The News

 If Senate Democrats’ uncoordinated performance at Secretary of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth’s confirmation hearing on Tuesday is a sign of things to come, Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks can breathe easy.

Hegseth breezed through the bulk of the four-hour hearing, most of which he spent talking over Democrats who quietly waited for the “Fox and Friends” host to finish his monologues. Only a few lawmakers tried pushing back on Hegseth’s motor-mouthing, among them Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Maizie Hirono (D-Hawaii) and Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.). But Hegseth, a veteran broadcaster accustomed to combative interviews, knew better than to take the bait.

If Hegseth’s goal was to be uneventful, he largely succeeded. But if Hegseth’s text was flat by design, his subtext was anything but. Time and again, Hegseth revealed himself to be a hard-line Republican partisan with big ideas and little practical understanding of America’s most important government department.  

Luckily for Hegseth, today’s Republican Party doesn’t view incompetence as a disqualifying factor.

Hegseth’s years at Fox News have evidently resulted in his mastery of the language of right-wing grievance. He ranted about the dangers of “electric tanks” and peppered his responses with condemnations of the “woke military.” He pledged to “tear out DEI and CRT initiatives root and branch” from the Defense Department and rattled a verbal saber at “Communist China.”

Hegseth’s responses brought all the energy of his Fox News segments — and were clearly intended for an audience of one watching from Mar-a-Lago.

But drill down past the superficial outrage, and Hegseth has nothing. Given three chances by Duckworth to name a country involved in ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Hegseth couldn’t name one. That’s especially concerning given that Hegseth had just finished a canned response about how supporting ASEAN will be critical for countering China’s growing influence in the Pacific. Whoops!  

It wasn’t just Democrats who tripped Hegseth up, either. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) asked Hegseth a straightforward question about whether America could fight a multi-front war against “near-peer adversaries” like Russia and China. That’s the kind of technical question a Secretary of Defense will face on a regular basis. Yet Hegseth had no answer. Instead of engaging any part of Rounds’s question, Hegseth instead offered another round of praise for Trump’s strength as a leader.

How Hegseth prepared for his hearing offers valuable insight into how the political dynamic has changed under a restored Trump. Despite pledging to serve “both Republicans and Democrats” if confirmed, Hegseth’s team refused to meet with a single Democratic lawmaker in the run-up to Tuesday’s hearing. When Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) asked why Hegseth had refused his multiple requests to meet, Hegseth dismissively replied that “schedules fill up.” 

It didn’t take Hegseth long to dispense with his poetic commitment to bipartisanship. In his first response, he blamed shadowy forces on the left for a string of media stories about his workplace misconduct and alleged sexual assault. “Our left wing media … doesn’t care about the truth,” Hegseth said. “They want to destroy me because I’m a change agent and a threat to them.”  

Gone also is the tradition of nominees racing to the center in an effort to appear palatable to both sides. In a pointed back-and-forth with Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), Hegseth refused to offer his unequivocal support for the Geneva Conventions, specifically their restrictions on torture. In one of his few direct responses of the day, Hegseth asserted that the Geneva Conventions and other laws written by people in “air-conditioned offices” hinder America’s ability to prosecute warfare.

Hegseth also took a stab at explaining his having sought pardons for convicted American war criminals — something that might have aroused skepticism from Republicans in another political reality. Arguing that in cases of war crimes he always “defaults to the warfighter,” Hegseth made no excuses for seeking pardons for those convicted by the military of human rights abuses. That outrageous answer didn’t even merit a follow-up from Democrats. 

Despite his claim early in the day that politics should play “no role” in the military, Hegseth’s fixation on rooting out DEI, CRT and other “progressive” politics from the Pentagon tells a different story. Like many of his MAGA kin, Hegseth sees liberal demons behind every door and feels a moral obligation to root them out. That those demons are entirely imaginary doesn’t seem to matter.

Hegseth is resolutely unqualified to be secretary of Defense, but Democrats’ uninspiring questioning did a dreadful job of showcasing that fact for the public. Hegseth is now on track for a Senate confirmation that would have seemed outlandish even a month ago. If that happens, America’s fighting men and women will be in for a wild ride.     

 Country music star Carrie Underwood is slated to perform “America the Beautiful” at President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, according to a copy of the program obtained by CNN and confirmed by a spokesperson for the inaugural committee.

“I love our country and am honored to have been asked to sing at the Inauguration and to be a small part of this historic event,” Underwood said in a statement to CNN. “I am humbled to answer the call at a time when we must all come together in the spirit of unity and looking to the future.”

The presidential oath of office will be administered by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts with Justice Brett Kavanaugh expected to administer the oath of office to Vice President-elect JD Vance.

Trump’s inauguration as the 47th president of the United States will take place on January 20 at the US Capitol.

Underwood is a big get for Trump’s inauguration, considering Hollywood’s Trump blackout over the course of his political career.

In his first term and throughout the past three elections, Trump has struggled to garner support from major Hollywood stars. At the Republican National Convention last year, the two biggest stars onstage with Trump were musician Kid Rock and retired WWE wrestler Hulk Hogan – a far cry from a superstar at the height of their career, like Underwood.

The Grammy-winning artist is as high-profile as you can get in country music, not only with numerous platinum hits, but also with public-facing, mainstream business associations. Underwood is the face of Sunday Night Football and is set to make her debut this March as a judge on ABC’s “American Idol” – the singing competition show that catapulted her to fame when she won in 2005.

While many NFL fans will likely applaud Underwood for singing at the inauguration, any time a celebrity aligns themselves with Trump, they run the risk of alienating left-leaning fans and Hollywood allies.

Underwood has kept her politics under wraps over the course of her career. In her statement, she did not mention Trump by name and kept her focus on unifying the country – still, Underwood’s decision to publicly align with Trump is a big statement for any star, particularly one as private as the singer.

Historically, Hollywood has always been closely associated with the Democratic Party, but country stars have always been an outlier, leaning more conservative. In recent years, as new singers join the genre, country music has gotten to be more progressive. This past election cycle, country stars like Mickey Guyton and Maren Morris stood with Vice President Kamala Harris.

 A Philadelphia Eagles fan, identified as Ryan Caldwell, is under investigation by his employer, BCT Partners, after a viral video showed him verbally berating a female Green Bay Packers fan during the teams' Wildcard Game on January 12. 

The altercation, which occurred at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, sparked widespread outrage online and has led to calls for action from Caldwell’s employer.

The incident was captured by Alexander Basara, a Packers content creator, who was at the game with his fiancée, also a Packers fan. Basara began filming after a verbal confrontation broke out between his fiancée and an older Eagles fan. The fan, later identified as Caldwell, began insulting Basara’s fiancée with derogatory language. Basara, who had not responded to the insults initially, started recording when the abuse escalated.

In the video, Caldwell can be heard repeatedly using a vile slur directed at Basara’s fiancée. When Basara intervened, asking Caldwell to stop calling his fiancée a "dumb c*nt," Caldwell responded by doubling down on the insult, calling her "an ugly, dumb c*nt." Despite the verbal abuse, Basara remained calm, replying sarcastically, “Cool, cool,” while continuing to film the encounter.

The confrontation escalated further when Caldwell challenged Basara, saying, “You gonna do anything? Shut the f*ck up. Yup. Turn around. Watch the game.” Despite Caldwell’s attempts to provoke a physical confrontation, Basara chose not to engage, instead focusing on capturing the encounter on video.

Basara posted the footage to social media with the message: “What it’s like being an opposing fan in Philly. Unprovoked. Was the 3rd time he said this to my fiancée.” He also expressed his frustration on X (formerly Twitter), writing, “Unprovoked, uncalled for. Packers twitter, help me out and find this guy…. this is not okay. I hate that my fiancé had this happen simply cheering for her team.” The video quickly gained traction, amassing over 20 million views and drawing widespread condemnation of Caldwell’s behavior.

Within hours of the video going viral, social media users launched an effort to identify Caldwell. Through online research, it was revealed that Caldwell worked as a business analyst at BCT Partners, a management consulting firm based in East Brunswick, New Jersey. Caldwell has an extensive background in hospitality, having held managerial roles at Plamondon Hospitality Partners, Hersha Hospitality, Marriott International, and Cohenterprises. His now-deleted LinkedIn profile described him as a “highly motivated Project Manager” with a proven track record in managing IT projects and client service. Caldwell is based in Purcellville, Virginia.

Following the identification, social media users directed their attention to BCT Partners, calling for the company to take action against Caldwell. In response, BCT Partners issued a statement acknowledging the video and the behavior of their employee. The company expressed its strong disapproval of Caldwell’s actions, stating that his behavior was “completely unacceptable” and in direct conflict with the organization’s values.

“We have already begun a full investigation as an internal personnel matter to determine what actions will be taken,” the statement read. “We sincerely apologize to everyone affected by this behavior and remain committed to fostering a culture of respe

 January 20 marks Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the federal holiday that honors the life and legacy of the American civil rights icon who was assassinated in 1968.

The holiday didn’t come together seamlessly. Efforts from King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, lawmakers, activists and others took years.

Here’s what you need to know about how Martin Luther King Jr. Day became a holiday.

When is MLK Day 2025?

Martin Luther King Jr. Day will be observed on Jan. 20, 2025.

The holiday is observed each year on the third Monday of January, and the commemoration is the only federal holiday that is “designated as a national day of service to encourage all Americans to volunteer and improve their communities,” according to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

How did Martin Luther King Jr. Day become a holiday?

Former U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., introduced legislation to create a federal holiday honoring King on April 8, 1968, just four days after the civil rights leader’s assassination.

Over the next decade, support for the holiday would swell across the country, and several states, including Illinois, Massachusetts and Connecticut, would enact statewide holidays honoring King.

Conyers spent years reintroducing the federal legislation, with support from lawmakers in the Congressional Black Caucus. And in 1979, on what would have been King’s 50th birthday, the bill came up in the House, but it failed by five votes.

The fight to create the holiday didn’t stop at the narrow vote. Coretta Scott King and others campaigned for the holiday and rallied the public.

King would testify before Congress multiple times. She and singer Stevie Wonder, who released his song “Happy Birthday” in support of enacting the holiday, delivered a petition in favor of the holiday with over 6 million signatures in 1982.

The House ultimately approved the holiday in 1983, and though the push to create the commemoration faced some opposition in the Senate, former President Ronald Reagan signed it into law later that year.

When was Martin Luther King Jr. Day first celebrated?

The first national holiday honoring King was celebrated in 1986.

But it took longer than that for states across the country to adopt the holiday, including fights in Arizona, South Carolina and elsewhere, according to the National Constitution Center. The holiday has been recognized in each state since 2000.

When did Martin Luther King Jr. Day become a holiday in Texas?

Texas officially recognized MLK Day in 1991. Today, it remains the only federal holiday designated as a national day of service, encouraging all Americans to volunteer and contribute to their communities.

Why is Martin Luther King Jr. Day in January?

The holiday recognizes King’s birthday, January 15.

But Martin Luther King Jr. Day is celebrated on the third Monday in January due to the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which former President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law in 1968. It originally designated three federal holidays, Memorial Day, Veterans Day, and former President George Washington’s birthday, to be marked on Mondays.

So even though the anniversary of King’s birthday falls on a Sunday, it’s commemorated on Monday like the other holidays under the Uniform Monday Holiday Act.

What role did music play in getting Martin Luther King Jr. Day to become a holiday?

According to the National Constitution Center, in 1981, Stevie Wonder released "Happy Birthday to You," making a powerful political and social statement that helped alter U.S. history. The musical genius wrote the song to urge and shame lawmakers and voters to recognize Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with a national holiday. Until then, there wasn't a clear majority of lawmakers ready to support the vote needed to establish the holiday.

 In the latest issue of New York Magazine, features writer Lila Shapiro takes an in-depth look at sexual-assault allegations against Neil Gaiman, the acclaimed British fantasist and author whose work has sold more than 50 million copies worldwide and been widely adapted for film and television beginning with Coraline in 2009. In reporting the cover story “There Is No Safe Word,” Shapiro spoke with eight women who shared allegations of assault, coercion, or abuse by Gaiman including Scarlett Pavlovich, who worked as a nanny for Gaiman and his second wife, Amanda Palmer. Gaiman, through his representatives, says these were all consensual encounters. Here, Pavlovich tells her own full story, in disturbing detail, for the first time.

Allegations against Gaiman first came to light last summer in the podcast Master from Tortoise Media. Shapiro says that the contrast between Gaiman’s public persona and the allegations caught her attention, and that she sensed there was even more to the story to tell. She has followed Gaiman’s career and work since she was a teenager; she previously wrote an Encounter with Gaiman and Palmer at the Coney Island Mermaid Parade in 2018. “Gaiman has for decades described himself as a feminist writer. He is someone who spoke specifically to women, who women felt seen by, and who women felt safe with. So I knew immediately there’s this dissonance between who he says he is and these stories,” says Shapiro. Gaiman had a reputation as not only one of the greatest modern comic-book writers but one of the first to attract a large female readership.

Many of the allegations against Gaiman involve domineering violence, a feature of BDSM, “a culture with a set of long-standing norms, the most important of which is that all parties must eagerly and clearly consent to the overall dynamic as well as to each act before they engage in it,” as Shapiro writes. She says that seven of the eight women she spoke with told her they had no interest in BDSM, although at some point they played along. “The defining feature of BDSM is consent, and there’s actually more emphasis on consent than outside BDSM. If just one party consents, then it’s not BDSM but abuse,” says Shapiro.

In January 2023, Pavlovich filed a police report alleging sexual assault against Gaiman during the time she was working as a nanny, though the “matter has been closed” according to a spokesperson. His career has been marginally affected, though he has new series and seasons set to premiere on Amazon Prime and Netflix this year. An ugly divorce and custody battle with Palmer is in its fifth year. The piece also explores the breakdown of Gaiman and Palmer’s marriage during the same period that many of the alleged assaults took place, as well as what Palmer knew about the nature of his relationships outside their marriage.

Elsewhere in the issue, Kerry Howley writes a first-person account of the Los Angeles wildfires, Allison P. Davis looks at the start-up that thinks it can “eradicate loneliness,” and Lauren Smiley examines what drove a mother to relentlessly cyberbully her teenage daughter.

 TikTok's sister app Lemon8 has been sponsoring posts on TikTok encouraging users to migrate to Lemon8 amid a looming ban threat, according to sponsored posts viewed by Axios.

• ByteDance could be betting that regulators and app store companies are so focused on TikTok that they won't pay attention to its other apps.

State of play: In the last few weeks, Lemon8 has been promoting its app to TikTok users through sponsored TikTok videos.

• In one sponsored post, TikTok user @miller.dailylife shares a video with a creator saying, "TikTok actually has another backup app. It's called Lemon8 ... and it automatically signs you in with your TikTok so you can still keep the same TikTok name and things like that. And it's supposed to transfer your followers over. ... Once you add Lemon8, it automatically pops up on your TikTok bio, so that people can just click on it."
• "So, just so you guys know, now that they're trying to do this ban, if you want to have somewhere else to go where the government is not 100% controlling what we see, what we consume ... Just go ahead and go on to Lemon8."

Our thought bubble: ByteDance would probably like to build Lemon8's user base even if TikTok isn't banned.

• But the ads, pegged to recently uploaded videos, suggest they aren't held over from an older, more general marketing campaign.

Between the lines: In November, TikTok began informing users of its sister app, Lemon8, that beginning late that month Lemon8 would be powered by TikTok, and their TikTok usernames would also be used on Lemon8.

• "Some of your data on TikTok will be used to power services on lemon8," the notice says.
• "Your Lemon8 profile link will be shown to your TikTok profile publicly by default," it continues. "You can choose not to show it by editing your TikTok profile."
• A spokesperson for ByteDance said the backend integration between TikTok and Lemon8 was unrelated to the ban.

How it works: Lemon8 features a mix of TikTok-like videos and Instagram-like photos.

• The app, which caters mostly to Gen Z and Gen Alpha users, works similarly to TikTok.
• It includes a "For You" feed for personalized recommendations and a "Following" feed that shows posts from accounts users choose to follow.

By the numbers: Lemon8 is still tiny compared to TikTok, although app engagement has picked up steadily over the past year, according to Similarweb data.

• Lemon8 has averaged a little over 1 million active daily app users since October, about double where it was for the same time period the year prior.

The big picture: The TikTok ban law explicitly states that any app developed or provided by ByteDance is illegal unless it is sold to a company that is not controlled by a foreign adversary.

• But the discussion has largely centered on TikTok — and it's the only company, in addition to ByteDance, that lawmakers named in the law.
• That's in part because ByteDance's complicated corporate structure obscures which apps the company owns and operates.

What we're watching: The Supreme Court may decide to grant President-elect Donald Trump's request to pause the ban, which is set to take effect the day before he takes office.