January 2025 NEWS

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 Firefighters are making an all-out assault to prevent the largest of the deadly wildfires that is threatening Los Angeles from spreading into one of the city's most exclusive neighbourhoods. Aerial crews have been bombarding the flaming hills with water and fire retardant to hold back the Palisades fire, which has expanded an additional 1,000 acres and is now menacing Brentwood.

Special counsel Jack Smith has resigned from the Justice Department after submitting his investigative report on President-elect Donald Trump, an expected move that comes amid legal wrangling over how much of that document can be made public in the days ahead. The department disclosed Smith's departure in a court filing Saturday, saying he had resigned one day earlier. 

Gov. Gavin Newsom says President-elect Donald Trump has not responded to his invitation to tour damage in the fire-ravaged state. The president-elect will take the helm of the nation in less than two weeks, at a time when California requires a massive amount of federal aid for its fire recovery effort.  President-elect Donald Trump has not responded to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s invitation to tour California’s fire damage, Newsom said Saturday afternoon. 

The black boxes of the passenger jetliner that crashed in South Korea last month killing 179 people stopped recording about four minutes before the crash, South Korean officials said Saturday. After analyzing the devices, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board concluded that both the flight data and cockpit voice recorders stopped working about four minutes before the crash, the South Korean Transportation Ministry said.

Late Saturday, the Los Angeles county medical examiner said that 11 people had been killed in the Eaton fire. It makes that blaze, near Pasadena, among the deadliest in California history. Five people are also confirmed dead in the Palisades fire, bringing the total death toll for the series of blazes raging across Los Angeles to 16. Officials have warned that the number of fatalities is likely to rise.

President Joe Biden has awarded Pope Francis the Presidential Medal of Freedom with distinction, the first time in his term the president has bestowed that honor, the White House announced on Saturday.  “The first pope from the Southern Hemisphere, Pope Francis is unlike any who came before,” the White House wrote in a statement. “Above all, he is the People’s Pope — a light of faith, hope, and love that shines brightly across the world.” 

Nearly a quarter century after Jeff Bezos founded Blue Origin, the rocket company is poised for its most defining moment to date: sending a vehicle to orbit for the first time.Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket is set to make its inaugural launch attempt as soon as 1 a.m. ET Monday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. A live stream of the mission is slated to kick off about an hour before liftoff on the social media platform X, Blue Origin’s YouTube channel, and its website, the company said via email.

 Mark Zuckerberg, the owner of Facebook, recently met with President-elect Donald Trump for the second time since the election amid the backlash against his alleged MAGA makeover.  Following their meeting at Mar-a-Lago, the internet giant was seen boarding his own plane in Palm Beach, Florida, which was stationed next to Trump's. 

As a reality TV fan, there is a strange (and slightly unhinged?) feeling of loss when the reality stars whose lives you’ve watched unfold for so many years step away from the camera. You realize that the over-familiar (and entirely one-sided) relationship you’ve formed with them won’t continue in the same way. This is how I’ve been feeling since Bravo announced that it would be totally recasting Vanderpump Rules for Season 12. The rebooted show will focus itself on a new group of “Sur-vers” at Lisa Vanderpump’s West Hollywood restaurants. 

Following the death of Sam Moore, many of the artists inspired by the Sam and Dave singer turned to social media to pay tribute to the soul legend.“RIP Sam Moore. One of the last of the great Soul Men,” Steven Van Zandt wrote. “Him and Dave Prater were the inspiration for me and Johnny to start Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes. An important righteous wonderful man.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is facing an uncertain future after a pivotal setback this week, when she lost her race to lead Democrats on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee. 

President-elect Trump’s incoming press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump’s Day 1 executive orders may tackle Title 42. Leavitt joined Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” where she outlined what can be expected from Trump’s first day in office next month.

The video game industry is in the middle of a crisis. Budgets for big releases are ballooning out of control with games like Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (2020) costing up to $700 million to produce. The developer workforce has also been ravaged, with dozens of studios closing, amounting to over 10,000 layoffs in 2024 alone. Pair that with the fact that many of the titles have flopped — like Concord, whose servers didn’t even last as long as a free trial for Hulu — major questions have arisen about the health and future of the video game industry, and where things go from here. 

Ariana Grande recently spoke with Variety’s Awards Circuit podcast, where she opened up about preparing for her dream role as Glinda in Wicked and spilled a little bit of tea regarding a new, upcoming deluxe version of Eternal Sunshine and Glinda’s new song in Wicked’s second installment, Wicked: For Good. The sequel is scheduled for release on Nov. 21.

Fuerza Regida are offering a helping hand to those in need of temporary housing due to the devastating fires raging in the Los Angeles area, which have killed at least 11 people. The band announced they rented out a hotel for families in need. “To our beloved community affected by the Los Angeles fires: We are here for you in this challenging time. We’ve rented out a hotel with space for more than 50 families, more will become available for those in need of shelter,” the Mexican American group from San Bernardino, CA said in a statement on Saturday (via Billboard). 

Republican members of Congress took to the Sunday shows to praise Trump lieutenant Elon Musk's involvement in last week's government funding saga, with one likening him to "our prime minister." 

When a judge was ready to sentence R. Kelly for sexually exploiting children, Breon Peace, the federal government’s top prosecutor in Brooklyn, was in the courtroom’s front row. Peace, who oversees more than 160 attorneys and many times that number of cases, can’t go to many hearings personally. This one was an exception, and not just because it was so high profile. It was a chance for R. Kelly’s victims to finally confront him, to look him in the eye. Peace wanted to be there to send a message: “It’s OK to come forward, tell your story.” 

Jennifer Garner has revealed that she “lost a friend” in the Los Angeles wildfires that have displaced over 130,000 and killed at least 10 people. Speaking to MSNBC while volunteering in the Pacific Palisades area with Jose Andres’ World Central Kitchen, the actress said, “I did lose a friend, and for our church, it’s really tender so I don’t feel like we should talk about it yet. I did lose a friend. She didn’t get out in time.”