World Series winner Sean Doolittle, Super Bowl champion Doug Baldwin and college star McKenzie Forbes have strong opinions on a troubled eraAt 6.38pm CST on Saturday January 24, Indiana Pacer star Tyrese Haliburton posted on X: Alex Pretti was murdered."The NBA star was one of the first athletes to respond to what can only be described as the public execution by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials of 37-year-old nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. Pretti's death was the culmination of a weeks-long campaign of terror conducted against residents of the city, including Renee Good, who was herself killed by DHS forces just two weeks earlier. Indeed, Operation Metro Surge" in Minneapolis has accounted for two-thirds of homicides in the city in 2026. Continue reading...
Virginia Ginny' Oliver, had entered the business when she was eight and liked being along the water'Maine's governor has hailed the life of a woman who spent nearly 100 years fishing for lobsters as amazing" and expressed hopes that her memory inspires the next century of hardworking" fishers in the state.The subject of Governor Janet Mills' tribute, Virginia Ginny" Oliver, died on 21 January at age 105, according to an obituary published on Monday by her family. Continue reading...
Video shows the Hudson frozen partially frozen near the George Washington Bridge in New York City after a heavy winter snowstorm. Eight people were found dead outside over the frigid weekend in the city, officials said, as New York experienced its snowiest day in years, recording 20-38cm (8-15in) of snow. At least 30 deaths were linked to a winter storm that hit North America's north-east. Some regions may not see temperatures rise above freezing until early February with the midwest, in particular, forecast to shiver in exceptionally frosty conditions Continue reading...
Dana White has promised boxers a new deal. But the deal he's offering looks worse than the old one. Will Congress give Zuffa the power to dominate boxing?Even Turki al-Sheikh's most severe critics acknowledge that, under his guidance, the Saudi interests that have dominated professional boxing in recent years have paid generous purses to fighters. Now the Saudis have turned to TKO Group Holdings and Dana White to oversee Zuffa Boxing - a newly created vehicle designed to expand the footprint of its equity partners in the United States.Zuffa Boxing is taking a far less generous approach toward fighters than Sheikh did. That's evidenced by the contract that many of the fighters being recruited by Zuffa are being asked to sign. Continue reading...
In the Caribbean and Latin America, the lived reality of these measures - presented in the language of diplomacy - is starkAcross borders, cultures and faiths, most ordinary people want the same things: the ability to earn a living, put a roof over their heads, feed their families and watch their children grow up with a future. These are not radical ideas, but they are today routinely sacrificed on the altar of geopolitics.When power and profit take precedence, governments abandon the everyday realities of those they claim to protect and serve, especially when domination of another country's resources, markets or political direction is at stake. Continue reading...
Whether he's targeting Greenland, tariffs or Iran, Trump's agenda is to distract - because a Europe that is always reacting is never planningWhen Donald Trump reassured the world that he would not, after all, use force to acquire Greenland - after days of threatening as much - he was doing what he does best: turning geopolitics into a spectacle. Whether Trump ever truly believed the US should acquire a vast Arctic territory belonging to a Nato ally is secondary to the fact that, once again, he ensured that Europe and the rest of the world were focused on his agenda.Trump is not a politician who responds to events - he seeks to make them. Not because he is deeply invested in policy detail, but because he understands a defining feature of contemporary politics: attention is power. In an era of information overload, there is no scarcity of data or analysis; what is lacking is attention. And whoever controls that controls the debate. Continue reading...
Democrats and a couple of their Republican colleagues are demanding Noem's resignation over federal killings in Minneapolis - key US politics stories from Tuesday 27 January at a glanceTop Democrats issued a clear message to Donald Trump this week: either he fires Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, or they will impeach her.The ultimatum came after a majority of the House Democratic caucus signed on to articles of impeachment introduced earlier this month in response to the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both US citizens fatally shot by federal agents during the increasingly violent immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota's largest city. Continue reading...
Authorities say suspect, who escaped from facility in 2024, ran from traffic stop and fired shots at helicopterA shooting involving a border patrol agent near the US-Mexico border in Arizona has left an accused smuggler in critical condition, local authorities said Tuesday.Border patrol agents attempted to stop a car at about 7am, Pima county sheriff Chris Nanos said at a press conference. Several people exited the car and ran off, and the vehicle drove away, Nanos said. About half an hour later, agents relocated the car and attempted to stop it again. The driver fled on foot, and a border agent chased after him. Continue reading...
Three boys in Texas die after falling into icy pond, while outages mean many in US south still without powerA colossal winter storm was responsible for more than 40 deaths as it brought more snow to the north-east and maintained icy conditions in the south, leaving many across the US without electricity.The deaths were registered in more than a dozen states afflicted by severe cold, according to reports. There were still about 550,000 power outages in the nation on Tuesday morning, according to poweroutage.us. Most of the outages were in the south, where weekend blasts of freezing rain caused tree limbs and power lines to snap, inflicting crippling outages on northern Mississippi and parts of Tennessee. Officials warned that it could take days for power to be restored. Continue reading...
Crash that killed 67 was 100% preventable', says NTSB chair at hearing that addressed history of missed opportunitiesNational Transportation Safety Board members were deeply troubled on Tuesday over years of ignored warnings about helicopter traffic dangers and other problems, long before an American Airlines jet and an Army Black Hawk collided a year ago, killing 67 people near Washington DC.The placement of a helicopter route in the approach path of Reagan national airport's secondary runway created a dangerous airspace and a lack of regular safety risk reviews made it worse, the board said. That was a key factor in the crash along with air traffic controllers' over reliance on asking helicopter pilots to avoid other aircraft. Continue reading...
Key senators urge resignation as Democrats threaten to impeach DHS secretary if Trump does not fire herTop House Democrats on Tuesday told Donald Trump to fire Kristi Noem or they would launch impeachment proceedings against the homeland security secretary, in response to the weekend killing of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, as two Republican senators join calls for her to resign.The ultimatum from Democrats came after a majority of the House caucus signed on to articles of impeachment introduced earlier in the month in response to the shooting death of Renee Good, who, like Pretti, was a US citizen killed by federal agents during the increasingly violent immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota's largest city. Continue reading...
Planet closer to destruction as Russia, China and US become more aggressive and nationalistic, says advocacy groupEarth is closer than it has ever been to destruction as Russia, China, the US and other countries become increasingly aggressive, adversarial, and nationalistic", a science-oriented advocacy group said on Tuesday as it advanced its Doomsday Clock to 85 seconds until midnight.The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist members had an initial demonstration on Friday and then announced their results on Tuesday. Continue reading...
by Maya Yang and Shrai Popat in Minneapolis on (#73528)
Report emerges as Trump signals he may reduce the surge of ICE and other federal agents in the stateAs federal immigration crackdowns in Minnesota continued on Tuesday, an initial report to Congress from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) obtained by various news outlets indicates that two officers fired their guns at Alex Pretti during his fatal shooting.The report emerged as Donald Trump signals he may begin reducing the surge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal agents in the state. Continue reading...
Ruling is a setback for Democrats looking to increase number of seats in midterm House elections in NovemberA Virginia judge ruled on Tuesday that a proposed constitutional amendment letting Democrats redraw the state's congressional maps was illegal, setting back the party's efforts to pick up seats in the US House in November.Tazewell circuit court judge Jack Hurley Jr struck down the legislature's actions on three grounds, including finding that lawmakers failed to follow their own rules for adding the redistricting amendment to a special session. Continue reading...
Texas judge says Liam Ramos and his father cannot be removed as litigation challenging their detention proceedsA federal judge ruled on Tuesday that a five-year-old Minnesota boy and his father cannot be immediately deported, one week after their arrest sparked international outrage.A Texas-based judge issued an order saying Liam Ramos, the preschooler, and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, cannot be removed or transferred out of the judicial district where they are being held while the litigation challenging their detention proceeds. Continue reading...
Before wild feline was caught, authorities had advised residents to slowly back away if they encountered itWildlife officials in San Francisco captured a young mountain lion that was spotted roaming the streets of the city.Authorities issued a warning to residents late on Monday, saying a mountain lion had been seen walking the streets in the Pacific Heights neighborhood and advised people to slowly back away from the animal if they encountered it. Continue reading...
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...
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