President Donald Trump did another social media posting spree on Wednesday night and Thursday morning. As with Trump's previous posting blitzes, this one was filled with wildly inaccurate and often conspiratorial claims about elections and other subjects. Trump twice shared a video titled “California Governor PANICS as Walmart Shuts Down 250+ Stores Across State.” The video, echoed by the text in one of the posts Trump shared, claimed that Walmart is preparing to shut down these stores because the retailer can't afford California's “$22” per hour minimum wage. But California's statewide minimum wage is $16.90 per hour, not $22 – and Walmart told CNN on Thursday morning that it isn't conducting a massive store closure in California for any reason. Gavin Newsom's office posted on social media on Wednesday night expressing disbelief that Trump had promoted both the false claim about Walmart – “Walmart's 303 stores in California are open,” Newsom's office wrote – and an even wilder but equally fake anti-Newsom conspiracy theory the president also shared during the social media blitz. And we truly cannot believe this man has the nuclear codes.” The phony claim about Walmart shutting hundreds of California stores was previously posted on a YouTube account that appears to have been devoted to sensational but inaccurate videos attacking Newsom. On Thursday, Newsom's office provided CNN with a screenshot from the YouTube account, which an aide said was taken Wednesday night, that showed the account had posted numerous highly similar recent videos making sensational false claims about life in California under Newsom. Multiple posts from Trump on Wednesday night and Thursday morning made false claims about elections, including conspiracy theories about the 2020 election the president wrongly insists was stolen from him. One particularly preposterous post Trump shared outlined a (nonexistent) vote-flipping conspiracy involving former President Barack Obama, the FBI, the CIA, China and Italian officials. Other posts made claims that were more straightforward, but no less false. For example, Trump twice shared posts claiming that Wisconsin has more than seven million registered voters, millions higher than its total number of adults; one of the posts said, “This is not a glitch; it is election fraud waiting to happen!” But Wisconsin does not have anywhere close to seven million registered voters. The commission told CNN on Thursday that the state also has about 4.6 million inactive voters – people who died; moved away and registered in another state; were convicted of a felony; were adjudicated incompetent to vote; or were purged from the voter rolls due to inactivity – but that “inactive voters are not considered registered voters” and “would have to re-register before voting.”

“Anyone who supports funding DHS and ICE is supporting the murder of Americans,” said Sen. Ed Markey. Truthout is an indispensable resource for activists, movement leaders and workers everywhere. Sen. Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts) has come out swinging in favor of abolishing ICE and blocking funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), demanding that Democrats use their leverage to do so after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) released a tepid set of demands for a funding vote in the coming days. In a short video posted to social media on Wednesday evening, Markey said that Democrats “have the power” to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and must use it. “We cannot and we must not vote to send a single nickel to this lawless organization,” he said, labelling federal agents as “Trump's secret police.” “Right now, Democrats have the power to defund and abolish ICE. “Anyone who supports funding DHS and ICE is supporting the murder of Americans. Not one penny more for the Department of Homeland Security.” Markey's remarks came shortly after Schumer released the Senate Democratic caucus's demands for DHS funding. Despite this, seven House Democrats helped Republicans to pass the bill last week anyway. Critics point out that they don't even include a demand for Trump to remove his agents from Minneapolis, in spite of their recent killings and abductions of children, and don't try to claw back any of the proposed funding. The demands are incredibly weak considering the leverage that Democrats have; the administration started maneuvering to “de-escalate” in Minneapolis as a show for Democrats after they said they'd oppose DHS funding earlier this week, one official admitted to Punchbowl this week. “Chuck Schumer's legislative demands for DHS funding are so narrow they almost mirror what ICE/CBP have just announced in Minneapolis. Just as Republicans were conceding the need to negotiate, Democrats pre-negotiated themselves into mush,” wrote David Dayen, executive editor of The American Prospect, on social media. Support for abolishing ICE has steadily grown this month after the DHS killings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti. YouGov found in polling after Pretti's killing this weekend that 46 percent of Americans support abolishing ICE, while 41 percent are opposed — meaning that more Americans support the idea than oppose it for the first time in recent history. 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. 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.

Support justice-driven, accurate and transparent news — make a quick donation to Truthout today! According to the Columbia Heights Public School District in Minnesota, federal agents have detained four students that attend their schools four separate times over the course of two weeks. Conejo was one of them, and he was used as “bait” to draw family members out of their home for them to be arrested and detained. According to Columbia Heights superintendent Zena Stenvik, “the agent took the child out of the still-running car, led him to the door and directed him to knock on the door asking to be let in in order to see if anyone else was home, essentially using a 5-year-old as bait.” Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents then took the father and child away to ICE's South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas. Marc Prokosch, a lawyer representing the family, said that the family had been following everything they were asked to do, “so this is just … cruelty.” Liam's father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, told Rep. Julian Castro that Liam has been “depressed and sad.” Liam's mother, Erika Ramos, told MPR News that her son “is getting sick” and not eating due to the poor quality of the food at the Dilley center. Conejo is not the only recent example of child abduction. Earlier this month, 5-year-old Génesis Ester Gutiérrez Castellanos and her mother were deported to Honduras. Under the guise of child welfare (enabled in the U.S. by the 1887 Dawes Act), Indigenous children were often taken from their families and communities without their family's consent, sometimes with military or police presence if parents resisted. Sometimes parents were tricked or coerced into sending their children, especially if the parents were threatened with criminal charges or violent repercussions. The children were moved to boarding schools as part of “re-education” campaigns, where they underwent forced white Christian assimilation — their hair was cut and they were forbidden to speak their native languages. Many of these schools were run by the Catholic church or other Christian institutions, and under their care, children suffered sexual and other forms of physical abuse. Liam Conejo Ramos's kidnapping also recalls another despicable chapter of U.S. history, when people who bought, sold, and traded enslaved individuals as well as professional “kidnapping clubs” abducted both free and enslaved Black people off of the street, including children, and then sold them into slavery. Many kidnappers worked under the guise of the 1793 Fugitive Slave Act that allowed people to capture and return escaped enslaved individuals, but oftentimes, kidnappers abducted any Black child or adult, even if they did not match the escaped enslaved individual. Even Black Americans who knew the abducted person could not testify to their freedom because Black Americans were not allowed to testify in most courts. Even white witnesses to the kidnapping, friends, or acquaintances often refused to testify that a free Black person was unjustly abducted because they feared retribution from both their neighbors and from the kidnappers themselves. While white and Black abolitionists alike raised concerns about the kidnapping, many white people who lived in the North did not pay much attention because they did not “own” enslaved people. Children were often targeted by “slave catchers” and kidnapping rings because they often did not have the ability or awareness to assert their rights or the strength to fight back. They were sometimes lured with promises of food and apprenticeships. Richard Bell's book Stolen: Five Free Boys Kidnapped into Slavery and Their Astonishing Odyssey Home charts how five Black boys were kidnapped from Philadelphia in 1825. Four of the boys were raised free and one had just run away from a slaveholding plantation in New Jersey. While the boys were cautious around white men, they were tricked by John Purnell, a “mixed-race” man who went by the fake name John Smith, into an interstate kidnapping campaign run by a man named Joseph Johnson. And it didn't stop when slavery was abolished. To this day, children put up for adoption during this period are still searching for their birth parents and unpacking the legacies of harm and abuse. And now, with the enormous increase in funding for ICE alongside the white nationalism emanating from key Trump advisers like Stephen Miller, ICE looks much like a white supremacist employment program for bodysnatchers, to the benefit of private prisons and other carceral institutions. Liam Conejo Ramos and Génesis Ester Gutiérrez Castellanos are victims of the latest iteration of this violence, of a cruelty descended from federal agents forcibly abducting Indigenous children, “slave catchers” and kidnapping clubs, lynching mobs and family policing officers disproportionately targeting and removing Black children from their homes. I call out these histories because ICE is not the reflection of a foreign evil. Yes, ICE officials are using strategies and aesthetics that are most often associated with the Nazi Gestapo, but in reality, these aesthetics and their associations with “racial hygiene” largely drew on what was happening in the eugenics movement in the United States in the early 20th century, when poor, disabled, and BIPOC women were forcibly sterilized; when “unsightly beggar” laws barred disabled people from public streets; and when disabled, poor, or so-called “undesirable” people were institutionalized en masse. ICE uses similar Gestapo tactics of surprise abductions of people from homes, worship spaces, and schools — but these tactics are homegrown. As Holocaust scholar Daniel H. Magilow wrote this past July, “I believe that comparing ICE to the Gestapo is less a historical judgement than a reflection of modern anxiety — a fear that the U.S. is veering toward authoritarianism reminiscent of 1930s Germany.” He highlights how other comparisons also ring true, from the Soviet Union's KGB to Iran's former secret police and intelligence agency SAVAK. This tragedy is one that the U.S. has built itself, and sometimes by leaning too much into analogies or conflating it with a foreign evil, like the Nazi Gestapo, we overlook its deep roots in our own society. Seeing how Liam Conejo Ramos and Génesis Ester Gutiérrez Castellanos's kidnapping and disappearances are connected to a long history of child snatching is vital to understanding where ICE agents got their playbook. 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. 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: She has written for Ms. Magazine, National Geographic, Hyperallergic, Religion Dispatches and other outlets. Get the news you want, delivered to your inbox every day. Truthout must raise $13,000 for our basic publishing costs this month.

Bipartisan senators blocked a massive spending bill Thursday, as eleventh-hour talks continue to avoid a costly partial government shutdown that looms at the week's end. All Democrats, who are pushing to force changes to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement policies in the wake of Alex Pretti's fatal encounter with federal agents in Minneapolis, voted not to advance the six-bill funding package. Instead, they are demanding that Republicans and the White House agree to separate funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which houses ICE, from the rest of the package so it can be renegotiated. Seven conservatives joined Democrats in keeping the package from moving forward in a 45-55 vote. Senate Majority Leader John Thune changed his vote to “no,” to be able to bring the package up for a later vote. If the Senate cannot get all 100 senators to consent to splitting the DHS funding bill from the remainder of the package, as Democrats are demanding, then several significant agencies, including Defense, Health and Human Services, Labor, Education, Transportation and Housing and Urban Development, will face a lapse in funding. If a deal is reached, however, the bill would have to be approved by both chambers, meaning the narrowly divided House would have to return to Washington and final approval could be delayed until Monday. As of Thursday morning, leaders from both parties and the White House were moving closer to a deal. Talks intensify to avert shutdown as White House and Senate leaders eye last-ditch deal Senate Majority Leader John Thune appeared hopeful ahead of the procedural vote, though he would not say whether he would back some of the proposal offers by Democrats. My hope and expectation is that if the White House and Senate Dems work this out they will be able to produce the votes that are necessary to get it passed,” he said. On Wednesday, Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer had laid out his caucus' demands for changes to ICE tactics and protocols that they want to see included in any funding package for DHS: tighten the use of warrants and end roving patrols, enforce a code of conduct comparable to force policies for state and local law enforcement, and for ICE agents to remove their masks and wear body cameras. However, even if there is a partial government shutdown and DHS is not funded, ICE will remain operational through funding that stems from President Donald Trump's domestic policy package that was passed last summer. CNN's Manu Raju contributed to this report.

US government could see shutdown on Friday as Democrats stall funding bill over immigration enforcement reform A key vote intended to head off a partial government shutdown failed in the Senate on Thursday, after Democrats refused to back funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) unless it included reforms to federal agents involved in Donald Trump's mass deportation campaign. However a Senate aide confirmed that Democrats have been negotiating with Republicans on a deal that could result in passage of most government funding bills and a short-term measure covering the DHS, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the US border patrol. The intention would be to buy time for further talks over Democrats' demands for changes to immigration enforcement in the wake of the deaths of US citizens Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis, which include an end to mask wearing by federal agents, the imposition of a code of conduct and independent investigations of its violations. Any changes to the DHS funding bill would have to be approved by the House of Representatives, which is out of session until Monday. “Republicans in Congress cannot allow this violent status quo to continue. The Republican Senate majority leader, John Thune, had asked the chamber to pass a package of six bills that would fund through September departments including homeland security, defense, labor, and health and human services. Schumer demanded that the DHS bill be set aside so that reforms to agents' conduct could be written into it, but Thune declined, setting the stage for Thursday's failed vote, which required at least some Democratic support to clear the filibuster's 60-vote threshold in the Senate. Signs have meanwhile emerged that Republicans are looking to compromise, with Trump acknowledging the negotiations during a cabinet meeting at the White House. I think the administration is willing to sit down with them and have a discussion, perhaps a negotiation about how do we move forward.” At a press conference in Minneapolis on Thursday morning, Trump's “border czar”, Tom Homan, noted that the administration has “recognized that certain improvements could and should be made” in the ongoing immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota, but did not specify what those looked like or when they would be implemented. “For the people out there don't like what ICE is doing, if you want certain laws reformed, then take it up with Congress,” Homan said. That would be unlikely to stop ICE's deportation operations, since the agency received tens of billions of dollars under the One Big Beautiful Bill act passed last year, and the White House could also order its employees to work through a shutdown.

Estonia is pushing for an EU-wide entry ban on former Russian soldiers who participated in the war against Ukraine, Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said on Jan. 29. "There cannot be a path from Bucha to Brussels," Tsahkna told reporters in the Belgian capital, adding that he would raise the proposal at a meeting of EU foreign ministers later that day. Estonia, a NATO member sharing a border with Russia, banned access to the Schengen area for the first 261 Russian fighters earlier in January. Tallinn is now calling for a coordinated approach across the bloc. "We have close to 1 million combatants in Russia. "We have information that most of them will come to Europe after the war. An undisclosed senior Estonian diplomat told Politico that existing methods for identifying and banning individuals are too slow and dependent on individual countries, which is why Estonia advocates for a more robust approach. Another European official told the outlet that while Estonia has the right to impose a blanket entry ban, this would be difficult for many other EU countries, which would have to list each fighter and the necessary evidence individually. Over 1,000 people have been reportedly killed or injured by returning combatants over the past four years, with cases of robbery and drug trafficking also on the rise. Russia has been extensively recruiting convicts for the war in Ukraine, offering pardons in exchange for service at the front. Based in Lviv, Martin often reports on international politics, with a focus on analyzing developments related to Ukraine and Russia. "I personally asked President Putin not to fire on Kyiv and the cities and towns for a week," Trump said. Ukraine says it is working with SpaceX to stop Russian drones from using Starlink, after reports that satellite-connected UAVs are extending their range to strike deeper into Ukrainian territory. European foreign ministers also agreed to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization, said Kaja Kallas, the EU's chief diplomat. The funds will support protection assistance, shelter, food, cash aid, psychosocial services, and access to water and healthcare for Ukrainians affected by the attacks. "We have information that most of them will come to Europe after the war." Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said Moscow is prepared to ensure President Volodymyr Zelensky's security. The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) voted on Jan. 29 to cut its benchmark interest rate to 15%, the first change since March last year, as inflation cools and a new aid package from Europe eased pressure on the country's finances. Russia confirmed that it had handed over 1,000 bodies to Ukraine under the Istanbul agreement in exchange for 38 bodies of fallen Russian soldiers, Kremlin-controlled news agency TASS reported on Jan. 29. Russian forces launched missile and drone attacks on several Ukrainian regions, including Kyiv and surrounding areas, overnight on Jan. 28, local authorities reported.

MOSCOW, January 29. Moscow's core demands on Ukraine peace, as set out by President Vladimir Putin, remain unchanged, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said. He told reporters that Russia does not have information about the security guarantees the United States and Ukraine could have agreed on. TASS has compiled the key statements of the foreign minister. Russia does not comment publicly on the course of the negotiations, believing that they should be shrouded in secrecy: "[Russian Presidential Spokesman] Dmitry Sergeyevich Peskov has already said that unlike the Ukrainians, we do not comment publicly on the negotiations, which should be kept confidential." Russia will look at "real proposals" for Ukraine and will not focus on "those very public games." The media will be informed about the progress of negotiations in the UAE on the settlement in Ukraine, "when everything is already clear." Russian President Vladimir Putin laid out Moscow's core demands in Ukraine negotiations: "They remain valid." The Russian negotiators will continue to communicate in any format, "they know their job." Russia does not have information about the security guarantees the United States and Ukraine could have agreed on: "We do not know what guarantees they have agreed on, but, apparently, on guarantees to the very Ukrainian regime that pursues a Russophobic, neo-Nazi policy."

Russian troops have stepped up aerial bomb attacks in the Pokrovsk sector of Donetsk Oblast, which could signal preparations for an offensive, Yuliia Stepaniuk, head of communications for the 117th Separate Mechanized Brigade, told Suspilne on Jan. 29. While there were two to three such attacks in the area earlier this week, Russian forces carried out 30 strikes over the past day alone, Stepaniuk said. "The enemy is likely preparing an offensive. Stepaniuk added that despite poor weather, Russian forces continue to use drones intensively at low altitudes, allowing them to ambush Ukrainian troops and monitor their movement routes. Russian troops are also moving artillery closer to the line of contact, creating additional risks for Ukrainian units, but the Ukrainian army has so far been able to counter them, she added. The number of firefights has decreased recently, as Ukrainian forces can quickly detect small Russian units. The melting snow has made enemy movements more visible, according to Stepaniuk. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Jan. 29 that his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, agreed to his request not to strike Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities and towns for a week. The U.S. president did not clarify when or how he relayed this request to Putin, or from what date the supposed ceasefire would begin. "I personally asked President Putin not to fire on Kyiv and the cities and towns for a week," Trump said during a press briefing, stressing that Ukraine is currently facing extremely cold temperatures. And I have to tell you, it was very nice." Russian forces launched an attack against Kyiv overnight on Jan. 28, which marked only the latest strike against the capital in Moscow's campaign aimed at knocking out Ukraine's energy grid amid freezing temperatures. The comments follow speculation that Kyiv and Moscow agreed to a pause in attacks on each other's energy infrastructure, though neither side has publicly confirmed the claims or commented on Trump's statement. When asked by the Kyiv Independent why Russia would agree to the pause, a Ukrainian source familiar with the matter said: "It's Trump, try to say 'no' to him. "The source also noted that Russia has already begun accumulating ballistic missiles, a statement that follows President Volodymyr Zelensky's warning that Russia is preparing for another major attack in the near future. Ukraine's Defense Ministry is working with SpaceX to stop Russian drones from using Starlink, Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said on Jan. 29, warning the satellite internet system is helping them fly farther. A Defense Ministry team contacted SpaceX within hours after Russian drones using Starlink appeared over Ukrainian cities, proposing solutions to resolve the issue, according to Fedorov. "Western technology must continue to support the democratic world and protect civilians — not be used for terror and the destruction of peaceful cities," Fedorov said in his Telegram post. Fedorov's report comes a few days after Serhii Beskrestnov, a newly-appointed advisor to Fedorov on defense technology, reported on Jan. 26 that a Starlink-equipped Russian BM-35 drone, which can fly at a range of up to 500 kilometers (about 310 miles), had reached the central-eastern city of Dnipro. The attack occurred while a group of military personnel were handing out summonses and checking the documents of draft-age men. "This cowardly attack is another proof that some citizens have fallen for enemy propaganda, forgetting who is truly responsible for this war aimed at destroying our people as a nation and our country as a state," the statement read. The 79th Separate Airborne Assault Brigade destroyed a vehicle carrying five Russian soldiers in central Myrnohrad, Donetsk Oblast, the 7th Rapid Response Corps said on Jan. 29, also releasing a video of the attack. The strike, carried out with FPV (first-person-view) drones, killed one Russian soldier and wounded four others. In addition to small infantry units, Russian troops sometimes use light vehicles to attempt quick breakthroughs into the town, the corps added. Ukrainian forces from the 79th Separate Airborne Assault Brigade, positioned in this sector of the front line, continue search-and-strike operations in Myrnohrad and its outskirts, the statement read. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) detained a soldier from the Ukrainian Navy's unmanned systems brigade who was allegedly acting as a Russian informant and collecting data on naval drones, the agency said on Jan. 29. The soldier reportedly began cooperating with Russian intelligence through acquaintances, sharing details about his service. The death toll from a Russian strike on Odesa on Jan. 27 rose to four after an injured man died in a hospital, head of the Odesa Military Administration, Serhii Lysak, said on Jan. 29. "Doctors fought for his life until the very end, but his injuries were too severe," Lysak said. Russia used more than 50 drones in the attack against the regional center, targeting energy and civilian infrastructure, President Volodymyr Zelensky said. Five residential buildings were damaged as well. Ukrainian forces struck several Russian military targets, including an aircraft, the General Staff said on Jan. 29. The General Staff also reported strikes on a Russian 1L119 Nebo-SVU radar station, estimated to be worth $100 million, in Russian-occupied Luhansk Oblast. Apart from the radar station, Ukrainian forces targeted drone control centers near the occupied settlements of Solodke, Rivnopillia and Novohryhorivka in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, as well as near Pidstepne in Kherson Oblast, according to the report. An ammunition depot near the occupied town of Vasylivka in Zaporizhzhia Oblast was also hit, the General Staff said. Some 613 high-rise apartment buildings in Kyiv remain without heating following recent Russian strikes, the Kyiv City State Administration said on Jan. 29. City officials are continuing efforts to restore heating after the Russian strikes on Jan. 9 and 20, which have left some of the residents without heating for nearly three weeks. Russia confirmed that it had handed over 1,000 bodies to Ukraine under the Istanbul agreement in exchange for 38 bodies of fallen Russian soldiers, Kremlin-controlled news agency TASS reported on Jan. 29. "Law enforcement investigators, together with representatives of Ukrainian expert institutions, will take all necessary measures to identify the repatriated deceased," the Coordination Headquarters said in its Telegram post. The latest repatriation exchange comes as the U.S. pushes Ukraine and Russia to continue peace talks to reach a deal to end the war at all costs. At least six people have been killed and 26 others injured in Russian attacks against Ukraine over the past day, local authorities said on Jan. 29.Russia launched 105 drones at Ukraine overnight, the Air Force said. At least 18 drones and the missiles made it through, striking seven locations. In Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Russian attacks killed three and injured 16 civilians over the past day, according to the local military administration. In Kherson Oblast, Russian forces targeted 27 settlements, killing a person and injuring seven others, including a child, over the past day, the local military administration said. In Kharkiv Oblast, a 47-year-old man was killed in the village of Khatnie, Governor Oleh Syniehubov said. Russia has lost around 1,237,400 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. 29. According to the report, Russia has also lost 11,613 tanks, 23,965 armored fighting vehicles, 76,190 vehicles and fuel tanks, 36,733 artillery systems, 1,629 multiple launch rocket systems, 1,288 air defense systems, 435 airplanes, 347 helicopters, 118,679 drones, 28 ships and boats, and two submarines. Kateryna Hodunova is a News Editor at the Kyiv Independent. She previously worked as a sports journalist in several Ukrainian outlets and was the deputy chief editor at Suspilne Sport. She holds a bachelor's degree in political journalism from Taras Shevchenko University and a master's degree in political science from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.

Border czar Tom Homan in Minneapolis says ‘no agency is perfect' and acknowledges improvements that need to be made to federal immigration enforcement ‘Nothing has changed': Minneapolis on edge despite Trump's de-escalation vow During Thursday's press conference, Tom Homan noted that the administration has “recognized that certain improvements could and should be made” in the ongoing immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota, but didn't specify what those looked like or when they would be implemented. The border czar also refused to comment on the newly published video footage of Alex Pretti earlier this month, which appears to show officers grabbing Pretti and bringing him to the ground during intense protests that have gripped Minneapolis. Moments after Trump said ‘we're getting close' on a deal to avert a US government shutdown, Democrats voted to block legislation to fund the Department of Homeland Security and several other agencies as they continued to negotiate with Republicans and the White House on new restrictions for Trump's surge of immigration enforcement. Thursday's 45-55 test vote came as Democrats have threatened a partial government shutdown when money runs out on Friday. As the country reels from the deaths of two protesters at the hands of federal agents in Minneapolis, Senate Democrats laid out a list of demands on Wednesday, including that officers take off their masks and identify themselves and obtain warrants for arrest. If these demands are not met, Democrats say they are prepared to block the wide-ranging spending bill, denying Republicans the votes they need to pass it and triggering a shutdown. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer has said that Democrats won't provide the needed votes until the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is “reined in and overhauled” and that this is “a moment of truth.” “I personally asked President Putin not to fire into Kyiv and various towns for a week, and he agreed to do that,” Trump said at the Cabinet meeting, citing “extraordinary cold” in the region. A lot of people said, ‘Don't waste the call, you're not going to get that.' “That's hard for even me to believe,” he quipped. According to the department of homeland security's own 2025 year-end review, border crossings dropped by 93% year-over-year. Speaking on the possibility of a government shutdown, Trump said: “Hopefully we won't have a shutdown and we're working on that right now. The Democrats, I don't believe, want to see it either. Speaking on Venezuela, Trump said: “We have the major oil companies going to Venezuela now, scouting it out and picking their locations, and they'll be bringing back tremendous wealth for Venezuela and for the United States. He continued: “I just spoke to the president of Venezuela, informed her that we're going to be opening up all commercial airspace over Venezuela. American citizens will be very shortly able to go to Venezuela, and they'll be safe there.” He also added that he has “instructed Sean Duffy and everybody else concerned, including the military, that if you would, by the end of today, I'd like you out of the airspace over Venezuela”. Donald Trump has begun speaking at this afternoon's Cabinet meeting. We will bring you lines from the meeting as they come. But the shift from “safe” Republican to “likely” Republican is still a notable development in the former swing state that has become reliably red in recent election cycles. It follows other small but significant Democratic advances during the second Trump administration, including pushing two Republican candidates close in a special congressional election in April, and Eileen Higgins's stunning upset win in Miami's mayoral run-off last month. Vindman, a retired Lt Col, and his brother Eugene, now Democratic congressman for Virginia, served the national security council in Trump's first term, and raised concerns that sparked an investigation into the president's demands for Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden. Florida has not elected a Democratic senator since Bill Nelson in 2012. If Hegseth does not attend the regular gathering, he will be the second US cabinet secretary in a row to skip a Nato ministerial meeting. Secretary of state Marco Rubio did not attend the last Nato foreign ministers' meeting in December. Earlier this month, Trump rattled Nato allies after threatening to impose tariffs on a group of European members of the alliance that opposed his bid for Greenland, prompting outrage from EU leaders. Matt Mahan, the moderate Democrat and mayor of San Jose, California, announced on Thursday that he would run for governor, joining a sprawling but stagnant field to succeed Gavin Newsom. Mahan, 43, is a former tech entrepreneur who was first elected mayor of Silicon Valley's largest city in 2022. Since then, he has drawn support for his pragmatic approach that he touts for helping make San Jose the safest big city in the nation. Mahan is a frequent critic of Newsom, who is term-limited and cannot run again, over the governor's approach to homelessness, crime reduction and even his social media taunting of the president. Welcoming Mahan to the race, Steyer said in a statement: “California needs a governor who will stand up to powerful interests, not carry their water.” Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum said today she had a “productive and cordial” conversation with her US counterpart Donald Trump. “We continue to make progress on trade issues and the bilateral relationship. We agreed that both teams will continue working together,” Sheinbaum said in a post on X. Earlier this month, Sheinbaum defended the transfer of 37 Mexican cartel operatives to the US as a “sovereign decision”, as her government strives to alleviate pressure from the Trump administration to do more against drug-trafficking groups. “We know exactly who we're looking for,” Trump's border czar said, despite many people who have minor or no criminal convictions being caught in the dragnet. When a reporter asked whether undocumented immigrants — who have not committed a crime — would be affected by the ongoing operation, Homan was resolute. A man attempted to raise the American flag in Greenland's capital, Nuuk, on Wednesday and was stopped by bystanders, according to Danish television channel TV 2. When police later questioned the person, he identified himself with a German satire program called Extra 3, broadcast on the German television station Norddeutscher Rundfunk. Officials in Springfield, Ohio, are bracing for an immigration enforcement surge next week as Temporary Protected Status for Haitian immigrants expires.Reporting by the Springfield News-Sun cited messages within the city's school system expecting that a federal immigration enforcement operation may begin in Springfield lasting at least 30 days. ”Federal authorities signaled an enforcement window of at least 30 days,” said an email obtained by the News-Sun from Springfield City School District Superintendent Bob Hill, citing a meeting with Ohio Gov. “A federal list of individual removal orders has been identified in Springfield as an initial focal point for enforcement activity, with discretion to detain additional individuals encountered who lack lawful status.” Donald Trump falsely claimed that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating residents' pets during a 2024 debate. The fabrication had been pushed by a neo-Nazi group in Ohio. ICE agents have been instructed not to engage with “agitators” following the arrival of Tom Homan amid the fallout after federal agents shot two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis, Reuters reports. “DO NOT COMMUNICATE OR ENGAGE WITH AGITATORS,” said an email disseminated by a top ICE official. “It serves no purpose other than inflaming the situation. Homan didn't answer a reporter's question about the specific number of federal immigration agents that are currently in Minneapolis. Homan also noted that “cooperation” from local officials in Minnesota, specifically access to jails, could lead to the federal immigration crackdown easing up, and a reduction of agents throughout the state. During Thursday's press conference, Tom Homan noted that the administration has “recognized that certain improvements could and should be made” in the ongoing immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota, but didn't specify what those looked like or when they would be implemented. The border czar also refused to comment on the newly published video footage of Alex Pretti earlier this month, which appears to show officers grabbing Pretti and bringing him to the ground during intense protests that have gripped Minneapolis. “The hostile rhetoric and dangerous threats must stop,” Homan said. “I said in March that if the rhetoric didn't stop, there would be bloodshed. … “If you want certain laws reformed, take it up with Congress.”

These stories topped Thursday's newspaper headlines across Russia. Russia supports Syria's territorial integrity, and Moscow is ready to assist with the country's reconstruction, President Vladimir Putin said on January 28 during a meeting with his Syrian counterpart Ahmed al-Sharaa, who is currently visiting Moscow. The Russian leader called regional integration a crucial step in this direction. The two heads of state praised the notable success of their bilateral relations, noting that trade turnover has grown by more than 4%. Against this backdrop, practical military coordination has also stepped up in recent months. According to Izvestia's source, cooperation between the defense ministries continues. In mid-November, a large Russian delegation arrived in Damascus, and talks between the leadership of the two countries' defense ministries focused on enhancing cooperation and coordination mechanisms. In turn, Russian Center for Middle East Studies President Murad Sadigzadeh told Vedomosti that al-Sharaa's visit to Moscow was partly prompted by recent events in northeast Syria. Russia has maintained contact with all sides of the fragmented Arab Republic through various channels, even during the Assad government. Russia also has traditionally had relatively friendly ties with various Kurdish forces in the region, he stressed. "However, this process should be viewed with caution. Nevertheless, al-Sharaa's visit to Moscow has undoubtedly had a positive impact on bilateral relations," he emphasized. The European Commission has started drafting a plan to stop buying Russian nuclear fuel, but that doesn't mean it will be adopted this year. Thirty-one countries worldwide are involved in nuclear energy, but only a few, including Russia, have achieved a high level of development in this area. Vladimir Chernov, an analyst at Freedom Finance Global, told Rossiyskaya Gazeta that gas can be replaced by alternative suppliers, albeit at a higher price. However, nuclear energy does not work that way. There are about 20 Soviet-and Russian-designed VVER reactors in the EU. These are located in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Finland, and Bulgaria. They were originally designed for Russian TVEL fuel and Rosatom services. There is no stable, mass-produced replacement so far, the expert emphasized. South Korea may also participate in this process to a degree. Uranium enrichment is insufficiently developed in the EU itself, Chernov explained. A significant part of the supply chain is still tied to Russian or Soviet-era technologies. A sharp refusal would mean either increased dependence on the US or the risk of disruptions at nuclear power plants. In turn, energy expert Kirill Rodionov stressed that restrictions on nuclear fuel exports would be among the most unpleasant and painful for the Russian nuclear industry. Among all these segments, nuclear fuel production is the most profitable. President Donald Trump assures that tariffs have already brought in $600 billion to the treasury. However, in light of the rapidly growing public debt, this sum seems insignificant: during his first year in office, the country's liabilities increased by over $2.3 trillion, setting a new record. Consequently, the total US debt has grown to exceed $38.6 trillion. For comparison, Russia's debt is 86 times smaller at 34.4 trillion rubles. These revenues cover only 10-12% of the increase in public debt, Igor Rastorguev, chief analyst at AMarkets, noted. The funds received from tariffs are not only intended for debt servicing. Thus, tariffs cannot be viewed solely as a tool for reducing debt: they are only a temporary source of revenue that does not stop the growth of borrowing, but only partially eases the situation, Sofya Glavina, associate professor at the Russian University of People's Friendship's Faculty of Economics, pointed out. This is directly linked to Trump's threats to impose punitive tariffs on eight European countries for disagreeing with his plans for Greenland. These statements sparked panic among investors and an outflow of capital from US assets because they perceived this as an escalation of the trade war with key allies, Gogaladze stressed. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrived in China on January 28 for a four-day official visit, the first of its kind since 2018. He will hold talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Qiang, and National People's Congress' Standing Committee Chairman Zhao Leji. After the Labor Party came to power in the UK, Beijing and London effectively resumed cooperation, Sergey Tsyplakov, a leading researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences' Chinese Socio-Economic Studies Center, recalled in a comment to Vedomosti. And Starmer's visit can certainly be called historic, he noted, as it is the first such trip in eight years. Britain and China have a large volume of mutual trade, in which Beijing has a consistently positive balance, Tsyplakov noted. As for the potential reaction of the US, Washington will undoubtedly closely watch Starmer's visit, who is "a very cautious man." However, a sharp reaction from the Trump administration in the form of political statements cannot be ruled out, Tsyplakov emphasized. Starmer's visit to China is more of a political one, and it's unlikely to lead to any major business deals right now, Alexander Lomanov, head of the Center for Asia-Pacific Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences' World Economy and International Relations Institute, stressed. Currently, there are no major joint projects between China and the UK. At the same time, participation in these sectors is largely unacceptable for Europe due to security concerns and fears that such products from China will flood its markets, Lomanov said. Despite the large UK delegation, Starmer's visit is more symbolic than substantive, Sergey Shein, a research fellow at the Center for Advanced European and International Studies at the Russian National Research University Higher School of Economics, pointed out. According to him, one should not have too high expectations from the visit, and it will not open a new chapter in relations between Beijing and London. Trump is not currently interested in undermining special relations with Britain, although an outburst of anger with the threat of new tariffs may still occur, Shein noted. Major Russian refineries are preparing to resume gasoline exports in February. Expectations that the embargo will be lifted have already been reflected in stock market prices, which have begun to edge higher. Currently, gasoline exports are prohibited for all market participants until the end of February, and only refineries are permitted to export diesel fuel. However, the embargo does not apply to supplies under intergovernmental agreements. On Tuesday, a source told Kommersant that the Energy Ministry had submitted a resolution to remove the ban on gasoline exports from February. Before the ban was introduced, Russia's average monthly gasoline export volume was about 850,000 tons, the OMT-Consult analytical company's calculations show. Experts believe that, assuming stable refinery operations and no logistical problems, shipments could reach 800,000-900,000 tons per month in February-March. However, Kirill Bakhtin, head of the Russian equity analytics center at BCS, estimates shipments at 700,000-800,000 tons per month, noting that February and March are periods of seasonally low demand. Russian refineries have the potential to export light petroleum products, and the economic appeal of exports is very high, Maxim Malkov, partner at Kept and head of the oil and gas sector services practice, emphasized. Nevertheless, according to him, temporary permission for foreign supplies during a period of low demand does not pose a significant overall risk, and refineries will be able to boost profitability by utilizing spare capacity and selling at higher prices. TASS is not responsible for the material quoted in these press reviews

Chris Gay is a former Wall Street Journal staffer. He has also worked or written for U.S. News and World Report, the Far Eastern Economic Review, Forbes, Slate and others. Vegas and Wall Street have way too much in common, but there is one critical difference: What happens on Wall Street tends not to stay there. The news site DCReport ran an exclusive article recently suggesting that unnamed too-big-to-fail banks are feeling a bit stressed these days. The evidence: sudden, highly unusual infusions of New York Federal Reserve cash into the banks since October totalling at least US$85-billion, and a drastic relaxation of the limits on these transactions in early December, possibly to save one of them from the consequences of reckless speculation. Probably not, but because markets are so easily spooked it doesn't help that the Trump regime is creating the kryptonite of uncertainty by moving to weaken regulatory guardrails put up for good reason following the fiasco of 2008. Opinion: Markets have proved resilient to Trump's chaos. Its chief instrument here seems to be Michelle Bowman, since June the Fed's vice-chair of supervision, a role critical to bank regulation. As a shot across the regulatory bow, Ms. Bowman has announced plans to cut the Fed's Washington staff 30 per cent by year's end, largely through attrition and voluntary departures. (Current chair Jerome Powell had already planned a 10-per-cent cut.) Bowman has also rebranded part of the Division of Supervision and Regulation as the “business enablement group.” Time will tell whether enablement means “regulatory capture” by powerful industries over agencies that are supposed to police them. Bowman says this will enhance system-wide risk monitoring. Opinion: As Trump tries to dominate the U.S. Federal Reserve, how bad could things get? The retreat from postcrisis regulation is not new to Trump 2.0. Trump 1.0 pared back rules instituted under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, Washington's postcrash attempt to make banks less risky. The thing to remember about systemic financial crises is that they don't happen at the moment when banks default and stock prices collapse; that's just the moment when most people notice. They happen in a years-long cycle that proceeds something like 1) easy credit, lax regulation and bubble formation, 2) a Minsky moment that deflates the bubble, 3) government bailouts of the culprits, 4) a new round of prudential regulations. Seven charts to make sense of stock markets in 2026 The loudest proponent of guardrail removal, of course, is the financial-services lobby, which would do well to recall that former Fed chair Alan Greenspan, once the high priest of light regulation, was forced in 2008 to refute his own claim that financial markets self-regulate, telling Congress that the crisis unfolding as he spoke had revealed a “flaw” in his free-market ideology. Keep in mind also that there is still such a thing as a shadow banking system, where risk proliferates outside regulatory purview, and that black swans are always hovering somewhere. As economists Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff's note in their excellent 2009 book This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly – the title a reference to “the most dangerous four words in investing” – “What one does see, again and again in the history of financial crises is that when an accident is waiting to happen, it usually does.” Authors and topics you follow will be added to your personal news feed in Following. © Copyright 2026 The Globe and Mail Inc. All rights reserved.

The Founding Fathers lived in a world of kings and emperors. There was no democracy in their time, and nothing even close since ancient Greece. Men like Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, well aware of the poor track record of past democracies, feared the power of the uneducated, propertyless masses, whose sheer numbers could overwhelm wiser heads in government. Yet despite their best efforts, they might not have succeeded. These tended to burn out in a few days. Since 2020, however, mob behaviour has become more persistent, spilling into assault, vandalism, looting, and arson to protest everything from Israel, US government policy, law enforcement, or sometimes all three. The mob that burst, uninvited, into a church in Minneapolis earlier this month during a service broke new and dangerous ground in protesting. Sadly, though, terrorist attacks on Jewish schools and synagogues have forced them to add security. And it seems Christians may not be far behind. Though fighting against great injustice, they took the higher ground. The nation saw on television well-dressed, dignified protesters subjected to shouting, police dogs, firehoses, and truncheons, and it changed American history. In the South, there were many churches whose members opposed integration and civil rights. But activist leaders like Martin Luther King and Ralph Abernathy chose to confront them elsewhere, in public segregated places like lunch counters, buses, and stores. For the civil rights giants, some places were sacred. Today's anti-ICE protesters are trying to end enforcement of valid federal immigration laws, which is hardly the same. In Washington, DC unhinged activists have demonstrated outside federal offices and private institutions, and harassed people on their way to Sunday worship. On numerous occasions last year, mobs of “protesters” chanted slogans, blared fake sirens, and harassed both occupants and pedestrians outside the DC offices of the Heritage Foundation, where I am a fellow. They screamed insults (laced with profanity, naturally) at people entering and leaving the building. One unhinged man with a megaphone called staff at this 50-year-old conservative Washington think tank pedophiles, Nazis, white supremacists, and other epithets, and suggested that employees perform sex acts on a long-dead German dictator with whom he seemed strangely obsessed. His amplified vitriol was audible throughout the building, though he has somehow avoided triggering DC noise ordinances. One of the three people arrested in the Minneapolis church invasion is also reported to have been present at protests around Heritage. If he was, his presence in Washington would appear to show the highly organised and well-funded nature of some supposedly organic and local protests against federal law enforcement. The worst of the Minneapolis and DC protesters got within inches of police officers, seemingly attempting to incite them to violence, a temptation officers most often resist with a professionalism that belies idiotic comparisons by DNC chairman Ken Martin between the US and Iran. In Iran, they have arrested, tortured, and shot protesters for far less. In America, so far, two people have lost their lives during confrontations with federal immigration agents. Their deaths were regrettable and could have been prevented, but comparing Iran's regime to the US is wilful idiocy. Today's tenor of political debate is a sad echo of the era when Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton would eloquently dispute how best to govern our new nation, or when Abraham Lincoln and Steven A Douglas debated for hours over an Illinois Senate seat. Instead of being schooled in better manners by their elders, sometimes they are encouraged. Graham Platner, who is running for the US Senate in Maine, wants “Medicare for all” so badly that he has suggested people follow and harass any members of Congress from Maine who oppose it. As James Papola shows in a documentary, high school debate has been captured by Left-leaning dogma. How we got here comes down to three main reasons: ideology, ignorance, and insanity. Tyler Robinson, the suspected killer of Charlie Kirk, Thomas Crook, the gunman who tried to assassinate our president, and Robin Westman, who opened fire on children at a Minneapolis church, all seemed to have been mired in gender ideology and other fringe ideas aligned more with Left-wing beliefs than Right-wing. All three of the above appeared to have a screw loose, as did Luigi Mangione, the man accused of assassinating health care executive Brian Thompson. Social media posters can have thousands of followers though they appear never to have unfolded a newspaper or cracked a book. One account with 25,000 followers tried to compare America's belated enforcement of immigration law to the Holocaust, Rwandan genocide, and persecution of the Rohingya in Burma. But the ancient force was always there, waiting for a breakdown in public morals and decency to emerge. Simon Hankinson is a senior research fellow in The Heritage Foundation's Border Security and Immigration Center, and author of ‘The Ten Woke Commandments (You Must Not Obey)'.