Good morning, everyone. This is an extraordinarily busy and consequential news day. A historic general strike is underway in Minnesota, with thousands shutting down businesses, schools, and daily life across the state. ICE has detained a corrections recruit despite clear documentation authorizing his work. Philadelphia is now suing the federal government after the Trump administration ordered the removal of slavery exhibits from a historic site.
At the same time, the TikTok deal has officially been executed. Oracle and other business interests aligned with the White House now control the platform. New terms and conditions are already in effect, and the app is rapidly changing in ways that appear designed to suppress dissenting voices, including my own.
Even so, I am working around the clock to speak directly with key leaders and deliver verified, accurate information as these stories continue to unfold. Intimidation and attacks do not stop the truth. Independent journalism always prevails. If you value reporting that is not controlled by power or profit, subscribe today and help me continue this work.
Here’s what you need to know:
- A massive general strike has begun in Minnesota. Today, hundreds of Minnesota businesses, workers, and students are participating in the “ICE Out! Statewide Shutdown,” an economic blackout urging people to skip work, school, and shopping to protest intensified ICE activity in the Twin Cities—sparked by the Jan. 7 killing of Renee Good by an ICE officer—with more than 300 businesses closing or donating proceeds, some schools offering remote learning, and organizers framing the action as a nonviolent show of solidarity with immigrant communities despite major financial losses.
- ICE detained a Cumberland County Jail corrections recruit during a traffic stop in Portland as part of “Operation Catch of the Day,” prompting concern from witnesses and local officials, especially since this is the second time a county corrections officer with apparent proper documentation has been taken into ICE custody.
- The Cumberland County sheriff publicly criticized ICE after agents detained a corrections recruit who had legal work authorization, calling the arrest tactics “bush league policing,” questioning why a noncriminal recruit was targeted, and echoing concerns from Maine’s governor that recent ICE operations are disrupting families and detaining people with no criminal records.
- President Donald Trump abruptly withdrew Canada’s invitation to join his new “Board of Peace,” escalating a public feud with Prime Minister Mark Carney after sharp exchanges over U.S.–Canada relations, with Trump offering no clear reason and Canada already signaling it wouldn’t pay the board’s proposed participation fee.
- Donald Trump floated the idea of deploying North Atlantic Treaty Organization troops to the U.S.–Mexico border by invoking Article 5 as a “test,” a suggestion made on social media that alarmed allies and echoed earlier rhetoric that has strained relations with Europe.
- Philadelphia has sued the U.S. Department of the Interior and the National Park Service, seeking an injunction to restore slavery-related exhibits removed from the President’s House site, arguing the takedown was ordered under an executive action signed by Donald Trump.
- The U.S. and China finalized a deal transferring control of TikTok’s U.S. operations to a Trump-backed investor group—cutting ByteDance’s stake to under 20%—ending years of national security standoff, with Donald Trump praising the agreement and Oracle playing a major role in data and algorithm security.
- Keir Starmer’s office rebuked Donald Trump for downplaying NATO’s role in Afghanistan, stressing that Article 5 was invoked after 9/11 and that British forces fought on the front lines, with 457 UK service members killed and many more wounded in combat alongside allies.
- Russia and Ukraine are holding their first-ever joint peace talks with the United States today in Abu Dhabi, signaling a renewed diplomatic push after nearly four years of war, following recent meetings between Donald Trump’s envoys and Vladimir Putin and a separate meeting between Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
- A major ice storm and arctic cold are expected to hit Texas this weekend, testing the state’s power grid, but officials and energy experts say upgrades since the deadly 2021 outage—such as weatherized equipment, reserve capacity, and expanded battery storage—make a widespread, system-wide failure far less likely, though localized outages remain possible.
- The Guardian has confirmed that Democratic lawmakers led by Elizabeth Warren accused Donald Trump of weakening enforcement against white-collar crime by diverting tens of thousands of federal agents from fraud, tax evasion, and corruption investigations to bolster Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and called for watchdog investigations into the impact on public safety and financial oversight.
- Donald Trump said a U.S. “armada,” including the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, is heading to the Middle East as Washington closely monitors Iran amid a deadly crackdown on protesters that activists say has killed more than 5,000 people, while the U.S. signals military readiness but says it still hopes to avoid direct conflict.
- Researchers told NBC News that ChatGPT can quickly absorb and amplify authoritarian ideas after minimal user prompting, with a new report warning that the system may reinforce extreme political views through ordinary interactions due to structural features in how large AI models are trained.
- Natural gas prices have jumped more than 60% ahead of a major winter storm as heating demand surges nationwide, meaning consumers are likely to see higher electric and gas bills both immediately from increased usage and gradually over the coming months as utilities pass rising fuel costs on to households.
- Kyiv is enduring its worst winter energy crisis of the war after Russian strikes crippled the power grid, leaving much of the city without heat or electricity for weeks during subfreezing temperatures, disrupting daily life for millions and forcing residents to cope with prolonged blackouts, cold homes, and mounting exhaustion as repairs lag and attacks continue.
Good news:
- A Toronto man, Minjae Cho, has gone viral for spreading kindness on public transit—offering simple words of encouragement to strangers, filming the interactions with smart glasses, and earning praise from city leaders for making daily commutes feel more human and connected.
- Charlie Dalin, battling cancer while taking daily immunotherapy, won the grueling Vendée Globe in record time and was later honored as Sailor of the Year, turning a life-threatening diagnosis into one of the greatest achievements of his career.
- Doctors in China saved a woman’s severed ear by temporarily grafting it onto her foot to keep it alive—a rare technique called heterotopic survival—before successfully reattaching it to her head five months later after the damaged blood vessels and nerves had healed.
- A cat named Tinsel was reunited with her owner in Vermont four years after going missing, after a cousin recognized her distinctive markings on a local shelter’s website, leading to an emotional reunion where the cat immediately recognized her family.
See you soon.
— Aaron
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