“U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy were ‘getting a lot closer, maybe very close’ to an agreement to end the war in Ukraine, while acknowledging that the fate of the Donbas region remains a key unresolved issue. The two leaders spoke at a joint news conference after meeting at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Sunday afternoon. Both leaders reported progress on two of the most contentious issues in peace talks — security guarantees for Ukraine and the division of eastern Ukraine’s [former] Donbas region that Russia has sought to capture.” (12/29/25)
As of Friday, we were $296.66 short of making our year-end fundraiser goal.
Between then and now, P&KAW, PH, WW, T, and JR contributed a total of $396.66, bringing our total to $2850.50 — $100 more than the “halfway point” that triggers GL’s “matching funds” pledge to get us to our goal of $5,501.
THANK ALL OF YOU WHO SUPPORTED THE FREEDOM MOVEMENT’S DAILY NEWSPAPER!!!
While I try not to single out any particular donor, I do want to “single out” two categories and congratulate one individual.
The first category is the few of you who supported our work financially for the first time ever. I’m glad you decided we’re worth it, and we’ll continue to try to meet that expectation.
The second is our long-time supporters, those of you who always come through — often multiple times per year — to get us through this single fundraiser every year. Without you, we’d never have made it through these last 23 years.
The individual is JR, who has supported us monthly for years, has sent us extra donations more than once throughout this fundraiser, and who sent a final big one with this note:
“In honor of my first grandson (born this past Thursday!), in hopes that he will grow up to a world of liberty and responsibility.”
Congratulations, JR! We share those hopes for your grandson, and will continue doing our little part toward creating such a world!
And now I get to stop talking about money entirely for what little is left of the rest of the year, and ALMOST entirely until next October. For which I’m sure we’re all very glad!
Yours in liberty,
Tom Knapp
Publisher
Rational Review News Digest / Freedom News Daily
“President Donald Trump and Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent urged an end to the Senate filibuster rule ahead of an anticipated budget battle in January. Bessent submitted an op-ed that The Washington Post published on Saturday and blames Senate Democrats and the filibuster for blocking passage of a resolution to keep the federal government open while negotiating the 2026 fiscal year budget and causing a record 43-day shutdown of the federal government. … Senate Democrats control 47 seats, including two occupied by independents who caucus with Senate Democrats, while the GOP controls 53 seats, so neither party can overcome the filibuster rule without help from the other.” (12/27/25)
“Lloyds Banking Group is shutting an invoice financing service for small business customers as the UK’s biggest lenders pivot to focus on more lucrative corporate clients. The UK’s biggest high street bank will close its invoice factoring service by the end of the year, according to two people familiar with the matter, in a blow to small enterprise customers operating on thin margins. The move to end the service, under which Lloyds buys unpaid invoices from small businesses in return for the right to receive the payments from their customers, follows similar closures by other top lenders. It comes as businesses confront rising costs after increases in the minimum wage and successive tax-raising budgets by chancellor Rachel Reeves.” (12/28/25)
“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)
