Exercises described by President Trump as an armada' to be led by the USS Abraham Lincoln amid standoffThe US has announced plans to hold multi-day military exercises in the Middle East as it deploys what Donald Trump has called an armada" led by the USS Abraham Lincoln to the region as part of a tense standoff with Iran.The display of US air power was announced as the White House has suggested it could launch new strikes on Iran after the government's crackdown on pro-democracy protesters that has left thousands dead and many more in detention with their fates uncertain. Continue reading...
Ex-president avoids naming Trump but says Minnesotans have suffered enough at the hands of this administration'Joe Biden has joined other former Democratic presidents in condemning the fatal shooting of the 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis, saying that it betrays our most basic values as Americans".In a statement that alluded to the constitutional right to due process, Biden said: We are not a nation that guns down our citizens in the street. We are not a nation that allows our citizens to be brutalized for exercising their constitutional rights. We are not a nation that tramples the fourth amendment and tolerates our neighbors being terrorized." Continue reading...
Defense in sexual abuse trial of property magnates Tal, Oren and Alon Alexander urges jurors to reject monstrous story'Three brothers, two of them real estate agents who catered to the jet-set crowd, used a playbook over a 12-year stretch that sometimes involved drugging women and girls before raping them, a prosecutor told a New York jury on Tuesday in an opening statement.Assistant US attorney Madison Smyser said the brothers used whatever means necessary" including luxury accommodations, flights, drugs, alcohol and sometimes brute force to lure women into situations where they could be raped. Continue reading...
by Angela Giuffrida in Rome and Jakub Krupa on (#734HA)
Milan mayor says agents not welcome' in co-host city and Italy can take care of security itselfA unit of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents will have a security role in the Winter Olympic Games in Italy, sparking uproar and petitions against the deployment.Sources at the US embassy in Rome confirmed a statement from ICE, the agency embroiled in a brutal immigration crackdown in the US, saying that federal agents would support diplomatic security details during the Milan-Cortina Games but would not run any enforcement operations. Continue reading...
Composer says values of Trump-dominated Kennedy Center are in direct conflict' with symphony's messagePhilip Glass, the celebrated US composer, has withdrawn the world premiere of his latest symphony at Washington DC's John F Kennedy Center in protest of Donald Trump's presidency.In a statement on Tuesday, the 88-year-old composer said: After thoughtful consideration, I have decided to withdraw my Symphony No 15 Lincoln' from the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Symphony No 15 is a portrait of Abraham Lincoln, and the values of the Kennedy Center today are in direct conflict with the message of the symphony. Continue reading...
Among victims were attorney Tara Arnold; event planner Shawna Collins; and the plane's pilot, Jacob HosmerSeveral victims killed in a private jet crash in Maine during a snowstorm on Sunday have been identified.The France-bound Bombardier Challenger 600 crashed shortly after takeoff at Bangor international airport, killing all six people on board. Among the victims was Houston-based attorney Tara Arnold, who was married to Kurt Arnold, a co-founder of the Arnold & Itkin Law Firm, which owns the private jet, according to the Texas news outlet ABC13. Continue reading...
The 88-year-old Democrat and advocate for Washington DC statehood says she will not seek another term in CongressEleanor Holmes Norton, a non-voting House delegate representing Washington DC, announced on Tuesday that she would not seek another term in Congress.With fire in my soul and the facts on my side, I've raised hell about the injustice of denying 700K taxpaying Americans in DC - the same rights given to residents of the states for 33 years," Norton, 88, said in a post on X that included her full statement. Now, with pride in our accomplishments, gratitude to DC, and confidence in the next generation, I announced I'll retire at the end of this term." Continue reading...
The FBI director, Kash Patel, said the inquiry followed a far-right influencer's post about anti-ICE Signal chatsThe FBI director, Kash Patel, announced on Monday he was launching a criminal investigation into group chats used by Minneapolis protesters on the Signal messaging app, based on a social media post by the far-right personality Cam Higby.Patel used the podcast of another rightwing personality, Benny Johnson, to break the news. Continue reading...
The powerful winter storm has been linked to at least 30 deaths, with more than 200 million people under cold alerts as of Monday morning. More than 670,000 power outages were reported across the country on Monday evening. Major institutions in New York City and Washington DC closed on Monday, including the New York Public Library and the National Zoo. New York City public schools had also shifted to remote learning on Monday.
United Parcel Service adds to 2025 job reductions as delivery giant slashes low-profit Amazon deliveriesUnited Parcel Service on Tuesday said it would cut up to 30,000 operational roles in 2026, adding to last year's job reductions as the delivery giant looks to accelerate a turnaround fueled by a pivot to higher-margin shipments.The company also beat Wall Street estimates for quarterly results in the all-important holiday period and forecast a surprise rise in annual revenue. Continue reading...
Insurance practices in an age of climate volatility raise troubling questions about home ownership and housing affordability - the bedrock of the American middle classFor a few frenetic days last January, after losing their midcentury ranch home to the wildfires that ravaged Los Angeles, Jessica and Matt Conkle thought they could see a glimmer of hope.Their insurance company, State Farm, had sent emergency response teams to Altadena, where they lived, and they filed a claim right away. It wasn't long before they received a check that covered four months of living expenses. Continue reading...
by Claudia Mendoza in Puerto Cortés, Honduras, and T on (#734KT)
Mother whose visa application was pending says she will send girl back to US soon accompanied by another relativeFive-year-old Genesis Ester Gutierrez Castellanos misses her cousins, classmates and kindergarten teachers in Austin, Texas. Despite being a US citizen, she was deported on 11 January alongside her mother, Karen Guadalupe Gutierrez Castellanos, to Honduras, a country Genesis had never known.Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were acting on an administrative deportation order against Gutierrez, 26, issued in 2019, before Genesis was born. Continue reading...
Aaron's wife, Margarita, told outlets he was intubated on Friday and put on life support after losing feeling in legsThe actor Quinton Aaron, best known for his starring role in the Oscar-nominated film The Blind Side, has reportedly been placed on life support while grappling with a severe blood infection, according to multiple outlets citing interviews with his wife.Margarita Aaron reportedly confirmed to Fox News and TMZ that her 41-year-old husband was intubated on Friday and placed on life support after he lost feeling in his legs while walking up their home's stairs and collapsed, prompting her to call 911. Continue reading...
Protesters gathered at a hotel in Minneapolis where they believe the border patrol commander Gregory Bovino was staying. Bovino has become the public face of the Trump administration's crackdown in Minnesota, and calls for him to be kicked out of the city have grown after federal agents killed the nurse Alex Pretti at the weekend. Bovino has been condemned for claiming without evidence that Pretti had been planning to massacre law enforcement officers
Truly, I am the country's biggest fan. But in the spirit of free speech its leaders apparently love, here's a few things the rest of the world needs them to knowWe in the rest of the world have had to hear a lot - such a lot - about what this US government and its hardcore fanbase thinks about us. So you know they'll be super-relaxed and free-speechy about hearing some thoughts about how they look from the outside. Let's use last Saturday as a single snapshot. In Minneapolis, they had the shooting by ICE agents of a protesting nurse who posed no threat - an event promptly, provably and blatantly lied about at the highest level by Donald Trump's politburo. Then that evening in Washington, a lot of those same politburocrats turned out for the White House premiere of a ridiculous propaganda film about the president's wife, also attended fawningly by bloodless Apple oligarch Tim Cook. And he's not even the oligarch who paid an insane amount for the film. Top line, guys: all this makes you look like what your president likes to call a shithole country". Sorry! I assume it's fine to use officially licensed vocabulary?Obviously, it's not a proper shithole country until the soft-skinned puppetmasters in the presidential palace cut some grizzled local warlord off at the knees for following orders, so it's good to learn overnight that border patrol commander at large" Gregory Bovino has been pulled out of Minneapolis, possibly locked out of his social media accounts, and may soon retire", presumably a fall guy for the likes of stage 4 homeland security tumour Stephen Miller. Bovino's the guy who's literally got the same haircut and outfit as the Sean Penn character in One Battle After Another. But hey, at least he wears a uniform. Again, what are international outsiders to make of the spectacle of ICE's federal officers coming masked and frequently dressed in civilian clothes, while images from protests across the States show resisting civilians increasingly drawn to military-style clothing? Can Trump's storm detachment not at least be issued with matching shirts? They don't have to be brown, but Maga chic desperately needs to make even a first step to getting itself together. In the entire history of the movement, only one follower - the QAnon shaman - has ever had true style.Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Administration signals it could scale back federal presence after backlash to fatal shooting. Plus, widespread disruption from winter storm continuesGood morning.Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol commander who has become the public face of the Trump administration's on-the-ground immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, is expected to leave the city today. The move is part of the Trump administration's reshuffling of the leadership of its immigration enforcement operation, and the scaling back of the federal presence in the city after the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, 37.Are administration officials rowing back? After Pretti was killed, administration officials were quick to label him a domestic terrorist". But during a White House press briefing yesterday, Karoline Leavitt struck a more conciliatory tone, calling Pretti's death a tragedy" - though she was careful not to directly contradict Stephen Miller, who called Pretti a would-be assassin", and she blamed the shooting on Democrats.What about the president? Trump said he held a very good call" with Walz and the mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey.What has Pretti's family said? The family of the intensive care nurse - who had no criminal record and held a legal permit to carry a firearm - said after his killing: The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting." Continue reading...
A chance encounter reminded me: there are two ways to look at what's happened in MinneapolisOne of the few advantages of being as conspicuous as I am is that many people come up to me whom I don't know, to talk about what's happening in America. It's like a free-floating focus group.On Monday morning, I was at a restaurant counter finishing my breakfast when a middle-aged man sat down next to me and said he didn't want to intrude. (He just had, so I put down my knife and fork, wiped my mouth with my napkin, and turned toward him.) He wanted me to know that although he'd been a life-long Republican, the events of the past weeks had caused him to leave the Republican party.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Guardian US columnist and his newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com. His new book, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America, is out now Continue reading...
Progressive caucus leader Greg Casar calls for five non-negotiable' items to be included before Democrats vote yesThe leader of Congress's progressive caucus on Monday called for Democratic senators to demand real reforms" to Immigration and Customs Enforcement before voting for a key spending bill, and warned that Republicans would take the blame if the standoff sparks another government shutdown.The call from Greg Casar, the Texas congressman who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, comes after the Saturday killing of US citizen Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis upset delicate negotiations in Congress intended to keep the government running beyond Friday, when the current spending authorization expires. Continue reading...
A country where safety is under threat from federal violence on the streets is not fit to stage soccer's showpiece eventRemoving the United States as co-host of the 2026 World Cup would hurt for pretty much everyone. Fans would miss out on seeing the sport's pinnacle in their home towns (or somewhere nearby). Cities and businesses small and large would lose the financial benefits they had banked on. It would be a logistical and political nightmare on an international scale, the likes of which have never been seen before in sports. It would be eminently sad. And it would be entirely justified.It brings me no pleasure to say this. The United States has been eager to host a men's World Cup for more than a decade and a half. The desire survived and even grew after 2010's failure to out-bid Russia and Qatar (in public and behind closed doors) for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. With hosting rights for 2026 later secured alongside Canada and Mexico, the US soccer scene prepared to show off that the sport is now part of the nation's fabric, 32 years after hosting the tournament for the first time in 1994. Soccer's growing popularity in America has helped inspire other US sports to try new formats, encouraged us to engage more fully with the world in a sporting context, and has been at the center of conversations about our society and culture. The 2026 World Cup was seen as the best chance for the world to fully experience not just how much the US has improved at soccer, but how much soccer has improved the US. Continue reading...
Since the Trump administration sent ICE agents into the city in December, there have been 3,000 arrests and two fatal shootings. In the freezing cold, as the crisis deepens, the Minnesotan people continue to resistIn many ways, Alex Pretti and Renee Good could have been any of the dozens of Minneapolis residents I met last week. Among them were teachers, store clerks, Uber drivers, charity workers and clergymen - a patchwork of humanity withstanding what many have called the Trump administration's siege on their city, which began in December last year and has led to 3,000 arrests, two fatal shootings, and routine rights violations in an operation defined by government brutality.What the administration has attempted to laud as the largest immigration operation in US history has instead become a fully fledged crisis, and the sharpest test of American democracy under Trump's second term. Continue reading...
by George Chidi and Rachel Leingang in Minneapolis, a on (#733KZ)
Federal agents set to scale back presence in Minneapolis as president and allies strike more conciliatory toneDonald Trump's efforts to deploy militarized immigration agents in US cities may finally be reaching a reckoning as he faces widespread opposition across the US, dissenting lawmakers in his own party, and impending court rulings after the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by federal officers in Minneapolis.While there was no sign the aggressive tactics used by immigration enforcement are coming to an end, the mayor of Minneapolis said the administration would begin to scale back the number of federal agents in Minneapolis starting on Tuesday, as the president and his team soften their harsh rhetoric regarding Pretti's killing. Continue reading...
Widely circulated video of Pretti's killing by federal agents undercut earlier assertions of him being a gunmanWhite House officials sought to rapidly distance Donald Trump and top officials from their initial portrayals of the man fatally shot by federal officials in Minnesota as a gunman, as they faced a deepening backlash after video footage was widely seen to undercut their assertions.The move came as Trump advisers appeared to realize that the caustic portrayals of the man, Alex Pretti, who was reportedly licensed to carry a gun, had turned the killing into an even larger political liability for the president. Continue reading...
President and team soften harsh rhetoric after fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by federal agents - key US politics stories from Monday 26 January at a glanceThe US news cycle remained fixed on Donald Trump's ICE crackdown in Minnesota on Monday as outrage and calls for accountability mount following the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents.While there is no sign the aggressive tactics used by immigration enforcement are coming to an end, Jacob Frey, the mayor of Minneapolis said the administration will begin to scale back the number of federal agents in Minneapolis starting on Tuesday, as the president and his team soften their harsh rhetoric about the incident. Continue reading...
Authorities allege Ryan Wedding, 44, turned to a life of crime' after his snowboarding career endedRyan Wedding, the Canadian former Olympic snowboarder accused of cocaine distribution and orchestrating several murders, appeared on Monday in a southern California courtroom for arraignment.The 44-year-old has been charged with drug trafficking, conspiracy to murder, witness tampering and money laundering, among other charges. Authorities allege that after his snowboarding career, Wedding turned to a life of crime" as a narcotics trafficker and led an organization that moved cocaine from South America to the US and Canada. Continue reading...
Lawyers argue that surge ordered by Trump administration amounts to an illegal occupation of the stateA federal court in Minneapolis heard arguments on Monday on whether the Trump administration's deployment of 3,000 immigration agents to Minnesota has crossed the line from law enforcement into unconstitutional occupation.Hours later, Kate Menendez, the Biden-appointed US district judge overseeing the case, ordered the federal government to respond to the assertion that the Trump administration's so-called Operation Metro Surge" enforcement campaign was intended to punish plaintiffs for adopting sanctuary laws and policies". Continue reading...
by Robert Mackey, Elena Morresi, Stefania Orlando, Ta on (#7343N)
Warning: this video contains footage that may be distressing to some viewersAt about 9am on Saturday, US federal agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, a Minneapolis nurse who was observing immigration officers in the city. The Guardian's video team has pieced together footage showing the attack from different angles Continue reading...
Karoline Leavitt seemed unusually defensive in discussing Alex Pretti's killing - and refused to endorse Stephen MillerWhat Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, did not say on Monday was more important than what she did.When Leavitt stepped up to the briefing room podium to address the deadly shooting of Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis, she avoided the kind of victim-blaming tirade that has become de rigueur for Donald Trump's administration. Continue reading...
The shooting of Alex Pretti was carried out by a federal agent licensed to act with impunity. The US must be rescued from Trump's authoritarianismFollowing the fatal shooting earlier this month of Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent, his colleagues received reassurance thatthey continued to enjoy federal immunity" for their actions. Anybody who lays a hand on you or tries to obstruct you is committing a felony," the White House deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, had previously stated. No city official, no state official, no illegal alien, no leftist agitator or domestic insurrectionist can prevent you from fulfilling your legal obligations andduties."Words have consequences. Ms Good, a US citizen and mother of three children, had in fact been attempting to drive away from a protest in Minneapolis, where ICE's deportation snatch squads have terrorised migrants and those who have attempted to defend their rights. On Saturday, in the same city, the same quasi-paramilitary force was responsible for a second shocking death. Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse, was shot multiple times in the back after being wrestled to the ground and pepper-sprayed. Continue reading...
by Lucy Hough Moira Donegan Bryony Moore Nosheen Iqba on (#733YS)
Federal agents shot and killed 37-year-old Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, the second such killing in the city within less than three weeks. Pretti was an intensive care nurse with no criminal record, yet federal agents raced to portray him as a violent gunman' who threatened to massacre' law enforcement. Video evidence directly contradicts this account. Since then, protests have erupted in the US. The Trump administration said it was reviewing' the incident. Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian columnist Moira Donegan. Continue reading...
Outrage mounts after US attorney general's request as state reels from the weekend killing of Alex Pretti in MinneapolisThere was widespread outrage after the attorney general, Pam Bondi, pushed for access to Minnesota's voter rolls as the state reeled from the killing of Alex Pretti over the weekend.Bondi included the demand for voter rolls in a letter she sent to the Minnesota governor, Tim Walz, on Saturday urging him to change course" in the state. In addition to turning over the voter rolls, Bondi also said the state should turn over data on those receiving public assistance and repeal sanctuary city policies in the state. Continue reading...
Chris Madel drops out of race and in video criticizes the federal retribution on the citizens' of MinnesotaA top Republican candidate for Minnesota governor has dropped out of the race, sharply criticizing what he called a federal retribution on the citizens of our state" amid the Trump administration's intensified immigration enforcement operations - which sparked public outrage after US agents' killings of ICU nurse Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis.On Monday, Minneapolis-based attorney Chris Madel made his announcement, saying in a video online: I cannot support the ... stated retribution on the citizens of our state, nor can I count myself a member of a party that would do so." Continue reading...
The US cites the wisdom' of historical immigration policy. But nation states in the Americas have spent more time with open borders than closedLate last year, Donald Trump's White House published a new National Security Strategy (NSS) outlining its vision for the world. At the time, the plan raised alarm for dismissing European alliances (now largely confirmed after Trump threatened Nato allies over Greenland), previewing interventions in Latin America (also largely confirmed by recent military action in Venezuela), and aligning closely with the priorities of the Kremlin.The document also demonizes immigrants. In one widely cited passage, it even claims that unchecked migration" has gotten so out of control that Europe is facing imminent civilizational erasure". On these grounds, the plan makes ending The Era of Mass Migration" a top priority for the US. Continue reading...
Investors seek safe haven in precious metal, while Japan's government spooks money markets with tax-cuts pledgeThe price of gold has jumped above $5,000 an ounce for the first time as Donald Trump's chaotic policies and proclamations drive more investors to seek safe harbour in the precious metal.Gold reached a record high of $5,100 (3,723) on Monday morning, before easing back to settle up 2.2% at $5,091. Continue reading...
If they're trying to eliminate witnesses, they cannot eliminate us allHis last words, spoken to a woman who had been tackled to the ground and pepper-sprayed by nearby ICE agents, were Are you OK?" Alex Pretti was an intensive care nurse at a VA hospital; those who knew him recalled, among other things, his devotion to his elderly dog, Joule, who died about a year ago.In bystander videos taken of Pretti's death, he can be seen holding up his phone to video ICE agents operating in Minneapolis, and waving cars around him to avoid the officers as they attack other onlookers. After he is dragged away from the woman he was trying to help, a gaggle of ICE officers surround Pretti and force him to the ground, beating and restraining him there as he struggles to free himself. Continue reading...
Last week, the independent photographer John Abernathy was tackled to the ground by ICE agents during a protest in Minneapolis. He said he tossed his camera in the hope of saving his photographs because the images of the protests 'deserve to be seen'. The Department of Homeland Security told CNN Abernathy had been arrested for obstructing pedestrian and vehicle traffic on federal property
Has extreme weather left you without power, or your child's school closed due to heavy snow? We would like to hear from youAt least seven people have died as afierce winter storm sweeps across the US,leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power, schools and roads closed, and flights cancelled.Twenty-six states, from Texas to Massachusetts, were under storm warnings issued by the National Weather Service over the weekend, with many alerts remaining in place this week. Continue reading...
Thousands join the anti-ICE rallies across the US calling for an end to federal crackdowns and the abolition of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and US Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The demonstration came after the recent fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse, by federal agents in Minneapolis Continue reading...
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