The Trump administration has launched what it’s calling the largest mass deportation operation in U.S. history, arresting 538 undocumented immigrants and deporting hundreds of others since Trump took the oath of office Monday. Trump’s so-called border czar, Tom Homan, says the raids are aimed at “sanctuary cities” whose leaders refuse to comply with Trump’s mass deportation plans.

On Thursday, ICE agents raided a seafood depot in Newark, New Jersey, taking three people into custody, including a military veteran. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka condemned the warrantless immigration raids, writing, “This egregious act is in plain violation of the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution … Newark will not stand by idly while people are being unlawfully terrorized.”

The New York Times reports Trump has given ICE officials the power to quickly deport asylum seekers who were allowed into the U.S. temporarily under Biden-era programs. The policy change could affect more than a million people who’ve been granted up to two years to remain in the U.S. under a temporary legal status known as “parole.”

A federal judge in Seattle has blocked President Trump’s executive order ending the constitutional guarantee of citizenship for anyone born in the U.S. Nick Brown is Washington state attorney general.

Attorney General Nicholas Brown: “This is step one. But to hear the judge from the bench say that in his 40 years as a judge, he has never seen something so blatantly unconstitutional sets the tone for the seriousness of this effort. … I think what the order today reinforces is that no one individual, not even the president of the United States, can simply erase what it means to amend the Constitution and the process therein.”

Recently sworn-in Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered the State Department to halt processing passports for people who indicate their sex as “x” on their applications, stating in an email that “the policy of the United States is that an individual’s sex is not changeable.” The directive means trans, intersex and nonbinary people who choose the “x” marker will be forced to carry passports that misgender them. This comes days after Trump issued a day one executive order that asserted there are “two sexes, male and female.” The Biden administration allowed people to select a sex marker on their passports that reflects their gender identity starting in 2021, and issued the “x” marker option for passports in 2022.

The Senate has confirmed John Ratcliffe as director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Twenty-one members of the Democratic caucus joined Republicans in Thursday’s 74-25 vote, making Ratcliffe the second nominee approved in Trump’s new term.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee has advanced the nominations of fracking executive Chris Wright for energy secretary and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum to lead the Interior Department. Both Wright and Burgum have pledged to carry out Trump’s campaign pledge to “drill, baby, drill” to boost oil and gas production.

Meanwhile, the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee has advanced Lee Zeldin’s nomination to lead the Environmental Protection Agency. Zeldin is a former Republican congressmember who earned a score of 14 out of 100 from the League of Conservation Voters for voting against critical environmental protections and clean energy job investments.

Multiple news outlets are reporting that Trump’s nominee to lead the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth, told Senator Elizabeth Warren that he paid $50,000 to a woman who accused him of sexually assaulting her in 2017. Hegseth reportedly made the disclosure in written responses to questions from senators as part of the vetting process for his confirmation. The news comes after Hegseth’s ex-wife provided the FBI with a new statement about Hegseth’s alcohol abuse. CNN reports Samantha Hegseth told agents carrying out a background check, “He drinks more often than he doesn’t.” Hegseth’s divorce agreement with his second wife includes a non-disparagement clause, barring her from making negative public comments about her ex-husband.

In more Pentagon news, Trump officials are reportedly making plans to eliminate a military office, created in 2023, that focuses on reducing civilian deaths in war zones.

President Trump demanded lower oil prices and a worldwide drop in interest rates as he remotely addressed the World Economic Forum in Davos Thursday. Trump also slammed European trade policies and regulations as he vowed to impose tariffs on companies that produce goods outside the U.S.

President Donald Trump: “Come make your product in America, and we will give you among the lowest taxes of any nation on Earth. We’re bringing them down very substantially, even from the original Trump tax cuts. But if you don’t make your product in America, which is your prerogative, then, very simply, you will have to pay a tariff.”

On Wednesday, Trump made his first call to a foreign leader since returning to office, speaking with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Saudi media reported after the call that bin Salman vowed to invest $600 billion in the U.S. over the next four years. Trump suggested he could make his first overseas trip as president to Saudi Arabia, as he did in his first term. Trump is expected to push hard for a normalization agreement between Saudi Arabia and Israel. Saudi Arabia has said Palestinian statehood is a condition of normalization with Israel.

On Thursday, the White House announced Trump also spoke to El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele. News of the call, along with Trump’s announcement he is considering establishing a “national digital asset stockpile,” sent bitcoin’s price soaring past $106,000. Bukele is a major proponent of cryptocurrency, adopting bitcoin as legal tender in 2021.

In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces shot and wounded a 65-year-old Palestinian man as they carried out a fourth day of raids on the Jenin refugee camp. According to the U.N., Israeli forces have killed 34 Palestinians, including six children, across the West Bank since the start of the new year.

In Gaza, leaders of Hamas say they will provide the names of four more Israeli hostages scheduled for release. Under terms of the ceasefire deal, Israel will free a group of Palestinian captives during a prisoner exchange on Saturday.

The U.N. reports 4,800 trucks carrying humanitarian aid have arrived since the ceasefire took effect on Sunday. The desperately needed surge of supplies comes just days before a new Israeli law is set to take effect on January 28 banning the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, from operating in Israel or the territories it occupies. The move is likely to dramatically increase Gaza’s suffering as the U.N.'s main humanitarian operation crumbles without an alternative in place to serve Gaza's more than 2 million people. UNRWA reports Israeli attacks since October 2023 have killed 272 of its members. On Wednesday, Palestinians surveyed damage to U.N. facilities in Rafah, where Israeli attacks left UNRWA warehouses and delivery vehicles in tatters.

Mohammed Abou Jazar: “This place has nothing to do with the resistance or anything else. This place used to feed us. These are all the warehouses of UNRWA that used to assist the Palestinian people. We all used to get our flour from it and so on. And as you can see, look at how the destruction is everywhere.”

Iraq’s parliament has approved new legislation that would lower the minimum age of marriage below 18, a shift rights groups say will legalize “child rape” in Iraq. The new law gives religious authorities more power over matters of marriage, divorce and inheritance, further limiting legal protections for Iraqi women, and allowing for girls as young as 9 years old to be married off. Child marriage is already a common practice in Iraq. A 2023 U.N. survey found 28% of Iraqi girls were forced into marriage before they turned 18.

The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for two Taliban leaders for gender-based crimes against women and girls in Afghanistan. ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan laid out the case against the two men: Hibatullah Akhundzada, supreme leader of the Taliban, and Hakim Haqqani, chief justice of what the Taliban calls the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.”

Karim Khan: “My office has concluded that these two Afghan nationals are criminally responsible for persecuting Afghan girls and women, as well as persons whom the Taliban perceived are not conforming with their ideological expectations of gender identity or expression, and persons whom the Taliban perceived as allies of girls and women.”

Amazon has announced it’s closing seven facilities in Quebec, Canada, and laying off 1,700 workers. The move comes less than a year after employees at one of the warehouses unionized and were working toward their first contract.

In Serbia, students and workers across all sectors have launched a general strike today, the culmination of three months of mass, student-led demonstrations. The protest movement started in response to the collapse of a roof at a train station in November in the northern city of Novi Sad, which killed 15 people. Serbs have since taken to the streets to call out government corruption and inefficiency. Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić has accused the protesters of being foreign agents, while some students have said they’ve been doxxed and harassed by authorities. This is student activist Luka Stojakovic speaking from a protest in Belgrade last week.

Luka Stojakovic: “The problem of our society is that corruption has entered every pore of society and that it is the cause of everything that is happening, from the fall of the canopy and the death of 15 people to everything that happened to us before that.”

The Sackler family and Purdue Pharma, maker of OxyContin, have increased their settlement offer to $7.4 billion amid ongoing legal negotiations with states, tribes and local governments that sued Purdue for creating and fueling the deadly opioid epidemic. Under the new deal, Sackler family members would not receive immunity from future opioid lawsuits — a condition they previously insisted on but was rejected by the Supreme Court in June. Instead, a portion of the settlement money will be set aside to cover the cost of any future litigation against the Sacklers. All the states, cities, counties and territories involved in the case must agree to the terms of the new deal before it can move forward.

A committee at Northwestern University has found there was no reason for Northwestern to have suspended professor Steven Thrasher, chair of social justice reporting at the Medill School of Journalism, last September. Dr. Thrasher, along with fellow professors, formed a defense line to protect students demonstrating for Palestinian rights last spring. He was assaulted by police and later was called out by name during a congressional hearing about campus protests. But even as the committee exonerated Thrasher, Northwestern has opened another disciplinary proceeding against him. Click here to see our interviews with Steven Thrasher.

The Palestinian-Israeli film “No Other Land” has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary. The film takes an unflinching look at Israel’s mass expulsion of Palestinians living in Masafer Yatta in the occupied West Bank. Despite its critical and festival success, “No Other Land” has not been able to find distribution in the United States. Click to see our past interviews with co-directors Yuval Abraham and Basel Adra.