The Headlines - Cease-Fire Expected to Move Forward, and a Last-Ditch Pitch to Save TikTok

Episode Date: January 17, 2025

Plus, remembering David Lynch’s weirdness.   On Today’s Episode:Israel and Hamas Work Out Differences Over Deal, Netanyahu Says, by Ephrat LivniTikTok Makes Last-Minute Push as Supreme Court Is Poised to Rule on Ban, by David McCabe, Adam Liptak and Sapna MaheshwariMore Than a Week After the Fires, Los Angeles Evacuees Remain in Limbo, by Kellen Browning, Jesus Jiménez and Jennifer MedinaBiden to Commute Sentences of Nearly 2,500 Drug Offenders, by Erica L. Green and Zolan Kanno-YoungsThe Panama Canal’s Newest Voyagers: Fishy Intruders From Two Oceans, by Raymond ZhongDavid Lynch, Maker of Florid and Unnerving Films, Dies at 78, by J. Hoberman Tune in every weekday morning. To get our full audio journalism and storytelling experience, download the New York Times Audio app — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter.Tell us what you think at: [e-mail]. 

From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Friday, January 17th. Here's what we're covering. Look, it's not exactly surprising that in a negotiation that has been this challenging and this fraud, you may get a loose end. We're tying up that loose end as we speak. I've been on the phone. The last-minute disputes that threatened to hold up the ceasefire deal in Gaza seem to have been hammered out. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he's confident the truce will go into effect on Sunday.

So now there's an opportunity finally to move forward. The disagreements between Israel and Hamas had centered on who will control certain border zones and which Palestinian prisoners would be exchanged for hostages. With that now settled, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered his cabinet to meet today for a vote, and the agreement is expected to pass. Netanyahu himself, though, is facing backlash. Several members of his far-right government have objected to the deal. His hardline national security minister said it's

effectively a surrender to Hamas. Last night, he threatened to leave the prime minister's coalition if the ceasefire goes through. That could ultimately force Netanyahu out of power. Meanwhile, until the ceasefire kicks in, the fighting in Gaza is continuing. Israel's carried out a number of strikes since the deal was announced. Gaza's health ministry said at least 81 people have been killed.

This morning at 10 a.m., the Supreme Court is expected to issue its ruling about the fate of TikTok in the U.S. The court fast-tracked hearings earlier this month about a law that bans the app if its Chinese parent company doesn't sell it off by this Sunday. The court seems likely to uphold the law, which was a bipartisan effort by lawmakers who were worried the app is a national security threat and could be used to spy on Americans. But now, with just 48 hours to go, some lawmakers have had a change of heart. And there's a scramble on Capitol Hill to save the app, which is used by 170 million Americans. In no way should we have TikTok go dark on Sunday.

It would be catastrophic for just so many small businesses, so many creators, so many communities that have been... Democratic senators held a press conference to defend TikTok yesterday and urged President Biden to use his authority to push back the deadline. If Biden doesn't act, Donald Trump might when he takes office. The Times has learned he's considering an executive order that would block any enforcement of the ban.

And Trump has even invited the CEO of TikTok to his inauguration ceremony on Monday, offering him a spot up on the stage as he's sworn in. I'm just saying this out loud. I'm getting more and more pissed. How the hell do I not know what my area even looks like? There was my office, there were all my collectibles, there was my wife's wedding dress. In Los Angeles, there's growing frustration and anger among the tens of thousands of people who were evacuated when fires started tearing through parts of the city. More than a week later, many neighborhoods are still blocked off by National Guard members at checkpoints, and the people who live there

haven't been able to go back to see if their houses are still standing. I've been speaking with residents of Alta Dena and Pacific Palisades, and they've described being in the sort of post-disaster purgatory. Kellan Browning is part of the team of Times reporters covering the fires. He says that officials are urging patience as they work to clear debris and toxic ash and use cadaver dogs to search for human remains. But with no clear timeline for reopening the hardest hit areas, some residents say they feel like they can't start putting their lives back together. They've seen photos on the news of the devastation, but they really have no idea what it looks like in their neighborhoods.

They are hoping to get photos of their homes, maybe important documents, insurance information, birth certificates or passports, key medications. So they've been lining up these checkpoints to get into these evacuated areas every morning, sometimes waiting for hours in a car only to be turned away by law enforcement officials. Some residents have been pleading with members of the National Guard to let them in. A few have managed to sneak past barricades, and some are even turning to me and other journalists

who can get into evacuated zones, asking us to send them photos of their homes and ensure that their properties are all right. When I've had a chance and I'm in the area, I've done that, taking photos or videos and having to tell them sometimes that their homes are no longer there. In one of his final acts in office, President Biden announced this morning that he's commuting the sentences of nearly 2,500 people who are serving long prison terms for drug offenses. The commutations are for inmates who received harsher sentences than they would now under

current guidelines. The moves intended to address longstanding racial disparities in the criminal justice system, where black Americans in particular have been given long sentences for nonviolent crimes. Biden said, quote, "'This action is an important step toward righting historic wrongs.'"

The Panama Canal has provided a path for ships between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans for more than a century. But a decade ago, Panama widened the canal to allow bigger cargo ships and bigger oil tankers to pass through. And the ecological effects of that have just started to become clear in recent years. Raymond Zhang is a science reporter at the Times. He says that even before the canal unexpectedly became a geopolitical flashpoint this month, when Trump raised the possibility of taking control of it by force, the canal was at the center of a different kind of uncertainty, an ecological one. Raymond recently traveled to the sprawling lake that's basically the middle section of the canal,

and he got a firsthand look at how the ecosystem there is changing. I spent time with fishermen who know the lake better than anyone, and they talked about how they've seen their own catches decline. The species that they rely on, peacock bass and tilapia, have become really scarce. They're harder to find, they're not living where they used to, and have become really scarce. They're harder to find, they're not living where they used to, and scientists in Panama have also seen in just a few years since the canal has expanded, just a ton of species that weren't there before. And so what it's showing them is that all these newcomers are really displacing the fish that were there for decades and that fishermen and others have come to rely on. The big concern among scientists now is that some of these fish

could start crossing all the way from one ocean to the other. The oceans themselves have been quite separate for three million years. It could mean predators are suddenly able to ravage new populations in a new ocean that they haven't been part of before. It would be a mixing of ecosystems that hasn't really happened in modern times. And finally. Hello. I was wondering if I might trouble you for a cup of strong black coffee and in the process engage you with an anecdote of no small amusement.

David Lynch, the creator of eerie cult films and the TV series Twin Peaks, has died at 78 years old. His avant-garde off-kilter aesthetic was so distinct, his name became an adjective. To be Lynchian is to be dreamlike with an unsettling mix of the surreal and the mundane. His films just looked and sounded different, which was clear even from his first major feature, Eraserhead, in the 1970s. Audiences and critics were continually split over whether his work was brilliant or just plain weird. Even his most celebrated movies, like Mulholland Drive, had people loving and hating them.

In his career, Lynch never went full Hollywood. He never made a conventional box office hit, though he was asked at one point to direct an early Star Wars film. That really could have sent things in a different direction. Those are the headlines. Today on The Daily, how one undocumented immigrant is preparing for Trump's return to power and the mass deportations that he's promised. That's next in the New York Times audio app,

or you can listen wherever you get your podcasts. This show is made by Will Jarvis, Jessica Metzger, Jan Stewart, and me, Tracy Mumford, with help from Isabella Anderson. Original theme by Dan Powell. Special thanks to Larissa Anderson, Jake Lucas, Zoe Murphy, Matt Sermin, and Paula Schuman. The headlines will be back on Monday.