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.

The Wall Street Journal [1/15/2025 12:47 AM, Kimberley Kao, Neutral] reports the Biden administration will block imports from more than three dozen Chinese companies over their alleged links to forced labor in the country’s Xinjiang region, its largest-ever expansion of a ban list that took effect in 2022. On Tuesday, the administration added 37 companies to what is known as the Entity List, bringing the total to 144, according to a Department of Homeland Security statement. Goods from those companies are presumptively blocked from entry to the U.S. under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. The list named businesses that the U.S. alleges are involved in exploiting forced labor from China’s Xinjiang region, home to the Uyghur people and other minority groups. The latest additions targeted Chinese companies in the critical-minerals, textiles and solar-technology industries. These included Zijin Mining Group 601899 -3.84%decrease; red down pointing triangle and several subsidiaries, Donghai JA Solar Technology, as well as Huafu Fashion 002042 2.53%increase; green up pointing triangle and 25 of its subsidiaries. Hong Kong-listed shares of Zijin Mining fell as much as 8.3% early Wednesday trading and were recently 5.7% lower. Shares of the miner fell 2.9% in Shanghai, while those of Shenzhen-listed Huafu Fashion rose 3.8%. The blacklisting comes amid a broader U.S. crackdown on the import of goods tied to forced labor, and in particular those from Xinjiang, a region known as a source of cotton, solar-panel components and other goods, but also for alleged wide-scale human-rights abuses. China has denied accusations of human-rights abuses and has said the U.S. law interferes in its internal affairs. Bloomberg [1/15/2025 2:54 AM, Staff, 21617K, Negative] reports Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun called the law “evil” at a regular press briefing in Beijing on Wednesday, and said the bans on the companies amounted to interference in the country’s internal affairs. He added that Beijing would “take resolute measures to firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises.” The Hill [1/14/2025 12:11 PM, Ashleigh Fields, 16346K, Neutral] reports that "In adding 37 companies to the UFLPA Entities List and bringing the total to nearly 150, we again demonstrate our relentless fight against the cruelty of forced labor, our unwavering commitment to basic human rights, and our tireless defense of a free, fair, and competitive market," said Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.

Reported similarly:
New York Times [1/14/2025 9:00 AM, Ana Swanson, 161405K, Neutral]
Bloomberg [1/14/2025 9:43 PM, Staff, 21617K, Negative]

NPR [1/15/2025 5:01 AM, Milton Guevara, 35747K, Neutral] reports Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas is talking about what went wrong, and making a case for what went right on his watch during the Biden administration. Mayorkas will step down next week after four contentious years as DHS secretary come to an end. His sprawling department encompasses everything from the Coast Guard to the Secret Service—and also border protection and immigration enforcement agencies. That put Mayorkas at the center of a ferocious immigration debate that was a major issue in the election that Democrats lost in 2024. Mayorkas spoke about how immigration played a role in that defeat with NPR. "In terms of the narrative, I don’t think we prevailed in communicating to the American people successfully the challenges of migration at an historic level since World War II," he told Morning Edition’s Steve Inskeep. Mayorkas did not criticize administration policies, but alluded to disagreements within the Biden White House over what to do—saying there are "differences of opinion" but that "once a decision is made, we all move forward as one team. And that is indeed what we have done and will continue to do until this administration comes to a close.” The number of migrants and asylum seekers peaked at the U.S. southern border in December 2023. Mayorkas blamed circumstances beyond the administration’s control, but Republicans blamed Mayorkas, and the House impeached him in early 2024. The Senate rejected both articles of impeachment after the House’s narrow vote. President Biden later took executive actions in June making it easier to block asylum seekers. And as the administration departs, Mayorkas says fewer people are crossing these days, than during parts of the first Trump administration. "The border right now is more secure than it was at the end of 2019, the last year before the pandemic struck," Mayorkas said. He added that deportations are up sharply in the past year. In short, the departing secretary suggested that he has already delivered on much of the security that President-elect Donald Trump promised.

The AP [1/14/2025 7:26 PM, Staff, 47097K, Neutral] reports U.S. officials on Tuesday announced the latest border data, and it suggests the Biden administration is poised to end its term without an expected bump in illegal border crossings. In December, Customs and Border Protection reported 47,300 illegal border crossings - a slight elevation from November, when it reported 46,612, approaching the lowest level since July 2020. The first two weeks of January also indicate activity has dropped, with about 45% fewer crossings than in December, according to senior CBP officials who spoke with reporters during a virtual press conference Tuesday. Border crossing activity peaked in South Texas, doubling from about 5,000 in November to slightly above 10,000 arrests in December across the Rio Grande Valley region, despite Republican-led efforts to heighten border security through Operation Lonestar. The number of border arrests in December exceeded the number of people processed for asylum at ports of entry through the CBP One app, which allows migrants to seek an appointment out of the daily 1,450 slots available at designated ports of entry. Nearly 936,500 people have used the CBP One app to schedule appointments since its introduction in January 2023. Although President-elect Donald J. Trump said in September that he planned to end CBP One appointments, a senior CBP official told reporters that they are still being scheduled. Overall, the number of crossings demonstrate a downward trend from the high mark set under the Biden administration in December 2023, when arrests reached nearly 250,000. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas credited the Biden administration’s June 2024 proclamation that temporarily suspends asylum processing at the border when U.S. officials deem they are overwhelmed. "This is a consistent trend we have seen since the president’s proclamation went into effect last summer," Mayorkas said. "Since then, encounters between ports of entry along the southwest border have dropped 60%. ABC News [1/14/2025 4:18 PM, Luke Barr, 33392K, Neutral] reports that the daily average was also lower than in every month of 2019, according to Mayorkas. Mayorkas told reporters that the Biden Administration is leaving the border in a better place than where they found it. Mayorkas also touted the number of deportations carried out, which was the highest since 2014. The incoming Trump Administration has said it might reimplement Title 42 as a way to expel migrants quickly.

The Hill [1/14/2025 7:40 PM, Sarah Fortinsky, 16346K, Neutral] reports the confirmation hearing for South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R), President-elect Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), was postponed by two days. Noem will appear before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Friday at 9 a.m. She was previously slated to appear before the committee on Wednesday. A committee aide told The Hill the hearing was postponed "due to a delay on the FBI background check for Governor Noem.” Noem is not the only presumptive nominee whose hearing has been delayed by paperwork. Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of the Interior, former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R), had his hearing delayed by two days.

Reported similarly:
USA Today [1/14/2025 5:20 PM, Josh Meyer, 89965K, Neutral]

Washington Post [1/14/2025 4:58 PM, Maria Sacchetti, 40736K, Negative] reports Trump said on the campaign trail that he would invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to carry out "the largest domestic deportation operation in American history." Outgoing DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday credited the administration’s mix of punishments and incentives for the sharp reduction in border apprehensions, which hovered around 47,300 in December, down from nearly 250,000 a month one year earlier. The administration has severely restricted access to asylum and increased deportations from the southern border while allowing immigrants to apply to enter legally. Noem, who will appear before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Wednesday, also echoed Trump’s rhetoric, accusing immigrants of skipping out on their court hearings and portraying them as dangerous criminals and terrorists.

FOX News [1/14/2025 8:00 AM, Adam Shaw, 49889K, Negative] reports the Biden administration gave nearly 7,000 exemptions, mostly to refugees, for foreign nationals who otherwise could be ineligible for admission into the U.S. due to terrorism-related entry restrictions -- a significantly higher number than in recent years. Fox News Digital reviewed a draft of the agency’s FY 2024 report to Congress on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary’s application of his power to exempt foreign nationals from terrorism-related inadmissibility grounds (TRIG). Foreign nationals who seek entry to the U.S. can be deemed inadmissible from entry and for immigration benefits if they have associated with, supported or worked with terrorist organizations. However, the DHS secretary can exempt certain foreign nationals from that inadmissibility, including if they have provided support under duress, if they have provided medical care, and they meet other standards for exemptions. According to the draft report, there were 6,848 TRIG exemptions in FY 2024. The majority (6,653) were for refugees, but the report does not break down the number by country. The Biden administration has significantly increased the refugee cap to 125,000, up substantially from the 18,000 set in the last year of the Trump administration. The 6,848 number is significantly higher than the 2,085 waivers issued in FY 2023, which in turn was higher than previous years. There were 603 waivers distributed in FY 2022, 191 in FY 2021 and 361 in FY 2020, according to DHS reports.

Federal News Network [1/14/2025 12:17 PM, Tom Temin, 470K, Neutral] reports that wireless cellular communications keep growing and are imperative for emergency responders. The Homeland Security Department’s Science and Technology Directorate has an ongoing research program for the development of cellular. Sridhar Kowdley, technology manager for the Science and Technology communications and networking technology center, spoke to the Federal Drive with Tom Temin for details. Sridhar Kowdley: One of the things that we’re looking at consistently and constantly is, since we are the research arm for DHS as well as first responders nationwide, we focus on communication systems and how do as the first responder and or DHS operator communicate in the field because we continually rely more and more on communications and the ability to send data, not just voice, even though voice is still a primary killer app for us. We want to be able to get significant data across, whether it’s video, images and/or file sharing to do our job effectively and efficiently. So in terms of what we do is we begin by looking at what do we use, what are our toolset? How do we operate? What are the research gaps? At which point, DHS S&T comes in and starts saying, ‘How do we close these gaps that we’ve identified in R&D?’ Tom Temin: Right. And just a brief then thought on the idea of voice being still significant, but a voice has to be accompanied by data. Generally, what does that do to the old push-to-talk type of thought?

AP [1/14/2025 1:45 PM, Mike Stobbe, 17996K, Neutral] reports that the Biden administration on Tuesday released a "road map" for maintaining government defenses against infectious diseases, just as President-elect Donald Trump pledges to dismantle some of them. The 16-page report recaps steps taken in the last four years against COVID-19, mpox and other diseases, including vaccination efforts and the use of wastewater and other measures to spot signs of erupting disease outbreaks. It’s a public version of a roughly 300-page pandemic-prevention playbook that Biden officials say they are providing to the incoming administration. Biden officials touted the steps they took to halt or prevent disease threats, but some public heath researchers offer a more mixed assessment of the administration’s efforts. Several experts, for example, said not nearly enough has been done to make sure an expanding bird flu pandemic in animals doesn’t turn into a global health catastrophe for people. "Overwhelmingly you’ve heard a lot of frustration by outside experts that we’ve been underreacting to what we see as really serious threat," said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at the Brown University School of Public Health. Public health experts worry the next administration could do less. Trump and his team plan to slash government spending, and Trump has endorsed prominent vaccine detractors for top government health posts.

The Hill [1/14/2025 2:04 PM, Julia Manchester, 16346K, Neutral] reports that Donald Trump praised Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) for calling for a special state legislative session to implement the president-elect’s immigration agenda. "Thank you Ron, hopefully other governors will follow!" Trump posted on Truth Social on Tuesday. The president-elect was responding to a proclamation DeSantis posted on X calling for a special session on Jan. 27. "State and local officials in Florida must help the Trump administration enforce our nation’s immigration laws," DeSantis told reporters on Monday. "In order to do that effectively we are going to need legislation to impose additional duties on local officials and provide funding for those local officials. There also needs to be measures to hold people accountable for violating our anti-sanctuary policies and that Florida needs to make sure that we don’t have any lingering incentives for people to come into our state illegally.” The exchange between the two leaders is another indication the working relationship between Trump and DeSantis continues to mend after the two went head-to-head in the Republican presidential primary. However, the governor quickly received pushback from Republican leaders in the state legislature, who dubbed the governor’s move as "premature."

Reported similarly:
Miami Herald [1/14/2025 3:09 PM, Ana Ceballos, 6595K, Neutral]

USA Today [1/14/2025 12:19 PM, Zachary Schermele and Madeleine Parrish, 89965K, Neutral] reports that as Donald Trump’s second term approaches, colleges and K-12 schools are taking steps to shield undocumented students from possible changes to immigration policy that could impact their education. Officials from universities across the country convened virtually last week with immigration advocates to discuss how to respond to the incoming administration’s stance regarding the approximately 400,000 undocumented students enrolled in higher education. Trump pledged on the campaign trail he’d carry out mass deportations in a second term. He then suggested in December he supported deporting mixed-status families – in which family members have differing legal statuses in the U.S. – even if some are citizens. "The only way you don’t break up the family is you keep them together," Trump said in a television interview, "and you have to send them all back.” That rhetoric has created questions about possible guardrails for protecting student data and applying for college financial aid. It has also sparked a larger debate about where immigration enforcement should and shouldn’t occur. The angst comes after a challenging year for students from mixed-status families, who experienced unique obstacles trying to get help paying for college amid a crisis in the federal financial aid system.

The Hill [1/14/2025 1:22 PM, Addy Bink, 16346K, Neutral] reports that in less than five months, the airport security process is set to change — at least sort of. There’s a good chance you will not be impacted at all, but federal officials want you to prepare nonetheless. The deadline for REAL ID enforcement, which has been postponed multiple times, is set to begin on May 7. Once that date arrives, you will need a REAL ID-compliant ID (which you may already have) to board a domestic flight. It will also be necessary if you are visiting certain federal facilities or entering a nuclear power plant. Enforcement may, however, begin in a phased approach. What does the TSA’s new regulation say? In September, the TSA proposed a rule to allow federal agencies to use such an approach because it "would provide federal agencies with necessary flexibility to begin enforcement… in a manner that takes into account security, operational risk and public impact." The agency cited the low rollout of REAL IDs — only 56% of driver’s license and state IDs were compliant as of January 2024 — and concerns that another deadline delay may reduce the "urgency to obtain a REAL ID." It argued a phased enforcement approach instead of full enforcement could also prevent an overwhelming surge, backlog, and delay as Americans rush to their local DMVs to get their REAL ID.

Yahoo! News [1/14/2025 12:31 PM, Randy Billings, 57114K, Neutral] reports that a bipartisan group of lawmakers wants to cut off Mainers’ ability to get federally compliant identification cards that critics say compromise privacy. A bill submitted by Rep. Laurel Libby would end Maine’s Real ID program by repealing the underlying statute authorizing the state to issue the special identification cards, which were introduced to increase security on airlines and at federal buildings after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. "It’s expensive. It puts Mainers’ privacy at risk. It doesn’t protect us from terrorism. It can fool us into thinking we’re more protected than we are," Libby said. Standards for a Real ID are consistent across the 50 states and involve a higher level of verification than standard driver’s licenses or IDs. To receive a Real ID, an individual must bring proof of identification and citizenship/lawful status, such as a certified birth certificate, two forms proving residency and a social security number. Proof of any legal name changes must also be provided, if applicable. Real IDs, which have digital photos, can be used with facial recognition software. They also require the digital archiving of identity documents such as birth certificates or Social Security numbers. After years of delays, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said last summer they will begin enforcing federal requirements for people over the age of 18 to present Real ID compliant identification at airport security stations and before entering federal buildings on May 7. Maine has one of the lowest participation rates nationwide.

AP [1/14/2025 2:24 PM, Philip Marcelo, 14282K, Negative] reports that a high-ranking member of an MS-13 clique in New York pleaded guilty Tuesday to racketeering and other federal charges in a case involving seven slayings, including the 2016 killings of two high school girls that focused the nation’s attention on the violent Central American street gang. Jairo Saenz, 28, entered the plea in federal court in Central Islip in a hearing attended by members of his family and some of the victims’ families. "I did these things and I knew they were wrong," he said in Spanish through a translator after his lawyer read his accounting of the killings in suburban Long Island, just east of New York City. Saenz, who is originally from El Salvador, will be sentenced June 13 and faces 40 to 60 years in prison as part of the plea deal approved by the judge. Prosecutors have said he was the second-in-commend in a gang clique operating in Brentwood and Central Islip known as Sailors Locos Salvatruchas Westside. His brother, Alexi Saenz, the clique’s leader, previously pleaded guilty to similar charges and will be sentenced later this month. The brothers have admitted they ordered or approved the killings of rivals and others who disrespected or feuded with the clique in order to move up in the MS-13 hierarchy and bolster their group’s reputation.

AP [1/14/2025 5:43 PM, Kate Payne, 47097K, Neutral] reports a Florida state lawmaker has filed a bill that would ban some public colleges and universities from admitting immigrants who are in the country without legal permission. The proposal comes the day after Gov. Ron DeSantis called for a special legislative session to help implement President-elect Donald Trump’s immigration policies. The proposal was filed Tuesday by Republican state Sen. Randy Fine, who is currently running for a seat in Congress to replace Rep. Mike Waltz, Trump’s pick for national security advisor. Representatives for Florida’s public college and university systems did not immediately respond to questions on how many students could be affected by Fine’s bill, which would ban public schools of higher education with an acceptance rate of less than 85% from admitting students in the country without legal authorization. The University of Florida, Florida State University, the University of Central Florida and Florida International University are among institutions that would be affected, according to the schools’ admissions data.

Bloomberg [1/14/2025 2:13 PM, Shruti Singh, 21617K, Negative] reports that a Chicago city council member is pushing a measure that would scale back its sanctuary city rules, less than a week before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. Alderman Raymond Lopez plans to call for a vote on Wednesday on his proposed amendment to Chicago’s welcoming city ordinance that would specify that city agencies can work with federal immigration authorities when dealing with individuals arrested for or convicted of certain crimes. The current rules prevent its police from arresting individuals based on immigration status. “What this amendment does is differentiate between those undocumented who are choosing to commit crimes versus those who are following the laws and trying to pursue the American Dream while waiting for a path forward,” Lopez said in an interview. “You cannot lump the good and the bad together.” Trump has pledged to deport millions who are living in the US without permission. His administration is expected to issue executive orders around immigration, including plans to deprive sanctuary cities of federal resources if they don’t comply, setting up for a clash with the third-largest US city. A loss of federal funds would be an unwelcome hit to the city that’s already financially strained.

CBS Minnesota [1/14/2025 11:28 PM, Frankie McLister, 52225K, Neutral] reports several events in Minnesota have had ties to the Sinaloa Cartel, including a Minnesota woman who was sentenced to more than 26 years in prison. "Obviously, she messed up... but she does not deserve to sit that much time," said Tanja Tilleskjor, mother of Macalla Knot. Friends and family of Knott, or "Calla," say she’s not what you think after Knott pleaded guilty to distributing nearly $10 million worth of drugs from Mexico to the upper Midwest. "I understand there are consequences for her actions, but I have seen people’s lives transformed," Ashley Schlichting, a longtime friend of Knot, said. Knott moved south of the border in March 2020 after being laid off. Her family says she tried to come back but didn’t have a passport to do so. "I think it went dark really fast, went downhill very quickly and was stuck in a situation she couldn’t get out of," Schlichting said. Former CIA Agent Jack Rice explained how this can happen. "Imagine what happens when somebody says, ‘How would you like $100,000?Look how easy this will be. It’s a couple of hours work. It’s nothing.’" Rice said. Knott’s sentencing happened just days before three were charged in a Cartel-related kidnapping in St. Paul. "They are much more difficult to actually control than smaller organizations in the Twin Cities and elsewhere. These are powerful multi-national operations with huge resources" Rice said. "The cartel is here to make money. The cartel is here to make profit." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

BorderReport [1/14/2025 7:38 PM, Sandra Sanchez, 153K, Neutral] reports before the Texas’s 89th Legislature began Tuesday, state representatives and senators had already filed some 2,300 bills, including several relating to immigration, border security and citizenship. The Dangerous Aliens Act, filed Tuesday by Texas state Rep. Stan Gerdes, R-Smithville, would increase punishment for migrants who illegally cross the Texas border if authorities can prove "that the defendant has been previously convicted of an offense. This includes crimes in other states or countries. HB 176, SB 136 – Interstate compact on border security. Allows for sharing law enforcement intelligence on illegal activity occurring at the border with Mexico with compacting states. And "sharing state resources in order to build a physical barrier, a comprehensive technological surveillance system, or both, on state land to deter or detect illegal activity occurring at the border with Mexico," according to HB 176 filed by State Rep. Ryan Guillen, a Republican from the border city of Rio Grande City, and former Democrat. A similar measure, SB 136, was filed by state Sen. Bob Hall. This bill allows the Texas governor the authority for agreements and engagement with Mexican authorities "to protect and defend its citizens," according to the legislation, filed by Guillen.

The Oklahoma Voice [1/14/2025 3:46 PM, Nuria Martinez-Keel, Neutral] reports State Superintendent Ryan Walters has sued three federal agencies responsible for immigration enforcement, accusing President Joe Biden’s administration of imposing a financial burden on Oklahoma schools through a "repeated failure" to secure the nation’s southern border. Walters and the Oklahoma State Department of Education filed the lawsuit in Oklahoma City federal court on Tuesday. They asked a judge to order the federal government to reimburse the state for the cost of educating immigrant children, though the lawsuit doesn’t demand a specific dollar amount. In an Oct. 30 letter to Vice President Kamala Harris, Walters demanded federal officials pay Oklahoma $474.9 million to offset an alleged cost burden of undocumented immigration on the state’s education system, citing an estimate from an anti-immigration organization. Walters’ lawsuit names the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and two agencies under its umbrella, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, as defendants along with the Biden administration officials at the head of each agency. The Oklahoman [1/14/2025 5:18 PM, Alexia Aston, Negative] reports that in a news release Tuesday, the superintendent announced that the lawsuit, filed in Oklahoma City federal court, against Alejandro Mayorkas, secretary of Homeland Security, and Peter Flores, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deputy director, seeks compensation for the "financial and operational strain" that their border polices have placed on the state’s schools. The release states that the lawsuit highlights the Biden administration’s "border mismanagement" and the "skyrocketing costs Oklahoma schools face to accommodate an influx of non-citizen students."

FOX News [1/14/2025 11:24 AM, Alec Schemmel, 49889K, Neutral] reports that President Biden said the federal government will provide one-time payments of $770 to people impacted by the ongoing California wildfires, so they can pay for essentials like baby formula, prescriptions, clothes and food. Biden made the announcement Thursday evening during a briefing from the Oval Office on the situation in Southern California. According to the president, nearly 6,000 people had been approved to receive the payments thus far, leading to a total of $5.1 million that has already gone out through this program. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Deanne Criswell indicated during the Monday briefing that a total of 33,000 people impacted by the California fires had requested federal assistance. She said the number continues to rise, and they don’t expect it to slow down in the near term. Criswell added during the Monday Oval Office briefing that about 700 to 800 people were currently staying in eight emergency shelters as a result of the wildfire, noting that meant a lot of folks had found shelter with family and friends, or in hotel rooms. Criswell said that through the federal government’s disaster declaration, people staying in hotels could be reimbursed for the costs. In addition to FEMA, the Department of Defense and National Guard have also deployed.

Reported similarly:
Yahoo! News [1/14/2025 11:24 AM, Alec Schemmel, 57114K, Neutral]

The Hill [1/14/2025 5:59 PM, Mychael Schnell, 16346K, Neutral] reports the House is barreling toward a contentious debate over disaster relief for California as many — but not all — Republicans call for conditions to be placed on the assistance, an idea Democrats are soundly rejecting. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Monday threw his support behind placing stipulations on aid designed to help California recover from historically devastating wildfires, while accusing local officials of water resource and forest mismanagement. He re-upped that position Tuesday, and many Republicans — including some in the Golden State — are echoing that sentiment. The Miami Herald [1/14/2025 1:46 PM, Faith E. Pinho, 6595K, Neutral] reports that the disastrous wildfires are some of the most destructive and expensive in American history, underscoring the need for sustained funding for continued recovery efforts. But House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., indicated Tuesday that Congress could be setting up a potentially long political battle for continued relief funding, based on California’s liberal leadership during the disaster. "If [California Gov.] Gavin Newsom and local leaders made decisions that made this disaster exponentially worse - which it appears there were - should there be some consequence of that?" Johnson said to reporters Tuesday. "Why should people in other states and other governors and other mayors - who manage their water resources and they manage their forests so much better - why should they have to take care and compensate for bad decisions in California? California has continued funding for a time through the Federal Emergency Management Agency. President Joe Biden has pledged 100% of federal backing for disaster assistance for the next six months, and California’s leaders have made a show of thanking the president for his cooperation. But federal officials, including Biden, have stopped short of assuring that federal funding would continue once Trump enters office Monday. While FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell assured that federal law allowed Biden to make the funding commitments he did, she would not confirm that a future administration wouldn’t stop the funding.

Reported similarly:
FOX News [1/14/2025 4:24 PM, Elizabeth Elkind, 49889K, Negative]

San Diego Union Tribune [1/14/2025 7:59 PM, Alex Riggins, 2212K, Negative] reports when federal agents raided an Otay Mesa truck yard linked to the Sinaloa Cartel in 2020 they discovered more than $3 million in cash and more than 1,500 pounds of cocaine, as well as a tractor-trailer loaded with 20,000 rounds of .50-caliber ammunition, which is so powerful it can pierce a concrete wall, disable a vehicle or shoot down a helicopter. Prosecutors alleged that ammunition was headed for Mexico, where drug trafficking groups have used .50-caliber machine guns and sniper rifles to try to outgun each other, as well as government security forces. Specifically, prosecutors said the ammunition seized in Otay Mesa was headed to a Sinaloa Cartel faction with deep roots in San Diego that was locked in a bloody internal power struggle with a rival bloc. On Monday, the man who procured the 20,000 rounds of ammunition for the cartel, 39-year-old San Bernardino County resident Keith Octavio Rodriguez Padilla, was sentenced in San Diego federal court to 19 years and six months in prison. Rodriguez, who prosecutors said used the moniker "Taliban," pleaded guilty in 2023 to four federal conspiracy charges involving cocaine importation and distribution, money laundering and firearm and ammunition smuggling. He was prosecuted as part of a broader investigation into the Valenzuela Transnational Criminal Organization, which prosecutors described as "a significant component" of the Sinaloa Cartel. "(Rodriguez) played a vital role supplying high-powered military grade ammunition to the (Valenzuela) TCO," Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Sutton wrote in a sentencing memorandum.

New York Times [1/14/2025 5:01 AM, Maria Abi-Habib, 161405K, Negative] reports the Americans were not happy. The migrant situation at the border was out of control, they said, and Mexico was not doing enough to stop it, according to officials from both countries. In fact, the crisis was worse than Mexican officials had been led to believe by their own immigration chief, Francisco Garduño Yáñez. The revelation in October 2023 led Mexico’s defense secretary at the time to fly into a rage at an emergency meeting, officials with knowledge of the encounter said. “You fooled me,” the defense secretary, Luis Cresencio Sandoval González, yelled at Mr. Garduño, according to two people familiar with the incident. The defense secretary regularly briefed Mexico’s then-president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. But, Mr. Sandoval had learned days earlier from the Americans that the migrant crisis was more dire than he realized. “You hid information from me, making me lie to the president,” the defense secretary lashed out. It was a tense chapter in U.S.-Mexico relations, according to five Mexican and American officials privy to bilateral talks on migration, and Mr. Garduño, 76, had landed in the middle of it. Beyond being accused of mismanaging and minimizing the migrant crisis, he is separately facing criminal charges in connection with a fire at a migration detention center that killed 40 people in 2023. Now, as Mexico stands on the precipice of what are expected to be contentious border discussions with the incoming Trump administration, the same Mexican official blamed for mismanaging the migrant crisis, Mr. Garduño, will be a pivotal player in those negotiations. The American president-elect has vowed to begin mass deportations of undocumented immigrants as soon as he takes office. The Defense Ministry, Mr. Garduño and the agency he led, the National Migration Institute, did not respond to several requests for comment. Controlling the Mexico-U.S. border is a sprawling endeavor, involving thousands of government agents from both countries. The issue is often used as a political cudgel. U.S. House Republicans accused the Biden administration of failing to control the border and voted to impeach his homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas.

Bloomberg [1/14/2025 6:13 PM, Eric Martin and Skylar Woodhouse, 21617K, Negative] reports the White House will remove Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, part of a series of steps to ease US policy toward the communist country in a bid to secure the release of political prisoners. The move, announced by senior administration officials on the condition of anonymity Tuesday, faces an uncertain future with Donald Trump returning to the White House next week. President Joe Biden also will eliminate some prohibitions on financial transactions with certain Cuban entities. In exchange, the US expects Cuba to release on humanitarian grounds a significant number of people arrested for protests against the government in July 2021, an understanding brokered with the help of the Roman Catholic Church, the officials said. The officials emphasized that the US action is a unilateral gesture of goodwill, and said they anticipate some detainees being released by the Cuban government before Biden leaves office next Monday. Officials declined to say how many people they expected to be released as part of the deal, but the US does believe that the Cuban government will move quickly. Hours later, the Cuban Foreign Ministry announced that it would gradually free 553 prisoners who were being held “for diverse crimes and after a careful analysis.” The Hill [1/14/2025 4:33 PM, Laura Kelly and Rafael Bernal, 16346K, Neutral] reports that the administration, required by law, is notifying Congress of the decision, allowing lawmakers to review it, although there’s little they can do to block the lifting of the designation. On Tuesday, the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement lauding the changes, but noting that the economic "blockade" of the island — referred to as an "embargo" stateside — "remains in force." Officials briefing reporters on Tuesday said that the U.S. constantly reviews SST designations, and, in the case of Cuba, the administration does not have information supporting it being a state sponsor of terrorism. The AP [1/14/2025 1:41 PM, Matthew Lee, Aamer Madhani, Colleen Long, and Zeke Miller, 47097K, Neutral] reports that the U.S. would also ease some economic pressure on Cuba, as well as a 2017 memorandum issued by then-President Donald Trump toughening U.S. posture toward Cuba. The determination by the outgoing one-term Democrat is likely to be reversed as early as next week after Trump, the Republican who is now president-elect, takes office and Secretary of State-designate Marco Rubio assumes the position of America’s top diplomat. Congress and the incoming Trump administration will have the opportunity to review and potentially reverse Biden’s actions, though the senior U.S. administration officials said the Biden administration had determined there was "no credible evidence" that Cuba was currently engaged in supporting international terrorism. There was no immediate comment from the Trump transition team or from Rubio or his office, but one of his Republican colleagues on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, quickly denounced the Biden administration move.

Reported similarly:
New York Times [1/14/2025 6:42 PM, Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Frances Robles, 161405K, Negative]
Washington Post [1/14/2025 3:17 PM, Karen DeYoung, 40736K, Negative]
Los Angeles Times [1/14/2025 6:25 PM, Tracy Wilkinson, 6595K, Neutral]
Reuters [1/14/2025 2:06 PM, Trevor Hunnicutt and Dave Sherwood, 48128K, Negative]
CBS News [1/14/2025 5:01 PM, Paulina Smolinski, 52225K, Negative]
NBC News [1/14/2025 6:06 PM, Carmen Sesin, 50804K, Neutral]
CNN [1/14/2025 4:40 PM, Jennifer Hansler, Samantha Waldenberg and Patrick Oppmann, Neutral]
FOX News [1/14/2025 3:19 PM, Andrea Margolis, 49889K, Neutral]
Washington Examiner [1/14/2025 5:10 PM, Timothy Nerozzi, 2365K, Neutral]

CBS Miami [1/14/2025 6:18 PM, Staff, 52225K, Negative] Video: HERE reports South Florida Republican lawmakers took to social media Tuesday afternoon to criticize the Biden administration’s decision to remove Cuba from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Wall Street Journal [1/14/2025 4:48 PM, Jason L. Riley, Neutral] reports that, after news broke last week that wildfires were tearing through Los Angeles, I checked in on Bill and Cindy Simon, longtime friends of my wife and me who live in Pacific Palisades. Bill is the son of William Simon, the investor and philanthropist who served as Treasury secretary under Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. By the time we spoke, the Simons had evacuated their home and checked into a hotel in neighboring Santa Monica. Around half of the houses on their block had burned to the ground, along with the Catholic church at the end of the street, the town library, the village theater and two large grocery stores. “We’ve lived on the same street for 34 years. I don’t know why we got spared,” Mr. Simon told me. “In some areas it looks like Dresden in World War II, or Hiroshima. Just house after house after house destroyed. The amount of displacement. The amount of suffering.” Mr. Simon is a businessman who has also dabbled in politics. He won the Republican gubernatorial primary in California in 2002 but lost the election to incumbent Democrat Gray Davis. The state’s poor infrastructure upkeep was part of Mr. Simon’s campaign message. At the time, California was experiencing energy shortages that resulted in rolling blackouts and dramatic increases in electricity bills. “When I ran back in ‘02 I was saying, and other people since then have been saying, that our infrastructure is worse than bad. It’s dangerous,” he said. The state already had a lot of “deferred maintenance” to address 50 years ago, when the population was roughly 20 million. Now it’s close to 40 million. There’s no disputing Mother Nature’s primary role in the devastation. The Santa Ana winds responsible for the wildfires begin north and east of Los Angeles in the Great Basin, which includes large sections of Utah and Nevada. As those winds travel south and west, coursing through the canyons and arroyos of Southern California, they drop in elevation and become warmer and dryer. This is nature, not man-made climate change, at work. It’s been happening since long before Los Angeles was settled. What’s changed isn’t the predictability of the fires but rather the priorities and competence of those responsible for keeping people safe. Has the underbrush that fuels the fires been cleared? Have the forests been thinned? Are the reservoirs full and operational? “It’s hard to believe, but it looks like there just wasn’t enough water,” said Mr. Simon. “At one reservoir, they were fixing the cover.” That was a reference to the Santa Ynez Reservoir in his neighborhood. The Journal reported this week that Santa Ynez is “meant to hold 117 million gallons of water” but “has been offline and empty since early 2024” and repeatedly in need of repair. Worse, it isn’t clear whether the Los Angeles Fire Department had been notified that the reservoir couldn’t be used.

San Diego Union Tribune [1/14/2025 8:18 PM, Cary Lowe, Robert Leiter and Tom Corringham, 2212K, Neutral] reports the fires devastating Los Angeles neighborhoods are just the latest reminder of Southern California’s vulnerability to climate change. Where wildfires once were a periodic phenomenon, the region now faces a virtually year-round fire season. A warming climate has produced more extreme droughts, drying out rural and urban landscapes alike. Drier conditions enable fires to burn hotter and spread more rapidly, especially during high winds, posing greater challenges to firefighting agencies. A warming climate also interrupts drought with torrential atmospheric river storms. These can cause deadly debris flows after fires, while promoting growth of invasive plants that crowd out fire-resistant native vegetation and provide fuel for future fires. The result, according to a National Academy of Sciences study, is that wildfires burned five times as much land in California from 1996 to 2021 as in the previous 25 years. That damages environmentally sensitive habitat and impacts already stressed water resources through erosion of burn areas and spread of ash. Meanwhile, a study reported in the journal Science found fires across the West growing more than twice as quickly in 2020 as 20 years earlier. In the long run, we must continue the global fight against climate change, to at least slow the conditions fostering wildfires. And, just as coastal communities are beginning to respond to rising oceans, we should restrict development in high-risk areas and plan for possible relocation of existing development.

Newsweek [1/14/2025 8:08 PM, Dan Gooding, 56005K, Negative] reports Republicans in Congress reintroduced a second immigration bill Tuesday aimed at increasing detentions named after another person allegedly killed by illegal immigrants. Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Representative Troy E. Nehls brought back the Justice for Jocelyn Act, first introduced last year, saying it would force Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to detain as many illegal immigrants as possible despite there being a lack of beds already. The legislation, named after 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray, who was allegedly killed by two Venezuelans in Houston last year, comes at the same time as GOP lawmakers seek to pass the Laken Riley Act. Both present a tougher stance on immigration off the back of President-elect Donald Trump’s messaging during the presidential election. The Justice for Jocelyn Act was introduced during the previous Congress in reaction to Nungaray’s killing, allegedly at the hands of Johan Jose Rangel Martinez and Franklin Jose Pena Ramos, two Venezuelan nationals in the country illegally. "The aliens responsible for her murder crossed the southern border illegally and should have been detained by ICE," Cruz said in a press release Tuesday. "Democrats’ reckless open-border policies prevented ICE and Border Patrol agents from acting, left thousands of detention center beds empty, and allowed these criminals to go free.” The act would require ICE to hold as many illegal immigrants in its detention centers as it possibly can. Once there was no other option, and the secretary of Homeland Security had "exercised and exhausted all reasonable efforts" to hold them, only then could migrants be allowed out into communities with GPS tracking and a curfew.

AP [1/14/2025 2:18 PM, Staff, 47097K, Positive] reports that GovCIO, a provider of advanced technology solutions, cyber, and digital services for the federal government, has been awarded a five-year, $97 million dollar contract with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Division to lead their Analytic and Program Management Support (APMS) contract. Under this award, GovCIO will provide data analytics, reporting, communications and program management support to assist the multiple units within ERO to enhance data visibility and availability to mission officers to enhance immigration processes. Support will include capacity planning, reporting, data analysis, facility compliance, financial analysis, quality assurance, process optimization, strategic communications and workforce management. "This contract award supports DHS and that overall law enforcement community and is a critical component to protecting our national security," said Kristin Gill, President, GovCIO Veteran and Enterprise Technology Services. "Our ICE Business Unit led by This recognition underscores our commitment to excellence and the collaborative spirit and unwavering dedication of our team in safeguarding the integrity of our nation’s defenses. We are honored to be entrusted with this important requirement for such a critical mission."

CBS Austin [1/14/2025 6:05 PM, Jackson Walker, 581K, Negative] reports Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials on Tuesday announced the arrest of a convicted sex offender in Connecticut after local authorities ignored a detainer request against him. Jamaican national Sanjay Sivan Walsh, 28, was convicted in June 2023 of two counts of second-degree sexual assault and conspiracy to tamper with evidence, according to ICE. He served a sentence of 21 months at Enfield’s Willard-Cybulski Correctional Institution, which was shortened from the original 10 years he received from the State of Connecticut Superior Court, the agency said in a press release. ICE said that facility did not honor a detainer against him. Such a request asks local jurisdictions to hold an individual past their release date as ICE weighs deportation proceedings against them. Some jurisdictions, such as sanctuary cities, will purposefully ignore ICE detainers in protest of their work of deporting noncitizens. "Mr. Walsh was convicted of committing unspeakable crimes against two children, and he was sentenced to prison for it," ERO Boston acting Field Office Director Patricia Hyde said. "ERO Boston lodged an immigration detainer against him so our officers could safely arrest him upon his release, but the Connecticut Department of Corrections officials refused to honor the detainer.” "Our officers had to arrest Mr. Walsh in the community after his release from prison, even though he was convicted of terrible crimes against children and is removable from the U.S. based on his convictions," Hyde added.

Yahoo! News [1/14/2025 10:31 AM, George Stockburger, 57114K, Negative] reports that two Chilean nationals were arrested in Dauphin County and referred to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Pennsylvania State Police say on January 12, Troopers conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle with a California registration for violations on I-81N in East Hanover Township. Troopers searched the vehicle and said they found marijuana and Xanax inside. The two occupants of the vehicle also allegedly provided fictitious identifying information to law enforcement. The two suspects, Rangel Ignacio Meza-Aleksov and Diego Antonio Calderon-Leiva, were both discovered to be from Chile and were taken to the Dauphin County Booking Center for arraignment. The Department of Homeland Security’s ICE office in York County was notified and immigration detainers were placed on both men.

Yahoo! News [1/14/2025 6:07 AM, Niraj Warikoo, 57114K, Neutral] reports that, while there’s a perception that former President Donald Trump deported more people than President Joe Biden, the data shows otherwise. In Trump’s first term, from January 2017 through December 2020, there were 1.39 million deportations, according to Department of Homeland Security data analyzed by the Migration Policy Institute. Under Biden, from January 2021 through August 2024 (the latest month for which data is available), there were more than 1.4 million deportations, with four more months left to be counted. Experts with the institute say about 188,000 more deportations will take place during the remainder of Biden’s term, about 47,000 per month. Last month, Immigration and Customs Enforcement released a report that said the agency deported more than 271,000 people for fiscal year 2024, which ended September 30. That’s the highest one-year total since 2014 under former President Barack Obama. The number of deportations under Obama — 2.9 million in his first term and 1.9 million in his second term — was larger in both of his terms than under Trump or Biden. And under former President George W. Bush, there were even more deportations: 5.3 million in his first term from fiscal years 2001 through 2004 and just over 5 million in his second term from 2005 through 2008. While deportations increased overall under Biden, certain types did decrease. The word "deportations" refers to what DHS calls removals, returns and expulsions. Returns and expulsions, which generally deal with people who recently crossed at the southern border, increased under Biden, but the number of removals, which refers to people more settled in the country, decreased under Biden. Federal data reviewed by the Free Press shows that apprehensions by Customs and Border Protection agents in metro Detroit — who patrol a 70-mile area in Michigan along the Detroit River and Lake St. Clair — substantially decreased under Biden. Under Trump, there were 3,000 apprehensions by Border Patrol during his first two years in office compared to only 157 apprehensions during Biden’s first two fiscal years, 2021 and 2022, the last year for which metro Detroit data is available. The number of ICE arrests in metro Detroit also decreased, but by a smaller percentage, from 7,013 ICE arrests in southeastern Michigan during Trump’s first two years, down to 5,591 ICE arrests during Biden’s first two years in office. Some immigrant advocates in Michigan have expressed concern that Democratic politicians are less likely now to speak up for immigrant rights than they were during Trump’s first term.

CBS 58 [1/15/2025 10:06 PM, Adam Rife, 238K, Negative] reports a Milwaukee alderwoman says the US Department of Homeland Security is looking into opening an ICE detention center on the city’s northwest side. ICE stands for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Local groups that work with immigrant communities warn it could be a large facility, and they say they’re concerned. According to Milwaukee Alderwoman Larresa Taylor, ICE is looking to modify a building on the city’s northwest side so that it can be "used to transport prisoners to and from the facility." The building is currently an empty warehouse park on Lake Park Drive, near 41 and Bradley in the city’s northwest corner. It was built in 1989 and was sold this past October for $2.5 million. ICE’s stated mission is to protect the US from "cross-border crime and illegal immigration that threaten national security and public safety." Often that means detaining illegal immigrants. In announcing the proposed detention facility, Alderwoman Taylor said, "we do not support the Department of Homeland Security in their decision to move into our district." A person who works closely with immigrants in Milwaukee told us they are extremely concerned. They said their organization and their immigration attorneys are hearing the facility could hold 500 beds. And this person said they are already hearing from families who are concerned parents will be separated from their children if this facility goes through. As a result, some people are planning to stop sending their children to school. Others said they’ll stop seeking medical care. We reached out to the Department of Homeland Security and ICE for comment on this report. They have not yet responded. An insider at City Hall says the federal government has not notified the city about this potential detention facility. Alderwoman Taylor has scheduled a 1 p.m. news conference Wednesday afternoon outside the building. She has invited all organizations that will be impacted to join her. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Yahoo! News [1/14/2025 9:13 PM, Drake Bentley, 57114K, Negative] reports U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is planning to move into a building on Milwaukee’s far northwest side and have asked city officials to allow modifications to the building, including a sally port and chain link fencing with privacy slats, a Milwaukee alderwoman said in a statement Tuesday. Ald. Larresa Taylor called the agency’s decision to move to 11925 W. Lake Park Drive a "very alarming development.” "I want District 9, and the rest of the city, to know that we do not support the Department of Homeland Security in their decision to move into our district, and we definitely do not support any such modifications to any building in our district (as a location to house prisoners!).” ICE, part of the Department of Homeland Security, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday night. The alderwoman said the modifications include a sally port, which is a secure, controlled entry way to an enclosure, typically seen at prisons and used to transport people to and from the facility. Taylor said "we did not have representation" when the state Department of Corrections "practically forced" a 32-bed youth detention facility in her district. "But this time, we have a voice," she said. "Milwaukee’s 9th Aldermanic District will no longer be Wisconsin’s dumping ground for detention facilities.” Taylor will hold a news conference Wednesday at 1 p.m. outside the facility.

CBS Austin [1/14/2025 1:22 PM, Jackson Walker, 581K, Negative] reports that police in Aurora, Colorado on Monday announced formal charges have been filed against nine suspects in a "violent" December kidnapping at a local apartment. Aurora Police Department Chief Todd Chamberlain in December explained officers responded to The Edge at Lowry Apartments after receiving a call two residents were "accosted" by several individuals. That complex is notably the same site which some claimed was taken over by armed Venezuelan gang members in September. Several individuals, he said, took the residents to another building against their will and "terrorized" them while others looted their apartment. "They were pistol-whipped, they were beat, they were mistreated," Chamberlain said of the victims. "So does that fall in the category of torture for me? Yeah, it does.” Chamberlain said at the time authorities involved believed at least some suspects were likely members of transnational criminal gang Tren de Aragua. Nine suspects ranging from 20 to 31 years old received a slew of charges Monday, including second-degree kidnapping, first-degree assault, aggravated robbery, second-degree burglary, extortion and menacing. The department also said it obtained arrest warrants for three additional suspects who are not currently in custody. "A total of 19 people were detained during the preliminary investigation," officers wrote. "The remaining 16 suspects are being held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which includes the nine suspects charged last week in Arapahoe District Court. The additional seven suspects in ICE custody remain under investigation for the Dec. 17, 2024, kidnapping."

CBS Austin [1/14/2025 5:08 PM, Jackson Walker, 581K, Negative] reports Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials on Tuesday announced a "person of interest" in relation to a California fire entered the U.S. illegally. The Los Angeles Police Department on Friday arrested Juan Manuel Sierra-Leyva, 33, on felony probation violation. He entered the U.S. illegally at an unknown date and time, according to ICE. Witnesses claimed to KTLA Sierra-Leyva was seen attempting to start a blaze with a "propane tank or a flamethrower" in Woodland Hills near the Kenneth fire. Neighbors who witnessed the scene reportedly cornered Sierra-Leyva and forced him to his knees. ICE noted Sierra-Leyva has "multiple encounters with law enforcement from November 2016 to present for a variety of charges," as well as was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon in October 2023. The agency also said it filed an immigration detainer against him, which asks local authorities to hold an individual while ICE weighs deportation proceedings against them. The announcement comes amid California officers making several arrests as wildfires continue. Azusa police on Saturday revealed the arrest of Jose Carranza-Escobar, who allegedly admitted to starting a brush fire in Pioneer Park when confronted by officers at the scene of a blaze. The Irwindale, California Police Department on Sunday also arrested an individual accused of lighting a brush fire near Interstate 605.

Reported similarly:
Newsweek [1/14/2025 5:57 PM, Dan Gooding, 56005K, Negative]

Yahoo! News [1/14/2025 7:00 AM, Sharon Goldman, 57114K, Neutral] reports that an Amazon employee from India working in Seattle on an H-1B visa received an ominous email about a month ago from a law firm used by the company. Immigrant workers should "strongly consider" rescheduling any travel that would return them to the U.S. on or after January 20, the date of Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration, the note said. The fear is that Trump, once in office, will quickly act on his promise to upend U.S. immigration laws. Any changes could create "unpredictability" at ports of entry and maroon workers outside the country or cause significant delays in their return. The Amazon employee, who requested anonymity to avoid jeopardizing his H-1B status within the company’s cloud computing division, took the warning to stay in the U.S. seriously. He jettisoned plans for a late-January trip to Cancun, to trade Seattle gloom for some sunshine, in favor of a domestic destination. "We decided on Hawaii," he said. Amazon is among many companies that have warned foreign workers to return from any international travel before Trump takes his oath of office. For some workers, that means delaying or cancelling vacations and trips to see family overseas, leaving many anxious and uncertain about their futures.

Michigan Public Radio [1/15/2025 1:35 AM, Isabel Gil, Rachel Mintz, 117K, Neutral] reports a Michigan federal district court judge ruled this month that a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security alleging unreasonable delays in initial decisions for people seeking U visas has enough standing to move forward. U visas provide legal protections for non-citizens who are victims of serious crimes in the U.S. and who help law enforcement prosecute the cases. They can earn work authorization and enter a path to citizenship. The lawsuit was brought by a group of noncitizens who applied for U visas years ago and have not yet received DHS documentation that allows for work authorization and temporary relief from deportation, called initial bona fide determinations. The National Immigrant Justice Center, Michigan Immigrant Rights Center, and Winston and Strawn LLP filed the lawsuit on December 19, 2023. The court previously decided to dismiss the case in A.M.P. v. DHS (formerly known as B.L.R. v. DHS) due to the fact that there is no statutory deadline for the processing of U visa applications. The plaintiffs, who were allegedly left in precarious financial, physical, and mental situations following the decision, asked the court to reconsider. U visas, created by Congress in October 2000, aim to aid victims of crimes such as rape, trafficking, and sexual assault who have been helpful to law enforcement’s investigation or prosecution. There is, however, a cap on how many U visas can be granted each year: 10,000. Extended backlogs have prevented U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services from making the initial “bona fide determinations” that would support and grant these applicants amnesty.

Yahoo! News [1/14/2025 6:02 AM, Sophie Carson, 57114K, Neutral] reports that, with immigration a key part of incoming President Donald Trump’s agenda, a split has already arisen among his supporters over the role of H-1B visas that allow U.S. employers to hire foreign workers in specialty occupations. Many in the high-tech world say the H-1B visa program is essential to bring in needed expertise; others suggest the program takes American jobs and provides cheap labor for wealthy companies. But this isn’t just an issue involving Elon Musk and Silicon Valley. Any changes would have wide-reaching effects for Wisconsin businesses too, local immigration attorneys say. Wisconsin universities, hospitals, manufacturers and financial companies have been granted thousands of H-1B visas to hire foreign-born employees in specialized jobs that are hard to fill with American workers, according to about 15 years of federal data. A worker monitors production of a kit to promote STEM education for students on the factory floor at The Smart Factory in Wichita, Kansas. "There are a lot of really, really successful manufacturing companies, especially in the Milwaukee area, that need smart people to come up with new ways to do old things," said Grant Sovern, a partner at Quarles & Brady who leads its immigration practice. "That’s where they hire H-1Bs.” The most typical path to an H-1B visa begins at an American university, Sovern said. Hundreds of thousands of international students earn degrees in the U.S., often in STEM fields, and want to stay here. After college, students can work for one year — or up to three in a STEM field — to get on-the-job experience. Each year, their employers can enter the H-1B lottery. if they aren’t chosen in any of the three years, they must return to their home country, go back to school or find another way to stay in the U.S. Competition is steep: At least 300,000 people apply each year for a shot at 85,000 visas. Applicants have a 20% to 30% chance of being selected . If they are chosen, they can stay and work in that one job, but it does not come with permanent residency status.

Newsweek [1/14/2025 12:22 PM, Dan Gooding, 56005K, Neutral] reports that President Joe Biden and the White House sought to shore up the administration’s record on immigration, aiming to show a stronger record on border security than perhaps many voters felt was the reality over the past four years. Posting on social media on Tuesday, the White House also took a jibe at Republicans in Congress for failing to pass the much talked about bipartisan border bill, while touting a surge in law enforcement to the U.S.-Mexico border to tackle the surge in crossings seen over the first few years of Biden’s presidency. Hours earlier, Biden himself made the false claim that crossings had fallen from the moment he took office. Newsweek reached out to the White House for further comment via email Tuesday morning. The claims made by the White House and the president come with just days left of an administration that has, despite its efforts, struggled to convince voters that it has successfully dealt with both legal and illegal immigration. The White House said that on President Biden’s first day in office, he called on Congress to secure the border and "address the country’s broken immigration system" Its post went on to say that: "While Congressional Republicans refused to pass a bipartisan border security agreement, President Biden took action and encounters today are the lowest since July 2020.

Miami Herald [1/14/2025 5:49 PM, Jacqueline Charles and Michael Wilner, 6595K, Neutral] reports the Department of Homeland Security says it is continuing to accept requests for asylum-seekers arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border, and is authorizing travel for certain nationals of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela seeking to lawfully enter the United States through a humanitarian parole program beyond Jan. 20, when President-elect Donald Trump will take office. Both programs use a U.S. Customs and Border Protection mobile app, CBP One, which administration officials on Tuesday touted as helping to cut down illegal crossings at the border. Overall, officials said, the Border Patrol recorded approximately 47,330 encounters between ports of entry along the southwest border in December – the lowest number since August of 2020 and lower than the monthly averages in 2019. The app has become a target for Trump, who campaigned on a massive deportation of migrants, and has said he wants to deactivate it. Though immigration activists acknowledge they do not yet know which programs Trump plans to end, they are anticipating changes to the one for refugees and for humanitarian reasons, including United for Ukraine and the parole process for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans.

Bloomberg [1/14/2025 8:13 PM, Courtney McBride, 21617K, Neutral] reports President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming national security advisor said the soon-to-be administration was already working on a number of priorities, but singled out the “open nature” of the US southern border as the one that requires immediate attention. In a week when aides to both President Joe Biden and Trump have indicated that a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza was nearing completion, Representative Mike Waltz said the home front remained the top national security concern. “We just cannot sustain the millions of people that have come across,” Waltz said in Washington on Tuesday night, referring to both the flow of fentanyl into the US and potential attempts by foreign terrorists to infiltrate the country. He added that Islamic State was seeking to inspire more attacks like the deadly New Year’s Day assault in New Orleans by a US Army veteran. Sitting alongside his predecessor, Jake Sullivan, the Florida Republican said he had been candid about his policy differences with the Biden administration, but “at the end of the day, we’re all Americans.” The outgoing and incoming administrations are “sending the message to our adversaries: Don’t you dare try to take advantage of this time,” Waltz said.

Bloomberg [1/14/2025 1:36 PM, Jordan Fleguel, 1450K, Neutral] reports that Ontario Premier Doug Ford says he intends to strengthen the province’s border with the U.S. in an effort to "send a message" to Donald Trump that he shares the U.S. president-elect’s security concerns. "Even well before Trump was elected, all the premiers, myself included, for years have been saying we have to tighten up the border, so that’s exactly what we’re doing," Ford told BNN Bloomberg in a Tuesday interview. "We’ll have 200 OPP (Ontario Provincial Police) officers out there working collaboratively with CBSA (Canada Border Services Agency), RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police), U.S. border patrol and DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration)." Ford said the planned increase to the police presence at the border is intended to stem the flow of drugs, illegal immigrants and guns between the U.S. and Canada, an issue Trump cited when he first threatened to impose 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian goods on his first day in office. Ford said that while Ontario is doing its part, he’s urging the federal government to do more to strengthen the border nationwide. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Border Report [1/14/2025 8:59 PM, Jorge Ventura, 153K, Negative] Video: HERE reports a 4-year-old girl from Honduras found alone at the border in November was safely reunited with her mother this month, but thousands more unaccompanied children remain in limbo. The young girl was found by Texas state troopers holding just a note stating “Mama Paty” and a phone number. Her mother, already living in South Carolina, told NewsNation she had paid smugglers in Honduras to bring her daughter to the U.S. “They were endless days for me. I couldn’t sleep at night. I was just waiting for a message, a call, someone to tell me if my daughter was okay. It was too much time,” Paty, the girl’s mother, told NewsNation in Spanish. The little girl was held in federal custody for over a month while officials worked to verify her mother’s identity and ensure her safety. Paty said her daughter was covered in lice when she was reunited with her in Savannah, Georgia, at the airport. It was an emotional reuniting, Paty said. “Today, I’m finally with you,” the girl told her mother, adding, “Mommy, don’t leave me alone again, don’t leave me alone again.” Paty and her daughter were deported to Honduras three years ago after crossing illegally into the U.S. with the help of a smuggler. Paty later tried to cross again, but this time without her daughter, who stayed with her grandparents. Last November, she contacted smugglers again but never imagined the challenges they would face. With Inauguration Day approaching, the border crisis continues for thousands of unaccompanied children who are still arriving, sparking concerns over safety and family reunification. Over 6,600 children remain in federal custody as of December 2024, facing weeks of uncertainty as officials work to place them with vetted sponsors. These children have an average stay of 34 days, and the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is responsible for their care, works to provide temporary shelter, medical care and case management services while locating vetted family members or sponsors.

Miami Herald [1/14/2025 9:35 PM, David Goodhue, 6595K, Negative] reports a makeshift migrant boat carrying nine people from Cuba arrived in Key West on Tuesday morning, according to the U.S. Border Patrol. Around 6 a.m., the vessel, made of steel barrels for its hull, arrived at Truman Annex, said Adam Hoffner, assistant chief patrol agent for the Border Patrol’s Miami sector. Hoffner said there were six men and three women in the group. Two were treated for minor injuries at Lower Keys Medical Center. Jeffrey Dinise, Miami sector’s chief patrol agent, noted in a statement on X they are being processed for deportation.

CBS News [1/14/2025 4:55 PM, Adam Harrington, Tim Jacobi, Negative] reports U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced Tuesday that its officers seized more than 1,500 devices to turn weapons fully automatic throughout last year. The agency said its officers seized 473 shipments containing 1,507 weapon-modifying devices from Jan. 1 through Dec. 31, 2024. The agency said it stopped 155 shipments containing 354 Glock switches — which modify semiautomatic weapons to make them fully automatic — between January and June. In July, August and September alone, CBP officers seized 241 shipments containing a total of 948 switches. Customs officials did not provide specific seizure figures for subsequent months. Most of the Glock switch shipments had come from China, and were destined for various locations throughout the U.S., officials said.

Reported similarly:
Yahoo! News [1/14/2025 7:33 PM, Gabriel Castillo, 57114K, Negative]

El Paso Times [1/14/2025 3:27 PM, Aaron Martinez, Negative] reports U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers seized 41.6 pounds of cocaine at the Paso Del Norte international crossing near Downtown El Paso, authorities said. A 21-year-old man, a U.S. citizen, crossed into the U.S. from Mexico in a 1997 Lincoln Town Car before 6 a.m. Jan. 9, at the Paso Del Norte international crossing, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials said. The man was the only person in the car. Officers searched the car and found 10 cocaine-filled bundles hidden in the quarter panels and dashboard of the car, officials said. The total weight of the cocaine found was 41.6 pounds. The man, whose name has not been released, was arrested in connection with the failed smuggling attempt. He was turned over to the Texas Department of Public Safety troopers to face criminal charges, officials said.

CBS 7 [1/14/2025 8:40 PM, Andrew McMunn, 11K, Positive] Video: HERE reports agents with the border patrol made a unique discovery leading to the rescue of five monkeys, according to the agency. The U.S. Border Patrol RGV Sector said in a Facebook post that officers assigned to the Javier Vega, Jr. immigration checkpoint on Highway 77 found the primates. The checkpoint is near Kingsville, Texas. After a K-9 was alerted to a vehicle, the agents inspected it and discovered the five monkeys hidden inside. After securing the animals, the officers transferred them into the custody of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Department.

BorderReport [1/14/2025 8:01 PM, Julian Resendiz, 153K, Neutral] reports a woman who says she drove her SUV off the beaten path to take photographs of the stunning southern New Mexico landscape is facing smuggling charges. She and a companion allegedly failed to convince the U.S. Border Patrol they were being Good Samaritans by giving four people in need of help a ride to Tucson, Arizona, with a detour through New Mexico State Highway 338. Federal officials say the highway is a notorious smuggling route and the four passengers in the black GMC Terrain with Indiana license plates were migrants dressed in camouflage. On Saturday, border agents from the Lordsburg (New Mexico) Station received notice of suspected migrants running along NM 338. Several units deployed to an area near the town of Animas. Agents received further information of a black SUV possibly involved in migrant smuggling. They located and stopped the black GMC with six people on board including four wearing camouflage clothing typically furnished by smugglers in Mexico to clients to blend in with the desert brush after they illegally help them over the border wall. According to court documents filed in U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico, border agents arrested the migrants and took in a male and a female American citizen for questioning. The male identified as Jermiah Earl Goins allegedly told agents he was taking his wife to Animas because she is a photographer and wanted to take pictures of the landscape. He said he saw four people in need of assistance and gave them a ride. He said he’s not in the habit of asking people for identification or immigration status.

San Diego Union Tribune [1/14/2025 8:12 PM, Christian Martinez, 2212K, Neutral] reports a Customs and Border Protection helicopter that crashed in San Diego last month, killing the pilot, was airborne for some 90 minutes before impact in Potrero, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a preliminary report released Tuesday. The Dec. 16 crash killed Air Interdiction Agent Jeffrey Kanas, a 16-year CBP veteran of the agency’s Air and Marine Operations branch. In the report, the NTSB detailed the helicopter’s flight path prior to the crash but offered no information on what caused the aircraft to end up in a field near Round Potrero Road. The helicopter took off from Brown Field Municipal Airport in Otay Mesa on a "routine aerial support mission" around 8:56 a.m. The NTSB reported weather conditions at the time to have been clear, with a visibility of around 8 miles, with winds at around 6 mph. The helicopter flew uneventfully for more than an hour, rising and falling in altitude and occasionally changing headings. At 10:29 a.m., however, the helicopter made two "S-turns" and swerving maneuvers, then descended from 4,200 feet to 3,100 feet. A minute later, at 10:30 a.m., the emergency locator transmitter began to transmit. The report did not disclose if there was any radio traffic reporting an emergency before the crash. The wreckage was taken for further investigation. A full investigation report will be released at a later time.

Yahoo! News [1/14/2025 8:08 PM, Veronica Catlin, 57114K, Negative] reports some Northern California residents are on high alert after a social media post from a border patrol agency claimed to be planning mass operations in the area. U.S. Border Patrol El Centro Sector, which covers 70 miles of the southern Mexican border, recently arrested 78 illegal immigrants who reportedly committed crimes such as sexual assault, fraud, and possession of illegal weapons. The arrests were a part of what the agency is referring to as ‘Operation Return to Sender.’ It’s based in Kern County, however, Border Patrol officers hinted they were headed up north. “We are planning operations for other locals such as Fresno and especially Sacramento,” the agency said on social media on Jan. 8. FOX40.com reached out for additional information about the upcoming operation. A U.S. Customs Border Patrol spokesperson would not specify any plans but said the agency is targeting criminals. “The U.S. Border Patrol conducts targeted enforcement arrests of individuals involved in smuggling throughout our areas of operation as part of our efforts to dismantle transnational criminal organizations,” the CBP spokesperson said. Amid public concern that local law enforcement agencies may partner with Border Patrol, several police departments denied involvement. Those agencies include the Sacramento Police Department, Modesto Police Department, Sutter County Sheriff’s Office, Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Office, and Turlock Police Department. “The Sacramento Police Department is not aware of any planned immigration sweep within the City of Sacramento,” Sacramento PD said on Jan 10. “Additionally, our department will not be engaging in any immigration enforcement.”

Yahoo! News [1/14/2025 9:14 PM, Jenny Huh, 57114K, Negative] reports that, while we’ve heard from our city leaders, including the chief of police, on last week’s Border Patrol raid, it’s been crickets from the county, as one advocate said. Until — Tuesday morning. “Over the last week, citizens and noncitizens alike have been targeted by these organizations on a basis almost entirely of race and ethnicity,” said Ana Medel, sole speaker of the Border Patrol operation during Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting. This public comment initiated a greater conversation on county immigration enforcement at the meeting. “I think it is important to clarify for the record what is accurate and what is legal,” said District 5 Supervisor and Board Chair Leticia Perez. And so, we heard from County Counsel Margo Raison for the first time since the CBP operation. Raison explained Senate Bill 54 — the California Values Act passed in 2017 — bars local law enforcement from assisting with federal immigration enforcement. “In fact, Senate Bill 54 prohibits the Kern County Sheriff’s Office from asking an individual about their immigration status, enforcing immigration law, deporting individuals or participating in immigration sweeps,” she stated. Raison also noted the first Trump Administration sued California over SB 54, but ultimately, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear it. And that? “…Gave California the right to refrain from assisting with federal efforts regarding illegal immigration,” Raison said. Following Raison’s presentation, Supervisor Perez asked, “If anybody from the Sheriff’s office would like to weigh in?” There was radio silence, and no KCSO personnel spoke. But, Sheriff Donny Youngblood broke his silence with 17 News after. “Senate Bill 54 limits what we can do. We follow the law, it’s really that simple,” said Sheriff Donny Youngblood. And when Youngblood was asked if all residents can feel safe calling KCSO he responded by saying, “I am the sheriff for anyone who lives in Kern County. It doesn’t matter whether they’re in the country legally or illegally.” Youngblood further detailed his agency — by law — cannot ask for an individual’s immigration status, let alone deport them or call to notify federal immigration authorities. When SB 54 was being considered in 2017, Youngblood was a vocal ‘no.’

CNN [1/14/2025 10:00 AM, Alexandra Skores, 57114K, Negative] reports that the Christmas Eve stowaway who boarded a Delta Air Lines flight to Hawaii slipped past both a TSA ID check and a gate agent with no ticket, according to public records obtained by CNN. The stowaway was identified as Shemaiah Patrice Small, 33, of California, according to the documents. Small snuck past a TSA ID check the night before Christmas Eve and wandered the airport allegedly barefoot before she tried to hitch a ride on Delta Air Lines Flight 487 from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to Honolulu the next day. During boarding, she managed to slip past a gate agent by hiding behind another passenger but was discovered aboard the aircraft sitting in someone else’s seat. Delta employees noticed Small and asked her to deboard. Small fled the gate before law enforcement could arrive, according to airport officials, and when police later located her in the airport, she was arrested and charged with criminal trespassing in the first degree and making false statements to public servants. She was identified through a fingerprint database, after giving false names and information to law enforcement. The Transportation Security Administration and the Port of Seattle confirmed the incident to CNN.

Washington Examiner [1/14/2025 12:34 PM, Alan Wooten, 2365K, Negative] reports that FEMA’s Transitional Sheltering Assistance hotel stays were extended Monday evening, answering the pleas of western North Carolinians. In a social media post from FEMA’s Region 4 at 8:12 p.m., "#NC: FEMA is extending the Transitional Sheltering Assistance hotel stays until Jan. 25 for 3,000+ who are eligible. Families checking out Jan. 14 are returning to habitable homes or withdrew from FEMA assistance.” A phone number (800-621-3362) was also on the message. Gov. Josh Stein expressed thanks in a social media post about 45 minutes later. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, led by Administrator Deanne Criswell, was heavily criticized before and after a weekend storm dropped up to 4½ inches of snow in parts of the mountains Friday and into early Saturday morning. A move-out date of Friday was pushed back to Saturday, then to Tuesday before Monday evening’s decision. Every Republican member of Congress from North Carolina signed a letter Monday addressed to President Joe Biden and Criswell requesting no drawdown on personnel in the state due to the wildfires in California. The congressional delegation expressed sympathy for Californians and recognized the $110 billion relief package that is critical to FEMA’s help in recovery.

Yahoo! News [1/14/2025 12:31 PM, Ashley Shook, 57114K, Negative] reports that fire officials are urging residents to be cautious during the open burning season in Massachusetts after wildfires cause devastation. During the fall of last year, severe dry conditions caused an increase in Massachusetts wildfires that burned around 4,000 acres including 1,670 in Great Barrington. For two weeks, nearly 400 firefighters were called to help contain the Butternut fire in rugged and difficult access areas. Dangerous winds fueled more than a dozen wildfires in Southern California since Jan. 1, mostly in the greater Los Angeles area. Thousands of homes were destroyed and at least 24 people were killed. "This fall, residents across Massachusetts saw just how quickly outdoor fires can grow out of control," said Chief Fire Warden Celino. "Right now, California is facing an even worse crisis with devastating fires consuming entire neighborhoods. Please don’t risk a fire that puts you, your home, or your community at risk. Burn only approved materials and always get a permit from your local fire department first." Every year from January 15th through May 1st open burning season allows Massachusetts residents in certain communities to burn natural materials in their yards. A permit from the local fire department is required to burn materials outdoors.

AP [1/14/2025 10:38 AM, Brittany Peterson, 12036K, Negative] reports that as fires continue to burn across Los Angeles, several utilities have declared their drinking water unsafe until extensive testing can prove otherwise. A warmer, drier climate means wildfires are getting worse, and encroaching on cities — with devastating impact. Toxic chemicals from those burns can get into damaged drinking water systems, and even filtering or boiling won’t help, experts say. Last week, Pasadena Water and Power issued a "Do Not Drink" notice to about a third of its customers for the first time since it began distributing water more than a century ago. With at least one burned pump, several damaged storage tanks, and burned homes, they knew there was a chance toxic chemicals had entered their pipes. "Out of the abundance of caution, you kind of have to assume the worst," said Stacie Takeguchi, chief assistant general manager for the utility. This week, they lifted the notice for most of the area after testing. When large fires burn in towns and cities, rather than forests and grasslands, infrastructure can be heavily damaged. When drinking water systems are damaged in a fire, "we can have ash, smoke, soot, other debris and gases get sucked into the water piping network," said Andrew Whelton, a Purdue University engineering professor who researches water contamination in communities hit by fire.

NBC News [1/14/2025 5:11 PM, Henry J. Gomez and Matt Dixon, 50804K, Negative] reports after winning another term last fall, President-elect Donald Trump began rapidly revealing the names of those he will nominate to serve in top jobs in his next administration. But days away from his inauguration — with wildfires ravaging Los Angeles in what Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-Calif., predicts will be one of the worst natural disasters in history — a key position remains unaddressed: Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator. It’s a substantial unanswered question in such a crisis. And while Trump, given his social media habits and unpredictable impulses, could announce his FEMA pick at any minute, he instead is responding to the fires by hurling unsubstantiated blame at Newsom and other Democrats. Trump, though, has identified a frontrunner for the FEMA job. Kevin Guthrie, executive director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, is at the top of the list of potential nominees, three sources tell NBC News.

Yahoo! News [1/14/2025 7:48 AM, Staff, 57114K, Neutral] reports FEMA has now allocated more than $1.3 million in individual assistance to residents of Mercer County who sustained property damage and related losses from Hurricane Helene last September. Tiana Suber, media relations specialist with the FEMA Office of External Affairs, said FEMA as of Monday had approved $1,343,564 for Individual Assistance, which includes $761,704 for housing assistance and $581,859 for other needs assistance. Suber said there have been 729 cumulative registrations in Mercer County to date with 493 home inspections having been issued. Of that number, 458 inspections have been completed and 35 are pending. FEMA also has provided more than $485,000 to help survivors with storm-related necessities like childcare, storage, disaster medical and dental expenses, and cleaning supplies, the agency said Monday in a press release. The federal assistance is in response to the widespread damage caused by the remnants of Hurricane Helene during the morning, afternoon and evening hours of Friday, Sept. 27. 2024. The storm — which pounded Mercer County with tropical force winds — knocked down thousands of trees and power lines across the two-state region. In several instances, homes and vehicles were struck by fallen trees. "While it’s only been a month since the disaster was declared, I’m proud of what FEMA and its partners in West Virginia and Mercer County emergency management have accomplished," Federal Coordinating Officer Georgeta Dragoiu said in a press release issued Monday by FEMA. "We’ve gotten more than $1 million into the hands of survivors for their recovery and helped hundreds in Disaster Recovery Centers, in-home visits, and even phone calls. We’re going to keep working to help every eligible West Virginian get the money they need to recover from Tropical Storm Helene.”

Washington Examiner [1/14/2025 3:52 PM, Emily Hallas, 2365K, Negative] reports FEMA’s Transitional Sheltering Assistance Program, which has provided free temporary housing to thousands of hurricane victims in western North Carolina, is set to end on Jan. 25. The government relief was originally set to expire on Tuesday, as state estimates showed approximately 12,000 western North Carolina residents remain homeless after the storm swept through in September. However, Federal Emergency Management Agency officials announced late Monday evening it would move the date back 11 days after the agency faced intense pressure, including from North Carolina’s governor, to extend the deadline. The program currently provides more than 5,600 households in Western North Carolina with temporary accommodations. Over half of them, around 3,500, will face the streets when the TSAP expires, according to the Citizen Times. Housing is a key issue for western North Carolina residents because "in disaster-declared counties, 40.8% of households earn less than 80% of the area median income," the North Carolina Office of State Budget and Management wrote in December. FEMA has placed 93 households in temporary housing units such as campers. Hundreds more are still living outside in tents, even as temperatures dip below freezing.

Yahoo! News [1/14/2025 5:54 PM, Faith Little, 57114K, Neutral] reports the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said Hurricane Helene victims in East Tennessee have begun moving into temporary housing units provided by the agency’s Transitional Sheltering Assistance program. Families and individuals who lost their homes during Helene’s devastating flooding in late September–and applied for assistance through FEMA–started moving into temporary housing placed near their communities. "Temporary Housing Assistance is available to eligible survivors in Carter, Cocke, Greene, Johnson, Unicoi and Washington counties to bring some comfort and stability as survivors recover and their homes are restored," a release from FEMA on Tuesday states. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

The Miami Herald [1/15/2025 12:25 AM, Mike Heuer & Sheri Walsh, 6595K, Negative] reports the death toll from the fires burning in Los Angeles County increased to at least 25 on Tuesday, according to officials, as dangerous winds were forecast to blow into Wednesday. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner announced the new death toll in a Tuesday evening update, up two deaths from Sunday. There are at least 17 victims from the Eaton Fire and eight victims from the Palisades fire. More than 88,000 people remained under evacuation orders as of Tuesday night, with curfews in effect from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. in areas affected by the Palisades Fire, which has burned more than 23,700 acres and is 18% contained. The Eaton Fire has burned over 14,117 acres and is 35% contained, according to Cal Fire. The Hurst Fire, which has burned approximately 800 acres north of Los Angeles, is 97% contained. The wildfires broke out on Jan. 7, during strong Santa Ana winds, and have scorched more than 60 square miles. The fires have destroyed more than 12,000 structures, including outbuildings and RVs, according to Cal Fire. A fourth fire, the Auto fire in Ventura County, which started on Monday, has burned 56 acres and had no containment as of Tuesday morning. Potential remains strong for existing fires to expand and new fires to flare up, but preventive efforts are underway as winds are forecast to increase overnight into Wednesday. "We are not out of the woods yet. Please stay on guard for a fast-moving fire," the National Weather Service in Los Angeles warned Tuesday. "The winds underperformed today, but one more enhancement could happen tonight-tomorrow." "Firefighters continue aggressive suppression while demonstrating operational and personnel safety," Cal Fire officials told the The Press-Enterprise. Fire engines, bulldozers and hand crews are staged in local communities and the foothills near the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Angeles National Forest officials told the newspaper. Firefighting crews also are located in the San Gabriel Mountains to fight the Eaton Fire and quickly suppress any spot fires that might be caused by downed trees, power lines and unburned fuels as high winds continue buffeting that area. A mobile retardant base is located at Mount Wilson to support aerial fire suppression, and firefighters will patrol the area and address any smoke or heat sources they might encounter to prevent fire escaping the containment areas. A CL-415 Super Scooper aircraft that was damaged by a drone a week ago returns to service on Tuesday, and Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley said firefighting teams are positioned to quickly put out any fires that might flare up within the Los Angeles city limits. The Wall Street Journal [1/14/2025 11:59 PM, Jennifer Calfas, Victoria Albert and Gareth Vipers, Neutral] reports that some small fires have kicked off in the last day, including one in Ventura County, northwest of Los Angeles, and another in Riverside to the southeast. The fire in Ventura, called the Auto fire, is 61 acres and 47% contained, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire. The other, the Scout fire, is 2 acres and 0% contained. The wind gusts along with low humidity and dry vegetation could create a “particularly dangerous situation” in parts of Ventura and Los Angeles counties, the National Weather Service warned earlier Tuesday. Those areas include cities such as Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks in Ventura County, the San Fernando Valley and part of Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley, according to the weather service. Ryan Kittell, a meteorologist with the weather service, said the main concern Tuesday night was new fires starting, rather than major expansions of the Palisades and Eaton blazes. Those two fires destroyed thousands of homes and businesses, flattened communities and displaced thousands of residents. “The massive, massive destruction is unimaginable until you actually see it,” said Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who said she took an aerial tour of the damage on Monday. Fire officials said Tuesday was a “productive day” in the fight against the Palisades fire, which is more than 23,700 acres. The fire is 18% contained, according to Cal Fire.

Reported similarly:
Bloomberg [1/14/2025 5:50 PM, Laura Curtis and Brian K Sullivan, 21617K, Negative]

AP [1/14/2025 5:57 PM, Staff, 47097K, Neutral] Video: HERE reports the mayor says a wildfire disaster center in Los Angeles is staffed by multiple local, state, county and federal agencies that can help victims of the wildfires with the first steps toward recovery.

Bloomberg [1/14/2025 5:34 PM, Mark Chediak and Naureen S Malik, 21617K, Negative] reports Edison International’s decision to leave some Los Angeles power lines operating during a historic windstorm last week is under scrutiny as an investigation into the city’s devastating wildfires gathers pace. Three lawsuits filed against the company’s Southern California Edison utility cite its failure to de-energize all electrical equipment in Eaton Canyon, the northern LA locale where the deadly Eaton Fire is believed to have started Jan. 7. Yet Edison has acknowledged that its transmission lines near the start of the Eaton fire were energized, but says no issues were detected. Data also show consumers immediately west of the ignition site were still receiving power just before the blaze started, despite advance warnings of a life-threatening and destructive Santa Ana wind event. Investigators have yet to determine the cause of the Eaton Fire, which has affected more than 14,000 acres and led to at least 15 fatalities. It was still burning Tuesday.

Yahoo! News [1/14/2025 8:32 PM, Staff, 57114K, Negative] reports a huge federal probe was under way Tuesday into what caused the deadly Los Angeles wildfires, with millions in the city clamoring for answers. Social media has exploded with theories about what started blazes that tore through the city of Altadena and the upmarket neighborhood of Pacific Palisades, killing at least 24 people and leaving whole communities in ruins. Suggestions include downed power lines, deliberate arson, a stray firework and the reignition of an earlier fire. But Jose Medina of the federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), which is leading the inquiry, said it was too early to say. "We know everyone wants answers, and the community deserves answers. ATF will give you those answers, but it will be once we complete a thorough investigation," he told reporters. The ATF is working with local law enforcement, as well as the Forest Service and the US Attorney’s office, in an operation that will involve around 75 people. Fire investigators, chemists, electrical engineers and sniffer dogs trained to detect accelerant will be doing painstaking fieldwork to find the seats of the two fires, he said. A team will also be deployed to gather clues from the local community and online, conducting interviews with possible witnesses.

Bloomberg [1/14/2025 5:21 PM, Alexandre Rajbhandari, 21617K, Negative] reports the cost of wildfires ravaging swaths of Los Angeles keeps rising, with new estimates of the total losses for the insurance industry now seen as high as $40 billion. The fresh figure Tuesday from Keefe Bruyette & Woods analysts is double their rough initial estimate from just a day earlier. Their most optimistic scenario implies insured losses of $25 billion. Los Angeles is bracing for increased fire risk through at least Wednesday as hot, dry winds pummel the area. After raging for a week, the blazes killed at least 24 people and incinerated entire neighborhoods. The containment of the Palisades and Eaton fires, which unleashed the most devastation over the past week, stood at 17% and 35%, respectively, as of Tuesday, according to California’s Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

CBS Los Angeles [1/14/2025 3:49 PM, Marissa Wenzke, 52225K, Neutral] reports Los Angeles wildfire victims and evacuees can receive federal assistance — covering expenses like rent costs and medical bills — through disaster relief under the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Last week, tens of thousands fled their homes as two major wildfires ripped through parts of the county, leaving at least 24 people dead and several others injured as homes, schools, churches and other buildings were completely destroyed. Many remain evacuated, sometimes turning to shelters and temporary housing inside hotels, motels and the homes of loved ones. With a major disaster declaration by President Joe Biden, help from FEMA is available to those in LA County who’ve been affected. FEMA opened the following two Disaster Recovery Centers on Tuesday, Jan. 14 at 1 p.m. PST. FEMA is providing a one-time $770 grant for urgent needs and emergency supplies, covering the costs of essentials like water, food, gas, first aid, personal hygiene products and diapers.

CBS Los Angeles [1/14/2025 7:35 PM, Marissa Wenzke, 52225K, Neutral] reports Los Angeles County homeowners, renters, businesses and nonprofits impacted by devastating wildfires over the past week are all eligible for low-interest disaster relief loans through the Small Business Administration. While federal assistance grants are available, the U.S. government is also offering aid to LA businesses and residents in the form of SBA loans which are "trauma-informed and designed," Anita Steenson, an SBA spokeswoman, said. This means low-interest rates — 4% for businesses and 3.625% for nonprofits — and no payments or interest accrues for the first year, she said. As she spoke at the opening of a FEMA Disaster Recovery Center at UCLA Tuesday, Steenson said those looking to apply can sort out their insurance claims while applying for SBA loans at the same time. She said they don’t have to wait until all the insurance paperwork is sorted, and the SBA will just apply any insurance coverage to whatever loan assistance it decides to offer. Steenson also suggested applying for FEMA assistance — grants which don’t have to be paid back — before applying for SBA loans.

Los Angeles Times [1/14/2025 10:49 PM, Nathan Solis, 6595K, Negative] reports Jared Robbins walked up to a row of FEMA trailers in Pasadena with a sheet of paper where he had written some of the most pressing questions about his situation after his Altadena home was burned by the Eaton fire less than a week ago. The Federal Emergency Management Agency opened two disaster recovery centers Tuesday to assist people like Robbins and others whose homes were destroyed in the Eaton and Palisades fires and were looking for help to put their lives back together. The FEMA disaster centers - one in Pasadena and another in West L.A. - will remain open for the foreseeable future as others seek assistance. The federal agency arrived to try to supplement the state and local assistance offered to the roughly 20,000 people who fled their homes as the Eaton fire barreled down on Altadena and parts of Pasadena early Wednesday morning. The flames, fanned by strong Santa Ana winds, destroyed roughly 5,000 structures and altered the lives of thousands of people. It is uncertain how much funding FEMA may spend on the disaster. President Biden declared a major disaster in response to the firestorms and pledged the federal government’s full support, but President-elect Donald Trump will take over next week and has denigrated California’s leaders for their handling of the crisis. Robbins, a 45-year-old sound engineer for film and television, left his home with his wife and two daughters while strong winds whipped through the region last week. He returned days later to find his home was gone. He joined the roughly 33,000 people who applied for federal assistance and whose homes were damaged or destroyed in the Eaton and Palisades fires. "We were denied," Robbins said outside the disaster recovery center at the Pasadena City College Foothill campus on Tuesday. He planned to ask a FEMA representative to explain what was missing from his initial application and help him reapply for money to rebuild. He also had medical questions about his mother and whether he could qualify for a small business loan. Robbins and his family rented a home in Altadena for several years before they purchased a house last year. Now that home is gone. "The next thing is finding permanent housing and making sure that we’re somewhat taken care of," Robbins said, referring to the process of building. "I mean, we just have an overwhelming sense that we want to rebuild.”

Reported similarly:
Yahoo! News [1/14/2025 9:53 AM, Will Conybeare, 57114K, Neutral]

Newsweek [1/14/2025 8:24 AM, Theo Burman, 56005K, Neutral] reports the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) could undergo significant structural changes in the wake of its response to the California wildfires. The agency will go through a "streamlining" process with the aim of making disaster relief more effective, if Congress passes the Federal Disaster Assistance Coordination Act, which has already been approved by the House of Representatives. Newsweek contacted FEMA for comment on their response to the California wildfires via email. FEMA has been repeatedly criticized over the last year for its response to disasters in the U.S. In particular, its management of Hurricane Helene in North Carolina, as well as the southern California wildfires, has faced scrutiny over a delayed response. The new legislation in Congress is designed to combat delays and make relief arrive to affected people faster. The newly sworn-in House of Representatives passed the Federal Disaster Assistance Coordination Act on Monday, meaning the legislation needs to pass in the Senate in order to become law. If passed, the act would make changes to the 2018 Disaster Recovery Reform Act, calling on the government to "develop a study regarding streamlining and consolidating information collection and preliminary damage assessments, and for other purposes.” This means that FEMA will undergo internal examination for ways in which the agency can make its disaster relief more efficient and get relief to those in need much faster, addressing one of the biggest criticisms the agency has faced in recent response efforts. The legislation also calls on the FEMA Administrator, along with a member of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, to appear before Congress to outline the findings of the investigation and make recommendations on how the agency should be improved. FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said on Thursday: "What we need to work on now from the FEMA perspective is: how do we help those people who have lost everything?

The Hill [1/14/2025 10:01 PM, Sarah Fortinsky, 16346K, Neutral] reports Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.), whose district has been damaged by the Eaton Fire, criticized FEMA for reportedly rejecting disaster assistance claims because of a lack of insurance information. "I am hearing about frustrations with FEMA because they have done what we asked, which is to sign up on the disasterassistance.gov site, and then some of them have gotten denied approvals or non-approvals," Chu said about her constituents in an interview on NewsNation’s "The Hill" on Tuesday. In the interview, Chu sought to reassure her constituents that FEMA does, in fact, have the resources to help them, and she encouraged residents to continue trying to get the help they need. "What we want to say to them is that FEMA does have the resources to help them and that sometimes they may not have all the insurance information, and so they’ll get that message, but to keep on going," Chu said. Chu encouraged constituents to call FEMA directly if their claims get denied or to go to the newly opened disaster resource center at Pasadena City College to "ask what is going on with their application.” Constituents can also go to the center to get their documents, she added, "because so many people just ran out of the house with only their clothes and lost all their documents, which were then all burned up.” Asked why FEMA is rejecting claims over a lack of information, Chu said she thinks "there’s some kind of conclusion that they reached that it is better to proactively say not approved, rather than to say pending.” "I am actually urging them to change it," Chu said, noting that she discussed the issue with the FEMA administrator Monday night.

CBS San Francisco [1/14/2025 10:32 AM, Laura Doan, 52225K, Neutral] reports that California officials have denied claims spread by right-wing influencers on social media that Oregon fire trucks were turned away because of emissions regulations. In fact, they say, the trucks were briefly stopped for routine safety checks before they traveled to the site of the Los Angeles fires. Cal Fire debunked that claim that has widely circulated on social media, stating that "no vehicles from out of state have been turned around or refused service." The agency said any vehicles or resources that come in from out of state are subject to inspections to make sure they’re ready for use, but this is not emissions testing. The office of the Oregon State Fire Marshal also addressed the rumors, saying all Oregon teams deployed to Southern California began working their shifts last Friday as planned. The OSFM said the safety checks helped ensure that their equipment, which "does not regularly travel hundreds of miles at a time," was safe for their firefighters to use. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office also refuted the claims, noting that vehicles undergo a "15 minute safety and equipment inspection" to ensure there are no issues. He added that by the time the false claims started spreading, "the Oregon firefighting teams were already in the Los Angeles area battling the blazes." State officials and the Federal Emergency Management Agency have been actively trying to counter false rumors and misinformation about the fires.

CBS Los Angeles [1/14/2025 4:13 PM, Chelsea Hylton, 52225K, Negative] reports the Los Angeles Police Department has arrested three individuals for arson, outside of the recent wildfire zones. Chief Jim McDonnell said three people were arrested for arson in the past few days outside of the zones created by the Palisades and Eaton fires. He explained the arrests were made possible because of calls from residents. The LAPD and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department have increased patrols and personnel in areas affected by the fires. The Southern California region is bracing for more strong Santa Ana winds overnight, a week after several wildfires caused significant damage and destroyed thousands of structures.

CBS Austin [1/14/2025 12:37 PM, Jackson Walker, 581K, Negative] reports that Azusa, California police on Saturday announced the arrest of an arson suspect who allegedly admitted to starting a brush fire. Officers on Friday responded to Pioneer Park in Azusa after receiving reports of a brush fire. A witness at the scene told officers the individual responsible for the blaze was still in the area, according to a press release from the Azusa Police Department. The suspect, Jose Carranza-Escobar, was standing next to the flames, officers said. Los Angeles County Firefighters then arrived and put out the fire. Carranza-Escobar admitted to officers he started the fire and he was arrested for alleged arson, the press release said. Police took him to the Azusa Police Department Jail, where he was placed in custody. City of Azusa Public Works and Azusa Light and Water are investigating the scene to determine the extent of the damage caused by the fire. "Azusa PD urges everyone to remain alert as fires continue to affect the county," officers wrote via Facebook. "We must be cautious of individuals who may enter our community with the intent to start fires." "The Azusa Police Department has staffed extra officers on duty due to the ongoing fire situation," they added. "We are taking a ‘zero tolerance’ stance on these types of criminal acts. The Azusa PD will continue to work with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Los Angeles County Fire Department, the California Army National Guard and all of our partner agencies to ensure our community’s and residents’ safety."

USA Today [1/15/2025 12:18 AM, Minnah Arshad, 89965K, Negative] reports more than a dozen victims of the Pacific Palisades wildfire are suing a public utility for water supply failures they say contributed to the devastation of the Los Angeles inferno. The lawsuit, filed by residents and a pizzeria owner in the now devastated Los Angeles area, blames the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power for hydrants drying up within hours of the blaze’s ignition. The plaintiffs said they all lost their homes or businesses to the inferno. The Palisades Fire, the most destructive blaze in Los Angeles history, was the first in a series of rapidly growing wildfires to ignite last Tuesday. Thousands of homes, businesses, landmarks, and vehicles have burned in its path as the wind-whipped blaze has transformed the Los Angeles area into an apocalyptic scene and prompted evacuations for tens of thousands of residents. The LADWP, the largest U.S. municipal utility, should have maintained water in a nearby reservoir, which was dry at the time the flames erupted, the complaint said. The Santa Ynez Reservoir, which can hold as much as 117 million gallons of water, had been empty since February 2024, according to the lawsuit. The complaint, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court by law firm Robertson & Associates and Foley Bezek Behle & Curtis, claimed LADWP delayed repair work on the water resource to cut costs. "Had the LADWP acted responsibly, the damage caused by the Palisades Fire could have been greatly reduced," the complaint said. The lawsuit comes as utilities and elected officials face mounting criticism for their handling of the deadly fires California Gov. Gavin Newsom has announced an investigation into LADWP’s water supply failures, while the utility says its water system was pushed past its limit from the massive blazes.

ABC News [1/14/2025 5:47 PM, Julia Jacobo and Daniel Peck, 33392K, Neutral] reports hydroclimate whiplash -- the rapid shift between wet and dry conditions -- likely contributed to the severity of the wildfires burning in Southern California, according to experts. In recent years, parts of the state shifted from a major drought to an extended period of above-average precipitation that allowed for abundant vegetation growth. After that, a stretch of intense, record-breaking heat dried out much of that vegetation and provided ample fuel for large and fast-growing wildfires. However, some climate experts point to growing evidence that shows climate change has increased the volatility between very dry and very wet conditions around the world, like moving from a devastating drought to record-breaking precipitation and then back to a drought. These rapid swings between extreme weather events will amplify many of the associated hazards and contribute to devastating wildfire events. Climate change could also be making wild weather swings more common and more extreme, according to new research published in Nature Reviews Earth & Environment and the Fifth National Climate Assessment, a breakdown of the latest in climate science coming from 14 federal agencies, published in November 2023. It was the wind that spread the fires so rapidly once they were ignited. An exceptionally strong mountain wave wind event, with northerly 80 mph to 100 mph gusts, spread the fires faster than anyone could stop them.

FOX News [1/14/2025 4:10 PM, Charles Creitz, 49889K, Neutral] reports California lawmakers called for unity amid the historic Los Angeles wildfires, while at least one fired off letters to Congress calling for federal investigations into Sacramento’s fire preparedness and environmental policies. Republican lawmakers also said at a news conference Monday that any talk of gaveling-in the special session with the express purpose of buttressing the state against President-elect Trump should be quashed. Assemblymember Carl DeMaio, R-San Diego, said he is sending letters to members-designate of the new Trump administration and top oversight lawmakers, suggesting officials in Sacramento will not "get to the truth" on the blazes.

NPR [1/14/2025 5:36 PM, Adrian Florido, 35747K, Negative] Audio: HERE reports L.A. is bracing for a new round of high winds as crews continue battling to put out the two major wildfires that have been burning for a full week now. Officials are warning of the risk of new fires.

Newsweek [1/14/2025 8:13 AM, Jasmine Laws, 56005K, Neutral] reports Canada, Mexico, Ukraine and Iran have all offered support to Los Angeles as wildfires continue to destroy the Californian city’s landscape and infrastructure. Newsweek has contacted the office of California Governor Gavin Newsom for comment and updates on help that has been sent to the state. Four fires continue to burn in Southern California, according to the latest figures on California’s Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE), after a new wildfire ignited yesterday, the Auto fire. As local fire services battle to contain the blazes, which have resulted in the deaths of 24 people, countries have been offering to help the effort. Last week, reports circulated that Mexico was sending firefighters across the border to help extinguish the spreading wildfires, and Governor Gavin Newsom confirmed in a post on the social media platform X that more than 10,000 personnel were already on the ground from Mexico on Friday. On Sunday, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskyy shared in a post on X that his country had offered assistance to America, and that "150 of our firefighters are already prepared.” The California National Guard responded to the post saying that "Ukraine’s offer of support to California during these devastating wildfires is nothing short of extraordinary.” Iran has also conveyed its condolences to Los Angeles, and the Iran’s Red Crescent Society reportedly sent a message to Cliff Holtz, CEO of the American Red Cross, according to the Express Tribune, offering to send specialized response teams, equipment, and trained personnel to support the city’s firefighting and relief efforts. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also posted on X on Sunday saying that his country was "deploying 60 firefighters to help battle the California wildfires.”

Honolulu Star-Advertiser [1/14/2025 5:42 PM, Peter Boylan, Neutral] reports the final phase of the state Department of the Attorney General’s investigation of the Aug. 8, 2023, Lahaina fires that killed 102 people recommends the creation of a state Fire Marshall and actions counties and the state must take to save communities from wildfires. The 61-page Lahaina Fire Forward-Looking Report was released this morning by Hawaii Attorney General Anne E. Lopez. The state investigation that began Aug. 11, 2023, did not uncover and state officials have said Hawaii does not have any criminal statutes applicable to what happened in West Maui that deadly day. The "prioritizes a list of action items the state and all counties can use to make improvements to Hawaii’s future preparation for and response to wildfires " and includes recommendations on how to address each priority. The report also includes guidance for "each county fire department to complete a Community Risk Assessment, Community Risk Reduction plan, and a Standards of Cover analysis, " according to the report.

Newport Daily Express [1/14/2025 5:13 PM, Audra J Pitts, 8K, Neutral] reports counterfeit money is in circulation in Orleans County. On January 8, 2025, fake one-hundred-dollar bills were given as payment to an Orleans County Court clerk, who declined to comment when the incident unfolded in the presence of The Express. Newport Police were notified, and the unknown citizen, who presented the bills for payment, informed the officer where the counterfeit currency was obtained. According to police, there have been reports of counterfeit bills being passed around at other locations as well. Law enforcement advise people to stay alert when dealing with cash. They also recommend looking for security features, feeling the texture of bills, and comparing the bills to ones that are known to be real. Officials recommend that individuals who suspect they have received counterfeit money retain the bill if possible and contact the police. The Express reached out to several banks in the area and found that the institutions have in fact seen counterfeit currency filter through local branches. Counterfeit cash has been circulating in the Northeast Kingdom for at least eight months starting when St Johnsbury police had reported fake cash of all denominations with the word "replica" printed on them back in June of 2024.

Reuters [1/14/2025 6:04 AM, Staff, 30936K, Neutral] reports that, with 30 miles (48 km) of tall black temporary fencing, 25,000 law enforcement officers and security checkpoints set up to process hundreds of thousands of spectators, Washington is braced for President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration next week. The Monday swearing-in on the steps of the U.S. Capitol and parade to the White House will follow a weekend featuring protests by Trump’s opponents and parties and rallies by the Republican’s supporters. The inauguration follows a campaign marked by two attempts on Trump’s life - including one from a would-be assassin who nicked his ear with a bullet - and a pair of New Year’s Day attacks on ordinary Americans. In one, 14 people were killed and dozens injured when a U.S. Army veteran rammed a truck into a crowd of New Year’s Eve revelers in New Orleans. The same day, an active-duty U.S. Army soldier detonated a Tesla Cybertruck outside a Trump-branded hotel in Las Vegas, killing himself. "We are in a higher-threat environment," said U.S. Secret Service Special Agent in Charge Matt McCool at a Monday press briefing. The inauguration itself, when Trump formally takes the oath of office with members of Congress, the Supreme Court, his incoming administration and tens of thousands of others looking on, will take place on the Capitol steps, facing the Washington Monument. That is the same spot where, on Jan. 6, 2021, thousands of Trump supporters smashed windows, fought with police and sent lawmakers running for their lives in an attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democratic President Joe Biden. Trump’s 2024 election rival, Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, conceded her defeat in the Nov. 5 contest, unlike Trump who continues to falsely maintain that his loss was the result of fraud. Security officials said they were not aware of any specific, coordinated threats to the inauguration. What they are worried about is lone wolves, such as the New Orleans attacker, or two separate incidents last week. In one, a man was arrested for trying to bring a machete into the Capitol. In the other, a man was arrested for trying to ignite a fire near the Capitol, according to U.S. Capitol Police. "That threat of the lone actor remains the biggest justification for us being at this heightened state of alert throughout the next week," U.S. Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger told the security briefing.

Washington Post [1/15/2025 12:28 AM, Martin Weil, 40736K, Positive] reports Arlington County, the Northern Virginia region across the Potomac River from Washington, said it will operate drones at places throughout the county on Monday as part of Inauguration Day safety and security measures. Authorities have announced heightened security for the inauguration, but the Arlington announcement appears to be if not the first, at least one of the first by a local jurisdiction to describe the deployment of drones. Unexplained sightings of the aerial devices had become a matter of considerable public interest at the close of last year and evoked many expressions of concern. In describing preparations for major public events this month, authorities have appeared to try to provide general reassurance and in particular to prepare residents for drone sightings at strategic places and moments. In Tuesday’s announcement, Arlington County said its police department, and its “regional partners” in law enforcement, “will operate Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), commonly referred to as drones, at various locations throughout Arlington County.” Flights would begin in early morning and continue through late Tuesday night, according to the announcement. Hours were listed as 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. In detailing preparations for major public events this month, including the funeral of former president Jimmy Carter, authorities appear to be considering the need to prepare the public for the appearance of drones. In a briefing before the funeral, a secret service official said his agency would use drones as part of a comprehensive security plan and advised residents not to be alarmed if the devices are seen at events or during training.

WJTV.com [1/14/2025 6:19 PM, Sethanie Smith, 253K, Negative] reports two men from Romania pled guilty to possessing skimming devices in Mississippi. Alexandru Ionut Gheorghe, 28, and Marian Aurelian Neacsu, 29, both pled guilty to one count of possession of device making equipment. According to court documents, the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office Cyber Crime Division began receiving reports on June 21, 2024, from various agencies regarding the discovery of skimmer devices being located at various stores in central Mississippi. The Cyber Fraud Task Force began investigating leads that would determine the location of installed skimmers throughout the Southern District of Mississippi, Tennessee, and Louisiana. Gheorghe and Neacsu are scheduled to be sentenced on April 15, 2025, and face a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison. The United States Secret Service and the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office are investigating the case through their partnership in the Cyber Fraud Task Force with assistance from the United States Department of Agriculture Office of Inspector General.

FOX News [1/14/2025 11:45 AM, Mollie Markowitz, 49889K, Negative] reports that an Ohio man has been accused of murdering his girlfriend, whose body was found nearly 25 years ago, after he previously escaped charges in the case. Jonathan Eric Link, 60, was arrested at his home in Centerville, Ohio on Monday for the murder of 29-year-old Shannon Anderson, the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office announced. Link reported Anderson missing to authorities on July 30, 2001, and her remains were discovered on Aug. 16, 2001, in rural Ross County. "Finally, after nearly a quarter century, this defendant will be held responsible for the murder of Shannon Anderson," Montgomery County Prosecutor Mat Heck, Jr. said in a statement. Just months into the investigation, police found Anderson’s car abandoned in the Atlanta Airport parking lot. Recently, the Tactical Crime Suppression Unit (TCSU) was assigned to help police, and investigators from multiple law enforcement agencies, including the U.S. Secret Service, assisted in the case. Additional witnesses were located and interviewed, and new forensic evidence was digitally tested. The case was presented a second time to a Montgomery County grand jury, which found enough evidence to indict Link for the murder of Anderson.

CBS Philadelphia [1/14/2025 9:04 PM, Joe Holden, 52225K, Positive] reports David Boone of Cherry Hill has spent his life on the Delaware River. This retired tugboat captain has had a special connection to the SS United States. "When she came up the river, myself and a few friends were on the only pleasure boat out there, taking pictures of the ship’s arrival, which was really spectacular," Boone said, remembering the August 1996 event. Later that year, Boone was responsible for maneuvering the ship, with a dozen tug boats, under the Walt Whitman Bridge. "It was really interesting because they weren’t sure whether it was going to fit under the bridge," he said. "They made all the adjustments and predictions and everything, but it never dawned on anybody will it fit.” They made it and towed the ship to Pier 82 in South Philadelphia, where it’s been docked for 29 years. "It’s out of this world because it’s completely dead. It relying completely on the tugboats. There were 12 tugboats there that day and they did a masterful job," he said. The Coast Guard this week confirmed to CBS News Philadelphia after months of delays that "positive progress has been made" in making sure the vessel can safely be towed down to Mobile, Alabama. Sources say that was the final hurdle to clear allowing the ship to finally leave Philadelphia.

Yahoo! News [1/14/2025 11:47 AM, Olivia Wilson, 57114K, Negative] reports that Mobile police are investigating a shooting near Montlimar Drive, News 5 has learned. According to a Mobile Police Department news release, officers responded to the U.S. Coast Guard office at 1110 Montlimar Drive on Jan. 13 about a bullet hole in the window. Police said the shooting could have happened between Friday, Jan. 10, and Monday, Jan. 13. The MPD release said the building was not occupied at the time of the shooting.

Axios [1/14/2025 9:30 AM, Sam Sabin, 16349K, Negative] reports that the feds and top U.S. technology companies are unveiling a new plan today for reporting and trading details about ongoing security threats targeting AI models, according to materials shared exclusively with Axios. Security flaws found in AI systems affect more than just model makers. Any company running an AI model in their own applications could be hacked if they don’t properly patch newly discovered flaws. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is publishing a new playbook today outlining how companies can report and share details about ongoing security threats, including system vulnerabilities and ongoing cyberattacks. The playbook is coming from the AI-focused arm of CISA’s Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative (JCDC). Anthropic, Amazon Web Services, Google, Microsoft and OpenAI are among those who contributed to the playbook. Security flaws in AI systems could allow bad actors to poison models, steal confidential information and even control autonomous agents. "AI systems are evolving rapidly. There’s no single entity that has all the information to manage AI-related risks," CISA Director Jen Easterly told Axios. "This is an area where we have to work together and collaborate and share." The bottom line: CISA and its private and public sector partners believe the new reporting playbook will help Americans be able to "embrace fully the amazing potential of AI," Lisa Einstein, chief AI officer at CISA, told Axios.

CyberScoop [1/14/2025 12:00 PM, Greg Otto, Neutral] reports U.S. and international law enforcement agencies have removed the PlugX malware from thousands of computers worldwide in a coordinated campaign to blunt the effectiveness of one of the most infamous pieces of malware used by malicious cyber actors. According to recently unsealed court documents from the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the U.S. Department of Justice worked alongside international partners, including French law enforcement and the cybersecurity firm Sekoia.io, to dismantle a network that deployed PlugX — a remote access trojan (RAT) — targeting U.S. victims, as well as European and Asian governments and businesses, and Chinese dissident groups. The DOJ pins the malware network’s operations to a collective of hackers reportedly sponsored by the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The group, known as “Mustang Panda” or “Twill Typhoon,” has been implicated in numerous cyberattacks since 2014. The takedown operation, which spanned several months, was facilitated by a series of court-authorized warrants allowing for the elimination of PlugX from approximately 4,258 U.S.-based computers and networks. Additionally, the French Gendarmerie Cyber Unit C3N and the Paris prosecutor’s office initiated a similar investigation, identifying a botnet of several million infected devices. Both operations were aided by French cybersecurity company Sekoia, which developed a tool to detect and remove the malware. “Leveraging our partnership with French law enforcement, the FBI acted to protect U.S. computers from further compromise by PRC state-sponsored hackers,” said Assistant Director Bryan Vorndran of the FBI’s Cyber Division. “Today’s announcement reaffirms the FBI’s dedication to protecting the American people by using its full range of legal authorities and technical expertise to counter nation-state cyber threats.” PlugX is categorized as a Remote Access Trojan (RAT) and has been active since 2008, serving as a sophisticated backdoor to compromised systems. This malware allows attackers to exert full control over an infected machine, enabling them to execute arbitrary commands remotely. It is associated with several threat actors or groups often linked to advanced persistent threats (APTs), such as APT22, APT26, and APT31, which are thought to operate under or in coordination with state-sponsored campaigns.

CyberScoop [1/14/2025 12:00 PM, Greg Otto, Neutral] reports that, in its latest security update, Microsoft has addressed a total of 159 vulnerabilities, covering a broad spectrum of the tech giant’s products, including .NET, Visual Studio, Microsoft Excel, Windows components, and Azure services. The update covers several critical and high-severity flaws across various systems, impacting Windows Telephony Services, Active Directory Domain Services, Microsoft Excel and other key Microsoft services. There were three vulnerabilities that scored a 9.8/10 on the CVSS scale, the highest scores of vulnerabilities released this month. One flaw impacted Windows Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) which allows users to create complex documents, like a RTF file, that contain multimedia content from different applications. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-21298, allows for remote code execution. While Microsoft has not seen this vulnerability being exploited in the wild, the company believes that malicious actors could take advantage of the flaw by sending a specially made email to victims using a vulnerable version of Microsoft Outlook, even if Outlook just shows a preview of a weaponized message. This might let the hacker run remote code on the victim’s computer. Another remote code execution flaw, cataloged as CVE-2025-21307, affects Windows Reliable Multicast Transport Driver (RMCAST), networking technology that supports reliable data transmission over multicast networks. This vulnerability can only be exploited if there is an application actively listening on a port for Pragmatic General Multicast (PGM), which is a protocol that is used to ensure efficient delivery of data packets from a sender to multiple receivers on a particular network. An unauthenticated attacker could potentially send specially crafted packets to an open PGM socket on a Windows server, which does not require any user interaction. However, the company says further conditions may make it harder for actors to exploit the flaw: If PGM is installed or enabled but no applications are using it to listen, the vulnerability cannot be exploited. Since PGM does not authenticate requests, it’s advisable to protect any open PGM ports using network-level security measures, such as a firewall. This vulnerability affects a wide range of Microsoft products, including Windows 10 versions starting from 1507 to 22H2, Windows 11 versions 22H2 to 24H2, and various Windows Server editions from 2008 up to 2025.

FOX News [1/14/2025 3:17 PM, Stepheny Price, 49889K, Negative] reports the FBI has released a new image of New Orleans terrorist attacker Shamsud-Din Jabbar along with new details about his internet search history as the investigation into the New Year’s attack continues. In a press release, the FBI said the Bourbon Street terrorist’s internet history showed he was looking into Bourbon Street balcony access, information on Mardi Gras and shootings that happened in the city, as late as mid-November. Investigators also revealed that Jabbar researched the Christmas market ramming attack in Germany just hours before the attack on Bourbon Street. Officials say evidence obtained in the ongoing investigation indicates Jabbar became a "more devout Muslim in 2022" and began following extremist views in the spring of 2024. FBI officials also updated the number of injured in the attack to 57 — up from the FBI’s previous reported number of 35. Officials said a total of 136 victims have been identified, including two businesses that suffered damage. Jabbar killed 14 civilians when he rammed a rented Ford F-150 truck through a New Year’s crowd celebrating on Bourbon Street around 3:15 a.m. on Jan. 1. He then began shooting at police, who returned fire, killing the attacker.

Newsweek [1/14/2025 11:51 AM, Shannon McDonagh, 56005K, Positive] reports that President Joe Biden signed an executive order Tuesday to expedite the development of artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure in the United States. The order calls for large-scale AI data centers and clean energy facilities to be built on federal land, aiming to maintain U.S. leadership in the sector while safeguarding national security and supporting clean energy goals. Biden’s executive order comes amid ever-growing global competition in AI and its development, particularly between the U.S. and China. By investing in domestic AI infrastructure, the president argues that the U.S. can secure sensitive systems and technologies from foreign access and ensure they are developed under American oversight. The administration says the move could help prevent the U.S. from growing dependent on other countries to access AI tools. "AI will have profound implications for national security and enormous potential to improve Americans’ lives if harnessed responsibly," the President said in a statement. The executive order directs the Departments of Defense and Energy to identify three federal sites each for private sector development of AI data centers. These centers will rely entirely on clean power sources to meet energy demands. Developers must cover all construction and operational costs, ensuring that infrastructure projects do not increase electricity costs for consumers.

CNN [1/14/2025 10:59 PM, Sean Lyngaas, Priscilla Alvarez and Kevin Liptak, 987K, Negative] reports some of President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks and top national security staff are expected to meet Wednesday with President Joe Biden’s National Security Council in the White House to walk through how the US government responds to a range of homeland security threats and scenarios, three sources familiar with the matter told CNN. The teams will meet as the US government faces multiple challenges at home and abroad that demand the National Security Council’s attention, including deadly fires in Los Angeles and efforts to reach a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war. There are also fresh concerns in the US over terrorism after a man rammed his truck into New Year’s revelers in New Orleans earlier this month, killing 14 people and injuring more. Participants in Wednesday’s meeting in the Situation Room are expected to discuss US policy options for responding to real-world scenarios based on the current threat environment, one of the sources said. CNN has reached out to the Trump transition team and the Biden National Security Council for comment on the expected meeting. Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, said Tuesday that he and Mike Waltz, Trump’s choice for national security adviser, "have spent a considerable amount of time together" to make sure that the next administration is briefed on immediate issues and "longer term trends" impacting national security. Appearing alongside Sullivan at a US Institute for Peace event on Tuesday, Waltz said the US southern border will be among the top national security challenges of the first six months of Trump’s second administration.

SFGate [1/14/2025 1:59 PM, Matthew Clary, 14282K, Neutral] reports that today, the United States is navigating an increasingly unsettled world. The positions advising the president on national security are as important as ever. One such position, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, is key to providing the president and Cabinet with timely intelligence and analysis. So, what is the job of director of the CIA? What role does the director play in U.S. national security? How has the position changed over time? The CIA director leads the government agency responsible for conducting espionage and covert action. The CIA director is a Cabinet level position but reports to the director of national intelligence. The CIA was established by the National Security Act of 1947 as America’s premiere civilian-led foreign intelligence agency. The agency carries out espionage and covert action exclusively outside the U.S. The CIA is organized into five directorates – analysis, operations, science and technology, digital innovation, and support – and 11 regional and topical mission centers. The number of CIA employees is classified. Espionage activities include the use of spies tasked with collecting useful information from influential people in countries around the world. This information, referred to as human intelligence, often provides depth and context about threats posed to the U.S.

Washington Post [1/14/2025 8:09 AM, Ellen Francis, 40736K, Negative] reports NATO is launching a new patrol and surveillance operation to protect critical infrastructure in the Baltic Sea region bordering Russia, the alliance said Tuesday after several breaches to undersea cables put European authorities on high alert. The mission will boost the Western military alliance’s presence in a region on edge, including with frigates, maritime patrol aircraft, submarine satellites, remotely operated vehicles and a “small fleet of naval drones” to enhance surveillance, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte told a news conference in Helsinki. He declined to share ship figures and said the number of vessels "might differ from one week to another," but said the operation, dubbed "Baltic Sentry," would work "to deter future destabilizing acts" and "enhance our vigilance in the Baltic." A statement from NATO said the operation would "continue for an undisclosed amount of time.” Leaders of Baltic nations, along with Rutte and other European officials, met in Helsinki on Tuesday to agree on ways to boost security, after Finland in late December seized an oil tanker that was suspected of severing a power cable connecting the country to Estonia. That December incident, in which damage was also reported to four telecoms cables, added to mounting European fears of sabotage after a string of murky disruptions, as NATO officials accuse Russia of a growing campaign against NATO countries over their military support for Ukraine and sanctions against Moscow. The Kremlin has denied involvement in any such plots, saying it’s "absurd to continue to blame Russia for everything.” Finland did not directly blame Moscow for the damage in last month’s incident, although European authorities have said they suspect the Eagle S tanker is part of Russia’s "shadow fleet" — carrying Russian oil products that are under Western embargo — and that it caused the damage by dragging its anchor across the seabed. Finnish authorities have said they believe the vessel would have caused more damage if police hadn’t boarded it when they did, and they have banned some of the crew from traveling. "In that particular case, had it continued for another 12 minutes, the carnage would have been much worse," Finnish President Alexander Stubb told reporters Tuesday. A few weeks earlier, in November, an underwater communications cable connecting Finland and Germany was cut, which Germany described as suspected sabotage, and damage was reported to a separate internet cable linking Lithuania and Sweden. The leaders of Baltic allies have described the Finnish approach of seizing the ship as a first — and as a way to send a message that could ward off sabotage attempts. Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal said Tuesday that it "should be a benchmark for future operations.”

Newsweek [1/14/2025 8:00 AM, Khaleda Rahman, 56005K, Neutral] reports Puerto Rico’s governor has called on President-elect Donald Trump to respond after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro called for an invasion of the island territory. Maduro’s comments were an "open threat to the United States and our national security," Jenniffer González-Colón wrote in a post on X on Monday. "I sent a letter to President @realDonaldTrump, trusting his administration will swiftly respond and make clear to the Maduro narco-regime that the U.S. will protect American lives and sovereignty and won’t bow down to petty, murderous thugs.” Newsweek has contacted the Trump transition team, the Puerto Rico governor’s office, and the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington for comment via email outside office hours. On Friday, the U.S. announced a $25 million reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest or conviction. The next day, Maduro called for Puerto Rico to be liberated from the U.S while speaking at the International Anti-Fascist Festival in Caracas. "The freedom of Puerto Rico is pending, and we will achieve it with Brazilian troops," he said. Trump has history with Puerto Rico. During his first term, he had a problematic relationship with Puerto Rican officials, resisted sending aid after the island was devastated by hurricanes and tossed paper towels into a crowd during a visit after Hurricane Maria in 2017. Last October, a comedian called Puerto Rico "a floating island of garbage" during a Trump rally, sparking outrage. Maduro’s liberation comments came a day after he was sworn in for a third six-year term on Friday following an international outcry and protests in Venezuela. The United States and other governments have rejected Maduro’s claims of victory in last year’s election, pointing to credible evidence validated by election observers that his opponent, Edmund González, had won by a more than two-to-one margin. In her letter, González urged the incoming Trump administration to "swiftly respond" to ensure Maduro is aware that the U.S. "will not give in to the threats.” "A few days after holding an illegitimate swearing-in ceremony, the socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro publicly proposed an invasion of Puerto Rico," she wrote. "This is an open threat to the United States, our national security, and stability in the region.

Newsweek [1/14/2025 9:27 AM, Isabel van Brugen and John Feng, 56005K, Neutral] reports that a Russian cargo vessel loitered above undersea communication cables in the Pacific for weeks, a map shows, as concerns grow over potential Russian sabotage. The Belize-flagged Russian cargo vessel, Vasily Shukshin, left Russia’s Vostochnyy port on December 8, stopped for a short period of time in South Korea, before it loitered off Taiwan’s coast on December 19, Ray Powell, director of Stanford University-affiliated maritime analyst group SeaLight, said on X (formerly Twitter), on Tuesday morning. Newsweek reached out to the Kremlin for comment via email on Tuesday. The West has recently raised the alarm over increased Russian military activity near key undersea communication cables. There are growing fears among NATO members that Russian President Vladimir Putin could target underwater cables and critical infrastructure that are vital to global communication systems. Vessels from China or Russia were previously spotted roaming near cables in the Baltic Sea, off Norway and around Taiwan, before damage was inflicted, raising concerns of sabotage Newsweek previously reported.

CNN [1/14/2025 12:59 PM, Jennifer Hansler, 987K, Neutral] reports that Secretary of State Antony Blinken offered his most detailed picture yet of his long-awaited plans for post-war Gaza on Tuesday as he stressed the importance of not leaving a power vacuum in the decimated enclave. Blinken presented the "core elements" in a speech at the Atlantic Council just days before his term as top US diplomat comes to an end. Although he said the plans would be handed over to the incoming Trump team, there is no evidence that the new administration intends to follow through with them. The war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza has raged on for more than a year, with more than 46,000 people killed in the besieged enclave, according to the Palestinian Healthy Ministry. The majority of those killed have been women and children as efforts to achieve a ceasefire and hostage deal have only in recent weeks gained traction. Blinken on Tuesday expressed optimism about such an agreement, saying that it is "ready to be concluded and implemented" if Hamas accepts. In what could be his final public remarks as secretary of state, Blinken sought to defend the Biden administration’s policy on Gaza – a policy that has faced sharp criticism from some Democratic lawmakers and current and former US officials, as well as human rights organizations that say Israel is carrying out genocide. The Biden administration and the Israeli government have rejected that conclusion.

Washington Examiner [1/14/2025 12:31 PM, Annabella Rosciglione, 2365K, Neutral] reports that the Shanghai-owned social media platform Xiaohongshu, or RedNote in English, experienced a spike in downloads as some TikTok users are downloading the app as a U.S. ban on the latter looms. Until late December 2024, more than 85% of RedNote users were based in China. On Tuesday, It was the most downloaded free app in the U.S. Apple store. The app boasts more than 300 million people, most of whom reside in China. While the app does not start playing videos automatically like TikTok, it is a short video- and photo-sharing platform that uses a similar algorithm to give users a curated feed based on their previous interests. It has a layout similar to Pinterest and is often described as a Chinese version of Instagram. "How funny would it be if they ban TikTok and we all just move over to this Chinese app," TikTok creator Manimatana Lee posted to her TikTok account Monday. According to the Financial Times, RedNote has become one of China’s fastest-growing social platforms, with a value of over $17 billion since its launch in 2013. Some Americans on Xiaohongshu have posted content under the hashtag "TikTokrefugee," which had been viewed 100 million times and sparked about 2.5 million discussion threads on the app by Tuesday, according to the New York Times. Additionally on Tuesday, more than 100,000 people had joined a live group chat hosted by a user named "TikTok Refugee Club," where people access the globe with Chinese users about urban safety.

UPI [1/14/2025 7:11 PM, Mike Heuer, 1890K, Neutral] reports pfficials for the United States and Thailand on Tuesday signed an Agreement for Cooperation Concerning Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy between the two nations. U.S. Ambassador to Thailand Robert Godec and Thailand’s Minister of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation Supamas Isaraghakdi signed the cooperative agreement on behalf of their respective nations in Bangkok, the U..S. Department of State announced in a news release. The document also is called the "123 Agreement" and helps the United States and Thai officials create a framework for nuclear non-proliferation. The agreement enables the transfer of nuclear material, equipment, reactors, components and information pertaining to nuclear research and civil nuclear energy production. The agreement also supports the generation of clean energy to establish energy security while strengthening the diplomatic and economic relationships between Thailand and the United States. "Nuclear energy offers a clean energy solution with a stable baseload of power providing affordable, long-term options for critically needed energy," the State Department news release stated. "The United States looks forward to developing a robust civil nuclear energy partnership with Thailand in the years to come.” The agreement replaces a former civil nuclear cooperation agreement that officials for each nation signed in 1974 but which expired in 2014. The new agreement comes after China in November agreed to send a miniature neutron source reactor to Thailand’s Suranaree University of Technology. The miniature reactor will assist Thai engineers and scientists to safely conduct scientific research while in densely populated areas without concern for potentially endangering nearby communities.

Newsweek [1/14/2025 6:35 AM, Micah McCartney, 56005K, Neutral] reports the Philippines says that it temporarily blocked the largest vessel in China’s Coast Guard fleet—and the world—from sailing closer to the coast of the heavily populated island of Luzon, amid ship’s dayslong deployment in the U.S. ally’s maritime zone. Newsweek reached out to the Philippine Coast Guard and Chinese Foreign Ministry with emailed requests for comment. China’s coast guards, paramilitary "Maritime Militia," and—increasingly—naval forces have added muscle to Beijing’s claims, in what many analysts consider to be "gray zone" operations, or coercive acts that stop short of war. Chinese forces have responded to Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s pushback with blockades of disputed reefs, water cannon attacks, and ramming. China asserts sovereignty over most of the trade-heavy South China Sea as its territory, rejecting the 2016 decision by an international arbitral court that largely dismissed these sweeping claims, which overlap with the exclusive economic zones of the Philippines and several other neighbors. An EEZ is an area extending 200 nautical miles (230 miles) from the coastline, within which maritime law accords a country sole access to natural resources. Philippine Coast Guard cutter the BRP Teresa Magbanua managed "gradually" to head off China Coast Guard ship 3304 on Saturday after seven days of the Philippines’ "unwavering monitoring and vigilant pursuit of China Coast Guard vessels illegally operating within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, the agency’s spokesperson Jay Tarriela wrote on X (formerly Twitter). China responded by deploying Coast Guard ship 5901, a 12,000-ton, 541-foot behemoth nicknamed "the Monster." Video footage released by the Philippines shows personnel aboard the Teresa Magbanua and a patrol plane issuing radio challenges. "You do not possess any legal authority to patrol within the Philippines exclusive economic zone. You are directed to depart immediately and notify us of your intensions," one sailor can be heard saying. Tarriela wrote that the Teresa Magbanua had kept its Chinese counterpart from approaching nearer than 95 nautical miles [110 miles] from the coast of Luzon’s Zambales Province. However, the Philippine vessel withdrew early on Monday for minor repairs, the "Monster" took advantage of the situation and sailed as close as 67 nautical miles [77 miles] off Zambales, a province in the Philippines located in the Central Luzon region, the Coast Guard said.

Reuters [1/14/2025 9:53 AM, Staff, 50804K, Negative] reports that the Philippines accused China on Tuesday of intimidating its fishermen at a disputed South China Sea shoal, and normalizing an "illegal presence," after Beijing sent its largest coast guard vessel into Manila’s maritime zone. The move comes against the backdrop of rising tension between the Philippines, a U.S. treaty ally, and Beijing during the past two years, stemming from their overlapping claims in the busy waterway of the South China Sea. The Philippines has protested this month against the entry of Chinese vessels in its 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ), including the 541-ft-long ship 5901, last spotted 77 nautical miles off the western province of Zambales. Jonathan Malaya, a spokesperson for the Philippines’ National Security Council, reiterated a call for Beijing to withdraw from Manila’s waters the "monster ship" he said was deployed to intimidate its fishermen around Scarborough Shoal. "We were surprised about the increasing aggression being showed by the People’s Republic of China in deploying the monster ship," Malaya told a press conference. "It is an escalation and provocative," Malaya added, calling the presence of the vessel "illegal" and "unacceptable." China’s embassy in Manila said the shoal, which it calls "Huangyan Dao," is China’s territory, and its actions are in "full accordance with the law."

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