curated news excerpts & citations
AP: The man killed by a US Border Patrol officer in Minneapolis was an ICU nurse, family says
Family members say the man killed by a U.S. Border Patrol officer in Minneapolis on Saturday was an intensive care nurse at a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital who cared deeply about people and was upset by President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in his city.
Alex Jeffrey Pretti, 37, was an avid outdoorsman who enjoyed getting in adventures with Joule, his beloved Catahoula Leopard dog who also recently died. He had participated in protests following the killing of Renee Good by a U.S. Immigration and Customs officer on Jan. 7.
“He cared about people deeply and he was very upset with what was happening in Minneapolis and throughout the United States with ICE, as millions of other people are upset,” said Michael Pretti, Alex’s father. “He thought it was terrible, you know, kidnapping children, just grabbing people off the street. He cared about those people, and he knew it was wrong, so he did participate in protests.”
(AP more…)
Mother Jones: Video Contradicts Trump Administration Account of Minneapolis Killing
… DHS claimed that “an individual approached US Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun.”
DHS has tried to back that up by saying Pretti had a handgun on him at the time, sharing a photo of it in the same social media post. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said on Saturday that Pretti appeared to be a licensed gun owner. But the video published by Drop Site makes clear that he was not holding a weapon in the lead-up to the shooting, or when federal agents forcefully took him to the ground. Instead, he only appears to be holding his phone to record the situation.
another video, including minute before shooting,
may be restricted to watch at YouTube
zeteo: DHS Shooting Victim in Minneapolis Was a ‘Sweet’ and ‘Principled Person’
Zeteo spoke with two doctors who worked with Alex Pretti, a nurse who is the latest victim of Trump’s violent invasion of Minnesota.
Reddit r/law video: Alex Pretti – who DHS labeled a domestic terrorist – honoring a veteran that passed away in the ICU.
Hindustan Times: Kyle Rittenhouse’s posts on Alex Pretti shooting, protests spark outrage; ‘come to Minneapolis’
LAWdork: The ICE killing of Alex Pretti, the second in Minneapolis, prompts quick legal action
After ICE agents killed the nurse on Saturday, lawyers responded quickly — leading to one TRO issued before the night’s end aimed at preserving evidence of the killing.
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In less than 12 hours, a clear picture had emerged:
- A nurse, Alex Pretti, was trying to help members of his community — directing traffic amidst an immigration enforcement action — before being confronted by a federal agent, surrounded by several agents, taken to the ground, and shot multiple times — including in the back.
- A person who had received help from Pretti minutes earlier was feet away from him, recording as the federal agents killed him.
- A doctor who saw the shooting from their apartment and rushed out in the cold to provide help found the federal agents not attempting to provide any medical help to Pretti.
- Instead, the federal agents worked to prevent state and local law enforcement from doing their jobs, taking witnesses away from the scene and refusing state and local law enforcement with access to the crime scene.
Before the day’s end, U.S. District Judge Eric Tostrud, a Trump appointee, had taken the first step toward addressing that final aspect, granting a temporary restraining order in the new case barring the federal government from “destroying or altering evidence” related to the killing of Pretti.
(LAWdork more…)
Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – January 24, 2026
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It looked like an execution.
After he was dead, the agents walked away, apparently making no effort to preserve the crime scene, which people on the street later tried to secure by walling it off with trash bins.
As journalist Philip Bump noted, administration officials didn’t even pretend to wait for more information before jumping straight to “the opponent of the state deserved it.”
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
Wired: The Instant Smear Campaign Against Border Patrol Shooting Victim Alex Pretti
Within minutes of the shooting, the Trump administration and right-wing influencers began disparaging the man shot by a federal immigration officer on Saturday in Minneapolis.
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Fortune: Days after saying ‘it’s a good thing’ for Mark Carney to sign a trade deal with China, Trump vows a 100% tariff on Canada for doing so
President Donald Trump continued to deliver trade whiplash, saying Saturday that the U.S. will impose a 100% tariff on Canada if it reaches a trade deal with China.
In a social media post, he warned Canada not to become a “Drop Off Port” for Chinese goods meant for the U.S.
“China will eat Canada alive, completely devour it, including the destruction of their businesses, social fabric, and general way of life,” Trump added. “If Canada makes a deal with China, it will immediately be hit with a 100% Tariff against all Canadian goods and products coming into the U.S.A.”
The office of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Last week, China and Canada reached an agreement to lower trade barriers. It includes cuts to Chinese tariffs on certain Canadian agricultural products, and reduced Canadian tariffs on 49,000 Chinese EVs.
When asked about the deal, Trump voiced his approval.
“Well, that’s OK, that’s what you should be doing. I mean, it’s a good thing for him to sign a trade deal. If you can get a deal with China, you should do that, right?” he said Jan. 15.
Days later, Carney delivered a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that warned of a “rupture” in the world order after Trump threatened tariffs on NATO allies unless they backed his plan to take over Greenland.
Without calling out Trump by name, Carney also denounced using “tariffs as leverage, financial infrastructure as coercion, supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited.”
(Fortune more…)WSJ: Trump Threatens New Tariffs on Canada Over China
… It capped a week in which Carney resolved a trade dispute with China, America’s biggest economic rival, and delivered a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland urging smaller powers to unite against economic coercion from the world’s great powers.
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Marcy Wheeler: What Is DOJ Really After in Raiding Hannah Natanson?
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Obviously, DOJ could have targeted Natanson for no other reason than they want to go after all 1200 Signal contacts she had.But whatever the reason, or reasons, the Aurelio Perez-Lugones seems like a pretext, a convenient national security case DOJ can invoke to try to identify thousands of whistleblowers, including whistleblowers who have firsthand evidence about the increasing authoritarianism of the Trump power grab.
(Marcy Wheeler more…)
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Hans Christensen: France Steps Up Its Role in Ukraine
French President Emmanuel Macron is stepping up to show a more confident direct involvement in the conflict with Russia over the now 4 year-long illegal attack and war on Ukraine.
In his New Year message to the French military, to top brass and personnel assembled at the main Istres Air Base, and broadcast on the Elysée channel, on 15 January, Macron asserted that France and its armed forces are asserting an increasingly dominant role in Europe and the world. He stops short of naming but it is clear that Macron indicates that France has to fill in when USA is abandoning. He mentions both Ukraine and Greenland but maintains that France has a unique position while being able to intervene anywhere on the Globe, not just Greenland and Ukraine.
(Hans Christensen more…)
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Inside Climate News: A Small Oil Company Polluted Midland’s Water Reserve. The Cleanup Has Dragged on for Years.
Cleaning up oilfield pollution in arid West Texas is costly and complicated. The bankruptcy process allows companies to move on while the public pays the price.
(Inside Climate News more…)
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Hollywood Reporter: Man Arrested at CAA’s Sundance Party Following Racially-Charged Assault of Florida Congressman
The man allegedly stated how proud he was to be “white” after which he confronted Maxwell Alejandro Frost and told him “Trump was going to deport me before he punched me in the face,” confirms the politician.
(Hollywood Reporter more…)
Margaret Chase Smith: Declaration of Conscience
NPR: January 6, 2021: A visual archive
Accountability Initiative ICE List
GriftMatrix
Trump Action Tracker
Timeline: Tracking the Trump Justice Department’s Anti-Voting Shift
Tracking the Lawsuits Against Trump’s Agenda
Trump Pardons Database
Project 2025 Tracker
DOGE Tracker
ProPublica: Elon Musk’s Demolition Crew
Wired: 6 Tools for Tracking the Trump Administration’s Attacks on Civil Liberties
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