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🎧 Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing, but all of his baggage was put front and center the minute he was named as Trump’s pick, NPR’s Ryan Lucas tells Up First. Gaetz said he hoped to avoid a "needlessly protracted Washington scuffle." Trump and his team view the attorney general as one of the most important jobs in his incoming administration partly due to his rocky relationship with the Justice Department in his first term. A key question, if Bondi is confirmed, is whether she will use the Justice Department's powers to pursue Trump's desire for retribution, Lucas said.
➡️ Trump has picked several Cabinet nominees and key advisers so far as he builds his team. Here’s how his new administration is taking shape.

🎧 Putin is sending a message that NATO could become a target, NPR’s Greg Myre says. Michael Kofman, a senior fellow in the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, says though Russia might have the upper hand right now, it’s suffering massive casualties and can’t sustain this pace indefinitely. Meanwhile, Ukrainians face additional challenges. Trump says he wants to negotiate to end the war once he is in office. Kofman believes Putin might not want to negotiate seriously if he believes he is gaining ground. 

🎧 The storms are plumes of moisture that move across the Pacific Ocean. NPR’s Lauren Sommer explains they are like a firehose pointed at the West Coast. These storms are important as this is how California gets as much as half of its rainfall every year. When it comes to climate change, with the planet warming up, it does make the rainfall more intense. There’s more evaporation resulting in storms simply having more to work with.