📌 Trump’s Acts Stir Protests, Egg Theft Hatched

Demonstrators gathered in cities across the US on Wednesday to protest the Trump administration’s early actions.

Protesters in Philadelphia and at state capitols in Minnesota, Michigan, Texas, Wisconsin, Indiana and beyond waved signs denouncing President Donald Trump; billionaire Elon Musk, the leader of Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency; and Project 2025, a playbook for US government and society.

The protests were a result of a movement organized online under the hashtags #buildtheresistance and #50501, which stands for 50 protests, 50 states, one day. Websites and accounts across social media issued calls for action, with messages such as “reject fascism“ and “defend our democracy.“

Demonstrations in several cities piled criticism on Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency. “DOGE is not legit,“ read one poster on the state Capitol steps in Jefferson, Missouri, where dozens of protesters gathered. “Why does Elon have your Social Security info???“

Members of Congress have expressed concern that DOGE’s involvement with the government payment system could lead to security risks or missed payments for programs such as Social Security and Medicare. A Treasury Department official said a tech executive working with DOGE will have “read-only access.“

In Alabama, several hundred gathered outside the Statehouse to protest state and federal actions targeting LGBTQ people. “The President thinks he has a lot of power,“ the Rev. Julie Conrady, a Unitarian Universalist minister, told the crowd. “He does not have the power to determine your gender. He does not have the power to define your identity.“

US health officials fear closing the US Agency for International Development will help swell Uganda's Ebola outbreak.

There are now six confirmed and six suspect cases. Over a dozen Americans in Uganda are among those so far known to have been exposed to Sudan virus, the type of Ebola that had infected the initial case. They have not shown symptoms.

There is no vaccine or treatment approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the Sudan virus. This Ebola strain has been fatal in at least 41% of reported cases during past outbreaks, the World Health Organization said.

The new outbreak coincides with the Trump administration's pause in foreign aid — including its response to international outbreaks that could spread.

The pause has resulted in understaffed contact tracing and screening of departing international travelers in Uganda, one US official said, since many experts funded by the US around the region have been laid off or ordered to stop work.

Two US infectious disease physicians who have worked with outbreaks in the country expressed confidence that other groups and countries would be able to fill the void left by American support but acknowledged they're concerned about the possibility of undetected spread and delays in the response.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday banning trans athletes from women’s sports.

The order establishes stricter mandates on sports and gender policy, directing federal agencies, including the Department of Justice, to interpret federal

Title IX rules as the prohibition of transgender girls and women from participating in any female sports categories.

The order, titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports, mandates immediate enforcement and directs state attorneys general to identify best practices for enforcement.

“With this executive order, the war on women’s sports is over,“ Trump said on Wednesday. The timing of the order coincided with National Girls and Women in Sports Day.

The order, likely to face legal challenges, calls for “immediate enforcement“ nationwide. It threatens to cut off federal funding for any school that allows trans women or girls to compete in female-designated sporting competitions.

The president of the National Collegiate Athletics Association told a Senate panel in December he was aware of fewer than 10 trans athletes among the 520,000 competing at 1,100 member schools.

China is quietly pushing ahead with a fast 50 Gbps broadband rollout to leapfrog the rest of the world’s internet speeds.

Its rollout of 50G-PON, or Passive Optical Network, is a fiber-optic technology enabling multiple users to share a single fiber connection using passive optical splitters. The design reportedly reduces the need for active electronic components between the provider and end users, lowering infrastructure costs, reducing power consumption, and improving network efficiency.

The next-generation fiber technology supports theoretical speeds of up to 50 Gbps downstream and up to 25 Gbps upstream, though current real-world deployments in China — led by China Telecom, its regional branch Shanghai Telecom, and ZTE — typically provide 10 Gbps all-optical access.

In 2024, Omdia, a global telecoms consultancy firm, forecast that China will account for 93% of the global market and generate $1.55 billion in revenue by 2027.

Google has become the latest big US firm to scrap its goals to recruit more workers from underrepresented groups.

The decision to abandon the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) recruitment targets comes after the company carried out an annual review of its corporate policies. Google is also reviewing some of its other DEI programs.

President Donald Trump has regularly attacked DEI policies. Since his return to the White House just over two weeks ago, Trump has ordered government agencies to eliminate such initiatives.

“We're committed to creating a workplace where all our employees can succeed and have equal opportunities,“ a Google spokesperson said.

“We've updated our [annual investor report] language to reflect this, and as a federal contractor, our teams are also evaluating changes required following recent court decisions and executive orders on this topic.“

Google is the latest major company to make a U-turn on its diversity policies. Meta, Amazon, Pepsi, McDonald's, Walmart and others have rolled back their DEI programs.

Space debris plummeting back to Earth could be a growing problem for aircraft, researchers warned in a study.

The study authors, all affiliated with Canada's University of British Columbia, said that the probability of space debris hitting an airplane is small, but the risk is rising due to increases in both space debris reentries and flights. The study focused on rocket bodies, which pose a greater risk because of their size.

The study found that high-density regions around major airports have a 0.8% chance per year of being affected by an uncontrolled reentry, but in “larger but still busy“ airspace areas like those found in the northeastern United States or around major cities in Asia, the risk rose to 26%.

The odds of debris striking an aircraft are small, the study authors said, but a collision between a commercial plane and space debris could “lead to mass casualties.“

The risk will only grow as space debris remains in orbit, the authors warned. “Over 2,300 rocket bodies are already in orbit and will eventually reenter in an uncontrolled manner,“ they said. “Airspace authorities will face the challenge of uncontrolled reentries for decades to come.“

The study noted that uncontrolled rocket body reentries are “a design choice, not a necessity“ and that “if controlled reentries were used by all operators, the risks to people and aircraft would be greatly reduced.“

Thieves made off with 100,000 eggs from a warehouse about 170 miles west of Philadelphia.

The crooks stole over $40,000 worth of organic eggs from a wholesale warehouse in Greencastle, Pennsylvania, as prices for the product skyrocketed amid a national shortage caused by the bird flu. Eggs cost over 50% more than last year, per a US Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer price index report.

State Trooper Megan Frazer said: “We don’t know what purpose of stealing 100,000 would be for at this time. With the extremely increased price of eggs, someone may have thought they could sell them.“

It is the first time in her dozen years on duty that eggs have been stolen. “The only thing close was 10 years ago when someone stole a trailer full of chickens,“ Frazer said.

Beyond grocery stores, customers are experiencing price hikes at restaurants. The breakfast chain Waffle House, which serves more than 272 million eggs annually, has implemented a surcharge of 50 cents for each one ordered.