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    Senate Democrats reach deal to avert partial government shutdown

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    Deal calls for splitting a funding bill for DHS from a package of other funding billsSenators have reached a deal to advance a major package of spending bills to avert a partial government shutdown that was set to begin on Saturday.The office of Chuck Schumer, the Senate’s top Democrat, confirmed the deal calls for splitting a funding bill for the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from a package of other funding bills, and that the deal would fund DHS for two weeks at its current levels. Continue reading… More

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      ‘Nothing has changed’: Minneapolis on edge despite Trump’s de-escalation vow

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      The departure of Greg Bovino has not quelled ICE’s raids – and hope that tensions are easing feels distantWhen the belligerent border patrol official Gregory Bovino finally left the Twin Cities this week, there was hope that the tension in the region would dissipate. But in the wake of the deaths of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, residents say they are still dealing with immigration raids and threats to their safety – and fear the shock waves will be felt for a very long time.In Saint Paul, city council member Molly Coleman is still taking shifts to watch for federal immigration agents at her son’s daycare. “People are really guarding against false optimism,” she said. “I don’t think anybody in Minnesota is under any illusions that we are suddenly safer than we were this time last week – that constitutional observers are safer, that immigrants are safer, that anybody who looks brown or Black on the streets is safer.” Continue reading… More

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      From worst of times to even worse: the Trump administration continues to spiral | Sidney Blumenthal

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      In the winter of despair, it was a day of the vile and a night of the obsceneNIt was the worst of times and then even worse; it was the age of lies and then more lies; it was an epoch of preening and cowardice. In the winter of despair, it was a day of the vile and a night of the obscene. It was a tale of two films, one featuring the stark killing of a protester on a cold Minneapolis street and the other starring Melania Trump striking poses in a “documentary” shown at a private screening at the White House.Throughout the day of Saturday 24 January videos of the killing by ICE agents of Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse at the Veterans Administration hospital, on a street in Minneapolis were broadcast endlessly on TV news channels and seen by tens of millions online. The videos clearly showed Pretti with his phone in his hand, holding his hands up as he approached ICE agents who had pepper-sprayed a woman. He was coming to her aid, a Good Samaritan. The ICE agents instantly attacked him. One frame of a video shows one agent with his gun drawn, pointed at Pretti’s back as he fell, hands still in the air. Agents appear to have shot him 10 times in five seconds. Continue reading… More

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      ‘Rage knitting’ against the machine: the hobbyists putting anti-ICE messages into crafts

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      Makers take a stand through ‘Melt the ICE’ red knit caps and sparkly nails – all while raising funds for those affected by immigration raidsIn the nine years that Gilah Mashaal has owned Needle & Skein, a yarn store in the suburbs of Minneapolis, she has tried to maintain a rule that “nobody talks politics” in the shop. But amid the weeks-long occupation of the Twin Cities by federal immigration paramilitaries, Mashaal and one of her employees decided to turn one of their weekly knit-alongs into a “protest stitch-along”.They didn’t want to return to the “pussy hats” that symbolized women’s resistance to Donald Trump in 2016, so Paul, their employee, did some research and came back with a proposal: a red knit hat inspired by the topplue or nisselue (woolen caps), worn by Norwegians during the second world war to signify their resistance to the Nazi occupation. Continue reading… More

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      Shut it down! The US is better off with no government than with the one it has | Judith Levine

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      As senators refuse to fund Trump’s immigration crackdown, a partial shutdown is likely. For Democrats, it’s the right moveIt took not one but two killings of unarmed white American citizens by immigration enforcement agents for the Democrats to commit to withholding funds from the Department of Homeland Security, the agency of which Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the border patrol – the killers – are part.After the first killing, seven House Democrats nevertheless voted with Republicans to allocate $64.4bn to the DHS, including $10bn for ICE. The bill they approved contained none of their party’s “commonsense” reforms, such as prohibition of masks and the requirement that agents obtain a judicial warrant before busting down a person’s door – not just an administrative warrant signed by the same agency invading the home. This last “reform”, which the Republican party rejected, is the soul of the fourth amendment, without which no one is safe anywhere from the state’s intrusion. Continue reading… More

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      The slopaganda era: 10 AI images posted by the White House – and what they teach us

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      Under Donald Trump, the White House has filled its social media with memes, wishcasting, nostalgia and deepfakes. Here’s what you need to know to navigate the trollingIt started with an image of Trump as a king mocked up on a fake Time magazine cover. Since then it’s developed into a full-blown phenomenon, one academics are calling “slopaganda” – an unholy alliance of easily available AI tools and political messaging. “Shitposting”, the publishing of deliberately crude, offensive content online to provoke a reaction, has reached the level of “institutional shitposting”, according to Know Your Meme’s editor Don Caldwell. This is trolling as official government communication. And nobody is more skilled at it than the Trump administration – a government that has not only allowed the AI industry all the regulative freedom it desires, but has embraced the technology for its own in-house purposes. Here are 10 of the most significant fake images the White House has put out so far. Continue reading… More

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      The Minneapolis revolt tells us this: even in Trump’s America, the people have power too | Aditya Chakrabortty

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      After months of community resistance, the president backed down. Leadership from below succeeded when politics as usual failedFor most politicians and journalists, the answer to nearly every question is to look up. Not at the moon, the stars or even the chimney tops, but at their leaders: the people who sit atop institutions, wield power and set the line that others follow. The top of the totem pole is the sole focal point, and the stories that count usually come from the heights of power.Bend your neck back far enough and Davos becomes not a talking shop in a Swiss ski resort, but a gathering of world leaders; Keir Starmer flying into Beijing is a summit of great powers; even who should be the MP for Gorton and Denton is really all about the Labour leadership. For this piece, the Guardian’s research librarians counted how many times the words “leader” or “leadership” appeared across the British press. Over the past week alone, the rough total stands at 2,000. A third of those stories concern one man: Donald Trump.Aditya Chakrabortty is a Guardian columnist Continue reading… More

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      US congressman meets five-year-old Liam Ramos and his father at ICE detention center – as it happened

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      This blog has now closed. Read our latest story hereTwo federal officers fired their guns during the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, according to an initial review by the Department of Homeland Security that was obtained by NBC News.Three sources told NBC News that the preliminary report, from a Customs and Border Protection internal investigation led by the agency’s Office of Professional Responsibility, was sent to congressional committees yesterday, including the House homeland security and judiciary committees. Continue reading… More

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      Footage appears to show ICE agent trying to enter Ecuador’s consulate in Minneapolis – video

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      Video filmed from inside Ecuador’s consulate in Minneapolis shows an ICE agent trying to enter the building but being prevented by consulate staffers, according to the country’s foreign ministry. Reuters confirmed the location as the Ecuadorian consulate in Minneapolis, from the doors, windows, walls, ceiling fixtures and building across the street that are seen in the video which matched file imagery of the consulate and the area. The date was verified by Ecuador’s ministry of foreign affairs that said an ICE agent attempted to enter the consulate’s facilities in Minneapolis on Tuesday 27 January. US politics live Continue reading… More