President Donald Trump shared a clip of former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama appearing as apes in a late-night Truth Social post on Feb. 5 before taking it down the following day amid bipartisan pushback.
The roughly minute-long video centered on footage discussing unsubstantiated voter fraud allegations in the 2020 presidential election before briefly flipping to the clip of the Obamas.
The image of the Obamas, which appeared to have been generated by artificial intelligence, showed the bodies of two apes whose faces have been replaced by that of the former president and first lady. They appeared to be in a jungle with apes flying in the background.
The White House initially dismissed criticism that the video was racist, and said it is from a meme depicting Trump and the Obamas as characters from the Lion King. Trump does not appear in the video, which he posted just before midnight on Feb. 5 with no accompanying text.
But by noon ET on Feb. 6 ‒ after the post had been up about 12 hours ‒ it no longer appeared on Truth Social. A White House official told USA TODAY on Feb. 6 a White House staffer had erroneously made the post and that it was taken down. Trump personally ordered the post be removed, a second White House official said.
The video was among more than 60 posts and reposts from Trump's Truth Social account made during a rapid flurry of activity that started at 10:36 p.m. ET on Feb. 5 and ended 12:25 a.m. ET. Yet a close Trump ally, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the president had no knowledge of the post and that a staffer let Trump down.
A small group of trusted White House officials have access to the president's social media accounts. A 2024 documentary, "Art of the Surge: The Donald Trump Comeback," showed Trump dictating to Natalie Harp, executive assistant to the president, what to write in one of his posts.
Trump’s racist post about Obamas is deleted after backlash despite White House earlier defending it
Judge rules Texas anti-ESG law is unconstitutional
A federal judge this week determined that a Texas state law that seeks to prevent state funds from being invested with financial firms that boycott fossil fuel companies is unconstitutional.
Texas federal Judge Alan Albright, an appointee of President Trump, found that state law S.B. 13 was a violation of the First and 14th amendments.
“SB 13’s application to protected speech is ‘substantial,’” he wrote in a decision published Wednesday, adding that this makes it “unconstitutional and unenforceable.”
He found the law to be too broad, saying it “permits the State to penalize companies for all manner of protected expression concerning fossil fuels.”
West Bank: Ongoing Invasions And Violations
Israeli occupation forces carried out a series of invasions across several West Bank towns on Wednesday, firing toxic tear gas into residential areas, causing dozens of suffocation injuries, and abducting two brothers from the Jenin district.
In al‑Mughayyer, northeast of Ramallah, Israeli forces invaded the town and fired large quantities of toxic tear gas toward homes and residential neighborhoods.
Witnesses said the gas spread quickly between houses and along internal roads, leading to widespread suffocation, particularly among children and the elderly.
Local sources reported that soldiers deployed through several neighborhoods, heightening fear among residents as gas filled the streets.
The invasion is part of a pattern of continuous violations targeting the town, including repeated incursions, the firing of gas and live ammunition, and attacks by illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers.
Ukraine Returns 157 Soldiers, Civilians in First POW Exchange of 2026
On Thursday, Feb. 5, Ukraine and Russia carried out a prisoner exchange that resulted in the return of 157 Ukrainians from Russian captivity, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
“Ours are home – 157 Ukrainians,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram, calling the exchange especially significant as it took place after a long pause in swaps. He said those freed included soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard, and the State Border Guard Service, as well as civilians.
“Most of them had been in captivity since 2022,” the president said, thanking everyone involved in organizing the exchange and Ukrainian forces whose actions help sustain Ukraine’s negotiating position.
Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said the swap was the first prisoner exchange of 2026 and the 71st since Russia launched its full-scale invasion.
ICE chartered Palestinian deportation flights on Trump family friend’s jet
A new Guardian investigation has revealed a secretive and politically sensitive US government operation to deport Palestinians arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
A private jet owned by Florida property tycoon Gil Dezer, a longtime business partner of Donald Trump, has twice flown Palestinian men from Arizona to Tel Aviv.
Private jet owned by Florida property tycoon Gil Dezer has twice flown Palestinian men from Arizona to Tel Aviv, the Guardian found –
Dezer is also a Trump donor, friend of Donald Trump Jr and member of the Miami branch of Friends of the Israel Defense Forces.
Former US officials and immigration lawyers said the flights – and Israel’s assistance in returning Palestinians to the occupied territory – marked a shift in policy driven by the Trump administration’s aggressive mass deportation campaign.
US officials did not answer questions about the cost of the two recent flights to Israel but, according to ICE, chartered flight costs have ranged between nearly $7,000 and more than $26,000 per flight hour in the past. Aviation industry sources estimated the flights to and from Israel would have cost ICE from $400,000 to $500,000.
US military says two killed in strike on alleged drug boat in Pacific
The US military on Thursday said it killed two alleged drug traffickers in a strike on a boat in the eastern Pacific, bringing the death toll from Washington’s campaign to at least 128.
“Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” the US Southern Command said in a post on X. It said “no US military forces were harmed” in the operation.
President Donald Trump’s administration began targeting alleged smuggling boats in early September, insisting it was effectively at war with alleged “narco-terrorists” operating out of Venezuela.
But it has provided no definitive evidence that the vessels are involved in drug trafficking, prompting heated debate about the legality of the operations, which have expanded from the Caribbean to the Pacific.
In January, the US military carried out another strike in the eastern Pacific, killing two alleged drug traffickers.
U.S. Women Get Off To Impressive Start In Olympic Hockey With Historical First
Alex Carpenter had a goal and assist, while captain Hilary Knight and Joy Dunne also scored for the Americans, who improved to 8-0 over the Czechs in international play. Aerin Frankel, making her Olympic debut in net, stopped 13 shots.
Barbora Jurickova scored Czechia’s lone goal. She was set up on a breakaway as she exited the penalty box to cut the Americans lead to 3-1 midway through the second period. Klara Peslarova finished with 37 saves in an outing Czechia was out-shot 31-9 through two periods.
The Czechs are making just their second Olympic appearance, and lost to the Americans in quarterfinal round of the 2022 Beijing Games. They are 0-6 against the U.S. in world championship play, including a 2-1 loss in the semifinals in April.
Panic as 12 earthquakes shake California town in terrifying start to morning
More than a dozen earthquakes rocked residents awake near San Ramon Monday morning, according to the United States Geological Survey.
The biggest quake was a notable 4.2-magnitude shaker just after 7 a.m. amid an hour-long swarm that began with a 3.9-magnitude earthquake at 6:30 a.m., according to USGS data.
Thousands of people felt the moderate shaking across the Bay Area, according to USGS’s “Did You It Feel It?” survey.
No injuries or property damage have been reported, according to KTVU..
San Ramon, located along the Calaveras Fault, has been a recent hotbed of geological activity, with more than 300 earthquakes reported there since Dec. 1, 2025, KTVU reported.
Two earthquakes were recorded on Friday and another in nearby Dublin, according to the USGS.
At least 19 earthquakes have been confirmed Monday as well as other smaller aftershocks.
Heads roll in Europe over Epstein files revelations
New documents released by the Department of Justice (DOJ) reveal that a number of European officials had ties to Jeffrey Epstein, even after he was a convicted sex offender.
Peter Mandelson, the former U.K. Ambassador to the U.S. who was sacked by Prime Minister Keir Starmer last September over his connection to the disgraced financier, resigned from the House of Lords on Tuesday after emails showed the two communicated in the years following Epstein pleading guilty to procuring a child for prostitution and soliciting a prostitute in 2008.
In December 2009, Epstein asked Mandelson, at the time the first secretary of state, via email whether JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon should call Alistair Darling, then the U.K.’s chancellor of exchequer and head of the British treasury, to offer to contribute more money to a small business fund in exchange for a tax reduction during the global financial crisis.
Mandelson replied, “Yes and mildly threaten.”
Starmer said Thursday that Mandelson “portrayed Epstein as someone he barely knew” before he appointed him as ambassador to the U.S. But in a 10-page note Mandelson wrote to Epstein in 2003, he called the financier his “best pal.”
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