The Daily Moth 3-27-2025
Hello, it is Thursday, March 27, 2025. Here are today’s top stories.
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Turkish student at Tufts University detained by federal agents
On Tuesday, a Turkish student at Tufts University, Rumeysa Ozturk (30), was detained by federal law enforcement while she was walking on a street in Boston. Federal authorities accused her of engaging into activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization. AP News explained that Ozturk co-authored an op-ed in a student newspaper that called on Tufts University to engage with student demands to cut ties with Israel and accused Israel of doing a genocide.
AP said the arrest appears to be part of President Trump’s pledge to deport students if they criticize Israel or protest their military actions in Gaza — Trump said he wanted to deport those who are “pro-terrorist.” Ozturk was moved to an ICE detainment facility in Louisiana.
The arrest is similar to the arrest on Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holder who participated in pro-Palestinian student protests at Columbia University last year.
AP said there is a third and similar detainment — a University of Alabama student from Iran, Alireza Doroudi, was detained. Axios reported that a fourth student was detained, a Georgetown University student named Badar Khan Suri.
Axios explained that federal immigration officials may prefer to put detainees in Louisiana because they have a good relationship with state prison officials and because if there are legal challenges, federal judges in that region are more conservative than others.
So, the arrests and allegations that they are supporting terrorist organizations — really, it’s not like they were actively trying to hurt Americans — I think they were speaking out and protesting regarding the Israel-Gaza war. The U.S. does give a lot of funding to Israel to support their war against Hamas, so the students probably thought they have a right, freedom of speech rights, to criticize it. But if they do this while being on a student visa, one can see that it would be dangerous for them. Maybe in the future, it will chill people, especially students from the Middle East, because they basically can’t share their opinions or debate or express concerns, because they would be labeled as supporting terrorists. So it’s a sensitive situation right now in America.
https://apnews.com/article/tufts-student-detained-massachusetts-immigration-08d7f08e1daa899986b7131a1edab6d8
https://www.axios.com/2025/03/27/trump-immigration-louisiana-5th-circuit
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Dept. of Health and Human Services cutting 10,000 jobs
The Department of Health and Human Services said it would cut about 10,000 full-time jobs. ABC News said the DHHS oversees the FDA, CDC, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and other divisions. About 10,000 people have already left the agency in recent months through buyout offers or early retirements, and with the new job cuts, the agency will have about 62,000 employees.
DHHS Sec. Kennedy Jr. said they are reducing the bureaucracy and realigning the organization to focus more on “reversing the chronic disease epidemic.” He said the cuts would save taxpayers $1.8 billion per year.
ABC said some of the cuts have affected researchers working on Alzheimer’s disease and “disease detectives” who identify new infectious diseases.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/hhs-cut-10000-full-time-employees/story
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Six tourists die in submarine accident
BBC reported that six tourists died when a submarine they were in sank in the Egyptian Red Sea and 39 others were rescued. All six who died were Russian and the others were from Norway, Sweden, and India. The type of submarine is called a Sindbad. Tourists are typically transported to a floating platform holding the submarine. A survivor told a Russian TV outlet that as passengers boarded the submarine and took their reserved seats, water suddenly flowed in and that it was like the submarine detached from whatever it was holding on.
This is the second deadly tourist incident in the Red Sea region in recent times — in November, a tourist boat sank and killed 11 people.
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/clynd93449kt
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Deadly wildfires in South Korea
Reuters reported that at least 28 people in South Korea were killed by wildfires in the center of the country. Almost 100,000 acres have burned and several historic temples and sites were destroyed.
AP News said almost 40,000 people have been forced to flee their homes. Dry weather and strong winds have fueled the fires, which has been burning since last Friday. The fires may have started from those who were trying to burn overgrown grass or from sparks during welding work.
Tragically, a helicopter pilot was killed when he crashed during firefighting efforts and at least four firefighters and other workers were killed when they were trapped by fast-moving flames.
The civilians who have died are mostly in their 60s, or found it difficult to escape quickly, or some refused orders to leave.
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/south-korea-battles-worst-ever-wildfires-death-toll-hits-26-2025-03-27/
https://apnews.com/article/south-korea-wildfires-dead-ee28d61627d2c7de7cc1d421b65b08fd
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Chili’s restaurant in Scranton to celebrate “The Office”
CNN reported that Chili’s is opening a restaurant in Scranton, Pennsylvania on April 7 and that it will celebrate the popular “The Office” show. Scranton is the setting of where “The Office” takes place, which premiered on NBC in 2005 and ran for 9 seasons.
CNN explained that “The Office” has several episodes where its characters were in a Chili’s restaurant, but there was no actual restaurant in Scranton, until now.
The new restaurant will have decor related to the show. They’ve even brought in stars from the show, such as Brian Baumgartner, who portrayed Kevin Malone, to promote the restaurant.
CNN explained that Chili’s has been doing very well with sales nationwide.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/26/food/chilis-restaurant-scranton-the-office/index.html
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U of Arizona basketball player celebrates deaf heritage
There is a post from ESPN’s SportsCenter Next that is going viral in the Deaf community — it shows the University of Arizona basketball player Carter Bryant (#9) celebrating his deaf heritage. The post explained that Bryant is a grandchild of deaf adults, or a GODA. His grandfather, Mike “Doc” Torres, is a member of the USA Deaf Basketball Hall of Fame and his grandmother, Shelly Freed, is a longtime educator and administrator at the California School for the Deaf, Riverside. His mother, Sabrina, is an ASL interpreter. Bryant said growing up, his family would require them go an hour per day where they weren’t allowed to talk (with their voices) so they could work on their signing skills.
Arizona is playing against Duke tonight in a Sweet Sixteen matchup in the NCAA tournament. The game will start after 9:30 pm EST on CBS. I’ll show some bias here. Go Arizona! Deaf / GODA power!
https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1236156877866166&set=pcb.1236156907866163
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That is all the top stories for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.