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As the official celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence culminate on July 4, a well-financed, privately funded initiative will kick off to try to connect hundreds of millions of Americans with efforts to solve local problems. The “Be The People” campaign aspires to change the perception that the U.S. is hopelessly divided and that individuals have little power to overcome problems like poverty, addiction, violence and stalled economic mobility. It also wants to move people take action to solve those problems. Brian Hooks, chairman and CEO of the nonprofit network Stand Together, said the 250th anniversary is a unique moment “to show people that they matter, that they have a part to play, and that the future is unwritten, but it depends on each one of us stepping up to play our part.” Funded by a mix of 50 philanthropic foundations and individual donors, Be The People builds on research that indicates many people want to contribute to their communities but don’t know how. The initiative has raised more than $200 million for its first year’s budget. Founding members range from nonprofits — including GivingTuesday, Goodwill Industries and Habitat for Humanity, businesses like Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment and the National Basketball Association, to funders like the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Hooks said this is a 10-year commitment toward trying to achieve what would be a profound shift in behavior and culture. He referenced a 2024 Pew Research Center survey that found most Americans in 2023 and 2024 did not believe that the U.S. could solve its most important problems, saying it was a “red alert” for the country. Hooks said the initiative envisions actions far beyond volunteering or service that people could do in their free time. He pointed to a role for businesses and schools and said the initiative would launch a major data collection effort to track whether people are actually more engaged and whether problems are actually getting solved. Stand Together, which was founded by the billionaire Charles Koch, works across a broad range of issues and communities in the U.S. and has carved out a role for itself as a convener that can bring coalitions together across ideological lines. “Be The People,” will not incorporate as a new nonprofit, but act more like a banner for groups to organize under and use to connect to resources. As an example, at the Atlanta Hawks game on Monday, Martin Luther King III and his wife, Arndrea Waters King, linked a program they launched last year, Realize the Dream, which aims to increase acts of service, to the new campaign. “Our vision is that ‘Be The People’ helps lift up what is already happening in communities across the country and reminds people that service and shared responsibility are defining parts of the American story,” the Kings said in a written statement. “Be The People,” will operate similarly to the nonprofit GivingTuesday. While it started as a hashtag to encourage people to donate to nonprofits on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, GivingTuesday has grown into a platform that provides nonprofits with tools, like fundraising kits and advice on how to reach and mobilize their supporters. Nonprofits can participate however they like but gain some momentum by acting alongside many other groups. “Our experience with GivingTuesday is that when people volunteer together, when people work together on something to do with positive social impact, they find it harder and harder to demonize each other,” said Asha Curran, its CEO. The initiative comes against a backdrop of deep polarization, economic inequality and the degradation of democratic norms and institutions in the U.S. A growing number of private foundations have started funding issues related to the health of U.S. democracy, said Kristin Goss, a professor who directs the Center for the Study of Philanthropy and Voluntarism at Duke University. While foundations…

The European Union’s top official says President Donald Trump’s threats of new tariffs over Greenland are “a mistake especially between long-standing allies,” and she’s calling into question Trump’s trustworthiness after he agreed last year not to impose more tariffs on EU countries. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was responding Tuesday to Trump’s announcement of a 10% import tax will be imposed in February on goods from eight European nations rallying around Denmark as he insists on a U.S. takeover of the semi-autonomous Danish territory of Greenland. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urged America’s trading partners to “take a deep breath.” One year into his second term, Trump is attending the World Economic Forum in Davos — an annual gathering of the global elite — where amid the Europeans’ resistance he may see many of the billionaires he has surrounded himself with. Follow live updates from Davos. The Latest: Trump slams UK deal to hand over Chagos Islands after he previously backed it A startled British government on Tuesday defended its decision to hand sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, after Trump attacked the plan, which his administration had previously supported. Trump said that relinquishing the remote Indian Ocean archipelago, home to a strategically important American naval and bomber base, was an act of stupidity that shows why he needs to take over Greenland. The blast from Trump was a rebuff to efforts by Prime Minister Keir Starmer to calm tensions over Greenland and patch up a frayed trans-Atlantic relationship. Starmer on Monday called Trump’s statements about taking over Greenland “completely wrong,” but called for the rift to be “resolved through calm discussion.” Read more about Trump’s comments on the Chagos Islands Read what France’s Macron and the head of NATO are saying to Trump behind the scenes While Europe is pushing back publicly against Trump over Greenland, the language appears softer behind the scenes. Trump published a text message on Tuesday that he received from French President Emmanuel Macron, confirmed as genuine by Macron’s office. Starting with “My friend,” Macron’s tone was more deferential than the criticism that France and some of its European partner nations are openly voicing against Trump’s push to wrest Greenland from NATO ally Denmark. Before broaching the Greenland dispute, Macron opted in his message to first talk about other issues where he and Trump seem to be roughly on the same page. “We are totally in line on Syria. We can do great things on Iran,” the French leader wrote in English. Then, he added: “I do not understand what you are doing on Greenland,” immediately followed by: “Let us try to build great things.” That was the only mention that Macron made of the semi-autonomous Danish territory that Trump covets in the two sections of message that Trump published. It wasn’t immediately clear from Trump’s post when he received the message. Read more about the messages Surrounded by billionaires in Davos, Trump plans to lay out how he’ll make housing more affordable Trump plans to use a key address Wednesday to try to convince Americans he can make housing more affordable, but he’s picked a strange backdrop for the speech: a Swiss mountain town where ski chalets for vacations cost a cool $4.4 million. On the anniversary of his inauguration, Trump is flying to the World Economic Forum in Davos — an annual gathering of the global elite — where he may see many of the billionaires he has surrounded himself with during his first year back in the White House. Trump had campaigned on lowering the cost of living. But in office, he has devoted more time to cavorting with the wealthy than talking directly to his working-class base. Trump’s attention in his first year back has been less on pocketbook issues and more fixed on foreign policy with conflicts. He is now bent on acquiring Greenland to the chagrin of European allies — a headline likely to…

One of the biggest revelations in WWE Unreal Season 2 is the release of R-Truth over the summer of 2025, which Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque broke down. In fact, it doesn’t sound like R-Truth was released by WWE; rather, the contract expired, and the promotion didn’t intend on renewing it. It may have been partially due to money, as the two sides may have been separated on this topic. “We got to a point in Truth’s run where his contract was coming up, when you are dealing with contracts and money, and you’re very far apart in the numbers and communication breaks down, it’s very easy for both sides to read into the communications differently,” Triple H explained. “Okay, well, if you’re not going to come [to] us, then, Truth, we’re gonna let your contract lapse.” pic.twitter.com/Ajfa4hjW3K — just put the clips in the bag (@ShootOrWork) January 19, 2026 Part of the negotiation tactic was hoping this would “force his hand” and get R-Truth back into the negotiations. However, this is not what happened, as he sent a message out on social media saying he was “released.” So, was R-Truth ever released by WWE? Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images. Triple H then clarified that R-Truth was “never not under contract with” the promotion. Meanwhile, R-Truth — who was “hurt” by the matter — confirmed that he felt as though he was “released.” Road Dogg, who is Truth’s close friend, even understood the business side of the matter. “While it broke my heart, it made perfect business sense to not renew his contract,” Road Dogg stated. “At his age, you might not get that reward back.” Luckily, Truth and WWE were able to come to an agreement. He returned less than a week after announcing his “release.” R-Truth made his surprise return at Money in the Bank, costing John Cena and Logan Paul their match against Cody Rhodes and Jey Uso. Upon his return, R-Truth seemed destined for a more dramatic character, going by Ron Killings (his government name). However, since then, he has reverted to his comedic character. The post WWE COO Triple H clears the air on R-Truth’s release appeared first on ClutchPoints.

RAQQA, Syria (AP) — The Syrian military claimed Tuesday that guards from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces had abandoned a camp in northeast Syria housing thousands of people linked to the Islamic State group, allowing the detainees to escape. The al-Hol camp houses mainly women and children who are family members of IS members or accused of being otherwise affiliated with the group. Thousands of accused IS militants are separately housed in prisons in northeast Syria. The SDF subsequently confirmed that its guards had withdrawn from the camp, blaming “international indifference toward the issue of the ISIS terrorist organization and the failure of the international community to assume its responsibilities in addressing this serious matter,” using another abbreviation for IS. It said its forces had redeployed “in the vicinity of cities in northern Syria that are facing increasing risks and threats” from government forces. Representatives of the U.S. military did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Earlier Tuesday, Syria’s ministry of interior said Tuesday that 120 Islamic State members escaped from a prison in northeast Syria a day earlier, amid clashes between government forces and the SDF, which guards the prison. Security forces recaptured 81 of the escapees, “while intensive security efforts continue to pursue the remaining fugitives and take the necessary legal measures against them,” the statement said. The SDF and the government have traded blame over the escape from a prison in the town of Shaddadeh, amid the breakdown of a ceasefire deal between the two sides. Also Tuesday, the SDF accused “Damascus-affiliated factions” of cutting off water supplies to the al-Aqtan prison near the city of Raqqa, which it called a “blatant violation of humanitarian standards.” The SDF, the main U.S.-backed force that fought IS in Syria, controls more than a dozen prisons in the northeast where some 9,000 IS members have been held for years without trial. Many of the detained extremists are believed to have carried out atrocities in Syria and Iraq after IS declared a caliphate in June 2014 over large parts of Syria and Iraq. IS was defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria two years later, but the group’s sleeper cells still carry out deadly attacks in both countries. Under a deal announced Sunday, government forces were to take over control of the prisons from the SDF, but the transfer did not go smoothly. On Monday, Syrian government forces and SDF fighters clashed around two prisons housing members of the Islamic State group in Syria’s northeast. The clashes came as SDF chief commander Mazloum Abdi was said to be in Damascus to attempt to solidify a ceasefire deal reached Sunday that ended days of deadly fighting during which government forces captured wide areas of northeast Syria from the SDF. Abdi issued no statement after the meeting and the SDF later issued a statement calling for “all of our youth” to “join the ranks of the resistance,” appearing to signal that the deal had fallen apart. Interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa postponed a planned trip to Germany Tuesday amid the ongoing tensions in northeast Syria. Since toppling Bashar Assad in December 2024, Syria’s new leaders have struggled to assert their full authority over the war-torn country. An agreement was reached in March that would merge the SDF with Damascus, but it didn’t gain traction. Earlier this month, clashes broke out in the city of Aleppo, followed by the government offensive that seized control of Deir el-Zour and Raqqa provinces, critical areas under the SDF that include oil and gas fields, river dams along the Euphrates and border crossings. ——— Sewell reported from Beirut. Source