Middle East Ceasefire Agreement

• Humans can experience diverse feelings simultaneously, like suffering and laughter.
• The first phase of a hostage deal is critical, aiming for the release of 33 individuals. There would be 65 hostages remaining in captivity.
• The remaining hostages represented 23 different nations and diverse religious backgrounds.
• Kfir Bibas and Shlomo Mansur were slated for release but were also supposed to be released in November 2023.
• Innocent Gazans also need relief and recovery.
• A deal is not considered final until it's successfully completed.
• Goldberg-Polin is an American Israeli whose son was kidnapped by Hamas.

The D.C. Brief by Philip Elliot

• The question of credit was at the forefront of the Middle East ceasefire agreement, and it was anything but an easy verdict.
• President Biden finished the deal that potentially ends a 15 month war in Gaza.
• Biden turned around and asked if the query was a joke when asked who gets credit for the deal.
• The answer is that each man carried some responsibility; it was an unlikely and uncomfortable answer.
• The deal pushes pause on the fight between the Israelis and Hamas.
• The deal starts in phases that kick off with hostage-for-prisoner trades and a six week ceasefire.
• The deal was a product of complicated diplomacy back in the U.S., with Biden's team working closely with President-elect Trump's incoming team.
• The U.S. cooperation came after a hard fought election.
• The election year calendar in the U.S. likely dragged out the negotiations far longer.
• Trump played their hands, and historians will mull the bigger role.
• Trump said the deal "only happened as a result of our Historic Victory in November."
• Biden sought to cast the breakthrough, which dated back to his framework in May.
• Biden called it "one of the toughest negotiations I've ever experienced."
• Trump's envoy made it clear that Biden hand Brett McGurk was the man with the brief.
• The cooperation between the outgoing and incoming teams was hardly buddy films.
• Trump helped Biden get one last win as President, and Biden likely set in motion the first victory of Trump's second term.

The Risk Report By Ian Bremmer

• The past few months have been disastrous for Iran and its ability to threaten its regional rivals.
• Israel's security forces have crippled the leadership of Iran's two most potent allied militias.
• The surprise collapse of Bashar Assad's government in Syria has not only cost Iran its most important state ally, but also cut off the route it has used to supply Hezbollah.
• Iran has recognized that Russia is preoccupied with Ukraine, so Moscow's needs outstrip its generosity.
• Iran has seen the collapse of its regional empire by proxy, the Axis of Resistance.
• Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered direct strikes on Iranian territory in 2024.
• Donald Trump is now once again President of the United States and will be watching closely for any sign that its leaders might attempt to build a nuclear bomb.
• Iran's domestic problems might pose an even greater threat to leaders of the Islamic Republic.
• The value of its currency is spiraling, inflation now tops 30%, and a broad range of Iran's people are growing angrier.
• The latest public frustrations have focused on an energy crisis, and the economy has been so incompetently and corruptly managed.
• 50% of voters took part in last year's presidential election, which is a low figure for Iran.
• The embattled President has the support of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the politically powerful Speaker of Parliament Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf.
• But a growing number of Iranians now see him as a weak leader.
• Who will take power when Khamenei, now 85 and suffering from prostate cancer, dies?
• Power brokers within the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps and the clerical establishment have prepared for succession of Ali Khamenei.
• This will be the first transfer of supreme power in Iran since 1989 and just the second in the Islamic Republic's 45-year history
• If its leaders feel pushed into a corner, abroad or at home, they can still take actions that plunge the region into another war.