Trump and Melania welcome Abe’s widow to Mar-a-Lago; RFK Jr heads to Capitol: Live

The scores of prisoners freed after the downfall of the Bashar Assad regime in Syria are giving hope to Debra Tice, mother of the American journalist Austin Tice, who has been missing since being detained in 2012.

She’s been closely following reports out of the country, where another missing American, religious pilgrim Travis Timmerman, was found in the town of Dhiyabiya, after being held for seven months. Initial reports wrongly identified him as Tice.

On Sunday, she sat down for an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press.

Utah Senator Mike Lee’s latest conspiratorial rant on Fox News suggested that his Democratic foes “destroyed” key evidence surrounding January 6 which would have implicated the FBI or other federal agencies in instigating the throngs of Trump supporters to attack the Capitol.

The Republican lawmaker is hoping to keep the dream of January 6 nonsense alive after a Department of Justice review found no evidence of federal agents instigating violence in the crowd.

CNBC reports that Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son will announce a $100 billion investment in the U.S. over the next four years during a Monday visit to President-elect Donald Trump’s residence Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.

The billionaire investor and founder of the Japanese tech-investing firm will also promise in the joint announcement with Trump to create 100,000 jobs focused on artificial intelligence and related infrastructure, sources told the network. The money will be deployed before the end of Trump’s term in office in 2029.

The funding could come from various sources controlled by Softbank, including the Vision Fund, capital projects or chipmaker Arm Holdings, where the firm is the majority owner. The money could include some funding already announced — such as Softbank’s recent $1.5 billion investment in OpenAI, the firm behind chatbot ChatGPT.

A similar announcement was made in 2016 after Trump was elected president for the first time, with the Japanese firm agreeing to invest $50 billion in the U.S.

A lawmaker on the House committee overseeing the US intelligence community on Sunday batted down rumors being leveled about mysterious sightings of drones in New Jersey and possibly elsewhere along the US east coast.

The commitee is due for a classified briefing on the matter this week.

Federal agencies put out a joint statement on Thursday declaring that the spotted drones in New Jersey did not represent a foreign threat or any danger to public safety, but did not provide an explanation for what worried New Jerseyans were seeing from their homes.

Watch Jim Hines on CNN’s State of the Union here:

The House of Representatives will today consider bills under suspension of the rules including barring members of Congress convicted of a felony for public corruption from keeping their federal pensions, designating the bald eagle as the national bird, and creating a 250th anniversary congressional time capsule.

Over in the Senate, lawmakers will vote today at 5:30 p.m. ET on whether to advance the final version of the 2025 defense programs and policy bill (NDAA). 60 votes will be needed. The House passed the bill 281-140 last week.

MAGA Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has claimed that the US government is “in control of the drones” that have been spotted over New Jersey and New York in recent weeks, which officials have so far been unable or unwilling to account for.

Greene, who is well known for amplifying online conspiracy theories, wrote on X late on Saturday night: “The government is in control of the drones and refuses to tell the American people what is going on. It really is that bad.”

Joe Sommerlad has the story.

Ingrid Lewis-Martin is resigning from New York city hall, according to The New York Times. She was Eric Adams’ top advisor on government affairs, and had withstood weeks of critical coverage for the criminal allegations the mayor now faces.

Reports indicate that she is under intense scrutiny from prosecutors as well, and may be charged criminally as soon as this week.

Adams, a Democrat, has turned to Donald Trump and Magaworld for a positive embrace as he faces isolation and ridicule in his own party while facing five criminal counts related to alleged corruption.

More here about his legal escapades:

Mitt Romney said in his interview on Sunday that Republicans won the 2024 election due to their successful effort to peel off working-class voters from the Democratic Party’s voting coalition.

“The Democrat Party is the one in trouble. I mean, I don’t know how they recover,” said the senator. “Union guys, and gals … have left the Democratic Party.”

He went on to blame that trend on the Democrats’ embrace of transgender rights and a focus on cultural issues while the party ignored economic issues.

Rock made the crowd groan during his Saturday Night Live monologue with a joke about Twitter CEO Elon Musk.

The 59-year-old stand-up comedian and actor hosted the sketch comedy show over the weekend.

During his monologue, Rock made reference to Trump’s successful year, noting that he’d survived an assassination attempt, been re-elected to the US presidency and been named Time’s Person of the Year.

The president-elect’s campaign adviser Alex Bruesewitz passed out and fell from his lectern as he addressed a New York Young Republican Club gala on Sunday night, a shocking moment caught on video below.

Bruesewitz had reportedly been about to introduce Trump insider Dan Scavino to his audience before slurring his words, freezing briefly and then toppling over, inspiring gasps in the auditorium.

Master of ceremonies Raheem Kassam subsequently revealed that the stricken aide had received medical support backstage and was up and talking.

“I talked to our friend Alex Bruesewitz and you know what he said to me? He goes ‘Did I at least look cool?’”, Kassam said, according to The New York Post.

“I said Alex you used gravity like I’ve seen nobody use gravity before in their lives. But he’s recuperating back there so give him a big cheer so he’ll hear you.”

Here’s a full report from James Liddell.