Senior Trump aide says Minneapolis agents may have violated protocol

White House reviews immigration tactics after fatal Minneapolis shooting; Trump vows to ‘de‑escalate’ WASHINGTON — The White House is examining whether U.S. immigration agents breached protocol before the fatal shooting of ICU nurse Alex Pretti during weekend protests in Minneapolis, senior aide Stephen Miller said, as the administration signaled a shift in tactics amid mounting political fallout. Miller, who oversees President Donald Trump’s hard-line immigration agenda, said the administration had issued “clear guidance”…

UN agency reports school supplies enter Gaza after two-year block

UNICEF has delivered school kits into Gaza for the first time in two and a half years, a breakthrough the U.N. children’s agency says could restart learning for hundreds of thousands of students after Israeli authorities previously blocked the supplies. The move comes as Gaza’s education system remains shattered by war and severe restrictions on basic classroom materials. “We have now, in the last days, got in thousands of recreational kits, hundreds of school-in-a-carton kits,” UNICEF spokesperson James Elder said. “We’re…

Russian strikes kill two in Kyiv region, officials report

Russian strikes near Ukraine’s capital killed two people and wounded several others on Monday, regional authorities said, as a fresh wave of attacks overnight left at least a dozen people dead across the country and knocked out power in freezing temperatures. In a post on Telegram, Mykola Kalashnyk, head of the Kyiv region’s military administration, said a man and a woman were killed in the Bilogorodska community west of the capital. Four other people sought medical assistance following the strike, he added. The regional…

Slovakia and Hungary to take EU to court over Russian gas ban

Slovakia will challenge the European Union’s decision to end imports of Russian natural gas by 2027, Prime Minister Robert Fico said, aligning Bratislava with neighboring Hungary’s plan to sue over the measure. The legal move deepens a rift inside the bloc over how quickly to sever energy ties with Moscow more than two years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Both Slovakia and Hungary are landlocked central European countries that have maintained close links to the Kremlin and remain heavily reliant on Russian…

Spain plans to grant legal status to 500,000 undocumented migrants

Spain’s left-wing government has approved a decree to grant legal status to an estimated 500,000 undocumented migrants, a sweeping regularisation that underscores Madrid’s divergence from tougher migration policies elsewhere in Europe. Migration Minister Elma Saiz said those who qualify will be able to work “in any sector, in any part of the country,” framing the plan as both an economic necessity and a rights-based reform. “We are talking about estimations, probably more or less the figures may be around half a million…

China pledges to firmly support the UN as the global order’s core

Xi backs UN-centered order in meeting with Finland’s Orpo as Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ raises questions BEIJING — President Xi Jinping said China seeks to uphold a United Nations–based world order during talks with Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo in Beijing, a pointed message as Washington courts allies for a new “Board of Peace” initiative announced by U.S. President Donald Trump this month. “China is willing to work with Finland to firmly uphold the international system with the United Nations at its core,” Xi told Orpo…

France approves bill barring social media for kids under 15

France’s lower house has approved a bill that would ban social media use by children under 15, a measure championed by President Emmanuel Macron to curb excessive screen time and protect mental health. Lawmakers in the National Assembly passed the text 130–21 after a lengthy session, sending it to the Senate for further scrutiny before it can become law. Macron hailed the vote as a “major step” to protect children and teenagers, reiterating his concern that social platforms can manipulate young users. “The emotions of our…

Russia: Peace talks promising, but territorial issues remain a central hurdle

The Kremlin said U.S.-brokered trilateral talks between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators in the United Arab Emirates over the weekend were held in a “constructive spirit,” but cautioned that no early breakthrough should be expected as core territorial disputes remain unresolved. “It would be a mistake to expect any significant results from the initial contacts,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, calling the opening exchanges positive while adding there was “significant work ahead.” He underscored that…

Trump overhauls Minneapolis immigration unit as White House scrambles to contain fallout

MINNEAPOLIS — President Donald Trump moved to install border czar Tom Homan to take control of the administration’s immigration operation in Minneapolis today, an attempt to tamp down a growing political crisis after federal agents fatally shot Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse, during weekend protests. The shift comes as the White House weighs a broader reset of its tactics in Minnesota, where some 3,000 federal agents have patrolled the streets for weeks. According to officials familiar with internal…

Arctic blast threatens United States in the storm’s aftermath

At least 30 people are dead and more than half a million households woke up without electricity as a monster winter storm and life-threatening Arctic air mass gripped large swaths of the United States from New Mexico to Maine. Forecasters warned the northern half of the country could remain “continuously below freezing through February 1,” the National Weather Service said in a post on X, with “record low temperatures” hitting several southern states unaccustomed to severe winter weather. The sprawling system delivered a…