More than 50 people were killed in a horrific bus accident during an early morning commute in Guatemala.
The bus was headed for the capital, Guatemala City, when the driver lost control and drove off a bridge around 4:30 a.m local time.
Photos of the aftermath show the bus inverted at the bottom of a ravine. The vehicle was partly submerged in a river of sewage.
"So far, 53 people have died at the scene," a spokesman for the public prosecutor's office, Moises Ortiz, told reporters.
While the cause of the tragedy remains unclear, the bus apparently crashed into two cars and then broke through a guard rail.
"The bus kept going, broke through a metal railing, and fell into a ravine about 20 meters (65 feet) deep until it reached the sewage-contaminated river," the fire department's Carlos Hernandez told reporters.
An improvised morgue was set up near the scene of the accident as relatives of the victims gathered to learn the fates of their loved ones.
53 bodies were recovered at the scene, and two people who survived the crash died later at the hospital. The unsanitary conditions have made the job of rescue workers more difficult.
"We've been underwater for more than three hours trying to rescue the body of an apparently male person who is trapped between the twisted metal of the bus," said firefighter Luis Quintanilla.
The bus departed from San Antonio La Paz, a village 26 miles from the capital, in the early morning Monday. One woman told Guatemalan news site La Hora that her 67-year-old husband left home at 4 a.m. but never made it to work.
Investigators are considering if a mechanical failure caused the driver to lose control, or the possibility that the bus was overloaded.
The deputy director-general of Guatemala's National Civil Police, Helver Beltetón, said police are not ruling out any causes at this stage, including a criminal act.
"The brakes could have failed but we're also not ruling out an accident or a criminal act, all that will be investigated," he said.
Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo has declared three national days of mourning for the victims.
“I stand in solidarity with the families of the victims who today woke up to heartbreaking news,” Arévalo said in a televised address to the nation. “Their pain is my pain.”
The House passed a bill to prevent future presidents from banning fracking, as President Trump and his Republican allies turn the page on the Biden administration's regressive energy agenda.
The Protecting American Energy Production Act would stop presidents from banning hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, without authorization from Congress first. The bill passed 226-188, with sixteen Democrats voting with all Republicans as most Democrats voted no.
Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, involves using pressurized water, sand, and chemicals to fracture shale rock formations.
It is the most common method of extracting oil and natural gas in the United States, accounting for 95% of all new wells, according to the Energy Department.
Still, fracking has faced opposition over its alleged environmental harms, although fracking advocates say the risks are overblown.
The House's bill to protect fracking from a federal moratorium is unlikely to have much effect on Trump's energy agenda, given Trump's repeated pledges to "drill, baby drill."
Still, the lead sponsor of the bill, Republican August Pfluger (Tx.), said the legislation would send a message that Biden's four-year assault on "safe, clean" fossil fuel is at an end.
"When President Biden took office, his administration took a 'whole of government' approach to wage war on American energy production, pandering to woke environmental extremists and crippling this thriving industry,” Pfluger said in a statement. “My legislation that passed (Friday) is a necessary first step in reversing Biden’s war on energy by preventing the federal government from banning the use of hydraulic fracturing," he said.
“Fracking is a safe, clean, and effective way to produce affordable energy and strengthen our national security. This bill advances President Trump’s pro-energy agenda to restore America’s position as the world’s top oil and gas producer. I am blessed to represent America's most prolific oil and gas producing region and am committed to unleashing energy in the Permian Basin this Congress.”
The Senate last week confirmed Chris Wright, a fracking executive, to lead Trump's Energy Department. The vote was bi-partisan.
"Chris was one of the pioneers who helped launch the American Shale Revolution that fueled American Energy Independence, and transformed the Global Energy Markets and Geopolitics," Trump said in November.
President Trump has prioritized unleashing American energy production in a bid to lower prices after Biden's onerous climate agenda - which Trump calls the "green new scam" - raised costs.
Pfluger's bill now heads to the Republican-controlled Senate.
The world of New York City politics was shaken up this week after an influential councilwoman decided to up and quit.
According to the New York Post, GOP Councilwoman Inna Vernikov, 40, announced her sudden resignation from the the City Council’s Women’s Caucus to protest how "woke" it had become and its anti-Israel views.
The councilwoman held nothign back in a scathing 90-second video exposing just how radical and woke the women's caucaus had become, which ultimately lead to her decision to step down.
The caucause reportedly refused to condemn Hamas terrorists for its brutal and cowardly attack on Israel in 2023, and spent much of its time catering to far-left radical progressives.
Vernikov went all out in her video, holding nothing back as she ripped the women's caucus for its stance on Israel and other "woke" policy visions.
"How can I condemn and call out all these women organizations who’ve stayed completely silent [after the massacre] but continue sitting in a body that’s supposed to stand up for women’s rights, that’s supposed to stand against the abuse and rape and captivity of women, but cannot do that when it comes to Jewish women?" she said in the video.
She released a statement in her post, which included a clip of her video.
"On Friday I OFFICIALLY left @WomensCaucusNYC because I can’t reasonably stay part of a body that purports to stand up for women, but refuses to condemn the RAPE, MURDER, and CAPTIVITY of Jewish women by jihadi terrorists without adding "context.'"
She added, "This makes them as useless as every other women’s org I’ve condemned for staying silent. Meanwhile, this Caucus literally cannot even agree on what a WOMAN is."
🚨 On Friday I OFFICIALLY left @WomensCaucusNYC because I can’t reasonably stay part of a body that purports to stand up for women, but refuses to condemn the RAPE, MURDER, and CAPTIVITY of Jewish women by jihadi terrorists without adding “context”.
This makes them as useless… pic.twitter.com/Jf4CeFPOs0
— Councilwoman Inna Vernikov (@InnaVernikov) February 9, 2025
Users across social media weighed in on her announcement, with many cheering her on.
"There is clearly the side of right and a side of wrong. You have chosen wisely," one X user wrote.
Another X user wrote, "Good for you. You must feel better now!"
Not surprisingly, Democrat members of the caucus accused her of "grandstanding," when really she's only speaking the truth.
President Donald Trump absolutely dropped the hammer on former President Joe Biden on Friday.
According to Fox News, Trump announced that he has revoked Biden's security clearances and put an immediate end to his daily intelligence briefings.
In a scathing Truth Social post, Trump stated that there's "no need" for Biden to continue receiving the intelligence briefings, adding that he's simply returning the favor, as Biden did the same to him when he lost the 2020 election.
Trump made the announcement on his social media platform shortly after arriving home at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
Trump held nothing back in his announcement regarding Biden's stripped clearances and ending of his daily intel briefings.
"There is no need for Joe Biden to continue receiving access to classified information. Therefore, we are immediately revoking Joe Biden’s Security Clearances, and stopping his daily Intelligence Briefings," Trump wrote.
The president added, "He set this precedent in 2021, when he instructed the Intelligence Community (IC) to stop the 45th President of the United States (ME!) from accessing details on National Security, a courtesy provided to former Presidents."
Fox News added:
The president noted the Hur Report, which he claimed "revealed that Biden suffers from ‘poor memory’ and, even in his ‘prime,’ could not be trusted with sensitive information," according to the post.
Trump ended the post in the most iconic possible way, writing, "JOE, YOU’RE FIRED. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN."
That wasn't the only set of security credentials Trump stripped over the weekend, as he made the same move against several people who aren't exactly on his Christmas card list.
Over the weekend, it was reported that Trump ended the security clearances of several people who Trump isn't a fan of, including AG Letitia James, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, and former Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
The New York Post noted:
The other targets Trump disclosed to The Post include Biden’s former National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, who also was chief foreign policy adviser to Hillary Clinton during her failed 2016 presidential bid when he notoriously helped foment the Trump-Russia collusion hoax.
Also in Trump’s sights are Biden’s Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, who was involved in overseeing lawfare investigations against Trump and coordinating the DOJ response to the Jan. 6 riot.
Trump is on a mission, and he's not stopping until they're all punished.
That's why we voted him in, and he's coming through on every single promise.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has set off fresh conspiracy theories on the left after swearing in multiple Trump administration officials.
Known for his sharp, reliably conservative legal analysis, Thomas is a favorite of many on the right and a top target of the left, which has often portrayed the justice as a political ally of the MAGA movement.
After Thomas swore in multiple members of Trump's Cabinet, anxieties about Thomas' role were voiced by CNN anchor Dana Bash.
"Please raise your right hand again and again and again," Bash said. "That’s what we heard from Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who’s emerging as the go-to justice to swear in Donald Trump’s cabinet, overseeing ceremonies at the Supreme Court, at the White House, even at his own home, all while he and his wife, a longtime conservative activist, are drawing exceptional attention from President Trump," Bash said.
While clearly suggesting that Justice Thomas has crossed a boundary, Bash insisted she was simply troubled by the "symbolism" of his involvement.
"Not that there's anything untoward about doing it, it's just what it symbolizes," Bash said.
"I don't have a very strong memory of cabinet officials having swearing-ins of any Supreme Court Justice."
CNN also published a written report that noted the presence of Thomas' wife, conservative activist Ginni Thomas, during the swearing-in of Attorney General Pam Bondi.
“I’d like to thank Justice Clarence Thomas and his incredible wife, who is here someplace – his highly-respected wife,” President Trump said during the event.
Thomas has often been targeted by liberals seeking to discredit and reform the Supreme Court, which shifted right during Trump's first term. In particular, Democrats have attacked Thomas over his wife's political activism surrounding the 2020 election results.
Samuel Alito, another top conservative justice, faced breathless criticism last year over an inverted American flag that was flown at his home.
As Trump campaigned for re-election in 2024, some leftists accused the Supreme Court of a corrupt scheme to shield him from prosecution with its landmark ruling on presidential immunity.
Despite these conspiratorial claims, the court's conservatives have never been a rubber stamp for Trump and his agenda. Indeed, the court declined to block Trump's sentencing in New York last month.
A major test of the court's alignment with Trump is on the horizon as he fights to end birthright citizenship. It's unclear how the justices might rule, but they have overturned legally flawed precedents in the past, most notably Roe v. Wade.
Joe Rogan has proof that Kamala Harris' team is lying about his alleged efforts to sabotage an interview during the presidential election.
In the wake of her crushing defeat to President Trump, the Harris team has claimed Rogan blocked an interview, but Rogan says it was Harris who was being difficult, and he has records to prove it.
"They never agreed to do the show, this is really important," Rogan said.
"We have all the receipts by the way, I have a whole list of conversations that took place," he said.
In a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, Rogan said Harris' team was non-committal about sitting down, and they expressed hesitancy about doing an interview unedited.
It's doubtful that the unstructured, spontaneous format of Rogan's podcast would have benefited Harris, who often delivered "word salad" responses on the campaign trail.
"They were really concerned that it wasn’t going to be edited," Rogan said.
Indeed, Harris' team wanted a stenographer and staff member to sit in on Rogan's show, which is known for its relaxed atmosphere. Rogan said he is convinced Harris never actually wanted to talk.
"I don't think they ever really were sure they wanted to do it," Rogan said, and added, "I think we would have had fun."
Members of Harris' team have expressed outrage about Rogan's supposed failure to be more flexible, accusing him of throwing up obstacles as they attempted to negotiate a date.
The claims were fed to NBC reporter Jonathan Allen and Amie Barnes of The Hill in their book Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House.
"The vice president of the United States is offering to come to your f‑‑‑ing show, and you keep putting up more hoops," Harris' deputy campaign manager Rob Flaherty told the journalists.
According to Rogan, the book's authors never contacted him to verify the story.
Meanwhile, Rogan has said that the reason he interviewed Trump, and not Harris, is that Harris was evasive while President Trump was "easy" to negotiate with.
"They never said she was going to do it so this whole idea that we f***d her over for Trump, incorrect. Just not true," he said. "I think it's someone trying to cover their a**."
"Trump was really easy to book. We offered one day, he said yes, that was it."
Trump's long, free-wheeling chat with Rogan has been credited with boosting the president's appeal with young male voters who swung to the right.
While Trump made casual conversation with numerous podcasts, Harris stuck largely to conventional softball interviews with mainstream media.
Under pressure from Trump, CBS News has released the full transcript of Harris' 60 Minutes interview, which was heavily edited to make Harris sound more concise.
Donald Trump Jr. has been accused of illegally hunting a rare species of duck on a trip to Italy, causing an outcry among local politicians.
In a video promoted by his lifestyle brand, Field Ethos, Don Jr. was seen with an unusual orange duck after a shoot in a lagoon near Venice.
"This is actually a rather uncommon duck for the area,” Trump Jr. said, pointing to the bird. “Not even sure what it is in English. But incredible shoot.”
The beautiful orange-brown duck, known as a ruddy shelduck, is listed as a species of "least concern" by The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Italian Green Party politicians have lodged a complaint with Italy's environmental ministry, alleging Trump Jr. broke laws on conservation.
Andrea Zanoni, a Green Party politician, states unequivocally that foreigners cannot hunt in Italy and that it is illegal to kill the ruddy shelduck.
But some say the matter is more complicated than that. First, it's unclear who shot the duck, and Don Jr. was with a hunting guide, Oliver Martini, who owns land in the area. Martini previously took actor Stanley Tucci on a duck hunt in the same area, Outdoor Life reported.
“Italian law allows the possibility for foreigners to hunt under strict guidelines. They have to have a valid hunting license in their home countries, and they must be sponsored by an authorized Italian hunting guide,” Leone Rossi di Montelera, who runs a travel hunting outfit catering to foreigners called Italian Safari, told CNN. “There is nothing exclusive or abnormal about the duck hunt in question.”
An Italian safari organizer told Daily Mail that the ruddy shelduck is a rare sight in Europe, but the fowl is "not at risk."
"Even if it's proven who shot it," the safari organizer said, "the level of the penalty is the lowest level in current legislation – is a fine."
Trump's team says his hunting party was in a "legally allowed area" with multiple other groups - but the president's son will cooperate with an investigation.
"While it’s unclear whether this single duck was unintentionally shot by someone in Don’s hunting group, another hunting group or killed in a different manner and retrieved by the group’s hunting dog, Don takes following all rules, regulations and conservation on his hunts very seriously and plans on fully cooperating with any investigation," Trump's spokesperson, Andy Surabian, told the Daily Mail.
While critics have long doubted the sincerity of their love for each other, Donald Trump and his wife Melania are going strong in their marriage after 20 years. So what's their secret?
Sharing insight on the dynamic between the world's most powerful man and his loyal wife, Melania's advisers credit her "soft power" and ability to let her husband shine as keys to the couple's success.
"There is something in her – the strong woman – but at the same time, there is the soft power; she’s really good at balancing her husband,” the first lady’s official photographer, Régine Mahaux told Hello! magazine.
Melania has cut a bold figure as she returns to her role as First Lady with more confidence, and a more receptive nation, than she had the first time. Her official White House portrait, which showed her in a power pose and business suit, broke with convention. Her striking inauguration outfit was also widely seen as an assertion of her personal identity.
These gestures of independence come after Melania shared some political differences with her husband in her best-selling memoir released in 2024.
"We spoke about it. And I said, you have to write what you believe. I’m not going to tell you what to do. You have to write what you believe,” President Trump told Fox News’s Bill Melugin.
“But I said you have to stick with your heart. I’ve said that to everybody, you have to go with your heart.”
While Trump respects Melania's personal autonomy, she takes her duties as a wife and mother very seriously, creating a harmonious balance in the family.
“She’s always in the right place. She’s always behind her husband. He’s in the light; she doesn’t need the light. She’s a very good No. 2,” Mahaux said, adding, “It’s always her husband first, and I like that; she has strong family values, to be a good wife and to make sure they’re happy.”
Meanwhile, those who work closely with Melania say she's anything but cold and aloof.
"She will also make a coffee for you herself. So if you have a vision of a woman surrounded by servants, you are wrong," her stylist, Hervé Pierre, said.
While long dismissed by some as a trophy wife, Melania has proven her loyalty to the president through a series of trials - standing by his side as he survived assassination attempts and criminal prosecutions on his journey back to the White House.
“Sometimes I wonder how she could have the courage to keep on going; they’ve gone through so much. She’s committed. She loves him and he loves her," Mahaux said.
Although members of the public have their own preconceived notions of what their marriage is like, it's clear that the President and his wife are truly committed to each other. It is difficult to imagine them making it this far if that wasn't the case.
Panama has agreed to back out of an investment deal with China, dealing a blow to Beijing's influence in the Americas as President Trump threatens to take back the Panama Canal.
As reported by Breitbart, following a visit from Secretary of state Marco Rubio, Panama agreed not to renew its involvement in the Belt and Road Initiative, a global infrastructure project that China has used to expand its reach in developing nations.
During his first trip abroad, Rubio echoed Trump's concerns about China's influence over the Panama Canal and the Trump administration's belief that Panama is in violation of its treaty obligations with the United States, which handed over control of the strategic waterway decades ago. A 1977 treaty enables the U.S. to intervene militarily to enforce the neutrality of the canal.
"Secretary Rubio made clear that this status quo is unacceptable and that absent immediate changes, it would require the United States to take measures necessary to protect its rights under the Treaty," State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said.
Following a meeting with Secretary of State Rubio, President José Raúl Mulino said Panama would no longer renew its agreement to participate in the Belt and Road Initiative. It's a significant reversal after Panama became the first Latin American country to join the infrastructure project in 2018, a year after Panama severed ties with Taiwan to kowtow to China.
"We’ll study the possibility of terminating it early,” Mulino said, according to Reuters.
While appearing to bend somewhat to U.S. pressure, Mulino insisted that control of the canal is not up for negotiation.
"I do not feel that there is any real threat at this time against the (neutrality) treaty, its validity, and much less the use of military force to make the treaty," he said.
The Panama Canal links the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, providing a crucial shortcut for global trade. Chinese influence over the trade route could cripple the U.S. in the event of a geopolitical confrontation between the two powers, Rubio has warned.
A subsidiary of Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison Holdings operates two ports on either side of the Panama Canal, raising concern with the White House.
Rubio's trip to Panama was the first time in a century that a Secretary of State has visited Latin America on their first foreign trip, reflecting Trump's desire to shift American foreign policy toward safeguarding American interests close to home.
Trump's "America First" approach channels past presidents who expanded American power at the dawn of the 20th century, such as Willam McKinley and Teddy Roosevelt, the latter of whom oversaw the construction of the Panama Canal. Trump has said America made a mistake by ceding control of the canal and that Panama has "violated" its obligations to keep shipping neutral.
“China is running the Panama Canal that was not given to China, that was given to Panama foolishly, but they violated the agreement, and we’re going to take it back, or something very powerful is going to happen,” Trump told reporters Sunday.
Former President Joe Biden was quite the busy man in the lead-up to his ouster from the White House, but with the stroke of many pens, President Donald Trump continues to erase his predecessor's doings.
According to Fox News, Trump is expected to sign a memo that lifts the collective bargaining agreements (CBA) put into place by Biden shortly before he left office, which affects federal workers.
The memo will urge all federal agencies to reject Biden's last-minute CBAs, which were largely put in place to prevent Trump from reforming the government to his liking.
Trump's memo largely affects the remote federal workforce, which were terms included in many of the CBAs struck with the Biden administration .
Trump's memo was crystal clear. It instructed federal agencies to not make collective bargaining agreements within the last 30 days of a president's term.
Heads of federal agencies were instructed to reject any CBAs struck with the former president during his last 30 days in office.
Fox News noted an example of one of the CBAs struck by the Biden administration during his last days in office.
Biden’s Social Security Administration Commissioner, Martin O’Malley, in December 2024 came to an agreement with the American Federation of Government Employees guaranteeing that the agency’s 42,000 employees would not have to work in office during the Trump administration.
Fox News added:
The White House told Fox News Digital that the new policy "ensures the American people get the policies they voted for, instead of being stuck with the wasteful and ineffective Biden policies rejected at the ballot box."
A White House fact sheet regarding the issue claimed that Biden simply tried to tie Trump's hands in the final days of his time in the White House.
"The outgoing Biden administration negotiated lame-duck, multi-year collective bargaining agreements — during the week before the inauguration — in an attempt to tie the incoming Trump administration’s hands," the sheet read.
The White House justified its move by saying that the CBAs in place would only prevent Trump from following through on his promise to return federal workers to the office.
"These CBAs attempt to prevent President Trump from implementing his promises to the American people, such as returning Federal employees to the office to make government operate more efficiently," the White House said.
It added, "President Biden’s term of office ended on January 20th. Under this memorandum, he and future Presidents cannot govern agencies after leaving office by locking in last-minute CBAs."
Anti-Trump Democrats are already throwing hissy fits over the move. But what else is new?