Axios

Former Sen. Fred Harris (D-Okla.) stayed out of the national spotlight after leaving Congress, but over the years, he still had plenty to say about the nation's future to young leaders, students — and me.

The big picture: Harris, the last surviving member of the Kerner Commission, a panel appointed by President Lyndon Johnson in 1967 to examine the causes of the 1960s riots, died Saturday at 94.

It's one thing to call for the largest deportation in American history. It's another to pull it off logistically, given the highly complex process of spotting, detaining, holding and evicting people in the U.S. illegally.

Why it matters: The judicial process — one small piece of a long, expensive deportation machinery — illustrates vividly the complexity ahead.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan met earlier this week with Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.), who President-elect Trump has appointed as his national security adviser, two sources with knowledge of the meeting said.

Why it matters: The first meeting between Sullivan and his successor, who will inherit a set of spiraling crises around the world, took place even though the Trump transition team hasn't signed a memorandum of understanding, allowing the transition process to begin.

The Biden administration warned Israel that their decision to stop issuing administrative detention orders against Israeli settlers suspected of attacking Palestinians in the occupied West Bank could increase violence in the Palestinian territory, two U.S. officials told Axios.

Why it matters: Israeli security forces mostly use administrative detention against Palestinians, but the measure is also used to counter Jewish terrorism against Palestinians.

Hostage families and deal-minded Israeli officials are now placing their hopes in President-elect Trump to succeed where President Biden has so far failed: Convincing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the war in Gaza in exchange for freeing the hostages held by Hamas.

The big picture: Less then two months before Trump's inauguration, a hostage-release and ceasefire deal looks unlikely to happen anytime soon.