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WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that Venezuela has agreed to receive all Venezuelan undocumented migrants captured in the United States and pay for their transport.

“Venezuela has agreed to receive, back into their country, all Venezuela illegal aliens who were encamped in the U.S., including gang members of Tren de Aragua,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

He said Venezuela has also agreed to provide transportation.

The Venezuelan government did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

U.S. envoy Richard Grenell met with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in the South American country on Friday. Hours after their meeting, six American hostages were released and returned to the United States from Venezuela.

The announcement of Venezuela’s decision to accept the return of its citizens who were illegally in the United States comes one week after Trump threatened to impose tariffs and sanctions after Colombia refused to accept military flights carrying deportees.

Colombia reversed its course and agreed to accept migrants following the threats.

“We are in the process of removing record numbers of illegal aliens from all countries,” said Trump, who vowed to crack down on illegal immigration in his 2024 presidential campaign.

Trump, a Republican, issued an array of executive orders to crack down on illegal immigration after taking office on Jan. 20, including actions aimed at deporting record numbers of migrants in the U.S. without legal status.
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Several U.S. government web pages changed or went dark Friday as agencies scrambled to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive orders declaring his administration would recognize only two genders and ordering an end to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

In a letter sent Wednesday, the Office of Personnel Management directed agency heads to terminate grants and contracts related to “gender ideology,” ask staff to remove pronouns from their government emails and disband resource groups on the issue, too. The directive, which ordered agencies to institute changes by 5 p.m. Friday, also asked agencies to remove the term “gender” from government forms and swap it out with “sex.”

Here is a list of changes and missing pages seen so far. Several pages have popped up since being taken down, some with changes:

National Park Service pages for historic sites related to the internment of Japanese Americans, the Tuskegee Airmen and the Stonewall Uprising for gay rights were inaccessible. The Tuskegee site was back online a short time later, but the others remained down Friday evening.

The State Department removed the “X” gender marker and replaced “gender” with “sex” on online consular forms. A page with tips for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex travelers was altered. It’s now titled “LGB Travelers” instead of “LGBTQIA+ Travelers.”

The Census Bureau’s homepage was down. Links to reports and topic pages outlining details about the gender identity, sexual orientation and characteristics of the nation’s population returned errors. A message Friday afternoon for one topic page titled “Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity” read, “The area of census.gov that you are trying to access is currently unavailable due to maintenance.” Another page titled “Mental Health Struggles Higher Among LGBT Adults Than Non-LGBT Adults in All Age Groups” also was unavailable. Archives of both pages show they were accessible within the past week. The bureau’s homepage was up Saturday morning.

Intelligence Community Inspector General reports were scrubbed from the website of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Trump previously fired around 17 inspectors general — known as independent government watchdogs — at multiple federal agencies.

A Bureau of Prisons web page originally titled “Inmate Gender” was relabeled “Inmate Sex” on Friday. A breakdown of transgender inmates in federal prisons was no longer included.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website took down much public health information: contraception guidance; a fact sheet about HIV and transgender people; lessons on building supportive school environments for transgender and nonbinary kids; details about National Transgender HIV Testing Day; a set of government surveys showing transgender students suffering higher rates of depression, drug use, bullying and other problems. The agency also removed its data repository, data.cdc.gov. A message said “the website will resume operations once in compliance” with Trump’s executive order.

In addition, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the military to immediately stop recognizing identity months, including Black History Month, Women’s History Month, Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, National Hispanic Heritage Month, National Disability Employment Awareness Month and National American Indian Heritage Month.
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WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Friday fired a group of prosecutors involved in the Jan. 6 criminal cases and demanded the names of FBI agents involved in those same probes so they can possibly be ousted, moves that reflect a White House determination to exert control over federal law enforcement and purge agencies of career employees seen as insufficiently loyal.

Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove ordered the firings of the Jan. 6 prosecutors days after President Donald Trump’s sweeping clemency action benefiting the more than 1,500 people charged in the U.S. Capitol attack, according to a memo obtained by The Associated Press. About two dozen employees at the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington were terminated, said a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss personnel issues.

A separate memo by Bove identified more than a half-dozen FBI senior executives who were ordered to retire or be fired by Monday, and also asked for the names, titles and offices of all FBI employees who worked on investigations into the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot — a list the bureau’s acting director said could number in the thousands. Bove, who has defended Trump in his criminal cases before joining the administration, said Justice Department officials would then carry out a “review process to determine whether any additional personnel actions are necessary.”

“As we’ve said since the moment we agreed to take on these roles, we are going to follow the law, follow FBI policy, and do what’s in the best interest of the workforce and the American people — always,” acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll wrote in a letter to the workforce.

The prosecutors fired in the D.C. U.S. attorney’s office had been hired for temporary assignments to support the Jan. 6 cases but were moved into permanent roles after Trump’s presidential win in November, according to the memo obtained by the AP. Bove, the acting deputy attorney general, said he would not “tolerate subversive personnel actions by the previous administration.”

Any mass firings at the FBI would be a major blow to the historic independence from the White House of the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency but would be in keeping with Trump’s persistent resolve to bend the law enforcement and intelligence community to his will. It would be part of a startling pattern of retribution waged on federal government employees, following the forced ousters of a group of senior FBI executives earlier this week as well as a broad termination by the Justice Department of prosecutors on special counsel Jack Smith’s team who investigated Trump.

The FBI Agents Association said the reported efforts to oust agents represented “outrageous actions by acting officials” that were “fundamentally at odds with the law enforcement objectives outlined by President Trump and his support for FBI Agents.”

“Dismissing potentially hundreds of Agents would severely weaken the Bureau’s ability to protect the country from national security and criminal threats and will ultimately risk setting up the Bureau and its new leadership for failure,” the association said in a statement.

It was not immediately clear what recourse any fired agent might take, but the bureau has a well-defined process for terminations and any abrupt action that bypasses that protocol could presumably open the door to a legal challenge.

When pressed during his confirmation hearing Thursday, Trump’s pick for FBI director, Kash Patel, said he was not aware of any plans to terminate or otherwise punish FBI employees who were involved in the Trump investigations. Patel said if he was confirmed he would follow the FBI’s internal review processes for taking action against employees.

Asked by Democratic Senator Cory Booker whether he would reverse any decisions before his confirmation that don’t follow that standard process, Patel said, “I don’t know what’s going on right now over there, but I’m committed to you, senator, and your colleagues, that I will honor the due process of the FBI.”

Before he was nominated for the director’s position, Patel had remarked on at least one podcast appearance about what he called anti-Trump “conspirators” in the government and news media who he said needed to be rooted out.

Trump has for years expressed fury at the FBI and Justice Department over investigations that shadowed his presidency, including an inquiry into ties between Russia and his 2016 campaign, and continued over the last four years. He fired one FBI director, James Comey, amid the Russia investigation and then replaced his second, Christopher Wray, just weeks after his win in November.

Asked at the White House on Friday if he had anything to do with the scrutiny of the agents, he said: “No, but we have some very bad people over there. It was weaponized at a level that nobody’s never seen before. They came after a lot of people — like me — but they came after a lot of people.”

He added, “If they fired some people over there, that’s a good thing, because they were very bad.”

The FBI and Smith’s team investigated Trump over his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and his hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Both of those cases resulted in indictments that were withdrawn after Trump’s November presidential win because of longstanding Justice Department policy prohibiting the federal prosecution of a sitting president.

The Justice Department also charged more than 1,500 Trump supporters in connection with the Capitol riot, although Trump on his first day in office granted clemency to all of them — including the ones convicted of violent crimes — through pardons, sentence commutations and dismissals of indictments.

This week, the Justice Department fired more than a dozen prosecutors who worked on Smith investigations, and a group of senior FBI executives — including several executive assistant directors and agents in charge of big-city field offices — have been told to either resign or retire or be fired Monday.
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OXON HILL, MARYLAND — Democrats, seeking a new message and messengers to push back against the Trump administration, will elect a new leader Saturday in a low-profile Democratic National Committee election that could have big implications for the party’s future.

More than 400 DNC members from every state and U.S. territory have gathered in suburban Washington for the election, which features a slate of candidates dominated by party insiders. Outgoing Chair Jaime Harrison is not seeking reelection.

Most of the candidates acknowledge that the Democratic brand is badly damaged, but few are promising fundamental changes. Indeed, nearly three months after Donald Trump won the popular vote and gained ground among key Democratic constituencies, there is little agreement on what exactly went wrong.

Facing an emboldened Trump presidency, however, the leading candidates are talking tough. “As we reel with shock at the horror that Trump is visiting on communities across this country, we need a DNC and a DNC chair who’s ready to bring the intensity, the focus and the fury to fight back,” said Ben Wikler, the Wisconsin Democratic chair and a top candidate for DNC chair.

The election comes less than two weeks after Trump’s inauguration and as Democratic leaders struggle to confront the sheer volume of executive orders, pardons, personnel changes and controversial relationships taking shape in the new administration. The next DNC chair would serve as a face of the Democratic response, while helping to coordinate political strategy and repair the party’s brand.

Just 31% of voters have a favorable opinion of the Democratic Party, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released this week that offers a dramatic contrast with Trump’s GOP. Forty-three percent of voters have a favorable opinion of the Republican Party.

The leading candidates for DNC chair, Wisconsin’s Wikler and Minnesota’s Ken Martin, are low-profile state party chairs. They’re promising to refocus the Democratic message on working-class voters, strengthen Democratic infrastructure across the country and improve the party’s anti-Trump rapid response system. They have promised not to shy away from the party’s dedication to diversity and minority groups, a pillar of the modern-day Democratic Party.

But if Martin, 51, or Wikler, 43, is elected, as expected, either would be the first white man to lead the DNC since 2011.

Also in the race: Marianne Williamson, the activist and author; former Maryland governor and Biden administration official Martin O’Malley; and Faiz Shakir, who managed Bernie Sanders’ last presidential campaign.

Shakir has called for sweeping changes within the party, such as more coordination with labor unions and less focus on minority groups sorted by race and gender. The only Muslim seeking the chairmanship, Shakir was alone during a candidate forum this week in opposing the creation of a Muslim caucus at the DNC. But he has struggled to gain traction. Shakir declined to raise money for the contest, decorating his modest booth at this week’s gathering with pictures drawn by his young children with crayons.

By contrast, Martin and Wikler hosted would-be supporters in large hotel suites adorned with dozens of professionally printed signs and offered T-shirts, sunglasses and food.

Wikler has faced questions about his relationship with Democratic donor Reid Hoffman, the billionaire cofounder of LinkedIn. But he cast his fundraising connections as an asset. Indeed, the DNC chair is expected to raise tens of millions of dollars to help Democrats win elections.

Some Democratic leaders remain concerned about the direction of their party. “As positive as I am and as hopeful as I am, I’m watching this in real time, thinking to myself, ‘We’re in real trouble because I don’t see a desire to change,’” said Kansas Democratic Chair Jeanna Repass, a candidate for DNC vice chair.
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ANCHORAGE, ALASKA — The Alaska Gold Rush town of Nome faced a bleak winter. It was hundreds of miles from anywhere, cut off by the frozen sea and unrelenting blizzards, and under siege from a contagious disease known as the “strangling angel” for the way it suffocated children. 

Now, 100 years later, Nome is remembering its saviors — the sled dogs and mushers who raced for more than five days through hypothermia, frostbite, gale-force winds and blinding whiteouts to deliver lifesaving serum and free the community from the grip of diphtheria. 

Among the events celebrating the centennial of the 1925 “Great Race of Mercy” are lectures, a dog-food drive and a reenactment of the final leg of the relay, all organized by the Nome Kennel Club. 

Alaskans honor ‘heroic effort’ 

“There’s a lot of fluff around celebrations like this, but we wanted to remember the mushers and their dogs who have been at the center of this heroic effort and … spotlight mushing as a still-viable thing for the state of Alaska,” said Diana Haecker, a kennel club board member and co-owner of Alaska’s oldest newspaper, The Nome Nugget. 

“People just dropped whatever they were doing,” she said. “These mushers got their teams ready and went, even though it was really cold and challenging conditions on the trail.” 

Other communities are also marking the anniversary — including the village of Nenana, where the relay began, and Cleveland, Ohio, where the serum run’s most famous participant, a husky mix named Balto, is stuffed and displayed at a museum. 

Jonathan Hayes, a Maine resident who has been working to preserve the genetic line of sled dogs driven on the run by famed musher Leonhard Seppala, is recreating the trip. Hayes left Nenana on Monday with 16 Seppala Siberian sled dogs, registered descendants of Seppala’s team. 

A race to save lives

Diphtheria is an airborne disease that causes a thick, suffocating film on the back of the throat; it was once a leading cause of death for children. The antitoxin used to treat it was developed in 1890, and a vaccine in 1923; it is now exceedingly rare in the U.S. 

Nome, western Alaska’s largest community, had about 1,400 residents a century ago. Its most recent supply ship had arrived the previous fall, before the Bering Sea froze, without any doses of the antitoxin. Those the local doctor, Curtis Welch, had were outdated, but he wasn’t worried. He hadn’t seen a case of diphtheria in the 18 years he had practiced in the area. 

Within months, that changed. In a telegram, Welch pleaded with the U.S. Public Health Service to send serum: “An epidemic of diphtheria is almost inevitable here.” 

The first death was a 3-year-old boy on January 20, 1925, followed the next day by a 7-year-old girl. By the end of the month, there were more than 20 confirmed cases. The city was placed under quarantine. 

West Coast hospitals had antitoxin doses, but it would take time to get them to Seattle, Washington, and then onto a ship for Seward, Alaska, an ice-free port south of Anchorage, Alaska. In the meantime, enough for 30 people was found at an Anchorage hospital. 

It still had to get to Nome. Airplanes with open-air cockpits were ruled out as unsuited for the weather. There were no roads or trains that reached Nome. 

Instead, officials shipped the serum by rail to Nenana in interior Alaska, some 1,086 kilometers (675 miles) from Nome via the frozen Yukon River and mail trails. 

Thanks to Alaska’s new telegraph lines and the spread of radio, the nation followed along, captivated, as 20 mushers — many of them Alaska Natives — with more than 150 dogs relayed the serum to Nome. They battled deep snow, whiteouts so severe they couldn’t see the dogs in front of them, and life-threatening temperatures that plunged at times to minus minus 51 degrees Celsius (60 degrees Fahrenheit).

The antitoxin was transported in glass vials covered with padded quilts. Not a single vial broke. 

Seppala, a Norwegian settler, left from Nome to meet the supply near the halfway point and begin the journey back. His team, led by his dog Togo, traveled more than 320 kilometers (250 miles) of the relay, including a treacherous stretch across frozen Norton Sound. 

After about 5 1/2 days, the serum reached its destination on February 2, 1925. A banner front-page headline in the San Francisco Chronicle proclaimed “Dogs victors over blizzard in battle to succor stricken Nome.” 

The official record listed five deaths and 29 illnesses. It’s likely the toll was higher; Alaska Natives were not accurately tracked. 

Balto gains fame 

Seppala and Togo missed the limelight that went to his assistant, Gunnar Kaasen, who drove the dog team led by Balto into Nome. Balto was another of Seppala’s dogs, but was used to only haul freight after he was deemed too slow to be on a competitive team.

Balto was immortalized in movies and with statues in New York’s Central Park and one in Anchorage intended as a tribute to all sled dogs. He received a bone-shaped key to the city of Los Angeles, where legendary movie actress Mary Pickford placed a wreath around his neck. 

But he and several team members were eventually sold and kept in squalid conditions at a dime museum in Los Angeles. After learning of their plight, an Ohio businessman spearheaded an effort to raise money to bring them to Cleveland, a city in Ohio. After dying in 1933, Balto was mounted and placed on display at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. 

Iditarod pays homage to run 

Today, the most famous mushing event in the world is the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, which is not based on the serum run but on the Iditarod Trail, a supply route from Seward to Nome. Iditarod organizers are nevertheless marking the serum run’s centennial with a series of articles on its website and by selling replicas of the medallions each serum run musher received a century ago, race spokesperson Shannon Noonan said in an email. This year’s Iditarod starts March 1. 

“The Serum Run demonstrated the critical role sled dogs played in the survival and communication of remote Alaskan communities, while the Iditarod has evolved into a celebration of that tradition and Alaska’s pioneering spirit,” Noonan said. 
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WASHINGTON — A collision between an American Airlines passenger jet and an Army helicopter near Washington, D.C., that killed 67 people brought renewed focus on the federal agency charged with investigating aviation disasters.

National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Jennifer Hommendy has described the investigation into the crash as an “all-hands-on-deck event” for the agency.

Here are some things to know about the NTSB:

What does the agency do?

The NTSB is an independent federal agency responsible for investigating all civil aviation accidents as well as serious incidents in the U.S. involving other modes of transportation, such as railroad disasters and major accidents involving motor vehicles, marine vessels, pipelines and even commercial space operators.

“We’re here to ensure the American people that we are going to leave no stone unturned in this investigation,” Homendy said, noting the probe is in the very early stages. “We are going to conduct a thorough investigation of this entire tragedy, looking at the facts.”

The agency has five board members who serve five-year terms and are nominated by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

How will the investigation work?

For the investigation into Wednesday’s crash, the NTSB will establish several different working groups, each responsible for investigating different areas connected to the accident, board member Todd Inman said.

Inman said those groups include operations, which will examine flight history and crewmember duties; structures, which will document airframe wreckage and the accident scene; power plants, which will focus on aircraft engines and engine accessories; systems, which will study the electrical, hydraulic and pneumatic components of the two aircraft; air traffic control, which will review flight track surveillance information, including radar, and controller-pilot communications; survival factors, which will analyze the injuries to the crew and passengers and crash and rescue efforts; and a helicopter group.

The investigation also will include a human-performance group that will be a part of the operations, air traffic control and helicopter groups and will study the crew performance and any factors that could be involved such as human error, including fatigue, medications, medical histories, training and workload, Inman said.

How long will the investigation take?

NTSB officials did not say Thursday how long the investigation would take, but accident investigations often take between one to two years to complete. The agency typically releases a preliminary report within a few weeks of the accident that includes a synopsis of information collected at the scene.

What is the NTSB’s history?

The NTSB history dates to 1926, when Congress passed a law charging the U.S. Department of Commerce with investigating aircraft accidents. It was established as an independent agency within the U.S. Department of Transportation in 1967 and then separated by Congress in 1974 as a stand-alone organization, fully independent from any other federal agencies. Since its creation in 1967, the agency reports it has investigated more than 153,000 aviation accidents and incidents. 
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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s decision to freeze $45 million in U.S. federal funding for over 400 Burmese students has left many in shock and dismay as their scholarships were abruptly canceled.

The move has also raised concerns about the broader impact it could have on Burmese in Myanmar, a country already grappling with political turmoil and a collapsing education system under military rule.

Students in limbo

One Burmese student who studies at Chiang Mai University in Thailand told VOA that she feels completely lost after learning that her scholarship was being suspended.

“To be honest, I am lost because of this sudden loss of my scholarship. I had been studying with the goal of earning a degree, and now I don’t know what to do,” she said. The student spoke with VOA on condition of anonymity because she fears for her safety if she returns to Burma, which remains under military control.

She said students like her and others at different academic levels are now left without financial support.

“There are students doing four-year master’s degrees, others in four-year bachelor’s programs, and even PhD students. I don’t know whether I should continue my studies, go home, or what my next step should be,” she said. “I am saddened that President Trump only cares about the United States and has cut off my studies.”

An email sent to recipients of the program that was shared with VOA’s Burmese Service, said the Diversity and Inclusion Scholarship Program, or DISP, is currently suspended, and officials “will review whether to continue the scholarship for the students who have been awarded it.”

DISP was created to support Burmese students from marginalized and underprivileged backgrounds, giving them opportunities to study at universities across Asia, including the Philippines, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Thailand. The program also provided funding for online education through the University of Arizona.

For many, the initiative was their only chance to pursue higher education outside of Burma, where the junta-controlled education system has systematically restricted access for those opposing the military regime.

For some students, the immediate impact has been less severe.

Hlwan Paing Thi Ha, who has been studying at Chiang Mai University for a year, told VOA: “My education has already been paid for through the scholarship program, so it hasn’t impacted me yet.” 

Future leaders impacted

One source who has in-depth understanding of the program, said the impact goes beyond just access to education and opportunities. The source spoke with VOA on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak with the media.

More than a quarter of the Burmese students in the program have fled Myanmar due to the military coup, ongoing fighting and forced conscription, which has targeted youth.

“The impact is huge,” the source said, adding that currently, more than 400 Burmese students are attending universities in four countries—the Philippines, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Thailand through the USAID-funded program.

“Of these, 110 were directly recruited from Myanmar, while the rest are students who fled to border regions and Southeast Asian countries due to the military coup or boycotted Myanmar’s junta-controlled education system,” the source said.

The program, which was launched in February 2024, was designed as a five-year initiative, with plans to recruit three batches of students over that period.

“The goal was to ensure that at least 1,000 Burmese students, the ‘current and future leaders of the country,’ could continue their studies in universities across the region. The second batch, which would include hundreds of students, is now in the final stage of the screening process,” the source explained.

Debate continues

In Washington a debate over the freeze and review continues.

On Tuesday, the State Department issued a waiver that exempts some humanitarian aid from the freeze. U.S. lawmakers have also voiced concerns, warning that the freeze will impact American soft power and give China an advantage.

On Wednesday, President Trump defended the funding freeze, specifically calling out the $45 million allocated for diversity scholarships for Burmese students.

“We also blocked $45 million for diversity scholarships in Burma. Forty-five—that’s a lot of money for diversity scholarships in Burma. You can imagine where that money went,” Trump said. “These were the types of payments and many others. I could stand here all day and tell you about things that we found, and we have to find them quickly because we want the money to flow to proper places.”

Name threatens its demise?

Some note that in addition to the freeze, the name of the program may also leave it in a difficult position, with some worrying that the mention of diversity in its title could impact a substantive review of its impact.

The source with direct knowledge of the initiative for Burmese students told VOA that the program was swiftly terminated when the Trump administration began reducing foreign aid, and that its name “Diversity and Inclusion” likely played a major role in its elimination.

“This program was one of the first to be cut as soon as the administration began making budget reductions in this area,” the source said.

While all USAID-funded programs have been temporarily frozen, DISP appears to have been specifically blocked without any review, the source noted.

“USAID officials have not been able to explain why this program was halted so suddenly.”

VOA reached out to the State Department to verify whether the program was permanently blocked or still under review and whether its name played a role in its swift termination. However, as of the time of publication, VOA had not received a response from the State Department.

The source also voiced concern the administration may not understand that the program has no connection to Myanmar’s military junta and was created solely to support young people who lost their education due to military oppression.

Lifeline for ethnic and religious minorities

The Diversity and Inclusion Scholarship Program was set up to reflect Burma’s ethnic and religious diversity, giving equal opportunities to students from all backgrounds who have historically faced discrimination under the Burman-dominated and military-controlled education policies. Burman is the name of the main ethnic group in Myanmar.

Many recipients of the scholarship program belong to ethnic minority groups such as the Karen, Kachin, Shan, Chin, and Rohingya, who have historically faced systemic discrimination in Burma’s education system.  
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Public health data disappeared from websites, entire webpages went blank and employees erased pronouns from email signatures Friday as federal agencies scrambled to comply with a directive tied to President Donald Trump’s order rolling back protections for transgender people.

The Office of Personnel Management directed agency heads to strip “gender ideology” from websites, contracts and emails in a memo sent Wednesday, with changes ordered to be instituted by 5 p.m. Friday. It also directed agencies to disband employee resource groups, terminate grants and contracts related to the issue, and replace the term “gender” with “sex” on government forms.

Some parts of government websites appeared with the message: “The page you’re looking for was not found.” Some pages disappeared and came back intermittently. 

Asked by reporters Friday about reports that government websites were being shut down to eliminate mentions of diversity, equity and inclusion, Trump said he didn’t know anything about it but that he’d endorse such a move.

“I don’t know. That doesn’t sound like a bad idea to me,” Trump said, adding that he campaigned promising to stamp out such initiatives.

Much public health information was taken down from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website: contraception guidance; a fact sheet about HIV and transgender people; lessons on building supportive school environments for transgender and nonbinary kids; details about National Transgender HIV Testing Day; a set of government surveys showing transgender students suffering higher rates of depression, drug use, bullying and other problems.

Eliminating health resources creates dangerous gaps in scientific information, disease experts said. The Infectious Diseases Society of America, a medical association, issued a statement decrying the removal of information about HIV and people who are transgender. Access is “critical to efforts to end the HIV epidemic,” the organization’s leaders said.

A Bureau of Prisons web page originally titled “Inmate Gender” was relabeled “Inmate Sex” on Friday. A breakdown of transgender inmates in federal prisons was no longer included.

The State Department on Friday removed the option to select “X” as a gender on passport applications for nonbinary applicants. It also replaced the word “gender” from the descriptor with the word “sex.”

All State Department employees were ordered to remove gender-specific pronouns from their email signatures. The directive, from the acting head of the Bureau of Management, said this was required to comply with Trump’s executive orders and that the department was also removing all references to “gender ideology” from websites and internal documents.

“All employees are required to remove any gender identifying pronouns from email signature blocks by 5:00 PM today,” said the order from Tibor Nagy. “Your cooperation is essential as we navigate these changes together.”

An official from the U.S. Agency for International Development said staffers were directed to flag the use of the word “gender” in each of thousands of award contracts. Warnings against gender discrimination are standard language in every such contract. The official spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, under a Trump administration gag order prohibiting USAID staffers from speaking with people outside their agency.

The official said staffers fear that programs and jobs related to inclusion efforts, gender issues and issues specific to women are being singled out and possibly targeted under two Trump executive orders.

Some Census Bureau and National Park Service pages were also inaccessible or giving error messages.

Trump’s executive order, signed on his first day back in office, calls for the federal government to define sex as only male or female and for that to be reflected on official documents such as passports and policies such as federal prison assignments.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the military to immediately stop recognizing identity a day before the start of February’s Black History Month, saying they “erode camaraderie and threaten mission execution.”
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Голова ОВА додав, що постраждалим надають необхідну допомогу. На місці продовжують працювати рятувальники
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washington — White House press secretary Karoline Levitt announced Friday that President Donald Trump would be implementing 25% tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods and a 10% tariff on all Chinese imports on Saturday.  

Consumers told VOA they were bracing for the possible impact of increased costs. 

“I’m concerned about rising prices,” Yon Bui, a student of music and computer science at Middlebury College in Vermont, said in an interview Thursday. 

Bui said that while it might still be too early to tell what the impact could be, she has been considering purchasing costly items, such as expensive cosmetics that she buys sometimes, from China. She also said she needed a new phone. 

Bui said she would “buy products now before they go up in price to a point where they’d become unaffordable.”  

Sean Liu, who lives in Virginia, told VOA that he was glad he’d recently decided to buy a new phone and car.

“With things that are already really expensive, if you add another 10% to their price – it’s not like, say, buying a thermos and adding another 10% – this kind of price hike is truly big,” he said.  

He did add, though, that it might be a little easier to deal with if the tariffs came alongside lower prices for more basic necessities like groceries and gas.

‘One very big power’

On the campaign trail, Trump threatened tariffs as high as 60% on China. Since taking office, those threats have expanded and include everything from a universal tariff to threats against trade partners and rivals such as China and Russia.

Last week, Trump threatened Colombia with tariffs of 25% to 50% to get Bogota to accept deportation flights.

On China, Trump recently told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that tariffs were the “one very big power” the U.S. has over China.  

“They don’t want them, and I’d rather not have to use it,” Trump said.  

The 10% tariff on all Chinese imports is part of what Trump says is a punitive response to China’s role in manufacturing precursor chemicals essential to fentanyl production in Mexico.

Currently, the United States targets China with a 100% tariff on electric vehicles, a 50% tariff on solar cells and semiconductors, a 25% tariff on critical minerals needed to make certain advanced batteries and a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum.

New tariffs would build on more than $300 billion worth of taxes on Chinese imports that Trump imposed during his first term. Those tariffs were upheld and, in some cases, advanced under former President Joe Biden. 

Who will feel impact? 

Some analysts question who will be hurt if these tariffs are implemented. Some say the deep economic ties between China and the United States could mean that American consumers will be the ones bearing the brunt of Trump’s punishment on Beijing. 

Supporters, however, see the move as a fulfillment of Trump’s promise to put American lives and livelihoods first — particularly when it comes to stopping the flow of fentanyl into the country.   

According to William Reinsch, senior adviser of the economics program and Scholl Chair in International Business at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the tariff likely would raise prices of goods in America. 

“The prices on a lot of things that people buy at retail — apparel, footwear, household goods – things like that will be affected. Ten percent is not huge, but it’s not zero either,” Reinsch said. 

Costs and benefits 

Trump has pushed back against the argument that tariffs drive inflation higher and said instead that tariffs would make America rich. 

Liu Longzhu, a California lawyer and delegate at the 2024 Republican National Convention, sees tariffs as the key to recovering America’s economic strength. 

“The main purpose of increasing tariffs is to assure that America is truly ‘America First’ and protect American jobs. If you are looking for a job, they are beneficial to you. If the tariffs are increased, Chinese products will lose their competitiveness, and American products will become more competitive. This will make it easier for Americans to find jobs,” Liu said. 

James Galbraith, an economist at the University of Texas at Austin, doesn’t see tariffs as inherently inflationary, and he agrees that tariffs would bring back jobs that were lost to overseas companies. 

“A tariff strategy can be implemented in such a way that the cost largely falls outside of the country,” Galbraith told VOA. 

But Stephen Lamar, president and CEO at the American Apparel & Footwear Association, said that tariffs, especially those levied on China, will ultimately raise the cost of both domestic and foreign goods given the interconnectivity of global economies. 

“The theory on paper is that you’re giving domestic producers an advantage. The reality in practice is that more people are paying higher prices for products, regardless of their source,” Lamar told VOA.  

Reinsch also cast doubt on the ability of tariffs to bring manufacturing jobs back to America, particularly in labor-intensive sectors like apparel or footwear. 

“I would be surprised if you see a renaissance in the American apparel industry as a result of a 10% tariff. It would take a lot more than that,” Reinsch said, adding that tariffs don’t guarantee a move away from imports and toward domestic manufacturing. 

Importers looking for cheap products can still source from countries in Southeast Asia or Africa that provide competitive, low-cost alternatives to Chinese products. 
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Українські підрозділи також відбили 10 російських атак на Торецькому напрямку, поблизу Торецька
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The Trump administration has confirmed that the deportation of Chinese nationals is still underway as part of a broader effort to enforce U.S. immigration laws.

In an emailed response to VOA this week, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official wrote that the agency is removing from the United States any immigrant who is here unlawfully.

“ICE continues to conduct removals to the People’s Republic of China. Due to operational security, ICE does not confirm future removal operations until deportees have been returned to their country of origin,” the ICE official said Tuesday, speaking on background, a method often used by U.S. officials to remain anonymous.

VOA requested the most recent removal numbers for China and an update on deportation flights, but as of Friday, ICE had yet to respond.

Deportations have increased as China signals a greater willingness to repatriate its citizens, a departure from its historically restrictive stance. Large repatriation flights resumed last June, the first since 2018.

On Jan. 6, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, through ICE, conducted the Biden administration’s fifth removal flight to China in less than seven months.

“These [Biden administration] flights were the product of sustained cooperation between the Department and PRC counterparts to repatriate individuals who have not established a legal basis to remain in the United States,” DHS said in a statement on Jan. 10.

Fast-track deportations

Under the Trump administration, the approach is shifting toward making deportations faster and bypassing judicial review.

The Trump administration issued an executive order on Jan. 21 to expand expedited removal, also known as fast-track deportations, to include immigrants who cannot prove they have been continuously living in the United States for more than two years.

“The effect of this change will be to enhance national security and public safety — while reducing government costs — by facilitating prompt immigration determinations,” the notice read.

Expedited removal allows the U.S. government to quickly deport people who are undocumented. Under the process of expedited removal, some noncitizens can be deported in a single day without an immigration court hearing or other appearance before a judge.

ICE data from November showed 37,908 Chinese nationals who were believed to be removable from the United States but had not yet been detained. December and January numbers are not yet available.

On Jan. 22, the American Civil Liberties Union sued the Trump administration over the expansion of expedited removal.

The ACLU argued in court documents that the new rule violates federal law and the Fifth Amendment’s due process clause by effectively eliminating full court hearings that immigrants are entitled to receive.

The organization also cited studies indicating that expedited removals are prone to errors, often leading to the mistaken deportation of immigrants.

Joanna Derman, a program director at Asian Americans Advancing Justice, told VOA that advocates are worried the Trump administration will use “extreme options” to specifically target Chinese nationals for deportation, “especially in the event of a significant escalation between the United States and China.”

“But on the other hand,” she said, “we’re also rapidly mobilizing right now. … We are uplifting resources for people who are the most likely to be impacted. The most vulnerable folks need to know what to do if [or] when ICE shows up at their school, their work or their place of worship.”

US-China repatriation cooperation

For years, China has been among the countries that refused or delayed accepting deportees, complicating U.S. efforts to remove individuals with final orders.

Countries that do not negotiate or refuse to accept their nationals back are deemed “recalcitrant” or “uncooperative.” Recalcitrant countries do not accept their nationals back. Uncooperative countries will accept some of their nationals back.

According to an ICE official and a DHS removal operations document, 15 countries were deemed to be uncooperative: Bhutan, Burma, Cuba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Laos, Pakistan, the People’s Republic of China, Russia, Somalia and Venezuela.

ICE considers these to be at risk of recalcitrant: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Gabon, Gambia, Iraq, Jamaica, Nicaragua, South Sudan, St. Lucia and Vietnam.

During a Monday press conference, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning was asked if Beijing intended to accept all Chinese nationals in the U.S. illegally.

“I’d refer you to competent authorities for anything specific,” she said. “Let me say more broadly that the Chinese government firmly opposes any form of illegal migration. We have conducted practical cooperation with the migration and law enforcement departments of the U.S. and other countries, which has been productive. As far as repatriation is concerned, China’s principle is to receive the repatriates who are confirmed as Chinese nationals from the Chinese mainland after verification.”

ICE’s deportation numbers reflect U.S. diplomatic efforts with China, with DHS reporting the removal of 109 Chinese nationals on the latest charter flight as of November, following 131 deportations in October and 116 in June.

According to DHS, the Biden administration’s increase in deportations matches China’s work to decrease illegal immigration, which has led to a 62% decline in Chinese migrant apprehensions at the U.S.-Mexico border. Apprehensions of Chinese dropped from 2,198 encounters in June 2024 to 873 in December 2024.

January numbers are not yet available.

Deportation logistics, cost

An ICE official confirmed to VOA by email in late December that the U.S. government buys the commercial airline tickets for deportees, working closely with a travel service provider to book the most cost-effective flights.

ICE determines whether to use charter or commercial flights based on operational needs. ICE did not share cost per person for either type of flight.

But the American Immigration Council estimates that removing 1 million people a year would cost U.S. taxpayers about $88 billion, with the total over a decade approaching $1 trillion.

Despite Beijing’s increased cooperation, China remains one of several nations that usually refuse to take back their citizens or delay repatriations.

During the 2024 fiscal year, ICE removed 517 Chinese nationals from the United States.

Deportation process

In immigration court, deportation orders are usually issued after a foreign national violates the terms of a visa, is found to be undocumented or is convicted of a crime.

When the United States seeks to deport an immigrant, it generally follows a framework negotiated with the other nation; these frameworks are often detailed in writing, through a memorandum of understanding.

Before the United States can deport someone, the other country must agree to receive the deportee. There must also be an administratively final order of removal, or deportation order, and the individual must have a travel document issued by a foreign government.
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Інші країни готові працювати з Україною для інвестицій у збройне виробництво, заявив президент
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WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump’s envoy Richard Grenell is expected to meet with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Friday in Venezuela, according to U.S. Special Envoy for Latin America Mauricio Claver-Carone.

Trump said last week his administration likely would stop buying oil from Venezuela and was looking “very strongly” at the South American country.

Grenell, Trump’s envoy for special missions, had earlier said he spoke with multiple officials in Venezuela and would begin meetings, days after the outgoing Biden administration imposed new sanctions on the government of Maduro.

“Diplomacy is back,” Grenell said in a post on social media platform X disclosing his initial calls. “Talking is a tactic.”

During his campaign, Trump called Maduro a dictator after he pursued a “maximum pressure” campaign against him during his first term, from 2017 to 2021, including imposing harsh sanctions on the South American country and its oil industry.

Former President Joe Biden briefly rolled back some of the Trump-era restrictions following electoral promises from Maduro but then reinstated them, saying the Venezuelan leader had reneged on pledges for a fair democratic vote.

The Financial Times reported Friday that Chevron is trying to protect the special U.S. license allowing it to operate in Venezuela.

The oil giant’s chief executive, Mike Wirth, told the newspaper the company would engage with the White House after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the license should be reconsidered.

If Chevron is forced out, China and Russia will gain influence in the OPEC nation, Wirth said.

Venezuela’s oil exports to the U.S. soared 64% to some 222,000 barrels per day last year, making the United States its second-largest export market behind China, which took 351,000 bpd, down 18% compared with the previous year.
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Стрічка отримала нагороду «Режисура: Світове документальне кіно»
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WASHINGTON — On the front lines of the war in Ukraine, local newspapers are vital lifelines in areas where Russia has destroyed cell towers and internet infrastructure.

Journalists provide information about evacuation routes, document alleged Russian war crimes and troop movements, and counter Moscow’s propaganda.

Even a temporary freeze of U.S. foreign aid can mean financial difficulties for small media organizations that rely on outside donors to keep working.

“Many Ukrainian media may now face the threat of closure or significant reduction in operations in the coming weeks,” Sergiy Tomilenko, president of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, told VOA.

Ukraine is not alone.

News outlets on the front lines of war and authoritarianism from Ukraine and Belarus to Myanmar are among the organizations affected by a freeze on U.S. foreign aid.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 20 mandating all federal government agencies pause all foreign development assistance for 90 days.

The directive took effect on Jan. 24 and includes foreign funding from the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID.

“Every dollar we spend, every program we fund, and every policy we pursue must be justified with the answer to three simple questions,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a Jan. 26 statement. “Does it make America safer? Does it make America stronger? Does it make America more prosperous?”

Worldwide impact

Many independent news outlets around the world rely on State Department and USAID funding because they report in repressive environments, according to the JX Fund, a Berlin-based group that supports exiled media.

With the current freeze, news outlets around the world are scrambling to find alternative sources of funding in an attempt to continue delivering the news to their audiences and avoid shutting down, multiple analysts told VOA.

“The general feeling is panic. Panic is the only way to describe the situation,” Karol Luczka, who works in Eastern Europe at the International Press Institute in Vienna, told VOA.

JX Fund managing director Penelope Winterhager agreed. These outlets “are thrown back to emergency mode,” she said.

The measure is estimated to be affecting dozens of independent news outlets in more than 30 countries, according to the Brussels-based European Federation of Journalists, or EFJ.

Maja Sever, EFJ president, called on potential donors to fill the gap.

“The European Union and other donors cannot abandon to their fate journalists who are the best bulwark for defending the rule of law and democracy in countries where they are under threat,” Sever said in a statement Tuesday.

During the 90-day pause, relevant U.S. departments and agencies are required to review their foreign funding and determine whether the aid will continue, be modified or cease altogether, according to the executive order.

The State Department did not respond to specific questions and referred VOA to a Wednesday press release.

“Americans are a hardworking and generous people, who have sacrificed their blood and treasure to help their fellow man across the globe. But no foreign nation is entitled to those benefits, and no foreign aid program is above scrutiny,” the statement said.

USAID did not reply to VOA’s request for comment.

In Ukraine

Tomilenko said the aid freeze is creating a dire situation for Ukrainian news outlets on the front line of the war.

“In many areas close to the battle lines, local newspapers are often the only reliable source of information,” said Tomilenko, who is based in Kyiv.

Since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Moscow has ramped up global propaganda efforts while further restricting independent media inside Russia.

The war has also limited the advertising market in Ukraine, which would ideally be a primary source of financial independence for Ukrainian news outlets, said Tomilenko.

The USAID website says it supports programs that “promote free and independent media” in more than 30 countries. VOA could not determine how much U.S. aid goes to support media outlets in these countries.

In the case of Ukraine, Luczka said, “The previous administration in the U.S. saw the importance of supporting civil society in Ukraine in order to make sure that this country keeps standing.”

The United States has been the strongest player when it came to supporting independent media outlets, according to the JX Fund’s Winterhager.

But even though these outlets receive foreign funding, Winterhager emphasized that “their reporting is independent.”

In Myanmar

Several Myanmar news outlets that rely on financial support from USAID and Internews also find themselves in a precarious situation. Internews is a USAID-affiliated nonprofit that supports independent media.

After launching a coup in 2021, Myanmar’s military arrested journalists and banned news outlets. The crackdown forced entire outlets to flee into exile.

Some outlets now report from the Thai-Myanmar border, while others manage to operate from rebel-controlled regions of Myanmar.

Funding has been among the biggest problems for Myanmar media since the coup.

“It is difficult — or even impossible — for many of them to make commercial revenue in this environment,” Ben Dunant, editor-in-chief of the magazine Frontier Myanmar, told VOA last year. “This underlines the vulnerability of these media organizations whose operations are dependent on the whims of donors in faraway countries.”

Mizzima, one of the most prominent of the country’s news outlets and an affiliate of VOA, is among those affected by the aid freeze, according to local media reports.

Founded in exile in 1998, the media outlet covers news on the resistance against the junta and China’s growing influence in the region.

Another outlet, Western News, has already cut staff, according to its chief editor, Wunna Khwar Nyo.

“We are struggling to survive,” Wunna Khwar Nyo told VOA. “Ultimately, this will also hurt the Burmese people.”

If the funding freeze forces news outlets to shutter, the IPI’s Luczka warned that state-backed propaganda from countries such as Russia could fill the gap.

“When media outlets disappear, they create a void,” Luczka said. “And that void needs to be filled by something.”

VOA’s Burmese Service contributed to this report.
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Україна подала позов до суду ООН 26 лютого 2022-го зі скаргою, що РФ зловживає конвенцією про запобігання геноциду для виправдання вторгнення
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