Numerous attorneys from the Justice Department who worked on Trump probes are let go. The tech industry is rocked by China’s DeepSeek AI model. Defectors from North Korea also provide insight into the mentality of Kim Jong Un’s troops.
What to know today is as follows.
Trump s Justice Department firings send a message, former officials say
Former DOJ and FBI officials told NBC News that the terminations of a number of Justice Department attorneys who were involved in the prosecution of Donald Trump were intended to scare the staff and discourage investigations during the president’s second term.
In the wake of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, the Justice Department said yesterday that the career employees who were let go worked on special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation, which resulted in now-dismissed indictments against Trump for his handling of classified documents and his attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss. The decision is consistent with the aim of eliminating the weaponization of government, according to a Justice Department official who said, “The Acting Attorney General does not trust these officials to assist in faithfully implementing the President’s agenda in light of their actions.”
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Last week, officials at the Justice Department also moved four senior career prosecutors who were working on Trump investigations to a new task force that will focus on cracking down on sanctuary cities. These officials included a career prosecutor who assisted in the conviction of Ross Ulbricht, the cryptocurrency backer who helped found Silk Road, a dark web black market that sold illegal drugs, whom Trump pardoned on his first full day in office, and a senior civil servant who participated in the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago in 2022.
According to a former senior FBI official, they are intimidating people into acting in a particular manner. According to a former official in the Justice Department, Trump is trying to persuade them to subject to him personally rather than to their positions and the Constitution.
More retaliation, according to one Justice Department official, will follow the confirmation of Trump loyalist Kash Patel as FBI director. Career government officers have been accused by Patel, whose confirmation hearing is on Thursday, of participating in a deep state conspiracy to overthrow Trump’s administration.
Go here to read the entire story.
More politics news:
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More than 50 career civil servants and foreign service officers at the U.S. Agency for International Development
were placed on administrative leave
, sources said.
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After Trump fired 18 inspectors general over the weekend, House Speaker Mike Johnson
defended the president s controversial executive orders and actions
.
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A number of Senate Republicans
have problems with Trump s nominee
for labor secretary, and Democratic support is uncertain.
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Trump
mused about running for a third term
. Last week, a congressman introduced a measure that would amend the Constitution to allow just that.
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Democrats are
crafting a new playbook
for Trump s second administration.
The latest immigration news:
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Authorities
made close to 1,200 arrests
on Sunday, according to ICE data, though 48% of the people arrested appear to be nonviolent offenders or people who have not committed any criminal offense other than crossing the border.
-
NBC News Gabe Gutierrez
was at the scene of an ICE arrest
yesterday, when a 25-year-old with past convictions was detained outside the Chicago tire shop where he worked.
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Former Dr. Phil host Phil McGraw
participated in ride-alongs
with ICE agents in Chicago.
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In addition to Chicago, ICE raids
have taken place in
Los Angeles, Denver, Miami and other major cities.
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A group of Quaker congregations
has sued the Department of Homeland Security
over the end of a policy that restricted ICE arrests in so-called sensitive locations.
DeepSeek s new AI model jolts the tech industry
The emergence of the Chinese AI software DeepSeek generated discussion about the AI development race and attracted attention from the tech community and beyond. It began last week with the publication of R1, DeepSeek’s most recent large language model. It outperformed a variety of other models from firms like Google and Meta, and it soon came in second only to the U.S.-based OpenAI’s o1 model in the Artificial Analysis Quality Index, a widely followed independent AI analysis ranking. DeepSeek’s assistant has been the top-ranked app in the Apple App Store in recent days. Yesterday, DeepSeek unveiled Janus-Pro-7B, another AI model. Over the weekend, businessman Marc Andreessen wrote on X that DeepSeek R1 is AI’s Sputnik moment.Here are some further details on the app that has Silicon Valley buzzing.
Due to concerns that China may surpass the United States in the scope and effectiveness of its AI initiatives, DeepSeek’s accomplishment sent tech stocks plummeting, with Nvidia losing about $600 billion in market value yesterday.
According to President Donald Trump, the app should serve as a wake-up call for American tech companies, but he also saw the model as a good thing for AI in general because it would allow businesses to save costs while, presumably, producing the same service. Other Republican politicians, however, were more alarmed. House Speaker Mike Johnson described the corporation as a major threat, and another GOP lawmaker demanded that the United States take action to shut down DeepSeek.Study up on the political response.
Gun used in border agent shootout linked to double murder
In a double homicide in Pennsylvania, the lady who is accused of shooting U.S. border patrol officials in northern Vermont, killing one of them, used a firearm that was acquired by a person of interest. Guns bought by a Vermont resident in February 2024 were in the possession of Teresa Youngblut and Felix Bauckholt, a German national who was in the car with her and also lost his life in the gunfight, according to court documents filed yesterday. The unnamed person is a person of interest in a Pennsylvania double homicide case.
The shooting last week began when border patrol officers stopped Youngblut and Bauckholt for an immigration check. According to the prosecution, the two were carrying a sizable arsenal of weapons and tactical gear, such as a ballistic helmet, night vision equipment, and 48 rounds of jacketed hollow point ammunition in the.380 caliber.
Go here to read the entire story.
Read All About It
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Survivors and their families gathered with world leaders
at the Auschwitz concentration camp complex
in Poland to mark the 80th anniversary of the Nazi camp s liberation.
-
An Indiana man who was pardoned for his participation in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot
was shot and killed during a traffic stop
.
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Google said its maps
will feature Trump s new names
for Denali and the Gulf of Mexico, though the changes might not apply outside the U.S.
-
Some discoveries are hard to stomach
like this 66-million-year-old vomit fossil
found in Denmark.
Staff Pick:
Inside the minds of North Korean soldiers fighting for Russia
In a significant escalation of the conflict in Ukraine, the United States and its allies claim that North Korean soldiers are fighting and losing their lives for Russia. There is little information available regarding soldiers from the isolated communist state, who are said to prefer suicide over capture. Former North Korean soldiers who fled were interviewed by NBC News’s Janis Mackey Frayer and Stella Kim, who provided insights into their mentality, training, and living circumstances.Jennifer Jett, digital editor from Asia
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