November 27, 2023 - Your Daily Digest

More hostages have returned home as George Santos faces a likely expulsion from the House of Representatives

Today is November 27, 2023, and here are all the news stories you may have missed from today. If you enjoy these daily news digests and want access to more, exclusive content, or if you want to support my work, then please consider becoming a monthly subscriber by clicking the link below:

1) More Hostages Return Home

For the fourth day in a row, Hamas has released several innocent hostages taken from Israel on October 7th. Today, Hamas released an additional eleven hostages, which includes nine children and two mothers. For a short period of time this morning, negotiations over the hostages stalled after Hamas leaders refused to release the mothers of some of the children, thereby separating the parents from the children. As you may be aware, the agreement between Israel and Hamas included an agreement that no child is separated from his or her parent.

After tense negotiations, Hamas agreed to abide by the agreement and the eleven hostages are now back home. As part of this latest hostage release, there were no Americans released. In addition, Israel is expected to release several dozen Palestinian women and children that were previously held on charges in Israeli prisons. Despite the release of over 50 hostages during the past four days, over 150 hostages remain in Hamas custody. Many in the international community are concerned that Hamas has given custody of the hostages to other terrorist groups operating in Gaza, and therefore, do not have direct contact or access to the hostages.

2) Ceasefire extended

In addition, a deal was struck today to extend the temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas for another two days to allow for the release of an additional twenty hostages from Hamas custody. These hostages, like the prior ones released, will be women and children. Israel had previously asserted that it would extend the temporary truce with Hamas for an additional day if Hamas released at least ten additional hostages. For now at least, that agreement will likely hold. However, the Israeli military is actively preparing to reengage in hostilities in Gaza as soon as the temporary ceasefire concludes, and there remains no indications that there will be a permanent ceasefire between Israel and Hamas any time soon.

3) Ukraine Update

While war rages on in the Middle East, Ukraine continues to withstand a military onslaught from Russia in Eastern Europe. Over the past few days, Ukrainian and Russian citizens were forced to withstand a significant storm that blew out power across towns near the black sea. As a result, hundreds of thousands of civilians remain without power as winter nears. During this same time, Vladimir Putin signed Russia’s latest national budget, which now includes a significant increase in military spending. Putin is up for reelection in March and is expected to run (and win) without much opposition. Finally, both Ukraine and Russia launched significant drone strikes recently with Russia launching its largest drone strike since 2022 on Kyiv, and Ukraine launching a strike with twenty four drones on Moscow. Both cities suffered injury to buildings and civilians. Despite what many may claim, with winter approaching, we are likely to reach the two year anniversary of the war in Ukraine with little end in sight.

4) George Santos Nears Expulsion

Congressman George Santos could be expelled from Congress as soon as tomorrow. Lawmakers are expected to take up a vote on the expulsion resolution this week with a majority of Republicans likely to support the expulsion resolution. This comes just weeks after the House Ethics Committee released a damning report showing that Santos used campaign funds for personal gain including using the funds on luxury purchases and online subscriptions to OnlyFans. To pass the resolution would need 2/3rds support from the House of Representatives. If Santos is expelled, he would be one of just six lawmakers in recent history to be expelled from the House. However, do not expect Santos to go out without a fight. He has already stated that he will release the secrets of other lawmakers in a public threat should they vote to expel him this week. More to come on this soon.