Trumpet Hour: Week in Review—Merkel Person of the Year, Troops in Syria, UN Futility, al Qaeda’s New Recruit and More

• Who’s the person of the year—the most influential person on Earth for 2015? Time magazine says Angela Merkel. We’ll talk about why that’s probably a correct choice—but for a very different reason than Time thinks.

• The situation in Syria gets more complicated. Iran is actually retreating, pulling its elite fighters from the campaign there—and some analysts say Germany might be forced to commit ground troops in Syria.

• The United Nations wants to punish North Korea for human rights violations—but two Security Council members with veto power say absolutely not. More evidence of UN futility.

• Al Qaeda released a new video—and guess what, we recognize one of the guys in it: He’s a former Guantanamo prisoner that America let go!