israel’s Cabinet approved 19 new Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich pushed it; Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu backed it. Peace Now says 69 new settlements have been advanced, raising the count from 141 to 210 since late 2022. International law widely deems them illegal provocations of ethnic cleansing and occupation. About 500K settlers are in the West Bank and 200K in East Jerusalem.

🇿🇦 South Africa pub attack leaves 9 dead, 10 wounded. Police say multiple gunmen opened fire at a tavern in Bekkersdal, west of Johannesburg, around 1 a.m. Nine people were killed, and 10 were wounded, officials said. Major General Fred Kekana said 12 suspects arrived in two vehicles, then fled. Investigators found AK-47 and 9mm casings at the scene. Police spokeswoman Brigadier Brenda Muridili said the motive is still unknown. Detectives are probing gangs and disputes tied to tavern violence. South Africa logged about 26K murders last year, equating to about 70 daily.

🌋 Yellowstone pool erupts, flings mud 40 feet. Video shows Black Diamond Pool erupting in Biscuit Basin near Old Faithful at 1:09 p.m. Monday. Mud and water shot about 40 feet high, splattering the area. The National Park Service (NPS) said no injuries were reported. Officials warned visitors that thermal features can shift without warning. Scientists say steam pressure can build under the thin crust, then pop. Biscuit Basin has drawn attention after recent hydrothermal unrest. Yellowstone’s postcard views are powered by a live boiler, not a calm one.

🧬 Autopsy says Brown suspect died days before discovery. The medical examiner says Cláudio Neves Valente died on December 14, two days before police found him in a Salem, New Hampshire storage unit. The report cites a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head and calls the death a suicide. Valente was the suspect in the December 7 Brown University shooting in Providence that killed Ella Cook and MukhammadAziz Umurzokov. Authorities also tied him to the killing of Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Nuno Loureiro in Newton, Massachusetts. New Hampshire Attorney General John M. Formella said decomposition suggests he had been dead for days. With the suspect gone, investigators must assemble motive from evidence, not testimony. Two campuses now grieve without a courtroom ending.

🎤 Nicki Minaj praises Trump and Vance at Phoenix event. Rapper Nicki Minaj, born Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty, joined Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk onstage in Phoenix. She praised President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance and drew loud cheers. Minaj called Vance “thoughtful,” and the room treated it like a mic-drop endorsement. Organizers leaned hard into the cameo as proof pop culture can be drafted. Critics called it spectacle; supporters called it momentum. Either way, the clip instantly became campaign-grade content. Politics travels at the speed of a viral encore.

🏛️ Trump leans on Jared Kushner for high-stakes diplomacy. President Donald Trump has been leaning on son-in-law Jared Kushner, a key architect of his first-term Middle East push. Kushner holds no formal role but remains a regular counselor. The White House says he’s advising on Gaza and Ukraine, often in tandem with envoy Steven Witkoff. Supporters say he brings relationships and persistence when talks stall; critics see nepotism. Officials argue results matter more than org charts when crises stack up. Foreign capitals read the signal clearly: Kushner’s voice still carries.

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