United States | News & Politics

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/7282812

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who fatally shot a 37-year-old woman in Minneapolis on Jan. 7 is Jonathan Ross, the same officer who was dragged and injured by a fleeing driver in a separate incident last year, according to a person with knowledge of the case and verified by court documents.

Little public information is available about Ross, described only by federal officials as “an experienced” officer.

On Wednesday morning, Ross was embedded with a group of federal agents on a targeted crackdown in south Minneapolis when Renee Nicole Good was shot. ICE has not reported the identity of the shooter and did not respond to request for comment for this story.

A photo of Ross’ face has since circulated on social media, as online sleuths have attempted to identify him.

On June 17, Ross was participating in an arrest of Roberto Carlos Munoz-Guatemala, a Mexican citizen, in Bloomington last year. Munoz-Guatemala had previously been convicted of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct and had been put on a detainer by immigration officials. Munoz-Guatemala ignored the agents’ commands, including to fully roll down his car window, so Ross broke open his rear window and reached inside to unlock the door.

Munoz-Guatemala put the vehicle in drive and accelerated onto the curb, the charges said. Ross was dragged alongside the vehicle and twice fired his Taser as Munoz-Guatemala weaved back and forth “in an apparent attempt to shake” him from the car. About 300 feet down the road, Munoz-Guatemala re-entered the street and the force knocked the officer from the car.

The agent required 20 stitches for a deep cut in his right arm and another 13 stitches in his left hand, according to court documents. A jury convicted Munoz-Guatemala of assaulting a federal officer in December.

Hours after the shooting Wednesday morning, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said the agent involved had “been dragged by a vehicle” in an earlier incident. At the time, she did not provide specific location details.

But she described the unnamed officer as “an experienced” agent who’d been in similar situations before and “followed his training.”

The Department of Homeland Security confirmed Thursday that the agent who killed Good was the same officer dragged by a suspect in Bloomington last June. Although Ross was not named in the 13-page indictment of the driver, he is identified in several court records filed in the case, including photo exhibits from the hospital. He is also listed by name as a witness.

A law enforcement source, who is not authorized to speak publicly, confirmed that Ross is the shooter.

Vice President JD Vance took questions at the White House on Thursday afternoon, announcing a new associate attorney general to oversee fraud — with a mission that will begin in Minnesota.

He also defended the agent’s actions.

“That very ICE officer nearly had his life ended … six months ago,” Vance said, referring to a car-dragging incident with the agent.

“You think maybe he’s a little bit sensitive about somebody ramming him?”

Asked about Gov. Tim Walz’s comments that the Trump administration’s escalation of ICE agents amplified and led to the shooting dismissed his former vice presidential opponent.

“I don’t care what Tim Walz says,” Vance said.

Billionaire Toby Neugebauer laughed when the Amarillo City Council asked him how he planned to handle the waste his planned datacenter would produce.

“I’m not laughing in disrespect to your question,” Neugebauer said. He explained that he’d just met with Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who had made it clear that any nuclear waste Neugebauer’s datacenter generated needed to go to Nevada, a state that’s not taking nuclear waste at the moment. “The answer is we don't have a great long term solution for how we’re doing nuclear waste.

The meeting happened on October 28, 2025 and was one of a series of appearances Neugebauer has put in before Amarillo’s leaders as he attempts to realize Project Matador: a massive 5,769 acre datacenter being built in the Texas Panhandle and constructed by Fermi America, a company he founded with former Secretary of Energy Rick Perry.

If built, Project Matador would be one of the largest datacenters in the world at around 18 million square feet. “What we’re talking about is creating the epicenter for artificial intelligence in the United States,” Neugebauer told the council. According to Neugebauer, the United States is in an existential race to build AI infrastructure. He sees it as a national security issue.

Archive: http://archive.today/C2yY0

Seattle, WA – Approximately 120 protesters rallied at Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle on January 3 to condemn the U.S. military’s illegal bombings of Venezuela and the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro.

The rally program included speeches from Seattle Against War (SAW), the International League of People’s Struggles (ILPS) Seattle/Tacoma, Veterans for Peace (VFP) Daniel Ellsberg chapter, 350 Seattle, Capybara Colectiva, BAYAN Washington, bil-Yad, the National Lawyers’ Guild, and the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO).

Rae Lee from Seattle Against War opened the program condemning the bombings and kidnapping of Maduro as criminal acts. They went on to describe the similarities between the U.S. war on Iraq and the attacks on Palestinian people, both motivated by oil. Lee described their recent visit to Venezuela, where they visited communities governed by locally elected councils and exercising autonomy in local governance, a far cry from the U.S. media description of a dictatorship. Lee then led the crowd in chants calling for “No U.S. war on Venezuela!” and to “Free President Maduro!”

A member of bil-Yad, a local Palestinian solidarity organization told the crowd, “Imperialist powers demand that the oppressed hand over their land and resources, and that the oppressed should just accept whatever crumbs are left over after the oil and resources are taken, after the environment is destroyed, and after the people are reduced to landless and impoverished masses.”

“It’s not about drugs, it’s about the oil! U.S. off Venezuelan soil!” chanted Mary Paterson from 350 Seattle, who condemned the attacks as a clear imperialist power play for U.S. interests in Venezuelan oil. She highlighted the need for environmental-focused organizations to oppose U.S. imperialist interests and stand in solidarity with the people of Venezuela, Palestine and the Philippines.

Representing the National Lawyers Guild, Marti Schmidt stated, “U.S. violations affect the entire international legal system, undermining respect for the U.S., causing fear and chaos, and spawning disinclination to rely on law.”

A Venezuelan immigrant member of Comunidad Sin Fronteras and Capybara Colectiva said, “The people who are best suited to control the future of Venezuela are the Venezuelan people themselves!” She went on to condemn the longstanding U.S. sanctions against Venezuela that has caused thousands of Venezuelan immigrants to migrate to Washington state where they’ve been forced at times to live in horrific and inhumane conditions made worse by the cuts to social security.

“This is the most unpopular war in U.S. history; over 70% of Americans do not want this,” said Izzy McCabe, a member of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, “But we live in a dying empire, ruled by decaying pedophiles who march step over step towards their own graves, and as they realize their reign is coming to an end they flail, they kick, they scream in a desperate attempt to take the whole world with them.”

Describing having met community leaders in communes on her recent trip to Venezuela, McCabe said, “they have created real people power, participatory democracy, social programs, communes, neighborhood assemblies. In Venezuela the people rule, and for that the United States has declared them an existential threat.”

McCabe continued “When we fight we are not just fighting against a single war, we are fighting for the environment, we are fighting for freedom for immigrants, we are fighting for the national liberation of Black and Chicano Americans, we are fighting for indigenous sovereignty. And in this fight, it is important that we unite around action. In the Freedom Road Socialist Organization our strategy is to build the broadest possible united front against our common enemy.”

Protesters rallied outside the courthouse on Jan. 5, in NewYork City where heavily armed U.S. troops brought Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his spouse Cilia Flores for a hearing on false charges of importing cocaine into the United States. A vast number of media outlets swarmed around them seeking interviews.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/7274399

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/17966

A Republican congressman on Wednesday made the case for seizing Greenland while describing the US as "the dominant predator" in the Western hemisphere.

During an interview with Fox Business, Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) claimed that taking control of Greenland from Denmark was a vital strategic US interest, saying it should be seized regardless of the opinions of its residents.

"It's important that we have a stake in Greenland, that they are, quite frankly, a protectorate of the United States," said Ogles, who is the lead sponsor of legislation backing Trump's Greenland takeover bid. "You know, they've been in... a relationship with Denmark, that needs to end... When you look at the Monroe Doctrine, you look at the Western hemisphere, we are the dominant predator, quite frankly, force in the Western hemisphere."

Rep. Ogles: "It's important that we have a stake in Greenland, that they are quite frankly a protectorate of the US. They've been in relationship with Denmark -- that needs to end. We have spilled more blood protecting Greenland than the Danes ... we are the dominant predator… pic.twitter.com/uAtHMMV0hL
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 7, 2026

Ogles' belligerent remarks came as Reuters reported that longtime US allies, including France and Germany, are making plans for how to respond should Trump go through with trying to annex Greenland.

It is not clear what shape this response would take, though a senior European official told Reuters that "the Danes have yet to communicate to their European allies what kind of concrete support they wish to receive," even while insisting that Denmark take the lead in pushing back against Trump's threats.

The report noted that Johannes Koskinen, chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Finland's parliament, has called on NATO members to "address whether something needs to be done and whether the United States should be brought into line in the sense that it cannot disregard jointly agreed plans in order to pursue its own power ambitions."

While much of the Republican Party has largely been in lockstep in supporting Trump's Greenland threats, not every GOP lawmaker is on board.

Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) said during a Tuesday interview with CNN that he hoped to rally other Republicans against any plans to seize the country.

"This is appalling," Bacon said. "Greenland is a NATO ally. We have a base on Greenland, we could put four or five bases on Greenland. They wouldn't mind that, they would make agreements with us on mining."

Bacon also emphasized the infeasibility of Trump's plans.

"We're not going to acquire Greenland," he said. "Most people in Greenland want to remain independent... with Denmark providing some protection... So this is one of the silliest things I've heard come out of the White House in the last year. It's unacceptable and I hope other Republicans line up behind me and make it clear to the White House that it's wrong."

Bacon on the administration's rhetoric about Greenland: "This is one of the silliest things I've heard come out of the White House in the last year. It's unacceptable and I hope other Republicans line up behind me and make it clear to the White House that it's wrong." pic.twitter.com/HH9LlDX5aJ
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 6, 2026

Trump and his allies have been making more aggressive statements in recent days about taking Greenland, which Trump has called essential to US national security.

Top Trump aide Stephen Miller on Monday night refused to rule out using military force to take Greenland during a Monday interview with CNN, and further claimed that “the future of the free world depends on America to be able to assert ourselves and our interests without an apology.”

From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.

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The Senate has advanced a resolution that would limit Trump’s ability to conduct further attacks against Venezuela, sounding a note of disapproval for the president’s expanding ambitions in the Western Hemisphere.

As his administration asserts a new world order guided by military force and economic power — and Trump calls for a massive increase in military spending to confront these “dangerous times” — U.S. allies are insisting that global stability depends on following international law.

Top Republican lawmakers are firmly backing the Trump administration’s arrest of Venezuela’s president and assertions of control over the South American nation’s oil industry, but some GOP senators are drawing the line on more attacks without the approval of Congress.

1867–1868: Early US interest after the Alaska purchase

After the U.S. bought Alaska from Russia, officials under Secretary of State William Seward discussed acquiring Greenland as part of a broader push into the Arctic.

1910: Proposed land swap involving Greenland

Under President William Howard Taft, American diplomats floated a complex land-exchange plan that would have transferred Greenland to the United States in return for concessions elsewhere. Denmark rejected the proposal, and it quickly collapsed.

1946: Formal post–World War II purchase offer

At the outset of the Cold War, President Harry Truman’s administration formally offered Denmark $100 million in gold to buy Greenland, citing its strategic importance. During World War II, a U.S.-built airfield on the island had served as a major refueling point for military planes en route to Europe.

Federal officers fired tear gas to disperse early-morning protesters as outrage mounted in Minneapolis over the killing of a 37-year-old woman in her vehicle.

It's time to treat ICE as the organized criminal organization that it is

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City parents may soon have access to free child care for their 2-year-olds, under a plan set to be unveiled Thursday by Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

The two Democrats are expected to detail the program at a news conference Thursday morning, along with a pledge from Hochul to pursue a wider, statewide free child care initiative.

“There’s one thing that every family in New York can agree on, the cost of childcare is simply too high,” Hochul said in a statement. “As New York’s first mom Governor, fighting for New York’s families has always been at the core of my agenda.”

For Mamdani, the announcement is the first step in fulfilling one of his trademark campaign promises, marking a major boon for the mayor just days after he took office with the promise of implementing a transformative agenda focused on making the city a more affordable place to live.