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.

Roll Call [1/20/2025 7:44 PM, Chris Johnson, 440K, Neutral] reports a Senate committee on Monday evening advanced the nomination of Kristi Noem to become the next secretary of Homeland Security, sending her nomination to the floor on a bipartisan basis with little fanfare. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted 13-2 to approve President Donald Trump’s selection of the South Dakota governor, who breezed through her confirmation hearing Friday. Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. and Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., voted against Noem. Republican leadership has not announced when they plan to hold a floor vote on Noem’s nomination. "Throughout the confirmation process, Governor Kristi Noem has demonstrated she is prepared to face the challenges of being DHS Secretary," Chairman Rand Paul, R-Ky., said in a news release. "I’m proud to support her nomination and commend the Committee for the bipartisan effort in advancing her nomination to the Senate floor, where she will be confirmed quickly.” Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, the ranking member of the panel, was among the Democrats who voted for Noem’s nomination, along with Sens. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Andy Kim of New Jersey and Elissa Slotkin of Michigan. Peters said he voted for Noem based on the talks he had with her during the confirmation process and his belief the minority party should have a working relationship with the secretary of Homeland Security. "We had some long conversations with her, and although we don’t agree on all the issues, I think it’s someone who I can work with in the next few years on homeland security issues," Peters said. "As ranking member, it’s important to have a working relationship with her, and she certainly has been open to dialogue and conversation. We’ll start working together as soon as she’s finally confirmed.”

Reported similarly:
The Hill [1/20/2025 7:32 PM, Rebecca Beitsch, 16346K, Neutral]

New York Times [1/20/2025 1:19 AM, Zolan Kanno-YoungsHamed Aleaziz and Eileen Sullivan, 161405K, Neutral] reports President Trump’s flurry of executive actions on immigration in the hours after taking office was the leading edge of an effort to roll back four years of policies put in place by the Biden administration and reimpose an agenda that would fundamentally upend the United States’ global role as a sanctuary for refugees and immigrants. In a series of orders he signed on Monday evening, Mr. Trump moved to seal the nation’s borders against migrants and systematically crack down on undocumented immigrants already in the United States, part of a policy barrage that included a national emergency declaration to deploy the military to the border and a bid to cut off birthright citizenship for the children of noncitizens. While some of the orders were likely to face steep legal challenges and might be difficult or impossible to enforce, the directives sent an unmistakable message that Mr. Trump was serious about fulfilling his frequent campaign promises of clamping down on the border, and escalating an anti-immigration agenda that he has made the centerpiece of his political identity. “With these actions we will begin the complete restoration of America and the revolution of common sense,” Mr. Trump said from the Capitol Rotunda after taking his oath of office. “All illegal entry will immediately be halted and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came.” Just minutes after Mr. Trump took the oath, his administration shut down a government program created by his predecessor that allowed migrants to secure appointments for admission into the United States through legal ports of entry through an app. Switching off the program, known as C.B.P. One, plunged about 30,000 migrants who had existing appointments to enter the United States into limbo, and indicated that it would now be far more difficult. Hours later in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump moved to block asylum seekers and seal the border against those looking for protection in the United States. The Trump administration argued the illegal border crossings posed a national security and public health concern. Rather than citing a specific threat of disease, Mr. Trump simply said that migrants did not provide border authorities with “comprehensive health information,” posing a public health risk.

Reported similarly:
VOA News [1/20/2025 9:15 PM, Aline Barros, 2717K, Neutral]
CNN [1/21/2025 12:54 AM, Michael Williams, 987K, Neutral]
Border Report [1/20/2025 10:52 PM, Staff, 153K, Neutral]

The Hill [1/20/2025 6:31 PM, Al Weaver, 16346K, Neutral] reports the Senate on Monday passed the Laken Riley Act, making the immigration-related bill the first piece of legislation to make it through the upper chamber in the new Congress and putting it a step closer to being signed into law by President Trump. Senators voted 64-35 on the bill. Twelve Democrats voted with every Republican. The legislation — which mandates the federal detention of immigrants without legal status who are accused of theft and burglary, among other things — was a priority for Republicans after immigration emerged as a signature issue for Trump and an effective cudgel against Democrats in November. "This legislation will ensure that illegal aliens who steal or assault a law enforcement officer are detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement instead of being allowed out on the streets," Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said on the floor ahead of the vote. "I’m looking forward to getting this legislation to the president’s desk.” Democrats who voted in the affirmative included Sens. John Fetterman (Pa.), Ruben Gallego (Ariz.), Maggie Hassan (N.H.), Mark Kelly (Ariz.), Jon Ossoff (Ga.), Raphael Warnock (Ga.), Gary Peters (Mich.), Jacky Rosen (Nev.), Catherine Cortez Masto (Nev.), Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.), Elissa Slotkin (Mich.) and Mark Warner (Va.). The New York Times [1/20/2025 7:34 PM, Maya C. Miller, 161405K, Neutral] reports that in a vote of 64 to 35 just hours after Mr. Trump was sworn in, 12 Democrats joined Republicans to approve the bill, reflecting a growing bipartisan consensus around clamping down on those who have entered the country without authorization. That sent the measure back to the House, which passed it with bipartisan support this month and is expected to give it final approval this week. It all but guaranteed that the legislation would be quickly signed by Mr. Trump, who on Monday began his promised immigration crackdown as he started his second term. The bill, called the Laken Riley Act, is named for a 22-year-old Georgia nursing student who was killed last year by a migrant who crossed into the United States illegally from Venezuela and who had previously been arrested in a shoplifting case, but had not been detained. Passage in the Senate came after Republicans and Democrats spent last week debating changes to the bill, a process that exposed deep divisions among Democrats over immigration as some in the party move to the right following their party’s electoral losses in November. The bill was the opening legislative move for Republicans in a broader push to crack down on immigration and significantly step up deportations, a promise that Mr. Trump made a centerpiece of his campaign. The legislation instructs federal officials to detain unauthorized immigrants arrested for or charged with burglary, theft, larceny or shoplifting, expanding the list of charges that would subject migrants to detention and potential deportation. Senators added assaulting a police officer and crimes that result in death or serious bodily injury to the expanded list. Republicans teed up the measure as the first of several border bills they hope to revive and enact now that they have cemented their governing trifecta with Mr. Trump’s inauguration. A similar measure passed the House last year but died when the Democratic-led Senate declined to take it up.

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AP [1/20/2025 6:37 PM, Stephen Groves, 47097K, Neutral]
CBS News [1/20/2025 6:45 PM, Kaia Hubbard, 52225K, Neutral] r

CNN [1/21/2025 12:30 AM, Priscilla Alvarez, 987K, Neutral] reports President Donald Trump began his term by taking a series of sweeping immigration executive actions Monday that included declaring a national emergency at the US southern border, immediately ending use of a border app called CBP One that had allowed migrants to legally enter the United States, and kicking off the process to end birthright citizenship, which is expected to tee up a legal fight. Trump also made a striking personnel move, as senior leadership at the Justice Department’s agency overseeing the nation’s immigration courts were removed from service on Monday, according to a source familiar. The Executive Office for Immigration Review oversees the US immigration court system, where immigration judges decide if immigrants can remain in the US or be deported. The removals, which targeted career public servants who together have served in the agency for several years, raised questions about whether they were permitted under rules dictated by the Office of Personnel Management. And they illustrated the Trump administration’s push to install officials who are aligned with his policy vision. Those removed Monday are Sheila McNulty, who was serving as chief immigration judge; Mary Cheng, who occupied the EOIR directorship in an acting capacity; Jill Anderson, general counsel at EOIR; and Lauren Alder Reid, acting assistant director at the Office of Administration in EOIR. Combined, they served in the agency for several years. The executive actions are the culmination of multiple campaign pledges and the resurfacing of policy ideas that didn’t come to fruition during Trump’s first term. Trump aides have signaled that they will be followed within days by a series of immigration enforcement sweeps targeting criminals, though they haven’t ruled out that others could be apprehended, too. The shutdown of CBP One on Monday closed a key pathway for people looking to come into the US. Homeland Security Department officials have cited the app as helping drive down migrant crossings by providing an orderly way to apply to the United States. With that now gone, and asylum restrictions in place, the border is effectively shut down to asylum seekers — an extraordinary move.

Reported similarly:
Washington Post [1/20/2025 4:00 PM, Nick Miroff, Maria Sacchetti, Arelis R. Hernández and Dan Lamothe, 40736K, Negative]
NPR [1/20/2025 5:00 PM, Ximena Bustillo, 37K, Neutral]
Axios [1/21/2025 12:32 AM, Russell Contreras, 16349K, Negative]
CBS News [1/20/2025 2:57 PM, Camilo Montoya-Galvez, Negative]
FOX News [1/20/2025 11:34 AM, Adam Shaw, 57114K, Negative]
Newsweek [1/20/2025 2:14 PM, Jenni Fink, 56005K, Neutral]

New York Times [1/20/2025 11:47 PM, Hamed Aleaziz, 161405K, Neutral] reports President Trump moved on Monday to toss out a Biden-era program that allowed migrants fleeing four troubled nations to fly into the United States and remain in the country temporarily, part of a sweeping first-day crackdown on immigration. The program, known as humanitarian parole and introduced by the Biden administration in early 2023, allowed migrants from Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti and Venezuela to fly into the United States if they had a financial sponsor and passed security checks. Migrants who entered under the program could stay for up to two years, unless they found other ways to stay long term. As of late last year, more than 500,000 migrants had entered the country through the initiative. The program, which Mr. Trump ordered the head of the Department of Homeland Security to end, served as one of two major legal pathways the Biden administration put in place to try to discourage migrants from crossing into the country illegally. The Trump administration already moved earlier Monday to shut down the other program — a government app that allowed migrants to schedule appointments to enter the country at legal ports of entry. “These processes — a safe and orderly way to reach the United States — have resulted in a significant reduction in the number of these individuals encountered at our southern border,” Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the Biden administration’s homeland security secretary, said last spring. “It is a key element of our efforts to address the unprecedented level of migration throughout our hemisphere.” Republican lawmakers viewed the program as a way for migrants with no other access to the United States a chance to enter the country for up to two years and obtain work permits. “Here’s an idea: Don’t fly millions of illegals aliens from failed states thousands of miles away into small towns across the American Heartland,” Stephen Miller, the architect of much of Mr. Trump’s immigration policy, said on social media in September.

New York Times [1/20/2025 11:46 PM, Yonette Joseph, 161405K, Neutral] reports an executive order signed by President Trump on Monday that suspends refugee admissions to the United States puts at risk thousands of citizens of Afghanistan who helped the American mission during the war there, the president of a California-based resettlement group said. The order would affect not only scores of Afghans who are now in hiding from the Taliban’s repressive rule, but also family members of active-duty U.S. troops, said Shawn VanDiver, the president of AfghanEvac, a coalition of more than 250 organizations helping to resettle Afghans who worked with the Americans before the U.S. withdrawal in 2021. The order amounts to “another broken promise” by the United States, Mr. VanDiver said by email. It “risks abandoning thousands of Afghan wartime allies who stood alongside U.S. service members during two decades of conflict,” he added. Mr. Trump’s order, titled “Realigning the United States Refugee Admissions Program,” is set to take effect next Monday. It does not specify when the suspension will end, saying that it will continue “until such time as the further entry into the United States of refugees aligns with the interests of the United States.” Refugee programs have historically been a point of pride in the United States, reflecting its ambition to be seen as a leader on human rights. The president has usually made an annual determination about how many refugees to let into the country in any given year. After the U.S. military’s chaotic retreat from Afghanistan as the Taliban took power, the Biden administration launched Operation Allies Welcome, allowing 76,000 evacuated Afghans to enter the United States for humanitarian reasons, according to the Washington-based Migration Policy Institute.

The Hill [1/20/2025 1:40 PM, Rafael Bernal, 16346K, Neutral] reports Trump administration officials minutes after the new president took office on Monday shut down a mobile app for migrants to make appointments at the U.S.-Mexico border. By shutting down the CBP One app, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials essentially canceled all outstanding appointments made by migrants without visas who sought to enter the United States through legal ports of entry. The app shutdown is part of a series of moves by the incoming administration to crack down on the border, even as migration has decreased significantly in the past six months. According to CBP numbers, U.S. officials encountered 96,048 foreign nationals at the border in December. About half, 48,722, presented at a port of entry to get formal admission into the United States. Before November, the last full month with fewer than 100,000 encounters was January of 2021, the month when former President Biden was sworn in. That month, CBP encountered 78,414 people, only 3,098 of whom presented at ports of entry — the rest were encountered by the Border Patrol after crossing the border illegally. CBP One was a key component of the Biden administration’s efforts to channel migrants through legal pathways to seek refuge in the United States. President Trump is due to sign 10 executive orders on Monday related to the border, several of which seek to undo those pathways. The actions are designed to essentially shut down the border and return to policies used during the first Trump administration, like the so-called remain in Mexico policy. Under that policy, at the time known officially as the Migrant Protection Protocols, around 70,000 third-country nationals were returned to Mexico over the span of two years to await the results of their U.S. asylum cases. The New York Times [1/21/2025 3:43 AM, Hamed Aleaziz and Paulina Villegas, 740K, Neutral] reports that moments after Mr. Trump took the oath of office, an announcement posted on the CBP One program’s website declared that the app would no longer function and that “existing appointments have been canceled.” The program, which debuted in early 2023, allowed 1,450 migrants a day to schedule a time to present themselves at a port of entry and seek asylum through U.S. immigration courts. More than 900,000 migrants entered the country using the app from its launch in the beginning of 2023 to the end of 2024. A former Department of Homeland Security official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that around 30,000 migrants had appointments to enter the United States through the app as of Monday morning. At the El Chaparral border crossing in Tijuana, Mexico, dozens of migrants who stared at their phone screens trying to check whether their appointments were still valid instead found the crushing message that they no longer existed. “I am in shock,” said Maura Hernandez, who received the news on Monday morning as she arrived in Tijuana with her four small children from the state of Michoacán. She had a scheduled appointment on Tuesday. “I don’t know what is going to happen to us,” she said, adding that they had fled their home amid rampant insecurity. The program was a key part of the Biden administration’s effort to gain control over migration through the southern border. On the one hand, the administration blocked asylum for migrants who crossed illegally. At the same time, U.S. officials believed that by offering migrants an organized way to enter legally through an app, they could discourage attempts to gain entry without authorization. Border numbers have dropped dramatically in recent months, and officials believe the program is a major reason.

Reported similarly:
Newsweek [1/20/2025 3:33 PM, Billal Rahman, 56005K, Neutral]
Bloomberg [1/20/2025 8:33 PM, Alicia A. Caldwell, 21617K, Neutral]
AP [1/20/2025 9:24 PM, Julie Watson and Megan Janetsky, 47097K, Neutral]

Axios [1/21/2025 12:16 AM, Russell Contreras, 16349K, Negative] reports a coalition of civil rights and civil liberties groups are suing to stop President Trump’s new executive order attempting to end birthright citizenship in the U.S. — a right guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. The lawsuit filed late Monday in U.S. District Court in New Hampshire is the first of many expected legal challenges Trump will likely face in his new term following his early executive orders on immigration. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a couple who are members of the New Hampshire Indonesian Community Support, the lawsuit says. The couple arrived in 2023 and are awaiting a decision on their asylum claim and for the arrival of a new baby. The mom-to-be is in her third trimester, the lawsuit says. Under this executive order, their baby born in the U.S. would be considered an undocumented noncitizen and could be denied basic health care and nutrition, according to the lawsuit. Trump signed the executive order Monday just hours after returning to the White House. The executive order is expected to face immediate legal challenges from state attorneys general since it conflicts with decades of Supreme Court precedent and the 14th Amendment. What they’re saying: "Denying citizenship to U.S.-born children is not only unconstitutional — it’s also a reckless and ruthless repudiation of American values," Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement. "This order seeks to repeat one of the gravest errors in American history, by creating a permanent subclass of people born in the U.S. who are denied full rights as Americans." The Hill [1/20/2025 10:35 PM, Rebecca Beitsch, 57114K, Negative] reports the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) late Monday launched a suit challenging an executive order from President Trump seeking to end birthright citizenship for children born in the U.S. to parents who are not lawfully present. It’s an order that contradicts the Constitution, which bestows citizenship on anyone born in the United State regardless of the status of their parents. “Denying citizenship to U.S.-born children is not only unconstitutional — it’s also a reckless and ruthless repudiation of American values. Birthright citizenship is part of what makes the United States the strong and dynamic nation that it is. This order seeks to repeat one of the gravest errors in American history, by creating a permanent subclass of people born in the U.S. who are denied full rights as Americans,” Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement. “We will not let this attack on newborns and future generations of Americans go unchallenged. The Trump administration’s overreach is so egregious that we are confident we will ultimately prevail.”

Reported similarly:
Bloomberg [1/20/2025 11:23 PM, Zoe Tillman, 21617K, Negative]

The AP [1/20/2025 9:24 PM, Julie Watson and Megan Janetsky, 153K, Neutral] reports they came from Haiti, Venezuela and around the world, pulling small rolling suitcases crammed with clothing and stuffed animals to occupy their children. They clutched cellphones showing that after months of waiting they had appointments — finally — to legally enter the United States. Now outside a series of north Mexico border crossings where mazes of concrete barriers and thick fencing eventually spill into the United States, hope and excitement evaporated into despair and disbelief moments after President Donald Trump took office. U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced Monday that the CBP One app that worked as recently as that morning would no longer be used to admit migrants after facilitating entry for nearly 1 million people since January 2023. Tens of thousands of appointments that were scheduled into February were canceled, applicants were told. That was it. There was no way to appeal, and no one to talk to. In Tijuana, where 400 people were admitted daily on the app at a border crossing with San Diego, Maria Mercado had to work up the courage to check her phone. Tears ran down her cheeks after she finally looked. Her family’s appointment was for 1 p.m., four hours too late. “We don’t know what we are going to do,” she said, standing with her family within view of the United States. She left Colombia decades ago after it was overrun by drug cartel violence, heading to Ecuador. When cartels besieged her new homeland, the family fled again, in June, this time to Mexico, hoping to reach the U.S. “I’m not asking the world for anything — only God. I’m asking God to please let us get in,” she said. Immigrants around her hugged or cried quietly. Many stared ahead blankly, not knowing what do. A nearby sign urged people to get the CBP One app. “This will facilitate your processing,” it said. CBP One has been wildly popular, especially with Venezuelans, Cubans, Haitians and Mexicans. Now, they were stranded at the U.S. border or deeper in Mexico. The San Diego Union Tribune [1/21/2025 12:03 AM, Alexandra Mendoza, 2212K, Neutral] reports word began to spread quickly in the Tijuana migrant shelter Monday, even as President Donald Trump continued to deliver his inauguration speech. Nidia Montenegro, an asylum seeker from Venezuela, checked her cellphone to see if the asylum screening appointment she’d waited so long to secure was still good for Wednesday morning. Those around her had already been getting the heartbreaking news after seeing the new message on the government’s CBP One app: “Existing appointments scheduled through CBP One are no longer valid.” She was no different. “My spirit is on the ground,” she said through tears at the Juventud 2000 shelter. “We’re in limbo now. What’s going to happen to us?” Shutting down the appointment system that allowed undocumented immigrants to schedule appointments for asylum screenings at ports of entry was perhaps the first blow of Trump’s promised border crackdown. Inauguration day ended with a flurry of executive actions aimed at the border — from reinstating his “Remain in Mexico” policy to using military troops for border security to ending birthright citizenship. “All illegal entry will immediately be halted,” Trump said during his inaugural speech in the U.S. Capitol’s Rotunda. The scene at the border unfolded as usual Monday morning. Around 8 a.m., Border Patrol picked up a group of 14 people, including children, who had crossed the primary fence near the San Ysidro Port of Entry. One woman in line was breastfeeding her baby as she waited to board a bus for processing. The area, called Whiskey 8, has been a regular spot for asylum seekers to cross and wait for agents. And in Tijuana at the PedWest pedestrian port of entry, asylum seekers who had confirmed 5 a.m. appointments through CBP One entered the U.S. as scheduled. But the situation changed for those with the 1 p.m. timeslot. Asylum seekers queued up in line but were notified via the phone’s app that their appointments had been canceled. Still, many of them remained in line, waiting for an official to come out and give them more information. Mexican immigration officials could be seen in the distance, but none spoke to reporters. Just steps away, the PedWest northbound pedestrian border crossing used daily by thousands of people on their way to work, shop or go to school closed two hours early. Mexican officials could not give a precise reason for the unexpected closure. A Customs and Border Protection spokesperson said Monday that the closure was initiated on the Mexican side. Mexican officials said that the port of entry was expected to resume operations as usual Tuesday.

Reported similarly:
NPR [1/20/2025 3:37 PM, Eyder Peralta and Lexie Schapitl, 9K, Neutral]
AP [1/20/2025 6:27 PM, Staff, 47097K, Negative] Video: HERE

NPR [1/20/2025 1:46 PM, Ximena Bustillo, Jasmine Garsd, Neutral] reports President Trump is bringing back enforcement of a policy that would require some asylum seekers at the southern border to wait in Mexico for their hearings in U.S. immigration court. The move is among several orders aimed at increasing border security and disincentivizing migration to the United States. Since the early days of his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump has vowed to sign executive actions to impose severe limits on immigration to kick off his second term. During his campaign, Trump repeatedly vowed to bring back this asylum limiting policy. The CPB One app, which allowed migrants to schedule appointments at ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border, is no longer operational, according to a notice from Customs and Border Protection (CPB).

Federal News Network [1/20/2025 6:11 PM, Anastasia Obis, 470K, Negative] reports after being sworn into office on Monday, President Donald Trump said he would declare a national emergency at the southern border, allowing the Defense Department to deploy active-duty military troops and members of the National Guard to the region. The administration also plans to end the policy known as "catch and release," which allows immigrants to enter the United States after being processed at the border and while awaiting immigration hearings in court; bring back the "Remain in Mexico" policy, which was implemented during the previous Trump administration requiring asylum seekers to wait in Mexico instead of the U.S. for their immigration hearings; and designate the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. "All illegal entry will immediately be halted and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came," said Trump. "We will reinstate my ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy. I will end the practice of catch and release. And I will send troops to the southern border to repel the disastrous invasion of our country.” In addition to the president’s plans to use troops after declaring a national emergency at the border, Trump also pledged to reinstate service members dismissed from the military for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine and provide them back pay. While the Defense Department allowed certain exemptions for medical conditions during a mandate that was in effect from August 2021 to January 2023, approximately 8,000 service members were discharged for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine.

AP [1/21/2025 12:05 AM, Megan Janetsky, 47097K, Negative] reports President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday saying the United States would designate drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations in a move that could push a militarized agenda for the border and Latin America. The order highlighted Mexican drug cartels and other Latin American criminal groups like Venezuela gang Tren de Aragua and Salvadoran gang Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), which it said “threaten the safety of the American people, the security of the United States, and the stability of the international order in the Western Hemisphere.” The order did not list the groups by name, but said Cabinet secretaries would recommend groups for designation as terrorist organizations in the next 14 days. It was among a slew of orders Trump signed Monday to kick off his administration. “The Cartels have engaged in a campaign of violence and terror throughout the Western Hemisphere that has not only destabilized countries with significant importance for our national interests but also flooded the United States with deadly drugs, violent criminals, and vicious gangs,” the order read. It was unclear what the impact could be for fighting the cartels, but there was concern it could be another way to make it more difficult for people from the countries where those groups operate to access the U.S. In came in addition to measures including the declaration of an emergency on the U.S. southern border, a promise to slap 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada on Feb. 1 and ending the use of the CBP One app, which allowed migrants to apply for asylum appointments before reaching the border. Trump has also promised to carry out mass deportations and threatened military intervention in Mexico to fight cartels, something sharply rejected by Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. Many have voiced concern the terrorist designation could provide the U.S. justification to take military action against cartels.

Washington Post [1/20/2025 9:17 PM, Jacqueline Alemany, 40736K, Neutral] reports that the four people fired were all part of the Executive Office for Immigration Review. They had decades of experience in the Justice Department and together operated the heavily backlogged administrative court that helps determine whether someone who violated immigration laws should be allowed to remain in the country. Among the people fired was Sheila McNulty, the chief immigration judge, according to the people familiar with the matter. By Monday evening, McNulty’s webpage explaining her background and job as chief judge had been removed from the Justice Department website. Also fired were Mary Cheng, acting director of the Executive Office for Immigration Review; Lauren Alder Reid, head of policy for the office; and Jill Anderson, the office’s general counsel. The removals could be viewed as part of the Trump administration’s promise to more aggressively deport immigrants who are living in the country illegally or who violate the law. The immigration courts are severely backlogged, and the number of pending cases more than doubled to 3.5 million during the Biden administration, according to an agency report in October, the most recent information available. Homeland Security officials have said that immigrants can wait several years for a decision in their court cases. "Those are the people to fire if you think the bureaucracy slowed you down last time," said one staffer on Capitol Hill, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak freely about the firings. Also Monday, the Trump administration announced that James McHenry, a longtime immigration enforcement official at the Justice Department, would serve as the acting U.S. attorney general while nominee Pam Bondi awaits Senate confirmation. McHenry served during the Biden administration as the Justice Department’s chief administrative hearing officer, a position that oversaw the department’s administrative judges. During the first Trump administration, McHenry was director of the Executive Office of Immigration Review. Trump issued a number of immigration-related executive orders on his first day in office, including an order to ramp up deportations, resume construction of the U.S.-Mexico border wall and end birthright citizenship.

Reported similarly:
New York Times [1/20/2025 7:17 PM, Hamed Aleaziz, 161405K, Neutral]

NBC News [1/20/2025 2:34 PM, Daniel Arkin, Yamiche Alcindor and Matt Lavietes, 57114K, Neutral] reports President Donald Trump plans to sign executive orders Monday proclaiming that the U.S. government will recognize only two sexes, male and female, and ending “radical and wasteful” diversity, equity and inclusion programs inside federal agencies, according to senior White House officials. In a phone call Monday morning ahead of Trump’s swearing-in, the officials detailed both orders, grouping them under the Trump administration’s wider “restoring sanity” agenda. The officials presented the gender order as part of a policy “defending women from gender ideology extremism and restoring biological truth to the federal government.” The order aims to require that the federal government use the term “sex” instead of “gender,” and directs the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security to “ensure that official government documents, including passports and visas, reflect sex accurately,” one of the officials said. In 2022, the Biden administration allowed U.S. citizens to be able to select the gender-neutral "X" as a marker on their passports. The gender order will also prevent taxpayer funds from being used for gender-transition health care and add “privacy in intimate spaces” in facilities such as prisons, migrant shelters and rape shelters, according to the official.

Roll Call [1/20/2025 6:03 AM, Niels Lesniewski, 440K, Neutral] reports that, after President-elect Donald Trump takes the oath of office and Congress concludes the inaugural pageantry and the post-inauguration lunch on Monday, the Senate will get back to work. The first item on the Senate’s Trump nomination agenda appears sure to be the confirmation of one of their own. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., had a relatively easy confirmation hearing at the Foreign Relations Committee last week and is expected to be confirmed as secretary of State on Monday evening. Other key Trump nominees will have to wait — though the Republican majority is prioritizing national security posts. The Foreign Relations Committee is scheduled to vote on the Rubio nomination Monday afternoon before it heads to the floor. Senate Armed Services Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., said last week he plans to hold a Monday evening vote on Trump’s nomination of former Fox News host Pete Hegseth to be secretary of Defense. The Senate Intelligence Committee also meets Monday to vote on the nomination of John L. Ratcliffe to be CIA director, according to a source familiar with the schedule, and the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee is scheduled to vote on the nominations of South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem to be Homeland Security secretary and Russell Vought to be director of the Office of Management and Budget. Vought still has a confirmation hearing before the Senate Budget Committee on Wednesday, but Ratcliffe and Noem, along with Hegseth, could get prioritized for floor votes this week. Trump spoke highly of the way the confirmation process was going during an event with donors Sunday night in Washington. “They’re doing really well in the process. And the senators — the Republican senators — have been very understanding and very professional. We appreciate it,” Trump said. “So far. Now, if that changes, I’ll let you know. I’ll let you all know.” There’s also a new Republican senator on track to be sworn in. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Sunday signed the formal paperwork to name fellow Republican Lt. Gov. Jon Husted to fill the seat vacated by Vice President-elect JD Vance. More markups are now on deck this week, including for a trio of former Republican House members: Sean Duffy of Wisconsin to be secretary of Transportation, Doug Collins of Georgia to be secretary of Veterans Affairs and Lee Zeldin of New York to be administrator of the EPA. That could get any of those nominees into the queue for confirmation on the Senate floor as early as the end of this week, especially if the Senate is once again in session on Friday as scheduled. The Senate still needs to finish work on the immigration bill that would impose stricter measures on undocumented migrants who commit crimes in the United States. Ten Democrats joined in getting the measure past filibuster threats in a 61-36 cloture vote on Friday. Final passage, scheduled for Monday at 5:30 p.m., requires only a simple majority.

New York Times [1/20/2025 7:00 PM, Michael Crowley, 161405K, Neutral] reports the Senate confirmed Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, on Monday as America’s 72nd secretary of state, putting a former political rival of President Trump at the helm of American diplomacy. Mr. Rubio, 53, was unanimously confirmed in a 99-to-0 vote, becoming the first Latino to occupy the job and Mr. Trump’s first cabinet secretary to be confirmed. In his last act as a sitting senator, Mr. Rubio voted for himself, giving the Senate clerks a thumbs up as colleagues from both parties applauded. Mr. Rubio’s mainstream views and friendly relations with Democrats paved the way for the unanimous vote. Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader, said beforehand that while he disagreed with many of Mr. Rubio’s positions, “it is important for the new administration to have a Senate confirm its secretary of state as soon as possible, so I’ll vote yes.” Every Senate Democrat followed suit. As he replaces Antony J. Blinken in the job, Mr. Rubio confronts a daunting list of foreign policy tests. They include the war in Ukraine, a fragile cease-fire in Gaza and, in what Mr. Rubio calls the century’s defining challenge, China’s global ambitions. But perhaps his biggest hurdle will be managing his relationship with Mr. Trump, whose temperament and worldview are very different from his own. Over three terms as a senator, Mr. Rubio was known for his hawkish foreign policy views with a heavy emphasis on human rights. Mr. Trump is a skeptic of foreign entanglements and takes a transactional approach to the world. Senator Jim Risch, Republican of Idaho, the top Republican on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, called Mr. Rubio “a principled, action-oriented chief diplomat” capable of taking on American adversaries like Russia, China and Iran. Foreign diplomats will also closely study the relationship between the president and Mr. Rubio, given that they clashed with memorable bitterness as rivals in the 2016 Republican presidential primaries. Mr. Trump was never in sync with his first secretary of state, Rex W. Tillerson, and fired him over social media after a little more than a year in the role.

AP [1/20/2025 8:38 PM, Ali Swenson, 47097K, Negative] reports President Donald Trump on Monday ordered that no federal officer, employee or agent may unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen, an early step toward his campaign promise to dismantle what he called government "censorship" of U.S. citizens. The president’s executive order, issued just hours after he was sworn in to a second term, comes after Trump and his supporters have accused the federal government of pressuring social media companies to take down lawful posts over concerns around misinformation. The order also instructs the attorney general, in consultation with other executive agency heads, to investigate how federal government actions over the four years of the Biden administration could have infringed on free speech and propose "remedial actions" based on the findings. Trump’s order, which he signed onstage at Capital One Arena along with a slate of other executive actions, shows how motivated he is to crack down on what he calls the "censorship cartel" on his first day in office. It’s a winning stance among his supporters, many of whom feel that the federal government has unfairly targeted lawful speech from right-wing voices. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has recently echoed that accusation, saying senior Biden administration officials pressured his employees to inappropriately "censor" content during the COVID-19 pandemic. Elon Musk, the owner of the social platform X, has accused the FBI of illegally coercing Twitter before his tenure to suppress a story about Hunter Biden. While former Twitter executives conceded they made a mistake by blocking that story just before the 2020 presidential election, they have adamantly denied that they acted in response to government pressure. The order does not acknowledge the gravity of harmful online falsehoods, which have increasingly snowballed into real-world threats, harassment and targeted violence. Four years ago, Trump’s own torrent of lies about the 2020 election prompted threats against election officials and culminated in the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

New York Times [1/20/2025 12:33 AM, Annie Correal and Emiliano Rodríguez Mega, 161405K, Neutral] reports that, in the weeks before he took office, Donald J. Trump repeatedly vowed to carry out the largest deportations in U.S. history and to militarize the border, all while his transition team rebuffed requests from regional leaders to meet over the effects of his promised moves. He made countries such as Mexico targets of his attacks, claiming migrants were flooding the United States with fentanyl and threatening to enforce devastating tariffs. He also zeroed in on Panama, repeatedly asserting that the country had permitted China to take control, compelling the United States to intervene and reclaim the Panama Canal. So as Mr. Trump was inaugurated in Washington on Monday, the typical congratulatory messages were also accompanied by some from Latin American leaders that deviated sharply from the usual diplomatic norms. “There is no reason why Mexico should keep its head down or feel lesser than. We are a great country, a cultural power,” said President Claudia Sheinbaum during her daily morning news conference. “Our relationship with the United States will be one of equals.” She also tried to reassure unauthorized Mexicans living in the United States who might face removal. “Mexicans are very important to the U.S. economy, and the Trump administration knows it,” Ms. Sheinbaum said. “To our countrymen and women: You are not alone, and you must remain calm.” Mexico is the country with the highest number of undocumented immigrants in the United States, with around four million Mexicans living there without authorization as of 2022, according to the Pew Research Center. Mexico’s foreign minister, Juan Ramón de la Fuente, also said on Monday that Mexico would not support the anticipated move to reinstate a policy known as Remain in Mexico, which under the first Trump presidency forced migrants applying for asylum to wait in Mexico until the time of their hearings in immigration court. The policy was a boon for drug cartel members, who targeted asylum seekers to extort, kidnap and rape them, human rights groups say.

New York Times [1/21/2025 3:43 AM, Peter Baker and Michael D. Shear, 740K, Neutral] reports President Biden granted a wave of pre-emptive pardons in his final hours in office on Monday to guard members of his own family and other high-profile figures from a promised campaign of “retribution” by his incoming successor, Donald J. Trump. In an extraordinary effort by an outgoing president to derail political prosecutions by an incoming president, Mr. Biden pardoned five members of his family, including his brothers James B. Biden and Francis W. Biden, as well as others targeted by Mr. Trump like Gen. Mark A. Milley, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci and former Representative Liz Cheney. “I believe in the rule of law, and I am optimistic that the strength of our legal institutions will ultimately prevail over politics,” Mr. Biden said in a statement. “But these are exceptional circumstances, and I cannot in good conscience do nothing. Baseless and politically motivated investigations wreak havoc on the lives, safety and financial security of targeted individuals and their families. “Even when individuals have done nothing wrong — and in fact have done the right thing — and will ultimately be exonerated, the mere fact of being investigated or prosecuted can irreparably damage reputations and finances,” he added. In addition to his brothers, Mr. Biden pardoned his sister, Valerie Biden Owens, and her husband, John T. Owens, as well as Sara Jones Biden, the wife of James Biden. He pardoned all the members of the bipartisan House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters, as well as their staff and the police officers who testified during their inquiry. In issuing the pre-emptive pardons, Mr. Biden effectively turned the president’s constitutional power of forgiveness into a protective shield against what he maintained would be politically motivated vengeance. No other president has employed executive clemency in such a broad and overt way to thwart a successor he believes would abuse his power, and no other president, not even Mr. Trump, has pardoned so many members of his own family.

AP [1/20/2025 10:21 PM, Staff, 33392K, Neutral] reports a U.S. Border Patrol agent was fatally shot Monday on a highway in northern Vermont south of the Canadian border, authorities said. The death was confirmed by the FBI and Benjamine Huffman, acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security in Washington. In a statement, the FBI said that in addition to the agent, a suspect in the shooting was killed and a second suspect was injured and taken into custody during the encounter on Interstate 91 in Coventry, about 20 miles (32 km) from the Canadian border. The FBI said there was no ongoing threat to the public. Huffman said the death occurred “in the line of duty.” The identity of the agent, who was assigned to the U.S. Border Patrol’s Swanton Sector, was not immediately released. The sector encompasses Vermont and parts of New York and New Hampshire. Federal authorities did not provide additional details but said they would be released as they became available. A portion of Interstate 91 was closed in both directions for about two hours afterward. The northbound lane reopened just after 5 p.m. Besides federal authorities, the Vermont State Police was also investigating. The FBI responded from the Albany, New York, office. Huffman said the death would be “swiftly investigated.” “Every single day, our Border Patrol agents put themselves in harm’s way so that Americans and our homeland are safe and secure,” Huffman said in a statement. Coventry is close to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Newport Station, part of the Swanton Sector. The area includes 295 miles (475 kilometers) of international boundary with Canada. In a joint statement, Vermont’s Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Peter Welch and Rep. Becca Balint sent condolences to the agent’s family and said Border Patrol agents “deserve our full support in terms of staffing, pay and working conditions.”

Reported similarly:
New York Times [1/20/2025 6:01 PM, Jenna Russell and Hamed Aleaziz, Neutral]
Washington Post [1/20/2025 10:11 PM, Nick Miroff and Maria Sacchetti, 40736K, Negative]
Reuters [1/20/2025 8:40 PM, Kanishka Singh, 48128K, Negative]
ABC News [1/20/2025 6:59 PM, Julia Reinstein and Luke Barr, 33392K, Neutral]
CNN [1/20/2025 9:26 PM, Zoe Sottile, 987K, Neutral]
FOX News [1/20/2025 5:46 PM, Sarah Rumpf-Whitten, Bill Melugin and Stepheny Price, 49889K, Neutral]
Newsweek [1/20/2025 5:03 PM, Katherine Fung, 56005K, Negative]

The Wall Street Journal [1/21/2025 12:18 AM, Catherine Lucey, Ken Thomas and C. Ryan Barber, Neutral] reports President Trump pardoned Monday nearly all of the 1,500 people charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, hours after outgoing President Joe Biden immunized from prosecution family members and other potential targets of the incoming administration. Trump’s sweeping clemency delivered on his polarizing campaign pledge to pardon supporters who joined in what federal judges and prosecutors have called an attack on American democracy. The new president made the announcement after arriving at the White House, effectively wiping away four years of prosecutions, including more than 1,100 convictions in what Justice Department officials have described as the largest investigation in U.S. history. While pardoning virtually all of those charged, Trump commuted the sentences of more than a dozen others. “They’ve been treated very unfairly,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “The judges have been absolutely brutal. The prosecutors have been brutal.” “I see murderers from this country get two years, one year, and maybe no time, but they’ve already been in jail for a long time,” he said. Among the recipients of clemency from Trump were leaders of far-right groups, including the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, who had been found guilty of seditious conspiracy and other offenses in connection with the Capitol attack. Trump pardoned former Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio, who was sentenced in 2023 to 22 years in prison, and commuted the sentence of Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, who was ordered to spend 18 years behind bars for plotting to prevent the peaceful transfer of power. The AP [1/21/2025 1:03 AM, Alanna Durkin Richer and Michael Kunzelman, 47097K, Neutral] reports Trump’s action, just hours after his return to the White House, paves the way for the release from prison of people found guilty of violent attacks on police, as well as leaders of far-right extremist groups convicted of failed plots to keep the Republican in power after he lost the 2020 election to former President Joe Biden. The pardons are a culmination of Trump’s yearslong campaign to rewrite the history of the Jan. 6 attack that left more than 100 police officers injured as the angry mob of Trump supporters — some armed with poles, bats and bear spray — overwhelmed law enforcement, shattered windows and sent lawmakers and aides running into hiding. While pardons were expected, the speed and the scope of the clemency amounted to a stunning dismantling of the Justice Department’s effort to hold participants accountable over what has been described as one of the darkest days in the country’s history. Trump also ordered the attorney general to seek the dismissal of roughly 450 cases that are still pending before judges stemming from the largest investigation in Justice Department history. Casting the rioters as “patriots” and “hostages,” Trump has claimed they were unfairly treated by the Justice Department that also charged him with federal crimes in two cases he contends were politically motivated. Trump said the pardons will end “a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years” and begin “a process of national reconciliation.” The pardons were met with elation from Trump supporters and lawyers for the Jan. 6 defendants. Trump supporters gathered late Monday in the cold outside the Washington jail, where more than a dozen defendants were being held before the pardons. “We are deeply thankful for President Trump for his actions today,” said James Lee Bright, an attorney who represented Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, who was serving an 18-year prison sentence after being convicted of seditious conspiracy and other crimes. It’s unclear how quickly the defendants may be released from prison. An attorney for Enrique Tarrio, the former Proud Boys national chairman who was sentenced to 22 years in prison for seditious conspiracy, said he expected his client to be released from prison Monday night. Reuters [1/21/2025 1:50 AM, Deborah Gembara, Steve Holland, Andrew Goudsward and Andy Sullivan, 48128K, Negative] reports Stewart Rhodes, the former leader of the Oath Keepers militia who had his 18-year prison sentence commuted, was released early on Tuesday after midnight in Cumberland, Maryland. Rhodes did not enter the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, but he was found guilty for plotting to use force against Congress to prevent the election certification. He was also accused of helping to stockpile firearms at a hotel in nearby Virginia that could be ferried across the river to Washington. “Donald Trump is ushering in a Golden Age for people that break the law and attempt to overthrow the government," said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer. The attack was spurred by Trump’s refusal to acknowledge his defeat, which threatened the peaceful transfer of power for the first time in U.S. history. Roughly 140 police officers were assaulted during the attack and four people died during the chaos. Among those due to be released are leaders of the far-right Proud Boys organization, including some who were convicted of seditious conspiracy. About 40 men wearing Proud Boys insignia traded insults with protesters on the streets of Washington during Trump’s inauguration on Monday. Trump’s pardon was only one of a sheaf of executive orders he signed after an inauguration ceremony in the U.S. Rotunda, where his supporters had rampaged four years earlier.

Reported similarly:
Los Angeles Times [1/20/2025 9:05 PM, Kevin Rector, 6595K, Neutral]
CBS Austin [1/20/2025 10:10 PM, Austin Denean, 581K, Neutral] Video: HERE
NBC News [1/20/2025 11:06 AM, Rebecca Shabad, 57114K, Neutral]

NBC News [1/20/2025 2:12 PM, Nicole Acevedo and Jacob Soboroff, 50804K, Negative] reports in his first speech as president, Trump said he "will declare a national emergency at our southern border. All illegal entry will immediately be halted, and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came." Trump vowed to reinstate "Remain in Mexico," a policy from his first administration requiring anyone seeking to enter the United States through Mexico to remain in that country. He also promised to "send troops to the southern border to repel the disastrous invasion of our country." With agents still awaiting new guidance, it was not immediately clear how exactly the executive orders will affect operations on the ground. But ahead of Trump’s inauguration, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and members of her Cabinet expressed their disagreement with his plan to revive the "Remain in Mexico" policy and the "unilateral deportations" of Mexican nationals living in the U.S.

Yahoo! News [1/20/2025 4:28 PM, Matthew Petti, 57114K, Negative] reports the new Trump administration is "designating the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations" as part of a crackdown on drug trafficking across the U.S.-Mexican border, President Donald Trump said during his inauguration speech on Monday. Trump also promised "to use the full and immense power of federal and state law enforcement to eliminate the presence of all foreign gang criminal networks" through the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which allows the government to round up foreigners who are citizens of a country that Congress has declared war on or that is engaged in an "invasion or predatory incursion." The terrorism designations are not exactly a declaration of war. A Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) designation bans Americans—or anyone who wants to immigrate to the United States—from providing any kind of "material support" to a designated terrorist group and allows victims of terrorism to sue alleged FTO supporters for compensation. Meanwhile, a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) designation allows the U.S. Treasury to seize a group’s assets. Trump’s executive order will apply both FTO and SDGT designations and will include non-Mexican gangs as well, such as El Salvador’s MS-13 and Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua, according to Fox News. Unlike other U.S. sanctions, the FTO and SDGT lists don’t include exemptions for free speech or humanitarian aid. While Americans are allowed to buy books from Cuba or ship food to North Korea despite the U.S. embargoes on those countries, the same doesn’t apply to Al Qaeda. SDGT sanctions have been a headache for international charities working in Yemen under Houthi rule and Afghanistan under Taliban rule, and contributed to a near famine in the latter country. Adding drug cartels to the FTO list could have similarly far-reaching consequences, both for Americans doing business south of the border and Mexicans trying to immigrate north. "Because the cartels are so closely intertwined with legitimate businesses (in mafioso-like protection rackets), many people are forced to pay them off or be killed. Under US law, that could count as material support to terrorism," writes attorney Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the nonprofit American Immigration Council.

New York Times [1/21/2025 5:00 AM, Annie Correal, 161405K, Neutral] reports Carlos Navarro was eating takeout outside a restaurant in Virginia recently when immigration officers apprehended him and said there was an order for his removal from the country. He had never had an encounter with the law, said Mr. Navarro, 32, adding that he worked at poultry plants. “Absolutely nothing.” By last week, he was back in Guatemala for the first time in 11 years, calling his wife in the United States from a reception center for deportees in the capital, Guatemala City. Mr. Navarro’s experience may be a preview of the kind of swift deportations coming under President Donald J. Trump to communities around the United States, which is home to as many as 14 million unauthorized immigrants. The administration, which has promised the largest deportations in American history, was said to be starting them as soon as Tuesday. In his inaugural speech on Monday, Mr. Trump promised to “begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came.” Mr. Navarro’s situation provides a glimpse into what mass deportations could mean in Latin American countries at the other end of the deportation pipeline. Officials there are preparing to receive significant numbers of their citizens, though many governments have said that they had not been able to meet with the incoming administration about its deportation push. Guatemala, a small, impoverished nation scarred by a brutal civil war, has a substantial undocumented population in the United States. About 675,000 undocumented Guatemalans lived in the country in 2022, according to the Pew Research Center. That makes it one of the largest countries of origin for unauthorized immigrants in the United States, after Mexico, India and El Salvador, and a laboratory for how mass deportations also stand to change life outside the United States. Last year, Guatemala received around seven deportation flights a week from the United States, according to migration officials, which translates to about 1,000 people. The government has told U.S. officials that it can accommodate a maximum of 20 such flights a week, or around 2,500 people, the officials said.

New York Times [1/20/2025 5:32 AM, Binyamin Appelbaum, 161405K, Neutral] reports Donald Trump has promised to severely curtail legal and illegal immigration as he takes office for the second time. In this episode of “The Opinions,” the writer Binyamin Appelbaum argues that while the United States needs to improve its immigration enforcement, the country also desperately needs immigrants for cultural and economic vibrancy. Immigrants, Appelbaum explains, are the country’s “rocket fuel,” and he argues for specific legal changes to ensure the United States’ immigration policy matches its national interests. For the last year, I’ve been spending a lot of time reporting on immigration. And I’m specifically trying to understand what immigration means to this country, what is broken about the current system and how we can fix it. Today, on Donald Trump’s second presidential inauguration, I’m watching, with concern, his plans to start cracking down on immigration. I think it is undoubtedly the case that the U.S. needs to assert control over who enters and lives and works in this country, but it would be a profound mistake to reduce immigration or to try to deport the people who live here already. The U.S. needs immigration. Immigration is this nation’s rocket fuel. It brings people to this country who bring with them creativity, ambition and resources. Immigrants are people who have the skill, the talent and the daring to make what is often a very difficult journey to a new country and they have a long history of contributing to American society. “They” is almost a funny way to talk about it — we Americans are mostly the descendants of immigrants, if we are not immigrants ourselves.

Newsweek [1/20/2025 6:00 AM, Bambadjan Bamba, 56005K, Neutral] reports that, in 2017, I publicly revealed my status as a DACA recipient and undocumented immigrant. I put my career, family, and life I had built on the line because I was tired—tired of the fear, xenophobia, and political campaigns that reduced people like me to dangerous stereotypes. I wanted America to understand that we’re not the rapists or terrorists that some claim. We’re doctors, nurses, farmers, and even actors in your favorite films and TV shows. We contribute to this nation’s success, not its downfall. As I watched President-elect Donald Trump on Meet the Press, I felt that disturbing sense of urgency. He’s back for a second term with the same agenda—inciting fear with false threats, like eliminating birthright citizenship by signing an executive order. However, legal experts agree that overriding the 14th Amendment would require a complex, lengthy process—not just the stroke of a pen. What’s more alarming is that Trump claims he will deport 30 million people, even though only 11 million undocumented immigrants live, work, and pay taxes in America, according to the Pew Research Center and Homeland Security. These scare tactics aim to paralyze us with fear and discourage us from taking action. But we know from experience that when we fight, we can win. When they tried to end DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) in 2017, we fought all the way to the Supreme Court—and we won. That victory was not only for over 800,000 Dreamers, but a glimmer of hope for families who are still living in the shadows and all who believe in justice and compassion. We cannot afford to lose hope now because we are not going back to family separation and detention camps. Staying silent in fear is far costlier than speaking out. For the soul of this nation, we must keep fighting—with even greater passion and purpose. My journey is a testament to the sacrifice and resilience of immigrants. My family fled Côte d’Ivoire when I was 10, seeking protection and political asylum. Although we were denied permanent legal residency, DACA protected me from deportation, provided a temporary work status, and afforded me time to navigate the labyrinth of an outdated immigration system to become a permanent resident.

Washington Examiner [1/19/2025 8:00 AM, Jonathan Plucker, 2365K, Positive] reports that the United States is a great place to be talented, but a poor place to develop your talents. The combination of tax and regulatory policies, access to capital, freedom of movement and expression, and concentration of other exceptional people allows the best and brightest to thrive economically and culturally. But for most American students, getting there is tricky, due to the bias against advanced education in our K-12 schools and teacher prep programs. This dichotomy is what makes recent visa debates so vexing: For every H-1B visa holder who thrives in and contributes to our country’s economy and culture, we can point to many more students already in the U.S. who have few opportunities to develop their strengths into true excellence. We need both highly skilled immigrants and highly talented Americans, because the American economy has an almost infinite need for exceptional workers to compete in the global marketplace. We have decades of research showing that students thrive when they have access to advanced education, be it in the form of accelerated coursework, AP courses, specialized math-science high schools, or other rigorous, high-quality interventions. However, the trend over the past decade in public schools has been to reduce advanced services, usually due to the mistaken belief that providing those services is "inequitable.” But by increasing H-1B visa fees, we can leverage the immigration system to create more opportunities for American students to perform at advanced levels. The new revenue could support an initiative to promote American educational excellence, the first since the National Defense Education Act was passed in reaction to Sputnik. Raising the current fees by $2,000 at current visa numbers would produce over $160 million annually to promote academic excellence, or roughly $30 per K-12 student – a very small investment in American excellence but an exponential increase from the current 30 cents per student. Leading policymakers, including Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA), supported this idea during previous attempts to overhaul the immigration system. But using an increase in H-1B visa fees to develop homegrown talent is again timely due to the recent explosion in research and policy development on advanced education. We have learned a great deal about developing students’ exceptional talents both effectively and efficiently, yet this knowledge is not being used in most schools and classrooms due to a widespread bias against gifted and advanced education. Federal leadership is needed to push through this misguided resistance.

ABC’s This Week With George Stephanopoulos [1/19/2025 11:10 AM, Staff, 2500K, Negative] reports TikTok is now dark. 170 million Americans can no longer access the app. Democratic Senator Alex Padilla gives his reaction. Senator Padilla says that the law has been passed, the Supreme Court has upheld the TikTok ban. He goes on to say that it will be one of the first items President Trump will have to contend with. Senator Padilla comments that TikTok had plenty of time to do what legislation called for. "Look, we’re – we support the creative community, and social media platforms, but clear there have to be guardrails to protect against a lot of the harms that are increasingly evident when it comes to, not just but TikTok, whether it’s addiction to social media, the power of misinformation and disinformation that extends (ph) so many issue areas. Those are undeniable and have to be addressed, whether TikTok stays or whether TikTok is sold or whether TikTok goes away," Senator Padilla states.

CBS’ Face The Nation [1/19/2025 11:53 AM, Staff, 4201K, Neutral] reports TikTok took itself offline at midnight because of this national security law that Representative Waltz signed on to, as a congressman which recognizes that TikTok, owned by a Chinese firm, ByteDance, is a national security threat. President Donald Trump has promised to work with them. If President Trump issues an executive order that bypasses a national security law, isn’t this a risk? "What we need between now and Monday is to buy the president some time to evaluate those deals. And, if it goes dark, that’s going to be, obviously, extremely problematic. So both can be true. We can have an app that Americans can – Americans can enjoy, but at the same time that protects their data and protects them from outside influence and undue influence. And that’s the time and space that the president is seeking. And as a dealmaker, I think we all should be confident that he can craft that kind of a deal." Representative Waltz comments.

ABC’s This Week With George Stephanopoulos [1/19/2025 11:10 AM, Staff, 2500K, Positive] reports President Biden states that the ceasefire gone into effect in Gaza and today three hostages were released. The hostages were Three Israeli women who were held against their will in dark tunnels for 470 days. Four more women will be released in seven days and three additional hostages seven days there after including at least two American citizens.

NBC’s Meet the Press [1/19/2025 1:04 PM, Staff, Neutral] reports Kristen Welker spoke with President-elect Donald Trump in a phone interview and he said that the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal "better hold". Speaker Johnson says that he is hopeful that the ceasefire agreement will hold. "I spoke with Prime Minister Netanyahu I believe on Thursday of this past week. They’re cautiously optimistic. Hamas is a terrorist organization. They’re not known to keep their word. But we need these hostages released. And we hope they’re released into safety, we hope that there is peace in Israel. But I will say this, if Hamas breaks the ceasefire, they need to know the United States will stand with our ally, Israel. And Israel will have to eradicate that threat. It’s very important for the stability of the region," Speaker Johnson comments. The first round of hostages are not American, Speaker Johnson is asked if he is confident that the American hostages will be released in the coming days, if not weeks. Speaker Johnson had this to say, "We certainly pray that that is true. We met constantly with the hostage families. They’ve been in Washington advocating for their family members. It’s such a tragic situation and so unnecessary. But again, it highlights the necessity of Israel taking decisive action. You cannot allow Hamas, which, of course, is a proxy of Iran, to be situated as they were, to have another October 7. We just can’t – the Israelis can’t live under those conditions. And everyone around the world needs to know, as President Trump has made clear, that we stand with Israel. And there will be hell to pay for Hamas if they violate these terms."

FOX News Sunday [1/19/2025 1:10 PM, Staff, Neutral] reports Israeli ambassador to U.S. Michael Herzog joins ‘Fox News Sunday’ to discuss the Israel-Hamas cease-fire taking place and hostages set to be released. Ambassador Herzog says that there are three phases to the agreement, we are in the first phases which is about releasing women, the elderly and the sick/wounded. The second phase would be remaining live hostages, males. The third phase is about bodies.

CBS’ Face The Nation [1/19/2025 11:53 AM, Staff, 4201K, Neutral] reports three women hostages were released and have been transferred to the Red Cross. Brett Mcgurk confirm with his Israeli counterpart that the women are in Israeli custody. Mcgurk says that they’ve been in deplorable conditions for over 470 days but the Israelis have a good system to taken care of. It appeared that, even up until this morning, it was in question whether Hamas was going to go through with the agreement. The Israelis said they hadn’t handed over the names of the captives.

CBS’ Face The Nation [1/19/2025 11:53 AM, Staff, 4201K, Neutral] reports yesterday Representative Mike Waltz met with families of some hostages being held in Gaza. At least three American hostages assessed to still be alive and in captivity. On American might not be released until phase two, when mail soldiers are released and Israeli troops withdraw. Will the Trump team see this through to completion? Representative Waltz states, "remember, the terms of the deal that we finally have come to was inherited in many ways from the Biden administration. So it was actually the Biden negotiators that were at the table, and the – the other side was dealing with them, but kind of looking to us, particularly Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s Middle East envoy. And one of the things that we inherited was this framework of women, the elderly and the sick coming out first. The – one of the Americans is an Israeli soldier. He – that means he’ll come out in the second phase, but we will get him out, period."

AP [1/19/2025 4:01 PM, Sophia Tareen, 2212K, Neutral] reports the Rev. Homero Sanchez said he didn’t realize the depth of fear in the Chicago immigrant community he serves until someone asked him to handle the sale of their family’s home and other finances if they are picked up this week when President-elect Donald Trump takes office. Immigrants in large cities have been preparing for mass arrests since Trump won election in November, but reports that his initial push would be in the Chicago area has brought a new sense of urgency and fear. “They feel they have been targeted for who they are. They feel like they’re reviving this fear they had eight years ago,” said Sanchez of St. Rita of Cascia Parish on Chicago’s South Side. “They’re feeling like something is going to happen. This is not their city because of the threat.” Sanchez, whose congregation has consisted mostly of people of Mexican descent since the 1980s, devoted Sunday Mass “to solidarity with our immigrant brothers and sisters.” Some immigrants in the country without legal status have been designating power of attorney to trusted friends, making plans for childcare in case of separations and installing security cameras on their doors in case immigration agents come. Others have left voluntarily, as Trump aides have encouraged them to do. Plans for deportation arrests are in flux, but federal immigration officers will target more than 300 people with histories of egregious, violent crimes after Trump takes office Monday, one official said Saturday, speaking on condition of anonymity because the plans have not been made public. The operation will be concentrated in the Chicago area and continue all week, subject to potential weather delays, the official said. Temperatures in Chicago dipped to 6 degrees Fahrenheit (-14.4 degrees Celsius) with cold temperatures forecast throughout the week. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests a fraction of its targets in such operations, though Trump is expected to cast a wider net than President Joe Biden, whose focus on picking up people away from the border was largely limited to those with serious criminal histories or who pose a risk to national security. Biden’s administration also ended the practice of mass worksite arrests, which were common under Trump, including a 2019 operation targeting Mississippi chicken plants.

New York Times [1/21/2025 3:43 AM, Alexandra Berzon and Hamed Aleaziz, 740K, Neutral] reports that, in 2016, Thomas D. Homan was a frustrated immigration bureaucrat ready to call it quits. A former border patrol agent with a lawman’s steely demeanor, he had been an odd fit for the Obama administration. Top officials would call on him when they wanted a hard-liner’s take. But his proposals — including an early version of the controversial family separation policy to deter migrants — were often rejected. In the years since, Donald J. Trump’s rise has fully unleashed Mr. Homan and his ideas. In Mr. Trump’s first administration, Mr. Homan helped make the family separation policy a chaotic reality. And in the second, Mr. Homan is poised to be the White House “border czar,” tasked with making good on the incoming president’s promise to carry out the largest deportation campaign in American history. Mr. Homan’s ascent completes his transformation from dutiful official in a Democratic administration to full-throated Trump world fixture. Where he once signed off on transgender care guidelines and the Obama administration’s targeted immigration policy, he now endorses far-right theories about immigration and elections. He has boasted that he is completely unbothered by criticism of the family separation policy. When he was first approached about joining a second Trump administration, Mr. Homan says he told Mr. Trump that he was so angry about the border that “I’ll come back for free.” Mr. Homan, whose post does not require Senate confirmation, has acknowledged his mission is virtually impossible, much less in four years. Mr. Trump has vowed to remove all of the roughly 11 million people in the country illegally — which experts say is far-fetched and would be shockingly disruptive if carried out. Yet Mr. Homan has described plans for a methodical and aggressive campaign. He has said he intends to focus on deporting “the worst first” — people arrested over crimes unrelated to immigration, people who already have deportation orders, and two million others he deems security risks. But he has also promised that the effort’s reach would eventually be broader. He says he already has met with technology executives about tools to find undocumented immigrants, like facial-recognition software or license-plate readers. He has proposed a hotline for people to report neighbors they suspect are living in the country illegally.

The Philadelphia Inquirer [1/20/2025 5:00 AM, Jeff Gammage and Julia Terruso, Neutral] reports President-elect Donald Trump promised increased immigration restrictions and a closed border in the campaign that made him president. His inauguration on Monday could immediately usher in major policy changes that will have ramifications locally. Trump has pledged to quickly issue a series of orders to toughen and expand federal immigration enforcement by deporting millions of undocumented immigrants, jailing migrant families, repealing birthright citizenship, and targeting sanctuary cities like Philadelphia. People familiar with one plan told NBC News that Trump intends a major policy reversal concerning ICE, freeing the enforcement agency to arrest immigrants in places where agents have been officially dissuaded from taking action, including churches, schools, and hospitals. While it’s unclear exactly who might be targeted, the scope, or how the government would carry out large-scale operations, advocates are already bracing for potential impact.

Yahoo! News [1/20/2025 5:35 PM, Staff, 57114K, Neutral] reports that as President Donald Trump took the stage for his inaugural address on Monday, some Springfield residents at the center of the debate over immigration watched from inside a local Haitian restaurant. Haitians in Springfield have long been preparing for this day. They’ve been the focus of a national spotlight since September when Vice President JD Vance posted claims without evidence about Haitian immigrants eating dogs and cats. Trump repeated the claims during the presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris. Right after Trump’s comments, the central Ohio city of 60,000 was plagued by bomb threats and poor school attendance as the situation gained national media attention. In September, Trump promised "large deportations" from Springfield if elected. "I can say this, we will do large deportations from Springfield, Ohio – large deportations. We’re going to get these people out," he said. Watching the inauguration felt weird, Springfield resident Dina Paul said, though she felt supported by the community after his comments. Springfield resident Dina Paul moves into the city during the tax season to help the residents. She lives in Florida during other times of the year. "Most of the local residents knew what was up and stood up for us," she said. Paul lives in Springfield during the tax season and also helps Haitian residents with job applications. She said the Haitian residents are most worried about their temporary protected status, a federal designation for immigrants from countries with dangerous conditions, such as a natural disaster or armed conflict. In June, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas extended the status for Haiti to February 2026. Paul said she continues to feel support from the Springfield community and their appreciation of Haitian culture, like when people frequent the Rose Goute Creole restaurant for Haitian food. Vilés Dorsainvil, the executive director of Haitian Support Center, said the center has hosted trainings preparing Haitian residents for encounters with ICE officers. Vilés Dorsainvil, executive director of the Haitian Community Help and Support Center, said he’s spoken to friends nervous about the inauguration and the return of Trump to power.

FOX News [1/19/2025 5:29 PM, Greg Wehner, 49889K, Neutral] reports Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, on Sunday, doubled down on his vow to oppose President-elect Trump’s sweeping reform aimed at removing dangerous illegal immigrants accused of crimes from the U.S. once he returns to the Oval Office on Monday. In preparation for a change in federal administration, the mayor’s office has assured the city would continue to comply with the 2017 Illinois Trust Act, which prohibits local law enforcement from participating in federal immigration enforcement. On Sunday, his opposition continued to ring loud and clear. "Chicago stands strong: regardless of the circumstances, our commitment to protecting and supporting this city remains unwavering," Johnson wrote in a social media post. "We will continue to fight for the justice and safety of all who call this place home.” The mayor also shared comments he made back in November, after Trump won the election. In a nearly minute and ten second clip, Johnson said he and other city officials were going to defend the people of Chicago, telling those in attendance Trump’s threats are not just toward new arrivals and undocumented families, but also Black families.

Newsweek [1/19/2025 2:17 PM, Ewan Palmer, 56005K, Neutral] reports President-elect Donald Trump’s plans to launch a major immigration raid in Chicago next week are under review after details of the operation were leaked to the press, incoming border czar Tom Homan has said. Newsweek has contacted the Trump transition team and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency for comment via email. Reports of a major immigration raid in Chicago suggest Trump’s key 2024 campaign pledge to launch the largest mass deportation of undocumented immigrants could begin immediately after he returns to office. Federal immigration officers were reportedly planning a large-scale raid targeting approximately 300 people in Chicago, The Associated Press reported on Saturday, citing unnamed sources. The New York Times reported the raids were planned to begin Tuesday, one day after Trump’s inauguration, and continue until the following Monday. According to the Wall Street Journal, U.S. ICE planned to deploy between 100 and 200 officers to carry out the operation. The focus was on undocumented immigrants with criminal backgrounds. Some of those reportedly targeted have minor offenses, such as driving violations, which the outgoing Biden administration did not pursue. Homan, the former acting director for U.S. ICE, told ABC News that the incoming administration is now "reviewing" whether to proceed with the Chicago operation following the leak. A spokesperson for U.S. ICE told Newsweek that any information "concerning activities which may take place after the inauguration" must be referred to the incoming administration.

The Hill [1/19/2025 4:48 PM, Sarah Fortinsky, 16346K, Neutral] reports President-elect Trump’s incoming border czar, Tom Homan, said Sunday that enforcement officials are "reconsidering" some of the details of the Chicago immigration operation after specifics were leaked to the press. In an interview on Fox News’s "America’s Newsroom," Homan made clear that the operation would not be aborted altogether but that officials would revisit some of the specifics to ensure officers’ safety. "We’re not reconsidering any operation. There was a leak in Chicago. So we’re looking at that leak and find out, how does it affect officer safety concerns?" Homan said, when asked about reporting that officials were "reconsidering" whether to proceed with the operation this week. "Chicago’s not off the table, but we’re reconsidering when and how we do it because there was a leak," Homan continued. Homan, former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), said he is happy to talk publicly about his overall objectives to secure the border and heighten enforcement of the country’s immigration laws, but he said discussing "specific plans" can raise concerns for officers’ safety. "What was leaked in Chicago was more specific, what was happening, and that raises officer safety concern," Homan said. "They already have a dangerous job. Like I said, they’re going to arrest public safety threats and national security threats, dangerous. But when those bad guys has a heads-up that we’re hitting you at this time this day, it raises officer safety concerns, specific operational plans.” "So we’re looking at it, what was leaked, what’s actually in there and how is it going to affect us moving forward," he added. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday night that the incoming Trump administration was planning an immigration raid in Chicago, citing four sources familiar with the planning. According to the Journal, between 100 and 200 officers would be there to carry out the operation, which was expected to begin Tuesday morning and last all week.

Newsweek [1/20/2025 11:30 AM, Billal Rahman, 56005K, Neutral] reports business leaders and employers across the United States, including in Chicago, are raising alarms over immigration raids as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to implement his mass deportation policy. The incoming administration is expected to conduct raids in major cities like Chicago. A key aspect of Trump’s immigration policy is the removal of millions of undocumented immigrants, prioritizing those who have committed crimes. However, critics argue that his plan for mass deportations could severely cripple the U.S. economy. Business leaders are concerned that some foreign-born employees may skip work to avoid contact with ICE. The incoming administration is expected to carry out raids in major cities such as Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Denver, and Miami.

Yahoo! News [1/20/2025 3:38 PM, Sophie Carson, 57114K, Neutral] reports that, as Donald Trump once again takes office as U.S. president, whether local law enforcement agencies cooperate with federal immigration authorities will become a crucial flashpoint in his planned mass deportation effort. Local police and sheriff’s departments may lend support to, or hinder, the efforts of federal agencies such as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in a variety of ways. That could range from supporting deportation raids to declining to inform ICE about noncitizens in their jails. And in a purple state like Wisconsin, the approach to undocumented immigrants is likely to vary county to county. The Trump administration could incentivize agencies to participate or threaten those who don’t. But many proposed actions are likely to face legal challenges from immigrant advocates. Among the uncertainty, the constitutional law is clear, said Kevin Johnson, professor of law at the University of California, Davis. "The federal government can’t commandeer state and local governments to do much of anything," Johnson said. The debate is already heating up. The Beloit Police Department said in a statement in early January that it would not enter into contracts with ICE, and it would not conduct immigration-related investigations, as it did not align with its community policing philosophy. The department said it would cooperate with ICE only if the person is suspected of terrorism, gang activity or arrested for violent felonies. Those are also the circumstances under which the Milwaukee Police Department and Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office cooperates with ICE.

Yahoo! News [1/19/2025 3:40 PM, Staff, 57114K, Negative] reports that a man accused of distributing sexually explicit photos of a minor under the age of 15 was indicted in late December, according to the Arizona Attorney General’s office. A state grand jury indicted Gehrig Voss Duarte, 21, on 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor on Dec. 30, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announced. Duarte’s charges are connected to an incident in July 2024. Such a crime is a Class 2 felony, the most serious charge a person can face, just behind murder. It carries a prison sentence that can range from five to 10 years. If it’s determined to be an aggravated sentence, a person could face 12.5 years in prison. Gehrig has been held on a cash-only bond of $100,000, according to Mayes’ office. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s investigations team was looking into the case, the Attorney General’s Office said. This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona man accused of sexual exploitation of a minor.

Miami Herald [1/19/2025 3:34 PM, Jakob Rodgers, Robert Salonga and Rick Hurd, 6595K, Negative] reports as President-elect Donald Trump takes office and gains the power to enact a threatened mass deportation of undocumented immigrants, officials who run Bay Area jails say they will uphold state laws that keep them out of immigration enforcement actions. Citing state laws passed during Trump’s first term, several law enforcement leaders over the past two weeks said they don’t plan to aid federal immigration agents seeking access to county jails - seen as a ripe target, since undocumented immigrants may already be in custody on suspicion of U.S.-based crimes - or provide personnel to round up people for deportation. Still, immigrant advocates and their attorneys say it remains anyone’s guess what might happen across the country after Trump is sworn into office Monday, when the president-elect can begin making good on campaign promises to "carry out the largest domestic deportation operation in American history.” Even if Trump’s threats of deporting some 11 million undocumented residents from the United States doesn’t come to fruition, his rhetoric from the campaign trail appears to have instilled a palpable climate of fear among immigrants across the Bay Area and the nation - even among those here legally, and who have formally requested political asylum. California was home to an estimated 1.8 million unauthorized immigrants as of 2022, the highest number of any state, according to a study by Pew Research. The Bay Area had more than 449,000 unauthorized immigrants excluding counts of Napa and Marin counties, according to an estimate compiled by the Migration Policy Institute for 2019. "There is a lot of uncertainty," said Lourdes Martinez, immigrant rights co-directing attorney with Centro Legal de la Raza in Oakland’s Fruitvale District. "But based on what happened in the last Trump administration, what we know is that chaos is about to ensue.”

New York Times [1/20/2025 10:11 PM, Hamed Aleaziz, 161405K, Negative] reports President Trump on Monday signed an executive order suspending refugee resettlement in the United States, picking up where he left off in his first term with his efforts to kill a program that offers safe harbor to people around the world facing threats and persecution. He has long railed against refugees, claiming that the program floods the country with undesirable people and allows terrorists and other dangerous people into the United States. “The United States lacks the ability to absorb large numbers of migrants, and in particular, refugees, into its communities in a manner that does not compromise the availability of resources for Americans, that protects their safety and security, and that ensures the appropriate assimilation of refugees,” the executive order reads. During his first term, Mr. Trump broke down the U.S. refugee apparatus, decimating a system that had bipartisan support and had been largely untouched for years as he slashed the number of refugees admitted to the country. Mr. Trump’s order suspends refugee resettlement as of next Monday. The order directs top leaders in the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department to issue a report to him every 90 days thereafter to allow him to assess whether the refugee program “would be in the interests of the United States,” according to the order. Foreign nationals seeking to resettle as refugees in the United States face a rigorous and extensive screening process that often lasts for years, which includes security and medical vetting; scrutiny of their families and those with whom they have associated; and interviews with American officials overseas. Under the law, U.S. officials can reject anyone who the government “knows, or has reasonable ground to believe” will or could commit a terrorist act. But they also have discretion to deny individuals based on mere suspicions. When he first took office in 2017, Mr. Trump initially paused the refugee program. Then, he used the annual cap to sharply cut the number of refugees allowed into the country. By the end of his administration, he proposed capping the number of refugees at 15,000, the lowest number in the more than 40-year history of the program. The cuts all but destroyed refugee resettlement in the United States. The network of organizations that support refugees when they first enter the country shrank because they had so many fewer people to serve. The number of government officials assigned to the program also slimmed during those years, to 107 from 170.

Newsweek [1/20/2025 7:24 PM, Rachel Dobkin, 56005K, Neutral] reports Birthright citizenship hasn’t changed much over the years with births to foreign-born mothers in the United States remaining between 20 and 25 percent for over two decades, according to data from a youth advocacy organization. Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment via email on Monday. President Donald Trump is set to issue executive orders on Monday aimed at tightening border security and cracking down on illegal immigration, which includes ending birthright citizenship for children of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally. In 2000, 21 percent of births were to foreign-born mothers, according to data from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. This number has fluctuated slightly throughout the years, peaking at 25 percent in 2006. It decreased to 21 percent in 2021 before increasing to 24 percent in 2023. It’s important to note that this data does not differentiate between illegal and legal foreign-born mothers and includes mothers from Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Birthright citizenship is enshrined in the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which was added in the 19th Century to grant citizenship to former slaves.

Reuters [1/20/2025 9:19 PM, David Sherfinski, 48128K, Neutral] reports as newly inaugurated President Donald Trump readies his immigration crackdown, his allies in his Republican Party have splintered over policies surrounding U.S. worker visas intended to go to specialty occupations like the tech industry. The row over so-called H-1B visas is pitting Silicon Valley-aligned Trump allies like X CEO Elon Musk, who favor the program, against opponents like former White House strategist Steve Bannon, many of whom want curbs on overall immigration levels - legal and illegal - with Trump’s return to office. The H-1B visa program is reserved for people from other countries who are employed in specialty occupations in the United States, frequently in the technology field. They can include software engineers, tech program managers and other IT professionals. People in the United States on H-1Bs can extend beyond an initial six-year time frame - three years plus a three-year extension - if a green card application has been filed. Under the terms of their visas, workers who are laid off face the prospect of having to leave the country within 60 days unless they can find another job or manage to change their immigration status. Other work programs include H-2A visas, which are for temporary agricultural workers, and H-2B visas for seasonal non-agricultural workers. Musk has defended the program and vowed to "go to war" over it after other Trump supporters criticized the president’s appointment of Indian-American entrepreneur Sriram Krishnan as a senior policy advisor for artificial intelligence and argued the H-1B program favors foreign-born workers over Americans.

Yahoo! News [1/21/2025 12:38 AM, Staff, 57114K, Neutral] reports almost 1,660 Afghans who have received permission from the US government to resettle in the United States, including family members of active US military personnel, have had their flights cancelled following President Donald Trump’s order to suspend US refugee programmes, media reports say. Shawn VanDiver, head of the #AfghanEvac coalition of US veterans and advocacy groups and the US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, reported that the group includes unaccompanied minors awaiting reunification with their families in the United States, as well as Afghans who face retribution from the Taliban for fighting on the side of the former US-backed Afghan government. Currently, Afghans who have been granted refugee status in the United States are being removed from the lists of flights that were supposed to leave Kabul before April. The US decision also leaves thousands of other Afghans who have been granted refugee status in the US but have not yet been assigned flights from Afghanistan or neighbouring Pakistan in limbo. Reuters recalls that Trump made stricter immigration controls one of the central promises of his 2024 election campaign, leaving the fate of US refugee programmes in limbo.

CBS News [1/20/2025 4:46 PM, Steven Rosenbaum, Sergio Candido, 52225K, Positive] reports President Donald Trump’s inauguration marks a major change in federal immigration policy and a renewed push to expand the border wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. Mr. Trump’s speech took a technical turn as he relayed anecdotes about the wall’s construction and security features. A new bill recently filed in the Texas Senate would make it easier for new border wall segments to be built in the Lone Star State. The proposal, from State Sen. Brandon Creighton (R-Conroe), would allow Texas to use eminent domain authority to build a wall along the southern border. As Mr. Trump wrapped up his Monday speech, he emphasized his commitment to rebuilding and expanding the wall.

New York Times [1/20/2025 11:14 PM, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, 161405K, Neutral] reports President Trump declared a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border on Monday, invoking special presidential powers that allow him to unilaterally unlock federal funding for border wall construction and potentially to deploy the military and National Guard to the border. Mr. Trump took a similar step during his first term as a way to circumvent Congress and access billions of dollars that lawmakers refused to approve to build a wall along the border with Mexico. He once again empowered the military to support the Border Patrol with logistical planning, drone support and help procuring detention space. But in a separate order, Mr. Trump appeared to go further by giving the military a specific responsibility over immigration enforcement. During Mr. Trump’s first term, the military only supported immigration authorities but did not apprehend migrants. Mr. Trump now directed the Defense Department to come up with a plan in 30 days “to seal the borders and maintain the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and security of the United States by repelling forms of invasion, including unlawful mass migration, narcotics trafficking, human smuggling and trafficking, and other criminal activities.” While details on the exact plans remained unclear, the directive for the military could run afoul of laws that limit the use of regular federal troops for domestic policing purposes. As he did in his first term, Mr. Trump relied on the National Emergencies Act, a post-Watergate law that allows the president to declare a national emergency, which enhances his executive powers. The act was intended to enable the federal government to respond quickly to a crisis by creating exemptions to rules that would normally constrain the president. “The president has a pretty wide latitude in determining what constitutes a national emergency,” said Matthew Dallek, a political historian at George Washington University. “If they say it looks like a duck and walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, well, unless the courts say otherwise, it’s a duck.”

CBS News [1/19/2025 12:30 PM, Camilo Montoya-Galvez, 52225K, Neutral] reports approximately 270,000 migrants are estimated to be waiting on the Mexican side of the U.S.-Mexico border, hoping to get an appointment to enter the U.S. through a system that President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to end, according to government figures obtained by CBS News. U.S. Customs and Border Protection estimates that around 270,000 migrants in Mexico are trying to get an appointment distributed by a government app known as CBP One, which the Biden administration has converted into the main gateway to the American asylum system. Now, those migrants, many of whom are from countries outside of Mexico like crisis-stricken Haiti and Venezuela, are at risk of abruptly losing their ability to enter the U.S. Both Trump and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, his nominee to lead the Department of Homeland Security, have vowed to shut down CBP One. As of Jan. 16, nearly 919,000 migrants had been allowed into the U.S. through the CBP One app process, which was established in January 2023, according to an internal government report obtained by CBS News. It’s unclear what the incoming administration’s plans are for those already admitted through the app, though those with pending asylum requests won’t be deportable unless they lose their cases. Demand for CBP One appointments has been extraordinarily high, far exceeding the daily cap of 1,450 the Biden administration placed on appointments. Over the past two years, migrants have attempted to secure an appointment over 166 million times, logging into the app again and again to try their luck, the internal report shows. Wait times typically extend for months due to the high demand. Because appointments are distributed 21 days in advance of entry dates, roughly 30,000 migrants are currently scheduled to enter the U.S. under the CBP One system in the next three weeks. Appointments have been scheduled through early February, well into the incoming administration. It’s unclear if the Trump administration will honor those appointments. Even if CBP One is terminated, any effort to stop processing migrants at ports of entry would face legal challenges as federal courts have ruled that U.S. refugee law requires officials to process some asylum claimants at these entry points.

Washington Post [1/20/2025 3:57 PM, Arelis R. Hernández, 40736K, Negative] reports Ridel Jiménez arrived at the border bridge leading into Texas before dawn Monday with his wife and their infant daughter, hoping to be allowed into the United States after fleeing Cuba. They had waited six months in Mexico City for their appointment with U.S. immigration officials through CBP One, the mobile app that the Biden administration launched and that President Donald Trump’s team had vowed to eliminate. Moments after Trump was sworn in, Jiménez logged on to the app and saw a new message that left him flummoxed. “Existing appointments are no longer valid,” it said. Other migrants gathered around him logged on to the app and received the same message. One woman sat down and began to weep beneath a fleece blanket. Another leaned against a pole, buried her face in her gloved hands and cried. Jiménez made a video call to his mother, anxiously awaiting news from Cuba. “After everything we’ve done and gone through to get here,” Jiménez lamented. “If only I had had the appointment for three hours earlier.” As Trump took office promising to immediately halt “all illegal entry” to the country, an increasingly desperate scene played out immediately across the border from El Paso in the city of Juárez, Mexico. Dozens of people arrived in the early-morning hours Monday lugging babies wrapped in blankets and the few belongings they had hoped to bring with them into the United States. Those with the earliest appointments were allowed in. But by early afternoon, migrants like Jiménez were getting messages first saying their appointments were being pushed back, and then that they were no longer valid. Many of those with a CBP One appointment had waited for months, hoping to go through official, legal pathways to cross into the United States at a port of entry, obtain humanitarian parole and apply for asylum. In his inauguration address, Trump said he would declare a national emergency at the border and institute a policy requiring asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their claims are reviewed. He did not specifically address CBP One, but by early Monday afternoon, a message appeared on the app’s website stating that, effective immediately, the program was no longer available and existing appointments canceled.

CBS News [1/20/2025 1:02 PM, Jack Fink, 52225K, Neutral] Video: HERE reports President-elect Donald Trump has promised to crackdown on illegal immigration starting as soon as the first day of his second term. Meanwhile, a new bill recently filed in the Texas Senate would make it easier for new border wall segments to be built in the Lone Star State. CBS News Texas politics reporter Jack Fink spoke with the bill’s author as part of Sunday’s Eye on Politics. Also on the immigration topic, one of the first bills could reach Trump’s desk: The Laken Riley Act. Fink spoke with U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), who passed an amendment to the legislation. And as part of a series that looks at how Trump immigration policies could impact the Texas border with Mexico, CBS News Texas anchor Ken Molestina returned to various Texas border communities to hear what residents are saying about the new administration. State Sen. Brandon Creighton (R-Conroe) has filed a bill to allow Texas to use eminent domain authority to build a wall along the southern border. Creighton, the Senate President Pro Tempore, said his bill is the only legislation filed so far that would give the state the power. In an interview with CBS News Texas, Creighton said the state must think beyond the Trump administration. "In Texas, we have to continue working on our border enforcement plan because either way you look at it, this administration will be there for four years, but protecting Texas and all Texans at our southern border is not on a four year expiration. That’s permanent," the state legislator said. Creighton said eminent domain authority is already used by the state for other public projects. "Just as we do for highways, roads, dams, and bridges. Keeping people safe, building necessary infrastructure to provide for the safety of all Texans," he explained.

Newsweek [1/20/2025 4:29 PM, Billal Rahman, 56005K, Negative] reports police in riot gear were seen amassing on the southern border in El Paso, Texas moments before President Donald Trump returned to the White House in video shared by local media on Monday. Offices could be heard saying, "Crossing beyond this point will result in arrest, prosecution, and possible application of force," in footage aired by KFOX14 News. It was not evident from the clip whether the police were local or state law enforcement or Customs and Border Patrol agents. Newsweek understands that CBP agents were conducting a training exercise in the vicinity at the time the video was shot. Trump is expected to enact a hardline and aggressive immigration agenda, designed to curb migration and enforce tougher border security measures. He has pledged to deploy the military to secure the border as part a flurry of Day One executive orders. The police presence documented on Monday did not appear to be related to the military deployment, which has not yet been officially ordered. The port of entry in downtown El Paso was temporarily closed Monday morning, moments before the inauguration ceremony. Eyewitness footage shared by local media outlets showed heavily armed police units forming barricades near the Paso del Norte International Bridge, a major point of entry connecting El Paso to Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. Trump has signed a series of executive orders to address illegal immigration and border security. The executive orders will include deploying American troops to the southern border, ending birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants, dismantling programs initiated under President Joe Biden, and taking steps to target transnational crime syndicates. Trump has vowed to deploy state and federal law enforcement agencies to round up undocumented immigrants to be deported under mass removal plans. White House officials announced that Trump will issue executive orders suspending refugee resettlement for four months and eliminating the option for migrants to claim asylum by establishing a removal process without the possibility of asylum.

New York Times [1/20/2025 4:24 PM, J. David Goodman, Edgar Sandoval and Reyes Mata III, 161405K, Neutral] reports Sheriff Tom Schmerber, an elected Democrat in Maverick County, Texas, was watching on a television in his office near the U.S.-Mexico border on Monday as President Trump delivered his second inaugural address. “It’s all about common sense,” Mr. Trump was saying, as he promised drastic changes to the nation’s immigration system. “I hope so,” Mr. Schmerber replied to the television, with some skepticism. There were immediate changes — especially for migrants with pending appointments to meet with immigration officials — but along much of the border, already quieted by recent Biden administration policy changes, the dominant feeling was anxious anticipation, tinged with confusion. When Mr. Trump said from the U.S. Capitol that he would send federal troops to the border, Sheriff Schmerber wondered how they would operate legally. “The soldiers cannot go on private property unless they have permission of the owners,” he said. And the new president’s portrayal of a nation on its knees might have seemed out of place in Eagle Pass, Texas, which had been ground zero for Gov. Greg Abbott’s clashes with the Biden administration. National Guard troops stood watch in a cold wind in a park, but all was quiet. There had been no illegal crossings from Mexico, or much of anything in recent days. “It’s pretty dead,” said Spc. Blaine Roldan. Nearby, a tan stray dog the soldiers nicknamed “Pooper” slowly wagged his tail for food not far from a wall of shipping containers and concertina wire installed at Mr. Abbott’s direction. Hope turned to disappointment for many migrants as they found that their long-sought appointments to meet with federal immigration officials had been suddenly canceled under Mr. Trump’s new administration. Standing on American soil, steps from the international bridge connecting McAllen, Texas, with Hidalgo, Mexico, Martin Gomez, 45, said he felt defeated by the closure of an app, called CBP One, for migrants seeking to claim asylum and worried that his appointment, scheduled for Aug. 28 in Orlando, Fla., would not happen and that he would have to return to Colombia.

The Texas Tribune [1/20/2025 6:00 AM, Matthew Choi, 1609K, Neutral] reports President Donald Trump will declare a national emergency, send troops to the southern border, deport undocumented immigrants en masse and reinstate a policy requiring asylum seekers to wait their cases in Mexico — and Gov. Greg Abbott will be a key partner, he said during his inauguration on Monday. "He was a very popular governor and now he’s an unbeatable governor because of [his] border policies," Trump said of Abbott in remarks with his supporters after his formal inauguration speech. Abbott was among the crowd of supporters and Trump spent several minutes speaking directly to him during his remarks, recommitting to building a border wall. "Now that you have a new president, that wall will go up so fast." Texas contains more of the southern border than any other state, stretching over 1,200 miles from the Gulf of Mexico to El Paso. Abbott has already made efforts to militarize the border under Operation Lone Star, deploying the National Guard to South Texas and spending billions to initiate a state-constructed border wall. It’s unclear the scale of Trump’s plans for sending the military to the border, but he said during his formal speech that "we will do it at a level that nobody’s ever seen before." Trump praised Abbott as a "leader of the pack" on border security. He recounted partnering with the governor during his first presidency to build physical barriers on the southern border and invited the governor to continue partnering to build more. "You didn’t do that for politics. You did because you wanted to do the right thing. But I’ll tell you, it sure as hell worked for politics too," Trump said. Trump at one point joked that "there have been moments where I wasn’t so happy with" Abbott, without elaborating. Trump is a close ally for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and criticized Abbott in 2023 for not defending Paxton more fervently (Trump also gave Paxton a brief shoutout as "a great attorney general"). But the tone of his remarks were overwhelmingly positive toward the governor, whom he called "a great man, a great leader." Abbott also wrote to Trump after his swearing in, asking to partner on curbing illegal border crossings. "For too long, Texas has fought to secure the border in the face of federal obstruction," Abbott wrote. "I look forward to ending this crisis with your help." The White House said in a statement that "The Armed Forces, including the National Guard, will engage in border security, which is national security, and will be deployed to the border to assist existing law enforcement personnel." The National Guard has been deployed on the border before, but the use of active duty military to enforce immigration policy could run afoul with a law that generally bars the military from civilian law enforcement, said U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso. "Much of what Trump is seeking to do, especially if he plans on violating U.S. law would make us less safe as a nation," Escobar, who previously served on the House Armed Services Committee, said in a text message.

AP [1/20/2025 6:40 PM, Staff, 47097K, Neutral] Video: HERE reports more than 2,000 migrants from various countries began walking early Monday in southern Mexico hoping to reach the United States despite president Donald Trump’s threats of mass deportations and limiting asylum.

CNN [1/20/2025 2:51 PM, Caroline Jaime and Abel Alvarado, 57114K, Neutral] reports migrant shelters in Tijuana - located across the border from San Diego, California - are bracing for a possible surge in the influx of migrants should US President Donald Trump carry out his mass deportation plan. More than 30 shelters operate in the Mexican border city located in the northwestern state of Baja California, according to local authorities. Humanitarian workers CNN spoke to said a lack of space, resources, and overall uncertainty are among the issues facing the shelters. The director of Jardin de las Mariposas shelter, C Jamie Marín, told CNN there is concern that Trump’s potential mass deportations could trigger a humanitarian crisis related to services for both migrants going to the United States and those who have been deported. “There is collective nervousness… about the decisions made by President Trump’s administration,” Marín said. “The biggest challenge (for shelters) is not knowing what is going to happen, I am mentally preparing myself,” Pat Murphy, who runs the Casa del Migrante shelter, told CNN last week, prior to Trump’s inauguration. Their worries stem from Trump’s promise to carry out mass deportations once in office. During his inaugural speech on Monday, Trump reiterated his pledge. “We will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came,” he said from the US Capitol. Bracing for the potential surge of migrants entering the city, authorities in Tijuana declared a state of emergency last week.

AP [1/20/2025 3:26 AM, Staff, 47097K, Negative] reports migrants at the Mexico-U.S. border were anxiously waiting Sunday for Donald Trump’s inauguration, as the fate of a U.S. government’s app to apply for asylum appointments hangs in the balance. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reuters [1/20/2025 1:13 PM, David Shepardson, 48128K, Positive] reports the head of the U.S. Transportation Security Administration was forced out of office on Monday and will be replaced by President Donald Trump’s new administration. TSA Administrator David Pekoske, who oversaw a workforce of 60,000 employees providing security at U.S. airports and other transportation hubs, left office on Monday. He said in a memo confirmed by Reuters and first reported by CNN that he was advised by Trump’s transition team "that my time as your administrator will end at noon ET today." Pekoske, a former vice commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard and Department of Homeland Security official, was first appointed to a five-year term by Trump in 2017 and reconfirmed for a second term in 2022 under then-President Joe Biden. Some Republicans have raised concerns about reports that the TSA briefly placed former lawmaker Tulsi Gabbard on a flight watch list known as "Quiet Skies." Gabbard has been nominated by Trump to serve as director of National Intelligence. Other Biden appointees with five-year terms opted to resign after Trump’s election win, including the head of the Federal Aviation Administration, Mike Whitaker, who said in December he would leave effective Monday after about 15 months on the job.

Reported similarly:
Wall Street Journal [1/20/2025 3:30 PM, Alison Sider, Neutral]

Yahoo! News [1/20/2025 9:36 AM, Amelia Neath, 57114K, Neutral] reports the US Transport Security Administration (TSA) revealed that it had intercepted a total of 6,678 firearms at airport security checkpoints last year – with almost all of them being loaded at the time of discovery. This statistic was released by TSA on Wednesday, with the agency reporting that staff had prevented the firearms from getting into secure areas of the airport and onboard aircraft. The total is only a slight decrease from the number intercepted in 2023, which stood at 6,737 firearms discovered at airport security checkpoints. In 2022, this number was at 6,542. Approximately 94 per cent of the firearms found throughout 2024 were loaded. TSA said it screened more than 904 million people last year, meaning that the agency intercepted 7.4 firearms per million people. While the number has decreased from 2023, TSA Administrator David Pekoske said that “one firearm at a checkpoint is too many”. “Firearms present a safety risk for our employees and everyone else at the checkpoint. It’s also costly and slows down operations. “If individuals who carry a firearm intend to travel, we remind them that the firearm must be unloaded, locked in a hard-sided case, declared to the airline at the check-in counter and transported in checked baggage,” he added.

Yahoo! News [1/19/2025 11:30 PM, Brooke Griffin, 57114K, Negative] reports the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is warning Washington travelers to be more aware of what they’re packing after agents found a record number of guns in luggage in 2024. They say statewide, 180 guns were found in people’s bags, which is more than ever before. Seattle-Tacoma International Airport brought in 115 of those guns while Spokane was next with 51. TSA Spokesperson Lorie Dankers tells KIRO 7 that on one May day, three guns were found at SEA in 12 hours. “Whatever excuse the traveler provides as to why they brought a gun in their carry-on luggage is dead to us, our concern is getting that gun into the hands of the Port of Seattle officers and away from passengers,” Dankers said. Travelers say knowing that many guns were even inside the building is alarming. “It’s definitely higher than I would’ve guessed, I would’ve guessed a handful but 100 a year is a lot,” Michael Nowatick said. But guns aren’t the only weapons SEA officers found. Hundreds of knives and even a grenade shut down the checkpoints last year as well. Travelers say you never know who, or what, is in the security line with you. Dankers said it is important to remember you can fly with a gun, but there is a proper way to do so. “It’s going to travel in checked baggage so you can pick it up at your destination.”

AP [1/20/2025 6:40 PM, Sarah Brumfield, Negative] reports frigid temperatures engulfed the South on Monday ahead of a winter storm that’s expected to spread heavy snow and disruptive ice around a region from Texas to north Florida that rarely sees such weather, sending residents rushing to insulate pipes, check heating systems and stock up on emergency supplies. Around 40 million people, primarily across the southern U.S., were under some type of weather hazard, including more than 21 million under a winter storm warning, said Marc Chenard, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in College Park, Maryland. The online tracker FlightAware reported more than 570 flight cancelations by Monday afternoon within the U.S. or entering or leaving the country, along with more than 5,800 delays. Anticipating the storm, governors in Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, declared states of emergency and many school systems canceled classes Tuesday.

Yahoo! News [1/19/2025 7:39 PM, Arri Woodhouse, 57114K, Neutral] reports FEMA officials have extended its Transitional Sheltering Assistance program for an additional two months, through May 26, 2025, for over 2,700 families impacted by Hurricane Helene, according to a statement released on Sunday. The program was previously set to expire for eligible families at the end of March. On Thursday, Governor Stein urged FEMA Administrator Criswell to extend the eligibility period for an additional six months, through September. In a letter from FEMA to Governor Stein, officials approved an additional 60 days rather than the 180 days previously requested. On Sunday, Governor Stein released a statement regarding that decision, that reads: “Today’s decision will help eligible disaster survivors stay safe and sheltered as we continue the hard work of rebuilding in western North Carolina. FEMA’s decision to extend the Transitional Sheltering Assistance Program for two months is a positive step forward and frees eligible disaster survivors from worrying about being kicked out of the program in March. I pledge to work with the new administration to find solutions and resources that will best serve disaster survivors in North Carolina. My team and I continue to pursue solutions to cut red tape and get people into housing faster, including our temporary travel trailer program. I will continue to work with local, state, and federal partners to do right by our neighbors in western North Carolina and keep working until every survivor has returned home.”

Yahoo! News [1/20/2025 5:08 AM, Will Hofmann, 57114K, Neutral] reports that, sitting in her hotel room decorated with fairy lights, pillows and what she could recover from her damaged storage unit, Beth Williams was on the phone with the Federal Emergency Management Agency for the first time in days. A man’s voice — calm, gentle, patient — can be heard on the other end of the phone. After processing some information — previous addresses, date of birth and other basics — the man asked: "Tell me what happened, Elizabeth." As Williams explained for the next 10 minutes, the story is complex. When Tropical Storm Helene hit on Sept. 27, she’d been in an argument with her boyfriend whom she lived with in Mills River. After the argument, a friend picked her up, they drove around town and eventually ran out of gas in Candler. Given limited cell service, she didn’t understand the depth of the crisis at the time, and it wasn’t until Sept. 28 that she realized what had happened. The storm also marked a major personal change. The argument had been the end of her living at her boyfriend’s place, which had served as her primary address. His property had water damage during the storm, and he’d gone to live with family in the area, she said. "I’m not talking to him at all anymore," Williams explained over the phone. "And I’m certainly not going out there." Williams wound up at the Rodeway Inn and Suites off of Wedgefield Drive on Sept. 29, first paying out of pocket and then eventually qualifying for FEMA’s Transitional Sheltering Assistance program, or TSA, on Oct. 23, she said. Under the program, FEMA pays for the cost of room, taxes and pet fees directly to participating hotels and motels.

Yahoo! News [1/20/2025 5:07 AM, Will Hofmann, 57114K, Neutral] reports that, since early October, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Transitional Sheltering Assistance program has aided over 13,000 households with temporary housing, primarily in the form of hotels, as residents continue to face uncertain housing conditions after Tropical Storm Helene hit the region on Sept. 27. On Jan. 17, Republican Congressman Chuck Edwards announced that FEMA has agreed to give all those displaced by Helene but no longer eligible for the program a 21-day notice to vacate their hotel. "Many Western North Carolinians relying on FEMA’s hotel program don’t have a home to go back to, and it is inhumane to expect these folks to leave the only safe and warm shelter available with only a few days or a week’s notice. The victims of Helene deserve better from the federal government," Edwards said in a Jan. 17 news release. The program — known as TSA — is slated to run in WNC until March 28, roughly 180 days after Helene hit the region. Here’s what to know about the program, vital dates and when the program will end. FEMA’s TSA program is requested by a state after a natural disaster and provides short-term accommodations, primarily in the form of a hotel room for displaced residents. In WNC, the program was activated on Oct. 3, just days after Tropical Storm Helene hit the region. It provided assistance to 25 counties in North Carolina along with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. After residents applied, they could use their FEMA registration number and find participating hotels at https://www.femaemergencyhotels.com. Under the program, FEMA pays for the cost of room, taxes and pet fees directly to participating hotels and motels. In total, the program aided 13,075 households since the beginning of Helene, the agency told the Citizen Times Jan. 14. Only 2,797 households remained in the program as of the evening of Jan. 16, the agency told the Citizen Times. The agency had reported at the beginning of the month that over 5,700 households were in the program, meaning that since Jan. 3 "roughly 3,000" households have left the program, the agency said. When the Citizen Times asked why so many residents moved out so quickly from the program, FEMA said: "Please refer to TSA talking points about eligibility.

Newsweek [1/20/2025 8:30 AM, Peter Aitken, 56005K, Negative] reports House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana on Sunday reiterated his belief that Congress should consider attaching conditions to aid for California following the wildfire disaster that destroyed many homes and parts of Los Angeles. Newsweek reached out to the House Speaker’s office and Trump transition team by email on Sunday for comment. California fire authorities over the past 10 days have worked to successfully contain all but the two largest wildfires – the Palisades fire and the Eaton fire, which as of Sunday afternoon local time stood at 52 percent and 81 percent contained, respectively. The fires spread rapidly due to unexpected Santa Ana winds blew the initial flames over land that had been in a drought since March 2024. Each of those fires now rank among the most destructive fires, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection: The Eaton fire, which has burned up 14,117 acres, has destroyed around 9,300 structures, making it the second-most destructive fire in state history; the Palisades fire, which has burned up 23,713 acres, has destroyed just over 4,300 structures, making it the fourth-most destructive fire. However, Republicans have heavily criticized California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass for their response to the wildfires, blaming a number of factors that they attributed to Newsom’s policies, including an allegedly drained water reservoir and budget cuts to the fire department. California authorities have ordered investigations into the various conditions that led to and exacerbated the wildfires.

NorthCentralPA.com [1/19/2025 10:00 AM, Staff, 106K, Positive] reports police say a male suspect passed more than $1,000 of counterfeit bills at two Dollar General stores in Snyder County. The first incident occurred at 7:10 p.m. Dec. 10 at the Dollar General store on Route 104 in Perry Township. Trooper Bennett of PSP Selinsgrove says the suspect was seen on video surveillance giving store workers 10 counterfeit $100 bills and loading the money onto two gift cards. The 10 counterfeit bills were printed onto $1 dollar bills to represent $100 dollar bills. Approximately 30 minutes later, the same suspect went to the Dollar General store on Route 35 in West Perry Township and passed counterfeit bills, Bennett said. Police describe the suspect as a non-Hispanic male with a dark complexion, in his 30s wearing a black winter jacket. The suspect has black curly hair and a black beard.

ABC News [1/19/2025 8:14 PM, Luke Barr and Beatrice Peterson, 33392K, Positive] reports there are "no active direct threats" to the presidential inauguration ceremony on Monday, the lead coordinator for the United States Secret Service told ABC News. Matt McCool, head of the Secret Service’s Washington field office, told ABC News that if there were any potential threats, they would be mitigated by the agency’s extensive security plan. Within an hour of the ceremonies being moved inside, they had over two dozen law enforcement partners help plan for the change, helping to "pivot" security resources, McCool said. By Monday, the USSS will have had three National Security Special Events in 14 days: the certification of votes on Jan. 6, the state funeral of former President Jimmy Carter and the Inauguration ceremony.

Yahoo! News [1/20/2025 12:27 PM, Jane Alvarez-Wertz, 57114K, Neutral] reports thousands of National Guard members from across the U.S. were called upon to support the 60th Presidential Inauguration. For the Jan. 20 inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, the D.C. National Guard will lead support efforts, alongside approximately 8,000 Army and Air National Guard service members from 40 states and territories. WAVY confirmed the Virginia National Guard has approximately 250 personnel supporting the inauguration. The Secret Service, U.S. Capitol and Metropolitan Police requested support from National Guard personnel to assist with crowd management, traffic control, emergency response services, communication and other functions. Maj. Gen. James W. Ring, the Adjutant General of the Virginia met with Virginia Army National Guard soldiers Sunday. The National Guard involvement in presidential inaugurations began in 1789 when their predecessors escorted George Washington to the first inauguration.

Yahoo! News [1/19/2025 4:40 PM, Kevin Bohn, 57114K, Neutral] reports that, with just under 24 hours before Monday’s inauguration, the Capitol With just under 24 hours before Monday’s inauguration, the Capitol Rotunda was full of activity Sunday afternoon. The majestic room is being turned into the site of the inauguration, which was moved inside because of concerns about the frigid cold. Instead of hundreds of thousands of people being able to watch the ceremony outside, now a room housing about 2,000 max will be the site for Donald Trump’s swearing-in as the 47th president. Congressional officials were figuring out where exactly Trump should stand on stage as he takes the oath. Inauguration committee staff were mapping out where entertainers would enter the room, and who would escort family members to the stage. The decision Friday to move the ceremony inside forced organizers and security agencies to re-do hundreds of decisions meticulously laid out for months to new ones decided within days, such as: Who will get the coveted seats and who won’t? Various agencies are now figuring out where security entrances will now be. What road closures now need to be in effect? A new road closure map was released late Saturday. For the Secret Service, which is in charge of the security for the inauguration, the switch of venues means the swearing-in ceremony is an easier event to safeguard because it means fewer people in attendance and takes away the uncertainty of an outside site. Capitol staff, who are in charge of setting up the ceremony, were seen unloading new batches of chairs as they see how many seats could be jammed into the area. Meanwhile, the decision to move the ceremony is causing repercussions across Washington. Congressional offices are being inundated with constituents who had received inaugural tickets but now won’t be able to attend and want to know if there is anything they can do.

NBC Washington DC [1/19/2025 10:31 AM, Staff, 1105K, Neutral] Video: HERE News4’s Mark Segraves questions Secret Service on who are the authorized attendees that can attend the indoor Capital One Arena inauguration viewing event.

Yahoo! News [1/20/2025 6:00 AM, Brahmjot Kaur, 57114K, Positive] reports all eyes are always on the First Family. So, needless to say, safety is of the utmost importance, and it’s up to the U.S. Secret Service to make sure the president, first lady and their kids get from here to there and back again without incident. For nearly 80 years, U.S. presidents and their families have been given nicknames by the agency, monikers that theoretically embody their personalities. While the Secret Service first began using codes in 1945 for security reasons when electronic communication couldn’t be encrypted, they’re still used today for clarity. “Over time, the protectees have almost taken on the persona of the call sign that they had selected,” former Secret Service special agent Jonathan Wackrow told CNN in 2020. “With former President Barack Obama, ‘Renegade’ is a great example: How he went against the establishment in some of the things that he had done, and like Barbara Bush, whose call sign was ‘Tranquility,’ embodied the tranquility and peacefulness in a time of war.” This year the agency theoretically doesn’t have to come up with new names, President-elect Donald Trump already having a moniker from his first administration ahead of his swearing-in on Jan. 20 as the 47th president of the United States—four years after he lost his 2020 re-election bid to now-outgoing President Joe Biden. The First Families stick to the same letter throughout their brood, too. For instance, Biden and First Lady Jill Biden go by Celtic and Capri, a tribute to his Irish heritage. Meanwhile, Trump picked Mogul, an homage to his business background, former and incoming First Lady Melania Trump was dubbed Muse and his son Donald Trump Jr. was Mountaineer. Former president Ronald Reagan’s name, Rawhide, was chosen by a U.S. Army master sergeant, according to Rawhide Down: The Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan. “He thought Rawhide was suitable because the former actor had appeared in several westerns and was known to be a rancher,” author Del Quentin Wilber wrote. “Reagan adored the moniker.”

Yahoo! News [1/20/2025 9:30 PM, Dustin Massengill, 57114K, Neutral] reports the Wolfe County Sheriff’s Office said counterfeit money is making the rounds again. The department said they have received multiple reports of counterfeit money being used across the community. In a Facebook post, the department included images of the counterfeit money along with their warning. “All business owners and community members are urged to be cautious, check the serial numbers, and aware at this time. These 20’s have the same serial numbers!” the department wrote.

West Orlando News [1/19/2025 4:23 PM, Staff, 21K, Negative] reports credit card skimmers were found on Tampa ATMs at different 7-Eleven locations. This month, Tampa Police responded to the 7-Eleven, located at 1930 N. Dale Mabry Hwy, after a maintenance worker discovered and reported a skimming device installed on an ATM. While investigating this incident, officers were notified of another credit card skimmer at a separate 7-Eleven, located at 2717 W. Hillsborough Ave. As both Central Florida incidents are actively being investigated, local detectives encourage anyone who has used either of these ATMs recently to review your bank and/or credit card activity.

Yahoo! News [1/20/2025 6:51 PM, Staff, 57114K, Negative] reports that the U.S. Coast Guard has suspended its search for two commercial fishermen and will not resume it without new information, a spokesman said Monday. Maine Marine Patrol and the U.S. Coast Guard were searching on Sunday for Chester Barrett and his son Aaron Barrett after family members reported them missing when they failed to return to port in South Addison. Chris Berry, operations unit controller at the Coast Guard, said the search was suspended after sunset Sunday. The Coast Guard will not pick up the search "unless we receive any information, which we have not," he said. The Barretts were on board the scallop vessel "Sudden Impact" Saturday when family members lost contact, Maine Marine Patrol said in a statement Sunday. The boat left Cobscook Bay State Park for South Addison at around 5 a.m. Saturday, the Coast Guard said. Marine Patrol launched a search on the water and shoreline between Lubec and South Addison at around 7 p.m. Saturday, assisted by the Coast Guard and local fishermen. The search was called off due to poor visibility Saturday night and resumed Sunday morning.

Yahoo! News [1/20/2025 8:24 PM, Timothy Nazzaro, 57114K, Neutral] reports it was a race to the rescue for U.S. Coast Guard officials and good Samaritans when a fishing vessel began sinking on Friday. According to authorities, the crew of the Miss Sandy issued a mayday call 7 nautical miles off Gloucester Harbor, when the boat began flooding rapidly with 4 to 5 feet of water in the engine room. Exhaust fumes also started filling the space, making the situation more dangerous. Within 30 minutes, officials say the CGC William Chadwick, along with local partners and good Samaritans, were on the scene, fighting to save the boat and its crew. The crew of the Miss Sandy was safely rescued and no injuries were reported. Authorities tried dewatering the boat while towing it toward the harbor, but the flooding overwhelmed the vessel, ultimately sinking it. Coast Guard officials say had the incident occurred further offshore or in worse weather conditions, the situation “could have been far more dire.” “This mission highlights the lifesaving dedication of Coast Guard crews and the importance of preparation and safety gear in New England’s harsh winter waters,” the U.S. Coast Guard Sector Boston wrote in a social media post.

FOX News [1/21/2025 12:02 AM, Landon Mion, 49889K, Negative] reports the Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard has been terminated over concerns about the border, recruitment and an "erosion of trust," a senior DHS official confirmed to Fox News. Adm. Linda Lee Fagan, 61, has been terminated by the Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Benjamine Huffman, the official said. Fagan has demonstrated leadership deficiencies, operational failures and an inability to advance the strategic objectives of the Coast Guard. These include the failure to address border security threats, insufficient leadership in recruitment and retention, mismanagement in acquiring key acquisitions such as icebreakers and helicopters, excessive focus on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and an "erosion of trust" over the mishandling and cover-up of Operation Fouled Anchor, which was the Coast Guard’s internal investigation into sexual assault cases at the Coast Guard Academy. Fagan is accused of ineffective deployment of Coast Guard assets to support national border security, including in intercepting fentanyl and other illicit substances. She also had insufficient coordination with DHS to prioritize operations along maritime borders. The DHS official said Fagan had significant failures in recruiting personnel, which worsened issues related to operational readiness. The official added that the lack of innovative strategies to address retention struggles in critical specialties weakened workforce sustainability. Under her leadership, there were also persistent delays and cost overruns in acquiring essential platforms, including icebreakers and helicopters, that the official said undermined Coast Guard capabilities in the Arctic and other strategic regions. The official further cited inadequate accountability for acquisition failures that were highlighted during President Trump’s first administration. Fagan also made DEI policies a priority, including at the Coast Guard Academy, which diverted resources and focus from operational essentials.

Yahoo! News [1/20/2025 11:25 AM, Staff, 57114K, Positive] reports a father and son were rescued Sunday after getting caught in strong currents near Cannon Beach in Oregon. US Coast Guard responded after someone called 911, saying two boogie boarders were missing. Cannon Beach Firefighters deployed two rescue swimmers on the beach to try and find the pair, but they were put on standby while a Coast Guard helicopter from Air Station Astoria helped pull them to safety. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Yahoo! News [1/20/2025 11:56 PM, Staff, 57114K, Neutral] reports watchstanders consulted with the duty flight surgeon, who recommended a medevac. The U.S. Coast Guard this morning medevaced an injured man from a fishing vessel about 40 miles off shore of Oahu. Honolulu watchstanders received notification at 4 :30 p.m. Saturday from crew members aboard the Capt Davis that a 34-year-old man had suffered an eye injury. At the time, the 72-foot commercial fishing boat was about 350 miles southwest of Oahu. Watchstanders consulted with the duty flight surgeon, who recommended a medevac. At 6 a.m. today, the USCG deployed an HC-130 Hercules airplane crew and an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew from Coast Guard Air Station Barbers Point to the Capt Davis about 40 miles southwest of Kapolei. The helicopter crew transported the man to The Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu, where he reportedly remains in stable condition.

Yahoo! News [1/20/2025 5:15 AM, Nathaniel Cline, 57114K, Positive] reports a cybersecurity breach at PowerSchool, a software company that supports school operations, has compromised student, parent and teacher information across potentially 85 Virginia school divisions. PowerSchool disclosed on Dec. 28 that its customer portal, PowerSource, has been accessed without authorization, affecting student information nationwide. In an update, the company reassured users that its operations remain intact, stating that it is “not experiencing, nor does it expect to experience any operational disruption.” PowerSchool further vowed to continue providing services as normal to its customers, adding that there was no evidence that other company products were impacted. The company emphasized its commitment to privacy and transparency during the incident. “We take our responsibility to protect student, family, and educator data privacy extremely seriously, and we are committed to providing customers, families, and educators with resources and support as we work through this together,” PowerSchool said in a statement. “We apologize for any concern this incident may cause you and are working hard to provide you timely updates.”

Yahoo! News [1/20/2025 1:15 AM, Michele McPhee, 57114K, Negative] reports that, hours after convicted arsonist Dustin Nehl, 31, and his wife Jenni Nehl, 44 — a trained National Weather Service Skywarn Weather Spotter specially trained in windstorms — were arrested Sunday by Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department authorities in the Palisades Fire evacuation site, allegedly wearing bunker gear and driving a decommissioned firetruck they said was part of a nonexistent company in Oregon, the FBI reignited the manhunt for a fugitive domestic eco-terrorist from the same area, Los Angeles has learned. That fugitive, Josephine Sunshine Overaker, who the FBI says once worked as a wildfire firefighter, was a leader in a group the FBI calls "the most prolific domestic terrorism cell of the time," known as "The Family." Federal prosecutors have charged Overaker, and 10 of her co-conspirators, with a plethora of arsons, including a devastating fire that leveled a Vail, Colorado ski resort in 1998. The indictment came after the FBI began a clandestine investigation known as Operation Backfire using agents from Joint Terrorism Task Force to infiltrate the group in Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Virginia and New York, which led to the 2006 indictment. "The Family’s 1998 arson attack on a ski resort in Vail, Colorado — which caused estimated damages of $26 million — was its most notorious act," the FBI says. The FBI blames Overaker for attacks in Oregon, Washington, California, Colorado and Wyoming that the Bureau says: "put first responders lives in danger." But the avowed vegan with the distinctive dark green bird tattoo across her shoulder blades remains at large and could be seeking work as "a firefighter, sheep herder or masseuse," the FBI says.

Reported similarly:
Yahoo! News [1/19/2025 7:52 PM, Staff, 57114K, Negative]

CNN [1/21/2025 12:40 AM, Betsy Klein, 22417K, Negative] reports President Donald Trump announced Monday he is withdrawing the US from the World Health Organization, in a significant move that drew criticism from public health experts on his first day back in the White House. Trump has long been critical of the United Nations’ health agency, and his administration formally began a withdrawal from the WHO in July 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic continued to spread. But four years ago, then-President Joe Biden halted the US’ exit from the body tasked with coordinating the international response to health emergencies in one of his first actions after taking over the White House. The text of Monday’s executive order cites the “organization’s mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic that arose out of Wuhan, China, and other global health crises, its failure to adopt urgently needed reforms, and its inability to demonstrate independence from the inappropriate political influence of WHO member states,” as reasons for the US withdrawal. “That’s a big one,” Trump told an aide as he began to sign the executive order, pointing to his 2020 decision and his belief that the US was paying too much money to the organization compared to other countries. In 2020, Trump also consistently accused the organization of aiding China in allegedly covering up the origins of Covid-19 and allowing its spread. CNN has reached out to the WHO for comment. While lawmakers from both parties had criticized the WHO in 2020 when Trump first decided to pull out, many denounced the president’s decision to withdraw during a once-in-a-century global pandemic. Then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the time called it “an act of true senselessness.” And since-retired Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander — then-chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee — said he disagreed with Trump’s decision. Dr. Ashish Jha, who served as White House Covid-19 response coordinator during the Biden administration, called Trump’s decision to withdraw from the WHO in his second term a “strategic error.” “WHO is a pretty essential organization — and with America’s withdrawal, it creates a political vacuum that only one country can fill — and that is China,” Jha said in an interview with CNN on Monday. He predicted that China will step up for the organization in the absence of US funding and leadership, which could, in turn, “give China more political influence around the world.” The New York Times [1/20/2025 8:40 PM, Sheryl Gay Stolberg, 161405K, Neutral] reports [Trump] said the agency demands “unfairly onerous payments” from the United States and complained that China pays less. The move was not unexpected. Mr. Trump has been railing against the W.H.O. since 2020, when he attacked the agency over its approach to the coronavirus pandemic and threatened to withhold United States funding from it. In July 2020, Mr. Trump took formal steps to withdraw from the agency. But after he lost the 2020 election, the threat did not materialize. On his first day in office, Jan. 20, 2021, former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. blocked it from going into effect. Leaving the W.H.O. would mean, among other things, that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would have no access to the global data that the agency provides. When China characterized the genetic sequence of the novel coronavirus in 2020, it released the information to W.H.O., which shared it with other nations. More recently, the W.H.O. has become a target of conservatives over its work on a “pandemic treaty” to strengthen pandemic preparedness and set legally binding policies for member countries on surveillance of pathogens, rapid sharing of outbreak data, and building up local manufacturing and supply chains for vaccines and treatments, among others. Talks on the treaty broke down last year. In the United States, some Republican lawmakers viewed the agreement as a threat to American sovereignty.

The Hill [1/20/2025 7:29 PM, Rachel Frazin and Zack Budryk, 16346K, Neutral] reports an official said that the national emergency was coming in response to high prices and would seek to unlock additional authorities to allow the U.S to act quickly. The emergency would give the nation the ability to quickly build and develop energy, the person said, but the official did not provide specific details. "The inflation crisis was caused by massive overspending and escalating energy prices, and that is why today I will also declare a national energy emergency. We will drill, baby, drill," Trump said during his inaugural speech. "America will be a manufacturing nation once again, and we have something that no other manufacturing nation will ever have, the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on Earth, and we are going to use it," he said. In addition, Trump is expected to sign an order that was described as focused on cutting red tape and regulations. Officials said this would include language aimed at Biden regulations that are expected to increase the number of electric vehicles sold in the U.S. and require more efficient household items such as showerheads, stoves and dishwashers.

Bloomberg [1/20/2025 9:53 PM, Kurt Wagner and Josh Wingrove, 21617K, Neutral] reports President Donald Trump temporarily halted a ban on TikTok in the US, granting the company and its Chinese parent ByteDance Ltd. more time to reach a deal for the popular app that would resolve long-standing US national security concerns. TikTok’s lifeline came via an executive order signed by Trump on Monday in one of his first acts after taking office. The move gives the video-sharing platform a 75-day reprieve from a US prohibition that took effect on Sunday following ByteDance’s refusal to comply with a law requiring it to divest. Trump had spent the past several days promising an extension was on the way. Trump highlighted TikTok during a lengthy orders-signing ceremony at the White House, reiterating his stance that American companies should own half of the social video phenom. At one point, he said the US arm of the platform — estimated to be worth around $50 billion — could hit $1 trillion in market value under American ownership. “TikTok is worthless, worthless, if I don’t approve it,” Trump said as he signed the order, suggesting he might be open to a joint venture with TikTok. “I could see making a deal where the U.S. gets 50 percent of TikTok, polices it a little bit, or a lot, depends on them.” Whether his order alone is enough to stave off a ban remains unclear. According to the law, an extension is only possible if the president can show Congress that there’s a viable path forward to a deal, that “significant progress” has been made and that legal agreements are in place to close a deal with ByteDance in that new time frame. There’s no public evidence that ByteDance has met those requirements. Trump’s intervention marked the latest twist in a years-long saga in Washington fueled by concerns that China could use the app to harvest American users’ data and disseminate propaganda — claims the company has strenuously denied. The order highlighted a turnabout for the president, who tried to ban TikTok in his first term but came to embrace it as a conduit to young voters during his comeback bid for the White House. The Washington Post [1/20/2025 8:52 PM, Staff, 40736K, Neutral] reports Trump issued the order hours after honoring TikTok chief executive Shou Zi Chew as a special guest during his swearing-in ceremony, where he sat behind the president and alongside outspoken Trump allies such as podcast host Joe Rogan. The TikTok CEO has closely aligned with Trump as the app faces legal peril, attending several events celebrating the president’s victory this weekend and posting a video thanking him for his efforts against a ban. In a post on his Truth Social platform Sunday, Trump had said his incoming executive order would "extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect," without elaborating. Trump previously said he was likely to give ByteDance an additional 90 days to sell the platform. The New York Times [1/20/2025 8:25 PM, David McCabe, 161405K, Neutral] reports that companies subject to the law, which forbids providing services to Chinese-owned TikTok, may determine that the order does not provide a shield from legal liability. The federal law banning TikTok, which is owned by ByteDance, mandated that the app needed to be sold to a non-Chinese owner or it would be blocked. The only workaround provided by the law is a 90-day extension if a likely buyer is found. Even then, it is unclear if that option is viable, given that the law is already in effect. The law also restricts how much of a TikTok stake can remain under foreign ownership. By seeking to override the federal law, Mr. Trump raised serious questions about the limits of presidential power and the rule of law in the United States. Some lawmakers and legal experts have expressed concerns about the legality of an executive order, particularly in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling that upheld the law on Friday and the national security concerns that prompted legislators to draft it in the first place. In the executive order, Mr. Trump said that his constitutional responsibilities include national security. It says he wants to consult with advisers to review the concerns posed by TikTok and the mitigation measures the company has taken already. The administration will “pursue a resolution that protects national security while saving a platform used by 170 million Americans,” according to the order, which called the law’s timing “unfortunate.” The attorney general will send letters to companies covered by the law to tell them “that there has been no violation of the statute" and they won’t be held liable for providing services to TikTok during the 75 days, the order said.

CNN [1/20/2025 11:13 AM, Clare Duffy and David Goldman, 987K, Neutral] reports around 12 hours after shutting itself down in the United States, TikTok is back for many users almost like it never left, attributing its return to a move by President-elect Donald Trump to save the app. TikTok welcomed users back with a notification that said: “Thanks for your patience and support. As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!” The whiplash move to bring the app back comes after TikTok became unusable for Americans late Saturday night. Users who tried to open the app at that time were met with a message saying it was offline and asking users to “stay tuned.” “A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now,” TikTok’s message read in part. The app was also unavailable on the Apple and Google Play stores, along with Lemon8 and CapCut, which are also owned by TikTok’s China-based parent company, ByteDance. Early on Sunday, Trump said he would issue an executive order following his inauguration on Monday to delay enforcement of the divest-or-ban law. And within hours, access to TikTok’s app and webpage began to return for US users. TikTok’s restoration will be welcome news for the app’s 170 million American users, many of whom use the app for hours every day to find news, entertainment and community and, in some cases, to make a living, after weeks of uncertainty. And it signaled that Trump may be poised to score a major political victory by claiming responsibility for bringing back the popular platform. In a statement midday Sunday, TikTok said Trump’s promise to save the app allowed it to restore US users’ access even before his expected executive order is signed. “In agreement with our service providers, TikTok is in the process of restoring service. We thank President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans and allowing over 7 million small businesses to thrive,” the company said in a statement. “We will work with President Trump on a long-term solution that keeps TikTok in the United States.” TikTok CEO Shou Chew is expected to attend Trump’s “Make America Great Again Victory Rally” in Washington, DC, Sunday night, before being seated prominently at the incoming president’s inauguration Monday. But while TikTok’s shutdown lasted just a few hours, securing the app’s long-term future in the United States is likely to be more complicated.

Reported similarly:
CBS Austin [1/19/2025 12:21 PM, Taylor Fishman, 581K, Neutral]

New York Times [1/20/2025 6:45 AM, Meaghan Tobin and Claire Fu, 161405K, Neutral] reports TikTok got an apparent reprieve from being forced to shut down, but Americans on Monday were still using and downloading Xiaohongshu, the Chinese social media app that surged in popularity last week in anticipation of TikTok’s closure. TikTok, owned by the Chinese internet company ByteDance, went dark in the United States ahead of a federal law requiring it to be sold or banned on Sunday. TikTok soon came back online after President-elect Donald J. Trump said he would issue an executive order to put off a ban once he took office on Monday. Many questions remain about TikTok’s fate in the United States. For now, Xiaohongshu, which many people are calling RedNote, is leaning into its sudden celebrity in the United States. Over the weekend, Xiaohongshu added a feature to let users translate posts and comments between Mandarin and English. On Monday it was at the top of Apple’s ranking of most downloaded apps, a spot it has held for much of the past week. According to data on RedNote, 32.6 million notes have been posted with the hashtag “tiktok refugee” as of Monday, gaining 2.3 billion views. Americans on the platform said they planned to keep posting on RedNote, even though TikTok had come back online. “TikTok is back. Will I still continue using this app? Absolutely,” a user in the United States posted. “I am going nowhere.” The initial users of Xiaohongshu outside of China had to overcome significant language barriers. In interviews and on the app, early joiners said they used tools like ChatGPT and Google Translate to figure out how to register accounts and interact with other users, most of whom were in China. “I think it’s really cool that we’re seeing a completely different country and seeing their cultural differences from ours and it’s all merging,” said Sky Bynum, 18, who creates beauty videos from her home in New Jersey. “That’s something that you can’t do on TikTok or Instagram or Facebook or YouTube.”

New York Times [1/19/2025 4:43 PM, Johnny Diaz, 161405K, Neutral] reports a man was arrested in connection with a fire set early on Sunday in response to “recent talks” of banning the popular video app TikTok, the authorities said. The fire was at a strip mall that includes a district office of a Wisconsin congressman who has been critical of the app. The man, 19, who was not identified, was arrested after being found near a Fond du Lac, Wis., mall that houses an office of the congressman, U.S. Representative Glenn Grothman, a Republican, the city’s police department said in a statement. No one was injured and the mall was unoccupied when police officers and firefighters responded around 1 a.m., the police said. The man was being held at the Fond du Lac County Jail and a charge of arson was being referred to prosecutors, according to the police. The fire remained under investigation. The exterior of the building sustained moderate damage and the interior had minor damage, according to the Fond du Lac Fire Department. Fond du Lac, a city of more than 44,000 residents, is about 68 miles north of Milwaukee. The man told the authorities that he had started the fire “in response to recent talks of a TikTok ban,” the police said. Beginning on Saturday night, TikTok, the short-form video app owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, was unavailable in the United States because of a new law that banned the company’s apps in the United States. The Supreme Court said that the government’s national security concerns about the app topped free speech concerns involved in shuttering the app, which is used by roughly 170 million U.S. users a month. TikTok said on social media on Sunday that it was “in the process of restoring service” after a pledge from Mr. Trump that no one would face financial penalties for hosting TikTok while the service tries to find a way to comply with the law.

Reuters [1/20/2025 7:58 PM, David Shepardson, 48128K, Neutral] reports U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday revoked a 2023 executive order signed by Joe Biden that sought to reduce the risks that artificial intelligence poses to consumers, workers and national security. Biden’s order required developers of AI systems that pose risks to U.S. national security, the economy, public health or safety to share the results of safety tests with the U.S. government, in line with the Defense Production Act, before they were released to the public. The order also directed agencies to set standards for that testing and address related chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and cybersecurity risks. Biden’s order came as U.S. lawmakers have failed to pass legislation setting guardrails for AI development. The 2024 Republican Party platform vowed to repeal the order that it said hinders AI innovation and added "Republicans support AI development rooted in free speech and human flourishing." Generative AI, which can create text, photos and videos in response to open-ended prompts, has spurred excitement as well as fears it could make some jobs obsolete or have other negative consequences.

FOX News [1/20/2025 8:29 AM, Stephen Sorace, 57114K, Neutral] reports President-elect Trump vowed Sunday that he would release long-classified government records on the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. Trump made the pledge to a crowd during his Victory Rally at Washington, D.C.’s Capital One Arena, which has a 20,000-seat capacity, telling supporters it is the beginning of an effort to increase government transparency. "As the first step toward restoring transparency and accountability to government, we will also reverse the over-classification of government documents," Trump said. "And in the coming days, we are going to make public remaining records relating to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert Kennedy, as well as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.," he continued. "It’s all going to be released." During his first administration, Trump had promised to release all the files related to John F. Kennedy, but an undisclosed amount of material remains under wraps more than six decades after Kennedy was killed Nov. 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas. After appeals from the CIA and FBI, Trump blocked the release of hundreds of records. Trump said at the time the potential harm to U.S. national security, law enforcement or foreign affairs is "of such gravity that it outweighs the public interest in immediate disclosure." In December 2022, President Biden released a trove of documents relating to the assassination, though Biden, like Trump had previously, said that some documents were withheld over national security concerns.

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Yahoo! News [1/20/2025 6:00 AM, Janna Brancolini, 57114K, Neutral]

FOX News [1/20/2025 2:47 PM, Danielle Wallace, 57114K, Neutral] reports the acting director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Paul Abbate, reportedly retired just minutes before Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th president. Former FBI Director Christopher Wray announced on Dec. 11 that he would step down from the bureau before Trump took office, and Wray’s resignation went into effect Sunday. Abbate, who took the helm from Wray, stepped down from the bureau just a day later, New York Times reported. His departure took effect at noon ET Monday, around the same time Trump was slated to take his oath of office at the U.S. Capitol. It was not immediately clear who will replace Abbate as acting FBI director. "When the director asked me to stay on past my mandatory date for a brief time, I did so to help ensure continuity and the best transition for the F.B.I. Now, with new leadership inbound, after nearly four years in the deputy role, I am departing the F.B.I.," Abbate wrote in an internal email on Monday, according to New York Times. "I have complete confidence in you and in your ability as a team to continue to carry out our mission of protecting the American people and upholding the Constitution." Wray selected Abbate as deputy FBI director in 2021 and extended his length of service. At 57, Abbate is the mandatory retirement age for some FBI agents, according to New York Times. Trump appointed Wray to lead the bureau in 2017, but relations between the two soured amid repeated federal investigations into the 45th and now-47th president. The FBI raided Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, in August 2022. Trump decried the "weaponization" of the Justice Department during his 2024 presidential campaign, and he has since tapped Kash Patel to lead the FBI. Patel’s Senate confirmation hearing has not yet been scheduled. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Yahoo! News [1/20/2025 12:55 AM, Kyle Wiggers, 57114K, Neutral] reports that, to combat the perception that its "open" AI is aiding foreign adversaries, Meta today said that it’s making its Llama series of AI models available to U.S. government agencies and contractors in national security. "We are pleased to confirm that we’re making Llama available to U.S. government agencies, including those that are working on defense and national security applications, and private sector partners supporting their work," Meta wrote in a blog post. "We’re partnering with companies including Accenture, Amazon Web Services, Anduril, Booz Allen, Databricks, Deloitte, IBM, Leidos, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Oracle, Palantir, Scale AI, and Snowflake to bring Llama to government agencies." Oracle, for example, is using Llama to process aircraft maintenance documents, Meta says. Scale AI is fine-tuning Llama to support specific national security team missions. And Lockheed Martin is offering Llama to its defense customers for use cases like generating computer code. Meta’s policy normally forbids developers from using Llama for any projects related to military, warfare, or espionage missions. But the company’s making an exception in this case, it told Bloomberg, and exceptions for similar government agencies (and contractors) in the U.K., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Last week, Reuters reported that Chinese research scientists linked to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the military wing of China’s ruling party, used an older Llama model, Llama 2, to develop a tool for defense applications. Chinese researchers, including two affiliated with a PLA R&D group, created a military-focused chatbot designed to gather and process intelligence, as well as offer information for operational decision-making.

Washington Examiner [1/20/2025 3:45 PM, Tom Rogan, 2365K, Neutral] reports a foreign terrorist designation is not the key point in and of itself here. Instead, a strong indication that Trump is preparing to issue a highly classified covert action finding that would authorize the CIA to engage in violent action against the cartels. While an FTO designation would open a vast number of Mexican businesses and politicians to U.S. criminal proceedings if they continued to deal with the cartels, it would also provide supporting government action for a covert action finding, which enables the CIA to use force against the cartels. Any CIA covert action would entail the use of force, sabotage, and manipulation to weaken and undermine the cartels in relation to their U.S. operations. Put simply, it would mean U.S. intelligence officers killing or otherwise attacking cartel officers and assets. Considering his border security and tariff pledges, it’s thus clear that Trump is set to enjoin a very different U.S.-Mexico relationship. Endemic cartel-related corruption in the Mexican government — President Claudia Sheinbaum’s predecessor was a Sinaloa cartel servant — means that Trump’s action will carry significant political consequences. Indeed, it may carry geopolitical consequences. The Albanian government of Edi Rama is a money laundering ally of the Sinaloa cartel, for example. While Trump authorized tentative covert action efforts against the cartel during his first term, he now appears to have far greater ambitions. We’ve already had two preceding indications of Trump’s covert action intent. First, Trump’s regular campaign rally pledges to confront the Mexican drug cartels indicate an intent to act. As Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz, told CBS on Sunday, "President Trump was clear on the campaign trail that we’re going to take them on, and then we’re going to use every resource that we need to defend the American people.” Second, Trump’s appointment of Ronald Johnson as U.S. Ambassador to Mexico shows he wants the right personnel in place for action. Johnson is a former Army special forces Colonel with extensive related experience in Latin America. Crucially, the Army also lists Johnson as having served "a second career with the Central Intelligence Agency and participated in worldwide operational and combat experiences in integrated actions with special mission units.”

Miami Herald [1/19/2025 7:34 PM, Ulf Mauder and Günther Chalupa, 6595K, Negative] reports Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy issued a renewed appeal to the country’s allies on Sunday to provide more U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems following a week with more than 1,000 Russian air attacks. "We need the strong support of our partners," Zelenskyy posted on his Telegram channel. "More Patriots for Ukraine mean greater protection for life," he said. The Russian attacks caused multiple deaths and injuries. According to Zelenskyy, Russia attacked Ukraine with more than 660 glide bombs, around 550 drones and almost 60 missiles over the past week. Ukrainian air defenses downed 33 missiles, including ballistic variants, and more than 300 drones. Zelenskyy published a video showing the devastation from the attacks, for example in Kiev and Zaporizhzhya over the weekend, and also in the Donbass region in the east of the country. Zelenskyy paid tribute to the armed forces, but added: "The task of continuing to protect our airspace remains." He called for Ukraine’s Western allies to provide more air defense systems. Ukraine has been defending itself against a Russian full-scale invasion since February 2022. Over the weekend, the Russian Defense Ministry said its forces had taken further ground in eastern Ukraine. The Ukrainian military is suffering from a shortage of soldiers, commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Sunday.

Washington Examiner [1/19/2025 10:24 AM, Brady Knox, 2365K, Negative] reports that the armistice was delayed by three hours, due to what Hamas claimed were technical reasons. Israel carried out airstrikes over the period, with Palestinian Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal claiming that 19 Gazans were killed over this period. At around 10:30 a.m. local time, Hamas released the names of the three Israeli hostages it planned to release later on Sunday, fulfilling the final requirement and putting the ceasefire into effect. Romi Gonen, 24; Emily Damari, 28; and Doron Steinbrecher, 31, were named as the three Israeli hostages to be released first. They were handed over to the Red Cross. In exchange, 90 Palestinian prisoners, mostly women and minors, are being gathered by Israel’s Prison Service, which said it had received the list of prisoners and would transfer them to the Ofer detention center, after which they would be handed over to the Red Cross, the New York Times reported. The Egyptian government announced that 202 aid trucks had crossed the border into Gaza after the ceasefire took effect. The drivers honked their horns in celebration. "I can’t describe my feelings of happiness today," Zein El Abdeen, a truck driver, told the outlet while in tears. "I’m so happy to get to deliver aid for Gaza.” Videos showed a massive column of Israeli tanks and armored vehicles withdrawing from Gaza the night before the ceasefire took effect. Hamas held a parade after the ceasefire, with cheering crowds greeting masked and armed militants riding on pickup trucks. Gazan civilians took to the streets to celebrate the ceasefire, with many expressing hope that it signaled an end to the war altogether. "I feel like at last I found some water to drink after getting lost in the desert for 15 months. I feel alive again," Aya, a woman from northern Gaza City who had taken shelter in central Gaza for over a year, told Al Jazeera. "We are now waiting for the day we head back to our home in Gaza City. Damaged or not, it doesn’t matter, the nightmare of death and starvation is over," she added. As previously threatened, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir announced his resignation over the hostage deal, removing the Jewish Power Party from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government coalition. He denounced the ceasefire and hostage deal as a "surrender-to-terror deal, which crosses all ideological red lines." The move is not expected to collapse the government. The ceasefire deal will pause fighting for six weeks and open negotiations to end the war altogether. Over those six weeks, 33 hostages will be exchanged for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. Displaced Palestinians will be able to return to what’s left of their homes, and humanitarian aid will flow freely. Israel estimated that 30 of nearly 100 remaining hostages are dead, but U.S. and Israeli officials privately believe the true number to be much higher, the Wall Street Journal reported. Of the 33 hostages set to be released, some are expected to be dead.

Washington Post [1/19/2025 2:59 PM, Gerry Shih, 40736K, Neutral] reports that in exchange, Israel was supposed to release 90 Palestinian prisoners on Sunday — all of them women and children — but shortly past midnight local time, families that had gathered outside the Ofer Prison in the West Bank were still waiting in the cold. The ceasefire was initially scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. local time, but was delayed after Hamas was late to provide the hostages’ names to mediators, and Israel carried out last-minute strikes against the militant group’s facilities, the Israeli military said. Eventually, the guns fell silent. And once Israel announced that the ceasefire would begin at 11:15 a.m., Palestinians launched into jubilant celebrations in the streets of Gaza while Israelis streamed into the Tel Aviv plaza known as "Hostages Square" to await the return of the first three hostages, identified as Roni Gonen, 24; Emily Tehila Damari, 28; and Doron Steinbrecher, 31. A total of 33 Israeli hostages, most of whom are presumed to be alive, will be gradually freed on every seven days over the next 42 days under the ceasefire agreement’s first phase. If negotiations over the more politically fraught second phase succeed in the coming weeks and the truce holds, an additional 64 hostages are set to be freed. It’s not clear how many of the remaining hostages are alive or dead. Live footage carried by the Al Jazeera news network showed a chaotic scene in Gaza City’s bombed-out Saraya Square on Sunday afternoon, as workers from the International Committee of the Red Cross, which is responsible for the hostage transfers, arrived to retrieve the three Israelis from Hamas. Hundreds of Palestinian civilians swarmed the vehicles and climbed atop billboards to catch a glimpse of the hostage handover as ranks of masked Hamas fighters toting assault rifles struggled to control the crowd. Shortly after 5 p.m., Hamas gunmen opened the doors of a white minivan, flashed a thumbs up and shuffled the Israeli hostages into the waiting Red Cross vehicles, sparking feverish celebrations in the square, footage showed. The hostages were driven back toward the Gaza border, where they were received by Israeli security forces shortly after sundown. By 6 p.m., hundreds of Israelis had gathered in Hostages Square to watch newscasts shown on giant television screens. The crowd cheered, clapped, cried and hugged one another when each incremental update was reported: as the women were handed back to the Israel Defense Forces, as they were reunited with their families, as they were determined to be in a "good state" after a preliminary medical check. Some sang in unison: "Time has come to return home.”

ABC News [1/19/2025 2:03 PM, Staff, 33392K, Positive] reports White House deputy national security adviser Jon Finer acknowledged "significant support" from President-elect Donald Trump’s team to secure the ceasefire and hostage exchange deal between Israel and Hamas in an interview Sunday on ABC News’ "This Week." The bulk of implementing the deal is expected after Trump takes office on Monday, which Finer said President Joe Biden’s administration was conscious of. "They’re fully up to speed, and we have been as transparent and supportive as we can as we hand this off," he said. But while Finer praised the Trump team’s cooperation, he told "This Week" co-anchor Jonathan Karl that it was his boss’ "persistence" that saw the deal through. "But ultimately, at the end of the day, it was our team that was in the driver’s seat for the negotiations directed by President Biden with their support," he said. The interview came minutes before the first three Israeli hostages were released from captivity in Gaza, the first step in the implementation of a ceasefire deal that also involves the freeing of Palestinian prisoners. "The attention of the world, of the press, of maybe even other governments around the world had moved on to other issues, but President Biden literally just about every day would call [national security adviser] Jake Sullivan or me or others on our team and ask for an update on the deal, what he could do to help push things forward, who he could deploy to the region, who he could call on the phone," Finer said. "And he made, you know, dozens of calls to heads of state involved in negotiating this deal, to ultimately get it done."

The Hill [1/19/2025 10:51 PM, Tara Suter, 57114K, Neutral] reports an Israeli American hostage’s father said Sunday that he has “immense gratitude” for President-elect Trump’s team in the wake of a ceasefire deal in the Israel-Hamas war going into effect. “You’re going to be attending the inauguration tomorrow. What — what’s your message to the incoming Trump team about the importance of getting this thing followed through on?” ABC News’s Jonathan Karl asked Jonathan Dekel-Chen on “This Week.” “Well, first, it’s immense gratitude,” Dekel-Chen, hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen’s father, responded. Jonathan Dekel-Chen also said that President Biden’s “team absolutely did extraordinary work in getting the superstructure of this deal together.” “However, it took a tweet and subsequent statements from President-elect Trump to get this home. And what we ask of President Trump and his team is to keep their finger on this because it is the Middle East,” he added. “It’s a volatile place.” On Sunday, fighting in Gaza came to a stop as a new ceasefire deal went into effect. The halting of the fighting in the territory is part of the first phase of the truce, which includes releasing of 33 hostages by Hamas that the group has held for over a year. “Sagui, we are told, is on the list of the 33,” Karl said. “Yes. He is on the list of the 33, yes,” Dekel-Chen responded. White House principal deputy national security adviser Jon Finer also said on Sunday that Trump’s team provided “significant support” in the recent ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. “We got significant support from the Trump team. We [have] been, you know, very transparent about that. We’ve kept them fully up to speed,” Finer told Karl on “This Week.”

AP [1/21/2025 3:25 AM, Staff, 33392K, Neutral] reports a prisoner swap between the United States and Afghanistan’s Taliban freed two Americans in exchange for a Taliban figure imprisoned for life in California on drug trafficking and terrorism charges, officials said Tuesday. The deal came as Joe Biden, who oversaw the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, handed power over to returning President Donald Trump. The Taliban praised the swap as a step toward the “normalization” of ties between the U.S. and Afghanistan, but that likely remains a tall order as most countries in the world still don’t recognize their rule. The Taliban’s Foreign Ministry in Kabul confirmed the swap, saying two unidentified U.S. citizens had been exchanged for Khan Mohammed, who was sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment in 2008. The family of Ryan Corbett, one American held by the Taliban, confirmed he had been released in a statement. Corbett, who had lived in Afghanistan with his family at the time of the 2021 collapse of the U.S.-backed government, was detained by the Taliban in August 2022 while on a business trip. “Our hearts are filled with overwhelming gratitude and praise to God for sustaining Ryan’s life and bringing him back home after what has been the most challenging and uncertain 894 days of our lives,” the family’s statement said. They thanked both Trump and Biden, as well as many government officials, for their efforts in freeing him. Corbett’s family also praised the Middle Eastern nation of Qatar “for their vital role in facilitating Ryan’s release, and for their visits to Ryan as the United States’ Protecting Power in Afghanistan.” Energy-rich Qatar, which hosted negotiations between the U.S. and the Taliban over the years, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Both CNN and New York Times, relying on anonymous U.S. officials, identified the second American released as William McKenty, though no other details have emerged about his identity or what he was doing in Afghanistan.

New York Times [1/20/2025 3:42 AM, Alexandra Stevenson, 740K, Negative] reports that, days before President-elect Donald J. Trump takes office, China is gearing up for economic battle with the United States. It threatened a widespread investigation into American chipmakers. It zeroed in on one American retailer, accusing it of “inappropriate conduct” that could lead to sanctions usually reserved for weapons sellers. And it got ready to slap duties on imports of industrial plastics. The flurry of retaliatory gestures, all delivered this week, could have far-reaching implications for American companies. They join other measures by China in recent weeks with one objective: putting the incoming Trump administration on notice. “It’s a warning shot to the new administration that we won’t sit back, and we have leverage also in the event of a deepening of the trade tech wars,” said Myron Brilliant, a senior counselor at Dentons Global Advisors-ASG, a business consulting firm. So far in the tit-for-tat between the world’s superpowers, Washington has set the tone for tough measures aimed at curbing China’s economic influence and stifling the development of industries that could give it a military edge. In its final days, the Biden administration has issued new rules to restrict Chinese access to semiconductors and imposed penalties on companies in mining, real estate, solar energy and shipping. Some observers termed it “China sanctions week.” In the past, Beijing’s responses were measured. But its words and actions are growing sharper, and the targets of its retaliatory blows are widening to include supply chain vulnerabilities, critical minerals and individual companies. China this week called Washington’s actions “irrational and extremely irresponsible,” adding that “no bullying or coercion can shake China’s determination to be self-reliant.” It vowed to “defend its own sovereignty, security, and development interests.”

Newsweek [1/19/2025 5:13 PM, Peter Aitken, 56005K, Neutral] reports Vice President-elect JD Vance met with Chinese Vice President Han Zheng on Sunday as he gears up to assume his responsibilities and office, welcoming the foreign official to the United States. Vance and President-elect Donald Trump will be sworn in on Monday to commence the second Trump administration. Trump spent much of his first administration targeting China on trade and other issues, and he resumed talks of tariffs and trade concerns during his 2024 presidential bid. Beijing has also come under increased scrutiny as the TikTok ban briefly went into effect Saturday night. Congress last year passed legislation that would ban the app’s U.S. operation by January 19 unless it divested from its Chinese-based owner ByteDance, citing national security concerns. Congressional members argued that companies based in China must turn over data if requested by the ruling government, raising concerns about what the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) would do with the user data of the 170 million Americans on the app. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the ban last week in a non-binding per curiam ruling. However, Trump gave assurances to TikTok’s CEO Shou Zi Chew that he would seek to reverse the ban, and the app resumed service on Sunday afternoon. The company has thanked Trump repeatedly and publicly, including a message upon opening the app that said it resumed service "as a result of President Trump’s efforts."

New York Times [1/19/2025 6:30 AM, Edward Wong, 161405K, Neutral] reports as White House national security adviser, Jake Sullivan coordinated China policy for President Biden over four years. He traveled to Vienna, Malta, Bangkok and elsewhere to meet with Wang Yi, the top Chinese foreign policy official, and he talked with Xi Jinping, China’s leader, in Beijing last August. I sat down with him recently in a conference room in the West Wing to discuss the administration’s approach to China. Here are some of his comments, which have been lightly edited for clarity and concision. Mr. Sullivan said the Biden administration tried “to shift from a strategy of hub-and-spoke and just pure bilateral alliances” to “creating this latticework, or this network of relationships, across the region.” That included rejuvenating the nonmilitary Quad coalition with Australia, India and Japan, as well as creating three new U.S. security arrangements with Japan and South Korea; Japan and the Philippines; and Australia and Britain. The Trump administration “had begun an effort with respect to semiconductor manufacturing equipment around E.U.V. [extreme ultraviolet lithography] technology … that was quite informal, that was essentially an informal understanding with the Dutch government and so on.” “We thought we actually needed an export control regime that gets put into place and then built upon. … They were pointing in the right direction, but there was no real systematic undertaking on that front.” “Honestly, we felt a huge gap in our defense industrial base. We just were not making the investments in either munitions or platforms necessary, and so we worked to try to arrest the slide and put us on a long-term trajectory to be healthy, fully healthy at magazine depth and submarine defense, industrial base, that kind of thing.” “The other thing is that Covid exposed to us the broader supply-chain challenge in a very visceral, quite evocative way … They were grappling with Covid through 2020, so that’s another thing that I think we all came to a realization together, the outgoing and incoming administration in 2020. But it was left to us to really begin the work of a critical supply-chain strategy, both as it applies to the defense industrial base, but then also this broader issue of critical minerals, semiconductors, E.V. [electric vehicle] batteries, that sort of thing. So that was something that we were kind of building from scratch, coming in from ‘21.”

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