Today’s edition of quick hits.
* In the Middle East: “Israel’s Cabinet will meet tomorrow to vote on the ceasefire and hostage release deal with Hamas, after claiming a delay was due to Hamas creating a ‘last-minute crisis.’ Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office did not elaborate on what the issue was.”
* Some progress in California: “Santa Ana winds have died down across the Greater Los Angeles area, helping firefighters bring almost 40,000 acres of ongoing wildfires under control.”
* I found it fascinating that Biden used his farewell address to, among other things, deliver some pointed warnings about the near future: “President Joe Biden’s farewell address Wednesday came with a series of warnings for the future of the country, among them that a rising ‘oligarchy taking shape’ threatens American democracy.”
* A case we’ve been following: “Rudy Giuliani has reached a settlement agreement with the former Georgia election workers he owed almost $150 million to, according to a court filing Thursday.”
* Musk, Bezos and Zuckerberg will have some company on the inaugural platform: “TikTok CEO Shou Chew has been invited to and is expected to attend President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration Monday, according to three sources familiar with the matter, two of whom are Trump transition officials. Chew was invited by the president-elect’s team and will sit on the dais in front of the Capitol where Trump will be sworn in as president.”
* Trade Policy 101: Tariffs lead to retaliatory tariffs: “The Canadian government is preparing billions of dollars in retaliatory measures on U.S. exports to Canada if President-elect Donald J. Trump makes good on a threat to impose tariffs on Canadian goods, setting up a potential showdown between two countries that are each other’s largest trading partners.” * Quite a scene in Atlanta: “A Georgia state senator who was previously banned from the state House chamber was arrested Thursday when he tried to enter the chamber for the governor’s state of the state speech and got into a shoving match with House employees. State Sen. Colton Moore, a Republican from Trenton, is among the chamber’s most right-wing members. He signaled Wednesday that he would seek a showdown when he called House Speaker Jon Burns, a fellow Republican, a ‘tyrant’ on social media.” * As someone who has long loved the Post, it’s hard not to worry about its future: “After Donald J. Trump entered the White House in 2017, The Washington Post adopted a slogan that underscored the newspaper’s traditional role as a government watchdog: ‘Democracy Dies in Darkness.’ This week, as Mr. Trump prepares to re-enter the White House, the newspaper debuted a mission statement that evokes a more expansive view of The Post’s journalism, without death or darkness: ‘Riveting Storytelling for All of America.’” See you tomorrow.
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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