Erin and Jake started the show talking about Donald Trump's first day back in office as the 47th President of the United States. His second inauguration had to be held indoors due to an arctic front in DC, keeping the guest list small—just 750 people, including some big names in tech like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. In his speech, Trump pledged a "golden age" for America, took some jabs at the Biden administration, and proposed an "External Revenue Service" to investigate imposing international tariffs. Among the nearly 100 executive orders signed on Trump’s first day were declarations of a national emergency at the southern border, policies to block new asylum seekers, and efforts to undermine birthright citizenship. Trump also withdrew the US from the Paris Climate Agreement, reversed drilling protections, and scrapped diversity and inclusion programs across federal agencies. Finally, he established there being only two genders as federal policy and removed protections for transgender people in federal prisons.

Then they broke down how exactly the Israel-Hamas ceasefire of 2025, brokered by Qatar, the US, and Egypt, was reached. The deal consists of a three phase plan, starting with a 42-day long ceasefire, during which Hamas will release 33 Israeli hostages taken 15 months ago, focusing on women, children, and the elderly, while Israel agreed to release around 100 Palestinian prisoners and pull back from populated areas of Gaza. The second phase will try to establish more permanent peace agreements, with discussions to secure the release of remaining hostages and a full Israeli withdrawal. Finally, the third phase will focus on rebuilding Gaza and returning any remaining hostages' bodies. But the deal remains tenuous given the record of distrust between Israel and Hamas—a dynamic closely followed by figures like Ursula Von Der Leyen and global leaders at the World Economic Forum.

Speaking of which, Erin and Jake unpack the Davos 2025 highlights, where leaders like Volodymir Zelensky and global business elites gathered to tackle geopolitical challenges, and the future of crypto under the Trump administration. Oxfam’s latest report revealed that billionaires grew even wealthier in 2024, with predictions of five trillionaires emerging within a decade, up from their prediction a year ago that there would only be one in this time. Generally speaking, the forum highlighted a looser crypto regulatory environment in the Trump era, and there was a focus on how the business community can respond to growing geopolitical tensions around the world. 

Finally, they wrap up with a round of Have You Heard Headlines: a rebel attack in Colombia that killed 60, former Pakistani PM Imran Khan’s 14-year sentence for corruption, a Turkish ski resort fire that claimed 66 lives, the UK and Ukraine signing a 100-year defense partnership, a Taliban-US prisoner exchange, Denmark dropping its controversial parenting tests in Greenland, and a Hungarian man’s daring cling to a German high-speed train.

Stay With Me Here is an independent project, and all views and opinions expressed in this show, and in this writeup, represent our personal views and not that of any organization we’re affiliated with. 

Erin Flanagan is a former U.S. Coast Guard intelligence officer and Agence France-Presse digital investigations journalist.

Jacob Shropshire is an editorial intern at Worldcrunch and the managing editor of Peacock Media at the American University of Paris. He spent two years working for Democratic political campaigns in the US.