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During a virtual hearing on Tuesday afternoon, a federal judge temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s freeze on all federal foreign and domestic aid. U.S. District Judge Loren L. AliKhan issued a brief administrative stay, which came minutes before the funding freeze was scheduled to go into effect.  Judge  AliKhan said that the stay preserves federal disbursements at least until Monday at 5 p.m. EST.

Earlier on Tuesday, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget has instructed all federal agencies to cease spending on any financial assistance programs if they suspect it might conflict with President Trump’s recent executive orders. A memo from the White House budget office ordered a pause on all federal grants and loans, potentially impacting trillions in government spending and halting public programs that affect millions of Americans.  The memo stated that federal departments faced a 5 p.m. deadline Tuesday to cease spending on any financial assistance programs (per NBC NEWS.)

White House Office of Management and Budget acting director Matthew Vaeth said in the memorandum that federal agencies “must temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance.”  The memo specified the pause will not affect Social Security or Medicare benefits, nor does it include “assistance provided directly to individuals,” but it applies to other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by the executive orders, including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal.

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In the first White House press briefing of President Donald Trump’s second administration on Tuesday, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the mystery drone sightings over New Jersey and along the East Coast late last year were “authorized to be flown by the FAA.   The drone activity was first reported on Nov. 19 by the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office, and caused temporary flight restrictions in New Jersey throughout November/December 2024.

Leavitt said: “I do have news directly from the president of the United States that was just shared with me in the Oval Office, from President Trump directly, an update on the New Jersey drones. After research and study, the drones that were flying over New Jersey in large numbers were authorized to be flown by the FAA for research and various other reasons. Many of these drones were also hobbyists, recreational and private individuals that enjoy flying drones. In time, it got worse due to curiosity. This was not the enemy.”

In December, mysterious drone sightings in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and other states on the East Coast prompted a demand for officials to find the source of the flying objects, some of which were spotted near military installations.  Trump suggested at the time that the Biden administration knew more than it was revealing to the public about the drones: “they know where it came from and where it went. “And for some reason, they don’t want to comment. And I think they’d be better off saying what it is. Our military knows and our president knows. And for some reason, they want to keep people in suspense.”

The Biden administration shared a statement from the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, the FAA and the Department of Defense on Dec. 16 that said while there were indeed drones flying over New Jersey, they constituted a “combination” of lawful aerial activity. Their joint statement read: “having closely examined the technical data and tips from concerned citizens, we assess that the sightings to date include a combination of lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones, and law enforcement drones, as well as manned fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and stars mistakenly reported as drones.”

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After initial reports of a magnitude of 4.1. – and then 3.9 – earthquake striking the area, it was later confirmed that a 3.8 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of New England on Monday morning. A USGS map showing that the shaking was felt in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and an hour away in Boston, MA. The U.S. Geological Survey wrote on X  “today’s M3.8 near Bar Harbor, Main, reminds us that earthquakes are unusual but not unheard of along the Atlantic Seaboard. If you felt it, or are in the area and didn’t feel it, please let us know!”

According to the United States Geological Survey, the earthquake was 10 kilometers southeast of York Harbor, Maine, occurring at 10:22 a.m. According to local police, homes and businesses in Concord, Massachusetts, reporting feeling the quake. The depth of the earthquake was more than eight miles underground, according to the USGS.  There was no tsunami threat to New England, per the U.S. National Tsunami Warning Center.

John Ebel, a senior scientist with the Weston Observatory at Boston College, told WBZ-TV: “This is like a once-in-every-five-years kind of earthquake. We don’t sit on any active fault lines. But again for our area [it] is really significant.”

The event on Monday was the strongest earthquake measured in the northeastern United States since April, when a 4.8-magnitude earthquake struck near Lebanon, New Jersey. According to USGS records, that shaking was the most intense in the Northeast in more than a decade.

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Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek said on Monday that its new, popular app was hit with a cyber-attack, forcing the company to temporarily limit registrations. The attack came after the DeepSeek AI assistant app skyrocketed to the top of Apple’s App Store, taking over rival OpenAI’s coveted spot as the most-downloaded free app in the U.S. on Apple’s App Store, dethroning ChatGPT for DeepSeek’s own AI Assistant.

DeepSeek said on its status page that it started to investigate the issue late Monday night Beijing time; after two hours of monitoring, the company said it was the victim of a “large-scale malicious attack”. While DeekSeek limited registrations, existing users were still able to log on as usual. The app is now allowing registrations again; the status page reads: “DeepSeek-R1 is now live.”

DeepSeek has generated a lot of buzz in recent weeks as a fast-growing rival to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini and other leading AI tools.  Its quick rise on Monday sent technology stocks tumbling; Nvidia, the AI chip maker and most valuable US company, saw its stocks plummet by 13.6% in early trading.

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On Sunday, President Donald Trump announced he will be imposing retaliatory measures against Colombia, including ’emergency 25% tariffs’ and visa sanctions – this after the nation denied entry to two U.S. military deportation flights. Officials from the Department of Homeland Security and the Defense Department confirmed to NBC News that the flights, carried out on U.S. military C-17 aircraft, were denied. They were carrying about 80 Colombian migrants each and had departed from California. An administration official told CNN that Colombian authorities approved the two flights before they took off,  but those plans were abruptly scrapped. Discussions between U.S. and Colombian officials remain ongoing.

Earlier in the day, Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced he had blocked two US military flights carrying migrants heading toward the country. Petro’s office wrote that the flights were not halted because he didn’t want to facilitate the return of Colombians back into his country, but because the government was prioritizing “dignified conditions” for the migrants: “the Government of Colombia, under the leadership of President Gustavo Petro, has arranged for the presidential plane to facilitate the dignified return of Colombian nationals who were to arrive in the country today in the morning hours, coming from deportation flights. This measure responds to the Government’s commitment to guarantee dignified conditions. In no way have Colombians, as patriots and subjects of rights, been or will be banished from Colombian territory.”  

In response to Petro, Trump wrote in a Truth Social post: “I was just informed that two repatriation flights from the United States, with a large number of Illegal Criminals, were not allowed to land in Colombia. This order was given by Colombia’s Socialist President Gustavo Petro, who is already very unpopular amongst his people. Petro’s denial of these flights has jeopardized the National Security and Public Safety of the United States, so I have directed my Administration to immediately take the following urgent and decisive retaliatory measures —

• • -Emergency 25% tariffs on all goods coming into the United States. In one week, the 25% tariffs will be raised to 50%.
  • -A Travel Ban and immediate Visa Revocations on the Colombian Government Officials, and all Allies and Supporters.
  • -Visa Sanctions on all Party Members, Family Members, and Supporters of the Colombian Government.
  • -Enhanced Customs and Border Protection Inspections of all Colombian Nationals and Cargo on national security grounds.
  • -IEEPA Treasury, Banking and Financial Sanctions to be fully imposed.

These measures are just the beginning. 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!”

The military deportation flights are part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration, initiated through executive orders during Trump’s first week in office. The Trump administration has also deployed an additional 1,500 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to strengthen enforcement.

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President Donald Trump terminated the independent inspectors general from over a dozen federal agencies. effective immediately. An inspector general is often referred to as a cabinet department’s watchdog and responsible for policing efficiency and corruption among other things, with a definition from the Department of Homeland Security reading that “[they] conduct independent and objective audits and investigations relating to DHS programs and operations.”

Per USA TODAY, as many as 17 were let go without notice by email, despite federal law requiring 30 days notice to Congress to remove an inspector general. The inspectors general are independent watchdogs within agencies who investigate and disclose waste, fraud and abuse.

An email late Friday from Sergio Gor, the head of the White House Office of Presidential Personnel, was sent to agency inspectors informing them that “changing priorities”  led to their positions being “terminated, effective immediately” — which included those in the departments of State, Energy, the Interior, Defense and Transportation. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUB) Inspector General Inspector Rae Oliver Davis was among those let go, along with the inspector generals from the departments of housing, education, agriculture, commerce, interior, labor and transportation among those fired.  Inspector generals at the Pentagon, Department of Veterans Affairs and State Department were also among those terminated.

Minority leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., criticized the move, writing on X: “In the dark of night, President Trump fired at least 12 independent inspector generals at important federal agencies across the Administration. A chilling purge. It’s a preview of the lawless approach Donald Trump and his administration is taking to being President … Donald Trump’s decision to fire twelve of the federal government’s independent watchdogs is a glaring sign that it’s a Golden Age for corruption and abuse in government.”

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