Israel and the Gaza-based terrorist group Hamas had reached an outline of a ceasefire agreement, The Jerusalem Post reported on Monday. According to the proposed agreement, Hamas would immediately release 33 living hostages while Israel would shut down some of its military operations in the Gaza Strip. Hamas would then continue to release other remaining hostages in phases while Israel would gradually cease its Gaza military operations in corresponding phases. 

Has the United States been involved? The tentative agreement comes a week before President-elect Donald Trump was scheduled to take office. Trump has promised that Hamas would be punished if all the remaining hostages in Gaza are not released by the time he gets into office. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday spoke with U.S. President Joe Biden about negotiators’ efforts to obtain the release of the 98 hostages still in Gaza. Netanyahu expressed his gratitude to Biden and President-elect Donald Trump for their support for Israel retrieving its citizens from captivity in Gaza.

Dig deeper: Read Travis K. Kircher’s recent in-depth interview with the brother of an Israeli man held hostage by Hamas.

The Supreme Court on Monday said it would not hear arguments in a dispute between the state of Utah and the federal government about unused federal lands. Utah sued the federal government in August 2024, saying that roughly a third of its state was federal land that the government was holding without any given purpose. Allowing the federal government to keep that land without using it for any purpose deprives Utah of important resources, the state argued.

Did the Supreme Court give any reason for not hearing the case? The high court in its one-line denial did not say anything about its reasoning for not hearing the case. In late August, Utah asked for leave to file a complaint against the federal government before the court. In late November, the federal government filed a response to Utah’s filing.

Dig deeper: Read Steve West and Christina Grube’s report in WORLD Magazine about the significance Utah’s lawsuit held before the court refused to hear it.

Federal resources are going toward fighting deadly fires around Los Angels, President Joe Biden said Monday afternoon. Hundreds of federal personnel and unique federal aerial and ground support are going to Southern California to fight fires and support the affected communities, Biden said on social media. The president said he’s receiving regular updates on the efforts to fight the fires. He’s directed his team to respond promptly to any request for additional federal firefighting assistance.

What does the weather forecast say? Fast, dry winds were expected to pick up in Southern California on Monday and Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service. The extreme fire conditions could extend into Wednesday and could make battling the remaining fires more challenging. Power company Southern California Edison on Sunday wrote that the unsafe conditions could make restoring power a longer process than usual as more than 25,000 power outages were due to safety-related de-energization. 

Dig deeper: Read Hunter Baker’s opinion column about the devastating fires.

U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday promised to cancel more student loans as he begins his last week in the Oval Office. With the new cancellations, the administration will have provided at least some student loan debt relief to a total of more than 5 million borrowers, the White House said.

Who are these new cancellations affecting? The Biden administration said the new loan cancellations would provide relief to roughly 85,000 borrowers who attended schools that cheated and defrauded their students. It would also provide relief to roughly 61,000 borrowers with permanent disabilities. Additionally, the cancellations would affect roughly 6,100 public service workers. Monday’s cancellations add to the total number of borrowers in those categories who have received student loan relief from the administration.

Dig deeper: Read Travis K. Kircher’s report in The Sift about how the U.S. Department of Education nixed a Biden administration plan to cancel some student loans.

Special Counsel Jack Smith separated from the U.S. Department of Justice on Jan. 10, prosecutors wrote in a court document filed Saturday. Smith’s departure came after he provided U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland with a two-volume final report about his dual investigations into President-elect Donald Trump. Smith was hired in late 2022 to investigate the president-elect over his alleged mishandling of classified documents and his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Both cases were eventually dismissed.

Trump on Sunday repeated his criticisms of Smith as someone illegitimately involved in a political prosecution as Trump ran for office. The DOJ has continually defended its appointment of Smith.

So when will Smith’s report be released? The volume of the report dealing with allegations of election interference could be released to the public, according to the DOJ. The first volume of the report reached the public in the early morning hours Tuesday. The other volume, dealing with the case about handling classified documents, will remain under wraps while two of Trump’s former co-defendants in that case face trial.