January 15, 2025

MIDDLE EAST | Updates from regional conflicts:

• Hamas has reportedly accepted a draft agreement for a cease-fire and hostage-exchange deal with Israel, while Israeli authorities say there are still details to be finalized. The 42-day first phase of the agreement would see a limited exchange of Hamas-held hostages and Israel-held Palestinian prisoners, as well as a halt to active fighting in Gaza. [more]
• During a visit to Norway yesterday, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa reiterated his view that the Palestinian Authority should oversee Gaza following the Israel-Hamas conflict and said “any attempt to consolidate the separation between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, or creating transitional entities, will be rejected.” [more]

UKRAINE | Today is day 1056 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here are your updates:

• Russia targeted Ukrainian gas and energy infrastructure overnight, launching 43 missiles and 74 drones at targets across Ukraine. Reports say Ukrainian authorities were forced to shut down the power grids in some regions due to damage from the attack. [more]
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he and French President Emmanuel Macron have discussed the possibility of deploying Western troops to Ukraine to safeguard any peace deal that could be reached to end the nearly three-year-old war with Russia. [more]

CALIFORNIA | A state of emergency remains in place in and around Los Angeles, California, as firefighters continue to battle blazes that have killed 25 people over the past week. Meteorologists say windy and dry conditions are expected to continue in the region through the end of the week, increasing the risk of new and spreading wildfires. [more]

U.S. ECONOMY | Economist surveyed by data firm FactSet predict that Labor Department data due out later today will show that U.S. consumer inflation rose 2.8% in December, compared to the year-ago period, which would be a 0.1% increase from November and the third-straight monthly rise. According to data released yesterday, producer inflation rose 0.2% in December, compared to the previous month. [more]

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION | President-elect Donald Trump said yesterday that he intends to create a new “External Revenue Service” agency to collect tariffs and other revenue from other nations. Reports note that the creation of an official government agency requires an act of Congress and that Trump’s Republican Party holds majorities in both the House and Senate. [more]

U.S. PORNOGRAPHY REGULATION | Two days after a panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowed a similar law to take effect in Tennessee, the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments today in a challenge to a Texas law that mandates age verification for users of pornographic websites. [more]

U.S. BANKING | The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sued banking giant Capital One yesterday, alleging that the financial company misled consumers about its high-interest savings accounts, thereby “cheating” customers out of more than $2 billion in interest payments. [more]

U.S. MORTGAGES | According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, the average interest rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage in the U.S. rose to an eight-week high of 7.09% for the week ended January 10 – the fifth-straight weekly rise and a full percentage point above rates seen in September. [more]

U.S. AND CUBA | U.S. President Joe Biden announced plans to remove Cuba from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism yesterday. The move is reported to be part of a deal facilitated by the Catholic Church to free political prisoners in the Caribbean island nation. [more]

SOUTH KOREA | Impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol was arrested by South Korea’s anti-corruption agency today amidst ongoing investigations and court proceedings surrounding his short-lived imposition of martial law in December. In a video message recorded prior to his arrest, Yoon said that the rule of law has collapsed in South Korea and that he complied with the arrest action in order to prevent violence. [more]

HAITI | The U.N.’s International Organization for Migration says that the number of Haitians internally displaced due to rampant gang violence tripled in 2024, surpassing one million people. The agency notes that children make up more than half of those displaced in the Caribbean nation. [press release] [more]

TANZANIA | World Health Organization officials say a suspected outbreak of Marburg disease in northern Tanzania has killed at least eight people and that its risk assessment for the outbreak is high for national and regional levels, but low globally. [more]

GERMANY | Ahead of next month’s elections in which the economy is the main issue, official data released today shows that Germany’s economy shrank for the second consecutive year in 2024, contracting at a rate of 0.2%. [more]

TENNIS | With his second-round match today at the Australian Open, Novak Djokovic played his record-setting 430th Grand Slam match, surpassing the record previously held by Roger Federer. [more]

SPACE | Two lunar landers – one for a U.S. company and one for a Japanese firm – were launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center aboard a SpaceX rocket overnight. Mission planners say it will be 2-5 months before the landers attempt to touch down on the moon. [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1759, the British Museum—which was established by an act of Parliament in 1753 and which counts among its world-renowned antiquities and archaeological holdings the Elgin Marbles and the Rosetta Stone—opened to the public. [more history]