➡ North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, threatens to annihilate the United States and South Korea amidst tension surrounding the U.S. presidential elections, aggravating international relations.
➡ Philadelphia inaugurates its first female and first black mayor, Cheryl Parker, who focuses on safety, education, and reducing homelessness, causing a stir of hope among the citizens.
➡ Chicago’s Mayor Brandon Johnson stirs controversy as he repurposes $95 million of federal Covid relief funds to address the migrant crisis, bypassing the city council’s approval.
➡ Mayor Brandon Johnson plans to use a surprising $95 million budget surplus from federal Covid funds to cover migrant costs without city council approval. Critics argue this bypasses necessary governmental checks and balances, with demands for improved oversight on such significant expenditures.

We got our guy, Kim Jong un on North Korea, and he said that he would absolutely, positively annihilate the United States and its partners if they don’t bow down. Take a look. Wait a minute, wait a minute. All right, here we go. North korean leader Kim Jong un has kicked off 2024 with a dire warning to the US. This could be the first of many newsmaking headlines coming from the leader as Americans prepare to go to the polls to choose a president.

Natalie Brandt has more details from Washington, DC. North korean leader Kim Jong un rang in the new year with a rally. Hours after making new threats earlier, Kim ordered his military leaders to, quote, thoroughly annihilate the US and South Korea if provoked. North Korea test fired its most advanced ballistic missile on December 18. Experts say Kim could increase testing of icbms capable of reaching the US in response to this year’s presidential election.

Analysts on the region say Kim views the testing as a way to get more concessions from the US if former president Donald Trump is reelected. Kim and Trump met for face to face negotiations in 2018 in an attempt to denuclearize the peninsula, but the talks fell apart. Since 2022, North Korea has conducted more than 100 missile tests, prompting the US and South Korea to expand their joint military drills.

Natalie Brand, CBS News, Washington. Kim warned that war could break out on the korean peninsula at any time over the US and south korean military provocations. So Kim Jong un, who Trump met during his administration, and he’s basically looking for a little bit of mercy if Trump was to get reelected. So apparently they’re paying attention to what’s going on in american politics also, but continuously making threats, aligning himself with Russia and China.

And I’m not really sure if the United States of America should even entertain this at all. But you got to make sure that you keep things kosher between your enemies because you don’t want to underestimate them. And y’all got to realize that we got a president in the United States right now that don’t even know his right from his left, it seems like. So that’s what’s going on with North Korea, continuously threatening the United States of America.

Thank you, trap and slay. I’m going to read that super chat shortly also. Philadelphia, shout out to Philly. Y’all decided to get y’all a new mayor and she female. Now. You know how I feel, like, how I feel about females in leadership positions. They gonna say I’m a misogynist, but I’m just trying to protect y’all. Let me bring y’all up to speed on what’s going on over in Philadelphia? And we are now just about 4 hours away from Philadelphia, swearing in its 100th mayor, Cheryl Parker.

This is a historic day for this city. Parker is the first woman and first black woman to lead the city. CBS News Philadelphia reporter Jasmine Pete joins us. And Mayor Parker’s promising change in the city. Jasmine? A lot of change, Jim. With the new mayor comes a new year, and it brings new hope, hope that new leadership at city hall can usher in changes for the city and put an end to the violence and celebrate that Philly pride.

Now, today, Parker will be releasing her 100 day action plan. It’s meant to detail how she will fulfill her promise of making Philadelphia the safest, cleanest, greenest big city in the country. And it’s not a simple task. City data shows there were at least. Hold on. First of all, I call cap. I called cap on Philadelphia ever in the history of Philadelphia. And a cheesesteak forever becoming the safest, greenest city on the face of the earth.

But let’s continue. 409 homicides in Philadelphia in 2023. That marks a 21% drop from 2022. But it’s also the fourth straight year with more than 400 killings for Philadelphians. We spoke with many of them are welcoming the changes at city hall. Their priority, safety, followed by education and solutions to curb homelessness. We are hoping that they could do something for the schools, for the school system, and for the city.

There are too many killings going on in this city, and we are hoping for a better city. That’s all just to get the city under control. I mean, there’s a lot of crazy things happening, and we need to just figure that all out, I guess. And she knows the city well, which is good. And so she’s putting together a nice, qualified team. Look at them. Nice, good white and black people and people not even from America, all coming together to back this female led administration.

Hopefully, they’ll get the job done and we’ll get rid of some of the crime. Mayor Parker will be signing three executive orders today. The first will declare a public safety emergency, facilitating development of public safety plans. The second will make local government more visible, responsive, and effective in communicating with residents. And the third will expand economic opportunity for Philadelphians by removing certain barriers to city employment, like the requirement for a college degree as a prerequisite for employment.

Now, this morning’s inauguration ceremony is set for 10:00 at the Met. And, of course, we will be following this throughout the day, guys. So Philly has decided that they want to make sure that they, I don’t know if they voted based off of identity politics. I don’t know if they voted based off of whatever it was that she ran on, but they decided that they wanted to have a new mayor.

And her name is Sherrell Parker and she’s declaring a public safety emergency. I do agree with that. In Philadelphia. And she’s signing three executive orders on her first day in office. She said that car theft, shoplifting, and, yes, that retail theft and illegal use of atvs. Yang. Yang. That diminish our quality of life. We’re going to make our city safe. This is a quote. We’re going to make our city safe for the people who live here, who work here, or who come into our city from the survivors and from the country across the world.

She touched on change in enforcement and developing a strategy to permanently shut down all open air drug markets in the city. So if you all want to get you all Kensington Avenue photos and all of that, you’re going to have to figure out where to go and get your fentanyl photos now because this is what she’s saying. I’m just going to read to you what she’s saying. She signed the three following executive orders into action so far.

The first one being declaring a public safety emergency in Philadelphia and directing the police commissioner and the managing director’s office to develop comprehensive plans that address public safety across the city. Second, making local government more visible, responsive, and effective in how it delivers services to citizens and constituents. Mayor Parker sees or seeks a government that citizens can see, touch and feel. Number three, she says, expanding economic opportunity for residents of Philadelphia by removing barriers to city employment, including removing requirements for a college degree as a prerequisite for employment.

All right, so, you know, Anton, I got my eyes on it. I’m going to be watching it very closely to see what’s happening out here in these streets, man, because I got my eye on Philadelphia. But y’all got a fresh start. Y’all got a fresh start in the eyes of Anton from antondaniels. com. And then last but not least, Brandon Johnson never ceases to amaze me. But I’m not going to dedicate a whole segment of him today to him today.

I just want to keep you all in a little. What’s going on with Brandon Johnson? He says that he’s tapping all resources, including over $95 million that were allocated as Covid relief funds or Covid funds. He’s now tapping into that and he’s repurposing those dollars without a city council vote to use towards the migrant crisis. Take a look. We’re going to begin with the migrant crisis tonight. Several suburbs are holding meetings to talk about moving buses away from their communities.

And in Chicago, there is disagreement tonight over Mayor Brandon Johnson’s decision to use $95 million in federal Covid relief funds to pay for costs related to the migrant crisis. The mayor says he has the authority to do so without city council approval. We’ve got team coverage tonight. We’ll start with NBC five’s political reporter Marianne Ahern. She joins us now with the very latest on this situation. Marianne, Stefan and Kate, late Friday, the last day of regular business for 2023, that’s when the mayor held a briefing for alderman.

He told them he wanted to bypass a divisive vote, so he announced there was an unexpected budget surplus and this is how he will use some of those remaining federal Covid dollars. The city has mobilized 27 shelters to assist the nearly 15,000 migrants that have arrived in Chicago. But the costs are overwhelming. Who in the chat called his hair a struggle? Hawk who? Bring yourself to the front of the congregation for calling Mayor Brandon Johnson’s hair a struggle, Hawk.

Stop it. Don’t start that early. Making me laugh now. You know, once I get the laughing man on me, I can’t get him off my back now. Mayor Brandon Johnson on Face the Nation this week. This is unsustainable. None of our local economies are positioned to be able to carry on such a mission. Johnson says because of an unexpected budget surplus, he will allocate 95 million from the federal Covid funds to pay for the migrant costs without any city council approval.

Mayor Johnson briefed alderman Friday. It was the mayor basically said we want to avoid a vote on the city council and to me that is not appropriate. $95 million is a ton of money and we need to make sure that we have proper oversight of those dollars. We should have known that there was $95 million laying around that we could have used and appropriated for something else. In a printed statement, the city said Friday that 95 million would go towards the new arrivals mission, including leases for shelters, food services and shelter staffing.

When asked today, however, how does that happen without alderman weighing in? The mayor’s team says the new arrivals mission has significantly expanded government services. So using ARPA funds to replace those expenditures is an appropriate use of funds. We need to improve our ability to do oversight on. No need to see anymore. No need to see anymore. So Brandon Johnson, the reason why you have multiple layers of government is to make sure that there is oversight over what’s happening with funds that people are paying into the coffers in a form of taxes and they want to make sure that it’s being allocated appropriately and that everybody got to say so because we want to glean from everybody’s mindset, it’s a reason why you’re represented, to represent or you’re voted in to represent different people of the community and their interests.

But he said, I’m bypassing that. I’m using this 100 m to do what I want to do. And then on top of that, I don’t think that I need a vote from you all because all you all going to do is slow me down. Yeah. Checks and balances, Yakar. Checks and balances, this. So shout out to Brandon Johnson, continuing to do what he do to give me all of the content going into 2024.

I said, I’m going to give him a week off. I’m going to give him a week off. The first week of 2024, I’m going to give Brandon Johnson a week off. But ladies and gentlemen, that is your quick hits. .