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New documents show the crew on board the United States' newest aircraft carrier are growing increasingly frustrated by design flaws that lead to regular failures in the ship's toilet system.

The USS Gerald R. Ford has been deployed for seven months since it left Norfolk in June. The carrier is currently at the center of the Trump administration's flotilla of Navy ships in the Caribbean. Since the raid that captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, the carrier continues to work with the Coast Guard as the U.S. interdicts oil tankers tied to Venezuela.

On board the carrier, the crew is battling a toilet system that the General Accountability Office reported in 2020 was undersized and poorly designed. The system continues to fail during deployment, forcing the crew of 4,600 sailors to live with a system that randomly breaks down during their months at sea.

NPR has obtained documents that include a series of emails that detail the ship's effort to grapple with the breakdowns. Problems with the Vacuum Collection, Holding and Transfer (VCHT) system increased in 2025. The vacuum system was adopted in part from the cruise ship industry. It uses less water, but the system used by USS Ford is more complex. Breakdowns have been reported since the $13 billion carrier first deployed in 2023.

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The three highest-ranking heads of Roman Catholic archdioceses in the United States issued a strongly worded statement on Monday criticizing the Trump administration's foreign policy — without mentioning President Trump by name.

Cardinals Blase Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, Robert McElroy, archbishop of Washington, and Joseph Tobin, archbishop of Newark, say America's actions raise moral questions.

"Our country's moral role in confronting evil around the world, sustaining the right to life and human dignity, and supporting religious liberty are all under examination," the statement reads. "And the building of just and sustainable peace, so crucial to humanity's well-being now and in the future, is being reduced to partisan categories that encourage polarization and destructive policies."

They continued, "We seek a foreign policy that respects and advances the right to human life, religious liberty, and the enhancement of human dignity throughout the world, especially through economic assistance."

The senior leaders cited the recent events in Venezuela, Ukraine and Greenland, which they said "have raised basic questions about the use of military force and the meaning of peace."

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San Francisco will offer free childcare to families earning less than $230,000 a year, and a 50% subsidy to those earning up to $310,000, in an expansion of the city’s childcare offerings designed to make one of the world’s most expensive cities more affordable for residents.

San Francisco’s mayor, Daniel Lurie, announced the initiative as part of his “Family Opportunity Agenda” on Wednesday, alongside a package of housing, education, food, healthcare, transportation and other programs focused on afhttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/15/san-francisco-childcare-familiesfordability.

“Today marks the beginning of a powerful effort to reduce the cost of living for San Francisco families by tens of thousands of dollars each year,” Lurie said in a press release announcing the subsidies. “We’re committed to making San Francisco a place where families can stay, grow, and build their future.”

Democrats such as Lurie have seized on opportunities to respond to the affordability crisis across the United States in recent months, even as Donald Trump calls affordability “a hoax”. In his first week in office, New York’s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, announced a program offering free childcare to all of the city’s two-year-olds, alongside a program led by Governor Kathy Hochul to invest in offering universal childcare to all children under age five in the state by August of 2028.

In November, New Mexico became the first state in the nation to offer free childcare to all its residents.

While many cities calculate eligibility for benefits based on national federal poverty guidelines, San Francisco generally uses area median income to calculate the cost of living. In 2025, the federal poverty level nationwide was $32,150 for a family of four, while the area median income for a family of four in San Francisco was $155,850.

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A second man being held at a US immigration detention facility in Texas has died in two weeks, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said on Monday.

Victor Manuel Diaz, 36, originally from Nicaragua, was found “unconscious and unresponsive in his room” on 14 January at the Camp East Montana detention facility in El Paso, ICE said in a press release.

“They immediately notified contract medical staff on site to conduct life saving measures,” it said, adding that emergency medical technicians arrived to the facility but could not revive Diaz, who was pronounced dead just after 4pm. ICE asserted that Diaz “died of a presumed suicide” but that the “official cause of his death remains under investigation”.

Diaz was detained on 6 January during the Trump administration’s controversial deportation blitz in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He initially entered the US through the Mexican border in March of 2024, when border patrol agents picked him up and he was given a court date with an immigration judge, then released on parole. On 26 August of last year an immigration judge ordered Diaz’s removal “in absentia”. ICE detained him on 12 January in order to deport him.

The extensive tent facility is located on the Fort Bliss military base in El Paso.

Thirty-two people died in ICE custody last year, the highest number of fatalities in two decades. At least five people have reportedly died in ICE custody this year.

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The aurora could be visible across Canada and much of the northern tier of US states on Monday night, and possibly even further south, following a major disturbance in the Earth’s magnetic field, a forecast shows.

The forecast, from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s space weather prediction center, comes amid intense geomagnetic and solar radiation storms, said Shawn Dahl, service coordinator at the center.

The geomagnetic storms could lead to the aurora being visible far more south than the phenomenon is usually seen.

But the storms can also interfere with satellite operations, GPS communications and other infrastructure, according to the US Geological Survey.More...

The intensity of this storm has not been seen in more than two decades, Dahl said. The storm isn’t expected to become much weaker until sometime on Tuesday.

In November, solar storms brought vibrant auroras to parts of Europe including Hungary and the United Kingdom, and as far south in the United States as Kansas, Colorado and Texas.

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A US federal judge has issued an order limiting the crowd control tactics that can be used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents (ICE) towards "peaceful and unobstructive" protesters in Minneapolis.

Judge Katherine Menendez ruled on Friday night that federal agents cannot arrest or pepper spray peaceful demonstrators, including those monitoring and observing ICE agents.

The ruling comes ahead of planned weekend protests against the widespread immigration action in the city and follows the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE agent earlier this month.

The US Department of Homeland Security said it is taking measures to protect officers from rioters.

Minnesota officials earlier urged protesters expected to take to the streets this weekend to stay orderly and peaceful.

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President Donald Trump fumed in a late-night social media post Sunday that Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, should either be hauled off to jail or sent to Somalia.

“There is 19 Billion Dollars in Minnesota Somalia Fraud. Fake ‘Congresswoman’ Illhan Omar, a constant complainer who hates the USA, knows everything there is to know,” the president wrote in a Truth Social post. “She should be in jail, or even a worse punishment, sent back to Somalia, considered one of the absolutely worst countries in the World. She could help to MAKE SOMALIA GREAT AGAIN!”

Omar, the first Somali American to serve in Congress, was born in Somalia and became a U.S. citizen in 2000. She has served in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2019.

HuffPost reached out to the White House and Omar’s office for comment.

Trump and Omar have been embroiled in an intensifying feud after the right-wing leader has repeatedly called for her to be sent back to Somalia. Their rift ramped up after the Trump administration launched investigations into social services fraud in Minnesota, with Trump targeting the Somali population in the state.

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North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) aircraft will soon be in Greenland for “long-planned” activities, even as President Trump pushes for U.S. control of the Arctic territory. 

Along with aircraft operating from bases in the U.S. and Canada, NORAD aircraft at Pituffik Space Base, Greenland, will “support various long-planned NORAD activities, building on the enduring defense cooperation between the United States and Canada, as well as the Kingdom of Denmark,” according to a statement shared to the social platform X.

“This activity has been coordinated with the Kingdom of Denmark, and all supporting forces operate with the requisite diplomatic clearances. The Government of Greenland is also informed of planned activities,” NORAD said, noting that it “routinely conducts” operations for North American defense. 

The announcement, which stresses the defense command’s cooperation with Denmark and Greenland, comes as Trump pushes for the U.S. to take control of the mineral-rich territory to help advance U.S. national security.

Despite opposition from European allies, Trump this week announced plans to implement 10 percent tariffs on goods from eight European countries as part of his bid to acquire the semiautonomous territory. He has cited the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s decision not to award him the Nobel Peace Prize last year as the reason he “no longer feel[s] an obligation to think purely of Peace.”

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