STATE DEPARTMENT — The United States and El Salvador have reached what U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called “the most unprecedented and extraordinary” deal to further curb illegal immigration.

After about three hours of meetings with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele at his residence in Lake Coatepeque, San Salvador, Rubio said that Bukele has offered to house dangerous American criminals in Salvadoran jails, including U.S. citizens and legal residents.

Bukele has also “agreed to accept for deportation any illegal aliens in the United States” who are criminals, regardless of nationality, in addition to fully cooperating on the repatriation of Salvadorans who are in the United States illegally, Rubio told reporters.

Rubio visited El Salvador on Monday to address illegal migration and other strategic issues.

The State Department said Rubio also raised strategies to counter the influence of the Chinese Communist Party in the Western Hemisphere to safeguard the sovereignty and interests of both nations and the region.

His visit comes amid the restructuring of a U.S. agency overseeing foreign aid, which has sparked a showdown between congressional Democrats and President Donald Trump’s administration.

Rubio announced that he is now the acting administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development but has delegated his authority to another official. He stressed that the agency must align U.S. foreign aid with national interests and comply with State Department policy directives.

Late Monday, the United States and El Salvador also signed a memorandum of understanding, or MOU, on civil nuclear cooperation, expanding strategic relations between the two nations.

The State Department said the MOU marks an initial step toward building a robust civil nuclear partnership, aiming to enhance energy security and foster economic cooperation.

Curtailing illegal immigration

Bukele is regarded as a key ally of the United States in its regional efforts to address the migration crisis.

On Oct. 7, 2024, the United States and El Salvador signed a Customs Mutual Assistance Agreement, further strengthening border security and facilitating trade between the two countries.

El Salvador was once the third-largest source of nationals captured at the U.S. southwest border. Today, it no longer ranks among the top 10.

Chinese influence

U.S. President Trump has maintained warm relations with Salvadoran President Bukele, who also strengthened ties with Chinese President Xi Jinping following his state visit to Beijing in December 2019.

During Bukele’s visit, China promised millions in development projects for the Central American country through a series of agreements. Among them were a soccer stadium, a national library, a tourist pier, and funding for water treatment improvements.

In April 2024, China and El Salvador began negotiations on a free trade agreement, though the United States remains El Salvador’s primary trading partner.

El Salvador formally recognized the People’s Republic of China on Aug. 21, 2018, severing diplomatic ties with Taiwan.

Panama

Earlier Monday, Rubio observed a U.S.-funded deportation flight departing from Albrook International Airport in Panama, returning dozens of undocumented Colombians to their home country. A total of 32 men and 11 women were repatriated, including seven individuals with criminal records.

The top U.S. diplomat said it sent “a clear message” that people who sought to enter the U.S. border irregularly would be stopped and sent back to their countries of origin.

On July 1, 2024, the first day of Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino’s term, the U.S. and Panama signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at jointly reducing the number of migrants illegally crossing through Panama’s Darién region en route to the United States.

The program is funded by the U.S. State Department and implemented by the Department of Homeland Security. Monday’s deportation was carried out under the MOU and following a State Department waiver that lifted a previous pause on U.S. foreign aid.

“This is an effective way to stem the flow of illegal migration, of mass migration, which is destructive and destabilizing,” Rubio told reporters at the Albrook International Airport.

“This flight today was possible due to a waiver that we’ve issued,” he added. “We’re going to issue a broader one to continue this cooperation.”

Under the 2024 MOU, the United States has provided nearly $2.7 million to fund flights and tickets to repatriate migrants to their countries of origin.

Since the first repatriation flight on August 20, 2024, over 40 charter flights have been conducted from Panama to more than 14 countries, returning more than 1,700 undocumented migrants. Destinations have included Colombia, Ecuador, India, and Vietnam.

Panama recently reported a 90% decrease in migrants crossing the Darién region compared to the same period last year.

Canal controversy

On Sunday, Rubio warned Panama that Washington will “take necessary measures” if Panama does not take immediate steps to end what U.S. President Donald Trump described as China’s “influence and control” over the Panama Canal.

“Secretary Rubio made clear that this status quo is unacceptable,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement after Rubio’s talks with Mulino.

Mulino also announced that Panama has decided not to renew a 2017 memorandum with China on Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative and will seek to void agreements with the Chinese government before their official expiration dates.

“We’ll study the possibility of terminating it early,” Mulino added on Sunday.

The Belt and Road Initiative, or BRI, is a massive infrastructure project launched by China in 2013 under President Xi Jinping, aiming to connect multiple continents through land and maritime routes. The United States has cautioned that the BRI “is fueled by China’s mission to manipulate and undermine the global rules-based trading system for its own benefit.”

At the United Nations, Chinese Ambassador Fu Cong dismissed the accusations against China as “totally false” and “pointless.” He said that China has never participated in the management or operation of the Panama Canal nor interfered in its affairs. He also reaffirmed respect for Panama’s sovereignty and the canal’s status as a neutral international gateway.

The Chinese ambassador further called Panama’s decision not to renew the BRI agreement “regrettable.”

After visiting Panama and El Salvador, Rubio will travel to Costa Rica on Tuesday, followed by stops in Guatemala and the Dominican Republic.

Margaret Besheer contributed to this report.
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CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA — The 31st Investing in African Mining Indaba is underway in Cape Town, South Africa with over 115 countries represented. At the forefront of many discussions are the plans of U.S. President Donald Trump, and the effect that U.S. tariffs and the freeze on foreign aid might have on Africa’s mining industries. 

The theme of this year’s conference is “Future-proofing African Mining, Today.” However, some participants are concerned that tariffs imposed by Trump — most notably the 10% tariff on Chinese goods announced Saturday — will make this mission much harder. 

Denys Denya, senior executive vice president of Afreximbank, which is involved in funding trade expansion projects, said tariffs are dominating their talks, but answers are few so far. 

“Because China sources lots of its minerals from Africa that go into its manufacturing which then gets exported, there’s a potential negative knock-on effect on African mining, if the demand is not there as a result of the tariff,” Denya said. “But we are waiting to see what the impact will be. At the moment we can speculate, but we don’t really have the evidence.” 

Trump’s decision to freeze U.S. foreign aid was also a topic of discussion.  

South Africa’s Minister of Minerals and Petroleum Resources, Gwede Mantashe, told delegates in his opening address that Africa should withhold minerals if funding is withdrawn. 

But Denya had an opposing view. 

“I think every administration has a right to determine how national resources are going to be deployed, so the Trump administration has a right to determine where to use their resources and we cannot impose on the United States to continue to fund certain activities. So, it’s up to the American people to decide,” Denya said. 

Veteran mining analyst Peter Major said that unlike China, the U.S. has been cautious with its investments in Africa, due to several factors including political instability on the continent. 

A case in point is the current conflict in the mineral-rich eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where M23 rebels and the Congolese government are fighting for control. 

Major urged the U.S. to continue with the Lobito Corridor, a rail project for the transport of minerals from Congo and Zambia to the port of Lobito in Angola on the Atlantic coast. The project was supported by former President Joe Biden’s administration. 

“I think it was the U.S. putting a toe in the water and they mustn’t stop now,” Major said. “They must put the foot in the water, they must get the leg in there, they must maximize the value and leverage of that project and show Africa how keen they are to come here and help under reasonable, logical, beneficially good terms for all players.” 

Africa is believed to hold 30% of the world’s minerals, some of them traditional sources of wealth like diamonds and gold, others used in products like batteries and electric vehicles, regarded as critical for the transition to cleaner energy sources.  

Delegates at the conference, which runs until Feb. 6, represent mining companies, investors and governments. There is a delegation from the United States, but all media inquiries are being directed to Washington.
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BRUSSELS — European Union leaders gather on Monday to discuss how to bolster the continent’s defenses against Russia and how to handle U.S. President Donald Trump after his decision to impose tariffs on goods from Canada, Mexico and China.

At a royal palace-turned-conference center in Brussels, the leaders of the EU’s 27 nations will also lunch with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and dine with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Antonio Costa, the president of the European Council of EU leaders, has billed the one-day gathering as a “retreat” devoted to defense policy rather than a formal summit, aiming for an open discussion without any official declaration or decisions.

The first session focuses on geopolitics and relations with the United States, meaning Trump’s sweeping weekend move on tariffs is certain to come up – particularly as EU officials fear they may soon face similar measures.

Trump, who began his second term as president on Jan. 20, will also be a major factor in the talks on defense, as he has demanded that European nations spend much more on their own protection and rely less on the United States via the NATO security alliance.

Trump’s call for EU member Denmark to cede Greenland to the United States – and his refusal to rule out military action or economic pressure to force Copenhagen’s hand – has also added strains to trans-Atlantic ties.

The EU leaders are expected to discuss what military capabilities they need in the coming years, how they could be funded and how they might cooperate more through joint projects.

“Europe needs to assume greater responsibility for its own defense,” Costa said in a letter to the leaders. “It needs to become more resilient, more efficient, more autonomous and a more reliable security and defense actor.”

Finding funding

The funding discussion will be especially tough, according to diplomats, as many European countries have little room in their public finances for big spending hikes.

Some countries, such as the Baltic states and France, advocate joint EU borrowing to spend on defense. But Germany and the Netherlands are staunchly opposed.

One compromise could be to borrow to finance loans rather than grants for defense projects, according to some diplomats.

European countries have ramped up defense spending in recent years, particularly since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which brought war to the EU’s borders.

But many EU leaders have said they will need to spend even more. Trump has said NATO’s European members should spend 5% of GDP on defense – a figure no member of the alliance including the United States currently reaches.

Last year, EU countries spent an average of 1.9% of GDP on defense – about $334.48 billion, according to EU estimates.

That is a 30% increase from 2021, according to the EU. But it also masks wide divergences among EU countries.

Poland and the Baltic states are among the biggest defense spenders in GDP terms, with Warsaw leading the pack at more than 4.1%, according to NATO estimates. But some of the EU’s biggest economies such as Italy and Spain spend much less – about 1.5% and 1.3% respectively.
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Arlington, Virginia — A baby food maker is recalling edible sticks meant to ease teething pain over a possible choking hazard. 

Gerber announced Friday that it was recalling and discontinuing its brand of “Sooth N Chew” teething sticks after receiving customer complaints about choking. The company said one emergency room visit had been reported. 

The teething sticks are edible teethers marketed to parents and guardians of children six months and older. They come in strawberry-apple and banana flavors. 

Gerber said it was working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on the recall. 

Customers who bought the teething sticks should return them to stores where they were purchased for a refund, the company said. 

Anyone concerned about an injury or illness should contact a health care provider. For any additional support needed, Gerber is available 24/7 at 1-800-4-GERBER (1-800-443-7237). 

The company says it is working with the U.S. FDA on this recall and will cooperate with them fully. 
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PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. — U.S. groundhog Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow Sunday and predicted six more weeks of wintry weather, his top-hatted handlers announced to a raucous, record-sized crowd at Gobbler’s Knob in Pennsylvania.

Phil was welcomed with chants of “Phil, Phil, Phil,” and pulled from a hatch on his tree stump shortly after sunrise before a member of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club read from a scroll in which he boasted: “Only I know — you can’t trust A.I.”

The woodchuck’s weather forecast is an annual ritual that goes back more than a century in western Pennsylvania, with far older roots in European folklore, but it took Bill Murray’s 1993 “Groundhog Day” movie to transform the event into what it is today, with tens of thousands of revelers at the scene and imitators scattered around the United States and beyond.

When Phil is deemed to have not seen his shadow, that is said to usher in an early spring. When he does see it, there will be six more weeks of winter.

The crowd was treated to a fireworks show, confetti and live music that ranged from the Ramones to “Pennsylvania Polka” as they awaited sunrise and Phil’s emergence. Gov. Josh Shapiro, local and state elected officials and a pair of pageant winners were among the dignitaries at the scene.

Self-employed New York gingerbread artist Jon Lovitch has attended the event for 33 years. “I like the cold, you know, and this is probably the best and biggest midwinter party in the entire world,” Lovitch said in Punxsutawney. “And it’s just a really good time.”

Phil has predicted a longer winter far more often than an early spring, and one effort to track his accuracy concluded he was right less than half the time. What six more weeks of winter means is subjective.

Tom Dunkel, president of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, says there are two types of people who make the trek to Gobbler’s Knob: the faithful seeking to validate their beliefs and the doubters who want to confirm their skepticism.

Phil communicated his forecast to Dunkel through “Groundhog-ese” with the help of a special cane that Dunkel has inherited as the club’s leader. It’s not as if he speaks in English words. “He’ll like wink, he’ll purr, he’ll chatter, he’ll — you know — nod,” Dunkel said.

Attendance is free but it cost $5 to take a bus and avoid a 1.6 kilometer trek from the middle of town to the stage where the prediction was made, some 123 kilometers northeast of Pittsburgh.

The need for so many buses is why the local schools, where the sports mascot is the Chucks, close when Groundhog Day falls on a weekday.

Keith Post, his wife and a friend have watched the “Groundhog Day” movie in each of the past five years and decided this was the time to make the trip from Ohio to witness the event.

“We booked rooms almost a year in advance and we’re here,” Post said. “We’re doing it.”

A new welcome center opened four years ago and the club is working on an elaborate second living space for Phil and family so they can split time between Gobbler’s Knob and Phil’s longtime home at the town library. The club also put up large video screens and more powerful speakers this year to help attendees in the back of the crowd follow the proceedings.

“It’s a holiday where you don’t really owe anyone anything,” said A.J. Dereume, who among the club’s 15-member inner circle serves as Phil’s handler and held him up to loud cheers on Sunday. “You’re grasping onto the belief, you know, in something that’s just fun to believe in.”

Jackie Handley agreed a year ago to visit Punxsutawney for the first time to help a friend check off an item on their bucket list. They were ready for the subfreezing temperatures. “It’s once in a lifetime — we’re probably not going to come back. And we have tons of warm clothes,” said Handley, who lives in Falls Church, Virginia. After the forecast was made, club members and Phil posed for photos with people from the crowd.

Phil has a wife, Punxsutawney Phyllis, and two pups born this spring, Shadow and Sunny, although his family did not join him on stage for the big event. The groundhog family eats fruits and vegetables, get daily visits from Dereume and sees a veterinarian at least once a year. The club’s lore is that Phil is the same woodchuck who has been issuing weather forecasts for the past century, thanks to an “elixir of life” that keeps him immortal. “There’s only one Phil, and it’s not something that can be handed down,” Dunkel said. “Just like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, there’s only one.”

Groundhog Day celebrations, formal and informal, were being held in many Pennsylvania towns and elsewhere on Sunday. There have been Groundhog Day events in at least 28 U.S. states and Canadian provinces.
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WASHINGTON — The U.S. State Department said Saturday that the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) — the world’s leading HIV initiative — was covered by a waiver for life-saving humanitarian assistance during a 90-day pause in foreign aid.

Just hours after taking office on Jan. 20, President Donald Trump ordered the pause so foreign aid contributions could be reviewed to see if they align with his “America First” foreign policy. The U.S. is the world’s largest aid donor.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio initially issued a waiver for emergency food aid and then Tuesday for life-saving medicine, medical services, food, shelter and subsistence help. However, the lack of detail in Trump’s order and the ensuing waivers has left aid groups confused as to whether their work can continue.

So, Saturday the State Department’s Bureau of Global Health Security and Diplomacy issued a memo, seen by Reuters, clarifying that PEPFAR was covered by the Jan. 28 memo and spelling out what activities were allowed.

These include life-saving HIV care and treatment services, including testing and counseling, prevention and treatment of infections including tuberculosis (TB), laboratory services, and procurement and supply chain for commodities/medicines. It also allows prevention of mother-to-child transmission services.

“Any other activities not specifically mentioned in this guidance may not be resumed without express approval,” it said.

More than 20 million people living with HIV, who represent two-thirds of all people living with the disease receiving treatment globally, are directly supported by PEPFAR.

Under Trump’s foreign aid pause, all payments by U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) stopped Tuesday — for the first time since the fiscal year began on Oct. 1 — and have not resumed, according to U.S. Treasury data. On Monday USAID paid out $8 million and last week a total of $545 million.

The Trump administration is also moving to strip a slimmed-down USAID of its independence and put it under State Department control, two sources familiar with the discussions said Friday, in what would be a significant overhaul of how Washington allocates U.S. foreign aid. 
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WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that Venezuela has agreed to receive all Venezuelan undocumented migrants captured in the United States and pay for their transport.

“Venezuela has agreed to receive, back into their country, all Venezuela illegal aliens who were encamped in the U.S., including gang members of Tren de Aragua,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

He said Venezuela has also agreed to provide transportation.

The Venezuelan government did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

U.S. envoy Richard Grenell met with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in the South American country on Friday. Hours after their meeting, six American hostages were released and returned to the United States from Venezuela.

The announcement of Venezuela’s decision to accept the return of its citizens who were illegally in the United States comes one week after Trump threatened to impose tariffs and sanctions after Colombia refused to accept military flights carrying deportees.

Colombia reversed its course and agreed to accept migrants following the threats.

“We are in the process of removing record numbers of illegal aliens from all countries,” said Trump, who vowed to crack down on illegal immigration in his 2024 presidential campaign.

Trump, a Republican, issued an array of executive orders to crack down on illegal immigration after taking office on Jan. 20, including actions aimed at deporting record numbers of migrants in the U.S. without legal status.
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ANCHORAGE, ALASKA — The Alaska Gold Rush town of Nome faced a bleak winter. It was hundreds of miles from anywhere, cut off by the frozen sea and unrelenting blizzards, and under siege from a contagious disease known as the “strangling angel” for the way it suffocated children. 

Now, 100 years later, Nome is remembering its saviors — the sled dogs and mushers who raced for more than five days through hypothermia, frostbite, gale-force winds and blinding whiteouts to deliver lifesaving serum and free the community from the grip of diphtheria. 

Among the events celebrating the centennial of the 1925 “Great Race of Mercy” are lectures, a dog-food drive and a reenactment of the final leg of the relay, all organized by the Nome Kennel Club. 

Alaskans honor ‘heroic effort’ 

“There’s a lot of fluff around celebrations like this, but we wanted to remember the mushers and their dogs who have been at the center of this heroic effort and … spotlight mushing as a still-viable thing for the state of Alaska,” said Diana Haecker, a kennel club board member and co-owner of Alaska’s oldest newspaper, The Nome Nugget. 

“People just dropped whatever they were doing,” she said. “These mushers got their teams ready and went, even though it was really cold and challenging conditions on the trail.” 

Other communities are also marking the anniversary — including the village of Nenana, where the relay began, and Cleveland, Ohio, where the serum run’s most famous participant, a husky mix named Balto, is stuffed and displayed at a museum. 

Jonathan Hayes, a Maine resident who has been working to preserve the genetic line of sled dogs driven on the run by famed musher Leonhard Seppala, is recreating the trip. Hayes left Nenana on Monday with 16 Seppala Siberian sled dogs, registered descendants of Seppala’s team. 

A race to save lives

Diphtheria is an airborne disease that causes a thick, suffocating film on the back of the throat; it was once a leading cause of death for children. The antitoxin used to treat it was developed in 1890, and a vaccine in 1923; it is now exceedingly rare in the U.S. 

Nome, western Alaska’s largest community, had about 1,400 residents a century ago. Its most recent supply ship had arrived the previous fall, before the Bering Sea froze, without any doses of the antitoxin. Those the local doctor, Curtis Welch, had were outdated, but he wasn’t worried. He hadn’t seen a case of diphtheria in the 18 years he had practiced in the area. 

Within months, that changed. In a telegram, Welch pleaded with the U.S. Public Health Service to send serum: “An epidemic of diphtheria is almost inevitable here.” 

The first death was a 3-year-old boy on January 20, 1925, followed the next day by a 7-year-old girl. By the end of the month, there were more than 20 confirmed cases. The city was placed under quarantine. 

West Coast hospitals had antitoxin doses, but it would take time to get them to Seattle, Washington, and then onto a ship for Seward, Alaska, an ice-free port south of Anchorage, Alaska. In the meantime, enough for 30 people was found at an Anchorage hospital. 

It still had to get to Nome. Airplanes with open-air cockpits were ruled out as unsuited for the weather. There were no roads or trains that reached Nome. 

Instead, officials shipped the serum by rail to Nenana in interior Alaska, some 1,086 kilometers (675 miles) from Nome via the frozen Yukon River and mail trails. 

Thanks to Alaska’s new telegraph lines and the spread of radio, the nation followed along, captivated, as 20 mushers — many of them Alaska Natives — with more than 150 dogs relayed the serum to Nome. They battled deep snow, whiteouts so severe they couldn’t see the dogs in front of them, and life-threatening temperatures that plunged at times to minus minus 51 degrees Celsius (60 degrees Fahrenheit).

The antitoxin was transported in glass vials covered with padded quilts. Not a single vial broke. 

Seppala, a Norwegian settler, left from Nome to meet the supply near the halfway point and begin the journey back. His team, led by his dog Togo, traveled more than 320 kilometers (250 miles) of the relay, including a treacherous stretch across frozen Norton Sound. 

After about 5 1/2 days, the serum reached its destination on February 2, 1925. A banner front-page headline in the San Francisco Chronicle proclaimed “Dogs victors over blizzard in battle to succor stricken Nome.” 

The official record listed five deaths and 29 illnesses. It’s likely the toll was higher; Alaska Natives were not accurately tracked. 

Balto gains fame 

Seppala and Togo missed the limelight that went to his assistant, Gunnar Kaasen, who drove the dog team led by Balto into Nome. Balto was another of Seppala’s dogs, but was used to only haul freight after he was deemed too slow to be on a competitive team.

Balto was immortalized in movies and with statues in New York’s Central Park and one in Anchorage intended as a tribute to all sled dogs. He received a bone-shaped key to the city of Los Angeles, where legendary movie actress Mary Pickford placed a wreath around his neck. 

But he and several team members were eventually sold and kept in squalid conditions at a dime museum in Los Angeles. After learning of their plight, an Ohio businessman spearheaded an effort to raise money to bring them to Cleveland, a city in Ohio. After dying in 1933, Balto was mounted and placed on display at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. 

Iditarod pays homage to run 

Today, the most famous mushing event in the world is the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, which is not based on the serum run but on the Iditarod Trail, a supply route from Seward to Nome. Iditarod organizers are nevertheless marking the serum run’s centennial with a series of articles on its website and by selling replicas of the medallions each serum run musher received a century ago, race spokesperson Shannon Noonan said in an email. This year’s Iditarod starts March 1. 

“The Serum Run demonstrated the critical role sled dogs played in the survival and communication of remote Alaskan communities, while the Iditarod has evolved into a celebration of that tradition and Alaska’s pioneering spirit,” Noonan said. 
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WASHINGTON — Trump administration officials are moving to fire at least some of the FBI agents engaged in investigations involving President Donald Trump, two people familiar with the plans said Friday.

It was not clear how many agents might be affected, though scores of investigators were involved in various inquiries touching Trump. Officials acting at the direction of the administration have been working to identify individual employees who participated in politically sensitive investigations for possible termination, said the people who insisted on anonymity to discuss private conversations.

A third person familiar with the situation said U.S. attorneys were instructed on a call this week to provide the names of prosecutors and agents who had any involvement in the hundreds of cases against the rioters at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. It was not made clear on the call why the names were needed, said the person, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters.

Any mass firings would be a major blow to the historic independence from the White House of the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency and would reflect Trump’s persistent resolve to bend the law enforcement and intelligence community to his will. It would be part of a startling pattern of retribution waged on federal government employees, following the forced ousters of a group of senior FBI executives earlier this week as well as a mass firing by the Justice Department of prosecutors on special counsel Jack Smith’s team who investigated Trump.

The FBI Agents Association said the planned firings are “outrageous actions” that “are fundamentally at odds with the law enforcement objectives outlined by President Trump and his support for FBI agents.”

“Dismissing potentially hundreds of agents would severely weaken the bureau’s ability to protect the country from national security and criminal threats and will ultimately risk setting up the bureau and its new leadership for failure,” the association said in a statement.

It was not immediately clear what recourse any fired agent might take, but the bureau has a well-defined process for terminations and any abrupt action that bypasses the protocol could presumably open the door to a legal challenge.

When pressed during his confirmation hearing Thursday, Trump’s pick for FBI director, Kash Patel, said he was not aware of any plans to terminate or otherwise punish FBI employees who were involved in the Trump investigations. Patel said if he was confirmed he would follow the FBI’s internal review processes for taking action against employees.

Asked by Democratic Senator Cory Booker whether he would reverse any decisions before his confirmation that didn’t follow that standard process, Patel said, “I don’t know what’s going on right now over there, but I’m committed to you, Senator, and your colleagues, that I will honor the due process of the FBI.”

Before he was nominated for the director’s position, Patel had remarked on at least one podcast appearance about the existence of what he called anti-Trump “conspirators” in the government and news media.

Trump has for years expressed fury at the FBI and Justice Department over investigations that shadowed his presidency, including an inquiry into ties between Russia and his 2016 campaign, and continued over the last four years. He fired one FBI director, James Comey, amid the Russia investigation and then said he would fire his second, Christopher Wray. Wray later resigned before Trump took office Jan. 20.

Asked at the White House on Friday if he had anything to do with the scrutiny of the agents, he said: “No, but we have some very bad people over there. It was weaponized at a level that nobody’s never seen before. They came after a lot of people — like me — but they came after a lot of people.”

He added, “If they fired some people over there, that’s a good thing, because they were very bad.”

The FBI and Smith’s team investigated Trump over his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and his hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Both of those cases resulted in indictments that were withdrawn after Trump’s November presidential win because of long-standing Justice Department policy prohibiting the federal prosecution of a sitting president.

The Justice Department also brought charges against more than 1,500 Trump supporters in connection with the Capitol riot, though Trump on his first day in office granted clemency to all of them — including the ones convicted of violent crimes — through pardons, sentence commutations and dismissals of indictments.

This week, the Justice Department fired more than a dozen prosecutors who worked on Smith investigations, and a group of senior FBI executives — including several executive assistant directors and leaders of big-city field offices — were told to either resign or retire or be fired Monday.

Spokespeople for the FBI and the Justice Department declined to comment.

The firings would be done over the will of acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll, who has indicated that he objects to the idea, the people said.
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WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to embark on his first official trip as the nation’s top diplomat on Saturday, with planned visits to Panama, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic from Saturday to Thursday.

Officials and experts say the visit is partly aimed at countering China’s growing influence in the region. The trip comes as President Donald Trump pushes to regain control of the Panama Canal, and as Washington intensifies efforts to curb illegal migration.

“Secretary Rubio’s engagements with senior officials and business leaders will promote regional cooperation on our core, shared interests: Stopping illegal and large-scale migration, fighting the scourge of transnational criminal organizations and drug traffickers, countering China, and deepening economic partnerships to enhance prosperity in our hemisphere,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement on Friday.

Trump has asserted that China controls the Panama Canal, a crucial trade route linking the Atlantic and Pacific. But Panama has denied the claim, insisting that it manages the canal impartially for all maritime traffic.

On Thursday, Rubio warned that China could potentially block access to the canal in the event of a conflict.

“If the government in China in a conflict tells them to shut down the Panama Canal, they will have to. And in fact, I have zero doubt that they have contingency planning to do so. That is a direct threat,” Rubio said during an interview with SiriusXM Radio.

In Panama City, Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino ruled out any discussion of control over the canal with Rubio.

“I cannot negotiate and much less open a process of negotiation on the canal,” he told reporters on Thursday. “That is sealed. The canal belongs to Panama.”

Some analysts caution that China has been employing economic and noneconomic tactics across the Western Hemisphere to expand its influence, prompting national security concerns.

“You might think that you are just getting more Chinese investment in your country, but pretty soon you are kind of being coerced or coaxed into signing at the Belt and Road Initiative, or you’re being coaxed into signing another deal that gives elements of your telecoms,” said Ryan Berg, director of the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, during an online discussion Thursday.

The Belt and Road Initiative, or BRI, is a massive infrastructure project launched by China in 2013 under President Xi Jinping, aiming to connect multiple continents through land and maritime routes. The United States has cautioned that the BRI “is fueled by China’s mission to manipulate and undermine the global rules-based trading system for its own benefit.”

China’s foreign direct investment, or FDI, in Latin America and the Caribbean has grown significantly, Berg said, citing approximately $160 billion in Chinese FDI over the past 15 years.

“From the lens of national security, a lot of China’s commercial endeavors are fundamentally military ambitions that they’re prepositioning into Latin America,” said Joseph Humire, executive director of the Center for a Secure Free Society, or SFS, a national security think tank.

“China’s been in Panama for more than 20 years, but China really got politically active in Panama after 2017,” when Panama signed the BRI and shifted its diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to the People’s Republic of China, said Humire on Thursday.  He said that Panama’s economy has declined in recent years.

All the nations on Rubio’s itinerary maintain diplomatic ties with Cuba and Venezuela.

Given the strained U.S. relations with these countries and their restrictions on accepting deportees, Rubio may use his trip to advocate for “third-country” agreements, allowing other nations to receive people deported by the U.S. Additionally, he could work on facilitating increased repatriation flights for migrants.
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NEW YORK — Dick Button was more than the most accomplished men’s figure skater in history. He was one of his sport’s greatest innovators and promoters.

Button, winner of two Olympic gold medals and five consecutive world championships, died Thursday, said his son, Edward, who did not provide a cause. He was 95.

As an entrepreneur and broadcaster, Button promoted skating and its athletes, transforming a niche sport into the showpiece of every Winter Olympics.

“Dick was one of the most important figures in our sport,” Scott Hamilton said. “There wasn’t a skater after Dick who wasn’t helped by him in some way.”

Button’s impact began after World War II. He was the first U.S. men’s champion — and his country’s youngest at age 16 — when that competition returned in 1946. Two years later, he took the title at the St. Moritz Olympics, competing outdoors. He performed the first double axel in any competition and became the first American to win the men’s event.

“By the way, that jump had a cheat on it,” Button told the U.S. Olympic Committee website. “But listen, I did it and that was what counted.”

That began his dominance of international skating, and U.S. amateur sports. He was the first figure skater to win the prestigious Sullivan Award in 1949 — no other figure skater won it until Michelle Kwan in 2001.

In 1952, while a Harvard student, he won a second gold at the Oslo Games, making more history with the first triple jump (a loop) in competition. Soon after, he won a fifth world title, then gave up his eligibility as an amateur. All Olympic sports were subject to an amateur/professional division at the time.

“I had achieved everything I could have dreamed of doing as a skater,” said Button, who earned a law degree from Harvard in 1956. “I was able to enjoy the Ice Capades (show) and keep my hand in skating, and that was very important to me.”

With the Emmy Award-winning Button as the TV analyst, viewers got to learn not only the basics but the nuances of a sport foreign to many as he frankly broke down the performances. He became as much a fixture on ABC’s Wide World of Sports as Jim McKay and the hapless ski jumper tumbling down the slope.

“Dick Button is the custodian of the history of figure skating and its quintessential voice,” 1988 Olympic champion Brian Boitano said in Button’s autobiography. “He made the words ‘lutz’ and ‘salchow’ part of our everyday vocabulary.”

After a 1961 plane crash killed the entire U.S. figure skating team on the way to the world championships, which then were canceled, Button persuaded ABC Sports executive Roone Arledge to televise the 1962 event on Wide World. That’s when he joined the network as a commentator.

Button’s death coincided with another tragedy in the skating world, Wednesday night’s crash of an American Airlines flight that collided with an Army helicopter and plummeted into the Potomac River outside Washington, D.C., killing everyone on board. Two teenage figure skaters, their mothers, and two former world champions who were coaching at the Skating Club of Boston were among the 14 people killed from the skating community.

Button skated for the Boston club and remained close to it for the rest of his life. The trophy room at the club is named in his honor.

He also provided opportunities for skaters to make money after their competitive careers. He ran professional events he created for TV for years, attracting many top names in the sport — Hamilton, Torvill and Dean, Kristi Yamaguchi, Kurt Browning and Katarina Witt.

Button’s Candid Productions, formed 1959, also produced such made-for-TV programs as Battle of the Network Stars. He also dabbled in acting, but the rink was his realm.

“Dick Button created an open and honest space in figure skating broadcasting where no topic or moment was off-limits,” said Johnny Weir, the three-time U.S. champion and current NBC Sports figure skating analyst. “He told it like it was, even when his opinion wasn’t a popular one. His zingers were always in my mind when I would perform for him, and I wanted to make him as happy and proud as I would my coaches.

“I think that is something very special about commentating figure skating. As an athlete, we rarely have an opportunity to speak, and we rely on the TV voices to tell our story for us. Nobody could do it like Mr. Button.” 
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WASHINGTON — Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the FBI, insisted to deeply skeptical Democrats on Thursday that he did not have an “enemies list” and that the bureau under his leadership would not seek retribution against the president’s adversaries or launch investigations for political purposes. 

“I have no interest nor desire and will not, if confirmed, go backwards,” Patel told a contentious Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing. “There will be no politicization at the FBI. There will be no retributive actions taken by the FBI.” 

The reassurances were aimed at blunting a persistent line of attack from Democrats, who throughout Thursday’s hearing confronted Patel with a vast catalog of his incendiary statements. They said those statements raise alarming questions about his loyalty to the president, such as when he described some of the prosecuted Jan. 6 rioters as “political prisoners” and called for a purge of anti-Trump “conspirators” in the government and news media. 

“There is an unfathomable difference between a seeming facade being constructed around this nominee here today, and what he has actually done and said in real life when left to his own devices,” said Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat. His colleague, Senator Amy Klobuchar from Minnesota, later added, “It is his own words. It is not some conspiracy. It is what Mr. Patel actually said himself.” 

Patel defended himself by insisting that Democrats were putting his comments and social media posts in a “grotesque context.” He said the suggestion that he had an “enemies list” — a 2023 book he authored includes a lengthy list of former government officials he says are part of the so-called deep state — was a “total mischaracterization.”

“The only thing that will matter if I’m confirmed as a director of the FBI is a de-weaponized, de-politicized system of law enforcement completely devoted to rigorous obedience to the Constitution and a singular standard of justice,” Patel said. 

Patel was picked in November to replace Christopher Wray, who led the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency for more than seven years but was forced out of the job Trump had appointed him to after being seen as insufficiently loyal to him. 

Patel is a former aide to the House Intelligence Committee and an ex-federal prosecutor who served in Trump’s first administration. He has alarmed critics with rhetoric — in dozens of podcasts and books he has authored — in which he has demonstrated fealty to Trump and assailed the decision-making of the agency he’s now been asked to lead. 

But Patel sought on multiple occasions to reassure Democrats that his FBI would be independent from the White House. He would not acknowledge that Trump had lost the 2020 election, conceding only that Joe Biden was sworn in as president. But he did not endorse Trump’s sweeping pardon of supporters, including violent rioters, charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. 

“I do not agree with the commutation of any sentence of any individual who committed violence against law enforcement,” Patel said in response to a question from Senator Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the committee. Durbin made his opposition to Patel clear at the outset. 

Durbin said the FBI is critical in keeping America safe from terrorism, violent crime and other threats, and the nation “needs an FBI director who understands the gravity of this mission and is ready on day one, not someone who is consumed by his own personal political grievances.” 

Patel pledged if confirmed to be transparent and said he would not involve the FBI in prosecutorial decisions, keeping those with Justice Department lawyers instead. 

“First, let good cops be cops,” Patel wrote in outlining his priorities. “Leadership means supporting agents in their mission to apprehend criminals and protect our citizens. If confirmed, I will focus on streamlining operations at headquarters while bolstering the presence of field agents across the nation. Collaboration with local law enforcement is crucial to fulfilling the FBI’s mission.” 

Patel found common cause with Trump over their shared skepticism of government surveillance and the “deep state” — a pejorative catchall used by Trump to refer to government bureaucracy. 

He was part of a small group of supporters during Trump’s recent criminal trial in New York who accompanied him to the courthouse, where he told reporters that Trump was the victim of an “unconstitutional circus.” 

That close bond would depart from the modern-day precedent of FBI directors looking to keep presidents at arm’s length. 

Republican allies of Trump, who share the president’s belief that the FBI has become politicized, have rallied around Patel and pledged to support him, seeing him as someone who can shake up the bureau and provide needed change. 

Senator Chuck Grassley, the Republican chairman of the committee, sought to blunt attacks on Patel preemptively by focusing on the need to reform an FBI that he said had become weaponized. 

The FBI in recent years has become entangled in numerous politically explosive investigations, including not just the two federal inquiries into Trump that resulted in indictments but also probes of Biden and his son, Hunter. 

“It’s no surprise that public trust has declined in an institution that has been plagued by abuse, a lack of transparency, and the weaponization of law enforcement,” Grassley said. “Nevertheless, the FBI remains an important, even indispensable institution for law and order in our country.” 

He later added: “Mr. Patel, should you be confirmed, you will take charge of an FBI that is in crisis.”
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