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  • Thousands rally against immigration enforcement in subzero Minnesota temperatures

    Thousands rally against immigration enforcement in subzero Minnesota temperatures

    MINNEAPOLIS — Police arrested about 100 clergy demonstrating against immigration enforcement at Minnesota’s largest airport Friday, and thousands gathered in downtown Minneapolis despite Arctic temperatures to protest the Trump administration’s crackdown.

    The protests are part of a broader movement against President Donald Trump’s increased immigration enforcement across the state, with labor unions, progressive organizations, and clergy urging Minnesotans to stay away from work, school, and even shops. The faith leaders gathered at the airport to protest deportation flights and urge airlines to call for an end to to what the Department of Homeland Security has called its largest-ever immigration enforcement operation.

    The clergy were issued misdemeanor citations of trespassing and failure to comply with a peace officer and were then released, said Jeff Lea, a Metropolitan Airports Commission spokesman. They were arrested outside the main terminal at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport because they went beyond the reach of their permit for demonstrating and disrupted airline operations, he said.

    The Rev. Mariah Furness Tollgaard of Hamline Church in St. Paul said police ordered them to leave but she and others decided to stay and be arrested to show support for migrants, including members of her congregation who are afraid to leave their homes. She planned to go back to her church after her brief detention to hold a prayer vigil.

    “We cannot abide living under this federal occupation of Minnesota,” Tollgaard said.

    Protesters demand ICE leave Minnesota

    The Rev. Elizabeth Barish Browne traveled from Cheyenne, Wyo., to participate in the rally in downtown Minneapolis, where the high temperature was minus 9 degrees Fahrenheit despite a bright sun.

    “What’s happening here is clearly immoral,” the Unitarian Universalist minister said. “It’s definitely chilly, but the kind of ice that’s dangerous to us is not the weather.”

    Protesters have gathered daily in the Twin Cities since Jan. 7, when 37-year-old mother of three Renee Good was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer. Federal law enforcement officers have repeatedly squared off with community members and activists who track their movements.

    Sam Nelson said he skipped work so he could join the march. He said he’s a former student of the Minneapolis high school where federal agents detained someone after class earlier this month. That arrest led to altercations between federal officers and bystanders.

    “It’s my community,” Nelson said. “Like everyone else, I don’t want ICE on our streets.”

    Organizers said Friday morning that more than 700 businesses statewide have closed in solidarity with the movement, from a bookstore in tiny Grand Marais near the Canadian border to the landmark Guthrie Theater in downtown Minneapolis.

    “We’re achieving something historic,” said Kate Havelin of Indivisible Twin Cities, one of the more than 100 participating groups.

    Detention of a 2-year-old and a 5-year-old

    A 2-year-old was reunited with her mother Friday, a day after she was detained with her father outside of their home in South Minneapolis, lawyer Irina Vaynerman told the Associated Press.

    Vaynerman said they had quickly challenged the family’s detention in federal court. The petition states that the child, a citizen of Ecuador, was brought to the U.S. as a newborn. The child and her father, Elvis Tipan Echeverria, both have a pending asylum application and neither are subject to final orders of removal.

    A U.S. district judge on Thursday had barred the government from transferring the toddler out of state, but she and her father were on a commercial flight to Texas about 20 minutes later, according to court filings. They were flown back Friday.

    Agents arrested Tipan Echeverria during a targeted operation, according to a DHS statement said. DHS said the child’s mother was in the area but refused to take the child.

    Vaynerman rejected that explanation, saying Tipan Echeverria was “not allowed” to bring his 2-year-old to her mother inside their home.

    DHS repeated its allegation Friday that the father of 5-year-old Liam Ramos abandoned him during his arrest by immigration officers in Columbia Heights on Tuesday, leading to the child being detained, too.

    Department spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said Liam was detained because his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, “fled from the scene.” The two are detained together at the Dilley Detention Center in Texas, which is intended to hold families. McLaughlin said officers tried to get Liam’s mother to take him, but she refused to accept custody.

    The family’s attorney Marc Prokosch said he thinks the mother refused to open the door to the ICE officers because she was afraid she would be detained. Columbia Heights district superintendent Zena Stenvik said Liam was “used as bait.”

    Prokosch found nothing in state records to suggest Liam’s father has a criminal history.

    On Friday, Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino sought to shift the narrative away from Liam’s detention by attacking the news media for, in his view, insufficient coverage of children who have lost parents to violence by people in the country illegally. After briefly mentioning the 5-year-old during a news conference, he talked about a mother of five who was killed in August 2023.

    Details from Good’s autopsy

    The Hennepin County Medical Examiner posted an initial autopsy report online for Good that classified her death as a homicide and determined she died from “multiple gunshots wounds.”

    A more detailed independent autopsy commissioned by Good’s family said one bullet pierced the left side her head and exited on the right side. This autopsy, released Wednesday through the Romanucci & Blandin law firm, said bullets also struck her in the arm and breast, although those injuries weren’t immediately life-threatening.

    Antonio Romanucci, an attorney for the family, said in a statement that the family is still awaiting the full report from the medical examiner and “hope that they communicate with Renee’s family and share their report before releasing any further information to the public.”

    A spokesperson for the firm said there were no funeral plans to share yet.

  • U.S. carries out first known strike on alleged drug boat since Maduro’s capture

    U.S. carries out first known strike on alleged drug boat since Maduro’s capture

    WASHINGTON — The U.S. military said Friday that it has carried out a deadly strike on a vessel accused of trafficking drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, the first known attack since the raid that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro earlier this month.

    U.S. Southern Command said on social media that the boat was “engaged in narco-trafficking operations” and that the strike killed two people and left one survivor. It said it notified the Coast Guard to launch search and rescue operations for that person.

    A video accompanying the post announcing the latest strike shows a boat moving through the water before exploding in flames. The U.S. military has focused lately on seizing sanctioned oil tankers with connections to Venezuela since the Trump administration launched an audacious raid to capture Maduro and bring him to New York to face drug trafficking charges.

    With the latest military action, there have been 36 known strikes against alleged drug smuggling boats in South American waters since early September that killed at least 117 people, according to announcements from the U.S. military and Trump. The majority of those of strikes have occurred in the Caribbean Sea.

    The last reported boat strikes occurred in late December, when the military said it struck five alleged drug-smuggling boats over two days, killing a total of eight people while others jumped overboard. Days later, the Coast Guard suspended its search.

    The U.S. conducted a large-scale operation in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, on Jan. 3 that led to the capture of Maduro and his wife, who were then flown to New York to face federal drug trafficking charges.

    Maduro, before his capture, said the U.S. military operations were a thinly veiled effort to oust him from power.

    President Donald Trump has repeatedly said that the U.S. strikes targeting alleged smugglers are having an enormous impact on slowing drug trafficking routes in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.

    “We’ve stopped — virtually stopped almost 100% of all drugs coming in by water,” Trump said in remarks on Thursday at the World Economic Forum at Davos.

  • Vance touts the Trump administration’s record against abortion at a Washington rally

    Vance touts the Trump administration’s record against abortion at a Washington rally

    Vice President JD Vance on Friday encouraged anti-abortion activists to “take heart in how far we’ve come” on the quest to limit the practice, listing the Trump administration’s accomplishments including an expansion of a ban on U.S. foreign aid for groups supporting abortion services.

    “There is still much road ahead to travel together,” Vance told attendees at the annual March for Life demonstration, which draws tens of thousands of people annually to Washington. Attendees rallied on the National Mall before heading to the Supreme Court.

    Vance, a Republican, has spent years passionately advocating for Americans to have more children. He repeatedly expressed alarm about declining birth rates as he launched his political career in 2021 with a successful bid for the U.S. Senate in Ohio, and as vice president he has continued on that mission.

    “I want more babies in the United States of America,” Vance said in addressing last year’s March for Life.

    Earlier this week, Vance and his wife, second lady Usha Vance, announced in a social media post they are expecting a son, their fourth child, in late July.

    “Let the record show, you have a vice president who practices what he preaches,” Vance said Friday.

    Vance cited the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade, calling it “the most important Supreme Court decision of my lifetime.” He said President Donald Trump’s leadership and appointment of conservative jurists “put a definitive end to the tyranny of judicial rule on the question of human life.”

    He also lauded the “historic expansion of the Mexico City policy,” the broadening of a ban on U.S. foreign aid for groups supporting abortion services, to include assistance going to international and domestic organizations and agencies that promote gender identity as well as diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

    “We believe that every country in the world has the duty to protect life,” Vance said, to a sea of supporters waving signs reading “Choose Life,” “Make More Babies,” and “I am the Pro-Life Generation.”

    “It’s not our job as the United States of America to promote radical gender ideology,” he said. “It’s our job to promote families and human flourishing.”

    From the Vatican, Pope Leo XIV — the first U.S.-born pope — sent a message of support to participants in the march.

    “I would encourage you, especially the young people, to continue striving to ensure that life is respected in all of its stages,” Leo wrote in a letter shown on a video at the march. “May Jesus, who promised to be with us always, accompany you today as you courageously and peacefully march on behalf of unborn children.”

    On Thursday, an official said the Trump administration was implementing new rules, halting foreign assistance from going not only to groups that provide abortion as a method of family planning but also to those that advocate “gender ideology” and DEI. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity ahead of the rules’ publication in the Federal Register on Friday.

    First established under President Ronald Reagan, a Republican, the policy was rescinded by subsequent Democratic administrations and was reinstated in Trump’s first term.

    With its origins in the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that nationally enshrined federal protection for abortion rights, the March for Life developed an entrenched presence among conservatives arguing against abortion. In 2017, Trump addressed the march by video, becoming the first sitting U.S. president to make live remarks. Three years later, he attended the event in person, further cementing its role in conservative politics.

    In a video address to this year’s crowd, Trump recounted his administration’s “unprecedented strides to protect innocent life and support the institution of the family like never before,” enumerating his appointment of “judges and justices who believed in interpreting the Constitution as written” and “reflecting on the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.

    Since the June 2022 Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe, the march has become more celebratory, with organizers relishing a state-by-state fight in legislatures around the country and urging a continued fight until abortion is eliminated.

  • Ukraine, Russia, U.S. to discuss fraught issue of territorial concessions in Abu Dhabi

    Ukraine, Russia, U.S. to discuss fraught issue of territorial concessions in Abu Dhabi

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the future of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region will be a key focus as negotiators from Ukraine, Russia, and the United States meet in Abu Dhabi on Friday for talks to end Russia’s nearly four-year full-scale invasion.

    The UAE’s foreign ministry said the talks commenced on Friday and are scheduled to continue over two days “as part of ongoing efforts to promote dialogue and identify political solutions to the crisis.”

    The White House described the talks as productive and said conversations would continue on Saturday.

    The three-way talks come hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the settlement in Ukraine with President Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner during marathon overnight talks. The Kremlin insisted that to reach a peace deal, Kyiv must withdraw its troops from the areas in the east that Russia illegally annexed but never fully captured.

    Zelensky said after meeting with Trump that while the future status of land in eastern Ukraine currently occupied by Russia remains unresolved, the peace proposals are “nearly ready.”

    He also reiterated his openness to establishing a free trade zone under Ukraine’s control in the country’s east, adding that he discussed the proposal with Trump in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday: “I think it will be positive for our business,” Zelensky told reporters.

    Friday is the first known time that officials from the Trump administration simultaneously meet with negotiators from both Ukraine and Russia. While it’s unclear how the talks will unfold and many obstacles to peace remain, some see it as a sign that the parties are making headway in closing a deal.

    Speaking in his evening address to the nation late Friday, Zelensky said the Ukrainian delegation attending the talks reported to him “almost every hour.”

    “They are discussing the parameters for ending the war,” Zelensky said. ”Now, they should at least get some answers from Russia, and the most important thing is that Russia should be ready to end this war, which it itself started.”

    He added that “it’s too early to draw conclusions about the content of today’s negotiations — we’ll see how the conversation goes tomorrow and what the results will be. It’s not just about Ukraine’s desire to end this war and achieve full security — it’s also about Russia somehow developing a similar desire,” Zelensky said.

    Kremlin insists on ‘solving territorial issue’

    “Today’s meeting will be in the format of Ukraine, Russia and the United States, and afterward the Europeans will certainly receive feedback from us,” Zelensky told journalists in a WhatsApp audio message.

    The Kremlin offered little detail beyond calling Friday’s meeting a “working group on security issues.”

    Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reaffirmed Friday that Russia’s demand for the Ukrainian troops’ withdrawal from the eastern Donbas region is an “important condition,” adding that there are also other “nuances” on the talks agenda that he wouldn’t specify.

    Kremlin foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov, who participated in Putin’s meeting with Witkoff and Kushner, said “it was reaffirmed that reaching a long-term settlement can’t be expected without solving the territorial issue.” He described the talks with the U.S. as “frank, constructive,” and “fruitful.”

    Russia’s state Tass news agency reported that the discussions included possible buffer zones and control measures.

    Peskov told reporters that the Russian delegation, headed by Adm. Kostyukov, is comprised of military officials. Separately, Putin’s envoy Kirill Dmitriev will hold talks with Witkoff on economic issues, Peskov added.

    The U.S. has confirmed Witkoff and Kushner are attending the talks in Abu Dhabi along with Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and NATO’s top general, U.S. Air Force Gen. Alexus Grynkewich.

    The Ukrainian team includes Rustem Umerov, head of Ukraine’s national security and defense council; Andrii Hnatov, chief of the general staff; and Kyrylo Budanov, head of the presidential office.

    Trump’s meeting with Zelensky

    Hours before the Kremin talks, Zelensky met with Trump behind closed doors for about an hour at the World Economic Forum in Davos, describing the meeting as “productive and meaningful.”

    Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One as he flew back to Washington from Davos, Trump said his meeting with Zelensky went well, adding that both Putin and Zelensky want to reach a deal and that “everyone’s making concessions” to try to end the war.

    He said the sticking points in talks remain the same as they’ve been during talks held during the past six or seven months, noting “boundaries” was a key issue. “The main hold-up is the same things that’s been holding it up for the last year,” he said.

    Russia’s bigger army has managed to capture about 20% of Ukraine since hostilities began in 2014 and its full-scale invasion of 2022. But the battlefield gains along the roughly 600-mile front line have been costly for Moscow, and the Russian economy is feeling the consequences of the war and international sanctions.

    Ukraine is short of money and, despite significantly boosting its own arms manufacturing, still needs Western weaponry. It is also short-handed on the front line. Its defense minister last week reported some 200,000 troop desertions, and draft-dodging by about 2 million Ukrainians.

    Zelensky blasts European allies

    Addressing the World Economic Forum on Thursday after meeting with Trump, Zelensky listed a litany of grievances and criticisms of Europe.

    He chided Europe for being slow to act on key decisions, spending too little on defense, failing to stop Russia’s ”shadow fleet” of oil tankers that are breaking international sanctions, and balking at using its frozen assets in Europe to finance Ukraine, among other things.

    “Europe looks lost,” Zelensky said in his speech, urging the continent to become a global force. He contrasted Europe’s response with Washington’s bold steps in Venezuela and Iran.

    The former comic actor referred to the movie “Groundhog Day,” in which the main character must relive the same day over and over again.

    “Just last year, here in Davos, I ended my speech with the words: Europe needs to know how to defend itself. A year has passed. And nothing has changed. We are still in a situation where I must say the same words again,” Zelensky said.

  • Ryan Wedding, a former Olympic snowboarder on the FBI’s ‘Most Wanted’ list, has been arrested

    Ryan Wedding, a former Olympic snowboarder on the FBI’s ‘Most Wanted’ list, has been arrested

    ONTARIO, Calif. — Former Canadian Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding, a top FBI fugitive accused of moving some 60 tons of cocaine from Latin America into the United States annually and orchestrating several killings, was arrested in Mexico and then flown to California, officials said Friday.

    Wedding, 44, turned himself in Thursday at the U.S. embassy in Mexico City. FBI Director Kash Patel said his arrest came after U.S. investigators worked with authorities in Mexico, Canada, Colombia, and the Dominican Republic for more than a year.

    Officials say Wedding used semitrucks to move cocaine between Colombia, Mexico, Canada, and Southern California, and they believe he was working under the protection of the Sinaloa Cartel, one of Mexico’s most powerful drug rings. Authorities said his aliases included “El Jefe,” “Public Enemy,” and “James Conrad Kin.”

    “He’s the modern-day El Chapo,” Patel told a news conference in California, comparing Wedding to the legendary former Sinaloa cartel kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, who is imprisoned in the U.S. after pleading guilty to drug trafficking charges.

    An image of former Canadian Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding is displayed on a video monitor along with bricks of cocaine during a news conference at the FBI offices in Los Angeles on Oct. 17, 2024.

    Wedding was previously convicted in the U.S. of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and was sentenced to prison in 2010, federal records show. He now faces charges related to running a multinational drug trafficking ring as well as the killings of a federal witness and three other people.

    It was not immediately known if Wedding had an attorney who could comment on his behalf. He had no lawyers listed in federal court records for the cases pending against him.

    ‘It takes a united front’

    U.S. authorities believe the former Olympian, who competed in a single event for his home country in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, had been hiding in Mexico for more than a decade before his apprehension.

    Wedding was added to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list last March, and authorities had offered a $15 million reward for information leading to his arrest and conviction.

    “When you go after a guy like Ryan Wedding, it takes a united front, and that’s what you’re seeing here,” said Patel, who declined to give details about the arrest. He praised Mexico’s government and “global partnerships” for their roles in the operation.

    Mexico’s Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch wrote on X earlier Friday that a Canadian citizen had turned himself in at the U.S. embassy. A member of Mexico’s Security Cabinet later told the Associated Press that individual was Wedding. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

    Wedding is expected to appear in federal court Monday, said Akil Davis, assistant director in charge of the FBI field office in Los Angeles.

    Davis said 36 people have been arrested in connection with the drug ring Wedding is accused of running, and authorities seized large volumes of drugs, weapons, and cash, as well as millions of dollars worth of automobiles, motorcycles, artwork, and jewelry from Wedding and others charged in the case. Rewards of up to $2 million are available for information leading to additional arrests and convictions.

    Charges of ordering killings

    Wedding was indicted in 2024 in the U.S. on federal charges of running a criminal enterprise, murder, conspiring to distribute cocaine, and other crimes. Prosecutors said Wedding’s drug ring moved large shipments of cocaine from Colombia through Mexico and California to Canada and other U.S. locations.

    The murder charges accuse Wedding of directing the 2023 killings of two members of a Canadian family in retaliation for a stolen drug shipment, and for ordering a killing over a drug debt in 2024.

    Last November, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that Wedding had also been indicted on charges of orchestrating the killing of a witness in Colombia to help him avoid extradition to the U.S.

    Authorities said Wedding and co-conspirators used a Canadian website called “The Dirty News” to post a photograph of the witness so he could be identified and killed. The witness was then followed to a restaurant in Medellín in January and shot in the head.

    Wedding faces separate drug trafficking charges in Canada that date back to 2015, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

    Second FBI fugitive also apprehended

    Patel identified a second apprehended fugitive as Alejandro Rosales Castillo, a 27-year-old U.S. citizen charged with murder in the 2016 killing of a North Carolina woman. He also faces a federal charge of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. According to the FBI, Castillo was arrested a week ago in Mexico.

    Mexico has increasingly sent detained cartel members to the U.S. as the country attempts to offset mounting threats by President Donald Trump, who said last month U.S. forces “will now start hitting land” south of the border to target drug trafficking rings.

  • On Greenland, Europe stood up, Trump blinked and the E.U. learned a lesson

    On Greenland, Europe stood up, Trump blinked and the E.U. learned a lesson

    BRUSSELS, Belgium — After President Donald Trump used his bully pulpit in Davos, Switzerland, to demand “the acquisition of Greenland by the United States — just as we have acquired many other territories throughout our history” — and then backed down on the same day, many officials here see a lesson for the European Union: Pushing back works.

    The brazen ultimatum — give up Greenland or face tariffs — elicited a level of unity that largely had eluded the leaders of the 27-nation EU in the year since Trump’s second inauguration.

    Trump’s gambit for Greenland, an autonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark, bonded some unlikely partners in opposition: Europe’s mainstream political establishment with populist and nationalist parties; Republicans and Democrats in the deeply partisan U.S. Congress; the mostly Indigenous people of Greenland with their Danish former colonizers; and the EU and Britain, the only country ever to quit the bloc.

    For advocates of taking a tougher line with Trump, the president’s climbdown regarding the strategic Arctic territory was proof that retaliation — not conciliation — is the answer to his hardball tactics. After accommodating Trump on trade and on arming Ukraine, the Europeans finally stood up to him. Even more significantly, Trump backed down.

    “When we stand together, and when we are clear and strong, also in our willingness to stand up for ourselves, then the results will show,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told reporters in Brussels on Thursday night. “I think we have learned something during the last couple of days and weeks, and now we, of course, want to find a solution.”

    A chorus of European leaders insisted they would not be blackmailed. They blasted Trump’s crusade to grab land from a NATO ally as “unacceptable” and “inexplicable.” The EU threatened its own tariffs on American goods. And resolve grew within the bloc to unleash a trade retaliation tool it had long hesitated to use, which could target U.S. services in Europe — a profit center for American companies in which they benefit from a big surplus.

    The solidarity from across Europe, Frederiksen said, “was extremely important in this very difficult situation.”

    President Donald Trump meets with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday.

    The White House maintains that Trump did not blink but actually got everything he wanted, including full access to Greenland for the U.S. military, without having to pay a dime through a deal brokered with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.

    “President Trump was preparing for a Feb. 1 tariff and that has only been removed from the table for one reason: he and the NATO Secretary General agreed upon a framework for a deal on Greenland,” Anna Kelly, a White House spokeswoman, said in a written response to a question.

    Trump’s true motive for compromising may never be known. He arrived in the Swiss resort of Davos for the World Economic Forum planning to emphasize his efforts to address concern over an affordability crisis in America, which Trump has denied. The prospect of EU tariffs further raising costs for U.S. consumers may have moved him. Or perhaps it was a sharp sell-off in U.S. stock and bond markets, or the bipartisan opposition in Congress during a midterm election year.

    Whatever the reason, Trump suspended his tariff threats against European nations, proclaiming he had reached the “framework” of a deal.

    Points under negotiation include greater American access to military bases and minerals extraction in Greenland, European operations in the Arctic, and oversight over investments to prevent Russia or China from gaining a foothold, according to two European officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy.

    Trump had been clear about wanting to “own” Greenland either by buying or otherwise acquiring the territory, even hinting at military action. In a speech in Davos on Wednesday, Trump ruled out the use of force. And within hours he declared victory and backed down.

    An aurora borealis is seen in the sky above Nuuk, Greenland, on Tuesday.

    Danish leaders said ceding sovereign territory is a red line and that they requested a NATO mission in the Arctic. The Danes also had insisted that Trump could achieve his goals through an existing 1951 defense pact — a position the White House previously dismissed.

    Now, the Trump administration will pursue negotiations with Denmark on updating that defense treaty, as well as with European nations over expanding NATO military presence in the Arctic, they said.

    European officials said they believed his U-turn came from a change of heart, rather than a change in substance. Danish and other NATO leaders made such overtures for weeks before Trump escalated the standoff.

    Officials said Trump appeared to shift after realizing that EU retaliatory tariffs could take effect in February, and that his bid for Greenland was unpopular back home, including with American businesses.

    “Who knows what really goes on in his mind,” one official quipped.

    European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday.

    Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, the EU’s executive body, said many elements “may also have played a role … but without firmness, non-escalatory responses, and unity in the European Union, they would not have worked.”

    “We are here in a better position than we were 24 hours ago, and tonight we drew the lessons of our collective strategy,” von der Leyen said. “It was effective,” she added, “so going forward we should maintain this very approach.”

    Von der Leyen spoke to reporters overnight following a summit of all 27 of the EU’s heads of state and government in Brussels. Beyond Greenland, they discussed how to prepare for a volatile world in which Washington, at any moment, might turn the threat of its military or economic power on longtime European allies.

    Even as Europeans pushed back, leaders dispatched Rutte, a former Dutch prime minister often dubbed their “Trump whisperer.” Rutte’s job at NATO has been consumed by papering over rifts with Trump.

    NATO leader charms Trump and masters the art of the deal

    Publicly, the NATO chief said little about the Greenland crisis, refusing to deviate from praising Trump or agreeing with his grievances about Arctic security.

    A few leaders attributed Trump’s reversal to patience and an extended olive branch. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, an ally of Trump on the hard right, pointed to “fostering dialogue between allied nations.”

    Emmanuel Macron on stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday.

    French President Emmanuel Macron, however, said tough resolve was the trick. “What we should conclude is that when Europe reacts with a united front, using the instruments at our disposal while it is under threat, it can command respect,” Macron said. “And we remain extremely vigilant.”

    Even Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, still one of the most ardent champions of preserving the transatlantic relationship, said it was important “for our partners in Washington to understand the difference between domination and leadership.”

    That said, the standoff has dramatically darkened the mood within the EU regarding relations with Washington — a bond that has insured economic stability and security on the continent for 80 years.

    European lawmakers voiced a sense that the EU had to push back or there would be no end to Trump’s breaching of red lines. Playing nice only goes so far in shielding them from confrontation, officials conceded, and many warned that the Greenland matter was not yet settled.

    “When we genuflect, Trump weighs in, when we keep our back straight he tacoes out,” Nathalie Tocci, director of the Rome-based Institute for International Affairs, wrote on X in reference to “Trump Always Chickens Out” — a favorite phrase of Trump critics. It’s not because “he’s scared of Europe but of the markets,” Tocci said. “Lesson learned hopefully.”

    Lucky for EU leaders, they did not actually have to hit back — at least not yet — because the mercurial president stood down. That would have proved a bigger test of the cohesion between countries favoring a harder line, like France, and those more cautious, like Italy.

    For all the declarations of EU unity, the standoff caused a serious and potentially enduring split in the NATO alliance.

    Trump’s comments in Davos went to the heart of the European dilemma of how to navigate a world in which their most powerful ally is defining its positions. Trump cast the dispute as the U.S. vs. NATO, saying that Rutte was “representing the other side” while adding, “which is really us too, because, you know, we’re a very important member of NATO.”

    In his pursuit of Greenland, Trump also suggested in his speech that the U.S. was not inclined to defend territory it does not own. The core pillar of NATO is its Article 5 collective defense clause — that an attack against one is an attack against all. For smaller nations such as the Baltics, near Russia, the key to this idea is that the U.S. would come to their defense.

    Whatever moved Trump, everyone wants to claim the success.

    In London, Prime Minister Keir Starmer had been facing pressure within his own Labour Party for a tougher response. Starmer delivered his sharpest rebuke yet hours before Trump’s pivot, promising he “would not yield” on his defense of Greenland.

    The timing allowed officials to say Starmer’s government had stood up to Trump and even to claim some credit for deterring the president. British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper told Sky News it was a “a reflection of the strength of our connections in Washington.”

    Still, European officials spoke of a deep breach of trust across the Atlantic. In Brussels, some diplomats from countries that have been the loudest cheerleaders of the U.S. now refer to America as “our former ally.”

    Asked if she can still trust the U.S., Frederiksen, the Danish prime minister, hesitated. “I mean, we have been working very closely with the U.S. for many years,” she said, “but we have to work together respectfully, without threatening each other.”

  • DHS pauses cuts to FEMA as massive winter storm barrels in

    DHS pauses cuts to FEMA as massive winter storm barrels in

    The Department of Homeland Security has paused terminations of employees working on the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster response as it ramps up preparations for a massive and life-threatening winter storm that will pummel half the country this weekend.

    Earlier this month, the Washington Post reported that the agency planned to terminate disaster response and recovery workers in waves. On New Year’s Eve, agency officials eliminated about 65 positions that were part of FEMA’s largest workforce, known as the Cadre of On-Call Response and Recovery (CORE) — staffers who are among the first on the ground after a disaster and often stick around for years to help communities recover.

    But on Thursday night, DHS’s head of human resources sent an email notifying teams that “just a few minutes ago,” FEMA headquarters decided the agency would halt their process of non-renewing dozens of federally funded employees. These roles, hired by FEMA for multiyear terms under the Stafford Act using the disaster relief fund, have been up for renewal on a rolling basis.

    Earlier that day, about 30 disaster workers received notices that their jobs would not be renewed. The pause then prompted human resources staff to backtrack, notifying those same workers that they still had jobs, according to the email and an official familiar with the process. Like others interviewed for this story, the official spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

    “I didn’t even know what was happening until it happened,” the official said, adding that as human resources initially emailed people informing them that their jobs would not be renewed, senior leaders were learning that FEMA was pausing terminations.

    In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security said that the agency regularly changes staffing levels for its disaster response and recovery efforts.

    “The CORE program consists of term-limited positions that are designed to FLUCTUATE based on disaster activity, operational NEED, and available funding,” the department said in its statement, which included text in all-caps.

    “FEMA’s National Response Coordination Center has been activated in response to a historic winter storm, in line with this mission FEMA is following standard protocol to ensure mission functions are being met,” it added.

    Officials would not comment on how long the pause would last.

    While states and local authorities handle most of their preparation and response to winter storms, FEMA will often deliver resources ahead of time, including generators and personnel if the potential for disaster seems high. Stafford Act employees, such as CORE members, will deploy to a state if they request an emergency or disaster declaration and the president approves it.

    The sudden shift in staffing direction has caught officials across the agency by surprise, six officials said. In recent weeks, their teams were told to prepare to lose a substantial number of people over the next few months.

    Since December, DHS has terminated more than 100 people across the agency who FEMA employs under the Stafford Act.

    Some were informed on New Year’s Eve; others were given only a day or two to turn in their equipment; and still more were cut after their supervisors sent detailed memos explaining why their roles remained vital to FEMA’s mission. The agency also lost veteran employees who oversaw finances for Hurricane Helene recovery, as well as civil engineers who assist states with mitigation and rebuilding roadways, bridges and schools. Some offices in the Midwest have lost experienced managers who typically help lead operations during emergencies and big disasters.

    On Wednesday, FEMA cut nearly 85 local hires from several regions, including a handful who were still working on Hurricane Helene recovery projects in North Carolina — a state now readying itself for potential power outages — according to two people with knowledge of the situation. FEMA’s call center in Puerto Rico lost many of their local hires Wednesday as well, one FEMA official said. If multiple states are hit hard enough and ask the president for federal assistance, those workers could have helped out, two officials said.

    The same day the department halted the terminations, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem visited the agency’s headquarters to help guide national coordination and preparation for the sweeping storm. Noem, whose department oversees FEMA, also hosted a call Thursday morning with governors from 21 states that are bracing for dangerous, chilling weather. She assured them that DHS and FEMA will support them.

    “We can pre-deploy any needs that you may have, as far as generators or supplies to different parts of your state if you think you have a weakness in some area that’s going to be hit pretty hard,” Noem told the governors, reiterating that “if there is certain responses or requests specific to this event, feel free to reach out and use that contact information, and we’ll do all that we can to be helpful.”

    During the call, Karen Evans, FEMA’s agency’s interim administrator, and Gregg Phillips, who is now overseeing the Office of Response and Recovery, also offered their personal cell phone numbers in case any governor needs to get in touch with them immediately.

    Noem has instructed FEMA to be aggressive in preparing for the heavy snow and ice forecast to blanket a large portion of the United States and has promised a rapid and well-coordinated response, according to an official with knowledge of the situation. FEMA has delivered tens of thousands of meals and liters of water to various states, and it has positioned drivers who shuttle supplies outside distribution centers from Louisiana up to Pennsylvania.

    The decision to pause the terminations also coincides with the House’s approval Thursday of a spending bill that would fund FEMA’s disaster relief fund and help the agency “maintain staffing levels, including a reservist workforce and its Cadre of Response/Recovery Employees, necessary to fulfill the missions required under” federal law.

    Ahead of the storm, 10 officials from different parts of the agency who spoke to the Post said they were nervous about their ability to properly respond, given how their ranks have thinned over the past year, with the agency losing about 20% of its staff.

    Noem, who has exercised strict oversight over FEMA since taking over DHS, has repeatedly expressed a desire to shrink or eliminate the agency. The Post reported that she previously recommended cutting agency staffing by about half.

    In a previous statement, FEMA spokesperson Daniel Llargués said the agency had “not issued and is not implementing a percentage-based workforce reduction.”

    Employees in CORE roles are typically renewed every two to four years. When the end of an employee’s contracted term approaches, their supervisors typically seek approval to renew those roles. Most positions are usually reinstated, according to four current and former FEMA officials, in part because recovery work is long and complex.

    But in recent weeks, DHS’s process for renewing these temporary roles has changed frequently, according to officials with knowledge of the situation. Last week, supervisors in each region had to write memos justifying every role coming up for renewal this year, which would then be sent to FEMA’s temporary top official and then to Noem, according to two people familiar with the process. Guidance then shifted earlier this week. In a memo from Thursday, obtained by the Post, FEMA officials said that DHS will be making the calls without collecting justifications, and that “only extensions approved by DHS will be processed and they will be limited to 90 days.”

    One CORE employee said DHS suddenly cut her job without warning after her manager had submitted a memo urging to keep her on. Because some firings have been abrupt, some were not able to transition their work, she said.

    “And to be clear, I think most of us expected there to be staffing cuts this year,” the person said. “Just not in the bulldozer approach that didn’t take into account your job or performance.”

  • U.S. completes withdrawal from World Health Organization

    U.S. completes withdrawal from World Health Organization

    NEW YORK — The U.S. has finalized its withdrawal from the World Health Organization, one year after President Donald Trump announced America was ending its 78-year-old commitment, federal officials said Thursday.

    But it’s hardly a clean break.

    The U.S. owes about $280 million to the global health agency, according to WHO. And Trump administration officials acknowledge that they haven’t finished working out some issues, such as lost access to data from other countries that could give America an early warning of a new pandemic.

    The withdrawal will hurt the global response to new outbreaks and will hobble the ability of U.S. scientists and pharmaceutical companies to develop vaccines and medicines against new threats, said Lawrence Gostin, a public health law expert at Georgetown University.

    “In my opinion, it’s the most ruinous presidential decision in my lifetime,” he said.

    The WHO is the United Nations’ specialized health agency and is mandated to coordinate the response to global health threats, such as outbreaks of mpox, Ebola, and polio. It also provides technical assistance to poorer countries; helps distribute scarce vaccines, supplies, and treatments; and sets guidelines for hundreds of health conditions, including mental health and cancer.

    Nearly every country in the world is a member.

    Trump cited COVID-19 in pulling U.S. from WHO

    U.S. officials helped lead the WHO’s creation, and America has long been among the organization’s biggest donors, providing hundreds of millions of dollars and hundreds of staffers with specialized public health expertise.

    On average, the U.S. pays $111 million a year in member dues to the WHO and roughly $570 million more in annual voluntary contributions, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

    In an executive order issued right after taking office, Trump said the U.S. was withdrawing from WHO due to the organization’s mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic and other global health crises. He also cited the agency’s “failure to adopt urgently needed reforms” and its “inability to demonstrate independence from the inappropriate political influence of WHO member states.”

    WHO, like other public health organizations, made costly mistakes during the pandemic, including at one point advising people against wearing masks. It also asserted that COVID-19 wasn’t airborne, a stance it didn’t officially reverse until 2024.

    Another Trump administration complaint: None of WHO’s chief executives — there have been nine since the organization was created in 1948 — have been Americans. Administration officials view that as unfair given how much the WHO relies on U.S. financial contributions and on U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention personnel.

    Public health experts say U.S. exit will hobble responses to threats

    Experts say the U.S. exit could cripple numerous global health initiatives, including the effort to eradicate polio, maternal and child health programs, and research to identify new viral threats.

    Ronald Nahass, president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, called the U.S. withdrawal “shortsighted and misguided” and “scientifically reckless.”

    The U.S. has ceased official participation in WHO-sponsored committees, leadership bodies, governance structures and technical working groups. That would seem to include the WHO group that assesses what flu strains are circulating and makes critical decisions about updating flu shots.

    It also signals the U.S. is no longer participating in global flu information-sharing that guides vaccine decisions.

    Such disease intelligence has helped Americans be “at the front of the line” when new outbreaks occur and new vaccines and medicines are quickly needed to counteract them and save lives, Gostin said.

    Trump administration officials say they already have public health relationships with many countries and are working to ensure direct sharing of that kind of information, rather than having WHO serve as a middleman. But U.S. officials did not give specifics about how many such arrangements are in place.

    Gostin, an expert on international public health treaties and collaborations, said it’s unlikely the U.S. will reach agreements with more than a couple dozen countries.

    Many emerging viruses are first spotted in China, but “is China going to sign a contract with the United States?” Gostin said. “Are countries in Africa going to do it? Are the countries Trump has slapped with a huge tariff going to send us their data? The claim is almost laughable.”

    Gostin also believes Trump overstepped his authority in pulling out of WHO. The U.S. joined the organization through an act of Congress and it is supposed to take an act of Congress to withdraw, he argued.

    U.S. still owes money, WHO says

    The U.S. is legally required to give notice one year in advance of withdrawal — which it did — but also to pay any outstanding financial obligations.

    The U.S. has not paid any of its dues for 2024 and 2025, leaving a balance of about $280 million at current exchange rates, according to WHO.

    An administration official denied that requirement Thursday, saying the U.S. had no obligation to pay prior to withdrawing as a member.

  • U.K.’s Starmer slams Trump remarks on non-U.S. NATO troops in Afghanistan as ‘insulting’ and ‘appalling’

    U.K.’s Starmer slams Trump remarks on non-U.S. NATO troops in Afghanistan as ‘insulting’ and ‘appalling’

    LONDON — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has signaled that President Donald Trump should apologize for his false assertion that troops from non-U.S. NATO countries avoided the front line during the Afghanistan war, describing Trump’s remarks as “insulting” and “appalling.”

    Trump said that he wasn’t sure NATO would be there to support the United States if and when requested, provoking outrage and distress across the United Kingdom on Friday, regardless of individuals’ political persuasion.

    “We’ve never needed them, we have never really asked anything of them,” Trump said of non-U.S. troops in an interview with Fox News in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday. ”You know, they’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan, or this or that, and they did, they stayed a little back, a little off the front lines.”

    In October 2001, nearly a month after the Sept. 11 attacks, the U.S. led an international coalition in Afghanistan to destroy al-Qaeda, which had used the country as its base, and the group’s Taliban hosts. Alongside the U.S. were troops from dozens of countries, including from NATO, whose mutual-defense mandate had been triggered for the first time after the attacks on New York and Washington.

    U.K. sacrifice

    In the U.K., the reaction to Trump’s comments was raw.

    Starmer paid tribute to the 457 British personnel who died and to those have been left with profound life-long injuries.

    “I will never forget their courage, their bravery and the sacrifice they made for their country,” Starmer said. “I consider President Trump’s remarks to be insulting and frankly appalling and I am not surprised they have caused such hurt to the loved ones of those who were killed or injured and, in fact, across the country.”

    Prince Harry weighed in too, saying the “sacrifices” of British soldiers during the war “deserve to be spoken about truthfully and with respect.”

    “Thousands of lives were changed forever,” said Harry, who undertook two tours of duty in Afghanistan in the British Army. “Mothers and fathers buried sons and daughters. Children were left without a parent. Families are left carrying the cost.”

    After 9/11, then Prime Minister Tony Blair said that the U.K. would “stand shoulder to shoulder” with the U.S. in response to the al-Qaeda attacks. British troops took a key role in many operations during the Afghan war until their withdrawal in 2014, particularly in Helmand Province in the south of the country. American troops remained in Afghanistan until their chaotic withdrawal in 2021 when the Taliban returned to power.

    More than 150,000 British troops served in Afghanistan in the years after the invasion, the largest contingent after the American one.

    Ben Obese-Jecty, a lawmaker who served in Afghanistan as a captain in the Royal Yorkshire Regiment, said that it was “sad to see our nation’s sacrifice, and that of our NATO partners, held so cheaply by the president of the United States.”

    Trump and Vietnam

    Anger was further fueled by the fact that the comments came from someone who didn’t serve in the Vietnam War at a time when he was eligible.

    “It’s hugely ironic that someone who allegedly dodged the draft for the Vietnam War should make such a disgraceful statement,” said Stephen Stewart, author of The Accidental Soldier, an account of his time embedded with British troops in Afghanistan.

    Trump received a deferment that allowed him to not serve in Vietnam because of bone spurs, but he has been unable to remember in which foot, leading to accusations of draft dodging.

    Repeated NATO slights

    It wasn’t the first time that Trump downplayed the commitment of NATO countries over the past few days. It has been one of his pivotal lines of attack as he escalated his threats to seize Greenland, a semiautonomous territory belonging to Denmark.

    Trump’s allegation that NATO countries won’t be there when requested stands in stark contrast to reality.

    The only time Article 5 of NATO’s founding treaty has been used was in response to the 9/11 attacks on the U.S. The article is the key mutual defense clause, obliging all member countries to come to the aid of another member whose sovereignty or territorial integrity might be under threat.

    “When America needed us after 9/11 we were there,” former Danish platoon commander Martin Tamm Andersen said.

    Denmark has been a stalwart ally of the U.S. in Afghanistan, with 44 Danish soldiers killed there — the highest per capita death toll among coalition forces. Eight more died in Iraq.

    The latest controversy surrounding Trump comes at the end of a week when he has faced criticism — and pushback — for his threats to Greenland.

    Trump also threatened to slap tariffs on European nations opposed to his ambitions to annex Greenland, which raised questions over the future of NATO. And though Trump backed down after a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte in which he said they formed the “framework” for a deal over Arctic security, trans-Atlantic relations have taken a hit.

    His latest comments are unlikely to improve relations.

    Diane Dernie, whose son Ben Parkinson suffered horrific injuries when a British Army Land Rover hit a mine in Afghanistan in 2006, said that Trump’s latest comments were “the ultimate insult” and called on Starmer to stand up to Trump over them.

    “Call him out,” she said. “Make a stand for those who fought for this country and for our flag, because it’s just beyond belief.”

    Taking her up on that, Starmer said “what I say to Diane is, if I had misspoken in that way or said those words, I would certainly apologize and I’d apologize to her.”

  • An ancient forest in Ecuador is the last stand for a tiny hummingbird facing extinction

    An ancient forest in Ecuador is the last stand for a tiny hummingbird facing extinction

    YANACOCHA RESERVE, Ecuador — Deep in the Ecuadorian Andes, an ancient forest stands as a final sanctuary against the encroachment of human activity. This is the Yanacocha Reserve, the last refuge for the Black-breasted Puffleg (Eriocnemis nigrivestis), a tiny hummingbird teetering on the edge of extinction.

    Measuring just 3.5 inches, this emblematic bird of Quito is one of the most threatened species on the planet. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, its global population has dwindled to between 150 and 200 birds.

    Founded 25 years ago by the Jocotoco Foundation, the Yanacocha Reserve has become a centerpiece for Andean biodiversity.

    “We realized we were conserving an entire ecosystem, not just one species,” conservationist Paola Villalba told the Associated Press.

    The bird is easily identified by the striking white “trousers” of feathers around its legs, which contrast sharply with its deep, metallic black chest and bronze-green wings. Despite its beauty, its survival is at risk as high-altitude forests are cleared for grazing and agriculture.

    Shirley Farinango, of the Birds and Conservation Foundation, notes that the pressure is most intense because the puffleg occupies a narrow ecological niche between 9,800 and 11,400 feet above sea level. This specific elevation, she said, is “prime territory” to be converted to agricultural land.

    On the slopes of the Pichincha volcano, 27 miles northwest of Quito, conservationists are now racing to restore this cloud-shrouded forest.

    For the “smallest fairies” of the Andes, these dense trees are more than just a habitat — they are their last stand.