Good morning, and welcome to The Epoch Times News Brief for Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025. I’m Bill Thomas, we have some urgent stories to share with you right now, and here’s what’s going on.
President-elect Donald Trump receives a sentence in his New York business records case, he also makes a surprising announcement regarding the leader of Russia, and tragically, the death toll has risen as a result of the devastating Southern California wildfires.
Additionally, the United States leads the world in a very troubling statistic related to drug use, and our nation’s highest court considers the fate of a widely used social media app.
Trump Receives Discharge in NY Business Records Case
New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan gave Trump an unconditional discharge in his sentencing for the business records case, which means that the president-elect does not face any penalties other than having a felony conviction entered in his legal record.Trump and his attorney attended the proceeding remotely from Florida during the hearing. The judge explained that it is “the legal protections afforded to the office of the president of the United States that are extraordinary, not the occupant,” and said that as a criminal defendant, the incoming commander-in-chief would not be entitled to the presidency’s protections.
Meanwhile, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass described Trump’s conduct throughout the case as a “direct attack on the rule of law itself.” He suggested that the president-elect has made threats of retaliation against those who have wronged him in legal matters, and that he also sought to influence the 2016 election by unlawful means.
However, the prosecutor agreed that an unconditional discharge is the “most practical sentence” prior to Trump’s inauguration.
For their part, the defense also favored that sentence, but Trump’s lawyer said that he disagreed with a great deal of what the government said about the case, with the legitimacy of what happened in the courtroom during the trial, and about the president-elect’s conduct while fighting the case.
He went on to describe the proceedings as a sad day for the country and said his team will appeal the felony conviction.
When it was finally his turn to speak, Trump described the case as a “political witch hunt” and a weaponization of the government. He said the trial has been “a very terrible experience,” and he went on to call it “a tremendous setback” for both New York and its court system.
Trump Says Meeting With Putin Being Set Up
President-elect Donald Trump says that his team is in the process of setting up a crucial meeting with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in an effort to end the war, and he says that the Russian leader wants to meet with him to discuss the situation.However, Trump gave no further details about where or when the meeting might take place.
The president-elect called the war “a bloody mess” where “soldiers are being killed by the millions.” He went on to say that a number of cities and towns are largely demolished, and that the final death toll from the war would be “much higher than the press is reporting.”
He also said that the war would have never happened if he had been president.
A Kremlin spokesman says that Putin has previously mentioned that he’s open to meeting Trump, that there should be forward progress after the upcoming inauguration, and that the only requirement is a “mutual desire and political will” to resolve existing problems through dialogue.
Just last month, Putin said he was willing to make compromises regarding Ukraine; however, he also said Russia was in a strong position and that the military was “advancing” toward achieving its goals.
Death Toll Rises in LA Fires
L.A. County officials now say that at least 11 people have been killed as a result of the wildfires that are still ravaging the Los Angeles area.More than 10,000 structures have been destroyed, including homes, businesses, churches, and schools; nearly 30,000 acres of land have already burned; and some estimates say the cost of the damage could exceed $150 billion, making it one of the worst wildfire disasters in modern U.S. history.
Officials say that thousands of courageous personnel are working around the clock to contain the flames. However, as of yesterday evening, little progress had been made to rein in the two largest fires, the Palisades Fire on the west side of the city in Pacific Palisades and the Eaton Fire in Altadena, which is situated next to Pasadena.
Also, more than 150,000 people remain under mandatory evacuation orders, while National Guard troops have arrived to protect property in the affected areas from looters, a number of whom have already been arrested.
Some good news to report: the vicious winds that are fueling the flames have begun to weaken, and the so-called red flag warnings that alert people to an extreme risk of fire danger have been called off, at least for the time being; however, they’re forecast to return in just two days.
Our good thoughts and best wishes go out to everyone impacted by this horrible disaster.
Report: US Has Highest Rate of Overdose Deaths in the World
A new report by a nonprofit group called the Commonwealth Fund says that the United States has the highest rate of overdose deaths in the world.According to the study, in 2022, the United States had 324 overdose deaths for every 1 million people. The U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, which was not included in our country’s total, was in second place, with 246 deaths per million, followed by Scotland and Canada.
The findings also noted that in 2023, about 100,000 Americans died by overdose.
The report said that the U.S. approach to reducing overdose deaths is fragmented compared to other countries’ because access to medication and treatment programs differ from state to state, making death prevention from a national angle very challenging.
The document noted that access to an opioid-overdose antidote called naloxone varies widely throughout the United States, and that the rise of new illegal drugs is also posing challenges to death prevention efforts.
Supreme Court Hears Arguments on TikTok Ban
The U.S. Supreme Court has just heard oral arguments regarding TikTok’s request to halt a federal law that requires the app’s indirect owner ByteDance to divest itself of the company by Jan. 19 or to cease U.S. operations, and right now, the justices appear skeptical of stopping that process.To refresh your memory, last year, President Joe Biden signed a law that was passed by bipartisan majorities in both the House and Senate.
That law deals with national security, and it directly relates to concerns regarding the Chinese regime’s ability to access and abuse the personal data of American TikTok users.
So you know, Trump’s legal team has filed a brief asking the justices to stay the law in order to give him an opportunity to develop a political solution when he returns to the White House on Jan. 20. However, he was not represented by an attorney at yesterday’s hearing and his position on the case was not discussed at length.
During oral arguments, TikTok’s attorney said the law forces the app to shut down, and claimed it’s an infringement on the company’s right to free speech, as promised in the First Amendment. The company also denies Chinese influence regarding its operations.
However, several justices responded, including Ketanji Brown Jackson, who pointed out that TikTok can continue as long as it’s not associated with ByteDance. Chief Justice John Roberts said that Congress found that ByteDance cooperates with China to manipulate content, and that it’s impossible to ignore that fact.
Additionally, the U.S. solicitor general said that TikTok poses a legitimate threat to U.S. national security.
Before we head out for the weekend, one last headline to share with you from the News Brief newsroom: Some good news regarding the U.S. economy, which finished last year on a positive note with more than 250,000 job additions for December 2024, exceeding expectations and showcasing a robust labor market despite ongoing high interest rates.
And now, it looks like our time is just about up for today, so we’re going to call it a wrap for the Saturday edition of The Epoch Times News Brief.
Don’t forget the News Brief Motto: We’re portable, affordable, and we’re always on-demand.
And finally, as we do each and every day on this program, we wrap everything up with a very notable quote and this one comes to us from the great Yogi Berra who said: “You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I’m not hungry enough to eat six.”
Berra was a professional baseball catcher who later took on the roles of manager and coach. He played 19 seasons in Major League Baseball.
For all of us here at the Epoch Times News Brief, I’m Bill Thomas.
The Epoch Times News Brief program is written each day by David Ross.
Thank you for making us your one-stop source for a concise, accurate, and unbiased daily synopsis of many of the news stories you need to know about.
Enjoy the remainder of your day, and we’ll see you right back here tomorrow for another edition of The Epoch Times News Brief.
For now, it’s imperative that we all continue to watch out for one another, and have an absolutely superb day today. Bye for now.
