NewsWorldAmericasUS politicsBefore Trump spoke in Las Vegas, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem was confirmed as the next secretary of Homeland Security
Trump says he will overhaul FEMA or maybe get rid of it
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During a speech in Las Vegas on Saturday, President Donald Trump laughed it up with the crowd and spoke about his first-week victories following his return to the White House.
He boasted about having “terminated the ridiculous and incredibly wasteful green new scam.”
“Wasn’t the environment supposed to eat us up like in 12 years, but that was like 13 years ago? What happened?” he asked. “We’re still here.”
“I just came here because I wanted to thank the people of Nevada for giving us such a big win,” said Trump, referring to his 2024 victory in the state.
Earlier, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem was confirmed as the next secretary of Homeland Security. She passed the final hurdle in the Senate around noon Saturday by a 59-34 vote.
Noem will now be in charge of a sweeping agency that will be an important component in the new administration’s plan to crack down on immigration.
“Thank you, Mr. President @realDonaldTrump, for the confidence in me to serve as Secretary of Homeland Security. I will work to make America SAFE again!” Noem wrote on X following her confirmation.
Trump fires 17 government watchdogs in middle of the night – but a key one remains in his postOne of the fired officials told The Post, “It’s a widespread massacre.”
“Whoever Trump puts in now will be viewed as loyalists, and that undermines the entire system,” the official added.
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Gustaf Kilander26 January 2025 10:00
State Department halts new funding on nearly all US aid programs worldwideThe Friday order from the State Department, accompanied by a memo from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, includes exceptions for emergency food programs and military aid to Israel and Egypt.
On Monday, Trump ordered a 90-day pause in foreign development assistance to review its efficiency and ensure it aligned with his foreign policy.
The memo from Rubio asked staffers to issue “stop-work orders” on nearly all “existing foreign assistance awards”, CNN reported.
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Shahana Yasmin26 January 2025 09:00
More DEI fallout: Air Force scraps course that used videos of Tuskegee Airmen and female WWII pilotsThe Air Force has removed training courses with videos of its storied Tuskegee Airmen and the Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs — the female World War II pilots who played a vital role in ferrying warplanes for the military — to comply with the Trump administration’s crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
The videos were shown to Air Force troops as part of DEI courses they took during their basic military training.
In a statement, the Air Force confirmed the courses with those videos had been removed and said it “will fully execute and implement all directives outlined in the Executive Orders issued by the President, ensuring that they are carried out with utmost professionalism, efficiency and in alignment with national security objectives.”
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Tara Copp26 January 2025 08:00
The trouble with Billy Ray Cyrus: Divorce, Trump and rivalry with daughter MileySoon after Billy Ray Cyrus took the stage at President Trump’s inaugural Liberty Ball in Washington DC on Monday, it quickly became apparent that something wasn’t quite right. It wasn’t just the sound system, which cut out so that the 63-year-old country star couldn’t hear his guitar, or the rattle in his voice as he croaked: “How good was it to see our President back in command?” The trouble seemed to run deeper, as Cyrus’s family members have since spoken out about it.
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Kevin E G Perry26 January 2025 07:00
CIA believes COVID likely originated from a lab, but agency has low confidence in its own findingThe CIA now believes the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic likely originated from a laboratory, according to an assessment released Saturday that points the finger at China even while acknowledging that the spy agency has “low confidence” in its own conclusion.
The finding is not the result of any new intelligence, and the report was completed at the behest of the Biden administration and former CIA Director William Burns. It was declassified and released Saturday on the orders of President Donald Trump‘s pick to lead the agency, John Ratcliffe, who was sworn in Thursday as director.
The nuanced finding suggests the agency believes the totality of evidence makes a lab origin more likely than a natural origin. But the agency’s assessment assigns a low degree of confidence to this conclusion, suggesting the evidence is deficient, inconclusive or contradictory.
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David Klepper26 January 2025 06:00
President Trump says ‘nobody knows’ America’s population (it’s 331 million)President Donald Trump claimed that “nobody knows” how many people make up the American population.
Speaking at the Circa Resort & Casino in Las Vegas on Saturday afternoon, Trump boasted about the flurry of executive orders he signed and Biden-era policies he reversed during his first week back in the White House. One of those was withdrawing from the World Health Organization.
“We paid $500 million a year and China paid $39 million a year despite a much larger population,” he told the crowd, he erupted in cheers after Trump reminisced on the WHO withdrawal.
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Kelly Rissman26 January 2025 05:00
‘We are American warriors’: Pete Hegseth gives troops their mission hours after being confirmed as Defense Secretary“We will do this in three ways — by restoring the warrior ethos, rebuilding our military, and reestablishing deterrence,” the 44-year-old said in a release reminiscent of the opening statement at his confirmation hearing.
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Gustaf Kilander26 January 2025 04:00
Trump promised to leave abortion to the states. He capped his first week by targeting reproductive rightsPresident Donald Trump has wasted no time in carrying out his anti-abortion agenda.
The president signed a pair of executive orders Friday reviving two anti-abortion policies from his first term – despite his pledges that abortion should be left to the state’s discretion.
To end his first week, Trump resurrected the enforcement of the Hyde Amendment, which bars federal funds from being used to pay for abortions. Former President Biden had reversed the policy after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
In his executive order, he said: “The previous administration disregarded this established, commonsense policy by embedding forced taxpayer funding of elective abortions in a wide variety of Federal programs.”
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Kelly Rissman26 January 2025 03:15
Deadmau5 slams DJ 3LAU for performing at Trump inaugural ballDeadmau5 told his fellow musician that while nobody in the administration will remember the performance “everyone in [the music business] will remember that you stood behind nazis and convicted felons.”
3lau, real name Justin David Blau, 34, posted pictures of his performance at President Trump’s Starlight Ball — one of the three inaugural presidential balls typically attended by major donors — to his Instagram account.
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Kevin E G Perry26 January 2025 02:30
US has not stopped military aid to Ukraine, Zelenskyy saysUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday the U.S. has not stopped military aid to Ukraine after newly sworn in U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced he would pause foreign aid grants for 90 days.
Zelenskyy did not clarify whether humanitarian aid had been paused. Ukraine relies on the U.S. for 40% of its military needs. “I am focused on military aid; it has not been stopped, thank God,” he said at a press conference with Moldovan President Maia Sandu.
The two leaders met in Kyiv on Saturday to discuss the energy needs of Moldova’s Russian-occupied Transnistria region, which saw its natural gas supplies halted on Jan. 1 due to Ukraine’s decision to stop Russian gas transit. Ukraine has said it can offer coal to the Transnistrian authorities to make up for the shortfall.
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Samya Kullab26 January 2025 01:45
