The Conversation -- January 8, 2025
Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Biden acknowledged in a new interview released on Wednesday that he might not have had the vitality to serve another four years in office, even as he insisted that he could have won re-election had he stayed in the race.... Mr. Biden also confirmed in the interview that he was considering granting pre-emptive pardons to some of Mr. Trump's perceived enemies to protect them against what the incoming president has vowed will be 'retribution.' Among those known to be under consideration are figures like former Representative Liz Cheney, Republican of Wyoming, and Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, who led the response to the coronavirus pandemic. During his meeting with Mr. Trump after the election, Mr. Biden said he tried to dissuade him from pursuing his adversaries.... The interview with USA Today itself demonstrated how the White House tried to shield him from encounters that might throw him off. After four years in office, it was the first time he has ever given an interview to any reporter from a major mainstream newspaper."
Alan Feuer & Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "Federal prosecutors tacitly signaled on Wednesday that the public may never see a portion of a report by the special counsel, Jack Smith, detailing his investigation into ... Donald J. Trump's refusal to give back a trove of classified documents he took from the White House.... Mr. Trump's legal team has been fighting a pitched battle in recent days to keep the report out of the public eye. In court papers on Wednesday, the Justice Department said that Attorney General Merrick B. Garland did not intend to release the volume about the documents inquiry until legal proceedings have ended against two co-defendants who were charged along with Mr. Trump.... The case against Mr. Trump's co-defendants is likely to continue into his second term starting Jan. 20, when he could pardon the men and end the case altogether. His appointees would then have the power to continue keeping Mr. Smith's report secret....
"The Justice Department does plan to release the portion of Mr. Smith's report focusing on the election interference charges, the court papers said.In their filing to the appeals court, prosecutors said that Mr. Garland would make Mr. Smith's report about the classified documents case available to the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, except for information that is covered by a grand jury secrecy rule."
~~~ Kyle Cheney of Politico: "The Justice Department revealed Garland's decision Wednesday morning in a court filing opposing Trump's effort to block Smith from releasing his final report altogether, 'since the President-elect is no longer a defendant in any Special Counsel matter.' Both cases against Trump were dismissed after he won election ... in November, with prosecutors citing long standing DOJ policies against prosecuting a sitting president.... In the filing, prosecutors asked the 11th Circuit to overturn Cannon's order, which appears to block the release of any portion of the entire report for the time being. The Justice Department is awaiting a ruling from the 11th circuit on this request before setting a timeline for releasing the 2020 election report." ~~~
~~~ The DOJ's court filing, an "Opposition to Motion for Injunction," is here.
Trump Asks Supremes to Save Him Again. Josh Gerstein & Erica Orden of Politico: "... Donald Trump is asking the Supreme Court to halt his Friday sentencing for his hush money criminal conviction after a New York appeals court judge declined to intervene. Trump's lawyers filed an emergency application with the high court early Wednesday after the New York appeals court on Tuesday turned down his request to indefinitely postpone the sentencing.... The trial court judge scheduled to sentence Trump on Friday, Justice Juan Merchan, has indicated he doesn't plan to send Trump to jail and will permit him to attend the proceeding virtually. Still, Trump's lawyers told the Supreme Court that the sentencing will result in 'burden, disruption, stigma, and distraction' to him as he carries out his duties as president-elect. A spokesperson for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office prosecuted the case against Trump, said: 'We will respond in court papers.'" ~~~
~~~ Marie: Right. It's a stigma and a distraction. And a burden on accounta Trump can't handle two things at once. He can't handle one thing at once. ~~~
~~~ Ben Protess & Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "Mr. Trump argues that he is entitled to full immunity from prosecution, and even sentencing, now that he is the president-elect. His lawyers have based that claim on a Supreme Court ruling last year that granted former presidents broad immunity for official acts.... A Supreme Court stay might scuttle Mr. Trump's sentencing for good." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Lisa Rubin pointed out on MSNBC that the Justice who would handle a New York request for a stay is Sonia Sotomayor. Although Rubin speculated that Sotomayor will likely hand the motion over to the full Court for a decision, she has the power to just tell Trump to faggedaboudit. Lordy, I hope she does.
Jonathan Chait of the Atlantic: "Since winning a second presidential term, Donald Trump has made a curious pivot to a kind of performative imperialism.... This time around... , we cannot simply assume that Trump's most harebrained schemes will fizzle.... Trump has long insisted that the United States should seize smaller countries' natural resources, and that American allies should be paying us protection money, as if they were shopkeepers and America were a mob boss.... [Also,] Trump seems to grasp the need for public dramas to entertain the MAGA base. Spectacles of domination play an important role in Trump's political style.... Trump could very well blunder from performative imperialism into a live shooting war.... More likely, he will antagonize allies and provoke voters in those countries to elevate nationalist leaders of their own who will stand up to the United States rather than cooperate with it." Thanks to laura h. for this gift link. (If it doesn't work, the link her comment in today's thread does work.) ~~~
~~~ Jamey Keaten & Vanessa Gera of the AP: "Don Jr. and my Reps landing in Greenland,' [Donald the Larger] Trump wrote. 'The reception has been great. They, and the Free World, need safety, security, strength, and PEACE! This is a deal that must happen. MAGA. MAKE GREENLAND GREAT AGAIN!' Supporters later posted video of Trump speaking by phone to locals. In a statement, Greenland's government said Donald Trump Jr.'s visit was taking place 'as a private individual' and not as an official visit, and Greenlandic representatives would not meet with him."
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Peter Baker of the New York Times: "The nation's leaders on Tuesday kicked off three days of tributes to Jimmy Carter, staging an elaborate pageant of Washington fanfare for a politician who disavowed the trappings of the imperial presidency and never gave up his humble Georgia roots. Mr. Carter, who died last week at age 100, was flown to Washington and taken to the U.S. Navy Memorial downtown, then delivered to the Capitol by a horse-drawn caisson. He will lie in state in the Rotunda all day Wednesday before a formal state funeral at Washington National Cathedral on Thursday.... The 39th president's flag-draped coffin was carried into the Rotunda by military bearers and placed on the same catafalque that once bore the bodies of Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy. All four of Mr. Carter's children -- Jack, Chip, Jeff and Amy -- stood nearby, as did various grandchildren and other relatives, their faces a mix of sorrow and appreciation. During the course of the long day's journey from Atlanta to Washington, military bands played 'Hail to the Chief' no fewer than five times for a president who initially barred the song from being played at all when he was sworn in as president in January 1977.... At three of the stops on Tuesday, a 21-gun salute was fired in Mr. Carter's honor. A series of honor guards and military bands participated in the various events. The procession to the Capitol included a riderless horse with boots backward in the stirrups, a traditional military ritual symbolizing a fallen leader reviewing his troops for the final time." This is an update of a story linked yesterday. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Yesterday I remarked that Donald Trump could not be invited to speak at the Rotunda -- as were Republican leaders John Thune & Mike Johnson -- because Trump does not know how to comport himself. Sure enough, Baker writes of the tributes Thune & Johnson paid to Carter, "The grace demonstrated by the Republican congressional leaders stood in contrast to the incoming president of their party, Donald J. Trump, who just a few hours earlier had criticized one of Mr. Carter's signature achievements and accused him of selling out the United States to foreign interests." AND, as Zolan Kanno-Youngs wrote in the liveblog of Trump's press ramble linked below, "Trump is asked why he would criticize Jimmy Carter's Panama Canal deal on the day the former president will lie in state at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. Trump says he mentioned it because he was asked about Panama by reporters. Trump actually brought up Panama himself in his opening remarks."
~~~ Not So Much Anymore. Matthew Brown of the AP: "The Biden administration on Tuesday abruptly dropped its nascent plan to protect old-growth forests after getting pushback from Republicans and the timber industry. The move was announced by U.S. Forest Service Chief Randy Moore in a letter to forest supervisors. It brings a sudden end to a yearslong process to craft a nationwide plan that would better protect old trees that are increasingly threatened by climate change. The effort had been supported by some conservationists as one of the most significant forest preservation efforts in decades. President Joe Biden launched the initiative with an executive order on Earth Day in April 2022. The proposal went through extensive public comment periods and internal analyses by government officials and was due to be finalized any day. The plan would have limited logging in old-growth forests, with exceptions to allow logging in some old-growth areas to protect against wildfires."
David Sanger & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump refused on Tuesday to rule out the use of military or economic coercion to force Panama to give up control of the canal that America built more than a century ago and to push Denmark to sell Greenland to the United States. In a rambling, hourlong news conference, Mr. Trump repeatedly returned to the theme of American sacrifice in building the canal and accused China, falsely, of operating it today." This is a liveblog. See yesterday's Conversation for many of the entries. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Sanger & Shear's full report on the press ramble is here. The UPI report is here. ~~~
~~~ David Sanger of the New York Times: "There was talk of the rising number of beached whales in Massachusetts, the victim, [Donald Trump] ... said, of those windmills that have been erected off the coast. They 'are driving the whales crazy, obviously.' There was a vow to rename the Gulf of Mexico, by presidential decree, to the 'Gulf of America.' And then there was ... [his] refusal to rule out using military force to seize the 51-mile Panama Canal on national security grounds, along with the 836,000 square miles of Greenland, the world's largest island.... As the man who will be president again spun out threats and angry denouncements of the Biden administration and personal grievances for more than an hour on Tuesday in the living room of his Mar-a-Lago club..., the chaotic stream-of-consciousness presidency ... was back.... Mr. Trump has returned to our daily national cognizance, even though one could argue he never really left. Tuesday's news conference was a reminder of what that was like, and what the next four years may have in store." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Writing at about the same time Sanger was, likely before the publication of his piece, RAS expressed precisely the same sentiment. See the end of yesterday's Comments. ~~~
Marie: Thus struck me, too, as it likely did you: ~~~
~~~ Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: Donald Trump "just left open using a military threat against a NATO ally, Greenland. And NATO rules require an attack on any member to be treated as an attack on them all. That's certainly no small thing, even if it's just Trump being Trump. Trump was asked at a news conference Tuesday whether he would rule out using 'military or economic coercion' to take Greenland and the Panama Canal, both of which he has suggested he would like to claim for the United States. And his response, twice, was that he wouldn't rule it out.... The exchange is the latest ratcheting up of Trump's increasingly imperialistic entreaties.... Generally speaking, it's understood that NATO countries would defend one another in such a situation. In other words, Trump is at least rhetorically leaving open the possibility of a situation that could result in NATO going to war with itself." ~~~
~~~ So Then. Reuters: "The European Union will not let other nations attack its sovereign borders, France's foreign minister said on Wednesday, responding to comments by ... Donald Trump on taking over Greenland. Trump declined on Monday to rule out military or economic action as part of his avowed desire to have the U.S. take control of Greenland, as well as the Panama Canal. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said he did not believe the U.S. would invade the vast Arctic island that has been part of Denmark for over 600 years. 'There is obviously no question that the European Union would let other nations of the world attack its sovereign borders, whoever they are,' he told France Inter radio. 'We are a strong continent.'" ~~~
~~~ Maybe M. Barrot should have checked in with Fox "News" before he started getting all belligerent about Greenland. There's a history there, see? The link is to a post by digby, supplied by Akhilleus, whose commentary below provides all the reportage necessary. (It's kind of amazing that Conan O'Brien's discussion with Anderson Cooper (see yesterday's Conversation) was more informative than Fox "News"'s discussion. And O'Brien's remarks were intentionally funny; the Fox folks just can't help it.
We're going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, which has a beautiful ring. That covers a lot of territory, the Gulf of America. What a beautiful name. And it's appropriate. It's appropriate. And Mexico has to stop allowing millions of people to pour into our country. -- Donald Trump, at a press ramble yesterday ~~~
~~~ Kathryn Watson of CBS News: "... Donald Trump says he plans to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the 'Gulf of America,' calling the move 'appropriate' and criticizing Mexico for the migrants crossing the U.S. southern border.... Trump ally Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia said she would introduce legislation to that effect on Thursday morning.... It's not immediately clear whether Trump has the authority to alter the name for U.S. use, although a push by both him and Republicans in Congress could change U.S. governmental references." ~~~
~~~ Meg Kinnard of the AP attempts to answer the question "Can he do that?" but fails. "The International Hydrographic Organization -- of which both the United States and Mexico are members -- works to ensure all the world's seas, oceans and navigable waters are surveyed and charted uniformly, and also names some of them. There are instances where countries refer to the same body of water or landmark by different names in their own documentation." Maegan Vazquez of the Washington Post has a different non-answer. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Renaming is tricky, even when the new name is imposed by entities with the authority to do so. New York City Mayor Fiorello La Guardia & the city council renamed Sixth Avenue to Avenue of the Americas in 1945. They clearly had the authority to do so. But 80 years later millions of New Yorkers still call that street Sixth Avenue. Anybody who thinks Mexico and Cuba (much less Mexicans & Cubans) will go along with Trump's proposal have another think coming.
⭐Eric Lipton, et al., of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump was at the lectern talking through the approaching inauguration of his second term. But across the ballroom at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., was a display of the extraordinary way that his family business interests are now fully mixed with his plans for governance of the United States. Mr. Trump opened the unusual news conference on Tuesday by introducing Hussain Sajwani, the founder and chairman of DAMAC Properties, a Dubai-based real estate firm that partnered with the Trump family a decade ago to build the first Trump-branded golf course in the Middle East. Now, Mr. Trump said, DAMAC is planning to invest billions of dollars in the United States to build data centers, with the help of Mr. Trump and the federal government, even while DAMAC continues its role as a Trump business partner. There too in the room at Mar-a-Lago was Steve Witkoff, who is in business with a new crypto company called World Liberty Financial that both Mr. Trump and his sons helped start. Mr. Witkoff, while still working with the crypto company, is already serving as Mr. Trump's Middle East envoy, and Mr. Witkoff provided an update from the stage on efforts to release Israeli hostages held in Gaza." Eric Trump, who has his fingers in many a pie, some of a Middle East flavor, was there, too. And leave us not forget Jared, who was not in the room. "The scale of overlap between Mr. Trump's family members and their business interests, and the government he will lead, all showcased on the same day, underscores how unprecedented the second Trump presidency and the potential for conflicts of interest will be." ~~~
~~~ Marie: No, no, this is not about a "potential" for conflicts of interest. It is about on-going conflicts of interest. Trump was giving "news" ramble in the guise of president*-elect while at the same time advertising his own business interests as if they were Trump steaks or Trump wine or Trump made-in-China ties. Reporters must have been disappointed they didn't get a bit of bling as one usually does at such commercial events.
Daniel Barnes & Dareh Gregorian of NBC News: "The federal judge who oversaw the classified documents case against ... Donald Trump issued an order Tuesday temporarily blocking the release of special counsel Jack Smith's report on his investigation. The injunction lasts until three days after the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rules on a pending request to block the release of the report over a separate matter involving Trump co-defendants Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira. Lawyers for Nauta and De Oliveira filed a motion Monday night asking U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to block the report, citing the judge's previous ruling that Smith's appointment was unconstitutional.... Despite no longer being a defendant in the case, attorneys for Trump filed a motion with Cannon on Tuesday asking her to step in." Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ The New York Times story is here. MB: IMO, the NYT report is more helpful in explaining how Cannon's decision colors way outside the lines, so far, in fact, that she has ruled on the D.C. case, which Judge Tanya Chutkan is overseeing.
Alan Feuer, et al., of the New York Times: Donald Trump's "defense lawyers ... Todd Blanche and Emil Bove ... accused the special counsel [Jack Smith] of unethical and improper behavior in his prosecutions of their client.... [The] aggressive posture [of a letter they wrote this week to the Justice Department] was all the more fraught and remarkable because Mr. Blanche and Mr. Bove are now poised to assume senior positions in Mr. Trump's Justice Department, where they could soon have a say in how to evaluate -- or even punish -- Mr. Smith and his deputies. There is no precedent for a situation in which a former president's criminal defense lawyers go almost overnight from representing him against the federal government to being high-ranking officials in an administration led by that same client -- one who has regularly signaled that he wants to use the Justice Department to mete out retribution against his perceived opponents." A story about the person who will be Blanche & Bove's boss is linked below.
Transactional Pam. Eric Lipton & Kate Kelly of the New York Times: "Pam Bondi, whom ... Donald J. Trump intends to nominate as attorney general, received trips and donations funded by those seeking favors from her [when she was Florida's attorney general].... While she was Florida's attorney general, Ms. Bondi became known for what one lobbying firm called her 'business-friendly' attitude. She and her staff agreed to meet with a steady stream of lawyers whose clients ... had been targeted by other states for investigations, a New York Times review of her work found. Then, in her time as a lobbyist, which began in early 2019, Ms. Bondi represented a long roster of corporate clients, including Uber and Amazon. Many of these companies have business with the federal government -- and could be subject to scrutiny by a Justice Department run by her, raising questions about potential conflicts of interest. The client list in recent years has also included foreign entities that have tried to leverage Ms. Bondi's influence and connections...."
The Collaborators, Ctd.
Marie: Yesterday, I linked a New York Times Business item about Jeff Bezos' Amazon Prime featuring a "documentary" about Melania Trump, which Trump herself is producing. (First, can we establish that it's not a "documentary" if you produce it yourself and have any control over content. It's a "vanity project." Then there's this: ~~~
~~~ John Dorman of Business Insider, via Yahoo! News: "Amazon will reportedly shell out $40 million to license a documentary on incoming first lady Melania Trump. The price tag includes the film itself, a smaller-scale theatrical run before being featured on Prime Video, and a supplementary docuseries.... Melania Trump will be an executive producer on the projects.... It's unclear how much the incoming first lady will be paid." IOW, as RAS pointed out in yesterday's Comments, Jeff Bezos is just throwing millions of dollars at Melanie. ~~~
~~~ Marie: But here's an odd thing. Bezos himself has gone through the most expensive divorce in U.S. history, & a messy one at that. Bezos claimed that the National Enquirer, which perhaps not coincidentally has ties to Donald Trump, attempted to extort him over Bezos' racy text messaging with a woman the tabloid later reported he was having an affair with. There is ample reporting of evidence that Donald & Melanie have, at best, a testy relationship, and there has been much speculation that Melanie would divorce Trump if it were to her advantage to do so. So I'm wondering why Jeff thinks giving Melanie the means to have her way is a good idea. Is this Jeff's signal to Donald that "Yes, you can do things to annoy me, but I can ruin your life, too"?
Siva Vaidhyanathan in a Guardian op-ed: "Mark Zuckerberg seems to have gone full Maga. Just two weeks before Donald Trump assumes power over the world's most powerful government, the CEO and founder of the most powerful collection of Internet companies has decided to capitalize on what is sure to be a large and fast retreat from accountability and regulatory curbs on corporate negligence. Some might read Zuckerberg's announcement on Tuesday that he will end the eight-year project to protect users from hatred, threats, harassment and violent imagery as an example of pandering to the president-elect's own power or Elon Musk's new role as regulatory consigliere to Trump. That would get him wrong. Zuckerberg is reverting to his core beliefs because of opportunity, not aligning himself with Trump out of fear.... [He] is firmly committed to the principle that he knows better than the rest of us and that his company's services are good for us.... Zuckerberg's self-regard is beyond limits.... Zuckerberg is using Trump, not the other way around." ~~~
~~~ As if to prove he has no shame ~~~
~~~ Andy Hoffman & Kurt Wagner of Bloomberg News, reprinted in the Toronto Sun: "Mark Zuckerberg wore a rare Swiss watch worth about $900,000 in a video explaining his company's decision to end third-party fact checking on its social media platforms in the U.S." ~~~`
~~~ Marie: Why are Facebook & TikTok & such called "social media" anyway? What could be more "anti-social" than sitting siloed in a small room slouched over a tiny, glowing screen, with which you use all of your being to concentrate on and communicate with sometimes artificial people, often people you don't know, and almost always people from whom you are separated. Many times, you do not ask for or anticipate a reply, so you are essentially talking to yourself, yet may not be trying to get at your inner self as one might when writing a diary. I don't think what we call social media have created an unnatural form of expression, but they are more "anti-social" than "social," IMO.
Arno Rosenfeld of the Forward: "The Heritage Foundation plans to 'identify and target' volunteer editors on Wikipedia who it says are 'abusing their position' by publishing content the group believes to be antisemitic, according to documents obtained by the Forward. Employees of Heritage, the conservative think tank that produced the Project 2025 policy blueprint for the second Trump administration, said they plan to use facial recognition software and a database of hacked usernames and passwords in order to identify contributors to the online encyclopedia, who mostly work under pseudonyms. It's not clear exactly what kind of antisemitism the Wikipedia effort, which has not been previously reported, is intended to address. But in recent months some Jewish groups have complained about a series of changes on the website relating to Israel, the war in Gaza and its repercussions."
Timothy Snyder on Substack: In Great Britain, "the party in opposition ... appointed its own leading members to 'shadow' each government minister, including the prime minister.... The shadow ministers 'shadowed' the actual ministers, in the sense of following their every move, criticizing policy and offering alternatives. Importantly, the shadow minister was always available to offer commentary to the press on his or her area of expertise.... At any point a journalist, and thus the public, had access to an alternative point of view, one which was both pertinently expert and politically relevant.... In two weeks, the same man [who tried to violently overthrow the government four years ago] will be inaugurated president of the United States, this time with a centibillionaire as the unelected de facto head of government and with anti-qualified anti-patriots as his cabinet nominees.... The Democratic Party ... [should] form a shadow cabinet.... A shadow cabinet would remind us of how much better things can be." Thanks to RAS for the link. MB: Sounds to me like an excellent idea. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: There are open questions, like (1) Who would "appoint" the shadow cabinet? (2) Would there be a shadow president*? (3) Who would appoint her? (4) Would the DNC pay the shadow Cabinet members? (5) Would the shadow Cabinet meet to discuss issues? (6) How would people in the shadow Cabinet be dismissed? And so forth. Something would have to be established (and modified) in a quasi-formal manner.
Kate Selig of the New York Times: "An Army doctor pleaded guilty in a military court on Tuesday to sexually assaulting dozens of his patients, bringing one of the military's largest sex abuse cases closer to resolution. The doctor, Maj. Michael Stockin, who is currently serving at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington State, was accused of touching or viewing the genitals of 41 of his male patients under the guise of medical treatment between 2019 and 2022, according to court documents. At a hearing on Tuesday, he admitted to 36 counts of abusive sexual contact and five of indecent viewing, according to Michelle McCaskill, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Army Office of Special Trial Counsel."
Hiroko Tabuchi of the New York Times: "... wastewater, even after treatment, contains high levels of harmful 'forever chemicals' that are already contaminating the drinking water of millions of Americans, researchers said in a study published on Monday that analyzed wastewater samples nationwide. The study, led by researchers at Harvard and New York University, found elevated levels of six types of chemicals known as PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, in the samples. The chemicals, which have been linked to cancer and other diseases, are known as forever chemicals because they don't break down in the environment. Last year, the Environmental Protection Agency started to regulate PFAS in drinking water. The researchers found that the samples contained an even greater quantity of organofluorines, a wider group of chemicals that includes PFAS and is used in pharmaceuticals, refrigerants, and nonstick coatings. The majority of those chemicals are unregulated and the health consequences of exposure to many of them are still unknown."
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North Carolina Supreme Court Election. Patrick Marley & Colby Itkowitz of the Washington Post: "Republicans on the North Carolina Supreme Court blocked state officials Tuesday from certifying the reelection of one of their Democratic colleagues and signaled they would decide within weeks whether to throw out tens of thousands of ballots. The move could change the election results and strengthen the GOP's control of the swing state's high court. It comes two months after Justice Allison Riggs (D) eked out a 734-vote victory over Jefferson Griffin, a Republican who sits on the state court of appeals. After the election, Griffin challenged about 60,000 ballots cast by voters who have not provided election officials with their driver's license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number. Democrats who control the state elections board rejected his arguments last month, and Griffin asked the state Supreme Court to prevent the elections board from including those ballots in its final tally. On Tuesday, the court issued a brief order barring the elections board from certifying the results. It said it will accept briefs on the case through Jan. 24." The NBC News story is here.
Virginia Local Elections. Reid Epstein of the New York Times: "Democrats on Tuesday held two key state legislative seats in Virginia, retaining their majorities in the General Assembly in the first special elections since ... Donald J. Trump won back the White House. The results were expected in overlapping House of Delegates and State Senate districts in Loudoun County, a Washington suburb. Democrats have traditionally occupied the seats, which became vacant when the local state senator was elected to Congress and the delegate subsequently resigned to run to replace him."
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Iran/Italy. Emma Bubola of the New York Times: "Cecilia Sala, an Italian journalist who was detained last month in Iran while on a reporting trip, was released and on her way back to Italy on Wednesday, the Italian government said in a statement.... Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy called Ms. Sala's parents on Wednesday to tell them that she was returning, according to the government statement.... Ms. Sala, 29, had been held for 20 days and told her family that she was kept in an isolation cell, with only two blankets and constant light, her family has said.... Ms. Sala, who had a journalist visa, was arrested on Dec. 19 on charges of violating the laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran, but officials there did not provide any further details."
South Korea. Choe Sang-Hun of the New York Times: "South Korea's Presidential Security Service, an agency assigned to protect the president..., is now at the heart of South Korea's biggest political mess in decades, acting as a final line of defense to prevent criminal investigators from detaining President Yoon Suk Yeol on charges of insurrection.... A majority of South Koreans, according to surveys, want him ousted and arrested, and a court on Tuesday granted investigators a new warrant to detain him. The only thing standing between them and Mr. Yoon is the ... P.S.S., which blocked the first attempt to serve the warrant last Friday. When 100 criminal investigators and police officers showed up at his residence, the agency's staff outnumbered them two-to-one and held them off, questioning the legality of the court-issued document.... Under Mr. Yoon, [the P.S.S.] began attracting unsavory attention from the public as its agents dragged away protesters during public events.... Its roots are in the era of military dictatorships."
Sudan. Katharine Houreld of the Washington Post: "The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces is committing genocide in Sudan, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday, and the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned its chief, Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, in a sharp departure from U.S. policy that has treated both sides as equally culpable for one of the world's most brutal conflicts.... The war between the RSF and Sudan's military has plunged parts of the nation of 50 million into a spreading famine, created the world's largest refugee crisis and sucked in fighters from neighboring nations. The death toll is unknown -- large parts of the country have no internet or phone network -- but U.S. officials estimated last year that about 150,000 people had been killed."
News Ledes
⭐New York Times: "Terrifying scenes played out across Southern California early Wednesday as multiple wildfires grew at dizzying speeds in a fierce windstorm, covering cities in smoke, whipping up storms of embers and turning the sky red. Already anticipating devastating losses, officials have warned that the worst is still to come, with increasingly wild winds expected to fuel the out-of-control blazes and hamper firefighters into Wednesday. An unknown number of homes have been destroyed along the scenic coast, and at least 30,000 residents have been forced to evacuate, with evacuation zones growing hour by hour. Hundreds of structures will most likely be lost, said Traci Park, the Los Angeles city councilwoman whose district includes Pacific Palisades, the site of the biggest fire." This is a liveblog.
New York Times: "Peter Yarrow, whose caring and righteous vocals for the trio Peter, Paul and Mary helped establish them as one of the most popular folk acts of the 1960s, died on Tuesday at his home on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. He was 86."
New York Times: "Two bodies were discovered in the landing gear compartment of a JetBlue plane on Monday after a flight from New York to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., the airline said in a statement on Tuesday."
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