News From Around the Web
#1 Trump Nominates Kevin Warsh for Federal Reserve Chair to Succeed Jerome Powell - Jeff Cox for CNBC, ⁿᵉʷˢ Barron Trump/Veronika, Confronts Disinformation, Silent A Productions, Ann Koehler/Eric Weiss, and Moneyweb News on X
President Donald Trump on Friday named Kevin Warsh to succeed Jerome Powell as Federal Reserve chair, ending a five-month odyssey that has seen unprecedented turmoil around the central bank. The decision culminates a process that officially began last summer but started much earlier than that, with Trump launching a fusillade of criticism against the Powell-led Fed almost since Powell took the job in 2018. “I have known Kevin for a long period of time, and have no doubt that he will go down as one of the GREAT Fed Chairmen, maybe the best,” said Trump in a Truth Social post announcing the selection... A Minnesota man was charged Thursday with impersonating an FBI agent after he showed up at a federal prison in New York City claiming to have a court order to release an inmate, identified by a law enforcement source as accused killer Luigi Mangione. Mark Anderson, 35, was arrested at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn late Wednesday after prison workers asked to see his credentials and he produced a Minnesota driver’s license and “claimed to be in possession of weapons,” according to a complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York... When President Donald Trump watched a live feed of the U.S. military operation that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, was not in the room. Just two days earlier, she had posted photos of herself on a beach in Hawaii at sunset, practicing yoga, sending out a new year’s greeting for “peace.” That she appeared to be on vacation in the run-up to such a high-stakes, ultra-sensitive military operation seemed to underscore the extent to which she has been sidelined by the administration... President Donald Trump is suing the IRS and Treasury Department for $10 billion, as he accuses the federal agencies of a failure to prevent a leak of the president's tax information to news outlets between 2018 and 2020. The suit, filed in a Florida federal court Thursday, includes the president's sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. and the Trump organization as plaintiffs. The filing alleges that the leak of Trump and the Trump Organization's confidential tax records caused "reputational and financial harm, public embarrassment, unfairly tarnished their business reputations, portrayed them in a false light, and negatively affected President Trump, and the other Plaintiffs' public standing." President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order that would impose a tariff on any goods from countries that sell or provide oil to Cuba, a move that could further cripple an island plagued by a deepening energy crisis. The order would primarily put pressure on Mexico, a government that has acted as an oil lifeline for Cuba and has constantly voiced solidarity for the U.S. adversary, even as Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has sought to build a strong relationship with Trump. Trump was asked by a reporter on Thursday whether he was trying to “choke off” Cuba, which he called a “failing nation.” And despite the administration's plan to ease some of the tensions, state and local officials and even the courts are demanding bigger changes. After weeks of tension, protests, and clashes in the Twin Cities and the shooting deaths of two U.S. citizens by federal immigration agents, Tom Homan, President Trump's border czar, today said he's working on a possible drawdown plan in Minnesota, and he acknowledged missteps... Activists are calling for a nationwide shutdown on Friday, advocating “no work, no school, no shopping” in a protest against the Trump administration’s sweeping immigration crackdowns. Organizers say Friday’s “blackout” – or general strike, as some are calling it – is part of a growing non-violent movement to combat ICE’s aggressive enforcement tactics, which have come under renewed scrutiny following a series of fatal shootings involving federal agents. Those deaths include Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Keith Porter in Los Angeles, and Silverio Villegas González in Illinois. Friday’s national protest leaders, many of them students at the University of Minnesota, are calling for ICE to leave the city after its nearly month-long operation. They say economic pressure through work stoppages and consumer boycotts is just one way to demand accountability and reform... On Wednesday, Bruce Springsteen released a protest song condemning the violence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Minneapolis. The song memorializes the lives of Renee Macklin Good and Alex Pretti, who were fatally shot by federal agents this month. "I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday, and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis," The Boss wrote on social media. "It's dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbor,s and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Stay free."
The problem is that ELITE isn’t just a tool for identifying neighborhoods for ICE enforcement. Backed by $160 million in contracts, ELITE can just as easily be used to identify neighborhoods for assessing credit scores, making behavioral predictions, carrying out insurance risk assessment, or political targeting. Once the idea has been normalized that Palantir’s software can report to the government, “here are the households where high‑priority individuals are likely to be” (whatever that priority might be), the line between public safety and ubiquitous surveillance becomes immediately blurred. It is no different than the surveillance state that exists in Communist China...
#2 Palantir’s Elite: Not All Maps Are Meant to Guide Us - Tracy Beanz and Michelle Edwards for The HighWire, Katyayani Shukla, Nikola Malloy, SkriptkeeperElect, and Johnny on X
#3 Man Accused of Posing as FBI Agent in Apparent Attempt to Spring Luigi Mangione From Prison - NBC News, DiorableKaren, The Saratogian, The Kat, Good Morning America, and ABC7 Eyewitness News,
#4 Tulsi Gabbard Under Scrutiny for Showing up at FBI Raid of Georgia Election Hub - Dan De Luce for NBC News, The dirty dog, Marie Donigan, Debbi, SuccessfulLife, and Inform America Now on X
#5 Trump Sues IRS and Treasury for $10 Billion Over Leaked Tax Information - Associated Press/npr, Jerry Robinson (FollowtheMoney.com), The Unbiased Update, The Epoch Times, This Is The Conversation Project, and Matt Miller on X
#5 Trump Threatens Tariffs on Any Country Selling Oil to Cuba, Backing Mexico Into a Corner - Michelle L. Price and Megan Janetsky for AP, LatestLY, Monotheistic Zionist, Anne van Leur, Washington Report, and DeepState Illuminate on X
#7 Homan Vows ‘Massive Changes’ and Ice Drawdown if Minnesota Officials Cooperate - Geoff Bennett and Winston Wilde for PBS News, Donald Pedersen, Joe Keil, Jeff Kuhner/eRIC, Mosesparrot, and Sunshinemilehigh/Sean Hannity on X
The Trump administration's top immigration enforcement official says massive changes are coming to Minnesota, including plans to eventually pull out some of the thousands of federal agents currently deployed there.
#8 StopICE.net Defaced with Tom Homan Meme Warning Users - X, DataRepublican (small r), PatriotDadEV2.0, Cam Higby, Eric Schwalm, and Snarknado on X
StopICE.net, a crowdsourced site created by Sherman Austin in early 2025 to log ICE license plates and alert communities, was overwritten Thursday with a meme of incoming Border Czar Tom Homan. The defacement replaced alerts and data with warnings that logins, locations, passwords, and phone numbers went to the FBI and ICE, credited to cybersecurity accounts @astrarce and @bitchuneedsoap. The site restored operations by Friday, amid federal probes into related Signal chats coordinating vehicle tracking in places like Minneapolis, where Homan pledged enforcement changes...
#9 Anti-ICE Protests to Be Held Across the US [Today] as Organizers Urge National Strike - The Guardian, carol muse, Anthony Cudak, NABEELA SHAH/Nick Sortor, 2003FXDWG, Metro, Tim Gradous,
#10 Bruce Springsteen Releases Anti-Ice Protest Song ‘Streets of Minneapolis' - Isabella Gomez Sarmiento for npr, CJWARNER, just a good Canadian guy-, Ed Roames,
Jeff Blehar is *BOX OFFICE POISON*, and Andrew Kolvet/Ken on X
And Now for Something Special
Doggies in line for Kitty Therapy :)
