I'm Alex Marlow, editor-in-chief of Bright Bart News, and this is the Brightbart News Daily podcast.

We begin today's show, recapping my Christmas with my small

family and some life lessons that came from it. And I'm pleased to say that Santa didn't only

go to Ukraine this year. I actually came to my house, which was really nice. I was kind of surprised by

that, but very relieved. And so were the kids. But I break it down and it's a, I think, a enriching conversation.

Then we get into the news with Rand Paul's annual festivist list of government waste, and it is

as appalling as usual. And then we get to Governor Abbott's big gift for Kamala Harris.

Over 100 illegal aliens. What all of us wanted for Christmas I know is at the top of my list.

Of course, we touch on a few other headlines before we speak to John Hayward, our deputy world editor.

We cover a lot of ground with him, including a massive surge in coronavirus in China, but miraculously, no deaths, allegedly.

Christian persecution on the rise around the world, and even his theory on why Avatar 2 is not doing particularly well at the box office.

So he is a really bright guy.

And you will hear if you stick around to the interview portion of the show.

Let's get into it.

Thank you. I will start by mentioning some Christmas stuff.

And I'm going to start by repeating a story that I actually told during my

conversation with Emma Joe Morris on, I think it was last Friday before Christmas.

But people who listened to the podcast and listened to the beginning of the show would have missed it.

And I will not try to recreate it exactly.

But it was a profound thing because I was having a conversation with my, okay, very strange echo my ear.

It's always, uh, there's always a few hiccups here going on.

That was fixed right away, though.

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