Attachment 2483989

At news conference, Trump read a list of disabilities he calls disqualifying, but his administration started such hiring in 2019

Analysis by Glenn Kessler

“All qualify for the position of a controller of airplanes pouring into our country, pouring into a little spot, a little dot on the map, a little runway.”

— President Donald Trump, decrying what he called DEI standards imposed by previous administrations, Jan. 30

In the aftermath of the deadly collision between a jetliner and a Black Hawk helicopter at Reagan National Airport, Trump held an extraordinary news conference during which he speculated on the cause of the accident. At length, he attacked former presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden for imposing what he called “a big push to put diversity” that he said weakened the Federal Aviation Administration.

Reading from a 2024 Fox News report — which he incorrectly identified as being two weeks old — Trump listed conditions that he suggested disqualify people from being air traffic controllers: “hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability, and dwarfism.”

“Can you imagine?” he asked. “Brilliant people have to be in those positions, and their lives are actually shortened, very substantially shortened because of the stress.” He suggested that it was wrong for anyone with those conditions to qualify “for the position of a controller of airplanes pouring into our country, pouring into a little spot, a little dot on the map, a little runway.”

But here’s the rub: During Trump’s first term, the FAA began a program to hire air traffic controllers with the conditions that Trump decried.

The facts

In the news conference, Trump said Obama weakened standards and “I changed the Obama standards from very mediocre at best, to extraordinary. … Then they changed it back — that was Biden.”

Trump’s claim was repeated in an executive order Trump signed Thursday that ordered a review of aviation safety: “During my first term, my Administration raised standards to achieve the highest standards of safety and excellence.”

That’s false. In his first term, Trump left the standards unchanged.

For air traffic controllers, the Obama administration in 2013 instituted a new hiring system that introduced a biographical questionnaire to attract minorities, underrepresented in the controller corps. The program was criticized, such as in a Fox News report in 2015, as making it harder for more skilled applicants to get hired as controllers.

But Trump, in his first term, left the policy in place, leading to a class-action lawsuit filed in 2019 by Mountain States Legal Foundation. The case was due to go to trial this year.

Moreover, the FAA under Trump in 2019 launched a program to hire controllers using the very criteria he decried at his news conference.

“FAA Provides Aviation Careers to People with Disabilities,” the agency announced on April 11, 2019. The pilot program, the announcement said, would “identify specific opportunities for people with targeted disabilities, empower them and facilitate their entry into a more diverse and inclusive workforce.”

The link under “targeted disabilities” is now dead, but the Wayback Machine retains links from June 2017 and January 2021 that show the page was unchanged during Trump’s tenure. The list included:

Hearing (total deafness in both ears)
Vision (Blind)
Missing Extremities
Partial Paralysis
Complete Paralysis, Epilepsy
Severe intellectual disability
Psychiatric disability
Dwarfism

The June 2019 webpage for the Aviation Development Program (ADP) — also now removed but still visible on the Wayback Machine — said the program “provides an opportunity for Persons with Targeted Disabilities (PWTD) to gain aviation knowledge and experience as an air traffic control student trainee.” Participants would get up to one year of experience in an Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC), with a possibility of getting a temporary appointment at the FAA Academy.

In August 2021, the FAA announced that one of the first three ADP candidates graduated from the FAA Academy and became an official air traffic control trainee. “Twelve candidates are in the pipeline for the ADP, pending completion of the clearance process,” the agency said. “Candidates must first pass the Air Traffic Skills Assessment (ATSA), followed by the security and medical clearance process.”

The announcement said the program was conceived when an air traffic manager met a quadriplegic student who had assumed he would never qualify to be a controller because of his condition. The FAA stressed that participants must meet the same qualifications as any other air traffic controller student.

A White House spokesman declined to comment.

The Pinocchio Test

Trump claimed that he had changed Obama’s criteria for hiring air traffic controllers with greater diversity — when in fact he left it unchanged. Moreover, he decried the fact that FAA hired controllers with a range of disabilities that he listed at the news conference. But that program was launched during his first term.

Four Pinocchios

Attachment 2483990

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Attachment 2483604


The figure would rain 1.5 billion condoms on an area only double the size of the District of Columbia.

by Glenn Kessler

“DOGE and OMB also found that there was about to be 50 million taxpayer dollars that went out the door to fund condoms in Gaza. That is a preposterous waste of taxpayer money. So, that’s what this pause is focused on, being good stewards of tax dollars.”

— White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, remarks at a news briefing, Jan. 29

In her maiden news briefing, Leavitt defended the Trump administration’s freeze on federal grants by pointing to a particular line item as “preposterous” — $50 million to fund condoms in Gaza.

Regular readers know that we have a high bar for fact-checking flacks, as they are paid to mislead and dissemble. We prefer to keep our scrutiny on policymakers and people with authority. But this was Leavitt’s first news conference, and she made an astonishing claim that spread rapidly on social media.

Could it be true? When we queried Leavitt, she responded by sending a Fox News article that initially just quoted her own statement. Quoting yourself is not evidence. Moreover, the article quoted an unnamed White House official as saying that the “State Department halted several million dollars going to condoms in Gaza this past weekend.”

That’s not the same as $50 million.

Last year, the State Department launched a five-year, $50 million program to improve health care in Gaza. But the contractor, Anera, said it was not supplying condoms.

“Definitely no purchase of condoms in our program, and there are no components for family planning in the GHRA [Gaza Health Recovery Activity],” spokesman Steve Fake said. “We have asked around, and no one is sure what this is referring to.”

Last night, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce posted a thread on X in which she cited examples of “unjustified and non-emergency spending.” The first example was “Condoms. Prevented $102 million in unjustified funding to a contractor in Gaza, including money for contraception.”

She did not identify the contractor, but, in an email to State Department reporters, her office said it was “$102,236,000 to fund the International Medical Corps in Gaza.” IMC is a global first responder based in Los Angeles.

Could half — or even a significant portion — of that contract be for condoms? There is no evidence of that.

The Facts

Let’s start with why the U.S. government distributes condoms overseas: It’s to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS. Perhaps the Trump administration believes that is a preposterous waste of money, but many of those condom purchases are for a George W. Bush program called the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which is credited with saving 26 million lives. No countries or territories in the Middle East are part of PEPFAR.

More broadly, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) distributes condoms to address gaps in their availability and use, especially in low- and middle-income countries, to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

A USAID report for fiscal 2023, the most recent detailing condom expenditures unrelated to PEPFAR, showed that about $46,000 was spent on condoms in the Middle East — but only in Jordan. The report said that was the first shipment of condoms to the Middle East since fiscal 2019, when $1 million was spent.

Indeed, according to the report, spending $50 million on condoms for an entity roughly double the size of Washington would be a huge increase in condom spending. From fiscal 2016 to 2022, USAID spent $118.6 million to buy 3.6 billion male condoms for 60 countries. That’s an average of $17 million a year for the entire world — one-third of the amount Leavitt said would be spent just on Gaza. (USAID also distributes female condoms, but that’s a small fraction of the spending.)

In effect, USAID has been buying condoms at an average price of 3.3 cents. Was the U.S. government really going to distribute more than 1.5 billion condoms in Gaza? That makes little sense.

Traditionally, family planning in the Palestinian territories, including Gaza, was handled by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). The agency distributed oral contraceptives and condoms, but President Joe Biden froze U.S. funding a year ago after Israel claimed that 12 of the agency’s 33,000 employees participated in Hamas’s 2023 attack on Israel.

The war that erupted after that attack created a family planning crisis in Gaza, according to the International Planned Parenthood Federation. “Contraception is also in very short supply, with reports of women sharing contraceptive pills leading to unintended pregnancies,” the IPPF said in a 2023 report. “The unavailability of condoms, which were already heavily restricted in Gaza, will lead to the transmission of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.”

With the ceasefire now in place, it’s possible there is a pressing need to fill. But we could not find any evidence that the International Medical Corps contracts called for condom delivery.

Todd Bernhardt, IMC spokesman, told The Fact Checker that “no U.S. government funding was used to procure or distribute condoms.”

In a November report describing its activities in Gaza, IMC said it deployed two state-of-the-art field hospitals — the first in January 2024, with 200 beds, and the second in July 2024, with 50 beds. The hospitals operate 24 hours per day, seven days per week. Each day they see as many as 2,000 patients, perform an average of 45 surgeries and deliver an average of 10 babies, the report said. CBS News last year aired a report on American doctors working at the hospitals.

“Since January 2024, International Medical Corps has provided health care to more than 383,000 civilians who had no other access to services or treatment, including performing about 11,000 surgeries, with one-third of those categorized as major or moderate procedures,” Bernhardt said. “We have assisted in the delivery of some 5,000 babies, about 20 percent of them via the Caesarean section. In addition, International Medical Corps has screened 111,000 people for malnutrition, treated 2,767 for acute malnutrition, distributed micronutrient supplements to 36,000 people, and more.”

“If the stop-work order remains in place, we will be unable to sustain these activities beyond the next week or so,” he said.

White House and State Department officials did not provide further clarity.

The Pinocchio Test

On the face of it, Leavitt’s statement that $50 million was going to be spent on condoms is preposterous. That figure is three times the yearly average spent by the U.S. government for the entire world. Moreover, neither she nor the State Department could provide documentation supporting this claim. The department identified a contractor that it claimed was distributing condoms in Gaza, but the organization says no U.S. money is involved.

Leavitt earns Four Pinocchios. Not an auspicious debut.

Attachment 2483605

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Attachment 2483256

Our research finds that conditions were placed on $12 million in Katrina aid, out of nearly $122 billion.

Analysis by Glenn Kessler

“If there is culpability for what happened, there really need to be conditions that follow that aid. It’s not unprecedented, by the way. After Katrina, in my state, there were conditions placed upon the funds. It happened after Hurricane Sandy, up in the northeast. There’s a tradition of doing this.”

— House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana), remarks on “The Sean Hannity Show,” Jan. 21

Johnson signaled that Congress will impose conditions on aid to California after recent fires destroyed thousands of structures in Los Angeles. He accused Democrats in the state for making “decisions that made that disaster exponentially worse” and said Congress had a responsibility to ensure “they follow common sense in California” when aid is provided.

“What we are talking about here is restoring common sense, even in the state of California,” he said.

He sidestepped a question from Fox News host Sean Hannity about whether the conditions would include unrelated issues such as scrapping no-bail laws. Some Republican lawmakers have suggested refusing aid unless Democrats agree to hike the debt limit. President Donald Trump, in a visit to California, said he wanted to require the state to impose a voter ID law before he signed a bill providing aid. (Without evidence, Trump has claimed he would have won the state if it had laws requiring voters to show an ID before casting a ballot.)

For the purposes of this fact check, we’re interested in Johnson’s claim that conditions were placed on aid provided after Hurricane Katrina struck Louisiana, his home state, in 2005 and after Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

The Facts

Trump, when he visited North Carolina last week, said he wanted to get rid of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and simply have states submit a bill for reimbursement from the federal government. But that’s already largely how the system works, with FEMA repaying states for most of their expenses during a natural disaster.

Congress then provides additional aid to help rebuild devastated areas and to fund improvements. Katrina and other hurricanes in 2005 caused such devastation in Louisiana and neighboring states — insured losses were estimated by insurance companies to total $57 billion — that 11 federal departments and four federal agencies provided nearly $122 billion in federal assistance to the Gulf Coast states, according to the Congressional Research Service.

As a matter of course, congressional appropriations for disaster relief have conditions that determine eligibility, but that’s clearly not what Johnson is talking about. Such bills also include demands for regular reports from agencies handling the funding.

Congressional appropriations often contain clauses that might withhold some funding unless certain parameters are met. We found that one Katrina bill authorized $12 million for a Louisiana hurricane protection study but stipulated the money would not be provided “until the State of Louisiana establishes a single state or quasistate entity to act as local sponsor for construction, operation and maintenance of all of the hurricane, storm damage reduction and flood control projects in the greater New Orleans and southeast Louisiana area.”

But this was a relatively minor condition regarding a small amount of money, given the overall size of the rescue package. We can find virtually no news coverage of this condition by Congress — and there was wide agreement the previous system did not work. Previously, five different levee districts operated as separate local sponsors for federally built flood protection. The state in 2006 established the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority to oversee the levee districts. Congress eventually provided $14.5 billion to the Army Corps of Engineers to build a flood protection system that held firm in 2021 against Hurricane Ida.

As for the Sandy legislation, Republicans in 2013 sought to amend $17 billion in relief to require a reduction in unrelated domestic spending — but that amendment was defeated.

In defense of Johnson’s statement, his office pointed to the $12 million appropriation we had identified — which was rather minor in the context of almost $122 billion in aid. The office could not point to conditions on Sandy aid, and we couldn’t find any either.

His office also highlighted some bills that over time have added broad conditions to aid, such as the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000, which required states and others to develop and update hazard mitigation plans as a condition to receive certain types of FEMA assistance, and the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006, which required states to include a catastrophic incident annex in state emergency preparedness plans that are required as a condition for assistance. The office also noted that Congress has placed conditions on community development block grants, required cost-sharing by states and demanded oversight of spending.

But these are all general — not specific to a particular disaster such as the California wildfires.

The Pinocchio Test

Johnson suggested that congressional conditions imposed on aid after a disaster is “not unprecedented” and part of “a tradition.” As examples, he pointed to aid provided after Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy. But that’s greatly overstating the case. In Katrina, the only item we could find placed conditions on just $12 million in aid — out of tens of billions. We turned up nothing on Sandy.

In reality, the tradition is that, after a disaster, virtually no conditions are placed on aid that would require a state to make policy changes. What would be unprecedented would be tying the aid to policy adjustments that have nothing to do with the disaster, such as mandating voter ID.

Johnson earns Three Pinocchios.

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Attachment 2483106

An Indiana man who was recently pardoned for his participation in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot was shot and killed during a traffic stop by a sheriff’s deputy Sunday.

By Associated Press

Matthew Huttle, 42, was involved in a traffic stop at 4:15 p.m. by a Jasper County sheriff’s deputy, authorities said in a news release. It alleged that Huttle resisted arrest and was found to have a firearm on him.

“An altercation took place between the suspect and the officer, which resulted in the officer firing his weapon and fatally wounding the suspect,” the release said.

Sheriff Patrick Williamson requested an investigation by the Indiana State Police. The deputy was placed on paid administrative leave in accordance with department policy, Williamson said.

“Our condolences go out to the family of the deceased as any loss of life is traumatic to those that were close to Mr. Huttle,” Williamson said in a statement. “I will release the officer’s name once I have approval from the State Police Detectives.”

No additional details were provided.

Huttle was identified by the Jasper County coroner, who completed an autopsy Monday morning.

Huttle was one of many people identified as having taken part in the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in which hundreds of President Donald Trump’s supporters broke into the building in an attempt to stop the counting of electoral votes in the 2020 presidential election.

Court records show Huttle entered into an agreement with federal prosecutors in August 2023, pleading guilty to a charge of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds. He was sentenced in November 2023 to six months in federal prison, followed by 12 months of supervised release.

That was rendered moot this month when Trump pardoned roughly 1,500 people who were involved in the Jan. 6 riot last week after he was inaugurated.

According to the complaint, Huttle was at the Capitol that day with his uncle, and investigators obtained videos uploaded to his own Google account of him there. He could be heard in one of his videos saying that a group of people were going to the Capitol and that he was “going to see if we can get inside.”

He was identified on security video inside the building, including inside the Capitol’s crypt, the complaint said.

Huttle’s uncle also agreed to a plea deal, court records show, and was sentenced to 30 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. The complaint says he was identified on video assaulting officers with a flagpole on the steps of the Capitol.

He was also pardoned.

Attachment 2483075

AP’S ASSESSMENT: Missing context. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which Fauci runs, did fund clinical trials evaluating HIV and AIDS treatments that enrolled HIV-positive children both in and out of foster care. But the report that found that 25 children in foster care died during trials did not find that the trials were the cause of their deaths.

By ANGELO FICHERA

CLAIM: Dr. Anthony Fauci funded experiments on orphans with AIDS and 25 of them died.

THE FACTS: A claim spreading on social media is targeting Dr. Anthony Fauci by misrepresenting the findings of a 2009 report focused on New York City foster children who were HIV-positive and participated in clinical trials related to treatments for their condition.

The website Unite America First published a headline: “Dr. Faucistein Funded Experimenting With AIDS Orphans…25 Died.”

The story claims that Fauci “funded a study in New York City, where they treated AIDS kids with experimental drugs, twenty-five of those kids died during the research.”

The 25 deaths figure comes from a 2009 report by the Vera Institute of Justice, later cited in the story.

But the story ignores a key finding in the Vera report: It explicitly says that “Vera medical staff did not find, however, that any child’s death was caused directly by clinical trial medication.”

The Vera report followed an investigation by the organization, prompted by concerns about the participation of New York City foster children in various clinical trials related to HIV and AIDS. The report identified 532 such children who participated in 88 clinical trials and observational studies between 1985 and 2005.

“Many children — inside and outside of foster care and clinical trials — died because of complications of HIV/AIDS during the late 1980s and 1990s,” the report reads. “Eighty of the 532 children who participated in clinical trials or observational studies died while in foster care; 25 of them died while enrolled in a medication trial.”

Tim Ross, a lead author of the Vera report, said in a phone interview that those suggesting the clinical trials were the cause of the 25 deaths were “completely misreading what we found.”

“Our report does not support that claim,” said Ross, now the managing partner of Action Research, a child welfare research group. He noted that children who participated in such trials were “incredibly sick” before the trials.

While Vera was not able to access state medical records, the group was able to find medical information through child welfare files, review other records and conduct interviews.

Of the 25 deaths of foster children who were in clinical trials, the report says that a “detailed review found that 22 of these 25 children had developed multiple AIDS related complications prior to their enrollment in a clinical trial.” Several had been enrolled in trials designed for those with multiple AIDS-related complications who had exhausted other treatment options.

While the Vera report was prompted by concerns surrounding the participation of New York City foster children in such trials, the clinical trials did not exclusively enroll foster children, Ross said.

Some trials were sponsored by pharmaceutical companies, but more than 80 percent of the children considered in the Vera review participated in trials sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, according to the report.

The report says that the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which Fauci has directed since 1984, and the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development both provided funding for trials.

The Vera report did identify some issues, such as some child welfare files missing consent forms for trials, and made various recommendations.

In a 2005 report preceding the Vera review, The Associated Press found that a significant number of foster children who participated in such government-funded trials were not provided an often-required independent advocate.

Hanoi city authorities are planning to significantly increase fines for 107 traffic violations, raising them by 1.5-2 times their current levels starting July 2025. This proposal, drafted by the city’s People’s Committee, is currently open for public consultation.

The fine adjustments will be based on several factors, including the frequency of specific violations, their contribution to accidents and traffic congestion, and their impact on public order and infrastructure. Violations targeted in the proposal include ignoring road markings, driving in prohibited areas, speeding, illegal parking, reckless or drunk driving, and modifying exhaust systems, among others.

Although the government already increased penalties for traffic violations at the start of 2024, Hanoi authorities believe further hikes are necessary to improve compliance, foster safer traffic behavior, and reduce congestion and accidents.

Under the draft resolution, fines for less severe violations will be doubled, while penalties for more serious infractions will rise by 1.5 times. Specific examples include fines for automobiles parked in areas with "No Parking" or "No Stopping and Parking" signs, which will increase from VND600,000-800,000 to VND1.2-1.6 million (US$48).

Driving in the wrong lane or exceeding the speed limit by 10-20 kph will incur fines that rise from VND4-6 million to VND8-12 million. Similarly, driving under the influence of alcohol, with a blood alcohol level of ≤ 50 mg/100 ml or a breath alcohol level of ≤ 0.25 mg/l, will see penalties increase from VND6-8 million to VND9-12 million.

Motorcyclists not wearing helmets or improperly fastening them will face higher fines, which will double from VND400,000-600,000 to VND800,000-1.2 million. The same increased penalties will apply to motorcyclists carrying oversized or overweight goods.

For violations such as parking on bridges or traveling three to a motorbike, fines will increase from VND600,000-800,000 to VND1.2-1.6 million. Drunk motorcyclists with a blood alcohol level within the same range will face penalties increasing from VND2-3 million to VND3-4.5 million.

Hanoi’s initiative is supported by the 2024 Capital Law, which grants the city council the authority to set fines up to twice the national levels for certain violations. Once public feedback is collected, the resolution will be submitted to the people’s council for approval.

If passed, the new fines are expected to take effect from July 2025. This move underscores the city’s commitment to enhancing traffic safety and compliance through stricter enforcement measures.

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's philanthropy organization, Bloomberg Philanthropies, announced on Thursday that it will provide funding to cover the U.S. contribution to the U.N. climate body's budget. This move addresses the gap left by President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw the U.S. from international climate funding and the Paris climate agreement shortly after taking office earlier this week.

Michael Bloomberg, a media billionaire and U.N. special envoy on climate change, emphasized the importance of meeting global climate commitments. "From 2017 to 2020, during a period of federal inaction, cities, states, businesses, and the public rose to the challenge to uphold our nation’s commitments—and now, we are ready to do it again," Bloomberg said in a statement.

Bloomberg Philanthropies pledged to ensure that the United States fulfills its obligations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which oversees global climate negotiations and the implementation of agreements like the 2015 Paris Agreement. However, specific details about the funding amounts or other participating climate funders were not disclosed.

The U.S. typically funds around 21% of the UNFCCC's core budget. In 2024, the U.S. paid 7.2 million euros ($7.4 million) toward its required contribution, as well as 3.4 million euros to clear arrears for missed contributions between 2010 and 2023. Despite this, a Reuters analysis revealed that the UNFCCC is experiencing a severe budget shortfall, which diplomats warn is disrupting global climate dialogue.

U.N. climate chief Simon Stiell expressed gratitude for Bloomberg Philanthropies' support and Bloomberg's leadership. "We deeply appreciate the generous support from Bloomberg Philanthropies," he said in a statement.

Linda Kalcher, executive director at think-tank Strategic Perspectives and former climate adviser to the U.N. Secretary-General, praised Bloomberg's initiative. She noted that U.S. states and businesses are likely to play a significant role in maintaining international climate cooperation. "This is where the other U.S. actors come in. I can foresee that a lot of interaction will happen again with the U.S. businesses and states that want to continue," Kalcher said.

Bloomberg Philanthropies is no stranger to supporting climate initiatives. Last year, it contributed $4.5 million to the UNFCCC, as reported in U.N. public documents reviewed by Reuters. The UNFCCC's main budget for 2024–2025 is approximately 240 million euros, with half allocated for this year.

In addition to financial contributions, Bloomberg pledged to work alongside U.S. states, cities, and businesses to ensure the country remains aligned with its global climate responsibilities, demonstrating a commitment to addressing the challenges left by the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement.

A German aerospace engineer celebrated setting a world record Friday for the longest time living underwater without depressurization -- 120 days in a submerged capsule off the coast of Panama.

Rudiger Koch, 59, emerged from his 30-square-meter (320-square-foot) underwater home to celebrate his achievement of setting a new world record for the longest time spent living beneath the sea. Guinness World Records adjudicator Susana Reyes was present to confirm that Koch had surpassed the previous record of 100 days, held by American Joseph Dituri, who resided in an underwater lodge in a Florida lagoon.

Reflecting on his 120-day underwater adventure, Koch expressed mixed emotions. "It was a great adventure and now it's over there's almost a sense of regret actually. I enjoyed my time here very much," he told AFP. Describing the serene beauty of life beneath the waves, he added, "It is beautiful when things calm down and it gets dark, and the sea is glowing. It is impossible to describe; you have to experience that yourself."

To celebrate his record-breaking feat, Koch toasted with champagne, smoked a cigar, and leaped into the Caribbean Sea before being picked up by a boat and taken ashore for a celebratory party.

Koch's underwater capsule, located 11 meters (36 feet) below the sea and 15 minutes by boat from northern Panama's coast, was equipped with essential amenities. It featured a bed, toilet, TV, computer, internet, and even an exercise bike. Electricity was supplied by solar panels on the surface, with a backup generator available. However, the capsule lacked a shower.

The capsule was connected to another chamber above the waves via a narrow spiral staircase enclosed in a tube, which facilitated food deliveries and visitor access, including regular visits from a doctor. Koch's daily life was closely monitored through four cameras that ensured compliance with the record's strict requirements and observed his mental health.

Susana Reyes explained the rigorous monitoring process: "We needed witnesses who were monitoring and verifying 24/7 for more than 120 days." She acknowledged the record's uniqueness, calling it "one of the most extravagant" achievements that demanded significant effort and dedication.

Koch, inspired by the fictional Captain Nemo from Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, kept a copy of the novel by his bedside during the endeavor. Speaking halfway through his mission, he expressed hope that his achievement would challenge perceptions of human habitation. "What we are trying to do here is prove that the seas are actually a viable environment for human expansion," he said.

This extraordinary accomplishment highlights not only Koch's resilience but also the potential for innovative thinking about the future of human settlement.

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has revised its stance on the origins of Covid-19, stating on Saturday that the virus is "more likely" to have leaked from a Chinese laboratory than to have been transmitted through animals. This marks a significant departure from the agency's previous neutral position on the matter.

The updated assessment follows the confirmation of John Ratcliffe as CIA director under Donald Trump’s second administration. Ratcliffe, who previously served as the director of national intelligence during Trump's first term, has been a vocal advocate of the lab-leak theory. In an interview with Breitbart published Friday, Ratcliffe emphasized that determining the origins of Covid-19 would be a priority for the agency, stating, "The agency is going to get off the sidelines."

A CIA spokesperson elaborated on the agency's findings, saying, "CIA assesses with low confidence that a research-related origin of the Covid-19 pandemic is more likely than a natural origin based on the available body of reporting." The statement further noted that the agency continues to consider both the lab-leak and natural transmission scenarios as plausible.

The shift in the CIA's position is reportedly based on a new analysis of existing intelligence, initiated by former CIA director William Burns before Ratcliffe's arrival. This analysis has brought the CIA's view closer to that of other U.S. agencies, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Energy, which also support the lab-leak hypothesis, though with varying degrees of confidence. However, most of the U.S. intelligence community continues to lean toward natural origins.

Advocates of the lab-leak theory argue that the earliest known cases of Covid-19 emerged in Wuhan, China, a major hub for coronavirus research. They point out the proximity of the Wuhan Institute of Virology to the outbreak's epicenter and highlight the distance of approximately 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) between Wuhan and the nearest bat populations carrying SARS-like viruses, which would have been a natural reservoir for the disease.

This ongoing debate underscores the complexities and challenges in determining the definitive origins of Covid-19, as the intelligence community remains divided on the issue.

U.S. TikTok users, once drawn to the app as a haven for free speech, are expressing growing concerns about censorship after the platform’s recent revival. The app, owned by China's ByteDance, was revived under an executive order from President Donald Trump following its temporary shutdown over national security concerns. However, users have noted significant changes in how content is moderated.

The shutdown stemmed from a new law, passed during the Biden administration with bipartisan support, requiring TikTok to be sold to a U.S. buyer. Trump, promising to address the ban, hinted at potential buyers, including allies with close ties to his administration. Despite TikTok's assurances that its policies and algorithms have remained unchanged, users have reported noticeable differences in the app's functionality and moderation practices.

Many users have observed increased content moderation, including limited search results, warnings about misinformation, and prompts encouraging users to verify their sources. Content creators report that posts and comments previously allowed are now flagged or removed. For instance, phrases like "Free Palestine" and "Free Luigi"—referencing controversial topics—have reportedly been flagged or struck from the platform. TikTok stated it does not allow content that promotes violent or hateful individuals.

Pat Loller, a comedian and veteran with 1.3 million followers, shared his experience of content being limited after he posted a satirical video about Elon Musk. The video, tagged as misinformation, was restricted to sharing in only one chat at a time. Loller expressed frustration, noting that such limitations were unprecedented in his experience with the platform.

Some users, like Lisa Cline, have faced repeated issues attempting to upload videos critical of Trump. Cline said her posts were rejected multiple times on TikTok before she successfully uploaded them to other platforms like Meta’s Threads. Similarly, political and social commentator Danisha Carter, whose account had 2 million followers, reported that her account was permanently suspended after the app's shutdown. Carter described the decision as politically targeted, noting her final livestream criticized tech executives’ influence over U.S. politics.

The increased moderation has also affected non-political content. Ada "Mila" Ortiz, a data analyst and content creator, reported receiving strikes for seemingly innocuous comments. Ortiz, concerned about being permanently banned, chose to delete 15 videos that supported Vice President Kamala Harris and criticized Trump. She described the actions as sudden and random, leaving her feeling targeted.

These changes have sparked fears among TikTok users that the platform's moderation practices are influenced by political and ideological factors. Many creators worry that the app, once known for its diverse and open environment, is becoming increasingly restrictive, targeting individuals based on identity or past content.

The controversy highlights the tension between TikTok’s efforts to comply with evolving regulations and users’ desire for free expression. While Trump has positioned himself as a defender of free speech with his executive order, critics argue that the platform’s new moderation policies raise questions about the limits of freedom on digital platforms.

U.S. President Donald Trump has triggered a major diplomatic standoff with Colombia by imposing sweeping tariffs and sanctions in retaliation for Bogotá's refusal to accept U.S. military deportation flights. This development marks a dramatic escalation between the two nations, which have historically enjoyed close ties. The clash pits Trump’s hardline immigration policies against the defiant stance of Colombia’s leftist president, Gustavo Petro.

In his announcement, Trump declared a 25% tariff on Colombian goods, with plans to raise it to 50% within a week. This move targets Colombia’s exports, including coffee, a key product for the U.S. market. While Trump framed the tariffs as a punishment for Colombia’s "failure to meet its legal obligations" on deportations, critics pointed out that the two countries are bound by a free trade agreement, raising questions about the tariffs' legality.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio added to the pressure by announcing that the U.S. embassy in Bogotá would suspend visa issuance and impose travel restrictions on Colombian officials and their families. Rubio also stated that Colombian travelers would face heightened scrutiny at U.S. airports, signaling a broader diplomatic freeze.

President Gustavo Petro responded with a fiery rebuttal, refusing to back down under U.S. pressure. On X, Petro accused Trump of trying to dominate Colombia and announced reciprocal 25% tariffs on U.S. goods. He declared that U.S. military planes carrying deportees would be barred from landing in Colombia, although he offered to transport migrants using Colombia’s presidential plane to ensure they were treated with dignity.

Petro also criticized the U.S. for its treatment of deportees, asserting that Colombian migrants should not be criminalized. He urged the undocumented Americans living in Colombia—estimated at over 15,000—to regularize their status, while ruling out raids or forced deportations. Petro’s stance reflects his broader vision of treating migrants with respect, a position that has endeared him to some but drawn criticism from political opponents.

Domestically, Petro’s refusal to cooperate with Trump has sparked backlash from Colombian conservatives. Former President Iván Duque accused Petro of recklessness and warned that the U.S. tariffs and sanctions could have severe economic consequences for Colombia. The conflict comes at a time when Colombia's economy relies heavily on trade with the United States.

The dispute also highlights rising tensions between the U.S. and left-leaning governments in Latin America. Brazil, led by another leftist president, recently criticized the Trump administration for the treatment of Brazilian deportees, describing their inhumane conditions on U.S. deportation flights. Trump’s aggressive immigration policies appear to be straining Washington’s relationships with several nations in the region.

This diplomatic showdown underscores the stark ideological divide between Trump and Petro. While Trump continues his hardline crackdown on undocumented migrants, Petro is doubling down on his commitment to protecting the dignity of deportees and asserting Colombia’s sovereignty. The standoff could have far-reaching economic and political consequences, testing the resilience of one of Latin America’s most critical alliances with the United States.

South Korea's prosecutors have indicted impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol on charges of leading an insurrection after his brief declaration of martial law on December 3, the main opposition party confirmed on Sunday. This marks an unprecedented legal action against a South Korean president. If convicted, Yoon could face severe penalties, including life imprisonment or even the death penalty, though the latter has not been enforced in decades.

The martial law decree, which lasted only six hours, sought to ban political and parliamentary activity while imposing control over the media. The move triggered political turmoil in South Korea, Asia's fourth-largest economy and a key U.S. ally. Following the martial law incident, the prime minister was also impeached and suspended, and several high-ranking military officials were indicted for their roles in what prosecutors are calling an insurrection.

Yoon, a former top prosecutor, has been in solitary confinement since his arrest on January 15, making him the first sitting president in South Korea to face such a situation. His arrest came after a tense, armed standoff between his security detail and law enforcement officers. Prosecutors had earlier sought to extend his detention, but the court denied their requests twice. However, with the formal indictment now in place, they have renewed their push for continued custody.

Thailand’s Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra has announced a week of free public transport in Bangkok, commencing February 25, to address the city’s critical air pollution problem.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport Suriya Jungrungreangkit revealed that this decision follows Bangkok's recent ranking as the fourth worst city globally for air quality, based on data from Swiss-based IQAir on January 24.

From February 25 to 31, residents and visitors in Bangkok will be able to travel without cost on buses and electric trains within the city. The Thai government has earmarked approximately 140 million THB ($4.1 million) from the central budget to subsidize transportation providers, including Bangkok Transit System Plc (BTS), Bangkok Expressway and Metro Public Company (BEM), and Bangkok Mass Transit Authority (BMTA).

To further tackle the pollution crisis, eight checkpoints have been established to monitor vehicle emissions across the city. Suriya expressed optimism that the free transport initiative could lead to a 20-30% increase in public transport usage during the trial period. If pollution levels show no significant improvement after the week-long program, the government will consider extending the measure.

Attachment 2482565

The president errs on the budget and trade deficits.

Analysis by Glenn Kessler

In virtual remarks to the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, President Donald Trump on Thursday spouted many false or misleading economic claims. Here’s a quick rundown.

“Because of [Biden’s] ruinous policies, total government spending this year is $1.5 trillion higher than was projected to occur when I left office just four years ago.”

This requires context. The Congressional Budget Office in 2021 projected federal spending would be $5.5 trillion in fiscal year 2025 — and now estimates it will be $7 trillion. But such projections are difficult five years in the future. For instance, under Trump, spending in fiscal year 2021 turned out to be $2 trillion higher than originally projected in 2017.

Most of the additional spending under Biden was mandatory — such as Social Security payments that adjust for inflation — and is not subject to annual appropriations by Congress.

“Likewise, the cost of servicing the debt is more than 230 percent higher than was projected in 2020.”

This requires context. The CBO in 2020 projected net interest payments of $325 billion in 2025, while they’re now estimated to be $881 billion. That’s an increase of 170 percent, higher than Trump’s figure. When the estimate was made, in January 2020, the covid pandemic that devastated government finances was just beginning.

Interest payments are made on the national debt issued by the United States. According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, Biden and Trump roughly mirrored each other in the amount of new debt they issued to the public in their respective terms.

“The inflation rate we are inheriting remains 50 percent higher than the historic target.”

Trump sidesteps that inflation has fallen significantly. The Federal Reserve sets a target of 2 percent for inflation and the consumer price index was 2.9 percent in December. That appears to be the source of Trump’s 50-percent claim. Complicating matters, the Fed relies on a different inflation gauge, Personal Consumption Expenditures, which in its last report rose 2.4 percent. But analysts now regard the inflation rate as stable.

“It was the highest inflation, probably in the history of our country.”

False. Inflation peaked at 9 percent in June 2022, while annual inflation was 7 percent in 2021, 6.5 percent in 2022 and 3.4 percent in 2023. This was not the highest in U.S. history. In Trump’s adulthood, inflation was 9 percent in 1978, 13.3 percent in 1979, 12.5 percent in 1980 and 8.9 percent in 1981 — and also 8.7 percent in 1973 and 12.3 percent in 1974. Inflation was 18.1 percent in 1946, the year Trump was born. Other periods in U.S. history had even higher inflation rates.

“We have, you know, hundreds of billions of dollars of deficits with the E.U. and nobody's happy with it.”

This is exaggerated. The U.S. goods trade deficit with the European Union was a little over $200 billion in 2022 and 2023, but it is on track to be higher in 2024, according to the Census Bureau. However, the United States has a surplus in trade in services, which reduces the overall figure below $200 billion. Trump tends to ignore trade in services.

“Canada has been very tough to deal with over the years, and it’s not fair that we should have a $200 billion or $250 billion deficit.”

This is exaggerated. The trade in goods deficit with Canada has consistently hovered between $50 billion and $70 billion per year, according to the Census Bureau. Trump in his remarks disparaged Canada, saying that “we don’t need their lumber” and “we don’t need their oil and gas.” The United States is on track to be a net exporter of lumber by 2027 and Canada’s lumber imports to the U.S. have fallen in recent years because of increased duties. The United States is a net exporter of petroleum, but Canada supplies above half of imported oil, far outpacing Mexico and Persian Gulf nations.

“We’ve been having massive deficits with China. Biden allowed it to get out of hand. He’s $1.1 trillion deficits.”

This is highly exaggerated. China has a trade surplus of $1.1 trillion with the entire world, but the U.S. in the first 11 months of 2024 had a goods deficit with China of $270 billion, according to the Census Bureau. That is a decrease from $350 billion in 2021 and $382 billion in 2022, but the full-year figure will likely exceed $279 billion in 2023 — the lowest since 2010. Under Trump, the goods trade deficit with China was $375 billion in 2017, $418 billion in 2018, $342 billion in 2019 and $308 billion in 2020 — when trade fell because of the pandemic.

“I'm also going to ask all NATO nations to increase defense spending to 5 percent of GDP [gross domestic product] which is what it should have been years ago.”

The math would be costly for the United States. According to NATO, the United States in 2024 spent 3.38 percent of its GDP on defense. That was higher than any NATO country but Estonia (3.43 percent) and Poland (4.12 percent). Using percentage of gross domestic product is an imperfect measure because it penalizes countries with a large, strong economy like the United States. (The CIA says the U.S. ranks only 25th in the world in military spending under this measure.) The United States would need to boost defense spending to $1.4 trillion to reach 5 percent of the current U.S. economy, an increase of $460 billion per year. That’s almost a 50 percent boost.

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Attachment 2482185

"I Feel Like I'm Losing Brain Cells": "Congratulations America! You Elected An Absolute Moron": The Internet Has A Lot To Say About Trump's Executive Order Withdrawing The US From The World Health Organization
By Morgan Sloss

Since Donald Trump's inauguration , he's already issued a slew of horrifying executive orders.

One of the most alarming ones was the withdrawal of the US from the World Health Organization (WHO). When handed the paperwork in the Oval Office, he said, "Ohhh. That's a big one."

The executive order lists the reasons behind the withdrawal, ironically including "the organization’s mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic" despite Trump's own mismanagement of the pandemic. The decision is also attributed to a lack of reforms, political influence from WHO member states, and "unfairly onerous payments" from the US.

WHO responded with a statement asking the US to reconsider. "For over seven decades, WHO and the USA have saved countless lives and protected Americans and all people from health threats. Together, we ended smallpox, and together we have brought polio to the brink of eradication. American institutions have contributed to and benefited from membership of WHO."

Naturally, the internet had a lot to say about all this. Many people were stunned and upset:

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Others couldn't believe how much damage Trump did in one day:

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People warned against the consequences of this...

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...and worried about what it'll mean in the future:

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Attachment 2482183


Trump still peppered the conversation with a mixture of falsehoods that Newsweek's Fact Check team has assessed.

By Tom Norton

President Donald Trump held a cozy interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity this week, his first television interview since he became the 47th President of the United States.

Hannity described his and Trump's "friendship" as the president responded to soft questioning with claims about January 6, immigration, and the size of the 2024 presidential election victory.

No evidence of migrant multiple murderers

Trump has repeated recently that among the numbers of migrants with homicide convictions in the United States, a proportion around 50 percent have committed more than one murder.

"We have numbers coming out of 11,000 people that murdered are now free and walking around in our country," Trump said.

"Of them, I think 48 percent they say, killed more than one person and they are walking around."

In his pre-inauguration speech, Trump said it was above 50 percent but lowered the estimation with Hannity. Whatever the number may be, it is not based on evidence.

There is no public evidence showing the proportion of migrants with convictions for multiple homicides. A request to substantiate the claim requested by FactCheck.org in September 2024 was answered with an irrelevant statement by a Trump media representative.

Newsweek has contacted a White House media representative via email for comment.

This claim itself is based on a faulty statistic Trump and others have repeated about the number of murderers "free and walking around in our country."

Claims that thousands of murderers are "walking around" are based on data compiled from more than 40 years of statistics, including data on convicts who are incarcerated or have served time. The notion that they are wandering loose is also false, as recently debunked by Newsweek.

The data on the total number of migrants with murder convictions did not show the proportion that had been convicted for more than one murder, simply the number of migrants with conviction history on the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) docket.

No evidence other countries "emptied" prisons and "mental institutions" into US

Despite multiple journalistic investigations that have debunked this claim, Trump has repeated this falsehood for years.

"They've emptied the jails...many of them did. If you look at Venezuela, their crime rate is down now 78% because they took their street gangs and they moved them into the United States" Trump told Hannity.

He later alleged that under the Democrats other countries had "emptied" their "jails and mental institutions" into the U.S.

Immigration data from fiscal years 2021 to 2024 shows that Customs & Border Protection (CBP) agencies encountered 118,074 individuals with criminal convictions or those wanted by law enforcement.

The CBP says criminal noncitizens (referring to people convicted of a crime deemed criminal by the U.S.) encountered at ports of entry are inadmissible "absent extenuating circumstances."

There is no evidence that other nations have been "emptying" prisons and directing their prisoners to the U.S., and information that has been provided to journalists who have asked Trump's team to substantiate these claims has been insubstantial, as reported by PolitiFact in May 2024.

Trump's claim that crime in Venezuela has fallen by 78 percent as a result of "emptying" its jails has not stood up to scrutiny either. Investigations by FactCheck.org and PolitiFact found no basis for a 67 percent fall in crime in recent years, with some vague official estimates showing a 32 percent drop between 2024 and 2023. Experts have attributed the drop to mass migration, caused by worsening economic and living conditions.

Newsweek has previously rated the claim that patients from "insane asylums" have been "emptied into the U.S. as false. There is no evidence to support the claim, either publicly available or made available by Trump media representatives.

Trump was not the first Republican presidential nominee to win all of Oklahoma's counties

Discussing the 2024 results, Trump said: "I love Oklahoma, 77 out of 77 districts, and that has never been done before" adding "Ronald Reagan had the record 56, 56 out of 77, I got 77 out of 77."

Trump is not the first Republican presidential nominee to win all of Oklahoma's 77 districts. Mitt Romney did so in 2012, John McCain did in 2008, as did George W. Bush in 2004.

California reservoirs were not all empty, according to officials and experts

Trump also attacked Californian authorities and water availability during January's wildfires.

"All of this money spent on reservoirs, they are fake reservoirs," Trump said. Hannity added: "The reservoirs were empty."

Data from the California Department of Water Resources shows that the total stored water in state-managed reservoirs was at its highest level in five months in January 2025, with five of 12 reservoirs at 75 percent capacity or more.

However, a suit against the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, filed by victims of the Palisades fire, said that the Santa Ynez Reservoir had been empty since February 2024. Officials said it had been closed for repairs, with California Governor Gavin Newsom calling for an independent investigation into the situation, among other inquiries reported by the Los Angeles Times.

No evidence Trump won the youth vote by 36 points

Returning to his recent election victory, Trump said: "I won youth by 36 points. Maybe that's because I went on TikTok, I don't know."

Investigations by CNN, Full Fact, and USA Today failed to find any substantive evidence to support his claim. While exit poll data shows Trump increased his youth vote share compared to previous elections, he was outpolled by Kamala Harris among younger voters.

FEMA, January 6, transgender conspiracy

Trump also made other unfounded allegations including that Democrats used FEMA "not to help" the Hurricane Helene disaster victims in North Carolina, and the baseless claim that American children can "leave home as a boy and come home two days later as a girl."

He also repeated unsubstantiated claims that the January 6 committee destroyed all the evidence it was provided, (despite the committee publicly releasing evidence it used to support its 800-page report scrutinizing Trump's role in the Capitol riot). On the same point he also baselessly claimed that Nancy Pelosi had rejected an offer for 10,000 National Guardsmen on January 6, 2021, adding that evidence of that offer had been deleted.

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Attachment 2481544


The president claims that overdose deaths are really 300,000, when the government reports 90,000.

Analysis by Glenn Kessler

“They’re killing our people. They’re killing 250,000, 300,000 American people a year, not 100, like has been reported for 15 years. It’s probably 300,000.”

— President Donald Trump, while signing an executive order designating drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, Jan. 20

Trump often exaggerates statistics to hype the scale of a crisis. He did so again when he signed an executive order targeting drug cartels — and reiterated his plan to boost tariffs on Mexico and Canada to force a crackdown on drug organizations. He told reporters that although for “15 years” the number of overdose deaths was estimated at 100,000, it’s really 250,000 to 300,000 — “probably 300,000.”

He repeated the claim a day later, with the caveat “I think.” But, as on Monday, he made more definitive statements during a Turning Point political rally in December — “The United States has lost 300,000 people a year” — and at a November campaign rally — “We lose 300,000 people a year to drugs entering from Mexico.”

But his claim of 300,000 deaths is false. Drug overdose deaths only began to exceed 100,000 four years ago, in part a legacy of the coronavirus pandemic, but they started to decline in 2023. As of the 12 months ending in August, the most recent data available, the number of deaths was about 90,000, the CDC says.

Experts say there is no evidence the statistics, collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are faulty; in fact, they have improved after a boost in federal funding when the scope of the opioid crisis became clear during the Obama administration.

The Facts

The surge in drug overdoses has gone through three phases: deaths involving prescription opioids, following the introduction of OxyContin onto the market in 1996; heroin-involved overdose deaths after OxyContin was reformulated to make it difficult to crush into powder for snorting; and now deaths related to fentanyl and other synthetic opioids.

Traci Green, director of the Opioid Policy Research Collaborative at Brandeis University, said that early in the crisis, many drug overdose deaths were missed because they were connected to prescription drug abuse, which was not on the radar of government statisticians. But that changed in the mid-2010s after Congress approved federal funding to combat the problem, so the statistics have become more accurate. “They have only gotten better,” she said, especially with machine-learning tools.

“We’re not missing 200,000 people, that’s for sure,” she said. In fact, “there has been a good deal of excitement because the numbers have been declining in the last year. It’s not the kind of epidemic we saw in Trump’s first term.”

Trump’s first term coincided with the third wave of the crisis, as heroin overdose deaths fell but overdose deaths involving fentanyl soared.

Overall overdose deaths reached a high of nearly 115,000 in the 12-month period ending in mid-2023, before declining in 2024. The number of overdose deaths is now estimated to be lower than when Trump left office in January 2021.

Trump is targeting drug cartels because he believes they are responsible for fentanyl crossing into the United States.

The president in his statements points the finger equally at Mexico and Canada, but Canada is a minor player. Just 43 pounds of fentanyl were confiscated at the northern border in the 2024 fiscal year — 0.2 percent of the volume at the U.S.-Mexico border, according to Customs and Border Protection statistics. In the first three months of the 2025 fiscal year, 10 pounds have been seized at the Canadian border, compared with 4,400 pounds on the Mexican border. Canadian authorities announced in November that they had dismantled the nation’s largest drug laboratory, discovered in rural British Columbia.

Moreover, most of the smuggling of fentanyl is done by U.S. citizens. Government statistics assembled by David J. Bier of the Cato Institute show that between 2019 and 2024, U.S. citizens were 80 percent of people caught with fentanyl during border crossings at ports of entry. Moreover, between 2015 and 2024, 92 percent of fentanyl seizures occurred at legal crossing points or interior vehicle checkpoints, not on illegal migration routes, Bier concluded.

The White House press office did not respond to an email requesting the source of Trump’s claim.

The Pinocchio Test

Opioid overdose deaths have started to decline, though they remain high. But Trump has no basis to claim that the statistics — generated by a government agency that he now oversees — are so inaccurate that the death toll is three times higher than reported. He is also wrong to claim that the number of overdose deaths was reported as 100,000 for 15 years. That only happened for 2½ years. He earns Four Pinocchios.

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Donald Trump declared the beginning of a "golden age" in the United States after taking the oath of office for an unprecedented second term as president on Monday. In his inaugural address, delivered inside the U.S. Capitol due to freezing weather, Trump painted a bleak picture of a "broken" society that he pledged to restore.

"The golden age of America begins right now," Trump proclaimed. "From this day forward, our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world." His speech struck a characteristically combative tone, accusing a "radical and corrupt establishment" of betraying the American people.

"For many years, a radical and corrupt establishment has extracted power and wealth from our citizens, while the pillars of our society lay broken and seemingly in complete disrepair," Trump stated. "From this moment on, America's decline is over."

At 78 years old, Trump is now the oldest person to assume the presidency. He began his second term with plans for aggressive executive actions on immigration and social issues. Among the most controversial promises was his declaration of a "national emergency at our southern border" with Mexico, vowing to deport "millions and millions" of undocumented immigrants.

Trump took the oath of office with one hand raised and the other on a Bible given to him by his mother, becoming the 47th president of the United States. He was accompanied to the Capitol by outgoing Democratic President Joe Biden, who maintained tradition by welcoming Trump with tea at the White House. "Welcome home," Biden said as he and First Lady Jill Biden greeted Trump and his wife, Melania.

Unlike his first inauguration in 2017, where Trump was an outsider in Washington, this ceremony underscored his deep ties to America's wealthy elite. High-profile figures such as Elon Musk, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai attended the event. Musk, who reportedly contributed $250 million to Trump's campaign and openly promotes far-right policies on his X social media platform, is expected to spearhead cost-cutting initiatives in the new administration.

This second inauguration also saw an effort to restore tradition. While Trump notoriously refused to attend Biden's 2021 inauguration, citing false claims of electoral fraud, Biden reciprocated by attending Trump's ceremony. The event was attended by former presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton, along with their families. Former first ladies Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush were present, though Michelle Obama was notably absent.

The inaugural ceremony marked the start of a presidency promising sweeping changes and a bold, if polarizing, vision for America. Whether Trump's "golden age" will deliver on its ambitious promises remains to be seen.

Newly sworn-in U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he will declare illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border a national emergency, send troops there and ramp up deportations of criminal offenders.
Trump, outlining the crackdown in his inaugural address, said he would invoke a 1798 wartime law known as the Alien Enemies Actto target foreign gang members in the U.S., a legal authority last used to detain non-citizens of Japanese, German, and Italian descent in internment camps during World War Two. Trump also said he would designate criminal cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.

Shortly after the inauguration, U.S. border authorities said they had shut down outgoing President Joe Biden's CBP One entry program, which had allowed hundreds of thousands of migrants to enter the U.S. legally by scheduling an appointment on an app. Existing appointments were canceled, leaving migrants stunned and unsure of what to do.

Trump, a Republican, recaptured the White House after promising to intensify border security and deport record numbers of migrants. While Trump criticized Biden for high levels of illegal immigration during the Democrat's presidency, migrant arrests fell dramatically after Biden toughened his policies in June and as Mexico stepped up enforcement.

Republicans say large-scale deportations are necessary after millions of immigrants crossed illegally during Biden's presidency. There were roughly 11 million immigrants in the U.S. illegally or with a temporary status at the start of 2022, according to a U.S. government estimate, a figure that some analysts now place at 13 million to 14 million.

"As commander-in-chief, I have no higher responsibility than to defend our country from threats and invasions, and that is exactly what I am going to do," Trump said in his address.

Trump's critics and immigrant advocates say mass deportations could disrupt businesses, split families and cost U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars. The American Civil Liberties Union said in a court filing on Monday that Trump's decision to end the CBP One program removed the only avenue to asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border.

The ACLU asked a federal judge in Washington to allow the termination to be considered in an existing lawsuit over Biden-era asylum restrictions that could affect Trump's own legal authority, the opening salvo by the civil rights groupto fight Trump's agenda in court.

California and other Democratic-led states that have policies limiting cooperation with federal immigration enforcement also could clash with Trump.

Americans have grown less welcoming toward immigrants without legal status since Trump's first presidency, but remain wary of harsh measures such as using detention camps, a Reuters/Ipsos poll in December found.

Biden entry program shut down

In several Mexican border cities, migrants saw their appointments on Biden's CBP One app canceled just after Trump took office. Some 280,000 people had been logging into the appdaily to secure an appointment as of Jan. 7.

In Matamoros, Mexico, a group of migrants from the central Mexican state of Zacatecas arrived at a legal border crossing at midday but were turned back by border authorities who said all appointments were now void, they told a Reuters witness.

Denia Mendez, a Honduran sitting in the courtyard of a migrant shelter in Piedras Negras - a Mexican city across from Eagle Pass, Texas - opened her email inbox 30 minutes after Trump became president. She stared at an email for several minutes, reading it over and over, before her eyes welled up.

"They canceled my appointment," she said. Several other migrants, who just minutes ago were laughing as they fed potato chips to pigeons, huddled around her phone, their faces suddenly grave.

Mendez's 15-year-old daughter Sofia kept trying to get into the CBP One app.

"They're not going to let you into the app, baby," her mother told her softly.

Birthright citizenship targeted

Trump intends to challenge U.S. citizenship for children born to parents in the U.S. illegally, an incoming Trump official said earlier in the day. So-called "birthright citizenship" stems from an amendment to the U.S. Constitution and any move to restrict it will almost certainly trigger legal challenges.

Trump also plans to suspend the U.S. refugee resettlement program for at least four months and will order a review of security to see if travelers from certain nations should be subject to a travel ban, the official said.

Trump said in his address that he would reinstate his first-term "remain in Mexico" program, which forced non-Mexican asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for the outcome of the U.S. cases. Biden ended the program in 2021, saying migrants were stuck waiting in squalid conditions.

"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 said.

Mexico's presidency, foreign ministry, and economy ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Trump's plans. In a regular press conference on Monday, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum called for calm and insisted her government had to see the details of Trump's actions before responding.

Efforts are underway to improve India's poor crowd management record at large-scale religious events, with organizers of the Kumbh Mela leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to prevent stampedes. The Kumbh Mela, recognized as the world's largest human gathering, is expected to draw up to 400 million pilgrims over its six-week duration, which began Monday.

Deadly stampedes have historically marred Indian religious festivals, and the Kumbh Mela has been no exception. In 1954, over 400 people lost their lives in a single day at the festival, making it one of the deadliest crowd disasters globally. More recently, in 2013, a stampede claimed 36 lives during the event in Prayagraj.

To address these risks, authorities have turned to technology to manage the massive crowds. Amit Kumar, a senior police officer heading the festival's tech operations, highlighted the importance of AI in preventing dangerous crowd congestion. “We want everyone to go back home happily after having fulfilled their spiritual duties,” Kumar told AFP. “AI is helping us avoid reaching that critical mass in sensitive places.”

This year’s event features around 300 cameras mounted on poles and drones throughout the festival site and surrounding areas. The footage is fed into a command and control room equipped with AI algorithms to estimate crowd sizes and monitor density. The system triggers alerts when crowd density exceeds safe levels, allowing authorities to intervene before the situation becomes critical. "We are using AI to track people flow, crowd density at various inlets, adding them up and then interpolating from there," Kumar explained.

The Kumbh Mela, rooted in Hindu mythology about a battle between deities and demons over a pitcher of nectar granting immortality, is being held on an unprecedented scale this year. Organizers anticipate attendance to rival the combined populations of the United States and Canada. On the festival's first morning alone, an estimated six million devotees took a ritual dip in the sacred rivers.

With a crowd of this magnitude, some degree of congestion is unavoidable, said Kumar. He noted that the critical threshold for crowd density in India is higher than in Western countries due to cultural differences. While Western standards allow for three people per square foot, the Kumbh Mela can safely accommodate a much higher density.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath described the event as a unique blend of tradition and modernity. “The fact that there are cameras and drones makes us feel safe,” said Harshit Joshi, a 28-year-old automotive engineer and one of millions of pilgrims at the festival.

The integration of AI and surveillance technology underscores the evolving approach to managing large-scale gatherings in India, aiming to ensure the safety of millions while preserving the spiritual essence of the event.