Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Major developments in Syria: “Thousands of people have fled the Syrian city of Homs as rebel fighters pushed further south with their rapid assault on government forces, a leading monitoring group said. If the strategically important municipality were to fall, it would leave three of the country’s five largest cities in the hands of the forces led by the militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and no major cities between rebel forces and the Syrian capital of Damascus.”
* The latest in Seoul: “The head of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s governing party on Friday signaled more openness to his removal as president for plunging the key U.S. ally into chaos with a short-lived declaration of martial law, reversing his position the day before an impeachment vote.”
* A long-awaited ruling: “A panel of three federal appeals court judges ruled unanimously Friday to uphold a law that could potentially ban TikTok in the United States. The legislation, passed in April by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden, requires TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, to sell it to an American owner by Jan. 19, 2025, or face an effective ban.”
* Expect regression on many fronts: “Donald Trump’s transition team is considering canceling the United States Postal Service’s contracts to electrify its delivery fleet, as part of a broader suite of executive orders targeting electric vehicles, according to three sources familiar with the plans.”
* A story I’ve been following: “House Republicans on Thursday deflected two separate attempts by Democrats to force the release of an ethics report into allegations of sexual misconduct and illicit drug use by former Rep. Matt Gaetz. Reps. Sean Casten of Illinois and Steve Cohen of Tennessee both gave notice earlier in the week that they intended to raise the topic as a privileged question on the floor, triggering a vote. Both did so Thursday, but were batted aside in mostly party-line votes.”
* A dispute worth watching: “Officials in Memphis reiterated on Thursday that the city would not immediately agree to negotiate an overhaul of the Memphis Police Department with the federal government, with Mayor Paul Young warning that doing so could be ‘bureaucratic and costly.’” * I will miss Krugman’s fine work, which has inspired and influenced me throughout my adult life: “After nearly 25 years as a New York Times Opinion columnist, Paul Krugman announced Friday that he plans to retire from the gig at the end of the year. … Times’ Opinion editor Kathleen Kingsbury hailed Krugman’s ‘authoritative voice’ and ‘lively writing’ in a parting memo, praising his ability to clearly lead readers through what can often be a dense thicket of economic ideas.” * The president-elect apparently didn’t feel the need to repeat the many anti-Fox comments he published online ahead of Election Day: “Fox News stars feted Donald Trump at the annual Fox Nation Patriot Awards here on Thursday night, and the president-elect praised the ‘incredible people at Fox’ as he accepted an award as ‘Honorary Patriot of the Year’ from the most powerful force in cable television news.” Have a safe weekend.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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