Fact check: Trump claim about Minneapolis ICE shooting false

 https://www.dw.com/en/fact-check-trump-claim-about-minneapolis-ice-shooting-false/a-75442390

Analysis of videos shows Renee Nicole Good was steering away from the ICE agent, and that he was not run over

Looking closely at the clip Trump shared — posted to his account in slow motion — one may indeed get the impression at the 5-second time stamp that the SUV has run the officer over, and that he starts shooting a moment later in response.

However, it is clear by the 8-second mark, at the latest, that the aforementioned ICE officer is standing upright and looking at the vehicle as it drives away.

Watching the clip at the original speed, it is evident that, although the SUV is moving, the ICE officer jumps back from it and is not run over.

Uncomfortable truth behind being a Diaspora Jew today - opinion

 https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-883184

Virtually all of the thousands of attacks upon Jews over the last several years have gone unpunished; it is extremely rare for any of these criminals to have been fined, let alone incarcerated. As an NYPD detective told me recently, “Jews are attacked with impunity on a daily basis, but the law favors the perpetrator, not the victim.”

The late Rabbi Sholom Gold tells the story of a young American yeshiva student who spent a year researching the halachic sources regarding the requirement to live in Israel. He then came to Jerusalem and sought out Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, of blessed memory, one of Jerusalem’s great sages.

He asked the rabbi, “The Rambam and the Ramban – Maimonides and Nachmanides – argue over whether living in Israel is one of the 613 commandments. Which one was right?” The Rav did not reply. So the student persisted: “While some scholars say that living in Israel is obligatory, others, such as Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, say it is optional.

Which one is right?”

Rav Auerbach turned to the young man. “You don’t need to know the opinions of these rabbinic leaders,” he said. Just walk into any Hebrew grade school and ask, “What country did God choose for the Jews to live in?” Each and every child will unanimously answer, “Israel!”

CNN analyst says ‘DOJ has lost its damn mind’ with Walz, Frey probe

 https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5694218-elie-honig-cnn-doj-walz-frey-probe-minnesota-immigration-enforcement/

CNN analyst Elie Honig blasted the Trump administration Friday evening after the Justice Department (DOJ) moved to subpoena Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey over the unrest following protests over immigration enforcement in the state.

Honig, a former federal and state prosecutor, cast doubt on the strength of the department’s accusations that the elected officials subverted federal law enforcement officers.

“If you have public officials, as we do here, making political speech, even if it’s explosive, inflammatory, aggressive, and then that causes people to protest, or to call 9-1-1, that is simply not obstruction of justice,” he added. “If they bring an indictment for obstruction, I promise you, they will lose.”

Paying the Price

 https://www.politico.com/sponsored/2025/12/paying-the-price/?utm_source=native&utm_medium=homepage

Health care affordability in the U.S. has reached a boiling point. Over the past decade, prescription drug prices have risen exponentially — with some medications increasing by as much as 5,000 percent — far outpacing inflation, wage growth and, increasingly, the patience of the American people. As the gap between what drugs cost and what families can afford widens, Americans are turning to dangerous measures such as rationing or omitting needed prescriptions to offset costs.

The first ‘across the bridge’: Man who received experimental pig kidney transplant now has a human organ

 https://edition.cnn.com/2026/01/16/health/pig-kidney-human-organ-transplant

Xenotransplantation – the transplant of different species’ organs - has been touted as a possible solution to the current shortage of organ donors. The transplanted pig organs are genetically modified to control for rejection and size.

“Dialysis is not able to reproduce what the body needs in terms of clearing the waste,” said Dr. Leonardo Riella, medical director of kidney transplantation at Mass General Brigham hospital and Andrews’ doctor. “It has a huge burden on the patient, both in their quality of life but most importantly on their health.”

“Even if it is a bridge,” Riella said, “it would be better than [Tim] just staying on dialysis.”

Physician Aliyah accelerates as more than 1,000 doctors join Israel’s healthcare system in two years

 https://www.ynetnews.com/health_science/article/syy2c9dsbe#:~:text=Hundreds%20of%20physicians%20immigrated%20to,The%20Jewish%20Agency%20for%20Israel.

Hundreds of physicians immigrated to Israel in 2025 through the International Medical Aliyah Program, a national initiative led by Nefesh B’Nefesh in partnership with the ministries of Aliyah and Integration, Health, and the Negev, Galilee and National Resilience, in cooperation with The Jewish Agency for Israel. Physicians arrived from North America, France, the United Kingdom, South America and other countries. According to current trends, hundreds of additional doctors are expected to make Aliyah in 2026, further strengthening the public healthcare system nationwide.

Data from the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration shows that 541 physicians made Aliyah in 2025, including 346 from the former Soviet Union, 93 from North America, 53 from France, 23 from South America and the remainder from other countries.

Carville predicts GOP ‘wipeout’ in 2026 midterms

 https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5694291-democrats-midterm-elections-james-carville/

Veteran Democratic strategist James Carville predicted Saturday that the 2026 midterm elections will be a “wipeout” for Republicans, with Democrats picking up 25 seats “at a minimum.” 

“Frankly, it’s going to be a wipeout,” Carville told host Kayleigh McEnany on Fox News’s “Saturday in America.” 

“Your viewers need to know that the Democrats are going to pick up at a minimum 25 seats, maybe as high as 45. In all likelihood, the Democrats will carry the Senate,” he added. 

In a sign of momentum for Democrats, the nonpartisan Cook Political Report shifted 18 House races in the party’s favor this week, citing Trump’s unpopularity in polling and a recent streak of Democrat wins in special elections nationwide.

Trump administration demands countries pay $1B for permananent spot on BoP - Bloomberg

 https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-883656

The Trump administration has told countries that want a permanent spot on the new Gaza Board of Peace (BoP), which will be responsible for rebuilding the Gaza Strip and ensuring Hamas's disarmament, that they must contribute "at least one billion dollars," Bloomberg News reported on Saturday night. 

The White House announced on Friday that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, and Tony Blair will be among the founding members of the new BoP.

"It appears that Trump is building an organization here that will deal not only with Gaza, perhaps 'a kind of Mini-UN'," Western diplomats told The Jerusalem Post.

Reports by Canadian media claimed that Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney was invited to join the board and accepted the invitation.

"Gaza is our show": U.S. pushes its plan over Netanyahu's objections

 https://www.axios.com/2026/01/17/gaza-phase-two-netanyahu-trump-board

President Trump's advisers have little patience for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's objections as they push ahead with "phase two" of the Gaza peace plan.

"This is our show, not his show. We managed to do things in Gaza in recent months nobody thought was possible, and we are going to continue moving," a senior U.S. official told Axios, referring to Netanyahu.

US official: Gaza is our way or the highway

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/421049

US President Donald Trump's advisers have rejected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's statements regarding the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire plan, Axios reported.

A senior US official told Axios, "This is our show, not his show," referring to Netanyahu. The official added, "We managed to do things in Gaza in recent months nobody thought was possible, and we are going to continue moving."

The official said stressed, "If he wants us to deal with Gaza, it will have to be our way. We worked over him. Let him focus on Iran and let us deal with Gaza. We are not going to argue with him. He will do his politics and we will keep moving forward with our plan. He can't really go against us."

The official also said that the alternative to accepting the US dictations is sending IDF troops back into fighting in Gaza, and the US stepping out.

Trump did not notify Netanyahu about Qatari, Turkish participation in Gaza's BoP - N12

 https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-883650

Israel was not notified in advance about the presence of Qatari and Turkish officials among the Gaza Board of Peace (BoP) announced by US President Donald Trump, US officials told N12 on Saturday.

"We did not tell Netanyahu in advance about the composition of the executive committee. He did not expect there to be representatives from Turkey and Qatar, but Gaza is now our show, not his show," the officials told N12.

"If he [Netanyahu] wants the Trump administration to deal with Gaza - we will do it our way," they added.

‘Gaslighting of Americans’: Nicolle Wallace reacts to Trump and Noem’s lies about ICE shooting

Trump accidentally confesses why he is antagonizing Minneapolis

Judge Hands Trump Admin New Legal Loss Over Minnesota Protesters

 https://www.newsweek.com/judge-hands-trump-admin-new-legal-loss-over-minnesota-protesters-11375714

On Friday, U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez, appointed by former President Joe Biden, granted a preliminary injunction that restricts federal immigration agents—specifically those participating in Operation Metro Surge—from taking retaliatory action against people "engaging in peaceful and unobstructive protest activity."

ICE places ankle monitor on Md. woman who provided U.S. birth certificate

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2026/01/16/maryland-woman-ice-detained-25-days/

A Maryland woman arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents last month and held for 25 days despite providing a birth certificate, immunization records and what her lawyers describe as overwhelming evidence that she is a U.S. citizen said the experience was shocking and she hopes the case against her will soon end.

Diaz Morales, who has a 5-year-old son, was arrested in Baltimore on Dec. 14 while leaving a Taco Bell with her younger sister. She said Friday that she told the officers who detained her that she was born in the U.S. and gave them the date and place of her birth. She said she gave them her father’s phone number and he confirmed details about her birth date and the name of the Maryland hospital where she was born.

But, she said, the officers did not believe the information was true. Instead of being released, Diaz Morales began her almost four-week stay in federal custody and was told she could be deported.

‘He Doesn’t Care About Us’: Iranian Protesters Say They Were Betrayed By Trump

 https://time.com/7347090/iran-protesters-trump-help/

When President Donald Trump told protesters in Iran that “help is on its way,” they took heart. Their hopes rose further on Wednesday, with news that the Pentagon had ordered some non-essential personnel from its largest Middle East air base, a move seen as preparation for battle. But on Thursday, when Trump reversed course, announcing that Iran’s regime had agreed to stop killing its people in the streets, protestors felt betrayed, they told TIME.

“After he said the Iranian authorities had told him there won’t be any more killings and executions, everyone was just stunned,” said an Iranian interviewed Friday, after traveling out of the country. “Everyone was enraged; they just kept saying this bastard used us as cannon fodder. Iranians feel that they were played, that he fooled them, deceived them.”

“Trump is worse than Obama,” said a 40-year-old businessman in Tehran, who said he called friends and relatives to give them the good news after Trump’s  “help is on its way” post.  “He screwed up. He pulled the rug from under our feet.”

His comments may not be enough to bring protesters back out onto the streets, however. Trump, who ordered the U.S. military to join Israel in attacking Iran’s nuclear program in June, had urged on the latest protests nearly from the start. The demonstrations began in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar on Dec. 28, in response to the abrupt, catastrophic devaluation of Iran’s currency, then grew steadily across the country. In the past—2009, 2017, 2019, and 2022—Iran’s authoritarian regime had crushed mass protests. But five days into this outbreak, on Jan. 2, Trump made an explicit promise on Truth Social: “If Iran shots [sic] and violently kills peaceful protestors, the United States of America will come to their rescue. We are locked and loaded and ready to go.”

Faith and Need for constant Inspiration

 Rav Yakov asks why didn't the Jews accept Moshe's  Message from G-d that they would be freed from Egtpt? He notes that initially they had believed in Moshe but now they ignored him?

Shemos (6:9) But when Moses told this to the Israelites, they would not listen to Moses, their spirits crushed by cruel bondage.

וַיְדַבֵּ֥ר מֹשֶׁ֛ה כֵּ֖ן אֶל־בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל וְלֹ֤א שָֽׁמְעוּ֙ אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֔ה מִקֹּ֣צֶר ר֔וּחַ וּמֵעֲבֹדָ֖ה קָשָֽׁה׃

He answers that the Jews maintained their faith by reading the book of Job and other works on Shabbos

However after the first meeting with Moshe, Pharoh made them work on Shabbos so they no longer had the inspiration they had before and this is what is meant by short spirited

It’s Trump’s Economy, and Voters Are Unhappy With It, WSJ Poll Finds

 https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/trump-approval-rating-economy-poll-b3a62e57?mod=hp_lead_pos7

By 15 percentage points, more voters rate the economy as weak rather than strong, a deterioration from July, when negative views predominated by 4 points. About half of voters say the economy has gotten worse in the past year, compared with 35% who see improvement. That finding continues a yearslong disconnect between traditional measures of inflation and economic growth, which are relatively positive, and a negative public outlook

Trump issues a flurry of pardons, including for a woman whose sentence he commuted in his first term

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/01/16/trump-pardons-donor-twice-convicted-fraud/3e401b1a-f33e-11f0-a4dc-effc74cb25af_story.html

 President Donald Trump issued a flurry of pardons in recent days, including for the father of a large donor to his super PAC, a former governor of Puerto Rico and a woman whose sentence he commuted during his first term but who ended up back in prison for a different scheme.

Trump commuted the sentence of Adriana Camberos just before his first stint in the White House ended in 2021. That followed her being convicted as part of an effort to divert 5-Hour Energy drink bottles acquired for resale in Mexico and instead keep them in the U.S. Prosecutors said she and several co-conspirators attached counterfeit labels and filled the bottles with a phony liquid before selling them.

In 2024, she and her brother, Andres, were convicted in a separate case, this one involving lying to manufacturers to sell wholesale groceries and additional items at big discounts after pledging that they were meant for sale in Mexico or to prisoners or rehabilitation facilities. The siblings sold the products at higher prices to U.S. distributors, prosecutors said.

Trump's Board of Peace announcement contradicts Israeli policy, PMO says

 https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-883642

The makeup of the Gaza Board of Peace contradicts Israeli policy and was not brought up with Israeli authorities, the Prime Minister's Office said in a Saturday statement.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar to take the matter up with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the release added.

Trump announced the members of the governing body of Gaza on Friday. Notably, Turkish President Erdogan was invited to sit on the board, which Israel deems a red line.

Tucker Carlson’s White House Visit Sparks MAGA Fury, JD Vance Warning

 Tucker Carlson’s White House Visit Sparks MAGA Fury, JD Vance Warning - Newsweek

A Friday meeting between media personality Tucker Carlson and President Donald Trump at the White House has sparked backlash from some conservatives.

Images shared on social media by the Tucker Carlson Network showed Carlson, a prominent conservative commentator and former Fox News host, engaged in an exchange with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Also seen in the images was White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.

This visit, which comes amid broader MAGA infighting, was condemned by organizations like the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which stated that "Tucker Carlson should have no place in the White House. He’s amplified and platformed antisemitic narratives for years."

Dolls, pencils, backyard chickens and ‘a piece of broccoli’: The Trump team’s awkward austerity talk

 https://edition.cnn.com/2026/01/15/politics/trump-rollins-austerity-affordability-inflation

Amid the European debt crisis in the early 2010s, a Fox News pundit named Donald Trump warned about a backlash against leaders asking people to tighten their belts.

“You can’t impose this kind of austerity on people when the people aren’t used to it,” Trump said in the 2012 interview, unless you’re in a depression

Fast-forward 14 years, and now-President Trump and his administration are regularly talking about how people can pinch pennies.

The remarks not only undermine Trump’s frequent all-is-well happy talk about the economy. (Why would you need to be so frugal if we’re in a “golden age?”) But they also give Trump’s opponents’ ammunition to paint him and his team as out of touch with the struggles of people who aren’t, like Trump and so many people around him, uber-wealthy.

Thousands rally in Jerusalem to demand ultra-Orthodox IDF enlistment

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/thousands-rally-in-jerusalem-to-demand-ultra-orthodox-idf-enlistment/

Several thousand people rallied in Jerusalem on Thursday evening to demand ultra-Orthodox enlistment to the IDF, and against government-backed legislation seeking to reinstate blanket military service exemptions for ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students.

Thomas Massie’s Joke About Epstein Files in Greenland Takes Off Online

 https://www.newsweek.com/thomas-massies-joke-about-epstein-files-in-greenland-takes-off-online-11369151

Republican U.S. Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky quipped online about the Epstein files and Greenland on Thursday amid ongoing political tensions surrounding both topics as President Donald Trump continues to express interest in acquiring the territory.

Massie posted on X: "Psst, Denmark… Tell this administration the Epstein files are in Greenland… they’ll lose all interest and will never be able to find it."

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey denounced the Trump administration’s use of federal law enforcement

Target’s Stores Become an ICE Battleground in Hometown Minneapolis

 https://www.wsj.com/business/retail/target-ice-minneapolis-minnesota-1f39bb7b

The federal immigration crackdown in Minnesota has descended on the stores and parking lots of Target, putting the hometown retailer in a tough political spot as it faces pressure from some locals to keep border protection agents out.

That pressure came to a head after immigration officials detained two Target employees inside the vestibule of a suburban store late last week after what appeared to be some verbal sparring in the parking lot. “I’m literally a U.S. citizen!” one shouted as they escorted him into a van. 

Both are American citizens and were later released, local officials say. In a social-media post on Monday, the Department of Homeland Security said an individual in the video had been “arrested for assaulting a federal law enforcement offers [sic].”

Horrifying moment ICE agents forcibly remove woman from car as she 'blocked' the road in Minnesota

ICE Agents Drag People Out of Cars in Front of Protesters - Making America great Again MAGA

Federal immigration agents filmed dragging a woman from her car in Minneapolis

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/2026/01/15/aliya-rahman-minneapolis-ice-arrest-videos/2f90dbf0-f275-11f0-a4dc-effc74cb25af_story.html

A U.S. citizen on her way to a medical appointment in Minneapolis was dragged out of her car and detained by immigration officers, according to a statement released by the woman on Thursday, after a video of her arrest drew millions of views on social media.

That video is the latest in a deluge of online content that documents an intensifying immigration crackdown across the midwestern city, as thousands of federal agents execute arrests amid protests in what local officials have likened to a “federal invasion.”

In the video, one masked agent smashes Rahman’s passenger side window while others cut her seatbelt and drag her out of the car through the driver’s side door. Numerous guards then carried her by her arms and legs towards an ICE vehicle.

And so it has come to a Democratic governor asking Trump not to attack his state

‘One chicken, one broccoli, one corn tortilla’: Brooke Rollins mocked over her out of touch meal

Maria Machado Says She ‘Presented’ Trump With Her Nobel Peace Prize

 https://www.newsweek.com/maria-machado-presented-trump-nobel-peace-prize-11369261

Venezuela's opposition leader Maria Corina Machado says that she "presented" U.S. President Donald Trump with her Nobel Peace Prize during a meeting the two had on Thursday in Washington, D.C.

Mayor Jacob Frey gives press conference after latest Minneapolis ICE shooting