Monday, January 27, 2025
It is Monday, January 27, 2025. Here are today’s top stories.
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U.S. and Colombia spar before reaching deal
On Sunday, the Trump administration and Colombia sparred over deportation flights and nearly started a trade war, but both sides reached a deal on Sunday.
This situation started when Colombian President Gustavo Petro said they wouldn’t accept U.S. military planes carrying deportees. The Trump administration responded by ordering high tariffs on all Colombian imports, a travel ban for Colombian citizens, and a suspension of visa processing. Petro said Colombia would carry out retaliatory tariffs.
Despite the sparring, negotiators on both sides managed to reach an agreement by Sunday night with Colombia accepting the military flights and no penalties from the U.S.
People in the Trump administration told news outlets that this should be considered a warning to other countries.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/26/politics/colombia-tariffs-trump-deportation-flights/index.html
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New AI model called DeepSeek
There are a lot of news headlines today about DeepSeek, a Chinese AI model that is a competitor with OpenAI’s ChatGPT. There was turmoil in tech stocks today because DeepSeek seems to be a more powerful and much cheaper AI model — it said it only took two months and $6 million to create. NBC News said this is much less than the hundreds of billions of dollars that OpenAI, Microsoft, Meta, and others have poured into developing their own models, which has fueled fears that China may be passing the U.S. in the scale and efficiency of their AI investments. This news caused Nvidia, a chipmaker company, to plunge 15% in its stock value, which accounts for over $400 billion. Other tech stocks were affected.
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Trump thinking of “cleaning out” Gaza
President Trump said on Saturday that he would like to “clean out” Gaza by moving 1.5 million Palestinians to other countries such as Jordan and Egypt. Trump said he doesn’t mind working with Arab countries to build housing for Palestinians so they can live in peace.
CNN said both Jordan and Egypt rejected the idea. A Jordanian official said “Jordan is for Jordanians and Palestine is for Palestinians.”
An Egyptian official said it rejects the deportation or encouragement of the transfer or removal of Palestinians from their land.
Palestinian politicians said this is tantamount to ethnically cleansing Gazans from their land.
CNN explained that there are some far-right politicians in Israel who advocate for pushing Palestinians out of the area to make way for Israeli settlers — these people would support Trump’s idea.
Right now, there’s nothing like this happening — there’s no kind of plans or deals in place. Currently, tens of thousands of Palestinians are returning to northern Gaza after this part was opened as a part of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
This shows what Trump is thinking regarding this situation.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/27/middleeast/trump-clean-out-gaza-middle-east-intl/index.html
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[Sponsored video from Sorenson: www.sorenson.com]
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KIA recalls 80k vehicles over airbag and seat belt issues
Kia is recalling about 80,000 of its all-electric Niro vehicles due to concerns that their seat belts and airbags may not function properly due to wiring beneath the front seat potentially being damaged if there are frequent adjustments to the seat. The recall affects Niro vehicles manufactured between 2022 and 2024.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/kia-recalls-niro-vehicles-seat-belt-airbag-issues-rcna189275
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Holocaust survivors mark liberation of Auschwitz
NPR said world leaders and dozens of Holocaust survivors gathered today at the former site of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in Poland to mark the 80th anniversary of its liberation by Soviet troops at the end of World War II.
One of the survivors is a 86-year-old from New Jersey who was six years old when she was liberated from Auschwitz in 1945. Her name is Tova Friedman. She said she feels that the world today has become toxic and that there may be another terrible destruction if we don’t stop with the hatred and distrust.
NPR explained that Nazi German forces murdered more than 1 million people at Auschwitz and most of the victims were Jews. Other people killed were Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war, gay people, and disabled people.
Poland’s President Duda said his country has a special role in preserving the memory of Auschwitz.
https://www.npr.org/2025/01/27/g-s1-44902/auschwitz-holocaust-survivors-80-years-nazi-germany
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Snowboarder and skier complete 2340 tricks
During the X Games in Aspen, Colorado, a snowboarder and a skier made history by being the first to achieve a 2340 trick, which requires six and a half rotations.
The first is snowboarder Hiro Ogiwara of Japan, who did the 2340 during a Big Air event on Friday. He said it was a great moment and he felt like he used all of the energy he had.
The second is skier Miro Tabanelli of Italy, who did the 2340 trick during a Ski Big Air competition on Sunday. Both men received gold in their events.
https://www.npr.org/2025/01/26/nx-s1-5275434/snowboard-ski-2340-x-games
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That is all the top stories for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.