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GOMA, Congo (AP) — Rwanda-backed rebels were quickly expanding their presence in eastern Congo after capturing Goma, the region’s major city, the U.N. said Friday, also expressing concerns over executions it learned were carried out by the rebels following a major escalation of their yearslong rebellion.

The rebels and Rwandan were now 60 kilometers (37 miles) to South Kivu’s provincial capital of Buakavu and “seem to be moving quite fast,” U.N. peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix said at a press briefing on Friday. M23 has captured several towns after seizing neighboring Goma, a humanitarian hub critical for many of the 6 million people displaced by the conflict.

The central African nation’s military has been weakened after it lost hundreds of personnel and foreign mercenaries who surrendered to the rebels after the fall of Goma.

The U.S. military is providing facilities at Buckley Space Force Base in Colorado for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to process detained migrants. That's according to a spokesperson for the U.S. Northern Command, who told CBS News the request came from the Department of Homeland Security.

No military personnel will be involved in the ICE operations, according to a statement provided by the U.S. Northern Command.

In regards to Buckley Space Force Base, USNORTHCOM released the following statement:

At the request of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), USNORTHCOM is providing facilities at Buckley Space Force Base beginning on January 27, 2025, to enable U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to stage and process criminal aliens within the U.S. for an operation taking place in Colorado. Military personnel are not involved in this operation.

ICE requirements for the facility include a temporary operations center, staging area, and a temporary holding location for the receiving, holding, and processing of illegal aliens. This facility will be manned by ICE senior leaders, special agents, and analysts, as well as members of DHS Components and other federal law enforcement agencies.

On Tuesday CBS News confirmed that the Denver metro area will be the next target for stepped-up arrests ICE has been conducting since the start of the Trump administration.

• The Trump administration is offering millions of federal workers the option to accept buyouts through a government-wide “deferred resignation” program.
• The offers come as President Donald Trump’s administration pushes federal employees to return to the office five days per week.
• The White House expects up to 10% of federal employees to take the buyout, an official told NBC News.

The Trump administration is offering millions of federal workers the option to accept buyouts through a government-wide “deferred resignation” program if they resign by Feb. 6.

Those who accept the offer will receive pay and benefits through Sept. 30, according to a draft email obtained Tuesday by NBC News.

The sweeping buyouts are being offered to “make sure that all federal workers are on board with the new administration’s plan to have federal employees in office and adhering to higher standards,” a senior administration official told NBC on condition of anonymity.

“We’re five years past COVID and just 6 percent of federal employees work full-time in office. That is unacceptable,” the official said, citing a report from Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, who co-chairs the congressional DOGE caucus.

The White House expects up to 10% of federal employees to take the buyout, the official said.

The emails will be sent starting Tuesday afternoon, NBC reported.

Buyouts are being offered to all full-time federal employees except military personnel, U.S. Postal Service workers, roles related to immigration enforcement and national security, and “any other positions specifically excluded by your employing agency,” the emails will say, according to NBC.

• Court says elephants not human, cannot seek freedom
  

• Animal rights group says decision perpetuates an injustice

• Zoo called lawsuit frivolous, cites earlier rulings

Jan 22 (Reuters) - Five elderly African elephants at a Colorado zoo will stay there, after the state's highest court said the animals have no legal right to demand their release because they are not human.

Tuesday's 6-0 decision by Colorado's Supreme Court means Jambo, Kimba, LouLou, Lucky and Missy will remain at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs.

It followed a similar decision in 2022 by New York state's highest court, the Court of Appeals, that another aged elephant, Happy, had to remain at New York City's Bronx Zoo.

An animal rights non-profit, Nonhuman Rights Project, brought both cases on the elephants' behalf under a legal doctrine known as "habeas corpus," saying the animals should live in sanctuaries.

Citing affidavits from seven animal biologists, the group told the Colorado court that elephants are highly social and mobile, share many cognitive abilities with humans including empathy and self-awareness, and when confined in zoos can experience boredom and stress that could lead to brain damage.

But the court said Colorado's habeas statute applies to persons, not to nonhuman animals "no matter how cognitively, psychologically, or socially sophisticated" they might be.

It also said Nonhuman Rights Project's concession during oral argument that it was seeking only different confinement, not complete freedom, for the elephants was another reason to treat them and humans differently.

The case "does not turn on our regard for these majestic animals generally or these five elephants specifically," Justice Maria Berkenkotter wrote. "Because an elephant is not a person, the elephants here do not have standing to bring a habeas corpus claim."

• executive orders seek to dismantle DEI

• Government employees urged to root out hidden programs

• Civil rights advocates say measures will reverse hard-fought gains

Jan 22 (Reuters) - The Trump administration on Wednesday urged government employees to inform on each other and their departments in order to root out any attempts to hide diversity programs.

The latest escalation in U.S. President Donald Trump's campaign against diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) comes a day after he pressured the private sector to join the initiative and told government employees in offices administering such programs they would be placed on paid leave.

Trump also issued a series of executive orders to dismantle DEI programs on his first day in office on Monday, marking a complete reversal from his predecessor Democrat Joe Biden, who prioritized DEI programs and initiatives across the federal government.

DEI programs attempt to promote opportunities for women, ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+ people and other traditionally underrepresented groups.

Civil rights advocates have argued such programs are necessary to address longstanding inequities and structural racism.

Trump and his supporters say DEI programs end up unfairly discriminating against other Americans and weaken the importance of candidates' merit in job hiring or promotion.

In a new message distributed on Wednesday, government employees were warned they would face "adverse consequences" if they failed to promptly report any hidden DEI programs.

"We are aware of efforts by some in government to disguise these programs by using coded or imprecise language," said the memo, which set a 10-day deadline for information.

It was not immediately clear what evidence the administration has of any efforts to conceal diversity programs.

"There will be no adverse consequences for timely reporting this information. However, failure to report this information within 10 days may result in adverse consequences," the memo said.

Jan 23 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told President Donald Trump that the kingdom wants to put $600 billion into expanded investment and trade with the United States over the next four years, the Saudi State news agency said early on Thursday.

In a phone call between the two leaders, the crown prince said the Trump administration's expected reforms could create "unprecedented economic prosperity", the state news agency reported.

The report said Saudi Arabia wants its investments to capitalize on these conditions. It did not detail the source of the $600 billion, whether it would be public or private spending nor how the money would be deployed.

The investment "could increase further if additional opportunities arise", the agency quoted Bin Salman as telling Trump.

CNN —

President Donald Trump is granting temporary, six-month security clearances to incoming White House officials who have not completed the vetting process typically required before being allowed to access highly-classified information, blaming a backlog of background checks that he helped cause.

It’s a move national security lawyers inside and outside the government say is unusual, if not unprecedented.

One former US official who worked on clearance issues in the Biden and first Trump administrations raised concerns that foreign intelligence partners, on which the US relies for much of its intelligence work, will curtail what they share with the US, out of fear that their sources may be put in danger.

“They will start restricting their intelligence,” the official said. “If someone on the other end here has not been vetted, why would they share that?”

Trump made the move in one of the dozens of executive orders issued on his first day in office, immediately giving high-level clearances called TS/SCI to incoming officials, including some who have never been vetted for potential security vulnerabilities.

“It’s such a dangerous thing,” the former official said. “To forego that process is stupid.”

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) — Guyana’s government Saturday formally protested to Venezuela following the completion by Venezuela’s armed forces of a bridge built on a remote river island shared by both countries. Work on the bridge, which links Venezuela’s mainland to a military base, has caused a decades-old row over border lines in the Essequibo region to flare up again.

Guyana Foreign Minister Hugh Todd said in a statement that he was forced to summon Venezuelan Ambassador Amador Perez Silva to his office Thursday to condemn the move by Venezuela to build the bridge.

The bridge links Venezuela’s mainland to the eastern side of Ankoko island. The ministry claims the bridge connects the Venezuelan mainland to a small military base that Venezuela built illegally on Guyana’s side of Ankoko, a small island that is mostly inhabited by gold miners and military personnel.

The two neighboring states have feuded over land and maritime borders for decades as Venezuela claims that an 1890s boundaries commission cheated it out of the oil rich Essequibo region. The region currently makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory. The area was administered by Britain for more than a century, and it has been under Guyanese control since 1966, when the nation gained its independence from the United Kingdom.