Good morning.
Renee Good’s family said yesterday they wanted justice and accountability for her shooting at the hands of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer, but urged people stirred to outrage by the shooting of the 37-year-old Minneapolis mother of three to root their conversations in “humanity, empathy, and care for the family most affected”.
The family members – most of them relatives of Good’s late husband, Timmy Macklin Jr – said they hoped the family’s “unimaginable loss” would lead to meaningful change and “fewer families [who] have to endure this kind of pain”.
Minnesota’s attorney general, Keith Ellison, announced a lawsuit yesterday against the federal government, seeking to end the surge of ICE agents in the state.
What did Minnesota’s attorney general say? “The deployment of thousands of armed DHS (Department of Homeland Security) agents to Minnesota has done our state serious harm. This is in essence a federal invasion of the Twin Cities and Minnesota, and it must stop,” Ellison said.
How has the federal government responded? On Sunday, Kristi Noem, the secretary of homeland security, pledged the agency would send “hundreds more” federal agents to the city.
Death toll in Iran rises as Trump says countries doing business with Tehran face 25% tariff
Donald Trump has said any country that does business with Iran will face a tariff rate of 25% on trade with the US, as Washington weighs a response amid Iran’s largest anti-government protests in years.
“Effective immediately, any Country doing business with the Islamic Republic of Iran will pay a Tariff of 25%”, the president said on Truth Social yesterday.
How brutal has the Iranian regime’s crackdown been? Footage showed dozens of bodies lined up outside Tehran’s morgue, as the Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights said at least 648 people had been killed. The US-based Human Rights Activists’ News Agency has reported more than 10,600 arrests.
Ex-Fed chairs condemn Trump’s bid to weaken central bank’s independence
Every living former head of the Federal Reserve condemned an “unprecedented” attempt by the Trump administration to weaken the central bank’s independence, after the Department of Justice opened a criminal investigation into its chair, Jerome Powell.
Ex-Fed chairs Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke and Janet Yellen warned similar prosecutorial attacks in other countries had led to “highly negative consequences” for the cost of living – and argued they had “no place” in the US.
On Tuesday, nine central bank governors – including the governor of the Bank of England and the chair of the European Central Bank – issued a joint statement offering “full solidarity” to Powell.
What has the president said about the criminal investigation? Trump has moved to distance himself from the investigation. “I don’t know anything about it,” he told NBC News, though he has long attacked Powell for not lowering interest rates.
What did the ex-Fed chairs say? Greenspan, Bernanke, Yellen and 13 former senior officials wrote: “The reported criminal inquiry into Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell is an unprecedented attempt to use prosecutorial attacks to undermine … independence,” adding that this is “how monetary policy is made in emerging markets with weak institutions”.
In other news …
Artists, doctors, human rights leaders and humanitarian organizations signed a letter calling for an end to Israel’s “systematic attacks” on Gaza hospitals, including Cynthia Nixon, Mark Ruffalo and Ilana Glazer.
The number two prosecutor in the US attorney’s office for the eastern district of Virginia has been fired, according to two insiders, the latest in a series of dismissals in an office that is leading controversial criminal prosecutions of James Comey and Letitia James.
The British media watchdog, Ofcom, has opened a formal investigation into Elon Musk’s X, over Grok AI’s manipulation of images of women and children by removing their clothes.
David Letterman, the former CBS late-night host, has criticized his old network, calling CBS News a “wreck” under its newly installed leadership, which has already prevented 60 Minutes from airing an episode critical of the Trump administration.
Stat of the day: US plan to exploit Venezuela’s oil could eat up 13% of carbon budget to keep 1.5C limit
US plans to exploit Venezuela’s oil reserves could by 2050 consume more than a tenth of the world’s remaining carbon budget to limit global heating to 1.5C. That’s according to ClimatePartner, a carbon accounting firm, which modelled the carbon impact of the growth of Venezuela’s oil production.
Culture pick: A Thousand Blows season two – Erin Doherty is so good it’s hard to think about anything else
Almost every scene in Steven Knight’s late-Victorian thriller, A Thousand Blows, is stolen by its female lead, Erin Doherty, who plays the pickpocket queen Mary Carr. Doherty “is a magnetic presence, able to sell the idea that she actually is her character in a way few others can,” writes Rachel Aroesti.
Don’t miss this: Trump’s assault on the Smithsonian – ‘The goal is to reframe the entire culture of the US’
The Smithsonian has been in Donald Trump’s sights in his war on “woke.” Charlotte Higgins writes for the long read about Trump’s desire for museums “to reflect a Maga vision of American history that was nationalist and triumphalist,” and downplay “reflection on darker aspects of [the US] past, specifically its history of slavery.”
Climate check: Trump’s move to pull US from key UN climate treaty may be illegal, experts say
The Trump administration’s exit from the world’s most important climate treaty – the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) – may have been illegal, some experts say. “In my legal opinion, he does not have the authority,” says Harold Hongju Koh, former head lawyer for the US state department. The US entered the UNFCCC with the consultation and approval of the Senate in 1992.
Last Thing: He invented mini saunas for frogs – now this biologist has big plans to save hundreds of species
Anthony Waddle, a scientist at the Macquarie University in Australia, invented frog saunas – in efforts to save frogs from the deadly chytrid fungus, which has wiped out 90 species and is threatening over 500 more. By raising frogs’ body temperatures, the saunas helped stave off the fungus. Now Waddle has a plan to use gene replacement to save species of frog from extinction.
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