5 things to know for Feb. 5: Gaza, US Postal Service, Midair collision, Guantanamo Bay, Sweden shooting
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The CIA is now the first major national security agency to offer buyouts to its entire workforce, a step in the Trump administration’s effort to shrink the federal government. Thousands of other federal workers face sweeping layoffs this week unless they accept offers to resign. Here’s what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day. President Donald Trump said that the US “will take over” Gaza — potentially with the help of US troops — while the Palestinians who live there should leave. His comments on Tuesday raised a host of questions and concerns about the forcible displacement of about two million Palestinians from their land. Trump added that “we’ll own it,” dismantle unexploded bombs and clear debris to build the “Riviera of the Middle East.” Some Arab nations are pushing back on the brazen proposal and rejecting the notion of accepting additional Palestinian refugees. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, sitting alongside his US counterpart in the Oval Office, smiled at the remarks and said he believed Trump would help Israel achieve all of its war goals. After announcing Tuesday it would not accept incoming parcels from China and Hong Kong until further notice, the US Postal Service abruptly changed course this morning and said it will continue accepting “all international inbound mail and packages from China and Hong Kong Posts.” “The USPS and Customs and Border Protection are working closely together to implement an efficient collection mechanism for the new China tariffs to ensure the least disruption to package delivery,” the service said in an updated statement. The announcement comes just days after President Trump ended an exemption that allowed anyone to ship packages worth less than $800 to the US without paying duties or undergoing inspections. Inspecting incoming parcels to collect the new import taxes could prove extremely difficult. Crews working at the site of last week’s deadly midair collision in Washington, DC, have recovered the remains of all 67 victims. The American Airlines jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter on a training mission ran into each other over the Potomac River in an accident that remains unexplained. More parts of the plane — which will also form pieces of the puzzle investigators are trying to solve — were pulled from the river Tuesday. However, inclement weather will bear down on Washington today, with snow, sleet and freezing rain expected to worsen already tough conditions for recovery personnel. The Trump administration has started to send migrants to Guantanamo Bay despite questions about the plan’s legality. The prison in Cuba opened in 2002 as a holding center for suspects taken off battlefields in South Asia, the Middle East and elsewhere who were treated outside the legal system and often held for years without trial. On Tuesday, a military flight carrying around 10 migrants with criminal records landed in Guantanamo, US officials said. The move stems from President Trump’s memorandum directing the federal government to prepare the prison site at the US Naval base to house tens of thousands of migrants.
A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from enforcing its anti-trans prison policy against three transgender women currently housed in women’s facilities at federal prisons.
The Treasury Department said Elon Musk aides detailed to the agency have “read-only” access to its sensitive $5 trillion US payments system and that no payments have been suspended or rejected as part of an ongoing review.
More officials across the US Agency for International Development began getting notices Tuesday evening that they were being put on administrative leave, expected to be part of a widespread effort to cut staffers out of the system.
The Trump administration is planning widespread layoffs among the federal workforce soon, leaving employees who don’t accept its deferred resignation offer at risk of losing their jobs, two Trump administration officials told CNN.
Authorities in three states have made arrests in connection with individuals impersonating Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, as tensions rise amid a nationwide immigration crackdown.
Conservative backlash has brought Speaker Mike Johnson’s budget plans to a halt, offering an early sign of the struggle Republicans will face as they try to muscle President Donald Trump’s agenda through a narrowly divided Congress.
President Donald Trump is expected to attend Super Bowl LIX at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans on Sunday, a White House official told CNN.
On Monday, President Donald Trump put a month-long pause on his planned tariffs on Canadian imports. Earlier in the day, though, he added two new items to his long list of inaccurate complaints about Canada.
The Trump administration has begun drafting an executive order that would kick off the process of eliminating the Department of Education, the latest move by President Donald Trump to swiftly carry out his campaign promises, two sources familiar with the plans told CNN.
As tents went up in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to hold migrants, attorneys at the Department of Homeland Security and Pentagon were still trying to determine whether it was legal to take the unprecedented step of flying migrants from the US southern border to the facility, according to two US officials and a person familiar with the planning.
Dozens of senior officials put on leave. Thousands of contractors laid off. A freeze put on billions of dollars in humanitarian assistance to other countries.
The founder of a Florida-based neo-Nazi group was convicted Monday of conspiring with his former girlfriend to plan an attack on Maryland’s power grid in furtherance of their shared racist beliefs.
Senior FBI leaders are bracing for a Tuesday deadline as they grapple with whether to hand over information demanded by the Justice Department regarding bureau employees who worked cases involving the January 6 Capitol riot, multiple sources tell CNN.