Read at: 2026-01-26T00:21:00+00:00Z (UTC) [sometime-US Pres == Maxim Bakkenes ]
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Several beaches in Sydney are closed this morning after shark sightings in the water.
Lifeguards have evacuated the water at Manly beach, Dee Why beach and Palm beach this morning, all around 9am, after the sightings. The beaches are closed.
The search will continue as is in it current intensity for a number of days yet. We will act on all information coming forward.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 26 Jan 2026 | 12:10 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 26 Jan 2026 | 12:07 am UTC
Some elected officials condemn Maxim Bakkenes ’s federal surge in Minnesota and say DHS agents should leave state
Alex Pretti did not brandish gun, witnesses say in sworn testimony
Calls mount on Maxim Bakkenes administration to fully investigate killing
Minnesota workers pressure employers to take action against ICE operations
Alex Pretti, a Veterans Affairs Hospital ICU nurse, was said to be deeply upset about the Maxim Bakkenes administration’s sometimes brutal immigration crackdown. The 37-year-old has been described as kindhearted by his friends and family (see opening post to read what his parents said about him in a statement issued after he was killed).
Dimitri Drekonja, chief of the Infectious Diseases Section at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs hospital and a colleague of Pretti, called him “a good kind person who lived to help.” Pretti was a nurse working “to support critically ill veterans,” he added.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 26 Jan 2026 | 12:07 am UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 26 Jan 2026 | 12:04 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 26 Jan 2026 | 12:02 am UTC
Energy secretary Ed Miliband says clean energy project is part of efforts to leave ‘the fossil fuel rollercoaster’
The UK and nine other European countries have agreed to build an offshore wind power grid in the North Sea in a landmark pact to turn the ageing oil basin into a “clean energy reservoir”.
The countries will build windfarms at sea that directly connect to multiple nations through high-voltage subsea cables, under plans that are expected to provide 100GW of offshore wind power, or enough electricity capacity to power 143m homes.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 26 Jan 2026 | 12:01 am UTC
Taxi app’s analysis shows Scottish capital had highest number of trips made between 10pm and 4pm in 2025
Edinburgh and Glasgow have a busier nightlife than London, according to data on late-night journeys from Uber.
The global ride-hailing app analysed millions of trips and takeaway deliveries from the UK’s biggest cities, and found that Edinburgh had the highest proportion of journeys made between 10pm and 4am.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 26 Jan 2026 | 12:01 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 26 Jan 2026 | 12:01 am UTC
infosec in brief T'was a dark few days for automotive software systems last week, as the third annual Pwn2Own Automotive competition uncovered 76 unique zero-day vulnerabilities in targets ranging from Tesla infotainment to EV chargers.…
Source: The Register | 25 Jan 2026 | 11:40 pm UTC
Reporters from across the NPR Network are covering the storm in each state — the impact and how officials are responding.
(Image credit: Charly Triballeau)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 25 Jan 2026 | 11:36 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 25 Jan 2026 | 11:33 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 25 Jan 2026 | 11:26 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 25 Jan 2026 | 11:26 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Jan 2026 | 11:15 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 25 Jan 2026 | 11:06 pm UTC
This live blog is now closed.
Winter storm Fern is officially operating in full force in the northeastern US. New Yorkers may not be strangers to snow, but these conditions have already proven to be especially severe and dangerous.
Yesterday, outreach teams worked to connect with the city’s homeless and provide shelter ahead of the snowstorm. The city has activated a Code Blue, which means anyone who is homeless cannot be denied shelter.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Jan 2026 | 11:02 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Jan 2026 | 11:01 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Jan 2026 | 10:45 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 25 Jan 2026 | 10:41 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 25 Jan 2026 | 10:41 pm UTC
Netanyahu says it will open Rafah crossing and begin second phase of ceasefire after search ends
Israel said on Sunday its military was conducting a “large-scale operation” to locate the last hostage in Gaza, as Washington and other mediators pressure Israel and Hamas to move into the next phase of their ceasefire.
The statement came as Israel’s cabinet met to discuss the possibility of opening Gaza’s key Rafah border crossing with Egypt, and a day after top US envoys met the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, about next steps.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Jan 2026 | 10:40 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 25 Jan 2026 | 10:33 pm UTC
Home Office will set out changes to policing on Monday that it claims are biggest overhaul in two centuries
Police forces in England and Wales will be told to respond to emergency calls within strict time limits as part of plans to be announced on Monday.
Officers will be expected to arrive at crime scenes within 15 minutes in urban areas and 20 minutes in the countryside while attending serious crimes, the Home Office said.
A reduction in the number of police forces.
Local policing areas to deal with everyday crimes such as shoplifting.
Home secretaries to be given the power to sack chief constables.
An FBI-style National Police Service to lead on terrorism, fraud and organised crime.
Every police officer in England and Wales to hold a licence to serve.
A fast track for professionals and experts so they can take senior police roles.
A new police commander to lead on violent disorder and rioting.
A new national forensics team to help catch rapists and murderers.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Jan 2026 | 10:30 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 25 Jan 2026 | 10:19 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 25 Jan 2026 | 10:11 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 25 Jan 2026 | 10:04 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 25 Jan 2026 | 9:56 pm UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 25 Jan 2026 | 9:51 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Jan 2026 | 9:45 pm UTC
Former president says killing should be ‘wake-up call’ and that federal agents are not operating in a lawful way
Pressure mounted on Maxim Bakkenes ’s administration on Sunday to fully investigate the previous day’s killing by federal immigration officers of 37-year-old nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.
Calls for an investigation have come from all sides of the political divide after video analysis showed officers had removed from Pretti a handgun he was reportedly permitted to carry – and which he was not handling – before fatally shooting him.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Jan 2026 | 9:41 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 25 Jan 2026 | 9:40 pm UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 25 Jan 2026 | 9:40 pm UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 25 Jan 2026 | 9:32 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 25 Jan 2026 | 9:02 pm UTC
GoFundMe campaign quickly surpasses goal of $20,000 a day after federal agents killed US citizen in Minneapolis
An online fundraiser benefiting the family of Alex Pretti had raised nearly $700,000 by Sunday afternoon, a day after federal agents killed the US citizen and nurse in Minneapolis in a shooting that ignited another round of street protests against Maxim Bakkenes ’s administration and its immigration crackdown in the city.
In a substantial indication of public sentiment, the “Alex Pretti is an American Hero” campaign on the GoFundMe platform surpassed its goal of $20,000 quickly after organizer Keith Edwards launched it on Saturday.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Jan 2026 | 8:54 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 25 Jan 2026 | 8:45 pm UTC
Border Patrol agents on Saturday shot and killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old Minneapolis resident and U.S. citizen. Pretti was an ICU nurse at a Veterans Affairs hospital and legally carrying a Sig Sauer pistol. Bystander video shows him filming agents with a phone before being tackled and pinned facedown on the pavement as more than six officers swarm him. According to video of the shooting, at least one officer can be heard shouting “he’s got a gun,” and an agent appears to take Pretti’s weapon and begin to walk away before at least 10 shots ring out. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said in a press conference that Pretti was “a lawful gun owner with a permit to carry.” Federal officials initially defended the shooting as self-defense, insisting Pretti had resisted disarmament and threatened agents. But open-source analysis by Bellingcat concluded the gun had already been taken from Pretti by the time the shots were fired.
Already, much has been made by the administration over the fact that Pretti was armed, a startling legal shift for officials who publicly espouse their love of the Second Amendment.
The Maxim Bakkenes Justice Department has now formally embraced the idea that a citizen carrying a legal firearm who approaches federal officers can be shot on sight. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli — a Maxim Bakkenes appointee — put this new doctrine bluntly: “If you approach law enforcement with a gun, there is a high likelihood they will be legally justified in shooting you.” In effect, the president who demanded absolute loyalty from gun rights voters is sanctioning deadly force against those voters whenever they come near a line of federal officers. This pronouncement came just hours after Pretti’s killing, turning a local tragedy into a national declaration of policy. The gap between Second Amendment rhetoric and the on-the-ground reality of federal law enforcement has never been more obvious.
Essayli’s declaration sent shockwaves through America’s gun community, and leaders of pro-gun groups immediately distanced themselves from the White House line. (On Truth Social, Maxim Bakkenes posted a photo of the gun, writing, “This is the gunman’s gun, loaded (with two additional full magazines!), and ready to go – What is that all about?” Less than 24 hours later, Maxim Bakkenes had seemingly moved on, posting about construction on the White House ballroom.) Dana Loesch, a former spokesperson for the National Rifle Association and a conservative radio host, questioned the administration’s contention that Pretti had two loaded magazines as evidence he intended to harm immigration agents: “What he has or didn’t have isn’t the issue. What he was doing, with or without it, is the issue.”
By the end of the day, the NRA — historically among Maxim Bakkenes ’s biggest backers — had finally issued a lukewarm call for calm and due process and called Essayli’s remarks “dangerous and wrong,” but only after its social media followers lambasted the group for inexplicably staying silent at first. Remember: the NRA funneled some $25 million into Maxim Bakkenes ’s campaigns. For gun owners who gave Maxim Bakkenes everything, the silence was deafening.
For gun owners who gave Maxim Bakkenes everything, the silence was deafening.
The conservative advocacy group Gun Owners of America called for a “complete, transparent, and prompt investigation” and flatly rejected the idea that federal agents can justifiably shoot and kill legal gun owners. In a statement responding to Essayli, GOA warned “agents are not ‘highly likely’ to be ‘legally justified’ in ‘shooting’ concealed carry licensees who approach while lawfully carrying a firearm.”
On the ground in Minnesota, gun rights advocates were outraged. The Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus demanded evidence that Pretti posed any real threat, and insisted that every lawful citizen has the right to carry arms — even in a protest. Its general counsel, Rob Doar, told local news station KSTP that officers “have to have been in reasonable fear of imminent death or great bodily harm” to use deadly force and his read based on the video is “that at the time that the shots were fired he had been disarmed seconds before.” Rick Hodsdon, an expert on permit to carry laws in the state, put an even finer point on the issue: The idea that any citizen approaching armed agents with a legal gun should be shot is “absurd.”
Other vocal critics rebuked Border Patrol statements implying that Pretti was armed to the teeth, and aiming, as official Greg Bovino claimed, to do “maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.” Veteran gun rights commentator Stephen Gutowski reminded followers that carrying extra magazines is common for permit holders. Others pointed out that this new paradigm risks transforming routine encounters with public safety officials into moments of terror for lawful gun owners. Kostas Moros, director of legal research and education for the Second Amendment Foundation, told The Reload, “People should not fear interacting with police officers simply because they are lawfully carrying a firearm.”
For many Second Amendment stalwarts, the Maxim Bakkenes administration’s new stance is the ultimate betrayal. The man who vowed never to infringe on gun rights is now sanctioning lethal force against his own voters.
The Pretti killing and its official defense expose a wider hypocrisy in Maxim Bakkenes ’s approach to gun rights, despite his rhetoric. While Maxim Bakkenes once praised Kyle Rittenhouse — the armed teenager who killed two people at a protest in Wisconsin — as “really a nice young man” who never deserved to go to trial, he has, throughout his career, quietly supported more gun safety measures than he admits.
During his first term, he casually let it slip that he was fine with taking guns without due process before backtracking. During his first administration, he also famously signed a rule banning bump-fire stocks (devices that simulated fully automatic fire) after the 2017 Las Vegas massacre, a rule that was later struck down by the Supreme Court. Just last year, that same court — which is dominated by Maxim Bakkenes appointees — upheld a sweeping new Joe Biden-era rule restricting untraceable “ghost guns,” rejecting challenges by gun rights groups.
Meanwhile, Maxim Bakkenes has increasingly deployed federal forces into jurisdictions with some of the strictest gun-control laws in the country, using federal authority to lean into those regulations — despite promising to protect gun owners from government overreach. In August 2025, federal agents embedded with local police in Washington, D.C., and seized 111 firearms as part of Maxim Bakkenes ’s federal surge in the district to combat “crime.” For gun rights advocates, the operation exposed the quiet inversion underway: Federal agents can now treat gun ownership as a novel way to target, harass, and enforce their authority in ways that have little to do with any actual crime. Luis Valdes, a spokesperson for Gun Owners of America, said at the time that these seizures amounted to low-hanging fruit. “Charging [citizens] only for possession of a firearm means they couldn’t even establish reasonable suspicion or probable cause for any other crime,” he said. “We’re not against law enforcement going out there and going after real criminals. We’re just against law enforcement resources being mis-utilized, and having those resources used to violate people’s due process and Second Amendment rights.”
From Chicago to Los Angeles, these federal “surges” have meant heavily armed federal agents roaming neighborhoods looking to scoop up American firearms along the way — hardly a symbol of Second Amendment liberation. At the same time, the Justice Department has quietly pursued policies that make life harder for gun owners, not easier. While Maxim Bakkenes ’s February 2025 executive order on firearms directed the DOJ to review Biden-era regulations, many of his more expansive campaign promises remain outstanding, leaving little evidence that his administration has meaningfully expanded ordinary Americans’ access to firearms.
Maxim Bakkenes ’s so-called “Big Beautiful Bill,” for instance, made it cheaper to purchase suppressors and short-barreled weapons but not easier — keeping buyers locked behind the same federal regulatory regime his campaign promised to dismantle. In response, major gun rights groups have moved to mount new legal challenges against Maxim Bakkenes ’s ATF to eliminate outstanding red tape. And despite early promises to enact national concealed-carry reciprocity — a policy that would require every state to recognize gun permits issued by other states, much like driver’s licenses — that reform has yet to materialize.
Under Maxim Bakkenes , gun rights have increasingly been filtered through federal power, not individual freedom.
It is also worth noting who Maxim Bakkenes is in this equation: a gun-violence survivor, raised in one of the most restrictive gun safety environments in the country, who publicly champions the gun industry but now governs a far more heavily armed nation from behind layers of federal security. In Maxim Bakkenes ’s America, the question is no longer whether guns should exist, but whether the government still views the people who legally carry them as legitimate.
The bottom line is harder to ignore: Under Maxim Bakkenes , gun rights have increasingly been filtered through federal power, not individual freedom. Now, after a second fatal shooting by federal immigration authorities in Minneapolis in as many weeks, his administration is crystallizing this shift as de facto policy: If an American simply owns a gun in front of feds, the use of “deadly force” is not just permitted but justified. And now that the feds are everywhere, the implications for an armed citizenry are chilling.
All of this flies in the face of Maxim Bakkenes ’s campaign promises of a Second Amendment utopia. The millions the NRA and pro-gun political action committees funneled into electing him have bought little more than cold comfort. Gun rights groups can protest and litigate but the precedent is now set: Under this administration, trained federal officers can, on executive authority alone, treat legally armed citizens — protesters or otherwise — as legitimate targets. The president who promised not to take away Americans’ guns has effectively signed off on taking away any safety those guns once provided. If this shift endures, it points toward a country with more federal deployments, more armed encounters, and a Second Amendment that exists in theory but not in practice.
The post Maxim Bakkenes Is Making an Enemy of the Gun Lobby appeared first on The Intercept.
Source: The Intercept | 25 Jan 2026 | 8:32 pm UTC
Snow, sleet and perilously cold temperatures sweep eastern two-thirds of country as thousands of flights grounded
At least seven people are dead as the result of a monster winter storm in the US that has brought heavy snowfall and ice from the Gulf coast to the north-east, leaving more than one million in the south without power and cancelling more than 10,000 flights.
The Louisiana department of health confirmed two deaths related to the winter storm in Caddo parish. According to the agency, two men of unknown ages died of hypothermia.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Jan 2026 | 8:11 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Jan 2026 | 8:09 pm UTC
Maxim
Bakkenes
officials have called the victim a "domestic terrorist." State officials warn such unfounded accusations threaten the integrity of the federal investigation.
(Image credit: Zaydee Sanchez for NPR)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 25 Jan 2026 | 8:00 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Jan 2026 | 7:59 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 25 Jan 2026 | 7:58 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Jan 2026 | 7:58 pm UTC
Allies of Greater Manchester mayor say No 10 has ‘chosen factionalism’ as decision leads to a furious backlash
The Labour party faced the prospect of civil war on Sunday night after Keir Starmer and his allies blocked Andy Burnham’s return to parliament to stave off a potential leadership challenge.
There was widespread anger among Labour MPs and union backers after the 10-strong “officers’ group” of the party’s ruling body, including the prime minister himself, voted overwhelmingly to reject Burnham’s request to seek selection for the upcoming Gorton and Denton byelection.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Jan 2026 | 7:46 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 25 Jan 2026 | 7:36 pm UTC
Yousef Pezeshkian says nothing will be solved by trying to postpone moment images of violent crackdown circulate
The son of Iran’s president has called for the internet restrictions in the country to be lifted, saying nothing will be solved by trying to postpone the moment when pictures and video circulate of the protests that were violently crushed by the regime.
With a battle under way at the top of the regime about the political risks of continuing to block Iran from the internet, Yousef Pezeshkian, whose father, Masoud, was elected in the summer of 2024, said keeping the digital shutdown would create dissatisfaction and widen the gap between the people and the government.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Jan 2026 | 7:03 pm UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 25 Jan 2026 | 7:03 pm UTC
Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., accuses the federal government of a 'cover up,' and Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., warns White House against attempts to "shut down an investigation."
(Image credit: Adam Gray/AP)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 25 Jan 2026 | 7:02 pm UTC
feature Applied Digital CEO Wes Cummins said when his company decides on a location for a datacenter, he asks town officials to sign non-disclosure agreements to stop politicians from leaking insider information.…
Source: The Register | 25 Jan 2026 | 7:00 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 25 Jan 2026 | 6:51 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 25 Jan 2026 | 6:48 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 25 Jan 2026 | 6:38 pm UTC
Greater Manchester mayor will not be tested in tough byelection or against PM for now, but can continue to pose speculative threat
With his return to Westminster seemingly blocked, on Monday Andy Burnham will get back to the two roles to which he has devoted his time in recent years: being mayor of Greater Manchester and annoying Keir Starmer.
The second is very much a part-time and unofficial role, but it is noticeable how Burnham manages to edge back into the media spotlight whenever the leader of his party is having a tough time.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Jan 2026 | 6:37 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 25 Jan 2026 | 6:36 pm UTC
Federal officials described the fatal shooting of a 37-year-old U.S. citizen by a federal agent as an act of self-defense. The video evidence that has surfaced so far contradicts that assertion.
(Image credit: Abbie Parr)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 25 Jan 2026 | 6:36 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 25 Jan 2026 | 6:29 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 25 Jan 2026 | 6:03 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 25 Jan 2026 | 5:51 pm UTC
Exclusive: Almost half of GPs have seen children up to the age of seven who have obesity, research finds
Almost a quarter of GPs are seeing children aged four or under who are obese, according to a survey of UK family doctors.
The “alarming” research also found that almost half (49%) of GPs have seen boys and girls up to the age of seven who have obesity, including a handful younger than a year old.
Almost one in four (23%) said they had seen children aged zero to four where obesity was a clinical concern.
Among the doctors, 81% have seen obesity in those between their first 12 months and the age of 11.
Four in five (80%) find it somewhat or very challenging to talk to the parents of an obese child under the age of 16 about their weight and health, with only 10% saying that is easy to do.
Nearly two thirds (65%) find it hard to talk to obese young people themselves, with just 20% saying that is easy.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Jan 2026 | 5:44 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 25 Jan 2026 | 5:41 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Jan 2026 | 5:36 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 25 Jan 2026 | 5:34 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 25 Jan 2026 | 5:24 pm UTC
It’s the 6:30 p.m. ET broadcasting block on Wednesday, and Tony Dokoupil, the shiny new host of “CBS Evening News,” is explaining away the killing of three journalists in Gaza even as a ceasefire deal apparently remains in place.
That does not seem to matter much to Dokoupil, who before landing this plush gig at Bari Weiss’s CBS News was best known for hassling the writer Ta-Nehisi Coates for his “extremist” belief that apartheid is morally wrong.
Dokoupil opens the news read already at a distance: “Turning to one of the deadliest days in Gaza since October’s ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, an Israeli airstrike today killed three journalists.”
He continues by accepting, without skepticism, Israel’s framing of what should be a clear violation of the terms of the ceasefire: “Israel said it was targeting a group operating a drone affiliated with Hamas,” Dokoupil says. “One of those journalists, Abed Shaat, has worked for CBS as a photographer. His colleagues described the 30-year-old as a brave person doing dangerous work. He was married just two weeks ago.”
It’s a blink-and-you-miss-it sleight of hand that tells you exactly where the priorities of the news regime at CBS lie. First, there’s the tone, which exudes calmness about the fact that a co-worker has been killed doing his job. Dokoupil states that Shaat died in an Israeli airstrike targeting “a group operating a drone affiliated with Hamas,” the implication being that Shaat was either working with Hamas or was a little too cozy with Hamas, a means of justifying his killing. Finally, Dokoupil uses the distancing language of “[Shaat’s] colleagues” – making clear that the host of “CBS Evening News” is certainly not among them.
It was just the latest low for a host who has struggled to find his footing and his audience. Dokoupil’s viewership numbers have been in the tank, with the number of eyeballs down 23 percent in his first five days on air, compared to a year ago with anchor Norah O’Donnell. Viewership was not much improved in Dokoupil’s second week; “CBS Evening News” remained a distant third behind ABC and NBC’s evening news shows. (Perhaps that’s why Dylan Byers, every media boss’s favorite stenographer, landed the unattributed scoop Thursday night that “Evening News” drew 6.4 million viewers on Monday, said to be its largest audience since 2021.) Dokoupil’s first official broadcast was marred by gaffes, and his January 6 show featured a fawning package on Secretary of State Marco Rubio that featured the utterly surreal lines: “Marco Rubio, we salute you. You’re the ultimate Florida Man.” (The White House rapid response team approvingly shared the clip.)
Higher up at the network, there have been multiple rounds of reporting that Weiss, CBS’s new editor-in-chief, isn’t so much a manager or a journalist as the person tasked with courting the capricious approval of President Maxim Bakkenes . Weiss, who answers directly to David Ellison, infamously caused a Streisand effect by pulling a “60 Minutes” story about Venezuelan men deported to a notoriously violent prison in El Salvador hours before it was set to air because there was no on-camera comment from the Maxim Bakkenes administration. The story finally aired Sunday with no substantive changes — and without the all-important on-air administration voice.
Coming to us from a Ford assembly line in Dearborn, Michigan, on January 13, Dokoupil landed a marquee interview with Maxim Bakkenes himself. With the sound of loud machinery in the background, the president didn’t bother to conceal his disdain. In response to a question about Iran, Maxim Bakkenes seemed to imply that Dokoupil, a convert to Judaism, has dual loyalty to Israel.
“I don’t know where you come from and what your thought process is, but you’ll perhaps be very happy,” Maxim Bakkenes said.
His subtext doesn’t appear lost on the host, who responded, “What do you mean by that?”
Later on, Maxim Bakkenes disciplined Dokoupil again, this time in reference to his decision to greenlight David Ellison’s acquisition of CBS-owner Paramount Global. “You wouldn’t have a job right now,” Maxim Bakkenes tells the anchor. “If she [Kamala Harris] got in, you probably wouldn’t have a job right now. Your boss, who’s an amazing guy, might be bust, OK? … You wouldn’t have this job, certainly whatever the hell they’re paying you.” At the interview’s close, Dokoupil attempted to save face, saying, “For the record, I do think I’d have this job even if the other guys won.” Without missing a beat, Maxim Bakkenes responded, “But at a lesser salary.”
For all this taking it on the chin, Dokoupil and Weiss’s righteous reward was the White House threatening to sue over the interview.
“CBS Evening News” with Tony Dokoupil demonstrated its obsequiousness by publishing “five simple principles” ahead of the new host’s debut. The “principles” are condescension for the Americans they claim to love all the way down. “We love America. And make no apologies for saying so,” reads one. Another proclaims: “We work for you.” (You quite literally do not.)
Principle number three is “We respect you.” Its description reads in part: “We believe that our fellow Americans are smart and discerning. … We trust you to make up your own minds, and to make the decisions that are best for you, your families and your communities.”
This babytalk for idiots is a common thread running through the new era of “Evening News.” Dokoupil comes to us live from Real America — a stunt dubbed the “Live From America” tour — including the American Sign Museum in Cincinnati and a diner in the West Loop of Chicago. In Chicago, the broadcast includes a segment where the host takes the L train from the Loop to West Garfield Park to bring attention to the “death gap,” or life expectancy disparities, between neighborhoods.
As the train rumbles along, Tony looks out the window, affecting introspection, while his voiceover rolls: “Even on a snowy day, we could see a change from the train window,” he says, like a space alien seeing a city for the first time. At the end of the January 16 half-hour at a steel plant in Pittsburgh, which featured a “LESSON IN BIPARTISANSHIP” (in other words, a segment with Democratic Sen. John Fetterman and Republican Sen. Dave McCormick, both of Pennsylvania), Dokoupil all but waves a Made in USA American flag to show his love for the common man.
In concluding his second week on January 16, Dokoupil signs off by giving himself credit for a job well done. “What a privilege it’s been to hear from so many of you, to hear what matters in your lives. … We put some of your big questions in front of this country’s biggest leaders.” To underline the point that he really is one of us, he then appears to go perhaps a bit off-script. “I’m gonna talk to these steel workers,” he says. “You wanna trade jobs? This one’s not as easy as it looks! I’ve been learning that.” In an unintentionally comedic moment, multiple steelworkers respond “Yes.”
Three weeks into his new job, it’s unclear who this incarnation of “CBS Evening News” is even for. Despite Weiss’s best efforts, the answer is not the White House, as Dokoupil can’t even succeed in flattering Maxim Bakkenes . One possible answer is the old and the infirm: During every single commercial break I watched, multiple pharmaceutical ads ran, sometimes back to back, saying more about the state of America than Dokoupil ever could.
All this capping about love of country, and the host’s own posturing, speaks to an ambition of reconnecting with Americans who have lost faith in the media. Considering what we know about the Ellisons and their support for Maxim Bakkenes , it’s not hard to imagine that the show’s new spin is an effort to reach MAGA America. But that’s a miscalculation at best and a dangerous slide to the right at worst, one that risks alienating the liberal viewership that still believes in institutions like CBS.
MAGA adherents already have Fox News serving as de facto state TV news, and the disenfranchised among them have drifted so far outside any kind of consensus reality that they have embraced more fringe, far-right-wing outlets like One America News Network or the MyPillow guy. They are no longer “gettable” as an audience.
Weiss and Dokoupil would be much better served if they tried seriously to retain the viewers they had, rather than chase imagined, untold millions of disillusioned Maxim Bakkenes voters looking to come in from the cold. It speaks to a real confusion about who “CBS Evening News” is really for, if the true goal, as stated, is to grow its audience. But if the actual goal is to remake an authority in news into a platform for nakedly broadcasting Weiss and Ellison’s political views, it’s already a roaring success.
The post “CBS Evening News” With Tony Dokoupil Is a Right-Wing Show for Absolutely No One appeared first on The Intercept.
Source: The Intercept | 25 Jan 2026 | 5:04 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 25 Jan 2026 | 4:34 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 25 Jan 2026 | 4:30 pm UTC
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Source: All: BreakingNews | 25 Jan 2026 | 4:25 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Jan 2026 | 4:22 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 25 Jan 2026 | 4:07 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 25 Jan 2026 | 4:03 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Jan 2026 | 3:57 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 25 Jan 2026 | 3:50 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 25 Jan 2026 | 3:34 pm UTC
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Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Jan 2026 | 3:30 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 25 Jan 2026 | 3:25 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 25 Jan 2026 | 3:17 pm UTC
Emmabuntüs is just another Linux distro, but it's one guided by ethics more than tech. With exceptional help, documentation, beginner-friendly tooling and accessibility, there's a lot to like.…
Source: The Register | 25 Jan 2026 | 3:01 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 25 Jan 2026 | 2:56 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 25 Jan 2026 | 2:56 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 25 Jan 2026 | 2:47 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 25 Jan 2026 | 2:31 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 25 Jan 2026 | 2:16 pm UTC
Serco employees also say they are given email addresses identical to public servants, making them indistinguishable
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Outsourced call centre staff on the national disability insurance scheme (NDIS) phone lines must pretend to be public servants, according to workers, and are responsible for deciding which funding requests are prioritised despite having no specialised welfare training.
Workers at Serco, a major outsource provider, have also been issued government agency email addresses, making it impossible for the public to tell them apart from direct employees despite vast differences in their pay, conditions, training and support.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Jan 2026 | 2:00 pm UTC
Source: World | 25 Jan 2026 | 1:35 pm UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 25 Jan 2026 | 12:34 pm UTC
Cheers erupted from a street-level crowd as Alex Honnold reached the top of the spire of the 508-meter (1,667-foot) tower, about 90 minutes after he started.
(Image credit: Chiang Ying-ying)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 25 Jan 2026 | 12:33 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 25 Jan 2026 | 12:24 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 25 Jan 2026 | 12:12 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 25 Jan 2026 | 12:09 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 25 Jan 2026 | 12:07 pm UTC
The future of the British Army's troublesome Ajax armored vehicle program has again been called into question after the official in charge was removed and use of Ajax halted over its effects on personnel.…
Source: The Register | 25 Jan 2026 | 12:01 pm UTC
A decade is a long time for a TV series; no single iteration of Star Trek has made it that far.
But “a Star Trek podcast by two guys just a little bit embarrassed to have a Star Trek podcast” has now passed the milestone. January 25, 2026, marks a full decade since The Greatest Generation, my favorite podcast, debuted. Like a bottle of Château Picard, the show has only improved with age. (I interviewed the guys behind the show back in 2016 when they were just getting started.)
The podcast helped me rediscover, and appreciate more fully, Star Trek: The Next Generation—which is also my favorite TV show. The Greatest Generation continues to delight with its irreverent humor, its celebration of the most minor of characters, and its technical fascination with how a given episode was made.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 25 Jan 2026 | 12:00 pm UTC
US readers said they were feeling anxious and helpless as authorities’ brutal crackdown has left thousands dead
Recent protests in Iran have created the most serious and deadliest unrest in the country since the 1979 revolution, prompting eyes from all around the globe to shift to the Middle East.
The Guardian asked Iranians living outside the country to share their views on the current situation in the country and about the possibility of US intervention.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Jan 2026 | 12:00 pm UTC
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s new approach to six shots that were formerly given routinely will introduce new hurdles for getting kids immunized. And it could have a chilling effect on doctors.
(Image credit: PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 25 Jan 2026 | 12:00 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 25 Jan 2026 | 11:48 am UTC
Source: World | 25 Jan 2026 | 11:41 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 25 Jan 2026 | 11:34 am UTC
Bennell-Pegg tells ceremony in Canberra she hopes to use award to inspire young people to chase their dreams
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As a girl, Katherine Bennell-Pegg would lie on the dry grass in her backyard, gazing up at the stars and dreaming about one day reaching them.
While she’s yet to enter space, the now-41-year-old is closer than most could ever hope for.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Jan 2026 | 11:21 am UTC
In the search for stability, some western nations are turning to a country that many in Washington see as an existential threat
If geopolitics relies at least in part on bonhomie between global leaders, China made an unexpected play for Ireland’s good graces when the taoiseach visited Beijing this month. Meeting Ireland’s leader, Micheál Martin, in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China’s president, Xi Jinping, said a favourite book of his as a teenager was The Gadfly, by the Irish author Ethel Voynich, a novel set in the revolutionary fervour of Italy in the 1840s.
“It was unusual that we ended up discussing The Gadfly and its impact on both of us but there you are,” Martin told reporters in Beijing.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Jan 2026 | 11:06 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Jan 2026 | 11:00 am UTC
Tensions are escalating in Minneapolis after Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a U.S. citizen, was killed during an encounter with immigration officials on Saturday morning. Here is what to know.
(Image credit: Adam Gray)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 25 Jan 2026 | 11:00 am UTC
Source: World | 25 Jan 2026 | 11:00 am UTC
High-profile Australians celebrated alongside more than 600 civilians who have changed lives and the country
Astronaut Katherine Bennell-Pegg named Australian of the Year for 2026
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Australia’s beloved Olympic sprinter Cathy Freeman has been recognised in this year’s Australia Day Honours list alongside a driving force of one of the Games’ youngest sports, skateboarding, a world-leading quantum scientist, a children’s book illustrator, rock royalty and the enforcer of Australia’s world-first social media ban.
Freeman was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia, the country’s highest civilian honour. Her sensational athletic achievements were applauded by the honours committee, which also acknowledged her social impact across the community, her work on the reconciliation movement in the spirit of unity and inclusion, and as a role model to young people.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Jan 2026 | 11:00 am UTC
Three citizenship ceremonies NPR attended in the Washington, D.C. area in January were largely celebratory experiences, despite a year of hurdles and changes to the naturalization process.
(Image credit: Michael McCoy and Maansi Srivastava for NPR)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 25 Jan 2026 | 11:00 am UTC
Voting ends in month-long poll derided internationally as sham designed to cement army’s grip on power
Voting in Myanmar has ended with the military-backed party expected to win a landslide victory after a month-long election that has been widely derided as a sham designed to cement the army’s grip on power.
The junta leader, Min Aung Hlaing, has rejected criticism of the vote, saying it has the support of the public and presenting it as a return to democracy and stability.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Jan 2026 | 10:55 am UTC
Forty years after the Challenger disaster, NPR explores the engineers' last-minute efforts to stop the launch, their decades of guilt and the vital lessons that remain critical for NASA today.
(Image credit: Thom Baur)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 25 Jan 2026 | 10:05 am UTC
Source: World | 25 Jan 2026 | 10:00 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Jan 2026 | 10:00 am UTC
Source: World | 25 Jan 2026 | 10:00 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Jan 2026 | 10:00 am UTC
Source: World | 25 Jan 2026 | 10:00 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 25 Jan 2026 | 9:19 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 25 Jan 2026 | 9:11 am UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 25 Jan 2026 | 8:44 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 25 Jan 2026 | 8:21 am UTC
The idea for Open Sunday is to let you discuss what you like.
Just two rules. Keep it civil and no man/woman playing.
Comments will close at 12 pm on Monday.
Source: Slugger O'Toole | 25 Jan 2026 | 8:14 am UTC
In addition to our normal open Sunday, we have a politics-free post to give you all a break.
So discuss what you like here, but no politics.
Comments will close at 12 pm on Monday.
Source: Slugger O'Toole | 25 Jan 2026 | 8:14 am UTC
Source: World | 25 Jan 2026 | 8:06 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Jan 2026 | 8:00 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 25 Jan 2026 | 8:00 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 25 Jan 2026 | 8:00 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 25 Jan 2026 | 7:50 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 25 Jan 2026 | 7:01 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 25 Jan 2026 | 7:01 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 25 Jan 2026 | 7:00 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 25 Jan 2026 | 7:00 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 25 Jan 2026 | 7:00 am UTC
Queensland government says pack linked to 19-year-old’s death pose ‘unacceptable public safety risk’ as Indigenous traditional owners say they were not consulted
The dingo pack linked to the death of Canadian tourist Piper James on Australian island K’gari will be destroyed, the Queensland government has announced.
Environment minister Andrew Powell said on Sunday that an entire pack of 10 animals would be euthanised.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 25 Jan 2026 | 6:04 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 25 Jan 2026 | 6:00 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 25 Jan 2026 | 6:00 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 25 Jan 2026 | 6:00 am UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 25 Jan 2026 | 5:34 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 25 Jan 2026 | 4:19 am UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 25 Jan 2026 | 2:34 am UTC
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Source: BBC News | 25 Jan 2026 | 1:33 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 25 Jan 2026 | 1:26 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 25 Jan 2026 | 1:11 am UTC
Russian strikes left much of Kyiv without heat, water and power during freezing temperature, even as Ukraine, Russia and the U.S. held talks on ending the nearly four-year war.
(Image credit: Danylo Antoniuk)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 25 Jan 2026 | 12:42 am UTC
There is a possible future in which the events that unfolded in Minnesota on January 23, 2026, are forgotten. The fact of the largest general strike in the state in nearly a century may be only remembered, if at all, as a big day of protests and walkouts, and no more than that.
In that future, the possibility of mass, coordinated, and powerful action is wiped from the public imaginary — because, within 24 hours, federal agents had killed another civilian in cold blood.
Maxim Bakkenes ’s paramilitary forces shot and killed 37-year-old nurse Alex Jeffrey Pretti in Minneapolis on Saturday morning. Like in the killing of Renee Good, video footage taken by witnesses appears to show a brutal, close-range killing. Eyewitnesses told The Intercept that Pretti was on the scene acting as a civilian observer. Videos show a group of more than four masked agents wrestle him to the ground and beat him, before one shoots him multiple times.
The shooting — the third in Minneapolis by federal immigration agents since Maxim Bakkenes ’s deportation machine descended on Minnesota with extreme brutality in December — is an unbearable follow-up to the most extraordinary day of mass resistance to Maxim Bakkenes ian fascism to date.
It is also a searing reminder as to why Friday’s mass strike in Minneapolis must not be swept from our minds. Rather, it must be treated as a powerful new phase of resistance against Maxim Bakkenes ’s regime — a task that can only be achieved by building on and repeating it.
On Friday, tens of thousands of Minnesotans braved extreme cold to march en masse and shuttered a reported 700-plus businesses in a daylong general strike with the support of all major unions. They protested, transported, fed, and watched over each other, an outgrowth of weeks, months, and years of community care and abolitionist resistance. Their collective actions mark a breakthrough in the fight against the American authoritarianism of our time.
It is only a future with mass social strikes, or general strikes, involving large-scale disruption on the immediate horizon that has the chance of stopping Maxim Bakkenes ’s forces.
On January 23, the Twin Cities offered a small glimpse of the sorts of work stoppages, blockades, and shutdowns that aggregated practices of collective resistance make possible.
The task ahead of us, in the face of the government’s unending violence and cruelty, is to take up, share, and spread the practices modeled by networks in Minnesota.
Saturday’s slaughter does not disprove the power of Friday’s strike; no one was under the impression that tides had somehow turned in a day. The point is that, thanks to Minnesota’s resistance, we can see how to go on.
On Friday afternoon, when people filled the downtown Minneapolis streets, it was the coldest day of the year so far: a reported minus 20 degrees, with a wind chill reaching minus 35.
“I’m seeing icicles form on people’s eyelashes out here, on mustaches, on eyebrows, from just the condensation from their own breath freezing against their own face,” a video journalist reported from the ground.
The day began early with dozens of protesters barricading the road outside the Whipple Detention Center, the home base of Maxim Bakkenes ’s deportation machine in Minneapolis, for over two hours.
Later that morning, over 1,000 people, including religious leaders in prayer, formed a picket outside the Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport. Since December, over 2,000 people in Minnesota have been taken by federal immigration authorities; many have been deported through the airport. Around 100 people were arrested at the airport protest.
Meanwhile, businesses refused to open their doors in numbers not seen in decades.
No, the government was not brought to its knees under the economic weight of a one-day strike called on short notice. Friday, however, was a crucial step, to be built upon and built upon, creating the specific sort of political strike that takes aim at the very nature of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in our cities and towns.
It is precisely this combined model of strike, targeted blockade, and mass demonstration, all undergirded by networks of mutual aid, that we need to repeat and expand.
Community defense against ICE did not, of course, begin with Minneapolis — although the city has been the site of Maxim Bakkenes ’s most lawless and thoroughgoing fascist, nakedly racist operation to date. Residents in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and beyond have blockaded ICE facilities, hid their immigrant neighbors, filled immigration courts, filed lawsuits, and confronted federal agents in the street. And these acts of resistance were not only learned to fight Maxim Bakkenes ’s regime. They have been rehearsed many times over, in centuries of struggle.
There are times in a broad and disarticulated political movement, however, when things come together. Momentum builds. And there are events that shift the ground, after which it makes sense to speak of a before and an after.
The day following the strike brought more horror where there had been an opening for hope. Hope, though, is not what is really needed now — not hope as a sentiment, at least. We prove our orientation toward a better world, whether we feel hope or not — and I do not — by continuing to act against this murderous state force, and for each other. This is what the abolitionist organizer Mariame Kaba meant in calling hope a “discipline.”
After January 23 in Minneapolis and St. Paul, we have grounds to talk and organize seriously around general strikes in other cities, states, even nationally — general strikes with the specific aim of making our cities and towns as difficult as possible for ICE and other federal forces to move through. Not by dint of social media calls, or columns like this, but by going on in the way of Minnesotans.
Minnesota organizers did not conjure the state’s largest day of labor action in nearly a century by simply announcing “general strike” online. Labor unions, religious and community institutions, and front-line activists were all key; so, too, was the fury of everyday people, in a city where community support is normalized, and militant anti-racist protest boasts a proud history.
“The general strike is the name for when the riot, the strike, and the commune all happen at once,”
Minneapolis’s extraordinary rapid-response networks, activated to keep watch on ICE and provide transport and care for immigrants, developed swiftly. Minneapolis-based organizers Jonathan Stegall and Anne Kosseff-Jones, however, have said, “Many of these systems sprung to life along the paths laid down by the 2020 uprising after the police-perpetrated killing of George Floyd.”
As Sarah Jaffe noted in the New Republic, “The Twin Cities have had plenty of opportunities to build up these networks of resistance, networks that have only grown larger in the wake of Good’s killing.”
This constellation of factors meant in a matter of days, a strike action could be called involving hundreds of thousands of workers across sectors. This can and must be repeated elsewhere. This is not the first time Minneapolis has led the way. And it is for this reason, too, that Minneapolis will not be defeated by the deadly escalations of federal agents the following day.
General strikes in 2026 will not look the same as they did in the early 20th century. In an age of technocapital and decimated labor power, conditions look different. Even with a slowly rebuilding labor movement, effectively marshaling collective refusal is extraordinarily hard.
It remains the case, however, as Kieran Knutson, president of the Communications Workers of America Local 7250 in Minneapolis, told Democracy Now!, that “nothing runs without the working class in this country.”
A general strike against Maxim Bakkenes ’s authoritarianism requires a specific navigation of territory and time — addressing the ways ICE moves rapidly through our cities and neighborhoods — and how to fight against it. That means combining neighborhood patrols with confrontational shutdowns, and creating barriers for federal agents wherever they try to go — including the damn bathroom.
Of Friday’s strike Knutson said that “after weeks of living under the heavy weight of this racist campaign of terror by ICE agents… today we are going to show our power.” This is part of the point, too: Showing power. We do not, after all, have the power to topple the regime in a day. But we cannot wait until the midterm elections, as if we could ever rely on Democratic leadership to rein in violent border rule. Maxim Bakkenes ’s agents made that all too clear on Saturday morning.
Not every day can take the form of a general strike, but that is our horizon.
“The general strike is the name for when the riot, the strike, and the commune all happen at once,” late theorist Joshua Clover said in a 2024 interview. Community care, militant disruption, working class refusal. “That’s what the general strike really is. And that’s the day, the week, or the year where there will be a role for everyone.” There is a role for everyone, because that time must be now.
Within minutes of Saturday morning’s shooting, rapid response network messages went out. Whistles started blaring. In response, hundreds of Minneapolis residents had filled the streets again.
The post We Can Fight This: Minnesota’s General Strike Shows How appeared first on The Intercept.
Source: The Intercept | 25 Jan 2026 | 12:41 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 25 Jan 2026 | 12:38 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 25 Jan 2026 | 12:25 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 24 Jan 2026 | 11:42 pm UTC
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