U.S. and world news for Jan. 20

Concerns about default: Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has urged House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to promptly start the process to raise the U.S. debt ceiling to allow the country to continue paying its debts and avoid default. A default could unleash financial chaos around the world and affect every U.S. resident. The U.S. reached the current debt ceiling of just over $31.3 trillion yesterday. Yellen said the treasury is taking extraordinary measures to keep paying the country’s bills and avoid default, but she didn’t specify the maneuvers being used to do that.

David Crosby remembered: Graham Nash of the musical group Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, who feuded with David Crosby, was among those praising him following the announcement that Crosby had died at age 81. Nash posted on social media, “I know people tend to focus on how volatile our relationship has been at times, but what has always mattered to David and me more than anything was the pure joy of the music we created together, the sound we discovered with one another, and the deep friendship we shared over all these many long years.”

Biden on documents: President Biden made his first comments about the government documents discovered both in a former office he used as a private citizen and at his home. He said he’s done exactly what the lawyers told him to do and his team has voluntarily returned the documents to the government. He characterized the issue as a matter of documents being filed in the wrong place. Biden’s comments came while he was in California on a trip to survey storm damage and meet with officials about federal aid in the cleanup efforts.

Data stolen: T-Mobile says data on 37 million of its customers were stolen when its computer systems were broken into. T-Mobile said the hacking occurred in November and was discovered on Jan. 5. It said bank account and credit card information, social security numbers and passwords were not among the information that was stolen.

Guilty verdict: A federal jury in Topeka, Kansas, has convicted 32-year-old Chase Neill of threatening to kill Republican Congressman Jake LaTurner of Kansas. The maximum penalty would be 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. He is due to be sentenced on April 11.

Baldwin charges expected in days: The district attorney in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Mary Carmack-Altwies, said she intends to file criminal charges of involuntary manslaughter against actor Alec Baldwin and Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the weapons supervisor on Baldwin’s movie set, by the end of the month. The DA alleges that Baldwin pulled the trigger and Gutierrez-Reed had somehow allowed a real bullet to be in the gun that was being used as a prop in the movie “Rust.”

Cover photo of David Crosby by Glenn Francis / Wikimedia Commons