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Hundreds more federal agents heading to Minnesota, Noem says

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Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem signaled that hundreds more federal agents are being deployed to Minneapolis, where the fatal shooting of a woman has inflamed strife around President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

“We’re sending more officers today and tomorrow,” Noem said on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures when asked about the government’s response. “They’ll arrive — there’ll be hundreds more, in order to allow our ICE and our Border Patrol individuals that are working in Minneapolis to do so safely.”

Protests erupted in Minneapolis after a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed Renée Nicole Good during a tense confrontation on Jan. 7. Thousands marched to the shooting site on Saturday.

Read More: Thousands March to Shooting Site in Minneapolis, Protesting ICE

Noem renewed warnings by senior administration officials that people who try to hamper federal law enforcement risk arrest and criminal prosecution.

“If they impede our operations, that’s a crime and we will hold them accountable to those consequences,” she said.

Good’s fatal shooting has sparked a bitter national debate over whether the officer was justified in using deadly force. The Trump administration and other supporters of the ICE agent argue he acted in self-defense as Good’s SUV moved forward. Noem has said he followed his training.

Critics, including Minnesota officials, law-enforcement experts and civil rights advocates, point to video footage and witness accounts that didn’t show an imminent threat, calling the shooting unjustified.

With each side broadly blaming the other for the circumstances that led to the woman’s death, state and federal officials on Sunday called for lowering the political temperature.

“Of course I bear responsibility to bring down the temperature,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said on NBC’s Meet the Press. Yet, he said, “the way that these institutions are being utilized right now by the Trump administration is wrong, and to be clear, is unconstitutional.”

“This was clearly a law enforcement action, where the officer acted on his training and defended himself and his life and his fellow colleagues,” Noem said on CNN’s State of the Union. Good’s death shows “why we need our leaders to turn down their rhetoric,” she said, referring to local leaders in Minnesota.

On Friday evening, hundreds of protesters spent hours outside a local hotel in downtown Minneapolis believed to be housing federal agents as part of a social-media-driven campaign dubbed “No Sleep for ICE.”  Armed with musical instruments, air horns and other noisemakers, demonstrators chanted and played music as passing cars honked horns and shouted at ICE to leave the city. 



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Reference to Trump’s impeachments is removed from Smithsonian portrait display

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President Donald Trump’s photo portrait display at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery has had references to his two impeachments removed, the latest apparent change at the collection of museums he has accused of bias as he asserts his influence over how official presentations document U.S. history.

The wall text, which summarized Trump’s first presidency and noted his 2024 comeback victory, was part of the museum’s “American Presidents” exhibition. The description had been placed alongside a photograph of Trump taken during his first term. Now, a different photo appears without any accompanying text block, though the text was available online. Trump was the only president whose display in the gallery, as seen Sunday, did not include any extended text.

The White House did not say whether it sought any changes. Nor did a Smithsonian statement in response to Associated Press questions. But Trump ordered in August that Smithsonian officials review all exhibits before the nation celebrates the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4. The Republican administration said the effort would “ensure alignment with the president’s directive to celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives, and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions.”

Trump’s original “portrait label,” as the Smithsonian calls it, notes Trump’s Supreme Court nominations and his administration’s development of COVID-19 vaccines. That section concludes: “Impeached twice, on charges of abuse of power and incitement of insurrection after supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, he was acquitted by the Senate in both trials.”

Then the text continues: “After losing to Joe Biden in 2020, Trump mounted a historic comeback in the 2024 election. He is the only president aside from Grover Cleveland (1837– 1908) to have won a nonconsecutive second term.”

Asked about the display, White House spokesman Davis Ingle celebrated the new photograph, which shows Trump, brow furrowed, leaning over his Oval Office desk. Ingle said it ensures Trump’s “unmatched aura … will be felt throughout the halls of the National Portrait Gallery.”

The portrait was taken by White House photographer Daniel Torok, who is credited in the display that includes medallions noting Trump is the 45th and 47th president. Similar numerical medallions appear alongside other presidents’ painted portraits that also include the more extended biographical summaries such as what had been part of Trump’s display.

Sitting presidents are represented by photographs until their official paintings are commissioned and completed.

Ingle did not answer questions about whether Trump or a White House aide, on his behalf, asked for anything related to the portrait label.

The gallery said in a statement that it had previously rotated two photographs of Trump from its collection before putting up Torok’s work.

“The museum is beginning its planned update of the America’s Presidents gallery which will undergo a larger refresh this Spring,” the gallery statement said. “For some new exhibitions and displays, the museum has been exploring quotes or tombstone labels, which provide only general information, such as the artist’s name.”

For now, references to Presidents Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton being impeached in 1868 and 1998, respectively, remain as part of their portrait labels, as does President Richard Nixon’s 1974 resignation as a result of the Watergate scandal.

And, the gallery statement noted, “The history of Presidential impeachments continues to be represented in our museums, including the National Museum of American History.”

Trump has made clear his intentions to shape how the federal government documents U.S. history and culture. He has offered an especially harsh assessment of how the Smithsonian and other museums have featured chattel slavery as a seminal variable in the nation’s development but also taken steps to reshape how he and his contemporary rivals are depicted.

In the months before his order for a Smithsonian review, he fired the head archivist of the National Archives and said he was firing the National Portrait Gallery’s director, Kim Sajet, as part of his overhaul. Sajet maintained the backing of the Smithsonian’s governing board, but she ultimately resigned.

At the White House, Trump has designed a notably partisan and subjective “Presidential Walk of Fame” featuring gilded photographs of himself and his predecessors — with the exception of Biden, who is represented by an autopen — along with plaques describing their presidencies.

The White House said at the time that Trump himself was a primary author of the plaques. Notably, Trump’s two plaques praise the 45th and 47th president as a historically successful figure while those under Biden’s autopen stand-in describe the 46th executive as “by far, the worst President in American History” who “brought our Nation to the brink of destruction.”



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Powell says DOJ criminal probe is attack on Fed’s independence to set rates

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Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell called out the Trump administration for attacking the central bank’s independence, saying a criminal probe is due to the Fed’s refusal to lower rates earlier this year as President Donald Trump demanded.

He said in a statement Sunday that the Justice Department of served the Fed with grand jury subpoenas, threatening a criminal indictment over his testimony before the Senate last June related to renovations on the headquarters, which has seen cost overruns.

Powell, who is typically cautious in his public remarks, was clear that the probe was political in nature and had nothing to do with the Fed renovations or his testimony, calling them “pretexts.”

“The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the President,” he wrote.

“This is about whether the Fed will be able to continue to set interest rates based on evidence and economic conditions—or whether instead monetary policy will be directed by political pressure or intimidation.”

Powell added that he has served under Republican and Democratic presidents “without political fear or favor,” while focusing on the Fed’s dual mandate of price stability and maximum employment.

“Public service sometimes requires standing firm in the face of threats,” he said. “I will continue to do the job the Senate confirmed me to do, with integrity and a commitment to serving the American people.”

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Oil prices rise as Iran crackdown suggests Tehran fears a ‘dire security threat to the regime’

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Crude oil futures pointed to continued gains on Sunday as markets weighed potentially transformative events in Iran, which has been wracked by protests across the country.

U.S. oil prices rose 0.56% to $59.45 a barrel, and Brent crude climbed 0.52% to $63.67 a barrel, as reports said President Donald Trump is weighing military options in Iran to follow through on his threats to attack if the government kills protestors.

Iran, which pumps 3 million-4 million barrels per day, has seen protests spread nationwide amid an economic crisis. Human rights groups estimate hundreds have died from the government’s crackdown, as the regime’s piecemeal attempts to appease Iranians have failed.

The government cut off internet access in the country last week, slowing the flow of information on the latest developments. But various reports and expert assessments indicate the unrest is posing a major threat to Tehran’s authority.

In particular, the security apparatus that keeps the leadership in power is showing cracks, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

“There are further indications that the ongoing protests are challenging the ability and willingness of Iranian security forces to crack down on the protests,” the think tank said in a recent report. “The IRGC Intelligence Organization released a statement on January 10 that it is ‘dealing with possible acts of abandonment.’ This statement suggests that some Iranian security forces may have already defected or that the regime is very concerned about this possibility.”

It cited additional reporting that pointed to some officers anticipating the regime’s collapse, forces in one city refusing to fire on protesters, and the possibility the government will deploy the regular army.

These rank-and-file troops, known as the Artesh, are less ideological and more representative of the Iranian population than the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, ISW said. That raises the risk Artesh troops, who aren’t trained to handle civil unrest, could defect and indicates internal security forces are stretched thin, it added.

A separate analysis from ISW noted that the government is treating the protests as a military issue instead of a law enforcement one. It also said Tehran “has taken the rare step of using the IRGC Ground Forces to suppress protests because it has likely determined that these protests represent a dire security threat to the regime.”

Energy markets are digesting the implications of political upheaval in Iran, a top OPEC member with the world’s third largest proven oil reserves. In fact, anti-government protests have already spread to Iran’s oil sector with workers at a large refining and petrochemical complex going on strike.

Market tracker Kpler said in post on X on Saturday that Iran’s regime faces a tipping point and is under unprecedented strain.

“Though a full collapse remains a low-probability event, the rising risk is already lifting the geopolitical premium in oil markets. Any disruption—through factional conflict, export curbs or external intervention—could prompt near-term price spikes, despite global surpluses,” it added.

“Over the medium term, regime change could unlock sanctions relief and reshape trade flows, with European, Indian and Japanese refiners poised to benefit, while Chinese independents and Middle Eastern producers face stiffer competition.”



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