DOJ fires officers who investigated Trump. And, what to find out about DeepSeek

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At present’s prime tales

Performing Lawyer Common James McHenry fired a number of Justice Division officers yesterday who labored on the federal felony investigations into President Trump, in keeping with two DOJ officers. Not less than a dozen individuals who labored with particular counsel Jack Smith obtained dismissals. It isn’t clear what number of officers concerned within the Trump investigations obtained termination notices.

• 🎧 Within the termination letters, McHenry wrote that he didn’t belief the officers to faithfully implement the president’s agenda as a consequence of their position in prosecuting him, NPR’s Carrie Johnson tells Up First. A longtime lawyer knowledgeable Johnson he couldn’t recall a time in trendy DOJ historical past when so many prosecutors from a single case had been dismissed. Whereas the fired prosecutors might protest, sue, and doubtlessly regain their jobs with again pay, the method might take time. In the meantime, some senior civil Justice Division officers have been reassigned in current days to work on a sanctuary metropolis activity power, which Johnson says might be a tactic designed to get them to stop.

The longer term is unclear for greater than 1.4 million immigrants within the U.S. legally beneath a number of Biden-era applications. These applications offered momentary authorized standing to migrants from particular nations, lots of whom had been escaping violence of their residence nations. Nonetheless, Trump has now ended these applications and given immigration officers the authority to swiftly deport these asylum seekers.

• 🎧 One program is named CHNV parole, which is particularly designed for individuals from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, NPR’s Sergio Martínez-Beltrán says. Individuals from these nations had been allowed into the U.S. so long as that they had a sponsor and handed a background examine. Trump has expanded the expedited elimination, which was initially solely utilized to migrants who had lately crossed the border. Martínez-Beltrán provides, “it’s one thing to issue an order; it’s a lot more complicated to actually deport people, and it’s unclear how that will happen.”
• ➡️ Immigrant and mixed-status households are altering their routines as immigration raids have begun.
• ➡️ How districts are responding to Trump clearing the best way for immigration arrests at faculties.

Tech shares worldwide have plummeted over the previous day as traders digest experiences {that a} Chinese language synthetic intelligence startup, DeepSeek, developed a aggressive AI mannequin at a low price. The corporate has attracted Trump’s consideration. As well as, DeepSeek grew to become the No. 1 most downloaded app on Apple’s U.S. app retailer, ousting OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

• 🎧 What rattled markets is a story that DeepSeek, with some caveats, principally did all of it cheaper, faster and with much less highly effective microprocessors than its huge opponents, NPR’s John Ruwitch experiences from China. It is a spinoff from a Chinese language hedge fund, established in 2023. The founders employed nice engineers and developed new algorithms. DeepSeek says it spent beneath $6 million to make, however analysts say that quantity could be misinterpreted because it does not embrace the price of growing variations through which the newest was distilled. Ruwitch provides that whereas this growth is pathbreaking, China faces rising challenges from the U.S. export ban on microprocessors.

Life recommendation

You’ll be able to see the world and get monetary savings — it simply takes somewhat savvy planning.

{Photograph} by Tsering Bista and Beck Harlan

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{Photograph} by Tsering Bista and Beck Harlan

Touring on a price range does not need to contain staying in hostels, consuming low cost meals or sleeping in prepare stations. You’ll be able to get pleasure from an excellent journey with out draining your checking account or compromising your security or high quality. Whether or not you might be planning a fast weekend getaway or a global journey, listed below are some suggestions: 

• ✈️ Discover an reasonably priced lookalike to your dream vacation spot. Cannot afford Paris? Contemplate Montreal or Quebec Metropolis.
• ✈️ Be versatile with journey dates.  Keep away from flying on Sundays and Mondays, which are sometimes pricier as a consequence of weekend journeys.
• ✈️ Examine lodging: Airbnb or different trip rental providers aren’t at all times extra reasonably priced. Verify lodge charges or contemplate a house swap.

For extra suggestions, try the complete record right here.

Image present

Qing Bao, one of many Smithsonian Nationwide Zoo’s new Large Pandas, eats an apple on Friday, Jan. 24, 2025. In November 2023, the Nationwide Zoo despatched its three pandas — Tian Tian and Mei Xiang, who had lived there since 2000, and their cub Xiao Qi Ji — again to China, upfront of the expiration of their mortgage settlement and amidst rising tensions between the 2 nations.

Tyrone Turner/WAMU

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Tyrone Turner/WAMU

Panda-monium has formally begun within the nation’s capital. After a three-month wait and an 8,000-mile journey from China, big pandas Bao Li and Qing Bao are lastly on show on the Smithsonian Nationwide Zoo. Their debut marks the newest chapter in China’s “panda diplomacy” within the U.S.

3 issues to know earlier than you go

When Claire Burnside Och was a younger waitress, a buyer’s sudden reply put her comfy.

Claire Burnside Och

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Claire Burnside Och

1. In 2004, Claire Burnside Och was a server at a high-end restaurant when she made a mistake opening a bottle of wine. She had damaged the cork, leaving half on her corkscrew and the opposite portion caught within the bottle. As an alternative of being irritated, the client dealt with it with grace and left her with phrases she now makes use of to reply to others’ fumbles.
2. The final of the 43 monkeys that escaped from Alpha Genesis Primate Analysis Heart in Yemassee, S.C., in November of final 12 months have been recovered, in keeping with the native police division. 
3. The First State of Being and Chooch Helped have received the Newbery and Caldecott awards, respectively — the largest honors in kids’s literature.

This text was edited by Majd Al-Waheidi.