Closing summary
This is the end of our live coverage of the second Trump administration for the day, but we will be back on Tuesday. Here are the latest developments:
Donald Trump threatened to block a new bridge connecting the US and Canada he supported in 2017 and made the bizarre false claim that increased trade between Canada and China would include a total ban on Canadians playing ice hockey.
The Miami Herald reported that one partially redacted Epstein files document includes an account of a 2006 phone call in which Trump told the Palm Beach police chief that “everyone has known” Jeffrey Epstein was abusing girls and Ghislaine Maxwell '“is evil”. Trump now says he had no idea Epstein was abusing girls and wishes Maxwell well.
An immigration judge rejected the Trump administration’s efforts to deport Tufts University doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk, who was arrested last year as part of a crackdown on pro-Palestinian campus activists, her lawyers said in a statement.
The US military’s Southern Command, which oversees operations in Latin America and the Caribbean, announced it carried out another deadly strike on Monday, killing two suspected drug smugglers in the eastern Pacific.
A federal judge in California issued a preliminary injunction that blocks part of a new state law that bans federal law enforcement officers from covering their faces.
Former Palm Beach police chief told FBI Trump called Ghislaine Maxwell 'evil' in 2006
As the Miami Herald’s Julie Brown first reported on Monday, Michael Reiter, the former Palm Beach police chief, told the FBI in 2019 that he got a call from Donald Trump in 2006 denouncing Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell after criminal sex charges were first made public.
Reiter confirmed to the Herald reporter that a partially redacted document in the Epstein files posted online by the justice department was an account of a 2019 FBI interview with him in which he described the call from Trump.
“Thank goodness you’re stopping him, everyone has known he’s been doing this,” Trump told Reiter, according to the FBI summary of an interview with the former police chief conducted in October 2019.
When Epstein was arrested in July 2019, Trump was asked by reporters if he had ben aware that the friend he socialized with for most of two decades had been molesting girls. “No, I had no idea,” Trump said then.
In 2020, when Maxwell was arrested, Trump was asked at a news conference if he expected her “to turn in powerful men”.
“I don’t know. I haven’t really been following it too much. I just wish her well, frankly,” Trump replied.
“I’ve met her numerous times over the years, especially since I lived in Palm Beach, and I guess they lived in Palm Beach,” he continued, referring to someone he socialized with for years. “But I wish her well, whatever it is.”
Reiter also told FBI agents that Trump had called Maxwell Epstein’s “operative”, and recalled Trump telling him “she is evil and to focus on her”, according to the FBI report.
Trump also told Reiter in 2006 that “he was around Epstein once when teenagers were present and Trump ‘got the hell out of there’”, according to the FBI interview summary.
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Canadian chamber of commerce notes Trump was actually for the bridge before he was against it
Candace Laing, the Canadian chamber of commerce’s president, points out that Donald Trump supported the construction of the Windsor-Detroit bridge in 2017, before calling it an outrage and threatening to block its opening on Monday.
In a statement Laing says:
Whether this proves real or simply threatened to keep uncertainty high – blocking or barricading bridges is a self-defeating move. Through decades of collaboration, Canada and the United States built things together, created jobs together and compete globally together.
The Trump administration was right in 2017 in its joint statement that endorsed the bridge as a priority project, calling it a “vital economic link between our two countries”. Modern border infrastructure strengthens shared economic security. The path forward isn’t deconstructing established trade corridors, it’s actually building bridges.”
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Immigration judge rejects Trump administration's effort to deport Tufts student Rümeysa Öztürk over op-ed critical of Israel
An immigration judge has rejected the Trump administration’s efforts to deport Tufts University doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk, who was arrested last year as part of a crackdown on pro-Palestinian campus activists, her lawyers said in a statement on Monday.
Öztürk’s lawyers at the American Civil Liberties Union submitted a document in federal court on Monday announcing that removal proceedings against her have been terminated by an immigration judge.
The document said that an immigration judge concluded on 29 January that the Department of Homeland Security had not met its burden of proving she was removable and terminated the proceedings against her, her lawyers informed a court in New York.
Her immigration lawyer, Mahsa Khanbabai, told Reuters, the decision was issued by immigration judge Roopal Patel in Boston.
“Today, I breathe a sigh of relief knowing that despite the justice system’s flaws, my case may give hope to those who have also been wronged by the U.S. government,” Öztürk said in a statement. “Though the pain that I and thousands of other women wrongfully imprisoned by ICE have faced cannot be undone, it is heartening to know that some justice can prevail after all. I grieve for the many human beings who do not get to see the mistreatment they have faced brought into the light. When we openly talk about the many injustices around us, including the treatment of immigrants and others who have been targeted and thrown in for-profit ICE prisons, as well as what is happening in Gaza, true justice will prevail.”
On 22 January, a federal judge in Massachusetts ruled that the government’s policy of arresting and detaining scholars like Öztürk violated the first amendment, and documents released as part of the case confirmed that the state department had targeted her solely on the basis of a 2024 opinion article she co-authored in a student newspaper calling for Tufts to divest from companies with direct or indirect ties to Israel over of credible accusations of “deliberate starvation and indiscriminate slaughter of Palestinian civilians and plausible genocide”.
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In 2017, Trump endorsed US-Canada bridge he now rails against
US-Canada relations were further shaken on Monday by a 299-word diatribe from Donald Trump, in which he threatened to block the opening of a multibillion-dollar binational bridge, connecting Windsor and Detroit, which the president claimed his predecessor, Barack Obama had “stupidly” approved.
What Trump failed to explain to loyal readers of his social media platform is that he himself had publicly endorsed the bridge project in 2017, before construction began, in public comments and a joint statement issued by him and the then prime minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau.
“No two countries share deeper or broader relations than Canada and the United States,” the joint statement issued on 13 February 2017 read.
“Given our shared focus on infrastructure investments, we will encourage opportunities for companies in both countries to create jobs through those investments. In particular, we look forward to the expeditious completion of the Gordie Howe International Bridge, which will serve as a vital economic link between our two countries,” Trump and Trudeau said after their first meeting that day.
“Prime Minister, I pledge to work with you in pursuit of our many shared interests,” Trump said that day. “America is deeply fortunate to have a neighbor like Canada. We have before us the opportunity to build even more bridges, and bridges of cooperation and bridges of commerce.”
In his post on Monday, Trump told Americans they should be outraged that “Canada is building a massive bridge between Ontario and Michigan. They own both the Canada and the United States side.”
In fact, Canada’s public broadcaster CBC reported in 2017, “the Canadian government agreed to pay for all construction costs, including $250m for the inspection plaza on the American side of the river, with a plan to recoup the costs through tolls” due to the importance of trade between the two nations.
At the time, almost one quarter of all goods moving between the two countries passed over the existing, privately owned Ambassador bridge or a tunnel connecting Detroit and Windsor.
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Pentagon announces new deadly strike on suspected drug smugglers killed two, with one survivor
The US military’s Southern Command, which oversees operations in Latin America and the Caribbean, announced it carried out another deadly strike on Monday, killing two suspected drug smugglers in the eastern Pacific.
The statement said that the latest in what legal experts have called a series of extrajudicial killings by the Pentagon was carried out “at the direction of” the Florida-based combat unit’s new commander, Gen Francis L Donovan, who was sworn in at a Pentagon ceremony last Thursday. Donovan takes over after a US navy admiral, Alvin Holsey, chose to retire over reported disagreements over the boat-strike policy.
The announcement, which was accompanied by video of the attack, was carried out on a boat “transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific”, the Pentagon said. The US coast guard was called to search for a lone survivor of the attack, the statement said.
The new killings bring the death toll to at least 130 in 38 strikes, according to Pentagon statements tallied by the Intercept.
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Federal judge blocks California from enforcing ban on federal immigration agents wearing masks
A federal judge in California issued a preliminary injunction on Monday that blocks part of a new state law that bans federal law enforcement officers from covering their faces.
The senior district court judge, Christina Snyder, who was appointed by Bill Clinton, ruled that the ban on masks in California’s No Secret Police Act could not be enforced, but did allow the part of the law that requires federal officers to display ID to the public to be enforced.
California became the first state to ban most law enforcement officers from wearing facial coverings when the act was signed into law in September by the state’s governor, Gavin Newsom. The state acted after high-profile raids last summer by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Los Angeles and other parts of California.
The Trump administration filed a lawsuit in November challenging the laws, arguing that they would threaten the safety of officers who are facing harassment, doxing, and violence and that they violated the constitution because the state is directly regulating the federal government.
Snyder said she issued the initial ruling because the mask ban as it was enacted did not also apply to state law enforcement authorities, discriminating against the federal government.
The ruling left open the possibility to future legislation banning federal agents from wearing masks if it applied to all law enforcement agencies, with Snyder writing “the Court finds that federal officers can perform their federal functions without wearing masks”. Her ruling will go into effect 19 February.
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Charlie Kirk group endorses Texas attorney general over sitting Republican senator
Turning Point Action, the political organization of the late far-right activist Charlie Kirk, has endorsed Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, in the Republican primary for US Senate, over the sitting Republican senator, John Cornyn.
Paxton, who was impeached by the Republican-majority of the Texas House in 2023 over allegations of corruption, said that he was “honored” by the endorsement. “The movement that Charlie Kirk built has inspired millions, and I’m proud to be standing alongside Turning Point Action in carrying on the fight to save this country and defend our freedoms,” Paxton wrote on social media.
Some Republican donors in Texas are reportedly concerned that the far-right Paxton would be at risk of losing to the Democratic nominee, likely to be either Jasmine Crockett, the congresswoman, or James Talarico, a state representative.
Recent polling from the University of Houston’s Hobby School of Public Affairs shows Paxton and Crockett leading the primary races, ahead of their more centrist rivals.
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Trump threatens to block US-Canada bridge and claims China will 'terminate ALL Ice Hockey being played in Canada'
As Democrats prepare to force a vote in the US House this week on Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada, the president posted a lengthy diatribe on his social media platform in which he threatened to block a bridge connecting the US and Canada and made a bizarre false claim that increased trade between Canada and China would include a ban on Canadians playing ice hockey.
Trump began his latest screed against the US’s second-largest trading partner by claiming that “everyone knows, the Country of Canada has treated the United States very unfairly for decades”.
The president also threatened to block the scheduled opening of the Gordie Howe international bridge, connecting Windsor, Ontario and Detroit, Michigan, built by a binational partnership that got approval during the Obama administration but began construction in 2018, when Trump was president.
“I will not allow this bridge to open until the United States is fully compensated for everything we have given them, and also, importantly, Canada treats the United States with the Fairness and Respect that we deserve”, Trump wrote on Monday, using his idiosyncratic capitalization.
The cause of Trump’s rage at Canada appears to be a closer trading relationship with China negotiated by the Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, after Trump raised tariffs on Canadian imports. “China… will eat Canada alive”, Trump wrote.
To illustrate his point, Trump then added a particularly wild claim with no factual basis at all: “The first thing China will do is terminate ALL Ice Hockey being played in Canada, and permanently eliminate The Stanley Cup.”
Trump’s bizarre claim that China would force Canada to give up its national pastime as part of a trade deal stunned many observers when they saw it in black and white on Monday, but Canadians have heard it before.
“Canada’s not doing well, they’re doing very poorly,” Trump said last month at the opening of his wife’s documentary about herself, in comments broadcast by Canada’s CTV. “You can’t look at China as the answer,” Trump added. “The first thing they’re going to do is say ‘You’re not allowed to play ice hockey anymore’”.
In subsequent comments to reporters on Air Force One on 31 January, Trump said: “We don’t want China to take over Canada, and if they make the deal that he’s looking to make, China will take over Canada. And the first thing they’re going to do: end ice hockey.”
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Raskin says Epstein's claim that he was never asked to leave Mar-a-Lago by Trump was redacted by justice department
After privately viewing unredacted files from the federal investigations of Jeffrey Epstein, the late child sex offender, Jamie Raskin, the senior Democrat on the House judiciary committee, accused the justice department, which blacked out the names of potential co-conspirators in the public release, of a cover up.
“I think that the Department of Justice has been in a cover-up mode for many months and has been trying to sweep the entire thing under the rug,” Raskin told Chad Pergram of Fox News and other reporters. “There’s no way you run a billion-dollar international child sex trafficking ring with just two people committing crimes.”
After Raskin described seeing a redaction of an email in which Epstein had claimed that it was not true that he had ever been asked by Donald Trump to leave his Mar-a-Lago club, as Trump claimed last year, the Fox News correspondent asked him: “What did you see specific to President Trump or President Clinton, and were there specific redactions to them?”
Raskin replied: “Well I just gave you an example of one redaction related to President Trump; I did not see any redactions related to President Clinton.”
“We want all of the information to come out,” Raskin added. “And the only redactions should be the names of the victims and the identifying information. Unfortunately, they violated that precept by releasing the names of a lot of victims, which is either spectacular incompetence and sloppiness on their part or, as a lot of the survivors believe, a deliberate threat to other survivors who are thinking about coming forward, that they need to be careful because they can be exposed and have their personal information dragged through the mud as well.”
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Members of Congress to review un-redacted Epstein documents
Later today, Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie, the Democrat and Republican who led the congressional push to release files from the federal investigations into Jeffrey Epstein will address the press after their private viewing of copies of the files without redactions.
In an episode of the Shawn Ryan Show podcast released on Monday, the California congressman told the former navy Seal: “There are obviously people who need to be prosecuted and investigated. They haven’t released the names of the co-conspirators still.”
“Every single person who is in those files who says, ‘I went to Epstein’s island’… or ‘I went to Epstein’s home and I know that there were young girls there’… any one of those people need to be investigated, they need to be hauled in front of Congress and they need to be held accountable,” Khanna told the conservative podcaster.
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Here's a recap of the day so far
Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime companion and accomplice, invoked her fifth amendment rights while appearing at a virtual deposition before the House oversight committee today. Her lawyer, David Oscar Marcus, later said that if the American public “truly want to hear the unfiltered truth about what happened” his client would be prepared to “speak fully and honestly” if Donald Trump grants her clemency.
Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle decried Maxwell’s refusal to answer questions. James Comer, the Republican chair of the oversight committee, called her appearance “very disappointing”. Meanwhile, ranking member Robert Garcia said that Maxwell’s silence appeared to be part of a “cover-up” by the White House.“Who is she protecting? And we need to know why she’s been given special treatment at a low security prison by the Trump Administration,” Garcia said.
James Comer also did not rule out deposing commerce secretary Howard Lutnick, when speaking to reporters today. Lutnick is facing mounting calls from lawmakers to resign for his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, including a planned visit to the disgraced financier on his private island in 2012 – four years after Epstein was sentenced to 13 months in jail for soliciting a minor for prostitution.
Congress is facing a shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) if doesn’t pass a full year funding bill by Friday. Lawmakers passed a stopgap funding bill to keep the department running until 13 February, while Democrats negotiate with GOP colleagues and the White House over further guardrails for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
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Oversight chair doesn't rule out deposing commerce secretary
James Comer, chair of the House oversight committee, did not rule out deposing commerce secretary Howard Lutnick, when speaking to reporters today.
Lutnick is facing mounting calls from lawmakers to resign for his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, including a planned visit to the disgraced financier on his private island in 2012 – four years after Epstein was sentenced to 13 months in jail for soliciting a minor for prostitution.
On Monday, Comer noted that his committee is focused on the five upcoming depositions as part of their ongoing investigation into the handling of Epstein’s crimes. These include former president Bill Clinton and secretary of state Hillary Clinton. “We don’t want to do anything to jeopardize the five that we have on the book. So we’ll see what happens here, and we’ll move forward,” Comer added.
Lutnick said last year in a podcast interview that he had no relationship with Epstein after 2005. But email exchanges in the latest trove of documents released by the justice department show that the pair did exchange several emails and correspondence in the years following – often through assistants and intermediaries.
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Ghislaine Maxwell prepared to speak 'unfiltered truth' about Epstein if Trump grants clemency, lawyer says
Earlier, we reported that Ghislaine Maxwell invoked her fifth amendment rights while appearing at a virtual deposition before the House oversight committee. Her lawyer, David Oscar Marcus, later said that if the American public “truly want to hear the unfiltered truth about what happened” his client would be prepared to “speak fully and honestly” if Donald Trump grants her clemency.
“Some may not like what they hear, but the truth matters,” Marcus added. “For example, both President Trump and President Clinton are innocent of any wrongdoing. Ms Maxwell alone can explain why, and the public is entitled to that explanation.”
After Maxwell refused to answer questions today, James Comer, the oversight committee’s Republican chair, said that it was “very disappointing”.
“We had many questions to ask about the crimes she and Epstein committed, as well as questions about potential co-conspirators. We sincerely want to get to the truth to the American people, and justice for the survivors,” Comer added.
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Three members of Congress say US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr lied during his Senate confirmation hearings in response to newly revealed emails that undermine his testimony that a trip he took to Samoa ahead of a deadly measles outbreak had “nothing to do with vaccines”.
The governor of Hawaii, a medical doctor who responded to the crisis, also spoke out – saying that the disclosure of the emails by the Guardian and the Associated Press show Kennedy misled the Senate and that he should step down.
Kennedy, a lawyer and longtime anti-vaccine activist before his appointment as health secretary, was asked about the trip several times during two days of confirmation hearings last year. He repeatedly denied that his reason for going there in June 2019 had anything to do with vaccines. But the records show staff at the US embassy and the United Nations wrote emails shortly before Kennedy’s visit saying he was visiting because of his concerns about vaccine safety.
Samoan officials later said Kennedy’s trip bolstered the credibility of anti-vaccine activists ahead of the measles outbreak that sickened thousands and killed 83 people, mostly children under the age of five.
The new reporting comes after a year in which Kennedy has used his power as health secretary to remake federal vaccine recommendations and policies to align with his anti-vaccine views and to sow doubts about vaccine safety. Meanwhile, measles has gained a foothold in communities across the US.
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Epstein survivors urged lawmakers to treat Maxwell's testimony with 'the utmost skepticism' and to show her no leniency
In a letter sent to the House oversight committee before Ghislaine Maxwell’s deposition, a group of Jeffrey Epstein survivors, including several Jane Does and family members of the late Virginia Giuffre, urged lawmakers to be skeptical of any information she provided (of course, as we’ve been reporting she ended up providing none).
We urge the Committee to approach Ms Maxwell’s testimony with the utmost skepticism, to rigorously scrutinize any claims she makes, and to ensure that this process does not become another vehicle through which survivors are harmed or silenced. Truth, accountability, and transparency must be the priority – not the rehabilitation of a convicted trafficker’s narrative.
In the letter, the group criticized Maxwell’s refusal to identify “the many powerful men” involved in Epstein’s trafficking network and her refusal to “meaningfully cooperate” with law enforcement. They also slammed the decision to transfer Maxwell to a low-security prison last year, a move they said “appears to be preferential treatment”.
Ms Maxwell was not a peripheral figure. She was a central and indispensable architect of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking enterprise. Despite this, she has refused to meaningfully cooperate with law enforcement or provide credible, complete information about the scope of the trafficking network.
They added:
Any attempt to grant Ghislaine Maxwell leniency, whether through sentencing relief, special treatment or credibility afforded to her testimony, would be catastrophic for survivors.
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Democrats decry Maxwell's decision to invoke fifth amendment
Democrats have condemned Maxwell invoking her right to silence and refusal to answer any questions. California Democrat Ro Khanna posted on X:
Here is my conclusion after sitting through Maxwell’s deposition with her refusing to answer a single question about the men who raped underage girls, saying she would only do so for clemency. She must immediately be sent back to the maximum security prison where she belongs.
Representative Suhas Subramanyam, of Virginia, said:
She is campaigning over and over again to get that pardon from President Trump, and this president has not ruled it out. And so that is why she is continuing to not cooperate with our investigation.
Meanwhile New Mexico Democrat Melanie Stansbury said Maxwell’s decision to not answer questions was “an effort to essentially try to secure her pardon by keeping her mouth shut, and we will not allow this silence to stand”.
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'Who is she protecting?' Garcia demands answers to Ghislaine Maxwell's 'cover-up' after she invokes fifth amendment during committee deposition
Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House oversight committee, issued a sharp rebuke following Ghislaine Maxwell’s virtual deposition earlier today.
Maxwell, a convicted co-conspirator of Jeffrey Epstein, invoked the fifth amendment and “provided no information about the men who raped and trafficked women and girls”, according to Garcia.
“After months of defying our subpoena, Ghislaine Maxwell finally appeared before the oversight committee and said nothing,” he added in a statement.
“Who is she protecting? And we need to know why she’s been given special treatment at a low security prison by the Trump administration. We are going to end this White House cover-up.”
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Bad Bunny’s treatment of Puerto Rico’s grid crisis in his Super Bowl performance has sparked social media conversation from scholars.
Toward the end of his performance, Bad Bunny performed his song “El Apagón,” which translates to “blackout.” Dancers playing workers hung from electric poles as the singer lambasted the energy instability facing Puerto Rico.
“The power lines moment was kinda extraordinary,” historian Adam Tooze said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
In 2016, a controversial Obama-era law created an oversight board to manage Puerto Rico’s longstanding debt crisis, which critics said infringed on the island’s economic autonomy. The board recommended that the island’s publicly owned electric grid be privatized, sparking fury from opponents.
The following year, the longest blackout in US history began in Puerto Rico in the wake of the deadly Hurricane Maria. Some residents, left without electricity for almost a year, were forced to learn electrical skills themselves, climbing up power lines in an attempt to rig up homemade solutions to the outage.
After the harrowing outage, the island’s then-governor announced he would indeed privatize the grid, selling it to Canadian company Luma Energy. Puerto Ricans were promised their energy woes were behind them, but more than 1 million were affected by power outages just days later, and blackouts have remained a persistent issue.
“Maldita sea, otro apagón,” Bad Bunny sang in “El Apagón” – “Damn, another blackout.”
A staunch opponent of grid privatization, the artist in 2024 spent hundreds of thousands on billboards criticizing Puerto Rico’s New Progressive Party for corruption and its links to Luma Energy.
Historian Greg Grandin called Bad Bunny “our social democratic moment’s answer to Lin-Manuel Miranda’s [neoliberal] Hamilton”, noting that Miranda, the composer, supported Promesa, though he later expressed opposition to harsh austerity measures implemented by the board.
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Disgraced former congressman, George Santos, has also weighed in on Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance.
“I expected a little more energy and sassiness from Bad Bunny,” he wrote on X. “Lady Gaga was out of no where or simply the token white girl?”
A reminder that Santos, a Republican, was sentenced to more than seven years in prison after he pleaded guilty to identity theft and wire fraud. However, Donald Trump commuted Santos’s sentence last year.
“I speak fluent Spanish and I still can’t decipher what Bad Bunny says when he ‘sings’… lol but it does make you at least want to move your body and dance lol,” Santos added, in a series of comments about the half-time show watched by millions.
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Tom Homan – the Trump administration’s “border czar” sent to Minnesota in January after federal agents fatally shot two US citizen protesters – warned last year that the government’s aggressive, widespread approach to immigration enforcement would cost it public support.
Homan made the observation in an interview with NBC in June for the forthcoming book Undue Process, by the network’s homeland security correspondent, analyzing the immigration policy of mass deportation that Donald Trump has pursued during his second presidency.
“I think the vast majority of the American people think criminal illegal aliens need to leave,” Homan told author Julia Ainsley, reported by NBC News on Monday. “And if we stick to that prioritization, I think we keep the faith of the American people.
“And I think the more we do that, the more the American people will support what President Trump’s doing. We got to do it and we’ve got to do it in a humane manner.”
Instead, the homeland security department (DHS) has rounded up hundreds of thousands of people, including US citizens, in an aggressive and often violent manner, prompting protests in numerous cities and punctuated by the shooting deaths in Minneapolis in January of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by immigration officers.
And figures released on Monday, reported by CBS, reveal that less than 14% of almost 400,000 immigrants arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the first year of Trump’s second presidency had charges or convictions for violent criminal offenses – discrediting the administration’s often repeated insistence it was targeting only “the worst of the worst”.
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Current and former Trump officials echoed the president’s criticisim of Bad Bunny’s widely acclaimed Super Bowl performance.
Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for the civil rights division at the Department of Justice, wrote: “My mother: ‘who is this Bad Bunny?’ Don’t worry mom, we aren’t watching him.”
Podcast host Dan Bongino, who served for a short period as the deputy director of the FBI, wrote “Kid Rock > Sad Bunny” in reference to Turning Point USA’s counter programming during the half-time show.
Meanwhile, conservative activist Laura Loomer, agreed with Trump’s assessment of the performance, but went further. “Not a single white person or English translation at the Super Bowl,” she wrote. “This isn’t White enough for me. Cant even watch a Super Bowl anymore because immigrants have literally ruined everything.”
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US senator Lisa Murkowski said “it hurts my heart” that the trust between Greenland and the US, built up since the second world war, has been broken by “just a few sentences and words”. This comes after Donald Trump’s insistence that the US should acquire the autonomous territory, against the will of its people, Denmark, and the rest of Nato.
Addressing Greenlandic people, the senator for Alaska appeared at a press conference alongside three other lawmakers who made the visit – Independent senator Angus King of Maine, and Democratic senators Gary Peters of Michigan, and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire.
Speaking in Nuuk, the delegation appeared alongside Pipaluk Lynge and Erik Jensen, members of Greenland’s foreign and security policy committee, and the actor Viggo Mortensen, a vocal Donald Trump critic.
The visit, which saw them go to the US space base in Pituffik, meet with Greenlandic politicians and a helicopter tour of the Greenland ice sheet, comes after a US senatorial delegation visited Copenhagen last month.
“To the citizens of Greenland, it hurts my heart to know how much anxiety and worry you feel in these times of uncertainty,” Murkowski added. “In just a few sentences and words, the trust that has been built since the second world war has been eroded and degraded.”
The Republican senator added:
I want to remind you that regardless of what our president says, we have a big role in Congress. And I believe there is a common interest that we must work together on, and it begins and ends with respect and dialogue.
Congress braces for DHS shutdown as funding bill negotiations stall
Congress is facing a shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) if doesn’t pass a full year funding bill by Friday.
Lawmakers passed a stopgap funding bill to keep the department running until 13 February, while Democrats negotiate with GOP colleagues and the White House over further guardrails for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), amid the ongoing use of force by officers – which has resulted in the fatal shootings of two American citizens in Minneapolis.
Democrats argue that federal immigration enforcement officers are conducting indiscriminate raids, brutalizing people, and hiding their identities in the process. They have issued list of demands which include the need for judicial warrants, and for agents to not wear masks. Republicans, by and large, have pushed back – saying these are non-starters. Instead they have floated another short-term spending bill to extend negotiations in the midst of another policy impasse.
Democrats, however, seem deeply reluctant for another stopgap, and would favor a shutdown to make their points clear.
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Ghislaine Maxwell to testify before committee in virtual deposition
Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted sex trafficker and longtime accomplice of Jeffrey Epstein, is set to attend a virtual deposition for the House oversight committee at 10am ET today.
This is part of the committee’s ongoing investigation into the handling of Epstein’s case,
Maxwell, however, is set to plead the fifth amendment, which protects her against self-incrimination, while addressing lawmakers today. It’s a move that representatives are concerned will make her testimony useless.
In a letter to oversight chairman James Comer, Democratic congressman Ro Khanna wrote that Maxwell’s decision is not in keeping with her interview with deputy attorney general Todd Blanche last year. Where she did, albeit sparingly, provide details about working with Epstein.
“I understand that Ms Maxwell intends to assert this privilege on a “blanket basis” by reading a prepared statement at the outset of the deposition and refusing to permit Members to question her individually through counsel, rather than invoking the privilege on a question-by-question basis,” Khanna, who also serves on the oversight committee, wrote.
In response he outlined several questions in his letter to find out whether Maxwell intends to invoke the fifth amendment when answering them.
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Donald Trump is in Washington today. He doesn’t have any events that will be open to the press, per his official schedule. He’s due to tape a TV interview at 3pm ET, and hold a policy meeting at 5.30pm ET.
We’ll let you know if anything changes and we hear from the president later.
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Stars heap praise on Bad Bunny's 'unifying' half-time show
Donald Trump may have not enjoyed Bad Bunny’s acclaimed Super Bowl half-time show but so many others have taken to social media to heap praise on the performance.
The 31-year-old singer took to the stage in Santa Clara, California, for a performance which was almost entirely in Spanish to celebrate his Puerto Rican heritage and culture.
American DJ and producer Diplo wrote:
The real American Dream isn’t about fitting a stereotype - it’s about believing in yourself when the world tries to tell you otherwise.
Proud to call Bad Bunny my friend - a Puerto Rican, an American, a creator who stood on the Super Bowl stage and reminded the world that language, culture, and identity are part of this country’s story.
In a moment that sparked outrage and debate, he chose unity, joy, and love over division, and showed what it means to represent all of America. This controversy didn’t weaken the dream - it proved why believing in yourself never sounded more American.
Fellow Puerto Rican singer Ricky Martin also joined Bad Bunny for the show, and he wrote on X:
They need to give me several hours to let me process and understand the tsunami of emotions I’m feeling. Thank you.
Meanwhile, Lady Gaga shared a post on Instagram to her 61.8 million followers of herself singing during the performance. She wrote:
It was my absolute honour to be a part of Benito’s halftime show.
Thank you Benito for inviting me and thank you to the entire cast for welcoming me onto your stage. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.
Other celebrities to praise the show included Grammy-winning country singer Kacey Musgraves, rapper Doechii and singer-songwriter John Mellencamp.
A Venezuelan migrant whose detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sparked a protest that involved nearly 2,000 people and led to 30 arrests is free after spending seven months in custody in Washington state, after a ruling from a federal judge who said his constitutional rights had been violated.
Joswar Torres, 29, was granted humanitarian parole in the United States and had an asylum application pending, but was nevertheless detained in June 2025 after a routine check-in at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) office in Spokane, Washington.
The case garnered national attention after protesters attempted to block an ICE transport that carried Torres and another migrant to Tacoma. The protest turned contentious at times, with a government car’s windshield smashed and tire slashed, but for the most part it was peaceful, with demonstrators linking arms as they faced down masked federal agents.
A month after the protest, federal prosecutors took the unusual step of bringing conspiracy charges against nine of the demonstrators. Legal experts said the episode marked an escalation in the Trump administration’s crackdown on first amendment rights.
Richard Barker, a career justice department prosecutor, resigned as acting US attorney for eastern Washington state rather than sign the indictments. “No one was hurt,” Barker said. “You have people who were executing their rights to free speech. You have people who were seeing an injustice and they were saying something about it.”
Maine, the US’s whitest state, has been shaken by the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, a crackdown that could threaten Republican control of the Senate in November’s crucial midterm elections.
Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) agents launched “Operation Catch of the Day” in the state on 21 January, targeting “the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens who have terrorized communities”, according to the administration.
As critics said the operation had caused “pain and suffering”, Senator Susan Collins, a Republican facing a re-election this year in a state that voted for Kamala Harris in 2024, claimed she spoke with Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, who told her the operation has ended at her request.
But residents doubt Collins has defanged ICE and say the agency is still making its presence known and causing chaos in the bucolic state nicknamed Vacationland.
“I don’t think anyone here has any trust that will be lasting,” Matt Schlobohm, executive director of the Maine AFL-CIO, a state federation of more than 200 local labor unions in Maine. “You can’t turn a tiger into a vegetarian.”
Workers and labor unions in Maine claimed ICE is racially profiling people and has created an environment where people of color are under “an occupation” impeding their freedom of movement.
US energy secretary Chris Wright plans to visit Venezuela soon to “start the dialogue” with officials on the future leadership of Venezuelan oil company PDVSA, Politico reported on Monday.
Wright, who plans to visit some of the nation’s oilfields, told Politico: “PDVSA was a highly professional, technically competent oil and gas company 30 years ago, and it hasn’t been one for quite some time.“
He intended to improve the management of the state-run oil company which has emerged as an obstacle in the Trump administration’s efforts to push international oil companies to invest in the country, the report said.
US vice-president JD Vance will visit Armenia and Azerbaijan this week to push a Washington-brokered peace agreement that could transform energy and trade routes in the strategic South Caucasus region.
His two-day trip to Armenia, which begins later on Monday, comes just six months after the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders signed an agreement at the White House seen as the first step towards peace after nearly 40 years of war, Reuters reports.
Vance, the first US vice-president to visit Armenia, is seeking to advance the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP), a proposed 43km (27 mile) corridor that would run across southern Armenia and give Azerbaijan a direct route to its exclave of Nakhchivan and in turn to Turkey, Baku’s close ally.
“Vance’s visit should serve to reaffirm the US’s commitment to seeing the Trump route through,” said Joshua Kucera, a senior South Caucasus analyst at Crisis Group.
“In a region like the Caucasus, even a small amount of attention from the US can make a significant impact.“
Ghislaine Maxwell intends to plead fifth amendment in upcoming deposition, lawmaker says
In other news, Ghislaine Maxwell is expected to plead the fifth amendment to avoid self-incrimination during her deposition in front of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee later today, according to a letter from Democratic congressman Ro Khanna to the committee chair.
Maxwell was found guilty in 2021 for her role in helping Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls and is serving a 20-year prison sentence.
Instead of answering individual questions, Maxwell intends to read a prepared statement at the beginning of her deposition, Khanna, who serves on the committee, said without detailing the source of his information.
“This position appears inconsistent with Ms. Maxwell’s prior conduct, as she did not invoke the fifth amendment when she previously met with deputy attorney general Todd Blanche to discuss substantially similar subject matter,” Khanna wrote in his letter seeking clarification on her testimony.
It comes after the Department of Justice released millions of files relating to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a well-connected financier who officials say killed himself in federal custody in New York in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
The House of Representatives’ oversight committee is investigating Epstein’s connections to powerful figures and how information about his crimes was handled.
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Less than 14% of ICE arrestees in Trump's first year back in office had violent criminal records, documents indicate
As we referenced in the opening post, Puerto Rican megastar Bad Bunny used his speech at the Grammys at the start of the month to call out anti-immigration sentiment that has surged amid ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) operations which have caused terror in communities across American states. At least eight people have been killed by federal agents or have died while in ICE custody in 2026 so far.
It has now emerged that under 14% of nearly 400,000 immigrants arrested by ICE in Trump’s first year back in office had charges or convictions for violent criminal offences, an internal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) document obtained by CBS News shows.
This seriously undermines the administration’s frequent claims that the operations are targeting illegal immigrants who are violent and need to be deported for public safety.
According to the DHS document, nearly 60% of ICE arrestees over the past year had criminal charges or convictions, although most were for non-violent crimes.
Trump blasts Bad Bunny's historic Super Bowl show as 'absolutely terrible'
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of US politics. Donald Trump has said Bad Bunny’s historic Super Bowl half-time show performance celebrating Latino heritage and culture was “absolutely terrible” and “an affront to the Greatness of America”.
The Puerto Rican musician made history by becoming the first Super Bowl half-time show headliner to perform nearly entirely in Spanish, and to host a wedding during the show, which included appearances from Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin, among others.
In a lengthy Truth Social Post published after, Trump wrote:
The Super Bowl Halftime Show is absolutely terrible, one of the worst, EVER! It makes no sense, is an affront to the Greatness of America, and doesn’t represent our standards of Success, Creativity, or Excellence.
Nobody understands a word this guy is saying, and the dancing is disgusting, especially for young children that are watching from throughout the U.S.A., and all over the World.
This “Show” is just a “slap in the face” to our Country, which is setting new standards and records every single day – including the Best Stock Market and 401(k)s in History!
There is nothing inspirational about this mess of a Halftime Show and watch, it will get great reviews from the Fake News Media, because they haven’t got a clue of what is going on in the REAL WORLD.
It’s hardly surprising Trump did not like Bad Bunny’s show. The 31-year-old, born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, has been a vocal critic of ICE and of Trump and his administration’s authoritarian immigration policies.
In January, Trump criticized the selection (alongside rightwing media commentators) as “absolutely ridiculous” while also claiming he was unfamiliar with the artist. At the time, Trump said of Bad Bunny and punk rock band Green Day, who also performed: “I’m anti-them. I think it’s a terrible choice. All it does is sow hatred. Terrible.”
Sunday’s performance came a week after Bad Bunny’s ‘Debí Tirar Más Fotos’ became the first Spanish-language album to win the Grammy for album of the year, building more anticipation for his Super Bowl show, still one of the staples of the American cultural calendar.
The Super Bowl is the most-watched annual television event in the United States. Last year’s game averaged nearly 130m US viewers, according to NFL figures, with an additional 62.5m watching internationally.
“God bless America!” Bad Bunny shouted toward the end of the half-time show, which ran to nearly 14 minutes. He then gave a roll call of the countries of North, South and Central America, including Uruguay, Colombia, Venezuela, Cuba, the US and Canada.
A colourful parade of flags from those nations marched through the sugar plantation fields that functioned as the energetic show’s centerpiece. You can read the Guardian’s five-star review of the performance here.
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