This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

It was big news that President Joe Biden awarded George Soros the Presidential Medal of Freedom over the weekend, the highest decoration a U.S. civilian can receive, intended for individuals who have made "an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors."

Past recipients have included great Americans from Helen Keller, Neil Armstrong and Martin Luther King Jr. to Antonin Scalia, Rush Limbaugh and Billy Graham.

So, what has George Soros done to deserve the Presidential Medal of Freedom?

Soros' name is typically preceded by the words "billionaire philanthropist," but that already poses a problem. Philanthropists donate money and property to needy individuals and institutions for the purpose of advancing human welfare, security and happiness. Indeed, with its anthro root, philanthropy literally means "love of mankind."

For decades, however, Hungarian-born left-wing "billionaire philanthropist" George Soros – to get right down to it – has supported, advocated and bankrolled everything subversive, destructive and evil.

During the Biden administration, Soros' name has most often been heard in conjunction with funding dozens of radically pro-criminal district attorneys across America, many of them household names due to the spectacular explosion in violent crime they have enabled: "Soros DA Larry Krasner" (Philadelphia), "Soros DA Kim Foxx" (Chicago), "Soros DA Chesa Boudin" (San Francisco) and scores of others, from George Gascon (Los Angeles) to Marilyn Mosby (Baltimore) to Kim Gardner (St. Louis), 75 in all – each elected because of massive infusions of Soros cash into their campaigns. In turn, the "Soros DAs" have transformed America's most beautiful, dynamic and storied cities into degraded, crime-infested hellscapes of skyrocketing murder, rape, robbery, rioting, arson, drug abuse, wild mass-shoplifting episodes and other mayhem, leading not only to widespread property loss, suffering and death, but also to major exoduses by those with the means to relocate.

Of course, the most notorious and high-profile examples of Soros-funded legal chaos involve the lawfare cases against President Donald Trump, including New York's Soros-funded Attorney General Letitia James (who openly campaigned on a promise to prosecute Trump) and Soros-funded Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose bizarre case against Trump has resulted in the judge demanding to sentence Trump just days before he is inaugurated as America's 47th president.

And yet, radical-progressive prosecutors constitute just one recent manifestation of Soros' "philanthropy."

He funds efforts to legalize dangerous drugs, he supports euthanasia and assisted suicide, and he funds Black Lives Matter. He is for socialism and globalism and open borders and "defunding the police." He's for devaluing America's currency – once telling the Financial Times that "an orderly decline of the dollar is actually desirable" – even though that amounts to an outright theft of Americans' life savings and investments. He favors the destruction of American sovereignty in favor of "global governance." He doesn't like Israel and has supported her enemies. He detests fair elections and truthful news coverage, and indeed funds organizations that daily attack the only free press America currently has (including Soros-funded attacks on WND and this writer).

In short, if it's immoral, subversive and anti-American, Soros favors, organizes and funds it. If it's noble and freedom-producing, like free markets, fair elections and constitutional government, he sets up and funds organizations to undermine and destroy it.

Why? What is really going on inside the mind and soul of George Soros?

'Messianic fantasies … the creator of everything'

Even though conservatives generally regard him as akin to the evil emperor in "Star Wars," the "Empire's" shadowy and malevolent behind-the-scenes power, George Soros simultaneously represents the lifeblood – indeed, life itself – to hundreds of organizations on the far left. They see him as a messianic figure, a revered leader, a godfather – almost a god, who provides good things for his children.

Indeed, Soros admits he wants to re-create the world in his image – like a god. That characterization is not opinion, hyperbole or rhetorical flourish: Living out "messianic fantasies" and openly likening himself to a "some kind of god" is precisely how George Soros – ironically, an atheist and self-hating Jew – describes himself in his more candid moments.

"I fancied myself as some kind of god," Soros once wrote. "If truth be known, I carried some rather potent messianic fantasies with me from childhood, which I felt I had to control, otherwise they might get me in trouble."

When the British online newspaper The Independent asked Soros to explain these extraordinary statements, he responded: "It is a sort of disease when you consider yourself some kind of god, the creator of everything, but I feel comfortable about it now since I began to live it out."

As Rachel Ehrenfeld and Shawn Macomber wrote in a revealing Los Angeles Times op-ed, "George Soros: The 'God' Who Carries Around Some Dangerous Demons":

Soros has proved that with the vast resources of money at his command he has the ability to make the once unthinkable acceptable. His work as a self-professed "amoral" financial speculator has left millions in poverty when their national currencies were devaluated, and he pumped so much cash into shaping former Soviet republics to his liking that he has bragged that the former Soviet empire is now the "Soros Empire."

Now he's turned his eye on the internal affairs of the United States. Today's U.S., he writes in his latest book, "The Bubble of American Supremacy," is a "threat to the world," run by a Republican Party that is the devil child of an unholy alliance between "market fundamentalists" and "religious fundamentalists." We have become a "supremacist" nation.

… Despite his reputation as an international philanthropist, Soros remains candid about his true charitable tendencies. "I am sort of a deus ex machina," Soros told the New York Times in 1994. "I am something unnatural. I'm very comfortable with my public persona because it is one I have created for myself. It represents what I like to be as distinct from what I really am. You know, in my personal capacity I'm not actually a selfless philanthropic person. I'm very much self-centered."

Soros was more succinct when he explained his life philosophy to biographer Michael Kaufman. "I am kind of a nut who wants to have an impact," he said.

Yet Soros' remarkable visions – many would say delusions – don't end there, as Ehrenfeld and Macomber explain:

"Next to my fantasies about being God, I also have very strong fantasies of being mad," Soros once confided on British television. "In fact, my grandfather was actually paranoid. I have a lot of madness in my family. So far I have escaped it."

Except he hasn't "escaped it." Not only has George Soros succumbed to a form of madness, but he's been imposing his insanity on the United States of America. And that is precisely why Joe Biden awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom: Soros has mightily helped Biden (and the neo-Marxist lunatics behind him) push a once-great nation ever further into social, economic, governmental, legal, moral and spiritual chaos.

After all, Soros' proclamation in his 1995 book, "Soros on Soros" – "I do not accept the rules imposed by others. … And in periods of regime change, the normal rules don't apply" – amounts to a moral code of total lawlessness and blind arrogance. And it is precisely this "the-normal-rules-don't-apply-to-me" philosophy that has been embraced not only by Soros, but by the entire America-destroying leftist ruling regime, on top of which the puppet Biden has been precariously perched for four years.

So, of course he must pay homage to his godfather and benefactor, George Soros – the super-wealthy atheist with "potent messianic fantasies" who admits he's a "self-centered" "nut" with "fantasies about being God."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Pretty soon it's "President Trump" again. Not former president. Not president-elect. When Donald Trump repeats the oath on Jan. 20, he's back in office. Celebration time.

We'll have a man in the White House who plugs the border, tames inflation, keeps men out of women's sports, discolors the green new scam, drills baby drills, jettisons the Education Department to the states and cuts spending like a DOGE.

That's on the home front. This is the America First president, after all.

Still, the commander in chief oversees plenty on the globe. And this is where President Trump will especially buttress his bio while lasting as long as Jimmy Carter.

Call it the Art of the Real. DJT's common sense and force of nature will spell peace on Earth. Let's go through the map:

Korea. Free and red Korea are still technically at war. Fighting ended in 1953, but only with an armistice. It's not a peace treaty.

It sure will be when President Trump steps across the 38th parallel again and shakes hands with Kim Jong-un, this time with real results. Their 2018 and 2019 meetings were warmups to cold, hard negotiations to convince Little Rocket Man the good life comes from ditching nukes and building beachfront property.

Can the 47th president engineer a One Korea? Yes. Even John Bolton wrote in the Washington Times in 2017 before he joined the Trump administration and subsequently turned on his former boss, "The Korean Peninsula will be reunified. Its division in 1945 was purely expedient, intended to be temporary, and just as unnatural as Germany's contemporaneous partition. The only questions are when and how Korean reunification will occur. China, through its massive economic power over North Korea, could itself quickly remove any Pyongyang regime."

There you have it. The key is Xi. Use Mr. Trump's favorite word, tariffs, to pressure Chinese President Xi Jinping into helping make Korea great again.

Seems impossible? So it was with Germany by the late 1980s. No one saw the commie East capitulating.

Well, almost no one. President Ronald Reagan sure did in 1987 when he pushed USSR boss Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall." And plenty of Germans hoped the Soviet would.

But having lived in Germany back then, I know the man in the street didn't think the Berlin Wall was falling in his lifetime. Yet it did with a thud two years after Reagan's exhortation.

So it is with Korea. Most people figure North is red, and South is fed, and never the twain shall meet.

Yet if the Germans could do it, so can the Koreans. They need a Trump Thrust and Xi Charge to remake that land across the Yalu River into One Korea.

It'll be President Trump's grandest deal.

Ukraine. Peace between Zelenskyy and Putin requires the Trump Touch. He'll put the belligerents on speakerphone and tell them to quit the nonsense. America's upcoming oil dominance will give DJT the requisite ammo to stop the fighting on the eastern front. Best of all for Americans: no more $50 billion checks going down that Ukraine rat hole.

Israel. Simple equation for 47. He'll revert to shutting the cash spigot to Arab terrorists, namely Hamas. As for the big bully brother, Iran can forget slurping oil millions. As he did in his first term, the Donald will halt any energy dealings with the Persians. No money equals no guns, no missiles, no posters screaming death to America/Israel. When the fighting ends, the Abraham Accords shift into higher gear.

Mexico. Our southern sister is crucial in DJT's aim to Make America Great Again. If the Mexicans stop millions from around the world in their tracks, happy days are here again. The invasion ends. The ouster starts. Message to migrants: This isn't home. It's Homan, ready to boot you. Our schools and hospitals will have enough room to properly teach and care for Americans. The budget bust caused by the illegal throngs will come to a screeching halt. ISIS skirting the border door will become WASWAS.

On Inauguration Day, this all starts. President Trump's America atop the world.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

The New Orleans terrorist, Shamsud Din Jabbar, being blamed now for the deaths of 15 and injuries to dozens after he drove a truck through the crowded streets of New Orleans early New Year's Day, had wanted to harm his family too.

But he backed off because he was concerned that the horror over that news would overshadow what he called the "war between believers & disbelievers."

Evidence is showing that the onetime soldier was radicalized into Islam, and was taking the Quran's instructions to destroy those who don't follow Islam's ideologies literally.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

The Christian communities in the West were once alive and thriving. For example, in the 1950s and early 60s, the world-famous Billy Graham crusades had an immense impact. Millions gathered and heard him speak, both in the largest stadiums in America as well as all over the world. It is said that in his lifetime, Graham has explained the Christian faith to more than two billion on earth.

Yet, something changed in the 1980s and 90s. Materialism, egoism, self-contentment, and complacency soured the once-so-genuinely Christian movements. Many Christians withdrew from engaging actively in "the non-Christian world," arguably reacting to the hostile atheist and Marxist push that increasingly defined the public narrative. The anti-Christian, hedonist development happening outside of the church congregations produced an isolationist attitude, believers now content to stay within the comfortable zone of likeminded peers.

The religious doctrine of "separating yourselves from the world," has sometimes been misinterpreted to legitimizing the Christians' right not to care about what happens in the world. Desensitized to other people's suffering, we grow cold and stop loving one another.

Many do not quite know what to say to a nonbeliever, apart from "Jesus loves you." When questioned, many simply recite Bible verses, yet are unable to link the reference to Scripture to current-day issues, as if reciting a history book. Modern protestant churches focus much on feelings and great music, but less on theology, apologetics and rationally explaining what is logically great about Christianity. Many miss the great theologians such as Saint Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD), who explained the faith so eloquently in works such as "The City of God" and "Confessions."

Christianity has an image problem, write David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons in "unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity … and Why It Matters." They ask: What do people think about Christians and why do these negative perceptions exist? They find, for one, that today's Christianity reflects a Church infatuated with itself.

Many Christians have lost touch with the outside world, living in a "cultural Christianity," that downplays the inner, spiritual life with its corresponding love for those who are outside the church buildings. It is more about how you are perceived by others in the group, and less about compassion with the outside world. This self-contented form of "Christianity" is often determined by a whole range of culturally determined rules not found in the Bible.

The critique is that many Christian communities enforce strict control, religious restrictions and prohibitions that are based on Christian cultural norms but have little real basis in genuine Christianity. These functions as a "Christian party whip," forcing young believers into an artificial "kindness" or "meekness" seeking to submit them to denominational leaders, who endlessly seek to maximize their personal ministry. These protestant movements are often characterized by strong leading religious figures who, remarkably, seldom make public statements outside of the church buildings. It is almost like they are hiding in church; we rarely see them in the public realm.

How are outsiders ever to find the spiritual reality of Christ, if Christians hide in their congregations, fearful of resistance, when one should have been out at dinner parties, in clubs, at the malls, wherever we all gather and apologetically defending the faith? Do these attitudes actually represent a whole new self-serving, man-made religion in which compassion and love for others is not required?

When was Jesus Christ a boring, weak individual filled with powerless anxiety, who sat silently on church benches, nodding uncritically to everything that was said? Jesus participated everywhere. He did not withdraw into retracted groups, isolated with his disciples. He was at the marketplace, in the Temple, at parties, in open discussions, all the time demonstrating the love of God towards the human race.

Thom and Joani Schultz point out in "Why Nobody Wants to Be Around Christians Anymore: And How 4 Acts of Love Will Make Your Faith Magnetic," that the institutionalized Church has forgotten its main message of love. "We do not go to Church, we are the Church," Schultz writes, the act of love does not show up beneath stained glass, but as every day, ordinary acts done to people you meet throughout the week.

Yet, Christianity was never about selfishness and personal comfortability. Saint Augustine wrote in "Confessions" that Christianity is all about loving others. Love has "the hands to help others, it has the feet that hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. This is what love looks like."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Famous but disgraced former "Today" show host Matt Lauer is being targeted by accusations from animal-rights activists who have released a "grisly" video to the New York Post alleging sheep are being abused at his New Zealand estate, which includes a sheep farm.

A statement from a representative for Lauer said he had no knowledge of the allegations that concern actions at Hunter Valley Farming, which operates on part of Lauer's 16,000-acre estate there.

"(Lauer) was deeply disturbed and saddened to hear of what allegedly has happened, and immediately launched his own investigation of his tenant's operations, which is currently underway," the statement to the Post said.

The report in the Post said the allegations from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals charged, "Sheep are routinely hit, beaten in the face, and stitched up with needle and thread with no pain medication."

The report said Lauer acquired the $9 million property just months "before he was booted from the morning show after several woman accused him of sexual harassment and rape."

Part of his property is then rented out to the sheep operation.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

PALM BEACH, Florida – President-elect Donald Trump reacted to Sunday's death of former President Jimmy Carter at the age of 100 by saying, "We all owe him a debt of gratitude."

"I just heard of the news about the passing of President Jimmy Carter," Trump said on Truth Social.

"Those of us who have been fortunate to have served as President understand this is a very exclusive club, and only we can relate to the enormous responsibility of leading the Greatest Nation in History."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

The green ideology that has swept around the globe since activists claimed there was global cooling, then global warming and now "climate change" has generated a list of new words for everyday use, such as "carbon footprint," meaning the amount of energy from fossil fuels that a person uses.

And now a study has concluded that those carbon footprints are bigger for people who own electric vehicles to try to reduce their carbon footprint.

But it's not necessarily because of their choice of vehicle alone, it's because they are wealthy and live lives that demand more energy and more energy consumption, according to a new report at Slay News.

The report explained scientists at the University of Turku, in Finland, discovered that on average, drivers with EVs "have a larger 'carbon footprint' those drivers who own gas or diesel cars."

"Electric cars have become the ultimate status symbol for 'woke' celebrities and those claiming to be 'saving the planet' from 'climate change,'" the report said. "However, scientists now say that buying an expensive electric vehicle (EV) is actually doing more harm to the environment than helping it."

The study results, in the journal PLOS Climate, confirmed that while EV owners may have vehicles that "produce lower emissions," their "more ostentatious lifestyles mean they contribute more to 'global warming' overall." EVs typically 20%, even 40%, more than similar vehicles powered by gas or diesel.

The results came from the study done by Nils Sandman, Elisa Sahari, and Aki Koponen.

Their study found that owners of performance EVs on average contributed 10.2 tons of carbon dioxide per year to the so-called "climate change" measurements. Those with gas or diesel vehicles were contributing 8.04 tons. Even the "average" EV owners contributed 8.66 tons.

The study looked at the lives of some 4,000 residents of Finland.

"The participants also provided answers about their housing, transport, and purchasing habits which scientists used to estimate their 'carbon footprint,'" the report said.

Slay News reported, "The researchers also noticed that there was a big difference between the two types of EV owners. EV owners who said they were most concerned with the economy and reliability of their cars produced much less pollution – contributing just 7.59 tonnes per year. Owners who said they were more concerned about their car's performance on the other hand were significantly more polluting than any other group."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

JERUSALEM – Middle East/Israel Morning Brief

​​George Mason University freshman's terrorism plot alarms Virginia lawmakers

Lawmakers in Virginia raised varying degrees of concern about the safety of Jews in the state in statements to Jewish Insider after a George Mason University freshman was charged on Thursday evening with plotting a mass casualty attack at Israel's consulate in New York.

The state's Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin, told Jewish Insider the thwarted terrorist attack "serves as yet another wake-up call that anti-Semitism and the threat to Jewish students and the Jewish community in Virginia, and across America, is very real."

"We must remain vigilant against hatred and violence in all its forms," Youngkin said. "My administration has been fully committed to safeguarding the safety of every Virginian, and we will continue working hand in hand with law enforcement to combat extremism wherever it appears."

'An absolute mockery': Soros-backed news organization awards U.N. Persons of the Year to Israel's fiercest anti-Semitic critics

At its end of year awards, the PassBlue news organization acknowledged the efforts of three United Nations employees, whom it assesses have had the most impact over the last 12 months. The three chosen, Francesca Albanese, Philippe Lazzarini, and Antonio Guterres also happen to be the most strident critics of Israel.

As WorldNetDaily reported, PassBlue, which on its website describes itself as "an independent, women-led nonprofit multimedia news company that closely covers the U.S.-U.N. relationship, women's issues, human rights, peacekeeping and other urgent global matters playing out in the world body," says its mission is to hold the powerful people and the 193-member countries of the United Nations to account. It also happens to receive funding from the deep pockets of George and Alex Soros via the Open Society Foundations.

Arsen Ostrovsky, CEO of the International Legal Forum and a senior fellow at the Misgav Institute for National Security, said the award "makes an absolute mockery of everything PassBlue is meant to stand for."

"The organization claims to be a 'women-led non-profit' that covers the U.N., women's issues and human rights," he added. "To honor this group of U.N. individuals who have peddled in relentless Jew-hatred, rape denial and justification of Hamas crimes, is obscene, unconscionable and just inexcusable. They may as well have given the award posthumously to Yahya Sinwar."

Islamists in Syria burn Christmas tree in Christian-majority town

In Syria, thousands of Christians took to the streets on Tuesday to protest the burning of a Christmas tree in a predominantly Christian town in the center of the country, reported Ynet.

The incident, allegedly carried out by foreign jihadist rebels, has intensified fears among Christians and other minorities about the new leadership under the jihadist rebel group Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham or HTS. Despite their attempts to project a moderate image and promises to safeguard all minorities, the attack has raised serious concerns about what the future holds under their rule.

The attack, which enraged Syria's Christian minority – already significantly reduced during the country's brutal civil war – took place in the town of al-Suqaylabiyah in Hama province, where the majority of residents are Christians. Video footage of the incident shows masked gunmen pouring flammable liquid on a large Christmas tree in the town square before setting it ablaze.

IDF intercepts 4th Houthi ballistic missile fired at central Israel in last week

A ballistic missile fired by Yemen's Houthis was intercepted by Israeli air defenses early Wednesday morning, the military said, marking the second night in a row – and the fourth in less than a week – that the Iran-backed terror group has fired at the country's center in what has recently become a near-nightly occurrence, reported the Times of Israel.

The incoming missile set off sirens over a wide swath of central Israel, sending millions of people scrambling to reach bomb shelters. The sirens were activated as a precaution against falling fragments from the interception.

The alerts were issued in a wider area than usual as part of a new policy implemented by the Home Front Command, following delayed alerts in a previous attack.

Hamas refuses to hand over list of names as hostage deal loses some momentum

Recent optimism surrounding the hostage negotiations between Israel and Hamas has given way to mounting frustration as Israeli officials reveal significant obstacles in their dealings with the terrorist group – specifically, Mohammed Sinwar, according to the Jewish News Syndicate.

Sources close to the talks paint a picture of deliberate obstruction, describing how slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar's brother has consistently misled mediators over weeks, stonewalling requests for hostage lists and withdrawing from previously reached agreements. Security and political officials have expressed deep concern over Sinwar's handling of the negotiations.

Two critical roadblocks persist: Hamas' continued refusal to provide a list of hostages for initial release, and disagreements over the Palestinian prisoner exchange ratio and deportation terms.

Defense Ministry signs multi-billion shekel deal for more Arrow-3 interceptor missiles as Houthi threat grows

Israel's Defense Ministry and Israel Aerospace Industries, or IAI, signed a major production contract Wednesday to expand the supply of Arrow-3 missile defense interceptors for the Israeli military.

The deal, valued at billions of shekels, marks a significant boost to Israel's air defense capabilities. The agreement, led by the Israel Missile Defense Organization within the Directorate of Defense Research and Development, will provide the Israel Defense Force with a large number of Arrow-3 interceptors.

​​U.N. Security Council to hold emergency session on Houthi attacks

At Israel's urgent request, the United Nations Security Council will convene next Monday, following the Houthi missile launch toward Israeli territory overnight between Tuesday and Wednesday.

According to Israel Hayom, Danny Danon, Israel's ambassador to the U.N., expressed satisfaction with the scheduled council meeting: "The Houthis appear not to have grasped the consequences that await those who attempt to attack Israel. The Security Council must stand with Israel and condemn these attacks. I urge the council to uphold international law and establish Iran's accountability in this matter."

Biden's commuting 37 out of 40 death row sentences doesn't include Pittsburgh Tree of Life synagogue shooter

U.S. President Joe Biden announced on Monday he is commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row, converting their punishments to life imprisonment just weeks before President-elect Donald Trump, an outspoken proponent of expanding capital punishment, takes office.

The move spares the lives of people convicted in killings, including the slayings of police and military officers, people on federal land and those involved in deadly bank robberies or drug deals, as well as the killings of guards or prisoners in federal facilities.

It means just three federal inmates are still facing execution. They are Dylann Roof, who carried out the 2015 racist slayings of nine Black members of Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina; 2013 Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev; and Robert Bowers, who fatally shot 11 congregants at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life Synagogue in 2018, the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history.

Amsterdam court hands out lenient sentences to five participants of pogrom

A Dutch court on Tuesday passed the first five sentences over last month's attacks against Israelis in Amsterdam, prescribing punishments critics said were inappropriately mild, according to the New York Post.

The sentences, the heaviest of which was six months in prison, prompted indignation from Dutch Jews, who were shocked by the coordinated mass assaults by dozens of Arabs and Muslims on fans of Israel's Maccabi Tel Aviv team who were in Amsterdam for a match.

Herman Loonstein, a prominent lawyer and Jewish community activist, said the prosecution bore some of the responsibility for the sentences, which he found excessively lenient.

"The prosecution rushed this but at the expense of their preparedness." "A better preparation could have led to an attempted homicide indictment," which did not happen.

RFK Jr. wants the U.S. to stop fluoridating its water, Israel has lessons to offer

The nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine activist and harsh critic of government health agencies, has cast a spotlight on debates over the role the government should play in public health – and over the degree to which mounting distrust in science should guide policy-making.

According to Israel National News, fluoridation offers a case study in those debates. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, fluoridation in water has been shown to reduce cavities in children and adults by about 25% over a lifetime, with the organization dubbing it "one of the 10 great public health achievements of the 20th century."

Those same debates lay at the root of the decision in 2013 by Israel's health minister to end water fluoridation. Now, Israel's policy change could act as a case study for how defluoridation could affect Americans. And the discourse is ongoing, with Israeli public health experts and some parents agitating for fluoride to be reinserted in the water – citing worsening dental outcomes for children – at the very moment when the United States may move in the opposite direction.

U.S. ambassador to Israel slams Washington-funded report claiming Gaza famine

The Jewish News Syndicate reported the U.S. government-funded network released a "Gaza Strip food security alert" on Monday, in which it claimed that Israel had enforced (a near-total blockade of humanitarian and commercial food supplies" for nearly 80 days in areas of northern Gaza. The report no longer appears on the network's website.

After JNS published, a USAID spokesperson said the "decision support team" at FEWS NET decided to take the Dec. 23 Gaza alert down "until further notice," "to address inaccuracies in the population data set."

Several Syrians wounded in Quneitra skirmish, following protest at IDF presence in buffer zone

Five Syrians protesting Israel's operation over the buffer zone were wounded by IDF fire in Quneitra, according to Syrian reports on Wednesday.

In addition, a Syrian man in his 20s, identified as Khalil al-Aref, was taken into Israeli custody from the town of Abdeen and brought to Israeli territory, reported i24NEWS.

Since the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, the IDF has been operating in the buffer zone and beyond, responding to the prospect of advanced and dangerous weapons arriving in the hands of Islamists who swept to power in the country.

Despite Israeli attempts at explaining the operations, some Syrians have expressed anger at what they perceive to be a violation of their sovereignty.

Turkey's Erdogan warns Kurdish fighters in Syria they'll be 'buried' if they don't lay down arms

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says that Kurdish militants in Syria will either lay down their weapons or "be buried," amid hostilities between Turkey-backed Syrian fighters and the militants since the fall of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad this month.

"The separatist murderers will either bid farewell to their weapons, or they will be buried in Syrian lands along with their weapons," Erdogan told lawmakers from his ruling AK Party in Parliament, and reported in the Times of Israel.

He also says Turkey would soon open its consulate in Aleppo, and adds Ankara expects an increase in traffic at its borders in the summer of next year, as some of the millions of Syrian migrants it hosts begin returning.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Trump Derangement Syndrome, although it may not be officially recognized among the anxiety disorders, mood disorders, substance-related disorders and other afflictions including schizophrenia, it is none-the-less a very real factor in America today.

It was the impetus behind the wildly untrue claims about Donald Trump and "Russia, Russia, Russia" and many more. It triggered literal meltdowns by leftists behind cameras and holding microphones. It did the same for Democrats in the halls of Congress.

It simply was the unsupported and unreasoning fear that Donald Trump, the 45th president soon to be inaugurated as the 47th president, was destroying America.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Will control of the Panama Canal return to the United States once President Donald Trump takes office?

The president-elect says yes if Panama does not stop "ripping off" America.

On Saturday night Trump went on Truth Social to make the case for the strategic waterway coming back into American hands from Panama, and then repeated his assertion to a live rally Sunday at the Americafest Conference in Phoenix, Arizona.

"The fees being charged by Panama are ridiculous, highly unfair especially knowing the extraordinary generosity that has been bestowed to Panama, I say very foolishly by the United States," Trump said in Phoenix.

"This ripoff of our country will immediately stop. It's gonna stop. The United States has a big and vested interest in the secure, efficient and reliable operation of the Panama Canal and that was always understood when they gave it to Panama. Can you believe that?

"We would never have done it if we thought what's happening now can happen and we would never, and we will never ever let it fall into the wrong hands but it is falling into the wrong hands.

"It was not given for the benefit of others by a token of cooperation, but it was given to Panama and to the people of Panama, but it has provisions. You got to treat us fairly, and they haven't treated us fairly.

"If the principles, both moral and legal, of this magnanimous gesture of giving are not followed, then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to United States of America in full, quickly and without question. We're not gonna stand for it. So to the officials of Panama, please be guided accordingly."

On Truth Social, Trump indicated: "The Panama Canal is considered a VITAL National Asset for the United States, due to its critical role to America's Economy and National Security. A secure Panama Canal is crucial for U.S. Commerce, and rapid deployment of the Navy, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and drastically cuts shipping times to U.S. ports. The United States is the Number One user of the Canal, with over 70 percent of all transits heading to, or from, U.S. ports.

"Considered one of the Wonders of the Modern World, the Panama Canal opened for business 110 years ago, and was built at HUGE cost to the United States in lives and treasure – 38,000 American men died from infected mosquitos in the jungles during construction. Teddy Roosevelt was President of the United States at the time of its building, and understood the strength of Naval Power and Trade.

"When President Jimmy Carter foolishly gave it away, for One Dollar, during his term in Office, it was solely for Panama to manage, not China, or anyone else. It was likewise not given for Panama to charge the United States, its Navy, and corporations, doing business within our Country, exorbitant prices and rates of passage. Our Navy and Commerce have been treated in a very unfair and injudicious way."