US official: Gaza is our way or the highway

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/421049

US President Donald Trump's advisers have rejected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's statements regarding the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire plan, Axios reported.

A senior US official told Axios, "This is our show, not his show," referring to Netanyahu. The official added, "We managed to do things in Gaza in recent months nobody thought was possible, and we are going to continue moving."

The official said stressed, "If he wants us to deal with Gaza, it will have to be our way. We worked over him. Let him focus on Iran and let us deal with Gaza. We are not going to argue with him. He will do his politics and we will keep moving forward with our plan. He can't really go against us."

The official also said that the alternative to accepting the US dictations is sending IDF troops back into fighting in Gaza, and the US stepping out.

Trump did not notify Netanyahu about Qatari, Turkish participation in Gaza's BoP - N12

 https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-883650

Israel was not notified in advance about the presence of Qatari and Turkish officials among the Gaza Board of Peace (BoP) announced by US President Donald Trump, US officials told N12 on Saturday.

"We did not tell Netanyahu in advance about the composition of the executive committee. He did not expect there to be representatives from Turkey and Qatar, but Gaza is now our show, not his show," the officials told N12.

"If he [Netanyahu] wants the Trump administration to deal with Gaza - we will do it our way," they added.

‘Gaslighting of Americans’: Nicolle Wallace reacts to Trump and Noem’s lies about ICE shooting

Trump accidentally confesses why he is antagonizing Minneapolis

Judge Hands Trump Admin New Legal Loss Over Minnesota Protesters

 https://www.newsweek.com/judge-hands-trump-admin-new-legal-loss-over-minnesota-protesters-11375714

On Friday, U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez, appointed by former President Joe Biden, granted a preliminary injunction that restricts federal immigration agents—specifically those participating in Operation Metro Surge—from taking retaliatory action against people "engaging in peaceful and unobstructive protest activity."

ICE places ankle monitor on Md. woman who provided U.S. birth certificate

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2026/01/16/maryland-woman-ice-detained-25-days/

A Maryland woman arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents last month and held for 25 days despite providing a birth certificate, immunization records and what her lawyers describe as overwhelming evidence that she is a U.S. citizen said the experience was shocking and she hopes the case against her will soon end.

Diaz Morales, who has a 5-year-old son, was arrested in Baltimore on Dec. 14 while leaving a Taco Bell with her younger sister. She said Friday that she told the officers who detained her that she was born in the U.S. and gave them the date and place of her birth. She said she gave them her father’s phone number and he confirmed details about her birth date and the name of the Maryland hospital where she was born.

But, she said, the officers did not believe the information was true. Instead of being released, Diaz Morales began her almost four-week stay in federal custody and was told she could be deported.

‘He Doesn’t Care About Us’: Iranian Protesters Say They Were Betrayed By Trump

 https://time.com/7347090/iran-protesters-trump-help/

When President Donald Trump told protesters in Iran that “help is on its way,” they took heart. Their hopes rose further on Wednesday, with news that the Pentagon had ordered some non-essential personnel from its largest Middle East air base, a move seen as preparation for battle. But on Thursday, when Trump reversed course, announcing that Iran’s regime had agreed to stop killing its people in the streets, protestors felt betrayed, they told TIME.

“After he said the Iranian authorities had told him there won’t be any more killings and executions, everyone was just stunned,” said an Iranian interviewed Friday, after traveling out of the country. “Everyone was enraged; they just kept saying this bastard used us as cannon fodder. Iranians feel that they were played, that he fooled them, deceived them.”

“Trump is worse than Obama,” said a 40-year-old businessman in Tehran, who said he called friends and relatives to give them the good news after Trump’s  “help is on its way” post.  “He screwed up. He pulled the rug from under our feet.”

His comments may not be enough to bring protesters back out onto the streets, however. Trump, who ordered the U.S. military to join Israel in attacking Iran’s nuclear program in June, had urged on the latest protests nearly from the start. The demonstrations began in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar on Dec. 28, in response to the abrupt, catastrophic devaluation of Iran’s currency, then grew steadily across the country. In the past—2009, 2017, 2019, and 2022—Iran’s authoritarian regime had crushed mass protests. But five days into this outbreak, on Jan. 2, Trump made an explicit promise on Truth Social: “If Iran shots [sic] and violently kills peaceful protestors, the United States of America will come to their rescue. We are locked and loaded and ready to go.”

Faith and Need for constant Inspiration

 Rav Yakov asks why didn't the Jews accept Moshe's  Message from G-d that they would be freed from Egtpt? He notes that initially they had believed in Moshe but now they ignored him?

Shemos (6:9) But when Moses told this to the Israelites, they would not listen to Moses, their spirits crushed by cruel bondage.

וַיְדַבֵּ֥ר מֹשֶׁ֛ה כֵּ֖ן אֶל־בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל וְלֹ֤א שָֽׁמְעוּ֙ אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֔ה מִקֹּ֣צֶר ר֔וּחַ וּמֵעֲבֹדָ֖ה קָשָֽׁה׃

He answers that the Jews maintained their faith by reading the book of Job and other works on Shabbos

However after the first meeting with Moshe, Pharoh made them work on Shabbos so they no longer had the inspiration they had before and this is what is meant by short spirited

It’s Trump’s Economy, and Voters Are Unhappy With It, WSJ Poll Finds

 https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/trump-approval-rating-economy-poll-b3a62e57?mod=hp_lead_pos7

By 15 percentage points, more voters rate the economy as weak rather than strong, a deterioration from July, when negative views predominated by 4 points. About half of voters say the economy has gotten worse in the past year, compared with 35% who see improvement. That finding continues a yearslong disconnect between traditional measures of inflation and economic growth, which are relatively positive, and a negative public outlook

Trump issues a flurry of pardons, including for a woman whose sentence he commuted in his first term

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/01/16/trump-pardons-donor-twice-convicted-fraud/3e401b1a-f33e-11f0-a4dc-effc74cb25af_story.html

 President Donald Trump issued a flurry of pardons in recent days, including for the father of a large donor to his super PAC, a former governor of Puerto Rico and a woman whose sentence he commuted during his first term but who ended up back in prison for a different scheme.

Trump commuted the sentence of Adriana Camberos just before his first stint in the White House ended in 2021. That followed her being convicted as part of an effort to divert 5-Hour Energy drink bottles acquired for resale in Mexico and instead keep them in the U.S. Prosecutors said she and several co-conspirators attached counterfeit labels and filled the bottles with a phony liquid before selling them.

In 2024, she and her brother, Andres, were convicted in a separate case, this one involving lying to manufacturers to sell wholesale groceries and additional items at big discounts after pledging that they were meant for sale in Mexico or to prisoners or rehabilitation facilities. The siblings sold the products at higher prices to U.S. distributors, prosecutors said.

Trump's Board of Peace announcement contradicts Israeli policy, PMO says

 https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-883642

The makeup of the Gaza Board of Peace contradicts Israeli policy and was not brought up with Israeli authorities, the Prime Minister's Office said in a Saturday statement.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar to take the matter up with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the release added.

Trump announced the members of the governing body of Gaza on Friday. Notably, Turkish President Erdogan was invited to sit on the board, which Israel deems a red line.

Tucker Carlson’s White House Visit Sparks MAGA Fury, JD Vance Warning

 Tucker Carlson’s White House Visit Sparks MAGA Fury, JD Vance Warning - Newsweek

A Friday meeting between media personality Tucker Carlson and President Donald Trump at the White House has sparked backlash from some conservatives.

Images shared on social media by the Tucker Carlson Network showed Carlson, a prominent conservative commentator and former Fox News host, engaged in an exchange with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Also seen in the images was White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.

This visit, which comes amid broader MAGA infighting, was condemned by organizations like the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which stated that "Tucker Carlson should have no place in the White House. He’s amplified and platformed antisemitic narratives for years."

Dolls, pencils, backyard chickens and ‘a piece of broccoli’: The Trump team’s awkward austerity talk

 https://edition.cnn.com/2026/01/15/politics/trump-rollins-austerity-affordability-inflation

Amid the European debt crisis in the early 2010s, a Fox News pundit named Donald Trump warned about a backlash against leaders asking people to tighten their belts.

“You can’t impose this kind of austerity on people when the people aren’t used to it,” Trump said in the 2012 interview, unless you’re in a depression

Fast-forward 14 years, and now-President Trump and his administration are regularly talking about how people can pinch pennies.

The remarks not only undermine Trump’s frequent all-is-well happy talk about the economy. (Why would you need to be so frugal if we’re in a “golden age?”) But they also give Trump’s opponents’ ammunition to paint him and his team as out of touch with the struggles of people who aren’t, like Trump and so many people around him, uber-wealthy.

Thousands rally in Jerusalem to demand ultra-Orthodox IDF enlistment

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/thousands-rally-in-jerusalem-to-demand-ultra-orthodox-idf-enlistment/

Several thousand people rallied in Jerusalem on Thursday evening to demand ultra-Orthodox enlistment to the IDF, and against government-backed legislation seeking to reinstate blanket military service exemptions for ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students.