Hello from CNN. I'm Jo Beck with the 5 things you need to know for Wednesday, January 15th.

It's going to be a busy day on Capitol Hill for President elect Donald Trump's cabinet picks. Confirmation hearings are set to take place in the Senate for attorney general, secretary of state and several other key cabinet posts just days before Trump is sworn in. Today's hearings are expected to go much smoother than yesterday's for the defense secretary pick as Democrats sparred with Pete Hegseth over his nomination.

I start by saying I reject the premise that President Trump will be giving any...

I understand you've done your genuflecting to him.

...illegal orders.

This isn't a hypothetical.

Coomanders meet quotas to have a certain number of female infantry officers or infantry enlisted. And that disparages those women.

Commanders so not have to meet quotas for the infantry. That does not exist.

More than 6 million people are still under a critical fire. Threats across southern California today as the death toll from the L.A. blazes rises to 25. Thousands of residents are returning to find their houses have been reduced to ash like this man who lost his home of 50 years.

I get up and I scream and cry, and sometimes my wife tells me to be strong. I can't be strong.

Meanwhile, the L.A. Times is reporting that the Los Angeles City Council is putting measures in place to help residents recover, like speeding up federal emergency funds and protecting residents from evictions and price gouging.

(Arabic) I swear when the cease fire comes, she says, I will celebrate and rejoice and I will not sleep all night. We hope that this cloud of despair finally lifts.

As mediators talk about a cease fire and hostage release agreement getting closer to becoming reality. People in Gaza are hopeful but skeptical.

(Arabic) They say the same thing every time, but nothing happens. We want anything. Anything is better than this.

And many are concerned that they don't have anything to go back to. Hamas described the ongoing negotiations in Qatar as being in their final stages, while an Israeli official says Israel is, quote, "ready for a ceasefire." Hamas is expected to release 33 hostages during the first phase of the deal. That's on the table. But the brother in law of one of the captives says his family can't afford to be optimistic just yet.

We've been within minutes from a deal since May.

'Anti-Corruption investigators have arrested South Korea's President Yoon Suk. Ya'll. After a weeks long showdown, shortly afterwards, Yoon released a prerecorded video calling it an illegal act.

(Korean) Uncomfortable. Unfortunately, the law is all broken in this country.

CNN's Mike Valerio is outside the offices where Yoon is being questioned over his martial law decree back in December that threw the country into chaos.

Earlier in the morning, we saw a motorcade carrying suspended President Yoon from his fortified residence in Seoul to this compound. Now, this current arrest warrant allows for a suspended president to be questioned and detained for up to 48 hours. But that is just the criminal investigation bucket. He also has an impeachment matter. And the impeachment trial that could remove him from office started this week.

Up next, the SEC is suing Elon Musk over his Twitter takeover.

Reports are swirling that Elon Musk is in conversations to possibly buy TikTok in the US. While the SEC is suing him over his purchase of Twitter, according to Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal, Chinese officials are discussing the option of selling parts of TikTok to Musk as the app's parent company is facing a ban if it doesn't sell to an American based buyer by Sunday's deadline. CNN hasn't independently confirmed the reports, which come as the SEC has filed a lawsuit against Musk, saying he wasn't upfront about his stake in Twitter when he bought it back in 2022. The suit claims he was able to buy shares of the platform at, quote, "artificially low prices" when he took over and turned it into X. But Musk's lawyer denies any wrongdoing.

That's all for now. I'll be back with more news at 9 p.m. Eastern.