Prepping for 2025. Memorial plans for former President Jimmy Carter take shape. A China-linked Treasury hack. Correspondent Deborah Rodriguez has the CBS World News Roundup for Tuesday, December 31, 2024:
After a year of on-again, off-again Israel-Hamas ceasefire negotiations, what will 2025 hold? Israeli raids shut down a North Gaza hospital that aid workers called a lifeline. President Biden ends his political career with a complicated legacy.
Today's episode of Up First was edited by Didrik Schanche, Carrie Kahn, Dana Farrington, Jan Johnson, and Alice Woelfle. It was produced by Kaity Kline, Ben Abrams and Julie Depenbrock. We get engineering support from Arthur Laurent. And our technical director is Carleigh Strange.
In some places, votes resulted in political chaos; in others they showed a promising shift away from identity politics. Our deputy editor looks back on 2024’s pile of polls. Looking ahead, we examine the Chinese cities that will come into their own in 2025 (11:36). And the changing economics of Poland’s traditional “milk bars” (16:29).
This past year was not easy. But 2024 certainly was eventful. Joe Biden dropped out of the race at the eleventh hour, and Kamala Harris’s swift anointment brought us the joy of Brat summer. There was not one, but two assassination attempts against Donald Trump; the continued wars in Ukraine, Israel, Gaza, and Lebanon; the sudden and surprising fall of the Assad regime in Syria; the murder of a CEO (and Luigi Mania); mystery drones over New Jersey; and finally, Trump's decisive reelection to the White House.
On a cheerier note, 2024 was also the year of breakdancing at the Paris Olympics; Claudine Gay’s resignation from Harvard; SpaceX’s first commercial spacewalk; and Israel’s epic spy-thriller, pager-explosion attack on Hezbollah—not to mention they took out Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah and Hamas’s Yahya Sinwar as well.
So, what will 2025 bring?
We are starting the year, as we did last December, with a special 2025 predictions episode of Honestly. We called up some friends of the pod—people we trust in their fields—to get a better sense of what’s in store for the year ahead.
Political analyst and former spokesperson at the Department of Justice Sarah Isgur tells us what we can expect in the Trump 2.0 White House. Linguist John McWhorter looks at new words and how language will evolve in the coming months. Our very own Suzy Weiss talks us through the cultural calendar. Stylist Leandra Medine clues us in on fashion trends in 2025, and last but not least: Historian Niall Ferguson tells us, as he did last year as well, whether or not we’re right to have nightmares about World War III—but for real this time.
Some guests cheered us up, whereas others freaked us out. All of them were a pleasure to talk to. We hope you enjoy these conversations with some of our favorite people.
If you liked what you heard from Honestly, the best way to support us is to go to TheFP.com and become a Free Press subscriber today.
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This show is proudly sponsored by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). FIRE believes free speech makes free people. Make your tax-deductible donation today at www.thefire.org/honestly.
As World War II ended, the United States stood as the dominant power on the world stage. In 1947, to support its new global status, it created the CIA to analyze foreign intelligence. But within a few years, the Agency was engaged in other operations: bolstering pro-American governments, overthrowing nationalist leaders, and surveilling anti-imperial dissenters at home.
The Cold War was an obvious reason for this transformation--but not the only one. In The CIA, celebrated intelligence historian Hugh Wilford draws on decades of research to show the Agency as part of a larger picture, the history of Western empire. While young CIA officers imagined themselves as British imperial agents like T. E. Lawrence, successive US presidents used the covert powers of the Agency to hide overseas interventions from postcolonial foreigners and anti-imperial Americans alike. Even the CIA's post-9/11 global hunt for terrorists was haunted by the ghosts of empires past.
Comprehensive, original, and gripping, The CIA: An Imperial History(Basic Books, 2024) is the story of the birth of a new imperial order in the shadows. It offers the most complete account yet of how America adopted unaccountable power and secrecy abroad and at home.
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We're telling you about another major hack. This one involves the U.S. Treasury Department.
Also, we'll discuss some of the new laws going into effect tomorrow and what's expected to be Congress' first fight of 2025.
Plus, new details about a burglary ring targeting athletes, a preview of the most iconic college football bowl games, and how the nation is preparing for tonight's big New Year's Eve celebrations.
Those stories and even more news to know in about 10 minutes!
Join us every Mon-Fri for more daily news roundups!
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2024 was a hard year for people who make games — the industry saw mass layoffs and increasing consolidation. But for the people who play them, releases didn't slow down.
Indie developers released games like the monster-hunting game "Palworld" and "Animal Well," an expansive puzzle game.
Big developers moved some releases back — like new additions to the "Assassin's Creed" and "Grand Theft Auto" series. Remakes of legendary titles from the "Silent Hill" and "Final Fantasy" series delighted longtime fans. And "Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom" saw Princess Zelda take a leading role.
In this installment of Game Mode, we get into the video games of 2024 and what this year can tell us about the state of the video game industry.
Even before the Dune: Part 2 popcorn bucket went viral this year, movie theaters have been trying all types of ways to lure customers back. There's reclining seats, expanded menu options, and even more merchandise. Today on the show, we track the rise of the popcorn bucket and its afterlife on eBay.