Good morning.
A federal officer shot a man in the leg during an enforcement operation in north Minneapolis, sparking protests in a city still on edge after the killing of Renee Nicole Good by a federal agent last week.
The shooting occurred at about 7pm local time, according to witnesses. Several hundred protesters gathered at the scene on Wednesday night facing off with agents, who blocked off the area and used smoke and other crowd control weapons.
In a news conference at Minneapolis city hall on Wednesday night, the police chief Brian O’Hara said protesters were “engaging in unlawful behavior” and urged everyone who had gathered at the scene to leave.
What did the Minneapolis mayor say? “I’ve seen conduct from ICE that is disgusting and intolerable,” Jacob Frey said. But he urged protesters to go home. “We cannot counter Donald Trump’s chaos with more chaos … Anyone who is taking the bait tonight, stop. You are not helping the undocumented immigrants in our city.”
Trump says Iran has told him ‘killing has stopped’ as he pulls back from strike threats
Donald Trump has at least temporarily pulled back from threats to strike Iran, saying he has been assured that the killing of protesters has been halted and no executions were being planned.
Speaking to reporters in the White House on Wednesday night, the US president said: “We’ve been told that the killing in Iran is stopping – it’s stopped – it’s stopping. And there’s no plan for executions, or an execution, or execution – so I’ve been told that on good authority.” He offered no details and said the US had yet to verify the claims.
What had Trump say he was going to do? Trump had repeatedly talked in recent days about coming to the help of the Iranian people, saying the US was “locked and loaded” if Iran started to shoot at the protesters.
Trump administration halts migrant visa processing from 75 countries
The Trump administration has indefinitely suspended migrant visa processing for people from 75 countries, in one of its most expansive efforts yet to restrict legal pathways to the US.
The freeze, which takes effect on 21 January, targets applicants whom officials deem likely to become a “public charge” – described as people who may rely on government benefits for basic needs.
The state department wrote on social media that it “will pause immigrant visa processing from 75 countries whose migrants take welfare from the American people at unacceptable rates”.
Which countries are affected? The Guardian obtained a state department cable with the full list of countries affected, which can be viewed here.
In other news …
Elon Musk’s X announced it had stopped its AI-powered Grok feature from editing pictures of real people to show them in revealing clothes such as bikinis, including for premium subscribers.
Donald Trump reiterated yesterday that the US needs Greenland and that Denmark cannot be relied upon to protect the island. He said “something will work out” with respect to the future governance of the Danish overseas territory.
Tens of thousands of dollars have been raised for an autoworker at a Ford plant in Michigan who was suspended without pay after heckling Donald Trump. TJ Sabula is said to have called the president a “pedophile protector”; Trump responded by holding up his middle finger.
Stat of the day: Gaza war leads to 41% fall in births, prompting allegations of reproductive violence
Israel’s war in Gaza has led to a 41% fall in births in the territory and high numbers of maternal deaths, miscarriages, newborn mortality and premature births, two reports on the impact of the conflict on pregnant women, babies and maternity care reveal.
The Filter recommends: 12 book-ish things to help you read more books
“Since Covid I’ve consistently finished roughly one book a week. Kindle aside, some simple strategies have helped me become a better reader,” writes Lauren Gould. “Whether you’re a busy corporate manager or a student drowning in homework, these strategies can help you, too. Below, I’ve shared 12 of my favorite ways to read often and a lot – including a completely free (and legitimate) way to access ebooks, among them new releases.”
Don’t miss this: The crisis whisperer – how Adam Tooze makes sense of our bewildering age
Whether it’s the financial crash, the climate emergency or the breakdown of the international order, the historian Adam Tooze has become the go-to guide to the radical new world we’ve entered. Since he published Crashed in 2018, his “contemporary history” of the 2008 financial crisis and its aftermath, Tooze has become, in the words of Jonathan Derbyshire, his editor at the Financial Times, “a sort of platonic ideal of the universal intellectual”.
… or this: ‘A nasty little song, really rather evil’ – how Every Breath You Take tore Sting and the Police apart
This week’s high court hearings in the UK between Sting and his former bandmates in the Police, Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers, are the latest chapter in the life of a song whose negative energy seems to have seeped out into real life. Every Breath You Take, which Sting once called “a nasty little song, really rather evil”, is the subject of a lawsuit filed by Copeland and Summers against Sting, alleging that he owes them royalties.
Climate check: Human activity helped make 2025 third hottest year on record, experts say
Last year was the third hottest on record, scientists have said, with mounting fossil fuel pollution behind “exceptional” temperatures. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said 2025 continued a three-year streak of “extraordinary global temperatures”, during which surface air temperatures averaged 1.48C above preindustrial levels.
Last Thing: ISS astronauts return to Earth after Nasa’s first ever medical evacuation
Four astronauts from the International Space Station have returned to Earth a month earlier than planned after one developed a serious medical condition onboard the orbiting outpost. Nasa confirmed that the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft carrying the US astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, the Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui and Oleg Platonov, a Russian cosmonaut, splashed down off the coast of San Diego at 12.41am local time.
Sign up
First Thing is delivered to thousands of inboxes every weekday. If you’re not already signed up, subscribe now.
Get in touch
If you have any questions or comments about any of our newsletters please email newsletters@theguardian.com.
