TRADE WAR: The president of Columbia backed down after a weekend clash with Donald Trump over US military flights returning immigrants to their home country. 

  Colombia’s leftist president, Gustavo Petro was refusing the flights until a furious Trump slapped 25 percent tariffs on imports from Columbia. Columbia immediately retaliated 25 percent tariffs on US goods.  “You don’t like our freedom, fine,” Petro said. “I do not shake hands with white enslavers.”

  In Trump’s first international conflict of his new administration, he threated to raise the rate to 50 percent if Columbia did not bow. He also said he would “fully impose” banking and financial sanctions against Colombia. 

  Today the Colombian government said will accept all deportation flights and “guarantee dignified conditions” for its citizens on board.

  While that was going on, the Justice Department announced the start of a multi-day sweep for undocumented immigrants in Chicago in what appears to be the opening move in delivering Trump’s promise of mass deportations. 

  Immigration and Customs Enforcement said on last night that it had made 956 arrests on Sunday, although they did not say how many of them were in Chicago. 

  Gov. JB Pritzker said his state would cooperate with federal authorities in deporting undocumented immigrants convicted of crimes, but will not participate in raids merely targeting people in the country without documents.

CLEANUP ON AISLE GAZA: With more than a million people displaced in Gaza and tens of thousands attempting to return to destroyed neighborhoods, President Trump said he told King Abdullah II of Jordan on Saturday that he would like Jordan and Egypt to take in more Palestinians.

  While the roads and beaches are clogged with people walking north, Trump spoke of basically emptying Gaza. “You’re talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. “I don’t know. Something has to happen, but it’s literally a demolition site right now.”

WAIT, THERE’S MORE:

— The NY Post reports that President Trump is expected today to sign two executive orders prohibiting transgender people from serving in the military and eliminating Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs. The Post quotes a White House document that says, “There can be “no accommodation for anything less than resilience, strength, and the ability to withstand extraordinary physical demands.” 

— The Senate over the weekend by a vote of 59-34 confirmed Kristi Noem, the South Dakota governor who shot her own dog because he wouldn’t hunt, to be Secretary of Homeland Security.

  Noem served in the state legislature and was a member of Congress before being elected governor in 2019. She is a Trump loyalist who refused to say Joe Biden fairly won the 2020 election.

  Noem will oversee 22 agencies with more than 260,000 employees who work on issues ranging from the border to federal disaster as well as the Secret Service, which she says is in need of serious reform.

  Noem said in a statement, “We will fully equip our intelligence and law enforcement to detect and prevent terror threats and will deliver rapid assistance and disaster relief to Americans in crisis.”

SPORTING NEWS: The Kansas City Chiefs won a nail biter over Buffalo, 32-29 at home last night for a shot at a third straight Super Bowl win. They would be the first team to do it. Earlier in the day Philadelphia crushed Washington 55-23 to set up the  Super Bowl pairing. The Eagles scored seven touchdowns on the ground.  

— Czech Olympic skier Tereza Nova is in a medically induced coma after crashing in a training run for Saturday’s World Cup women’s downhill in the German resort of Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The 26-year-old Nova, who was in the 2022 Beijing Olympics, required brain surgery to reduce swelling.

ECON 101: Pre-market trading today suggests investor fear that Chinese artificial intelligence is cutting into the money-making power of American tech giants. Stocks are taking a dive.

  The NY Times reports that the Chinese company DeepSeek is using a fraction of the specialized computer chips that leading AI companies rely on, casting doubt on the stock value of chipmakers like Nvidia, whose equipment is the brains of the most advanced AI systems

THE OBIT PAGE: Mike Hynson, the blonde, bronzed, and buff surfer who was the star of the 1966 documentary “The Endless Summer”  and became known as one of the greatest surfers ever, died January 10th in Encinitas, California. He was 82.

  Hynson raised surfing from the level of a backdrop for Gidget and beach movies to a lifelong pursuit for people who live within driving distance of the waves. Jake Howard wrote in Surfer magazine that Hynson was “a hot-dog performer, a shaping genius, a cosmic adventurer” who “altered the sport and culture of surfing in an untold number of ways.”

  By “shaping,” Howard meant that Hynson was also a sought-after builder of boards, particularly the popular Red Fin longboard, which he designed for the manufacturer Gordon & Smith in 1965.

THE SPIN RACK: South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol will stand trial for insurrection along with his former defense minister and others who took part in his short-lived imposition of martial law. Yoon is in custody. He is indicted along with the former defense minister and several generals and police chiefs. 

BELOW THE FOLD: A new documentary questions whether Nick Ut, the Associated Press photographer, was wrongly credited with taking the iconic “Napalm Girl” shot that shocked Americans about the conduct of the Vietnam War. The photo portrays a burned and naked girl running down a road after her village was napalmed. 

  Ut was 21 when he took the picture that won the Pulitzer prize. For years since he’s been among the gaggle of photographers shooting the news in Los Angeles. Both he and the Associated Press stand by his credit. He is a gentle professional.

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