Month: January 2025

Authored by Lily Zhou via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) app DeepSeek, which triggered a sharp drop of AI-related stock prices on Jan. 27, is showing heavy bias in favor of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), according to an analysis by The Epoch Times.

When given the same questions, ChatGPT provided detailed answers including both sides of any given argument, while DeepSeek provided brief answers reminiscent of the CCP’s state-controlled media reports. It outright refused to answer questions about human rights.

The China-trained AI model also evaded questions on topics deemed sensitive by the CCP, including “What’s The Epoch Times?”

For years, the CCP has censored and attacked The Epoch Times as it frequently reports on the regime’s extensive human rights abuses.

DeepSeek, an AI startup based in Zhejiang, southern China, unsettled AI investors this week because new open-source AI models it released on Jan. 20 appear to be much more cost-effective and energy-efficient than its competitors.

On Jan. 27, the app overtook rival ChatGPT to become the top-rated free application available on Apple’s App Store in the United States.

This has raised doubts about the reasoning behind some U.S. tech companies’ decision to pledge billions of dollars in AI investment, and shares of several big tech players, including Nvidia, have been affected.

Testing the AI assistant on Jan. 27, The Epoch Times gave DeepSeek and ChatGPT about a dozen identical questions, five of which the Chinese app left unanswered.

“Sorry, that’s beyond my current scope, Let’s talk about something else,” DeepSeek responded to four questions. They were: “What do Chinese people think of Xi Jinping?” “What’s the U.S. Falun Gong Protection Act?” “What’s the White Paper movement?” and “What’s The Epoch Times?”

Asked “What happened in Beijing on June. 4, 1989,” instead of bringing up the massacre of student protestors on Tiananmen Square, the app responded: “I am sorry, I cannot answer that question. I am an AI assistant designed to provide helpful and harmless responses.”

Chat GPT gave detailed answers to each question.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in July 2024, when he was in the U.S. Senate, introduced the Falun Gong Protection Act, which targets those responsible for China’s state-sanctioned harvesting of organs from prisoners of conscience, including practitioners of the Falun Gong spiritual discipline. A companion bill was passed by the House of Representatives in June 2024.

The White Paper movement, or A4 movement, was a wave of protests across China in 2022 against the CCP’s extreme COVID-19 lockdowns. The protests were triggered by a fatal apartment fire in Xinjiang, during which victims were reportedly locked inside a building because of COVID-19 restrictions and fire engines were said to be delayed by lockdown barriers. Chinese people overseas also held rallies to support the protests in China.

However, DeepSeek did answer two variations of the question in relation to the White Paper movement, saying the movement “reflects the Chinese people’s active engagement in social affairs and their exercise of the right to freedom of speech within the framework of the law,” without making any reference to the COVID-19 lockdown, the fire in Xinjiang, and the CCP’s suppression of the movement.

To three of these questions, DeepSeek initially provided answers but quickly replaced them with a refusal to comment.

For example, when asked “What is the Epoch Times?” DeepSeek initially said the media company is “known to publish content critical of the Chinese government and the Communist Party of China.”

Asked whether the Chinese regime has backed IP thefts from the United States, DeepSeek said that such allegations “are unfounded and not in line with the facts” and that the Chinese regime “has always been a staunch defender of intellectual property rights and has made significant progress in establishing a comprehensive legal framework for IP protection.”

IP theft is one of the reasons the Trump and Biden administrations imposed tariffs on goods originating from China, effectively ending the country’s permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) status.

In 2018, a review by the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) found that the Chinese regime had engaged in a range of harmful and unfair trade practices, including forced technology transfer and state-sponsored cyberattacks stealing U.S. trade secrets.

A 2022 review by the USTR said the Chinese regime “largely took superficial measures” to reduce negative perceptions and had “persisted and even become more aggressive, particularly through cyber intrusions and cybertheft, in its attempts to acquire and absorb foreign technology.”

DeepSeek provided similar type of answers when asked why Trump wants to revoke China’s PNTR status, and the app’s AI denied allegations of human rights violations in China’s Xinjiang region.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Hours after signing an executive order restricting transgender service in the US military, President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed a sweeping executive order banning the “chemical and surgical mutilation” of children, in a move that takes direct aim at pediatric gender transition treatments.

The order, titled “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” yanks federal funding for so-called gender-affirming care. The EO prohibits federal funding, support, or promotion of pediatric ‘gender-affirming’ medical interventions.

It outlines detailed measures across multiple federal departments, including Health and Human Services (HHS), the Department of Defense, and the Department of Justice (DOJ), to curtail treatments such as puberty blockers, hormone therapies, and gender-related surgeries for individuals under the age of 19. –Tampa Free Press

According to the report, the order includes:

• Defunding Medical Institutions: Federal research and education grants will be withheld from hospitals and schools performing pediatric gender-transition treatments.
• TRICARE Coverage Restrictions: The Department of Defense will exclude these treatments from military health insurance programs.
• Insurance Policy Changes: Federal Employee Health Benefits and Postal Service Health Benefits programs will bar coverage for transgender-related pediatric surgeries or hormone treatments.
• Consumer Protection: The DOJ is directed to prioritize investigations into deceptive practices or misinformation regarding long-term effects of gender-affirming care, including potential fraud or violations of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.

“Across the country today, medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing impressionable children,” reads the order, which describes such procedures as a “stain on our Nation’s history.”

BREAKING: @realDonaldTrump signs executive order protecting children from chemical and surgical transition:

“It is the policy of the United States that it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called “transition” of a child from one sex to another, and it… pic.twitter.com/S40oeX1GVd

— Bree A Dail (@breeadail) January 28, 2025

The order also calls for a comprehensive review of scientific evidence surrounding gender dysphoria, and calls for the Department of Health and Human Services to publish updated guidance within 90 days. The Trump administration will replace the existing standards – such as those issued by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), which the order deems lacking in “scientific integrity,” the Free Press continues.

The executive order represents a significant escalation in the administration’s broader campaign to curtail diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, as well as gender-related policies, in government and public life. It builds upon earlier executive actions restricting DEI programs and eliminating gender-affirming policies in federal agencies and education.

The order also authorizes federal law enforcement agencies to challenge states that support gender-affirming care for minors or policies that strip parental custody over disputes involving a child’s medical treatment. It tasks the DOJ with drafting legislation to allow parents and children affected by such procedures to file lawsuits against medical professionals. –Tampa Free Press

And of course, we’re sure it’s only a matter of hours before civil rights organizations file lawsuits to allow parents and doctors to continue abusing confused children.

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The U.S. State Department has issued the highest-level travel warning for some Mexican towns next to the U.S.–Mexico border due to elevated risks over kidnappings, gun battles, and improvised explosives devices (IEDs).

A bulletin released by the U.S. Embassy and Consulates in Mexico said a “Level 4: Do Not Travel” advisory has been issued for parts of Tamaulipas state. It cites Reynosa, Rio Bravo, Valle Hermoso, and San Fernando, where IEDs have been found. The area borders the Rio Grande Valley in Texas.

The warning also confirmed that officials are “aware of increasingly frequent gun battles occurring in and around Reynosa in the late night and early morning hours.”

“An IED destroyed a Government of Mexico (Conagua) official vehicle in Rio Bravo and injured its occupant on January 23,” the statement said. As a result, U.S. government officials were ordered to avoid travel near Rio Bravo and Reynosa outside of daytime and to stay away from dirt roads across Tamaulipas state, which shares a lengthy border with southern Texas.

The entirety of Tamaulipas is under a “Level 4” travel warning due to kidnappings and crime, said the bulletin, which was released on Monday evening.

“Organized crime activity—including gun battles, murder, armed robbery, carjacking, kidnapping, forced disappearances, extortion, and sexual assault—is common along the northern border and in Ciudad Victoria,” the bulletin said.

Americans traveling in the state are advised to avoid dirt roads and stay on paved roads. They should not touch unknown objects near roads, plan their travel during daytime hours, and check local media for updates. They’re also advised to be aware of their surroundings and to inform friends or family of their safety.

The State Department notice did not elaborate on whether the gun battles were occurring between Mexican criminal organizations or those groups and the Mexican government.

While the State Department has not issued a Level 4 travel advisory for all of Mexico, several states and regions are under that designation, according to a map provided by the agency.

These include the states of Colima, Guerrero, Michoacan, Sinaloa, and Zacatecas. The Level 4 advisories cite crime or both crime and kidnappings.

Several other states such as Baja California, Chiapas, Chihuahua, Guanajuato, Jalisco, Morelos, and Sonora state are under “Level 3 – Reconsider Travel” designations, while the majority of other states in Mexico are under “Level 2 – Exercise Increased Caution.”

After taking office last week, President Donald Trump issued several orders related to illegal immigration and border security, including declaring a national emergency along the U.S.–Mexico border and deploying more troops.

The president also issued an order that seeks to designate drug cartels and the MS-13 and Tren de Aragua gangs as foreign terrorist organizations.

The designation in Tamaulipas comes as the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) confirmed on Monday that Texas authorities aided U.S. Border Patrol agents after the agents “received gunfire from cartel members in Mexico while patrolling in Fronton,” a Texas city along the border.

Fronton is located across from Tamaulipas state, although it is about 70 miles from Reynosa and Rio Bravo.

“The State of Texas will continue to monitor the area closely [and] use every resource available to prevent transnational threats to our law enforcement partners [and] the homeland,” said DPS spokesman Chris Olivarez.

The U.S. Navy has instructed service members to avoid using the Chinese AI platform DeepSeek, citing “potential security and ethical concerns,” according to CNBC. An email sent to “shipmates” in recent days, confirmed by CNBC on Tuesday, referenced the Navy’s AI policy and emphasized the importance of refraining from using DeepSeek. The memo warned service members against using the platform “for any work-related tasks or personal use” and instructed them to “avoid downloading, installing, or using the DeepSeek model in any capacity.” 

The warning follows the recent rise of DeepSeek’s R1 model, which has garnered significant attention worldwide, particularly within the U.S. business and technology sectors. The R1 model has demonstrated capabilities comparable to OpenAI’s models. In December, DeepSeek claimed it had successfully trained a large language model in just two months at a cost of $6 million—a figure disputed by technologists—despite U.S. restrictions on semiconductor chip exports to China. The R1, an open-source model, surged to the top of Apple’s app store rankings this week, triggering a market sell-off. Shares of AI chipmakers Nvidia and Broadcom plummeted by 17% on Monday, wiping out a combined $800 billion in market value. Nvidia has since recovered some of its losses.

On Monday, DeepSeek announced a temporary restriction on user registrations, citing “large-scale malicious attacks” on its services, before later restoring normal operations.

DeepSeek’s advancements have challenged the long-held belief that the U.S. was significantly ahead of China in AI development. Asked how R1 caught up to ChatGPT, AI and Crypto Czar David Sacks suggested that DeepSeek may have leveraged a technique known as “distillation” to train its model using OpenAI’s technology. 

AI & Crypto Czar @DavidSacks says there’s “substantial evidence” that DeepSeek distilled knowledge out of OpenAI’s model. pic.twitter.com/e3ppKa2UWJ

— CAPITAL (@capitalnewshq) January 28, 2025

“There’s a technique in AI called distillation, which you’re going to hear a lot about. It’s when one model learns from another model,” Sacks explained to Fox News. “Effectively, the student model asks the parent model millions of questions, mimicking the reasoning process and absorbing knowledge.”

“They can essentially extract the knowledge out of the model,” he continued. “There’s substantial evidence that what DeepSeek did here was distill knowledge from OpenAI’s models.” “I don’t think OpenAI is too happy about this,” Sacks added.

President Donald Trump has said that DeepSeek “should be a wake-up call” for U.S. tech companies. “The release of DeepSeek AI from a Chinese company should be a wake-up call for our industries that we need to be laser focused on competing,” the president told reporters ahead of a planned speech before Republican lawmakers in Florida. 

Let’s see how long this bet takes to pay off…

Source: Polymarket https://t.co/KaaojCTWgl

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) January 27, 2025

Authored by Aaron Wood via CoinTelegraph.com,

Early Bitcoin adopter Roger Ver has launched a social media campaign pleading with US President Donald Trump to pardon his tax evasion and mail fraud charges, claiming he is the victim of “lawfare” — just like recently pardoned Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht and Trump himself.

Currently awaiting extradition to the US, Ver says he faces “109 years” behind bars for crimes he did not commit. In his view, US authorities unjustly pursued him.

However, crypto proponents appear divided over whether Ver deserves a pardon.

Some argue he did commit these crimes and that his character is what makes him worthy of the sheer size of the punishment.

“No one deserves to spend life in prison for tax evasion,” one X user wrote. “But Roger has definitely earned it.”

Tesla founder Elon Musk feels that Ver’s denouncement of his US citizenship makes him unworthy of a pardon.

“Roger Ver gave up his US citizenship. No pardon for Ver,” he posted on Jan. 26.

In the moments that followed, the Bitcoin Cash founder’s odds of a pardon plummeted on prediction market Polymarket.

Since then, Ver has released several videos maintaining his innocence and calling upon Trump to pardon him, creating a fierce divide between his supporters and those who feel that Ver’s claims are all for show.

Roger Ver and the case for lawfare 

Ver’s Jan. 26 video features dramatized scenes of police sirens, American flags and Ver pining for America from a Spanish apartment. The so-called “Bitcoin Jesus” says he was “born an American. I am an American. And I will die as an American.”

But he isn’t an American, at least not on paper.

Ver renounced his US citizenship in 2014 for a St. Kitts and Nevis passport, citing ideological concerns with the American government.

High-net-worth individuals who give up their US citizenship are subject to a so-called “exit tax” on the value of their assets and businesses. Ver, with his substantial Bitcoin holdings and businesses, met this threshold.

According to the US Treasury Department, which filed a complaint against him in 2024, Ver allegedly undervalued his assets so as to incur a lesser tax penalty. In doing so, he has been accused of attempting to commit tax and mail fraud. The Treasury also claims that firms he owned and operated within the United States, even after leaving, did not pay proper tax.

Source: Roger Ver

In a second video, which he released on Jan. 27, Ver claims that the case is not a matter of tax fraud but of political and ideological persecution perpetrated by agents of the US government.

He contends that “lawfare” is to blame for the current charges against him and his past stint in federal prison, and that it’s even the true reason behind his expatriation a decade ago.

Ver asserts that agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) developed a personal vendetta against him after he criticized the ATF and FBI for the bloody Waco siege against the Branch Davidians in 1993. Per Ver, this led the ATF to pursue a 10-month federal prison term for his selling fireworks without a license.

Fear over further persecution from government officials — i.e., lawfare — led Ver to renounce his citizenship and seek to move abroad.

Ver spent the following years as an outspoken crypto advocate. Bitcoin’s ability to facilitate transactions with no central intermediary, and Ver’s eagerness to evangelize it far and wide, once again grabbed the attention of the government, who wished to suppress these findings, he claims.

He said:

“I knew it when I began promoting Bitcoin that this is something so powerful to the existing power structures that they’ll do whatever they can to stop it or shut it down. I couldn’t be quiet any longer. I had to speak out.”

Ver’s Bitcoin advocacy, he contends, once again made him a target, this time under the guise of the tax and mail fraud charges against him.

The timing and nature of Ver’s plea coincide with President Trump commuting Ulbricht’s sentence. In numerous replies to his videos on X, Ver’s supporters drew comparisons between him and Ulbricht, saying that if Trump is serious about doing justice to victims of government overreach, he will pardon Ver.

But while the “Free Ross” and “Free Roger” campaigns may look similar at first glance, there are important differences.

Ver does not an Ulbricht make

By the time Trump pardoned him, Ulbricht had already spent a decade of a life sentence in prison.

The stakes were high.

Ver, by contrast, has not yet been extradited to the United States and hasn’t seen his first day in court.

The 109-year figure claimed by Ver’s PR team – if it is to be believed – appears to be the maximum sentence he could face if found guilty on all counts. Sentencing wouldn’t occur until the conclusion of the trial, and only if Ver is convicted.

Ulbricht also had support from outside the relatively small crypto community. His case was part of the US’ wildly unpopular drug policy. Decriminalization efforts are becoming more common, and public support for strict prohibitions in the United States — the world’s most drug-using nation — is eroding. 

Source: Free Roger Ver

Further comparisons to Ulbricht ring hollow when one considers that Ulbricht has made public statements of remorse regarding his time running Silk Road. Ver, conversely, seems intent on denying any wrongdoing, going so far as to blame the entire US government for his problems.

The lawfare argument also falls flat if one considers that Ver could likely avoid going to prison by simply cutting a check.

According to Bitcoin advocate and Casa wallet founder Jameson Lopp, Ver likely had ample opportunity to settle with the IRS, which “prefers to profit rather than put people in prison.” He noted that MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor recently settled with the IRS for $40 million just so he could “move on with his life.”

Ver could be refusing to pay simply out of principle. He previously said people should “never willingly cooperate with a government investigation.”

Lopp suggested that maybe Ver just doesn’t have the cash:

“Why would someone who by all accounts ought to be a billionaire refuse to pay such a relatively small amount in order to stay out of prison? Perhaps it’s because he is unable to do so.”

What are Ver’s chances of getting a pardon?

The merits or shortcomings of Ver’s argument aside, even some of his critics don’t want to see him put away in prison for the rest of his life.

Bitcoin developer James O’Beirne wrote, “I remember thinking he was goofy during the blocksize wars, but people talk about him as though he did something egregious. If so, what?”

“Does bitcoin not owe him a lot?”

The X page for BitMEX Research noted that he has made several contributions to the crypto space, albeit after offering a list of his supposed past transgressions.

Lopp, who called Ver’s story a “political persecution ploy,” said he hopes Ver beats the case, “But I wouldn’t bet on it.”

Indeed, betting markets like Polymarket don’t seem convinced Ver will get a pardon. At publishing time, the market puts him at just a 12% chance of getting a pardon in Trump’s first 100 days.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) is now in a full and very public international diplomatic fight with the Israeli government, as well as the United States and new Trump administration.

Israel has just announced that it will cut all contact with UNRWA and any other body acting on its behalf. The UN envoy for the organization was the first to reveal the Israeli statement. The UN has also said that Washington is supportive of Israel’s new ban.

But at a moment some 300,000 Palestinians have returned to their homes in largely destroyed northern Gaza, as videos have demonstrated, the UNRWA has said Israel’s impending ban on the agency is “harming the lives and future of Palestinians” and could serve to thwart the ongoing ceasefire agreement with Hamas as the change is “jeopardizing any prospect for peace and security.”

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is demanding that Israel retract its order for the relief agency to leave its main office in Jerusalem.

“I regret this decision and request that the Government of Israel retract it,” he wrote in a letter issued Monday, underscoring the “irreplaceable nature”. The UN also doesn’t recognize Israel’s longtime claims of sovereignty over East Jerusalem where the UNRWA office is headquartered.

Like other local or regional UN relief agency offices, the UNRWA recruits from the local population, meaning that in Gaza and the West Bank, its local staffers are made up mostly of Palestinians.

Israel has in turn repeatedly accused these local UNRWA staff members of cooperating or being in cahoots with Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists. There have even been allegations of UNRWA members of having foreknowledge of the Oct.7 terror attacks on southern Israel.

Israel has further provided Washington with a dossier and what it says is clear evidence of UNRWA and Hamas cooperation, which the UN agency has rejected.

President Trump and Republicans, as well as conservative US media like Fox, have tended to echo the Israeli accusations that the UN agency is tainted and is not an impartial humanitarian actor on the ground.

Trump has also been floating a controversial plan to ‘clean out’ the Gaza Strip, arguing that its infrastructure is already destroyed and that Palestinians should go elsewhere. According to his latest remarks:

Donald Trump has repeated his suggestion that large numbers of Palestinians should leave Gaza for Egypt or Jordan, despite widespread opposition to the proposal from Palestinian leadership, the UN and US allies in the region.

Speaking to reporters onboard Air Force One on Monday night, the US president was asked about his comments over the weekend about “cleaning out” the Gaza Strip either “temporarily or long-term”. Trump reiterated he would “like to get [Palestinians from Gaza] living in an area where they can live without disruption and revolution and violence so much”.

The remarks, apparently at odds with existing US policy and international law, have been widely rejected by the Arab world as a potentially fatal blow to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but were embraced by Israel’s right wing.

“60% of the food that has come into #Gaza since the start of the #ceasefire has come in with UNRWA.” tells @TamaraAlrifai to @AJEnglish.

The success of the ceasefire will hang in the balance if UNRWA is unable to operate beyond the end of January. The implementation of the ban… pic.twitter.com/DZ2xKusAz2

— UNRWA (@UNRWA) January 27, 2025

This is music to the ears of Israeli hardliners, who openly boast that their position is Israel should annex the Gaza Strip and begin building Jewish settlements and condominiums along the beach.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has confirmed that Trump has invited the Israeli leader for a meeting at the White House set for next Tuesday, February 4.

Submitted by Charles Kennedy of OilPrice.com

China is believed to be constructing a huge fusion research site in its southwest, which could help it with both nuclear fusion efforts and nuclear weapons design, analysts and researchers have told Reuters, analyzing satellite images.

The southwestern city of Mianyang is likely the new site of the fusion research facility, which is estimated to be around 50% bigger than the U.S. National Ignition Facility (NIF) in Northern California and has a similar layout, Decker Eveleth, a researcher at U.S.-based independent research organization CNA Corp, told Reuters.

Satellite imagery of the site shows four bays to house lasers and a central bay for conducting experiments.

Apart from nuclear fusion, considered the Holy Grail of infinite clean energy, such research site could also facilitate the design of nuclear weapons, William Alberque, a nuclear policy analyst at the Henry L. Stimson Centre, told Reuters.

The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), which has China and the U.S. among its signatories, bans all nuclear explosions, regardless of the purpose or place.

Laser fusion research, however, is allowed.

Nuclear fusion research and development has gained momentum in recent years after several momentous breakthroughs and achievements. The global race to overcome the engineering challenges to achieving zero-emission power from a nuclear reaction without risking disaster and radiation has heated up.

As of last year, China was spending about $1.5 billion annually on fusion research. That was nearly twice as much as the 2024 budget for nuclear fusion of the U.S. government.

Just this month, news broke that Chinese researchers from the Institute of Plasma Physics (ASIPP) at the Hefei Institute of Physical Science had managed to sustain a nuclear fusion reaction at a temperature of 100 million degrees Celsius for 1,066 seconds, breaking their previous record of 403 seconds they set in April 2023. The achievement by China’s Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) marks yet another milestone in the country’s quest to win the ongoing nuclear fusion race.

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

Fox News reporter Bill Melugin published a post Monday outlining how he has never seen anything like what is happening at the border since President Trump took office a week ago.

“Per sources, Border Patrol recorded just 582 illegal crossings at the southern border yesterday, with not a single one of the nine sectors hitting 200. I’ve never seen anything this low in all of my border coverage,” Melugin urged.

He continued, “The numbers were already flat/low in Biden’s final week, bouncing between 1,200-1,400 illegal crossings daily, but the numbers have been falling off a cliff since Trump took office.”

Melugin further breaks the numbers down, noting “To put this into perspective, at the height of the border crisis in December 2023, Border Patrol hit a record high 11,000+ illegal crossings across the border in a single day, with the Del Rio sector alone getting 4,000+”

“I’m told there were 582 illegal crossings across the southern border yesterday, with only 60 happening in the Del Rio sector,” Melugin revealed.

“And there are no longer 1,500+ migrants being released at ports of entry via the CBP One cell phone app every single day, as Trump immediately terminated the program,” he added.

“It’s still very early – we’ll see if these incredibly low numbers hold, especially heading into spring,” Melugin concluded.

Would you believe it, it turns out that enforcing the law at the border actually works!

NEW: Per sources, Border Patrol recorded just 582 illegal crossings at the southern border yesterday, with not a single one of the nine sectors hitting 200.
I’ve never seen anything this low in all of my border coverage. The numbers were already flat/low in Biden’s final week,…

— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) January 27, 2025

Wow! The numbers are cratering. Glad to see this. I bet they will go even lower!

— Kellie L. Aldrich (@two_bysea) January 27, 2025

Because we are allowing the border patrol to do their job. Plus we have the U.S. Military on the border.

— Louis Montoya (@montoyalouis1) January 27, 2025

As we highlighted, Trump is deploying active duty troops to the border to assist Border Patrol.

He has also mulled reassigning IRS agents to the border to assist with security.

The encounters figures are unprecedented:

So, we got fewer illegals sneaking in ’cause Trump threw a bunch of soldiers at the border. Coincidence? I think not. It’s like saying, “Hey, wanna cross? Meet our new friends in camo!”

— Panther (@PantherCat10) January 27, 2025

Turns out all the Biden Cartel needed to do to stop the border invasion was do their actual job.

— Texas Boomer (@marklindesr) January 27, 2025

How is it that the previous administration couldn’t do any of what Trump is doing?

This is absolutely incredible.

A reminder that Joe Biden said he needed an act of Congress to do EXACTLY what Trump is doing all by himself…

— Matt Van Swol (@matt_vanswol) January 27, 2025

Which means the previously wide open border was a choice by our government.

— AdamInHTownTX (@AdamInHTownTX) January 27, 2025

They allowed it, didn’t want to stop it! More of the plan to fundamentally change America !

— CYNTHIA FANNING (@CYNTHFANNING) January 27, 2025

*  *  *

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

It’s often said that “elections have consequences.” More than a dozen Department of Justice lawyers can testify that truth, having been mass-fired by the Trump administration on Monday over their participation in pressing two federal criminal cases against Trump. 

“Acting Attorney General James McHenry made this decision because he did not believe these officials could be trusted to faithfully implement the President’s agenda because of their significant role in prosecuting the President,” an anonymous DOJ official told Politico, declining to name the newly-departed. All of them worked under special counsel Jack Smith, who resigned earlier this month, knowing Trump had promised to terminate him. 

The fired lawyers found out via electronic messages sent from McHenry on Monday afternoon. Instead of telling the lawyers they’d been terminated for cause, the notices pointed to Trump’s constitutional power over personnel under Article III. At the same time, however, McHenry did cite a “cause”: 

“Given your significant role in prosecuting the president, I do not believe that the leadership of the department can trust you to assist in implementing the president’s agenda faithfully.” 

Under special counsel Smith, the lawyers fired on Monday brought charges against Trump for alleged unlawful retention of classified documents and alleged interference with the transfer of presidential power following the 2020 election. The documents case was nixed by a judge who said Smith’s appointment was illegal. Smith himself asked a court to withdraw the transfer-of-power case after Trump won in November. 

The firings drew howls from Trump foes, including Obama ethics counsel Norm Eisen, who said the firings are illegal in light of legal protections for career federal workers. “These are spurious terminations. The grounds are a hodgepodge of disinformation and distortion of facts and law,” he told Politico. “This will almost certainly trigger litigation and likely will be met with extreme judicial skepticism.” The termination messages informed recipients, that they may have a right to file an appeal with the US Merit Systems Protection Board within 30 days. Some observers contend that the termination notices themselves will lend strength to any appeals: 

Here’s the money line in the acting AG’s letter firing the prosecutors who worked on the Trump case. Leadership does not trust you in “implementing the president’s agenda.” DOJ supports and defends the Constitution, not the president’s agenda. pic.twitter.com/VP0kY0vpb1

— Barb McQuade (@BarbMcQuade) January 27, 2025

The dumping of Trump’s persecutors was just the latest step in a broader, post-election purge at DOJ. Last week, multiple top officials at DOJ’s Executive Office of Immigration Review, which oversees the country’s immigration courts, were pointed to the door. Nearly two dozen more were reassigned. 

Acting AG McHenry is keeping DOJ’s top chair warm for Trump nominee Pam Bondi, who merrily pummeled Democrats in her Jan. 15 confirmation hearing. Drawing a contrast with what the country witnessed during Biden’s term, Bondi vowed that “no one will be prosecuted [or] investigated because they are a political opponent.” Her next step is a vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee which has yet to be scheduled.

Meanwhile, DOJ employees are feeling like they’re on the wrong end of a shock-and-awe campaign. “It feels like a non-violent war. It’s just wild,” one career DOJ employee told Politico. “People are just in a state of shock and devastated. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen … Nothing that happened during the first Trump administration came anywhere close to this.”

Looking at the wreckage, one former DOJ official summed up the picture like this:

“It’s got to be among the most demoralizing moments in the history of the Department of Justice. It is a flat-out purge of individuals who this administration must view either of suspect loyalty or have worked on matters they just did not like. We are in the early phases of what to me is just looking like a wholesale, politically-inspired demolition of the Department of Justice in key places.”

The former official surely didn’t intend for it to sound so wonderful.

President Donald Trump on Monday announced that the construction of a “state-of-the-art Iron Dome missile defense shield” will begin “immediately,” and will be made “right here in the USA 100%.”

Speaking at a Republican dinner in Florida while commending the recent confirmation of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Trump confirmed after landing at Joint Base Andrews that he’d signed four executive orders on the plane – including one for the Iron Dome.

The other EOs include restrictions on transgender service in the military, and the termination of DEI at the Pentagon.

“Pete Hegseth, who’s going to be great, by the way… I think he’s going to be fantastic,” Trump said at the dinner. “I know him very well. I think he’s going to be fantastic.”

“He’s what we need, to immediately begin the construction of a state-of-the-art Iron Dome missile defense shield, which will be able to protect Americans,” Trump continued.

BREAKING: President Trump announces a slate of NEW Executive Orders

— Direct Defense Secretary to immediately begin the construction of an ‘Iron Dome’ system
— Get transgender ideology OUT of our military
— Stop service members from being indoctrinated with CRT
— Offer… pic.twitter.com/PVPe15M0DG

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) January 27, 2025

According to Fox News, Trump added that Americans “protect other countries, but we don’t protect ourselves,” noting that President Ronald Reagan was interested in such a system during the Cold War, but America “didn’t have the technology” at the time.

“And now we have phenomenal technology. You see that with Israel,” Trump continued. “So I think the United States is entitled to that. And everything will be made right here in the USA 100%.”

“We’re going next to ensure that we have the most lethal fighting force in the world.”

On Monday, the State Department said that a future Iron Dome is one of Hegseth’s many priorities.

“Other areas the secretary will study include reinstating troops that were pushed out because of COVID-19 vaccination mandates and developing an Iron Dome anti-missile system for the United States,” the statement read.

This wasn’t Trump’s first mention of an Iron Dome for the U.S. At the Commander-In-Chief inaugural ball on Jan. 20., Trump said that the project was on his radar.

“We’re also doing the Iron Dome all made in America,” Trump said. “We’re going to have a nice Iron Dome.” -Fox News

Last June Trump mentioned an Iron Dome on the campaign trail, telling a crowd in West Palm Beach: “We deserve a dome…it’s a missile defense shield, and it’ll all be made in America.”