5 things to know for Jan. 13: LA wildfires, Trump Cabinet, Immigration, Gaza, Ukraine

By CNN Newsource

Published January 13, 2025 5:02 AM

By Andrew Torgan, CNN

(CNN) — There’s bad news for young Americans struggling to find work. Employment of workers aged 25 to 34 saw the second-largest annual decline in December across all age groups, according to Labor Department data released late last week.

Here’s what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day.

1. LA fires

At least 24 people have died and dozens are missing as firefighters continue to battle the deadly Los Angeles wildfires. It’s been less than a week since the year’s first wildfire embers raced through the air over LA, carried by hurricane-level Santa Ana winds to spark some of the deadliest wildfires California has ever seen. The Palisades Fire started Tuesday, and by the end of Wednesday, it had burned more than 17,000 acres. Now, with the Palisades blaze and the nearby Eaton fire still mostly uncontained, renewed Santa Ana winds threaten to enlarge those blazes or even start new ones. Winds are expected to slightly increase through today and could gust between 45-55 mph. That’s put nearly eight million people under critical fire weather, according to the Storm Prediction Center.

2. Trump Cabinet

Senate confirmation hearings for President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks are set to begin this week. First up on Tuesday will be former Georgia Rep. Douglas Collins, the pick for secretary of Veterans Affairs, who will appear before the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, and former Fox News host Pete Hegseth, Trump’s controversial choice for secretary of defense. Last month, a group of Democrats on the committee sent a letter to Susie Wiles, Trump’s incoming chief of staff, arguing that allegations related to Hegseth’s workplace behavior and treatment of women should disqualify him from leading the Pentagon. Hegseth has denied wrongdoing. Additional hearings later this week will include South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem as homeland security secretary, Sen. Marco Rubio as secretary of state and Pam Bondi as attorney general.

3. Immigration

Anti-immigrant state officials and federal judges would have new power to dictate immigration enforcement — including whether to detain individual migrants — under a GOP bill that has passed the House and is moving forward in the Senate with bipartisan support. The Laken Riley Act aims to overturn Supreme Court precedent and give states such as Texas the ability to bring the types of immigration lawsuits against the federal government that have been rejected by the courts, including conservative judges, legal experts say. But it would go further, also authorizing state attorneys general to sue to overturn the decisions to release individual immigrants — and even to obtain wide-reaching sanctions on a foreign country for refusing to accept a national eligible for removal.

4. Gaza

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has spoken with President Joe Biden about the progress in negotiations for a Gaza ceasefire-hostage deal. The White House said Biden and Netanyahu discussed the negotiations in Doha, based on the proposal the president laid out in May. Biden once again called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the return of the hostages and increased humanitarian aid to the enclave. He also spoke to Netanyahu about the “fundamentally changed regional circumstances” following the ceasefire in Lebanon in November, the collapse of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime the following month and Iran’s weakened position in the region, the White House said. Netanyahu, who met with Donald Trump’s incoming Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, on Saturday, is facing pressure from both the current and incoming US administrations to reach a deal.

5. Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says he is willing to release North Korean soldiers captured by Ukraine in the Kursk region of Russia in exchange for Ukrainian soldiers being held captive in Russia. “Ukraine is ready to hand over (North Korean leader) Kim Jong Un’s soldiers to him if he can organize their exchange for our warriors who are being held captive in Russia,” Zelensky said Sunday in a post on X that included a video purportedly showing two North Korean POWs being interrogated. On Saturday, Ukraine said it had captured two North Korean soldiers, marking the first time that Kyiv has captured soldiers alive from the isolated state. Neither Moscow nor Pyongyang have officially acknowledged the presence of North Korean troops in Russia.

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TODAY’S NUMBER

400 million
That’s how many people are expected to attend the Maha Kumbh Mela, or the festival of the Sacred Pitcher — the world’s biggest religious gathering in India’s northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

TODAY’S QUOTE

“In Afghanistan an entire generation of girls will be robbed of its future. As Muslim leaders, now is the time to raise your voice, use your power.”
— Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, urging Muslim leaders on Sunday to back efforts to make gender apartheid a crime under international law, and calling on them to speak out against Afghanistan’s Taliban over its treatment of women and girls.

TODAY’S WEATHER

Check your local forecast here>>>

AND FINALLY …

See why half a million people are flocking to the Vatican
As the Jubilee year kicks off in Rome, more than half a million visitors have flocked to the Vatican to walk through the Holy Doors at St. Peter’s Basilica. CNN’s Antonia Mortensen brings you to the streets of Rome to hear from visitors who have traveled thousands of miles for the event.

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