👋 ഹലോ*
Welcome to Tuesday, where President Trump issues a series of orders aiming to dismantle Diversity, Equity and Inclusion measures, Denmark cranks up military spending amid Greenland crisis and Mongolia hails its new sumo superstar. Meanwhile, El Espectador’s Claudia Morales makes the case for banning smartphones at school.
🎙️ … Big (audio) news here today at Worldcrunch, where we’re launching 6 Minutes: our new daily podcast, available each weekday on your favorite streaming platforms, bringing you our uniquely international roundup of the latest news, in a sharp and succinct format. Check it out here!
[*Halēā - Malayalam, India]
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💡 SPOTLIGHT
Will Pro-Trump Polish community be hit by White House deportation roundups?
President Donald Trump has promised mass deportations in major U.S. cities, declaring a national emergency at the southern border on his first day in office, and ordering military involvement in transporting migrants in what he promised to be “the largest deportation operation in American history.”
One of his first targets appears to be Chicago, which hosts the largest Polish community in the United States. The city itself, home to multiple ethnic groups, is shaping up to be the first major target of immigration raids — and that means Poles in America, many of whom are big Trump supporters, are now realizing that they too may be impacted.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk acknowledged the issue, saying in a statement before a recent cabinet meeting that “After the first announcements on possible mass deportations of illegal immigrants from the United States, I asked the foreign minister to make sure that the U.S.-based consulate facilities and Polish services are prepared for the eventual consequences of the decisions that might concern Poles working and living within the U.S. and having different status and levels of legality."
Poland’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Henryka Mościcka-Dendys, also responded to the situation, telling broadcasters TOK FM that, according to consular estimates, “up to 30,000” Poles in the United States might be affected by mass deportations. “These are often Poles who moved to the United States in the 1990s and never cleared up their immigration status,” she said.
This has resulted in practical measures being taken by Polish authorities. “We are organizing additional consular shifts, including outside consulate buildings” Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski wrote on X, asking Poles in the U.S. with expired Polish passports to renew them as soon as possible.
Prime Minister Tusk added that in the case of deportations, Poland will be welcoming its citizens back into the country. "Every Pole will be warmly welcomed back to the country," he said. "Everybody will find a spot for themselves in their homeland."
Like many diasporas in the United States, Polish presence in the country spans several decades and waves of immigration. The most recent wave of immigrants came over in the 1990s, many of them seeking economic opportunities after the fall of communism and the Iron Curtain.
“Unlike those from Mexico, they didn’t cross the border in the desert,” says Dominik Stecula, a political scientist at the University of Ohio. “They had tourist visas to the United States and stayed behind after they expired. Many of them came to the U.S. as children. They weren’t born in the United States, so they have no citizenship, but their parents brought them along many years ago. They had no choice.”
Known as “Dreamers,” due to an Obama-era policy, these children were given the ability to apply for employee permits and renewable two-year periods of deferred action from deportation.
As of 2010, there were about 100,000 undocumented Poles in the United States. In Chicago alone, there are 140,000 individuals who were born in Poland, and even more who hold Polish citizenship.
“Poles are not necessarily the target, but they may be among those detained,” says Stecula.
Still, attitudes of fear persist among the diaspora. “They were worried during the first term. That fear is always there,” Stecula says. “Soon, even traveling within the United States will require a biometric version of a driver's license, known as a Real ID. To get it, you have to prove that you have legal status — even in states where you can get a license without papers. Even flying from point A to point B in the States will become impossible.” [...]
— Read the full article by Maciej Czarnecki for Gazeta Wyborcza, translated from Polish by Worldcrunch.
🗞️ FRONT PAGE
Brussels-based daily La Libre showed dramatic photos of the scene in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where Goma, the largest city in the east, was overtaken by a rebel group known as M23. The latest death toll stands at 17, with close to 400 wounded. Though the rebel militia has been around in the former Belgian colony for more than a decade, watchers on the world stage are increasingly pointing to Rwanda as being a major supporter of the group. On Monday, Congolese officials said the Rwandan involvement constituted an act of war.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• Trump takes aim at military’s DEI, COVID expulsions and transgender troops. U.S. President Donald Trump signed a series of executive orders to remove diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) from the military, reinstate thousands of troops who were kicked out for refusing COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic, and take aim at transgender troops.
• Israeli air strike kills two Hamas fighters in city of Tulkarem. This highlights Israel’s renewed focus on the occupied West Bank since the start of the ceasefire deal in Gaza. Meanwhile, Israel says a Hamas list shows that eight of the 33 captives to be released in the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement are dead. Government spokesman David Mencer told journalists on Monday that Hamas said the other 25 are alive. Follow Worldcrunch’s international coverage of the Middle East here.
• Italy restarts bid to deport migrants to Albania. An Italian Navy ship has delivered 49 people to an Albanian port as Rome resumed the transfer of migrants to the Balkan nation. It is Rome’s third attempt to process asylum claims in Albania, after Italian judges ruled against a pair of shipments late last year and ordered those relocated to be returned. To know more about Italy’s detention centers in Albania, read this piece published by Italian daily La Stampa.
• Google Maps to change Gulf of Mexico name. Google announced on Tuesday that it will change the name of Gulf of Mexico to “Gulf of America” for users in the U.S. once it is officially updated in the U.S. Geographic Names System. The change is set to be visible for users in the U.S. only and will remain Gulf of Mexico in Mexico. Outside of the U.S. and Mexico, Google Maps users will be able to see both names.
• Tech selloff continues, DeepSeek triggers AI rethink. Global technology shares continued to slide on Tuesday, as a market rout sparked by the emergence of a low-cost Chinese artificial intelligence model entered its second day. Shares of Nvidia, a leader in the AI chip market, fell 17% on Monday, wiping $593 billion from its market value, a record one-day loss for any company, and dragged U.S. stocks lower. Read more on DeepSeek in this piece by French analyst Pierre Haski.
• India and China agree to resume direct air services. This comes after nearly five years along with a lot of work on resolving differences over trade and economic issues, as relations continue to improve after a deadly 2020 border clash. China said a separate meeting on Monday between officials at the vice-ministerial level had agreed to facilitate the exchange of journalists between the two countries.
• News Quiz! What’s in the background of Melania Trump’s official First Lady portrait, unveiled yesterday?
A. The Trump Tower
B. A Slovenian flag
C. The Washington Monument
D. Her inauguration hat
[Answer below]
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
$2.05 billion
Denmark’s defense minister announced it will be ramping up military spending to the tune of $2.05 billion in the arctic, particularly around Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The announcement comes after newly inaugurated U.S. President Donald Trump has expressed interest in controlling the island and refused to rule out using military force against its NATO ally to gain it. This announcement by Denmark comes after a separate announcement in December that it would be investing more than a billion dollars on defense for the island for things like ships, drones, and dog sled teams.
📹 ON THIS DAY VIDEO — 4 HISTORY-MAKING EVENTS, IN 57 SECONDS
➡️ Watch the video: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
📰 IN OTHER NEWS
🇵🇸 Donald Trump’s proposal to send Palestinians from Gaza to Egypt and Jordan has been embraced by the Israeli far-right but rejected by Palestinians and the countries involved. It amounts to illegal ethnic cleansing and revives an ugly history of Nakba.
— FRANCE INTER
🇸🇾 Following the collapse of the Assad regime, Tunisia and other countries are concerned about the return of thousands of jihadist nationals believed to have been held in Syria.
— DARAJ
📵 There is enough evidence already on the harm done by screen addiction among minors to justify banning smartphones for the entire school day, yet many schools and countries have yet to take strict action on this issue.
— EL ESPECTADOR
📣 VERBATIM
“I don’t believe we’re in a post-Holocaust world.”
— The chair of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance warned about “distortion” around the common history of the Holocaust at a ceremony at the Auschwitz Memorial in Poland yesterday, on Holocaust memorial day. The ceremony hosted a number of world leaders alongside survivors of the extermination camp, warning against the threats of intolerance and antisemitism. "We are the guardians of memory," said Polish President Andrzej Duda, laying a wreath on the wall where thousands of prisoners were executed.
✍️ Newsletter by Emma Albright & Jake Shropshire
Let us know what’s happening in your corner of the world!
Quiz Answer: C. Shot in the White House one day after her husband was sworn in as president, the black and white photo shows Melania Trump wearing a dark business suit and white shirt as she rests her hands on a reflective table in the Yellow Oval Room. The Washington Monument, which towers over the nation's capital, is seen in the background. The portrait was shot by Régine Mahaux, a photographer from Belgium who has been taking photos of the Trump family for more than 20 years.