By
Today’s edition of quick hits.
* In the Middle East: “The U.N. agency responsible for administering aid to Gaza said that the first full day of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas was running smoothly, with hostages and prisoners returning home, and aid trucks entering the Gaza Strip.”
* Ongoing political tumult in Seoul: “South Korea’s impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol refused on Monday to be questioned as part of an investigation into whether he committed insurrection, as dozens of his supporters faced arrest over a violent rampage on a court building. Authorities said security was being beefed up at the Seoul Detention Center where Yoon is being held as a pre-trial inmate and at the Constitutional Court, which is holding an impeachment trial to decide whether to permanently remove him from office.”
* The 5th Circuit continues to act like the 5th Circuit: “A federal appeals court on Friday ruled against an Obama-era program that has shielded hundreds of thousands of undocumented people from deportation. But in its decision on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA, the three-judge panel stopped short of allowing current beneficiaries to be deported and said it was staying its decision to allow the ruling to be appealed.”
* Obeying in advance: “As the second presidency of Donald J. Trump begins, America’s largest banks and asset managers have abandoned one of the most overt symbols of their commitment to reaching green goals: climate action networks.”
* The debt ceiling clock is ticking: “Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen told Congress on Friday that on Jan. 21 the Treasury Department will have to begin using ‘extraordinary measures’ to prevent the United States from defaulting on its debt. The warning was likely one of Ms. Yellen’s final acts as Treasury secretary before the Trump administration assumes power at noon on Monday.”
* Remember when taxpayers weren’t forced to finance private religious education? In much of the country, those days are over: “The risks of universal vouchers are quickly coming to light. An initiative that was promoted for years as a civil rights cause — helping poor kids in troubled schools — is threatening to become a nationwide money grab.”
* A notable Biden pardon from the weekend: “President Joe Biden on Sunday posthumously pardoned Black nationalist Marcus Garvey, who influenced Malcolm X and other civil rights leaders and was convicted of mail fraud in the 1920s. Also receiving pardons were a top Virginia lawmaker and advocates for immigrant rights, criminal justice reform and gun violence prevention.”
* A notable Biden commutation from Inauguration Day: “Joe Biden, in one of his final acts as president Monday, commuted the life sentence of Native American rights activist Leonard Peltier, who was convicted of killing two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and of escaping from federal prison. Peltier, who is 80 years old, has been imprisoned for almost five decades. He has been in declining health in recent years from diabetes, hypertension, partial blindness from a stroke and bouts of Covid.”
* Cecile Richards, RIP: “Cecile Richards, a women’s rights activist and former president of Planned Parenthood, has died at 67, her family said. ... She was diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer, in 2023, she revealed to The Cut last year.”
See you tomorrow.