Yesterday’s News 2026 01 28

curated news excerpts & citations

Rachel Hurley on Facebook: Federal government brought military weapons to Minnesota

Not for a war zone. For a protest in a parking lot outside a Marriott.

On January 26th – yesterday – law enforcement showed up to a protest in Maple Grove with an LRAD. That’s a Long Range Acoustic Device. The military developed them after the USS Cole bombing in 2000 to blast warnings at approaching boats from a quarter mile away. They can hit 162 decibels. A jet engine is 140. The threshold for permanent hearing damage is 130.
…
One professor who got hit by an LRAD at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh described it this way: “The intensity of being hit at close range by a high-pitched sound blast designed to deter pirate boats and terrorists at least a quarter mile away is indescribable. The sound vibrates through you and causes pain throughout your body, not only in the ears. I thought I might die.”

That was Karen Piper. She sued the city. She has permanent hearing loss now.
…
In 2017, a U.S. District Court determined that using an LRAD against protesters could constitute excessive force and violate the Constitution. The NYPD had to settle a lawsuit in 2021 over using one against Black Lives Matter protesters.
…
Eyewitness accounts from January 7th describe them on Bearcats at the scene where Renee Good was killed. What I can’t confirm is whether they’ve actually fired the deterrent tone at protesters. But the presence alone is a threat. That’s the point.

(Rachel Hurley more…)

Washington Post: Outrage over ICE has spilled into typically apolitical online spaces

Fury over Alex Pretti’s killing has flooded forums for golfers, cat lovers and bourbon aficionados, reflecting a growing outrage over the Trump administration’s crackdown.

… for some creators, Pretti’s killing and the pileup of ICE confrontations in American cities was already being seen as an “inflection point” driving them to further express their anger and political beliefs, said John Young, a golf influencer in Rhode Island with nearly 20,000 Instagram followers. He posted a video Sunday showing him tee off alongside a message telling viewers that “politics is at your doorstep whether you like it or not.”
…
“For some people this conversation often centers around the costs of speaking out, because they feel they need to protect their brand, their financial incentives. But there’s a cost of saying nothing, too,” he said. “I refuse to wake up in five or 10 years and look at myself in the mirror and say, ‘You had a platform and did nothing.’”
(Washington Post more…)

Politico: Gun rights groups blast Trump over Minnesota response

…
“The FBI director needs to brush off that thing called the Constitution, because he clearly hasn’t read it,” National Association for Gun Rights President Dudley Brown told POLITICO. “I know of no more crucial place to carry a firearm for self defense than a protest.”

NY Times: Outcry in Italy as U.S. Says ICE Agents Will Join Olympics Delegation

…
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will join a security team from the State Department at the Olympics “to vet and mitigate risks from transnational criminal organizations,” D.H.S. said in a statement attributed to Tricia McLaughlin, the department’s assistant secretary for public affairs.

Reuters: Ecuador says ICE agent tried to enter consulate in Minneapolis

• Heather Delaney Reese: We can’t pretend that Trump is calling all the shots

  With puffy eyes, hunched shoulders, and a bruised hand, he sat behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office and told us just how much he despises being the president. When asked why he appears to be sleeping during high-stakes meetings, he said, “It’s boring as hell… I’m going around a room, and I’ve got 28 guys; the last one was three and a half hours. I have to sit back and listen, and I move my hand so that people will know I’m listening. I’m hearing every word, and I can’t wait to get out.”

  This wasn’t a joke. And it wasn’t taken out of context. It was the President of the United States, in his own words, admitting he has no interest in governing. That he holds disdain for the people speaking to him. That he fakes his way through the job, pretending to listen instead of leading. That he feels no real responsibility, no curiosity, no desire to understand what’s happening in the country he’s supposed to be running. He’s not tired from the weight of the office. He’s tired of being asked to care.

  And then came a moment that said even more than the words themselves. Talking about his father, Fred Trump, he said, “He had one problem… At a certain age, about 86, 87, he started getting, what do they call it?” He couldn’t remember the word. He pointed to his forehead and looked to his press secretary for help. “Alzheimer’s,” Karoline Leavitt answered. “Like an Alzheimer’s thing,” Trump said. “Well, I don’t have it.” When asked if it was something he thinks about, he replied, “No, I don’t think about it at all. You know why? Because whatever it is, my attitude is whatever.”

  His response didn’t make sense. Not because he misspoke, but because he didn’t care if it made sense. …
  …
  … The interview contains even more disturbing moments, including one where Trump warned the reporter that if they wrote a negative piece about his health, he would “sue the ass off” the publication, adding that there might come a time when such a story “wouldn’t matter as much.” His thoughts often drift into incoherence. I highly recommend reading the full interview for yourself.

  The interview, published by New York Magazine and titled The Superhuman President: A good-faith attempt to ascertain the truth about Donald Trump’s health by Ben Terris, is careful and restrained. It lets Trump speak for himself, which, in this case, is more than enough. …
  …
  And this isn’t just about one man anymore. It’s about the system propping him up. The reason his decline is being allowed to continue is because powerful people are benefiting from it. Stephen Miller. Susie Wiles. Peter Thiel. The architects of Project 2025. The Heritage Foundation. Turning Point USA. Elon Musk. And so many others. Names we didn’t elect. Names with no accountability to the public. They feed Trump what he wants to hear, keep him calm enough to sign what they need signed, and then run the country through him like a puppet. And the more Trump checks out, the easier it becomes for the regime to centralize power in the shadows. The man who once prided himself on firing people face-to-face is now asleep in meetings while others decide the fate of millions.
  (Heather Delaney Reese more…)

  ---

• Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – January 27, 2026

  … People, a widely read popular magazine that has devoted more of its pages to politics lately than in the past, has been publishing stories of those who died in ICE custody last year—at least 32—including Geraldo Lunas Campos, whose death in ICE custody in Texas has been ruled a homicide. It told readers about five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, detained by ICE after being used as bait to capture relatives, and of Wael Tarabishi, who died of a rare genetic disease thirty days after his father, Wael’s primary caregiver, was detained by ICE at a routine check-in at an ICE facility in Dallas.

  News broke today that federal agents deported a five-year-old U.S. citizen to Honduras, a country where she had never been before being sent there with her mother. The agents did not permit either to have access to a lawyer or a hearing before a judge. An immigration attorney tried to find them, but ICE agents allegedly told the attorney the mother and child weren’t in their database. The two were being held at a hotel rather than a detention center, a choice some advocates suspect was designed to keep them from being included in such a database.
  …

  Before a Border Patrol agent shot Renee Good, he captured her face and license plate on camera, and in Maine, a protester recorded an agent responding to her question of why he was recording her license plate. “We have a nice little database,” he answered, “and now you are considered a domestic terrorist.”

  This information also seems to reflect Trump’s 2025 National Security Presidential Memorandum NSPM-7 that suggests anyone objecting to the administration’s policies is a domestic terrorist.
  (Heather Cox Richardson more…)

  ---

• MS NOW: Asked about Ilhan Omar being accosted, Trump’s ugly response spoke volumes

  It would’ve been easy for the president to say, “No elected official should ever face violence, assaults or threats.” But Trump is who he appears to be.
  …
  “I think she’s a fraud,” the president said, overlooking his own troubled past with fraud allegations. The Republican added, “She probably had herself sprayed, knowing her.”
  …

  I’m trying to imagine what the reaction would be if two Republican members of Congress were assaulted over the course of five days, and a Democratic president made no effort to denounce the incidents and instead responded with ugly and conspiratorial nonsense.
  (MS NOW more…)

  ---

• Lucian K. Truscott IV: Don’t be distracted by Trump’s lies and three-card monte games with immigration. He’s hiding something bigger.

  ---

• Jay Kuo: Bondi’s Shakedown Gives Away The Game

  The DOJ is demanding voter data, and what they could do with it should alarm us all

  ---

• Hans Christensen: Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and the UK today pledged to chart a massive offshore wind buildout to 300 GW in the North Sea by 2050.

  ---

• FreePress: How Trump Officials’ Rhetoric Backfired in Minnesota

  Denunciations of Alex Pretti after he was killed are fueling distrust of Trump’s crackdown, say Republicans and former immigration officials.
  …
  There also are signs that the Trump administration has begun to realize that its response to the deaths of Pretti and Renee Good, shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent on January 7, might be the biggest public-relations crisis of his presidency.
  (FreePress more…)

  Joyce Vance: ICE: Getting The Scrutiny It Deserves

  Axios is reporting tonight that “the big picture” is that “Trump wants a peace-with-honor withdrawal from Minnesota that doesn’t look like his immigration surge was a loss driven by botched law enforcement efforts under Bovino, and plummeting poll numbers.” “Botched law enforcement efforts” is apparently a more delicate way of saying the murder of two American citizens in Minneapolis and countless assaults and constitutional rights violations committed against other people.

  The agent who flashed his naked butt out of a hotel window at a crowd of protestors before flipping them the bird has drawn little attention, perhaps because it seems so tawdry and unimportant against the backdrop of violence ICE has brought to the city. But it’s a worthwhile reminder that “Operation Metro Surge” was not conducted with the professionalism that taxpayers, who pay agents’ salaries, benefits, and expenses, are entitled to expect from them.
  (Joyce Vance more…)

  ---

  

• Paul Krugman: How Canada Became an Enemy

  Until Alex Pretti was murdered, the biggest story of the weekend was Donald Trump’s threat to impose 100 percent tariffs on Canada. Obviously Pretti and the backlash that followed were far more important than trade policy.

  But while the murder of Pretti and its consquences are the most important issue for America right now, we shouldn’t let the attack on Canada slide.
  (Paul Krugman more…)

  ---

  

• Jennifer Rubin: Apparently, Trump wants to erase the 4th and 2nd Amendments

  The rogue Department of Homeland Security, declaring itself to be above mere constitutional restraints, has now murdered two Americans without provocation or excuse, lied about both, and tried to block any independent investigation (excluding even the FBI from the inquiry into Alex Pretti’s execution, suggesting it understands that not even Kash Patel’s bureau will consent to a coverup).

  Moreover, DHS has said it need not abide by one of the cornerstones of our democracy, the 4^th Amendment (which sprang from a central grievance against George III’s tyranny), nor does it intend to protect the rightwing’s favorite item in the Bill of Rights, the 2^nd Amendment. In doing so, the Trump regime reveals itself once again as a lawless rogue operation seeking to turn America into a police state.
  (Jennifer Rubin more…)

  ---

• Steward Beckham: Is This a Sigh of Relief?

  Also, how racist is America really? Or is it just the subconscious American-made machinery of empire?
  …

  But here’s the thing power loves most: a story of resolution that costs it nothing structural.

  (Steward Beckham more…)

  ---

  

• truthout: ICE Was Warned About Conditions at Fort Bliss Migrant Jail. Then 2 Men Died.

  …
  On December 8, before the two men died, a coalition of civil and human rights groups sent a letter to acting ICE Director Todd Lyons and other top Trump administration officials warning about “alarming” conditions at Camp East Montana. The facility had just reported the death of an immigrant, Francisco Gaspar-Andrés, the first person to die at the camp since its opening less than four months earlier. The groups said additional deaths were imminent if the camp continued to operate.
  (truthout more…)

  ---

• Home of the Brave: A French NBA Star Just Broke Pro Athletes’ Silence on ICE

  Why aren’t more athletes calling out the administration?
  

  
  
  
  Wembenyama seems fully aware that speaking out may lose him some fans, but he doesn’t seem to care. His comments will probably win him some new fans, anyway. As he makes clear, it shouldn’t be seen as a radical, dangerous, or controversial action for an athlete to condemn the senseless killing of two innocent people who were peacefully exercising their constitutional rights.
  (Home of the Brave more…)

  ESPN: Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama ‘horrified’ by Minnesota shootings

  ---

• NPR: TikTok is investigating why some users can’t write ‘Epstein’ in messages

  Officials at TikTok say they are looking into why many users have been unable to send the word “Epstein” in direct messages, an issue that garnered widespread attention on social media Monday and prompted California Gov. Gavin Newsom to announce an inquiry into the matter.
  …
  The timing isn’t lost on anyone.

  It comes just days after TikTok finalized a sale that gave a consortium of mostly American investors control of TikTok’s business in the U.S, a deal that averted a nationwide ban of the app over national security concerns tied to its Chinese parent company.

  Among the lead investors is tech firm Oracle, which is run by billionaire Larry Ellison. He’s a close ally of President Trump, whose connection to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has plagued the administration for months.

  Among the lead investors is tech firm Oracle, which is run by billionaire Larry Ellison. He’s a close ally of President Trump, whose connection to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has plagued the administration for months.
  (NPR more…)

  arsTECHNICA: TikTok users “absolutely justified” for fearing MAGA makeover, experts say

  TikTok wants users to believe that errors blocking uploads of anti-ICE videos or direct messages mentioning Jeffrey Epstein are due to technical errors—not the platform seemingly shifting to censor content critical of Donald Trump after he hand-picked the US owners who took over the app last week.
  …
  “Even if these are technical glitches, the pattern of what’s being suppressed reveals something significant,” Literat told Ars. “When your ‘bug’ consistently affects anti-Trump content, Epstein references, and anti-ICE videos, you’re looking at either spectacular coincidence or systems that have been designed—whether intentionally or through embedded biases—to flag and suppress specific political content.”

  ---

• Chronicle of Higher Education: This State Has Plenty of Money. It’s Weighing Cuts to Its Only Public University Anyway.

  ---

• AP: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott halts new H-1B visa petitions at state agencies and universities

  ---

• Eric Lullove: The “Great Healthcare Plan” Has a Fatal Flaw

  A physician explains why Trump’s proposal risks patients, doctors, and the stability of American medicine

  ---

• Apple Insider: If you give ChatGPT your health data, have your doctor on speed-dial

  ---

• Nate Silver: The sad and self-inflicted decline of the Washington Post, in one chart

  Under Jeff Bezos, the paper retreated from the adversarial, anti-Trump posture that helped fuel its growth. And now its influence has fallen sharply.
  

  
  
  
  (Nate Silver more…)

  ---

• Raw Story: Trump DOJ leaves out crucial detail in latest Epstein files update

  ---

  
  This is a song I wrote that can be freely shared and sung.
  # # # #’
  Are you gonna pull the trigger,
  and shoot me in the back
  when I’m trying to help somebody
  who’s havin’ a heart attack?

  Are you gonna pull the trigger,
  and shoot me in the face
  when I’m caught up in a traffic jam
  and just wanna leave that place?

  What will you tell your Mama
  when you get back from town?
  “She was a woman just like you,
  and Ma, I shot her down!”

  What will you tell your children
  when they ask you what you did?
  “I beat up a man in handcuffs
  and arrested all his kids!”

  How did it happen, Brother?
  What twisted you so bad?
  They’re giving illegal orders
  and Hon, you’re being had.

  Are you gonna pull the trigger,
  and shoot me in the head,
  slander my name all over the place
  and be happy that I’m dead?

  Not much I can do to stop it,
  if that’s the choice you make,
  because I can’t bow to a bully,
  but just hope you’ll soon awake
  from this dream of domination
  they’ve planted in your head,
  and come to see you’re just like me
  and that we were all misled.

  If you’ve got to pull the trigger,
  think twice before you aim!
  Be sure you see a real enemy,
  the ones who are to blame
  for your lousy education,
  and the dead-end jobs you’ve had,
  for the price of your baby’s medicine,
  and the dreams that all went bad.

  ---

  ICE deaths 2026 – They deserve remembrance and justice.
  1. January 24: Alex Pretti
  2. January 14: Heber Sanchaz Dominguez
  3. January 14: Victor Manuel Diaz
  4. January 9: Parady La
  5. January 7: Renée Good
  6. January 6: Luis Beltran Yanez-Cruz
  7. January 5: Luis Gustavo Nunez Caceres
  8. January 3: Geraldo Lunas Campos
  9. December 31, 2025: Keith Porter

  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

  1. The Impact Map
  2. United States Disappeared Tracker
  3. ICE Flight Tracking
  4. Regulatory Changes Tracker
  5. Trump Administration Litigation Trackers
  6. Far Right Groups Targeting Pride Month