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--:-- Tracy Mumford: From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Tuesday, January 28th.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Here's what we're covering. On Monday, Donald Trump pushed the bounds of presidential power as he moved to bring the federal government in line with his agenda.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Trump's acting attorney general fired more than a dozen prosecutors who worked on the criminal investigations into Trump, making good on the president's vows for retribution.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The Justice Department said in a statement that those who were fired could not be trusted to faithfully implement Trump's agenda.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The move is unprecedented, and experts say it undercuts decades of civil service law, which says federal employees can only be fired for misconduct or poor performance.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: In another sweeping move, the White House took aim at a slew of government programs, ordering an immediate pause to all grants, loans, and federal financial assistance.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Exactly what that includes is unclear. The Trump administration says it won't affect Medicare or Social Security benefits, but it potentially freezes hundreds of billions of dollars intended for state and local governments, disaster relief aid, education funding, and small business loans.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The budget office says the pause is necessary so it can review all of the spending and make sure it's consistent with Trump's policy priorities.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Whether Trump's administration has the authority to unilaterally halt funding that's already been allocated by Congress is unclear.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Under the Constitution, Congress passes the spending bills. The president is supposed to execute them as written.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Meanwhile, the Trump administration has also targeted foreign aid, pausing nearly all aid payments to other countries.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: That includes support for a high-profile American health initiative aimed at fighting HIV worldwide.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The program, known as PEPFAR, was started by George W. Bush and is estimated to have saved as many as 25 million lives in 54 countries.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Last night, the Trump administration went beyond just pausing the program's funding. It shut down access to all of the program's data and reports and directed overseas clinics to stop distributing HIV medications that were paid for with U.S. money, even if the medications were already sitting in the clinics ready to be used.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Thank you.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: But on Monday, it shook the global economy, wiping out hundreds of billions of dollars in tech stocks.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The company has investors reeling because it undercuts some of the major assumptions about what it takes to develop AI.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: U.S. companies like OpenAI, Microsoft, and Meta have said the key to success is computer chips. The more chips you have, the more powerful your AI product.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: That led to billion investments in chip makers like NVIDIA, which has become one of the most valuable companies on Earth in the last few years.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: But DeepSeek says its new AI model, which rivals competitors like ChatGPT, was made with just a fraction of the chips that U.S. companies rely on.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: That has Wall Street rethinking whether the biggest players in the field were overhyped and overvalued.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: It's also raised questions about America's dominance in AI and whether China might now cut into that.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Marc Andreessen, one of Silicon Valley's biggest tech investors, compared the emergence of DeepSeek to the space race of the 20th century, calling its launch, quote, AI's Sputnik moment.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: For more on DeepSeek, listen to the latest episode of Hard Fork with Times tech columnist Kevin Roos.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: I think this is a broader story than just the stock market. I think it has tons of implications for other companies developing an AI and also for concerns that a lot of people working on AI safety have about how this technology could get out of hand.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: That's next in the New York Times audio app, or you can listen wherever you get your podcasts.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: In Los Angeles, scientists and city officials are warning about the potential health impacts from this month's fires.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Unlike wildfires in remote areas that mostly burn through brush and trees, these fires tore through entire neighborhoods, melting plastics, chemicals, and asbestos.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: They also released lead from paint and old pipes.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The Times got detailed air quality measurements from the worst days of the fires. They showed that concentrations of lead and chlorine in the air briefly surged to dangerous levels.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Some toxins may also linger in homes near the burned areas.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: One woman in Altadena said her mattress, couch, and rugs smelled like a chemical campfire.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Other residents who've been returning say they feel like they're facing an invisible threat.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Overall, it could take years for the full health impact of the fires to become clear, and the toxins could eventually drive up the death toll.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And finally, smugglers have tried to drive it across the border, sneak it through the airport, send it in the mail.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: U.S. customs officials have had to seize it. It's haggis.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The traditional and slightly divisive Scottish dish of sheep innards, oatmeal, and spices, all stuffed into a sheep's stomach, has been banned in the U.S. since the 1970s because of food safety concerns.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The Department of Agriculture forbids producing or importing any foods with one of haggis' key ingredients, sheep lungs, which are ground up in the filling.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Now, after years of trying and failing to get the ban overturned, one company in Scotland has decided to compromise on their recipe to break into the American market.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: McSween has developed a new haggis that replaces sheep lung with lamb heart, which you can import into the U.S.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: It'll hit stores next year.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: One butcher told The Times, Do I think that there's something to be said for textural difference that the lung adds to it? Yes.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Do I think the average consumer is going to notice? Probably not.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Those are the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.
