Author: Tage

Washignton — President Donald Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship in the U.S. has ignited a legal and political debate, raising questions about the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the extent of presidential power. The amendment guarantees citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil. “We’re the only country in the world that does this with birthright, as you know. And it’s just absolutely ridiculous. But, you know, we’ll see. We think we have very good grounds and certain people have wanted to do this for decades,” Trump said while signing the executive order on his first day in office. The United States is one of about 30 countries that grant automatic citizenship to individuals born on their soil, including Brazil, Mexico, and Canada, among others. The practice is known as jus soli (Latin for “right of the soil”). But the U.S. remains notable for its broad application of unconditional jus soli, as enshrined in the 14th Amendment. Are there limits to 14th Amendment? The amendment, ratified in 1868, was designed to address citizenship questions following the U.S. Civil War and to overrule the Supreme Court’s 1857 Dred Scott decision, which denied African Americans citizenship. The text reads: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” “This language ratifies the traditional understanding that anyone born in the United States is automatically a citizen,” John Yoo, a professor at University of California Berkeley Law School and visiting fellow at the Hoover Institute, told VOA in a phone intervie However, critics argue that the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” implies that at least one parent must be a U.S. citizen for a child to be granted citizenship. According to Yoo, this interpretation aligns more closely with the European jus sanguinis, or “law of blood” approach, which ties citizenship to parentage rather than birthplace. “To me, that just doesn’t make sense of the language of the 14th Amendment and historical practice,” Yoo said. “The Supreme Court, in cases like United States v. Wong Kim Ark, has consistently interpreted the amendment to mean birthright citizenship.” Critics of Trump’s executive order say the 14th Amendment is a cornerstone of civil rights in the United States. However, supporters of the executive order argue a more limited interpretation of the amendment is warranted. “President Trump … “Debate rages over Trump’s push to end birthright citizenship” →

Washington — The Trump administration has ended extended protections for Venezuelans with Temporary Protected Status, TPS, in the United States, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told Fox News in an interview on Wednesday.  Noem said Homeland Security would not follow a Biden-era move that gave Venezuelans in the U.S. with the TPS program an additional 18 months of protections, adding: “We are going to follow the process, evaluate all of these individuals that are in our country, including the Venezuelans that are here.”  …

The Trump administration issued a memo Tuesday offering federal government workers a financial incentive to leave their posts by the end of September. The resignation program is part of the administration’s efforts to shrink the federal workforce. An email to many of the 2 million federal workers said they could remain on the government payroll until Sept. 30, the end of the government’s fiscal year, and could have their work duties reduced or eliminated in the interim. Those workers would also be exempt from a Trump mandate that employees need to return to working in their offices full time. Employees have until Feb. 6 to accept the offer, and were directed to do so with an email reply with the word “resign.” The potential impact of the program on tax-payer services was not clear. “While a few agencies and even branches of the military are likely to see increases in the size of their workforce, the majority of federal agencies are likely to be downsized through restructurings, realignments, and reductions in force,” the memo said. People working in immigration, national security and for the Postal Service were not part of the offer. The memo also said the “federal workforce should be comprised of employees who are reliable, loyal, trustworthy, and who strive for excellence in their daily work.” Unions representing federal employees criticized the administration’s move. The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents about 150,000 federal workers, told its members the resignation memo “is designed to entice or scare you into resigning” and said “we strongly urge you not to resign in response.” Everett Kelley, head of the American Federation of Government Employees union that includes some VOA employees, said in a statement that the offer “should not be viewed as voluntary” and that the administration’s actions show its goal is “to turn the federal government into a toxic environment where workers cannot stay even if they want to.” Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press and Reuters …

WASHINGTON — America’s children have continued to lose ground on reading skills in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and have made little improvement in math, according to the latest results of an exam known as the nation’s report card. The findings are yet another setback for U.S. schools and reflect the myriad challenges that have upended education, from pandemic school closures to a youth mental health crisis and high rates of chronic absenteeism. The national exam results also show growing inequality: While the highest-performing students have started to regain lost ground, lower-performing students are falling further behind. Given every two years to a sample of America’s children, the National Assessment of Educational Progress is considered one of the best gauges of the academic progress of the U.S. school system. The most recent exam was administered in early 2024 in every state, testing fourth- and eighth-grade students on math and reading. “The news is not good,” said Peggy Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, which oversees the assessment. “We are not seeing the progress we need to regain the ground our students lost during the pandemic.” Among the few bright spots was an improvement in fourth grade math, where the average score ticked up 2 points on a scale of 500. It’s still 3 points lower than the 2019 pre-pandemic average, yet some states and districts made significant strides, including in Washington, D.C., where the average score increased 10 points. For the most part, however, American schools have not yet begun to make progress. The average math score for eighth grade students was unchanged from 2022, while reading scores fell 2 points at both grade levels. One-third of eighth grade students scored below “basic” in reading, more than ever in the history of the assessment. Students are considered below basic if they are missing fundamental skills. For example, eighth grade students who scored below basic in reading were typically unable to make a simple inference about a character’s motivation after reading a short story, and some were unable to identify that the word “industrious” means “to be hard working.” Especially alarming to officials was the divide between higher- and lower-performing students, which has grown wider than ever. Students with the highest scores outperformed their peers from two years ago, making up some ground lost during the pandemic. But the lowest performers are scoring even lower, falling further behind. … “US children fall behind in reading, make little improvement in math” →

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military said on Tuesday it will allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain undocumented migrants at Buckley Space Force Base in Colorado, further widening the Pentagon’s role in President Donald Trump’s undocumented immigration crackdown. The decision comes on top of U.S. military deportation flights of undocumented migrants out of the country and the deployment of just over 1,600 active-duty troops to the U.S. border with Mexico following Trump’s emergency declaration on undocumented immigration last week. The U.S. military’s Northern Command said in a statement it started providing facilities at Buckley to ICE starting on Monday “to enable U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to stage and process criminal aliens within the U.S.” “ICE requirements for the facility include a temporary operations center, staging area, and a temporary holding location for the receiving, holding, and processing of illegal aliens,” Northern Command said in the statement. “This facility will be manned by ICE senior leaders, special agents, and analysts, as well as members of (Department of Homeland Security) components and other federal law enforcement agencies.” Northern Command did not say how many undocumented migrants might be detained at Buckley or whether additional U.S. military bases might soon be opening for detention of undocumented migrants. ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Buckley Space Force Base is located in the city of Aurora, a Denver suburb, which figured prominently during Trump’s presidential campaign last year. Trump said during his campaign that apartment complexes in Aurora had been taken over by members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, a claim refuted by top city officials at the time. During a campaign event there in October, Trump pledged to launch an Operation Aurora targeting gang members. This is not the first time a military has been used to house undocumented migrants. The Pentagon had approved requests to house unaccompanied migrant children under Joe Biden’s administration and undocumented migrant children and families during Trump’s first term. Trump, a Republican, issued an array of executive orders on Monday aimed at deporting record numbers of migrants in the U.S. without legal status. In a little more than a week in office, Trump rolled back Biden-era guidance that limited arrests of non-criminal migrants, ordered other federal law enforcement to assist with immigration work, and scrapped a Biden policy that restricted enforcement at schools, churches, hospitals and other sensitive locations. Immigration arrests have reached … “ICE to use U.S. military base in Colorado to detain undocumented migrants” →

Caroline Kennedy, a member of the famed U.S. political family, urged senators on Tuesday to reject her cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination to lead the top U.S. health agency, calling him a “predator” and his healthcare views “dangerous.” The daughter of former President John F. Kennedy, Caroline Kennedy said that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., known as RFK Jr., has discouraged vaccinations for his own profit. She added he does not have the medical, financial or government experience to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Republican President Donald Trump nominated him in November. A spokesperson for RFK Jr. did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Senators will question RFK Jr. on Wednesday starting at 10 a.m. about his views before they vote on whether to confirm his nomination. The Washington Post first reported the letter. RFK Jr. has long sown doubts about the safety and efficacy of vaccines that have helped curb disease and prevent deaths for decades. He disputes the anti-vaccine characterization and has said he would not prevent Americans from getting inoculations. “Bobby has gone on to misrepresent, lie and cheat his way through life today,” Caroline Kennedy said in a video on social media platform X, in which she read her letter addressed to senators. U.S. doctors, nurses, researchers, scientists and caregivers “deserve a secretary committed to advancing cutting-edge medicine, to save lives, not to rejecting the advances we have already made,” said Caroline Kennedy, a former ambassador to Australia and Japan who served during the Democratic Biden and Obama administrations. “They deserve a stable, moral and ethical person at the helm of this crucial agency.” In written testimony for the Finance committee, RFK Jr. said he is not “anti-vaccine” or “anti-industry” and that he believes “vaccines have a critical role in healthcare,” pointing to his own children being vaccinated, according to the document seen by Reuters. However, RFK Jr. has led the anti-vaccine group Children’s Health Defense and in a 2023 interview with podcaster Lex Fridman said no vaccines are safe and effective. RFK Jr. has said he wants to work to end chronic disease, break any ties between employees at the U.S. drug regulator and industry and advise U.S. water systems to remove fluoride. RFK Jr. has faced new scrutiny over his ties to Wisner Baum, a law firm specializing in pharmaceutical drug injury cases. He has an arrangement to earn … “Caroline Kennedy calls on US lawmakers to oppose RFK Jr.’s health post” →

WHITE HOUSE — The Trump administration has ordered a three-month pause on almost all foreign development assistance pending a review to see what fits in with the president’s “America First” policy. Aid groups and human rights watchdogs warn that the freeze will put countless lives around the world at risk. The U.S. is the world’s largest provider of humanitarian assistance and a global leader on HIV prevention and treatment through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, program. In the 2023 fiscal year, the U.S. spent just short of $70 billion on development aid, most of it through the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID. Within hours of taking office last week, President Donald Trump put all but the most urgently needed food assistance on hold, part of his charge to realign the nation’s foreign stance with his America First policy. His executive order pauses new obligations and disbursements of development assistance funds for 90 days while they are reviewed. The move prompted questions in the U.S. and international aid community, at the United Nations, and in the halls of the Capitol. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced in a memo Tuesday exemptions to the freeze. These include life-saving medicine, medical services, food, shelter and subsistence assistance. “This waiver does not apply to activities that involve abortions, family planning conferences, administrative costs … gender or DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] ideology programs, transgender surgeries, or other non-life saving assistance,” the memo said. On Tuesday, Jim Risch, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, used a weekly press conference to cast Trump’s move as fostering greater transparency as he lamented that previously it had been tough for the committee to get information from government agencies. The State Department on Tuesday issued a lengthy explainer on the order, which it said seeks to ensure that programs are “efficient and consistent with U.S. foreign policy under the America First agenda.” “President Trump stated clearly that the United States is no longer going to blindly dole out money with no return for the American people,” read the statement from State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce. “Reviewing and realigning foreign assistance on behalf of hardworking taxpayers is not just the right thing to do, it is a moral imperative.” Exceptions, Bruce continued, included foreign military financing for Israel and Egypt and emergency food assistance. The memo also provided “examples of this egregious funding,” which included … “Trump administration freezes foreign development assistance” →

In his inaugural address, U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to put the Panama Canal, a key global shipping route, back under the control of the United States, amid fear of growing Chinese encroachment. U.S. senators examined security concerns surrounding the canal Tuesday and looked at next steps. VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson has more. …

President Donald Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship in the U.S. has started a legal and political debate about executive power and the 14th Amendment, which guarantees citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil, a principle that has been central to civil rights since its ratification in 1868. VOA’s immigration correspondent, Aline Barros, has more. …

Colombia sent air force planes to repatriate more than 100 nationals deported from the U.S. after a bilateral standoff over Bogota’s refusal to receive Colombians on U.S. military aircraft. The Colombian president welcomed the arrival of the migrants. Click here for the full story in Spanish.   …

TAIPEI, TAIWAN — A little more than a week after Beijing and Manila reached an agreement aimed at easing tensions in the South China Sea, the Philippines has accused Chinese coast guard vessels of fresh incursions, harassment and “aggressive maneuvers.”  Analysts say the pressure campaign, which has stepped up in recent days, is part of Beijing’s attempt to test the United States’ commitment to support the Philippines.  “They want to see how far they can push the Philippines under the new administration in the U.S.,” Ja Ian Chong, a political scientist at the National University of Singapore, told VOA by phone.  In a statement released on social media platform X last Saturday, the Philippine coast guard said two vessels from the Philippine Bureau of Fisheries encountered “aggressive maneuvers” from three Chinese coast guard vessels while heading to Sandy Cay for a marine scientific survey last Friday.  In one video released by Manila, a large Chinese coast guard vessel was seen moving within a few meters of one Philippine vessel. Another video showed a Chinese helicopter hovering above two inflatable boats carrying Philippine crew members. Philippine coast guard spokesperson Jay Tarriela said the Philippine vessels were forced to suspend the scientific survey due to the “continuous harassment and the disregard for safety” shown by the Chinese coast guard.   In response to Manila’s accusations, Beijing said Chinese coast guard vessels “thwarted” two Philippine vessels’ attempts to “land on” Sandy Cay, which China calls “Tiexian Reef.”   “The vessels attempted to illegally land on the reef and conduct sand sampling. China Coast Guard [CCG] vessels lawfully obstructed the Philippine ships’ course and warned them away,” the Chinese coast guard spokesperson Liu Dejun said in a statement released last Friday.  China views almost all of the South China Sea as its territory and is engaged in a series of disputes with several Southeast Asian countries, including the Philippines, that have overlapping claims over the strategic waterway.   Apart from the incident near Sandy Cay, the Philippine coast guard said its vessels had successfully kept Chinese coast guard vessels from operating in waters near the coastline of the Philippines’ Zambales province since last Friday.   “The Philippine Coast Guard [PCG] vessel has maintained the China Coast Guard vessel to keep a distance of 90-100 nautical miles away from the Philippines’ Exclusive Economic Zone,” said Jay Tarriela from the Philippine coast guard in a post on social media platform X … “China tests US commitment to South China Sea by pressuring Philippines” →

Washington — U.S. President Donald Trump signed a series of executive orders on Monday to remove diversity, equity and inclusion, DEI, from the military, reinstate thousands of troops who were kicked out for refusing COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic, and take aim at transgender troops. Earlier on Monday, Pete Hegseth, who narrowly secured enough votes to become defense secretary, referred to the names of Confederate generals that were once used for two key bases during his remarks to reporters as he entered the Pentagon on his first full day on the job.   Trump signed the executive orders while flying back from Miami to Washington, D.C. One of the executive orders signed by Trump said that expressing a “gender identity” different from an individual’s sex at birth did not meet military standards. While the order banned the use of “invented” pronouns in the military, it did not answer basic questions including whether transgender soldiers currently serving in the military would be allowed to stay and, if not, how they would be removed. Trump’s plans have been heavily criticized by advocacy groups, which say his actions would be illegal.   “President Trump has made clear that a key priority for his administration is driving transgender people back into the closet and out of public life altogether,” Joshua Block, with the ACLU, said earlier on Monday.   During his first term, Trump announced that he would ban transgender troops from serving in the military. He did not fully follow through with that ban  his administration froze their recruitment while allowing serving personnel to remain.   Biden overturned the decision when he took office in 2021.   The military has about 1.3 million active-duty personnel, Department of Defense data shows. While transgender rights advocates say there are as many as 15,000 transgender service members, officials say the number is in the low thousands.   When Trump announced his first ban in 2017, he said the military needed to focus on “decisive and overwhelming victory” without being burdened by the “tremendous medical costs and disruption” of having transgender personnel. Internal focus   Hegseth has promised to bring major changes to the Pentagon, and he has made eliminating DEI from the military a top priority.   Trump’s executive order on ending DEI in the military said service academies would be required to teach “that America and its founding documents remain the most powerful force for good … “Trump takes aim at DEI, COVID expulsions and transgender troops” →

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s administration on Monday fired more than a dozen Justice Department lawyers who brought two criminal cases against him, an official said, as the Republican moves swiftly to exert greater control over the department. The officials were fired after Acting Attorney General James McHenry, a Trump appointee, concluded they could not be trusted “because of their significant role in prosecuting the President,” a Justice Department official said. McHenry cited Trump’s power as chief executive under the U.S. Constitution to justify the firings, according to a copy of the termination letter seen by Reuters. The lawyers worked with Special Counsel Jack Smith, who led the two federal prosecutions of Trump that the department dropped after his November election. Smith resigned from the department earlier this month. The norm-shattering move was made even though rank-and-file prosecutors by tradition remain with the department across presidential administrations and are not punished by virtue of their involvement in sensitive investigations. The firings are effective immediately. News of the firings came the same day that Ed Martin, the top federal prosecutor in Washington and a Trump appointee, opened an internal review into the use of a felony obstruction charge in prosecutions of people accused of taking part in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to a source familiar with the matter. The U.S. Supreme Court raised the legal bar for that offense in a 6-3 ruling last year, prompting prosecutors to drop the charge in several cases. Monday’s moves came after the Trump administration already reassigned up to 20 senior career Justice Department officials, including Bradley Weinsheimer, the top ethics official, and the former chief of the public corruption section, Corey Amundson, from their roles. Amundson, whose section provided advice to Smith’s prosecutors, announced his resignation on Monday. The moves to shake up the Justice Department’s workforce have happened before the U.S. Senate votes on Trump’s attorney general nominee Pam Bondi. Bondi’s nomination is set to be voted on by a Senate panel on Wednesday. Smith, who was appointed by former Attorney General Merrick Garland, brought cases accusing Trump of illegally retaining classified documents at his Florida social club and attempting to interfere with the certification of the 2020 election. Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges and argued the cases reflected a “weaponization” of the legal system. Smith dropped both cases after Trump’s election, citing a longtime policy … “DOJ official: Trump administration fires team of lawyers who prosecuted him” →

A storm in a coffee cup this past weekend, as Colombia’s president tussled by tweet with President Donald Trump, pulling back from the cusp of a trade war after the White House insisted the South American nation accept deportees as part of Trump’s hardline immigration push. VOA White House correspondent Anita Powell reports from Washington. …

Chinese researchers backed by a Hangzhou-based hedge fund recently released a new version of a large language model (LLM) called DeepSeek-R1 that rivals the capabilities of the most advanced U.S.-built products but reportedly does so with fewer computing resources and at much lower cost. High Flyer, the hedge fund that backs DeepSeek, said that the model nearly matches the performance of LLMs built by U.S. firms like OpenAI, Google and Meta, but does so using only about 2,000 older generation computer chips manufactured by U.S.-based industry leader Nvidia while costing only about $6 million worth of computing power to train. By comparison, Meta’s AI system, Llama, uses about 16,000 chips, and reportedly costs Meta vastly more money to train. Open-source model The apparent advance in Chinese AI capabilities comes after years of efforts by the U.S. government to restrict China’s access to advanced semiconductors and the equipment used to manufacture them. Over the past two years, under President Joe Biden, the U.S. put multiple export control measures in place with the specific aim of throttling China’s progress on AI development. DeepSeek appears to have innovated its way to some of its success, developing new and more efficient algorithms that allow the chips in the system to communicate with each other more effectively, thereby improving performance. At least some of what DeepSeek R1’s developers did to improve its performance is visible to observers outside the company, because the model is open source, meaning that the algorithms it uses to answer queries are public. Market reaction The news about DeepSeek’s capabilities sparked a broad sell-off of technology stocks on U.S. markets on Monday, as investors began to question whether U.S. companies’ well-publicized plans to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in AI data centers and other infrastructure would preserve their dominance in the field. When the markets closed on Monday, the tech-heavy Nasdaq index was down by 3.1%, and Nvidia’s share price had plummeted by nearly 17%. However, not all AI experts believe the markets’ reaction to the release of DeepSeek R1 is justified, or that the claims about the model’s development should be taken at face value. Mel Morris, CEO of U.K.-based Corpora.ai, an AI research engine, told VOA that while DeepSeek is an impressive piece of technology, he believes the market reaction has been excessive and that more information is needed to accurately judge the impact DeepSeek will have on … “China’s DeepSeek AI rattles Wall Street, but questions remain” →

NEW YORK — U.S. public health officials have been told to stop working with the World Health Organization, effective immediately. A U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official, John Nkengasong, sent a memo to senior leaders at the agency on Sunday night telling them that all staff who work with the WHO must immediately stop their collaborations and “await further guidance.” Experts said the sudden stoppage was a surprise and would set back work on investigating and trying to stop outbreaks of Marburg virus and mpox in Africa, as well as brewing global threats. It also comes as health authorities around the world are monitoring bird flu outbreaks among U.S. livestock. The Associated Press viewed a copy of Nkengasong’s memo, which said the stop-work policy applied to “all CDC staff engaging with WHO through technical working groups, coordinating centers, advisory boards, cooperative agreements or other means — in person or virtual.” It also says CDC staff are not allowed to visit WHO offices. President Donald Trump last week issued an executive order to begin the process of withdrawing the U.S. from WHO, but that did not take immediate effect. Leaving WHO requires the approval of Congress and that the U.S. meets its financial obligations for the current fiscal year. The U.S. also must provide a one-year notice. His administration also told federal health agencies to stop most communications with the public through at least the end of the month. “Stopping communications and meetings with WHO is a big problem,” said Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, a University of Southern California public health expert who collaborates with WHO on work against sexually transmitted infections. “People thought there would be a slow withdrawal. This has really caught everyone with their pants down,” said Klausner, who said he learned of it from someone at CDC. “Talking to WHO is a two-way street,” he added, noting that the two agencies benefit from each other’s expertise. The collaboration allows the U.S. to learn about new tests, new treatments and emerging outbreaks — information “which can help us protect Americans abroad and at home,” Klausner said. The CDC details nearly 30 people to WHO and sends many millions of dollars to it through cooperative agreements. The U.S. agency also has some of the world’s leading experts in infectious diseases and public health threats, and the two agencies’ staffers are in daily contact about health dangers and how to … “CDC ordered to stop working with WHO immediately” →

WASHINGTON — Google Maps will change the name of “Gulf of Mexico” to “Gulf of America” once it is officially updated in the U.S. Geographic Names System, it said in an X post on Monday. The change will be visible in the U.S., but it will remain “Gulf of Mexico” in Mexico. Outside of the two countries, users will see both names. The Trump administration’s Interior Department said on Friday it had officially changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, and the Alaskan peak Denali to Mount McKinley. Google Maps, which is owned by Alphabet’s Google, will make a similar change with Mount McKinley. President Donald Trump ordered the name changes as part of a flurry of executive actions hours after taking office last Monday, making good on a campaign promise. “As directed by the President, the Gulf of Mexico will now officially be known as the Gulf of America and North America’s highest peak will once again bear the name Mount McKinley,” the Interior Department said in a statement last week. …

Israel’s leaders have high expectations for President Donald Trump’s second term, and analysts say Israeli officials hope his unconventional approach to foreign policy will get them the results they want on their top security priorities. But as Linda Gradstein reports from Jerusalem, Trump’s push for a peace deal with Saudi Arabia could cause tensions with the Jewish state. VOA footage by Ricki Rosen. …

Pentagon — New U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth promised more changes are coming to the country’s military before even walking through the doors of the Pentagon. Hegseth, a decorated veteran and a former Fox News host, was greeted just outside the Pentagon by General Charles Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, after arriving for his first full day of work. Hegseth said serving as defense secretary was the honor of a lifetime, telling reporters that the Defense Department will operate at a faster tempo. “The lawful orders of the president of the United States will be executed inside this Defense Department swiftly and without excuse,” Hegseth said. “We’re going to hold people accountable.” Hegseth won Senate confirmation late Friday by a 51-50 vote, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking ballot. He was sworn in on Saturday and spoke Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in what the Pentagon described as an “introductory call.” “We will be no better friend to our allies and no stronger adversary to those who want to test us and try us,” Hegseth told reporters Monday before entering the Pentagon. He said that President Donald Trump is expected to sign additional executive orders on Monday impacting the military, including orders calling for a U.S. version of Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, the removal of all diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives from the Pentagon, and the reinstatement of troops forced to leave the military after refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccination. Hegseth also said the Pentagon will make sure Trump has all the resources needed to secure the U.S. southern border. “Whatever is needed at the border will be provided,” the defense secretary said. “This is a shift. It’s not the way business has been done in the past.” “The Defense Department will support the defense of the territorial integrity of the United States of America, the southern border, to include reservists, National Guard and active duty in compliance with the Constitution and the laws of our land and the directives of the commander in chief,” he added. Asked about the fate of Afghans who worked alongside the United States before the U.S. withdrawal in August 2021, Hegseth said, “We’re going to make sure there’s accountability for what happened in Afghanistan and that we stand by our allies.” Hegseth also deflected questions about whether he plans to fire the chairman of … “New US defense secretary promises agility, accountability” →

The U.S. government consists of three branches designed to keep each other in check, with Congress responsible for passing legislation. But presidents have some power to unilaterally direct government policy by using executive orders.  …

New York — Wall Street is tumbling Monday on fears the big U.S. companies that have feasted on the artificial-intelligence frenzy are under threat from a competitor in China that can do similar things for much cheaper. The S&P 500 was down 1.9% in early trading. Big Tech stocks that have been the market’s biggest stars took the heaviest losses, with Nvidia down 11.5%, and they dragged the Nasdaq composite down 3.2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which has less of an emphasis on tech, was holding up a bit better with a dip of 160 points, or 0.4%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time. The shock to financial markets came from China, where a company called DeepSeek said it had developed a large language model that can compete with U.S. giants but at a fraction of the cost. DeepSeek’s app had already hit the top of Apple’s App Store chart by early Monday morning, and analysts said such a feat would be particularly impressive given how the U.S. government has restricted Chinese access to top AI chips. Skepticism, though, remains about how much DeepSeek’s announcement will ultimately shake the AI supply chain, from the chip makers making semiconductors to the utilities hoping to electrify vast data centers running those chips. “It remains to be seen if DeepSeek found a way to work around these chip restrictions rules and what chips they ultimately used as there will be many skeptics around this issue given the information is coming from China,” according to Dan Ives, an analyst with Wedbush Securities. DeepSeek’s disruption nevertheless rocked stock markets worldwide. In Amsterdam, Dutch chip company ASML slid 8.9%. In Tokyo, Japan’s Softbank Group Corp. lost 8.3% and is nearly back to where it was before spurting on an announcement that it was joining a partnership trumpeted by the White House that would invest up to $500 billion in AI infrastructure. And on Wall Street, shares of Constellation Energy sank 16.9%. The company has said it would restart the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear power plant to supply power for Microsoft’s data centers. All the worries sent a gauge of nervousness among investors holding U.S. stocks toward its biggest jump since August. They also sent investors toward bonds, which can be safer investments than any stock. The rush sent the yield of the 10-year Treasury down to 4.53% from 4.62% late Friday. It’s a sharp turnaround … “Tech stocks sink as Chinese competitor threatens to topple their AI domination “ →

The Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles are set to face off in the National Football League’s Super Bowl, with the Chiefs looking to become the first team to win three consecutive championships and the Eagles trying to avenge their loss from two years ago. The Chiefs reached the Feb. 9 championship game in New Orleans with a 32-29 win on Sunday night over the Buffalo Bills. Kansas City’s star quarterback Patrick Mahomes ran for two touchdowns and threw for another score to reach his fifth Super Bowl in six years. That included the 2023 Super Bowl in which the Chiefs defeated the Eagles 38-35. The Eagles earned their Super Bowl spot with a resounding 55-23 win Sunday over the Washington Commanders. Philadelphia outscored Washington 21-0 in the game’s final quarter to secure the victory. Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts ran for three touchdowns and added another through the air, while running back Saquon Barkley added three rushing touchdowns. Oddsmakers made Kansas City the narrow early favorite for the game. Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press …

NEW YORK — For author Percival Everett, libraries have long been a source of knowledge and discovery and pleasure, even of the forbidden kind. “I remember making friends at age 13 with the librarian at the University of South Carolina, and she used to let me go through the stacks when I wasn’t supposed to,” Everett, who spent part of his childhood in Columbia, said during a telephone interview Sunday. “One of the wonderful things about libraries is that when you’re looking for one book, it’s surrounded by other books that may not be connected to it. That’s what you get (online) with links, but (in libraries) no one’s decided what the links are.” Everett’s latest honor comes from the country’s public libraries. On Sunday, the American Library Association announced that Everett’s “James” was this year’s winner of the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, which includes a $5,000 cash award. Kevin Fedarko’s “A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon” was chosen for nonfiction. Everett’s acclaimed reworking of Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” from the perspective of Jim, Huck Finn’s enslaved companion, has already received the National Book Award and the Kirkus Prize and is a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle award. “James” has even topped The New York Times fiction hardcover list, a rare feat in recent years for a literary work that wasn’t a major book club pick or movie tie-in. “Percival Everett has written a modern masterpiece, a beautiful and important work that offers a fresh perspective from the eyes of a classic character,” Allison Escoto, chair of the award’s selection committee, said in a statement. “Kevin Fedarko’s unforgettable journey through the otherworldly depths of the Grand Canyon shows us the triumphs and pitfalls of exploration and illuminates the many vital lessons we can all learn from our precious natural world.” Fedarko is a former Time magazine correspondent whose work also has appeared in The New York Times and Esquire. A Pittsburgh native fascinated by distant places, Fedarko has a long history with libraries — Carnegie libraries. He remembers visiting two while growing up, notably one in the suburb of Oakmont near the hairdressing salon his parents ran. He would read biographies of historical figures from George Washington to Daniel Boone, and otherwise think of libraries as “important threads running through his life,” windows to … “Percival Everett’s ‘James’ awarded Carnegie Medal for fiction” →

President Donald Trump’s border czar said Sunday that the administration’s current priority is to deport undocumented immigrants who are deemed to pose security threats to the U.S. But he stressed that illegal immigration in general won’t be tolerated. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports. …

Bogota, Colombia — U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday that he was ordering tariffs, visa restrictions and other retaliatory measures to be taken against Colombia after its government rejected two flights carrying migrants. Trump said the measures were necessary, because the decision of Colombian President Gustavo Petro “jeopardized” national security in the United States. “These measures are just the beginning,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social. “We will not allow the Colombian Government to violate its legal obligations with regard to the acceptance and return of the Criminals they forced into the United States.” Earlier Sunday, Petro said that his government won’t accept flights carrying migrants deported from the U.S. until the Trump administration creates a protocol that treats them with “dignity.” Petro made the announcement in two X posts, one of which included a news video of migrants reportedly deported to Brazil walking on a tarmac with restraints on their hands and feet. “A migrant is not a criminal and must be treated with the dignity that a human being deserves,” Petro said. “That is why I returned the U.S. military planes that were carrying Colombian migrants.” Colombia accepted 475 deportation flights from the United States from 2020 to 2024, fifth behind Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and El Salvador, according to Witness at the Border, an advocacy group that tracks flight data. It accepted 124 deportation flights in 2024. Last year, Colombia and other countries began accepting U.S.-funded deportation flights from Panama. The U.S. government didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press regarding aircraft and protocols used in deportations to Colombia. Petro, a former leftist guerrilla, added that his country would receive Colombians in “civilian airplanes” and “without treatment like criminals.” As part of a flurry of actions to make good on U.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign promises to crack down on illegal immigration, his government is using active-duty military to help secure the border and carry out deportations. Two Air Force C-17 cargo planes carrying migrants removed from the U.S. touched down early Friday in Guatemala. That same day, Honduras received two deportation flights carrying a total of 193 people. In announcing what he called “urgent and decisive retaliatory measures,” Trump explained that he ordered “25% tariffs on all goods coming into the United States,” which would be raised to 50% in one week. He said he also ordered “A Travel Ban … “Trump orders tariffs, visa restrictions on Colombia over rejection of deportation flights” →

U.S. President Donald Trump says he’d like to see regional actors accept more Palestinian refugees. Aboard Air Force One, Trump shared a vision to “just clean out” Gaza and create a virtual clean slate. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more. …