Plot to blow up 9/11 Memorial

NEW YORK -- A U.S. Army soldier was arrested Tuesday in Georgia on terrorism charges after he spoke online about plots to blow up New York City's 9/11 Memorial and other landmarks and attack U.S. soldiers in the Middle East, authorities said. Cole James Bridges of Stow, Ohio, was in custody on charges of attempted material support of a terrorist organization -- the Islamic State group -- and attempted murder of a military member, said Nicholas Biase, a spokesperson for Manhattan federal prosecutors. The 20-year-old soldier, also known as Cole Gonzales, was with the Third Infantry Division out of Fort Stewart, Georgia, when he thought he was communicating with the Islamic State online about the terrorism plots, Biase said. Unbeknownst to Bridges, an FBI employee was in on the chat as Bridges provided detailed instructions on tactics and manuals and advice about attacking the memorial and other targets in New York City, Biase said. "As we allege today, Bridges, a private in the U.S. Army, betrayed our country and his unit when he plotted with someone he believed was an ISIS sympathizer to help ISIS attack and kill U.S. soldiers in the Middle East," said William F. Sweeney Jr., head of New York City's FBI office. "Fortunately, the person with whom he communicated was an FBI employee, and we were able to prevent his evil desires from coming to fruition," Sweeney said.

Tiffany Trump engaged

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump's youngest daughter, Tiffany, is engaged to be married. The 27-year-old recent Georgetown law school graduate announced her good news on Instagram on Tuesday. She shared a photograph of herself and fiance Michael Boulos posing on the West Wing colonnade at the White House. "It has been an honor to celebrate many milestones, historic occasions and create memories with my family here at the White House, none more special than my engagement to my amazing fiance Michael!" Tiffany Trump wrote. "Feeling blessed and excited for the next chapter!" Tiffany Trump is the president's daughter with Marla Maples, his second ex-wife. She and Boulos, a 23-year-old business executive, have been dating for the past few years and have attended White House events together.

Biden arrives for inauguration

WASHINGTON -- President-elect Joe Biden made a sober entrance to the nation's capital Tuesday, ready to assume power as America reels from the coronavirus pandemic, soaring unemployment and grave concerns about more violence as he prepares to take the oath of office. Biden, an avid fan of Amtrak, had planned to take a train into Washington ahead of Wednesday's Inauguration Day, but scratched that plan in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. He instead flew into a military airbase just outside the capital on Tuesday afternoon and then motorcaded into fortress D.C. -- a city that's been flooded by some 25,000 National Guard troops guarding a Capitol, White House and National Mall that are wrapped in a maze of barricades and tall fencing. Shortly before Biden departed for Washington, the U.S. reached another grim milestone in the pandemic, surpassing 400,000 deaths from the virus.

Kind words on his way out

WASHINGTON -- Trying to repair his tarnished legacy, President Donald Trump trumpeted his administration's accomplishments and wished his successor luck in a farewell video as he spent his final full day in office preparing to issue a flurry of pardons in a near-deserted White House, surrounded by an extraordinary security presence outside. "This week we inaugurate a new administration and pray for its success in keeping America safe and prosperous," Trump said in the video "farewell address," released by the White House less than 24 hours before President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration. "We extend our best wishes. And we also want them to have luck -- a very important word." Trump, who spent months trying to delegitimize Biden's win with baseless allegations of mass voter fraud, repeatedly refenced the "next administration," but declined to utter Biden's name. Trump was also expected to spend his final hours granting clemency to as many as 100 people, according to two people briefed on the plans. The list of pardons and commutations is expected to include names unfamiliar to the American public -- regular people who have spent years languishing in prison -- as well as politically connected friends and allies like those he's pardoned in the past. Trump in his address tried to cast his presidency as a triumph for everyday people as he highlighted what he sees as his top achievements, including efforts to normalize relations in the Middle East, the development of coronavirus vaccinations and the creation of a new Space Force. And he tried to defend the endless controversies that have consumed the last four years as justified. "As President, my top priority, my constant concern, has always been the best interests of American workers and American families," he said. "I did not seek the easiest course; by far, it was actually the most difficult. I did not seek the path that would get the least criticism. I took on the tough battles, the hardest fights, the most difficult choices because that's what you elected me to do."

Screen actors piling on Trump

NEW YORK -- President Donald Trump may lose his SAG card, too. The Screen Actors Guild said Tuesday that the SAG-AFTRA board voted "overwhelmingly" that there is probable cause that Trump violated its guidelines for membership. The charges, the guild said, are for Trump's role in the Capitol riot on January 6, "and in sustaining a reckless campaign of misinformation aimed at discrediting and ultimately threatening the safety of journalists, many of whom are SAG-AFTRA members." If found guilty by a disciplinary committee, Trump faces expulsion. Trump has been a SAG member since 1989. His credits include "The Apprentice," "Saturday Night Live" and many cameos in films and TV series including "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York," "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" and "Sex in and City." The SAG board acted in response to a request from Gabrielle Carteris, the guild's president. Losing SAG membership doesn't disqualify anyone from performing. But most major productions abide by union contracts and hire only union actors. Online petitions have recently circulated to have Trump removed from some films. One is trying to rally support to have-elect Joe Biden digitally substituted for Trump in "Home Alone 2."

GM, Microsoft working together

SILVER SPRING, Md -- General Motors is teaming up with Microsoft to accelerate its rollout of electric, self-driving cars. In the partnership announced Tuesday, the companies said Microsoft's Azure cloud and edge computing platform would be used to "commercialize its unique autonomous vehicle solutions at scale." Microsoft joins General Motors, Honda and other institutional investors in a combined new equity investment of more than $2 billion in Cruise, bringing its valuation to about $30 billion. Cruise, which GM bought in 2016, has been a leader in driverless technology and got the go-ahead from California late last year to test its automated vehicles in San Francisco without backup drivers. Auto companies have been joining forces and bringing technology firms on board to try to spread out the enormous costs -- and by nature, risks -- of developing self-driving and electric vehicles. Mass adoption of driverless vehicles -- and profits -- are still a ways off, said industry analyst Sam Abuelsamid of Guidehouse Insights. "The reality is that the automated driving landscape is taking much longer to mature that had been anticipated a few years ago," Abuelsamid said. "It's probably going to be mid-decade before we start to see significant volumes of these vehicles." Abuelsamid added that the importance of adding a company like Microsoft to the mix is its cloud computing power and the ability to analyze data from the vehicles to improve the technology. "Microsoft is a great addition to the team as we drive toward a future world of zero crashes, zero emissions and zero congestion," said GM Chairman and CEO Mary Barra. "Microsoft will help us accelerate the commercialization of Cruise's all-electric, self-driving vehicles and help GM realize even more benefits from cloud computing as we launch 30 new electric vehicles globally by 2025 and create new businesses and services to drive growth."

Large migrant caravan dissolves

EL FLORIDO, Guatemala -- A once large caravan of Honduran migrants that pushed its way into Guatemala last week had dissipated by Tuesday in the face of Guatemalan security forces. Small groups pressed on toward the Mexican border, while others accepted rides from authorities back to Honduras. Many of the migrants were driven by an increasingly desperate situation in Honduras, where the economic ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic and two major hurricanes in November have piled atop chronic poverty and gang violence. That combined with a hope that the new U.S. administration of President-elect Joe Biden would be more welcoming gave birth to the year's first caravan. But Tuesday, buses carrying dozens of migrants and police patrol vehicles carrying handfuls arrived sporadically through the morning at the Guatemala-Honduras border crossing of El Florido. They were passed from Guatemalan border agents to their Honduran counterparts and then boarded buses that would take them back to their hometowns. Some 25 miles into Guatemala where hundreds of migrants had been stalled at a roadblock in Vado Hondo for several days, traffic flowed smoothly Tuesday and few migrants remained. Guatemala's immigration authorities reported that through Monday more than 2,300 migrants had been returned to Honduras.

Zoo told to turn over big cats

MUSKOGEE, Okla. -- A federal judge in Oklahoma has ordered the new owners of an Oklahoma zoo featured in Netflix's "Tiger King" documentary to turn over all the lion and tiger cubs in their possession, along with the animals' mothers, to the federal government. U.S. District Judge John F. Heil III issued the order last week in the case against Jeffrey and Lauren Lowe and the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park based on claimed violations of the Endangered Species Act and the Animal Welfare Act. "The Lowes have showed a shocking disregard for both the health and welfare of their animals, as well as the law," said Acting Assistant Attorney General Jonathan D. Brightbill of the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division. The Lowes took over operations of the zoo, which was previously run by Joseph Maldonado-Passage -- also known as Joe Exotic -- and featured in Netflix's "Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness." Maldonado-Passage is serving a 22-year sentence in a Fort Worth, Texas, federal prison for his conviction on charges that he participated in a murder-for-hire plot and violated federal wildlife laws.

Biden plans massive amnesty

WASHINGTON -- Republican lawmakers and conservative groups opposed President-elect Joe Biden's forthcoming immigration plan Tuesday as massive amnesty for people in the U.S. illegally, underscoring that the measure faces an uphill fight in a Congress that Democrats control just narrowly. In a further complication, several pro-immigration groups said they would press Biden to go even further and take steps such as immediate moratoriums on deportations, detentions and new arrests. Coupled with the discomfort an immigration push could cause for moderate Democrats, liberals' demands illustrated the pressures facing Biden as four years of President Donald Trump's restrictive and often harsh immigration policies come to an end. "It simply wouldn't have happened without us," Lorella Praeli, co-president of the liberal group Community Change, said of Biden's victory. "So we are now in a powerful position."