If you value what we do, please support our work with a donation. In a statement, National Nurses United (NNU) strongly condemned the killing of Pretti, saying the shooting demonstrates the “violence, terror, and lawlessness” and “dire public health threat” that federal immigration agencies pose to communities nationwide. “The nation's nurses, who make it their mission to care for and save human lives, are horrified and outraged that immigration agents have once again committed cold-blooded murder of a public observer who posed no threat to them,” NNU said. “ICE agents have been kidnapping hard working people — mothers, fathers, and children — and now murdered a registered nurse, one of the most trusted professions in the country.” Pretti, 37, was an intensive care nurse at a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital. Senate Democrats have said that they are going to block the vote, but Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer reportedly told his caucus in a call on Sunday not to back calls to abolish the agency; instead, he said, the message must be to “restrain, reform and restrict ICE.” Pretti was also a union member, part of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which condemned his killing in a statement, but did not name ICE. Those who knew Pretti have described him as a man who was drawn to nursing and opposed to ICE's raids because of his deep care for people and passion for helping those in need. Pretti's family condemned the Trump administration's “sickening lies” about Pretti, as officials sought to label him as a terrorist and “would-be assassin” after the shooting. NNU's statement adds to growing calls for the abolition of ICE, which, along with DHS and CBP, was created under the Bush administration in order to surveil Americans and enforce the global “war on terror” at home, to disastrous effect. Pretti was the second person to be shot and killed by federal agents on the streets of Minneapolis in a matter of weeks, with agents killing Renee Nicole Good earlier this month. Whereas data analyzed by Civiqs in January 2025 found that only 24 percent of Americans supported abolishing the agency, a YouGov/Economist poll found last week that 45 percent now support the idea, tied with those opposed. Progressive nonprofits are the latest target caught in Trump's crosshairs. With the aim of eliminating political opposition, Trump and his sycophants are working to curb government funding, constrain private foundations, and even cut tax-exempt status from organizations he dislikes. We're concerned, because Truthout is not immune to such bad-faith attacks. We can only resist Trump's attacks by cultivating a strong base of support. The right-wing mediasphere is funded comfortably by billionaire owners and venture capitalist philanthropists. Truthout has launched a fundraiser, and we have only 72 hours left to raise $25,000. This article is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), and you are free to share and republish under the following terms: Sharon Zhang is a news writer at Truthout covering politics, climate and labor. Before coming to Truthout, Sharon had written stories for Pacific Standard, The New Republic, and more. Get the news you want, delivered to your inbox every day. Truthout must raise $25,000 for our basic publishing costs this month.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has told Europe it should “keep on dreaming” if it thinks it can defend itself without the support of the United States. “If anyone thinks here again that the European Union, or Europe as a whole, can defend itself without the US, keep on dreaming. We need each other,” Rutte said during an address to the European Parliament in Brussels on Monday. The NATO chief warned European nations they would need to increase defense spending to 10% if they “really want to do it alone,” adding they would need to build up their own nuclear capability, costing billions of euros. “In that scenario, you will lose the ultimate guarantor of our freedom, which is the US nuclear umbrella. So hey, good luck,” he said. The comments came after a rollercoaster week for Europe and its Western allies, after President Donald Trump continued to advance his demands for the US ownership of Greenland, before publicly ruling out the use of force to annex the Arctic island during his speech at World Economic Forum in Switzerland's Davos. There is an issue with the Arctic region. There is an issue of collective security, because these sea lanes are opening up, and because the Chinese and the Russians are more and more active,” he said. Rutte outlined there would be two work streams going forward regarding the Greenland issue. The first would involve NATO taking more collective responsibility for the defense of the Arctic, to prevent Russia and China's access to the region, both militarily and economically. Rinse and Repeat: Western allies ready for next rollercoaster with Donald Trump Rutte said he would not be involved in the discussions, adding that he has no mandate to negotiate on behalf of Denmark, and will not do so. Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and his Greenlandic counterpart Vivian Motzfeld met with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington earlier this month. Rasmussen said the meeting was “constructive” but that a “fundamental disagreement” persists. The following week, Trump and Rutte met in Davos, with the president claiming he had reached a framework for a Greenland deal with the NATO chief, and as a result said he would no longer impose tariffs on European nations that had opposed his ambitions to acquire the semi-autonomous territory of Denmark. It's not yet fully clear what's included in the framework, or Rutte's exact role in the negotiations, but Trump's stunning about-turn once again shone the spotlight on the NATO secretary general.

Truthout is an indispensable resource for activists, movement leaders and workers everywhere. Please make this work possible with a quick donation. ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. The demonstration, Cohen wrote, would showcase “exciting new AI tools available to DOT rule writers to help us do our job better and faster.” Discussion of the plan continued among agency leadership last week, according to meeting notes reviewed by ProPublica. Zerzan appeared interested mainly in the quantity of regulations that AI could produce, not their quality. “We don't need the perfect rule on XYZ. We don't even need a very good rule on XYZ,” he said, according to the meeting notes. The agency's rules touch virtually every facet of transportation safety, including regulations that keep airplanes in the sky, prevent gas pipelines from exploding and stop freight trains carrying toxic chemicals from skidding off the rails. Why, some staffers wondered, would the federal government outsource the writing of such critical standards to a nascent technology notorious for making mistakes? Writing and revising complex federal regulations can take months, sometimes years. But, with DOT's version of Google Gemini, employees could generate a proposed rule in a matter of minutes or even seconds, two DOT staffers who attended the December demonstration remembered the presenter saying. In any case, most of what goes into the preambles of DOT regulatory documents is just “word salad,” one staffer recalled the presenter saying. The goal is to dramatically compress the timeline in which transportation regulations are produced, such that they could go from idea to complete draft ready for review by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in just 30 days, he said. That should be possible, he said, because “it shouldn't take you more than 20 minutes to get a draft rule out of Gemini.” This administration is not the first to use AI; federal agencies have been gradually stitching the technology into their work for years, including to translate documents, analyze data and categorize public comments, among other uses. Trump released multiple executive orders in support of AI last year. In April, Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought circulated a memo calling for the acceleration of its use by the federal government. Three months later, the administration released an “AI Action Plan” that contained a similar directive. The department has used AI to draft a still-unpublished Federal Aviation Administration rule, according to a DOT staffer briefed on the matter. Skeptics say that so-called large language models such as Gemini and ChatGPT shouldn't be trusted with the complicated and consequential responsibilities of governance, given that those models are prone to error and incapable of human reasoning. Such optimism was on display in a windowless conference room in Northern Virginia earlier this month, where federal technology officials, convened at an AI summit, discussed adopting an “AI culture” in government and “upskilling” the federal workforce to use the technology. Those federal representatives included Justin Ubert, division chief for cybersecurity and operations at DOT's Federal Transit Administration, who spoke on a panel about the Transportation Department's plans for “fast adoption” of artificial intelligence. Many people see humans as a “choke point” that slows down AI, he noted. But eventually, Ubert predicted, humans will fall back into merely an oversight role, monitoring “AI-to-AI interactions.” Ubert declined to speak to ProPublica on the record. A similarly sanguine attitude about the potential of AI permeated the presentation at DOT in December, which was attended by more than 100 DOT employees, including division heads, high-ranking attorneys and civil servants from rulemaking offices. The presenter expressed little concern that the regulatory documents produced by AI could contain so-called hallucinations — erroneous text that is frequently generated by large language models such as Gemini — according to three people present. “It seemed like his vision of the future of rulemaking at DOT is that our jobs would be to proofread this machine product,” one employee said. A spokesperson for the DOT did not respond to a request for comment; Cohen and Zerzan also did not respond to messages seeking comment. The December presentation left some DOT staffers deeply skeptical. Rulemaking is intricate work, they said, requiring expertise in the subject at hand as well as in existing statutes, regulations and case law. But all that seemed to go ignored by the presenter, attendees said. “It seems wildly irresponsible,” said one, who, like the others, requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. Noting the life-or-death stakes of transportation safety regulations, Horton said the agency's leaders “want to go fast and break things, but going fast and breaking things means people are going to get hurt.” If agency rule writers use the technology as a sort of research assistant with plenty of supervision and transparency, it could be useful and save time. But if they cede too much responsibility to AI, that could lead to deficiencies in critical regulations and run afoul of a requirement that federal rules be built on reasoned decision-making. “Just because these tools can produce a lot of words doesn't mean that those words add up to a high-quality government decision,” said Bridget Dooling, a professor at Ohio State University who studies administrative law. But I think it should be done with a lot of skepticism.” DOT has had a net loss of nearly 4,000 of its 57,000 employees since Trump returned to the White House, including more than 100 attorneys, federal data shows. In July, The Washington Post reported on a leaked DOGE presentation that called for using AI to eliminate half of all federal regulations, and to do so in part by having AI draft regulatory documents. DOGE's AI program “automatically drafts all submission documents for attorneys to edit.” DOGE and Musk did not respond to requests for comment. The White House did not answer a question about whether the administration is planning to use AI in rulemaking at other agencies as well. Four top technology officials in the administration said they were not aware of any such plan. Progressive nonprofits are the latest target caught in Trump's crosshairs. With the aim of eliminating political opposition, Trump and his sycophants are working to curb government funding, constrain private foundations, and even cut tax-exempt status from organizations he dislikes. We're concerned, because Truthout is not immune to such bad-faith attacks. We can only resist Trump's attacks by cultivating a strong base of support. The right-wing mediasphere is funded comfortably by billionaire owners and venture capitalist philanthropists. Truthout has launched a fundraiser, and we have only 72 hours left to raise $25,000. He joined the newsroom in 2024 after three years as an investigative reporter at Streetsblog NYC. His series there on the black market for temporary license plates led to enacted or proposed laws in three states as well as civil penalties and criminal investigations. Previously, Coburn was a reporter at Newsday, where his reporting on wrongdoing in Long Island local governments spurred investigations and reforms. Get the news you want, delivered to your inbox every day. Truthout must raise $25,000 for our basic publishing costs this month.

CoLab chief technology officer Jeremy Andres, left, and CEO Adam Keating. Venture Newfoundland and Labrador LP is one of North America's best-performing venture capital funds of its age, in part from its early support in the company.Supplied Expectations weren't high when the Newfoundland and Labrador government committed $10-million in 2014 to a new venture capital fund that would finance homegrown tech startups. Other than the Business Development Bank of Canada, which kicked in another $2-million, just nine investors put up a further $2-million combined, despite the lure of a 30-per-cent tax credit. One of them, Shopify angel investor, philanthropist and part-time Newfoundland resident John Phillips, saw his $1-million investment as more of a “social ecosystem support” effort to help “a small out-of-the-way place, with an expectation we were not going to make any money,” he said in an interview. Cash from away: CoLab raises $72-million as hot St. John's tech scene draws global investors VNLI, managed by St. John's-based Pelorus Venture Capital Ltd., has already repaid investors $21-million – or $1.50 for every $1 they put into the fund. Now, as St. John's companies attract global attention, Pelorus is doubling down. “For more than a decade, Pelorus has shown how early investment can help local companies grow, create good jobs, and attract new investment to our province,” said Lin Paddock, Minister of Jobs, Growth and Rural Development, in a release. The new fund “marks an important step forward for our technology sector.” Despite the larger target fund size, the mandate of Pelorus – named for a marine navigation instrument that helps vessels maintain their bearings – has not changed, said Mr. Moyer. That includes CoLab, which sells a cloud-based platform for engineers to help manage collaborative projects. Co-founders Adam Keating and Jeremy Andrews returned home to build CoLab after doing co-op placements with U.S. innovators including Tesla Inc. St. John's has also produced a huge winner that inspired other local entrepreneurs: fraud detection software maker Verafin Inc., which was bought by Nasdaq Inc. in 2020 for US$2.75-billion. Investors from away in Spellbook and CoLab include Silicon Valley-based Khosla Ventures and Intrepid Growth Partners, co-founded by ex-Canada Pension Plan Investment Board CEO Mark Machin. Seven tech firms joined Canada's $100-million club in 2025 – and 2026 could bring even more Mr. Moyer said others cautioned him early on that Verafin was a one-off success. “Well, CoLab and Spellbook have proven that wrong,” he said, noting that two or three of the 16 companies Pelorus has backed are looking to raise follow-on capital this year. “The companies keep on coming” and Pelorus doesn't fund them just because they are local, he said. Mr. Phillips, who has co-invested in three Pelorus startups, agreed: “I wonder sometimes if deal flow will start to ebb,” he said. Other companies in the Pelorus portfolio include Mantle, a platform for managing revenue for Shopify app developers founded by ex-Shopify employees from Newfoundland, smart thermometer maker Mysa and Sparrow BioAcoustics, whose technology turns smartphones into stethoscope replacements. Mr. Keating in an e-mail called Pelorus “one of our strongest supporters and a critical resource for us to lean on when making big decisions. Authors and topics you follow will be added to your personal news feed in Following.

So it was heartening to see a fashion house celebrate, with pitch-perfect dignity, the departure of one of its longtime designers at Paris Men's Fashion Week on Saturday night. Véronique Nichanian, who for almost four decades oversaw men's clothing at Hermès, marked her final outing with a show that provided a rare moment of elegance in a tumultuous fashion business, and a collection that underscored how this ultra lowkey designer has created a pragmatic lavishness that countless contemporaries have copied in vain. Nichanian revealed in October that she would depart the French luxury house after 38 years. A respectful few days later, Hermès announced the 71-year-old's successor: Grace Wales Bonner, the British millennial darling whose quiet intelligence has helped her build a small empire on sophisticated, self-assured clothes. Designers push the boundaries at Paris Men's Fashion Week Such a seamless, peaceful transition of power is wincingly rare in fashion, and stands out against the wider industry mood. Over the past year and a half, in what some have called the “great fashion reset,” designers have been swapped, chopped, substituted for one another and dismissed with seemingly little humanity or under outrageous pressure. An unsettled air now hangs over fashion weeks and flagship stores, where there should be excitement about new ideas. If anyone can leave at any time, or brands change their identity at the drop of a CEO's hat, how do you know what you're buying into when you purchase a handbag or coat? What does it all stand for, aside from a ruthlessness that, while certainly glamorous, feels so ambivalent? Rather than a romp through her greatest hits on Saturday, Nichanian instead focused on her mandate, just as she's always done: making extraordinarily beautiful clothes for the man who seeks the best in life. Her final collection featured sweaters and scarves crafted from such pure and sweet wool that they bounced with each step; suits slimmed but were not cloyingly youthful. Slightly cropped trousers revealed the shaft of sublime flat boots. There were clothes for Travis Scott (like a crocodile suit), who was sat on the front row; for the man who loves great clothes but is skeptical of “fashion” (loose leather trousers); and for the one who's feeling a little naughty (a brown coat with punch-pink lining). The show demonstrated how Nichanian has pioneered a language that every brand, from The Row to Uniqlo, is now attempting to recreate in their quest for clothing that transcends trend and time. For too many designers and shoppers today, the pleasure and invention of clothes boils down to something simplistic: mere perfection. But of course, perfection isn't human, and so we find ourselves searching for timelessness as a defense against a world that refuses to stop changing, for better or worse. Why else show nubby fleece trousers with a coordinating striped jacket, which nobody needs but would be a hoot to wear? If we are to take away one thing from the Nichanian ethos, it is that clothes should not be “timeless” or strive towards perfection, but be good enough, so that, whatever happens, we feel right. These days, doing anything for longer than a few years can mean risking irrelevance. Longevity means going to work dutifully and doing your job. In fashion, specifically, it means you have honored your customers and put their wishes and needs above an ego that might push you to greener, or stranger, pastures. You must be creative but, almost impossibly, on an industry schedule that demands collections twice a year or more. She made the excesses of fashion look pointless without turning to something monastic; instead, she offered sensible sumptuousness. Lines and silhouettes may have morphed over the decades, but her fundamentals remained. After the models' finale, Nichanian strolled down the runway as an audience of hundreds of clients, celebrities and editors offered her a five-minute standing ovation. She embraced Hermès' artistic director; Eric Clapton's “Forever Man” played; screens hanging from the ceiling played loops of Nichanian bowing at shows throughout her tenure. She seemed to know that this marvelous chapter of her life was over, and there is more fun to be had elsewhere.

US senator warned that Republicans would lose elections if prices continue to rise, prompting president to respond ‘fuck you, Ted' Ted Cruz warned Donald Trump, his fellow Republican, that he would face a “bloodbath” in the November midterm elections if prices continued to rise, prompting the president to respond, “fuck you, Ted,” the US senator told donors, according to a secret recording of the private conversation obtained by Axios. Cruz reportedly delivered the reality check to the president in a phone conversation after Trump unveiled sweeping tariffs a few months after returning to the Oval Office in early 2025. “Mr President, if we get to November of [2026] and people's 401(k)s are down 30% and prices are up 10–20% at the supermarket, we're going to go into election day, face a bloodbath,” Cruz said he told the president, according to Axios. “You're going to lose the House, you're going to lose the Senate, you're going to spend the next two years being impeached every single week.” Only 34% approve of how Trump has handled the cost of living while 64% disapprove, according to a recent New York Times/Siena poll. There is also evidence the economy may be motivating those who voted for Trump in 2024 but now disapprove of him, according to the Times. Cruz also reportedly attacked JD Vance in the recordings, tying the vice-president to conservative media figure Tucker Carlson, whom he has accused of trying to thwart the president's foreign policy agenda. Cruz had a heated interview with Carlson last year that exposed a significant divide on the right on foreign affairs. He also accused the vice-president and Carlson of ousting Mike Waltz, the national security adviser, because Waltz supported bombing Iran.

Today's top story: Russia has yet to use Iranian missiles in its war on Ukraine Ukrainian intelligence told the Kyiv Independent on Jan. 26 that of the over 350 Fath-360 missiles that Iran has given Russia, none has come down on Ukraine. Those dormant Fath missiles contrast with Russia's use of North Korea ballistic missiles, widely seen as shoddy but reportedly improved thanks to Russian assistance. Russia's seeming disinterest in Iran-supplied Faths could be seen a passive indictment of a missile program that Iran has invested in heavily. Iranian-designed Shaheds have proved themselves a mainstay of the war in Ukraine, but these days Russia is producing the vast majority of its own supply rather than buying them from Iran, which is currently engaged in a brutal crackdown on protests against the current regime. The Council of Europe has a new plan to cut off its continuing dependence on Russian natural gas – next year. The European bloc remains the largest buyer of both pipeline and liquified natural gas from Russia, despite widespread calls to pull away from economic contact with Moscow. Russia's Jan. 24 air attack damaged the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, a holy site in Eastern Orthodoxy and a UNESCO heritage location, an official said on Jan. 26. "Each time, Moscow has been behind it, as happened in 1918; as happened when, by an order from Moscow, the Uspensk (Dormition) Cathedral was blown up in 1941, and, by an order from Moscow, Shaheds and missiles now fly throughout Kyiv, including those that now inflict damage on the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra." Ostapenko was re-appointed as the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra's general director earlier this month after a contentious firing last year. General Oleksandr Syrsky, Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine's Armed Forces, issued a stark warning about Russia's renewed assaults on Pokrovsk, the long-embattled city in western Donbas. "The aggressor is not giving up attempts to break through; he is strengthening pressure and pulling up reserves," Syrsky wrote on Facebook on Jan. 26, reporting 400 clashes in the Pokrovsk and Ocheretyne areas. Russian attacks killed at least three Ukrainians and injure 24 others over the past day, local authorities said on Jan. 26. Ukrainian air defenses intercepted 110, but 21 drones struck 11 locations across the country, and drone debris was recorded at one additional site. In Donetsk Oblast, two died and 13 were injured in Russian attacks on Druzhkivka and Oleksiivo-Druzhkivka, the local military administration reported, recording a total of 18 attacks on civilian areas. Authorities evacuated 53 civilians from ares near the frontline, including 22 children. Two other civilians went to the hospital with injuries including concussions resulting from a Jan. 24 drone strike on their balcony, the oblast government said. In Sumy Oblast, which is facing renewed pressure from Russian attacks, authorities reported seven injuries among civilians, including a 59-year-old woman and her 8 and 11-year-old grandchildren. Russian attacks injured a 58-year-old man, but seemingly resulted in no deaths. In Kharkiv Oblast, Russian attacks including several dozen drones damaged eight homes and apartment buildings throughout the oblast and injured an 80-year-old woman in the city of Kharkiv, Governor Oleh Syniehubov wrote on Telegram. In Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Governor Ivan Fedorov reported 775 Russian strikes, which injured two civilians. Russia has lost around 1,235,060 troops in Ukraine since the beginning of its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces reported on Jan. 26. According to the report, Russia has also lost 11,608 tanks, 23,951 armored fighting vehicles, 75,906 vehicles and fuel tanks, 36,644 artillery systems, 1,626 multiple launch rocket systems, 1,286 air defense systems, 434 airplanes, 347 helicopters, 115б813 drones, 28 ships and boats, as well as two submarines. Based in Kyiv, he covers weapons production and defense tech. His work has appeared in Radio Free Europe, Fortune, Breaking Defense, the Cipher Brief, the Foreign Policy Research Institute, FT's Sifted, and Science Magazine.

Today's top story: Russia has yet to use Iranian missiles in its war on Ukraine Ukrainian intelligence told the Kyiv Independent on Jan. 26 that of the over 350 Fath-360 missiles that Iran has given Russia, none has come down on Ukraine. Those dormant Fath missiles contrast with Russia's use of North Korea ballistic missiles, widely seen as shoddy but reportedly improved thanks to Russian assistance. Russia's seeming disinterest in Iran-supplied Faths could be seen a passive indictment of a missile program that Iran has invested in heavily. Iranian-designed Shaheds have proved themselves a mainstay of the war in Ukraine, but these days Russia is producing the vast majority of its own supply rather than buying them from Iran, which is currently engaged in a brutal crackdown on protests against the current regime. The Council of Europe has a new plan to cut off its continuing dependence on Russian natural gas – next year. The European bloc remains the largest buyer of both pipeline and liquified natural gas from Russia, despite widespread calls to pull away from economic contact with Moscow. Russia's Jan. 24 air attack damaged the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, a holy site in Eastern Orthodoxy and a UNESCO heritage location, an official said on Jan. 26. "Each time, Moscow has been behind it, as happened in 1918; as happened when, by an order from Moscow, the Uspensk (Dormition) Cathedral was blown up in 1941, and, by an order from Moscow, Shaheds and missiles now fly throughout Kyiv, including those that now inflict damage on the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra." Ostapenko was re-appointed as the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra's general director earlier this month after a contentious firing last year. General Oleksandr Syrsky, Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine's Armed Forces, issued a stark warning about Russia's renewed assaults on Pokrovsk, the long-embattled city in western Donbas. "The aggressor is not giving up attempts to break through; he is strengthening pressure and pulling up reserves," Syrsky wrote on Facebook on Jan. 26, reporting 400 clashes in the Pokrovsk and Ocheretyne areas. Russian attacks killed at least three Ukrainians and injure 24 others over the past day, local authorities said on Jan. 26. Ukrainian air defenses intercepted 110, but 21 drones struck 11 locations across the country, and drone debris was recorded at one additional site. In Donetsk Oblast, two died and 13 were injured in Russian attacks on Druzhkivka and Oleksiivo-Druzhkivka, the local military administration reported, recording a total of 18 attacks on civilian areas. Authorities evacuated 53 civilians from ares near the frontline, including 22 children. Two other civilians went to the hospital with injuries including concussions resulting from a Jan. 24 drone strike on their balcony, the oblast government said. In Sumy Oblast, which is facing renewed pressure from Russian attacks, authorities reported seven injuries among civilians, including a 59-year-old woman and her 8 and 11-year-old grandchildren. Russian attacks injured a 58-year-old man, but seemingly resulted in no deaths. In Kharkiv Oblast, Russian attacks including several dozen drones damaged eight homes and apartment buildings throughout the oblast and injured an 80-year-old woman in the city of Kharkiv, Governor Oleh Syniehubov wrote on Telegram. In Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Governor Ivan Fedorov reported 775 Russian strikes, which injured two civilians. Russia has lost around 1,235,060 troops in Ukraine since the beginning of its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces reported on Jan. 26. According to the report, Russia has also lost 11,608 tanks, 23,951 armored fighting vehicles, 75,906 vehicles and fuel tanks, 36,644 artillery systems, 1,626 multiple launch rocket systems, 1,286 air defense systems, 434 airplanes, 347 helicopters, 115б813 drones, 28 ships and boats, as well as two submarines. Based in Kyiv, he covers weapons production and defense tech. His work has appeared in Radio Free Europe, Fortune, Breaking Defense, the Cipher Brief, the Foreign Policy Research Institute, FT's Sifted, and Science Magazine.

Pardons come as president and Republicans seem intent on investigating fraud in Democratic-run states Those include Wanda Vázquez Garced, the former governor of Puerto Rico who pleaded guilty last year to a campaign finance violation. The US Department of Justice said Vázquez took hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from a Venezuelan, Julio Herrera Velutini, and Mark Rossini in exchange for firing a federal official investigating a bank owned by Herrera Velutini. Trump pardoned Herrera Velutini and Rossini, who were both convicted of wire fraud, along with Vázquez. A White House official told CBS News the pardons and donations were unrelated. Adriana Camberos had a fraud-related sentence commuted by Trump in 2021 after being convicted as part of an elaborate fake 5-hour Energy Drink scheme. In 2024, she and her brother were convicted in a separate fraud case which involved the pair lying to manufacturers to buy groceries at discount prices, before selling them at a profit. The network found that Trump had also pardoned more offenders who owed large fines or restitutions, either to the government or to victims. An analysis by Democrats on the House judiciary committee found that Trump's pardons have deprived “victims and survivors of crime” of $1.3bn in restitution and fines. Federal prosecutors allege as much as $9bn has been stolen across Minnesota in schemes allegedly linked to the state's Somali population, and Trump has accused other Democratic-run states of fraud. In early January, Trump used unproven allegations of widespread fraud to cut more than $10bn in childcare and social services payments from California, Illinois, New York, Minnesota and Colorado, each of which is run by Democrats. Earlier this month, Trump claimed he had begun a “fraud investigation of California”, without offering further information. It added: “That's why we have a very thorough review process here that moves with the Department of Justice and the White House counsel's office. There's a whole team of qualified lawyers who look at every single pardon request that ultimately make their way up to the president of the United States. And he was very clear when he came into office that he was most interested in looking at pardoning individuals who were abused and used by the Biden Department of Justice, and were over prosecuted by a weaponized DoJ.” Gavin Newsom, the governor of California and a key Trump antagonist, this week launched a section of the governor's website that Newsom said would track “President Trump's pattern of pardoning convicted fraudsters and corrupt insiders”. His hypocrisy knows no bounds: he is pardoning people convicted of fraud, corruption, and abusing the public trust – while turning around and using ‘fraud' as a launching pad to go after political rivals,” Newsom said in a statement. “While his administration hands out get-out-of-jail-free cards to real fraudsters, the federal government is now trying to intimidate and target California with baseless allegations of ‘massive fraud'. The rule of law isn't a political weapon – it's a promise, and we won't let it be twisted to settle scores.”

The confrontation between the Trump administration and Minnesota's state government is shifting to a federal courtroom Monday in a case that could have significant legal and constitutional implications. Minnesota's Attorney-General, Keith Ellison, is suing the Trump administration, arguing that its surge of immigration enforcement in the state has led to rights violations, including racial profiling. David Schultz, a university professor of political science and legal studies at Hamline University in Minnesota, said the case may eventually make its way to the Supreme Court. Both sides dig in as Trump's ICE crackdown on Minnesota shows no signs of letting up “If the federal government were to win, I would say it puts states in a very precarious position, because they will be saying, ‘How do we protect ourselves?' It's one of a number of political conflicts between the two levels of government playing out in Minnesota, a state that has become the focal point in the Trump administration's effort to crack down on undocumented migrants. The DHS is blocking Minnesota's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension from investigating both deaths. Minneapolis shooting victim Alex Pretti was an ICU nurse upset at Trump's immigration crackdowns, family say Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has called for ICE to leave the city and on Saturday he again asked President Donald Trump to withdraw the federal agents, who outnumber Minneapolis police by a ratio of about five to one. The DHS has sent 3,000 immigration-enforcement officers to Minnesota, a deployment that has created chaos in Minneapolis as citizens have engaged in dozens of protests against the presence of masked, armed agents on their streets. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has also called for ICE to leave the state. On Sunday, Mr. Walz, in a public statement directed at Mr. Trump, asked, “What do we need to do to get these federal agents out of our state?” The Trump administration has argued that the street-level conflicts involving citizens and DHS agents in Minnesota have been created by state and local officials who have been unable to maintain order. Left and right, Minnesotans look for a way out of chaos He said the Minnesota lawsuit will likely argue that the ICE deployment is effectively an attempt to compel Minnesota's co-operation in a federal action, and that it makes it impossible for local officials to carry out basic law-enforcement functions, such as keeping the peace. What's unusual, he said, is that typically the federal government is the branch that steps in to protect individual rights, as it did in the civil-rights era when Southern states tried, unsuccessfully, to assert a state-level right to resist desegregation. Authors and topics you follow will be added to your personal news feed in Following.

This website uses cookies to collect information about your visit for purposes such as showing you personalized ads and content, and analyzing our website traffic. By clicking “Accept all,” you will allow the use of these cookies. By Kohei Masuda and Kenneth Valencich / Japan News Staff Writers PokéPark KANTO's official opening is just around the corner on Feb. 5, and a media preview event on Monday showed off what there is to see. Visitors can meet more than 600 Pokémon at the facility located inside Yomiuriland, which straddles Inagi, Tokyo, and Kawasaki. Covering about 2.6 hectares, PokéPark KANTO is divided into two main zones that make the most of its lush setting in the Tama Hills: Pokémon Forest, a wooded area built for exploration; and Sedge Town, a lively hub where visitors can shop, dine and enjoy attractions. Among them, the slug-like dragon Goomy, with their beady little eyes, have massive smiles for all who approach. Pokémon danced to exciting music in the Pikachu and Eevee Bubble Carnival parade while bubbles filled with fog fluttered in every direction. PokéPark KANTO also has a large shop called Pokémon Daisuki Shop, where visitors can pick up original merchandise including plush toys and other exclusives. ©Nintendo/Creatures Inc./GAME FREAK inc.TM, ®, and character names are trademarks of Nintendo. Our weekly ePaper presents the most noteworthy recent topics in an exciting, readable fomat.

Alex Pretti's weapon may have been fired accidentally by immigration officer running from scene Video footage shows Alex Pretti's gun being taken from him by a border agent as he lies on the ground while being beaten by other officers. As the agent runs away with Pretti's 9mm pistol in his right hand, a gunshot can be heard in the footage posted online. That, in turn, may have “spooked” the other Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents at the scene into firing a number of rounds at Pretti, 37, as he lay unarmed and defenceless on the ground. Amid growing alarm that any inquiry by the FBI and Justice Department would vindicate the ICE agents and place blame on Pretti for him causing his own death, analysis of the video footage has cast doubt on the White House's version of events. The initial shot triggered a number of rounds being fired at Pretti, even though he was unarmed at the time. A 2025 study showed that police officers were 11 times more likely to fire their weapons if they had already heard gunfire as part of a phenomenon called “contagious fire”. Critics will argue that the number of shots fired at Pretti suggests that ICE agents deployed in Minneapolis were not trained to tackle crowd control in city environments. In a telephone interview with The Wall Street Journal on Sunday night, Mr Trump avoided questions about whether the officer who shot Pretti had done the “right thing”. He also signalled the potential withdrawal of ICE agents from Minneapolis, but did not offer a time frame for their departure. Pretti's death followed the fatal shooting of Renee Good, a mother of three, by an ICE agent just over two weeks ago. The Sig Sauer 9mm pistol legally owned by Pretti has come under scrutiny in recent years over reports of an alleged defect that has allowed it to be fired “uncommanded”. More than 100 lawsuits have been lodged against the manufacturers over claims of unintentional discharges. According to reports, ICE banned its agents from using the weapon last summer, with the agency issuing an order to replace the Sig pistol with another made by Glock. Sig Sauer denied any problems with the popular handgun. It added: “This misinformation causes confusion and uncertainty among our valued customers.” The P320 cannot “under any circumstances discharge without a trigger pull”, it said. Pressure is mounting on the Trump administration to investigate Pretti's death properly amid fears it will be covered up. Barack Obama, the former US president, said on Sunday that ICE and border patrol agents were “acting with impunity and engaging in tactics that seem designed to intimidate, harass, provoke and endanger the residents of a major American city”. He accused Mr Trump of being “eager to escalate the situation” rather than “impose some semblance of discipline and accountability over the agents they've deployed”.

MOSCOW, January 26. /TASS/. Kiev has lost 60% of the personnel of assault groups from the Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry and the Ukrainian military in the forest near Siminovka in the Kharkov region, Russian security structures told TASS. "On the Kharkov direction, in the forest southwest of Siminovka, the Ukrainian military deployed units and conducted two counterattacks. During the repulsion of these attacks, 60% of the personnel of the assault groups were destroyed," the agency's source said. On January 23, the Russian defense ministry reported that Battlegroup North units gained control of the settlement of Siminovka in the Kharkov Region through active offensive operations in the Kharkov direction.

Russia will be able to ensure its security even in the absence of the Treaty between Russia and the United States on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (the New START Treaty), TASS by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told TASS in an interview. The senior diplomat was asked what will come after New START. "Nothing, in the sense that there will be nothing to replace it. And nothing, in the sense that our security will still be guaranteed," he responded to a clarifying question about whether Russia plans to take actions in connection with the treaty's expiration. "As well as serious deviations by the US side from the treaty's requirements, which we have repeatedly spoken about even with the administration of [former US Democratic President Joe] Biden." The document expires on February 5, 2026. Putin announced at a Russian Security Council meeting on September 22, 2025 that Moscow was ready to maintain compliance with the quantitative restrictions outlined in the treaty for another year after the document expires in February 2026. However, he stressed that the measure would be valid only if Washington did the same. US President Donald Trump said in response to a TASS question on October 5, 2025 that the Russian leader's proposal was "a good idea." However, there has been no official reaction from Washington to Moscow's proposal as of yet.