- National police organizations plan to hold Trump to his promise to lift the Obama-imposed ban on selling military surplus weapons and equipment to police officers. [Link]
- A Canadian journalist was denied access into the United States. His treatment by Border Protection guards seems to violate the spirit of how America treats journalists. [Link]
- A Massachusetts gun buyback program bought 38 replica guns. [Link]
- The staff at a VA hospital left the body of a dead vet in the shower room for 9 hours. The body likely began to decompose in this time. The staff members who did this then lied about it on official reports. Those staff members were not fired and will go through retraining. [Link]
- Boeing signs a $16.6 billion deal with Iran. The deal is for 80 civilian passenger airplanes. The House has passed a bill that would block this deal, but the Senate has not voted on the bill and Obama is likely to veto it. [Link]
- Turkish airstrikes kill 19 Kurdish fighters in Iraq. The Kurdish fighters were members of the PKK Turkey labels the PKK as a terrorist organization. [Link]
- ISIS has been able to take the city of Palmyra from the Syrian government. Syria and Russia launched several airstrikes as ISIS conducted its offensive against the city, but ISIS was able to force the Syrian troops away from the city. [Link]
- The Iraq military reports that Iraqi forces have made some limited progress in the operation to retake Mosul. Iraqi special forces are the only troops that have been able to enter the city so far. [Link]
- US officials report US troops in Syria are more likely to be attacked by Turkey than ISIS. The US troops are embedded with Kurdish fighters who Turkey has attacked several times since entering the war in Syria. [Link]
- Syrian troops took two more districts from Syrian rebels in fighting in Aleppo last night. At least 545 civilians have been killed in Aleppo since the Syrian government’s offensive to retake the city started on November 15th. [Link]
- The primary beneficiary of the US-supported Saudi war in Yemen has been Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Penninsula. AQAP is one of the most dangerous Al-Qaeda groups and has targeted the US several times. [Link]
