State Department threatens UK over probe into Elon Musk’s X

State Department threatens UK over probe into Elon Musk’s X

Politico reports: The U.S. Department of State’s Sarah B. Rogers says “nothing is off the table” if the U.K. government makes good on its threat to ban Elon Musk’s X over concerns about a deluge of AI-generated sexualized deepfakes on the platform. “I would say from America’s perspective … nothing is off the table when it comes to free speech,” Rogers, the under secretary of state for public diplomacy, told GB News in an interview which aired in the U.K….

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Buddhist monks and their dog captivate Americans while walking for peace from Texas to Washington DC

Buddhist monks and their dog captivate Americans while walking for peace from Texas to Washington DC

The Associated Press reports: A group of Buddhist monks and their rescue dog are striding single file down country roads and highways across the South, captivating Americans nationwide and inspiring droves of locals to greet them along their route. In their flowing saffron and ocher robes, the men are walking for peace. It’s a meditative tradition more common in South Asian countries, and it’s resonating now in the U.S., seemingly as a welcome respite from the conflict, trauma and politics…

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Four days on the ground in Minneapolis: We’re all just content for ICE

Four days on the ground in Minneapolis: We’re all just content for ICE

Ryan Broderick writes: The frontline of America’s slow-moving civil war has come to Minnesota. The Department of Homeland Security doubled down on their occupation of the state following last week’s murder of Renee Nicole Good. Now residents armed with whistles, snowballs, and group chats race through the streets, trying to protect one another from the more than 2,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers swarming the city. During my four days in the Twin Cities, I watched the fabric of American…

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Inside ICE’s media machine

Inside ICE’s media machine

The Washington Post reports: For the Immigration and Customs Enforcement public affairs team, the nighttime operation across metro Houston in October was a gold mine. An ICE video producer shadowed agents as they pulled over and handcuffed more than 120 suspected undocumented immigrants, then sent the footage to a private team chatroom. Across thousands of internal ICE messages reviewed by The Washington Post, this kind of celebration has become commonplace. The messages show how the team has worked closely with…

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ICE against indigenous peoples: The new erasure of Native Americans through immigration

ICE against indigenous peoples: The new erasure of Native Americans through immigration

IC Magazine reports: Leticia Jacobo was scheduled to be released from Polk County Jail in Des Moines, Iowa, after being booked in for a traffic violation. Instead, the 24-year-old Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community citizen was scheduled for deportation. Last week, ICE raided Little Earth, a Native community of South Minneapolis, Minnesota, detaining at least 5 Native American men. ICE agents even tried to forcibly detain Rachel Dionne-Thunder, who is Plains Cree and the co-founder of Indigenous Protectors Movement, out…

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Right-wing influencers have flooded Minneapolis

Right-wing influencers have flooded Minneapolis

Wired reports: In the days since a masked federal agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, right-wing creators and influencers like Nick Sortor and Cam Higby have descended on Minneapolis, filming protesters and interviewing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. So far, they’ve produced a steady stream of content that appears designed to paint Minneapolis as a lawless city, and the actions of ICE agents like Jonathan Ross, who reportedly shot and killed Good, as self-defense. “HELL YES! ICE just…

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‘Freaked out’ about the bond market: White House reels from Powell probe

‘Freaked out’ about the bond market: White House reels from Powell probe

Politico reports: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent spent months laying the groundwork for a smooth transition at the Federal Reserve that wouldn’t rattle markets. That plan is now in disarray. The Justice Department’s criminal investigation into whether Fed Chair Jerome Powell misled Congress about renovations at the Fed headquarters — and allegations over who leaked the news — has the White House in damage-control mode. Officials are scrambling to reassure markets and create distance from an episode that aides say was…

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The AI debt surge: How tech’s borrowing binge may drive up interest rates

The AI debt surge: How tech’s borrowing binge may drive up interest rates

WebProNews reports: The artificial intelligence boom is fueling an unprecedented wave of capital spending, but it’s not just innovation that’s accelerating—it’s debt. Major technology companies, often dubbed hyperscalers, are issuing bonds at a record pace to finance the massive data centers required for AI advancements. This borrowing frenzy, while enabling rapid expansion, is raising alarms among economists and investors about potential upward pressure on interest rates. As these firms tap debt markets to fund their ambitions, the sheer volume of…

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Cells use ‘bioelectricity’ to coordinate and make group decisions

Cells use ‘bioelectricity’ to coordinate and make group decisions

Elise Cutts writes: We’re used to thinking of the brain as an electric organ. The rest of the body? Not so much. But it would be a mistake to dismiss your other tissues as dumb hunks of electrically inert flesh. Even the protective layers of cells that compose your skin and line your organs use electrical signals to make decisions, according to recent research. Results published in Nature show that cells use bioelectricity to coordinate a complex collective behavior called…

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As Trump says he’s ‘Acting President of Venezuela,’ the U.S. urges its own citizens to flee

As Trump says he’s ‘Acting President of Venezuela,’ the U.S. urges its own citizens to flee

Trump posts that he’s “Acting President of Venezuela” [image or embed] — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) Jan 11, 2026 at 7:25 PM The Guardian reports: The 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…

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UK could send troops to Greenland to ease Trump’s security fears

UK could send troops to Greenland to ease Trump’s security fears

The Telegraph reports: Downing Street is in talks with European allies about deploying a military force to Greenland that would guard the Arctic for Donald Trump. Military chiefs are drawing up plans for a possible Nato mission on the island, which the US president has threatened to seize for security reasons. British officials have met with counterparts from countries including Germany and France in recent days to start the preparations. The plans, still at an early stage, could involve British…

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J.D. Vance’s Catholicism seems to be little more than a political prop

J.D. Vance’s Catholicism seems to be little more than a political prop

At National Catholic Reporter, John Grosso writes: As a Catholic, Vance knows better than to peddle this brand of gaslighting and agitation [following the murder of Renee Good]. Vance knows that, by virtue of her humanity, Good was endowed with inherent dignity, made in the image and likeness of God. Vance knows that only God can take life. Vance knows that protesting, fleeing or even interfering in an ICE investigation (which there is no evidence that Good did) does not…

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The U.S.-born unemployment rate actually rose after Trump reduced immigration

The U.S.-born unemployment rate actually rose after Trump reduced immigration

Stuart Anderson writes: Government data show the Trump administration’s immigration policies reducing the number of foreign-born workers did not help U.S.-born workers in 2025. The latest data indicate a substantial drop in foreign-born workers did not translate into better labor market outcomes for U.S.-born workers or encourage more workers to enter the labor force. The U.S.-born unemployment rate increased over the past 12 months. Trump officials, including White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, predicted fewer immigrant workers would…

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The government workers Trump disgarded

The government workers Trump disgarded

Franklin Foer writes: The purge began late Friday night, four days after Donald Trump returned to the White House. Seventeen inspectors general—internal watchdogs embedded throughout the federal government—received emails notifying them of their termination. Three weeks later came the Valentine’s Day Massacre: the ousting of tens of thousands of federal employees with little discernible pattern, across agencies and across the country. By April, entire departments—the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau—had been gutted. Workers the administration…

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