Donald Trump Jr landed inNuuk on 7 January 2025 on what was described as a private daytrip to Greenland. His father had just restated an ambition to control the autonomous territory, part of the kingdom of Denmark. Greenland belongs to theGreenlanders, Greenlands Prime Minister Mte Egede laterwrote on Facebook.Credit:Associated Press / AlamyWhen, in 2019, Donald Trump first announced his desire to purchase Greenland, the reaction was laughter. Now that he is threatening to usetariffs and possibly military force against Denmark, a NATO ally, the notion of making America territorially greater again no longer seems so funny. Observers cannot quite decide whether this apparent throwback to an age ofunashamed imperialism is a way to distract frombrewing scandals Trumps manifestly unqualified cabinet picks, his family and cronies exploiting the presidency for selfenrichment or whether it is a smart move by a selfdeclared very stable genius to remake global geopolitics. Journalists have begun earnestly asking experts to calculate the costs of the purchase and assess risks of military invasion. What has been missed is the connection between Trumps expansionism and the settler colonial fantasies long cultivated by the very Silicon Valley figures who today put their financial weight behind MAGA. Trump is not the first US president to want tograb Greenland, nor is he the only Republican in living memory to do so: 1992 presidential candidate Pat Buchanan whose combination ofrelentless culture war and ethnonationalism anticipated MAGA sought an extension to Greenland and Canada. Still, Trumps apparently transactional approach foreign policy as dealmaking in real estate marks a break withpost1945 US strategy. As the winds of decolonisation were blowing around the globe after 1945, Washington relinquished its largest overseas possession, the Philippines; rather thanholding on to territory, it created a global network of military outposts to guard what admirers came to call the liberal international order. Even the instigators of the second Iraq War strenuously denied any desire for colonies: Donald Rumsfeld declared that we dont use our force and go around the world and try to take other peoples real estate. His boss, George W Bush, insisted that were not an imperial power.They were not so obviously wrong: in the 20th century, the US did not acquire any major territory after they purchased what is now the US Virgin Islands during the First World War (from Denmark, as it happens). But Washington still created what historians have called a pointillist empire, the points being the more than 800 USbases around the globe. Qaanaaq (formerly known as Thule) in Greenland was one of them. As the historian Daniel Immerwahr has reminded us, to create the northernmost US base, the Indigenous Inughuit community was removed to a New Thule some 100km north; despite a Danish nuclearfree policy and Soviet threats, the US started flying nucleararmed B52s over Greenland (with tacit consent from Copenhagen).Greenland holds great potential for what the political theorist Tristan Hughes calls technocolonialismIt has not been difficult to rationalise Trumps claims on the worlds largest island: it holds plenty of rare earth elements, but is inhabited bya population of a mere 57,000 people. Some locals immediately voiced support for joining theUS, when one of Trumps sons the least businesssavvy one, but good enough for colonial adventures and a posse of farright grifters took a private day trip to the icy island. As it turned out, the Greenlanders who posed with them in red MAGA hats were unhoused locals bribed with a meal at a nice restaurant in Nuuk. To be sure, there is an intensifying independence movement in Greenland, but the goal is hardly absorption into yet another empire. Some have suggested that the US could move migrants to Greenland; others keep emphasising its sheer strategic importance especially if, as a result of global heating, the Northwest Passage opens up. There is something else, though: Greenland holds great potential for what the political theorist Tristan Hughes calls technocolonialism. The masters of Silicon Valley have long sought space for creating new communities based on libertarian ideals. As long as planetary travel remains a dream, the only options have been sovereign countries ceding parts of their territory resulting in private charter cities such as those in Honduras or setting out for the highseas. Anarchocapitalist Patri Friedman established the Seasteading Institute in 2008, partly financed by tech billionaire Peter Thiel. A company called Praxis, which also gets to play with Thiel money, has promised to set up citycryptostates (none has materialised so far). One of its founders, Dryden Brown, recently tweeted that Praxis would like to support Greenlands development by coordinating talent, companies and capital to help secure the Arctic, extract critical resources, terraform the land with advanced technology to make it more habitable, and build a mythical city in the North.Trump, too, is interested in building what can only be called mythical cities. His 2024 election platform promised the creation of 10 new cities in the US, with flying cars thrown in for good measure. No further details have been announced, but these socalled Freedom Cities would likely follow the template of opportunity zones from Trumps first term: tax breaks and minimal regulations creating a playground for private developers. Greenland could serve the same purpose: revive the frontier spirit make real men go out in the wilderness again give the tech bros a space to experiment (especially withAI), and maybe add a casino. But, above all:make settler colonialism great again.This piece is a preview from AR February 2025: Extensions. Pre-order the issue here2025-01-20Reuben J BrownShare

peshkov - stock.adobe.comNewsGovernment plans to revamp digital services to save 45bnLegacy IT and the use of tech contractors is costing taxpayers billions. The government aims to fix the public sector with AI and new digital servicesByCliff Saran,Managing EditorPublished: 20 Jan 2025 14:15 The government is pushing the idea of using more digital tools and artificial intelligence (AI) to improve the efficiency of the public sector.The new digital strategy for public services involves transforming citizens experiences of government services, improving productivity and strengthening the foundations from how data is used. It also includes boosting skills and attracting talent.The adoption of digital technologies has the potential to save taxpayers 45bn, as well as make it easier for people to access government services. The strategy is tied into the governments Plan for Change to drive economic growth by helping businesses get the approvals they need more quickly.Among the technologies being discussed is a new government smartphone app, which could be used to hold a virtual driver licence details, which could be used as a form of national ID, according to The Times.Technology secretary Peter Kyle said that he wants to overhaul public sector technology in a bid to reduce costs and improve the peoples experience when dealing with public sector services. The overhaul of public services is being positioned as an approach that will free public servants and doctors to spend more time helping the people they serve.Technology that sits at the foundation of our country has been left to wither and decay under the hands of the previous government, too often grinding to a halt and stalling essential public services racking up a huge bill for the taxpayer.It doesnt have to be this way and it wont be with our Plan for Change. There is a 45bn jackpot for the public sector if we get technology adoption right, thats twice the size of the black hole we faced when we took office, and its not an opportunity we can let pass us by.According to The State of digital government report, produced for the government by Bain & Company, which is being published later this week, government departments are overspending on IT contractors. The report found that government departments are bringing in contractors and consultants to complete basic IT tasks instead of using full-time staff, due to their inability to compete on salaries and headcount restrictions.However, according to Bain & Company, the bill for contractor is 14.5bn, which is three times higher than if civil servants were to do these IT jobs for government departments.Bain & Companys report also highlights that a quarter of IT systems used by central government are outdated, leading to huge maintenance costs. According to the report, the maintenance cost of these legacy IT systems is three-to-four times more than if the technology was kept up to date.The government said that a growing number of these outdated systems are red-rated for reliability and security risk. The report found that NHS England alone saw 123 critical service outages last year, leading to missed appointments and patients unable to get the care they need because staff were to use paper-based systems.Among the reforms due to be announced later this week is an expanded role for Government Digital Service, which will be responsible for searching for IT vulnerabilities across the public sector that hackers could use to shut down essential services. The role involves support to help the organisations with vulnerable systems fix the issues to make the UK more resilient to cyber attacks.Read more about public sector ITCan AI rescue the public sector and deliver its long-promised digital transformation? The UK government sees artificial intelligence as a tool for national renewal but unless it overhauls its approach to policymaking and delivery for the AI age, its plans are doomed to fail.Artificial intelligence can save UK public services fact or fiction? Sean Green asks whether artificial intelligence can save the UK public sector.In The Current Issue:Interview: Wendy Redshaw, chief digital information officer, NatWest Retail BankPreparing for AI regulation: The EU AI ActDownload Current IssueData engineering - DataStax: Building the Gen-AI stack, how to plan ahead CW Developer NetworkRiverlane points to 2025 as year of quantum CW Developer NetworkView All Blogs

Blue water wave and bubbles to clean drinking watergettyA new study published in the Journal of Health Economics provides compelling evidence that fluoridated community water harmed Americans: Childhood exposure to it reduced high school graduation rates, economic sufficiency, physical ability and health in adulthood. Currently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends water fluoridation, and many states and local governments mandate it.This study is the doctoral dissertation of Dr. Adam Roberts from Texas A&M University, who is now a financial economist at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency within the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Among many data sources, Dr. Roberts obtained natural fluoride levels for most U.S. communities via a Freedom of Information Act request to the CDC.Using a sample of more than twenty million individuals, he compared those exposed to fluoridated water during childhood with those of the same age in the same county who were not exposed. He found robust evidence that, despite its dental benefits, childhood fluoride exposure led to a net negative effect in adulthood, including lower high school graduation rates, reduced economic sufficiency, poorer physical ability and health.This study exemplifies how economists use rigorous analytical tools and comprehensive data to answer complex medical and health questions. Another example comes from Dr. Todd Elder, an economics professor at Michigan State University, who found that children whose birthdays are in the month prior to their states cutoff date for kindergarten eligibility (i.e., youngest in class) were substantially more likely to be diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) than those whose birthdays fall in the subsequent month (i.e., oldest in class).Dr. Elder concluded that ADHD is often misdiagnosed due to teachers subjective comparative assessments of children within the same grade. The negative consequences are substantial, including adverse health impacts and financial burdens from ADHD treatments and medications.MORE FOR YOUAnother study by six economists, published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, used supermarket entry and household moving data to find that personal demand explains 90% of the difference in the consumption of healthy vs. unhealthy food. Therefore, policy efforts aiming to equalize the supply of healthy groceries across neighborhoods are wasteful and ineffective.It is no coincidence that economists have been providing compelling evidence on medical and health issues. As the late economist Edward Lazear wrote in his renowned article, Economic Imperialism:Economics is not only a social science; it is a genuine science. Like the physical sciences, economics uses a methodology that produces refutable implications and tests these implications using solid statistical techniques. The goal of economic theory is to unify thought and to provide a language that can be used to understand a variety of social phenomena. The fact that there have been so many successful efforts in so many different directions attests to the power of economics.Robert Kennedy, Jr., the nominee for President Trumps Secretary for Health and Human Services, pledged to return U.S. health agencies to their tradition of gold-standard, evidence-based science and to provide transparency and access to all the data. If evidence-based decision making is enshrined in broad health-related policies and practices, we may look forward to impactful economic research helping to make America healthier.

Editor's take: The energy sector has embraced the term "net-zero hero," which refers to actions consumers take to help the environment, such as installing solar panels or buying an electric car. It's little wonder the sector favors this term because, as new research shows, focusing on consumer actions allows it to downplay its own responsibility for reducing carbon emissions. The energy sector's narrative of individual responsibility in combating climate change is being challenged by new research from the University of Sydney. The study, which analyzed hundreds of public reports and media releases from the Australian energy industry, reveals a pervasive storyline promoting the concept of a "net-zero hero" an individual consumer who can significantly impact climate change through personal choices and actions.Associate Professor Tom van Laer, an expert in the influence of storytelling on behavior at the University of Sydney Business School, led the research. His analysis, spanning 2015 to 2022, examined material from 44 Australian energy market entities, including energy providers, non-governmental organizations, and policymakers.The research uncovered a consistent message across the energy sector: consumers can play a pivotal role in saving the planet by making thoughtful choices. These actions include purchasing eco-friendly vehicles, turning off appliances, using off-peak hot water, and installing solar panels. The narrative suggests that by understanding, monitoring, and managing their energy consumption, individuals can make a meaningful difference.Australia leads developed nations in per-capita greenhouse gas emissions at 14.51 tonnes per person, with the energy sector accounting for nearly half of the country's total emissions. The United States follows closely behind at 13.64 tonnes per person. Globally, the energy sector consumes the largest share of energy, using over one-third of the world's fuel supply.However, van Laer argues that this narrative, while seemingly aspirational, overlooks the broader context of essential corporate and regulatory changes. By creating a "mythical market" of small-scale energy consumers where everyone supposedly contributes equally to total emissions the energy sector minimizes the accountability of larger entities that have a far more substantial environmental impact.He cautions that without adequate support systems, consumers may struggle to fulfill the role of a net-zero hero. Furthermore, the overwhelming responsibility placed on individuals could lead to feelings of helplessness and disengagement rather than empowerment. // Related StoriesAustralia leads developed nations in per-capita greenhouse gas emissions at 14.51 tonnes per person, with the energy sector accounting for nearly half of the country's total emissions. The United States follows closely behind at 13.64 tonnes per person. Globally, the energy sector consumes the largest share of energy, using over one-third of the world's fuel supply.Van Laer argues that instead of placing an unrealistic burden on individual consumers, efforts should focus on addressing the systemic changes necessary for a genuine environmental impact.

Your ultimate reward for overcoming all the challenges and tribulations of a game is the final cutscene. The best games of all-time all have amazing endings that leave you with a strong impression one way or another, or perhaps set itself up for an eventual sequel. But for almost as long as games have had actual endings, there have been secret endings. From the best NES games to the best PS5 games, more and more titles have hidden away extra content that players could unlock if they put in a little extra effort. Typically, this means meeting specific requirements like collecting every item, doing every task, or a combination of the two. Theyre not usually easy, but some games take that to a ridiculous level. These games have hidden endings so hard to get, youre better off just watching them on YouTube.Recommended VideosRelatedEditors Recommendations

The former German chancellor governed in turbulent times: the financial crisis, Russian aggression in Ukraine, Covid and beyond.

Cleanup on aisle cerebellum Sleeping pills stop the brains system for cleaning out waste A specialized system sends pulses of pressure through the fluids in our brain. Jacek Krywko Jan 20, 2025 11:54 am | 30 Credit: https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/sleeping-pills-in-bedroom-royalty-free-image/819748064? Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreOur bodies rely on their lymphatic system to drain excessive fluids and remove waste from tissues, feeding those back into the blood stream. Its a complex yet efficient cleaning mechanism that works in every organ except the brain. When cells are active, they produce waste metabolites, and this also happens in the brain. Since there are no lymphatic vessels in the brain, the question was what was it that cleaned the brain, Natalie Hauglund, a neuroscientist at Oxford University who led a recent study on the brain-clearing mechanism, told Ars.Earlier studies done mostly on mice discovered that the brain had a system that flushed its tissues with cerebrospinal fluid, which carried away waste products in a process called glymphatic clearance. Scientists noticed that this only happened during sleep, but it was unknown what it was about sleep that initiated this cleaning process, Hauglund explains.Her study found the glymphatic clearance was mediated by a hormone called norepinephrine and happened almost exclusively during the NREM sleep phase. But it only worked when sleep was natural. Anesthesia and sleeping pills shut this process down nearly completely.Taking it slowlyThe glymphatic system in the brain was discovered back in 2013 by Dr. Maiken Nedergaard, a Danish neuroscientist and a coauthor of Hauglunds paper. Since then, there have been numerous studies aimed at figuring out how it worked, but most of them had one problem: they were done on anesthetized mice.What makes anesthesia useful is that you can have a very controlled setting, Hauglund says.Most brain imaging techniques require a subject, an animal or a human, to be still. In mouse experiments, that meant immobilizing their heads so the research team could get clear scans. But anesthesia also shuts down some of the mechanisms in the brain, Hauglund argues.So, her team designed a study to see how the brain-clearing mechanism works in mice that could move freely in their cages and sleep naturally whenever they felt like it. It turned out that with the glymphatic system, we didnt really see the full picture when we used anesthesia, Hauglund says.Looking into the brain of a mouse that runs around and wiggles during sleep, though, wasnt easy. The team pulled it off by using a technique called flow fiber photometry which works by imaging fluids tagged with fluorescent markers using a probe implanted in the brain. So, the mice got the optical fibers implanted in their brains. Once that was done, the team put fluorescent tags in the mices blood, cerebrospinal fluid, and on the norepinephrine hormone. Fluorescent molecules in the cerebrospinal fluid had one wavelength, blood had another wavelength, and norepinephrine had yet another wavelength, Hauglund says.This way, her team could get a fairly precise idea about the brain fluid dynamics when mice were awake and asleep. And it turned out that the glymphatic system basically turned brain tissues into a slowly moving pump.Pumping upNorepinephrine is released from a small area of the brain in the brain stem, Hauglund says. It is mainly known as a response to stressful situations. For example, in fight or flight scenarios, you see norepinephrine levels increasing. Its main effect is causing blood vessels to contract. Still, in more recent research, people found out that during sleep, norepinephrine is released in slow waves that roll over the brain roughly once a minute. This oscillatory norepinephrine release proved crucial to the operation of the glymphatic system.When we used the flow fiber photometry method to look into the brains of mice, we saw these slow waves of norepinephrine, but we also saw how it works in synchrony with fluctuation in the blood volume, Hauglund says.Every time the norepinephrine level went up, it caused the contraction of the blood vessels in the brain, and the blood volume went down. At the same time, the contraction increased the volume of the perivascular spaces around the blood vessels, which were immediately filled with the cerebrospinal fluid.When the norepinephrine level went down, the process worked in reverse: the blood vessels dilated, letting the blood in and pushing the cerebrospinal fluid out. What we found was that norepinephrine worked a little bit like a conductor of an orchestra and makes the blood and cerebrospinal fluid move in synchrony in these slow waves, Hauglund says.And because the study was designed to monitor this process in freely moving, undisturbed mice, the team learned exactly when all this was going on. When mice were awake, the norepinephrine levels were much higher but relatively steady. The team observed the opposite during the REM sleep phase, where the norepinephrine levels were consistently low. The oscillatory behavior was present exclusively during the NREM sleep phase.So, the team wanted to check how the glymphatic clearance would work when they gave the mice zolpidem, a sleeping drug that had been proven to increase NREM sleep time. In theory, zolpidem should have boosted brain-clearing. But it turned it off instead.Non-sleeping pillsWhen we looked at the mice after giving them zolpidem, we saw they all fell asleep very quickly. That was expectedwe take zolpidem because it makes it easier for us to sleep, Hauglund says. But then we saw those slow fluctuations in norepinephrine, blood volume, and cerebrospinal fluid almost completely stopped.No fluctuations meant the glymphatic system didnt remove any waste. This was a serious issue, because one of the cellular waste products it is supposed to remove is amyloid beta, found in the brains of patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease.Hauglund speculates it could be possible zolpidem induces a state very similar to sleep but at the same time it shuts down important processes that happen during sleep. While heavy zolpidem use has been associated with increased risk of the Alzheimer disease, it is not clear if this increased risk was there because the drug was inhibiting oscillatory norepinephrine release in the brain. To better understand this, Hauglund wants to get a closer look into how the glymphatic system works in humans.We know we have the same wave-like fluid dynamics in the brain, so this could also drive the brain clearance in humans, Haugland told Ars. Still, its very hard to look at norepinephrine in the human brain because we need an invasive technique to get to the tissue.But she said norepinephrine levels in people can be estimated based on indirect clues. One of them is pupil dilation and contraction, which work in in synchrony with the norepinephrine levels. Another other clue may lay in microarousalsvery brief, imperceivable awakenings which, Hauglund thinks, can be correlated with the brain clearing mechanism. I am currently interested in this phenomenon []. Right now we have no idea why microarousals are there or what function they have Hauglund says.But the last step she has on her roadmap is making better sleeping pills. We need sleeping drugs that dont have this inhibitory effect on the norepinephrine waves. If we can have a sleeping pill that helps people sleep without disrupting their sleep at the same time it will be very important, Hauglund concludes.Cell, 2025. DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2024.11.027Jacek KrywkoAssociate WriterJacek KrywkoAssociate Writer Jacek Krywko is a freelance science and technology writer who covers space exploration, artificial intelligence research, computer science, and all sorts of engineering wizardry. 30 Comments

A virtual drone was piloted through an obstacle course by a person imagining moving their fingersWillsey et al.A man with paralysis who had electrodes implanted in his brain can pilot a virtual drone through an obstacle course simply by imagining moving his fingers. His brain signals are interpreted by an AI model and then used to control a simulated drone.Brain-computer interface (BCI) research has made huge strides in recent years, allowing people with paralysis to precisely control a mouse cursor and dictate speech to computers by imagining writing words with a pen. But so far, they havent yet shown great promise in complex applications with multiple inputs. AdvertisementNow, Matthew Willsey at the University of Michigan and his colleagues have created an algorithm that allows a user to trigger four discrete signals by imagining moving their fingers and thumb.The anonymous man who tried the technology has tetraplegia due to a spinal cord injury. He had already been fitted with a BCI from Blackrock Neurotech made up of 192 electrodes, implanted in the area of the brain that controls hand motion.An AI model was used to map the complex neural signals received by the electrodes to the users thoughts. The participant learned how to think of the first two fingers of one hand moving, creating an electrical signal that can be made stronger or weaker. Another signal was generated by the second two fingers and another two by the thumb. The latest science news delivered to your inbox, every day.Sign up to newsletterThese were sufficient to allow the user to control a virtual drone by thought alone, and with practice he could skilfully pilot it through an obstacle course. Willsey says the experiment could have been done using a real drone, but was kept virtual for ease and safety.The goal of doing the quadcopter was really kind of shared between our lab and the participant, says Willsey. For him, it was the realisation of kind of a dream that he thought was lost once he suffered his injury. He had a passion and a dream for flying. He seemed very empowered and enabled; he would have us take videos and send it to friends.Although the results are impressive, there is still much to be done before BCIs can be reliably used for complex tasks, says Willsey. Firstly, AI is needed to interpret signals from the electrodes, and this relies on individual training for every user. Secondly, this training needs to be repeated over time as functionality declines, which may be due to electrodes shifting slightly in the brain or changes in the brain itself.Journal reference:Nature Medicine DOI: 10.1038/s41591-024-03341-8Topics:brain

President Trump on Inauguration Day said he would declare a national emergency at the southern border.This comes after Trump confirmed plans in November to use the military for deportation efforts.Economists and researchers said Trump's deportation plans could have negative economic impacts.President Donald Trump said at his inauguration that he will declare a national emergency at the US-Mexico border, ramping up his immense focus on immigration in his second term."I will send troops to the southern border to repel the disastrous invasion of our country," he said during his inaugural speech at the Capitol. "We will also be designating the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.""As Commander in Chief, I have no higher responsibility than to defend our country from threats and invasions and that is exactly what I am going to do," he continued. "We will do it at a level nobody has ever seen before."Trump said he'd halt all illegal entry "immediately," adding that he'd start the process of deporting "criminal aliens" back to their home countries.He also said he'd reinstate his Remain in Mexico policy and "end the practice of catch and release."The Remain in Mexico policy which was launched in 2019 during Trump's first term mandates that migrants seeking asylum to remain in Mexico pending their immigration court date in the US.Trump has not yet officially signed his executive orders, but his speech laid the framework for how he'll proceed on much of his immigration platform.It was not immediately clear how Trump would advance other immigration-related promises, such as his controversial vow to end birthright citizenship for the children of people living in the country illegally.Throughout his campaign, Trump argued that deportations could benefit the US economy. He has said that removing large numbers of people in the country illegally could open job opportunities for US-born workers and legal immigrants and could bring housing prices down.Business Insider has spoken to over a dozen immigration researchers and policy analysts across the political spectrum. While some conservative-leaning researchers said reducing the number of people coming into the US and living in the country illegally, along with large-scale mass deportations, is necessary to protect American safety and could have long-term economic benefits, left- and center-leaning researchers said there may be economic shocks.The US had an estimated 11.7 million immigrants living in the US illegally as of July 2023, per the most recent numbers from the Center for Migration Studies. As many as 8.3 million people in this demographic work, per CMS estimates.Mass deportations could have significant economic consequences, some researchers told BI.American Immigration Council estimated that a "one-time mass deportation operation" would directly cost the federal government $315 billion, accounting for detainments, arrests, legal processing, and removals.Trump's promises for large-scale deportationsIn interviews and speeches, Trump has stressed his belief that the US has had no choice but to carry out large-scale deportations. He also confirmed plans to use the military for deportation efforts in November, along with using a 1798 law allowing for the deportation of suspected gang and cartel members.Before Inauguration Day, Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, told ABC News that the administration was reviewing plans for immigration raids in Chicago. Trump has threatened to crack down on illegal immigration in communities in Colorado and Ohio, whose high concentrations of immigrants have drawn national attention.Homan previously stressed that deportations would not involve sweeps of immigrant-heavy neighborhoods and would instead target immigrants with criminal records.In private meetings, Homan told Republican lawmakers to tone down expectations for initial deportations due to limited resources. Homan told CNN he would need at least 100,000 beds to carry out detainment plans.CNN also reported that Homan and lawmakers discussed a plan to target the 1.4 million people with final immigration orders of removal as part of a tiered approach to deportation. Concerns have risen about ICE's lack of space for a heightened number of detainees, as well as various legal challenges to its plans for deportations.Other plans include working with local and state law enforcement agencies and reassigning law enforcement officials to ICE officers, The New York Times reported. The Trump team may also expand expedited removal, the process of removing noncitizens without a hearing and drafting limitations on birthright citizenship, such as ceasing to issue passports to children born in the US to immigrant parents who live in the US illegally.Trump named Stephen Miller, the chief architect of Trump's first-term travel ban, as Homeland Security advisor and White House deputy chief of staff.The border has calmed down recently. US Border Patrol calculated 47,330 migrant encounters along the southwest border in December, among the lowest since mid-2020 and an over 80% reduction since December 2023.During Trump's first term in office, the US deported about 1.5 million people. Between January 2021 and August 2024, when Biden held office, more than 1.4 million deportations were carried out.Mass deportations could hurt American jobsOne of Trump's arguments about immigrants is that they steal jobs from native-born workers. Recent research shows that US-born employment increases with immigration, and deportations hurt native job numbers."US-born workers do not simply take all the jobs left behind by immigrants after they are deported," Chloe East, a fellow at the Brookings Institution who studies immigration policy, told BI. "This is because these jobs are lower-paid, more dangerous, and otherwise less desirable than the jobs more often taken by US-born workers."The US has already seen examples of this in its recent history. Around 400,000 people were deported between 2008 and 2014 through a program called Secure Communities. Researchheightened worker shortages as a result.This also included the construction workforce, which employs among the highest numbers of workers living in the US illegally."The labor market is already tense and tight, and construction is one of those industries that doesn't have enough workers," Jennie Murray, president and CEO of the immigrant advocacy nonprofit group National Immigration Forum, told BI. She added that deportations could worsen housing shortages in the US.Consumers may feel the effects of deportations at the grocery store, as a reduced agricultural workforce could mean less locally sourced food and higher prices. A Center for American Progress analysis from 2021 found that nearly 300,000 workers living in the US illegally were in agriculture and farming around 13% of the 2.3 million workers in the agriculture sector that year.The broader economy could be impactedImmigrants living in the US illegally also contribute significantly to taxes and government programs. In 2022, they paid $96.7 billion in federal, state, and local taxes, per the most recent data from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. They paid $25.7 billion in Social Security taxes and $6.4 billion in Medicare taxes while being ineligible to receive benefits from those social insurance programs.However, Republicans have argued that welfare programs and taxpayer-subsidized health insurance for immigrants have cost US residents billions, potentially partly offsetting these gains.Some think tanks said the broader economy could suffer if millions of people are deported. The Peterson Institute for International Economics wrote in September that if 1.3 million people are deported, GDP could fall 1.2% below baseline by 2028.

First lady Jill Biden, President Joe Biden, President-elect Donald Trump and Melania Trump stand together ahead of Trumps second inauguration, at the White House on January 20, 2025 in Washington, DC.Donald J. Trump and JD Vance were officially sworn in as the 47th president and vice president of the United States on Monday, January 20, 2025, in Washington, DC. Their inauguration looks different from previous years, in part because it is being held inside the Capitol Rotunda, instead of outside the US Capitol, as a polar vortex threatens much of the nation with below freezing temperatures.Trump is expected to issue hundreds of executive orders as soon as he is inaugurated for his second presidency, including vows to impose tariffs on imported goods and to carry out a mass deportation effort. (How Trump plans to carry out these plans remains unclear.) He also pledged to provide major pardons for the roughly hundreds of nonviolent defendants convicted of storming the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.Follow here for the latest news, analysis, and explainers about Inauguration Day.6 factors to watch in the incoming Trump administrationThe broligarchs have a vision for the new Trump term. Its darker than you think.