This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by LSEG. President Donald Trump, joined by IndyCar team owner and chairperson Roger Penske, signs an executive order in the Oval Office on Friday to bring a race to Washington, D.C., as part of the America250 celebrations. Virginia Democrats just proposed an electoral map that would potentially give Democrats 10 of the state's 11 representatives in the House. In a state that voted 46% for Trump, it is outlandish to only give Republican voters roughly 9% of the state's representation. The only reason it has that much representation is because of its racist past. Perhaps President Trump should rectify that historical wrong with a long overdue fix. You see, 179 years ago, Arlington, once part of the District of Columbia, was given to Virginia for the express purpose of continuing slavery in Northern Virginia. Now, Arlington, once part of the District of Columbia, is home to nearly 200,000 Virginians, a great many of whom are D.C. bureaucrats, who now enjoy the benefits of living in the states while also exerting disproportionate influence over the federal government. If Arlington residents want to influence Washington, they should be in Washington, just as the founders intended. Some history: In 1790, the District of Columbia was created. Its location was seated directly in between Maryland and Virginia, with both states ceding five miles of their land. But in 1847, after the District pressed for abolition of slavery, Alexandria, now Arlington County, was officially retroceded after President James K. Polk issued a proclamation and the Virginia legislature accepted. Like the Civil War that followed, while there were financial, strategic, and voting interests at stake at the time, it is hard to argue that slavery was not the primary motivator. Virginians were afraid that "slaves" would simply walk across the boundary into the District and become free. And indeed, as a result of retrocession, slavery expanded in Virginia even after the District abolished it. The Supreme Court never weighed in as to whether this maneuver was constitutional. It did acknowledge the transfer, but in a tax dispute. Circuit issued a ruling that presumed constitutionality, but in an estates case. As a result, legitimate constitutional questions have been left to linger for 179 years. If the agreement was "permanent" and "forever," how then could a state initiate a law that impairs that contractual agreement? US President Donald Trump during an executive order signing in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. Numerous agencies are housed in Arlington County. In other words, the Constitution contemplated the seat of government to be independent of any state. By placing a substantial portion of the federal government in a single state, that state, by logical extension, gains more power than the rest. That is precisely why separate land was so important to the founders. Subsequent presidents, like Abraham Lincoln, called for undoing retrocession. President William Taft, who said it was not even constitutional, called for restoring the land back to the District. An article at the time noted that the entire effort for retrocession was "to prevent fugitive slaves escaping from Virginia." In a time of efforts to undo historical injustices around race, it is hard to understand how this has not been revisited. But not for racist motives, the land would have remained a part of the District "permanently" and "forever," just as both the states and President George Washington intended. Thus practically, legally, and from a historical injustice perspective, it makes sense that "recession" (i.e. restoring the original cession) be revisited. President Trump should consider issuing an Executive Order directing the DOJ (or other agencies) to explore the constitutionality of the 1847 retrocession and, potentially, actions that could be taken to restore the District to its original intended boundaries and purposes. Virginians could also sleep better knowing they had righted a centuries' old wrong. Curtis Schube is the director of research and policy at the Center to Advance Security in America. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by LSEG. One American woman was killed and four others injured after a rogue wave hit the cruise ship. Cruise passengers expecting to visit Kauai, Hawaii, this week faced a scary "man overboard" alert. As the ship approached, a harbor pilot who was climbing a rope ladder from a pilot boat next to the ship slipped and fell into the water, according to Kauai Now and other accounts. "Scary situation off the coast of Kaua‘i on the [Princess Cruises] Emerald Princess," user whereswaltertravel — otherwise known as travel agent and founder Walter Biscardi Jr. of Florida — wrote in an Instagram post. "Our pilot slipped on the ladder trying to board the ship in very rough weather conditions," he added. Biscardi was a passenger on the cruise. Witnesses said the pilot tried multiple times to board during rough seas before he lost his footing. Passengers on a Hawaii cruise ship such as the one above were stunned when a harbor pilot slipped while climbing and fell into the water. One passenger said the harbor pilot fell around 10 to 20 feet from the ship's hull, not alongside it. "Fortunately, the crew on the boat were able to retrieve him safely," Biscardi wrote on Instagram. "Our port call is waived … but none of that matters when a life and death situation unfolds." After the cruise's port call on Kauai was canceled due to the emergency, it traveled on to Maui — where the ship was slated for its next port call. Due to an emergency situation, passengers of the cruise ship never got off at the port in Kauai. "I am amazed [at] how [the] well-trained and efficient Emerald staff handled everything quickly and professionally. Fox News Digital reached out to Princess Cruise Line for comment. The 3,090-passenger cruise ship departed Los Angeles on Feb. 4 for a 16-night Hawaii voyage, with Kauai scheduled as the first port call. Trish Walters of Portland, Oregon, another passenger, recounted the frightening incident on social media. Replying to a Facebook post by her husband, she mentioned how choppy the waters were that day. "Very windy — and kinda scary," Walters wrote. The National Weather Service recently issued a high surf advisory. "We will come back to visit another day," Biscardi said. Jessica Mekles is an editor on the lifestyle team at Fox News Digital. A look at the top-trending stories in food, relationships, great outdoors and more. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by

Minutes after getting to a park in the middle of Phoenix, you can see flashes of green and hear the chatter. They're rosy-faced lovebirds, and they may have something to teach humans this Valentine's Day about keeping their romantic bonds strong. Robert Carter, of the Maricopa Bird Alliance, looks through binoculars for love birds in Encanto Park, Jan. 18, 2026, in Phoenix. Robert Carter, of the Maricopa Bird Alliance, looks for lovebirds to photograph in Encanto Park, Jan. 18, 2026, in Phoenix. PHOENIX (AP) — Minutes after getting to a park in the middle of Phoenix, you can see flashes of green in the sky and hear chatter because love is in the air — or at least, the lovebirds are. Arizona is believed to be home to the largest colony of rosy-faced lovebirds outside southwestern Africa. They've been able to survive in a place known for sweltering weather by sticking close to humans and their air conditioning. The lovebirds may have something to teach humans this Valentine's Day about keeping strong romantic bonds. Rosy-faced lovebirds are originally from another arid region, the Namib Desert, which stretches from Angola, across Namibia and into South Africa. Around the world, lovebirds are a popular pet. Some think pet lovebirds escaped or were let loose by their owners or escaped from a pet store, said Robert Carter, a volunteer for the Maricopa Bird Alliance who leads bird walks in the Phoenix area. Others have speculated that they could have flown all the way to Arizona but Carter thinks in that case, they would've found another arid area to stay along the way. The population has grown to an estimated 2,000 birds in Phoenix today, he said. They can be seen sticking their heads out of the holes in cactus and palm trees that they roost in. They're also known to hang out near air conditioning vents on really hot days to at least be a little less hot, including at Arizona State University's science building. While Carter thinks they should have been left in Africa, he admires their adaptability. While Phoenix's lovebirds are believed to be the largest, most firmly established colony outside of Africa, there are also fairly well-established colonies of rosy-faced lovebirds in parts of Hawaii — on the Big Island and in Maui, said Kenn Kaufman, field editor for Audubon magazine who has written about lovebirds. Another kind of lovebird, the Fischer's lovebird, appear to have established a small colony on the southern coast of Portugal, he said. While many parrots mate for life, fewer than half of bird species do, Kaufman said. While genetic testing has revealed that birds considered “socially monogamous” sometimes also breed with other birds while raising their young with their mate, lovebirds are not known to stray. They often clean their mate's feathers, especially the hard-to-reach ones, and feed one another food throughout their lives, not just when they are courting, like some other birds, Kaufman said. People who have kept lovebirds as pets report that their mate seems depressed when they lose their partner by not being active or making abnormal calls, said Dr. Stephanie Lamb, associate veterinarian and bird specialist at the Arizona Exotic Animal Hospital. Even when they are with other birds, lovebirds are not afraid to engage in some PDA — or as Kaufman says, “parrot display of affection.” They pass food to each other with their beaks, which often looks like kissing, he said. But the reality might strike people as not so cute: the food they're exchanging is regurgitated. All that care and attention helps keep their bonds strong over their long lives, he said. Still, Lamb said lovebirds, like other parrots, can sometimes be violent with each other, screaming and pecking one another with beaks powerful enough to crack open seeds. Sometimes they have to sit at opposite ends of their cage for a bit, until one comes over and nudges their way back into a cuddle, she said.

STAVANGER, Norway (AP) — Jeffrey Epstein repeatedly played up his ties to the former head of the Nobel Peace Prize committee in invitations to and chats with elites like Richard Branson, Larry Summers, Bill Gates and Steve Bannon, a top ally of President Donald Trump, the Epstein files show. Økokrim has said it would investigate whether gifts, travel and loans were received in connection with Jagland's position. Its teams searched his Oslo residence on Thursday, plus two other properties in Risør, a coastal town to the south, and in Rauland to the west. While there is no evidence in the documents seen so far of any outright lobbying for the Nobel Peace Prize, Epstein repeatedly played up hosting Jagland at his properties in New York and Paris in the 2010s. In September 2018, during Trump's first term and in an apparent allusion to his interest in the peace prize, Epstein had a varied text-message exchange with Bannon, at one point writing — in one of many messages with untidy grammar: “donalds head would explode if he knew you were now buds with the guy who on monday will decide the nobel peace prize.” “I told him next year it should be you when we settle china,” he added, without elaborating. In one email from 2013, mixing in investment tips and praise for PR tips, Epstein told British entrepreneur and magnate Richard Branson that Jagland would be staying with Epstein in September that year, adding: “if you are there, you might find him interesting.” In 2012, Epstein wrote former Treasury Secretary and Harvard University president Larry Summers about Jagland, saying “head of the nobel peace prize staying with me, if you have any interest.” “I guess his peace prize committee job is also up in the air?” Jagland was brought into Epstein's orbit by Terje Rød Larsen, a Norwegian diplomat who helped broker the Oslo Peace Accords between Israel and Palestinians. Larsen and wife are also facing corruption charges in Norway due to their association with Epstein. Associated Press writer Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report. Journalists from each newsroom are working together to examine the files and share information about what is in them. Each outlet is responsible for its own independent news coverage of the documents.

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by LSEG. About 10 years ago, the slang emerged like a Gen Z mating call: "Wanna come over and … hang out?" Maybe it wasn't the most elegant dating scene, but at least it was a dating scene. According to new study from the Wheatley Institute and the Institute for Family Studies, today's young adults are in a "dating recession" — 2026 is all Netflix and no chill. Nearly three quarters of women (74%) and two-thirds of men (64%) had not a single date, or dated only a few times, in the last year. So, what's throwing cold water on what's supposed to be the most sexually charged phase of adult life? The relationship recession is keeping many single people from even trying to date. Only about one in three said they felt comfortable approaching someone they were interested in, and less than 40% said they felt confident in their ability to talk about their feelings with a dating partner. That's not altogether alarming — vulnerability with a new person is always uncomfortable. Dating has always been a high-risk, high-reward game. What's more alarming than that fear of intimacy is our finding that only 36% of young adults say they're confident they can read social cues on dates. They don't know how to be with someone else. This hints at a bigger cause: kids aren't just avoiding dates, they aren't socializing at all. Last year, the Institute for Family Studies found that the average time young adults spent in person with friends in a given week has fallen by 50% since 2010. Other research has found that American adults are spending more time alone today — even post-pandemic — than ever before. American teens spend an average of nearly four hours a day on social media and even longer on their smartphones generally. Is it any wonder that kids buried in a virtual world don't know how to make eye contact or read body language? Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt believes so much smartphone use also arrests development of resilience. Our research found another significant reason (48%) that young people aren't asking each other out is their fear of repeating a painful past dating experience. Still, the ‘dating recession' is not for lack of desire. Despite their loner tendencies, 86% of our survey respondents said they hope to get married one day. That, at least, is encouraging: our research also suggests married adults, particularly married parents, consistently report the highest levels of personal well-being and happiness. Unfortunately, if today's trends continue, at least one in three adults who are in their twenties today will never marry. That means fewer people will have children, too. A dating recession will make those numbers even bleaker. That means more young adults risk the fate of Elizabeth, a charming and ambitious young lawyer living in Texas. Elizabeth says she's always desired marriage, but didn't prioritize dating in her college years. Fast-forward to Elizabeth's graduation from law school, when she finally came up for air and found that marriage seemed farther away than ever. "Having not been in any serious relationship before, I didn't really know how to do it," she said. By pop-culture standards, Elizabeth did everything right: she worked hard, built an impressive career, and didn't get ‘tied down' too early. But visiting her sister recently, who took the opposite path — got married young, and had just had her third baby — Elizabeth said she was gutted to realize she'd have given "every dollar in [her] bank account" to have her sisters' life. This Valentine's Day, young adults who desire a relationship should embrace the risk. They might not feel particularly confident, but there's good news: according to our research, neither does anyone else. Brad Wilcox, author of "Get Married: Why Americans Must Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families, and Save Civilization," is distinguished university professor of Sociology at the University of Virginia and a senior fellow at the Institute for Family Studies. Maria Baer is a contributing writer at the Institute for Family Studies. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes.

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by LSEG. First lady of Florida Casey DeSantis joins ‘Fox & Friends' to discuss the Florida Department of Health's study on arsenic levels in candy. Conversation hearts — the tiny pastel candies stamped with messages like "Be Mine" and "XOXO" — have been quietly documenting and adapting to the ways Americans talk about love for more than a century. In 1866, his brother, Daniel Chase, developed a method for stamping words directly onto the candy — and by 1902, they were being cut into heart shapes, paving the way for them to become a Valentine's Day staple. Over time, lengthy Victorian sentiments popular among couples and wedding parties such as "How long shall I have to wait?" and "Married in satin, love will not be lasting" — which were stamped on the larger wafers — gave way to short phrases like "Kiss Me" and "Marry Me" on tiny hearts. First introduced in the 1860s, conversation candy hearts have become a Valentine's Day staple. "Conversation hearts succeed because they're low-cost emotional currency," Nicole Arnett Sanders, Ph.D., a Florida-based consumer behaviorist and marketing professor, told Fox News Digital. Some messages, including "Fax Me" and "1-800-CUPID," are now relics of the past. Sweethearts this year introduced "Love in This Economy" sayings such as "Splint Rent," "Share Log-In" and "Buy N Bulk," reflecting rising costs and budget-conscious dating trends. Nostalgia and comfort continue to fuel consumers' growing interest in the pastel Valentine's Day staple. "Sweethearts has always evolved with the times," Evan Brock, vice president of marketing for the Ohio-based Spangler Candy Co., said in a statement. Brach's — America's top-selling conversation heart brand, which produces three million pounds of conversation hearts annually — debuted a "Sweet Bright" line featuring tangier flavors, dual-sided messages and emoji-inspired phrases, according to the company. "The shift from 'Be Mine' to 'Text Me' to 'GOAT' tells us less about candy and more about how Americans have become increasingly uncomfortable with direct, earnest expressions of romance," Sanders said. Conversation hearts have been sharing sweet sentiments from "Be Mine" to "Text Me" for more than a century. Interest in the candy also appears to be growing. Conversation around candy hearts has increased more than 26% in the past two years — a notable rise for a product that has changed little in form, according to consumer insights platform Tastewise. "They've evolved from a romantic token to a playful, social ritual," said Miriam Aniel, head of integrated marketing and senior consumer trends analyst at Tastewise, based in Tel Aviv. "When life feels noisy or uncertain, people naturally reach for small, comforting rituals that have stood the test of time," she told Fox News Digital. Conversation hearts have held their own alongside chocolate as a Valentine's Day staple for generations. Sanders agreed that uncertainty fuels nostalgia purchases. … For millennials and Gen X especially, retro candy isn't just sugar — it's a sensory time machine," she said. That's not something a new product can manufacture." That emotional comfort is something consumers are often willing to prioritize even when they're trimming other expenses, Sanders added. Candy hearts have tracked how Americans express love throughout generations. But nostalgia isn't a free pass. Push too hard, Sanders cautioned, and brands risk sliding into "gimmick territory" — especially with Valentine's Day's biggest buyers. "Women, who drive most Valentine's Day candy purchases, can tell the difference between a brand that genuinely understands the cultural moment and one that's just chasing a trending hashtag," she warned. Deirdre Bardolf is a lifestyle writer with Fox News Digital. A look at the top-trending stories in food, relationships, great outdoors and more. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by

After deciding carbon dioxide does no harm, it was the logical next move. A new ruling from the Trump administration says that when the sun disappears at night, we don't know where it goes. All remaining top scientists have been taken from their positions and tasked with getting to the bottom of this. The National Institutes of Health has orders to devote every whiteboard in every conference room to this pressing question. (The EPA will work to determine what kind of beetle.) Where is the beetle going with it? Will the beetle bring it back? Or maybe the witches take it. Maybe the sun is the yellow scribble in the top corner of the page with sunglasses drawn on it in marker, and it disappears when someone puts it in a drawer. Maybe the sun is in Greenland. (If so, it is even more important to get control of Greenland.) Maybe Bad Bunny has taken the sun hostage and is keeping it in his halftime grass. (He must be held to account.) (Can the groundhog be made to talk?) Maybe Jerome Powell has put the sun in his office. Maybe the children have the sun, and we had better warehouse them all in Texas until one of them gives it up. Maybe Mark Kelly and several other dissident members of Congress are hiding the sun in a big bag. It's very frightening when the sun goes away, now that we have decided we don't know where it goes at night. You can simply decide to forget progress. Disease is caused by miasma, insufficient beef tallow, corn syrup, the evil eye. Be especially sure to burn the books. I hope it comes back soon. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply

Wanted poster that Tonya Miller made in the desperate search for her mother, Betty Miller, who went missing in 2019. In this undated image released by the Federal Bureau of Investigations shows missing Cynthia Acevedo. In this undated image released by the Federal Bureau of Investigations shows missing Laverda Sorrell. In this undated image released by the Federal Bureau of Investigations shows missing Ella Mae Begay. In this undated image released by the Federal Bureau of Investigations shows missing Carlotta Maria Sanchez. As hundreds of federal and local agents scoured the Arizona desert and chased down potential leads in the nearly two weeks since Nancy Guthrie disappeared from her affluent neighborhood, families of other missing people are reminded how elusive answers can be. On the other, people like Tonya Miller — whose own mother disappeared under suspicious circumstances in Missouri in 2019 — say they feel frustrated as they watch seemingly endless resources flood into the search for Guthrie. “Families like ours that have just your normal missing people, they have to fight to get any help,” Miller, 44, said. Miller's mother, Betty Miller, is one of the thousands of people who are listed as abducted each year, according to federal statistics. The country has been engrossed by the apparent kidnapping of Nancy Guthrie, after authorities said they believe she was taken against her will. Multiple news outlets have reported receiving ransom notes, and the Guthrie family has expressed a willingness to pay — although it's not known whether ransom notes demanding money with deadlines that have already passed were authentic. In the meantime, several hundred detectives and agents are now assigned to Nancy Guthrie's investigation, the Pima County Sheriff's Department said. FBI spokesperson Connor Hagan declined to say how many of those agents were federal law enforcement, and how many were already assigned in Arizona. He also didn't clarify how the federal agency prioritizes different missing persons cases. However, he said agents from the Critical Incident Response Group, technical experts and intelligence analysts are working to bring Guthrie home. Throughout all of 2024, the latest year that National Crime Information Center published the data, over 530,000 missing person records were entered. It's even more rare for someone to be abducted by a stranger. The FBI names five kidnapped or missing people, including Nancy Guthrie, from Arizona on its online database of 125 missing or kidnapped people. A disproportionate number of Black and Indigenous people were among the abducted in 2024, according to the National Crime Information Center report. “Every person deserves to be safe, and when someone is missing, there should be an immediate, coordinated, and effective response,” Lucy Simpson, the chief executive officer for the National Indigenous Women's Resource Center said. “For many Native women, longstanding gaps in resources, coordination, and systemic support for Tribal Nations have made prevention and response more difficult.” Experts have said that sometimes the attention on high-profile cases can be a major obstacle to law enforcement operations. But Savannah Guthrie's celebrity status has also garnered extensive resources from the federal and local government — including a $100,000 FBI reward for accurate information about her whereabouts or that could lead to an arrest and conviction of whoever took her. That's in stark contrast, Miller said, to the dearth of help she's received in Sullivan, Missouri, where she's had to use her own time and money to search for her mom, who was last seen in her apartment in the roughly 7,000 person town. A box of Betty Miller's prescribed fentanyl patches were missing from the apartment and her prescription eye glasses were left on an armchair, Tonya Miller said. The Sullivan Police Department didn't respond to an emailed request for comment Friday. Despite those suspicious circumstances, local police didn't treat her mother's apartment like a crime scene, Tonya Miller said. In the weeks that followed, Tonya Miller organized search parties, printed out fliers and held fundraisers to scrape together a $20,000 reward for her mother. Tonya Miller said it has become harder as the years go by to know how to help find her mom. She's written letters to elected officials at all levels of government, including President Donald Trump. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

“I became aware early on that Palestinian textiles are not just objects,” said the designer, who is based between London and the occupied West Bank. When Hassan graduated from London's Central Saint Martins art and design college last June, he titled his final collection “IM-Mortal Magenta: The Color That Doesn't Exist.” Shaped by his understanding of this relationship between art and politics, it was infused with visual elements inspired by Gaza. “The color magenta became a conceptual anchor, used to speak about erasure and survival,” he explained in an email. This perception of tatreez, or traditional Palestinian embroidery, as a type of visual language is widely shared, owing to its intimacy with the land and biographical characteristics. A centuries-old creative practice, tatreez originally married its maker (usually women from rural communities) with their respective region. Beginning in 1948, following the Arab-Israeli war (recognized as the Nakba, or catastrophe, during which 700,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes) – as well as later intifadas, or uprisings, against the occupation in 1987 and 2000 – tatreez became a political vehicle, actively embodying resistance for many Palestinians. On TikTok you get lots of results for people running stitching circles and tatreez workshops.” “Thread Memory: Embroidery from Palestine” is currently on show at the V&A Dundee in Scotland while more recently “Embroidering Palestine” opened at MoMu, the fashion museum of Antwerp, where work by Hassan is displayed alongside thobes (embroidered ankle-length dresses, also known as thobs) made over a century ago. “In the 19th century, tatreez and Palestinian dress was fashion – women were looking at each other. Being in MoMu then, I was excited to really approach this as fashion in the fullest sense, carving that connection between a 19th century embroidered thobe and the work of designers in the present.” “The purpose of tatreez was a celebration of culture, land and identity,” added Samar Abdrabbou, a Palestinian program manager for Made in Palestine (MIP), an Australian humanitarian non-profit, who is based in Bethlehem. Many women used the traditional craft to “celebrate their beauty and femininity – they were not trying to fight or resist,” Abdrabbou explained. “Tatreez was never meant to be political, but during the Nakba many women left with only the thobe they were wearing, and a lot of fabric factories were burned. After 1948, tatreez became important as material evidence of Palestinian presence on the land, and women started to insert politically charged motifs into their work. They also began appropriating colors in their tatreez, and the watermelon became a symbol of Palestinian solidarity with its red flesh, white rind, black seeds, and green skin mirroring the Palestinian flag. “Those objects are fascinating because they render women's bodies sites of active political power, engaging in this explicitly political moment, making tatreez with a view to being seen,” said Dedman. In 2021, the global significance of tatreez was recognized by UNESCO, when it was added to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, a safeguarding measure to ensure its preservation. As Hassan asserted, “Carrying embroidery between London and Palestine has never felt neutral to me. Being a part of the exhibition at MoMu then, alongside other contemporary designers like Studio Nazzal and Zeid Hijazi, feels particularly remarkable. “Presenting Palestinian embroidery and contemporary design within a major European fashion museum is an act of visibility at a time when Palestinian lives, histories, and voices are systematically erased or misrepresented,” said Hassan. “It's really about looking at the wealth of beauty, that side that we don't necessarily see,” added Dedman, in reference to the images of destruction in Gaza after two years of war. For Abdrabbou, who in 2024 established SAMARKAND, a cultural initiative dedicated to preserving and teaching tatreez, practicing the art feels most keenly like a way to honor her heritage. Traditionally passed between generations in families, increasingly she recognized an absence of knowledge about the craft amongst younger Palestinians and sought to rectify this. “I'm doing it to celebrate and keep this traditional art alive,” she said, though acknowledged there is a political component too. “The sense of community while stitching with other people is so powerful. Women feel comfortable and supported, everyone shares personal stories,” continued Abdrabbou, discussing her weekly Tatreez circle at a local café in Bethlehem.

For Ashley Garley, the past year has been “messy, challenging and heartbreaking.” Garley, who lost her job after the US froze all foreign aid in late January 2025, is struggling to find a full-time job with benefits more than a year later. Going from a jet-setting job with global impact, to teaching part-time at her county pool in Maryland has been “pretty emotional,” Garley told CNN. Like Garley, hundreds of thousands of federal workers and contractors have had their lives upended by Trump's quest to clamp down on the federal workforce, whom he sees as a threat to his ability to execute his priorities. After accounting for new hires, the federal workforce shrunk by 242,000 people – or just over 10% – between his inauguration day and December. Trump said last month that he doesn't feel bad about the downsizing, claiming without evidence that former federal workers are now making more money in the private sector. CNN spoke with several former federal workers who were laid off or accepted buyouts amid DOGE's aggressive and controversial cuts last year. Some of them, like Garley, have struggled to find a job and pay the bills. Meanwhile, others have pivoted careers, moved across the country for new jobs or are dedicating their time to volunteer work – and finding a silver lining in their new lives. A few months after she received her final paycheck in August, Hall told CNN that she had been in bed for days without eating or answering the phone. Her son ultimately found her, and she was hospitalized in October for 10 days with severe depression, anxiety, and physical complications tied to a preexisting medical condition that can be worsened by stress. “The only other time I dealt with depression was when my grandmother died.” She is among the 10,500 people across agencies who were affected by RIFs. Hall says she has fallen behind on bills, which includes roughly $57,000 in hospital costs. For two months, she relied on food stamps to buy groceries, sought state assistance for utilities, and a relative helped cover her mortgage so she would not lose her home. She is also continuing to apply for jobs, submitting at least five applications on most days. “My hope and prayer is that one day I can go back and continue to complete my mission at CDC,” Hall told CNN, adding “I feel like a part of me is gone.” An Army veteran who served in Iraq, Hollowell hadn't wanted to leave his post as an investigative analyst but felt he had no job security after being laid off in the administration's purge of probationary workers last February and then reinstated by a federal judge. But Hollowell, 40, grew concerned after applying for multiple positions and not getting any responses. So he widened his search, applying to as many as 30 jobs a day, including ones that were in-person or part-time or entry level. Hollowell applied for a data analyst position at an insurance claims management company, and less than a week later, he was asked to interview. He started on February 2, nearly one year to the day after his initial layoff from USDA. He just put an offer on a house, which was accepted. Rees' journey to securing a full-time job in their field has been difficult and tiring, they told CNN. Before their federal paychecks stopped, Rees began piecing together whatever work they could find. They picked up a job at an ACE Hardware store in May 2025 and found part-time work with a restoration construction company, filling in on job sites when it needed additional help. The jobs didn't pay nearly as much as their federal government salary but it gave Rees the mental break they said they needed. “It was healing, lifting mulch, helping people match screws and working through house projects,” Rees said. However, struggling to pay the bills, Rees took out a $15,000 loan. But it's still the best offer that I've gotten,” they told CNN. Rees said they are cautious about feeling relieved after securing the job. After accepting a deferred resignation offer, Steve Leibman says he was lucky to be at the point of his career where he didn't feel immediate pressure to take a new job right away. Leibman – who worked remotely from the Boston area at the US Digital Service, which later formally turned into DOGE – is now enrolled in a teacher license program at Harvard University. The program is a one-year master's degree, after which he hopes to teach high school math. “A big part of it was just interacting with people whose perspective of the world are just different and gives a different view of how can you have impact in the world,” Liebman told CNN about his trip. “That was part of me saying, ‘Yeah actually, I am valuable and fun, and I could be doing interesting things on a local small scale. Meanwhile, David Schwark began looking for another job when a court order brought him back to the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights in Cleveland after he had been laid off in March 2025. Meanwhile, agencies that are a higher priority for Trump were shielded. For instance, staffing at the Department of Homeland Security only dipped 11%. “It's been a big shift to go back to dealing with criminal law and being in the court room for a long time.” Their son is now eight months old and Hilaker still has not found work. “I'm very happy to be a stay-at-home dad, don't get me wrong by any means, but this was never anywhere in our sketch of what our life would look like.” Hilaker says his family is really starting to feel the crunch financially and are considering moving out of Washington, DC, for a better cost-of-living. “I feel burned by Elon Musk and DOGE,” Hilaker, a member of AFGE Local 1534 union, told CNN. “[DOGE] had all these pie in the sky dreams and ideals. And the only thing they did, quite frankly, is ruin my career, ruined my life and ruined a lot of other like good people's lives as well.” For Vi Le, a former behavioral scientist and violence prevention researcher at the CDC, finding a new role has become its own full-time job. Until she finds a job in her field, Le told CNN that she is trying to expand a hobby business designing floral arrangements for events. “I'm not in international development anymore, which was my plan,” said Karrel, 42. “But I really love Tucson, except for the heat. CivicMatch, a jobs platform that connected nearly 190 former federal workers to new jobs last year at state and local governments, said roughly 33% of those people moved to a new state, and 10% did cross-country moves. One of these people moved all the way from DC to Honolulu, Hawaii. A federal health official moved from Texas to Richmond, Virginia. It shifts to cities and states,” CivicMatch founder Caitlin Lewis said. “This has become a talent redistribution engine, to the benefit of local governments. Lucas King, 36, who was also a USAID contractor, relocated from DC to Idaho, where he grew up. He previously managed some of USAID's largest projects in Africa, including initiatives from Trump's first term. Now he oversees permits and inspections for Ketchum, Idaho, a ski town with 3,600 residents. “I wasn't getting traction in DC, so we moved back to Idaho,” King said. The DOGE layoffs also sent Nathaniel Haight on a path closer to family. But after getting swept up in the dismantling of USAID, he cast a wide net during his job search, looking far beyond DC, so he could start providing again for his wife and four children. “I had my dream job in DC, and it was heartbreaking for our lives to be uprooted like that. “I found a new job in public service, much closer to my parents and siblings,” Haight said. She co-founded Aid on the Hill, a volunteer advocacy organization. She eventually was formally terminated from the agency as part of reduction in force efforts. These days, Weis spends most of her week meeting with congressional staffers — sometimes virtually and other times, taking her kids along to Capitol Hill. “It's hard for me to sit, sit and not respond when there is injustice, and this is an incredible amount of injustice.” Weis will be starting a full-time job soon, and she shared with CNN that she plans on having “a side role in helping” Aid on the Hill in her own time. Similarly, as Deborah Kaliel – who worked at USAID's Office of HIV/AIDS – searches for a job, she is dedicating her time as a volunteer for Crisis in Care, a fundraising effort she co-founded to provide support for HIV services in other countries. “That has kind of taken over my life,” Kaliel told CNN.

President Donald Trump has ordered a second aircraft carrier to join military patrols in the Strait of Hormuz. Yet in ally Saudi Arabia, more ink is being spilled over the United Arab Emirates and Israel. The Saudis and Emiratis have escalated their rhetoric against one another in recent weeks, focusing more public statements on each other's perceived duplicity than on the Shia dictatorship that is under threat of collapse. That complicated dispute has quickly mutated into tit-for-tat insults using Israel as a wedge. Saudi media outlets and sermons delivered by state-sanctioned clerics have renewed campaigns characterizing Israel as “Zionist aggressors” and decrying the Jewish state's treatment of muslims' “downtrodden brothers in Palestine.” The Saudis have used this narrative as a cudgel to hammer the UAE, which maintains a close relationship with Israel, as a “Zionist Trojan Horse” and “proxy” being used to “divide Arab states.” The UAE has been accused of lobbying American advocacy groups to brand Saudi Arabia as “antisemitic” in response. “MBS is not a Zionist, and you're emboldening Iran by having this conflict,” Graham pleaded. He added: “Sunni Islam will go, if it were up to the ayatollah [Ali Khamenei]. The Saudi government has been mercurial in its public statements about possible further U.S. and Israeli intervention in the Islamic Republic, fluctuating between tacit support and refusal to cooperate. Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman reportedly warned U.S. officials late last month that failing to follow through on Trump's early threats of military action would “only embolden the regime.” But the U.S. and Israel should not expect any help from Riyadh. Salman has barred U.S. and Israeli forces from using any part of his territory to stage such an attack. Jacob Olidort, chief research officer and director of American security at the America First Policy Institute, told the Washington Examiner that the Saudis' refusal to be entangled with U.S. operations is not based on diverging visions about Iran, but instead concerns about how a conflict with Tehran could spill over into their own borders. Olidort added, “Whether this is ultimately achieved diplomatically or militarily, the outcome will likely encourage greater cooperation between Israel and its neighbors.” Edmund Fitton-Brown, former British ambassador to Yemen and a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, speculates that the reduction of Iranian influence caused by U.S.-Israeli military operations has counterintuitively given Saudi Arabia less reason to work with its Sunni rivals. “They're very conscious of their national security — both who is threatening them and also how do they avoid having unnecessary fallings out with dangerous neighbors or partners or interlocutors,” Fitton-Brown told the Washington Examiner. He continued, “By making Iran look a lot less scary, which is what Israel did last year with U.S. involvement as well, that has changed the calculation for a number of countries in the region who are now less afraid of Iran than they were. “The United States remains committed to building on those gains in consultation with regional partners.” Since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas reignited Israel's war in Gaza, Saudi Arabia has maintained that while it is interested in signing onto the accords, recognition of a Palestinian state and defense agreements with the U.S. are a precondition for normalizing its relationship with Israel. “Publicly, Saudi Arabia has not changed its stance on these positions — whether because doing so could expose it to new risks amid changing regional dynamics or frustrate its deepening ties with other regional actors,” Olidort told the Washington Examiner. “Is it really consistent with the dignity of Saudi Arabia that they give Hamas a veto?” he asked. Expansion of settlements into Palestinian territory, incursions into Syria following the fall of President Bashar Assad, and its unilateral strikes on Iranian military infrastructure have all contributed to diplomatic fatigue from Arab neighbors.

Madiha Maria, left, cries with Rana Abbas Taylor of Northville, Mich., who lost her only sister, brother-in-law and their three children to a drunk driver, during a candlelight vigil for people who had family members killed by drunk drivers, Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024, on the National Mall, in Washington. A federal law requiring impairment-detection devices inside all new cars survived a recent push to strip its funding but remains stalled by questions about whether the technology is ready. Rana Abbas Taylor lost her sister, brother-in-law, nephew and two nieces when a driver with a blood-alcohol level almost four times the legal limit slammed into their car in January 2019 as the Michigan family drove through Lexington, Kentucky, on the way home from a Florida vacation. Lawmakers attached the Honoring Abbas Family Legacy to Terminate Drunk Driving Act to the $1 trillion infrastructure law that then-President Joe Biden signed in 2021. The measure, often referred to as the Halt Drunk Driving Act, anticipated that as early as this year, auto companies would be required to roll out technology to “passively” detect when drivers are drunk or impaired and prevent their cars from operating. Regulators can choose from a range of options, including air monitors that sample the car's interior for traces of alcohol, fingertip readers that measure a driver's blood-alcohol level, or scanners that detect signs of impairment in eye or head movements. Still, implementation has been bogged down by regulatory delays, without any clear signals that final approval is near. It's by number of lives lost,” Abbas Taylor said in an interview with The Associated Press. Another bill to repeal it entirely awaits a committee vote. Most of the opposition has stemmed from suggestions that the law would require manufacturers to equip cars with a “kill switch”. That would essentially allow them to “be controlled by the government,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis posted on the social platform X, drawing comparisons to George Orwell's dystopian novel “1984.” Chris Swonger, president and CEO of the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, said it specifically requires the technology to be passive, similar to other current safety mandates such as seat belts and air bags. But Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican who authored the defunding effort, said even the dashboard acting on its own could serve as “your judge, your jury, and your executioner.” He cited the example of a mother who swerves in a snowstorm to avoid hitting a neighbor's pet, only for her car to deactivate itself because it determines she's impaired. The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a trade association for U.S. automakers, made a similar case to regulators in 2024, arguing that much more research was needed before mandating the technology. “Even if 1 in 10,000 trips were expected to experience a false positive, this could result in thousands of unimpaired drivers encountering problems that prevent them from driving each day,” the Alliance wrote. Even supporters predict the agency will push the decision at least into 2027, and auto companies still would have another two to three years to install it. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a research arm funded by auto insurers, recently announced that impairment detection and other technology aimed at curbing risky driving behavior would soon be included as criteria for a vehicle to earn one of its top safety awards. Many states already have laws requiring breath-activated ignition interlock systems to be installed on the cars of DUI offenders. “We're still sort of pushing back against this narrative that the technology doesn't exist,” said Stephanie Manning, chief government affairs officer at MADD. “We've seen many different types of technology that can solve drunk driving. To accelerate the timeline, one bill advancing in Congress would offer a $45 million prize to whoever can produce and deploy the first consumer-ready piece of technology. Abbas Taylor, whose family members were killed in the Kentucky crash, said efforts like that give her hope.

In two posts on Truth Social, Trump criticized Democrats for their opposition to voter ID, claiming it was because they were looking to “cheat in Elections.” He claimed he had “searched the depths of Legal Arguments not yet articulated or vetted on this subject,” and that he would be presenting the “irrefutable” argument in the near future. for the Midterm Elections, whether approved by Congress or not! Also, the People of our Country are insisting on Citizenship, and No Mail-In Ballots, with exceptions for Military, Disability, Illness, or Travel,” he said. “They have all sorts of reasons why it shouldn't be passed, and then boldly laugh in the backrooms after their ridiculous presentations. is even crazier, and more ridiculous, than Men playing in Women's Sports, Open Borders, or Transgender for Everyone,” Trump said. He asked Republicans to start every speech with a voter ID demand, and said that it must be implemented before the midterm elections. He called Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries “Crooked Losers,” saying that they “have no shame, and explain why it's ‘racist,' and every other thing that they can think of. He cited “Legal reasons” why voter ID must be halted, and said he would present it soon in the form of an executive order. If measures implementing voter ID weren't passed quickly, he warned, the “Corrupt and Deranged Democrats” would regain power, add two more states, then “PACK THE COURT with a total of 21 Supreme Court Justices, THEIR DREAM,” which would then implement all their policies. Implementing voter ID has been expedited as a Republican priority in recent days, as Trump hopes to shore up Republican chances in the midterm elections.