“A powerful winter storm has disrupted one of the busiest travel weekends of the year in New York City and northeastern US. Around 4in of snow fell in New York City on Saturday, although many roads were cleared by Saturday morning. Still, the storm has caused significant disruptions to holiday travel, with at least 1,500 flights cancelled or delayed since Friday night, according to the flight-tracking service FlightAware. … New York and New Jersey were put under states of emergency. … San Francisco and Orlando experienced travel delays, as snow began falling on Friday at Newark Liberty International Airport.” (12/28/25)
“Thailand and Cambodia on Saturday signed a ceasefire agreement to end weeks of armed combat along their border over competing claims to territory. It took effect at noon local time. In addition to ending fighting, the agreement calls for no further military movements and no violations of either side’s airspace for military purposes. Only Thailand had employed airstrikes in the fighting, hitting sites in Cambodia as recently as Saturday morning, according to Cambodia’s Defence Ministry.” (12/27/25)
“A Brazilian former police chief, who fled the country after he was convicted as an accomplice in the attempted coup by Brazil’s far-right ex-President Jair Bolsonaro, has been arrested in Paraguay, according to the country’s immigration agency. Silvinei Vasques was arrested on Friday at the Silvio Pettirossi International Airport in Paraguay’s capital Asuncion, the Paraguayan National Migration Directorate (DNM) said in a statement posted on its website. The agency said Vasques was arrested for ‘identity theft’ after ‘attempting to evade immigration controls by impersonating a Paraguayan citizen.’ Vasques was arrested while attempting to board a flight to Panama, declaring El Salvador as his final destination, the DNM statement said.” (12/27/25)
“The FBI director, Kash Patel, said the law enforcement agency’s sprawling but ageing J Edgar Hoover building in Washington DC will be closed down and the agency will move into already existing offices elsewhere. … The brutalist J Edgar Hoover building was designed in the 1960s, when it was also conceived and constructed. It was often criticized for breaking with the style of other federal buildings. Former FBI head Hoover himself once called it ‘the greatest monstrosity ever constructed in the history of Washington.'” (12/27/25)
“Israel has recognized Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia, as an ‘independent and sovereign state,’ Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday. ‘Together with Foreign Minister Sa’ar and the President of the Republic of Somaliland, we signed a joint and mutual declaration,’ Netanyahu posted to X. ‘This declaration is in the spirit of the Abraham Accords, signed at the initiative of President Trump,’ he said. In doing so, Israel became the first country to recognize the breakaway region. … Somalia’s Foreign Ministry denounced Israel’s ‘deliberate attack’ on its sovereignty and warned that recognizing Somaliland as an independent state would ‘undermine regional peace.'” (12/26/25)
“Patrol deputies with the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office were called to an area home at about 4:50 p.m. on Thursday, the agency said on social media. The officers were told that the teenager, 15, had taken her dog out for a walk but had not returned. Her father then used parental controls to track her phone’s location and find it in a ‘secluded, partially wooded area’ about two miles away. The sheriff’s office said the father, who has not been identified, traveled to the site and found his daughter and her dog inside a maroon-colored pickup truck, along with a ‘partially nude’ man. The father helped the teen escape and brought her back home, where they called the sheriff’s office. Investigators determined that the male suspect had threatened the teenager with a knife. … [Giovanni Rosales] Espinoza was taken into custody without incident, the sheriff’s office said.” (12/27/25)
“American forces launched airstrikes against ISIS in Nigeria on Thursday, President Donald Trump announced in a post on Truth Social, the administration’s latest show of lethal force in the international arena since Trump returned to the White House early this year. A Pentagon official told POLITICO the agency worked with the Nigerian government to carry out the strikes. On his social media platform, the president said the strike was a consequence for the militant group’s killing of Christians ‘at levels not seen for many years, and even centuries!'” (12/25/25)
“Ukraine dealt Russian dictator Vladimir Putin a humiliating Christmas Day blow when it routed Kremlin troops to wrest back control of its key eastern city of Kupyansk, a vital railroad hub, Kviv said. … Putin’s embarrassing setback in Kupyansk came as the two sides exchanged a barrage of military drones over the holiday, with Russia launching more than 130 drones overnight. The Russian attacks caused major power outages in Odesa, Ukraine’s most important port, and inflicted heavy damage in the city and surrounding areas, CNN reported Thursday. … A Ukrainian ‘Storm Shadow’ missile also struck a major Russian oil refinery in the Rostov region, one of the largest oil producers in southern Russia, media outlet France24 said Thursday. The uptick in fighting comes as a peace plan brokered by President Trump remains at a standstill.” (12/25/25)
Here’s hoping you and yours are enjoying a happy, healthy, and prosperous holiday break. As usual, we’re taking it easier (mostly because there’s less content to bring you) but we’ll continue bringing you daily editions during the annual Christmas-to-New-Year period.
Yours in liberty,
Tom Knapp
Publisher
Rational Review News Digest / Freedom News Daily
“The Justice Department said Wednesday that ‘over a million more documents’ potentially related to the Jeffrey Epstein case have been found by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and FBI, and it is reviewing them for release. DOJ released thousands of new documents from the Epstein files on Tuesday, including many that mention President Trump. … One notable file includes a 2020 email from a prosecutor in New York saying that flight logs revealed that Mr. Trump flew on Epstein’s private jet ‘many more times’ than was previously known. Emails from July 2019 showed investigators discussing ’10 co-conspirators’ before Epstein’s arrest. Another email from 2020 showed that prosecutors had drafted a memo about ‘co-conspirators we could potentially charge.'” (12/24/25)
