Hundreds of protesters are calling on Austin city leaders to do more to protect immigrants in the community.
AUSTIN, Texas – Hundreds of protesters are calling on Austin city leaders to do more to protect immigrants in the community.
They gathered outside city hall Tuesday afternoon for an “Ice Out of Austin protest.”
What they’re saying:
The event, organized by “Hands off Central Texas”, featured live music and remarks from groups including the League of Women’s Voters, an immigration attorney, the Austin Justice Coalition, and others sharing concerns about immigration enforcement and public safety.
“I see the violence on my feed all the time and see it start to creep into the Costco that I go to and the parking lots that I have grown up going to and living in and seeing it encroach on my city,” said attendee Amethyst Jonquile.
Organizers say two petitions with over 10,000 signatures are circling urging the Austin City Council, Mayor Kirk Watson, and the city manager to adopt an ordinance preventing the Austin Police Department from assisting immigration agents serving administrative warrants in the city.
“This petition came about because we wanted to show what I think is on everyone’s minds. There are a lot of different ways to get involved in your community and local governments in a good way,” said Hands Off Central Texas organizer Shelby Evans.
The petition is also calling for Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis to retrain the entire APD staff to prevent city employees from knowingly, or unknowingly, notifying ICE of the address or current location of Austinites with ICE or DPS administrative warrants.
The Trump administration has apologized for a mistake in the deportation of a college student who was trying to surprise her family in Austin for Thanksgiving. Her case comes as another Central Texas family said a loved one arrested by ICE has seemingly disappeared
“We also have, I think, over 70 statements that people wrote out that were also delivered to the council so that they can inform how they want to use our tax dollars our resources to allocate in a way that we think is appropriate, which would not be to serve up capture and give people over to ICE,” said Evans.
Last week, APD announced it will update its policy on how it cooperates with federal immigration agents. At the moment, there are no clear rules in place for when they run into someone with a non-criminal warrant.
The current policy says officers have to comply with immigration detainer requests, but the policy doesn’t address administrative warrants.
What’s next:
The group delivered the petition directly to Austin City Council members Mark Siegl, Ryan Alter, Vanessa Fuentes, Paige Ellis, and Zo Quadri.
Jose Velasquez spoke on what will happen now.
“We continue communication and continue working with the community,” said Velasquez.
APD says it’s reviewing general orders to get clearer guidance on dealing with administrative warrants.
Big picture view:
The protest comes just weeks after the death of Renee Nicole Good by an ICE agent in Minnesota, sparking widespread demonstrations across the country.
Closer to home, federal immigration agents conducted operations in Kyle and Buda last week without prior notice to local law enforcement or county officials.
“We have seen what’s going on in Minnesota, but we’ve also seen what has gone on in our local community. A number of people here are impacted by community members, and the fact that due process is not being respected, the fact we’re seeing violence and use of force that’s completely inappropriate against our community members. We can’t be silent about it, so we’ve gathered, and we’re going to say something,” said Evans.
In Lockhart, on Tuesday, the police department said it was made aware that ICE personnel were conducting law enforcement activity near the intersection of FM 20 and US 183.
The city of Lockhart Police Department were not involved and were not notified in advance.
The Source: Information from interviews conducted by FOX 7 Austin’s Jenna King
Stacey Dash is in her cowgirl era — and fans are very much along for the ride.
Marking her 59th birthday, Dash continued her series of nonstop posts from what appears to be the same rustic barn, cycling through country-inspired outfits while posing with horses and filming around a stable.
Stacey Dash leaves fans drooling after sharing pictures from her western photoshoot. (Photo: John Lamparski/WireImage)
The aesthetic feels deliberate — soft lighting, calm energy, carefully framed shots. Still, it isn’t the outfits or even the location keeping people hooked.
Dash herself has become the focal point, with followers watching closely and trying to figure out what, exactly, she’s setting up. Her post on Sunday, Jan. 18, was no different.
In seven pictures, she posed in a bohemian western dress, white knee-high socks, and tan frontier boots. Her dress was cut low around her neckline, exposing the top part of her bosom.
“Happy Sunday…” she wrote in the caption.
Dash definitely made her fans happy as her comments were filled with flirty emojis and affectionate messages.
One person swooned, “ohhhhh myyyyy” along with several fire emojis.
A second person who couldn’t get enough of her pictures wrote, “Girl you are steaming ya betta watch out,” while a third said, “Damn still smacking.”
A fourth person used the western aesthetic to create a clever comment for Dash. They wrote, “I’d soooooo roll around in the hay with you.”
Dash’s other western looks during her time at the ranch ranged from casual to dramatic. In one outfit, she paired jeans with a fitted tank top. In another, she leaned fully into glam, wearing a black lace dress with a high slit, topped off with a black cowboy hat. She also switched things up with a fur coat layered over a long-sleeve white shirt, adding to the mix-and-match cowgirl aesthetic she’s been building.
Much of Dash’s content lately has been her posting pics dressed up or simply dancing and acting out audio to a trending sound. It’s what she’s leaned into since her political alignment with conservatives was met with backlash from the Black community.
As a Fox News contributor in 2016, the “Paper Soldiers” star ruffled feathers when she said on air, claiming there shouldn’t be a Black History Month or platforms like the BET network.
“Either we want to have segregation or integration,” she said on “Fox and Friends,” before later adding, “If it were the other way around, we would be up in arms. It’s a double standard.”
Dash has also publicly shown her support for President Donald Trump during his first term back in 2016. This snowballed into a big problem for her supporters in the Black community, who find Trump to be a divisive leader who spews hateful remarks.
But in 2021, Dash came forward with an apology for saying things she never should have. She told Daily Mail, “There are things that I am sorry for. Things that I did say, that I should not have said them … the way I said them. They were very arrogant and prideful and angry.”
She emphasized that she is no longer that same woman and is instead someone who has “compassion” and “empathy.”
However, she did reveal in the same interview that she was being blacklisted from Hollywood because of her right-wing views.
But now, Dash has found a way to monetize her photos through a paid subscription site for adutls that seems to keep followers coming back for more.
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In a major effort to close the global health equity gap, the Gates Foundation and OpenAI are partnering on “Horizon1000,” a collaborative initiative designed to integrate artificial intelligence into healthcare systems across Sub-Saharan Africa. Backed by a joint $50 million commitment in funding, technology, and technical support, the partnership aims to equip 1,000 primary healthcare clinics with AI tools by 2028, Bill Gates announced in a statement on his Gates Notes, where he detailed how he sees AI playing out as a “gamechanger” for expanding access to quality care.
The initiative will begin operations in Rwanda, working directly with African leaders to pioneer the deployment of AI in health settings. With a core principle of the Foundation being to ensure that people in developing regions do not have to wait decades for new technologies to reach them, the goal in this partnership is to reach 1,000 primary health care clinics and their surrounding communities by 2028.
“A few years ago, I wrote that the rise of artificial intelligence would mark a technological revolution as far-reaching for humanity as microprocessors, PCs, mobile phones, and the Internet,” Gates wrote. “Everything I’ve seen since then confirms my view that we are on the cusp of a breathtaking global transformation.”
Addressing a Critical Workforce Shortage
The impetus for Horizon1000, Gates said, is a desperate and persistent shortage of healthcare workers in poorer regions, a bottleneck that threatens to stall 25 years of progress in global health. While child mortality has been halved and diseases like polio and HIV are under better control, the lack of personnel remains a critical vulnerability.
Sub-Saharan Africa currently faces a shortfall of nearly 6 million healthcare workers, ” a gap so large that even the most aggressive hiring and training efforts can’t close it in the foreseeable future.” This deficit creates an untenable situation where overwhelmed staff must triage high volumes of patients without sufficient administrative support or modern clinical guidance. The consequences are severe: the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that low-quality care is a contributing factor in 6 million to 8 million deaths annually in low- and middle-income countries.
Rwanda, the first beneficiary of the Horizon1000 initiative, illustrates the scale of the challenge. The nation currently has only one healthcare worker per 1,000 people, significantly below the WHO recommendation of four per 1,000. Gates noted that at the current pace of hiring and training, it would take 180 years to close that gap. “As part of the Horizon1000 initiative, we aim to accelerate the adoption of AI tools across primary care clinics, within communities, and in people’s homes,” Gates wrote. “These AI tools will support health workers, not replace them.”
AI as the ‘Third Major Discovery‘
Gates noted comments from Rwanda’s Minister of Health Dr. Sabin Nsanzimana, who recently announced the launch of an AI-powered Health Intelligence Center in Kigali. Nsanzimana described AI as the third major discovery to transform medicine, following vaccines and antibiotics, Gates noted, saying that he agrees with this view. “If you live in a wealthier country and have seen a doctor recently, you may have already seen how AI is making life easier for health care workers,” Gates wrote. “Instead of taking notes constantly, they can now spend more time talking directly to you about your health, while AI transcribes and summarizes the visit.”
In countries with severe infrastructure limitations, he wrote, these capabilities will foster systems that help solve “generational challenges” that were previously unaddressable.
As the initiative rolls out over the next few years, the Gates Foundation plans to collaborate closely with innovators and governments in Sub-Saharan Africa. Gates wrote that he himself plans to visit the region soon to see these AI solutions in action, maintaining a focus on how technology can meet the most urgent needs of billions in low- and middle-income countries.
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Rep. Julia Letlow has President Donald Trump’s backing to challenge Sen. Bill Cassidy in the Republican primary for Senate in Louisiana.
Letlow formally jumped in the race Tuesday, a few days after Trump preemptively endorsed her to run for the seat in a January 17 post on Truth Social. He called her a “Great Star” and a “TOTAL WINNER,” writing “RUN, JULIA, RUN!!!”
Letlow was first elected to Congress in a 2021 special election to replace her husband, Luke Letlow, who was elected to the seat in 2020 but died of COVID-19 before he could take office. Letlow, a former teacher, highlighted her role as a mother to two children and her support for Trump in her announcement video.
“In a state as conservative as ours, we shouldn’t have to wonder how our senator will vote when the pressure’s on,” she said. “Louisiana deserves conservative champions — leaders who will not flinch.”
Cassidy, a gastroenterologist, has served in the U.S. Senate since 2015. In 2021, he was one of just seven Republican senators to vote to convict Trump in his impeachment trial for inciting the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Cassidy leads the Senate committee overseeing health care and voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy as secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) in Trump’s second term despite his concerns over Kennedy’s anti-vaccine stances.
Cassidy has since criticized Kennedy and HHS’s decisions on vaccine policy. Last summer, Kenedy fired all previously serving members of a vaccine advisory panel, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), and appointed eight new members. The panel has since voted to end the recommendation that newborns receive the hepatitis B vaccine, a move Cassidy called “a mistake.”
Sen. Bill Cassidy speaks with reporters as he departs the Capitol on September 30, 2025 in Washington, D.C.
(Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
“Congresswoman Letlow called me this morning to say she was running,” Cassidy posted on X on Tuesday. “She said she respected me and that I had done a good job. I will continue to do a good job when I win re-election. I am a conservative who wakes up every morning thinking about how to make Louisiana and the United States a better place to live.”
Letlow joins a crowded field of Republicans running for the seat, including Louisiana state Treasurer John Fleming, Public Service Commissioner Eric Skrmetta, state Sen. Blake Miguez and state Rep. Julie Emerson. Democrats running for the seat include farmer and former state House candidate Jamie Davis and Jabarie Walker, who served as chief of staff for the New Orleans Housing Authority.
The primary for U.S. Senate in Louisiana will be held May 16. If no one candidate earns over a majority of the vote, the top two will advance to a June 27 runoff. The Republican candidate is overwhelmingly favored to win the general election in Louisiana, which Trump carried by 22 points in the 2024 presidential election.
Republicans control the Senate by a three-seat majority, 53 to 47, and senators serve six-year terms, meaning a third of the Senate is up every election cycle. For Democrats to win back the chamber in 2026, they’d need to hold on to every seat they have, including competitive ones in Georgia and Michigan. They also would have to flip four GOP-held seats — targets include Maine, North Carolina and even more Republican-leaning states such as Ohio, Iowa, Nebraska and Texas.
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The appropriations bill package approved by the Senate on Thursday doesn’t allocate any funding for the U.S. Wildland Fire Service, denying the administration’s request for $6.5 billion for a new agency. The snub is more targeted at the Trump administration’s broader vision to also fold into the agency fire operations from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service—a merger that has not yet happened and is unlikely without congressional approval, sources say.
“The bill does not endorse the consolidation of federal wildland firefighting into one agency as proposed in President Trump’s budget request,” reads a summary of the measure from Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the vice chair of the Senate Committee on Appropriations. “Instead, it specifically provides funding to continue wildland firefighting using the longstanding practice of funding both the U.S. Forest Service and the Department of the Interior to allow Congress to consider legislative proposals for such a major change.”
Even without the Forest Service included, the shift under Interior marks one of the most profound transformations in how the country manages wildfire. For months Congress has been signaling to the Trump administration that it should slow down its consolidation push.
“Wildfire response depends on coordination, clarity and speed,” Brian Fennessy, the newly appointed chief of the Wildland Fire Service, said in a statement. “This initial planning effort is about bringing programs together, strengthening cooperation across the Department and building a framework that better supports firefighters and the communities they serve.”
Big Changes, Mixed Reviews: If this new agency rollout seems confusing, that’s because it is. In the U.S., wildland fire management is a complex system that stretches across multiple agencies, tribes, states and county fire management offices.
At the federal level, firefighters at Interior have been spread across the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The bulk of firefighting personnel and funding for suppression, though, falls under the USDA’s Forest Service.
In June, Trump issued an executive order directing the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture to combine their wildland fire programs “to achieve the most efficient and effective use of wildland fire offices.” In September, the administration announced its plan to create the new Wildland Fire Service at Interior, without the Forest Service forces for now.
For a recently published deep dive on this initiative, I spent months talking with firefighters, former federal employees, scientists and other experts about how a consolidated wildland fire force might look and how they felt about it. Some were supportive of the push, which they believe could help firefighters facing increasingly destructive blazes. Others—including Congress—have reservations.
As part of the appropriations bill, Congress directed the agriculture secretary, in consultation with the interior secretary, to contract with an independent research organization to “conduct a comprehensive study on the feasibility” of consolidation between the departments’ fire operations.
Overhauling the country’s wildland fire operations is a behemoth task, and many experts worry these changes are coming at a breakneck pace, with far too little planning or resources. Some members of the firefighting community are concerned that the move could be a guise to cut yet more staff after widespread layoffs last year.
And environmental groups such as the Sierra Club and The Wilderness Society fear that the new service will overemphasize suppression to the detriment of ecological health. A federal mandate in the early 20th century to suppress virtually all fires as quickly as possible caused an overgrowth of forests that are now fueling some of the country’s most destructive blazes.
“The way we got into this crisis to begin with was over a century of wildfire suppression,” Josh Hicks, director of conservation campaigns at The Wilderness Society, told me last week after the launch. “Now it seems they’re setting up an agency to suppress wildfires, when really what we need is a more holistic approach that explores, ‘When do we need to put fires out? When can we get more fire back on the landscape?’”
Hicks and other fire experts have also questioned whether a new service is necessary, given the collaboration already in place between agencies through bodies such as the Idaho-based National Interagency Fire Center, which was established in 1965.
“This new agency is redundant, at the very least,” Hicks said. It’s “a bit of a solution looking for a problem.”
A Black Box: Firefighters have spent decades pressing for reforms to the federal wildland fire management system, which has seen stark levels of staff attrition in recent years due to mental-health challenges and low pay.
Many members of the wildland fire community are open to changes and were particularly encouraged by the appointment of Fennessy to lead the new service.
Fennessy served nearly eight years as the fire chief of the Orange County Fire Authority in California and previously spent more than a decade in the federal fire forces.
“I always thought it was a great concept,” Luke Minton, a wildland division chief in the Weber Fire District of Northern Utah, said of a combined agency. Minton has experience in fire operations with the Forest Service and various agencies in the Interior Department.
“There may be some pretty good opportunities here for local government and state government,” such as streamlining funding and reimbursements and implementing projects in high-risk areas, he said. But like others, Minton still has questions about what priorities the new service will set and how that will benefit the public and partners.
The news site Government Executive reports that an email sent by Fennessy to Interior staff said he would be issuing a “blueprint for our phased unification” in the coming weeks. The secretarial order that launched the agency last week outlined some of the transition plan for the new service, which will include streamlining the chain of command, standardizing pay, improving coordination and upholding the Interior Department’s “treaty and trust responsibilities to Tribes.”
As far as the congressional funding goes, Interior spokesperson Elizabeth Peace told Government Executive the department “is well within its authority to evaluate how its internal programs are organized and to take steps to improve coordination, efficiency, and operational effectiveness.”
She added: “No new funding is being obligated, and no structural changes requiring congressional authorization are being implemented at this stage.”
So far, Interior has posted at least one high-level job opening at the Wildland Fire Service, for a wildland fire officer.
Overall, though, details on how the new service will operate—and how many staff could be moved or laid off in the process—have been sparse. The Interior Department did not respond when Inside Climate News asked whether officials had started shifting fire-related employees to the new service, how it would allocate funding based on the new appropriations bill and whether the reorganization would involve staff cuts.
“This consolidation plan has occurred in a black box,” Tim Ingalsbee, a former federal firefighter, told me last week. He is the executive director of Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecology. “Everything they’ve done on this has been basically an unfunded mandate [by] Trump.”
More Top Climate News
In a world first, an international agreement to legally protect vast areas of the global ocean beyond countries’ national jurisdictions went into effect last week, Sachi Kitajima Mulkey reports for The New York Times. Known as the High Seas Treaty, it was ratified in September by dozens of countries, including Morocco, Sierra Leone and China. Notably absent from the list: the United States. The Trump administration has pushed for more deep-sea mining exploration, though the activity has not yet taken place in the high seas. If you want to learn more, my colleague Teresa Tomassoni recently spoke about the marine conservation effort with Nichola Clark, a senior officer at the Pew Charitable Trusts, who has spent the past 10 years leading the nonprofit’s advocacy work related to the treaty.
A new study suggests that Antarctic penguins are breeding earlier due to warming temperatures, which could have cascading consequences for certain populations, Seth Borenstein reports for The Associated Press. The research found that by 2022, three species of penguins in the region began their reproductive season two weeks earlier than in 2012. Scientists say these changes in breeding timing and other climate-fueled shifts in the animals’ food chain could trigger overcompetition—both between penguin species and with commercial fisheries.
The Trump administration recently issued new dietary guidelines that would nearly double the amount of protein Americans consume, which could lead to a jump in greenhouse gas emissions from the cattle industry, Oliver Milman reports for The Guardian. The agricultural sector is one of the largest contributors of climate-warming gases, and environmental groups have urged people to consume less meat and dairy to minimize their own carbon footprint. Now, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of health and human services, is recommending the opposite, stating that “protein and healthy fats are essential and were wrongly discouraged in prior dietary guidelines.”
Postcard from … Iowa
For this installment of “Postcards From,” my colleague Anika Jane Beamer sent a recent photo from a snowy walk in Central Iowa.
“This restored oxbow was once a riverbed, then a damp divot where no crops would grow, and now it’s in the early days of its new life as a wetland,” Anika Jane said. “It seems to be a hit amongst the locals—all sorts of critter tracks converge at this pool of icy slush. The half-collapsed barn in the distance is a nice touch, I think, in this attempt to return a bit of scarred farmland to nature.”
Readers, we want to feature your nature photos in our “Postcards From” series. If you’d like to submit, please send them to [email protected].
About This Story
Perhaps you noticed: This story, like all the news we publish, is free to read. That’s because Inside Climate News is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. We do not charge a subscription fee, lock our news behind a paywall, or clutter our website with ads. We make our news on climate and the environment freely available to you and anyone who wants it.
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Kiley Price is a reporter at Inside Climate News, with a particular interest in wildlife, ocean health, food systems and climate change. She writes ICN’s “Today’s Climate” newsletter, which covers the most pressing environmental news each week.
She earned her master’s degree in science journalism at New York University, and her bachelor’s degree in biology at Wake Forest University. Her work has appeared in National Geographic, Time, Scientific American and more. She is a former Pulitzer Reporting Fellow, during which she spent a month in Thailand covering the intersection between Buddhism and the country’s environmental movement.
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SAN ANTONIO – The Burbank girls’ basketball team solidified its hold on second place in District 27-5A with a hard-fought 54-46 victory over rival Highlands, creating further separation in the standings while keeping pace in pursuit of first-place Sam Houston.
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Burbank (21-9 overall, 10-1 in District 27-5A) leaned heavily on its lone junior in an otherwise senior-dominated roster, as Nylia Botello poured in a game-high 21 points to lead the Bulldogs.
The Bulldogs will host Brackenridge next Tuesday.
Down the road from the Alamo Convocation Center, the Smithson Valley girls’ basketball team (18-7, 6-4 in District 26-5A) pulled off a dramatic road victory, edging out Alamo Heights 45-44 on a buzzer-beating layup by Isabelle Dimery.
Alamo Heights controlled the first half but saw the Rangers mount a comeback. Dimery’s last-second score sealed the win for the Smithson Valley, handing Alamo Heights a tough district loss.
Franklin D. Roosevelt famously illustrated with a simple metaphor the need for a healthy transatlantic alliance. Justifying his decision to lend Great Britain warships and other military supplies in the early days of World War II, Roosevelt likened it to loaning a neighbor a garden hose to put out the fire consuming his house. Sure, Roosevelt charitably wanted to help a neighbor in need. But it was self-interested too; if the neighbor could extinguish the blaze, it wouldn’t spread to FDR’s home. The United States benefited from the friendship—and the buffer—that allies could provide.
Today, Donald Trump will fly to Europe. Ukraine is already ablaze. And now the president is ready to set a bunch of new houses on fire.
The president will speak at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, tomorrow, and he appears prepared to shatter the nearly 80-year-old NATO alliance in order to seize Greenland. In his quest to claim a strategically located island of ice and rock, Trump has turned against his nation’s most stalwart friends. He has antagonized and mocked panicked European leaders, threatened punishing tariffs on countries that object to his plans, and pointedly not ruled out using military force. Trump’s thirst for Greenland—even if he stops short of ordering an armed invasion—threatens to unravel the partnership born from the ashes of World War II that has, in the decades since, ensured the spread of peace, prosperity, and democracy on both sides of the Atlantic.
Today marks one year since Trump’s return to office, and in that time, he has fundamentally reshaped the United States’ relationship with the rest of the world. But nothing has upended the global order more than what would happen if he follows through on his threats toward Greenland. The island, of course, belongs to Denmark, which says that it is not available for the taking. Troops from Europe have been dispatched to the territory, and Greenland’s prime minister warned his populace to prepare for an invasion. If Trump were to persist, Denmark could trigger NATO’s Article 5 mutual-defense pact, and then the unthinkable could occur: American soldiers firing on Europeans while Russian President Vladimir Putin’s dream of NATO’s self-immolation is thoroughly realized.
The annual meetings in Davos, normally a clubby gathering of business titans and political leaders, have been consumed by talk of what Trump may or may not do. European leaders have found themselves scrambling on strategy—appeasement? Defiance? Compromise? Early this morning, Trump posted screenshots of text messages that revealed the dilemma facing those leaders. (Lesson to everyone: Be careful what you text the guy unless you want the world to see.)
In one message, Mark Rutte—the secretary general of NATO, who has prized warm relations with Trump—praised the president’s foreign policies, then vowed that he is “committed to finding a way forward on Greenland.” But in another, French President Emmanuel Macron, whose relationship with Trump has been turbulent, admitted: “I do not understand what you are doing on Greenland.” In fact, Trump couldn’t be more clear, as he demonstrated once again by circulating a pair of presumably AI-generated images on social media. In one, he’s planting an American flag in Greenland. In the other, he’s lecturing European leaders in the Oval Office with a map behind him that depicts Greenland as part of the United States. (Canada and Venezuela too.)
Trolling close U.S. allies has seemingly been an unofficial policy of Trump’s second administration since its first days, beginning with Vice President Vance lecturing Europe in Munich on the virtues of free speech. But this time feels different for those nervously waiting in snowy Switzerland. The president’s address to the forum tomorrow is poised to be a defining moment, and Trump plans to make the unequivocal case that the United States should have Greenland, a senior White House official told me. For now, the administration is focused on purchasing Greenland or offering economic incentives to its residents and to those in Denmark, aides told me. But they are not ruling out the use of military force or economic pressure. The senior official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly discuss internal strategy, added that the White House is considering joint military exercises, withholding participation in NATO, and additional tariffs. (The Supreme Court has continued to delay its ruling on the legality of Trump’s tariffs, keeping that tool in play here.)
Yet even as the administration brandishes trade as a first-strike weapon, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent delivered this message in Davos today to European allies: “Sit back. Take a deep breath. Do not retaliate.” He added again: “Do not retaliate.” (Europe did not say that it would listen.) But Trump’s audacious power play won’t stop there: While in Davos, he’s also expected to lean on foreign leaders to join his fledgling Board of Peace, which includes a $1 billion price tag for permanent membership. A number of European heads of state expressed reservations about the board—including that it has a seat earmarked for Putin, who seemed to celebrate the invitation by launching a massive strike against Kyiv this morning. When Macron suggested that he would not join, Trump angrily threatened higher tariffs.
And now he has a new grudge: After being denied the Nobel Peace Prize that he covets, Trump this week registered his bitter complaints with the prime minister of Norway, writing that because of the snub, “I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace,” while incorrectly claiming that Denmark’s ownership of Greenland is not supported by “written documents, it’s only a boat that landed there hundreds of years ago.”
Some greeted the note with fact-checks and derision. But not the White House: Officials proudly distributed it for all to read.
Greenland is more than just ice and rock—and it has more strategic importance than looking really big on certain maps. Its location is key for Arctic defense and trade routes. It’s rich in minerals. And, yes, Trump has cited those factors as he has declared the island vital for U.S. national security. But Denmark has repeatedly counter-declared that it would happily grant many of Trump’s new demands. Want to build a new military base? Sure! Name it after yourself? Just ask! Yet Trump’s lust for Greenland goes beyond that, people close to him have told me. It’s about increasing American dominance in the Western Hemisphere and redrawing the maps of the world. The island is roughly 836,000 square miles, which would make it the largest territorial addition in U.S. history, eclipsing the Louisiana Purchase and the acquisition of Alaska. It would be something for the history books, the people close to him have said. And that’s what Trump is focused on.
Recent polls are clear: Americans strongly disapprove of an attempt to seize Greenland, especially by force. But Trump has been gazing past the midterms and toward his own legacy. A look back at his two previous appearances at Davos illustrates Trump’s evolution. In 2018, he was willing to be something of a deferential guest, shelving some of his nationalist ideology and even saying, “‘America First’ does not mean America alone.” He continued: “When the United States grows, so does the world.” (Hard to believe, I know.) And then, in early 2020, he offered a fairly standard campaign speech, boasting about American progress but evincing little care about what happens beyond the United States’ own borders. That is not the case in Trump 2.0.
At the one-year mark, Trump’s foreign policy has been defined by rampant interventionism. Although he has not ended as many conflicts as he claims (Trump’s count is eight and growing), the U.S. has played a mediator role in global hot spots, most notably in Gaza. After months of watching the violence, the president pressured both Israel and Hamas to reach a deal to release the hostages and implement a fragile cease-fire. But he’s also continued to erode the U.S.-led global order, instigating risky diplomatic and economic fights with allies. He has not consistently focused on the threat posed by China. His attention to the war in Ukraine has come and gone, but he continues to reflexively defer to Putin. Part of why European leaders were at first slow to challenge Trump’s Greenland rhetoric was that they didn’t want to provoke him into completely abandoning Kyiv, officials there have told me.
Trump has also fallen in love with the concept of one-and-done military interventions: the bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities, the strikes on alleged terrorist targets in Syria and Nigeria, and, of course, the capture of the Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro earlier this month. Aides have boasted that the Caracas operation was a turning point for the presidency; after limping to the finish of 2025 amid a series of electoral defeats, poor polls, and scandals, Trump seems reinvigorated. He is unchecked domestically—Minneapolis is under siege by federal forces—and internationally. He has been emboldened and has shown a new willingness to use force. In the hours before Air Force One was scheduled to lift off for Switzerland today, Trump was asked by a reporter how far he’d “be willing to go” to obtain Greenland.
“You’ll find out,” Trump answered.
Meanwhile, Europe waits. And watches for smoke.
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As the saying goes, if you don’t like the weather in Texas, just wait a minute and it will change. Though the capital city has enjoyed many 70- and even 80-degree-plus days in January, this weekend will usher in freezing temperatures and a possibility for snow, and Austin Pets Alive! is asking the community for support.
Today, the nonprofit put out a call for people to stop by its Town Lake Animal Center location at 1156 W. Cesar Chavez between noon and 6 p.m. daily through Friday, Jan. 23 to meet and pick up a dog to foster until Wednesday, Jan. 28. While regional shelters continue to deal with overcrowding and closed intake, 75 dogs are in need of temporary warm homes through Austin Pets Alive! during the cold front.
For those who cannot foster a dog, the rescue nonprofit is also asking locals to donate supplies (dropped off in front of ‘Building C’). The donations will help the dogs at the shelter and those going home with fosters. The request list includes:
Size medium, large, or extra-large dog crates
Baby gates
Long-lasting dog chews
Dog toys
APA has also provided a list of cold weather tips for Austinites, listed below:
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If you have transthyretin cardiac amyloidosis (ATTR-CM) , the same misshapen proteins that affect your heart can also build up around the nerves, leading to nerve damage, or neuropathy. Symptoms are wide-ranging, from tingling toes to dizziness and incontinence. This transthyretin amyloidosis with polyneuropathy, sometimes called ATTR-PN, is a relatively rare but serious condition. It occurs in hereditary cases of ATTR-CM, in which you inherit a specific gene, and in wild-type cases, which have no known cause.e60dc2a1-f33c-4a05-9b50-8e3e8e597629f5e8d52e-7ea8-4778-8458-0d51fb55ae3be60dc2a1-f33c-4a05-9b50-8e3e8e597629c902e552-8350-47f9-b4ce-48025231afa7 Because neuropathy associated with ATTR-CM can happen gradually, it’s important to understand how these neurologic changes may show up and progress over time.
Symptoms of Neuropathy in ATTR-CM Symptoms The neurological symptoms of ATTR-CM may show up before heart-related symptoms.e60dc2a1-f33c-4a05-9b50-8e3e8e5976291911b334-28a7-465c-b2ac-8be7c553138a This is because amyloid deposits form on our peripheral nerves, which help control everything from our heart and other muscles to our digestive system. This network of nerves manages communication between our central nervous system (the brain and spinal cord) and the rest of our body. ATTR-CM may affect:e60dc2a1-f33c-4a05-9b50-8e3e8e597629c9fb393b-f94e-45a2-bbaf-0f4d56ed48a0 Sensory nerves, which help us determine temperature, pain, and touch Motor nerves, which control movement Autonomic nerves, which control subconscious tasks like breathing and digestion Neuropathic symptoms may include:e60dc2a1-f33c-4a05-9b50-8e3e8e597629c9fb393b-f94e-45a2-bbaf-0f4d56ed48a0 Diarrhea and constipation Sexual dysfunction Problems with urination Eye problems, from dry eye and cloudiness to glaucoma e60dc2a1-f33c-4a05-9b50-8e3e8e5976295ff654bc-fb6b-4a6b-979d-9ddf1b17fb04 Orthostatic hypotension , a drop in blood pressure when you stand up that can cause dizziness and faintinge60dc2a1-f33c-4a05-9b50-8e3e8e5976295ff654bc-fb6b-4a6b-979d-9ddf1b17fb04 Numbness or weakness Pain and tingling Burning sensation Fatigue Excessive sweating or lack of sweating Most of these symptoms are not exclusive to ATTR-CM, however. This makes it possible for ATTR-CM and neuropathy to be missed or misdiagnosed as something else, such as a gastrointestinal issue alone.e60dc2a1-f33c-4a05-9b50-8e3e8e5976291911b334-28a7-465c-b2ac-8be7c553138a That’s why it’s important for doctors to consider all symptoms and identify the disease early. In extreme cases that are not caught and treated, peripheral neuropathy can make it harder to walk, button a shirt, or use motor skills to perform other essential tasks. “As someone accumulates amyloid deposits, their disease progresses,” says Elizabeth A. Mauricio, MD , neurologist at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida. “Earlier treatment will lead to a better quality of life.”
Treating the Root Cause Treatment ATTR-CM medications include “gene silencers” that stop protein production and transthyretin stabilizers. Gene silencers also can treat neurologic symptoms, Dr. Mauricio says. “Gene-silencing therapies work by reducing the production of problematic transthyretin proteins,” says Rabia Malik, MD , a neurologist with Rush Medical Group in Oak Brook, Illinois, adding that they can help mobility, pain, and digestive-system issues associated with ATTR-CM. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration originally approved gene-silencing treatment, such as vutrisiran (Amvuttra), to treat neuropathy related to hereditary transthyretin amyloidosis. Vutrisiran is now approved to treat ATTR-CM.e60dc2a1-f33c-4a05-9b50-8e3e8e597629747b548b-5ea8-4f6a-9f49-c426d6f1ec73 Other gene-silencing medications include: patisiran (Onpattro), which can stall progression of nerve-related symptoms and potentially help with mobility issuese60dc2a1-f33c-4a05-9b50-8e3e8e5976299571b780-8413-45aa-8074-56aeba65ea74e60dc2a1-f33c-4a05-9b50-8e3e8e5976299e2386d9-f094-423c-8a0f-f143da46d11d eplontersen (Wainua), which is prescribed to treat neuropathy in hereditary ATTR-CMe60dc2a1-f33c-4a05-9b50-8e3e8e59762992464188-be41-4578-9d9a-b926d3143922 Although these medications may stop symptoms from progressing, they are not a cure. “Nerves can repair themselves, but it’s a low, slow, and often incomplete process,” Mauricio says.
Supportive Medications Medications Some medications can provide short-term relief from symptoms of neuropathy, such as relieving pain, itching, and burning. These include: Medications typically prescribed to prevent seizures , such as gabapentin (Neurontin) and pregabalin (Lyrica)e60dc2a1-f33c-4a05-9b50-8e3e8e5976298d4bfff4-6708-40a9-9f98-ea71ec823c40 Antidepressants , including duloxetine hydrochloride and nortriptylinee60dc2a1-f33c-4a05-9b50-8e3e8e59762933668eaf-0e62-4af3-b56a-a8d313f57509 Topical treatments, such as lidocaine patches or the topical cream capsaicine60dc2a1-f33c-4a05-9b50-8e3e8e59762933668eaf-0e62-4af3-b56a-a8d313f57509 Medicinal cannabis, which may be helpful for some patients, despite little supporting evidence (consult your doctor before trying) Doctors should avoid recommending opioids to treat peripheral neuropathy because of their dangers and side effects, Mauricio says.
Nonmedicinal Techniques Nonmedicinal Techniques Some people with ATTR-CM and nerve damage may find relief in nonmedicinal options. Many are backed with anecdotal evidence only, however, and may not work for everyone. Treatments may include:e60dc2a1-f33c-4a05-9b50-8e3e8e5976298490932b-5ee7-4ea8-be2c-d95443029a79e60dc2a1-f33c-4a05-9b50-8e3e8e5976298f7a42ae-468f-4e22-9a15-46d3e805ea2c Ergonomic supports to reduce strain, such as splints or shoe inserts Relaxation exercises like breath work, meditation, massage, and yoga Acupuncture Dietary changes to reduce inflammation from food and beverages Transcutaneous electronic nerve stimulation (TENS) devices, over-the-counter machines that attempt to block pain with electrical stimulation applied to nerves Exercise, with a focus on low-intensity exercise like walking Cognitive behavioral therapy Hypnosis Avoiding alcohol and tobacco Getting at least seven hours of sleep each nighte60dc2a1-f33c-4a05-9b50-8e3e8e597629dceea7a2-12e4-454b-939e-ba55455a57c2 Green tea, which could help reduce amyloid depositse60dc2a1-f33c-4a05-9b50-8e3e8e597629174ba34e-6c08-4a30-8eb1-84e12d810f53 Alpha-lipoic acid supplements, antioxidants that can help with neuropathy associated with diabetes, Dr. Malik says, though there’s no data supporting its use with ATTR-PNe60dc2a1-f33c-4a05-9b50-8e3e8e5976298a90c142-8bfc-413d-8730-fe73fa853ed3
Preserving Independence Staying Independent In addition to pain, neuropathy can cause numbness, tingling, weakness, and other sensations that make it harder to function every day. Talk to your care team about safe ways for you to stay mobile inside and outside your home. To avoid complications from a fall, your doctor might suggest using a walking stick, cane, or walker, Malik says. Other ways to keep your environment safe include:e60dc2a1-f33c-4a05-9b50-8e3e8e5976291b0e3963-a1af-4e13-a864-5e32b45e7c5f Ensuring rooms in your home are properly lit Installing grab rails and bars in stairwells and bathing areas Removing rugs and other slip risks from floors Replacing furniture that has sharp edges or corners Purchasing specialized tools to help you get dressed, such as zipper pulls and dressing sticks
The Takeaway Nerve damage may accompany ATTR-CM, sometimes appearing before the heart disease is diagnosed. Symptoms of neuropathy with ATTR-CM, such as numbness and gastrointestinal issues, may resemble those of other conditions, making it important for you to share what you are experiencing to help your healthcare team. Although there is no cure for the condition, medications like gene-silencing therapies may stop the progression of neuropathy and improve your quality of life. Dietary changes, ergonomic supports, and relaxation techniques may help ease symptoms.
Resources We Trust Cleveland Clinic: Transthyretin Amyloidosis (ATTR-CM)Amyloidosis Research Consortium: Finding SupportFoundation for Peripheral Neuropathy: Peripheral Neuropathy NutritionMedlinePlus: Transthyretin AmyloidosisMemorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center: Managing Peripheral Neuropathy
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Industry reports and the growth of voice model companiesin the Indian market suggest that there is a growing demand for voice AI solutions in the country. Voice is a popular medium for communication among people and businesses in India. That’s why enterprises and startups are eager to use voice AI to be more efficient at customer support, sales, customer acquisition, hiring, and training.
But recognizing market demand is one thing — proving businesses will pay is another. Y Combinator rejected the application from Bolna, a voice orchestration startup built by Maitreya Wagh and Prateek Sachan, five times before finally accepting it into the fall 2025 batch, skeptical that the founders could turn interest into revenue.
“When we were applying for Y Combinator, the feedback we got was, ‘great to see that you have a product that can create realistic voice agents, but Indian enterprises are not going to pay, and you are not going to make money out of this,’” Wagh told TechCrunch.
The startup applied with the same idea for the fall batch but was able to show it had revenue of more than $25,000 coming in every month for the last few months. At that time, the company was running $100 pilots to help users build voice agents. Now the startup is pricing those pilots at $500.
The momentum has continued. The startup said on Tuesday that it has raised a $6.3 million seed round led by General Catalyst, with participation from Y Combinator, Blume Ventures, Orange Collective, Pioneer Fund, Transpose Capital, and Eight Capital. The round also includes individual investors, including Aarthi Ramamurthy, Arpan Sheth, Sriwatsan Krishnan, Ravi Iyer, and Taro Fukuyama.
The product and customers
Bolna is building an orchestration layer — essentially a platform that connects and manages different AI voice technologies — akin to startups like Vapi, LiveKit, and VoiceRun, to suit the idiosyncrasies of interactions in India, including noise cancellation, getting verification on the caller ID platform Truecaller, and handling mixed languages.
Feature-wise, the company has built specific nuances for Indian users, such as speaking numbers in English regardless of the core language, or allowing for keypad input for longer inputs.
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Wagh noted that the key differentiation of Bolna is that it makes it easy for users to build voice agents by just describing them, even if they don’t know much about the underlying technology, and start using them for calls. The company said that 75% of its revenue is coming from self-serve customers.
He also said that because Bolna is an orchestration layer, it doesn’t depend on a single model, so enterprises can easily switch when there is a better model available.
“Our platform allows customers to switch models easily or even use different models for different locales to get the best out of them. An orchestration layer is necessary for enterprises to ensure they are getting the best models because one model can be better today and another one can be better tomorrow,” Wagh said.
The company has a range of clients, including car reselling platform Spinny, on-demand house-help startup Snabbit, beverage companies, and dating apps. Most of these are small to midsize businesses that use Bolna’s self-serve platform.
Separately, Bolna is pursuing large enterprise deals. For these large enterprises and custom implementations, Bolna has a team of forward-deployed engineers — specialists who work directly with clients on-site or closely with their teams. The startup has signed two large enterprises as paying customers and has four more in the pilot stage. Currently, Bolna employs nine forward-deployed engineers and is adding two to three people to that team every month to support this enterprise push.
Bolna has seen steady growth in both call volumes and revenue. It say it’s now handling over 200,000 calls per day and on the verge of crossing $700,000 in annual recurring revenue (ARR). The company noted that while 60% to 70% of call volume is in English or Hindi, other regional languages are steadily rising.
Akarsh Shrivastava, who is part of the investment team at General Catalyst, said that the firm found Bolna impressive because its orchestration layer is flexible for various kinds of customers.
“Bolna allows you the freedom to choose any model and has a stack behind it to mold it according to your requirement. It’s a good option for people who want to own some part of the stack, want flexibility in model picking, and want to be able to maintain those products themselves,” Shrivastava told TechCrunch over a call.
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