1). “ ‘A militia that kills’: uproar in Italy over ICE security role at Winter Olympics: Milan mayor says agents ‘not welcome’ in co-host city and Italy can take care of security itself”, Jan 27, 2026, Angela Giuffrida in Rome and Jakub Krupa, The Guardian, at < https://www.theguardian.com/
2). “ICE kills in Minnesota, then moves to crush protest”, Jan 22, 2026, Gary Wilson, Struggle / La Lucha, at < https://www.struggle-la-lucha.
3). “Alex Pretti: ICE executed a union nurse — labor must organize”, Jan 26, 2026, Lev Koufax, Struggle / La Lucha, at < https://www.struggle-la-lucha.org/2026/01/26/alex-pretti-ice-executed-a-union-nurse-labor-must-organize/>
3). “ 'It was a mess': Inside Trump's pivot on Minnesota”, Jan 27, 2026, Marc Caputo & Brittany Gibson, Axios, at < https://www.axios.com/2026/01/
4). “Exclusive: Trump says Iran wants a deal as U.S. 'armada' arrives”, Jan 26, 2026, Barak Ravid, Axios, at < https://www.axios.com/2026/01/
6). “US–Iran tensions: What Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group could do in war”, Jan 27, 2026, Bidisha Saha, India Today, at <https://www.msn.com/en-us/
7). “Venezuela’s acting president says she has had 'enough' of US orders”, Laura Sharman, CNN, at < https://www.msn.com/en-us/
~~ recommended by desmond morista ~~
Introduction by dmorista: The various crises and emergencies, afflicting those of us who have the misfortune of living in some decadent remnant of the U.S. Empire, continue to grow and become more dangerous and virulent. The arenas of conflict and repression have expanded to include even the Olympics (set to begin in a couple of days). ICE has been mandated, by Trumpista operatives, to go to Switzerland where they will man some sort of control center. The leader of the Olympics criticized ICE for its violent actions in the U.S. and said that ICE intervention is not wanted at the Olympics. This was discussed in Item 1)., “ ‘A militia that kills’: ....".
Another sports figure, a forward on the San Antonio Spurs: “French NBA star Victor Wembanyama expressed deep concern regarding his safety while living in the United States, following a series of fatal violent incidents in Minneapolis involving federal agents in January 2026.
“The 22-year-old San Antonio Spurs forward stated that the news of civilian deaths left him 'horrified' and 'shaken,' leading to personal anxiety about his own life while residing in the U.S.”
Item 2)., “ICE kills in Minnesota, ….”; and Item 3)., “Alex Pretti: ICE executed ….” provide some leftist analysis of what is happening in Minneapolis and what lessonss to take from it for the future. Item 4)., “ 'It was a mess': ….” discusses some of the confusion and poor policy planning for the ICE attack on Minneapolis. The Trumpista operatives severely underestimated the level of resistance and the degree of organization in the local community. They appear to have believed their own BS about how people, at least in the Minneapolis area, feel about immigrants in their communities. They were genuinely surprised that many people would be outraged by the two execution style murders their operatives committed, with the inevitable smart phone videos being recorded and shared.
In addition the Trump Regime is throwing its military weight around in places like the Caribbean and the Middle East. The most serious situation is in Iran where a U.S. Naval armada arrived in the past few hours. This includes a far larger U.S. military contingent than that which was available during June of 2024 when American B-2s bombed targets in Iran, which Trump claimed were obliterated (while outside experts were much less sanguine about the results. Item 5)., “Exclusive: Trump says Iran ….”; and Item 6)., “US–Iran tensions: ….”, both discuss the situation in Iran that has seen internal dissent and, according to the Western Media, thousands of people killed by the security forces. In addition Item 6). has several excellent graphics that address the questions of what U.S. forces are located where, regionally and in the overall world. Map 1 shows the forces in and around the Middle East. Map 2 notes where 5 U.S. Super Carriers, all named for U.S. Presidents, and 3 Assault ships (the Tripoli, the Iwo Jima, and the Boxer, are located as far as The Times of India could discern.
India Times U.S. Military Forces Maps
Map 1). U.S. Military Forces in or near the Middle East
Map 2). Locations of U.S. Nuclear Powered Aircraft Carriers and
Amphibious Assault Ships in the World’s Oceans
Trump, ever the supposed deal maker, says the Iranians are anxious to make a deal with him; and no doubt would prefer to make some deal that did not amount to much rather than endure another round of bombing. Of course, the Trump regime is a loyal servant to the Israelis and American Ultra-Zionists and they always want to attack Iran. The U.S. is incapable of mounting a land-war in Iran and surely Trump and his other Israel First advisors know this though there are those who would willingly commit the U.S. to an unwinnable land war that would endanger this beleaguered country's ongoing survival. Venezuela is a much easier place to manipulate and exploit than Iran is. But even there, as Item 6)., “Venezuela’s acting president ….”, notes; the level of cooperation with the U.S. / Trumpian Agenda is reluctant and there is plenty of resistance among the population.
The U.S. Empire, stretched and less capable than it was previously of coordinating numerous theaters of struggle and making technological, industrial, and scientific achievements and advancements, faces a difficult set of options. The dollar is falling and has reached new lows in its value as measured by the price of gold (now reaching $5,300 an ounce). It would appear to me that Trump and his coterie face an impossible task, they can either rule with an iron fist at home and accept a greatly diminished Global Role; or they can actually coordinate with the Chinese and accept an important, though distinctly secondary status while providing decent living conditions for Americans. This is eminently doable but would require a much more competent capability to recognize some nuances and limitations.
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‘A militia that kills’: uproar in Italy over ICE security role at Winter Olympics
A unit of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents will have a security role in the Winter Olympic Games in Italy, sparking uproar and petitions against the deployment.
Sources at the US embassy in Rome confirmed a statement from ICE, the agency embroiled in a brutal immigration crackdown in the US, saying that federal agents would support diplomatic security details during the Milan-Cortina Games but would not run any enforcement operations.
The statement said: “At the Olympics, ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) is supporting the US Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service and host nation to vet and mitigate risks from transnational criminal organisations.
“All security operations remain under Italian authority.”
Speculation in Italy over ICE’s involvement in the Games, which begin on 6 February, had been brewing for days and mounted further on Monday after the president of the Lombardy region, Attilio Fontana, said on Monday that the US vice-president, JD Vance, and secretary of state, Marco Rubio, would be protected by ICE “bodyguards” at the Olympics.
The speculation came amid outrage in Italy over ICE’s immigration operations, especially after the fatal shootings this month of the US citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.
The daily newspaper La Repubblica claimed Italy’s far-right government, which has nurtured friendly relations with Donald Trump’s administration, had briefly looked into blocking the participation of ICE agents in the delegation, but that would have required a departure from how US officials are usually protected during similar high-profile visits abroad.
Milan’s mayor, Giuseppe Sala, told RTL radio that the agents would not be welcome in the city “because they don’t guarantee they’re aligned with our democratic security management methods”.
“This is a militia that kills,” he said. “It’s clear that they are not welcome in Milan, there’s no doubt about it. Can’t we just say no to Trump for once? We can take care of their security ourselves. We don’t need ICE.”
Alessandro Zan, a member of the European parliament for the centre-left Democratic party, said the presence of ICE agents would be unacceptable. “In Italy, we don’t want those who trample on human rights and act outside of any democratic control,” he wrote on X.
Two small opposition parties – the Green and Left Alliance (AVS) and Azione – have started petitions calling on the Italian government and the Olympic organising committee to prevent the ICE agents’ entry and involvement in the security operations. “ICE is the militia that shoots people on the streets of Minneapolis and takes children away from their families,” AVS said.
Speaking on the sidelines of a Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony in Rome, Italy’s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, sought to play down concerns. “It’s not like the SS are coming,” he said, referring to the Nazi paramilitary organisation. “Let’s be clear. They’re not coming to maintain public order in the middle of the streets. They’re coming to collaborate in the operations rooms.”
The confirmation of ICE’s role comes after RAI state TV aired a video of ICE agents threatening to break the window of the vehicle its crew were using to report in Minneapolis.
Italy’s interior ministry later issued a statement saying Matteo Piantedosi, the interior minister, had met Tilman J Fertitta, the US ambassador in Rome, during which the involvement of ICE’s investigative arm in the security detail at the Games was confirmed, “and therefore not the agency’s operational arm”.
During the Games, the US will set up its own operations room at its consulate in Milan, “where representatives of US agencies potentially interested in the event will be present”, the statement said.
“Homeland Security Investigation experts will also be employed in this room, but their role will be to support the management of major events abroad and to liaise with liaison officers,” the statement added, emphasising that ICE investigators “will not be operational personnel like those employed in immigration controls in the United States, but rather representatives exclusively specialised in investigations”.
Agents from ICE’s investigative unit are present in more than 50 countries, the statement said, “including in Italy for years, but do not perform immigration control operations or services in foreign countries”.
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ICE kills in Minnesota, then moves to crush protest – Struggle – La Lucha
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ICE kills in Minnesota, then moves to crush protest. Federal authorities arrested civil rights organizers in St. Paul, Minnesota, after a protest at a Southern Baptist church that demanded accountability for an ICE killing. Among those arrested were Nekima Levy Armstrong, an ordained minister with decades of organizing experience, and Chauntyll Louisa Allen, a sitting member of the St. Paul Public Schools Board of Education. Others were charged as well. The charges were federal. The targeting of Nekima Levy Armstrong and Chauntyll Louisa Allen was not incidental. Both are organizers whose work links protests against police violence with resistance to ICE raids. Armstrong is a longtime civil rights leader shaped by Minneapolis’s Black Lives Matter movement and by repeated uprisings against police killings. Allen is an elected school board member active in immigrant and community defense. Together, they represent a growing overlap between opposition to police violence and resistance to ICE enforcement. That overlap matters. In Minneapolis, Black Lives Matter protests against police brutality and protests against immigration raids have increasingly drawn from the same neighborhoods, the same families and, in some cases, the same organizers. When those fights converge, they challenge not just one agency, but a broader system of policing, surveillance and detention. By responding with federal felony charges and conspiracy allegations, the Department of Justice moved to break that connection. The arrests sent a clear signal about which forms of solidarity will be tolerated and which will be punished. Organizing across movements — Black communities confronting police violence and immigrant communities resisting ICE — is being treated not as dissent, but as a federal crime. The protest was one of several that erupted after an armed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent shot Renee Good, a U.S. citizen, dead inside her car in Minneapolis. Rather than open a criminal or civil-rights investigation, the Department of Justice declined to pursue one. Because the shooter was a federal agent acting under federal authority, the refusal to investigate was an assertion of power. No independent body was assigned. No federal grand jury was convened. The Department of Justice declined to open a civil rights inquiry. The killing was closed without testimony, without public evidence, and without consequence. The message was unmistakable: When ICE kills, the federal government will protect its agents, and those who demand answers will not find them through official channels. That refusal came first. Everything else followed. A killing without an investigation. The officer who fired the shots, Jonathan Ross, was not arrested. When people demanded answers from the federal government, it responded with arrests instead of an investigation. One of the protests took place at a Southern Baptist church on Sunday morning to confront the pastor, who is also the local head of ICE. Federal authorities reacted immediately. Prosecutors did not use minor trespass laws. Instead, they reached for heavy federal conspiracy charges and a law passed to block violent interference with abortion clinics, the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, commonly known as the FACE Act. That law was turned into a tool to make a church protest a federal crime. A secret policy to enter homes without warrants. While these prosecutions moved forward, another shift was taking place inside ICE itself. ICE staff leaked a secret memo signed by acting Director Todd Lyons, ordering agents to enter homes without a judge’s warrant, relying only on paperwork signed by ICE. The policy was not circulated openly. Supervisors were told to show it briefly and take it back. Agents were instructed verbally. At least one ICE instructor resigned rather than teach it. Employees who objected were disciplined. The reason for the secrecy is obvious. No judge has granted ICE the power to break into homes without a warrant. The policy allows armed federal agents to force their way into private homes without a judge’s approval — the very practice the Fourth Amendment was written to prevent. No court has ever authorized ICE to operate this way. ICE moved ahead anyway. At the same time, the agency expanded enforcement under what agents call “Operation Catch of the Day.” Minnesota was one of several states targeted. The old rule barring arrests at schools, churches and hospitals had already been revoked. Agents were given broad discretion to operate anywhere. Federal officials have explicitly framed the ICE escalation in Minnesota as punishment for the state’s sanctuary policies. The Trump administration has singled out Minnesota not only for limits on cooperation with ICE, but also for its legal protections for immigrants and its status as a refuge for LGBTQIA+ people. In public statements, these protections have been cast as defiance rather than civil rights. Federal officials have presented the enforcement surge as a warning. States that protect immigrants and LGBTQIA+ people will face raids and arrests. The results followed quickly. Indigenous community members in Minneapolis have also faced heightened federal enforcement and joined resistance to ICE action. Reports from the ground describe Native people being profiled and targeted in immigration sweeps, creating fear and disruption in Indigenous neighborhoods, where people say they are afraid to leave their homes amid the raids. Tribal citizens from the Oglala Lakota Nation were among those detained near housing complexes as ICE pressure in the city intensified, drawing protests and statements from Native organizers condemning the federal operations. Indigenous organizers and residents have taken to the streets in neighborhoods with deep histories of Native resistance, including renewed patrols along the American Indian Cultural Corridor, rejecting federal enforcement as another form of state violence. ICE has used a range of tactics to enforce this crackdown. In one reported case, ICE agents used a 5-year-old child to draw his father into an arrest. Both were taken into custody and sent to a detention center in Texas. Schools were monitored. Churches were entered. Communities were put on notice. Deaths in custody follow. In El Paso, Texas, Geraldo Lunas Campos died at a makeshift ICE detention facility known as Camp East Montana at Fort Bliss Army base. The county medical examiner ruled the death a homicide by guards, caused by asphyxia from neck and torso compression. Federal power has drawn a line. ICE agents can kill and expect protection. ICE can enter homes without a judge’s order. Churches aligned with enforcement are shielded. Those who challenge this arrangement are charged with conspiracy. The issue is no longer legality. It is whether people will accept a system in which federal agents are protected after a killing and protesters are prosecuted for demanding accountability. That will not be decided in courtrooms. It will be decided by struggle. Join the Struggle-La Lucha Telegram channel
ICE kills in Minnesota, then moves to crush protest. Federal authorities arrested civil rights organizers in St. Paul, Minnesota, after a protest at a Southern Baptist church that demanded accountability for an ICE killing. Among those arrested were Nekima Levy Armstrong, an ordained minister with decades of organizing experience, and Chauntyll Louisa Allen, a sitting member of the St. Paul Public Schools Board of Education. Others were charged as well. The charges were federal. The targeting of Nekima Levy Armstrong and Chauntyll Louisa Allen was not incidental. Both are organizers whose work links protests against police violence with resistance to ICE raids. Armstrong is a longtime civil rights leader shaped by Minneapolis’s Black Lives Matter movement and by repeated uprisings against police killings. Allen is an elected school board member active in immigrant and community defense. Together, they represent a growing overlap between opposition to police violence and resistance to ICE enforcement. That overlap matters. In Minneapolis, Black Lives Matter protests against police brutality and protests against immigration raids have increasingly drawn from the same neighborhoods, the same families and, in some cases, the same organizers. When those fights converge, they challenge not just one agency, but a broader system of policing, surveillance and detention. By responding with federal felony charges and conspiracy allegations, the Department of Justice moved to break that connection. The arrests sent a clear signal about which forms of solidarity will be tolerated and which will be punished. Organizing across movements — Black communities confronting police violence and immigrant communities resisting ICE — is being treated not as dissent, but as a federal crime. The protest was one of several that erupted after an armed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent shot Renee Good, a U.S. citizen, dead inside her car in Minneapolis. Rather than open a criminal or civil-rights investigation, the Department of Justice declined to pursue one. Because the shooter was a federal agent acting under federal authority, the refusal to investigate was an assertion of power. No independent body was assigned. No federal grand jury was convened. The Department of Justice declined to open a civil rights inquiry. The killing was closed without testimony, without public evidence, and without consequence. The message was unmistakable: When ICE kills, the federal government will protect its agents, and those who demand answers will not find them through official channels. That refusal came first. Everything else followed. A killing without an investigation. The officer who fired the shots, Jonathan Ross, was not arrested. When people demanded answers from the federal government, it responded with arrests instead of an investigation. One of the protests took place at a Southern Baptist church on Sunday morning to confront the pastor, who is also the local head of ICE. Federal authorities reacted immediately. Prosecutors did not use minor trespass laws. Instead, they reached for heavy federal conspiracy charges and a law passed to block violent interference with abortion clinics, the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, commonly known as the FACE Act. That law was turned into a tool to make a church protest a federal crime. A secret policy to enter homes without warrants. While these prosecutions moved forward, another shift was taking place inside ICE itself. ICE staff leaked a secret memo signed by acting Director Todd Lyons, ordering agents to enter homes without a judge’s warrant, relying only on paperwork signed by ICE. The policy was not circulated openly. Supervisors were told to show it briefly and take it back. Agents were instructed verbally. At least one ICE instructor resigned rather than teach it. Employees who objected were disciplined. The reason for the secrecy is obvious. No judge has granted ICE the power to break into homes without a warrant. The policy allows armed federal agents to force their way into private homes without a judge’s approval — the very practice the Fourth Amendment was written to prevent. No court has ever authorized ICE to operate this way. ICE moved ahead anyway. At the same time, the agency expanded enforcement under what agents call “Operation Catch of the Day.” Minnesota was one of several states targeted. The old rule barring arrests at schools, churches and hospitals had already been revoked. Agents were given broad discretion to operate anywhere. Federal officials have explicitly framed the ICE escalation in Minnesota as punishment for the state’s sanctuary policies. The Trump administration has singled out Minnesota not only for limits on cooperation with ICE, but also for its legal protections for immigrants and its status as a refuge for LGBTQIA+ people. In public statements, these protections have been cast as defiance rather than civil rights. Federal officials have presented the enforcement surge as a warning. States that protect immigrants and LGBTQIA+ people will face raids and arrests. The results followed quickly. Indigenous community members in Minneapolis have also faced heightened federal enforcement and joined resistance to ICE action. Reports from the ground describe Native people being profiled and targeted in immigration sweeps, creating fear and disruption in Indigenous neighborhoods, where people say they are afraid to leave their homes amid the raids. Tribal citizens from the Oglala Lakota Nation were among those detained near housing complexes as ICE pressure in the city intensified, drawing protests and statements from Native organizers condemning the federal operations. Indigenous organizers and residents have taken to the streets in neighborhoods with deep histories of Native resistance, including renewed patrols along the American Indian Cultural Corridor, rejecting federal enforcement as another form of state violence. ICE has used a range of tactics to enforce this crackdown. In one reported case, ICE agents used a 5-year-old child to draw his father into an arrest. Both were taken into custody and sent to a detention center in Texas. Schools were monitored. Churches were entered. Communities were put on notice. Deaths in custody follow. In El Paso, Texas, Geraldo Lunas Campos died at a makeshift ICE detention facility known as Camp East Montana at Fort Bliss Army base. The county medical examiner ruled the death a homicide by guards, caused by asphyxia from neck and torso compression. Federal power has drawn a line. ICE agents can kill and expect protection. ICE can enter homes without a judge’s order. Churches aligned with enforcement are shielded. Those who challenge this arrangement are charged with conspiracy. The issue is no longer legality. It is whether people will accept a system in which federal agents are protected after a killing and protesters are prosecuted for demanding accountability. That will not be decided in courtrooms. It will be decided by struggle. Join the Struggle-La Lucha Telegram channel
Federal authorities arrested civil rights organizers in St. Paul, Minnesota, after a protest at a Southern Baptist church that demanded accountability for an ICE killing.
Among those arrested were Nekima Levy Armstrong, an ordained minister with decades of organizing experience, and Chauntyll Louisa Allen, a sitting member of the St. Paul Public Schools Board of Education. Others were charged as well. The charges were federal.
The targeting of Nekima Levy Armstrong and Chauntyll Louisa Allen was not incidental. Both are organizers whose work links protests against police violence with resistance to ICE raids. Armstrong is a longtime civil rights leader shaped by Minneapolis’s Black Lives Matter movement and by repeated uprisings against police killings. Allen is an elected school board member active in immigrant and community defense. Together, they represent a growing overlap between opposition to police violence and resistance to ICE enforcement.
That overlap matters. In Minneapolis, Black Lives Matter protests against police brutality and protests against immigration raids have increasingly drawn from the same neighborhoods, the same families and, in some cases, the same organizers. When those fights converge, they challenge not just one agency, but a broader system of policing, surveillance and detention.
By responding with federal felony charges and conspiracy allegations, the Department of Justice moved to break that connection. The arrests sent a clear signal about which forms of solidarity will be tolerated and which will be punished. Organizing across movements — Black communities confronting police violence and immigrant communities resisting ICE — is being treated not as dissent, but as a federal crime.
The protest was one of several that erupted after an armed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent shot Renee Good, a U.S. citizen, dead inside her car in Minneapolis. Rather than open a criminal or civil-rights investigation, the Department of Justice declined to pursue one.
Because the shooter was a federal agent acting under federal authority, the refusal to investigate was an assertion of power. No independent body was assigned. No federal grand jury was convened. The Department of Justice declined to open a civil rights inquiry. The killing was closed without testimony, without public evidence, and without consequence. The message was unmistakable: When ICE kills, the federal government will protect its agents, and those who demand answers will not find them through official channels.
That refusal came first. Everything else followed.
A killing without an investigation
The officer who fired the shots, Jonathan Ross, was not arrested.
When people demanded answers from the federal government, it responded with arrests instead of an investigation.
One of the protests took place at a Southern Baptist church on Sunday morning to confront the pastor, who is also the local head of ICE.
Federal authorities reacted immediately.
Prosecutors did not use minor trespass laws. Instead, they reached for heavy federal conspiracy charges and a law passed to block violent interference with abortion clinics, the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, commonly known as the FACE Act.
That law was turned into a tool to make a church protest a federal crime.
A secret policy to enter homes without warrants
While these prosecutions moved forward, another shift was taking place inside ICE itself.
ICE staff leaked a secret memo signed by acting Director Todd Lyons, ordering agents to enter homes without a judge’s warrant, relying only on paperwork signed by ICE.
The policy was not circulated openly. Supervisors were told to show it briefly and take it back. Agents were instructed verbally. At least one ICE instructor resigned rather than teach it. Employees who objected were disciplined.
The reason for the secrecy is obvious. No judge has granted ICE the power to break into homes without a warrant.
The policy allows armed federal agents to force their way into private homes without a judge’s approval — the very practice the Fourth Amendment was written to prevent. No court has ever authorized ICE to operate this way.
ICE moved ahead anyway.
At the same time, the agency expanded enforcement under what agents call “Operation Catch of the Day.” Minnesota was one of several states targeted. The old rule barring arrests at schools, churches and hospitals had already been revoked. Agents were given broad discretion to operate anywhere.
Federal officials have explicitly framed the ICE escalation in Minnesota as punishment for the state’s sanctuary policies. The Trump administration has singled out Minnesota not only for limits on cooperation with ICE, but also for its legal protections for immigrants and its status as a refuge for LGBTQIA+ people. In public statements, these protections have been cast as defiance rather than civil rights. Federal officials have presented the enforcement surge as a warning. States that protect immigrants and LGBTQIA+ people will face raids and arrests.
The results followed quickly.
Indigenous community members in Minneapolis have also faced heightened federal enforcement and joined resistance to ICE action. Reports from the ground describe Native people being profiled and targeted in immigration sweeps, creating fear and disruption in Indigenous neighborhoods, where people say they are afraid to leave their homes amid the raids.
Tribal citizens from the Oglala Lakota Nation were among those detained near housing complexes as ICE pressure in the city intensified, drawing protests and statements from Native organizers condemning the federal operations.
Indigenous organizers and residents have taken to the streets in neighborhoods with deep histories of Native resistance, including renewed patrols along the American Indian Cultural Corridor, rejecting federal enforcement as another form of state violence.
ICE has used a range of tactics to enforce this crackdown.
In one reported case, ICE agents used a 5-year-old child to draw his father into an arrest. Both were taken into custody and sent to a detention center in Texas. Schools were monitored. Churches were entered. Communities were put on notice.
Deaths in custody follow
In El Paso, Texas, Geraldo Lunas Campos died at a makeshift ICE detention facility known as Camp East Montana at Fort Bliss Army base. The county medical examiner ruled the death a homicide by guards, caused by asphyxia from neck and torso compression.
Federal power has drawn a line. ICE agents can kill and expect protection. ICE can enter homes without a judge’s order. Churches aligned with enforcement are shielded. Those who challenge this arrangement are charged with conspiracy.
The issue is no longer legality. It is whether people will accept a system in which federal agents are protected after a killing and protesters are prosecuted for demanding accountability.
That will not be decided in courtrooms. It will be decided by struggle.
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Alex Pretti: ICE executed a union nurse — labor must organize – Struggle – La Lucha
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Alex Pretti: ICE executed a union nurse — labor must organize. Alex Pretti, an AFGE Local 3669 member and ICU nurse, fought for his community until the very moment ICE agents took him from us. Faced with masked officers harassing his neighbors, Alex did what working people do when repression shows up at their door: He bore witness. He used his phone to film and placed his body between the armed agents and two fellow Minneapolis residents. For this act of solidarity, federal agents brutally beat and executed him. The official story from DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and President Trump is a lie. They frame Alex as a violent maniac. The truth, visible on video and admitted even by the New York Times , is far more chilling:. “The agent in the gray coat removes the weapon … from the scene. Then, while Mr. Pretti is on his knees and restrained, the agent standing directly above him appears to fire one shot at Mr. Pretti at close range. He immediately fires three additional shots … Together, they fire six more shots at Mr. Pretti while he lies motionless on the ground.”. Who was Alex Pretti? He was not a stranger. He was one of us — a worker. For 40 years, his union, AFGE Local 3669 , has represented the thousand-plus workers at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center — one of the largest health care facilities in the Midwest. The hours are demanding. The work is a daily struggle against staffing shortages and relentless union-busting. I worked with Local 3669 for nearly four years as a staff attorney. I saw firsthand the workers who make it a fighting union. During the brutal height of COVID-19, they were the ones who stayed at their posts, caring for our sick veterans at great personal risk. Alex was among them. VA management brags about serving veterans, but senior executives and political appointees have little to do with the actual care. It is workers like Alex who provide it. Licensed practical nurses. Registered nurses. Radiology techs. Housekeeping and maintenance staff. These are the people who make the VA run. They care for a veteran community plagued by substance abuse, mental illness, and chronic health problems born from systemic neglect. Every single day, the members of Local 3669 commit to this hard work in the face of massive resource shortages. They have endured cutbacks, union-busting , and McCarthy-era surveillance , and they have remained strong. Alex’s Local is a prominent one, known for its legacy of struggle. It has produced national union leaders. And now, it has produced a martyr — because repression always does. The attack on Alex — like the attack on Renee Good — was an attack on every worker and every union that represents them. When ICE killed Renee, they sent a warning to working communities. When ICE killed Alex, they escalated it — making clear that witnesses, organizers, and union members are all targets. To treat this as anything less than a declaration of war on our class is a disservice to the labor movement and to the life Alex lived. Labor must now take this struggle into its own hands. We must choose, unequivocally, to fight for the lives of our members — lives like Alex Pretti’s. His fight is our fight. His execution must be our call to organize. Join the Struggle-La Lucha Telegram channel
Alex Pretti: ICE executed a union nurse — labor must organize. Alex Pretti, an AFGE Local 3669 member and ICU nurse, fought for his community until the very moment ICE agents took him from us. Faced with masked officers harassing his neighbors, Alex did what working people do when repression shows up at their door: He bore witness. He used his phone to film and placed his body between the armed agents and two fellow Minneapolis residents. For this act of solidarity, federal agents brutally beat and executed him. The official story from DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and President Trump is a lie. They frame Alex as a violent maniac. The truth, visible on video and admitted even by the New York Times , is far more chilling:. “The agent in the gray coat removes the weapon … from the scene. Then, while Mr. Pretti is on his knees and restrained, the agent standing directly above him appears to fire one shot at Mr. Pretti at close range. He immediately fires three additional shots … Together, they fire six more shots at Mr. Pretti while he lies motionless on the ground.”. Who was Alex Pretti? He was not a stranger. He was one of us — a worker. For 40 years, his union, AFGE Local 3669 , has represented the thousand-plus workers at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center — one of the largest health care facilities in the Midwest. The hours are demanding. The work is a daily struggle against staffing shortages and relentless union-busting. I worked with Local 3669 for nearly four years as a staff attorney. I saw firsthand the workers who make it a fighting union. During the brutal height of COVID-19, they were the ones who stayed at their posts, caring for our sick veterans at great personal risk. Alex was among them. VA management brags about serving veterans, but senior executives and political appointees have little to do with the actual care. It is workers like Alex who provide it. Licensed practical nurses. Registered nurses. Radiology techs. Housekeeping and maintenance staff. These are the people who make the VA run. They care for a veteran community plagued by substance abuse, mental illness, and chronic health problems born from systemic neglect. Every single day, the members of Local 3669 commit to this hard work in the face of massive resource shortages. They have endured cutbacks, union-busting , and McCarthy-era surveillance , and they have remained strong. Alex’s Local is a prominent one, known for its legacy of struggle. It has produced national union leaders. And now, it has produced a martyr — because repression always does. The attack on Alex — like the attack on Renee Good — was an attack on every worker and every union that represents them. When ICE killed Renee, they sent a warning to working communities. When ICE killed Alex, they escalated it — making clear that witnesses, organizers, and union members are all targets. To treat this as anything less than a declaration of war on our class is a disservice to the labor movement and to the life Alex lived. Labor must now take this struggle into its own hands. We must choose, unequivocally, to fight for the lives of our members — lives like Alex Pretti’s. His fight is our fight. His execution must be our call to organize. Join the Struggle-La Lucha Telegram channel
Alex Pretti, an AFGE Local 3669 member and ICU nurse, fought for his community until the very moment ICE agents took him from us. Faced with masked officers harassing his neighbors, Alex did what working people do when repression shows up at their door: He bore witness. He used his phone to film and placed his body between the armed agents and two fellow Minneapolis residents.
For this act of solidarity, federal agents brutally beat and executed him.
The official story from DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and President Trump is a lie. They frame Alex as a violent maniac. The truth, visible on video and admitted even by the New York Times, is far more chilling:
“The agent in the gray coat removes the weapon … from the scene. Then, while Mr. Pretti is on his knees and restrained, the agent standing directly above him appears to fire one shot at Mr. Pretti at close range. He immediately fires three additional shots … Together, they fire six more shots at Mr. Pretti while he lies motionless on the ground.”
Who was Alex Pretti? He was not a stranger. He was one of us — a worker.
For 40 years, his union, AFGE Local 3669, has represented the thousand-plus workers at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center — one of the largest health care facilities in the Midwest. The hours are demanding. The work is a daily struggle against staffing shortages and relentless union-busting.
I worked with Local 3669 for nearly four years as a staff attorney. I saw firsthand the workers who make it a fighting union. During the brutal height of COVID-19, they were the ones who stayed at their posts, caring for our sick veterans at great personal risk. Alex was among them.
VA management brags about serving veterans, but senior executives and political appointees have little to do with the actual care. It is workers like Alex who provide it.
Licensed practical nurses. Registered nurses. Radiology techs. Housekeeping and maintenance staff. These are the people who make the VA run. They care for a veteran community plagued by substance abuse, mental illness, and chronic health problems born from systemic neglect.
Every single day, the members of Local 3669 commit to this hard work in the face of massive resource shortages. They have endured cutbacks, union-busting, and McCarthy-era surveillance, and they have remained strong.
Alex’s Local is a prominent one, known for its legacy of struggle. It has produced national union leaders. And now, it has produced a martyr — because repression always does.
The attack on Alex — like the attack on Renee Good — was an attack on every worker and every union that represents them. When ICE killed Renee, they sent a warning to working communities. When ICE killed Alex, they escalated it — making clear that witnesses, organizers, and union members are all targets.
To treat this as anything less than a declaration of war on our class is a disservice to the labor movement and to the life Alex lived.
Labor must now take this struggle into its own hands. We must choose, unequivocally, to fight for the lives of our members — lives like Alex Pretti’s. His fight is our fight. His execution must be our call to organize.
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"It was a mess": Inside Trump's pivot on Minnesota
- "It's f**ked, and POTUS knew he needed to unf**k it," an administration adviser told Axios.
Zoom in: Trump's most significant move came Monday morning, when he dispatched White House border czar Tom Homan to the Twin Cities — and essentially cut Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem out of the shambolic Minneapolis operation.
- Soon after Homan's appointment, DHS announced that the hard-charging head of the controversial immigration efforts, U.S. Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino, would leave the state and return to his old job leading his sector in El Centro, Calif.
- "He's a cowboy, and it was a mess. It was only escalation, and no one was going to back down," a source familiar with the operations said. "Homan going is a good thing. Someone needed to step in."
Driving the news: Trump spent Sunday lamenting his administration's botched response to Pretti's shooting, including news conferences by Bovino and Noem in which they seemed "callous" about the man's death, a confidant who spoke with Trump told Axios.
- The White House wants to get the Minnesota immigration operation on solid footing as Senate Democrats threaten to shut down the federal government Friday because of the administration's controversial immigration enforcement efforts.
- "So it's Tom Homan to the rescue," the confidant said.
Zoom out: A career immigration official who served under President Obama and Trump during his first term, Homan has a measure of credibility with the Democrats who run Minnesota that Noem — a committed Republican partisan — does not.
- Homan plans to meet with law enforcement on the ground, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, both of whom have accused immigration agents of terrorizing Minnesotans and called on the agents to leave.
- Trump spoke with Walz and Frey on Monday and struck a new tone of cooperation.
A person familiar with Homan's plans said he'll help steer operational decisions and media presence.
- Homan "understands the silos that every single person has to operate in," a second source familiar with DHS operations said, referring to Homan's experience as a local police officer, CBP and ICE agent.
- An administration official said Homan is likely to emphasize more targeted enforcement efforts with fewer confrontational tactics than Bovino, whose roving squads of masked officers were caught on video accosting residents such as two Target employees, both U.S. citizens, who were roughed up earlier this month.
The big picture: Trump wants a peace-with-honor withdrawal from Minnesota that doesn't look like his immigration surge was a loss driven by botched law enforcement efforts under Bovino, and plummeting poll numbers.
- The administration wants Minnesota law enforcement to help with traffic and crowd control so that DHS can make immigration arrests without interference from the well-organized protesters in the Twin Cities.
- Walz and local officials want an end to the heavy-handed federal immigration tactics that became a hallmark of Bovino's time there.
- Three demonstrators have been shot by federal agents this month, including two fatally — Pretti and Renee Good.
Reality check: Trump has made friendly calls and peace offerings to Minnesota officials, but he's not going to pack up and leave the state.
- "We can't lose Minneapolis because if we do, we lose Chicago and Los Angeles," an administration adviser said.
- "We're not going to let the people who lost the presidential election over immigration dictate to us on immigration," the official said, referring to Democrats.
The backstory: Bovino and CBP agents have deployed to different operations across the country for months. They've been responsible for many of the aggressive arrest tactics and crowd confrontations caught in viral videos.
- During Operation Midway Blitz in Chicago, Border Patrol agents drew litigation over their use of force and chemical agents such as tear gas, plus a non-fatal shooting after which the agent involved was caught bragging about the act in text messages that were revealed in court.
- Border Patrol officers "train differently .... They're being deployed to the [U.S.] interior when they're used to dealing with single adult, military age males that could be cartel members or Chinese terrorists," the second source said.
What they're saying: There has been friction between Homan and Noem, but the White House downplayed any tension among the officials affected by Monday's moves.
- "The president's entire immigration enforcement team — including Secretary Noem and border czar Homan — are on the same page," White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said.
- "They are working together seamlessly to implement the president's agenda, protect the American people and deport criminal illegal aliens."
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US–Iran tensions: What Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group could do in war
Iran may be heading down a path eerily familiar to Venezuela. Less than 45 days before the United States arrested Venezuelan President Nicols Maduro and his wife, Washington had quietly moved its most prized carrier strike group, the USS Gerald R. Ford, into the Caribbean.
And now, as tensions with Tehran have sharpened and Donald Trump warns against the execution of prisoners, US Central Command has deployed a carrier strike group, the USS Abraham Lincoln, to the Middle East.
India Today's OSINT (Open-Source Intelligence) team tracks the movement of US naval assets deployed in the Middle East, as American warplanes and aircraft carriers move closer to the Persian Gulf and Tehran, along with its regional allies, warns of an aggressive response to any potential strike.
At least one US carrier strike group, six destroyers, four littoral combat ships, one submarine, and at least three logistics vessels are deployed across the Middle East region, according to open-source naval tracking and U.S. military disclosures.
As of Monday, the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, accompanied by three warships equipped with Tomahawk missiles, entered the Central Command's area of responsibility in the western Indian Ocean, according to western media reports. Theoretically, if the White House were to order attacks on Iran the carrier could take military action very swiftly and almost independently.
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Venezuela’s acting president says she has had 'enough' of US orders
Venezuela’s acting president Delcy Rodríguez said Sunday she has had “enough” of Washington’s orders, as she works to unite the country after the US capture of its former leader Nicolás Maduro.
Rodríguez has been walking a tight-rope since being backed by the US to lead the country in the interim; balancing keeping Maduro loyalists on board at home while trying to ensure the White House is happy.
Now, almost a month into her new role, Rodríguez has pushed back on the US, amid ongoing pressure including a series of demands for Venezuela to resume oil production.
“Enough already of Washington’s orders over politicians in Venezuela,” she told a group of oil workers in Puerto La Cruz city, at an event broadcast by state-run channel Venezolana de Televisión.
“Let Venezuelan politics resolve our differences and our internal conflicts. This Republic has paid a very high price for having to confront the consequences of fascism and extremism in our country.”
US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he was unaware of Rodríguez’s comments. “Well, I don’t know exactly what’s going on there, but I haven’t heard that at all,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “We have a very good relationship.”
At least one US carrier strike group, six destroyers, four littoral combat ships, one submarine, and at least three logistics vessels are deployed across the Middle East region, according to open-source naval tracking and U.S. military disclosures.
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