Trump, Vance, and Noem Launch a 

Pre-emptive Strike Against the Truth

In light of the Trump administration’s lies, the odds of getting a credible federal probe into the killing of Renee Good are slim.


US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem attends a press conference in New York City on January 8, 2026.
(Photo by Timothy A. Clary/ AFP via Getty Images)

Steven Harper
Jan 12, 2026

Common Dreams


Please take five minutes to watch these two videos.

First, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer Jonathan Ross’ video:




Then watch this New York Times compilation of bystanders’ videos prepared before officer Ross’ video was publicly available

The Facts

Renee Nicole Good was a US citizen, the mother of three, an award-winning poet, and the widow of a military veteran. On Wednesday morning January 7, she dropped her six-year-old son at school and proceeded in her Honda Pilot down Portland Avenue—a one-way residential street in south Minneapolis. Around 10:40 am, she had a brief encounter with ICE officers during which she smiled at officer Ross, who was filming the episode on his smartphone.

“That’s fine, dude. I’m not mad at you,” she told Ross.

Another officer yelled at her to “get out of the f*cking car” and grabbed her door handle. By then, Ross was standing near the front driver’s side of the Honda. Attempting to avoid him as she drove away, Good turned the steering wheel sharply to the right. Ross fired three shots, and the Honda careened toward a parked car before crashing into it.

ICE officers receive CPR training, but none went to Good’s aid. A physician nearby tried to help, but ICE officers blocked him.

Fifteen minutes later, medics arrived. Shortly thereafter, she died at Hennepin County Medical Center.
The Lies Begin

An hour later, Kristi Noem’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a statement defending Ross and demonizing Good.

According to DHS, “[R]ioters began blocking ICE officers and one of these violent rioters weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them—an act of domestic terrorism.”

The statement continued:
An ICE officer, fearing for his life, the lives of his fellow law enforcement, and the safety of the public, fired defensive shots. He used his training and saved his own life and that of his fellow officers. The alleged perpetrator was hit and is deceased. Thankfully, the ICE officers who were hurt are expected to make full recoveries.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey called that description of the event “bullsh*t.”

With her press release, Noem had launched a preemptive strike on the truth.
Trump Doubles Down on the Lies

Three hours after DHS’ statement, President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social a 13-second clip showing Good’s vehicle smashing into the parked car. It revealed nothing about the events that had led to the shooting.

But that didn’t prevent Trump from embellishing Noem’s false narrative. He said that “the woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE officer, who seems to have shot her in self defense.”
Noem and Vance Double Down on the Lies

It’s worth noting that Noem can ill afford the publicity of an ICE officer committing a potential homicide. In December, The Bulwark reported that Trump was considering three candidates to replace her, although the White House denied it.

At 6:00 pm, Noem held a press conference. She said that Good was among a “mob of agitators,” had “weaponized her vehicle,” and committed an “act of domestic terrorism” that justified ICE officers responding with deadly force.

The following morning, Vice President JD Vance—who oozes ambition—called Good a “deranged leftist who tried to run [the officer] over” and was certain that she had broken the law. He said that the officer was protected by “absolute immunity.” Vance, a Yale Law School graduate, knows better.
Will Patel’s FBI Seal the Deal?

Trump’s Justice Department then excluded Minnesota officials from participating in the FBI investigation into the killing. Noem said that the FBI has “exclusive jurisdiction,” which is incorrect. Minnesota has jurisdiction over state crimes, including potential homicides.

But following the launch of the Trump administration’s false narrative of the killing, barring an objective investigation is the second phase of the preemptive strike against the truth. FBI Director Kash Patel is a fierce Trump loyalist who has likened Trump to a king. But like Noem, he has been the subject of recent reports that his position is precarious. He will fall in line behind the Trump-Vance-Noem false narrative of the event.
Evaluating the Evidence

Vance said that Ross was “doing his job.” Noem insisted that he “followed his training.” Let’s test those claims.

DHS requires its officers to follow these guidelines on the use of force:Respect human life;Deescalate confrontations;Use safe tactics that minimize the risk of personal and property damage; don’t put yourself in a situation where your only alternative is using deadly force;When feasible, give a warning before using force and give the subject a reasonable opportunity to comply;As soon as practicable, obtain appropriate medical assistance for anyone injured;Don’t fire warning shots solely to disable moving vehicles;Use of deadly force must be reasonable in lights of the facts and circumstances confronting the officer;Use deadly force only when you have a reasonable belief that the subject of such force poses an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury to you or another person; “reasonableness” is an objective standard (“what would a reasonable person in that position do”);Do not use deadly force solely to prevent the escape of a fleeing subject, unless you have a reasonable belief that the subject poses a significant threat of death or serious physical harm to you or others and such force is necessary to prevent escape;Discharging a firearm against a person constitutes the use of deadly force and shall be done only with the intent of preventing or stopping the threatening behavior that justifies the use of deadly force; andDo not discharge firearms at the operator of a moving vehicle… unless the use of deadly force against the operator is justified under the standards articulated elsewhere in this policy. Before using deadly force under these circumstances, you must take into consideration the hazards that may be posed to law enforcement and innocent bystanders by an out-of-control vehicle.

To the same effect are Justice Department guidelines.

In light of the Trump administration’s preemptive strike on the truth, the odds of getting a credible federal probe are slim. Officer Ross fired three shots; each was a use of deadly force. How many guidelines did he violate?

Watch The Minnesota Star Tribune‘s analysis that incorporates five videos of the tragedy and decide for yourself.

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.


Steven Harper
Steven J. Harper is an attorney, adjunct professor at Northwestern University Law School, and author of several books, including Crossing Hoffa -- A Teamster's Story and The Lawyer Bubble -- A Profession in Crisis. He has been a regular columnist for Moyers on Democracy, Dan Rather's News and Guts, and The American Lawyer. Follow him at https://thelawyerbubble.com.
Full Bio >

‘Goebbels Could Not Have Improved On This’: DHS Spreads ‘Propaganda’ on ICE Killing as Violence Mounts

“I never imagined that my government would so blatantly lie like this,” said one author and attorney.


Protesters gather in Austin, Texas on January 8, 2026, to rally against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement following the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good.
(Photo by Stephanie Tacy/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Julia Conley
Jan 12, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

As Americans have continued to document federal agents violently pushing a bystander to the ground during an arrest, handcuffing a screaming mother, and demanding to see citizenship papers of people of color, observers said the US Department of Homeland Security’s latest video about a federal officer’s killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis last week showed it has resorted to “blatant propaganda” to shape public opinion on the Trump administration’s violent crackdown on immigrants and dissenters.

“This agency, and the way it now speaks, is the most repulsive and un-American things I have ever seen,” said one writer of a video featuring Lauren Bis, the deputy assistant secretary of homeland security, that was released four days after Good was fatally shot by a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer.



‘Reign of Terror’: ICE Builds Appalling Record of Killings, Beatings, Kidnappings, and More



‘We Are Not Afraid’: Nationwide Protests Against ICE Killing of Renee Good, Fascist Trump

The video was posted to social media Sunday, accompanied by the text: “Defend the Homeland. Protect the American way of life.” Bis presented footage of Good’s vehicle before and after she was shot while sitting in the driver’s seat of her car by an ICE agent who had approached the driver’s side of the front of the vehicle.

Bis repeated claims that have been pushed by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Vice President JD Vance, and President Donald Trump: that Good was a “rioter” who “weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them.”



She said that “the American people can watch this video with their own eyes and ears and judge for themselves,” but legal experts, news outlets, and members of the public have already spent the past several days doing just that.

Experts and media organizations have extensively analyzed footage of the killing and said that despite the administration’s repeated claims, there is no evidence that Good was part of any riot. As the Guardian reported last week, “The officer who fired the fatal shots walked up to the front of Good’s car, which was turning away from him as it began to move forward, and he remained on his feet as the vehicle passed him.”

Author and University of Missouri law professor Thom Lambert said that the government “may argue that the ICE agent feared for his life, perhaps even reasonably, but the video CLEARLY shows that Good had turned away from the officer.”

“I never imagined that my government would so blatantly lie like this,” added Lambert, who also took issue with Bis’ insistence that the administration “pray[s]” for Good and her family—even as another White House official, press secretary Karoline Leavitt, called the victim a “lunatic” in comments to reporters on Monday.

Despite DHS’ display of footage that many observers have said proves Good’s wheels were turned away from the ICE agent when she began driving, David J. Bier of the libertarian Cato Institute said: “They are still using verbatim the utterly inaccurate statement from the first day. This is pathological.”

Another critic noted that the video was edited by DHS to make it appear that Good “weaponized her vehicle” by “speeding across the road”—“obviously failing to mention that footage is of when she had just been shot in the fucking face and her dead foot hit the pedal.”

Jessica Simor, an expert in human rights law in the UK, said that Joseph Goebbels, the architect of Adolf Hitler’s propaganda machine in Nazi Germany, “could not have improved” on Bis’ video.

As the video circulated online Monday, ICE and Border Patrol agents were seen in numerous new footage treating people in Minneapolis and elsewhere violently and appearing the warn them against even acting as bystanders to their enforcement actions.

Federal agents were seen chasing and tackling a man to the ground, apparently for filming with his cellphone as they carried out an arrest at a gas station in St. Paul, Minnesota.

In another video, a federal officer approached a woman who was filming him and said, “Listen, have you all not learned from the past couple of days?” before snatching her phone.



It is legal under the First Amendment for bystanders to film ICE and other federal agents as long at they are not obstructing their operations.

Organizer and attorney Aaron Regunberg said in response to that video that the US will ultimately “need some serious Truth and Reconciliation/Nuremberg shit for every fascist scumbag member of this administration.”

Neighbors in Minneapolis protect each other from US immigration police


By AFP
January 10, 2026


Neighbors are banding together to protect one another from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in the wake of a fatal shooting by a federal agent - Copyright AFP CHARLY TRIBALLEAU

Elodie SOINARD

When Jennifer Arnold learned one of her neighbors in the midwestern city of Minneapolis had been arrested by immigration authorities late last year, she reached out to lend a hand.

“She answered the phone sobbing because she had gone to a work site with her husband, and he had been pulled out of their car and picked up,” Arnold recalled.

Now, a month later, Arnold is connecting neighbors to help immigrants survive the sweeping crackdown by the administration of US President Donald Trump, which turned deadly this week when a federal agent opened fire on a woman driving an SUV.

Arnold said at first she helped her neighbors, who were terrified of leaving their homes “because it’s not safe.”

Then she noticed that the school bus stop nearby, which usually had 20 children waiting for a ride to school in the morning, only had 10 kids.

“Many of those families didn’t feel safe sending their kids because they had to walk” a couple blocks to get to the stop, Arnold said.

She took action, asking neighbors “if I could get someone to walk with your kid to the bus stop, or take them, drive them to school, would you send them?”

Neighbors said yes.

With that, Arnold began helping a dozen children get to school beginning the second week of December.

“And then the next week, it was 18 kids. And now I have 30 on my list,” Arnold said.



– Adopting a family –



Parents, neighbors and friends of friends signed up to take children to and from school — walking them to a bus stop or driving them — to help them avoid falling behind in class.

And when Christmas came and schools closed for the holiday, Arnold asked volunteers to adopt a family for the holiday and organized food deliveries.

“They went shopping and brought bags of groceries to the family they adopted. We did one right before Christmas and one right before New Year’s. And folks said to me ‘my kids would have been hungry’ if we hadn’t done that,” Arnold said.

Wednesday’s shooting death of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good at the hands of masked ICE agents — who are still conducting operations on Minneapolis streets — has only inspired more volunteers.

“I went to pick up a four-year-old and introduce him to a neighbor who’s gonna walk him home every day. And there were all these people out on the streets who were like, ‘Can we do this too?’ And since what happened on Wednesday, my list is growing,” Arnold said.

Now, schools are adapting to the families’ fears: Minneapolis announced Friday that it is launching remote learning through mid-February for students who need it.

On the streets, neighbors have been vigilant in using whistles to alert each other about the presence of ICE agents.

Education union leader Natasha Dockter says she wears her whistle “all the time now,” adding: “I use it more often that I would like to.”

She said it also becomes “an invitation to talk to other neighbors about what’s going on,” and she keeps extra whistles in her pocket to share with those who are interested in helping.

While neighbors in Minneapolis are trying to alert each other to potential suffering, there are also those who are coping in silence.

“There are kids who have lost a family member, who are completely traumatized, who are terrified every day, who can’t leave their houses other than to go to school,” Becca Dryden, 36, told AFP, adding that the duty of parents to inform kids about what was happening was a tough one.

“As parents, we keep having to explain these tragedies to them. Whether they are targeted themselves or watching their neighborhood and community be targeted, this is a trauma that’s happening to all of our children.”

'Leave the giraffe alone!' ICE violently arrests comedian mocking them in animal costume

David Edwards
January 12, 2026 

Robby Roadsteamer/Facebook/screen grab

Comedian Rob Potylo said he was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Minneapolis while performing in a giraffe costume as a fictional character known as Robby Roadsteamer.

Several Robby Roadsteamer social media accounts claimed that ICE had arrested Potylo. The social media posts included a video showing around a dozen law enforcement officers approaching the comedian and violently forcing him to the ground without any explanation.

As Potylo was handcuffed, protesters screamed at the officers.

"Leave the giraffe alone!" one person shouted.

The comedian has previously had encounters while mocking federal agents in Portland.

‘I know the pain’: ex-refugee takes over as UNHCR chief


ByAFP
January 12, 2026


Barham Salih has experienced torture and exile as an Iraqi Kurd

- Copyright AFP Peter PARKS

Julie CAPELLE

Barham Salih has known torture and the wrenching loss of exile. Four decades after his own ordeal, he has taken the helm of the UN refugee agency as it grapples with a funding shortfall and ever-rising needs.

A former Iraqi president, Salih, 65, became the first former head of state to run the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) at the start of the year.

“It is a profound moral and legal responsibility,” Salih told AFP during his first trip in the new role — to Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya.

“I know the pain of losing a home, losing your friends,” he said.

The Kakuma refugee camp, which Salih visited on Sunday, is east Africa’s second largest, hosting roughly 300,000 people from South Sudan, Somalia, Uganda and Burundi. It has been in place since 1992.

The world “should not allow this to continue”, Salih said, praising a new initiative by Kenya to turn its camps into economic hubs.

“We should not only protect refugees… but also enable them to have more durable solutions,” he said, while adding: “The better way is to have peace established in their own countries… nowhere is nicer than home.”



– ‘Electric shocks, beating’ –



The son of a judge and a women’s rights activist, Salih was born in 1960 in Sulaymaniyah, a stronghold of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which sought self-determination for Iraq’s Kurds.

He went into exile in Iran in 1974, spending a year at a school for refugees. As a teenager in 1979, back in Iraq and already a member of the PUK, he was arrested twice by former dictator Saddam Hussein’s regime.

“I was released after 43 days after having suffered torture, electric shocks, beating,” he said.

Upon release, he still managed to rank among Iraq’s top three high school students, according to a former colleague, before fleeing with his family to Britain where he earned a degree in computer engineering and a doctorate.

Salih has “real experience of exile… He brings a personal perspective of displacement, which is very important,” Filippo Grandi, his predecessor at UNHCR, told AFP last month.

Salih went on to a successful career in Iraqi Kurdistan and Iraq’s federal government after Hussein’s overthrow in 2003, holding the largely ceremonial role of president from 2018 to 2022.



– ‘Serious budget cuts’ –



Refugee numbers have doubled to 117 million in the past decade, the UNHCR said in June, but funding has dropped sharply, especially since Donald Trump returned to the White House.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres recently praised Salih’s experience as a “crisis negotiator and architect of national reforms” at a time when the agency faces “very serious challenges”.

“We have had very serious budget cuts last year. A lot of staff have been reduced,” Salih told AFP.

“But we have to understand, we have to adapt,” he said, calling for “more efficiency and accountability” while also insisting the international community meets its “legal and moral obligations to help”.

burs-jcp/mnk/er/kjm

Myanmar pro-military party claims Suu Kyi’s seat in junta-run poll


By AFP
January 12, 2026


Myanmar's military deposed democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021 after claiming she won a landslide election victory by massive voter fraud - Copyright AFP/File ROMEO GACAD

Myanmar’s main pro-military party on Monday claimed victory in the parliamentary seat of sidelined democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi in elections being derided as a ploy to prolong junta rule.

The armed forces have ruled Myanmar for most of the nation’s post-independence history before a decade-long democratic thaw saw civilians assume control.

But the military snatched back power with a 2021 coup, deposing and detaining Suu Kyi after claiming she won a landslide election win over pro-military party by means of massive voter fraud.

The junta says the current month-long vote — which has its final phase scheduled for January 25 — will return power to the people.

With Suu Kyi still held in seclusion and her hugely popular party dissolved, democracy advocates say the vote has been rigged by a crackdown on dissent and a ballot stacked with military allies.

An official from the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), speaking anonymously because they were unauthorised to share results, said they “won in Kawhmu” — Suu Kyi’s former seat in Yangon region.

“We won 15 lower house seats out of 16 places in Yangon region,” they added, after Kawhmu and dozens of other constituencies voted in the election’s second stage on Sunday.

The official did not say by what margin the party claimed its win and official results of the second round have yet to be posted by the junta-stacked election commission.

But the USDP — described by many analysts as the military’s prime proxy — won nearly 90 percent of lower house seats in the first phase, official results say.

“It should surprise no one that the military-backed party has claimed a landslide victory,” UN rights expert Tom Andrews said in a statement last week.

“The junta engineered the polls to ensure victory for its proxy, entrench military domination, and manufacture a facade of legitimacy while violence and repression continue unabated.”

Regardless of the vote, a quarter of parliamentary seats will be reserved for the armed forces under a constitution drafted during a previous period of military rule.

The coup plunged Myanmar into civil war and voting is not taking place in huge territories controlled by rebel factions running parallel administrations in defiance of military rule.

There is no official toll for Myanmar’s civil war but monitoring group ACLED, which tallies media reports of violence, estimates that 90,000 people have been killed on all sides.

The day of the election’s first phase, December 28, saw 52 incidents — more than any other day for eight months — with a total of 68 people killed, according to its figures.

Meanwhile more than 330 people are being pursued under new junta-enacted laws, including clauses that punish protest or criticism of the poll with up to 10 years in prison.

There are more than 22,000 political prisoners languishing alongside Suu Kyi in junta detention, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners advocacy group.

Australia recalls parliament early to pass hate speech, gun laws

By AFP
January 12, 2026


Australia has flagged stricter hate crime and gun laws since the Bondi Beach mass shooting - Copyright AFP/File DAVID GRAY

Australia’s parliament will reopen two weeks early to crack down on hate crimes and gun ownership following the mass shooting at Bondi Beach, the government said Monday.

Australia has flagged a suite of reforms to hate crime and gun laws since the December 14 attack on a Jewish festival that killed 15 people — the country’s deadliest mass shooting in nearly three decades.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he would recall both houses of parliament for a sitting from January 19-20 to pass the new legislation and offer condolences to the victims.

Members of parliament had been scheduled to return from their summer break on February 3.

“The terrorists at Bondi Beach had hatred in their minds but guns in their hands — this law will deal with both,” Albanese told a news conference.

The legislation would create new offences for “hate preachers”, stiffen hate crime penalties, expand a ban on prohibited symbols, and set the framework for a new list of banned hate groups.

It would allow the home affairs minister to reject or cancel visas for people intending to spread hatred, the prime minister said.

The laws would enable the launch of a national guns buyback scheme, the largest since Australia last targeted firearms following a mass shooting in 1996 that killed 35 people at Port Arthur, Tasmania.

Stricter checks would also be imposed for gun licences, the government said.

Details of the draft laws are to be released publicly on Tuesday.

Last week, the government announced a royal commission inquiry into the Bondi Beach shooting.

The federal royal commission — the highest level of government inquiry — will probe everything from intelligence failures to the prevalence of antisemitism in Australia.

Sajid Akram and his son Naveed allegedly targeted Jews attending a Hannukah celebration at Bondi Beach.

Sajid, 50, was shot and killed by police during the assault. An Indian national, he entered Australia on a visa in 1998.

His 24-year-old son Naveed, an Australian-born citizen who remains in prison, has been charged with terrorism and 15 murders.

Australia’s ambassador to US leaving post, marked by Trump rift


By AFP
January 12, 2026


Australia said Tuesday its ambassador to the United States is leaving after a three-year tenure overshadowed by President Donald Trump’s verdict on him: “I don’t like you either.”

Former prime minister Kevin Rudd, who departs his post on March 31 to become president of the Asia Society think tank in New York, had sharply criticised Trump while he was out of office.

Trump expressed disdain for Rudd during a televised US-Australia meeting at the White House in October last year, prompting some Australian opposition calls for his posting to be ended.

“Rudd has delivered concrete outcomes for Australia — during both Democrat and Republican Administrations — in collaboration with our closest security ally and principal strategic partner,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a joint statement with his foreign minister.

“We thank Dr Rudd for his exceptional service as Ambassador and as a former Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Australia.”

Before taking up his post in Washington, Rudd had described Trump as the “most destructive president in history” and a “traitor to the West” who “drags America and democracy through the mud.”

Rudd deleted the comments after Trump won back the White House in November 2024.

At the White House meeting in October, the US president suggested Rudd might want to apologize for his earlier remarks.

Turning to Albanese at his side, Trump said, “Where is he? Is he still working for you?”

Albanese smiled awkwardly before gesturing to Rudd, who was sitting directly in front of them.

Rudd began to explain, “That was before I took this position, Mr. President.”

Trump cut him off, saying, “I don’t like you either. I don’t. And I probably never will.”

Rudd, a Mandarin-speaking former career diplomat, had been tapped as ambassador during Joe Biden’s presidency, with Australia hoping his expertise on China would gain him influence in Washington.

Meta urges Australia to change teen social media ban


By AFP
January 12, 2026


Meta has called for Australia's social media for under-16s to target app stores - Copyright AFP Saeed KHAN

Tech giant Meta urged Australia on Monday to rethink its world-first social media ban for under-16s, while reporting that it has blocked more than 544,000 accounts under the new law.

Australia has required big platforms including Meta, TikTok and YouTube to stop underage users from holding accounts since the legislation came into force on December 10 last year.

Companies face fines of Aus$49.5 million (US$33 million) if they fail to take “reasonable steps” to comply.

Billionaire Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta said it had removed 331,000 underage accounts from Instagram, 173,000 from Facebook, and 40,000 from Threads in the week to December 11.

The company said it was committed to complying with the law.

“That said, we call on the Australian government to engage with industry constructively to find a better way forward, such as incentivising all of industry to raise the standard in providing safe, privacy-preserving, age appropriate experiences online, instead of blanket bans,” it said in statement.

– ‘Whack-a-mole’ –

Meta renewed an earlier call for app stores to be required to verify people’s ages and get parental approval before under-16s can download an app.

This was the only way to avoid a “whack-a-mole” race to stop teens migrating to new apps to avoid the ban, the company said.

The government said it was holding social media companies to account for the harm they cause young Australians.

“Platforms like Meta collect a huge amount of data on their users for commercial purposes. They can and must use that information to comply with Australian law and ensure people under 16 are not on their platforms,” a government spokesperson said.

Meta said parents and experts were worried about the ban isolating young people from online communities, and driving some to less regulated apps and darker corners of the internet.

Initial impacts of the legislation “suggest it is not meeting its objectives of increasing the safety and well-being of young Australians”, it said.

While raising concern over the lack of an industry standard for determining age online, Meta said its compliance with the Australian law would be a “multilayered process”.

Since the ban, the California-based firm said it had helped found the OpenAge Initiative, a non-profit group that has launched age-verification tools called AgeKeys to be used with participating platforms.

Zuckerberg names banker, ex-Trump advisor as Meta president
By AFP
January 12, 2026


Dina Powell McCormick is married to Republican senator from Pennsylvania, Dave McCormick - Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP JEFF SWENSEN

Meta on Monday appointed banker Dina Powell McCormick as president and vice chairman, tapping a former member of the Trump administration to help steer the technology giant’s massive AI infrastructure expansion.

Powell McCormick, who served on Meta’s board, will join the company’s management team as it scales what founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg described as “the massive physical and financial model that will power the next decade of computing.”

“Dina’s experience at the highest levels of global finance, combined with her deep relationships around the world, makes her uniquely suited to help Meta manage this next phase of growth,” Zuckerberg said.

In a separate post, Zuckerberg said Powell McCormick “will be involved in all of Meta’s work, with a particular focus on partnering with governments and sovereigns to build, deploy, invest in, and finance Meta’s AI and infrastructure.”

The appointment comes as Meta accelerates investments in artificial intelligence infrastructure, including data centers and energy supply.

In her new role at Meta, Powell McCormick’s banking experience will be key. She will help guide the company’s overall AI infrastructure strategy and oversee its multi-billion-dollar investments.

She will also focus on building partnerships to expand the company’s investment capacity, the company said, as Meta seeks to keep up with its big tech rivals in spending massively on AI.

An Egyptian-American, Powell McCormick spent 16 years as a partner at Goldman Sachs, serving on the firm’s management committee and leading its global sovereign investment banking business.

Sovereign wealth funds from the Middle East have become major investors in the AI infrastructure build-out and could play a role in Meta achieving its AI spending goals.

Her last job was at BDT & MSD Partners, a bank and advisory firm that has been involved in finding US investors for TikTok, according to news outlet Axios.

Her hiring continues Zuckerberg’s political pivot to the right, with Republican Powell McCormick one of the company’s most visible arrivals since Sheryl Sandberg, the former chief operating officer and member of the Clinton administration who left in 2022.

Zuckerberg has recently made a visible shift toward President Donald Trump and conservative positions, doing away with third-party fact-checking, reversing company diversity initiatives and embracing a more traditionally masculine image.

Trump congratulated Powell McCormick on the appointment in a social media post, calling her “a fantastic, and very talented, person, who served the Trump Administration with strength and distinction.”

Powell McCormick served as deputy national security advisor during Trump’s first term, a role in which she helped shape US foreign policy.

She is married to the Republican senator from Pennsylvania, Dave McCormick.




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'Smells so swampy': Internet disgusted as ex-Trump aide lands major job at Meta

Nicole Charky-Chami
January 12, 2026 
RAW STORY


Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA), then-Senate candidate, speaks to supporters alongside his wife, Dina Powell McCormick, at an election night event in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on May 17, 2022. REUTERS/Quinn Glabicki

The internet reacted Monday to the news that a former aide to President Donald Trump has been named a top leader at Meta.

Dina Powell McCormick, former deputy national security advisor and wife of Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA), was named Meta's next president and vice chairman in a company announcement.

President Donald Trump reacted to the leadership change in a Truth Social post:

"Congratulations to DINA POWELL MCCORMICK, WHO HAS JUST BEEN NAMED THE NEW PRESIDENT OF META. A great choice by Mark Z!!! She is a fantastic, and very talented, person, who served the Trump Administration with strength and distinction! President DJT"

Social media users had a mix of reactions:

"Oh, Jesus ... Is this why you don't support the SAVE Act? Was that the price Zuck demanded? This smells soooooo swampy," user Maggie Leber wrote on X.

"Wow," Sean Logue, criminal and injury attorney, wrote on X.

"That her husband is a sitting senator from PA and sits on several committee - including Foreign Relations and Finance - is not mentioned but maybe relevant? This has probably happened before, but isn’t this the 'swamp' so many claim to be against? Ah, yes, but only for people you dislike," user KJ Schneider wrote on Bluesky.

"Good bye, Mark. Unsubscribing now from all Meta accounts," user Marc Abrams wrote on Bluesky.

"There are very good oligarchs, on both sides," retired journalist Greg Gardner wrote on Bluesky.

"More bowing to the regime," sound recordist Jesse Dubé-Smith wrote on Bluesky.

'One of the dumbest people on earth!' Congress member goes scorched earth on Elon Musk

Robert Davis
January 12, 2026

RAW STORY


Elon Musk is seen with a bruised eye that Musk claimed he received at the hands of his son, X Æ A-12, as he attends a press conference with U.S. President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 30, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) squared off against Elon Musk on Monday after Musk posted a conspiracy theory about the Somali community in Minnesota.

Musk retweeted a post on his social media platform X about an alleged voter fraud scheme where voters are imported from other countries and given welfare benefits in exchange for their votes. Musk said in his post that the same "scheme" is playing out across the country, and attempted to tie Omar to the conspiracy.

"A large number of relatively recently arrived Somalis will elect only a Somali to Congress in that Minnesota district," Musk posted. "This is much more subtle, but just as bad, in many other parts of America."

Omar didn't mince words in her reply.

"You are one of the dumbest people on earth, my district is literally a majority white district," Omar wrote. "Your conspiracy theories are laughable and should have no place in a society that cares about facts."

Omar has been a target of the Trump administration and its allies for several years. Their feud began after she supported his two impeachments, and has intensified amid the second administration's intense deportation operations.

UK regulator opens probe into X over sexualised AI imagery


By AFP
January 12, 2026


Grok is facing growing international backlash for allowing users to create and share sexualised pictures of women and children using simple text prompts.

 - Copyright AFP Shammi MEHRA

Alexandra BACON

UK media regulator Ofcom on Monday launched a formal investigation into Elon Musk’s X over its AI chatbot Grok’s image creation feature that has been used to produce sexualised deepfakes.

Grok is facing growing international backlash for allowing users to create and share sexualised pictures of women and children using simple text prompts.

Ofcom described the reports as “deeply concerning”.

It said in a statement that the undressed images of people “may amount to intimate image abuse or pornography — and sexualised images of children… may amount to child sexual abuse material”.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office welcomed the investigation, saying that Ofcom “has our full support to take any action it sees fit”.

A Downing Street spokesperson added: “We won’t hesitate to go further to protect children online and strengthen the law as needed.”

Ofcom said it had contacted X on January 5 asking it to explain the steps it has taken to protect UK users.

Without sharing details of the exchange, the regulator said that X responded within the given timeframe.

The formal investigation will determine whether X “failed to comply with its legal obligations”.

Contacted by AFP, X referred to a previous statement, which said: “We take action against illegal content on X… by removing it, permanently suspending accounts, and working with local governments and law enforcement as necessary.”

– Global backlash –

Under Britain’s Online Safety Act, which entered force in July, websites, social media and video-sharing platforms hosting potentially harmful content are required to implement strict age verification through tools such as facial imagery or credit card checks.

It is meanwhile illegal for media sites to create or share non-consensual intimate images, or child sexual abuse material, including sexual deepfakes created with AI.

Ofcom has the power to impose fines of 10 percent of worldwide revenue for breaches of these rules.

Grok appeared to deflect the international criticism with a new monetisation policy at the end of last week, posting on X that the tool was now “limited to paying subscribers”, alongside a link to a premium subscription.

Starmer condemned the move as an affront to victims and “not a solution”.

Musk brushed off the UK’s criticism this weekend, posting on X that “they just want to suppress free speech”.

On Saturday, Indonesia became the first country to deny all access to the tool, with Malaysia following suit Sunday.

The European Commission, which acts as the EU’s digital watchdog, has ordered X to retain all internal documents and data related to Grok until the end of 2026 in response to the uproar.

“We will not be outsourcing child protection and consent to Silicon Valley,” European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen said on Monday.

“If they don’t act, we will,” she added.

Malaysia, Indonesia become first to block Musk’s Grok over AI deepfakes

AP
January 12, 2026

Authorities in both countries acted over the weekend, citing concerns about non-consensual and sexual deepfakes

Regulators say existing controls cannot prevent fake pornographic content, especially involving women and minors

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia and Indonesia have become the first countries to block Grok, the artificial intelligence chatbot developed by Elon Musk’s xAI, after authorities said it was being misused to generate sexually explicit and non-consensual images.

The moves reflect growing global concern over generative AI tools that can produce realistic images, sound and text, while existing safeguards fail to prevent their abuse. The Grok chatbot, which is accessed through Musk’s social media platform X, has been criticized for generating manipulated images, including depictions of women in bikinis or sexually explicit poses, as well as images involving children.

Regulators in the two Southeast Asian nations said existing controls were not preventing the creation and spread of fake pornographic content, particularly involving women and minors. Indonesia’s government temporarily blocked access to Grok on Saturday, followed by Malaysia on Sunday.

“The government sees non-consensual sexual deepfakes as a serious violation of human rights, dignity and the safety of citizens in the digital space,” Indonesia’s Communication and Digital Affairs Minister Meutya Hafid said in a statement Saturday.

The ministry said the measure was intended to protect women, children and the broader community from fake pornographic content generated using AI.

Initial findings showed that Grok lacks effective safeguards to stop users from creating and distributing pornographic content based on real photos of Indonesian residents, Alexander Sabar, director general of digital space supervision, said in a separate statement. He said such practices risk violating privacy and image rights when photos are manipulated or shared without consent, causing psychological, social and reputational harm.

In Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission ordered a temporary restriction on Grok on Sunday after what it said was “repeated misuse” of the tool to generate obscene, sexually explicit and non-consensual manipulated images, including content involving women and minors.

The regulator said notices issued this month to X Corp. and xAI demanding stronger safeguards drew responses that relied mainly on user reporting mechanisms.

“The restriction is imposed as a preventive and proportionate measure while legal and regulatory processes are ongoing,” it said, adding that access will remain blocked until effective safeguards are put in place.

Launched in 2023, Grok is free to use on X. Users can ask it questions on the social media platform and tag posts they’ve directly created or replies to posts from other users. Last summer the company added an image generator feature, Grok Imagine, that included a so-called “spicy mode” that can generate adult content.

The Southeast Asian restrictions come amid mounting scrutiny of Grok elsewhere, including in the European Union, Britain, India and France. Grok last week limited image generation and editing to paying users following a global backlash over sexualized deepfakes of people, but critics say it did not fully address the problem.

Opinion: The Russification of America — Capitalist heaven becomes criminal hell


By Paul Wallis

EDITOR AT LARGE

DIGITAL JOURNAL
January 11, 2026


People march during a protest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, after a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent shot and killed an American woman

 - Copyright AFP Serhii Okunev

The current desiccation of America has a direct analogy in the Russia of the 1990s. The Soviet Union fell apart largely due to mismanagement and extreme corruption. It went ingloriously broke. Public assets were privatized in the form of stocks, and those stocks were instantly snatched up by big money. Russians had to sell their stocks to make ends meet as black markets exploded and prices skyrocketed to insane levels.

The Russian middle class was never as prevalent as the American middle class, but the result was an upper class with impregnable political protection. A police state effectively became a criminal state. The Bratva, aka the Russian Mafia, appeared in swarms.

This almost total vaporization of middle-class assets effectively funded the process of redesigning Russia into its current form. It gave huge cash cows to private interests. The Russian people went through a very bad time, even by their historical standards.

People did it very tough. They were selling heirlooms or whatever got them though. There was a drug called Krokodil, which produced some of the most bizarre effects of any known drug, including “flesh-eating” effects. You can’t see the more gruesome effects on safe search, but they included literal holes in people’s limbs.

This absolute disintegration of Russian society was barely reported in the West. In Russia, the Russians seem to have soon longed for the good old police state. Nothing like a gulag to make you feel nostalgic.

The less idealistic Russians did what most people do in tough times. They went for money and had to deal with the guys with the guns and gangs. The result is modern Russia, a completely opaque state ruled entirely and thuggishly entirely from the top down.

The very big money went upwards and the oppression went downwards. The laws favoured the top and too bad about anyone else. There was no protection from the new Russia. The news also came from the top down, a sort of trickle-down oppression.

OK. America and Russia were hardly identical twins at any point in their histories. The American middle class had far more assets than Russia as a nation. America, for all its faults, also had a working democracy, something Russia has never had.

The analogy holds up in one undeniable form. In the US, money is and always has been an insider’s game. Connections matter. This economic model is basically the same thing,

The US Robber Barons have simply been replaced by hedge funds, corporate deals, political and other criminals with publicists, and a lot of money laundering. The political process is all about money.

If who does what is different in America compared to who does what in Russia, it’s the exact same things being done. It’s an unmistakable pattern, and it works.

The only real difference is in definitions. In Russia, “free enterprise” is whatever the government says it is. In the US, it’s whatever the big money says it is. What a coincidence. There’s a wholesome supply of piggish goons and executive excrement to enforce it.

Meanwhile, the US has gone backward and downward fast. The expression “Third World America” used to be an almost-joke. Now, it’s inexcusably normal. America has been turned into a Russified version of hell. Not a lot of “greatness” to be seen. The distribution of US wealth is now far beyond obscene.

Libertarians and conservatives should note that this is also the exact diametric opposite of the US in its heyday. So should economists who are supposed to be able to read and write.

The pitiful litany of America’s disasters doesn’t need reciting. It needs fixing.

This is the antithesis of America.

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Disclaimer
The opinions expressed in this Op-Ed are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Digital Journal or its members.