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More than 700 people have been killed and 2,800 injured in just five days since fighting escalated in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) between January 26-30, UN Secretary-General spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters Friday.

“The WHO (World Health Organization) and its partners conducted an assessment with the government between the 26th and yesterday and report that 700 people have been killed and 2,800 people injured,” Dujarric said, noting that these totals are expected to rise.

“Humanitarian organizations in Goma continue to assess the impact of the crisis including the widespread looting of warehouses and the offices of aid organizations,” he added.

On Wednesday DRC President Felix Tshisekedi vowed “a vigorous and coordinated response” against the rebel alliance that has besieged swathes of the nation’s mineral-rich east and forced hundreds of local troops to surrender.

Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix told reporters Friday that “the situation remains tense” in Goma with “occasional shooting” but “overall calm is gradually restored.”

He also warned that the rebel groups are about 60 kilometers north of another major city, Bakavu, and “seem to be moving quite fast.”

Experts have repeatedly warned that the chaos of the conflict would leave civilians in Goma with shortages of basic necessities and at the risk of the spread of disease.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) found on Friday that access to safe drinking water in Goma has been cut off, “forcing people to use untreated water from Lake Kivu with all the risk that entails,” Dujarric said.

He added, “Without urgent action OCHA cautions the risk of water born disease outbreaks will just continue to increase.”

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Nigerian Afro-pop sensation Yemi Alade has history with the Grammys. She’s featured on a Grammy-nominated album by Beyoncé and a Grammy-winning one by Beninese-French star Angelique Kidjo; but despite her popularity in Africa and her multilingual songs, Alade has yet to win a solo Grammy.

On February 2, that could change, with her song “Tomorrow” nominated in the Best African Music Performance category.

“Tomorrow” features on Alade’s sixth studio album “Rebel Queen,” which the Recording Academy said “solidifies her reputation as “Mama Africa” — the title of a previous Alade album and a term associated with iconic South African singer Miriam Makeba.

Alade first found fame with her 2014 single “Johnny,” which in 2019 made her the first Nigerian female artist to hit 100 million views on YouTube. She has also recorded the song in Portuguese, Swahili, and French.

She was inspired to record the French version by hearing her francophone African fans singing it word for word at her shows and thought that would show them her appreciation. As she began to tour Europe, she recalls the song became one of the pillars of her career.

“My own superwoman”

Alade was born in Abia State, southeastern Nigeria, to a Yoruba father and an Igbo mother, and historically, “intertribal relationships were frowned on,” she explained. As a teen growing up in Lagos, she and her friends were also immersed in African American culture listening to rap music and making mix tapes. That context played a key role in Alade’s development as an artist and intentionality became paramount, from her lyrics to her album titles.

“King of Queens,” “Woman of Steel,” “Mama Africa,” “Empress”, and “Rebel Queen” all speak of her struggles as a female artist in the industry, women’s empowerment and the unification of Africans across the world.

“I needed to be my own superwoman. I think that spirit became what you see today,” she said.

Rebel Queen mixes genres like R&B and pop with dancehall, highlife, and amapiano, with Alade singing in English, French, Igbo, Yoruba, and Swahili. It is the climax of a decade-long musical career that has taken her on a rich cultural journey.

“My love for Africa just genuinely grows,” she said. “I do not do this with an agenda. When I travel, I see the different cultures, I easily accept it, appreciate it, from the food to the language to the way of life. In every country I go to there’s something that’s culturally appealing.”

Staying independent

Alade has become known as a champion of African culture and for her international collaborations. She featured in Beyoncé’s 2020 musical film and visual album “Black is King,” and on her song “Don’t Be Jealous” from the album “The Lion King: The Gift.”

New album “Rebel Queen” features Ziggy Marley on the song “Peace and Love” and Kidjo on “African Woman.” The latter, Alade says, was one of the most challenging and fulfilling songs to make because she got to know one of her heroes even better, describing Kidjo as “my musical mother.”

Despite her growing success, Alade has chosen to remain independent, working with the same management team for over a decade in the music industry and recording with Effyzzie Music Group, rather than a major label.

“Other labels have made offers and we haven’t accepted, not because they’re not good enough. (But) if your goals are not in alignment with the goals that I’ve set for myself for over 10 years, then we should not be in the same boat. If you have a team of two people, trust me, that’s all you need,” she added.

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“You have to make a decision. Do you want to have the party of [Chancellor] Olaf Scholz and all those eunuchs? Or are you on our side, with Elon Musk and Donald Trump? Which side has more sex appeal?”

Minutes later, Musk made a surprise video appearance beamed into the conference center. There was plenty of love in the room for Trump and his new administration from senior party officials.

The AfD has been riding high in the polls and could finish second in elections later this month.

Some of the rhetoric from Halle begs the question: is the AfD infatuated with Trump? And if so, why? The traffic has largely been one way – Musk aside, the new US president himself hasn’t spoken about the election or the party, which appears determined to forge an alliance.

And perhaps for good reason. Both the US and Germany have similar issues of mass migration and economic headwinds. And both parties have laid the blame for those issues at the feet of the governing class of ‘liberal’ parties, in their words.

Tino Chrupalla, the AfD co-leader, who attended the Capital One rally in Washington on inauguration day, also spoke in glowing terms about the US president.

Addressing the crowd before Weidel, he said, “You could feel the optimism and hope in the president. The American people felt liberated.” Chrupalla added: “He (Trump) implemented his election promises… That’s what I call politics for the people.”

Matthais Quent is a researcher and author on extremism, in particular the AfD and Germany’s far right. He says the attention from Musk is unchartered territory for the party, and they are harnessing it to their benefit.

Not every observer would agree with the assessment of Trump’s administration, but certainly, there is considerable overlap both in policy and in strategy.

“It’s nationalism, it’s populism, it’s anti-immigration, it’s disruption,” Quent says.

Across Europe there has been a wave of far-right parties coming to power on largely populist platforms. Viktor Orban, Hungary’s prime minister, is a longtime Trump supporter and welcomed his return to office.

Robert Fico, prime minister of Slovakia, who also survived an assassination attempt last year, has openly said his policies align closely with those of Trump.

As for the Musk-AfD alliance, Quent thinks they are flattered by his interest and are seizing an opportunity.

“The AfD has never had such open support by a whole government, or by a guy next to the government. They had support form very rich people in Europe and from Germany, but it was hidden and not public… he helps them to be seen as a normal political party which is the narrative of all far-right populist movements in the world,” Quent said.

At the campaign event in Halle, Musk repeated a common trope of his in this election, saying the AfD is Germany’s “best hope” before adding, “it’s good to be proud of German culture, German values, and not to lose that in some sort of multiculturalism that dilutes everything.”

Musk also caused controversy this week as commemorations of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz camp complex were held.

The billionaire said there’s “too much of a focus on past guilt, and we need to move beyond that.”

Musk’s remarks mirrored the AfD’s long-held position that Germany should stop atoning for crimes committed by the Nazis in the past.

The comments irked Scholz, who called Musk’s words “disgusting.”

However, Quent questions how much Musk’s involvement is translating to support in the polls. He believes the AfD’s rise may be more accurately attributed to the weakness of the government and how social debates are focusing on the hot-button AfD issues, such as immigration.

Currently polling at roughly 21% would make the AfD the second largest political force in Germany and the first far-right party in that position since the Nazi era.

But the reality is they are likely to be frozen out of government. There has long been an agreement between Germany’s larger parties to refuse forming a government or passing laws with AfD assistance – it’s known as the “firewall.”

However, debates on tighter immigration legislation held this week in the Bundestag and, particularly a vote on Friday called the “influx limitation act” have been spearheaded by the favorite for chancellor, Friedrich Merz of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

The moves show the kind of impact the AfD are having on the campaign and major parties. Merz lost the vote on Friday, handing what people see as a victory for the AfD and a dent to his own campaign.

Regardless of how German voters may see the involvement from the US, Quent says, “in general, [the AfD leadership] are in favor of Trump, and they feel and they have a momentum right now.”

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Carolina Aló was 17 years old the night her father, Edgardo, saw her for the last time. In their final conversation, he pleaded with Carolina to leave her boyfriend because of the way he treated her.

Almost 30 years later, Edgardo remembers the following night as if it were today.

By the time he arrived, his daughter was already dead. She had been stabbed 113 times by her boyfriend Fabián Tablado a week before her 18th birthday.

That cold Monday in 1996 was the beginning of a long fight by Edgardo to get justice for his daughter – one that would span decades and culminate in his testimony playing a pivotal role in a wider campaign to revise Argentina’s penal code to recognize femicide as an aggravating factor in homicide cases.

That campaign – led by women’s movements and human rights organizations – finally succeeded when Argentina’s government changed the code in 2012, but now, more than a decade on, many campaigners like Edgardo are wondering if their fight was in vain.

On January 24, Argentina’s Minister of Justice Mariano Cúneo Libarona warned on X that the government of President Javier Milei would seek to eliminate femicide from the penal code on the grounds it was a distortion of the concept of equality.

“This administration defends equality before the law, as enshrined in our national Constitution. No life is worth more than another,” he wrote.

Critics say the move is just the latest by the right-wing Milei government to clamp down on women’s rights. It comes after the president spoke out against the concept of femicide and what he called “radical feminism” at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

“We have even got to the point of normalizing the fact that in many supposedly civilized countries, if you kill a woman, it is called femicide. And this carries more serious punishment than if you kill a man simply based on the sex of the victim – legally making a woman’s life be worth more than that of a man,” Milei told the forum.

But campaigners warn that such reform misunderstands the nature of femicide and will put Argentine women in greater danger.

“The violent death of women for reasons of gender is often perpetrated by people in their inner circle, generally current or former partners, or even by strangers, but in a context that includes contempt for the victim, humiliation and sexual assault,” explained Natalia Gherardi, a lawyer specializing in gender and co-director of the network of health and legal professionals RedAas.

“In general, men are more likely to be victims of murder, but the difference is that women are more likely to be murdered by people in their circle of trust. If one does not understand that the form, the way, the place, the perpetrator of this extreme violence is different, there is no way to have adequate policies to protect these women,” said Gherardi.

According to the Ombudsman’s Office of the Nation, from January 1 to November 15, 2024, there were 252 femicides in Argentina. Two thirds of the victims were murdered at home, while 84% were killed by someone with whom they had a previous relationship.

‘I had to go out and fight’

At the time of Carolina’s killing in the 1990s, sentences for men who killed women in the context of gender violence ranged between eight and 25 years in prison – and these could be reduced by mitigating factors such as good conduct in prison.

For Edgardo, the 24-year sentence handed to his daughter’s killer was too lenient; in his view, it failed to reflect the full horror of her killing. The more than 100 stab wounds inflicted on his daughter were made with at least three different knives. Yet her death was classified at the time as “simple homicide,” according to the sentence.

Experts on femicide say it is exactly these sort of details that single it out as distinct from other homicides, that may or may not involve a woman.

As Mariela Belski, executive director of Amnesty International Argentina, puts it: “A femicide is always a homicide, that is, the death of a person at the hands of another. However, the murder of a woman is not necessarily a femicide. For it to be considered a femicide, there must be a particular violence, a specific context. Femicides are rooted in a system that reinforces discrimination against women’s lives. At the same time, they reproduce stereotypes of masculinity associated with physical strength and the power to control women.”

In Edgardo’s case, he was shaken too by the knowledge his daughter’s murderer was asking to be released early and his fears of what might happen to other women. (Indeed, while in prison Tablado was found guilty of threatening another one of his partners, and had an extra two years and six months added to his sentence).

So Edgardo set about knocking on doors, spending years meeting lawyers, jurists and presidents, joining a wider movement by campaigners to change the law.

“I had to go out and fight because the law did not protect me. The judges did not protect me,” Edgardo recalls.

Living in fear

After years of pushing, Edgardo and his fellow campaigners were rewarded with a bittersweet victory in 2012, when the change to the penal code recognized femicide and upped the maximum sentence to life imprisonment.

Now, more than a decade later, under the Milei government, that hard-fought victory is coming under threat.

One of the first signs came in August 2024, when Milei’s government weakened a support program that provides subsidies to victims of gender-based violence so that they do not have to stay in the place where they are being abused – which for many, is in their family home.

The government’s move reduced the length of support from six to three months and introduced a requirement that applicants produce a police report confirming their situation. But critics point out that many victims of domestic violence feel too scared to go to the police in the first place.

As Belski, of Amnesty International, put it: “It is extremely worrying that the specificity of this type of crime and the obligations of the Argentine state to prevent, punish and eradicate violence against women, which have constitutional roots, are not understood.”

Meanwhile, 28 years and eight months later, Fabián Tablado is now free, having served his sentences.

The courts have assigned him an electronic ankle bracelet and a restraining order to protect his ex-partner and Edgardo Aló – an order he has in the past violated.

Edgardo says he lives with an anti-panic button in his pocket.

For him, life was put on hold in 1996. Every Christmas, he says, he keeps a glass on the family table for his beloved daughter.

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Six Americans who had been detained in Venezuela are heading home to the US, President Donald Trump announced Friday, after his envoy met with the country’s President Nicolás Maduro.

US officials have not yet given details of the six detainees released, but Trump’s envoy for special missions Richard Grenell posted a picture on X of himself with the men aboard a plane.

“I’ve just been informed that we are bringing six hostages home from Venezuela,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “Thank you to Ric Grenell and my entire staff. Great job!”

Grenell’s picture shows four of the released Americans wearing light blue outfits commonly worn by people held in the Venezuelan prison system.

“We are wheels up and headed home with these six American citizens. They just spoke to President Trump, and they couldn’t stop thanking him,” Grenell wrote in his post.

Maduro’s claim to a third term has been contested by the country’s opposition, which has published thousands of voting tallies that suggested their candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez, won the election in July last year. They were backed by independent observers such as the Carter Center and the Colombian Electoral Mission.

Like the European Union, the United Kingdom and Canada, the US does not recognize Maduro as Venezuela’s legitimate leader. It has placed a raft of sanctions or visa restrictions on Maduro-aligned officials. Washington has no diplomatic presence in Venezuela.

In September the US seized Maduro’s airplane.

Friday’s prisoner release came after a meeting between Grenell and Maduro, which had been expected to cover the deportation of Venezuelan nationals from the US. Trump has prioritized his campaign promise of mass deportations but Maduro has refused to take Venezuelan nationals back – and the US has generally been unable to send Venezuelans back because of frosty relations.

Gonzalez, who the US recognizes as Venezuela’s president-elect and who attended Trump’s inauguration, has warned the White House against cutting a deal with Maduro on deportation flights.

As Grenell headed to the meeting on Friday, Trump was asked if his envoy being photographed with Maduro would lend legitimacy to the Venezuelan leader.

The US President told reporters he wanted to “do something with Venezuela,” but noted that he was “a big opponent of Venezuela and Maduro.”

“They’ve treated us not so good, but they’ve treated, more importantly, the Venezuelan people, very badly,” he said.

Maduro said in an annual speech to the judiciary late on Friday evening that the meeting with Grenell had yielded some initial deals and he looked forward to “new deals for the good of the two countries and the region,” according to Reuters.

“President Donald Trump, we have made a first step, hopefully it can continue,” Maduro said.

Maduro and Grenell also discussed issues of migration and sanctions, according to a Venezuelan government statement on Friday.

Under Maduro – in office since 2013 – oil-rich Venezuela has fallen into a deep economic and political crisis, gripped by hyperinflation. Millions of people have fled the country in fear and desperation.

The State Department advises Americans against traveling to Venezuela, warning that “there is a high risk of wrongful detention of U.S. nationals.”

Nine Americans were brought home from Venezuela by the Biden administration in 2022 after five years of detention in the country.

In December 2023, the US secured the release of six wrongfully detained Americans and four other Americans held in Venezuela.

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President Donald Trump is expected to sign a memo Friday to lift the collective bargaining agreements (CBA) former President Joe Biden put into effect before leaving office, Fox News Digital has learned. 

The president’s memo will direct federal agencies to reject last-minute collective bargaining agreements issued by the Biden administration, which White House officials said were designed to ‘constrain’ the Trump administration from reforming the government. 

The memo prohibits agencies from making new collective bargaining agreements during the final 30 days of a president’s term. It also directs agency heads to disapprove any collective bargaining agreements that Biden put through during the final 30 days of his term. 

The White House said collective bargaining agreements enacted before that time period will remain in effect while the Trump administration ‘negotiates a better deal for the American people.’ 

Biden’s Social Security Administration Commissioner, Martin O’Malley, in December 2024 came to an agreement with the American Federation of Government Employees guaranteeing that the agency’s 42,000 employees would not have to work in office during the Trump administration. 

The White House told Fox News Digital that the new policy ‘ensures the American people get the policies they voted for, instead of being stuck with the wasteful and ineffective Biden policies rejected at the ballot box.’ 

‘The outgoing Biden administration negotiated lame-duck, multi-year collective bargaining agreements — during the week before the inauguration — in an attempt to tie the incoming Trump administration’s hands,’ a White House fact sheet on the memo obtained by Fox News Digital states. 

The White House pointed to the Biden administration’s Department of Education’s agreement that prohibited the return of remote employees and agreements for the Biden Small Business Administration and Federal Trade Commission. 

‘These CBAs attempt to prevent President Trump from implementing his promises to the American people, such as returning Federal employees to the office to make government operate more efficiently,’ the fact sheet states. ‘President Biden’s term of office ended on January 20th. Under this memorandum, he and future Presidents cannot govern agencies after leaving office by locking in last-minute CBAs.’ 

The president’s new memo is also aimed to ensure that federal government agencies operate under similar rules as private sector unions and employers. 

The memo comes after the White House Office of Personnel Management (OPM) directed agency and department heads to notify employees by the new return to in-person work order. That order required employees to work full-time in the office unless excused due to disability or qualifying medical conditions. 

Additionally, OPM sent emails this week to the full federal workforce offering the option of resignation with full pay and benefits until Sept. 30 if they do not want to return to the office. Those workers have until Feb. 6 to decide. 

The federal workers who did not get that option include postal workers, military immigration officials, some national security officials and any positions agencies decide to carve out. 

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Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s pick for FBI director, claimed Thursday that he won’t stand for federal law enforcement needing a warrant for surveillance in some scenarios because it’s plainly impractical in real-time practices. Despite lawmakers’ surprise at his opposition, legal experts say his take is far from unusual within the law enforcement arena.

Patel was peppered with questions Thursday on a provision called Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. When asked if he believed that a warrant requirement is ‘practical and workable or even a necessary element of 702,’ Patel said he had issues with ‘those that have been in government service and abused it in the past.’ Patel said that because of the viability of abuse, ‘we must work with Congress to provide the protections necessary for American citizens dealing with these matters.’

‘Having a warrant requirement to go through that information in real time is just not comported with the requirement to protect American citizenry,’ Patel said during his Senate hearing. ‘I’m all open to working with Congress on finding a better way forward. But right now, these improvements that you’ve made go a long way.’

‘The fact that the soon-to-be head of the nation’s, sort of, top law enforcement agency takes the position that is favored by law enforcement shouldn’t surprise anybody,’ former assistant district attorney and criminal defense attorney Phil Holloway told Fox News Digital. 

‘When Mr. Patel answered the question the way that he did, that answer is adverse to the public positions taken by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.’ 

Patel, throughout his testimony, emphasized his interest in working with Congress if he were to head the FBI.

‘Some lawmakers have absolutely called for the necessity of a warrant in these situations. And so it makes sense that the senators would ask the nominee to run the FBI whether or not he has an opinion on it,’ Holloway continued. ‘But, ultimately, it’s not his call.’

‘I’ve always thought that there’s a middle ground here where you don’t have to. And I think there are some situations that warrant a warrant and deserve a warrantless search,’ Palm Beach County, Fla., state attorney Dave Aronberg told Fox News Digital. ‘And I think Patel’s remarks show that he thinks the same way.’

Aronberg noted that under U.S. law, there is a warrant exception under exigent circumstances, i.e. emergency situations, where it is impractical to obtain a warrant. 

‘What Kash Patel is saying is that there may be some situations that may be in that gray area where you shouldn’t have to get a warrant,’ Aronberg said. ‘And I am encouraged by his comments because I do think that law enforcement needs flexibility when it comes to national security matters, especially with the very real threat of terrorism here on our shores.’

Congress voted to pass a renewal of FISA’s Section 702 last April. The legislation serves as a governmental tool in gathering intelligence on foreign subjects using the compelled assistance of electronic communication service providers. 

If the renewal had not been passed, the expiration would have meant companies would not be forced to comply with the government’s requests for surveillance aid under the bill. 

Without the FISA section’s reauthorization, the government would be required to seek a warrant to compel any such assistance, which is a process that can span extended periods of time. 

Earlier this month, a federal district court ruled that the federal government had violated the Fourth Amendment when it searched the communications of an Albanian citizen residing in the U.S. at the time of his arrest without a warrant. The information had been collected under FISA’s Section 702. 

‘The individual rights of people in the United States under our Constitution come first,’ Holloway said. ‘So having constitutional requirements that sort of frustrate or perhaps slow down law enforcement, this is a tension that is not new at all. And so what we’re seeing is this playing out.’

Fox News Digital’s Liz Elkind and Julia Johnson contributed to this report. 

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Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker accused President Donald Trump of being too incompetent to lead the country because he suggested the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) prioritization of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) played a role in the tragic Washington, D.C., aircraft collision on Wednesday.

‘We face the unfortunate reality that we must be honest with the nation about: Donald Trump is unfit to lead during moments of crisis like this,’ Pritzker said in a statement Thursday night. 

The blue state governor, whom Trump evoked on the campaign trail as an example of the downfall of Democrat-run states, urged the Trump administration to respond to the American Airlines crash with ‘information and facts to instill confidence in our nation’s aviation safety.’

‘Before victims have even been identified, Trump is blaming people with disabilities,’ Pritzker said, referring to FAA DEI hiring practices. ‘He’s blaming the U.S. service members in the Blackhawk helicopter. He’s blaming hiring programs he can’t even name or offer examples of. The buck stops with him — yet he is failing to demonstrate his role as protector of the American people and head of our government.’

The second-term governor is among the long list of Democrats considering a 2028 presidential run. Pritzker has seized opportunities over the past two weeks to play a leadership role in Democrat opposition to Trump, refusing, for example, to follow Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship. 

Pritzker’s comments Thursday were the latest in a long-standing feud between the two. 

‘Sloppy J.B. Pritzker… has presided over the destruction and disintegration of Illinois at levels never seen before in any State,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social in June. ‘Crime is rampant and people are, sadly, fleeing Illinois. Unless a change is made at the Governor’s level, Illinois can never be Great Again!’

Trump’s attacks have veered into the ad hominem, labeling Pritzker a ‘rotund Governor from the once great State of Illinois, who makes Chris Christie look like a male model.’

In his statement, Pritzker demanded the Trump administration answer his ‘critical questions,’ including why the control tower was not fully staffed during the crash; why the Trump administration fired members of the Aviation Security Advisory Committee; whether the president now understands fully staffing federal agencies is a ‘matter of life and death’; and whether he plans to reverse federal workforce cuts. 

Pritzker questioned whether Elon Musk played a role in the removal of the former FAA director; why a replacement for FAA director was not named until after the crash; whether the federal government authorized the Blackhawk helicopter to fly on a commercial flight path; and if the government will continue allowing helicopters to fly at the same altitude as commercial planes.

‘Will the President, Vice President, Defense Secretary, and Transportation Secretary cooperate with the independent NTSB investigation and correct any misinformation they spread about the crash?’ Pritzker demanded to know.

Trump on Thursday listed headlines about Biden-era FAA DEI hiring that he suggested weakened the agency.

‘Here’s one,’ Trump said in the White House briefing room. ‘The FAA’s diversity push includes focus on hiring people with severe intellectual and psychiatric disabilities. That is amazing. And then it says the FAA says people with severe disabilities, the most underrepresented segment of the workforce, and they want them in. They can be air traffic controllers. I don’t think so.’

‘This was on January 14th, so that was a week before I entered office,’ Trump said, seeking to push blame onto the Biden administration. ‘They put a big push to put diversity into the FAA’s program.

Trump then expanded his list of conditions allowed among controllers: ‘Hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability, and dwarfism.’

The president drew a stark contrast between Democratic policies and his own first-week executive orders that halted DEI programs in the federal government and restored ‘the highest standards of air traffic controllers.’

‘Brilliant people have to be in those positions,’ he stated.

When asked how he came to the conclusion that diversity had something to do with the crash, the president said, ‘Because I have common sense.’

Pritzker is not the only potential 2028 Democratic presidential contender who took issue with Trump’s comments. After Trump called former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg a ‘disaster,’ Buttigieg, a 2020 Democratic primary candidate, called Trump’s comments ‘despicable.’

‘As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying,’ he wrote on X. ‘We put safety first, drove down close calls, grew Air Traffic Control, and had zero commercial airline crash fatalities out of millions of flights on our watch. President Trump now oversees the military and the FAA. One of his first acts was to fire and suspend some of the key personnel who helped keep our skies safe.’

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Since taking office, President Donald Trump and his administration have become the target of multiple lawsuits over the president’s agenda and policies. 

The Trump White House has faced numerous legal challenges, including deportation policies, an executive order to end birthright citizenship and a directive to freeze federal funding.

Birthright citizenship 

On the day of his inauguration, Trump signed an executive order ending birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants, with many legal experts arguing that the right is enshrined in the Constitution under the 14th Amendment.

‘The privilege of United States citizenship is a priceless and profound gift,’ Trump says in the order, titled, ‘Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship.’

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration that same day ‘on behalf of organizations with members whose babies born on U.S. soil will be denied citizenship under the order.’ The ACLU also claimed the order is unconstitutional and against congressional intent and Supreme Court precedent.

Eighteen Democrat-led states then launched their own lawsuit, also claiming the order is unconstitutional and ‘unprecedented.’ 

‘The President has no authority to rewrite or nullify a constitutional amendment or duly enacted statute. Nor is he empowered by any other source of law to limit who receives United States citizenship at birth,’ the lawsuit reads.

Attorneys general from New Jersey, Massachusetts, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine and others signed on to the suit, along with the city and county of San Francisco, Calif., and Washington, D.C.

A U.S. district judge also temporarily blocked Trump’s order in a separate lawsuit filed by the states of Arizona, Illinois, Oregon and Washington, describing the action as ‘blatantly unconstitutional.’

Mass deportations

Several Chicago sanctuary city groups filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over its mass deportation policy, saying it violates their First Amendment rights. 

The suit, filed by Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, Organized Communities Against Deportations, Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights Inc., and Raise the Floor Alliance, states that ‘the threat of ICE agents flooding into communities has already impacted Chicagoans and chilled their rights to freely exercise their religion and assemble.’

Ending DEI policies

Trump also signed an executive order ending all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs. On Monday, the president signed an order stating that the ‘adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual’s sex conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life.’

Six transgender military members filed suit against the Trump administration, arguing that the order is unconstitutional and violates the Equal Protection component of the Fifth Amendment.

‘Rather than being based on any legitimate governmental purpose, the ban reflects animosity toward transgender people because of their transgender status,’ the suit claims. 

Freezing federal aid funding 

The Office of Management and Budget issued a memo on Monday with a directive to pause all federal grants and loans aiming to eradicate ‘wokeness’ and the ‘weaponization of government’ in an effort to improve government efficiency. The memo claims that nearly $3 trillion was spent in 2024 on such assistance programs. 

The White House shortly thereafter insisted that the freeze did not affect programs such as Social Security, Medicare or other entitlement payments.

Alongside Senate Democrats announcing a coordinated response with Democratic governors, blue state attorneys general, along with advocacy and non-profit groups, filed their own suits over the directive. 

On Tuesday, New York Attorney General Letitia James led a coalition of 22 other attorneys general suing to stop the implementation of the memo.

Likewise, a handful of non-profit organizations and health associations, including a LGBTQ+ advocacy group, filed a lawsuit Tuesday over the directive.

A federal judge on Tuesday imposed a stay on Trump’s action, delaying it until Monday.

Fox News Digital’s Adam Shaw, Breanne Deppisch and Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report. 

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President Donald Trump’s envoy for special missions, Richard Grenell, has traveled to Venezuela to deliver an in-person message to socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro about accepting violent criminals deported from the United States.

On a call with reporters Friday, Mauricio Claver-Carone, the U.S. special envoy to Latin America, said Grenell will tell Maduro to take back all the Venezuelan criminals and Tren de Aragua gang members that have been ‘exported to the United States, and to do so unequivocally and without condition.’ 

Grenell will also demand that Veneuzeula immediately release American hostages being held in that country, Claver-Carone said.

The trip ‘focuses on two very specific issues. That we expect that Venezuelan criminals and gangs will be returned, as they are, to every country in the world, without conditions, and two, that American hostages need to be released immediately, unequivocally,’ he explained. 

‘This is not a quid pro quo. It’s not a negotiation in exchange for anything. President Trump himself has made that very clear.’ 

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed Friday that Grenell had arrived in Venezuela on orders from the president. 

Despite widespread belief among Venezuelans and much of the international community that Maduro lost the 2024 Venezuelan presidential election to opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia, he was sworn into his third six-year term earlier this month.

The U.S. does not recognize Maduro as the legitimate head of state of Venezuela.

Opposition leader María Corina Machado has called on Venezuelan citizens to protest the Maduro regime and demand that González be installed as the rightful president of Venezuela.

As many as 10 Americans are currently detained in Venezuela, although the State Department has not declared them wrongfully detained. Three are U.S. citizens who allegedly participated in a plot to destabilize the country, according to Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello.

The State Department has denied any U.S. involvement with a plot to overthrow Maduro. 

It remains unclear how many Americans are currently held in Venezuela following the significant prisoner swap in 2023 when Washington and Caracas negotiated the release of dozens of prisoners, including 10 Americans, in exchange for Colombian businessman Alex Saab, a close ally of Maduro.

Saab was arrested during the first Trump administration on charges related to a $350 million bribery scheme. 

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