The Hill’s 12:30 Report

by Cate Martel - 12/14/16 12:30 PM ET

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LATEST IN ALEPPO — EVACUATION BUSES LEAVE EMPTY, CEASE-FIRE OVER: Via The New York Times’s Anne Barnard and Hwaida Saad, despite a United Nations deal to evacuate thousands of civilians and medical staff members in Aleppo, Syria, artillery shelling resumed in the besieged city. The deal: The whole city of Aleppo is close to being retaken by loyalists to President Bashar Assad. There was a deal to allow civilians to evacuate, but buses intended to carry them out of the city were left empty. http://nyti.ms/2hESQCA

BECAUSE WE’RE SO FAR AWAY FROM IT: Here’s a Twitter compilation of videos from people in Aleppo. Some residents are posting videos of the bombings and saying their last goodbyes. http://bit.ly/2hvqCXR

EIFFEL TOWER TRIBUTE: Via Time, The Eiffel Tower will go dark tonight to honor Aleppo. http://ti.me/2hvqUh3

ON MORNING JOE TODAY: A former NATO supreme allied commander is predicting that President Obama will regret not doing more to help the anti-regime opposition forces and civilians in Aleppo. “He’ll look back in deep sorrow and some shame,” retired Navy Adm. James Stavridis, dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” http://bit.ly/2gANFPe

It’s Wednesday. I’m Cate Martel with a quick recap of what you missed this morning and what’s on tap for the rest of the day. Send comments, story ideas and events for our radar to cmartel@digital-staging.thehill.com, @CateMartel and on Facebook.

IN THE WORDS OF SCAR FROM THE LION KING, BE. PRE. PARED.: This year is going to be a wild one for Congress. Here’s the 2017 Congressional Calendar from The Hill. Bookmark it, print it, make it your wallpaper, give it to all your friends: http://bit.ly/2hFlX91

{mosads}

DAUNTING DEADLINES DAMN THE DOE-EYED (alliteration makes things sound less scary, right?): Well, as the new Trump administration — sharpened pencils, new school shoes and everything — comes in to work with an equally bright-eyed Republican-controlled Congress, they are going face a slew of tough legislative deadlines. Fun stuff. Here’s the situation: http://bit.ly/2h03KPp

March 16: The current debt-limit deal expires.
April 28: Deadline to fund the government and avoid a shutdown after legislation passed last week expires.
Sept. 30: The Children’s Health Insurance Program funding ends.
Sept. 30: Authorization for the Federal Aviation Administration will expire.
End of the year: A provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as Section 702, will expire.

TRANSITION NEWS OF THE MORNING — IT’S ALL IN THE FAM: President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team defended the involvement of his son, Donald Trump Jr., in the selection of cabinet appointments. Why: Criticism that his inclusion blurs the lines between Trump’s government and business interests. The issue: Trump said he’d hand over his businesses to his sons to avoid conflicts of interest. But a report said Trump Jr. had been involved in the selection of the Interior nominee. Trump team defense: They said they’ve been transparent that Trump’s son has been an active member of the transition. http://bit.ly/2hNOHYW

WORTH YOUR TIME — HOW RUSSIA’S CYBER POWER INVADED THE U.S.: The New York Times’s Eric Lipton, David E. Sanger and Scott Shane have a play-by-play of Russian cyber intruders gaining access to Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta‘s emails. It’s pretty scary:

“‘This is a legitimate email,’ Charles Delavan, a Clinton campaign aide, replied to another of Mr. Podesta’s aides, who had noticed the [email] alert. ‘John needs to change his password immediately.’ With another click, a decade of emails that Mr. Podesta maintained in his Gmail account — a total of about 60,000 — were unlocked for the Russian hackers. Mr. Delavan, in an interview, said that his bad advice was a result of a typo: He knew this was a phishing attack, as the campaign was getting dozens of them. He said he had meant to type that it was an ‘illegitimate’ email, an error that he said has plagued him ever since.” Yikes. http://nyti.ms/2hF2PaS

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE POOL REPORT: From Trump’s event in Wisconsin last night: “There are sporadic chants of ‘CNN sucks’ before Trump takes the stage, although an older man standing next to the press pen assures us, ‘We don’t really mean it.'” And on the way back to New York: “Your pooler tracked Trump’s plane on a rather useful app while awaiting its arrival at LGA. It so turns out that the flight path took PEOTUS over Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. A victory tour of sorts.”

AND WE CAN’T FORGET TRUMP’S BACKHANDED COMPLIMENT TO RYAN: Trump compared Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to a fine wine. “He has been terrific and you know honestly, he’s like a fine wine. Every day goes by, I get to appreciate his genius more and more now,” Trump continued, attempting to tamp down the boos. However, Trump quickly added: “If he ever goes against me, I’m not going to say that.” http://bit.ly/2hvj7A4

TRENDING ON TWITTER — IT’S BEEN FOUR YEARS: Today is the fourth anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting. Some of today’s tributes: http://bit.ly/2hNB4sV

NOTABLE TWEETS:

Bloomberg’s Erik Wasson
“Mr. Watson, come here” moment: Amazon Makes First Drone Delivery to a Customer http://bit.ly/2hNgKYF

ON TAP:

The House and Senate are out.

Today: President-elect Donald Trump hosts a tech summit at Trump Tower in New York. Guests via CNBC: Alphabet CEO Larry Page; Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk; Apple CEO Tim Cook; Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg; Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella; Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins; IBM CEO Ginni Rometty; Intel CEO Brian Krzanich and Oracle CEO Safra Catz. Amazon CEO and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos may also attend. http://cnb.cx/2h04UKE

Today: The Jamestown Foundation is holding their tenth annual Terrorism Conference, “New Administration, New Challenges, New Threats” at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Featured speaker: Retired Gen. Michael V. Hayden, former director of the CIA. Info: http://bit.ly/2gs2qDR

Noon: White House press secretary Josh Earnest gives the daily press briefing.

2:15 p.m. EST: First lady Michelle Obama delivers remarks at the White House screening of the film “Hidden Figures,” a biographical film that tells the stories of NASA pioneers. Featured actors: Kevin Costner, Taraji P. Henson, Janelle Monae and Octavia Spencer.

3:50 p.m. EST: President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama host a Hanukkah reception in the East Room of the White House.

4:55 p.m. EST: President Obama speaks at a “My Brother’s Keeper” Summit.

7:35 p.m. EST: President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama host another Hanukkah reception in the East Room of the White House.

Tomorrow: The American Enterprise Institute is holding a daylong event titled “This way up: Economic mobility for poor and middle-class Americans.” Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) will speak in the morning. Full agenda: http://bit.ly/2ht0ZqL

9 a.m. EST Friday: The Washington Post is hosting former House Speaker and Trump campaign surrogate Newt Gingrich for a live interview with James Hohmann.

NOW FOR THE FUN STUFF…:

Today is National Bouillabaisse Day. It’s also National Biscuits and Gravy Day.

FOR HOLIDAY PLANNING PURPOSES: Via TV Guide, here are the new TV shows and movies added to Netflix this month. Have a happy holiday, productivity! See you in January!! http://bit.ly/2hvGBVB

And because we love watching animals do human things, here’s a pig that is quite the skilled painter. Seriously! http://bit.ly/2hNKu7H

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Tags Donald Trump Michelle Obama Paul Ryan