Link Roundup January 2026

[wepon]

'We need Greenland': Trump repeats threat to annex Danish territory

Trump has claimed that making it part of the United States would serve American security interests due to its strategic location and its abundance of minerals critical to high-tech sectors.

Corporation for Public Broadcasting to Shut Down After 58 Years Due to Trump Eliminating Funding

Less than a year after the Trump administration and Congress voted to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the entity — which helped fund the operations of local public TV and radio stations — has voted to shut down. The CPB announced Monday that its board of directors voted to close the organization after 58 years, rather than continue to exist and potentially be “vulnerable to future political manipulation or misuse.”

Meta created ‘playbook’ to fend off pressure to crack down on scammers, documents show

Despite reaping revenue of $164.5 billion last year, almost all of which came from advertising, Meta has decided not to spend the roughly $2 billion it estimates universal verification would cost, the documents show. In addition to that cost of implementation, staffers noted, Meta could ultimately lose up to 4.8% of its total revenue by blocking unverified advertisers.

Minneapolis schools cancel classes after Border Patrol clash disrupts dismissal at Roosevelt

The move came after officials at Roosevelt High School said armed U.S. Border Patrol officers came on school property during dismissal Wednesday and began tackling people, handcuffed two staff members and released chemical weapons on bystanders.

Fed Chair Powell says he’s under criminal investigation, won’t bow to Trump intimidation

Federal prosecutors are conducting a criminal investigation of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell focused on the $2.5 billion renovation to the central bank’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., and his related testimony to Congress, he said on Sunday evening. Powell said the probe is the result of longstanding frustration by President Donald Trump over the Fed’s refusal to cut interest rates as quickly and as much as the president has demanded.

Anti-Surveillance Mapmaker Refuses Flock Safety's Cease and Desist Demand

Flock Safety loves to crow about the thousands of local law enforcement agencies around the United States that have adopted its avian-themed automated license plate readers (ALPRs). But when a privacy activist launched a website to map out the exact locations of these pole-mounted devices, the company tried to clip his wings. The company sent DeFlock.me and its creator Will Freeman a cease-and-desist letter, claiming that the project dilutes its trademark.

What to know about the warrants most immigration agents use to make arrests

Most immigration arrests are carried out under administrative warrants, internal documents issued by immigration authorities that authorize the arrest of a specific individual but do not permit officers to forcibly enter private homes or other nonpublic spaces without consent. Only criminal warrants signed by judges carry that authority. Legal experts say the administration’s aggressive enforcement push, combined with public awareness of those limits, is increasingly turning door-knock encounters into flashpoints, fueling confrontations that are now playing out in cities across the country.

Why Are Children Working in American Tobacco Fields?

The photos caused an uproar, but it wasn’t until 1938 that Congress finally passed the Fair Labor Standards Act. Along with establishing a minimum wage and overtime pay, the FLSA banned “oppressive child labor,” preventing youth under 18 from working in mines and factories. The FLSA was a seminal achievement, but it has significant loopholes. Influenced by racist Southern politicians, who argued in the 1930s that “you cannot put the Negro and the white man on the same basis,” the law left out minimum wage and overtime protections for agricultural and domestic workers—the industries that employed the majority of African-Americans at the time. Child labor standards, too, are considerably weaker in agriculture, where children—then mostly black, now mostly brown—can begin work at the age of 12. Limits on work hours, put in place to ensure that jobs don’t interfere with study, are more permissive for field workers. A tobacco grower who hires a 12-year-old to work seventy-hour weeks in the summer is well within the letter of the law.

Bad Science, Good Politics

Wicherts found that Lynn excluded every single available study that reported an average IQ of above 85 for African samples. When Lynn rejected a study showing an IQ of 91 for a sample of African children, he claimed it was because the study “lacked information regarding the age of the children”. Yet he included five other studies that also lacked age information – all of which reported IQs between 63 and 72. As Wicherts and colleagues concluded: “It is hard to avoid the impression that [Lynn’s] assessment of representativeness was a function of the average IQ in the sample.” I would encourage readers to peruse the dataset themselves. You can download it here. The spreadsheet itself reveals problems that would disqualify it from consideration in any serious peer-reviewed context.

‘Make America Healthy Again’ Report Cites Nonexistent Studies

Those articles don’t appear in the table of contents for the journals listed in their citations. A spokesperson for Virginia Commonwealth University, where psychiatric researcher Robert L. Findling currently teaches, confirmed to NOTUS that he never authored such an article. The author of the first study doesn’t appear to be a real ADHD researcher at all — at least, not one with a Google Scholar profile.

The full list of 75 countries where Trump is suspending visa processing

The freeze, which takes effect on 21 January, targets applicants officials deem likely to become a “public charge” – people who they believe may rely on government benefits for basic needs.

Trump administration halts immigrant visa processing from 75 countries

The Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration has intensified to record levels, even as nationwide protests over the killing of Renee Good have drawn attention to law enforcement practices. The state department says it revoked more than 100,000 visas since Trump returned to office, while the homeland security department reported last month that more than 605,000 people have been deported, while an additional 2.5 million left the country on their own.

Where the hot spots are for immigration enforcement

The analysis shows local law enforcement agencies in Texas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia have been most cooperative with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) through deals known as 287 (g) agreements. There are 629 such agreements now in place across the country. About 43% of them are in Florida, followed by 14% in Texas and 5% in Georgia.

Pentagon "escalating" its review of Sen. Mark Kelly over video urging defiance of illegal orders

Beyond the Pentagon's investigation into Kelly, the other five Democrats said publicly last month that the FBI opened an inquiry into them. Legal experts told CBS News last month that prosecuting the lawmakers could be extraordinarily difficult.

House Republican leaders ditch vote on ACA funding, all but ensuring premiums will rise

Asked about Lawler’s criticism, Johnson called him “a very dear friend and a close colleague of mine.” But, he said, other Republicans come from different districts with “different priorities and ideas.” Many Republicans want the funds to expire on schedule.

House Democrats release 68 new photos from Epstein estate

The photos come from a trove of 95,000 images the committee received last week, the Democrats said. The release includes images of lines from the novel "Lolita" written on a person's body; various travel documents; a screenshot of text messages about an 18-year-old from Russia and more. The photos can be accessed here.

Trump administration moves to cut off transgender care for children

The sweeping proposals — the most significant moves this administration has taken so far to restrict the use of puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgical interventions for transgender children — include cutting off federal Medicaid and Medicare funding from hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to children and prohibiting federal Medicaid dollars from being used to fund such procedures.

HHS moves to slash funding and access to care for transgender minors

HHS also announced that the Food and Drug Administration will issue warning letters to 12 manufacturers and retailers of breast binders for minors for the purposes of treating gender dysphoria, which is the distress that results from a misalignment between a person’s gender identity and birth sex, alleging that the manufacturers are participating in illegal marketing.

US blocks all offshore wind construction, says reason is classified

What are these risks? The Interior Department is being extremely coy. It notes that offshore wind turbines can interfere with radar sensing, but that’s been known for a while. In announcing the decision, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum also noted “the rapid evolution of the relevant adversary technologies.” But the announcement says that the Defense Department analysis is classified, meaning nobody is likely to know what the actual reason is—presuming one exists. The classification will also make it far more challenging to contest this decision in court.

Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act (again). What is it?

The law also does not mention time constraints on the troop deployments. Nor does it involve Congress in the process to maintain checks and balances, Banks added. The Insurrection Act has also been rarely tested in the courts. Trump himself described the Insurrection Act as providing legal cover. "Do you know that I could use that immediately and no judge can even challenge you on that? But I haven't chosen to do it because I haven't felt we need it," he said during the October 60 Minutes interview.

Trump administration to start seizing pay of defaulted student loan borrowers in January

The Education Department can seize up to 15% of a student loan holder’s after-tax income to put toward their debt. By law, borrowers must be left with at least 30 times the federal minimum hourly wage ($7.25) a week, which is $217.50, said higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz.

Supreme Court denies Trump's push to deploy National Guard in Chicago

Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas dissented.

Trump-appointed judge: DHS must restore disaster grants to Democratic states

The grants were from the Homeland Security Grant Program, which provides states and local governments with "critical resources to plan for and prevent natural disasters, terrorist attacks, and other emergencies," N.Y. Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement.

Trump administration can’t block child care money for 5 Democratic-led states for now, judge says

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said it was pausing the funding because it had “reason to believe” the states were granting benefits to people in the country illegally, though it did not provide evidence or explain why it was targeting those states and not others.

US agency halts emergency funds, demands state population data reflecting deportations

The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency said on Friday it stopped distributing funds for emergency preparedness to states until they provide updated population counts that account for migrants deported since President Donald Trump took office. The emergency preparedness funds put on hold, called emergency management performance grants, help local communities to prepare for disasters. The website for FEMA, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, notes that the program was allocated $319.5 million for fiscal year 2025.

ICE officer accused of excessive force, then sent back to work despite active probe

During the Biden administration, the DHS OIG conducted a review of policies and procedures regarding senior executive employees going back nearly a decade and found that ICE did not follow its written policy when conducting disciplinary reviews of these employees. But immigration policy experts say prior problems could be exacerbated by the rapid surge in hiring new officers, and the pressure the agency faces to detain more immigrants.

Justice Department releases more Epstein files and some mention Trump

The prosecutor said Trump was listed as a passenger on at least eight flights between 1993 and 1996, including four on which Ghislaine Maxwell – Epstein's co-conspirator and herself a convicted sex offender – was also a passenger. The prosecutor also wrote that one flight included only Trump, Epstein, and a 20-year-old whose name was redacted.

Trump says broadcast licenses should be terminated if networks are "almost 100% Negative" about him

"If Network NEWSCASTS, and their Late Night Shows, are almost 100% Negative to President Donald J. Trump, MAGA, and the Republican Party, shouldn't their very valuable Broadcast Licenses be terminated? I say, YES!" Mr. Trump said in a post on Truth Social in the wee hours of the morning.

Veterans Affairs Department reimposing near total abortion ban

In 2022, the department modified its 1999 abortion rules to allow "access to abortions when the life or health of the pregnant Veteran would be endangered if the pregnancy were carried to term, or when the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest," the VA website states. Now, under the guidance given by the Office of Legal Counsel, the VA's proposed rule reinstates "the full exclusion on abortions and abortion counseling from the medical benefits package."

Trump overturned decades of US trade policy in 2025. See the impact of his tariffs, in four charts

Trump’s higher tariffs are certainly raising money. They’ve raked in more than $236 billion this year through November — much more than in years past. But they still account for just a fraction of the federal government’s total revenue. And they haven’t raised nearly enough to justify the president’s claim that tariff revenue could replace federal income taxes — or allow for windfall dividend checks for Americans.

US pledges $2 billion for UN humanitarian aid as Trump warns agencies must ‘adapt or die’

The $2 billion is only a sliver of traditional U.S. humanitarian funding for U.N.-coordinated programs, which has run as high as $17 billion annually in recent years, according to U.N. data. U.S. officials say only $8 billion to $10 billion of that has been in voluntary contributions. The United States also pays billions in annual dues related to its U.N. membership.

Democrat wins Iowa state Senate special election, keeps GOP from reclaiming supermajority in Legislature

Democrat Renee Hardman was elected to the Iowa state Senate on Tuesday in a year-end special election, denying Republicans from reclaiming two-thirds control of the chamber and Legislature.

Documents suggest DOJ sought Abrego Garcia prosecution after mistaken deportation, judge's order says

A newly unsealed order in the criminal case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia reveals that high-level Justice Department officials pushed for his indictment, calling it a "top priority," only after he was mistakenly deported and then ordered returned to the U.S.

Trump administration says it's freezing child care funds to Minnesota

O'Neill, who is serving as acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also said in the social media post Tuesday that payments across the U.S. through the Administration for Children and Families, an agency within the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, will now require "justification and a receipt or photo evidence" before money is sent. They have also launched a fraud-reporting hotline and email address.

Trump says U.S. is "in charge" of Venezuela, Maduro jailed in New York after U.S. military operation

President Trump said in a Saturday press conference that the U.S. would "run" Venezuela temporarily during the transition, and "get the oil flowing." He said Sunday the U.S. was "in charge" of Venezuela.

This Jan. 6 plaque was made to honor law enforcement. It’s nowhere to be found at the Capitol

House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, has yet to formally unveil the plaque. And the Trump administration’s Department of Justice is seeking to dismiss a police officers’ lawsuit asking that it be displayed as intended. The Architect of the Capitol, which was responsible for obtaining and displaying the plaque, said in light of the federal litigation, it cannot comment.

Slain Minnesota lawmaker's children call on Trump to remove social media video amplifying false claims about her death

Trump shared the video — which seems to have been made by another social media user, who shared yet another video — on Saturday. It made unsubstantiated claims tying Walz and alleged fraud in Minnesota’s state programs to the murders. There has been no evidence to suggest there is such a link.

Gov. Tim Walz drops out of 2026 Minnesota governor's race amid criticism over his handling of fraud

Walz has also been the target of attacks by President Trump. On Thanksgiving, Mr. Trump used a slur for people with intellectual disabilities to describe Walz on his Truth Social platform. During a media availability Sunday, Trump called Walz "a very stupid, low-IQ governor." Over the weekend, Mr. Trump reposted a conspiracy theory video alleging Walz was behind the political assassination of Minnesota House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman.

Hegseth moves to demote Sen. Mark Kelly and cut pension over video on illegal orders

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Monday that the Pentagon had begun a process to demote Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona and cut his retirement pay over a video in which Kelly, a retired Navy captain, called on service members to "refuse illegal orders."

Pentagon will begin review of 'effectiveness' of women in ground combat positions

Hegseth, an Army National Guard veteran with tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, opposed women in ground combat units while he was a Fox News host and author. "I'm straight up saying we should not have women in combat roles. It hasn't made us more effective. Hasn't made us more lethal. Has made fighting more complicated," he said in a November 2024 podcast hosted by Shawn Ryan.

Trump administration halting $10 billion in social service funding to 5 Democratic states

The move will freeze $7 billion for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, nearly $2.4 billion for the Child Care Development Fund and roughly $870 million for social services grants that largely benefit children. The states affected are Minnesota, New York, California, Illinois and Colorado.

White House discussing "range of options" for acquiring Greenland, including U.S. military takeover by force, Leavitt says

Mr. Trump insists Greenland is critical from a national security standpoint, although the U.S. already operates a base there.

Judge orders Lindsey Halligan to explain why she's still serving as U.S. attorney after previous ruling against her

A federal judge Tuesday ordered Trump ally Lindsey Halligan to explain why she continues to call herself the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia even though another judge determined in November that she had been unlawfully appointed to the position.

House approves 3-year Affordable Care Act tax credit extension as lawmakers eye compromise in Senate

In a 230 to 196 vote, 17 Republicans joined all Democrats in favor of the measure. The legislation is unlikely to pass the Senate in its current form, but some lawmakers are hopeful it will serve as the starting point for a broader compromise.

“We’re Too Close to the Debris”

During the breakup of Flight 7, the FAA kept airspace closed for roughly 86 minutes. However, Diez, the SpaceX executive, told attendees at the industry conference that, in fact, it had taken “hours” for all the debris to reach the ground. The FAA, SpaceX and Diez did not respond to follow-up questions about her remarks.

Minnesota investigators say the FBI has blocked them from accessing evidence in the deadly ICE shooting

The Minnesota agency tasked with investigating the killing of a U.S. citizen by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent has withdrawn from the case, alleging federal authorities have restricted its access to evidence.

What we know one day after the killing of Renee Good by an ICE agent in Minneapolis

Video footage from the scene shows Good's Honda Pilot SUV sitting sideways on a snowy street, with her driver's side window down. Two uniformed officers approach the vehicle from the left. As one officer grabs at her door handle, a third officer who had circled to the front of the SUV from the opposite side draws his gun. As Good begins to drive away, the officer fires into her car.

House fails to override Trump's vetoes of 2 bills that passed unanimously

Both bills initially passed the House and Senate unanimously. Thursday's votes required a two-thirds majority to override the vetoes, but both fell significantly short...The vote to override Mr. Trump's veto of the Florida bill was 236 in favor to 188 opposed. The vote on the veto of the Colorado bill was 248 to 177.

Trump says he plans to meet with Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado

Trump has not been subtle in his Nobel Peace Prize ambitions and has campaigned for the award. In an interview with NBC News recently, he denied reporting from The Washington Post that said he did not appoint Machado to lead Venezuela after Maduro’s capture because she won the Nobel. “She should not have won it,” Trump previously said. “But no, that has nothing to do with my decision.”

Trump pardons jailed ex-Colorado election official Tina Peters, but she was charged in state court

President Trump said Thursday evening he is granting a pardon to Tina Peters, a former Colorado county clerk who is serving a nine-year state sentence for allowing unauthorized access to voting machines — even though the president's pardon power is widely understood to only apply to federal crimes.

Minnesota shooting videos challenge administration narrative, policing experts question tactics

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has not publicly identified the officer who shot Good. But she spoke of an incident last June in which the same officer was dragged by a fleeing vehicle. Court records from that case identify the officer as Jonathan Ross.

Washington National Opera bows out of Kennedy Center

Opera officials said the Center’s new business model requires productions to be fully funded in advance, which it said is “incompatible with opera operations.” Ticket sales cover only a fraction of production costs, and opera companies rely on grants and donations to make up the difference but can’t secure them years in advance, when they’re planning productions.

Trump administration officials to meet with Danish officials about Greenland on Wednesday, sources say

Mr. Trump told the New York Times in an interview published last week that ownership of Greenland, the world's largest island, was important because "that's what I feel is psychologically needed for success." Mr. Trump has repeatedly said he feels the U.S. needs to acquire Greenland for defense purposes.

Iran acknowledges mass protest deaths, but claims situation under control as Trump mulls response

The state TV reporter says in the clip that some of those seen dead may have been involved in violence, but that "the majority of them are ordinary people, and their families are ordinary people as well."

Reference to Trump’s impeachments is removed from the display of his Smithsonian photo portrait

Trump’s original “portrait label,” as the Smithsonian calls it, notes Trump’s Supreme Court nominations and his administration’s development of COVID-19 vaccines. That section concludes: “Impeached twice, on charges of abuse of power and incitement of insurrection after supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, he was acquitted by the Senate in both trials.”

Malaysia will take legal action against Musk’s X and xAI over misuse of Grok chatbot

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission said in a statement that it has identified the misuse of Grok to generate and distribute harmful content including sexually explicit, indecent, extremely offensive as well as non-consensual manipulated images. It said it served notices to X and xAI this month to remove the harmful content but no action has been taken.

A new milestone in the cancer fight: 7 in 10 patients now survive five-plus years

The U.S. has reached a watershed moment in the fight against cancer: Seven in 10 people now survive five years or more after diagnosis, according to the latest annual report from the American Cancer Society. That’s a big improvement since the 1970s, when only half of those diagnosed lived at least five years. In the mid-1990s, the rate was 63%.

What to Do if ICE Invades Your Neighborhood

The presence of immigration agents in cities and towns around the country has starkly increased in recent months, and tensions have escalated in step. On Wednesday, a federal agent shot and killed 37-year-old Minneapolis resident and US citizen Renee Nicole Good in her car during an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation. Having already deployed 2,000 agents to Minnesota, DHS reportedly planned this week to send 1,000 more. "There are now more ICE agents in Minnesota than there are combined in Minneapolis police force and St. Paul police force,” Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar said on Friday. “So they are outnumbering our own local police officers out on the streets." (Minnesota and Illinois have since filed lawsuits in federal court to end the ICE “invasion” in those states.)

‘Madness’: two US citizens violently detained by ICE in Minnesota, officials say

Another video from the scene from TikTok user lokatorres17 appearing to capture the moments before the detentions shows one of the two people walking backwards into the store and away from a lone officer who is pursuing him. The officer then lunges at the person and brings him to the ground as other agents rush in.

The Fort Bragg Murders

It’s not even clear exactly how many soldiers died at Fort Bragg in 2020. Over the course of several months of correspondence, the public-affairs office eventually disclosed the number of homicides and suicides, but not deaths from accidents and illnesses, which would include drug overdoses. The base’s spokesman, Col. Joe Buccino, acknowledged that illegal drug use seems to have been a common factor in all of the homicides that involved Fort Bragg soldiers, but emphasized that all but one of the killings pertained to the special-forces units at Fort Bragg, which he could not speak for. “The things that have happened with special forces are outside the purview of the Fort Bragg command,” he says. But neither JSOC nor USASOC responded to repeated requests for comment. Nor would the base discuss the perplexing incidence of young men turning up “unresponsive” in their bunks, such as 19-year-old Caleb Smither, whose body was so decomposed when they found him that he couldn’t have an open-casket funeral.

Minnesota Proved MAGA Wrong

Federal agents have arrested about 3,000 people in the state, but they have released the names of only about 240 of those detained, leaving unclear how many of the larger number have committed any crimes. Many more thousands of people have been affected by the arrests and the fear they have instilled. Minnesota Public Radio estimates that in school districts “with widespread federal activity, as many as 20 to 40 percent of students have been absent in recent weeks.”

House Republicans unveil election reform bill dubbed Make Elections Great Again Act

The bill would prohibit federal agencies from using taxpayer funds to promote voter registration, in reference to former President Biden’s 2021 executive order directing agencies to help the public register to vote, with Republicans deeming the practice “BidenBucks.” The bill would also ban ranked choice voting in federal elections. The system, in which voters rank their top choices of candidates rather than voting for a single person, is used in some statewide elections in Maine and in Alaska and a smattering of local elections across the country.

Journalist Don Lemon charged with federal civil rights crimes after covering anti-ICE church protest

Journalist Don Lemon was released from custody Friday after he was arrested and hit with federal civil rights charges over his coverage of an anti-immigration enforcement protest that disrupted a service at a Minnesota church. Lemon was arrested overnight in Los Angeles, while another independent journalist and two protest participants were arrested in Minnesota.

Under Biden Administration, Justice Dept. Began Examining Ilhan Omar’s Finances

The Justice Department under the Biden administration opened an investigation into Representative Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota, in 2024 to scrutinize her finances, campaign spending and interactions with a foreign citizen, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The inquiry, initiated by the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington and the department’s public integrity unit in June of that year, appears to have stalled for lack of evidence, according to one of the people who requested anonymity to discuss internal department matters.

ICE eyeing Ohio next, where it is expected to target Haitian immigrants

The operation is expected to target Haitian immigrants, with temporary protected status for Haiti expiring on Feb. 3, one of the people familiar with the matter told MS NOW. Details on how many federal immigration agents there will be or the makeup of the operation remain unclear. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem terminated temporary protected status for Haiti last year with an estimated more than 330,000 Haitian immigrants set to lose their protected status on Feb. 3.

The Congresswoman Criminalized for Visiting ICE Detainees

For half a century, the Justice Department had strict instructions, laid out in a manual, for how its staff investigated members of Congress. The main requirement was for prosecutors to seek “prior approval” from an office called the Public Integrity Section, which came into existence after Watergate, to insure that charges weren’t politically motivated. A week before McIver was charged, the Justice Department suspended the rule. The move came amid a welter of changes to the section, according to an investigation by Reuters. By June, the number of lawyers in it had been reduced from more than thirty to five. The department official told me, “Public-corruption prosecutors at U.S. Attorneys’ offices across the country, along with their F.B.I. partners, are now spending more of their time working on violent crime and immigration cases.”

These Companies—Palantir, AT&T, Deloitte—Have The Biggest ICE Contracts As DHS Funding Under Fire

Management consultancy firm McKinsey & Company said in July 2018 it would stop work for ICE after disclosing it had done $20 million in consulting work for the agency. The disclosure reportedly sparked protests among current and former employees who opposed immigration policies during President Donald Trump’s first term. Employees at Microsoft similarly protested the company’s $19.4 million contract with ICE, though Microsoft never disclosed whether it cut ties with the agency (CEO Satya Nadella said in 2018 the company provided cloud support for ICE and called Trump’s immigration policies at the time “simply cruel and abusive.”). Last week, more than 250 employees at several tech giants—including Amazon, Palantir, Spotify, Google and Tesla, among others—demanded their employers to speak publicly against ICE, “call the White House and demand that ICE leave our cities” and to cancel all company contracts with the agency. It’s not immediately clear whether some of the companies hold contracts with ICE.

Acting CISA director failed a polygraph. Career staff are now under investigation.

That material was designated as a controlled access program — meaning its circulation was supposed to be tightly restricted to those assigned as need-to-know — and the agency that furnished it to CISA further required that any need-to-know employees first pass what is known as a counter-intelligence polygraph, according to four current officials and one former official.

The FDIC's goal is to prevent another banking crisis. It's now also a Trump target

After New York-based Signature Bank collapsed during the 2023 crisis, the FDIC said it didn't have enough qualified examiners to catch the problems that had led to the bank's failure. Yet instead of gaining more resources, the FDIC is losing them. It's hardly alone among financial regulators: The FDIC's cuts have paled in comparison with the administration's efforts to essentially shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is widely hated by Republicans and many in the financial industry.

Trump administration memo orders Pentagon to identify and fire transgender members of US military

Wednesday’s late-evening memo went further. It said that the Pentagon must create a procedure to identify troops who are transgender within 30 days and then, within 30 days of that, must start to separate them from the military.

Trump White House seeks tighter grip on message with new limits on press

No longer would the White House Correspondents' Association, made up of news outlets that cover the White House, determine how they will share coverage of President Trump at major events where space is limited. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the assembled reporters the White House would make that determination instead.

Elon Musk to retired air traffic controllers: Please come back to work

The FAA has faced a longstanding shortage of air traffic controllers, while the agency's oversight of the skies has recently faced heightened scrutiny following a string of recent aviation incidents. Currently, more than 90% of U.S. airport towers are understaffed, and do not meet standards set by a working group that includes the FAA and the controllers' union, according to a CBS News analysis of FAA data.

Federal technology staffers resign rather than help Musk and DOGE

Trump’s empowerment of Musk upended that. The day after Trump’s inauguration, the staffers wrote, they were called into a series of interviews that foreshadowed the secretive and disruptive work of Musk’s’ Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. According to the staffers, people wearing White House visitors’ badges, some of whom would not give their names, grilled the nonpartisan employees about their qualifications and politics. Some made statements that indicated they had a limited technical understanding. Many were young and seemed guided by ideology and fandom of Musk — not improving government technology.

'The confinement is unbearable': Migrants describe being held at Guantanamo

ABC News spoke with Jose and another Guantanamo detainee, Jhoan Bastidas Paz, in Spanish, and reviewed court testimonies from three other detainees about their experience on the naval base before they were released. They allege U.S. officials transferred them to Guantanamo despite their having no criminal records, and several claim they were denied phone calls with their attorneys and relatives despite repeated demands.

‘The Perfect Church’: Inside the Religious Sect That Took Over a Midwestern Town

But according to some former members, living without sin entails abuse and sacrifice. I spoke to three former members who say the popular restaurant the church once operated in its heyday paid its employees subminimum wages, while working them to the bone. In total, 10 former church members I spoke with describe being put through varying degrees of emotional or physical abuse.

'Segregated facilities' are no longer explicitly banned in federal contracts

They said that the process used to institute these changes, without a typical public notice or comment period of 30 to 60 days, is usually reserved for urgent matters or national emergencies. The FAR's rules explain that this public comment period is required for any "significant revision."

Here are all the ways people are disappearing from government websites

Across the federal government, agencies have been busy scrubbing photographic and written references about women, people of color and members of the LGBTQ+ community from their websites.

5 ways Trump’s mass deportations are meeting resistance. And why it may not matter.

But the effort has also been hampered by activists who have conducted a “know your rights” campaign across the country to advise people of their rights, which include not opening the door to ICE agents who lack a warrant signed by a judge — and not just by an agent — or insisting on their right to see a lawyer. Homan has acknowledged that the campaigns are “making it very difficult” to arrest people.

Some Americans Have Already Been Caught in Trump’s Immigration Dragnet. More Will Be.

Spanning both Obama administrations, an NPR investigation found, immigration authorities asked local authorities to detain about 700 Americans. Meanwhile, a U.S. Government Accountability Office report found that immigration authorities asked to hold roughly 600 likely citizens during Trump’s first term. The GAO also found that Trump actually deported about 70 likely citizens.

5 ways the pandemic changed us for good, for bad and forever

Michael Dougherty, Boulder County's district attorney, saw a similar silver lining: Virtual court proceedings allowed a lot more people to take part. "We also have victims who are scared to be in the same room as a defendant or his loved ones," he said. "They now can attend court virtually without the defendant even knowing they're there."

As protests rage, Iran pulls the plug on contact with the world

As the country effectively goes dark, loved ones abroad are frantic for any scrap of news, especially as Iran’s attorney general warned on Saturday that anyone taking part in protests will be considered an “enemy of God,” a death-penalty charge.

yConfusion erupts in mental health and substance abuse programs as HHS cuts, then reinstates grants

By Wednesday evening, news reports were suggesting the cuts might be reversed — but grant recipients hadn’t yet been notified of the change. Some of them said they instead received confusing emails overnight that duplicated their termination notices or instructed them on how to to close down their grants within 30 days. It wasn’t until Thursday morning that grant recipients started getting form emails saying the grant terminations were “hereby rescinded.”

Trump health care plan doesn't help people facing skyrocketing ACA premiums

Asked for specific policy details, Oz said it was a "broad framework" and referred further questions to a White House official who spoke on background. The official also did not provide detailed answers to reporters' questions but did say that this future legislation would not replace other possible laws.

Nobel Peace Prize medallion presented to Trump by Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado

The U.S. officially began selling Venezuelan oil this week. The first U.S. sale of Venezuelan oil, valued at $500 million, has been completed, an administration official said Wednesday. Mr. Trump says the U.S. will be selling up to 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil, if not more.

California Gov. Newsom says he's blocking Louisiana's push to extradite doctor accused of mailing abortion pills

The Democratic governor's announcement comes a day after Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, said he sent the extradition paperwork in an effort to bring the physician "to justice." Louisiana has some of the strictest anti-abortion laws in the country, while California law aims to protect abortion providers from criminal prosecution for treating out-of-state patients.

Trump administration investigates 5 Democratic lawmakers over their video message to troops. Here's what we know.

Democratic Reps. Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania and Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire announced Wednesday that they had received inquiries from the Justice Department about the video. Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin and Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado also said the top federal prosecutor in D.C., Jeanine Pirro, reached out to interview them.

US sanctions Iranian officials accused of repressing protests against the government

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control also designated 18 people and companies that the U.S. says have participated in laundering money from sales of Iranian oil to foreign markets as part of a shadow banking network of sanctioned Iranian financial institutions Bank Melli and Shahr Bank.

Burned books, children’s questions: The aftermath of an attack on Mississippi’s largest synagogue

Anti-Jewish hate crime incidents in the U.S. rose about 6% in 2024 compared with the previous year, according to the FBI’s most recent figures.

European troops arrive in Greenland as Trump throws another curveball

Small numbers of military personnel from France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Finland, Norway and Sweden were arriving in the Arctic island early Thursday.

877: The Making Of

Something fascinating that happens, though, when you're watching those guys, is lots of times, they're trying to prove that the protesters are the cause of the violence, but in fact, when you look at the footage, often what the footage reveals is exactly the opposite. It shows clearly that some of the violence would not be happening at all if the streamers weren't there. Here's an example from the night that we were there.

Apple and Google block apps that crowdsource ICE sightings. Some warn of chilling effects

Also known as StopICE.Net, Austin’s platform similarly uses crowdsourcing, but instead allows its users to track ICE activity more broadly online or through text alerts, without the need to download a separate app. Austin says the platform has reached more than 500,000 subscribers as of Friday.

We Found More Than 40 Cases of Immigration Agents Using Banned Chokeholds and Other Moves That Can Cut Off Breathing

Our compilation of incidents is far from complete. Just as the government does not count how often it detains citizens or smashes through vehicle windows during immigration arrests, it does not publicly track how many times agents have choked civilians or otherwise inhibited their breathing or blood flow. We gathered cases by searching legal filings, social media posts and local press reports in English and Spanish. Given the lack of any count over time, it’s impossible to know for certain how agents’ current use of the banned and dangerous tactics compares with earlier periods.

ICE Reportedly Stole a 10th Grader’s Phone, Then Seemingly Sold It for Cash

Arnoldo took footage of the encounter, but his phone was confiscated after he was taken into custody. Later, when he used the Find My feature to track down his device, it led him to a vending machine for used electronics several miles away and near an ICE detention center, according to the reporting. Someone — we can only guess who — had apparently sold Arnoldo’s phone after ICE had confiscated it.

Press freedom advocates worry that raid on Washington Post journalist’s home will chill reporting

Hannah Natanson, nicknamed the “federal government whisperer” at the Post for her reporting on President Donald Trump’s changes to the federal workforce, had a phone, two laptops and a Garmin watch seized in the Wednesday search of her Virginia home, the newspaper said. A warrant for the raid said it was connected to an investigation into a government contractor accused of illegally retaining classified government materials, said Matt Murray, the Post’s executive editor, in an email to his staff. The Post was told that Natanson and the newspaper are not targets of the investigation, he said.

How the Trump administration erased centuries of Justice Department experience

Joseph Tirrell was mindful of his job security from the very start of the Trump administration. As the department’s chief ethics officer, he had affirmed that Smith, the special counsel, was entitled to a law firm’s free legal services, a decision he sensed had the potential to rile incoming leadership. But he remained in the position and over the ensuing months counseled Bondi’s staff on the propriety of accepting various gifts, including a cigar box from mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor. He was fired in July, just before a FIFA Club World Cup final in New Jersey that Tirrell had said Bondi could not ethically accept a free invitation to. He was not terribly surprised, he says, when it was later reported that Bondi attended in Trump’s box.

With limited political power, Minnesota Democrats navigate resistance to Trump

The lawmakers said they had called the facility before showing up and told them they were coming to conduct an oversight check. Dozens of ICE agents stood in a line facing the Congress members. The three were allowed in for about 10 minutes, then turned away...Under federal law, members of Congress have the right to make unannounced visits to Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities. A Washington, D.C., federal court ruling affirmed this last month, saying it applies to facilities that are funded by regular congressional appropriations.

Trump says he may punish countries with tariffs if they don’t back the US controlling Greenland

U.S. President Donald Trump suggested Friday that he may punish countries with tariffs if they don’t back the U.S. controlling Greenland, a message that came as a bipartisan Congressional delegation sought to lower tensions in the Danish capital.

California federal judge rejects effort by Justice Dept. to gather sensitive voter roll data

The decision is the first formal court decision of what is expected to be many, after the Justice Department filed nearly two dozen lawsuits around the country ordering states to hand over voter roll data containing sensitive information, such as Social Security numbers, addresses and driver's license numbers.

7 charts show how the economy looked in Donald Trump's first year of his second presidency

The US experienced the smallest job growth outside a recession since 2003 last year, adding just 584,000 jobs.

ICE says its officers can forcibly enter homes during immigration operations without judicial warrants: 2025 memo

Blumenthal said in a statement that the memo was “allegedly not widely distributed” despite being labeled “all-hands.” A copy of the memo shared with Congress is addressed to “All ICE Personnel.” “Instead, the disclosure claims that the memo was rolled out in a secretive manner in which some agents were verbally briefed while others were allowed to view it but not keep a copy,” Blumenthal said. “It was reportedly clear that anyone who openly spoke out against this new directive would be fired.”

School officials say 5-year-old was used by ICE as "bait." DHS says he was abandoned.

The Columbia Heights Public School District says 5-year-old Liam Ramos was taken with his father while in their driveway after just arriving home from his preschool classroom. School officials claimed the child was used by agents to knock on the door and ask to be let in, letting officers see if anyone else was home.

White House posts an altered photo of Minnesota protester's arrest to make it look like she was crying

A photo of Nekima Levy Armstrong's arrest — showing Armstrong with a neutral expression — was first posted on X by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem Thursday morning. The image the White House posted appears the same except Armstrong's altered facial expression shows her distressed, with tears running down her face.

Democrats' calls for Kristi Noem to resign or face impeachment grow louder

Eight additional Democrats signed on to an impeachment resolution against Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in the wake of the killing of Alex Pretti, bringing the total number of co-sponsors to 120, according to a spokesperson for the office of Rep. Robin Kelly of Illinois.

Alex Pretti killing: Minnesota CEOs, including UnitedHealth, Target, call for ‘immediate deescalation’

The letter did not specifically name President Donald Trump or any other political leader involved with the situation in Minnesota. Executives across the country have been largely reluctant to comment publicly on political issues throughout Trump’s second term.

Minnesota takes rare legal steps to ensure probe of Alex Pretti shooting

In the hours after Pretti's shooting, state investigators obtained a search warrant from a Hennepin County judge to access the scene of Pretti's death — an "unusual" move, they noted in a federal court filing — but federal agents refused to honor it and physically blocked state investigators from the area.

A look at Trump’s Board of Peace and who has been invited

The board’s charter has not yet been made public, but a draft version obtained by The Associated Press indicates that much of the power will be concentrated in Trump’s hands. A $1 billion contribution secures permanent membership, the draft says.

"We will be ungovernable": Resistance 2.0 pivots to disruption

The big picture: Last year, protest turnout peaked at 7 million people during the second No Kings rally in October. Future protests could see 12 million participants, or about 3.5% of the U.S. population, per the Center for American Progress.

Senate Democrats plot strategy as DHS standoff deepens heading into shutdown week

Two sources on the call told NBC News that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told the caucus the message had to be to “restrain, reform and restrict ICE.”

4 issues to watch as Homeland Security funding fight escalates

On top of that, DHS officials indicated that it wanted to slash body camera resources in this year’s spending bill, having proposed a reduction of the program’s 22-person staff down to three employees, according to The Washington Post. It also wanted to reduce spending on the program from roughly $20 million down to nearly $5 million — a 75 percent cut.

TikTok faces app deletions, censorship claims and glitches in days after its ownership change

Still, the technical problems combined with the ties that some of the new owners have to Trump bristled some U.S. users just enough to delete the app. Market intelligence firm Sensor Tower said Tuesday that daily average app uninstalls grew 130% from Jan. 22 to Jan. 26 compared with the previous 30 days. However, daily average users still increased by 2% in the same period, which Sensor Tower says suggests the uninstalls had little effect on overall usage. And while TikTok lagged YouTube and Instagram in U.S. user growth, people spent more time on the platform than its rivals.

5-year-old who was detained in Minnesota can't be moved, judge rules

Liam Conejo Ramos was taken with his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, after the pair returned home Jan. 20 from Liam's preschool, according to Zena Stenvik, the superintendent of Columbia Heights Public Schools. A witness said she heard an adult inside the home pleading with agents to leave the child.

The Trump administration has secretly rewritten nuclear safety rules

NPR obtained copies of over a dozen of the new orders, none of which is publicly available. The orders slash hundreds of pages of requirements for security at the reactors. They also loosen protections for groundwater and the environment and eliminate at least one key safety role. The new orders cut back on requirements for keeping records, and they raise the amount of radiation a worker can be exposed to before an official accident investigation is triggered.

Democrats, White House strike spending deal that would avert government shutdown

As the country reels from the deaths of two protesters at the hands of federal agents in Minneapolis, the White House agreed to separate homeland security funding from a larger spending bill and fund the department for two weeks while they debate Democratic demands for curbs on the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

FBI raids Georgia election office over 2020 voter fraud claims

In a statement to Reuters, the FBI said it was conducting a "court-authorised law enforcement activity" at the Fulton County Election Hub. Fulton County officials said that the government's warrant "sought a number of records related to 2020 elections".

DOJ files federal charges against man accused of attacking Rep. Ilhan Omar

Trump said in an interview with ABC News that Omar “probably had herself sprayed, knowing her.” Kazmierczak’s social media accounts include multiple photos supporting Trump and criticizing Democrats, as well as at least one post mocking Omar.

Trump’s wide ambitions for Board of Peace spark new support for the United Nations

The board’s charter also caused some dismay by stating Trump will lead it until he resigns, with veto power over its actions and membership.

Who’s on Trump’s Board of Peace and who has said no

Here is a list by The Associated Press with countries that say they are joining the board, those that say they are not joining so far and the undecided.

How much B6 is safe? What to know about the supplement found in energy drinks

After she got out of the hospital, Huddy developed peripheral neuropathy, an umbrella term for diseases affecting the nervous system outside the brain and spinal cord, and tinnitus. “I kept going back to the doctor just over and over and over and was like, ‘something is really wrong,’” Huddy said, adding that she was told her symptoms were a figment of her generalized anxiety disorder. “I kept getting dismissed and kept getting sent home.” In May, Huddy said she begged a doctor to run blood tests.

Takeaways from the millions of newly released Epstein files

Gloria Allred, a women's rights lawyer who has represented many of Epstein's victims, told the BBC that numerous survivors' names had been disclosed in the latest release, including some who had not been previously identified publicly. "In some cases... they have a line through the names but you can still read the names," she said. "In other cases, they've shown photos of victims - survivors who have never done a public interview, never given their name publicly." Many of the documents released on Friday include heavy redactions. The law mandates that redactions can only be made to protect victims or information currently under investigation. It also mandates a summary of the redactions made and the legal basis for them.

Luigi Mangione won’t face death penalty in CEO murder case, federal judge rules

The potential maximum sentence for the remaining two counts for causing Thompson’s death under federal stalking laws is “life in prison without parole,” Garnett noted.

Israel strikes in Gaza kill at least 30 Palestinians, one of the highest tolls since ceasefire began

The strikes, which came a day after Israel accused Hamas of new ceasefire violations, hit multiple locations throughout Gaza, including an apartment building in Gaza City and a tent camp in Khan Younis, officials at hospitals that received the bodies told the Associated Press. An airstrike also hit a police station in Gaza City, killing at least 14 and wounding others, Shifa Hospital director Mahamed Abu Selmiya said.

US government partially shuts down despite last minute funding deal

The funding lapse began at midnight US eastern time (05:00 GMT) on Saturday, hours after senators agreed to fund most agencies until September. The bill includes just two weeks' funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees immigration enforcement, instead of shutting it down entirely.

DHS keeps making false claims about people. It's part of a broader pattern

Trump administration officials and their allies online frequently celebrate deporting the so-called "worst of the worst." They used such language when referring to the alleged "terrorists" the administration sent to El Salvador's brutal CECOT prison last spring. But nearly half of the Venezuelan men sent to CECOT had no criminal history, according to an analysis by Human Rights Watch, and only eight men out of 252 had convictions for violent or potentially violent offenses.

New US population data filled with alarming, surprising findings

That amount of population growth – just 0.5% – is the slowest rate of growth since early in the COVID-19 pandemic, when a worldwide shutdown slowed population growth to just 0.2% in 2021. And it comes after a significant uptick in 2024, when 3.2 million people were added to the U.S. population, which grew by a full percentage point, the most growth since 2006. The main culprit for slower growth? What one Census Bureau official called "a historic decline in net international migration."

Russians feel strain of Putin's war with mobile internet shutdowns

Parents of children with diabetes have told Russian media they are unable to use phone applications to monitor their blood sugar levels during blackouts.

Anti-ICE protesters call for national action against federal immigration tactics

Protesters in Minnesota have also marched at Target stores and held sit-ins. They say ICE is staging operations in the retailer's parking lots. Demonstrators want Target to ban ICE from its stores.

Trump's historic test of immigrants' speech rights

A win in court could give the Trump administration — specifically Secretary of State Marco Rubio — a chance to launch deportations based on speech activities of the 13 million or so green card holders in the U.S.

5 years since the pandemic started, long COVID patients are still hoping for a cure

Around 6% of adults in the U.S. — or roughly 18 million — are estimated to be living with the damaging aftermath of catching the virus, according to research and a long-running survey of U.S households, although numbers are still difficult to pin down because the definitions vary.

Trump’s acting cyber chief uploaded sensitive files into a public version of ChatGPT

The apparent misstep from Madhu Gottumukkala was especially noteworthy because the acting director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency had requested special permission from CISA’s Office of the Chief Information Officer to use the popular AI tool soon after arriving at the agency this May, three of the officials said. The app was blocked for other DHS employees at the time.