Summary
Thank you for following the Guardian’s US politics live blog today. Here are some of the standout moments of the day
The US Department of justice’s civil rights division will not be involved in the shooting death of Renee Good by ICE agents in Minneapolis, CBS News reports.
A federal judge temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from freezing access by five Democratic-led states to more than $10 billion of federal funds for child care and family assistance based on what it said were concerns about fraud, the Associated Press reports.
In Minneapolis, local faith leaders held a vigil in honor of Renee Good, the woman who was fatally shot by an ICE agent on Wednesday.
Republican Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has expressed concern after his family’s bodyguard was arrested recently on federal drug-trafficking charges.
Asked if the FBI should be sharing evidence with state officials in Minnesota (on Wednesday’s fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by an ICE officer), Trump said of officials in Minneapolis and Minnesota: “Well, normally I would but they’re crooked officials.”
Donald Trump promised oil giants “total safety, total security” in Venezuela in a bid to persuade them to invest $100bn in the country’s infrastructure after US forces toppled Nicolás Maduro from power.
The attorney general of Minnesota and the county prosecutor covering Minneapolis have just called on the public to send in their own evidence from the fatal shooting of a resident by an immigration officer on Wednesday.
The Democratic mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, has urged federal authorities to not “hide from the facts” of the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good. Frey noted that the Trump administration has already branded Good as a “domestic terrorist”.
Three Democratic senators urged Apple and Google to remove Elon Musk’s apps X and Grok from their app stores yesterday evening following use of xAI’s Grok artificial intelligence tool to flood X with sexualized nonconsensual images of real people.
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As concerns about affordability continue, Donald Trump has said--without a plan for how this would actually happen--that credit card interest rates will be capped at 10% beginning on 20 January.
In a Friday evening post on Truth social Trump said, “We will no longer let the American Public be “ripped off” by Credit Card Companies that are charging Interest Rates of 20 to 30%, and even more, which festered unimpeded during the Sleepy Joe Biden Administration. AFFORDABILITY!”
Last February, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders introduced legislation that would do this very thing. But Congress has yet to move on the bill.
The US Department of Justice’s civil rights division will not be involved in the shooting death of Renee Good by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, CBS News reports.
According to CBS, several attorneys from the division’s criminal arm offered to fly to Minnesota, as lawyers for the agency have for other high-profile shootings committed by law enforcement, but were told not to by the division’s head, Harmeet Dhillon.
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A federal judge temporarily blocked Donald Trump’s administration from freezing access by five Democratic-led states to more than $10bn of federal funds for childcare and family assistance based on what it said were concerns about fraud, the Associated Press reports.
The US district judge Arun Subramanian, an appointee Joe Biden, said he issued a temporary restraining order on Friday for the reasons stated in a legal filing by California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York, which filed the lawsuit.
The states sued the Trump administration late on Thursday, two days after the US Department of Health and Human Services announced the freeze.
Funds that were frozen include more than $7bn from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, which provides cash to low-income families with children. The funds also included $2.4bn from the Child Care and Development Fund, which helps make childcare more affordable, and about $870m in social services grants for children.
Read more of the Guardian’s coverage about the Trump administration’s initial stripping of the funds here.
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The chair of the Democratic National Committee, Ken Martin, is firing back at Donald Trump over his claims that he won Minnesota in the past three presidential elections. In response to a question about whether or not he was in favor of the FBI sharing information about the shooting death of Renee Good with state officials, Trump said: “Normally, I would, but they’re crooked officials,”, in reference to legislators including Tim Walz, whom he called a “stupid person”.
In response, the Minnesota-based Democrat shot back on X:
You lying piece of shit. I chaired the Minnesota DFL for all three of your runs here. I watched you lose. Three times. Minnesota never bought your con. And now, as Chair of the DNC, I’m looking forward to ending Trumpism for good in 2028 — not with lies, but with votes. Again.
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In Minneapolis, local faith leaders held a vigil in honor of Renee Good, the woman who was fatally shot by an ICE agent on Wednesday. Rabbi Heather Renetzky told the crowd:
We are grieving an individual loss of life, the holy soul of Renee Nicole Good, a woman, like all of us, made in the image of God, a sacred human. We are grieving the gaping abyss between what our country is and what our country should be.
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Elsewhere in US politics, Republican Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has expressed concern after his family’s bodyguard was arrested recently on federal drug-trafficking charges.
Justin Salsburey, 43, and his wife, 38-year-old Ruthann Rankin, were each charged on 30 December with conspiracy and possession with the intent to distribute large amounts of narcotics through the US mail.
Salsburey was employed by a private security firm contracted by Ramaswamy’s family to provide protective services, campaign spokesperson Connie Luck told the Guardian. She said the family had been “alarmed to hear this disturbing news”.
“Upon being informed of this matter in recent days, the outside security firm immediately removed the individual from the security detail,” Luck said.
Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur and the author of Woke Inc whose run for governor has been endorsed by Donald Trump, faces a Republican primary in May. The general election is set for early November.
More on that here:
Trump promises oil companies ‘total safety’ in Venezuela as he urges them to invest billions
Donald Trump promised oil giants “total safety, total security” in Venezuela in a bid to persuade them to invest $100bn in the country’s infrastructure after US forces toppled Nicolás Maduro from power.
At a roundtable press conference at the White House this afternoon with more than a dozen oil executives, including leaders from Chevron, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhilips, the US president doubled down on claims that Maduro’s arrest presents American oil companies with an unprecedented opportunity for extraction.
Many of the executives expressed support for the Trump administration’s actions in Venezuela last weekend – and hinted that they stood ready to invest.
Analysts have expressed skepticism that oil firms will invest vast sums as rapidly as Trump has suggested they will. Earlier this week, the president suggested production in Venezuela could be boosted within 18 months.
Notably, Trump said the investment will be coming from the oil companies, not the federal government. Earlier in the week, he had suggested that the US taxpayer might fund their investments.
“The plan is for them to spend, meaning our giant oil companies will be spending at least $100bn of their money, not the government’s money,” Trump said. “They don’t need government money, but they need government protection and government security.”
Trump warned the assembled executives that, if they aren’t interested in rebuilding efforts: “I got 25 people that aren’t here today that are willing to take your place.”
While he offered them “total safety”, the president also suggested some of the oil firms present did not need the US government’s help. “These are people that drill oil in some pretty rough places,” he said. “I could say a couple of those places make Venezuela look like a picnic.”
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Asked why he had to “own” Greenland when the US already has military bases there, Trump said:
Because when we own it, we defend it. You don’t defend leases in the same way. We have to own it.
He later added:
You don’t defend ownership, you don’t defend leases. And we’ll have to defend Greenland. If we don’t do it, China or Russia will.
He added that he gets on very well with Russia and China, although he is “very disappointed” with Vladimir Putin.
“We’re not going to allow Russia or China to occupy Greenland, and that’s what’s going to happen if we don’t own it,” he said.
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Trump tells Iran: 'You'd better not start shooting, because we'll start shooting too'
Responding to a completely unrelated question, Trump elaborated on his threats to the Iranian regime. He said “God bless” the protesters and that he hoped that they would be safe, before adding:
And again, I tell the Iranian leaders: You’d better not start shooting, because we’ll start shooting too.
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Asked if the FBI should be sharing evidence with state officials in Minnesota (on Wednesday’s fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by an ICE officer), Trump said of officials in Minneapolis and Minnesota: “Well, normally I would but they’re crooked officials.”
He went on to repeat his usual attacks on the state’s Democratic governor Tim Walz and its Somali community.
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Responding to a follow-up question on his upcoming meeting with Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado next week, Trump said “she might be involved in some aspect” of running the country.
As my colleague William Christou reported earlier, Trump already threatened today to intervene in Iran if its government kills demonstrators, prompting warnings from senior Iranian officials that any American interference would cross a “red line”.
In a post on Truth Social earlier, Trump said that if Iran were to shoot and kill protesters, the US would “come to their rescue”. He added: “We are locked and loaded, and ready to go,” without explaining what that might mean in practice.
The protests in Iran, the largest since the death in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in 2022, are in their sixth day, having been triggered by an unprecedented decline in the value of the national currency on Sunday.
Here’s William’s full report:
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Trump says US will 'hit Iran very hard where it hurts' if regime cracks down on protesters
Donald Trump said that Iran was in “big trouble” and that his administration is “watching the situation very carefully”.
He went on to tell reporters at the White House:
If they start killing people like they have in the past, we will get involved. We’ll be hitting them very hard where it hurts.
He clarified that he didn’t mean boots on the ground, but repeated the US would be “hitting them very, very hard where it hurts”.
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'Whether they like it or not': Trump gives ominous warning on possible occupation of Greenland
Donald Trump offered an ominous warning in his ongoing campaign to acquire Greenland. During his meeting with oil and gas executives today, the president said “we are going to do something on Greenland whether they like it or not”.
His justification? “If we don’t do it, Russia or China will take over Greenland, and we’re not going to have Russia or China as a neighbor,” Trump said.
“So we’re going to be doing something with Greenland, either the nice way or the more difficult way.”
Trump repeated his frequent refrain that he “saved” Nato, while insisting that he still supports the alliance.
“If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t have a Nato right now,” the president said. “But we’re not going to allow Russia or China to occupy Greenland, and that’s what’s going to happen if we don’t.”
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When asked why federal officials are not working with local authorities on the investigation into the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good, Trump said that Minnesota officials were “crooked”.
He went on to call Tim Walz, the state’s Democratic governor, “incompetent”.
“I mean, he’s a stupid person,” Trump said.
This comes as the Minnesota bureau of criminal apprehension (BCA) said that the FBI took control of the ongoing investigation, denying BCA access to case materials.
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Trump confirms meeting with Venezuelan opposition leader Machado next week
At a meeting with oil and gas executives today, Donald Trump said that he plans to meet with the leader of the Venezuelan opposition, María Corina Machado, next week.
“She’s going to come in and pay her regards to our country,” Trump said. “And she’s coming in sometime next week, I think Tuesday or Wednesday.”
The president added that the relationship with Venezuela’s interim leader, Delcy Rodriguez, was “very good” at the moment.
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Trump seems to suggest that Renee Nicole Good was a 'high-level agitator'
Asked by a Fox News correspondent today to explain the claim, made by vice-president JD Vance, that Renee Good was “part of a broad left-wing network,” the president seemed to accuse the 37-year-old woman killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis on Wednesday of being a “high-level agitator”.
Trump did not provide any evidence for his claim, but insisted that a woman heard screaming the word “shame!” repeatedly in video of the incident recorded by a witness must have been “a paid agitator” and “professional troublemaker”.
“I watched that,” Trump said. “There was a woman screaming: ‘Shame! Shame! Shame! Shame!’ She was a[n] agitator.”
However, the woman who could be heard screaming “shame” in the video was not Good, but another bystander whose voice came from behind the lens of the witness who filmed the encounter. Trump appeared to incorrectly accuse Good of having been the person screaming, and asserted, without evidence and contrary to experience, that only a paid agitator would scream at ICE agents that they should feel shame.
It also seems significant that the woman screamed “shame” at the agents just twice at the start of the video, moments before and after the shooting. It was a short time later, after she approached the agent who killed Good, that she shouted the admonition at him another eight more times, as he walked away from the scene.
“She was so loud and so crazy and just not normal,” the president said. “So I guess you could say professional, but I didn’t think she did a very good job. You have agitators, and we will always be protecting ICE.”
Trump made his comments appearing to conflate Good with the outraged bystander after an official White House account had already posted close-up video of her, apparently recorded by the officer who shot her, showing that she was calm and not screaming anything in the seconds before she was shot and killed.
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Reporting from the East Room
Trump said that together the US and Venezuela have 55% of world’s oil reserves.
“Drill, baby, drill was my campaign,” he added.
Trump got Vance, Rubio and a few oil executives to weigh in, all sounding wildly optimistic and upbeat. The president commented: “If we didn’t do this, Russia or China would have done it … This is sort of a nextdoor neighbor.” But he added that China and Russia were welcome to buy US controlled oil: “We are open for business.”
Stephen Miller is sitting under a portrait of Martha Washington and, more surprisingly, Tucker Carlson is sitting in the background.
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Energy secretary Chris Wright noted that while the US may have less oil underground than Venezuela, “we have 20 times the production” of the country.
Sitting alongside the president in today’s meeting is vice-president JD Vance, secretary of state Marco Rubio, energy secretary Chris Wright, and secretary of the interior Doug Burgum.
Vance praised his boss in his remarks today. Noting that previous Republican and Democratic administration “would lose hundreds or thousands of American lives” by getting into “endless quagmires”. Trump, he claimed, “empowered” the American military to “stop the flow of drugs” into the US, and “control one of the great energy reserves” in the world.
“He [Trump] did it without losing a single American life in the process,” the vice-president added.
The president adds that oil companies who want access to Venezuela’s reserves will have to “spend at least $100bn to rebuild the capacity and the infrastructure” in the country.
“Venezuela has also agreed that the United States will immediately begin refining and selling up to 50m barrels of Venezuelan crude oil,” Trump said.
In his remarks today, the president said that “some” of the money generated from Venezuela’s oil production will go to the country itself, and “some will go to the oil companies”.
Trump confirms that Venezuela has turned over 30m barrels of oil.
“It’s about $4bn worth,” he said. “It’s on our way to it’s on its way to the United States right now. And we want to thank Venezuela for that.”
The president added that the administration will decide which oil and gas companies will have access to Venezuelan production.
“One of the reasons you couldn’t go in … you had no security, but now you have total security,” Trump told the executives in the East Room today. “You’re dealing with us directly. You’re not dealing with Venezuela at all. We don’t want you to deal with Venezuela.”
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Trump says latest seized oil tanker is on its way back to Venezuela
The president just announced on Truth Social that the fifth seized oil tanker by the US Coast Guard, known as the Olina, is “on its way back to Venezuela”.
He added that the intercepted oil “will be sold through the GREAT Energy Deal, which we have created for such sales”.
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We’re getting more pictures from the demonstrations against the increase in federal law and immigration enforcement in Minneapolis, just two days after the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good.
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In a short while we’ll bring you the latest from Donald Trump’s meeting with top US oil executives at the White House, which just opened up to the press.
Vance reposts new footage from perspective of ICE agent who shot and killed Renee Nicole Good
Vice-president JD Vance has reposted video footage that is purported to be from the phone camera of the federal agent who shot and killed Renee Nicole Good.
The clip was obtained and initially published by a conservative outlet based in Minnesota, Alpha News. The Guardian has not yet been able to independently verify this footage.
In a post on X today, Vance reposted the video – which appears to be from the immigration agent’s perspective. “Many of you have been told this law enforcement officer wasn’t hit by a car, wasn’t being harassed, and murdered an innocent woman,” the vice-president claims. “The reality is that his life was endangered and he fired in self defense.”
However, the video appears to show Good being filmed by the agent – who the Guardian has identified as Jonathan E Ross – went on to shoot her.
Much like the other angles of the shooting, you can hear another officer telling Good to “get out of the fucking car” as he approaches her vehicle. She then appears to reverse her car before moving forward and turning her car to drive away when she is shot.
In footage shared by Vance, the camera lowers when Good is attempting to drive away, and shots are fired. The camera is lifted again showing Good crashing into a parked car. In the background you can hear a voice calling out “fucking bitch”.
In 2024, Alpha News and one of its reporters were sued for defamation by the Minneapolis police assistant chief, Liz Blackwell, over a documentary and book that criticized local authorities’ response to George Floyd’s murder. This included claims that Blackwell lied on the witness stand during the trial of Derek Chauvin, the police officer ultimately convicted of killing Floyd. Last year, however, a judge dismissed the lawsuit.
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Prosecutor Mary Moriarty, the Hennepin county attorney, said that she and Minnesota attorney general Keith Ellison were appealing to members of the public to send them any more evidence they may have from the ICE shooting because it was vital to preserve material before it might be lost, or videos erased, for example.
The two top law officials kept their language mild and considered at a press conference a little earlier in which they spoke of how state investigators had originally been included in the investigation unfolding into the killing of Renee Good and then were abruptly excluded.
“It was going to be a joint investigation based on the conversations we had had with the federal government as well as the FBI. And then that changed. I can’t speak to why,” Moriarty said.
The original understanding was the the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension would be involved, a unit created after George Floyd was murdered by the Minneapolis police in 2020, to lead the biggest investigations in the state.
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Minnesota attorney general implores public to send in evidence from fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good
The attorney general of Minnesota and the county prosecutor covering Minneapolis have just called on the public to send in their own evidence from the fatal shooting of a resident by an immigration officer on Wednesday.
The request came amid continued fury that local and state officials have been shut out of the official investigation into the tragedy by the federal government.
Keith Ellison, the state AG and a Democrat, held a press conference late on Friday morning, not long after the Minneapolis mayor’s, and asked people to send in potential evidence they may have gathered at the scene, such as video footage.
“We still know there is evidence out there and we want to make sure it’s gathered,” he said.
Hennepin county attorney Mary Moriarty said that federal investigators had taken possession of the car in which Renee Good was shot dead by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer. Minnesota officials hope they will get access to the FBI’s findings from the car, but they don’t know at the moment.
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Renee Nicole Good's wife says she was supporting neighbors
Becca Good, the wife of Renee Nicole Good, who was fatally shot on Wednesday by an ICE officer, has described the mother of three as “pure love … pure joy … pure sunshine”.
On the day Renee died, Becca said, “We stopped to support our neighbors. We had whistles. They had guns.” The people who did this, she said, “had fear and anger in their hearts … we need to show them a better way.”
Her is the statement she shared with MPR:
First, I want to extend my gratitude to all the people who have reached out from across the country and around the world to support our family.
This kindness of strangers is the most fitting tribute because if you ever encountered my wife, Renee Nicole Macklin Good, you know that above all else, she was kind. In fact, kindness radiated out of her.
Renee sparkled. She literally sparkled. I mean, she didn’t wear glitter but I swear she had sparkles coming out of her pores. All the time. You might think it was just my love talking but her family said the same thing. Renee was made of sunshine.
Renee lived by an overarching belief: there is kindness in the world and we need to do everything we can to find it where it resides and nurture it where it needs to grow. Renee was a Christian who knew that all religions teach the same essential truth: we are here to love each other, care for each other, and keep each other safe and whole.
Like people have done across place and time, we moved to make a better life for ourselves. We chose Minnesota to make our home. Our whole extended road trip here, we held hands in the car while our son drew all over the windows to pass the time and the miles.
What we found when we got here was a vibrant and welcoming community, we made friends and spread joy. And while any place we were together was home, there was a strong shared sense here in Minneapolis that we were looking out for each other. Here, I had finally found peace and safe harbor. That has been taken from me forever.
We were raising our son to believe that no matter where you come from or what you look like, all of us deserve compassion and kindness. Renee lived this belief every day. She is pure love. She is pure joy. She is pure sunshine.
On Wednesday, January 7th, we stopped to support our neighbors. We had whistles. They had guns.
Renee leaves behind three extraordinary children; the youngest is just six years old and already lost his father. I am now left to raise our son and to continue teaching him, as Renee believed, that there are people building a better world for him. That the people who did this had fear and anger in their hearts, and we need to show them a better way.
We thank you for the privacy you are granting our family as we grieve. We thank you for ensuring that Renee’s legacy is one of kindness and love. We honor her memory by living her values: rejecting hate and choosing compassion, turning away from fear and pursuing peace, refusing division and knowing we must come together to build a world where we all come home safe to the people we love.
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Federal officers are leaving Louisiana immigration crackdown for Minneapolis – AP
Federal immigration officers are pulling out of a Louisiana crackdown and heading to Minneapolis in an abrupt pivot from an operation that drew protests around New Orleans and aimed to make 5,000 arrests, according to documents obtained by the Associated Press.
The shift appeared to signal a wind-down of the Louisiana deployment that was dubbed “Catahoula Crunch” and began in December with the arrival of more than 200 officers. The operation had been expected to last into February and swiftly raised fears in immigrant communities. As of 18 December, the operation had led to about 370 arrests.
The Trump administration has been surging thousands of federal officers to Minnesota under a sweeping new crackdown tied in part to allegations of fraud involving Somali residents. More than 2,000 officers are taking part in what the Department of Homeland Security has called the biggest immigration enforcement operation ever.
Yesterday the New York Times reported that the Trump administration would deploy more than 100 US Customs and Border Protection agents and officers to Minnesota following the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by an ICE officer, and that the agents would be redirected from operations in Chicago and New Orleans.
Documents obtained by the AP indicated that federal officers stationed in Louisiana were continuing to depart for Minneapolis late this week.
“For the safety of our law enforcement, we do not disclose operational details while they are under way,” the DHS said on Friday in response to questions about whether the Louisiana deployment was ending in order to send officers to Minnesota.
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Senators urge Apple and Google to remove Musk’s X and Grok from app stores over sexual deepfakes – NBC News
NBC News is reporting that three Democratic senators urged Apple and Google to remove Elon Musk’s apps X and Grok from their app stores yesterday evening following use of xAI’s Grok artificial intelligence tool to flood X with sexualized nonconsensual images of real people.
Hours later, X restricted Grok’s image generation to paying premium subscribers, and seemingly restricting what types of images Grok can create on X, according to NBC News’s report.
The Grok reply bot on X has generated thousands of sexualized images an hour this week, mostly of women but at times of children, NBC News previously reported. But while X appears to have pivoted to limiting that feature on the social media app, on the standalone Grok app and website, Grok will still create sexualized deepfakes.
In an open letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, senators Ron Wyden of Oregon, Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico asked the companies to “enforce” terms of service that appear to ban the activity that was surging on X and is still possible on Grok.
The terms of service of Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store both appear to forbid apps that allow sexualized images of people without their consent, the senators wrote.
Apple and Google must remove these apps from the application stores until X’s policy violations are addressed.
They continued:
X users have used the app’s Grok AI tool to generate nonconsensual sexual imagery of real, private citizens at scale. This trend has included Grok modifying images to depict women being sexually abused, humiliated, hurt, and even killed.
Turning a blind eye to X’s egregious behavior would make a mockery of your moderation practices. Indeed, not taking action would undermine your claims in public and in court that your app stores offer a safer user experience than letting users download apps directly to their phones.
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The supreme court is set to issue its next set of opinions on Wednesday 14 January. This is the next chance for the justices to issue a ruling on the legality of Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs.
Top banking committee Democrat warns against 'handouts' or 'special favors' ahead of Trump's meeting with oil executives
Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate banking committee, warned against “billions in handouts” to oil companies who are due to meet with Donald Trump at the White House today, and leaving “American taxpayers with the bill”.
The president is set to meet with CEOs of Exxon, Shell and ConocoPhillips, as well as a representative from Chevron later today to discuss control of Venezuela’s oil production.
“The American people voted for lower costs, not for the US military to attack Venezuela or to have their hard-earned money used to line the pockets of Big Oil,” she said in a statement. “These oil executives should commit that they will not seek or accept taxpayer subsidies or special favors from the White House.”
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Earlier, we reported the news that the supreme court did not issue a highly anticipated ruling on the legality of Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs.
The court did issue a decision in a case that allows federal prisoners to make repeat challenges to their convictions.
In response to questions from reporters today, Jacob Frey dismissed any suggestion from the administration that his language has been “inflammatory” since Wednesday’s shooting and the subsequent protests in Minneapolis.
“I dropped an F-bomb. They killed somebody. Which one of those is more inflammatory? I’m going with the killing somebody,” Frey said.
The mayor also pushed back on the Trump administration’s claims that Good ran over the ICE agent who killed her.
“Watch the video from every single angle. I mean, the ICE agent walked away with a hip injury that he might as well have gotten from closing a refrigerator door with his hips,” Frey said. “No, he was not ran over. He walked out of there with a hop in his step.”
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Chavez also urged Minneapolis residents to “do everything in their power to defend our immigrant neighbors” at this moment.
“Blow your whistle when you see immigration enforcement in your neighborhood,” he said. “Get trained on rapid response so you can educate your neighbors on what is happening on your block, provide rides to your immigrant neighbors who need to go to work, who need to get groceries, who need to see their children come back home safely.”
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At today’s press conference, Minneapolis city council member Jason Chavez was tearful as he recalled that Renee Nicole Good was a “mother, wife and beloved community member”.
Chavez remained resolute that the circulated videos of Wednesday’s fatal shooting do “not match the false narrative from the federal government”. He reiterated Frey’s call for local authorities to have access to the ongoing investigation into Good’s death.
“It is important and critical to our community to have a sense of trust in this process by having an independent investigation to present to the county attorney so the adequate charges can be made,” Chavez said.
Minneapolis mayor calls for local authorities to have access to fatal shooting investigation
The Democratic mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, has urged federal authorities to not “hide from the facts” of the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good.
Frey noted that the Trump administration has already branded Good as a “domestic terrorist”.
“They’re calling the actions of the agent involved as some form of defensive posture. We know that they’ve already determined much of the investigation, and even if they haven’t, there is the appearance that there is some conclusion drawn from the very beginning,” he added.
A reminder that the Minneapolis Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) was denied access to evidence this week, after the FBI took sole control of the case.
“Our ask is to embrace the truth,” Frey said today. “Our ask is to include the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension in this process, because we in Minneapolis want a fair investigation.”
Supreme court does not issue ruling on Trump's sweeping tariffs
The highest court did not issue a highly anticipated decision today on the legality of Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs.
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Supreme court set to issue first decision of latest term
The supreme court is on track to deliver the first decision of its latest term today. One of the most anticipated rulings is on the legality of Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs. The highest court is tasked with deciding whether the president can invoke the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose levies on dozens of countries without the approval of Congress.
In November, justices heard arguments in one of the most consequential cases on the docket. They appeared skeptical of the administration’s use of the IEEPA – a decades-old law grants the president authority to regulate international commerce during a “national emergency”. Notably, the IEEPA doesn’t actually mention the word “tariff” as a justified means of curbing a national security threat.
It’s important to note, however, that we don’t know which decision the supreme court will issue today, and it could be in response to any of the several arguments they’ve heard so far this term.
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Where were jobs created in December?
More than half of the 50,000 jobs created in the US last month were at food services and drinking places, where payrolls rose by 27,000.
Health care continued to add workers in December; payrolls rose by 21,000, including 16,000 in hospitals.
Employment in social assistance rose by 17,000.
But it was a tougher jobs market in retail, where 25,000 jobs were cut.
Federal government employment rose by 2,000, suggesting that the Doge jobs cull may have abated – after 277,000 jobs were lost through 2025
Read more about the latest jobs data at our dedicated business liveblog:
Federal Reserve officials are expected to weigh this latest data at their next policy meeting at the end of January, when they will decide whether to lower interest rates, which sit at a range of 3.5% to 3.75%, or keep them on hold.
Officials have signaled that a pause in cuts is likely. Minutes from the board’s December meeting revealed stark division when members made their third consecutive cut to rates last month. “Some participants suggested that, under their economic outlooks, it would likely be appropriate to keep [rates] unchanged for some time,” the notes said.
In a press conference last month, the Fed chair, Jerome Powell, said officials will proceed with caution as they remain hopeful that the labor market will stabilize in the upcoming year and inflation will start to cool. Prices rose 2.7% in November, a cooling-off after rising 3% in September.
But the Fed’s vigilance over the economy continues to clash with the outlook of Donald Trump and his economic advisers, who have demanded lower interest rates. Cutting rates could stimulate economic growth, including bolstering the labor market, but at the risk of making prices rise faster.
Employers added 50,000 more jobs in December, according to latest report
Hiring held firm in the US last month, official data showed, amid uncertainty over the strength and direction of the world’s largest economy.
Employers added 50,000 jobs to the US labor force last month, following a year of uneven growth, according to data released from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday.
The closely watched reading was slightly shy of the approximately 73,000 jobs economists expected to be added in the US economy in December. Previous readings for October and November were also revised lower, with the BLS now estimating that the US added 76,000 fewer jobs during those two months.
The unemployment rate, which rose to a four-year high of 4.6% in November, fell back to 4.4% in December.
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US intercepts fifth sanctioned oil tanker - report
The US Coast Guard is in the process of seizing a fifth sanctioned tanker, suspected of carrying oil to and from Venezuela, according to Reuters.
The targeted vessel is the Olina. A industry source tells Reuters that the tanker left last week fully loaded with oil as part of a flotilla, after the US captured and arrested Nicolás Maduro. It was returning, fully loaded, to Venezuela when it was seized today.
We’ll bring you more details as they emerge.
Trump to meet with top US oil executives at White House
Donald Trump will be in Washington today, before he travels to Palm Beach this evening.
He has a series of closed door meetings today, the most notable is his 2pm ET sit-down with top oil company executives, to discuss the next steps in handling Venezuela’s oil production.
CNBC reports that the president will meet with the CEOs of Exxon, Shell and ConocoPhillips, as well as a representative from Chevron. Energy secretary Chris Wright is also set to join the meeting.
Pope Leo XIV has denounced how nations are using force to assert their dominion worldwide, saying they are “completely undermining” peace and the post-Second World War international legal order, AP reported.
In his most substantial critique of US, Russian and other military incursions in sovereign countries, Leo told ambassadors who represent their countries’ interests at the Holy See that “war is back in vogue and a zeal for war is spreading”.
Leo did not name individual countries that have resorted to force in his lengthy speech, the bulk of which he delivered in English in a break from the Vatican’s traditional diplomatic protocol of Italian and French.
But his speech came amid the backdrop of the recent US military operation in Venezuela to remove Nicolas Maduro from power, Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine and other conflicts.
The occasion was the Pope’s annual audience with the Vatican diplomatic corps, which traditionally amounts to his yearly foreign policy address.
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Donald Trump has claimed that he cancelled a second wave of attacks on Venezuela because it was cooperating with the US on oil infrastructure and had released political prisoners.
The US president said early on Friday that he cancelled planned military action in recognition that the authorities in Caracas had released “large numbers” of prisoners and were “seeking peace”.
“This is a very important and smart gesture,” Trump posted on social media. “The USA and Venezuela are working well together, especially as it pertains to rebuilding, in a much bigger, better, and more modern form, their oil and gas infrastructure. Because of this cooperation, I have cancelled the previously expected second Wave of Attacks, which looks like it will not be needed.”
Trump did not elaborate on the alleged plan for fresh strikes but said the US navy armada in the Caribbean would remain, leaving Washington with the ability to attack Venezuela at short notice. “All ships will stay in place for safety and security purposes.”
He said he would meet American oil industry figures later on Friday. “At least 100 Billion Dollars will be invested by BIG OIL, all of whom I will be meeting with today at the White House.”
Just days after launching an unprecedented operation in Venezuela to seize its president and effectively take control of its oil industry, Donald Trump sat down with New York Times journalists for a wide-ranging interview that took in everything from international law, Taiwan, Greenland and weight-loss drugs.
The president, riding high on the success of an operation that has upended the rules of global power, spoke candidly and casually about the new world order he appears eager to usher in; an order governed not by international norms or long-lasting alliances, but national strength and military power.
Here are some key points from his interview with the Times:
Democrats threaten to withhold funding after ICE killing in Minneapolis
A day after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a 37-year-old US citizen in Minneapolis, Democrats on Capitol Hill are demanding restraints on the agency Donald Trump has empowered to carry out his mass deportation campaign – and some are threatening to use the next funding deadline to force those changes.
Democrats sharply condemned the Trump administration over the killing of Renee Nicole Good, demanding accountability after the president; JD Vancethe vice-president; and the secretary of homeland security, Kristi Noem repeatedly claimed that the officer acted in “self-defense”.
Videos taken from multiple angles show Good behind the wheel, reversing her car and then attempting to drive away when an agent shoots her multiple times, remaining on his feet and walking away, apparently uninjured.
“Democrats cannot vote for a [Department of Homeland Security] budget that doesn’t restrain the growing lawlessness of this agency,” Chris Murphy, a Democratic senator of Connecticut, wrote on X, sharing a video of the shooting.
Axios reported on Thursday that Murphy was preparing to introduce a sweeping reform package that would require a warrant for arrests, ban agents from wearing masks during enforcement operations and limit border patrol agents from operating in cities far from the border.
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The killing of a US citizen by a federal immigration agent in Minneapolis was a five-alarm fire for the Trump administration. But a torrent of untruths, half-truths, smears, and innuendo has been unleashed by the White House, and amplified by its social media and cable television acolytes, in an attempt to douse the flames.
Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic House minority leader, called homeland security secretary Kristi Noem a “stone cold liar” on Thursday for her efforts to falsely portray the victim Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother of three and award-winning poet, as a “domestic terrorist”.
Good, Noem said, without presenting evidence, had been “stalking and impeding” Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) officers before using her car as a weapon to try to run down the agent who killed her.
Jacob Frey, the Democratic mayor of Minneapolis, condemned as “bullshit” a concerted push by homeland security officials and others to immediately paint the officer’s action as self-defense, when video of the incident is unclear at best, and an investigation had yet to begin.
“People in positions of power have already passed judgment, from the president to the vice-president, to Kristi Noem … [they] have stood and told you things that are verifiably false, verifiably inaccurate,” Tim Walz, Minnesota’s Democratic governor, told a press conference on Thursday.
The Italian prime minister, Giorgia Melon, said on Friday she did not believe the United States would launch a military strike to take control of Greenland, warning that any such move would have serious consequences for Nato.
At her traditional new year’s press conference, Meloni added that there was a need for a “serious and significant” Nato presence in the Arctic region, including Greenland.
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Supreme court could rule on Trump tariffs later today
The US Supreme court could issue a ruling later in the day determining whether Trump can invoke the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose tariffs without the approval of Congress.
Although it is unclear whether the supreme court will issue a ruling, it has scheduled Friday as a “decision day” for releasing opinions, fuelling speculation that the tariff case could be decided this afternoon.
The case centers on whether the administration can invoke the IEEPA to impose the tariffs and, if not, whether the United States would be required to refund duties already paid by importers.
The court’s ruling could also fall short of a definitive outcome on both issues.
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Moscow says US released two Russian crew from seized tanker
Russia on Friday said the United States had decided to release two Russian members of the crew of a Russian-flagged oil tanker that Washington seized earlier this week, AFP reported.
The American authorities said the tanker was part of a shadow fleet that carried oil for countries such as Venezuela, Russia and Iran in violation of US sanctions, and seized it in the North Atlantic despite the ship being escorted by the Russian navy.
“In response to our request, US president Donald Trump has decided to release two Russian citizens aboard the Marinera tanker, previously detained by the United States during an operation in the North Atlantic,” Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement.
“We welcome this decision and express our gratitude to the US leadership,” she added.
Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev said on Telegram that Trump decided to release “all Russians” on board the Marinera tanker. The United States said previously the Marinera’s crew could be prosecuted – which Russia said was “categorically unacceptable.”
Moscow on Thursday accused Washington of stoking tensions and threatening international shipping with the seizure of the tanker, which it has cast as illegal.
Russia’s foreign ministry said the move will “only result in further military and political tensions”, adding that it was worried by “Washington’s willingness to generate acute international crisis situations.”
Two people shot by US federal agents in Portland
US border patrol agents shot two people outside a hospital in Portland, Oregon, a day after an ICE officer shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis.
The Portland police bureau (PPB) said in a statement on Thursday afternoon that two people were in hospital after a shooting involving federal agents, adding that the conditions of those shot were not known.
Police initially responded to reports of a shooting outside the Adventist hospital campus in east Portland, the department said, before learning “that a man who had been shot was calling and requesting help” about 3 miles (5km) away.
“Officers responded and found a male and female with apparent gunshot wounds. Officers applied a tourniquet and summoned emergency medical personnel. The patients were transported to the hospital,” the police said.
“Officers have determined the two people were injured in the shooting involving federal agents.”
Authorities have not confirmed the condition of the injured, but emergency dispatch audio obtained by FOX 12 Oregon indicated that the 911 call came from a man who said he was shot twice in the arm and his wife had been shot in the chest.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin, said in a statement that US border patrol agents had stopped a vehicle to search for a man they suspected of being an undocumented immigrant connected to a Venezuelan gang. According to the agents, they opened fire when the driver of the vehicle tried to run them over, the statement said. “Fearing for his life and safety, an agent fired a defensive shot. The driver drove off with the passenger, fleeing the scene,” McLaughlin said.
Portland’s mayor, Keith Wilson, said at a news conference: “We know what the federal government says happened here. There was a time when we could take them at their word. That time is long past.”
Bob Day, the Portland police chief, said: “This is a federal investigation. It’s being led by the FBI.”
Trump claims he cancelled second wave of attacks on Venezuela
Good morning. Posting on his social media platform, Truth Social, in the early hours of this morning, Donald Trump claimed that he had cancelled a second wave of attacks on Venezuela that would have followed Saturday’s raid, in which the US seized the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro.
The US president wrote:
Venezuela is releasing large numbers of political prisoners as a sign of “Seeking Peace.” This is a very important and smart gesture. The U.S.A. and Venezuela are working well together, especially as it pertains to rebuilding, in a much bigger, better, and more modern form, their oil and gas infrastructure. Because of this cooperation, I have cancelled the previously expected second Wave of Attacks, which looks like it will not be needed, however, all ships will stay in place for safety and security purposes. At least 100 Billion Dollars will be invested by BIG OIL, all of whom I will be meeting with today at The White House. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
Earlier, Venezuela had announced the release of an “important number” of detainees in what the congressional president characterised as a gesture to “consolidate peace”.
Former opposition candidate Enrique Márquez was among those released from prison, according to an opposition statement. “It’s all over now,” Márquez said in a video taken by a local journalist who accompanied him and his wife, as well as another opposition member Biagio Pilieri, who was also released.
Thiago Rogero, our South American correspondent, has further details on the release:
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