Minneapolis mayor calls for local authorities to have access to fatal shooting investigation
The Democratic mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, has urged federal authorities to not “hide from the facts” of the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good.
Frey noted that the Trump administration has already branded Good as a “domestic terrorist”.
“They’re calling the actions of the agent involved as some form of defensive posture. We know that they’ve already determined much of the investigation, and even if they haven’t, there is the appearance that there is some conclusion drawn from the very beginning,” he added.
A reminder that the Minneapolis Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) was denied access to evidence this week, after the FBI took sole control of the case.
“Our ask is to embrace the truth,” Frey said today. “Our ask is to include the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension in this process, because we in Minneapolis want a fair investigation.”
Key events
Senators urge Apple and Google to remove Musk’s X and Grok from app stores over sexual deepfakes – NBC News
NBC News is reporting that three Democratic senators urged Apple and Google to remove Elon Musk’s apps X and Grok from their app stores yesterday evening following use of xAI’s Grok artificial intelligence tool to flood X with sexualized nonconsensual images of real people.
Hours later, X restricted Grok’s image generation to paying premium subscribers, and seemingly restricting what types of images Grok can create on X, according to NBC News’s report.
The Grok reply bot on X has generated thousands of sexualized images an hour this week, mostly of women but at times of children, NBC News previously reported. But while X appears to have pivoted to limiting that feature on the social media app, on the standalone Grok app and website, Grok will still create sexualized deepfakes.
In an open letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, senators Ron Wyden of Oregon, Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico asked the companies to “enforce” terms of service that appear to ban the activity that was surging on X and is still possible on Grok.
The terms of service of Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store both appear to forbid apps that allow sexualized images of people without their consent, the senators wrote.
Apple and Google must remove these apps from the application stores until X’s policy violations are addressed.
They continued:
X users have used the app’s Grok AI tool to generate nonconsensual sexual imagery of real, private citizens at scale. This trend has included Grok modifying images to depict women being sexually abused, humiliated, hurt, and even killed.
Turning a blind eye to X’s egregious behavior would make a mockery of your moderation practices. Indeed, not taking action would undermine your claims in public and in court that your app stores offer a safer user experience than letting users download apps directly to their phones.
The supreme court is set to issue its next set of opinions on Wednesday 14 January. This is the next chance for the justices to issue a ruling on the legality of Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs.
Top banking committee Democrat warns against ‘handouts’ or ‘special favors’ ahead of Trump’s meeting with oil executives
Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate banking committee, warned against “billions in handouts” to oil companies who are due to meet with Donald Trump at the White House today, and leaving “American taxpayers with the bill”.
The president is set to meet with CEOs of Exxon, Shell and ConocoPhillips, as well as a representative from Chevron later today to discuss control of Venezuela’s oil production.
“The American people voted for lower costs, not for the US military to attack Venezuela or to have their hard-earned money used to line the pockets of Big Oil,” she said in a statement. “These oil executives should commit that they will not seek or accept taxpayer subsidies or special favors from the White House.”
Earlier, we reported the news that the supreme court did not issue a highly anticipated ruling on the legality of Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs.
The court did issue a decision in a case that allows federal prisoners to make repeat challenges to their convictions.
In response to questions from reporters today, Jacob Frey dismissed any suggestion from the administration that his language has been “inflammatory” since Wednesday’s shooting and the subsequent protests in Minneapolis.
“I dropped an F-bomb. They killed somebody. Which one of those is more inflammatory? I’m going with the killing somebody,” Frey said.
The mayor also pushed back on the Trump administration’s claims that Good ran over the ICE agent who killed her.
“Watch the video from every single angle. I mean, the ICE agent walked away with a hip injury that he might as well have gotten from closing a refrigerator door with his hips,” Frey said. “No, he was not ran over. He walked out of there with a hop in his step.”
Chavez also urged Minneapolis residents to “do everything in their power to defend our immigrant neighbors” at this moment.
“Blow your whistle when you see immigration enforcement in your neighborhood,” he said. “Get trained on rapid response so you can educate your neighbors on what is happening on your block, provide rides to your immigrant neighbors who need to go to work, who need to get groceries, who need to see their children come back home safely.”
At today’s press conference, Minneapolis city council member Jason Chavez was tearful as he recalled that Renee Nicole Good was a “mother, wife and beloved community member”.
Chavez remained resolute that the circulated videos of Wednesday’s fatal shooting do “not match the false narrative from the federal government”. He reiterated Frey’s call for local authorities to have access to the ongoing investigation into Good’s death.
“It is important and critical to our community to have a sense of trust in this process by having an independent investigation to present to the county attorney so the adequate charges can be made,” Chavez said.
Minneapolis mayor calls for local authorities to have access to fatal shooting investigation
The Democratic mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, has urged federal authorities to not “hide from the facts” of the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good.
Frey noted that the Trump administration has already branded Good as a “domestic terrorist”.
“They’re calling the actions of the agent involved as some form of defensive posture. We know that they’ve already determined much of the investigation, and even if they haven’t, there is the appearance that there is some conclusion drawn from the very beginning,” he added.
A reminder that the Minneapolis Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) was denied access to evidence this week, after the FBI took sole control of the case.
“Our ask is to embrace the truth,” Frey said today. “Our ask is to include the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension in this process, because we in Minneapolis want a fair investigation.”
Supreme court does not issue ruling on Trump’s sweeping tariffs
The highest court did not issue a highly anticipated decision today on the legality of Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs.
Supreme court set to issue first decision of latest term
The supreme court is on track to deliver the first decision of its latest term today. One of the most anticipated rulings is on the legality of Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs. The highest court is tasked with deciding whether the president can invoke the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose levies on dozens of countries without the approval of Congress.
In November, justices heard arguments in one of the most consequential cases on the docket. They appeared skeptical of the administration’s use of the IEEPA – a decades-old law grants the president authority to regulate international commerce during a “national emergency”. Notably, the IEEPA doesn’t actually mention the word “tariff” as a justified means of curbing a national security threat.
It’s important to note, however, that we don’t know which decision the supreme court will issue today, and it could be in response to any of the several arguments they’ve heard so far this term.
Where were jobs created in December?
Graeme Wearden
More than half of the 50,000 jobs created in the US last month were at food services and drinking places, where payrolls rose by 27,000.
Health care continued to add workers in December; payrolls rose by 21,000, including 16,000 in hospitals.
Employment in social assistance rose by 17,000.
But it was a tougher jobs market in retail, where 25,000 jobs were cut.
Federal government employment rose by 2,000, suggesting that the Doge jobs cull may have abated – after 277,000 jobs were lost through 2025
Read more about the latest jobs data at our dedicated business liveblog:
Lauren Aratani
Federal Reserve officials are expected to weigh this latest data at their next policy meeting at the end of January, when they will decide whether to lower interest rates, which sit at a range of 3.5% to 3.75%, or keep them on hold.
Officials have signaled that a pause in cuts is likely. Minutes from the board’s December meeting revealed stark division when members made their third consecutive cut to rates last month. “Some participants suggested that, under their economic outlooks, it would likely be appropriate to keep (rates) unchanged for some time,” the notes said.
In a press conference last month, the Fed chair, Jerome Powell, said officials will proceed with caution as they remain hopeful that the labor market will stabilize in the upcoming year and inflation will start to cool. Prices rose 2.7% in November, a cooling-off after rising 3% in September.
But the Fed’s vigilance over the economy continues to clash with the outlook of Donald Trump and his economic advisers, who have demanded lower interest rates. Cutting rates could stimulate economic growth, including bolstering the labor market, but at the risk of making prices rise faster.
Employers added 50,000 more jobs in December, according to latest report
Lauren Aratani
Hiring held firm in the US last month, official data showed, amid uncertainty over the strength and direction of the world’s largest economy.
Employers added 50,000 jobs to the US labor force last month, following a year of uneven growth, according to data released from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday.
The closely watched reading was slightly shy of the approximately 73,000 jobs economists expected to be added in the US economy in December. Previous readings for October and November were also revised lower, with the BLS now estimating that the US added 76,000 fewer jobs during those two months.
The unemployment rate, which rose to a four-year high of 4.6% in November, fell back to 4.4% in December.
US intercepts fifth sanctioned oil tanker – report
The US Coast Guard is in the process of seizing a fifth sanctioned tanker, suspected of carrying oil to and from Venezuela, according to Reuters.
The targeted vessel is the Olina. A industry source tells Reuters that the tanker left last week fully loaded with oil as part of a flotilla, after the US captured and arrested Nicolás Maduro. It was returning, fully loaded, to Venezuela when it was seized today.
We’ll bring you more details as they emerge.
Trump to meet with top US oil executives at White House
Donald Trump will be in Washington today, before he travels to Palm Beach this evening.
He has a series of closed door meetings today, the most notable is his 2pm ET sit-down with top oil company executives, to discuss the next steps in handling Venezuela’s oil production.
CNBC reports that the president will meet with the CEOs of Exxon, Shell and ConocoPhillips, as well as a representative from Chevron. Energy secretary Chris Wright is also set to join the meeting.
