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.
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 armingUkraine, 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.
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 topatience 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, Europeanofficials 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.”
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.”
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.
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.
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.”
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.
TikTok has finalized a deal to create a new American entity, avoiding the looming threat of a ban in the United States that has been in discussion for years on the platform now used by more than 200 million Americans.
The social video platform company signed agreements with major investors including Oracle, Silver Lake, and the Emirati investment firm MGX to form the new TikTok U.S. joint venture. The new version will operate under “defined safeguards that protect national security through comprehensive data protections, algorithm security, content moderation and software assurances for U.S. users,” the company said in a statement Thursday. American TikTok users can continue using the same app.
President Donald Trump praised the deal in a Truth Social post, thanking Chinese leader Xi Jinping specifically “for working with us and, ultimately, approving the Deal.” Trump add that he hopes “that long into the future I will be remembered by those who use and love TikTok.”
Adam Presser, who previously worked as TikTok’s head of operations and trust and safety, will lead the new venture as its CEO. He will work alongside a seven-member, majority-American board of directors that includes TikTok’s CEO Shou Chew.
The deal ends years of uncertainty about the fate of the popular video-sharing platform in the United States. After wide bipartisan majorities in Congress passed — and President Joe Biden signed — a law that would ban TikTok in the U.S. if it did not find a new owner in the place of China’s ByteDance, the platform was set to go dark on the law’s January 2025 deadline. For a several hours, it did. But on his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to keep it running while his administration sought an agreement for the sale of the company.
“China’s position on TikTok has been consistent and clear,” Guo Jiakun, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson in Beijing, said Friday about the TikTok deal and Trump’s Truth Social post, echoing an earlier statement from the Chinese embassy in Washington.
Apart from an emphasis on data protection, with U.S. user data being stored locally in a system run by Oracle, the joint venture will also focus on TikTok’s algorithm. The content recommendation formula, which feeds users specific videos tailored to their preferences and interests, will be retrained, tested and updated on U.S. user data, the company said in its announcement.
The algorithm has been a central issue in the security debate over TikTok. China previously maintained the algorithm must remain under Chinese control by law. But the U.S. regulation passed with bipartisan support said any divestment of TikTok must mean the platform cuts ties — specifically the algorithm — with ByteDance. Under the terms of this deal, ByteDance would license the algorithm to the U.S. entity for retraining.
The law prohibits “any cooperation with respect to the operation of a content recommendation algorithm” between ByteDance and a new potential American ownership group, so it is unclear how ByteDance’s continued involvement in this arrangement will play out.
“Who controls TikTok in the U.S. has a lot of sway over what Americans see on the app,” said Anupam Chander, a professor of law and technology at Georgetown University.
Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX are the three managing investors, each holding a 15% share. Other investors include the investment firm of Michael Dell, the billionaire founder of Dell Technologies. ByteDance retains 19.9% of the joint venture.
If you’re intimidated by weight training, a new study is full of reassurance.
Weight workouts don’t have to be complicated or grueling to be effective, the study found. Almost any kind of lifting led to increased muscle and strength in the study. Whether people lifted heavy weights or light, through many repetitions or few, the results were broadly comparable.
“Lift however you like to lift. That’s the lesson,” said Stuart Phillips, a professor of kinesiology at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, and an expert in resistance exercise. Phillips is the senior author of the study, which was published last month in the Journal of Physiology.
The study also provided other lessons, some unexpected, including about the importance of genetics in our bodies’ response to weight training and how some of us may get stronger without getting much bigger — or vice versa — when we begin to train.
Do you have to lift heavy weights?
Gym culture is full of widely held beliefs about the best ways to lift, Phillips said, many backed by scant evidence.
“You’ll see guys who’ve been lifting for decades and swear you have to lift heavy” to gain substantial muscle mass and strength, he said. For them, weights must be hefty enough that you can barely grunt through eight or nine taxing reps before your arms or legs give out.
But mounting evidence suggests that heavy weights are overrated. A comprehensive 2023 review of hundreds of past experiments concluded that, compared with no exercise, any lifting — not just with heavy weights — “promoted strength and hypertrophy” or larger muscles.
But questions remain about the most effective weight workouts. If you use lighter weights, how many times should you repeat each lift? What drives muscle growth, if it’s not heavy loads? And will everyone make the same gains from the same workouts?
For answers, Phillips and his colleagues recruited 20 healthy, young men who didn’t normallyweight train and checked the size and strength of their muscles. (They have a similar study underway with women.) The men’s limbs were then randomized to heavy or light lifting; that is, their right or left arm was randomly assigned to complete biceps curls using a heavy weight, while the other arm did the same exercise with a much lighter weight. Similarly, one leg did knee extensions against a heavy weight; the other leg completed the same exercise with a much lighter load.
The heavy weights were challenging enough that lifters could manage no more than 12 repetitions before reaching muscular failure, meaning they felt they couldn’t lift again. With the lighter weights, the participants lifted through as many as 25 repetitions before deciding they couldn’t do another.
Light weights work fine
The men worked out three times a week under the researchers’ supervision, increasing their weights once they could easily complete more than 12 heavy or 25 light repetitions. At the end of 10 weeks, the researchers retested everyone.
By then, the men’s muscles were almost all stronger and larger, with little difference between limbs. The arm that lifted light weights was just as buff as the one that lifted heavy and ditto for legs. Both approaches were equally effective.
This finding “reinforces the idea that load isn’t an important determinant” of muscular response, Phillips said. “Effort is.” If people lifted until their muscles tired, they got results.
The practical takeaway is that you can “pick what works for you,” Phillips said. Have sore joints or little taste for big weights? Use smaller ones. Have limited time? You’ll finish faster with heavier loads.
But don’t expect your results to exactly mirror mine. There were substantial differences from one volunteer to the next. Some nearly doubled their strength or mass; others added less. And there was little relationship between bulk and strength. Some men got far stronger without growing much bigger, and some achieved almost the opposite.
These differences underscore the role of genetics. “To some extent, our muscular responses are baked in,” Phillips said. After 10 weeks of the same lifting routine, I won’t look precisely like you. But we’ll both be stronger and better muscled.
What about body weight exercises?
This study “was very well-designed,” said Brad Schoenfeld, an exercise scientist at CUNY Lehman College in the Bronx, who researches resistance training but was not involved with the new work. The findings suggest that “within broad limits, you can build similar amounts of muscle mass” with light or heavy loads.
The study has limitations, though. It involved only young men new to lifting. Phillips said he believes the results would be similar for women, older people, and anyone who’s been weight training for years. But studies are needed with those groups to be sure.
The training also involved gym machines. Would the results be the same with body weight exercises? “I think so,” Phillips said, adding, “I’m counting on it.”
Much of his own training nowadays, at age 60, takes place at home, he said, and involves body weight work. “I’ve got enough space in my basement to do squats, do deadlifts,” he said. He repeats each exercise until he can barely finish another rep, he said. “I do what I preach.”
But the key point is that he does something, Phillips said, and regularly. “Based on self-report and participation data, about 80% of people do not lift weights at all.” He hopes his group’s study and other research will encourage more people to try some kind of resistance training routine, he said. “Let’s make 2026 the year of strength.”
Will Bunch’s recent column on Donald Trump and how he is guided by “his own morality” hit me hard. Bunch alluded to “America’s battered psyche.” That is exactly how I feel — battered. Every day seems to fill me with sadness as our president and the people who surround him weaken our democracy and diminish our moral standing as a country to be proud of. American citizens and immigrants are being bullied, beaten, and killed.
The president has even threatened to use force if other countries do not bend to his will.
Meanwhile, people in our own country are struggling to pay for healthcare because the president and our congressional leaders do not have the decency to vote for affordable healthcare.
So where do I find hope? I see hope when Bunch reminds us that our morality is what can make a difference. Hope comes from seeing my neighbors and members of my parish at the recent MLK Day of Action. Hope also comes when I remember I am not alone.
Mary DiVito, Philadelphia
Madam President
Jenice Armstrong wrote an excellent column on what a massive difference a Kamala Harris victory in last year’s presidential election would have meant to this nation and to the world. Every newspaper in the country should publish her commentary. Voters made a catastrophic mistake by not electing Harris. As Ms. Armstrong’s article details, it is a tragedy on a global scale.
The corruption, self-enrichment, and cruelty of the Donald Trump presidency cannot be overstated. By 180-degree contrast, a Harris administration would have been competent, stable, humane, and dedicated to improving the lives of all people in our nation. Under a President Harris, we would have sane foreign policies aimed at peaceful relations and fair trade with other countries, while promoting human rights and providing humanitarian aid for people harmed by wars and natural disasters.
Harris would have brought intelligence, integrity, altruism, and decency to the presidency. Instead, over the past 12 months, Trump’s lawlessness and pathological character have become blatantly clear.
I thank and commend Ms. Armstrong and The Inquirer. Please continue to write your critically important observations and analyses about the destructive, immoral, malignant, egomaniacal insurrectionist who never should have been allowed to have any position in government.
Mark DeWitte,Lyndell
Join the conversation: Send letters to letters@inquirer.com. Limit length to 150 words and include home address and day and evening phone number. Letters run in The Inquirer six days a week on the editorial pages and online.
ARIES (March 21-April 19). Nonstop motion isn’t necessarily productivity. Don’t confuse activity with effectiveness. Give yourself the time to think about what really matters and what accomplishment you’re going to feel good about at the end of the day.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20). While you like to have a strategy, today’s game doesn’t let you prepare in the way yesterday’s did. Stay on high alert for clues, make alliances and let logic lead. That’s all the strategy you need.
GEMINI (May 21-June 21). You’re attuned to undercurrents like the mood in the room, people’s unspoken needs and clues to their interests. Sensitivity that used to be a burden to you is now an asset, a navigational tool and a secret advantage.
CANCER (June 22-July 22). You’ll have the option to pay for something a lot of people pay for, but should you? Many unwise choices are, nonetheless, commonplace. You’ll be very aware today that every dollar spent is a vote.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22). You’re running things on a scale that challenges you to be organized, courageous and calm. If you do get a bit overwhelmed, take it as just something that goes with this beautiful ambition of yours.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22). Jell-O is both a liquid and a solid, depending on how you look at it. You have a relationship that defies category, and like Jell-O, it will fit multiple descriptions while also being sweet, fun and moldable.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23). Today pairs closure with authority: You’ve seen what works, you know what you can carry forward, and you’re ready to formalize the next phase with maturity and resolve. You’ll simply commit and go.
SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21). Woe be to the one who interrupts your sleep. Your quality of life depends on not only the number of hours you rest, but the quality in depth of your sleep. It’s worth the effort to set yourself up for the best possible result.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21). Don’t forget your superpower: perspective. Yours is so flexible and astute. You’ll step back to see humor. You’ll float up and get the bigger pattern. You’ll lean in and understand the nature of things. And from right where you are, you’ll see endless possibility.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19). Hang back and watch others play the game until it’s time to make your move. The right moment to make your move is the moment you know you’ll have it all completely in hand. Keep looking out for the chance you can take control of the situation.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18). Every day, you train yourself toward kindness. That’s why you find it so easy to handle your life with grace. People notice it about you today — the way you evaporate problems with your big heart.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20). You’ll ponder a while on a topic most people don’t put much thought into. This attention is well invested. These ideas you’re coming up with will matter more and more in the future. You’re ahead of the curve. Write down your process.
TODAY’SBIRTHDAY (Jan. 23). Welcome to your Year of Lasting Satisfaction, defined by choices that hold up over time. You invest energy where it matters, say yes to what nourishes you and build a sense of contentment that doesn’t depend on constant change. More highlights: VIP access, social invitations that spark joy, a home comfort boost and someone who believes in your talent and puts money behind it. Cancer and Libra adore you. Your lucky numbers are: 10, 18, 23, 35 and 47.
