(LONDON) — A hotel guest in the Netherlands got the surprise of their life when they returned to their hotel room and discovered a seal taking a nap in their room, according to authorities.
The unnamed guest was staying at Pier 7, a hotel in the beach town of Vlissingen approximately 70 miles southwest of Rotterdam, when staff at the hotel received a call from their restaurant downstairs informing that that a guest had reported a seal in their bedroom, according to a statement from the Zeeland Animal Welfare Foundation.
“We often get strange messages,” the statement said. “But when we received a message tonight we couldn’t believe it at first.”
The guest at the hotel, which has rooms directly leading onto the beach, is thought to have accidentally left their door open, allowing the seal to barge into their room while they were out, officials said.
“Fortunately, our valued colleagues from Reddingsteam Zeedieren Nederland RTZ (Marine Animals Rescue Team Netherlands RTZ) were quickly there to assist our ambulance workers,” said the Zeeland Animal Welfare Foundation.
“The RTZ employees have enough experience and put the seal, who had become quite grumpy due to his disturbed beauty sleep, in a seal basket and he was relocated to a safe, quieter place,” the statement continued.
The grey seal was “completely relaxed” and was able to be moved along without incident, officials said while also taking the time to warn people that they may look adorable, but they can bite and should not be approached or touched.
“A grey seal [can find] you in the craziest places” animal welfare experts said. “They look for a resting place and sometimes lie in the middle of a terrace or on the road.”
“These guests’ holiday became an adventure to never forget,” officials said following the incident. “You only experience this in our beautiful Vlissingen, right?”
(NEW YORK) — It may have been a frigid January for much of the U.S., but that didn’t stop the planet from breaking another temperature record.
Earth just experienced its warmest January on record, according to data analyzed by the Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Despite a record-breaking snowfall in the south, persistent cold temperatures across the northeast and an emerging La Niña event in the Pacific Ocean, which is supposed to cool things down, January 2025 was still warmer than any previous start to the year in the organization’s dataset going back to 1940.
The average surface air temperature was 55.81 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s 1.42 degrees Fahrenheit above the 1991-2020 average for the month of January. It also makes the global average temperature over the past 12 months 2.9 degrees Fahrenheit above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial average.
For context, the Paris Agreement — which President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from last month — set 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit as a ceiling to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
Similarly, global daily sea surface temperatures across most of the world’s oceans remain well above average and registered as the second-highest January value on record, just behind 2024.
Last month’s temperature was unprecedented compared to similar global climate cycles in the past, where temperatures dropped with El Niño long gone and La Niña conditions in place.
The increase’s magnitude and persistence have shocked many climate experts, leaving them somewhat puzzled about what else could be behind the remarkable rise.
In addition to human-amplified climate change and natural global climate cycles, a growing amount of research suggests that a decrease in atmospheric aerosols could be a significant contributor to the rapid warming.
Atmospheric aerosols are tiny particles that reflect sunlight into space and reduce global temperatures. However, their concentrations have greatly diminished due to international efforts to reduce air pollution in recent decades. Now, more sunlight reaches the Earth’s surface, creating a heating effect.
For decades, we’ve been removing aerosols from our air without fully realizing the potential cascading effects of these actions.
To help solve this puzzle, climate scientists are eagerly awaiting the first batch of operational data from NASA’s newest Earth-observing satellite, PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem), launched nearly a year ago. This data will provide more insight into how various atmospheric aerosols behave and interact with each other.
Trump on Tuesday said the U.S. could “level the site” and rebuild the sovereign territory — after earlier saying Palestinians living there should leave.
“They instead can occupy all of a beautiful area with homes and safety, and they can live out their lives in peace and harmony” in other areas or countries, Trump said Tuesday night during a news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington, D.C.
“The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too. We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site. Level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings. Level it out,” he added.
The White House defended Trump’s proposal as “bold, fresh, new ideas.”
“The fact that nobody has a realistic solution, and he puts some very bold, fresh, new ideas out on the table, I don’t think should be criticized in any way. I think it’s going to bring the entire region to come with their own solutions, if they don’t like Mr. Trump’s solutions,” National Security Adviser Mike Waltz told “CBS Mornings” on Wednesday.
Trump has not committed to putting American troops on the ground in Gaza, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday. “The president has not committed to putting boots on the ground in Gaza. He has also said that the United States is not going to pay for the rebuilding of Gaza. His administration is going to work with our partners [in] the region to reconstruct this region,” she said.
“I can confirm that the president is committed to rebuilding Gaza and to temporarily relocating those who are there, because, as I’ve showed you repeatedly, it is a demolition site,” she later said.
International reaction to Trump’s proposal came in swiftly on Wednesday.
United Nations
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres addressed the proposal during remarks to the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People at the U.N. on Wednesday.
“We must not make the problem worse,” Guterres said, in part, referring to Trump’s comments Tuesday but not addressing them directly or naming the U.S. president, adding: “It is vital to stay true to the bedrock of international law. It is essential to avoid any form of ethnic cleansing.”
“At its essence, the exercise of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people is about the right of Palestinians to simply live as human beings in their own land,” Guterres said.
The secretary-general called for reaffirming the two-state solution.
Arab nations
Saudi Arabia issued a statement repeating what it has said in the past, that the kingdom would not establish relations with Israel without the creation of a Palestinian state — even though Netanyahu said he thought normalization with the Gulf kingdom was “going to happen.”
“Saudi Arabia will continue its relentless efforts to establish an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, and will not establish diplomatic relations with Israel without that,” the Saudi Foreign Ministry said.
Saudi Arabi reaffirmed its “unequivocal rejection” to attempts to displace Palestinians from their land, adding that its position to the Palestinians is “non-negotiable and not subject to compromises.”
Trump last month suggested Jordan and Egypt should take in Palestinians in order to “clean out” Gaza, something both Jordan’s king and Egypt’s president have fiercely opposed.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty on Wednesday called for swift reconstruction of Gaza without displacing Palestinians and for the Palestinian Authority to govern the territory.
In talks with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa in Cairo, the two leaders agreed on “the importance of moving forward with early recovery projects and programs, removing rubble and providing humanitarian aid at an accelerated pace, without moving the Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip,” the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
While the statement did not directly address Trump’s surprise remarks, it marked Egypt’s first official response to the proposal.
Abdelatty stressed “Egypt’s support for the legitimate and inalienable rights of the Palestinian people,” emphasizing the need for a permanent, just solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the two-state solution and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
“His Majesty King Abdullah II stresses the need to put a stop to settlement expansion, expressing rejection of any attempts to annex land and displace the Palestinians,” the Royal Hashemite Court of Jordan wrote on X.
Meanwhile, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas offered a strong rebuke of Trump’s statements on Wednesday.
“We will not allow the rights of our people to be infringed upon, for which we have fought for many decades and made great sacrifices to achieve them,” Abbas said. “These calls represent a serious violation of international law, and peace and stability will not be achieved in the region, without the establishment of the Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, on the borders of June 4, 1967, on the basis of the two-state solution.”
The United Arab Emirates Foreign Ministry also responded to the proposal, saying Wednesday in a statement, in part, that it “affirmed its categorical rejection of infringement on the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and attempts to displace them and called for the need to stop settlement activities that threaten regional stability and undermine opportunities for peace and coexistence.”
“The Ministry urged the international community, the United Nations and the Security Council to assume their responsibilities and put an end to illegal practices that contravene international law,” the ministry said.
Hamas, the terrorist organization that attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and which is not part of the Palestinian Authority, also condemned Trump and called on the president to retract his “irresponsible statements.”
“We call on the U.S. administration and Trump to retract the irresponsible statements that contradict international laws and the natural rights of our people,” Hamas said.
“We call on the Arab League, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the United Nations to convene urgently to follow up on these dangerous statements. We condemn in the strongest terms and reject Trump’s statements aimed at the United States occupying the Gaza Strip and displacing our Palestinian people from it. We affirm that we, our Palestinian people and its living forces will not allow any country in the world to occupy our land or impose guardianship over our Palestinian people,” the group added.
Europe
Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Wednesday that Italy will look at Trump’s plan for Gaza, while adding that Rome remains in favor of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“It seems to me that as far as the evacuation of the civilian population from Gaza is concerned, the response of Jordan and Egypt has been negative, so it seems to me that it is a bit difficult (to implement the plan),” Tajani told the Italian Foreign Affairs Committees of the Lower House and Senate.
“I have said what the Italian position is, then we will see when there are concrete proposals. We are in favor of two peoples, two states. I have said that we are even ready to send Italian soldiers for a mission to reunify Gaza with the West Bank. The government has not changed its mind,” Tajani said.
The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs reiterated its “opposition to any forced displacement of Gaza’s Palestinian population, which would constitute a serious violation of international law, an attack on the legitimate aspirations of Palestinians and also a major obstacle to the two-state solution and a factor of major destabilization for our close partners, Egypt and Jordan, and the whole region.”
“France will continue actively promoting the implementation of the two-state solution, which alone can guarantee long-term peace and security to Israelis and Palestinians,” the ministry said in a press release. “Gaza’s future must lie not in the prospect of control by a third State but in the framework of a future Palestinian State, under the aegis of the Palestinian Authority. Hamas must be disarmed and have no part in the territory’s governance. France will continue to express its opposition to settlement activity — which is contrary to international law — and to any hint of the unilateral annexation of the West Bank.”
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock issued a statement saying, in part, “A displacement of the Palestinian civilian population from Gaza would not only be unacceptable and in breach of international law. It would also lead to new suffering and new hatred. And so the G7, the European Union and the United Nations have repeatedly made clear from the beginning that Gaza’s civilian population must not be displaced and Gaza must not be permanently occupied or resettled. A solution must not be put in place without consulting the Palestinians. A negotiated two-state solution remains the only solution which will enable both Palestinians and Israelis to live in peace, security and dignity. This is also the clear stance taken by the Arab states in the region.”
Israel
Netanyahu, however, seemed supportive of the president’s proposal during the Tuesday press conference and, delivering remarks after Trump, praised the president for his “fresh ideas” to accomplish their goals, which he said included ensuring Gaza is not a threat to Israel.
“I believe, Mr. President, that your willingness to puncture conventional thinking, thinking that has failed time and time and time again, your willingness to think outside the box with fresh ideas will help us achieve all these goals,” Netanyahu said.
Benny Gantz, a former military chief and the top political rival of Netanyahu who resigned from Israel’s emergency government in June 2024, wrote on X that Trump’s statement “is further proof of the deep alliance between the United States and Israel.”
“President Trump has shown, and not for the first time, that he is a true friend of Israel and will continue to stand by it on issues important to strengthening its security,” Gantz said. “In his remarks, he presented creative, original and interesting thinking, which must be examined alongside the realization of the goals of the war, and giving priority to the return of all the abductees.”
An Israeli official told ABC News that Netanyahu’s visit with Trump in D.C. on Tuesday “exceeded all our expectations and dreams.”
ABC News’ Hugo Leenhardt, Ayat Al-Tawy, Nasser Atta, Jordana Miller, Phoebe Natanson, Kelsey Walsh, Michelle Stoddart and Justin Ryan Gomez contributed to this report.
Trump on Tuesday said the U.S. could “level the site” and rebuild the sovereign territory — after earlier saying Palestinians living there should leave.
“They instead can occupy all of a beautiful area with homes and safety, and they can live out their lives in peace and harmony” in other areas or countries, Trump said Tuesday night during a news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington, D.C.
“The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too. We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site. Level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings. Level it out,” he added.
The White House defended Trump’s proposal as “bold, fresh, new ideas.”
“The fact that nobody has a realistic solution, and he puts some very bold, fresh, new ideas out on the table, I don’t think should be criticized in any way. I think it’s going to bring the entire region to come with their own solutions, if they don’t like Mr. Trump’s solutions,” National Security Adviser Mike Waltz told “CBS Mornings” on Wednesday.
Trump has not committed to putting American troops on the ground in Gaza, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday. “The president has not committed to putting boots on the ground in Gaza. He has also said that the United States is not going to pay for the rebuilding of Gaza. His administration is going to work with our partners [in] the region to reconstruct this region,” she said.
“I can confirm that the president is committed to rebuilding Gaza and to temporarily relocating those who are there, because, as I’ve showed you repeatedly, it is a demolition site,” she later said.
International reaction to Trump’s proposal came in swiftly on Wednesday.
Arab nations
Saudi Arabia issued a statement repeating what it has said in the past, that the kingdom would not establish relations with Israel without the creation of a Palestinian state — even though Netanyahu said he thought normalization with the Gulf kingdom was “going to happen.”
“Saudi Arabia will continue its relentless efforts to establish an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, and will not establish diplomatic relations with Israel without that,” the Saudi Foreign Ministry said.
Saudi Arabi reaffirmed its “unequivocal rejection” to attempts to displace Palestinians from their land, adding that its position to the Palestinians is “non-negotiable and not subject to compromises.”
Trump last month suggested Jordan and Egypt should take in Palestinians in order to “clean out” Gaza, something both Jordan’s king and Egypt’s president have fiercely opposed.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty on Wednesday called for swift reconstruction of Gaza without displacing Palestinians and for the Palestinian Authority to govern the territory.
In talks with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa in Cairo, the two leaders agreed on “the importance of moving forward with early recovery projects and programs, removing rubble and providing humanitarian aid at an accelerated pace, without moving the Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip,” the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
While the statement did not directly address Trump’s surprise remarks, it marked Egypt’s first official response to the proposal.
Abdelatty stressed “Egypt’s support for the legitimate and inalienable rights of the Palestinian people,” emphasizing the need for a permanent, just solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the two-state solution and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
“His Majesty King Abdullah II stresses the need to put a stop to settlement expansion, expressing rejection of any attempts to annex land and displace the Palestinians,” the Royal Hashemite Court of Jordan wrote on X.
Meanwhile, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas offered a strong rebuke of Trump’s statements on Wednesday.
“We will not allow the rights of our people to be infringed upon, for which we have fought for many decades and made great sacrifices to achieve them,” Abbas said. “These calls represent a serious violation of international law, and peace and stability will not be achieved in the region, without the establishment of the Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, on the borders of June 4, 1967, on the basis of the two-state solution.”
Hamas, the terrorist organization that attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and which is not part of the Palestinian Authority, also condemned Trump and called on the president to retract his “irresponsible statements.”
“We call on the U.S. administration and Trump to retract the irresponsible statements that contradict international laws and the natural rights of our people,” Hamas said.
“We call on the Arab League, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the United Nations to convene urgently to follow up on these dangerous statements. We condemn in the strongest terms and reject Trump’s statements aimed at the United States occupying the Gaza Strip and displacing our Palestinian people from it. We affirm that we, our Palestinian people and its living forces will not allow any country in the world to occupy our land or impose guardianship over our Palestinian people,” the group added.
Europe
Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Wednesday that Italy will look at Trump’s plan for Gaza, while adding that Rome remains in favor of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“It seems to me that as far as the evacuation of the civilian population from Gaza is concerned, the response of Jordan and Egypt has been negative, so it seems to me that it is a bit difficult (to implement the plan),” Tajani told the Italian Foreign Affairs Committees of the Lower House and Senate.
“I have said what the Italian position is, then we will see when there are concrete proposals. We are in favor of two peoples, two states. I have said that we are even ready to send Italian soldiers for a mission to reunify Gaza with the West Bank. The government has not changed its mind,” Tajani said.
The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs reiterated its “opposition to any forced displacement of Gaza’s Palestinian population, which would constitute a serious violation of international law, an attack on the legitimate aspirations of Palestinians and also a major obstacle to the two-state solution and a factor of major destabilization for our close partners, Egypt and Jordan, and the whole region.”
“France will continue actively promoting the implementation of the two-state solution, which alone can guarantee long-term peace and security to Israelis and Palestinians,” the ministry said in a press release. “Gaza’s future must lie not in the prospect of control by a third State but in the framework of a future Palestinian State, under the aegis of the Palestinian Authority. Hamas must be disarmed and have no part in the territory’s governance. France will continue to express its opposition to settlement activity — which is contrary to international law — and to any hint of the unilateral annexation of the West Bank.”
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock issued a statement saying, in part, “A displacement of the Palestinian civilian population from Gaza would not only be unacceptable and in breach of international law. It would also lead to new suffering and new hatred. And so the G7, the European Union and the United Nations have repeatedly made clear from the beginning that Gaza’s civilian population must not be displaced and Gaza must not be permanently occupied or resettled. A solution must not be put in place without consulting the Palestinians. A negotiated two-state solution remains the only solution which will enable both Palestinians and Israelis to live in peace, security and dignity. This is also the clear stance taken by the Arab states in the region.”
Israel
Netanyahu, however, seemed supportive of the president’s proposal during the Tuesday press conference and, delivering remarks after Trump, praised the president for his “fresh ideas” to accomplish their goals, which he said included ensuring Gaza is not a threat to Israel.
“I believe, Mr. President, that your willingness to puncture conventional thinking, thinking that has failed time and time and time again, your willingness to think outside the box with fresh ideas will help us achieve all these goals,” Netanyahu said.
Benny Gantz, a former military chief and the top political rival of Netanyahu who resigned from Israel’s emergency government in June 2024, wrote on X that Trump’s statement “is further proof of the deep alliance between the United States and Israel.”
“President Trump has shown, and not for the first time, that he is a true friend of Israel and will continue to stand by it on issues important to strengthening its security,” Gantz said. “In his remarks, he presented creative, original and interesting thinking, which must be examined alongside the realization of the goals of the war, and giving priority to the return of all the abductees.”
An Israeli official told ABC News that Netanyahu’s visit with Trump in D.C. on Tuesday “exceeded all our expectations and dreams.”
ABC News’ Hugo Leenhardt, Ayat Al-Tawy, Nasser Atta, Jordana Miller, Phoebe Natanson, Kelsey Walsh, Michelle Stoddart and Justin Ryan Gomez contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The first flight carrying “high-threat” migrants to Guantanamo Bay arrived Tuesday evening, part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
The C-17 plane took off from El Paso, Texas, and landed landed at 7:20 p.m. Eastern time, according to U.S. Transportation Command.
The 10 people on the flight were suspected members of the Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
The migrants, however, will not be co-located with existing detainees at Guantanamo Bay, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement will have the primary guard of them.
“These 10 high-threat individuals are currently being housed in vacant detention facilities,” the Defense Department said in a Wednesday statement, calling the detention of these migrants at Guantanamo Bay a “temporary measure.” “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is taking this measure to ensure the safe and secure detention of these individuals until they can be transported to their country of origin or other appropriate destination.”
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 29 directing the secretaries of the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security to “expand the Migrant Operations Center at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to full capacity” to house migrants without legal status living in the United States. The Migrant Operations Center is separate from the high-security prison facility that has been used to hold al Qaeda detainees.
“There’s a lot of space to accommodate a lot of people,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Tuesday. “So we’re going to use it.
“The migrants are rough, but we have some bad ones, too,” he added. “I’d like to get them out. It would be all subject to the laws of our land, and we’re looking at that to see if we can.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the flights carrying migrants to Guantanamo Bay were underway Tuesday morning, saying on Fox News, “Trump, Pete Hegseth and Kristi Noem are already delivering on this promise to utilize that capacity at Gitmo for illegal criminals who have broken our nation’s immigration laws and then have further committed heinous crimes against lawful American citizens here at home.”
While Trump has said the United States will work to prepare the base to hold 30,000 migrants awaiting processing to return to their home countries, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Monday that Guantanamo Bay’s high-security prison facility could house “the worst of the worst” criminals being deported.
“Where are you going to put Tren de Aragua before you send them all the way back?” Hegseth asked. “How about a maximum-security prison at Guantanamo Bay, where we have the space?”
He called the base “the perfect place to provide for migrants who are traveling out of our country,” including for “hardened criminals.”
“President @realdonaldtrump has been very clear: Guantanamo Bay will hold the worst of the worst. That starts today,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem posted on Tuesday. It is unclear what charges the migrants on the plane face.
“Due process will be followed, and having facilities at Guantánamo Bay will be an asset to us and the fact that we’ll have the capacity to continue to do there what we’ve always done. We’ve always had a presence of illegal immigrants there who have been detained — we’re just building out some capacity,” Noem told NBC News on Sunday. “We appreciate the partnership of the DoD in getting that up to the level that it needs to get to in order to facilitate this repatriation of people back to their countries.”
She added that it is “not the plan” to have migrants stay at Guantanamo Bay indefinitely.
As of Monday, there were about 300 service members supporting the immigrant holding operations at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, according to U.S. Southern Command. U.S. officials told ABC News that as many as 200 more Marines are expected to arrive in waves.
The Defense Department posted that the troops are at Guantanamo Bay “to prepare to expand the Migrant Operations Center” to house up to the 30,000 migrants temporarily, separate from the maximum-security prison.
“As we identify criminal illegals in our country, the military is leaning forward to help with moving them out to their home countries or someone else in the interim,” Hegseth said on Jan. 31. “Now if … they can’t go somewhere right away, they can go to Guantanamo Bay.”
Karen Greenberg, director of the Center on National Security at Fordham University School of Law, told ABC News’ Phil Lipof on Jan. 29 that a “big challenge” of holding migrants at Guantanamo Bay is the large number Trump has suggested.
“I don’t know that they have the capacity for that,” said Greenberg, who noted that “in the old days and the ’90s, I think they held 21,000 at the most.”
She added that the base has long held refugees and migrants, including in the Biden administration, though in much smaller numbers, and has typically been used for those intercepted at sea rather than to hold migrants flown in from the continental U.S.
However, Greenberg noted that the reports from those who have spent time at Guantanamo Bay are “not good.”
“There was a report released in September by the International Refugee Assistance Project, which sort of detailed the conditions that migrants are held in currently at Guantanamo, which included unsanitary conditions, mistreatment, not to mention this sort of fuzzy legal status,” she said.
(NEW YORK) — DeepSeek, the explosive new artificial intelligence, tool that took the world by storm, has code hidden in its programming which has the built-in capability to send user data directly to the Chinese government, experts told ABC News.
DeepSeek caught Wall Street off guard last week when it announced it had developed its AI model for far less money than its American competitors, like OpenAI, which have invested billions. But the potential risk DeepSeek poses to national security may be more acute than previously feared because of a potential open door between DeepSeek and the Chinese government, according to cybersecurity experts.
Of late, Americans have been concerned about Byte Dance, the China-based company behind TikTok, which is required under Chinese law to share the data it collects with the Chinese government.
With DeepSeek, there’s actually the possibility of a direct path to the PRC hidden in its code, Ivan Tsarynny, CEO of Feroot Security, an Ontario-based cybersecurity firm focused on customer data protection, told ABC News.
“We see direct links to servers and to companies in China that are under control of the Chinese government. And this is something that we have never seen in the past,” Tsarynny said.
Users who register or log in to DeepSeek may unknowingly be creating accounts in China, making their identities, search queries, and online behavior visible to Chinese state systems.
Tsarynny says he used AI software to decrypt portions of DeepSeek’s code and found what appeared to be intentionally hidden programming that has the capability to send user data to one website: CMPassport.com, the online registry for China Mobile, a telecommunications company owned and operated by the Chinese government.
China Mobile was banned from operating in the U.S. by the FCC in 2019 due to concerns that “unauthorized access to customer…data could create irreparable damage to U.S. national security.” It was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange in 2021 and added to the FCC’s list of national security threats in 2022.
John Cohen, an ABC News contributor and former acting Undersecretary for Intelligence and Analysis for the Department of Homeland Security, said DeepSeek is a most blatant example of suspected surveillance by the Chinese government.
“China Mobile is part of a growing list of Chinese-based technology companies that have been determined to pose a risk to U.S. national security,” Cohen said .
“National security officials always suspect that technology sold by a Chinese-based company has a backdoor making that data accessible to the Chinese government. In this case, the back door’s been discovered, it’s been opened, and that’s alarming.”
“It’s alarming to say the least,” Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), who serves on the House Intelligence Committee, told ABC News.
“I think we should ban DeepSeek from all government devices immediately. No one should be allowed to download it onto their device. And I think we have to inform the public,” Gottheimer said.
DeepSeek’s terms of service specify that they “shall be governed by the laws of the People’s Republic of China.”
DeepSeek’s privacy policy discloses that they collect all kinds of data including chat and search query history, keystroke patterns, IP addresses, and activity from other apps.
However, experts say it’s impossible to know what of this data DeepSeek is potentially sending to China Mobile.
Tsarynny’s analysis found that DeepSeek’s web tool creates a digital “fingerprint” for each unique user, which has the capability to track users’ activity not only while they use DeepSeek’s website, but all web activity going forward.
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), the top Democrat on the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, said the possibility of covert collection of DeepSeek user data by the Chinese government is “very disturbing.”
“I think there’s absolutely the intention by the CCP to collect data of Americans and user data worldwide,” Krishnamoorthi told ABC News. “This pattern of data collection is really familiar to people who study the use of CCP controlled-company apps and you use those apps at your own risk.”
DeepSeek, its hedge fund founder High-Flyer, and China Mobile did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
(WASHINGTON) — In a stunning proposal, President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the U.S. will “take over” the Gaza Strip, “level the site” and rebuild it, after earlier saying Palestinians living there should leave.
“They instead can occupy all of a beautiful area with homes and safety, and they can live out their lives in peace and harmony” in other areas or countries, he said at a news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too. We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site. Level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings. Level it out,” he said.
“Create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area,” he added. “Do a real job. Do something different.”
“We should go to other countries of interest with humanitarian hearts, and there are many of them that want to do this, and build various domains that will ultimately be occupied by the 1.8 million Palestinians living in Gaza, ending the death and destruction and frankly, bad luck,” he said. “This can be paid for by neighboring countries of great wealth. It could be one, two, three, four, five, seven, eight, 12. It could be numerous sites, or it could be one large site,” he said.
“But the people will be able to live in comfort and peace and will get sure — we’ll make sure something really spectacular is done. They’re going to have peace. They’re not going to be shot at and killed and destroyed like this civilization of — of wonderful people has had to endure. The only reason the Palestinians want to go back to Gaza is they have no alternative,” he said.
“I do see a long-term ownership position, and I see it bringing great stability to that part of the Middle East and maybe the entire Middle East. And everybody I have spoken to, this was not a decision made lightly,” he continued. “Everybody I have spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land, developing and creating thousands of jobs with something that will be magnificent in a really magnificent area that nobody would know.”
Asked who would live there, Trump responded, “the world’s people,” saying, “the potential in the Gaza Strip is unbelievable.”
“History, as you know, just can’t let it keep repeating itself. We have an opportunity to do something that could be phenomenal. And I don’t want to be cute. I don’t want to be a wise guy. But the Riviera of the Middle East, this could be something that could be so … magnificent,” he said.
Earlier, in the Oval Office, when he also raised the idea, a reporter asked if Palestinians relocated would have the right to return.
“Why would they want to return?” he responded.
“It would be my hope that we could do something really nice, really good, where they wouldn’t want to return,” he said. Why would they want to return? That place has been hell. It’s been one of the meanest, one of the meanest, toughest places on earth,” he said.
Asked about sending U.S. troops to Gaza, Trump appeared open to the possibility.
“As far as Gaza is concerned, we’ll do what is necessary. If it’s necessary, we’ll do that,” Trump said. “We’re going to take over that place and we’re going to develop it, create thousands and thousands of jobs.”
Netanyahu, delivering remarks after Trump, praised the president for his “fresh ideas” to accomplish their goals, which he said included ensuring Gaza is not a threat to Israel.
“I believe, Mr. President, that your willingness to puncture conventional thinking, thinking that has failed time and time and time again, your willingness to think outside the box with fresh ideas will help us achieve all these goals,” he said.
Asked if his view that Palestinians should be relocated from Gaza is a sign that he is against the two-state policy that has been the foreign policy approach of the United States for decades, Trump said no.
“It doesn’t mean anything about a two-state or one state or any other state. It means that we want to have, we want to give people a chance at life,” he said. “They have never had a chance at life because the Gaza Strip has been a hellhole for people living there. It’s been horrible.”
The president argued that his proposal would benefit the Middle East as a whole and not only Israel.
“I have to stress, this is not for Israel,” he said. “This is for everybody in the Middle East. Arabs, Muslims, this is for everybody. You have to learn from history. You can’t keep doing the same mistake over and over again. Gaza is a hellhole right now,” he said.
“I’ve studied it. I’ve studied this very closely over a lot of months, and I’ve seen it from every different angle,” he said. “And it’s a very, very dangerous place to be. And it’s only going to get worse. And I think this is an idea that’s gotten tremendous — and I’m talking about from the highest level of leadership — gotten tremendous praise.”
He said he had “a feeling” that despite Jordan’s king and Egypt’s president opposing his idea to “clean out” Gaza and have them take in Palestinians, they “will open their hearts and will give us the kind of land that we need to get this done. And people can live in harmony and peace,” he said, as the extraordinary news conference ended.
(LONDON and BELGRADE) — A mass shooting at an adult educational facility in Sweden on Tuesday was the deadliest such incident in the country’s history, with 11 people killed, including the alleged shooter, law enforcement said on Wednesday.
“It is a very painful day for all of Sweden,” Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said in a statement posted on social media. “Being confined to a classroom with fear for your own life is a nightmare that no one should have to experience.”
Police early on Wednesday said there was “currently no information that indicates that the perpetrator acted based on ideological motives.”
The shooting at the Risbergska Skolan complex in Orebro, Sweden, began midday, with police issuing an alert that the school was under threat of “deadly violence.”
The school was placed on lockdown, students were evacuated and family members were notified, police in the Bergslagen region said.
Officials initially said that a handful of people had been shot, without saying whether any had been killed. In an update close to midnight, police said 10 people and the alleged shooter were dead. The ages and identities of the dead and injured have not been released.
As of 7 a.m. on Wednesday, six people were still being treated in a local hospital — the same number of people as the day prior, according to Dr. Hans Olsson, who works in Orebro. No additional patients have been admitted, he said.
“The number of injured is still unclear,” police said in an update posted in Swedish. “We currently have no information on the condition of those who have been injured.”
ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman, Joe Simonetti, Helena Skinner and Megan Forrester contributed to this report.
It may take up to two years for Motassem to undergo the corrective surgeries he needs and to be fitted for a prosthetic. (ABC News)
Editor’s note: This story contains graphic descriptions of wartime injuries.
(NEW YORK) — A little over a year ago, Motassembelah “Motassem” Abuzayed was a junior in high school, enjoying playing soccer and having barbecues with his friends.
He loved his two pet cats and dreamed of going to college or university to become a successful businessman.
However, those dreams were interrupted when Motassem was severely injured by an airstrike while he was outside with his friends in his neighborhood in the Gaza Strip, he told ABC News. Motassem is one of the more than 25,000 children who have been injured throughout the Israel-Hamas war, according to the United Nations.
Motassem lost most of his left arm in the attack, just a few weeks after the war broke out. His ring finger on his right hand was fully amputated and his middle finger was partially amputated, with attempts made to reconstruct it. He spent months between Gaza and Egypt before he was evacuated to the United States to receive more intensive medical care.
“Everything changed. I had no hope that I would get treatment,” he told ABC News in Arabic. “When I came to America … a future opened for me. I had hope.”
ABC News has been chronicling the journeys of some of the Palestinian children who have been injured over the course of the war.
‘I saw us get hit and then nothing’
Before the war, Motassem lived in the Az-Zawayda neighborhood of northern Gaza with his father, mother and seven siblings: one sister and six brothers.
He was attending school. He said he loved learning, and that geography was his favorite subject.
“I would get up and dressed. I wake up at six [o’clock] in the morning, go to school and learn,” he said. “Then I would go home. I find food ready. I sit with my family, and we eat together. Then I would do my homework, then play soccer with my friends.”
On Oct. 7, 2023, the day Hamas launched a surprise terrorist attack in southern Israel, which resulted in Israel declaring war on Hamas, Motassem said he was asleep.
“We all woke up and all I heard was the sounds of bombs,” he said. “Destruction. You could hear screams on the street. After Oct. 7, there was no joy. They stopped the world.”
Motassem said he and his family originally thought the conflict would be over within a week, but as the war continued, his neighborhood was hit hard. He said his family did not want to leave their home and decided to remain.He said he lived on the same block with his aunts, uncles and cousins, and the family tried to see each other whenever possible.
On the day of his injury, Oct. 28. 2023, Motasaem, then 16, said he was outside, near his house with his cousins and two of his friends when a bomb struck the area around him.
Motasaem does not remember a lot from the day of his injury and the days that followed, which he describes as a mix of memory loss and attempts to block the day from his memory. However, what he does remember is the initial blast.
“That day was a dark day. It wasn’t a normal day,” he said. “I saw us get hit, and after that I saw nothing.”
Motassem said he doesn’t remember anything until he woke up at Al-Aqsa Hospital that he learned he’d lost most of his left arm and two fingers on his right hand.
“I just woke up in the hospital and asked them, ‘What happened?'” he said. “They told me, ‘Your arm is gone.'”
Children wearing scars of the war
Children have been greatly impacted by the Israel-Hamas conflict, with UNICEF Communications Specialist Tess Ingram saying during a briefing last year that kids and teenagers are “disproportionately wearing the scars of the war in Gaza.”
During most of 2024, non-profit Save the Children estimated an average of 475 children were being hurt by explosive weapons each month, or 15 children a day, potentially leaving many with life-long disabilities.
In the same report, doctors from partner organization Medical Aid for Palestinians said children’s wounds are not healing due to increased levels of malnutrition, leading to amputations that would otherwise not be necessary. A senior United Nations official told the Security Council in October 2024 that Gaza is home to the largest number of amputee children in modern history.
Motassem said the pain he felt was “indescribable” and that he felt scared in the hospital. Due to the shortage of medication in Gaza, Motassem said he could only be given Actimol, a drug typically meant to relieve mild to moderate pain and to reduce fever.
Motassem said he had several operations on his arm and fingers and needed to have a chest tube placed on his left side after doctors found he had a hemothorax, which occurs when blood pools in the pleural space, or the space between the lungs and the chest wall.
He also developed a severe bacterial infection, but he said it’s unclear which infection he had.
The journey to get Motassem to the US
Motassem was medically evacuated to Egypt on New Year’s Eve in 2023 through a program run by the Gaza Ministry of Health, according to Tareq Hailat, director of global patient affairs at the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF), the NGO responsible for eventually medically evacuating Motassem to the U.S.
“I was happy that I was leaving Gaza to get treatment abroad. When I got to Egypt, I didn’t find the treatment adequate,” Motassem said. “Once I got to the hospital, they kept doing tests on me. They told me I needed some surgeries because of the bone that is coming out [of my arm].”
Motassem’s surgeries in Egypt included a procedure to adjust the shoulder bone in his left arm and to separate fused bones in his right hand, Hailat said. Motassem also suffered from persistent wound infections and doctors removed shrapnel, medical gauze and wooden debris from his wounds.
Hailat said that injured patients evacuated to Egypt are taken to a government facility to be processed. However, because of the overcrowding, patients can go a long time without seeing a doctor or receiving medical care.
Motassem was still suffering from the bacterial infection and still required the chest tube while in Egypt.
“He had extreme pain, obviously, aside from phantom pain, he was having these neuromas of these nerves that were clogging up and creating the severe pain for him,” Hailat said.
A neuroma is a growth of nerve cells that can occur at the end of a severed nerve in an amputated limb. It can be very painful for an amputee.
Because of the pain, physicians were hesitant to give him a prosthetic arm because they were worried it would cause further nerve damage, according to Hailat.
He said medical records show Motassem was in the hospital for two months before it was determined he did not need medical care anymore. His father was able to secure a place to stay for Motassem and his brother, who was accompanying him, according to Hailat.
Hailat said PCRF saw a video on social media in late August 2024 of Motassem first arriving at the hospital in Egypt and, recognizing he needed advanced care, reached out to discuss medically evacuating him to the U.S.
“He was also extremely sad. He was always in his room. He did not leave his room at all to talk to anyone and, when I reached out to him, he actually thought it was a joke at first,” Hailat said. “I reached out and got his father’s number, and I contacted his father, and his father knew that it was serious. I sent them proof of the work that we’ve done.”
“And, at that point, I remember his father picking up the phone and calling me and saying to me, ‘Please make sure that this works, because this child is so severely depressed that if we give him this false hope, then it will shatter him,'” Hailat said. “And, at that moment, I knew that I wanted to make sure that things go right before first contacting Motassembelah and explicitly telling them that he’s going to leave.”
Motassem said he was at the house in Egypt with his brother when he first received the news that he was going to get treatment in the U.S. It had been hard to communicate with his family back home in Gaza due to poor internet connection and he was at a low point mentally.
“It was honestly a miracle from God,” he said. “They reached out to me and said, ‘We want to bring you to America.’ At that point, mentally, I was at a zero in Egypt. When they told me they were bringing me to America, I felt relief.”
“I want to thank Mr. Tareq for the way he treated me,” Motassem said. “When I first got in touch with him in Egypt, he brought the idea of hope back to me and that I will start my future.”
Once Shriners Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia agreed to accept Motassem’s case, Hailat worked to gather the appropriate visas and paperwork needed.
Due to the rules surrounding visas, Motassem would have to go by himself, which his father approved with the PCRF. After several weeks, Motassem became one of the 24 Gazan children PCRF has medically evacuated to the U.S. for treatment.
‘I was at peace’
Motassem was put on a direct flight from Cairo to New York City with another child being medically evacuated to the U.S. It was his first time on a plane, which he described as a “good feeling” but also “tiring.”
Motassem arrived in the U.S. at John F. Kennedy International Airport on his birthday, Oct. 19, 2024. He said he was held up in questioning for four hours and asked if he was a member of Hamas or a supporter of Hamas. Motassem said he doesn’t know any members of the organization.
Photos and videos from that day show a crowd of supporters cheering for Motassem as he arrives, carrying Palestinian flags and welcome signs.
“It was indescribable. I was so happy,” he said. “They were all nice people, and they all welcomed me, it was really exciting. … It was a beautiful day.”
Motassem spent the first day meeting the welcome group and exploring the streets of Philadelphia before his treatment was set to begin at Shriners Children’s Hospital.
When asked to describe what it was like walking around Philadelphia, he said, “I was at peace.”
When Motassem first met with a team at Shriners Children’s, doctors initially believed he just needed a prosthetic device and that his treatment would be finalized within three months, according to Hailat.
However, after the initial physical assessments, the team saw the neuromas and how they were causing severe pain for Motassem.
Doctors said they needed to perform nerve-bundling surgery to reduce his pain and so the prosthetic would fit him in a painless way, and he may need more corrective surgeries, according to Hailat. This entire process may take up to two years.
Because of this increased timeline, Hailat moved Motassem from the host family he was staying with in Delaware to a new home in Greenville, South Carolina.
He currently lives in a house with two teenage boys also from Gaza: Ayham, whose leg was injured during the war, and Ayham’s older brother, Ismail.
“I talk to them every day,” Motassem said. “Those two mean a lot to me. I love them.”
Hailat said it was important to ensure Motassem had people close to his own age with whom he could spend time, especially since no family members are in the U.S. with him.
“One of the things that I was fearful about … now that the medical care plan was going to be so long and we brought him here without a companion, I was scared that he will get very lonely and that he won’t form a community of support,” Hailat said. “And that’s why I brought him to [South Carolina], ensure that he’s with another patient from Gaza, and they are both experiencing very similar medical care plans and could share that that experience with each other, and it’s been absolutely phenomenal. It’s been amazing.”
Motassem said he tries to speak to his family back in Gaza as much as he can.
He said whenever he speaks to his mom, he tries to not talk about his injury and instead discuss future plans.
“I changed the subject. I don’t talk about the injury, anything to do with the injury,” he said. “I try to move past it. … My mother is my whole world. I don’t just miss her food; I miss life with her. She is everything.”
Motassem underwent nerve-bundling surgery on Jan. 24, 2025. In a video diary shared with ABC News after this surgery, he said the surgery went well.
Hopes of returning to Gaza
It’s unclear how long Motassem will need to stay in the U.S. to complete this treatment, but he hopes to return to Gaza one day. The recent ceasefire makes him hopeful.
He compared the day he learned about the ceasefire to the Muslim holiday of Eid, which is the end of the month-long fast of Ramadan.
“I was able to talk to [my family] three days after the ceasefire because there was no internet,” Motassem said. “I told my mom, ‘Congratulations.’ It was like the celebration of a groom’s wedding. The war is over.”
The deal between Israel and Hamas will take place in three different phases, each of which will last for six weeks, according to U.S. and Qatari officials.
Motassem said his family currently lives in a tent in Gaza because half of their house was destroyed over the course of his war. Two of his cousins were killed two days before the ceasefire, he says.
However, he has hope he can return to help rebuild.
“I miss everything in my room. I miss the comfort that I felt while in it,” he said. “This house I was born in and lived my entire life in, and it’s now gone. But 100% we will rebuild.”
He said once his treatment is completed in the U.S., he would like to get a degree in business and give back to the people of Gaza.
“I want to do everything for them, especially after the torture they suffered,” he said. “You don’t even see things like this in movies. The destruction you see in movies is not like what is happening. They deserve to have a right to live. The people of Gaza, the whole world knows who they are now.”
(WASHINGTON) — Smartphones, sneakers and board games headline a wide-ranging set of products at risk of price increases as a result of China tariffs imposed by the Trump administration, experts told ABC News.
The tariffs, which took effect on Tuesday, slap a 10% tax on all imported goods from China, the third-largest U.S. trade partner.
The Trump administration had also threatened to impose 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada, but the U.S. reached an agreement with each of those countries on Monday, pausing the tariffs for one month.
Still, trade experts said they expect the China tariffs to increase prices paid by U.S. shoppers, since importers typically pass along a share of the cost of those higher taxes to consumers. The tariffs could hike prices for an array of goods, from curtains to saucepans to winter coats.
“If you could light up everything around you that has been touched by Chinese manufacturing or inputs, your whole room would light up,” Christine McDaniel, a former senior trade economist on the White House Council of Economic Advisers under President George W. Bush, told ABC News.
The exact price impact remains unclear, however, since businesses within the supply chain could opt to take on some or all of the tax burden, some experts added.
The Trump administration did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
In a series of social media posts over recent days, Trump said the tariffs target Canada, Mexico and China for hosting the manufacture and transport of illicit drugs that end up in the United States. In a Truth Social post on Sunday, Trump urged the three countries to address his concerns, while acknowledging the tariffs may cause some financial hardship within the U.S.
“WILL THERE BE SOME PAIN? YES, MAYBE (AND MAYBE NOT!). BUT WE WILL MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, AND IT WILL ALL BE WORTH THE PRICE THAT MUST BE PAID,” Trump wrote.
Smartphones, laptops and video game consoles
Personal electronic devices make up a top category of products imported from China, meaning price increases could impact tablets, smartphones and laptops, experts said. Video cameras, headphones and video game consoles would also be impacted.
The U.S. imported $31.6 billion worth of electronic computers from China over the first nine months of last year, U.S. Census Bureau data showed. Those products accounted for 30% of the total value of U.S. computer imports over that period, the data indicated.
“The consumer electronic sector is heavily integrated across Asia — China being a huge center of that,” McDaniel said. “That would presumably be at the top of the list.”
Tennis shoes and sandals
Nearly all footwear sold in the U.S. comes from abroad, and much of it originates in China. That set of products includes tennis shoes, sandals and high heels, among others.
The U.S. imports between 96% and 99% of all footwear sold nationwide, the United States International Trade Commission, or USITC, found in 2020.
China accounts for about $4 of every $10 in imported footwear sold to U.S. buyers, according to the USITC.
Footwear could suffer significant price hikes since the Chinese firms manufacturing the products often face narrow profit margins, lending them little latitude to take on some of the tax burden, Mary Lovely, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics who studies trade policy, told ABC News.
If sellers were to pass along the full burden of the tariffs to U.S. consumers, it would amount to a 10% price increase. Lovely said the price hike for footwear could approach that upper limit.
“For items like this, I’d expect the price increases would be closer to 10% than 1%,” Lovely said.
Toys and games
As with footwear, almost all toys and games sold in the U.S. are imported. China accounts for the vast majority of those products.
The U.S. imported $18.8 billion worth of toys and games from China over the first nine months of last year, U.S. Census Bureau data showed. Those products accounted for nearly 80% of the total value of U.S. computer imports over that period, the data indicated.
Shares of toy companies fell on Monday in anticipation of the China tariffs. Mattel’s stock price fell about 4.5% while Hasbro’s dropped 2%. Each of the companies recovered much of the losses on Tuesday. They both source a lower share of their products from China than the industry average, MarketWatch reported.
