U.S. forces on overseas active service might be out of sight, but they are never out of mind, especially at Christmas.
To that end hundreds of American troops based in Syria have received Christmas gifts thanks to Operation Holiday Express, launched by U.S.-led coalition forces from across the border in neighboring Iraq.
As Stars and Stripesreports, several high-ranking officers and NCOs in the U.S.-led coalition to defeat the Islamic State brought gifts and goodies, as well as surprise recorded video messages from home for men and women deployed to Deir el-Zour and Hassakeh provinces, where last month U.S. troops resumed large-scale operations with Kurdish-led partner forces against ISIS, after a brief pause earlier this year.
In addition to the presents, Christmas tunes were provided by a military band from the 1st Infantry Division, flown in from Fort Riley, Kansas. The soldiers received stockings stuffed with candies, toiletries and other gifts.
All the Operation Holiday Express gifts were donated by military support groups, churches and charity organizations in the U.S.
At several sites, a loose formation of soldiers, some bearded and anonymous, others clean-shaven and bearing unit combat patches, awaited the arrival of their visitors, who included Lt. Gen. Pat White, commander of the U.S.-led coalition, and his staff — several of them wearing Santa hats.
“Just a little bit of merriment today, then you’ve got to get back to work,” White told one of the groups after thanking them for all that they do,” Stars and Strips reports. “All right, get back to work. No, just kidding. God bless you guys.”
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said last month that about 500 or 600 U.S. troops will remain in Syria to counter IS fighters who have been carrying out hit-and-run attacks in recent weeks against Kurdish-led fighters.
Lt. Gen. Pat White, commander of Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve, told the AP that the presence of American soldiers on the ground in Syria shows the commitment of U.S. forces, and they will pursue the remnants of Islamic State anywhere in Syria.
AP contributed to this report
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Massachusetts police officers surprised four-year-old Jaiden “JJ” Clifford with gifts in a special visit to his home on Sunday.
After 4-year old JJ’s mother was brutally stabbed to death in November, his Christmas outlook seemed bleak. There was a space around the tree that would never be filled, and a family suffering through grief amidst the trappings of love and celebration of family. That her killer was captured is small comfort to a little boy looking for a mother that will never come home.
Leominster Police Officer — and President of the Leominster Police Association — Dan Cantois simply would not let that stand. After finding out that Clifford was enamored with heroic law enforcement officers, he decided to make sure the child’s Christmas was as bright as possible, despite the tragic circumstances.
Cantois brought ten local police departments together to surprise JJ with a special Christmas visit. “We only had maybe a week of preparation, but every agency we called in the area was very excited to send someone down and try to make JJ smile,” Cantois said.
And it worked, perhaps even better than Cantois himself could have predicted. “I spoke to the grandmother, so JJ kind of had an idea that we were coming, but I think they were just expecting a few cruisers,” he told CNN. “I don’t think they were expecting 20 cruisers to pull up on their street.”
Others pitched in to bury JJ in gifts. Fitchburg City Solicitor Vincent Pusateri II donated a bicycle, and even the Leominster Walmart donated toys. JJ spent time with the officers — including a very fuzzy member of the K-9 unit — trying on their hats and sitting in their squad cars. All of it, as Cantois said, to communicate one thing: “We’re here for you.”
A heartwarming Facebook post detailed the event with photos of JJ and his new friends:
“We were there for about an hour, and he had a smile on his face the whole time,” Cantois said. “That was the best part.” But amidst all of the praise directed toward him, Cantois kept the focus on JJ. “We just wanted to brighten his day, put a smile on his face and help out the family.”
KFC is preparing for Wednesday, typically among its most profitable days in Japan as a bucket of fried chicken has become – through savvy marketing, lack of cultural awareness, and some deception – a traditional Christmas dinner.
On its Japanese website, KFC sells a variety of “party barrels” and family packs to celebrate the holiday, despite Japan hosting only a 1.5 percent Christian population. The offerings range in price from 650 yen ($5.94) for a barbecue chicken leg to 5890 yen ($53.85) for a “premium roast chicken.” In between are fried chicken bucket packs that hover around 3000 yen ($27.50).
This year, KFC is enjoying even more viral popularity than usual due to a bizarre chicken recipe going viral in Asia, after starting in Japan, known as “Devil Cooked Rice.” To make the meal, place KFC chicken in a rice cooker with rice, soy sauce, and chicken broth. Online users who have tried it swear by it, and KFC’s international social media presence is now trying to expand on its popularity.
The origin story of KFC as annual Christmas tradition begins in 1970, when Takeshi Okawara gives up a lucrative job offer in Germany to open the first-ever KFC in Japan. Okawara narrated his story in a holiday edition of Business Insider’s “Household Name” podcast, lamenting that he had lied on national television in claiming that Americans eat fried chicken – not roast turkey, as is traditional in some home – to sell more KFC. He noted that he chose KFC because he was inspired by the true story of Colonel Harland Sanders and the fact that he created the iconic brand at age 60.
Okawara noted that KFC was initially extremely unpopular in Japan because, among other things, “the sign was written in English … no one knows what the hell they are selling … Is it a barber? Is it chocolate?”
Eventually, a local Catholic school approached him to cater a school Christmas party, aware of his prior Jesuit education. They asked him to dress up as Santa Claus, since he had a passing understanding of Western tradition, and they would buy his chicken. Okawara noted he was desperate at the time.
“I had no other choice because she’s going to buy our chicken, so I get myself into the Santa Claus costume and I start dancing holding the bottle of chicken, [singing] ‘Kentucky Christmas! Kentucky Christmas!’” he narrated. His performance was a hit and guaranteed a few more schools’ business. He then began using Christmas to market the product. After a few years, he was successful enough that NHK, one of Japan’s largest broadcast networks, interviewed him, asking if it was true that Americans ate fried chicken to celebrate the birth of Jesus.
“I know that the people are not eating chicken, they are eating turkey, but I said yes. It was lie,” Okawara told Business Insider. “I still regret that. But people, people like it because [it’s] something good in the U.S. or European countries. People like it.”
The podcast went on to note that the official KFC version of the story is somewhat different than Okawara’s and somewhat more favorable to him. Some have reported that KFC became a Christmas following the inspiration of a group of foreign Christians stranded in Japan on Christmas, who settled for the fried chicken as the closest thing to a Western Christmas dinner they could find. KFC has a history of embracing local culture on its menu – Hialeah’s KFC reportedly boasts one of the best flan desserts in Florida – and “Kentucky for Christmas” became an official brand campaign in 1974 and has become iconic for Japanese ever since, who some reports say sometimes struggle to tell the bearded men of Christmas, Colonel Sanders and Santa Claus, apart.
The tradition has made it around the world yet again this year in the form of Japanese students in the United States celebrating Christmas, and baffling American peers, with KFC. The Northerner, the student newspaper of Northern Kentucky University, noted that the school’s Japanese club ended the semester with a “Christmas dinner” of KFC chicken.
“There’s a lot of Kentuckians that have adapted to it, like my parents basically started doing it every year now. It’s funny, we’re doing it because [the Japanese] do it, and they do it because they think we do it,” Catherine Chandler, a student at Northern Kentucky University, told the school newspaper, noting that her family now eats KFC for dinner, as well.
KFC has become so popular in Japan that Tokyo welcomed a KFC all-you-can-eat buffet in November. KFC’s Japanese menu includes some local deviations from the American menu, such as “Special Fried Chicken Soup Curry.”
At home, KFC debuted its annual “Colonel Santa” bucket in November, designed by children’s book author and illustrator Nicholas John Frith.
Boise, Idaho, law enforcement spend a couple of weeks each December handing out treats instead of fines for minor violations.
For the last two weeks before Christmas, the police departments of Boise, Idaho, observe a unique tradition. If your tail light is out, or you’re going five miles over the speed limit, or any of a host of little infractions, you will still get pulled over and warned. But you will also collect some treats from police officers embracing the spirit of the season.
Even parking enforcement officers are handing out sugary goodwill to people on the streets. Inspired by other departments across the country, Boise officers joined the tradition as a way to create better relationships between citizens and their protectors. “It’s our way to positively interact with folks and pass along an educational safety message besides,” said Boise Police Corporal and Officer Trainer Kyle Wills.
“There was this period when lots of police departments nationally began partnering with people in their communities to do something positive,” he said. “We wondered what we could do here in Boise and that’s how the idea spawned.”
Wills said that handing out fines during the holiday season can be a thankless task: “When you work in traffic enforcement, there aren’t a lot of opportunities for positive interaction — we’re giving out tickets all day,” he said. “So having an opportunity to give out ‘candy tickets’ and see some smiles is very rewarding.”
“Once we get into December, people start saying, ‘Merry Christmas’ to us and giving us more than a few angry looks,” agreed Corporal Ryan Jones. “Traffic is like fishing: I put my hook in the water and somebody bites it. All we do is enforce, enforce, enforce. Nobody likes the traffic unit.”
The candy bars are wrapped in messages about the importance of safe driving during the holiday season. “I tell them to enjoy one of the bars and to pay it forward and pass the other one along to somebody who they think could use a little lift,” said Wills. “They’re always very grateful. Nobody wants a ticket, especially right before Christmas.”
Getting pulled over by a police officer for any reason is a stressful experience, and Wills said that the gratitude of the people they encounter is often emotional. “Of course, they’re glad they’re not getting a ticket,” he said, “but some of them say, ‘You have no idea how hard of a time I’ve been having. Thanks so much — this means everything.’ Reactions like that make the season.”
It has been a year of Brexit battles these past 12 months, but it finally looks like the end is near and the United Kingdom will leave the EU, more than three and a half years after the historic referendum.
In keeping with the Christmas season, Breitbart London will break down the most significant Brexit news by the numbers, in the 12 months of Brexmas.
— One General Election —
On the first day of Brexitmas, the voters gave to me…
…an 80-seat Tor-y ma-jor-it-y!
After one referendum; a 2017 General Election where 91 per cent of seats were won by parties that pledged to respect the referendum result; a win for the Brexit Party in the European Parliament elections; and a 2019 General Election that delivered the “stonking” majority for the pro-Brexit Tories, it is safe to say to Remainers that, yes, the Brexit question is settled.
Even Remainer zealot Tony Blair was forced to admit that Britain will leave the EU, saying the “election settled the debate” on Brexit, and that “Now that Brexit will happen, we must make the best of it and the country must come together.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson had called the election to clear out Parliament of Remainers so he could pass his Brexit legislation and deliver Brexit by the deadline on January 31st, 2020.
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – DECEMBER 12: Prime Minister Boris Johnson poses outside Methodist Hall polling station as he casts his vote with dog Dilyn, on December 12, 2019, in London, England. The current Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson called the first UK winter election for nearly a century in an attempt to gain a working majority to break the parliamentary deadlock over Brexit. The election results from across the country are being counted overnight and an overall result is expected in the early hours of Friday morning. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
— Two Prime Ministers —
Remain-voter-turned-very-reluctant-Brexit-prime-minister Theresa May was the last candidate standing when appointed leader of the Conservative Party in 2016. After failing to pass her unpopular withdrawal agreement with the EU three times at the beginning of the year, delaying Brexit twice, and surviving a no-confidence vote, “Zombie May” finally resigned in June.
Boris Johnson, who once called May’s deal a “big turd” and helped lead the pro-Brexit Vote Leave campaign group in 2016, won the ballot to succeed her as party leader and prime minister in July.
— Three Brexit Delays —
The United Kingdom was meant to leave the EU on March 29th, 2019. However, after her deal had failed to pass in the House of Commons and her refusal to take Britain out of the EU in a clean “no deal” break, Theresa May delayed Brexit to April 12th. After her deal had been defeated three times, she extended to October 31st, 2020, giving Britain three Brexit deadlines in just one year.
After becoming prime minister in July, Boris Johnson promised to renegotiate a better deal with the EU and deliver Brexit “do or die”, with or without a deal, on October 31st. Johnson had struck a fresh deal and won a vote on it in Parliament on October 19th.
However, the Remainer-dominated House of Commons conspired to frustrate Brexit and stop the country leaving in a clean break by passing the so-called Benn Act, which forced Boris to request a third Brexit delay to January 31st, 2020, because the deal had not been fully passed in the Commons by the 19th.
A pro-Brexit activist (L) holding a placard and wearing a union flag-themed shirt talks with an anti-Brexit demonstrator holding an EU flag as they protest near the Houses of Parliament in London on January 29, 2019. – British Prime Minister Theresa May will seek “legal changes” to the Brexit deal she agreed with EU leaders only last month to try to secure the support of MPs, her spokesman said Tuesday. (Photo by Tolga AKMEN / AFP) (Photo credit should read TOLGA AKMEN/AFP via Getty Images)
— Four Rebel Tories —
Dozens of Tory Remainer MPs rebelled against their government — with 21 punished with having with the party whip removed — but four committed particularly egregious offences against Brexit: Ken Clarke, Oliver Letwin, Dominic Grieves, and Philip Hammond.
Tory grandee and arch-Europhile Ken Clarke — who once said that he looked forward to the day “when the Westminster Parliament is just a Council Chamber in Europe” — offered to depose Johnson and become the interim prime minister to stop a clean, no-deal Brexit.
Sir Oliver Letwin was one of two architects of the Cooper-Letwin Bill (the other being Labour’s Yvette Cooper) which sought to force then-Prime Minister May to seek a Brexit extension and stop a clean-break Brexit. After it became law in early April, then-leader of the House of Commons and Brexiteer Andrea Leadsom accused Sir Oliver of committing “a coup, but using paper rather than guns”. Letwin was expelled from the Conservative Party in September, and lost his seat to the new Conservative candidate in the December snap election despite standing as an independent.
Brexiteer David Davis had accused Philip Hammond, former Chancellor of the Exchequer and right-hand man of Theresa May, of actively obstructing preparations for a clean-break Brexit while he was in Cabinet, saying in August: “[N]o-one else in government has done more to undermine that decision by the people [to leave the European Union] than the ex-Chancellor.”
Dominic Grieve had threatened to bring down the government if the prime minister brought the UK out of the EU in a no deal, and even compared Brexiteers to Islamic terrorists. An instrumental figure in backing anti-Brexit legislation, the former Attorney-General backed an amendment to make it harder to suspend parliament, thus giving the Remainer-dominated lower house more time to find ways to stop the United Kingdom from leaving the EU.
— Five Fruitless Brexit Deal Votes —
Theresa May’s “turd” deal was voted down three times in 2019: January 15th, March 12th, and March 29th.
Boris Johnson’s renegotiated deal was passed on first reading on October 19th and on second reading by October 22nd. However, the Remainer House of Commons voted down Johnson’s accelerated timetable to get all stages of the bill through Parliament by October 31st. Aware that the current parliament would continue to frustrate the will of the people, on the 28th Johnson called for an election on December 12th with MPs backing the move on the 29th.
On Friday, December 20th, Mr Johnson’s amended Brexit bill passed its first hurdle in the House of Commons and unlike the previous votes, this bill is expected to become law by the Brexit deadline.
Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage (L) poses for a selfie during a general election campaign visit to Hull, northeast England on November 28, 2019. – Britain will go to the polls on December 12, 2019 to vote in a pre-Christmas general election. (Photo by Oli SCARFF / AFP) (Photo by OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty Images)
— Six Weeks Till Brexit —
Technically.
The Bill passed its first hurdle in the House of Commons on December 20th, and will need to pass through other reading and committee stages both in the lower house and the House of Lords before becoming law. With the Conservatives having a strong working majority of 87, the law is set to be passed by the exit date of January 31st, 2020.
However, Britain will now move into the next stage of negotiating its relationship with the EU, as the withdrawal agreement “transition period” kicks in. During this time, Mr Johnson will try to negotiate a future trade deal with the EU, but the UK will still be subject to EU rules and institutions, including the Customs Union, the Single Market, and its associated Free Movement migration regime until almost 2021. Effectively still in the EU without any representation, the silver lining is that Johnson has enshrined in his Brexit bill that the transition period must end by December 2020 and cannot be extended.
— Seven Times Bercow Exposed His Anti-Brexit Bias —
It has long been known that former Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow had an anti-Brexit bias. In January, he had allowed an amendment that attempted to derail Brexit despite being advised against it by Commons clerks, whose job it is to advise on matters of Parliamentary procedure. While in March, Bercow had accepted four anti-Brexit amendments and not a single pro-Brexit amendment, ignoring one a cross-party amendment that sought to stop a potential second referendum.
Despite expectations he would step down in the summer, Bercow announced in May that he would stay on as Speaker in what Leaver lawmakers interpreted as the Remainer hanging on to facilitate the disruption of the Brexit process.
In July, Bercow said that there is no “legal reason or constitutional reason why it [Brexit] shouldn’t be reversed by another referendum”, adding the following month that he would “fight with every breath” to stop the prime minister from suspending parliament.
After he finally stepped down as Speaker of the House of Commons in November, he cast off any pretence of neutrality and said that he thought the Brexit vote was “the biggest foreign policy mistake in the post-war period” — ahead of Suez, the Iraq War, and David Cameron’s interventions in Libya and Syria — and admitted that he “facilitated” stopping a clean-break Brexit.
Composite. LONDON, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 16: Gina Miller and John Bercow attend the PinkNews Awards 2019 at The Church House on October 16, 2019, in London, England. (Photo by Eamonn M. McCormack/Getty Images)
— Eight Court Challenges —
There were at least eight court challenges against Brexit this year, seven which took place in September.
Most relate to Prime Minister Boris Johnson proroguing (temporarily suspending) parliament in an effort to stop Remainers finding new ways to disrupt Brexit, the most high-profile legal decision being the Supreme Court ruling that the move was “unlawful”. Here’s a rundown of the most well-known cases and their outcomes:
1. September 4th. Court of Session, Scotland, ruled that it was not illegal for Prime Minister Johnson to prorogue parliament. The case was brought by a cross-party group of Remainer MPs led by Joanna Cherry of the Scottish National Party (SNP). Cherry sought to then appeal the decision in the Scottish court.
2. September 6th. Anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller lost a similar case in the High Court of England and Wales and decided to elevate her case to the UK’s Supreme Court in London.
3. September 11th. Ms Cherry won her appeal in the Scottish court, with the government announcing that it would appeal the decision in the Supreme Court.
4. September 12th. The High Court of Northern Ireland ruled that a no-deal, clean-break Brexit would not breach the Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement. The case was brought by campaigners representing victims of the Troubles. The group appealed the decision.
5. and 6. September 24th. The Supreme Court ruled against the Government in its appeal of the Scottish court’s decision and in a separate litigation in favour of Gina Miller, ruling that prorogation was unlawful, and sending the then-majority Remainer parliament back to work.
7. September 27th. The Court of Appeal in Belfast upheld the High Court of Northern Ireland’s decision that a no-deal Brexit would not disrupt peace in the country.
8. October 7th. Joanna Cherry and anti-Brexit lawyer Jolyon Maugham lost their case at the Scottish Court of Session to impose penalties on Boris Johnson if he refused to request a Brexit extension from the EU, possibly including jail time.
Keenly aware of unelected campaigners abusing the law to overturn the democratic process, Johnson’s team has reportedly “Gina Miller-proofed” his new Brexit bill.
— Nine Brexit Boosts —
It hasn’t all been tales of doom and gloom these past 12 months, with a number of stories revealing that, “despite Brexit”, the country hasn’t fallen into recession, millions have not lost their jobs, and it did not rain frogs and locusts.
Jobs was one area that continues to see the Project Fear doomsayers proven wrong. Just this month, the ONS revealed record-high employment, with unemployment at its lowest level since 1975. A report from April showed that nine in ten new British jobs since Brexit had gone to British workers — a change from the period before the vote when almost half were going to EU migrant workers.
With wider accessibility of British jobs for British workers has also seen an increase in wages this year, with both employment recruiter Reed and employment networking site LinkedIn admitting the pay raises were due a “talent shortage” post-Brexit, meaning employers have had to work harder to woo new employees.
The economy has also fared well, experiencing 13 quarters of growth since the Brexit vote. Investment also remains strong with reports revealing European investment had more than doubled since the Brexit vote and that London remains a global capital for investment.
British automotive giants Jaguar Land Rover and Aston Martin announced their pro-Britain, pro-Brexit, pro-business attitude when they pledged to keep investing and building in the UK this year.
Norway’s top wealth fund has put a 30-year bet on post-Brexit success, while several countries have promised bilateral trade deals with the UK including the United States, Australia, and Israel.
LONDON, ENGLAND – DECEMBER 12: Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour Party, visits the vote count in his Islington North constituency on December 12, 2019 in London, England. Corbyn, who has held the Islington North seat since 1983, is expected to step down as leader if his party is dealt a decisive defeat by the Conservatives, led by Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The Prime Minister called the first UK winter election for nearly a century in an attempt to gain a working majority to break the parliamentary deadlock over Brexit. The election results from across the country are being counted overnight and an overall result is expected in the early hours of Friday morning. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)
— Ten Whips Restored —
Johnson drained the party swamp in September when he removed the whip from 21 rebel MPs for voting against the government on Brexit, barring them from running for the Conservatives in the election. The MPs had voted in favour of a plan to stop a clean-break Brexit. He eventually restored the whip to ten of those lawmakers — although several did not stand for election again in the December snap election regardless.
The Conservatives will likely take party discipline very seriously in the coming years, even after the clearout of Remainer hardliners, as Johnson moves his Brexit plans through the Commons.
— Eleven TIGgers —
The Remain Alliance thought that it had a movement on its hands when eight Labour and three Conservative MPs defected and formed The Independent Group (TIG), with party leader Heidi Allen referring to her new group of MPs as “TIGgers”. Later rebranded as Change UK (CUK), and again as The Independent Group For Change, with the Remainers hoped that they would lead an anti-Brexit “centrist” revolution in British politics and stop the United Kingdom from leaving the EU.
However, after failing to win a single seat in the European Parliament elections, losing more than half of their MPs to the Liberal Democrats, and all those Commons lawmakers who had ever been associated with the party losing the 2019 General Election, the party quietly disbanded in December 2019, just ten months after its inception.
— Twelve: A very Brexit Christmas —
Okay, this one is a bit of cheat, but after 12 months of anti-Brexit plotting and machinations, it’s important to put one chorus of this song aside to sit back and breath a sigh of relief — until 2020, when Remainers will likely try to find new ways to stop the UK leaving the EU.
What better Christmas could a Brexiteer ask for than a prime minister with a “stonking” majority who has promised to deliver Brexit? Yes, politicians had made promises regarding Brexit before and have let the country down bitterly. But let us be forgiven, at this joyful time of year, if we wish to be optimistic — if not for a few more weeks — and look forward to a brighter, freer, Britain.
Standing outside of Number 10, with a Christmas tree in the background, Prime Minister Boris Johnson sought on Friday the 13th of December to strike a balance between victory and reconciliation, saying that now was the time for the country to embrace the adventure ahead of it, and for those opposed to Brexit to move on. He said:
“[A]fter five weeks, frankly, of electioneering, this country deserves a break from wrangling, a break from politics, and a permanent break from talking about Brexit…
“I want everyone to go about their Christmas preparations happy and secure in the knowledge that here in this people’s government the work is now being stepped up to make 2020 a year of prosperity and growth and hope, and to deliver a parliament that works for the people.”
“Thank you all very much, and Happy Christmas.”
Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson delivers a speech outside 10 Downing Street in central London on December 13, 2019, following his Conservative party’s general election victory. – UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson proclaimed a political “earthquake” Friday after his thumping election victory cleared Britain’s way to finally leave the European Union after years of damaging deadlock over Brexit. (Photo by DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP via Getty Images)
For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government
shall be upon His shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful,
Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:6
May your Holiday Season be filled with hope and joy.
And may God refresh your soul and bless you with new beginnings.
At St. Stanislaus Kostka Polish Church on Christmas Night – Beloved St. John Paul II pic.twitter.com/DF5nklJl0Z
Thousands of Christians flood the Aziziyah neighbourhood in Aleppo, Syria. After several years of deadly occuption by ISIS and Al-Qaeda the Christians in Aleppo, Syria were free to celebrate Christmas this year.
The widow of slain NYPD Detective Wenjian Liu didn’t celebrate Christmas for years after his 2014 murder.
But a small yet precious miracle reignited Pei “Sanny” Xia Chen’s holiday spirit — the daughter she conceived with her late husband and a little help from science, she told The Post in an exclusive Christmas Eve interview.
“This is all for her. I always want her to be happy,” Chen said of 2 ¹/₂-year-old daughter Angelina, as the tot played with stuffed animals in the family’s festive Bergen Beach, Brooklyn, living room.
Nearby was a huge Christmas tree — with Wenjian’s police hat perched on top in place of a star.
Hundreds of American troops in Syria received Christmas gifts because of “Operation Holiday Express,” an effort spearheaded by U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq.
The presents were delivered with a CH-47 Chinook helicopter and coalition forces wore Santa Claus hats as they delivered presents to American troops, according to the Associated Press. Soldiers received stockings with candy, toiletries and other presents, and the scene included a military band playing Christmas music.
President Donald Trump delivered his presidential Christmas message from the White House on Wednesday, calling for the country to foster a greater sense of “understanding and respect.”
The president said in a statement, “While the challenges that face our country are great, the bonds that unite us as Americans are much stronger.”
“Together, we must strive to foster a culture of deeper understanding and respect — traits that exemplify the teachings of Christ,” Trump added.
President Trump’s comments follow House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Democrats voting to impeach him, believing that he obstructed Congress and abused the office of the presidency. Pelosi has waited on sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate, asserting that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) would not conduct a fair impeachment trial. The impeachment trial will not start until Speaker Pelosi sends the articles to the Senate.
President Trump has called the impeachment proceedings against him a “hoax” and contended that he was treated more unfairly than “those accused in the Salem Witch Trials.”
The president predicted Monday that Speaker Pelosi will lose her House majority after pursuing impeachment.
“Pelosi gives us the most unfair trial in the history of the U.S. Congress, and now she is crying for fairness in the Senate and breaking all rules while doing so,” Trump charged. “She lost Congress once; she will do it again!”
In his Christmas message, the president praised American service members “who continue to fight for our cherished freedoms.”
“As commander in chief, I salute them for their service and thank their family members for their shared sacrifice in this noble mission, especially during the holiday season,” he added.
“We hope your heart is filled with the love and joy of your faith, family, and friends this Christmas. We send our best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year,” the president said.
Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.
Sometimes all it takes is one action to know someone’s kindness and class.
President Trump has many such actions: the kiss on the head of the young boy who hugged President Trump while signing the Right to Try Act, the honor bestowed on Miosotis Familia, a New York City police officer killed in the line of duty, and the honor he shows our vets as they respond with serious hugs, no simple pats on the arm for our president.
The ultimate simple act that displayed President Trump’s kindness and class was his hand on Kim Jong Un’s back guiding him to the right door during the North Korea-United States Singapore Summit. It takes class to show respect for someone who has not earned it. What Kim earned was a bullet to his head for how he tortured one of our young American men, Otto Warmbier, leaving him brain damaged.
During this simple act, I suspect President Trump was thinking of Otto at the hands of this cruel dictator. For the greater good, at the chance of denuclearization, our president did what he had to do. What we have learned in three years of President Trump’s administration is that he works tirelessly for the American citizens and he does it with kindness and class. We love our president.
Sometimes all it takes is one action to know someone’s kindness and class.
President Trump has many such actions: the kiss on the head of the young boy who hugged President Trump while signing the Right to Try Act, the honor bestowed on Miosotis Familia, a New York City police officer killed in the line of duty, and the honor he shows our vets as they respond with serious hugs, no simple pats on the arm for our president.
The ultimate simple act that displayed President Trump’s kindness and class was his hand on Kim Jong Un’s back guiding him to the right door during the North Korea-United States Singapore Summit. It takes class to show respect for someone who has not earned it. What Kim earned was a bullet to his head for how he tortured one of our young American men, Otto Warmbier, leaving him brain damaged.
During this simple act, I suspect President Trump was thinking of Otto at the hands of this cruel dictator. For the greater good, at the chance of denuclearization, our president did what he had to do. What we have learned in three years of President Trump’s administration is that he works tirelessly for the American citizens and he does it with kindness and class. We love our president.
