Prepared for the Office of Public Affairs (OPA)
U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Editorial Note: The DHS Daily Briefing is a collection of news articles related to Department’s mission. The inclusion of particular stories is not intended to reflect their importance, nor is it intended to endorse the political viewpoints or affiliations included in news coverage.

New York Times [2/17/2025 10:52 PM, Annie Correal, 161405K] reports Costa Rica announced on Monday that it would receive a flight this week from the United States carrying 200 migrants from Central Asia and India, making it the second nation in Central America to accept deportees from faraway countries who had crossed illegally into the United States. Last week, Panama received three U.S. deportation flights, carrying migrants from countries in Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Such flights appear to be the Trump administration’s new tactic for dealing with unauthorized migrants from countries to which it might not be easy to return them, as the administration seeks to ramp up deportations. Rather than keep such migrants in detention centers on the southern border, the administration is recruiting other countries willing to accept them, where it is not clear what will ultimately happen to the deportees. While traveling through Central America and the Caribbean earlier this month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio received assurances from several governments, including Panama’s and Costa Rica’s, that they were committed to working with the Trump administration on migration issues. But few details were offered. In its Monday announcement, the Costa Rican government said the first group of deportees would arrive on a commercial flight on Wednesday afternoon. Costa Rica said its territory would “serve as a bridge” for the migrants’ return to their countries of origin, and that the repatriation process would be “fully funded by the U.S. government, under the supervision of the International Organization for Migration,” a United Nations agency that Costa Rica said would be responsible for the care of the migrants during their stay in the country. Panama has described a similar process for the deportees sent there by the United States. The U.N. agency’s representatives in Costa Rica did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

NBC News [2/17/2025 6:46 PM, Julia Ainsley, 50804K] reports the Trump administration is preparing to fire hundreds of high-level Department of Homeland Security employees this week as part of a move to rid the country’s third-largest agency of people deemed to be misaligned with the administration’s goals, according to three sources familiar with the matter. The sources said the Trump administration has a "centralized plan" and a list of people in high-level positions across every component of DHS who are to be targeted this week. The firings will come on top of hundreds of more general cuts that began across DHS on Friday night, which targeted the Federal Emergency Management Agency, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Those firings were the latest in a governmentwide effort to reduce the federal workforce. This week, the three sources told NBC News, career employees at high managerial levels, namely Senior Executive Service and General Schedule 15 employees, may be removed from agencies across DHS — not to reduce the size of the workforce but to remove employees whom the administration sees as potentially standing in the way of goals the Trump administration has for the agency. DHS, which includes Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is the primary agency tasked with enforcing U.S. immigration law. Trump has relied heavily on CBP to secure the southwest border and on ICE to ramp up arrests and deportations of undocumented immigrants living in the United States. The employees at those high levels "are career people who have an influence on policy and strategy in those positions," said a former senior Biden administration official, responding to news of the plan.

FOX News [2/17/2025 10:00 PM, Greg Wehner, 57114K] reports Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem sent a stern warning on behalf of President Donald Trump, to those planning on entering the U.S. illegally, saying, "Don’t even think about it.” Noem announced Monday that she is launching a major multi-million-dollar ad campaign targeting illegal immigrants. "Tonight, I’m announcing a nationwide and international multimillion-dollar ad campaign warning illegal aliens to leave our country NOW or face deportation with the inability to return to the US," the DHS secretary said in a post on X. "This serves as a strong warning to criminal illegal aliens to not come to America. If they do, they will be hunted down and deported.” Noem also shared a video of her delivering a message to illegal aliens thinking about coming to the U.S. illegally. ABC News [2/17/2025 9:30 PM, Luke Barr, 57114K] Video: HERE reports the Department of Homeland Security launched a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign on Tuesday directed at those who try and come to the United States illegally, saying: Don’t try it. There are two versions of the ad, according to the DHS. One is set to run domestically, and the other is set to run internationally. The domestic version of the ad has DHS Secretary Kristi Noem praising President Donald Trump for "securing the border.” "Thank you, President Donald J. Trump, for securing our border and putting America first," Noem said in the ad set to run in the U.S. She continued: "President Trump has a clear message: if you are here illegally, we will find you and deport you. You will never return. But if you leave now, you may have an opportunity to return and enjoy our freedom and live the American Dream.” "If you are a criminal alien considering entering America illegally: Don’t even think about it. If you come here and break our laws, we will hunt you down. Criminals are not welcome in the United States," Noem said. The ads will run on radio, broadcast and digital, in multiple countries and regions, and in various dialects, according to DHS. Ads will be hyper-targeted, including through social media, text message and digital to reach illegal migrants in the interior of the United States and abroad, according to DHS. "Follow the law and you’ll find opportunity. Break it and you’ll find consequences," the ad’s message said. The international version of the ad warns those who try and enter illegally will be "caught and removed.” "Let me deliver a message from President Trump to the world: If you are thinking of entering America illegally, don’t even think about it," Noem emphasized in the ad.

Reported similarly:
Newsweek [2/18/2025 4:43 AM, Billal Rahman, 56005K]
Yahoo! News [2/18/2025 12:59 AM, Darryl Coote, 57114K] Video: HERE

FOX News [2/18/2025 4:00 AM, Adam Shaw, 49889K] reports that, while President Donald Trump has taken a series of measures to restrict immigration into the U.S., particularly illegal immigration, he has also made a handful of less-scrutinized moves to help some immigrants on their way to becoming citizens. Trump ran on a platform of securing the southern border, deporting illegal immigrants and also shutting down parole programs introduced by the Biden administration to allow migrants to enter the U.S. Since taking office, he has also signed executive orders declaring a national emergency at the border and suspending refugee resettlement. But he made an apparent exception to the refugee resettlement pause this month when he signed an executive order accusing the South African government of allowing attacks on white Afrikaner farmers. That executive order, which cut assistance to the South African government, was accompanied by a move to offer Afrikaners refugee status. "The Secretary of State and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall take appropriate steps, consistent with law, to prioritize humanitarian relief, including admission and resettlement through the United States Refugee Admissions Program, for Afrikaners in South Africa who are victims of unjust racial discrimination," Trump’s order said. "Such plan shall be submitted to the President through the Assistant to the President and Homeland Security Advisor," he said. Trump’s administration also made a significant move affecting immigrants in the U.S. already, if they are applying for their green card. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) posted a short announcement on Jan 22, announcing that it was waiving the requirements that those immigrants applying for an adjustment to permanent legal status present documentation showing they have had a COVID-19 vaccine. Mandates for the COVID vaccine were controversial, and many Americans have declined to take it and pushed back against requirements that they do so. Now, those who are seeking to remain in the U.S. permanently have the ability to avoid the vaccine but still progress on the way to citizenship. "USCIS will not issue any Request for Evidence or Notice of Intent to Deny related to proving a COVID-19 vaccination," the announcement said. "USCIS will not deny any adjustment of status application based on the applicant’s failure to present documentation that they received the COVID-19 vaccination.”

New York Times [2/16/2025 7:00 AM, Eileen Sullivan, 740K] reports that President Trump and his team are looking to state and local law enforcement to help them arrest and deport foreigners who are in the country without authorization. Many of the nation’s sheriffs have responded with enthusiasm. They are thrilled to work with the Trump administration, they said, and to once again “have a seat at the table” after four years of what they have described as being ignored by the Biden administration. But the sheriffs say they need something in return: money, and lots of it, to cover the cost of what it will take to refocus scant local resources on what is inherently a federal responsibility. “The federal government will have to dedicate substantial resources in order to help cover this, and that’s no secret. They know that,” said Jim Skinner, the sheriff in Collin County, Texas. Where the money would come from is not yet clear. And the sheriffs’ role would be part of a larger federal effort to crack down on immigration violations, all of which will require a significant infusion of new federal funding at a time when there is a commitment to vast cost-cutting across the federal government. Mr. Trump’s “border czar,” Tom Homan, has said mass deportations will cost around $86 billion. While the Trump administration is looking to all state and local law enforcement for help on combating illegal immigration, the country’s sheriffs are a logical place to start. As elected officials, they operate with more autonomy than police chiefs, and they control thousands of jails.

AP [2/17/2025 2:03 PM, Tara Copp, 11K] reports the Trump administration has begun firing several hundred Federal Aviation Administration employees, upending staff on a busy air travel weekend and just weeks after a January fatal mid-air collision at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. Probationary workers were targeted in late night emails Friday notifying them they had been fired, David Spero, president of the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists union, said in a statement. The impacted workers include personnel hired for FAA radar, landing and navigational aid maintenance, one air traffic controller told the Associated Press. The air traffic controller was not authorized to talk to the media and spoke on condition of anonymity. The National Air Traffic Controllers Association said in a brief statement Monday it was “analyzing the effect of the reported federal employee terminations on aviation safety, the national airspace system and our members.” Other FAA employees who were fired were working on an urgent and classified early warning radar system the Air Force had announced in 2023 for Hawaii to detect incoming cruise missiles, through a program that was in part funded by the Department of Defense. It’s one of several programs that the FAA’s National Defense Program manages that involve radars providing longer-range detection around the country’s borders. Due to the nature of their work, staff in that office typically provide an extensive knowledge transfer before retiring to make sure no institutional knowledge is lost, said Charles Spitzer-Stadtlander, one of the employees in that branch who was terminated. “This is about protecting national security, and I’m scared to death,” Spitzer-Stadtlander said. “And the American public should be scared too.” The Hawaii radar and the FAA National Defense Program office working on it “is about protecting national security,” Spitzer-Stadtlander said. “I don’t think they even knew what NDP does, they just thought, oh no big deal, he just works for the FAA.”

Reported similarly:
CBS News [2/17/2025 9:37 AM, Kathryn Krupnik, 52225K]
NBC News [2/17/2025 6:52 PM, Kelly O’Donnell, 50804K] Video: HERE
Newsweek [2/17/2025 11:47 AM, Natalie Venegas, 56005K]

AP [2/16/2025 8:21 PM, Ali Swenson and Christina A. Cassidy, 2315K] reports that when a suspicious video of ballots being ripped up in Pennsylvania gained attention on social media last October, federal agencies responded quickly and called it out as Russian disinformation. On Election Day in November, bomb threats to polling places in numerous states caused relatively few disruptions to voting. It’s one of the many scenarios covered by the nation’s cybersecurity agency in its outreach to state and local officials. The future of that assistance is now uncertain. The Trump administration’s downsizing and disbanding of federal agencies has hit efforts that improve election security and monitor foreign influence. That could create gaps for America’s enemies to exploit the next time the country holds a major election. "Our adversaries are upping their game every day," said former Department of Homeland Security cyber chief Suzanne Spaulding. "I’m worried that we are, at the same time, tearing down our defenses." Last week, new Attorney General Pam Bondi disbanded an FBI task force focused on investigating foreign influence operations, including those that target U.S. elections.

CNN [2/16/2025 7:00 AM, Arit John, 987K] reports that, in his nearly four weeks in office, President Donald Trump has unveiled a constant stream of policy priorities in quick succession, from shrinking government, to cutting taxes, to waging a war on diversity initiatives, illegal immigration and transgender rights. His allies in the states are rushing to keep up. The Florida and Tennessee legislatures have passed sweeping immigration packages that will make it easier for state law enforcement and federal immigration officials to coordinate during recent special sessions. Leaders in Ohio and Arkansas are renewing efforts to place work requirements on Medicaid recipients. And Republicans in at least nine states have moved to create government efficiency task forces inspired by the initiative helmed by billionaire Elon Musk. Across the country, Republican governors and legislatures are taking advantage of the national spotlight – and friendlier regulatory environment – the Trump administration has created to advance longtime conservative policy goals. In State of the State speeches, X posts and press conferences, they’ve described the new administration as a partner they’re eager to support. And they have been eager to portray themselves as loyal allies. For Democrats, it’s a reminder that elections have consequences at both the federal level and the state level, where Republicans have dominated for years. Republican-backed laws, particularly measures passed in the nearly two dozen states where their party controls the governorship and both chambers of the legislature, have been at the center of some of the biggest culture war fights of the last few years, including the 2022 Dobbs decision that ended federal abortion protections and a pending case on gender-affirming care for minors. Democrats have increasingly pitched the need to build their power at the state level as a way to combat Republican gains. “Red states are feeling even more empowered under Trump’s takeover of Washington to push legislation that sows confusion and chaos, from cutting programs families rely on to rolling back fundamental rights,” said Sam Paisley, a spokesperson for the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee. “Democrats in state legislatures are the strongest defense against MAGA Republicans’ destruction.”

AP [2/16/2025 5:30 PM, Eric Tucker and Alanna Durkin Richer, 4917K] reports Pam Bondi had insisted at her Senate confirmation hearing that as attorney general, her Justice Department would not “play politics.” Yet in the month since the Trump administration took over the building, a succession of actions has raised concerns the department is doing exactly that. Top officials have demanded the names of thousands of FBI agents who investigated the Capitol riot, sued a state attorney general who had won a massive fraud verdict against Donald Trump before the 2024 election, and ordered the dismissal of a criminal case against New York Mayor Eric Adams by saying the charges had handicapped the Democrat’s ability to partner in the Republican administration’s fight against illegal immigration. Even for a department that has endured its share of scandals, the moves have produced upheaval not seen in decades, tested its independence and rattled the foundations of an institution that has long prided itself on being driven solely by facts, evidence and the law. As firings and resignations mount, the unrest raises the question of whether a president who raged against his own Justice Department during his first term can succeed in bending it to his will in his second. “We have seen now a punishing ruthlessness that acting department leadership and the attorney general are bringing to essentially subjugate the workforce to the wishes and demands of the administration, even when it’s obvious” that some of the decisions have all the signs “of corrupting the criminal justice system,” said retired federal prosecutor David Laufman, a senior department official across Democratic and Republican administrations. He spoke not long after Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor, Danielle Sassoon, resigned in protest following a directive from Emil Bove, the Justice Department’s acting No. 2 official, to dismiss the case against Adams. In a letter foreshadowing her decision, Sassoon accused the department of acceding to a “quid pro quo” — dropping the case to ensure Adams’ help with Trump’s immigration agenda. Though a Democrat, Adams had for months positioned himself as eager to aid the administration’s effort in America’s largest city, even meeting privately with Trump at Trump’s Florida estate just days before the Republican took office.

NBC News [2/16/2025 10:59 PM, Garrett Haake and Megan Lebowitz, 36472K] reports that an IRS employee who is affiliated with the Department of Government Efficiency is expected to seek access to an IRS system that houses sensitive taxpayer information, according to an administration official. The access would be to the Integrated Data Retrieval System, which allows IRS employees to access taxpayer accounts. An administration official originally said that the employee had been granted access but later clarified that the employee was expected to seek access and was not already in the system. The IDRS allows employees to have "instantaneous visual access to certain taxpayer accounts," according to the IRS website. The system can be used for "researching account information and requesting returns" and "automatically generating notices, collection documents and other outputs." It contains information such as taxpayers’ individual master files, taxpayer identification numbers, retirement account information and details on pending adoptions. The DOGE-affiliated person in question is an IRS employee who started after President Donald Trump’s second inauguration, the administration official confirmed to NBC News. The official said the employee was carrying out the "DOGE mission" and acting "legally and with the appropriate security clearances." NBC News has reported that DOGE has accessed the Treasury Department’s payment system, which stores sensitive information like Social Security numbers. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem also said this month that Trump authorized Musk to access FEMA disaster data.

Reported similarly:
New York Times [2/17/2025 12:29 AM, Alan Rappeport, Andrew Duehren, and Maggie Haberman, 161405K]

New York Times [2/17/2025 5:56 PM, Minho Kim, Stephanie Saul and Winnie Hu, 161405K] reports thousands of protesters opposing broad swaths of President Trump’s agenda took to the streets across the United States on Monday, calling Mr. Trump a “king” on Presidents’ Day for his efforts to terminate thousands of federal workers and to fire prosecutors and independent watchdogs within the federal government. On Saturday, Mr. Trump suggested on social media that he would not heed concerns that his sweeping actions could be breaking laws, posting a riff on a phrase often attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte: “He who saves his country does not violate any law.” “No king, no crown, we will not back down,” chanted those who gathered a few hundred feet from the U.S. Capitol on the National Mall in Washington. Many protesters opposed to Mr. Trump’s agenda embraced symbols of patriotism, waving flags and wearing heart-shaped earrings and beanies adorned with the U.S. flag. The members of an a cappella group sang the national anthem by the Capitol Reflecting Pool. The audience burst into applause after the final line: “And the home of the brave.” “It’s our anthem. It’s our flag. It belongs to us,” said Shawn Morris, the president of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, D.C. “We wanted to take it back.” Mr. Morris said he was deeply troubled by Mr. Trump’s moves to push transgender people out of the military and to erase any mention of them from federal government websites. He expressed concerns that protections for same-sex marriages could be threatened next. “There’s nothing more patriotic than fighting against tyranny,” said Kat Duesterhaus, who traveled from Miami to join the Washington protest. “We’re out here because we are patriots.” The protests came as Democrats have struggled to counter Mr. Trump’s moves, with Republicans holding majorities in both the House and the Senate and Democratic leaders and operatives worried about alienating voters in reacting hastily without reflecting first on why they lost in 2024. Many activists, however, have voiced frustration at the lack of a more aggressive stance.

Reported similarly:
Yahoo! News [2/17/2025 5:00 PM, Dana DiFilippo, 57114K]

FOX News [2/16/2025 7:03 PM, Mike Davis, 49889K] reports that Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove just delivered a civics lesson to a now-former top New York prosecutor who was apparently confused about who she worked for. It all began when Bove, as authorized by Attorney General Pam Bondi, directed Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York Danielle Sassoon to dismiss the federal indictment against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. The Biden Justice Department had indicted Adams on a somewhat questionable bribery charge after he had voiced public criticism of President Biden’s policies on illegal immigration. When he assumed office, President Donald Trump issued an order to de-weaponize the Justice Department, which had engaged in lawfare against him for years. In the spirit of this order, Bove—while not addressing the merits of Adams’ prosecution or impugning the integrity of the prosecutors—ordered the dismissal without prejudice, meaning charges can be brought in the future. Bove provided two rationales for the decision. First, the indictment reasonably could be viewed as interfering with the November 2025 mayoral election in which Adams is a candidate. Second, the indictment would hinder Adams’ ability to assist the Trump administration in its illegal immigration enforcement activities.

Newsweek [2/16/2025 12:24 PM, Peter Aitken, 6595K] reports that President Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan denied that there was any "deal" with New York City Mayor Eric Adams that had led to the Department of Justice (DOJ) ordering the Southern District of New York to drop its case against the embattled mayor. Newsweek reached out to the New York City mayor’s office by email for comment on Sunday morning. The Southern District of New York in September brought charges of conspiracy, wire fraud and bribery against Adams. The charges were in connection with an alleged $100,000 in luxury gifts and illegal campaign contributions from Turkish officials and businesspeople for opening a consulate in New York without proper fire inspections. Adams has denied all allegations against him. However, the DOJ last week ordered the charges against Adams dropped, prompting more than half a dozen federal prosecutors to quit rather than enforce the order. Adams and Homan appeared on Fox & Friends on Friday, when Homan said he would be holding Adams to account, and that if he did not deliver on their agreement in the coming weeks and months, he would walk into the mayor’s office and demand to know why.

Reported similarly:
NBC News [2/16/2025 3:29 PM, Raquel Coronell Uribe, 50804K]

CBS New York [2/17/2025 4:01 PM, Marcia Kramer, Jesse Zanger, Christina Fan, 52225K] reports four New York City deputy mayors announced their resignations Monday as the controversy continued to grow over the allegation that Mayor Eric Adams agreed to a quid pro quo to get his criminal case dropped. Maria Torres-Springer, the city’s First Deputy Mayor, Anne Williams-Isom, deputy mayor for Health and Human Services, Meera Joshi, the deputy mayor for Operations, and Chauncey Parker, deputy mayor for Public Safety, announced Monday they were resigning. They cited recent "extraordinary events" in the Adams administration and the need "to stay faithful to the oaths we swore to New Yorkers and our families." "Serving as deputy mayors has been the greatest honor and privilege of our lives. We have worked each day with the singular mission of improving the lives of New Yorkers and strengthening the physical foundation of the city we love. Due to the extraordinary events of the last few weeks and to stay faithful to the oaths we swore to New Yorkers and our families, we have come to the difficult decision to step down from our roles. While our time in this administration will come to a close, our support for the incredible public servants across the administration with whom we have stood shoulder to shoulder and our championing of this great city and all it stands for will never cease. We sincerely thank the mayor for giving us the opportunity to serve New Yorkers in these roles, stand ready to ensure a smooth transition of our duties, and wish Mayor Adams and all of our colleagues much strength and courage in the work ahead," Torres-Springer, Williams-Isom and Joshi said in a joint statement. "Serving as deputy mayor for public safety under Mayor Adams has been an honor of a lifetime. Together, we have made our streets safer, more just, and have improved quality of life for all New Yorkers. I am confident that the administration will continue on our mission to deliver for the people of this city," Parker said in a statement. Adams has remained defiant in the face of calls for him to step down, and held a campaign rally in Brooklyn Monday. He called the four "extraordinary public servants who have been vital to our work reshaping New York City." ""New Yorkers owe them an enormous debt of gratitude for their service to our city," Adams said in a statement. "I am disappointed to see them go, but given the current challenges, I understand their decision and wish them nothing but success in the future."

Reported similarly:
New York Times [2/17/2025 12:45 PM, William K. Rashbaum, Dana Rubinstein and Emma G. Fitzsimmons, 161405K]

New York Times [2/18/2025 3:00 AM, Emma G. Fitzsimmons, 161405K] reports four months ago, the administration of Mayor Eric Adams seemed to be in an irreversible state of crisis. Two of his deputy mayors and his police commissioner had resigned. His five-count federal indictment was still very much in play. Mr. Adams soldiered on. He hired well-regarded replacements, eschewing his often-tapped pool of loyalists. He hired a fiery criminal defense lawyer and began to openly court President Trump as an ally. The moves seemed to pay off. Mr. Adams’s new team, led by the first deputy mayor, Maria Torres-Springer, won admiration for keeping New York City running; the mayor seemed to score an even bigger victory when the Justice Department moved to drop the case against him. But Mr. Adams’s seeming legal triumph has brought him into a deeper political crisis. The prosecutor overseeing the mayor’s case accused Mr. Adams late last week of agreeing to a quid pro quo with Trump administration officials. In exchange for leniency in the criminal case, she said, the mayor would help the president with immigration enforcement. The suggestion that Mr. Adams would do Mr. Trump’s bidding, which the mayor has denied, brought widespread condemnation and calls for him to step down or for Gov. Kathy Hochul to remove him. Ms. Hochul, a Democrat who has been an ally to the mayor, released a statement late Monday saying that she would meet with elected officials on Tuesday to discuss the mayor’s future and that the allegations against him were “troubling and cannot be ignored.” The latest blows came on Monday, when Ms. Torres-Springer and three other deputy mayors said they would be resigning. They did not directly cite the mayor’s cooperation with the Trump administration but alluded to “the extraordinary events of the last few weeks.” The officials were respected government veterans who served as the backbone of the administration, leading a vast bureaucracy of roughly 300,000 city workers and key initiatives to build urgently needed housing and to improve public safety. “This is an unmitigated disaster,” said Mark Levine, the Manhattan borough president. “Each one of these leaders is a seasoned, talented professional. Their loss will leave New York City government in a truly precarious position.”

New York Times [2/18/2025 3:08 AM, Andy Newman, 161405K] reports Gov. Kathy Hochul raised the prospect of removing Mayor Eric Adams from office and announced plans to meet on Tuesday with “key leaders” in Manhattan to discuss “the path forward, with the goal of ensuring stability for the City of New York.” “Overturning the will of the voters is a serious step that should not be taken lightly,” Ms. Hochul said in a statement late Monday. “That said, the alleged conduct at City Hall that has been reported over the past two weeks is troubling and cannot be ignored.” The governor was referring to comments from the federal prosecutor in Mr. Adams’s criminal case that the mayor’s lawyers had offered the White House a “quid pro quo” — helping President Trump’s immigration crackdown in return for dropping the charges. Her comments followed the resignations of four of Mr. Adams’s deputy mayors, including his second-in-command, amid criticism that the mayor has put his own interests above those of New Yorkers. Last week, after months of overtures by Mr. Adams to Mr. Trump, the Justice Department moved to drop the corruption case against the mayor, arguing that it was hindering his ability to cooperate with the president’s crackdown on illegal immigration. (The prosecutor who alleged a quid pro quo resigned rather than withdraw the charges.) On Monday night, Ms. Hochul, a fellow Democrat who has the power to remove the mayor under the state Constitution, said that the resignations in his cabinet prompted “serious questions about the long-term future of this mayoral administration.” Calls for the mayor to resign are growing louder and more numerous, with the City Council speaker, Adrienne Adams, who is no relation to the mayor, writing on Monday that the mayor has “lost the confidence and trust of his own staff, his colleagues in government, and New Yorkers.”

The Dispatch [2/17/2025 2:42 AM, Grayson Logue] reports in what has emerged as a playbook of sorts for Elon Musk’s government efficiency campaign, the tech billionaire’s team discovers a government spending program it deems objectionable, and the recently appointed leaders of the agency behind the program respond by immediately halting the funding. Such was the case last week with a funding program administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to support municipalities and local nonprofits in managing the effects of the migrant crisis as hundreds of thousands of people have flooded across the U.S. border with Mexico and into cities across the country in recent years. The Trump administration has now halted the Shelter and Services Program’s (SSP) payments to the New York City government, even clawing back some $80 million in already disbursed funds, and the future of the program remains uncertain.

USA Today [2/17/2025 5:24 PM, Trevor Hughes, 89965K] reports Maryland State police have arrested two people in connection with a string of homicides nationally, including several deaths in California, two deaths in Pennsylvania and the shooting of a U.S. border patrol agent in Vermont earlier this year. Taken into custody were Jack "Ziz" Lasota, 34, and Michelle Zajko, 32. Authorities believe Zajko supplied the guns that were used during the January shooting of Border Patrol agent David Maland near the Canadian border on Jan. 20. Maryland State Police confirmed the arrests on Monday but declined to comment further. A third person, Daniel Blank, 26 was arrested alongside Zajko and Lasota; his connection was not immediately clear. Maryland authorities did not immediately disclose the circumstances under which the three were arrested. "The Maryland State Police is working in coordination with our federal law enforcement partners and the Office of the State’s Attorney in Allegany County as this investigation continues," a spokesperson for the Maryland State Police said in a statement. The FBI confirmed agents are working with Maryland State police but declined to comment further. The linked cases have drawn worldwide attention, in part because some of the people involved were transgender, and many were vegan, an unusual combination of circumstances, experts said. The AP [2/17/2025 4:07 PM, Michael Casey, 11K] report the apparent leader of a cultlike group known as the Zizians has been arrested in Maryland along with another member of the group, Maryland State Police said Monday. Jack Lasota, 34, was arrested Sunday along with Michelle Zajko, 33, of Media, Pennsylvania. They face multiple charges including trespassing, obstructing and hindering and possession of a handgun in the vehicle. A bail hearing for the two is scheduled for 11 a.m. Tuesday at Allegany District Court. The Zizians have been tied to the killing of U.S. Border Patrol Agent David Maland near the Canadian border in January and five other homicides in Vermont, Pennsylvania and California. Maland, 44, was killed in a Jan. 20 shootout following a traffic stop in Coventry, Vermont, a small town about 20 miles (32 kilometers) from the Canadian border. Officials have offered few details of the cross-country investigation, which broke open after the Jan. 20 shooting death of Maland. Associated Press interviews and a review of court records and online postings tell the story of how a group of young, highly intelligent computer scientists, most of them in their 20s and 30s, met online, shared anarchist beliefs, and became increasingly violent. Their goals aren’t clear, but online writings span topics from radical veganism and gender identity to artificial intelligence. At the middle of it all is “Ziz,” who appears to be the leader of the strange group members who called themselves “Zizians.” She has been seen near multiple crime scenes and has connections to various suspects. LaSota published a dark and sometimes violent blog under the name Ziz and, in one section, described her theory that the two hemispheres of the brain could hold separate values and genders and “often desire to kill each other.”

NPR [2/17/2025 10:10 PM, Chandelis Duster, Juliana Kim, 35747K] Video: HERE reports that, on Presidents Day, demonstrators across the U.S. descended upon state capitol buildings and other locations to protest actions by President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, who is implementing significant changes to the federal government. In Washington, D.C., the nation’s capital, thousands of people gathered at the Capitol Reflecting Pool chanting "Where is Congress?" and urging members of Congress to "do your job!" despite nearly 40-degree temperatures and 20-mile-per-hour wind gusts. Potus Black, an organizer of the D.C. chapter of the 50501 Movement, which spearheaded the rallies, called on the sea of protesters to stand united to "uphold the Constitution.” "To oppose tyranny is to stand behind democracy and remind our elected officials that we, the people, are who they’re elected to serve, not themselves," Black said. "The events over the past month have been built to exhaust us, to break our wills. But we are the American people. We will not break.” The nationwide protests were part of the 50501 Movement, which stands for "50 protests. 50 states. 1 movement." These protests were a response to what organizers describe as "the anti-democratic and illegal actions of the Trump administration." Monday’s demonstrations marked the group’s second nationwide campaign, following a series of executive orders signed by Trump. Both Musk and Trump have faced criticism for mass firings across several federal agencies. Several attendees spoke with NPR, expressing their anger over Musk and Trump’s actions and their fears about future executive orders. Their concerns ranged from Musk’s team at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), gaining access to Americans’ personal data through the IRS and other federal agency records, to the firing of national park rangers. Suzanne, a resident of Maryland, who requested that her last name be withheld because she fears retaliation against her family. She told NPR she attended the rally in support of her husband, a federal employee with a financial regulatory agency. She mentioned their worries about him potentially being laid off among thousands of others. "It’s put us in a pretty tenuous financial situation. Currently, his paychecks are going through, but we’re looking to Plan B as an alternative on how to support our family, our children," she said. "But it has really motivated him and his co-workers to stand united, to stand as a solid, solidified workers force.”

CBS Miami [2/16/2025 7:45 AM, Staff, 52225K] Video: HERE reports CBS News Miami’s Jim DeFede devotes the entire half-hour to the immigration bill that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed, and the tumultuous events leading up to it. This past week, for the third time in less than three weeks, the Florida legislature held a special session to supposedly crackdown on illegal immigration. The bill the Governor signed was a compromise between him and legislative leaders. But DeSantis clearly did not get what he wanted. Jim talks to Republican Representative Juan Carlos Porras, from Miami-Dade County, who is a close ally of House Speaker Danny Perez, and Senate Minority Leader Jason Pizzo, a Democrat who represents folks in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, about what they think the bill will accomplish, and where things go from here, including the likelihood that the existing rift between the governor and legislator will only widen when the regular session opens next month. Guests: State Rep. Juan Carlos Porrras/R-Miami Dade County State Sen. Jason Pizzo/D-Minority Leader Catch Facing South Florida With Jim DeFede on Sundays at 11:30AM ET.

Yahoo! News [2/17/2025 6:53 PM, Ana Goñi-Lessan, 57114K] reports Florida’s GOP leaders named Larry Keefe as the executive director for the new State Board of Immigration Enforcement at an emergency Cabinet meeting on Monday in Niceville. Keefe, who used to be north Florida’s top federal prosecutor and the state’s public safety czar, was heavily involved in the 2022 publicity move of arranging flights of migrants from the U.S.-Mexico border to blue states. "Last time it was Martha’s Vineyard, this time, maybe Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. I don’t know how it’s going to shake out, I just know we’re going to be there," Gov. Ron DeSantis said at the meeting. After a few weeks of bickering between the governor and the Republican-led legislature and three special sessions, the two branches of government came up with a compromise that they touted as the "toughest" legislation on immigration in the country. This included establishing a board of immigration enforcement to work closely with the federal government on President Donald Trump’s immigration overhaul and with mass deportations. Keefe, who has been the subject of lawsuits and investigations that have stemmed from the migrant flights, said this executive director position is the "perfect thing for me.” "It blends federal, state and local, getting people to work together with a great sense of urgency, tearing down barriers. And I tell each one of you as I look each one of you in the eye, I will make you proud," Keefe said. The legislation (SB 2C) that established the new board also increased criminal penalties for immigrants who enter the country illegally, required enrollment in what’s known as the 287(g) program (a collaboration with federal immigration enforcement) and repealed in-state tuition for undocumented students. But it also served as a blow to the unauthorized alien transport program that DeSantis and the Legislature established for the migrant flights. Now the state will only be allowed to transport migrants under the direction of the federal government. DeSantis originally had asked for $350 million for his program, according to reports. SB 2C in total cost about $300 million.

CBS Austin [2/17/2025 6:18 PM, Jahmal Kennedy and Tara Brolley, 581K] reports protesters gathered at the Texas State Capitol on Monday, demonstrating against the Trump administration as part of a nationwide "Not My President" rally. Demonstrators carried signs with messages including "Not My President," "Resist," and "Make Racists Afraid Again" outside the Capitol building. "If not me, who? If not now, what hell am I going to die on? This is it," said protest speaker Kristin Jenn. Jenn was one of the many speakers who took over the megaphone on Monday. Jenn has recently been affected by the current administration’s policies and goals. "I’m an American citizen, I’m a National Park Ranger, and I’m a disabled veteran," she said. "And Donald Trump stole my job.” Tesla CEO Elon Musk heads the Department of Government Efficiency, the agency in charge of looking into what it calls "waste management.” Protester Michael Diatlevi believes it’s doing more harm than good. "They’re not trimming the fat. They’re hacking off body parts, and they’re killing the body that is the American people," he said. Today’s protest didn’t just take aim at the president. Lindsay Eck lives in Caldwell County and condemned Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s goal of passing private school vouchers. "Whether you’re liberal or conservative, people in the rural counties don’t want to have to go a 90-minute round trip to the nearest private school," said Eck.

CBS San Francisco [2/16/2025 9:12 PM, Staff, 52225K] Video: HERE reports a large group is standing up against President Trump’s immigration policies and mass deportations.

Dallas Morning News [2/17/2025 3:00 AM, Editorial Board, 3419K] reports that in 2023, Texas added 473,453 residents through births and migration. Of those, 5,050 were refugees. Background checks and health screenings weren’t required for the Californians and Arkansans who moved to the Lone Star State, but they were for the refugees. Having fled their home countries out of fear of persecution, refugees often languish for months or years in a nearby nation while their personal histories are reviewed and investigated. It’s a grueling process. “No one wakes up one day and says, this is a beautiful day to be a refugee,” said Dr. Samira Izadi Page, who fled Iran and eventually founded Gateway of Grace, a faith-based nonprofit in Dallas that serves refugees. Nevertheless, President Donald Trump issued an executive order last month to suspend all refugee admissions, ostensibly out of security concerns. The administration also froze funding for resettlement agencies, forcing some local nonprofits, such as Catholic Charities of Dallas, to lay off employees who helped refugees assimilate. In a television interview last month, Vice President J. D. Vance defended the order, arguing that refugees were not being properly vetted before they arrived. The only specific example he offered was an Afghan national living in Oklahoma City who was arrested on charges of planning an Election Day terrorist attack last year. That suspect, Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, was not a refugee.

FOX News [2/17/2025 5:00 AM, Chuck DeVore, 49889K] reports that on President Donald J. Trump’s first day in office, he issued an executive order designating human and drug trafficking cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs). This week, the other shoe is expected to drop, as the State Department under Secretary Marco Rubio names names, designating six Mexican cartels as FTOs. Official Washington has long peddled the comfortable fiction that Mexico is an honest partner in the fight against drugs and human trafficking. This myth persists, despite decades of overwhelming evidence that the Mexican government is at best willfully negligent, and at worst, in active collusion with the criminal networks destroying lives on both sides of the border – cartels that Trump just called out by name. Trump has put a forceful end to this lie. Trump’s action exposes the inconvenient truth: Mexico, first under former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) and his Morena Party and now with President Claudia Sheinbaum, is no peer ally. It is a state deeply compromised by cartel corruption and control. While Washington elites fret over diplomacy and stability, tens of thousands of Americans are dying from fentanyl poisoning every year. This crisis is directly fueled by cartels operating with impunity in Mexico and with material, financial and intelligence support from China.

New York Times [2/17/2025 1:14 AM, Javid Ahmad, 161405K] reports President Trump has promised a bold new American approach to the world. Nowhere is that more urgently needed than in Afghanistan. Not only have its Taliban rulers crushed dissent and stripped away the rights of the country’s women and girls; they have also taken Americans hostage and are allowing Afghanistan to serve as a nerve center of violent jihadist networks such as Al Qaeda. We all know what happened on Sept. 11, 2001, the last time this state of affairs existed. The Trump administration faces a stark choice: Let Afghanistan spiral further into jihadism or engage pragmatically with the Taliban. Engagement is, of course, a tough case to make, given the regime’s brutal nature and America’s painful history in Afghanistan. But dealing directly with the Taliban may be the only way to gain enough leverage to minimize serious potential threats to U.S. national security and interests. The Biden administration’s approach — neither toppling the regime nor normalizing relations — has allowed the Taliban to entrench its rule without hope of the United States exerting any positive influence over it. Afghanistan requires realpolitik — putting results over ideals. The hard-nosed deal-making aspects of Mr. Trump’s “America first” outlook may offer the right framework. The Trump administration should establish at least a limited diplomatic presence in Afghanistan or even reopen America’s embassy in Kabul to facilitate regular contact with Taliban leaders toward the ultimate goal of deploying specialized intelligence teams in the country to track and respond to potential threats.

CNN’s State of the Union With Jake Tapper and Dana Bash [2/16/2025 9:29 AM, Staff] reports President Trump’s Border Czar, Tom Homan met on Thursday with the New York mayor, and he announced then that he would give ICE agents access to the prison on Rikers Island. Homan called that a game changer. A few days before Adams made that announcement, the Justice Department instructed prosecutors to drop federal corruption charges against him. It sounds like the DOJ dropped the case against Adams and, in exchange, Border Czar Homan was let into Rikers. Is that what happened? "No, I think that’s ridiculous. Me and Mayor Adams met a couple months ago. I think it was probably eight, nine weeks ago we met. And we had the same discussion. And we talked about getting a presence in Rikers Island. We talked about how we can collaborate on public safety threats and finding the missing children that were -- that can be found after they release the sponsors. We had that a couple months ago, long before this other discussion. So I don’t think it had anything to do with it. Matter of fact, the meeting went very well. It was the same meeting we had a few weeks ago. The reason we had the follow-up meeting because there was no action being done. So we followed up on how we can get some of this stuff in place, and that’s what the meeting Thursday was about." Border Czar Homan states. Homan says that him and Adams met back in December. He says that they had to reschedule a meeting and that meeting took place Thursday when the access of Rikers Island was announced.

CNN’s State of the Union With Jake Tapper and Dana Bash [2/16/2025 9:29 AM, Staff] reports New York City Mayor Eric Adams says that Border Czar, Tom Homan isn’t looking into New York schools or churches as they hunt for undocumented immigrants. Did Homan make that commitment to him? "What me and Mr. Adams talked about is telling the truth that the leftist has tried to scare the American people. We ended the sensitive location policy for one reason, because we’re the only federal law enforcement agency that had those type of requirements. What I made clear to Governor -- to Mayor Adams is that we’re not raiding schools, we’re not raiding churches, we’re not raiding college campuses, but if we have a significant public safety threat, significant public safety threat or national security, let’s say, for instance, an MS-13 member who’s a senior in the high school who’s wanted for drug distribution or strong-arm robberies, we will go to that school and arrest that MS-13 member with the help of the local authorities. It’s not about raiding the schools. It’s about arresting one bad guy where we know he is and not let him escape back into the community. That’s what discussion we had, " Border Czar Homan comments.

CBS’ Face The Nation [2/16/2025 11:47 AM, Staff, 4201K] reports Secretary of State Marco Rubio joins from Israel, as the negotiations with Hamas to end that conflict enter a crucial stage. Secretary Rubio me with Prime Minister Netanyahu. He said he’s lockstep with the Trump administration, but he can’t share details on – quote – "when the gates of hell will be open if all our hostages are not released." Does President Trump want to keep talks going to get to phase two of this hostage deal? "I think we share a common goal. We want to see every hostage released. Frankly, I think – and the president has said this – we want to see them out as soon as we possibly can. And – and, certainly, you know, the world has watched these images of people – and it’s just heartbreaking to remember that some of them have been now almost two years there. It’s a horrifying situation. So we coordinate and work very close with them. We share the goal that every hostage needs to come home, every single one, without delay. Obviously, the – there are details of how we’re pursuing that and coordinating that we’re not going to share publicly because we don’t want to endanger the hostages and we don’t want to endanger this process. But suffice it to say that, if it was up to us, every one of these hostages would be home right now, and we want it to happen as soon as possible, " Secretary Rubio comments.

CBS’ Face The Nation [2/16/2025 11:47 AM, Staff, 4201K] reports Secretary Rubio had phone call with Russia’s top diplomat, Sergey Lavrov. The Russian side claimed that trade restoration was discussed, which seemed to be a nod to sanctions, easing restrictions on diplomats, and other gestures like a high-level leaders meeting. Is the Trump administration considering lifting sanctions on Russia? " The phone call was to establish communications that are consistent with the call the president made last week with Vladimir Putin, because if we are – if there is going to be the possibility of – of progress here towards peace, we are going to need to talk to the Russians. I mean, that is going to have to happen, and we’re going to have to be able to be able to do it across our channels." Secretary Rubio comments. When asked about the sanctions he had this to say: "I also raised in that conversation concerns that – well, we didn’t go into any details. I mean, what we just discussed is basically the ability to begin communicating. I had never spoken to Mr. Lavrov in my life, so it was an opportunity for us to begin to open that channel of communication, which, again, if there’s the potential for peace here, that’s a channel that has to exist. But let me add one more thing. I also raised the issue of our embassy in Moscow, which operates under very difficult conditions. I raised that because it’s important. It’s going to be very difficult to engage in communication with Russia about anything if our embassy is not functioning. And he raised concerns about his diplomatic mission in the United States. So, at a very basic level, if, in fact, there is going to be an opportunity here to pursue peace by engaging with the Russians, we’re going to need to have functional embassies in Moscow and in Washington, D.C., and that’s certainly something foreign ministers would talk about as a matter of normal course."

NBC’s Meet the Press [2/16/2025 11:15 AM, Staff, 5130K] reports President Trump said, he does not think Ukrainian membership in NATO is, quote, practical. President Volodymyr Zelensky is asked "In your view, is NATO membership something that should be determined as a part of this deal?" "Well, I want to be very clear with NATO for us and for everybody. It’s the cheapest security guarantees, the cheapest for us, the cheapest for Europe, the cheapest for United States and the cheapest really for Russia. And if we are not in NATO, it means that we will build NATO in Ukraine. Otherwise, we will not recognize the security guarantees." Zelensky comments. President Trump said on Wednesday that restoring all of the territory seized by Russia since 2014 is unlikely. Zelensky is asked "Are you willing to say here that you are prepared to formally cede some of the sovereign territory of Ukraine to Russia in order to stop the killing?" "Judicially, we will not recognize everybody and standards, it’s out of constitution to recognize our occupied territory like territory of Russia. We will never do it. It’s not about – it’s not about any negotiations. We will never speak about it.’ Zelensky comments.

NBC’s Meet the Press [2/16/2025 11:15 AM, Staff, 5130K] reports President Volodymyr Zelensky is asked is he thinks President Trump is negotiating in good faith. Zelensky says he hopes and counts on it very much, but when asked if he believes Putin is Putin capable of negotiating in good faith Zelensky said no. "He conducted military training exercises, he said that these are exercises that are always ongoing on Belarus territories, that they are a allied state with Belarus and that they do regular business. But he started the invasion, and the missiles, and the first night flew from the Belarus, and the invasion came from Belarus. We know for sure that he is preparing that from the territory of Belarus this year. It can happen in summer, maybe in the beginning, maybe in the end of summer. I do not know when he prepares it. But it will happen. And at that moment, knowing that he did not succeed in occupying us, we do not know where he will go. There are risks that this can be Poland and Lithuania because we believe – we believe that Putin will wage war against NATO. That is why I told you that, "What is he waiting for?" For a weakening of NATO by, for instance, policy of the United States of America, for example, that the United States of America will think to take its military from Europe. Yes, Putin thinks of that. But I will believe that the United States will not take its forces, its contingents from Europe because that will severely weaken NATO and the European continent. Putin definitely counts on that. And the fact that we receive information that he will think of the invasion against former Soviet republics. And forgive me, but today these are NATO countries." Zelensky states.

CNN [2/16/2025 11:53 AM, Dana Bash, 22417K] reports White House border czar Tom Homan tells CNN’s Dana Bash "we have got to do more" to increase the number of immigration arrests. [Editorial note: consult video at source link] VOA News [2/16/2025 1:16 PM, Ken Bredemeier, 2717K] reports Tom Homan told CNN’s "State of the Union" show that 14,000 migrants had been arrested since Trump was inaugurated January 20, but said, "We’ve got to do a lot more." Many of those arrested have been flown back to their native lands or sent to the prison on the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, while some have been released to live in the United States pending court proceedings. The U.S. estimates that 11 million undocumented migrants are living in the U.S., with Trump pledging during his 2024 run for the presidency to find and deport "millions" of them. Officials say that the first arrests have targeted migrants convicted of crimes in the U.S. but that anyone living in the country without proper immigration documentation could be targeted. Homan said the number being deported is "a lot higher" than under the former administration of President Joe Biden, but added, "We’ve got to get the targeting and production up. It’s hard work."

Washington Examiner [2/17/2025 7:00 AM, Asher Notheis, 2365K] reports that Border czar Tom Homan underscored how the United States is determined to target the "foothold" that drug cartels have within the country, thanking President Donald Trump for aiding him in fighting gangs, such as Tren de Aragua. Homan detailed how some drug cartels are operating in almost four dozen different countries, and have drastically increased their businesses to having a hold of "every major city" within the U.S. As such, he and the U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement are "concentrating" on drug cartels and the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. "They have a strong foothold here, and that’s why we’re concentrating on drug cartels, concentrating on TDA, Tren de Aragua, I’m not going to be happy till every single one of Tren de Aragua is out of this country," Homan stated on Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo. "They need to be eradicated, along with MS-13.” Homan added that Trump has proven to be pivotal in combating illegal immigration, specifically how the president deemed Tren de Aragua a "terrorist" organization. He also forewarned that the U.S. will bring "the weight of the world" on this gang, and that Trump will "wipe them off the face of the earth" before he leaves office.

The Hill [2/17/2025 4:48 PM, Ailia Zehra, 16346K] reports President Trump’s "border czar" Tom Homan said Monday he asked the Department of Justice (DOJ) whether Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-N.Y.) efforts to educate people about their rights while facing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is impeding the agency’s operations. Speaking on Fox News, Homan said he finds it disturbing that "any member of Congress wants to educate people how they evade law enforcement.” "You can claim you [are] educating [them about] constitutional rights," he said, adding, "But what she [Ocasio-Cortez] is, in fact, doing is telling people ‘don’t open the door, hide in your home, don’t talk to ICE.’". "We are talking about people who are in the country illegally [and have] committed a crime. They are public safety threats," he continued, saying that federal judges have ordered the removal of many such individuals. "It’s like AOC and others don’t want ICE to enforce the law that they enacted," Homan said, referencing the congress member. When the Fox News host asked him if he thought Ocasio-Cortez was breaking the law, Homan said he would leave that question to the DOJ. This is not the first time Homan has suggested the possibility of action against Ocasio-Cortez for her attempts to educate people about their rights during ICE raids.

Reported similarly:
Washington Examiner [2/16/2025 12:36 PM, Jenny Goldsberry, 2365K]

FOX News [2/17/2025 5:26 PM, Peter Pinedo, 49889K] reports Democrat-appointed Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox is echoing Mayor Michelle Wu’s pledged resistance to the Trump administration’s deportations, saying on a local news station on Sunday that "we don’t enforce" civil immigration detainers filed by ICE. While speaking on a segment of WCVB’s "On the Record" show, Cox, who was appointed as police commissioner by Wu in 2022, said that in line with state and city laws, Boston police officers "don’t have authority to enforce federal immigration law.” Pressed on whether this policy conflicts with federal immigration law, Cox said that "the Boston Police Department has pretty defined rules and we abide by the law here in the state.” "We just don’t do that," he said. "We don’t enforce civil detainers regarding federal immigration law. It’s defined here in the state, and that’s just how it works.” Both the Boston "Trust Act," passed in 2014, and a 2017 Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling known as Lunn vs. Commonwealth both limit law enforcement entities in the city and state from cooperating with ICE "detainer" requests to hold illegal immigrants for potential deportation. Speaking on the same show shortly after the presidential election, Wu said: "Elections have consequences, and the federal government is responsible for a certain set of actions, and cities, no individual city, can reverse or override some parts of that. But what we can do is make sure that we are doing our part to protect our residents in every possible way, that we are not cooperating with those efforts that actually threaten the safety of everyone by causing widespread fear and having large scale economic impact.” ICE has said that such policies endanger local communities by forcing the agency to track down illegals and to make often high-risk arrests in public spaces.

WHTM [2/16/2025 12:39 PM, Hayden Sherry] reports a man wanted in Philadelphia for murder was arrested by Lancaster County police and detained by the Department of Homeland Security. According to the Columbia Borough Police Department, authorities were alerted that 36-year-old Wascar Del Rosario-Ernestor was wanted out of Philadelphia for homicide (murder) and received information about his whereabouts. Columbia Police say they conducted a warrant service in the 200 block of Locust Street and located Del Rosario-Ernestor on a rooftop. He was taken into custody without incident yesterday. Del Rosario-Ernestor has been confirmed not to be a U.S. Citizen and was issued a detainer by The Department of Homeland Security (DOHS) (ICE), per police. Del Rosario-Ernestor was committed to Lancaster County Prison on charges of arrest before requisition, the Philadelphia murder charges, and the DOHS ICE detainer.

FOX News [2/17/2025 4:00 AM, Sarah Rumpf-Whitten] reports a Florida sheriff said leveraging relationships with federal immigration enforcement officials is the "tip of the spear" to fight criminal migrants. St. Johns County is part of the 287(g) program that allows U.S. Immigration and Customs Protection (ICE) to delegate to state and local law enforcement officers certain immigration functions, including identifying and detaining suspected illegal immigrants. St. Johns County Sheriff Rob Hardwick shared how his department is working with federal immigration authorities.

WCMH [2/16/2025 8:00 AM, Adam Conn] reports a Mexican national citizen, previously convicted of felony drug charges in the United States, was arrested Thursday by federal agents in Fayette County. According to the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, federal agents arrested 34-year-old Pedro Marquez, of Bloomingburg, which is north of Washington Court House. Marquez, who was initially deported from the United States in 2009, is charged with illegally reentering the country after being convicted of an aggravated felony. Two years later, Marquez was convicted of participating in a drug trafficking conspiracy and illegally reentering the United States. Convicted of possession with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of methamphetamine in 2011, Marquez was sentenced to federal prison. Five years later, he was again removed from the country. On Thursday, investigators observed Marquez exit a home in Bloomingburg and was arrested for violating U.S. immigration laws. He told Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers his true name is Alex Ravis Vasquez but has previously used Pedro Marquez and Peter Marquez during prior immigration and criminal encounters.

Newsweek [2/17/2025 12:41 PM, Billal Rahman, 56005K] reports Michigan law enforcement agencies are pushing back against President Donald Trump’s mass deportation plans, citing a lack of resources to carry out large-scale immigration enforcement. President Donald Trump was elected after a campaign heavily focused on immigration and the promise of deporting millions of people who have no legal status in the U.S. A New York Times/Ipsos survey (January 2-10) found that 55 percent of voters back Trump’s mass deportation plan, while 88 percent support deporting immigrants with criminal records who have no legal permission to live in the U.S. Most Democrats and Republicans agree that the immigration system is broken. Multiple police departments told the Detroit Free Press that they lack the time, funding, or interest to enact Trump’s mass deportation policies. State agencies and education institutions could risk losing federal funding if they do not cooperate with the Trump administration, and the Department of Justice (DOJ) has directed prosecutors to investigate state officials who impede President Trump’s crackdown on immigration. The Michigan House of Representatives adopted a resolution that requires local governments and universities to ensure their policies, "do not include language that requires, encourages or supports subverting immigration enforcement in any way or refusing to comply with federal immigration enforcement measures." Grand Rapids Police Chief Eric Winstrom has been one of Michigan’s most vocal opponents of assisting ICE, refusing to support the Trump administration’s immigration efforts. When asked by the Detroit Free Press about a potential federal investigation, he appeared unconcerned. "I am confident GRPD’s policy of declining to participate in immigration enforcement with the federal government is on sound legal footing. As our policy makes clear, they have their responsibilities and we have ours," he said.

Border Report [2/17/2025 6:06 PM, Sandra Sanchez, 153K] reports a South Texas man has pleaded guilty to smuggling 36 immigrants in the back of a tractor-trailer, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Eusebio Cavazos, 33, of Alamo, pleaded guilty in federal court to transporting aliens into or within the United States, ICE says. Prosecutors say Cavazos was stopped by immigration officials on Dec. 13, 2024, after he drove a tractor-trailer into the primary inspection lane at the Border Patrol checkpoint in Sarita in Kenedy County, Texas. A canine unit flagged the truck and it was sent to secondary inspection where officials say they discovered 36 undocumented immigrants inside the trailer, which was not carrying anything else. This included 15 Guatemalans, 10 Hondurans, eight Mexican nationals and three from El Salvador, ICE says. "The days of transnational criminal organizations raking in billions in illicit profits each year by trampling on our nation’s sovereignty and flooding our country with millions of unvetted aliens who could present a threat to public safety or national security are over," ICE Homeland Security Investigations Houston Special Agent in Charge Chad Plantz said. "The law enforcement community in Southeast Texas is united in our effort to restore law and order along the southern border by aggressively pursuing and dismantling human smuggling organizations and other criminal organizations who are bold enough to test our collective resolve.”

FOX News [2/17/2025 2:22 PM, Peter Pinedo, 49889K] reports ICE officials in Houston arrested an immigrant "predator" previously convicted of secretly recording others in a bathroom in one of the latest developments in President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. The immigrant, Mexican national Daniel Alejandro Tristan-Guerra, was arrested by Houston Homeland Security Investigations officials "when his guard was down" on Feb. 11, according to an ICE statement released on Friday. Tristan-Guerra, 28, was arrested in a small town called Hallettsville in Lavaca County, Texas. After his arrest, he was taken to the Victoria County Jail pending his removal from the U.S. While several law enforcement entities in Democrat-controlled cities and states are refusing to cooperate with the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operations, this arrest was made following a joint investigation by ICE and the Victoria County Sheriff’s Office. Tristan-Guerra was convicted on two counts of invasive visual recording in a bathroom in August 2021 after an investigation by ICE HSI Houston and the Victoria County Sheriff’s Office. ICE and federal agents in Houston have been very active in recent weeks, making several arrests in addition to Tristan-Guerra, including the arrest of several suspected members of the international criminal migrant group Tren de Aragua.

Yahoo! News [2/17/2025 5:15 PM, Jason Alatidd, 57114K] reports Kansas state law enforcement officers will assist federal officials with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement on illegal immigration cases, Attorney General Kris Kobach announced Monday. Kobach said the attorney general’s office and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation have signed an agreement with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security allowing KBI agents to work with ICE on removing "criminal illegal aliens" from Kansas. "All across Kansas, illegal aliens who are dangerous criminals or gang members are released back to the streets on a regular basis," Kobach said in a statement. "That will end. This agreement will ensure that those criminals are deported.” Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach speaks with the media outside of the Kansas Statehouse on Monday, Feb. 17, 2025. Kansas is among the first states to enter such an agreement, Kobach’s office said, which is under Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. "Under the terms of the agreement," the attorney general’s office said in a news release, "a limited number of KBI agents will receive ICE training that authorizes the agents to arrest illegal aliens, to serve and execute warrants for some immigration violations, and to issue immigration detainers.” "The KBI is pleased to have another tool at our disposal to get known criminal offenders out of our communities," KBI director Tony Mattivi said in a statement. "This agreement will not shift KBI investigative priorities but will allow us to more swiftly achieve justice in cases in which the KBI currently focuses — major violent crimes, crimes committed against children, and targeting drug trafficking organizations.”

Yahoo! News [2/17/2025 7:21 PM, Jacquelyn Jimenez Romero, 57114K] reports mist shrouds the state Capitol dome in Olympia, Wash. on Jan. 27, 2025. (Bill Lucia/Washington State Standard) Following multiple lawsuits involving the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, state lawmakers are pushing again for greater transparency at the for-profit immigrant detention center. House Bill 1232, sponsored by Rep. Lillian Ortiz-Self, D-Mukilteo, would expand the definition of private detention facilities to include those run by nonprofit organizations. In fighting the state’s attempts at oversight in court, The GEO Group, which runs the Tacoma facility, claimed they were singled out by previous legislation. “If they really had nothing to hide, they would have opened their doors,” Ortiz-Self said. The Northwest ICE Processing Center is the only privately run adult detention facility in the state. GEO operates the center under a contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Martin Hall Juvenile Detention Facility, near Spokane, is not-for-profit and would be covered by this year’s bill. Through this legislation, Ortiz-Self hopes to demonstrate the state is not targeting a single facility. “It’s really very simple, you do business in the state of Washington, you should uphold some basic human standards,” Ortiz-Self said. “We would go after any other private detention facility,” she added, “but we don’t have any others.” The bill also includes some changes to the standards the state is seeking to enforce at the facilities, sets out new civil penalties for violations, and would make inspection findings available to the public. GEO did not return a request for comment. Debate over the legislation comes as President Donald Trump has pursued a set of hardline immigration policies since taking office last month. The Northwest ICE Processing Center is the largest immigration detention site in the region, with the capacity to hold about 1,575 people. For years, it has been the subject of complaints over human rights violations.

FOX 11 [2/17/2025 10:08 AM, Staff] reports nearly a month into President Donald Trump’s second term and his efforts to crack down on illegal immigration, federal officers continue to make arrests across the U.S., including in Southern California. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents began targeting major sanctuary cities immediately after Trump’s inauguration Monday, including Los Angeles, Chicago, and Atlanta. The following day, Trump lifted longtime guidelines that restricted ICE from operating at "sensitive locations" such as schools, churches or hospitals.

Newsweek [2/17/2025 7:45 AM, Billal Rahman, 56005K] reports that a California beach town southeast of Los Angeles in Orange County is stepping up efforts to monitor its coastline amid a rise in migrant-smuggling by boat. San Clemente officials want federal authorities to install cameras along the shore, aiming to enhance security and deter illegal crossings. Illegal border crossings have fallen under President Donald Trump as Republicans look to "secure the border." Trump has implemented hard-line immigration reforms, including limiting asylum opportunities and lifting restrictions on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers making arrests at sensitive locations such as schools, churches and hospitals. In response, many Democrat-led cities and states have reinforced their sanctuary policies, which restrict local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration authorities. However, some cities in sanctuary states have begun to break away from protecting undocumented migrants. "In the last month or so, we’ve had a large increase in the number of pangas [fishing boats] that have come up on our beach," San Clemente Mayor Steve Knoblock told Fox News Digital. "It happens, and nobody seems to notice. No one seems to capture it. There’s no interdiction, and we’ve been having them with much greater frequency," he said.

VOA News [2/17/2025 5:25 AM, Genia Dulot, 2717K] reports that in central California, it is harvesting season for strawberries and citrus fruits. But some farm workers who aren’t legal U.S. residents are staying away from work, following migrant roundups that are part of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Newsweek [2/17/2025 6:32 AM, Billal Rahman, 56005K] reports that Border Patrol agents will immediately cease using body cameras in the field, multiple sources have confirmed to NewsNation. Newsweek contacted Customs and Border Protection for comment via email outside normal office hours. President Donald Trump, who made border security and strict immigration measures key elements of his 2024 campaign, has pledged to carry out the largest mass deportation program in U.S. history. With increased immigration enforcement actions expected under his administration, body-worn cameras are arguably essential for Border Patrol agents as they enhance transparency, accountability and public trust by providing an objective record of interactions. Removing body cameras could reduce oversight and transparency, potentially undermining public confidence in border enforcement operations. According to sources cited by NewsNation, the policy change applies to all operational activities and has been driven by social media posts that discuss ways of identifying Border Patrol or Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. "All U.S. Border Patrol Agents will cease the use of body-worn cameras (BWC) in all operational environments," a statement to Border Patrol agents said, according to the outlet.

Reported similarly:
FOX News [2/16/2025 12:41 PM, Michael Lee, 49889K]

Border Report [2/17/2025 11:31 AM, Staff, 153K] reports the highest-ranking U.S. Border Patrol Chief visited the Rio Grande Valley Friday to speak with agents on the line and commission 300 National Guardsmen with the authority to detain and arrest people who are illegally entering the country. Chief Mike Banks is no stranger to the U.S. Border Patrol. Banks has merit and the experience to get the job done. The U.S. Navy Veteran has over 23 years of experience in border security operations, even holding high-ranking official titles here in the Rio Grande Valley. “This is my forever home, the valley has a special place in my heart, I got married and fell in love here and I’m very excited to come back to the U.S. Border Patrol,” said Banks, “My number one priority is to empower the agents to do the job. They can expect a level of accountability and someone that is going to have their back, without fear of appraisal even when they haven’t done anything wrong.” Banks says he plans on doing that by updating and reviewing policies.

FOX News [2/17/2025 1:18 PM, Cameron Arcand, 49889K] reports a House Democrat’s strategy to demonize legislation aimed at making it a federal crime to try to evade law enforcement within 100 miles of the border backfired last week after dozens of House Democrats voted in favor of the bill. "I urge my colleagues to oppose H.R. 35. Let’s call this bill what it is: fearmongering dressed up as officer safety," Rep. Janelle Bynum, D-Ore., said last week about the bill named after late Border Patrol Agent Raul Gonzalez, who died in a pursuit in 2022. House Resolution 35 would make individuals convicted of "intentionally fleeing" law enforcement in a vehicle subject to up to two years in prison and fines. If the police chase results in a death, the individual could face up to life imprisonment under the legislation, and potentially face deportation if the person involved is in the country illegally. "This bill echoes one of the darkest chapters in our nation’s history, ‘The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.’ Just like that shameful law, H.R. 35 forces local authorities and encourages the deputizing of randos to do the federal government’s work, punishing them if they refuse. Back then, it was hunting people down who dared to seek freedom. Today, it’s forcing local police to become federal enforcers," she continued in her House floor speech. Regardless, the bill passed 264-155, with 50 Democrats voting in favor, including a handful in border states. The legislation is now in the hands of the Senate, where Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is leading the charge on the proposal. "This bill delivers a clear message to anyone who endangers our community that they will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law," Rep. Juan Ciscomani, R-Ariz., said about the legislation he is sponsoring.

Yahoo! News [2/17/2025 2:25 PM, Noi Mahoney, 57114K] reports more than $32.6 million worth of cocaine, fentanyl and methamphetamine has been seized over the past month from commercial shipments at ports of entry in Texas, Michigan and Washington. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge found $19.8 million in methamphetamine and $144,500 worth of heroin concealed in a shipment of cucumbers and jalapenos. CBP officers were checking a tractor-trailer arriving from Mexico at the bridge in Pharr, Texas, on Feb. 4 when they found 26 packages of suspected heroin weighing 7 pounds and 8,206 packages of suspected methamphetamine weighing 2,218 pounds. CBP seized the narcotics and the tractor-trailer, and the case was turned over to the Department of Homeland Security. The seizure occurred Jan. 24 when officers were searching a commercial truck arriving from Mexico. CBP officers found nearly 890 pounds of suspected methamphetamine hidden in the shipment. CBP seized the narcotics, and Homeland Security Investigations is investigating the case. Truck driver Muhammad Shaikh was charged with possession with intent to distribute 240 pounds of cocaine as the result of an investigation and vehicle inspection Tuesday at the Ambassador Bridge, according to the Detroit Free Press.

WSBTV [2/16/2025 11:52 PM, Staff] reports the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers in Atlanta saved the life of a woman they say experiencing a medical emergency at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in January. On January 5 just after 8 a.m., officials with border protection noticed a traveler collapse near the inspection area. Mary Mellette, 74, from Charleston, S.C. arrived at the airport after a 15-hour flight from Johannesburg, South Africa. Officers began to provide life support to Mellette after she went unconscious, was unresponsive and had no pulse. At the request of the family, responding CBP officers met Mellette and her sister at the Atlanta area hospital where she received medical treatment. Later, she was released to her home to receive further medical care and continue her recovery. Even though she experienced a medical emergency, Mellette still received her passport stamp while officer Graham visited her in the hospital.

FOX News [2/16/2025 8:00 AM, Stephen Sorace] reports more than 161,000 counterfeit U.S. Forever stamps from China were recently seized in Chicago, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said Thursday. Anti-Terrorism Contraband Enforcement officers at the Chicago International Mail Branch stopped eight shipments containing a total of 161,860 fake stamps that violated trademark laws last weekend, CBP said. All the parcels were arriving from China, according to authorities, and would be valued at over $118,000 if real.

Newsweek [2/17/2025 11:44 AM, Billal Rahman, 56005K] reports that a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer smuggled migrants and has ties to a violent Mexican drug cartel, prosecutors have told a federal court. Newsweek has contacted CBP for further comment. The case raises concerns about corruption within border enforcement agencies. President Donald Trump has vowed to crack down on drug cartels after he signed executive orders declaring them as foreign terrorist organizations. A federal magistrate judge ordered CBP Officer Manuel Perez Jr., 32, of El Paso, to be held without bond following a detention hearing on Thursday, Feb. 13, in federal court in Downtown El Paso. Perez Jr is affiliated with La Línea, also known as the Juárez drug cartel, investigators alleged at his arraignment. Perez’s employment was terminated on February 8 following his arrest by the FBI El Paso West Texas Border Corruption Task Force on federal charges of drug and human smuggling. He faces between 10 years to life in prison if he is convicted. A special agent testified that Perez admitted to receiving $2,500 for each undocumented person he allowed to pass through his inspection lane at the Paso Del Norte International Bridge in Downtown El Paso. Prosecutors said that Perez may have received up to $400,000 as part of a border migrant smuggling operation that began in December 2023, according to the El Paso Times. Perez remains in federal custody as the case moves forward.

Yahoo! News [2/17/2025 8:30 PM, Kerry Charles, 57114K] reports the U.S. Marshal’s Service is playing a key role in a coordinated effort with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to address illegal entries into the country. Marshal Michael Black with the Southern District of Ohio recently visited the border and shared his insights. Black’s team is prioritizing local cases involving fugitives who are in the country illegally. The marshal and several of his counterparts from throughout the country recently met with federal judges, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and border patrol agents to see firsthand how they are enforcing the Trump administration’s new policies. Del Rio, Texas, sits along the U.S. Southern border with Mexico, more than 1,400 miles from Columbus. “HSI and ICE immigration and the DOJ direction for us to get involved in and assist in immigration in the Immigration Enforcement Initiative,” Black said. “I wanted to get a better handle and a better understanding of how that’s going to impact us in the interior states.” According to Black, this particular border crossing has seen a significant decrease in illegal crossings, averaging 50 per day, down from 1,500 per day in 2022. “While we’re down there, we actually saw standing on the border, looking across into Mexico, standing at the fence, we saw no activity at all. Zero activity,” Black said. On Feb. 5, the group visited Robb Elementary School in Uvalde and learned about the tactics used by marshal’s teams in response to a mass shooting nearly three years ago in which 19 children and two adults lost their lives.

Newsweek [2/17/2025 5:20 AM, Billal Rahman and Sophie Clark, 6595K] reports that Fentanyl overdoses have been at crisis levels in New Mexico for the past three years. State leaders are calling for a mix of punitive and community-based strategies to combat the fatal drug amid a White House push to seal off the Southern border. While President Donald Trump has sent troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to curb immigration and the flow of fentanyl, a move backed by New Mexico Republicans, many Democrats in the blue border state of New Mexico have said his policy will do little to help residents who are suffering from addiction or are at risk from the cartels. The most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that in 2022 the state recorded one of the highest overdose rates in the country from the synthetic opioid, with fentanyl-related deaths making up 63 percent of fatalities. This rose in 2023, with fentanyl use making up 66.7 percent of drug-related deaths in the state. Fentanyl remains a killer, even as New Mexico has seen a fall in total overdose deaths across the state, per New Mexico Health. Ash Soular, a spokeswoman for the Republican Party of New Mexico, told Newsweek that state Republicans back Trump’s plans to use the military to curb the flow of drugs entering the country.

Border Report [2/17/2025 3:50 PM, Dave Burge, 153K] reports Sunland Park Fire assisted Border Patrol with rescuing an unconscious female patient who was found Sunday evening, Feb. 16 on Mount Cristo Rey in Sunland Park, New Mexico. The female, no age given, was found at about 7:30 p.m. Sunday near the railroad tracks on Mount Cristo Rey and was transported to Fire Station No. 1, Sunland Park Fire said. Sunland Park Fire crews and Border Patrol provided patient care until an ambulance arrived. She regained consciousness before transport and was taken in for further evaluation, Sunland Park Fire said.

FOX News [2/16/2025 8:11 PM, Stepheny Price and Bill Melugin, 49889K] reports that a San Diego migrant shelter is closing its doors and laying off more than 100 employees because of funding and policy changes under the Trump administration. The Jewish Family Service of San Diego, which has operated a regional migrant shelter for over six years, announced it will close its facility and lay off 115 employees due to "changes in federal funding and policy." "Jewish Family Service of San Diego (JFS) is working to meet the evolving needs of the community in response to recent and anticipated federal policy changes," the organization previously said. The non-governmental organization (NGO) said they have not received new asylum-seeking families or individuals since the CBP One phone app went down on Jan. 20. The app, which ultimately allowed immigrants to be paroled into the U.S., was created during the first Trump administration to assist with scheduling cargo inspections. As of the end of December, more than 936,500 individuals had made appointments to be paroled through the app, according to Customs and Border Protection.

FOX News [2/17/2025 4:00 AM, Louis Casiano, 49889K] reports as other California cities double down on sanctuary policies to protect illegal immigrants, one coastal enclave is looking to work directly with border authorities to monitor its beaches 24 hours a day in an effort to thwart boats carrying illegal migrants. San Clemente city leaders told City Manager Andy Hall earlier this month to coordinate with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to discuss installing and using existing cameras to watch over the city’s 7 miles of coastline. Mayor Steve Knoblock told Fox News Digital the cameras are intended to deter illegal immigration and other criminal activity. He noted that small fishing boats called pangas often come ashore to drop off illegal migrants who disappear inland. A woman walks along the beach north of the San Clemente Pier as waves crash against the rocks just below the railroad tracks in San Clemente, Calif. "In the last month or so, we’ve had a large increase in the number of pangas that have come up on our beach," he said. "It happens, and nobody seems to notice. No one seems to capture it. There’s no interdiction, and we’ve been having them with much greater frequency.” The city has cameras on its pier to monitor the beach for marine safety issues but none that monitor the ocean, said Knoblock. He suggested turning the cameras toward the water and adding technological upgrades. At a Feb. 4 meeting, the City Council agreed to contact the U.S. Border Patrol to inquire about working together to surveil the waters off the city, the mayor said.

FOX News [2/17/2025 12:20 PM, Michael Ruiz, 49889K] reports Canadian traffickers are advertising an alleged human smuggling operation for illegals looking to enter the U.S. across the northern border openly on TikTok, according to a new report. "cad to usa," reads a screenshot of a message from user @helper4731. ‘dm me.’ The account and several others like it were no longer accessible Monday. The legitimacy of the advertisements could not immediately be confirmed, but TikTok told Fox News Digital the videos had been removed because they violate the platform’s community standards, which prohibit content that promotes any form of human smuggling. "The danger is they’re gonna go where we’re not," Rep. Ryan Zinke, a Montana Republican and chairman of the Northern Border Security Caucus, told Fox News. "The northern border has had hundreds of crossings from people on the terrorist watch list." Driving east to west along the border in Montana alone takes 10 hours, he said, and most of the territory is unprotected. "[There’s] a lot of border and a lot of distance between officers," he said. The New York Post uncovered at least a half-dozen northern coyote advertisers, primarily targeting illegals from India, who are often wealthier than South American migrants. The accounts allegedly advertise "safe," same-day crossings for $4,000 or more. Of nearly 1.8 million single adults from India encountered by Border Patrol agents last year, just over 150,000 of them came into the U.S. from Canada, according to government data.

New York Times [2/17/2025 11:34 PM, Qasim Nauman, 161405K] reports the Delta Air Lines crash at Toronto Pearson International Airport on Monday is the latest in a series of accidents this year that has spread anxiety among air travelers and prompted sharp criticism of American aviation regulators. On the night of Jan. 29, an American Airlines plane was approaching Washington’s Reagan National Airport when it collided with an Army helicopter that was on a training mission. The collision set off a fireball and sent both aircraft and 67 people — 64 on the Bombardier CRJ700 and three on the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter — crashing into the Potomac River. There were no survivors. It was the deadliest air crash in the United States in 20 years. In the aftermath, questions emerged about the flight paths of the helicopter and the plane, and whether staffing at Reagan National’s air traffic control contributed to the collision. An investigation is ongoing. A small medical plane slammed into the ground in northeast Philadelphia a minute after taking off on Jan. 31, bursting into fire and engulfing homes and vehicles in flames. All six people on board, and one person on the ground, were killed, the authorities said. The Learjet 55 was transporting a child who had completed treatment in Philadelphia to her home in Mexico. She was accompanied by her mother, and there were also two pilots, a doctor and a paramedic on board, according to Jet Rescue Air Ambulance, which operated the plane. A small passenger plane carrying 10 people vanished on Feb. 6 as it was flying to Nome, Alaska. Its disappearance set off a massive search operation, with Coast Guard and Air Force planes scanning a remote area along the western coast of Alaska. The Cessna 208 Caravan was operated by Bering Air, a regional airline. Its wreckage, with the bodies of the pilot and nine passengers, was found the next day. Before it crashed, its pilot had told air traffic control that he intended to enter a holding pattern while waiting for the runway in Nome to be cleared, according to the Nome fire department. But Alaska’s Transportation Department said the runway that the plane had been approaching had remained open throughout that day.

WPXI [2/16/2025 10:32 PM, Staff] reports an Ohio woman is accused of trying to bring a gun she did not have a license for through a checkpoint at the Pittsburgh International Airport. Allegheny County Police said they were called to the airport at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday. TSA workers told them Rachel Scott-Roth, 44, of Belmont, Ohio, had a gun in her carry-on bag at the main security checkpoint. Police said she did not have a valid concealed carry permit. The FBI was brought in to help investigate.

KDVR [2/16/2025 4:45 PM, Jacob Factor] reports more than 400 flights at Denver International Airport are delayed Sunday afternoon after a snowy weekend that already caused more than 1,000 delays. Nearly 1,100 flights were delayed in total Saturday as a snowstorm hit Denver, and as of 2:45 p.m. Sunday, 424 flights are delayed in and out of the airport. An additional 12 flights were canceled. United and Southwest airlines have the most delays, 156 and 126, respectively. Southwest and SkyWest airlines have four canceled flights each; United and Air Canace have two cancellations each as well. The delays are evenly divided between arrivals and departures, and most of the canceled flights were arriving flights into Denver.

NPR [2/17/2025 12:43 PM, Joe Hernandez, 35747K] reports a major storm system with a deadly mix of heavy rains, winds and flash flooding swept through a large swath of the Southeast overnight, causing at least 11 fatalities in Kentucky and one in Georgia. The storms rendered some roads impassable, damaged buildings and knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses. The National Weather Service reported at least one tornado overnight in Alabama, and tornado warnings were issued in multiple states. Bob Oravec, lead forecaster with the National Weather Service in College Park, Md., said the slow-moving storm system dropped significant rainfall across parts of Kentucky, Arkansas and Tennessee during the day Saturday. Later, a line of thunderstorms that formed overnight moved more quickly through the area, dropping less rain but mixing with windy conditions. "The high winds across the South caused several reports of damage to trees, to homes, so a very impactful event," he said. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said at a Monday morning press conference that at least 11 people had been killed in the state during the storm, including a woman and child who died in floodwaters. He said the number of fatalities could still rise. Another person died in Atlanta after a tree fell on their home, WANF reported. Beshear said all of Kentucky’s 120 counties were impacted by the weekend storm. "The biggest challenge of this event is it’s everywhere," he said. Parts of Kentucky received more than 6 inches of rain. Beshear said early Sunday afternoon that emergency response crews had already conducted more than 1,000 rescues in Kentucky. He urged Kentuckians to avoid driving if possible as floodwaters remained and search-and-rescue efforts were active. Some 142 people were being housed at state parks. President Trump approved Beshear’s request for an emergency disaster declaration for Kentucky, which frees up federal funding for impacted areas. The governor said he had also spoken with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and that FEMA personnel had been deployed to the state.

Reported similarly:
AP [2/17/2025 9:17 AM, Jack Dura and Matthew Brown, 12036K]
CNN [2/16/2025 9:53 PM, Mary Gilbert, Dalia Faheid, Emma Tucker, Karina Tsui, Chris Boyette and Lauren Mascarenhas, 987K]

Yahoo! News [2/17/2025 5:33 PM, Chris Benson, 57114K] reports the Federal Emergency Management Agency says its National Flood Insurance Program was forced to borrow $2 billion to help pay claims following Hurricanes Milton and Helene to help cover many more billions of dollars in losses. "The widespread, devastating flooding following hurricanes Helene and Milton re-emphasizes the financial effects flooding can have not just to survivors, but also the National Flood Insurance Program," Elizabeth Asche, senior executive of the program, said in a statement. FEMA, which will borrow extra money from the U.S. Treasury, said that as of Feb. 6, the two hurricanes brought more than 78,000 claims, with an estimated $10 billion in possible losses. According to the Congressional Research Service, as of Jan. 25 the flood insurance program, which is administered by FEMA, had $615 million on hand to pay claims. "We are strategically utilizing short-term borrowings in 60-day increments, demonstrating our careful and responsible management of the borrowing authority," Asche said. The flood insurance program could face losses that total from $6 billion to $7.4 billion, officials say. As of last week, according to FEMA, more than 57,400 claims just for flood insurance that totaled more than $4 billion. That number was not broken down by state. "This borrowing action follows payouts in 2024 from several large-scale and back-to-back flooding events," FEMA officials said this week.

WAVY [2/16/2025 8:20 PM, Chrysnel Banzouzi] reports Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin announced Sunday that he submitted an Expedited Major Disaster Declaration to President Trump to support the ongoing response and recovery efforts of communities impacted by the recent February winter storms. As the winter storms and flooding moved in, over seven inches of rain fell in some areas of Southwest Virginia with significant life-threatening flash flooding across Virginia’s most vulnerable and least resourced areas, the Governor’s Office said in a release. The release also added that throughout the regions, over 150 swift water rescues, including evacuations, were made on Sunday. Support efforts continue as high water is blocking access to critical facilities, and access to the hardest hit areas is not yet available due to receding water and debris.

Yahoo! News [2/17/2025 7:32 PM, Caity Coyne, 57114K] reports Gov. Patrick Morrisey traveled to Southern West Virginia on Monday, Feb. 17, 2025, to meet with local officials and survey damage from the flooding that occurred over the weekend. (@wvgovernor X account). At least one person is dead following severe flooding in West Virginia’s southern coalfields over the weekend. In a news briefing Monday, Gov. Patrick Morrisey said officials were working to contact the family of the deceased before sharing any information on their identity or the circumstances of the fatality with the public. Rainfall started in the southern part of the state early Saturday and culminated over hours. Leading into Sunday, there were multiple instances of flash flooding and high water in many of the region’s waterways. The damage from the storms is unlike any seen in the coalfields region in the last 20 years, local officials said. "The Tug Fork River and the Bluestone River and some of their tributaries, they’ve been swollen, and they’ve experienced major flooding levels, which is something we haven’t seen before in a very long time," Morrisey said on Monday. "That means that there’s damage to significant numbers of structures and roads and significant evacuations [of] people to higher elevations.” On Monday evening — after spending the afternoon surveying damage across the region — Morrisey announced that he would be issuing a formal request to President Donald Trump for a Major Disaster Declaration in West Virginia. "This will help unlock federal resources to support West Virginians hardest hit by the major flooding events of the past few days," Morrisey said in a statement.

AP [2/16/2025 9:29 AM, Makiya Seminera, 33392K] Video: HERE reports Emily Russell remembers feeling hopeful after she managed to get an appointment with the Federal Emergency Management Agency not long after Hurricane Helene ripped though her home in Swannanoa, North Carolina. But after several assistance requests were denied or left pending, Russell says the agency has been of "no help" to her family after the late September storm. Still reeling in a world turned upside-down by the most damaging storm in state history, she finds herself open to President Donald Trump’s suggestion about "getting rid of" FEMA. That is a common sentiment in the mountains of western North Carolina, where living in a trailer with limited supplies for months can try anyone’s patience. Russell, who like many others did not have flood insurance, endured those stresses as she prepared for the birth of her son, but then volunteers stepped up to rebuild her home. Back there now, she can cradle her tiny infant in her arms on her newly constructed front porch — overlooking a heaping pile of rotting debris and two Trump-Vance signs posted to a pole in her yard. Frustration with stopgap relief efforts has been exacerbated by confusion over where long-term help should come from. FEMA is meant to be a first line, providing temporary housing and funding for repairs while insurance foots most of the bill. It is not the message residents heard initially, when politicians, including then-President Joe Biden, who toured the damaged area, promised residents they would have whatever they needed. As more time passes, the reality of long-term recovery has gotten complicated. To Russell and many others, Trump saying he would consider eliminating FEMA made sense. To some experts and officials, however, that could cause more problems than it would solve. Days after Trump took office on Jan. 20, he surveyed the fallout from wildfires in California and the hurricane in North Carolina and suggested that states primarily manage the response to natural disasters. As a candidate, he had disparaged FEMA’s work in the southern states hit by Helene. That criticism, which began almost as soon as the wind stopped blowing, has not stopped. More recently, FEMA was criticized by Trump adviser Elon Musk over payments to reimburse New York City for hotel costs for migrants. Four FEMA employees were fired, accused of circumventing leadership to make the transactions, which have been standard for years through a program that helps with costs to care for a surge in migration.

Reuters [2/17/2025 12:55 PM, Daniel Trotta, 48128K] reports the death toll from flooding in Kentucky rose to 11 on Monday with the potential to increase further as the state was due to get pummeled by a snowstorm that could jeopardize relief efforts, Governor Andy Beshear said. Search teams conducted more than 1,000 rescue missions in the wake of flash flooding that affected nearly all of Kentucky and several surrounding states on Saturday. Hundreds of people were displaced, more than 14,000 homes and businesses remained without power and another 17,000 had no water, Beshear said. The Kentucky National Guard was deployed with assistance from aviation crews from Indiana and Tennessee. Federal urban search and rescue teams from Ohio, Indiana and Tennessee also responded. Some parts of the state received more than 8 inches (200 mm) of rain while forecasts project up to 6 inches (150 mm) of snow on the way. "We are still in the search and rescue phase of this emergency. We still have multiple different missions that are underway. There are still people that are in harm’s way," Beshear told a news conference. The AP [2/16/2025 8:43 PM, Dylan Lovan, 581K] reports Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said Sunday that hundreds of people stranded by flooding had to be rescued. President Donald Trump approved the state’s request for a disaster declaration, authorizing the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate relief efforts throughout the state. Beshear said most of the deaths, including a mother and 7-year-old child, were caused by cars getting stuck in high water. “So folks, stay off the roads right now and stay alive,” he said. “This is the search and rescue phase, and I am very proud of all the Kentuckians that are out there responding, putting their lives on the line.” Beshear said there have been 1,000 rescues across the state since the storms began Saturday. The storms knocked out power to about 39,000 homes, but Beshear warned that harsh winds in some areas could increase outages. Parts of Kentucky and Tennessee received up to 6 inches (15 centimeters) of rain, said Bob Oravec, a senior forecaster with the National Weather Service. “The effects will continue for awhile, a lot of swollen streams and a lot of flooding going on,” Oravec said Sunday. In Alabama, the weather service in Birmingham said it had confirmed an EF-1 tornado touched down overnight in Hale County. Storms there and elsewhere in the state destroyed or damaged a handful of mobile homes, downed trees and toppled power lines, but no injuries were immediately reported. Extensive damage to downtown roofs and buildings was reported in the northern city of Tuscumbia, with authorities asking people to avoid the area, according to WAFF-TV and other local media. A state of emergency was declared for parts of Obion County, Tennessee, after a levee failed on Saturday, flooding the small community of Rives, home to around 300 people in the western part of the state. “There will be mandatory evacuations in effect for the residents in Rives due to the rising water, no electricity, and freezing temperatures creating a life-threatening situation,” Mayor Steve Carr said in a statement Sunday. In Atlanta, a person was killed when a large tree fell on a home early Sunday, according to Atlanta Fire Rescue Capt. Scott Powell. Dangerously cold wind chill temperatures as low as 50 degrees below zero (minus 45.6) were expected in most of North Dakota, which remained under an “extreme cold warning” along with parts of Montana and large swaths of South Dakota and Minnesota, according to the National Weather Service. The Miami Herald [2/16/2025 4:50 PM, Mark Moran and Allen Cone, 6595K] reports that around 400,000 customers are without power in the Southeast, according to Poweroutage.us, including more than 22,000 in Kentucky. Strong winds and heavy rain have pummeled Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. Much of the region remained under a flash flood warning on Sunday. At least one person is reported dead in Georgia.

Reported similarly:
CBS News [2/17/2025 1:03 PM, Staff, 52225K]
NBC News [2/17/2025 11:02 AM, Marlene Lenthang and Kathryn Prociv, 50804K]
Newsweek [2/16/2025 5:32 PM, Peter Aitken, 6595K]

CBS News [2/17/2025 2:15 PM, Staff, 57114K] Video: HERE reports Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear weighed in on FEMA’s role during natural disasters as his state deals with flooding that has claimed the lives of several people. CBS News’ Karen Hua reports, and meteorologist Jessica Burch has the latest weather forecast. Newsweek [2/16/2025 5:32 PM, Peter Aitken, 6595K] reports that ahead of his Sunday press conference, Beshear said: "Kentucky, we are seeing dangerous and life-threatening conditions across the state, and things are only going to get tougher due to widespread flooding and incoming weather. Please stay alert and check on your neighbors. We will get through this together." President Donald Trump declared a state of emergency in Kentucky and ordered federal assistance to bolster rescue efforts. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has also been in contact with Beshear to coordinate Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) assistance and efforts. Around 14,000 Kentuckians, primarily in the southeast of the state, experienced power outages ahead of the storm. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NPR [2/18/2025 4:12 AM, A Martínez, 35747K] reports Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear joins NPR’s A Martinez with the latest from Kentucky following a weekend of floods and severe weather systems. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NPR [2/18/2025 4:12 AM, Stanley Ingold, 35747K] reports recovery efforts are underway in Kentucky where widespread flooding has killed at least 11 people and displaced hundreds. The state is also preparing for even more severe weather in coming days. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

New York Times [2/17/2025 7:35 PM, Juliet Macur, David W. Chen, and Tricia Fulks Kelley,161405K] reports that as unrelenting rain pelted Kentucky, and as the river nearby continued to rise, the two sisters — and business partners — did what they could to protect the quilt shop they own in Hazard, a town of about 5,000 people in the eastern part of the state. They cleared the drains in their parking lot, and cleared the floors of their store, Appalachian Quilt, before moving bolts of material from the lower shelves, to ones at least three feet up. They were sure that they had done enough. But it was not nearly enough. “I’ve never seen anything like it because it came in so fast and the water just kept rising and rising,” Sheridan Sparkman said on Monday, explaining that she and her sister, Sandy Hurt, had positioned themselves on a nearby overpass after the roads to the store became impassable. With their hearts beating fast, they watched the floodwaters travel closer and closer to their store — and then rise along its exterior. Similar scenes of hope and anxiety played out across the region over the past few days, as residents braced themselves for damage from yet more severe weather in a part of the country that has been pummeled by it. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CBS Los Angeles [2/16/2025 11:17 PM, Nicole Comstock, 52225K] Video: HERE reports Nicole Comstock reports from the Pacific Palisades, where some residents have begun to express concerns over how FEMA is conducting the debris cleanup process from the devastating Palisades Fire.

NPR [2/17/2025 12:02 PM, Chiara Eisner, Nick McMillan, Graham Smith, 35747K] reports that days after the Eaton fire in Los Angeles first ignited, firefighters warned that downed power lines owned and operated by Southern California Edison were live and starting new fires, first responder radio traffic obtained by NPR reveals. The radio communications also indicate the utility company failed to respond quickly to multiple requests from firefighters to shut power off and sent confusing and sometimes incorrect information to first responders working on the Eaton fire, which ultimately claimed 17 lives and caused billions of dollars in damages. The new audio evidence comes after video and voltage data have already linked transmission towers operated by Edison to the fire’s initial start on Jan. 7 and multiple lawsuits have been filed that claim the company is liable for fire damages. The Eaton fire took more than three weeks to fully contain, burning 14,000 acres and more than 10,000 structures. NPR downloaded and analyzed almost 100 hours of radio traffic between firefighters responding to the Eaton fire from broadcastify.com, a live audio streaming platform. The audio suggests Edison’s work in affected areas during the fire played a role in slowing down firefighting efforts. By the end of the day on Jan. 8, firefighters were asking Edison to shut power off to a second neighborhood — Altadena. Most of the 17 people who died in the Eaton fire died there.

NBC News [2/17/2025 10:03 AM, Alicia Victoria Lozano, 50804K] reports that as work crews race to clear debris from thousands of homes and businesses destroyed in last month’s wildfires, residents are grappling with whether they can afford to stay in a region where real estate prices were already out of reach for many people. Displaced homeowners and renters are facing an economic landscape rife with long-standing affordability and equity concerns, illuminating the gulf between those who can afford to start over from scratch and those who cannot. "It’s intimidating," said Kaitlyn Little, who grew up in Pacific Palisades, one of hundreds of distinct neighborhoods that make up the city of Los Angeles. "It just reinforces the feelings of uncertainty and uneasiness about what the future of that town really does look like." Little lost the Palisades condominium she shared with her husband and their 2-year-old child in the Jan. 7 fires that razed entire communities. At least 29 people were killed in the multiday siege, and more than 16,000 structures, the majority residences, were destroyed. Now, Little finds herself in a market where the average home price in Los Angeles County is just shy of $1 million and the average rent is nearly $3,000, according to Zillow. State and local leaders have warned against price gouging, but displaced families said they are already feeling the pinch. At this point, Little said, she cannot afford to rebuild, much less buy a home.

Palm Beach Post [2/17/2025 12:47 PM, Hannah Phillips] reports authorities arrested a man who jumped over a wall and onto the lawn of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club one day before the president was scheduled to return to the Palm Beach estate. Investigators say Jeffrey Daniel Olson ignored "restricted access" signs posted around Mar-a-Lago’s northern gate on South Ocean Boulevard when he trespassed Thursday. Secret Service agents detained and searched him as he made his way toward the property’s east lawn. His arrest report does not indicate what, if anything, the agents’ search yielded. Charged with knowingly entering a restricted building, Olson faces up to one year in federal prison, five years of probation and a fine of $100,000.

Yahoo! News [2/17/2025 4:32 PM, Patricia Kime, 57114K] reports the Coast Guard’s personnel and pay system was taken offline Friday and will remain down until at least Feb. 19 while officials investigate a data breach that affected more than 1,100 members. Coast Guard officials said Friday that the service’s Direct Access system, which manages pay and personnel matters, including orders, was hacked Friday, exposing sensitive information such as bank routing numbers and direct deposit account information. According to the service, a junior petty officer noticed odd activity in their pay account and reported it to Coast Guard Cyber Command, which took the system offline to safeguard all accounts. The breach, which occurred on a day that active-duty personnel received their paychecks, delayed payments to 1,135 members, according to a Coast Guard statement to Military.com. The Coast Guard did not provide the name of the official who issued the statement by publication. "The Coast Guard Personnel Service Center and Pay and Personnel Center are expediting pay to any impacted members and have begun processing offline payments," the statement said. The service said the Coast Guard Investigative Service and Coast Guard Cyber Command are leading "an exhaustive investigation" to determine the source of the breach and safeguard the systems.

CBS Los Angeles [2/16/2025 7:11 PM, Dean Fioresi, 52225K] reports a boater and his dog were rescued hours after going missing off the coast Avalon on Catalina Island on Saturday evening. The U.S. Coast Guard received a call from a man at around 8 p.m. who told them that his friend and dog were missing from the 34-foot sailing vessel he was on, according to a release from USCG. "The missing individual was last seen four to five hours earlier before reportedly falling asleep," they said. With the help of a USCG helicopter crew, the boater was found in a dinghy nearly 1,400 yards, just under .08 of a mile, away from the sailing vessel. The missing boater, who they say was suffering from mild hypothermia, was transported to shore near Cabrillo where he was tended to by awaiting paramedics. A Coast Guard cutter towed the dinghy back to the sailing vessel, which was then towed back to Newport Beach, officials said. No further information was provided.

Reported similarly:
Los Angeles Times [2/16/2025 5:43 PM, Jack Dolan]
W

San Diego Union Tribune [2/17/2025 3:27 PM, Phil Diehl, 2212K] reports that a search continued Sunday afternoon for a missing man after an outrigger canoe was found floating near the mouth of Mission Bay Friday, a U.S. Coast Guard spokesman said. "The official report is it was an outrigger," said Coast Guard spokesperson Adam Stanton. "It looked brand new, perfectly fine." San Diego lifeguards found the boat about 2:30 p.m. Friday with no sign of an occupant. Lifeguard officials could not be reached to provide an update on the incident Sunday. Stanton said a lot of questions remained after two days of searching, but the search soon could turn into a recovery effort. He declined to release the name of the missing person, but said that family members are on their way to the area.

Yahoo! News [2/17/2025 9:58 PM, Staff, 57114K] reports a man who fell into the San Francisco Bay over the weekend is still missing. Authorities said the man and a woman fell into the water near Pier 32 just south of the Bay Bridge on Saturday night. The woman was pulled from the water and taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Firefighters and the Coast Guard continued searching for the man using boats, thermal imaging and drones, but suspended the search Sunday afternoon. It remains unclear how the two fell into the water.

KIRO 7 [2/16/2025 10:22 PM, Steve Aguilar] reports on Feb. 14, the United States Coast Guard Cutter Active (WMEC 618) returned to Port Angeles after completing 65 days patrolling the Southern California coast. During their time, crews patrolled over 5,500 miles of coastal California supporting USCG District 11 with border security operations. The Cutter Active participated in countering transnational crime organizations and "alien interdiction operations." According to the USCG, Active’s crew prevented three boats carrying a total of 46 illegal aliens and assisted in the apprehension of 40 others. The Active also assisted in four search-and-rescue operations. Several training events were also held with other units as part of their responsibility for protecting U.S. maritime borders, territorial integrity and sovereignty.

Yahoo! News [2/17/2025 11:09 AM, Jorge Ventura, 57114K] reports the U.S. Coast Guard says it is increasing its interdiction operations to intercept immigrants entering the U.S. illegally and drug smugglers before they reach the U.S. As has been the case for some time, the U.S. Coast Guard is intercepting panga-style boats carrying immigrants wishing to illegally enter the country off California’s coast. This issue has caught the attention of the mayor of San Clemente, who is seeking to install Border Patrol cameras on the city’s beaches. On Thursday in San Diego, the Coast Guard offloaded over 37,000 pounds of cocaine worth $275 million. This comes from 11 separate drug interdictions. The incident follows the deployment of additional equipment and personnel, including cutters, aircraft, boats and deployable specialized forces, increasing its presence along maritime borders. Intercepting drugs is one facet of the Coast Guard’s focus as human smugglers increasingly look to the seas as a vehicle for their trade. This past week in Florida, the Coast Guard intercepted a boat carrying immigrants of mixed nationalities trying to enter the country and returned it to the Bahamas. Another group carrying 16 Cuban nationals was also intercepted and returned to Cuba. In a statement, the Coast Guard said, "Through these ongoing operations, the Coast Guard is detecting, deterring and interdicting aliens, drug smugglers and individuals intent on terrorism or other hostile activity before they reach our border.

CBS Austin [2/17/2025 9:48 AM, Cassy Arsenault, 581K] reports cyber attacks leveraging artificial intelligence are challenging conventional security measures, as demonstrated by a recent sophisticated Gmail scam. Victims receive a call from a number displaying a Google caller ID, with an American support technician warning that their Gmail account has been compromised. Upon checking, users find their email temporarily blocked. When victims suggest calling back using the official Gmail phone number, the scammers agree but warn of long hold times, prompting users to stay on the line. The scammers even send a code to the victim’s phone to reset the account, mimicking secure authentication processes. This is just an AI-driven attack that has become more sophisticated to overcome the caution people are taking, "I say this to people all the time try to call Google and see if you can get a human being on the phone alright or fill in the blank Microsoft. The story is about Google but I want people to understand any large technology company is not going to call you. I can almost guarantee they are not going to call you. In fact, if you have an account takeover or something, try to email them, try to fill out the help form", said cyber security expert Dave Hatter. To protect against such scams, users are advised to hang up if someone calls claiming to be from Google or Microsoft. They should regularly check their Google account activity in privacy settings to ensure it aligns with their actions. Users should never respond to requests for sensitive information over the phone or email, and avoid entering passwords after clicking unsolicited links. Messages that appear urgent should be treated with skepticism. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Yahoo! News [2/17/2025 8:08 PM, Claudia Levens, 57114K] reports Wisconsin authorities helped avert catastrophe on Valentine’s Day by assisting with an investigation that thwarted a teenager’s school shooting plot in Indiana. Earlier that week, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office investigated a 19-year-old woman from the Town of Addison who ultimately was not behind the plot but helped lead authorities to the main suspect, according to a Feb. 14 news release from the sheriff’s office. The Addison woman had been part of Discord group about school shooters with the main suspect, who had possessed weapons and photographs of previous mass shooters, according to an anonymous tipster. On Feb. 12, Trinity Shockley, 18, was arrested in Mooresville, Indiana, and confessed to both the school shooting plot and a desire to murder her friend, according to the sheriff’s office. Shockley, who goes by the name Jamie, was charged with one felony count of conspiracy to commit murder that does not result in death, according to Indiana court records. She also faces two felony counts for threats to commit terrorism. She is being held without bond, although a contested bond hearing is scheduled for Feb. 18. According to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office: An anonymous tip about threats to commit a school shooting on Valentine’s Day was received on Monday, Feb. 10, by the Sandy Hook Promise Violence Hotline, an anonymous tip line launched by parents who lost children in the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Hotline operators forwarded the tip ― which attributed the shooting threats to two social media accounts on Discord and Snapchat ― to the FBI. The FBI had a difficult time tracking the Discord account, but was able to trace the Snapchat account to the 19-year-old woman from the Town of Addison, Washington County Sheriff’s Lt. Tim Kemps told the Journal Sentinel on Monday. The agency passed the tip to the Wisconsin Department of Justice and the Washington County Sheriff’s Office Dispatch Center, the release said. The 911 dispatcher working at the time recognized the seriousness of the threat and immediately contacted the shift supervisor to place the Addison suspect’s house under surveillance.

Washington Post [2/17/2025 6:00 AM, Warren P. Strobel and Isaac Stanley-Becker, 40736K] reports the Central Intelligence Agency is poised to take a larger, more aggressive role under President Donald Trump in the battle against Mexican-based drug cartels, devising and evaluating plans to share more intelligence with regional governments, train local counternarcotics units and possibly conduct other covert actions, according to people familiar with the matter. The expanded focus on cartels, which smuggle fentanyl and other narcotics into the United States, represents a new and potentially risky priority for the spy agency, which in recent years has made espionage against China, counterterrorism operations in the Middle East and Africa, and support for Ukraine after Russia’s 2022 invasion its main concerns. CIA Director John Ratcliffe intends to shift agency resources to its counternarcotics mission and apply insights from its two decades of tracking, infiltrating and disrupting terrorist networks to fighting the cartels, said a person familiar with his plans who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the subject’s sensitivity and because the approach isn’t finalized yet. "Lessons learned in the counterterrorism realm are applicable to the counternarcotics mission and the counter-cartel mission," this person said. "The full weight of those has not been brought to bear on this problem.” A CIA spokesperson said in a statement that "countering drug cartels in Mexico and regionally is a priority for CIA as a part of the Trump Administration’s broader efforts to end the grave threat from narco-trafficking. Director Ratcliffe is determined to put CIA’s unique expertise to work against this multifaceted challenge.” The emphasis will be on increased U.S. support to antidrug forces within Mexico and elsewhere in the hemisphere, people familiar with the emerging plan said. Less clear is whether armed U.S. personnel, either from the military’s Special Operations forces or the CIA, could be tasked with taking direct action against cartel leaders on Mexican soil, something former intelligence and military officials warn would spark a ferocious backlash and harm U.S.-Mexican relations, including counternarcotics cooperation.

CBS San Francisco [2/17/2025 9:33 AM, Staff, 52225K] reports the Trump administration has paused the firings of hundreds of federal employees working on the nation’s nuclear weapons programs, in a reversal that has left workers confused and experts cautioning that DOGE’s blind cost cutting will put communities at risk. Late Thursday afternoon, a number probationary employees of the National Nuclear Security Administration were fired, a source in the Energy Department confirmed. This is the entity within the department that manages the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile, among other responsibilities. Three U.S. officials told The Associated Press up to 350 employees at the NNSA were abruptly laid off, with some losing access to email even before they’d learned they were fired, only to try to enter their offices on Friday morning to find they had been locked out. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. One of the hardest hit offices was the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas, which saw about 30% of the cuts. Those employees work on reassembling warheads, one of the most sensitive jobs across the nuclear weapons enterprise, with the highest levels of clearance. The hundreds let go at NNSA were part of a DOGE purge across the Department of Energy that targeted about 2,000 employees. "The DOGE people are coming in with absolutely no knowledge of what these departments are responsible for," said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, referencing Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency team. "They don’t seem to realize that it’s actually the department of nuclear weapons more than it is the Department of Energy." By late Friday night, the agency’s acting director, Teresa Robbins, issued a memo rescinding the firings for all but 28 of those hundreds of fired staff members. "This letter serves as formal notification that the termination decision issued to you on Feb. 13, 2025 has been rescinded, effective immediately," said the memo, which was obtained by the AP. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

VOA News [2/16/2025 10:35 PM, Staff, 2717K] reports that in a stunning speech at the Munich Security Conference, U.S. Vice President JD Vance barely spoke of Russia and Ukraine, and instead admonished European allies, arguing that their governments are censoring far-right speech and failing to control migration. His remarks came amid allies’ alarm over President Donald Trump’s decision to begin peace talks with Russia. Ukraine eyes its reserves of rare earth minerals and what role they may play in a future security agreement. In the Middle East, Hamas has released hostages and Israel freed prisoners as part of the fragile ceasefire deal. Should the Federal Emergency Management Agency be eliminated? Plus, at least 18 people killed in a stampede at a train station in India. [Editorial note: consult audio at source link]

Washington Examiner [2/16/2025 4:45 PM, Jenny Goldsberry, 2365K] reports that Secretary of State Marco Rubio came to the defense of Vice President JD Vance regarding his recent plea to Europe that called for a commitment to free speech. Rubio attended the Munich Security Conference with Vance this weekend, which was Vance’s first foreign trip since taking office as vice president. In his first international address, Vance assured other leaders that "under Donald Trump’s leadership, we may disagree with your views, but we will fight to defend your right to offer it in the public square, agree, or disagree." During a segment on CBS News’s Face the Nation Sunday, Rubio faced questions about the speech. "[Vance] also met with the leader of a far-right party known as the [Alternative for Germany], which, as you know, is under investigation and monitoring by German intelligence because of extremism. What did all of this accomplish other than irritating our allies?" host Margaret Brennan asked. "Why would our allies or anybody be irritated by free speech and by someone giving their opinion?" Rubio posed his own question in response. "He simply expressed in a speech his view of it, which a lot of people frankly share, and I thought he said a lot of things in that speech that needed to be said. And honestly, I don’t know why anybody would be upset about it."

Newsweek [2/16/2025 8:01 AM, Ewan Palmer, 6595K] reports that Secretary of State Marco Rubio has praised Lithuania for increasing its defense spending, as President Donald Trump pushes for NATO to more than double its current expenditure requirements. Newsweek has contacted the U.S. embassy in Lithuania for comment via email. Trump has frequently threatened to withdraw the U.S. from NATO over cost concerns, criticizing other member countries for failing to meet defense-spending goals. Rubio issued a statement in recognition of Lithuania’s independence celebrations, praising the European country as a "trusted partner and stalwart ally" and highlighting its strong economic relationship with the U.S. Rubio also applauded Lithuania, which shares a border with Russia, for committing to increasing defense spending. Vilnius is set to raise its defense expenditure to between 5 and 6 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) beginning in 2026, the Baltic nation’s president, Gitanas Nausėda, announced in January. The increase to 5 percent would mean Lithuania overtakes Poland as the NATO country spending the most on defense as a percentage of its GDP.

CBS News [2/17/2025 6:20 AM, Kaia Hubbard, 52225K] reports Secretary of State Marco Rubio said "we have a long ways to go" before commencing any potential peace talks with Russia aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, adding that "nothing has been finalized" regarding possible upcoming meetings between U.S. and Russian officials in Saudi Arabia. "We stand ready to follow the president’s lead on this and begin to explore ways, if those opportunities present itself, to begin a process toward peace," Rubio said on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Sunday. On Monday morning, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce confirmed that Rubio, along with two other senior Trump administration officials, would meet the following day in Riyadh with a Russian delegation. Mr. Trump said last week that he had a "lengthy and highly productive phone call" with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The president announced that he was directing Rubio and other members of his national security team to "immediately" begin negotiations aimed at ending Russia’s war with Ukraine. Mr. Trump also spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Rubio, speaking from Israel where he met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday, landed in Saudi Arabia Monday. The top U.S. diplomat noted that his trip had been scheduled before Mr. Trump’s calls with Putin and Zelenskyy. He was joined by national security adviser Mike Waltz and Steve Witkoff, Mr. Trump’s Middle East envoy. The secretary of state said Putin had "expressed his interest in peace" during his call with Mr. Trump, whom he said had made clear, "his desire to see an end of this conflict in a way that was enduring and that protected Ukrainian sovereignty.” On Sunday, Mr. Trump told reporters that Putin wants to end the war, adding that he was expecting to meet with the Russian leader in Saudi Arabia "very soon.” Asked whether he believes Putin is ready to negotiate and make concessions to bring an end to the fighting, Rubio said the call must be followed by action, and that "the next few weeks and days will determine whether it’s serious or not.” "One phone call does not solve a war as complex as this one," Rubio said. "But I can tell you that Donald Trump is the only leader in the world that could potentially begin that process." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reported similarly:
Reuters [2/16/2025 6:26 PM, Gram Slattery, 30936K]

Bloomberg [2/17/2025 2:09 AM, Hadriana Lowenkron and Wendy Benjaminson, 21617K] reports President Donald Trump said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will be involved in peace talks with Russia, a day after top US advisers suggested the negotiations might go on without him. “He will be involved, yes,” Trump said Sunday in response to reporters’ questions after attending the Daytona 500 car race in Florida. He didn’t specify whether Zelenskiy or his aides would attend preliminary talks this week in Saudi Arabia or during a later summit among the country’s leaders. It was the first definitive statement from the White House that Ukraine would be permitted a seat at the table when the US and Russia discuss ending the war, which started with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Trump, who had a “lengthy and highly productive” phone call with Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, said he doesn’t believe the Russian president has further territorial ambitions in Ukraine. “No, I think he wants to stop,” Trump said. “That was my question to him, because if he was going to go on that would have been a big problem for us.” Earlier, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz demurred when asked directly on Fox News Sunday whether Zelenskiy would be involved. Instead, he said the Ukrainian president would be “very wise” to accept Trump’s proposed deal for the US to take half of Ukraine’s critical mineral resources in return for continued US support. Waltz called the deal “protection in and of itself. I can’t think of any better security guarantee than being co-invested with President Trump.” “The American people deserve to be recouped, deserve to have some kind of payback for the billions they have invested in this war,” he said. “I think that Zelenskiy would be very wise to enter into this agreement with the United States.” Asked about the cost of the three-year war to Ukrainians, Waltz said, “Look, the Ukrainian people have fought valiantly, they have seen entire cities destroyed, the United States and Europe have supported this effort, but the United States has unquestionably borne the brunt of that support.”

The Hill [2/17/2025 6:28 PM, Ellen Mitchell, 16346K] reports Secretary of State Marco Rubio said “real talks” will involve Europe and Ukraine, as he prepares to meet his Russian counterpart in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. But that follows a slew of mixed messages from Trump’s top officials and a brow-beating from Vice President Vance at the Munich Security Conference last week. Leaders of eight major European countries met Monday to coordinate a response, after being caught on their back foot by Trump’s opening gambit on Russia-Ukraine talks. Even Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday he “knew nothing about” the peace discussions in the Middle East until they were announced publicly. “I think Europe is realizing that they have to come up with a plan, quickly, and on their own to be ready for whatever comes next,” said Sudha David-Wilp, Vice President of External Relations and Senior Fellow with the German Marshall Fund. “The mood was turning from bad to worse,” said one European foreign policy expert who attended the Munich conference, granted anonymity to speak candidly. European officials expected to be taken to task over low defense spending, but not to be left out of talks completely. The uncertainty is already spurring talks on loosening the European Union’s budgetary deficit requirements to allow more spending on defense, the expert said. “There will probably be a series of announcements by Europeans in the upcoming days to signal to the Americans that they are to be taken seriously – but also to reassure each other,” they said.

New York Times [2/16/2025 1:00 PM, Maggie Haberman, 161405K] reports that President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine reiterated in an interview that aired on Sunday that his country would “never” accept a peace deal struck by the United States and Russia if Ukraine did not have a seat at the negotiating table. In an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Mr. Zelensky sought to avoid criticisms of President Trump and instead praised his strength. He said he had told Mr. Trump during a phone call, shortly after Mr. Trump and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia spoke for 90 minutes last week, that Mr. Putin is untrustworthy and feared Mr. Trump. Mr. Zelensky said he believed that Mr. Putin was “scared” of Mr. Trump, playing toward Mr. Trump’s desire to be seen as strong and the hope that the U.S. president could push Mr. Putin toward a deal he might not otherwise favor. “I said that he is a liar,” Mr. Zelensky said he told Mr. Trump of Mr. Putin. “And he said, ‘I think my feeling is that he’s ready for these negotiations.’” Mr. Zelensky added: “But I think he’s really a little bit scared about President Trump. And I think the president has this chance, and he’s strong. And I think that really he can push Putin to peace negotiations.”

Miami Herald [2/16/2025 1:30 PM, Wendy Benjaminson, 6595K] reports that President Donald Trump said Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy will be involved in peace talks with Russia, a day after top U.S. advisers suggested the negotiations might go on without him. "He will be involved, yes," Trump said Sunday in response to reporters’ questions after attending the Daytona 500 car race in Florida. He didn’t specify whether Zelenskyy or his aides would attend preliminary talks this week in Saudi Arabia or during a later summit among the country’s leaders. It was the first definitive statement from the White House that Ukraine would be permitted a seat at the table when the U.S. and Russia discuss ending the war, which started with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Trump, who had a "lengthy and highly productive" phone call with Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, said he doesn’t believe the Russian president has further territorial ambitions in Ukraine. "No, I think he wants to stop," Trump said. "That was my question to him, because if he was going to go on that would have been a big problem for us." Earlier, national security adviser Mike Waltz demurred when asked directly on Fox News Sunday whether Zelenskyy would be involved. Instead, he said the Ukrainian president would be "very wise" to accept Trump’s proposed deal for the U.S. to take half of Ukraine’s rare-earth mineral resources in return for continued U.S. support.

Miami Herald [2/16/2025 4:38 PM, Peter Aitken, 6595K] reports that President Donald Trump may meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Saudi Arabia by the end of the month, with officials from each country to meet next week to sort out final details, according to reports. Saudi Arabia initiated the meeting, inviting parties from the U.S., Ukraine and Russia to gather in Riyadh to discuss how to end the conflict, which will enter its fourth year at the end of the month. Both sides want a date for the meeting locked in before March, which is when Ramadan starts. Both sides are working out final details, but Bloomberg reported that most European officials have not been informed about the meeting, citing an official who spoke on condition of anonymity. Officials from Ukraine are expected to attend, along with national security advisors, but it remains unclear if Kyiv is being kept in the planning loop. However, Trump on Thursday indicated that Ukraine would be involved in the summit while plans remained up in the air. The timing of the meeting only came to light on Sunday.

ABC News [2/18/2025 4:52 AM, David Brennan and Patrick Reevell, 33392K] reports Russia launched an unusually large drone attack on Ukraine overnight into Tuesday, shorty before Moscow’s representatives opened talks with a U.S. delegation in Saudi Arabia on ending the Kremlin’s three-year-old full-scale war on its neighbor. Ukraine’s air force said Russia sent 176 drones -- just shy of a 188-drone record set in November -- into the country overnight, launched from six different directions. The air force said on Telegram that it shot down 103 drones with another 67 lost in flight due to jamming and other interference measures. Falling debris and impacts were reported in the Kirovohrad, Kharkiv, Kyiv and Cherkasy regions, the air force said. In Kirovohrad, the regional military administration said it was "a difficult night," reporting a drone strike on a high-rise building in the city of Dolynska. Three people were injured -- a mother and two children -- officials said. In Kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said a large fire in the west of the city was sparked by falling Russian drone debris. "There is a fire on the territory of an industrial enterprise," Klitschko wrote on Telegram. "Also, cars are burning in the yard of a residential building nearby.” Russian long-range drone and missile strikes are a nightly occurrence across Ukraine, with Moscow often targeting key infrastructure facilities -- especially industrial and energy targets. Monday night’s barrage -- notable for its scale -- came as Russia negotiators prepared to meet with American counterparts in Saudi Arabia for talks intended to revive peace negotiations. Ukrainian representatives were not invited to attend. The U.S. team is being led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and National Security Adviser Michael Waltz. The Russian negotiating delegation includes Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov and Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund. Ukraine is also continuing its own long-range strike campaign against Russia, which Kyiv’s Special Operations Forces (SSO) and Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) have termed "drone sanctions.”

CNN [2/17/2025 3:03 AM, Matthew Chance, 22417K] reports President Donald Trump and his negotiating team are “great problem-solvers,” Russia’s sovereign wealth fund chief Kirill Dmitriev, who is in Saudi Arabia for bilateral talks with the United States, told CNN’s Chief Global Affairs Correspondent Matthew Chance on Monday. Talks between the US and Russia over the war in Ukraine are set to begin Tuesday. However, Dmitriev said he has already met with several members of the Trump team in Riyadh. “All I can say is they’re great problem-solvers. And I think President Trump is a great problem-solver,” he said. Dmitriev said that the US negotiators have not yet made direct promises with their Russian counterparts. “I think the promise is: let’s have dialogue, let’s figure out the best solution for our countries, for other countries, for the global community,” he said. He also denied that Russia primarily sought to alleviate the sanctions faced by the country and asserted that the US and Russian economies could both benefit from working together. “I think it’s very important to build bridges. I think US-Russia relations are very important for the world,” he said.

VOA News [2/16/2025 10:37 PM, Staff, 2717K] reports that the U.S. military said Sunday it killed a member of an Al-Qaeda affiliate organization in a precision airstrike in Syria. U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said it conducted the strike Saturday "in Northwest Syria targeting and killing a senior finance and logistics official in the terrorist organization Hurras al-Din (HaD), an al-Qaida affiliate," according to a statement on X. CENTCOM did not identify its target. The strike was conducted "to disrupt and degrade efforts by terrorists to plan, organize, and conduct attacks against civilians and military personnel" from the United States and allies, the statement continued. On Jan. 30, CENTCOM killed another senior operative in Hurras al-Din, Muhammad Salah al-Zabir, in an airstrike. The U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group said Hurras al-Din was founded in February 2018. It did not publicly confirm its allegiance to al-Qaida until its dissolution announcement last month. The United States designated Hurras al-Din as a terrorist organization in 2019 and has offered financial rewards for information on several of its members. "We will continue to relentlessly pursue terrorists in order to defend our homeland, and U.S., allied, and partner personnel in the region," CENTCOM General Michael Erik Kurilla said in a statement.

Miami Herald [2/16/2025 4:56 PM, Sara Lemel, Lars Nicolaysen, and Jan-Uwe Ronneburger, 6595K] reports that talks about the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement and exchange of Israeli hostages for imprisoned Palestinians are set to continue in the coming week, according to U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff on Sunday. The second phase of the negotiations foresees the release of all remaining Israeli hostages who are still alive. The talks are to continue at an undisclosed location, he said, following very "productive and constructive" telephone conversations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and Egyptian intelligence chief Hassan Rashad, according to U.S. broadcaster Fox News. The three countries worked as mediators to help bring about the first phase of the ceasefire and hostage deal, which began on January 19 and is due to be completed on March 1. Straight after Witkoff’s statement, Netanyahu’s office said the Israeli security cabinet would discuss the second phase on Monday. He instructed a delegation of Israeli negotiators to travel to Cairo for talks. After the cabinet meeting, he said they would receive instructions for the second phase, which aims to bring the fighting to a definitive end.

Newsweek [2/16/2025 5:20 PM, Mandy Taheri, 56005K] reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that President Donald Trump’s Gaza plan, which includes resettling Palestinians in Gaza elsewhere and the U.S. taking ownership of the enclave, as the "only viable" option. Newsweek has reached out to Israel’s Foreign Ministry for comment via email on Sunday. Soon after taking office last month, Trump suggested that Jordan and Egypt should take in more Palestinian refugees from Gaza in an effort to "clean out" the territory, a move that would strip Palestinians of their homeland, which is a cornerstone of their history, identity, and culture. Days later, he announced that the U.S. would "take over the Gaza strip." Trump’s plans have been unanimously rejected by Arab leaders, Palestinians, and international advocacy groups, many of whom liken the plan to ethnic cleansing. Several Israeli officials have previously proposed relocating millions of Palestinians from Gaza to nearby Arab countries. Netanyahu’s latest comments indicate the country supports Trump’s proposal as negotiations between Israel and Hamas over the second phase of the ceasefire have yet to be finalized. Netanyahu spoke with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Jerusalem on Sunday, which kicked off the Trump official’s Middle East tour. He is set to speak with Russian officials in Saudi Arabia next week over Russia and Ukraine peace talks as the two countries continue to be at war.

Reported similarly:
AP [2/16/2025 5:05 PM, Matthew Lee and Natalie Melzer, 12036K]

New York Times [2/17/2025 2:57 PM, Patrick Kingsley and Ismaeel Naar, 161405K] reports that the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, met on Monday with three senior members of the Trump administration, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who were visiting the kingdom to discuss the future of both Gaza and Ukraine. The visit of Mr. Rubio, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Steve Witkoff, Mr. Trump’s Mideast envoy, came amid criticism that the Trump administration was acting without consulting relevant foreign partners about the wars in both countries. Mr. Rubio also met earlier in the day with Faisal bin Farhan, the Saudi foreign minister. Little was released about the content of the meetings, except for a video of a brief exchange between the men in which the prince said he was glad to work with the Trump administration. Mr. Rubio, who flew to Riyadh from Israel, and his colleagues were expected to press the Saudi leadership to propose a vision for postwar Gaza. President Trump’s idea to depopulate and occupy the territory has spurred widespread opposition in the Arab world, including in Saudi Arabia. That has led Mr. Rubio and other U.S. officials to encourage Arab leaders to suggest an alternative.

Reported similarly:
Reuters [2/16/2025 10:49 AM, Gram Slattery and David Ljunggren, 30936K]

CBS News [2/18/2025 3:45 AM, Staff, 52225K] reports senior officials from Russia and the U.S. met in Saudi Arabia Tuesday to begin talks on improving ties and negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine. Delegations led by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met at the Diriyah Palace in Riyadh. The meeting marks another pivotal step by the Trump administration to reverse U.S. policy on isolating Russia and is meant to pave the way for a meeting between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Mr. Trump earlier this month upended U.S. policy toward Ukraine and Russia by saying he and Putin had agreed to begin negotiations on ending the war. Ukrainian officials aren’t taking part in the meeting, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday that his country wouldn’t accept the outcome if Kyiv isn’t included in negotiations. Rubio was accompanied by U.S. national security adviser Mike Waltz and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, while Lavrov sat next to the Kremlin’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov. Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan and national security adviser Musaed al Alban joined Rubio, Lavrov and others for the start of the meeting but were expected to leave early in the talks. Ushakov said Monday the talks would be "purely bilateral" and wouldn’t include Ukrainian officials. The talks mark a significant expansion of U.S.-Russian contacts nearly three years into a war that has seen relations fall to the lowest level in decades. Lavrov and then-U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken talked briefly on the sidelines of a G-20 meeting in India nearly two years ago, and in the fall of 2022, U.S. and Russian spymasters met in Turkey amid Washington’s concerns that Moscow could resort to nuclear weapons amid battlefield setbacks. The recent U.S. diplomatic blitz on the war has sent Kyiv and key allies scrambling to ensure a seat at the table amid concerns that Washington and Moscow could press ahead with a deal that won’t be favorable to them. France called an emergency meeting of European Union countries and the U.K. on Monday to decide how to respond. French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday said he spoke by phone to Mr. Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy following the meeting. "We seek a strong and lasting peace in Ukraine," Macron wrote on X. "To achieve this, Russia must end its aggression, and this must be accompanied by strong and credible security guarantees for the Ukrainians," he said as he vowed to "work on this together with all Europeans, Americans, and Ukrainians." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reported similarly:
New York Times [2/18/2025 3:35 AM, Anton Troianovski and Ismaeel Naar, 161405K]
Wall Street Journal [2/17/2025 11:47 AM, James Marson and Ian Lovett, 57114K]
Newsweek [2/18/2025 3:24 AM, Daniel Orton, 56005K]

Newsweek [2/17/2025 8:36 AM, Micah McCartney, 56005K] reports that China on Saturday deployed its coast guard in waters within 40 miles of the coast of the Philippines westernmost province, Palawan, in what one analyst said amounted to a "show of force." Newsweek has reached out to the Chinese Foreign Ministry and Philippine coast guard with written requests for comment. The Philippines remains locked in a bitter territorial dispute with Beijing in the South China Sea. Though this was previously focused mostly on a handful of reefs, China’s coast guard has for over a month patrolled just dozens of miles from Zambalese Province off populous Luzon island, where the capital, Manila, is located. Beijing’s ongoing patrols are viewed by Manila as an unlawful assertion of jurisdiction far from Chinese waters. China claims sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, alleging historical rights, despite a 2016 international arbitral court’s decision that dismissed these claims. Shiptracking data shared Sunday by Ray Powell, director of the Stanford University-affiliated maritime analyst group SeaLight, shows the ships of the Chinese coast guard left the Scarborough Shoal—a contested reef China seized from its neighbor after a 2012 standoff—and sailed south to within 35 nautical miles (40 miles) of Palawan, an archipelagic province of 1 million.

The Hill [2/17/2025 11:19 AM, Julia Shapero, 16346K] reports that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) has opened an investigation into Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) startup DeepSeek over its privacy practices and claims about its popular new AI model. Paxton said Friday that he sent requests for information to Apple and Google, seeking their analysis of DeepSeek’s application and the documentation it was required to submit to appear on their respective app stores. "DeepSeek appears to be no more than a proxy for the CCP to undermine American AI dominance and steal the data of our citizens," Paxton said in a statement, referencing the Chinese Communist Party. "That’s why I’m announcing a thorough investigation and calling on Google and Apple to cooperate immediately by providing all relevant documents related to the DeepSeek app." "The United States and Texas will continue to be at the forefront of global AI innovation, and any CCP-aligned company that tries to undermine that dominance by violating the rights of Texans and illegally undercutting American technology companies will face the full force of the law," he continued. Paxton also said he notified DeepSeek that its platform violates the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act.

Newsweek [2/17/2025 6:39 AM, Theo Burman, 56005K] reports that DeepSeek’s growth in Southeast Asia has been stunted by a ban in South Korea, following fears that the Chinese chatbot breached the country’s data protection regulations. The AI was taken down from the App Store and Google Play, with South Korean authorities saying it would only return if it was made compliant with the law. Newsweek has contacted DeepSeek for comment via email. DeepSeek has sent shock waves through the artificial intelligence industry, and poses a significant threat to U.S. control of this technology. DeepSeek overtook ChatGPT on January 27 to become the top-rated free app on Apple’s App Store in the U.S., delivering a trillion-dollar blow to U.S. tech firms on the stock market. South Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) has blocked new downloads of the DeepSeek chatbot due to concerns over data privacy and national security. The government agency said DeepSeek would remain unavailable to new South Korean users until its developers implement "improvements and remedies" that bring the chatbot into compliance with the country’s personal data protection laws. The announcement came after DeepSeek skyrocketed to the top of app store rankings in South Korea, amassing over a million weekly users following its surge in global popularity.

Newsweek [2/18/2025 4:00 AM, Ryan Chan, 56005K] reports China asserted on Friday that its territorial claims in the contested South China Sea are supported by a series of international treaties that date back to as early as the 1890s. Newsweek has reached out to the Philippine Embassy in Beijing for comment by email. China has claimed sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, claims that overlap with those of neighboring nations, including the Philippines, a defense treaty ally of the United States. Maritime forces of Beijing and Manila have frequently faced off and even clashed. Beijing has declared that China was the first to discover the South China Sea and thus has the so-called "historic rights" in the disputed waters within its "nine-dash line." However, this was rejected in 2016 by an international tribunal’s ruling as having no legal basis. During a press briefing, the Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson, Senior Colonel Zhang Xiaogang, said the Nansha Qundao (the Spratly Islands) and Huangyan Dao (Scarborough Shoal) "fall outside" the Philippine territory defined by international treaties. The treaties cited by Zhang were the 1898 Treaty of Peace between the U.S. and Spain, the 1900 Treaty between the U.S. and Spain for Cession of Outlying Islands of the Philippines, and the 1930 Convention between the United Kingdom and the U.S. with regard to the border between North Borneo and the Philippines. Spain ceded sovereignty over its Philippine colony after its defeat in the Spanish-American War in 1898. The U.S. granted the Philippines independence in 1946 and both countries signed a mutual defense treaty in 1951. The Chinese law-enforcement activities in the Spratly Islands and Scarborough Shoal were "reasonable, lawful, and beyond reproach," Zhang added. Both are within the Philippine 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone but outside its 12-nautical-mile territorial sea. The Chinese military’s remarks came after Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the Philippine president, demanded China stop its aggression in the South China Sea, in exchange for the removal of the Typhon missile system, currently deployed in the Philippines by the U.S. military. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

AP [2/18/2025 4:45 AM, Joeal Calupitan, 57114K] reports a Chinese navy helicopter flew within 10 feet (3 meters) of a Philippine patrol plane on Tuesday in a disputed area of the South China Sea, prompting the Filipino pilot to warn by radio: “You are flying too close, you are very dangerous.” The Chinese helicopter was attempting to force a Cessna Caravan turboprop plane belonging to the Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources out of what China claims is its airspace over the hotly disputed Scarborough Shoal off the northwestern Philippines. An Associated Press journalist and other invited foreign media on the plane witnessed the tense 30-minute standoff as the Philippine plane pressed on with its low-altitude patrol around Scarborough with the Chinese navy helicopter hovering close above it or flying to its left in cloudy weather. “You are flying too close, you are very dangerous and endangering the lives of our crew and passengers,” the Philippine pilot told the Chinese navy helicopter by radio at one point. “Keep away and distance your aircraft from us, you are violating the safety standard set by FAA and ICAO.” The pilot was referring to the standard distance between aircraft required by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and the International Civil Aviation Organization to prevent air disasters. There was no sign that the Philippine plane had to alter its planned path and altitude to avoid a collision. The Philippine Coast Guard and the Bureau of Fisheries said in a statement that they remain “committed to asserting our sovereignty, sovereign rights and maritime jurisdiction in the West Philippine Sea, despite the aggressive and escalatory actions of China.” They referred to the Philippine name for the stretch of waters in the South China Sea closer to the Philippines’ western coast. Chinese officials did not immediately comment on the incident, but in past encounters they have steadfastly asserted China’s sovereign rights over the Scarborough and surrounding waters and warned that its forces would protect the country’s territorial interests at all costs.

Reuters [2/18/2025 1:37 AM, Joyce Lee and Hyonhee Shin, 30936K] reports North Korea’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday that it will keep bolstering its nuclear force, denouncing a recent joint pledge by the United States, South Korea and Japan for its denuclearisation, according to state media KCNA. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul and Japanese Foreign Minister Iwaya Takeshi held talks on Saturday on the sidelines of a security conference in Munich and issued a statement, opens new tab, reaffirming their commitment to North Korea’s complete denuclearisation. Pyongyang’s foreign ministry criticised the countries for pursuing an "outdated, absurd" plan, warning against seeking what it called "foolish acts inciting collective hostility and conflicts." "As long as the U.S. and its vassal forces’ hostile threat exists, the DPRK’s nukes are means for defending peace and sovereignty and a means for legitimate self-defence entrusted by the constitution of the state," an unnamed ministry spokesperson said in a statement carried by KCNA, vowing to continue strengthening its nuclear force. The spokesperson was referring to North Korea’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. South Korea’s foreign ministry urged the North to cease its illicit weapons programmes and return to the path to denuclearisation. "North Korea will never be recognised as a nuclear weapons state," ministry spokesperson Lee Jae-woong told a briefing. "We hope that they will realise that the development of nuclear weapons and missiles will only hinder their own security and economic development." The three-way meeting was their first since the inauguration of U.S. President Donald Trump, who held unprecedented summits with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during his first term and has touted their personal rapport. South Korean lawmakers, after being briefed by the National Intelligence Service, have said that Pyongyang’s recent missile tests were in part intended to "show off its U.S. deterrent assets and drawing Trump’s attention."

Newsweek [2/18/2025 5:19 AM, Ryan Chan, 56005K] reports China held a defense meeting on Monday with Australia, a major ally of the United States in the contested Western Pacific Ocean, just days after encounters involving their militaries. Australia accused China of an "unsafe and unprofessional" encounter after one of its warplanes intercepted an Australian Defence Force helicopter on May 4, 2024 in international waters. The Chinese have accused the U.S. and its allies of stirring up trouble in the East and South China seas, which Beijing considers to be its doorstep. An Australian P-8A maritime patrol aircraft was intercepted by Chinese J-16 fighter jets on February 11 during a surveillance patrol in international airspace over the South China Sea, which the Australian military described as an "unsafe and unprofessional interaction.” The Chinese Foreign Ministry said the military took "legitimate measures" to expel the Australian aircraft as it intruded into China’s airspace. Beijing has claimed sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, claims that overlap with those of neighboring nations. The 23rd Australia-China Defense Strategic Dialogue was held in Beijing, the capital city of China. It is a senior-level meeting between the officials from the Australian Department of Defense and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, according to Australia’s statement. The bilateral meeting was suspended by China in 2019 after Australia banned Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications giant, from its 5G networks. Tensions between the two trading partners persisted until last year, when their leaders agreed to revive the defense dialogue. The Australian side reiterated that all nations should operate in a "safe and professional" manner to avoid miscalculation or escalation and act in a manner that respects sovereignty and upholds peace, security, and stability, the Australian military said of the meeting. "The two sides exchanged in-depth views on the relations between the two countries and two militaries, regional security, and other issues of common concern," said the Chinese military, adding that both sides agreed to handle their disputes and differences properly.

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