President Joe Biden has approved a new national security memorandum ahead of Donald Trump’s return to the White House that could serve as a road map for the incoming administration as it looks to counter growing cooperation among China, Iran, North Korea and Russia, the White House said Wednesday. Biden administration officials began developing the guidance this summer. It was shaped to be a document that could help the next administration build its approach from Day 1 on how it deals with the tightening relationships involving America’s most prominent adversaries and competitors, according to two senior administration officials.

Donald Trump doesn’t think much of Joe Biden’s foreign policy record. The Republican president-elect frequently casts the outgoing Democratic president as a feckless leader who shredded American credibility around the world during his four-year term. But a funny thing happened on Trump’s way back to the White House: The Biden and Trump national security teams have come to an understanding that they have no choice but to work together as conflicts in Gaza, Syria and Ukraine have left a significant swath of the world on a knife’s edge. It’s not clear how much common ground those teams have found as they navigate crises that threaten to cause more global upheaval as Trump prepares to settle back into the White House on Jan. 20, 2025.

A U.S. intelligence assessment has concluded that Russia may use its lethal new intermediate-range ballistic missile against Ukraine again soon, two U.S. officials said Wednesday. The Oreshnik missile, which was used for the first time last month, is seen more as an attempt at intimidation than as a game-changer on the battlefield in Ukraine, according to one of the officials. The threat comes as both sides work to gain a battlefield advantage in the nearly 3-year war, which President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to end, and just days after the U.S. promised close to $1 billion in new security aid to Ukraine. Other Western allies have suggested negotiations to end the war could begin this winter. One of the officials said the U.S.

Donald Trump used his image as a successful New York businessman to become a celebrity, a reality television star and eventually the president. Now, he finally will get to revel in one of the most visible symbols of success in the city when he rings the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday. Trump is expected to be on Wall Street to mark the morning’s ceremonial start of the day’s trading, according to four people with knowledge of his plans. It will be a notable moment of recognition for Trump, a born-and-bred New Yorker who gave up living full time in his namesake Trump Tower in Manhattan and moved to Florida. The U.S. stock market soared after Trump won the 2024 election in part by seizing on Americans’ worries over the economy.

“The main reasons for the Assad regime’s weekend fall in Syria happened in defiance of President Biden’s policy. Naturally, he is rushing to take credit,” the Wall Street Journal’s Editorial Board wrote. “’Our approach has shifted the balance of power in the Middle East,’ Mr. Biden said Sunday. ‘Through this combination of support for our partners, sanctions, and diplomacy and targeted military force when necessary, we now see new opportunities opening up for the people of Syria and for the entire region.’” “‘Just like they drew it up. Never mind that the Biden team had given up on the Syrian opposition and tacitly acceded to dictator Bashar al-Assad’s return to the region’s good graces.

Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko said Tuesday his country is hosting dozens of Russian nuclear weapons and will prepare facilities for the planned deployment of Moscow’s newest hypersonic ballistic missile. His remarks came after he and President Vladimir Putin signed a treaty last week that gave security guarantees to Belarus, Moscow’s closest ally, including the possible use of Russian nuclear weapons to help repel any aggression. The pact follows Moscow’s revision of its nuclear doctrine, which for the first time placed Belarus under the Russian nuclear umbrella amid the tensions with the West over the conflict in Ukraine. “I have warned all my enemies, ‘friends’ and adversaries: If you step on the border, the answer will be momentary,” Lukashenko said.

Brig. Gen. (res.) Chanan Geffen, former commander of Unit 8200 in the IDF Military Intelligence Directorate, told JNS on Tuesday that “the forces that seized power in Syria surprised everyone, including, in my opinion, the rebels.” Geffen added that “the disintegration of the Syrian army, which I’ve been following for almost 50 years, surprised everyone in an amazing way,” and created a vacuum ripe in opportunities. “I do not remember a time in history when we faced a similar case in the region,” Geffen said. Gefen noted that the fate of Syria’s chemical weapons was a matter of international concern.

The recent letter discussing the balance of responsibility between the “haves” and “have-nots” raises some valid points about communal dynamics. However, it overlooks a fundamental reality of our society: the disproportionate honor and status afforded to those with financial means. This dynamic, deeply embedded in our communal institutions and values, places an undue burden on those with less and necessitates that the onus for change fall on those blessed with wealth. As has been pointed out in numerous letters and discussions on YWN and elsewhere, our institutions and organizations have enshrined the idea that wealth equals honor. Fundraising dinners, building dedications, and gala events often center around showcasing and celebrating those with material success.

Adam Boehler, President-elect Donald Trump’s special envoy for hostage affairs, revealed to Yisrael Hayom that diplomatic efforts to broker a Gaza ceasefire deal and secure the release of hostages have intensified ahead of Trump’s inauguration on January 20. “The president said he wants the hostages, and he will get them,” Boehler said. “My presidential mandate is clear: Secure the release of American hostages from these locations,” he said. “The president’s insistence on achieving this before his inauguration has already catalyzed significant progress in negotiations.” The envoy, who played a pivotal role in negotiating the Abraham Accords during Trump’s first administration, underscored the administration’s unified stance.

Following the short-circuited effort to become President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general, Matt Gaetz is joining the conservative One America News Network to host a weeknight political talk show. The network said Tuesday that Gaetz’s new one-hour show will air at 9 p.m. Eastern, starting in January. He will also co-host a weekly video podcast with OANN’s Dan Ball. The former Florida congressman was chosen to be Trump’s new attorney general but withdrew his name from consideration when scrutiny over trafficking allegations made his chances to be confirmed by the Senate questionable. But with a burgeoning conservative media ecosystem, there’s often a space for a figure who receives criticism from the mainstream media.