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Today we’re covering:
📖 The NSA’s leaked glossary,
🏥 Israeli troops expand operations,
🇵🇸 Hamas and the hostages,
And everything else you need to know.
☕️ Welcome back. I’m Ari, and this is Upward News. Every day, our team scours 100s of sources to bring you need-to-know news and insights you won’t find in the MSM—all in 5 minutes. Were you forwarded this email? Sign up here.
GEOPOLITICS
Israel begins operations in Al-Shifa Hospital
What’s happening: Earlier this week, Israel began what it describes as a “precise and targeted operation” in part of Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital. The operation will likely expand in the coming days and weeks.
How it happened: About 100 soldiers entered the compound and went room to room speaking with doctors and patients. It gained control of the hospital without a single shot fired and asked all men ages 16-40 to leave, except for those in the surgical and emergency units.
What they found: So far, Israeli troops have found guns, grenades, and ammunition belonging to Hamas in the hospital. However, it has not yet uncovered what Israel has described as the "beating heart” of Hamas’s operations under the hospital.
Why it happened: Both Israel and the United States have intelligence suggesting Hamas uses tunnels below Al-Shifa Hospital as its de facto headquarters, which is a war crime. In 2014, the Washington Post reported this as well. It was therefore almost inevitable fighting would eventually reach Al-Shifa considering Israel’s stated goal is to defeat Hamas.
Important: Article 19 of the Geneva Convention reads, “The protection to which civilian hospitals are entitled shall not cease unless they are used to commit, outside their humanitarian duties, acts harmful to the enemy.”
Humanitarian toll: Al-Shifa is Gaza’s biggest hospital and, in recent days, the humanitarian situation there had become dire. Six premature babies have reportedly died after their incubators stopped working. Other injured patients are struggling to get care.
Israel’s response: The IDF provided 300 liters of fuel for the hospital, but Hamas did not allow the hospital to accept it. Israel has also been providing incubators, baby food, and other medical supplies in recent days.
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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING
🇵🇸 Hamas agrees to release some hostages. Hamas is waiting for Israel’s approval on an agreement that would require the release of at least 50 women and children held in Gaza. Israel must agree to a ceasefire for three to five days, more humanitarian aid to Gaza, and the release of some of its prison inmates. Hamas is thought to have around 240 total hostages.
⚖️ Georgia prosecutor gives timeline of Trump trial. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis thinks her racketeering case against Trump will bleed into the 2024 election. “I don’t expect that [the trial] will conclude until the winter or the very early part of 2025,” she told the Washington Post. She claimed she does not “consider any election cycle or an election season” when deciding to prosecute someone.
📽️ Daily Wire hosts feud over Israel stances. Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro was recorded at an event attacking co-worker Candace Owens’s Israel commentary, accusing her of “disgraceful” rhetoric. The two then argued publicly on X when Shapiro criticized her use of a Bible verse in defense of herself. Tension between the two hosts has remained ever since Owens refused to denounce rapper Kanye West’s antisemitic remarks last year.
🗳️ Judge keeps Trump on Michigan’s ballot. A Michigan judge ruled against activists hoping to disqualify Trump from the state’s 2024 ballots over the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot. He decided that whether Trump engaged in an “insurrection” is a “political question” for Congress to answer. Notably, Trump won Michigan in 2016 but lost it in 2020.
WHAT WE’RE HEARING
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) is part of a private Facebook group that posts pro-Hamas content, Fox News revealed.
President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping reached an agreement on stopping fentanyl trafficking into the U.S., his administration says.
INSIDE AMERICA
The NSA goes full woke mode
The scoop: The National Security Agency (NSA) has a “glossary” of terms showing the agency’s radical leftist positions on race, gender, and “social justice,” a leaked document shows.
LGBT ideology: The glossary defines “agender,” “bigender,” “cissexism,” “demigender,” “pangender” “same gender loving,” and more as valid identities along with problems such as “heterosexism,” “cissexism,” and “transmisoginy.” It also describes people “Assigned” their genders “At Birth.”
Grievance politics: The NSA wants agents to know about “intersectionality,” “whiteness,” “white fragility,” and what a “microaggression” is. It labels “Whites, men, owning class, upper-middle-class, heterosexuals, gentiles, Christians, [and] non-disabled individuals” as “privileged group[s].” The agency also defines “racism (cultural)” as something only whites are guilty of.
Supporting discrimination: “Whereas equality means providing the same to all, equity means recognizing that we do not all start from the same place and must acknowledge and make adjustments to imbalances,” the document says.
America is evil: The NSA describes a system of “neocolonialism” that it believes oppresses minorities in the U.S. today. This began with “white European occupations of land in what is now the United States,” according to the glossary.
Why it matters: The NSA conducts mass surveillance and provides intelligence to the U.S. military. One of the most powerful federal agencies is now influenced by divisive ideologies and resentment for the very country it is tasked with protecting. These revelations will add to concerns that President Joe Biden’s agencies are being weaponized for the left or distracted by activist causes.
POLL
Should LGBT ideology be banned from government institutions?Poll results will be in tomorrow's newsletter. |
POLL RESULTS FROM YESTERDAY
Are city politicians purposefully ignoring crime and other issues?
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 👍 Yes (542)
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 👎 No (7)
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🤔 Unsure (19)
👍 Yes: “They care about votes. That is it. Full stop.” — David
👍 Yes: “Fixing solvable problems (i.e. crime, drugs, etc.) does not fit the left-wing agenda of DEI and other toxic ideologies.” — Pete
👎 No: “Never attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity.” — Cory
🤔 Unsure: “Maybe they’re recieving special deals, kick backs or favors for their actions, or non-actions?” — Russ
IN THE LOOP
The man accused of attacking Paul Pelosi in his home last year was enveloped in conspiracy theories about George Soros and other left-wing figures, according to his testimony in court.
New Hampshire announced it will hold its primary election on Jan. 23, defying the Democratic Party’s new primary calendar in a move that is sure to upset campaign planning.
Virginia voters in Loudon County elected a Republican to replace Soros-backed prosecutor Buta Biberaj.
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