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    Minneapolis mayor urges FBI to include state officials in Renee Good inquiry

    Jacob Frey says Trump administration is ‘so quick to jump on a narrative’ over the truth after ICE fatally shot womanKristi Noem vows to send ‘hundreds’ more agents to Minneapolis as protests erupt across USMinneapolis mayor Jacob Frey called on Sunday for the federal government to allow his state to become involved in the investigation of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer’s fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good, saying that the Trump administration had been “so quick to jump on a narrative as opposed to the truth”.Frey and others have expressed concerns about whether the Trump administration’s investigation into Good’s death would be fair and impartial because, among other reasons, the Department of Homeland Security secretary, Kristi Noem, immediately described Good’s actions as “domestic terrorism” when significant questions remained about Good’s intent while driving after an ICE officer attempted to remove her from her car. Continue reading… More

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    Homeland security sends more agents to Minneapolis as protests erupt in US

    After killing of Renee Nicole Good, city braces for what the agency describes as its largest enforcement operation yetMinneapolis mayor urges FBI to include state officials in Renee Good inquiryMinneapolis protesters – already outraged by Wednesday’s fatal shooting of a woman by an immigration officer – braced for a new onslaught as the Department of Homeland Security sent more agents in to the area, carried out what it called its largest enforcement operation ever.On Sunday, Kristi Noem, the secretary of homeland security, had pledged the agency would send “hundreds more” federal agents to the city. As door-to-door raids began, protesters screamed at heavily armed federal agents and honked car horns, banged on drums and blew whistles in attempts to disrupt their operations in one Minneapolis neighborhood filled with single-family homes. Continue reading… More

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    Former Republican chair says US institutions yielded to Trump, ‘the bully’

    Michael Steele argues law firms, universities and media capitulated with startling speed and voters want accountabilityThe biggest surprise of Donald Trump’s first year back in office is how quickly America’s institutions capitulated to “the bully”, said Michael Steele, a former chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC) turned arch critic.But with the midterm elections for Congress looming, Steele predicts a resounding Democratic victory amid a hunger among voters to hold the president and his allies accountable for threatening democracy. Continue reading… More

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    Rightwing bloggers and Maga minions: meet the Trump-loving Pentagon press corps

    A group of reporters meant to hold the Pentagon to account is full of pro-Trump sycophants … what could go wrong?After US troops swarmed into Venezuela, seizing the country’s president and his wife, there was little to be heard from the Pentagon.Typically, it would be a time for defense officials to talk to the Pentagon press corps: a group of journalists made up of some of the most talented reporters in the US. The Pentagon could have been expected to be held to account over what has been criticized as a violation of international law. Continue reading… More

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    ‘Have you ever smelled a cadaver?’ Family recounts horror after Costa Rican man deported in vegetative state

    Much of what happened to Randall Gamboa Esquivel, 52, over his last weeks in federal custody in Texas remains a mystery to his familyFamily seeks answers after ICE deports man to Costa Rica in vegetative stateA few days before Christmas in Pérez Zeledón, a city in Costa Rica, Greidy Mata stared at two photographs of her late brother. In one image, Randall Gamboa Esquivel flashed a smile prior to his immigration to the United States a year before. In the second, he was lying in a hospital bed in a vegetative state, after being deported back home.Dinner was served, but Mata seemed indifferent. She kept switching between one photograph and the other until she suddenly recounted that a year ago, in what would become the last family reunion, Gamboa announced he would be leaving for New Jersey. Continue reading… More

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    Family seeks answers after ICE deported man to Costa Rica in vegetative state

    Exclusive: Before Randall Gamboa Esquivel died, his health had deteriorated badly while he was in ICE custodyCosta Rican family demands answers after ICE deportation and death: ‘Have you ever smelled a cadaver?’The family of a Costa Rican man who was deported from the United States in a vegetative state and died shortly after arriving back in his home country is still urgently seeking answers from the authorities about what happened to him while he was in detention.Randall Gamboa Esquivel had left Costa Rica in good health and crossed the United States-Mexico border in December 2024, according to his family. However, Gamboa was detained by the US authorities for re-entering American soil unlawfully, as he had previously lived there undocumented between 2002 and 2013. Continue reading… More

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    A congresswoman wants to impeach Kristi Noem. She’s right to do so | Jan-Werner Müller

    It may be tempting to dismiss the move as hopeless – but it interrupts the Trump administration’s promise of impunityIn the wake of the killing of Renee Nicole Good, Congresswoman Robin Kelly has announced the filing of three articles of impeachment against Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary. Predictably, reactions have been muted at best: with the GOP holding both the Senate and the House, impeachment can be dismissed as purely performative, a helpless response to an in and of itself understandable moral imperative of “just do something!”But such dismissals are too quick: this administration has been running on a promise of impunity at all levels, and Democrats have to start signaling that actions have consequences. They also need to break out of a fateful dynamic: during Trump 2.0, misdeeds and scandals are following each other in such rapid succession that neither the press nor the public ever seem to get to focus on one. Impeachment can concentrate minds and slow down political time.Jan-Werner Müller is a Guardian US columnist and a professor of politics at Princeton University Continue reading… More

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    US urges its citizens to flee Venezuela amid reports of paramilitaries

    State department says armed ‘colectivos’ appear to be setting up roadblocks and searching vehicles for AmericansThe United States has urged its citizens to leave Venezuela immediately amid reports that armed paramilitaries are trying to track down US citizens, one week after the capture of the South American country’s president, Nicolás Maduro.In a security alert sent out on Saturday, the state department said there were reports of armed members of pro-regime militias, known as colectivos, setting up roadblocks and searching vehicles for evidence that the occupants were US citizens or supporters of the country. Continue reading… More