D.H.S. Cited Foreign Students' Writings and Protests Before Their Arrests  —  Documents unsealed by a federal judge on Thursday include dossiers that investigators prepared on pro-Palestinian student activists before they were targeted for deportation.  —  Secretary of State Marco Rubio …

White House Posts Altered Photo Showing Arrested Minnesota Protester Crying  —  Got a Tip?  The Times offers several ways to send important information confidentially ›  —  Face to Face With History's Most Dangerous Painter  —  Jacques-Louis David, artist and politician of the French Revolution …

Trump 0, Europe 1  —  Ignorance and contempt lose a round  —  As I wrote yesterday, Donald Trump and his team clearly went to Davos determined to demean and insult their hosts.  It was, one might say, a novel approach to diplomacy: “You're pathetic, your societies and economies are falling apart, now give us Greenland.”

Patel ousts senior FBI agents linked to Trump probes, say sources  —  As many as six agents in Miami were forced out over their connection to the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago.  Special agents in charge in Atlanta and New Orleans were removed, as well as the acting assistant director in charge of the New York field office.

Slavery exhibits at President's House in Philadelphia removed after Trump administration directive  —  PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — Crews dismantled plaques telling the stories of the nine enslaved people who lived in the President's House in Philadelphia, and were owned by George Washington.

Bid to rein in Trump's Venezuela war powers fails in US House  —  U.S. House of Representatives Republicans narrowly defeated a resolution on Thursday that would have barred President Donald Trump from further military action in Venezuela without the authorization of Congress, days after a similar measure failed in the Senate.

US officially leaves World Health Organization  —  After nearly 80 years of membership, the U.S. is officially no longer part of the World Health Organization (WHO).  —  President Trump initiated the removal process in an executive order on Jan. 20, 2025, the first day of his second term.

Hundreds of clergy descend on Minneapolis and go on lookout for ICE  —  MINNEAPOLIS (RNS) — Around 200 faith leaders fanned out across the city on Thursday (Jan. 22) to observe and document the actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, with some clergy confronting Department …

Lewandowski back for another year as DHS's part-time power broker  —  The most powerful man in the Department of Homeland Security, Corey Lewandowski, was supposed to work just 130 days last year because he was classified as a temporary government employee.  — But thanks to creative timekeeping, he was there throughout the year.

Past the breaking point  —  We use words like “police state.”  Then we see it happen.  To watch is not the same as to experience it, of course.  Of being afraid to leave your house.  Or having a classmate, co-worker, or family member disappear.  But the images make it more real.

Trump sues JPMorgan, Jamie Dimon over cutting off banking access  —  Trump said the financial giant abruptly closed his accounts in February 2021, in the weeks after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.  —  President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit Thursday against JPMorgan Chase and its chief executive …

Mark Carney Says Firmly That 'Canada Doesn't Live Because of the United States'  —  The Canadian prime minister spoke after returning from the World Economic Forum where he urged middle powers to team up in resisting President Trump.  —  When Mark Carney became Canada's prime minister last year …

Fury over Trump's slur against British troops: Kemi Badenoch leads attack on president for ‘flat-out nonsense’ claim that NATO allies ‘stayed off the front line’ in Afghanistan  —  Politicians and military veterans have reacted with outrage after Donald Trump claimed NATO troops …

These Gen-Z Trump voters don't want JD Vance in 2028 … When the 18- to 24-year-olds were asked who else they would like to see as potential candidates in 2028, they named Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, Sen. Tom Cotton …

Minnesota judges continue to reject arrest warrants in ICE protests  —  Sources say federal agents aren't providing evidence that protestors are committing the crimes of which they're accused.  —  Federal judges in Minnesota have several times in recent weeks rejected arrest warrants …

Trump administration plans to deport 40 Iranians days after mass killings in Iran  —  Two of the deportees are gay and terrified of returning to a country where homosexuality is punishable by death, their lawyer says.  —  The Trump administration plans to deport at least 40 Iranian nationals …

What if we just stopped paying taxes?  —  In solidarity with the anti-ICE general strike in Minnesota, I am donating all proceeds from today's newsletter to People over Papers, the Midway-Hamline Diaper Bank, and Every Meal.  If you're not already a paid subscriber but would like to do so and support …

The Trump administration admits even more ways DOGE accessed sensitive personal data  —  For much of the last year, staffers who were initially part of the Department of Government Efficiency effort improperly accessed and shared sensitive personal data on millions of Americans.

Announcement from the new TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC  —  TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC Established in Compliance with U.S. Regulatory Requirements  —  Today, TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC has been established in compliance with the Executive Order signed by President Trump on September 25 …

Breaking the Fourth Amendment  —  Last night, we learned from a report in the Associated Press that ICE, contrary to longstanding Fourth Amendment jurisprudence, is taking the position that it can enter people's homes without a judicial warrant.  Instead, they believe that an administrative warrant suffices.

Minnesotans strike to protest ICE surge in state: ‘No work, no school, no shopping’  —  Organizers demand ICE leave state and agency be investigated for constitutional violations  —  A “no work, no school, no shopping” blackout day of protest was kicked off by community leaders …

Jury finds Chicago man not guilty in murder-for-hire case involving U.S. Border Patrol Cmdr.  Gregory Bovino: live updates  —  The unusually swift trial is the first to result from the Trump administration's aggressive deportation campaign in Chicago, known as Operation Midway Blitz.

Voice of America's Persian service blacks out Iran's exiled crown prince  —  The Persian service for President Trump's overhauled Voice of America (VOA) is censoring coverage of Iran's exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, who played a central role in stirring up antigovernment protests that rocked the country earlier this month.

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Voters Are Split on Deportations but Disapprove of ICE, Poll Finds  —  While roughly half of voters support President Trump's handling of the border between the United States and Mexico, a sizable majority says that ICE's tactics have “gone too far.”  —  Roughly half of voters support …

Project 2025 director Paul Dans: ‘We are in a full-on scrimmage for the future of America First’  —  Behind its trim green shutters and colonial-style facade, the Monocle Restaurant has for decades played host to the Washington DC elite.  Signed pictures of presidents and senators who have lunched there adorn its walls.

Deadly Keystone Cops  —  DHS and ICE are incompetent—but that doesn't make them any less dangerous.  —  You don't really get the sense these days that Donald Trump views his authoritarian outbursts as a limited resource, something he can only indulge in so much before he's wasted all his political capital.

‘Pick an office, any office’: For California Democrats, any job will do … “I can't recall this kind of political musical chairs since I started working with Jerry Brown, which was in the fall of 1974,” said former California Gov. Gray Davis, who was chief of staff in Brown's first gubernatorial administration.

Conservatives who once railed against federal agents now applaud them  —  Since Ruby Ridge and Waco in the 1990s, a faction of right-wing populists had excoriated federal law enforcement.  Now those agents are being deployed by their allies.  —  It has been more than 30 years since …

Trump's new Board of Peace is necessary because the UN has failed again and again  —  President Trump's remarks at Davos have caused a chorus of howls.  Some of that howling is understandable.  But some of it is makes as much sense as howling at the moon.  —  Take the “Board of Peace” proposal.

Microsoft Gave FBI Keys To Unlock Encrypted Data, Exposing Major Privacy Flaw  —  The tech giant said it receives around 20 requests for BitLocker keys a year and will provide them to governments in response to valid court orders.  But companies like Apple and Meta set up their systems so such a privacy violation isn't possible.