Weekly News Roundup - 1/17/25

Biden says goodbye // Tik Tok ban moves ahead // Middle East ceasefire

Jan 18, 2025

These weekly dispatches are designed for those who may not have time to do more than glance at the headlines, or those who want to stay informed without becoming obsessed by politics and news. These roundups are a targeted way to get a sense of the shape of the past week on the national level. Without such a map, we can be disoriented, not knowing where we have been over the past several days, or where we may be going.

But by spending concentrated, limited time thinking about the big picture, we can devote more of our time to where “agency and justice begin and end,” as Karen Swallow Prior put it: “on the ground, bodily, in community and real relationships, in flesh and blood.”

Quotes of the Week

"We have to avoid the temptation to domesticate Martin Luther King Jr. It is comforting to see him only as the aspirational dreamer of a color-blind society, a vision especially reassuring to white Americans, and leave things at that. But there was a prophetic radicalness to King’s statesmanship, and a telling critique of the American political tradition, that we also must reckon with, learn from, and respond to." - Daniel Stid

"You can see in it so many of the central tenets of Trump’s approach to governance: the contempt for expertise and traditional qualifications; the insistence that the only real qualification is authenticity—and that authenticity is somehow wrapped up in performative masculinity; the belief that sounding tough and being tough are the same thing; and the conviction that complexity necessarily reduces to weakness." - Ben Wittes

"The mob is ultimately a disposition, a relation to society as a whole, an attitude, or, a phenomenological state of being, rather than a concrete social group ... The American dream, as far as they are concerned is, dead. In the view of the mob, undeserving women and minorities are hoarding all the treasure and it has to be ripped away from them. Every “normal” possibility open to them is humiliating. Only the massive windfalls of gambling and speculation seem like an honorable alternative." - John Ganz

Big Stories This Week

It was President Biden's last week in office, and he delivered his farewell address.
Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire and to the release of many hostages. It has not yet been implemented, but may be on Sunday.
The Los Angeles Wildfires continued to burn, but firefighting efforts prevented them from burning toward highly populated parts of the city and region.
The Supreme Court ruled that a ban on Tik Tok may go forward, but President Biden said he will leave the decision on whether to enforce that ban to president-elect Trump.
Several of Trump's cabinet picks began confirmation hearings before the Senate.

Week in Review

Friday, Jan. 10

Special counsel Jack Smith resigns.

Saturday, Jan. 11

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky says that Ukrainian military forces have captured two North Korean soldiers who were fighting alongside Russian forces as part of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Sunday, Jan. 12

Tens of thousands of Romanians protest in the streets against a court decision that annulled last month's presidential election.

Monday, Jan. 13

The death toll in the Los Angeles fires rises to 24 people, with more expected. Early estimates say the fires could be the costliest in U.S. history.
Special Counsel David Weiss defends his investigation of Hunter Biden as "the culmination of thorough, impartial investigations, not partisan politics." President Biden, who pardoned his sun, had criticized the investigation. So too had Republicans, who complained Weiss was not tough enough on Biden.
Starbucks says it will no longer allow non-paying customers to use restrooms or sit in its stores.

Tuesday, Jan. 14

Special Counsel Jack Smith defends his decision to bring criminal charges against President-elect Trump, and releases a final report on the investigation. The report says that Trump would have been convicted of crimes if the case had gone to trial, for making "knowingly false claims of election fraud — and the evidence shows that Mr. Trump used these lies as a weapon to defeat a federal government function foundational to the United States’ democratic process." Smith says a trial is no longer possible that Trump has been reelected president.
Lighter than expected wins in Los Angeles allow firefighters to make progress in containing the fires.
Former Fox News host Pete Hegseth appears before the Senate Armed Services Committee for a confirmation hearing. He acknowledges that he lacks the experience traditionally required to run the nation's largest military but implies that previous secretaries of defense have failed and so the U.S. should place someone "with dust on his boots" in charge. Hegseth saw combat as a National Guardsman in Iraq. It's an odd claim since many former Defense secretaries of defense have been combat veterans. For example, Trump's first secretary of Defense, James Mattis, was a retired four-star Marine General with vast fighting experience, which was then augmented by decades of serving as a senior officer in charge of large portions of the military. Hegseth has never commanded more than an infantry platoon. Hegseth also faces questions about allegations of domestic violence and sexual assault.
Hamas accepts a three-phase draft ceasefire plan that would release hostages over time in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners and an end to the fighting.

Wednesday, Jan. 15

Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
House Speaker Mike Johnson removes the Republican chair of the House Intelligence Committee, Mike Turner, who has strongly backed U.S. support for Ukraine.
President Biden, in his farewell address, issues a warning similar to Eisenhower's famous speech about the dangers of the "military industrial complex." Biden says that "an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead.”

Thursday, Jan. 16

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Trump's pick to run the Department of Homeland Security, appears before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
Trump's pick to run the Environmental Protection Agency, former New York congressman Lee Zeldin, appears before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
Interior Secretary nominee Doug Burgum appears before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

Friday, Jan. 17

The Supreme Court unanimously rules that the U.S. ban on Tik Tok is legal and may go forward. The law is set to take effect on Sunday. “There is no doubt that, for more than 170 million Americans, TikTok offers a distinctive and expansive outlet for expression, means of engagement and source of community. But Congress has determined that divestiture is necessary to address its well-supported national security concerns regarding TikTok’s data collection practices and relationship with a foreign adversary," the court says.
Trump requests that his inauguration be moved inside on Monday, due to extreme cold. The forecast for Monday is temperatures in the low 20's around noon. The last president to be sworn in was Ronald Reagan in 1985, when the temperature was around 7 degrees at midday. The coldest outdoor swearing in during the modern era was in 2009, when Barack Obama was sworn in with the temperature around 28 degrees.
A Florida jury finds CNN liable for defaming a Navy veteran in a story about his work offering help to Afghans seeking to leave their country in 2021, and awards the man $5 million in compensatory damages.
President Biden commutes the sentences of more than 2,500 people convicted of non-violent drug charges.
Israel President Benjamin Netanyahu says the ceasefire deal with Hamas has been finalized.

Interesting Reads

Couple captures dramatic start of Eaton Fire in Altadena, California, The Associated Press video
The Cult of Unqualified Authenticity, by Ben Wittes for Lawfare
How to Fix America’s Two-Party Problem, by Jesse Wegman and Lee Drutman for The New York Times
What Really Happened With the First Officer Suicide After Jan. 6, by Luke Mullins for Politico Magazine
The Commanders are a case study in toxic ownership — and its reverse, by Sally Jenkins for The Washington Post
Jimmy Carter Wasn't a Liberal, by Timothy Noah for Politico Magazine
Compass Coffee co-founders split amid claim of misspent covid funds, by Spencer S. Hsu for The Washington Post
As Zuckerberg Goes Around Whining About Biden, He Made Sure To First Get His New Approach Approved By Trump, by Mike Masnick for Techdirt
Trump is planning 100 executive orders starting Day 1 on border, deportations and other priorities, by Lisa Mascaro for The Associated Press
Trump team is questioning civil servants at National Security Council about commitment to his agenda, by Aamer Madhani and Zeke Miller for The Associated Press
The Extraordinary Defense of the Getty Museum Against the L.A. Fires, by Kelly Crow for The Wall Street Journal
The impulsive reformer, eager to set the world right, by Bonnie Kristian
Four Takeaways From the Special Counsel’s Report on the Trump Election Case, by Alan Feur and Charlie Savage for The New York Times
CNN’s really, really dumb messages, by Erik Wemple for The Washington Post
Cancer’s New Face: Younger and Female, by Roni Caryn Rabin for The New York Times
Review: ‘Severance’ Season 2 Will Blow Your Mind(s), by James Poniewozik for The New York Times
Polling is Becoming More of an Art Than a Science, by Eli McKown-Dawson for Silver Bulletin
Mark Blames Sheryl, by Casey Newton for Platformer
The New Apostolic Reformation by John Inazu for Some Assembly Required
Fourth and ‘go’: The Commanders and Lions lead an NFL revolution, by Adam Kilgore and Neil Greenberg for The Washington Post
Why are interest rates rising when the Fed has been cutting them? by Stan Choe for The Associated Press

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