United States | News & Politics

I watched the first two weeks of Bari Weiss’s attempt to reshape evening news. I’m left wondering who it’s even for.

Archived version: https://archive.is/20260125172206/https://theintercept.com/2026/01/25/tony-dokoupil-cbs-evening-news/

Rep. Maxwell Frost tweeted on Saturday night that he had been attacked by a man “who told me that Trump was going to deport me before he punched me in the face. He was heard screaming racist remarks as he drunkenly ran off”

A massive winter storm dumped sleet, freezing rain and snow across much of the U.S. on Sunday, bringing subzero temperatures and paralyzing air and road traffic. Power lines were draped in ice, and hundreds of thousands of people in the Southeast were left without electricity.

The ice and snowfall were expected to continue into Monday in much of the country, followed by very low temperatures, which could cause “dangerous travel and infrastructure impacts” to linger for several days, the National Weather Service said.

Heavy snow was forecast from the Ohio Valley to the Northeast, while “catastrophic ice accumulation” threatened from the Lower Mississippi Valley to the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast.

Given all the events happening, this is a reminder that peaceful protests are the key to change. We are all angry, we are all sad for the people and families being violently attacked, and it is hard to stay cool and calm, but violence reciprocity is not the answer. Channeling Gandhi, and MLK, both who change nations by absorbing violence and standing in their way. Show how they lost the moral high ground, and DO NOT RECIPROCATE!

Also it works:

There are key parameters to the 3.5 percent rule according to Chenoweth. The “figure is a descriptive statistic based on a sample of historical movements.” Thus, it is not necessarily a hard-and-fast law, but rather a solid predictor. Remarkably, most mass nonviolent movements that succeeded did so even without reaching the 3.5 percent threshold. Moreover, durable nonviolent movements are twice as likely to succeed as violent campaigns because people generally reject violence. The 3.5 percent rule does not rely on cumulative participation, but rather participation at a peak event, which usually means a mass nonviolent demonstration. And the demands for change must achieve success within one year as a result of the mobilization.

...

For everyday Americans wishing to actively object to the government’s slide toward authoritarian policies, the 3.5 percent rule is a motivational yardstick to measure the likely result of peaceful mobilization.

People-powered movements can increase the chances of pressuring the government to meet their demands, including by building broad, sustained public participation across diverse groups. This is especially true because authoritarian-minded governments try to divide the population and keep them afraid of defiance. When 3.5 percent of a population goes beyond protest to engage in peaceful civil disobedience and noncooperation, these actions disrupt the system and force governmental change. For example, general strikes that affect the economy, boycotts, sit-ins, walkouts, or shutdowns of parts of cities can put unavoidable pressure on political leaders to hear their constituents and resolve the matter.

Chenoweth also states that 3.5 percent participation strongly indicates that there is much deeper support of the movement across society and a sense of inevitability, which can translate into defections from key pillars on the government’s side. For example, leaders from the economic, business, political, cultural, and media sectors become more likely to shift their allegiance to the side of a broad nonviolent mobilization. Perhaps most importantly, effective mobilizations can cause vital defections from police and military forces as well as the members of the political party in power.

So to reiterate:

...People-powered movements are more successful when they can strategically build a broad tent across the political spectrum, avoid violence, and remain relentlessly disciplined. Sharing the risks of defiance, Americans committed to pro-democracy principles can shift the current balance of power and change the trajectory of the nation.

This week, the National Park Service removed an exhibit from Independence National Historical Park examining the legacy of slavery at the site.

The interpretive display, located at the President’s House Site at the park, depicted individuals who had been enslaved by George Washington, along with a timeline detailing the history of slavery in America. Washington and John Adams both resided at the site during their presidencies.

The move is the latest action by the Trump Administration to whitewash American history at NPS sites. Over the spring and summer of 2025, the administration pursued a “review” of signs and exhibits at national parks and national monuments that came in conflict with Trump’s executive order to “[restore] truth and sanity to American History.” More than 1,000 items were flagged for review. In September, NPS also removed a famous 1863 photograph of a formerly enslaved man with deep scarring on his back from an NPS site in Georgia. And in December, the Trump Administration removed Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth as free entry days at national park sites, while adding Flag Day, which falls on Trump’s birthday, as a fee-free day.

“We have a nice little database and now you’re considered a domestic terrorist.”

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/22601

On January 24, federal agents killed ICU nurse and community activist Alex Pretti in cold blood, after he tried to protect one of his neighbors. The Trump administration wasted no time putting forward a false narrative which completely distorted the events to justify Pretti’s murder. Pretti’s parents have released a statement to share the truth about their son, which we republish below.

~

We are heartbroken but also very angry.

Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital. Alex wanted to make a difference in the world. Unfortunately, he will not be with us to see his impact.

I do not throw around the “hero” term lightly. However, his last thought and act was to protect a woman. The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs. He had his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down, all while being pepper sprayed.

Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man. Thank you.

The post “Please get the truth out about our son”: Statement from Parents of Alex Pretti appeared first on Left Voice.

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Sat 24 Jan 2026 21.32 EST

Large protests spread across US cities on Saturday – including Minneapolis, New York City, San Francisco, Boston and Providence, Rhode Island – after 37-year-old Alex Pretti, a registered nurse living in Minneapolis, was shot dead by federal agents.

The wave of demonstrations come just one day after thousands marched through the streets of Minneapolis to protest against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Protesters again braved the extreme cold to speak out against the agency and show support for Pretti and others who have been harmed by the surge of immigration agents who have flooded the city in recent week.

Thousands more rallied in Union Square in New York City, with footage showing demonstrators shouting: “Say it once, say it twice, we will not put up with ICE!”

Videos analyzed by The New York Times appear to contradict federal accounts of the shooting. The man, an I.C.U. nurse, was an American citizen with no criminal record, the city police chief said.

Jan. 24, 2026

https://archive.ph/mRKaR

The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said it had joined Minnesota state officials in filing a federal lawsuit on Saturday night “seeking to prevent the destruction of evidence related to the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti.” The text of the lawsuit was not immediately available.

John Mitnick, who once was the head attorney at the Department of Homeland Security in the first Trump administration, criticized his former agency on Saturday night. “I am enraged and embarrassed by DHS’s lawlessness, fascism, and cruelty,” he wrote on social media.

Key Senate Democrats said they would oppose legislation needed to avoid a government shutdown at the end of the week after federal agents shot and killed a Minneapolis resident.

MINNEAPOLIS — Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said the city is asking a federal judge to immediately grant a temporary restraining order to help halt the federal government's current immigration operation on Monday. The request came after federal agents shot and killed a 37-year-old man Saturday in south Minneapolis.

-- article continues

The Kare11 ICE in Minnesota Page has a collection of recent stories. https://www.kare11.com/section/ice-in-minnesota

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/54036046

The University of Minnesota can no longer work with a group that helped Black and Latino students pursue business degrees — or other similar organizations — after the U.S. Education Department said the partnership constituted discrimination against white and Asian students.

The U participated in a “blatantly discriminatory program designed to benefit certain favored students based on their race or national origin to the clear detriment of other students who did not have access to the program,” a September letter from the Department of Education said.