News From Around the Web
#10 USCIS Removes COVID-19 Vaccine Requirement for Immigrants - Boundless, Thomas Massie, Libs of TikTok, Riley Gaines, and Chief Nerd on X
The COVID-19 vaccine is no longer a requirement for U.S. permanent residence applications. Starting January 22, 2025, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has officially removed the pandemic-era vaccination mandate from its immigration medical examination requirements. This article explains what this policy change means for your immigration process. The removal of the COVID-19 vaccine requirement brings several important changes: USCIS will not request COVID-19 vaccination documentation on Form I-693. No additional evidence about COVID-19 vaccination status will be requested. Applications won’t face denial for lacking COVID-19 vaccine records. Previous COVID-19 vaccination requirements are now waived...#9 Government Agency Is Caught Deploying Sneaky Tactic to Get Around Trump’s Anti-woke Purge - Will Potter for Dailymail, Eric Burlison, End Wokeness/Elon Musk, Ian Jaeger, and Nualar/DC Draino on X
On Tuesday, Trump's administration ordered federal agencies to place all DEI hires on paid leave, and warned authorities not to use 'coded or imprecise language' to circumvent the move. But within a day of the order being announced, eagle-eyed online sleuths noticed the ATF's Chief Diversity Officer Lisa T. Boykin had a new job role, appearing to have been updated to 'Senior Executive.' The ATF did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the claim it tried to go around Trump's executive order. The move came after Trump signed an executive order on Monday within hours of being sworn-in that aimed to eradicate all DEI programs within the federal government. The next day, the White House released a memo to federal agencies ordering them to not only place all DEI hires on paid leave by 5 pm Wednesday but to quickly form plans to fire every one of them...
#8 Taliban Rebuff Trump’s Call to Return US Arms Worth Billions - Eltaf Najafizada for Bloomberg (Detroit News), Benny Johnson/Christian James, Tara Bull and Proud Army Brat on X
The Taliban won’t return any of the military equipment left behind by the US troops while exiting Afghanistan in 2021, a person familiar with the matter said, as relations between Kabul and the Donald Trump administration start on a wobbly note. Instead of taking back the weapons, the US should provide the Taliban with more advanced weapons to fight the Islamic State Khorasan, or ISIS-K, an offshoot of the broader Islamic State organization, said the person, who did not want to be identified as he is not authorized to speak to the media...
#7 Adam Schiff Complains Bondi Isn’t Doing the Job His Party Is Blocking Her From Getting - Virginia Kruta for The Daily Wire, Amuse, JamieLynn_TrumpGrl/Nick Sortor, and Windrunner Patriot on X
Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA) complained on Tuesday that Pam Bondi, President Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as attorney general, had not reviewed each individual case prior to Trump pardoning the vast majority of those charged with January 6-related crimes. Schiff shared a video on social media from Bondi’s hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, during which he’d specifically asked her whether she would review the individual cases — and she’d said that she would review anything she was asked to review. “Pam Bondi, last week on pardons for Jan 6 offenders: ‘I will look at every case on a case-by-case basis,'” Schiff captioned the clip. “Donald Trump, yesterday: ‘Full pardons.’ No review. No accountability. Nothing.”
#6 Trump Signs Executive Order Ending Remote Work for Federal Employees, Slashing Biden Administration’s Plan - Christina Shaw for FOX Business, Steve Friend, Breitbart News, Duchess of Salt, Mike Emanuel, Libs of TikTok (community note), Ben Cameron
As promised on the campaign trail, President Donald Trump signed an executive order requiring federal employees to return to in-person work. "Heads of all departments and agencies in the executive branch of Government shall, as soon as practicable, take all necessary steps to terminate remote work arrangements and require employees to return to work in person at their respective duty stations on a full-time basis, provided that the department and agency heads shall make exemptions they deem necessary," the order reads. Agencies must begin the move to fully in-person work by 5 p.m. on Friday, the order stated...
#5 GOP Member Wants Bishop ‘Added to Deportation List’ After Trump Prayer Service - Ashleigh Fields for The Hill, Terri Green, Vernon Jones, Rep. Mike Collins/Jenna Ellis, and Dallas Jackson on X
Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) heavily criticized statements made by the Right Rev. Mariann Budde on Tuesday at the inaugural prayer service held for President Trump. “The person giving this sermon should be added to the deportation list,” Collins wrote in a post on the social platform X, alongside a clip of Budde’s comments. Trump has promised to carry out the largest deportation in the country’s history. The former president instituted a plethora of border security laws Monday, including the “Remain in Mexico” program that requires asylum-seekers to stay in Mexico until their U.S. immigration court date, and he shut down the Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) One app, which facilitates appointments for immigration proceedings...
#4 US Coast Guard and Florida start using Gulf of America for Gulf of Mexico - Maya Yang for The Guardian, Ian Miles Cheong, Liberty Bill, TheTexasOne, Hannah Griff, Don Keith, Elon Musk/End Wokeness
The US Coast Guard (USCG) and the state of Florida have started referring to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America – a new label pushed by Donald Trump – despite the name of the body of water not yet being formally changed. On Tuesday, following a flurry of executive orders signed by Trump on his first days in office, the USCG announced that it would deploy additional assets to multiple locations, including the “maritime border between Texas and Mexico in the ‘Gulf of America’”. Similarly, Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, cited the new moniker in a winter storm executive order on Monday, saying “an area of low pressure [was] moving across the Gulf of America”...
#3 ChatGPT Down: AI Chat App Not Working as Website Goes Offline - Andrew Griffin for Independent, Mustafa, CliffinKent, and htrap on X
ChatGPT is offline, leaving users unable to talk to the AI chat app. Visitors to the website saw an error page rather than the usual chat options, and official apps and other integrations with ChatGPT also appeared to be broken.The official status page of OpenAI, which makes the service, said that it was seeing “elevated error rates” and that it was investigating the issue. racking website Down Detector saw a huge surge in complaints about problems at around noon UK time, or 7 am Eastern. The timing meant that many took to other platforms to complain that they had been left unable to use a tool that was central to their work or study...
#2 Oracle’s Larry Ellison Says AI-Driven Cancer Vaccine Could Be Coming Soon as Donald Trump Announces a $500 Billion Investment - Economic Times, Ian Carroll, Calley Means/Chief Nerd, Tracy Beanz/Jeffrey Jaxen, Humanspective/Daily Caller, and William Makis MD
Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison recently discussed the transformative potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare during a meeting at the White House, which also featured SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. According to Ellison, AI could revolutionize cancer detection, treatment, and vaccine development, offering groundbreaking capabilities. Ellison explained that tiny tumour fragments can circulate in a person’s blood, allowing for the possibility of early cancer detection through blood tests. AI could be used to analyze these tests and identify cancer early on. Once the cancerous tumour is gene-sequenced, an individualized vaccine could be created for each patient. Using AI, the mRNA vaccine could be produced robotically in just 48 hours, offering rapid and personalized treatment...
#1 Davos 2025: Trade, Tariffs, AI, and UN Chief Guterres Dominate World Economic Forum Agenda - Jamey Keaten for AP News, Szilágyi Pál, Camus, Bruce McGonigal, Melissa, Avi Yemini, and Alex Jones/Ezra Levant on X
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres ratcheted up his warning about climate change and said the world’s thirst for fossil fuels is a “Frankenstein monster” that spares no one while calling for greater attention to risks posed by artificial intelligence if its ascent goes ungoverned — even as some leaders played up its promise. The United Nations chief headlined a flurry of activities and talk sessions on Wednesday at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, where shifts underway in Washington during U.S. President Donald Trump’s first week back in office also featured heavily in the scheduled events and side chats of government officials, academics and business executives...
And Now for Something Special 
Entrepreneur Transforms Old Cement Bags into Solar-Charging Backpacks to Help Children Read at Night - Andy Corbley Good News Network, Mike., CPM Mwangi, and Gregory Bufithis on X
A local entrepreneur in Tanzania is clearing two hurdles in one leap by transforming old cement bags into backpacks that include a small solar panel to power a reading light. By clearing municipal waste and helping rural children study after dark, the bags won the backing of the United Nations Development Program for their problem-solving potential. Soma Bags employs 85 rural workers to satisfy a demand for 13,000 backpacks a month. They can’t meet it, but they do their best...
