On the version of Hot off the Wire posted Jan. 17 at 7 a.m. CT:

Medicine is en route to Gaza after Qatar and France mediated a deal between Israel and Hamas. The deal to supply both the hostages held by Hamas and Gaza residents comes more than 100 days into a conflict that shows no sign of ending. A senior Hamas official said Wednesday that for each box of medicine provided to the hostages, 1,000 boxes would be sent for use by Palestinian civilians. Gaza’s Health Ministry says the Palestinian death toll from the war has surpassed 24,000 people. In Israel, around 1,200 people were killed during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that sparked the war and saw some 250 people taken hostage by the militants.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The Pacific Northwest is hunkering down after predictions of ice and freezing rain that could continue a weekend storm toll of damage and deaths. Parts of southwest Washington and western Oregon are under an ice storm warning through Wednesday morning. That includes the three largest Oregon cities, Portland, Salem and Eugene. Freezing rain is forecast in the Seattle area. Schools are closed, bus service curtailed and warming shelters open in Oregon. The forecast came as much of the United States coped with bitter weather that in some places put electricity supplies at risk. Another day of record cold temperatures swept much of the Rockies, Great Plains and Midwest on Tuesday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has invited the top four congressional leaders and other lawmakers to the White House on Wednesday as members have struggled to reach agreement on aid for the Ukraine war. Republicans have insisted on pairing it with their own demands for securing the U.S. border. A bipartisan group of negotiators in the Senate have been working for weeks to find an agreement that would provide wartime money for Ukraine and Israel and also include new border policy that is strong enough to satisfy Republicans in both chambers. The talks appeared to slow last week as senators said significant disagreements remained.

ATKINSON, N.H. (AP) — Donald Trump has scored a record victory in the Iowa caucuses and said Tuesday that he wants another big win in New Hampshire. Voters in the New England state get their turn Jan. 23rd to decide just how competitive the Republicans’ nominating fight will be as the former president continues to dominate his party.

PALMDALE, Calif. (AP) — Authorities say four men have been found dead Tuesday at a Southern California home but there's no immediate word on the cause of their deaths. Los Angeles County firefighters were sent to a home in Palmdale, a desert community north of Los Angeles, at about 4:30 p.m. Tuesday. They found four men down at the home and called sheriff's deputies. The men were pronounced dead at the scene.

BEIJING (AP) — China’s population fell by 2 million people in 2023 in the second straight annual decrease as births dropped and deaths jumped. The government's statistics bureau said Wednesday that the total population was 1.4 billion last year. The number of deaths rose by 690,000 to 11.1 million, more than double last year’s increase. Demographers were expecting a rise in deaths in the early part of last year because of the sudden lifting of China’s COVID-19 restrictions in late 2022. The number of births fell for the seventh year, reflecting a fall in the birth rate that is a long-running economic and societal challenge for China.

NEW YORK (AP) — The prospect of a JetBlue-Spirit Airlines merger has taken a major hit in court. A federal judge on Tuesday sided with the Biden administration and blocked the $3.8 billion deal to combine the two carriers. The judge ruled that JetBlue’s purchase of Spirit, the nation’s largest low-cost airline, would harm competition — and increase prices for air travelers as a result. Meanwhile, JetBlue has maintained that it needs such a deal to compete with industry rivals. JetBlue and Spirit say they are considering whether to appeal the decision. But the ruling could also open the door for Frontier Airlines to make another attempt to buy the Florida-based Spirit.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is expected to soon announce plans to redesignate Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen as a specially designated global terrorists. That's according to two people familiar with the White House decision and a U.S. official. The move comes as the Houthis have launched dozens of attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea. The group says it’s attacked the ships in response to Israel’s military operations in Gaza in the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel. The three people familiar with the decision were not authorized to comment and requested anonymity to discuss the matter ahead of the expected formal announcement. The Red Sea attacks have already caused significant disruptions to global trade.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A top Federal Reserve official said he's increasingly confident that inflation will continue falling this year back to the Fed’s 2% target level, after two years of accelerating price spikes that hurt millions of American households. The official, Christopher Waller, an influential member of the Fed’s Board of Governors, noted that inflation is slowing even as growth and hiring remain solid — a combination that he called “almost as good as it gets.” Waller’s remarks follow recent comments from other senior Fed officials that suggest the central bank remains on track to cut its benchmark short-term interest rate this year. In December, the Fed’s policymakers collectively forecast that they would cut their rate three times in 2024.

DENVER (AP) — Court documents show the shooter who killed five people and endangered the lives of over 40 others at an LGBTQ+ nightclub in Colorado Springs plans to plead guilty to new federal charges. A plea agreement made public Tuesday would allow the defendant to avoid the death penalty. The documents show Anderson Aldrich made a deal to plead guilty to 50 hate crime charges and 24 firearm violations. Aldrich previously was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to five state charges of murder and 46 counts of attempted murder — one for each person at Club Q during the November 2022 attack.

Just three games were contested in the NBA Tuesday night and all three were high scoring, four games on the collegiate level involving top ten teams, eight games in the NHL and NFL news off the field. Also, Eagles center Jason Kelce intends to retire after 13 NFL seasons, the NBA fined Sacramento Kings coach Mike Brown $50,000 after his outburst against an official, and New York Knicks owner James Dolan faxes a lawsuit.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has allowed a court order to take effect that could loosen Apple’s grip on its lucrative iPhone app store, and potentially affect billions of dollars in revenue a year. The justices rejected Apple’s appeal of lower-court rulings that found some of Apple’s app store rules for apps purchased on more than 1 billion iPhones constitute unfair competition under California law. Even so, Apple proposed a plan in court documents that would preserve most of its app store commissions, even when consumers use alternative payment options. The rejected appeal stemmed from an antitrust lawsuit filed by Epic Games, maker of the popular Fortnite video game.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has passed up a chance to intervene in the debate over bathrooms for transgender students, rejecting an appeal from an Indiana public school district. Federal appeals courts are divided over whether school policies enforcing restrictions on which bathrooms transgender students can use violate federal law or the Constitution. In the case the court rejected without comment on Tuesday, the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an order granting transgender boys access to the boys’ bathroom. Legal battles over transgender rights are ongoing across the country. At least nine states are restricting transgender students to bathrooms that match the sex they were assigned at birth.

—The Associated Press

About this program

Host Terry Lipshetz is managing editor of the national newsroom for Lee Enterprises. Besides producing the daily Hot off the Wire news podcast, Terry conducts periodic interviews for this Behind the Headlines program, co-hosts the Streamed & Screened movies and television program and is the former producer of Across the Sky, a podcast dedicated to weather and climate.

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