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Donald Trump retains the ability to shock; the day he loses that, he will, like the biblical Samson—another man notable for his coiffure—lose his power entirely. When Trump started his second term as president a year ago, however, I doubted whether there was much more to learn about how his mind works. Even before he’d entered politics, Trump was overexposed. Since then, he has become the most scrutinized person in the world. His tendencies and foibles are well known to voters, politicians, and world leaders.
Yet in breaking one of his most entrenched patterns, he has provided perhaps the biggest surprise of the past year. During his first term, Trump was defined by his tendency to back down in any negotiation or fight: As I put it in a May 2018 article, he almost always folded, agreeing to concessions whether he was negotiating on trade with China or a budget resolution with Senate Democrats. More recently, though, he’s been following through, no matter how aberrant his ideas. The exact reason for this is difficult to pin down, though it likely includes the fact that he has more experience under his belt, fewer prudent voices in his ear, and a lame duck’s liberation from having to worry about reelection. In any case, his new determination is forcing countries around the world to reassess how to deal with him.
Nowhere is this so clear right now as with Trump’s continued pressure to acquire Greenland. In the wee hours of this morning, Trump went on a social-media spree, posting (among other things) an illustration of himself, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and J. D. Vance planting a U.S. flag in Greenland. European leaders seem to slowly be coming to the conclusion that this isn’t just a feint.
When the president began making noise about taking the Danish territory early last year, manyobservers were baffled but not necessarily all that concerned—an impulse reinforced when the matter receded from Trump’s attention in the months that followed. They also had a long track record to draw on. In May 2017, I wrote that “foreign leaders have realized Trump is a pushover.” This held true for adversaries (China) and allies (Taiwan, NATO) alike throughout his first term.
It was especially true for rivals such as Russia and North Korea. Trump talked a fierce game—promising “fire and fury” for Pyongyang, for example—but his counterparts understood that despite his insistence that he was a master dealmaker, all they needed was to get him to a negotiating table. “Faced with a tough decision, the president has consistently blinked, giving in to his opponents,” I wrote in my 2018 article.
This pattern was clear enough that when Trump refused to concede the 2020 election, even his allies were dismissive. “What is the downside for humoring him for this little bit of time?” a senior Republican official told The Washington Post in November 2020. “It’s not like he’s plotting how to prevent Joe Biden from taking power on January 20.” That was exactly what he was doing, however ham-handedly. The effort to subvert the election was also a warning of things to come.
Even so, Trump’s return to office initially suggested more of the same tendency to back down. This past May (why is it always May?), I wrote about Wall Street’s “TACO trade”—short for “Trump Always Chickens Out”—in which stock traders bet against the president following through on tariff threats and then profiting when he folded and markets went up. And they were right, to an extent: Although Trump did impose extensive tariffs, the eventual levels were much lower than initially announced, thanks in part to lobbying by foreign governments. Trump’s resolve remains weak in some areas; he’s swung wildly on Ukraine and Russia, his position shifting depending on whom he last spoke to.
But in other ways, the pattern has started to break. Just ask Nicolás Maduro, who reportedly rejected negotiated exile in Turkey, perhaps wagering that Trump would never actually launch a military strike on Venezuela to capture him. It was a bad bet. Now Trump seems energized and has turned his attention to Greenland. U.S. allies—or people who until recently thought of themselves as allies—are scrambling to figure out how to react. Can they draw things out long enough for Trump to lose interest? Can they appease him somehow? Or do they need, as Eliot Cohen argued in The Atlantic this past weekend, to show a willingness to resist the United States militarily?
Trump is acting emboldened domestically too. He is once again threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy troops to Minneapolis, where he seems determined to immiserate the entire city. Before his first term, Trump had threatened to prosecute political rivals, but he was stymied by his aides during his presidency. This time, he’s going throughwith it. In a New Yorker profile this week of Representative LaMonica McIver, a New Jersey Democrat charged with assault for a fracas at an ICE facility, Representative Lateefah Simon, a California Democrat, said, “Typically, we would say, ‘Oh, they’re just trying to scare her.’” But this is much more than fearmongering: “They’re actively litigating this case,” Simon noted. (McIver has pleaded not guilty.)
Signs of new resistance have started to emerge in parallel with Trump’s newfound resolve. Republican members of Congress have begun pushing back—far less than one would expect even in a normal presidency, but more than in Trump’s previous term or in the early days of this one. They were able to force his hand on the Epstein files, though whether they have the courage to hold him to account for slow-walking the files’ release is not yet clear. As my colleague Anne Applebaum wrote yesterday, Congress will need to do much more to halt any Greenland fiasco. Foreign leaders will need to take a harder line too. When Trump was a pushover, it was more understandable, if not wiser, to wonder, What is the downside of humoring him? Now the downsides are clear and dangerous.
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Today’s News
President Trump’s renewed threats to seize Greenland drew sharp criticism from European and Canadian leaders at the Davos conference. U.S. officials have said that there are no imminent Pentagon plans for military action; Denmark sent more troops to Greenland yesterday, and the island’s prime minister said that a U.S. attack cannot be fully ruled out.
Congress unveiled a bipartisan funding bill to avert a January 30 shutdown; the package omits the ICE restrictions many Democrats demanded and sets up a tense House vote, expected tomorrow, amid backlash over ICE enforcement and a fatal shooting in Minneapolis.
Federal prosecutors subpoenaed at least five Minnesota Democrats, including Governor Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, and Attorney General Keith Ellison, expanding a Justice Department probe as part of an investigation into the alleged obstruction of federal officers during an ICE crackdown in the state.
Trump’s Golden Age of Culture Seems Pretty Sad So Far
By Spencer Kornhaber
Trump’s return to office was widely portrayed as christening a new definition of chic. Young voters and voters of color had swung in his direction, thanks partly to the influence of podcasts, livestreams, and other media formats that now compete with traditional news outlets and cultural institutions. The attendance of tech barons, comedians, and content creators at Trump’s inauguration indicated that the so-called alternative media was now the mainstream—and openly pro-Trump. Its touchstones appeared to be recently booming phenomena including country music, TikTok tradwives, and mixed martial arts.
Trump quickly began consolidating his cultural power by focusing on the old media that hadn’t fallen in line.
D.L. Hughley’s Notes from the GED Section, DL delivers a history lesson that cut straight through modern political rhetoric. Addressing Donald Trump’s recent comments to The New York Times where the former president suggested that the push for civil rights resulted in white people being treated poorly DL dismantled this narrative with sharp wit and historical receipts our community has come to expect.
Trump’s remarks were framed not as a new phenomenon, but as part of a long-standing attitude that has persisted for nearly 70 years. That mindset where white men feel as though something is happening to them is often used to distract from reality. Despite these feelings of victimization, if you look at the actual data regarding income, education, and access to resources, virtually no metric changed negatively for white men during the Civil Rights era. Their standing in society remained secure, yet the feeling of loss persisted simply because equality began to look like oppression to those accustomed to privilege.
The segment then pivoted to the slow, often painful crawl of progress. Integration wasn’t an overnight success story but a battle fought inch by inch. Hughley cited specific examples, pointing out that the University of Alabama only integrated its football team in 1970 after realizing they needed Black talent to win, and Brigham Young University didn’t follow suit until 1978. He painted a vivid picture of the pettiness of Jim Crow, recalling an era where Black people couldn’t even buy vanilla ice cream, a stark reminder that the system was designed to deny Black humanity at every level, from the courthouse to the ice cream counter.
READ MORE DL HUGHLEY STORIES:
One of the most powerful moments of the segment was the breakdown of the term “Civil Rights.” Activists didn’t ask for a “Human Rights Act” or a “Superior Rights Act.” They asked for civil rights. “Civil,” as Hughley explained, is the absolute lowest modicum of human interaction, the bare minimum. It is simply a request for decency. The fact that a request to merely be “civil” caused political parties to shift and violence to erupt highlights the absurdity of the backlash.
The tension felt today, the fraying at the edges of society, exists because there is still resentment over laws that simply asked people to be nice. It’s a sobering reminder that while the laws have changed, the fight for genuine respect and equality is far from over.
Lt. Joel Garcia filmed Anthony Johnson Jr. as he lay handcuffed face-down on the floor of the Tarrant County Jail — and another jailer knelt on Johnson’s back.
The altercation with Johnson in 2024 wasn’t the first time a Tarrant County jailer knelt on someone who was already handcuffed. It wasn’t the first time Garcia watched that happen. And it wasn’t the first time the prisoner later died.
A KERA News investigation found Garcia was there when another jailer knelt on a prisoner named Derick Wynn, in 2019. Wynn was also face-down on the floor, in handcuffs. He became unresponsive, and he died soon after.
Both deaths occurred more than two decades after the U.S. Department of Justice published warnings against the dangers of kneeling on people who are restrained.
Sheriff Bill Waybourn condemned Johnson’s treatment at a press conference a month after his death, where he showed reporters Garcia’s cell phone video.
“Once he’s restrained, the knee should have never went on the back,” he said.
Wynn’s death five years earlier did not get the same level of public scrutiny as Johnson’s. A medical examiner blamed Wynn’s death on mixed drug intoxication. It’s unclear whether the doctor who performed the autopsy took the restraint into consideration.
The sheriff’s office refuses to answer questions about Wynn’s death. Spokesperson Laurie Passman provided a written statement that denied any wrongdoing and claimed “a knee properly placed to control a combative individual” is different than kneeling on someone.
“There is no indication noted by the investigator that the technique was done improperly, nor does the medical examiner rule that as a contributing factor in his death,” Passman said.
The sheriff’s office’s training documents, also obtained by KERA News, say new jailers should not be taught to place a knee on someone’s upper back — for safety reasons.
Derick Wynn, left, and his brother Louis Scott smile for a selfie. Wynn was 35 years old when he died in Tarrant County Jail custody on April 5, 2019. (Courtesy / Louis Scott)
Derick Wynn’s short but troubled jail stay
Through public records requests, KERA News obtained jail security camera footage and more than 100 pages of records about Derick Wynn’s incarceration and death, including written reports from approximately 30 jailers and a death investigation summary from the Texas Rangers.
The records reveal Wynn’s nine hours in jail were punctuated with violence, including altercations with jailers who would later be connected to other in-custody deaths: Garcia and then-Sgt. Sheldon Kelsey, who knelt on his back.
Wynn showed signs of distress and disorientation shortly after his arrest on Apr. 3, 2019. Before being booked into jail, he spent a few hours being observed at John Peter Smith Hospital, after he appeared to be clutching his chest, according to the Texas Rangers investigation report.
Police transferred Wynn to jail custody in the early morning hours of Apr. 4. During a jail mental health screening, Wynn seemed confused about where he was, the report continues. He kept asking for police, “because his daughter had fallen down the stairs.” When told he was in jail, he said, “No I’m not.”
Wynn denied using drugs, according to the investigation records — though the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office would later determine he died of mixed methamphetamine and cocaine intoxication.
Dr. Alon Steinberg is a cardiologist who studies why prone restraint — the law enforcement term for restraining someone face-down — can be deadly. Using meth, cocaine or other drugs heightens the danger because of the added stress it puts on the body, he said. It can make people breathe harder and require more blood circulation.
“Then when you combine that with prone restraint, which decreases both factors, that could be potentially very dangerous,” Steinberg said.
Drugs can also make people struggle more against law enforcement, Steinberg said — making the likelihood of a restraint that much higher.
Wynn resisted jailers all day, they would later report. Around 8:30 a.m., detention officers pepper sprayed him after he grabbed onto a door handle and wouldn’t let go, according to Kelsey’s written statement. One jailer sprained his wrist during the struggle, according to the investigation records.
One jailer pepper-sprayed Wynn in the face, but he kept resisting, Kelsey wrote. So Kelsey pepper-sprayed him in the face, too.
Four months later, Kelsey would pepper spray another man, Robert Miller, who died afterwards, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
The county medical examiner’s office blamed Miller’s death on a sickle cell crisis. Experts who spoke to the Star-Telegram refuted the conclusion Miller had sickle cell disease and said Miller likely died after multiple jailers pepper sprayed him at close range.
After that investigation, the county contracted with an outside expert to look at Miller’s autopsy. KERA News discovered the expert never received any materials. The county has never explained why the independent review didn’t happen.
Kelsey did not respond to requests for an interview for this story.
Wynn complained of a burning sensation for hours after his pepper spraying, accusing jailers of pouring gasoline on him, according to their reports. He was escorted to his first court appearance barefoot with his ankles restrained, his hands behind his back and his red jumpsuit drenched, jail security video shows.
Several jailers noted how much he was sweating, including Joel Garcia.
“During arraignment Inmate Wynn was accusing me of setting him on fire while I stood behind him,” Garcia wrote, adding he suspected Wynn was still suffering from the effects of the pepper spray.
After his court appearance, jailers brought Wynn back to his cell and laid him on the ground, with his head facing the cell door. This is a common technique used on people who are struggling against the removal of restraints, one jailer later reported. Garcia said Wynn was kicking and “being combative.”
“I stepped in to assist Sgt. Garcia,” Kelsey wrote. “I placed my left knee in between his shoulder blades.”
Of all the reports, only Garcia and Kelsey himself mention that Kelsey knelt on Wynn. Other jailers say Kelsey helped restrain Wynn’s upper body, or they don’t mention Kelsey at all.
It’s not clear how long Kelsey knelt on Wynn. Footage from a hallway camera shows Kelsey pushing past other jailers to get into the cell and kneeling down, but a jailer in front of the cell door blocks the rest of the altercation. Kelsey left the cell after about 80 seconds.
As they got the restraints off, Garcia noticed blood on the floor, “which appeared to be coming from Inmate Wynn,” he wrote.
After leaving the cell, the jailers realized something was wrong. Wynn made no attempt to get up. He did not respond to his name.
Garcia ordered another officer to open the cell door again. He shook Wynn, who lay in the fetal position breathing but unresponsive. He called a medical emergency, and jailers cuffed him again, “just in case he was to regain consciousness and began to fight,” Garcia wrote.
Security camera footage shows jailers carrying Wynn’s limp body out into a hallway. Wynn lay motionless on the floor as someone who appeared to be medical staff gave him chest compressions. A crowd of jailers gathered around, overflowing out of a nearby doorway.
MedStar first responders arrived and brought Wynn to John Peter Smith Hospital, where he was placed in the ICU in “life-threatening condition,” according to a sergeant on duty at JPS. He would die early the next morning, on April 5.
Jails have to report every in-custody death to the Texas Attorney General’s Office. Wynn’s death report noted he resisted officers but doesn’t mention the struggle in his cell.
“Officers were able to place Wynn in his cell and shut the cell door without a major confrontation,” the report reads.
Wynn’s brother, Louis Scott, shared a series of family photos over text message, which show Wynn was truly loved, he said.
In the photos, Wynn poses with his family and grins for the camera. His obituary memorialized his huge smile and his laugh, which could “light up a room.” He touched everyone’s life he came across, and he was ready to help “just by the mere mention,” it says.
Scott sent photos of Wynn’s grave, too, adorned with flowers. His headstone refers to him as a beloved son and brother.
The dangers of restraint
Kelsey did not respond to requests for an interview. After KERA News contacted him via his county email, sheriff’s office spokesperson Laurie Passman responded telling the reporter to direct all questions to the media relations department.
Garcia’s attorneys also did not respond to emails, phone calls and text messages requesting an interview.
The Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office maintains no one did anything wrong while restraining Wynn. Outside sources who say otherwise don’t have the proper details or context, Passman wrote in a statement.
“The [Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office] and the Texas Rangers are highly trained and relied upon to do thorough investigations,” she said. “There is no reason to doubt their conclusion of an investigation.”
In Texas, deaths in custody must be investigated by an outside law enforcement agency — in Wynn’s case, the Texas Rangers. Ranger Ike Upshaw reviewed jailers’ accounts and video footage for his investigation. In his report, he notes a jailer knelt on Wynn, but he does not express concern about it.
Law enforcement experts who spoke to KERA News agreed it is unnecessary and dangerous to kneel on someone who is already handcuffed.
Tarrant County Jail security footage obtained through a public records request shows jailers escorting Derick Wynn to his first court appearance on Apr. 4, 2019. Less than an hour later, he would be unresponsive and on his way to the hospital after an altercation with jailers where one knelt on his back, according to investigation records. (Screenshot / Tarrant County Jail)
“I don’t know why you would need to put weight on someone’s back when you are taking them out of restraints,” said Seth Stoughton, a law professor at the University of South Carolina, a use of force expert and a former police officer.
Gary Raney is the former sheriff of Ada County, Idaho, which includes Boise. He now works with troubled jail systems to improve conditions. He said he couldn’t think of a time when kneeling on someone in order to remove restraints would follow generally accepted policy and training.
“If they’re so violent you have to kneel on them, they probably shouldn’t be removed from restraints,” he said.
It can also be dangerous to leave someone handcuffed, because if they fall, they can’t catch themselves, Raney said. But he emphasized there are alternatives, like getting someone in a device called a restraint chair — though he acknowledged they have their own dangers from misuse.
Wynn died a year before the murder of George Floyd kicked off protests against racism and police brutality around the globe. Floyd, a Black man, died after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck while Floyd said over and over again, “I can’t breathe.”
But law enforcement has known kneeling on someone can be deadly for decades. The U.S. Department of Justice warned about the dangers in a bulletin back in 1995.
“As soon as the subject is handcuffed, get him off his stomach. Turn him on his side or place him in a seated position,” the bulletin advised. “If he continues to struggle, do not sit on his back.”
Still, stories of deaths after police kneel on someone have piled up. George Floyd in Minneapolis. Angelo Quinto in California. Tony Timpa in Dallas.
The Associated Press identified more than 1,000 people who died after police used force that isn’t meant to kill. At least 740 cases involved prone restraint, and in about half of those, officers pinned the person down after they were already handcuffed, “often pressing with knees or hands when the person was controlled.”
Most people won’t die from being restrained prone, but it is dangerous, forensic pathologist Dr. Victor Weedn said. He studies the effects of prone restraint, alongside the cardiologist Steinberg.
Weedn reviewed Wynn’s autopsy for this story. Besides noting abrasions on his back, the autopsy report gives no indication the medical examiner’s office considered the restraint as a possible factor in Wynn’s death, he said.
“It’s not a very remarkable autopsy, but that’s what we’ve seen in these restraint deaths,” Weedn said. “It’s often just superficial injuries indicating the struggle, and that’s about it.”
Medical examiners always need to take altercations with police into account, Weedn said.
“Typically what happens is, the person is alive, they’re in apparent good health — which may not be the best health — but they’re doing their thing, breathing their oxygen, eating their food, talking to people, you know, doing whatever,” he said. “Then there’s a police interaction and they’re dead. It suggests that there’s a cause and relationship here.”
An excerpt from then-Sgt. Sheldon Kelsey’s report about one of his altercations with Derick Wynn on April 4, 2019, where he describes kneeling on Wynn’s back. (Yfat Yossifor / KERA)
Dr. Marc Krouse performed Wynn’s autopsy and determined he died of mixed methamphetamine and cocaine intoxication. When KERA reached out to him for an interview, he responded with an email, saying the drug levels in Wynn’s system “were most notable.” He did not respond to questions about whether he considered the restraint or even knew about it.
The Star-Telegram reported Krouse left the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office in 2021 after he missed a bullet during an autopsy, kicking off an audit that found mistakes in 27 of his cases in 2020. In most instances, the mistakes did not impact the cause of death determination, according to the Star-Telegram.
At the time, Krouse’s attorney said the audit was not independent or impartial. Krouse did not respond to KERA’s request for comment on the audit.
The level of methamphetamine reported in Wynn’s body was not particularly high, according to Weedn, though he acknowledged even a small amount can be deadly.
“I’m absolutely positive, absolutely positive, people have that level of methamphetamine walking around,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean it can’t be toxic.”
Sheriff’s training warns against restraint dangers
Although the sheriff’s office says there is no evidence that Kelsey knelt on Wynn improperly, their own training warns against placing a knee on someone’s upper back.
KERA News submitted a public records request for Tarrant County’s current jailer training curriculum as of 2024. The county then asked the Texas Attorney General’s Office for permission to keep the trainings secret, because people could read them and learn how to “anticipate and exploit weaknesses in the [Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office] staff and jail operations,” county attorneys argued in a letter to the AG.
Stoughton dismissed that argument.
“That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard,” he said.
There are legitimate reasons to withhold some police training information — like descriptions of undercover operations — but not physical techniques a jailer might use, Stoughton said.
“There’s this fantasy, I think, of criminals getting together and poring through the techniques and like, developing counter strategies, and that’s just not realistic,” he said.
The AG’s Office allowed some redactions but ordered the sheriff’s office to release the 477-page jailer lesson plan.
One training module on handcuffing underlines the importance of restraining someone safely.
“Instructor needs to emphasize placing the subject in the recovery position or in a sitting position after being restrained in an attempt to prevent positional asphyxia,” the training says.
The training notes jailers should not be taught to put a knee on someone’s shoulder. They might use a knee on someone’s lower back to get them into restraints, but the person needs to be put on their side or sat up right after.
Kelsey, the jailer who knelt on Wynn, is still employed by the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office. After KERA News reached out to him to request an interview, the sheriff’s office posted about him in a “Fun Fact Friday” post on Facebook, listing his favorite Christmas movie and go-to snacks. He has been promoted to captain, helping to “keep things running smoothly behind the scenes” at the main downtown jail, according to the post.
Garcia started at the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office in 1999. The same year Wynn died, in 2019, a national sheriff’s association named Garcia Correctional Officer of the Year.
His career came to an end after the death of Anthony Johnson Jr. As a supervisor, it was Garcia’s responsibility to make sure Johnson was safe after he was cuffed, Sheriff Bill Waybourn said at the press conference following Johnson’s death.
“It’s okay to put a knee in the back until you get them restrained. Then what you do after that is immediately put them in the recovery position. Immediately,” he said. “And that didn’t happen.”
Garcia has been indicted for murder, alongside Rafael Moreno, who knelt on Johnson. Both men are awaiting trial.
Great Job Miranda Suarez | KERA & the Team @ Fort Worth Report for sharing this story.
From the January 19, 2026, edition of Asmongold TV, streamed on YouTube
ZACK HOYT AKA ASMONGOLD (HOST): They are just having roving gangs running around harassing and beating people up because these people look like they might support ICE. Every single one of these people should be locked up and put in a camp. Every single one of them.
There is no place in a civilized Western society for these animals. And the sooner that we realize that and that we’re willing to act on it, the sooner that this can be over. Every single one of them. You got to put them in the box.
…
HOYT: I have what I would do in this situation, what I think the government should do. I think they should just bring in the military, find every single one of the people that did this, build a, you know, temporary camp like Alligator Alcatraz, and then pack them into that camp like sardines, and then basically send every single one of them through federal charges, put them in federal prisons, and then force them into mandatory labor for five to 10 or more years.
That’s what I would do. That would be my solution for this problem. And guess what would happen? All of these problems would disappear. They would. They would totally disappear.
Great Job Media Matters for America & the Team @ Media Matters for America Source link for sharing this story.
Even as exposure to floods, fire and extreme heat increase in the face of climate change, a popular tool for evaluating risk has disappeared from the nation’s leading real estate website.
Zillow removed the feature displaying climate risk data to home buyers in November after the California Regional Multiple Listing Service, which provides a database of real estate listings to real estate agents and brokers in the state, questioned the accuracy of the flood risk models on the site.
Now, a climate policy expert in California is working to put data back in buyers’ hands.
Neil Matouka, who previously managed the development and launch of California’s Fifth Climate Change Assessment, is developing a proof of concept plugin that provides climate data to Californians in place of what Zillow has removed. When a user views a California Zillow listing, the plugin automatically displays data on wildfire and flood risk, sea level rise and extreme heat exposure.
“We don’t need perfect data,” Matouka said. “We need publicly available, consistent information that helps people understand risk.”
The removal of Zillow’s data, which came a little over year after it was first introduced, began when the California Regional Multiple Listing Service questioned the validity of flood modeling completed by First Street, a climate risk modeling company, which provides climate data to Zillow and other realty sites.
“Our goal is simply to ensure homebuyers are not being presented with information that could be misleading or unfair. We have no objection to the display of accurate climate data,” the multiple listing service said in a statement.
In response to pressure from the listing service, Zillow removed all of its climate risk data, including flood, fire, wind, heat and air quality factors. Zillow still hyperlinks to First Street data in its listings, though it is easy to miss.
“Zillow remains committed to providing consumers with information that helps them make informed real estate decisions. We updated our climate risk product experience to adhere to varying MLS requirements and maintain a consistent experience for all consumers,” Zillow said in a statement.
A little over a year after it was introduced, Zillow removed its climate risk feature. Credit: Zillow
Other sites, like Homes.com, Redfin and Realtor.com, continue to show First Street climate data in their realty listings.
First Street defended its methodology. “We take accuracy very seriously, and the data speaks for itself. Our models are built on transparent, peer-reviewed science and are continuously validated against real-world outcomes,” First Street said in a statement.
Both independent academic research and research conducted by Zillow has found that disclosing flood risk can decrease the sale price of a home. “Climate risk data didn’t suddenly become inconvenient. It became harder to ignore in a stressed market,” First Street said.
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Home by home climate risk predictions still remain notoriously difficult. A residence may, for example, fall right on a FEMA flood risk boundary. One home might be designated higher risk than its neighbor, either as an artifact of the mapping process or because of a real, geographic difference, such as one side of the street being higher than the other. Fire risk mapping, similarly, does not take into account home hardening measures, which can have a real impact on a home burning.
In this way, climate risk models today are better suited to characterize the “ broad environment of risk,” said Chris Field, director of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. “ The more detailed you get to be either in space or in time, the less precise your projections are.”
Matouka’s California climate risk plugin is designed for communicating what he said is the “standing potential risks in the area,” not specific property risk.
While climate risk models often differ in their results, achieving increased accuracy moving forward will be dependent on transparency, said Jesse Gourevitch, an economist at the Environmental Defense Fund. California is unique, since so much publicly available, state data is open to the public. Reproducing Matouka’s plugin for other states will likely be more difficult.
Private data companies present a specific challenge. They make money from their models and are reluctant to share their methods. “A lot of these private-sector models tend not to be very transparent and it can be difficult to understand what types of data or methodologies that they’re using,” said Gourevitch.
Matouka’s plugin includes publicly available data from the state of California and federal agencies, whose extensive methods are readily available online. Overall, experts tend to agree on the utility of both private and public data sources for climate risk data, even with needed improvements.
“People who are making decisions that involve risk benefit from exposure to as many credible estimates as possible, and exposure to independent credible estimates adds a lot of extra value,” Field said.
As for Matouka, his plugin is still undergoing beta testing. He said he welcomes feedback as he develops the tool and evaluates its readiness for widespread use. The beta version is available here.
About This Story
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Claire Barber is a fellow at Inside Climate News and masters in journalism student at Stanford University. She is an environmental and outdoor journalist, reporting primarily in the American Southwest and West. Her writing has appeared in The San Francisco Chronicle, Outside, Powder Magazine, Field & Stream, Trails Magazine and more. She loves to get lost in the woods looking for a hot spring, backpacking to secluded campsites and banana slugs.
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When you go into a calorie deficit, the body compensates in a few different ways. The stomach releases more of the hunger hormone ghrelin, while levels of the fullness hormone leptin drop. At the same time, your metabolism slows, so you burn fewer calories — and the difference can be significant. That’s because you now have less fat and muscle mass using up those calories. Unfortunately, this slowdown can last for years. One landmark study on contestants from The Biggest Loser found that their resting metabolic rate (how many calories we burn daily just to stay alive) still remained significantly lower six years after rapidly losing extreme amounts of weight on the show.
However, keep in mind that set-point theory is still simply a theory. “It’s widely accepted. But the evidence for it is very poor,” says David A. Levitsky, PhD, a professor of nutrition and psychology at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, who researches the regulation of body weight. Velasquez agrees, explaining that, although there have been animal and preclinical studies, scientists haven’t conducted strong research on humans to definitively prove this is how weight regulation works. Yet while other hypotheses have been proposed, none have gained much traction. “There are competing theories, but I don’t think that it’s something we see in clinical medicine,” Dr. Sowa says.
Still, Dr. Levitsky argues that we can’t ignore the psychological factors that play a role in regaining weight, particularly the difficulty of changing ingrained habits. “We learn very early how much to eat, and that will determine what you’re going to weigh,” he says. “If you return to the same habits that you had before you dieted, you’re going to return to your [old] body weight.”
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Neither the two DOGE members, nor the advocacy group, are named in the court documents.
In March 2025, a political advocacy group contacted two members of the DOGE team at the Social Security Administration (SSA) “with a request to analyze state voter rolls that the advocacy group had acquired,” said Elizabeth Shapiro, a Justice Department official, wrote in the court documents.
“The advocacy group’s stated aim was to find evidence of voter fraud and to overturn election results in certain States,” said Shapiro.
Shapiro wrote that after these communications, one of the DOGE members, as an SSA employee, signed and sent a “Voter Data Agreement” with the advocacy group.
The DOGE members may have accessed private information that was ruled to be off-limits by a court at the time, and shared data on unapproved “third-party” servers.
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“At this time, there is no evidence that SSA employees outside of the involved members of the DOGE Team were aware of the communications with the advocacy group. Nor were they aware of the ‘Voter Data Agreement’,” Shapiro wrote.
It’s unclear if the two DOGE members ended up sharing the data, according to Shapiro, but emails “suggest that DOGE Team members could have been asked to assist the advocacy group by accessing SSA data to match to the voter rolls.”
According to Shapiro, the SSA referred the two DOGE employees for potential violations of the Hatch Act, a law that prohibits federal workers from leveraging their official positions for political activities.
Last year, a federal judge issued an order to block DOGe’s members access to SSA’s systems, which included SSNs, medical records, drivers’ license numbers, tax information, and other types of personal information. Later on, a SSA whistleblower alleged that DOGE uploaded hundreds of millions of Social Security records to a vulnerable cloud server.
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People gathered outside to play in the snow on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, in Houston.
An arctic cold front is expected to push its way into Texas late this week, possibly bringing freezing or near-freezing temperatures into the Houston area over the weekend, but the chances of snow are currently low.
As of Tuesday, the National Weather Service Houston/Galveston Office forecasts a “strong cold front” to make its way into the greater Houston area late Friday into Saturday. The front is expected to usher in the coldest temperatures of the season so far this year, according to NWS. A hard freeze — with temperatures of 24 degrees or lower — is possible for parts of the region on Saturday and Sunday nights.
A forecast released by the National Weather Service on Monday, Jan. 19, 2025.
Cameron Batiste, the lead meteorologist at the Houston/Galveston NWS Office, said Tuesday morning that while freezing temperatures are expected, the chance for precipitation remains more uncertain.
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“If any precipitation does fall to the surface, if it’s frozen, it will likely be a mixture of freezing rain or sleet, so we’re not expecting to see any snow in the Houston area for this forecast,” Batiste said. “The main window for potential winter weather impacts is going to be Saturday into Sunday.”
According to the NWS’s Monday forecast, Houston can expect an approximately 70% chance of rain on Saturday, with a less than 10% chance of freezing rain, snow or sleet beginning Saturday into early Monday.
“So what we have in the forecast for now for the Houston area Saturday night into Sunday morning is low temperatures in the upper 20s to low 30s, then again on Sunday night into Monday morning [with] upper 20s to low 30s,” Batiste said. “So, be sure to protect the four Ps: people, pets, pipes and plants. Make sure your loved ones are checked on. Make sure you have ways to stay warm as well.”
Celebrity chef Guy Fieri and his television jobs involve excess, energy, and nonstop movement, but being forced to slow down wasn’t part of the plan. The Food Network star is still recovering from an incident that was far more serious than anything he ever put on any menu.
While filming “Flavor Town Food Fight” last year, the 57-year-old had a freak on-set accident that brought production to an abrupt halt and ended with him in the emergency room — a moment that would change how he viewed even the most basic things he usually takes for granted.
Guy Fieri is wheelchair-bound after a freak accident on set as he continues recovery by the 2026 Super Bowl. (Photo by John Lamparski/Getty Images)
The “Guy’s Big Bite” told Fox News Digital last November that he slipped on a flight of stairs while filming his new series.
“I slipped down a set of steps, and one foot went forward, and the other foot got caught on the threshold,” said the host, adding that he tore his quad muscle nearly in half. “You normally tear that muscle at your tendon or the tendon tears off the bone, but this was right in the center of the whole quad muscle and it exploded.”
The accident left Fieri in a wheelchair, and he provided a health update in an interview with People published on Jan. 14. The celebrity chef has been wheelchair-bound for eight weeks, but he says he is slowly improving.
“I’m doing better,” he told the magazine. “It was definitely a trying holiday, but you know what, you get some real appreciation for having the ability to just get up and walk around and do everything you used to. I’m a big CrossFit and hiking guy, so eight weeks of no hiking has driven me kind of crazy. But I’m looking forward to it, trying to take it easy.”
Fieri had previously said that Thanksgiving was a challenge, as he’d planned to cook and was anxious to do more, but his doctors gave him strict orders. After he’s done with the wheelchair, he’ll still need to use crutches for two months and attend rehab. “I want to get after it as fast as possible,” he said at the time.
During his latest interview, he said not much has changed, but he hopes to be in better shape for his special, “Super Bowl tailgate, Guy Fieri’s Flavortown Tailgate.” The special will feature the host as he attends Super Bowl LX on Feb. 8. Fieri wrote on Instagram that the event will be “the ultimate party and food festival.” He is also giving away 10,000 tickets for the event, which is set to include games, musical performances, and “must-try culinary experiences.”
“My doctors are all like, ‘We know you want to get after it, but let’s not go back to where we were.’ And I’m like, ‘We are never going back to that!’ That was the worst thing I’ve been through in the last 20 years,” he said. “But now I’ll be up and ready and healthy and rolling by the time we hit the Super Bowl for sure.”
Fans wished Fieri well upon learning his health update while also giving him encouragement. “I hope you get well. I love all your shows,” wrote one fan.
Another fan jokingly replied, “Did he slip on hot sauce?”
One user was surprised by the depth of Fieri’s injury and replied that he has a long road to recovery ahead.
“Man, that sounds absolutely horrible! OW!!!! Life can change in a second! I’m so glad this wasn’t a tragedy, but just a man injury that he can heal from. That will take probably two years to TRULY heal… and even then he’ll have to nurture his muscle/s for the rest of his life most likely.”
The celebrity chef’s 20-year-old son, Ryder, his other son, Hunter, 29, and his nephew Jules, 26, will also join Fieri on the Flavortown Tailgate.
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While Europe is pushing back publicly against U.S. President Donald Trump over Greenland, the language appears softer behind the scenes.
Trump published a text message on Tuesday that he received from French President Emmanuel Macron, confirmed as genuine by Macron’s office.
Starting with “My friend,” Macron’s tone was more deferential than the criticism that France and some of its European partner nations are openly voicing against Trump’s push to wrest Greenland from NATO ally Denmark.
Before broaching the Greenland dispute, Macron opted in his message to first talk about other issues where he and Trump seem roughly on the same page.
“We are totally in line on Syria. We can do great things on Iran,” the French leader wrote in English.
Then, he added: “I do not understand what you are doing on Greenland,” immediately followed by: “Let us try to build great things.”
That was the only mention that Macron made of the semi-autonomous Danish territory in the two sections of message that Trump published. It wasn’t immediately clear from Trump’s post when he received the message.
Trump breaks with tradition
World leaders’ private messages to each other rarely make it verbatim into the public domain — enabling them to project one face publicly and another to each other.
But Trump — as is his wont across multiple domains — is casting traditions and diplomatic niceties to the wind and, in the process, lifting back the curtain on goings-on that usually aren’t seen.
This week, a text message that Trump sent to Norway’s prime minister also became public, released by the Norwegian government and confirmed by the White House.
In it, Trump linked his aggressive stance on Greenland to last year’s decision not to award him the Nobel Peace Prize.
“Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace,” the message read.
It concluded, “The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland.”
On Tuesday, Trump also published a flattering message from Mark Rutte, secretary general of NATO, which the alliance also confirmed as authentic.
“I am committed to finding a way forward on Greenland,” Rutte wrote. “Can’t wait to see you. Yours, Mark.”
Rutte has declined to speak publicly about Greenland despite growing concern about Trump’s threats to “acquire” the island and what that would mean for the territorial integrity of NATO ally Denmark. Pressed last week about Trump’s designs on Greenland and warnings from Denmark that any U.S. military action might mean the end of NATO, Rutte said: “I can never comment on that. That’s impossible in public.”
Macron’s relationship with Trump
Macron likes to say that he can get Trump on the phone any time he wants. He proved it last September by making a show of calling up the president from a street in New York, to tell Trump that police officers were blocking him to let a VIP motorcade pass.
“Guess what? I’m waiting in the street because everything is frozen for you!” Macron said as cameras filmed the scene.
It’s a safe bet that Macron must know by now — a year into Trump’s second spell in office — that there’s always a risk that a private message to Trump could be made public.
Macron said Tuesday that he had “no particular reaction” to the message’s publication when a journalist asked him about it.
“I take responsibility for everything that I do. It’s my habit to be coherent between what I say on the outside and what I do in a private manner. That’s all.”
Still, the difference between Macron’s public and private personas was striking.
Hosting Russia and Ukraine together
Most remarkably, the French leader told Trump in his message that he would be willing to invite representatives from both Ukraine and Russia to a meeting later this week in Paris — an idea that Macron has not voiced publicly.
The Russians could be hosted “in the margins,” Macron suggested, hinting at the potential awkwardness of inviting Moscow representatives while France is also backing Ukraine with military and other support against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion.
Macron wrote that the meeting could also include “the danish, the syrians” and the G7 nations — which include the United States.
The French president added: “let us have a dinner together in Paris together on thursday before you go back to the us.”
He then signed off simply with “Emmanuel.”
Making nice only goes so far
Despite Macron’s persistent efforts, in both of Trump’s terms, not to ruffle his feathers, any payback has been mixed, at best.
“Well, nobody wants him because he’s going to be out of office very soon,” Trump told reporters, even through the French leader has more than a year left in office before the end of his second and last term in 2027.
“I’ll put a 200% tariff on his wines and champagnes and he’ll join,” Trump said.
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Lorne Cook in Brussels, Sylvie Corbet in Paris and Kostya Manenkov in Davos contributed.
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