By Tami Luhby, CNN

(CNN) — A federal judge has paused for now the Trump administration’s termination of Temporary Protected Status for more than 350,000 Haitians. The status, known as TPS, allows holders to live and work in the US and was set to expire after Tuesday.

In a harsh 83-page opinion, US District Court Judge Ana Reyes of the District of Columbia on Monday granted the request by five Haitian TPS holders to temporarily block the termination while the case works its way through the courts.

The plaintiffs are challenging the Department of Homeland Security’s termination, arguing the agency didn’t conduct the necessary review of whether it’s safe to return to Haiti before deciding to terminate the protection. The suit also alleges the agency’s decision stems, in part, from President Donald Trump’s “racial, ethnic, and national-origin animus towards Haitians.”

Reyes slammed DHS Secretary Kristi Noem for referring to certain immigrants, including Haitians, as “killers, leeches, or entitlement junkies” on X in December. Plus, the judge wrote, Noem “ignored Congress’s requirement that she ‘review the conditions’ in Haiti only ‘after’ consulting ‘with appropriate agencies.’”

“Plaintiffs charge that Secretary Noem preordained her termination decision and did so because of hostility to nonwhite immigrants,” Reyes wrote. “This seems substantially likely.”

The judge also cited Trump’s repeated derogatory comments about Haitians.

“President Trump has referred to Haiti as a ‘shithole country,’ suggested Haitians ‘probably have AIDS,’ and complained that Haitian immigration is ‘like a death wish for our country,’ she wrote. “He has also promoted the false conspiracy theory that Haitian immigrants were ‘eating the pets of the people’ in Springfield, Ohio.”

Haitian TPS holders are among the latest foreign-born residents whose lives are being upended by the Trump administration, which is focused on slashing the number of immigrants entering and living in the US. DHS announced the termination of TPS designation for immigrants from multiple countries, including Honduras, Nepal and South Sudan, though federal judges have stymied many of those efforts.

TPS relief applies to people who would face extreme hardship if forced to return to homelands devastated by armed conflict or natural disasters. The recipients are vetted and are not eligible if they’ve been convicted of any felony or more than one misdemeanor in the US. The DHS secretary has discretion to designate a country for TPS.

Haitian immigrants became eligible after an earthquake rocked the country in 2010. The designation has since been renewed multiple times as the country faces a host of crises, including widespread violence by armed gangs, food insecurity, displacement and a leadership vacuum after the president was assassinated in 2021.

Asked for comment on the scheduled termination last week, DHS said Haiti’s TPS program “was never intended to be a de facto asylum program, yet that’s how previous administrations have used it for decades.”

“The assertion that the only way we can take care of our seniors is by allowing unvetted illegal aliens and foreigners with criminal records to remain in the country is grossly false and lazy,” DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to CNN.

Advocates cheered the ruling.

“It is also in all of our interests to keep families together and have people continue to work with dignity and build their lives here. We are the backbone of entire industries,” Aline Gue, executive director of Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees, said in a statemen

By Betsy Klein, Kristen Holmes, Sunlen Serfaty, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump on Monday suggested the Kennedy Center’s two-year renovation project could be dramatic — a demolition effort short of a complete teardown, but one so severe that it would leave the Washington building’s steel “fully exposed.”

A source close to the center said Trump has very specific ideas about what he wants to do to the building, and those ideas — which have not been publicly released — don’t align with the building’s current state.

A document reviewed by CNN, which an official said was presented to some appropriators in Congress, contemplates serious changes — including exterior marble and roofing replacements, security and safety improvements, and seating replacement — but does not make explicit that the theater complex could be stripped to its bones.

“I’m not ripping it down. I’ll be using the steel. So we’re using the structure,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

“The steel will be all checked out because it’ll be fully exposed,” he said, estimating the project could cost around $200 million.

The planned two-year closure for construction marks Trump’s most dramatic effort yet to overhaul the center after he oversaw its cultural transformation last year. Upon returning to the White House, he quickly gutted its board and installed loyalists, who elected him chair and voted in December to rename the venue the “Trump Kennedy Center” — a move that’s being challenged in court. But those changes have also led to slumping ticket sales and dwindling performances as prominent artists have canceled their appearances — which some saw as driving the desire to temporarily close.

One source familiar with the project said all of the planned renovations were outlined and presented to at least some in Congress as part of the $257 million included in Trump’s domestic agenda law last summer for “necessary expenses for capital repair, restoration, maintenance backlog, and security structures.” (CNN has reached out to the chair of the Senate committee that has jurisdiction over public buildings.)

But some fear another East Wing situation, with Washington one day waking up to a demolition beyond anything residents had contemplated.

The source brushed off the president’s Monday comments as typical Trump hyperbole, and an administration official said there are no plans to tear down any buildings.

The center needed significant maintenance when Trump returned to office in early 2025, according a source familiar, including upgrades to the orchestra pit, bathroom renovations and new HVAC systems. Two sources familiar with the project said there were 10 to 15 years of deferred maintenance.

Early into Trump’s second term, the Kennedy Center brought in various experts to discuss

Por Chris Isidore

SpaceX adquirió xAI, anunció la compañía el lunes, fusionando dos de las empresas más ambiciosas de Elon Musk, integrando la exploración espacial con la inteligencia artificial para consolidar lo que ya se perfila como la empresa privada más valiosa del mundo.

“Esto marca no solo el próximo capítulo, sino el próximo libro en la misión de SpaceX y xAI”, dijo Musk en un comunicado en el sitio web de SpaceX.

La fusión podría verse como una indicación de la liquidez que xAI necesita para competir en el campo de rápido crecimiento de la IA, así como de la importancia de la tecnología en el futuro de la exploración espacial.

SpaceX fue valorada en US$ 800.000 millones en una venta secundaria de acciones en diciembre de 2025, y xAI fue valorada en US$ 230.000 millones en su ronda de financiamiento más reciente en enero, según PitchBook, una firma de investigación que rastrea la valoración de empresas privadas.

El movimiento también demuestra la carrera de gigantes tecnológicos como las empresas de Musk para asegurar más recursos informáticos para impulsar los avances en inteligencia artificial.

“Los avances actuales en la IA dependen de grandes centros de datos terrestres, que requieren enormes cantidades de energía y refrigeración”, escribió Musk. “La única solución lógica, por lo tanto, es trasladar estos esfuerzos intensivos en recursos a un lugar con vastos recursos energéticos y espaciales”.

SpaceX solicitó permiso el viernes a la Comisión Federal de Comunicaciones para lanzar una constelación de un millón de satélites en órbita. La solicitud decía que el objetivo es proporcionar una red de centros de datos alimentados por energía solar para “acoger el crecimiento explosivo de la demanda de datos impulsada por la IA”.

Musk dijo que estima que “la forma de menor costo para generar cómputo de IA será en el espacio” dentro de dos a tres años.

Musk es el último líder tecnológico en pedir más potencia de cómputo en la era de la IA. El CEO de Nvidia, Jensen Huang, dijo a CNBC el año pasado que los modelos de IA de próxima generación requerirán “100 veces” más energía que los modelos anteriores. Se espera que la IA impulse la demanda de energía de los centros de datos en un 165 % para 2030, según Goldman Sachs.

Y los gigantes tecnológicos han estado invirtiendo miles de millones en infraestructura relacionada con la IA para satisfacer esa demanda. Microsoft informó la semana pasada que gastó US$ 37.500 millones en el último trimestre de 2025 en gastos de capital como centros de datos, mientras que Meta gastó US$ 22.140 millones.

Al mismo tiempo, algunos residentes de EE.UU. han informado aumentos en sus facturas de electricidad. Un análisis de Bloomberg News el año pasado encontró que en áreas cercanas a centros de datos, los costos de electricidad aumentaron hasta un 267 % en comparación con hace cinco años.

Pero las facturas eléctricas más altas no son la única preocupación sobre la tecnología.

xAI de Musk también es propietaria de su plataforma de redes sociales X, cuyo chatbot Grok recientemente fue criticado por producir imágenes sexuales de mujeres, muchas de ellas personas reales. El chatbot de IA también fue criticado el año pasado por una serie de publicaciones Read more

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) – Ernestine Ygnacio-De Soto, Chumash elder and beloved community member, passed away at age 87, according to her family.

Ygnacio-De Soto, the Fiesta Grand Marshal of 2023, dedicated much of her life in Santa Barbara to providing information on the Barbañero Chumash.

This includes donations to the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, a children's book on the Barbañero Chumash culture and a documentary called "6 Generations" on her family's history.

Ygnacio Soto's mother, Mary Yee, was the last first-language speaker of the Barbañero Chumash, eventually raising five children of her own.

A memorial will be set at the Old Mission on Feb. 10, starting at 9:00 a.m., leading into the afternoon for any community member who wishes to attend.

The post Ernestine Ygnacio-De Soto, Chumash elder, passes away at age 87 appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

By Edward-Isaac Dovere, CNN

(CNN) — With now just a month to go until Election Day, the Democratic primary for US Senate in Texas has become so fraught that a TikToker’s accusations have roiled the race and prompted a major endorsement in the backlash.

The incident started Sunday night when Morgan Thompson posted a video recounting what she says was a comment Texas state Rep. James Talarico made to her in a private conversation in January: that he called his onetime opponent, former US Rep. Colin Allred, a “mediocre Black man.”

Talarico’s campaign released a statement from the candidate on Monday calling Thompson’s claims “a mischaracterization of a private conversation,” going on to explain, “I described Congressman Allred’s method of campaigning as mediocre — but his life and service are not.” Thompson acknowledged that she didn’t have a recording and that they had previously agreed to treat their conversation as off the record.

But the accusation slammed Talarico’s campaign on Monday, sending aides into a flurry and prompting Allred — who dropped out of the Senate race when Rep. Jasmine Crockett decided to make a last-minute entry — to endorse her in the intense race, despite frustrations he had in December that she had chased him out of the race by getting in. It also renewed the questions about identity politics and electability that have riven the primary and the Democratic Party more broadly.

Thompson alleges that Talarico, who is White, said: “I signed up to run against a mediocre Black man, not a formidable, intelligent Black woman.”

Talarico, in his statement denying the exact wording as Thompson relayed it, said, “I understand how my critique of the Congressman’s campaign could be interpreted given this country’s painful legacy of racism, and I care deeply about the impact my words have on others.”

In an interview on Monday evening, Allred told CNN he felt the campaign’s statement is “an admission that he said what he said,” and expressed surprise that he hadn’t heard from Talarico directly.

“I responded not just on my behalf, but on behalf of Black candidates around the country that even if you run six points ahead of your presidential candidate, you’re still called ‘mediocre,’” Allred said, referring to his results in the 2024 Senate race as compared to Kamala Harris in the state. (Allred outperformed Harris by about five points.)

What Talarico is accused of saying

Thompson told CNN that she had been turned on to Talarico’s campaign by a friend last fall and preferred him over Allred. After attending an event of his in Dallas, she started using her social media following to boost him. Talarico’s staff reached out about her video from the rally, she said, and was soon feeding her information like fundraising numbers and clips from his “Jubilee” online debate to help.

“It was like a symbiotic kind of thing. I wasn’t paid by the campaign at all,” Thompson said, though, “I was in constant communication with the campaign.”

Thompson said the relationship started to break down after she got a fundraising text for Talarico, signed by the Democratic strategist James Carville, who has been urging Democrats to start moving away from identity politics. Thompson said she saw that as an implicit critique of Black women, and that when she raised her frustrations with the campaign, an aide offered her to have a conversation with Talarico — either on camera for her to post, or “off the record,” as what was meant to be a private conversati