The Aftermath Of A Second ICE Shooting

Hi readers, happy Tuesday! Today we’re covering the killing of Alex Pretti, phase 2 of the Gaza peace plan, “The Mother of All Deals,” a storm and a crash, a surprise for Seoul, and how TikTok USA is changing.

“There are no lines in nature, only areas of colour, one against another.” — Edouard Manet

ICE Claims Another Victim

On Saturday, ICE agents in Minneapolis shot and killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse who worked at a VA hospital. All videos of the incident online seem to show Pretti filming protestors interacting with ICE agents before the agents attack another person. When the agents shove her to the ground, Pretti comes to her defense, but the agents pepper-spray both of them directly in the face. 

Pretti is then pushed to the ground by five agents; they beat him multiple times before one of them shoots him at point blank range. Other officers then proceed to empty their clips as well. Pretti was in possession of a (legally permitted) firearm when he was pepper-sprayed, but officers had pulled the gun from his holster as he was tackled to the ground, meaning he never touched it and was unarmed at the time that the officers shot him to death.

Pretti’s killing marks the second time that ICE agents have shot and killed an American citizen in Minneapolis in less than three weeks. While available footage doesn’t show Pretti reaching for his gun or making any aggressive moves at officers, Trump officials were quick to brand the ICU nurse as a “domestic terrorist” who was shot for “brandishing” the gun at officers.

On Monday, Trump met with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to discuss the shooting. After their talk, the president seemed to walk back his administration's more aggressive comments, saying that he and Walz “seemed to be on a similar wavelength” about the violence. The White House’s press secretary promised that “we will let the facts lead and we will let the facts play out in this investigation,” possibly signaling that the massive backlash from Pretti’s shooting might be too hot for even Trump to handle.

While the White House fumbles for a response, Democrats on Capitol Hill have announced that they won’t be passing a government spending bill that will give $64.4 billion to the Department of Homeland Security (including $10 billion for ICE) for the next fiscal year. “Senate Democrats will not provide the votes to proceed to the appropriations bill if the D.H.S. funding bill is included,” said Senator Chuck Schumer, adding that ICE killings in Minneapolis are “appalling” and “unacceptable in any American city.” Without Democrat support, Senate Republicans will not be able to reach the 60 vote threshold needed to avoid a filibuster, meaning Democrats could force the government to a shutdown if ICE continues to kill people in Minneapolis. The GOP is already looking to spin the DHS funding bill into its own spending package, but it’s unclear if this is possible at the moment.

The Second Phase Is Here…?

• Yesterday, Israel recovered the body of Master Sergeant Ran Gvili, the last Israeli hostage in Gaza. His body was recovered with the help of “details and information” provided by Hamas’ military wing, which led IDF personnel to a cemetery near Gaza City. Gvili’s return to Israel marks the end of a chapter in the Israel-Hamas war, and means that the Trump-negotiated peace plan can move on to its second stage.

• The second phase of the plan is supposed to see Hamas lay down its arms and hand over control of Gaza to a technocratic committee. That committee will be overseen by the Trump-chaired “Board of Peace,” and will be backed by the International Stabilization Force, a currently non-existent military force made up of soldiers from various countries. 

• While we’re far from Hamas giving up its weapons, the diplomatic situation in Gaza slightly shifted after Gvili’s body was returned. According to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel plans to oversee “a limited reopening of the Rafah crossing for pedestrian passage only, subject to a full Israeli inspection mechanism.” This means that no aid will be able to enter Gaza via the crossing, but aid workers will be able to enter the enclave and Gazans in need of medical treatment will be able to exit. Foreign journalists, however, are still banned from reporting on Gaza.

The Mother Of All Deals Is Born

• Shifting global trade realities are pushing unlikely allies closer together. Over the past few days, the E.U. and India have been working on “the mother of all deals,” a massive trade deal that would open up the Indian economy – which is aggressively closed off in certain sectors – to European imports. “This is the largest trade deal ever,” said European Union trade chief Maroš Šefčovič.

• So what’s in it for each side? For the E.U., India will slowly reduce some of its highest tariffs in non-strategic markets – tariffs on cars, for example, will drop from 110% to 10% over the next few years, while duties in key areas like agriculture and dairy are expected to remain high. This will drive down prices for Indian consumers while providing European companies with new markets to participate in. Meanwhile, the E.U. will cut tariffs on Indian products including textiles and pharmaceuticals. The deal shows that countries across the globe are looking to diversify their trade relationships as the U.S. becomes an increasingly unreliable trade partner; Trump’s tariffs and push for Greenland have likely spooked the E.U., and New Delhi doesn’t want to stomach his massive 50% tariffs on Indian goods.

Additional World News

• Iranian government braces for possible attack as US navy arrives in region (Guardian) 

• Gold Reaches Historic $5,100 As Silver Hits Record $110 (Forbes) 

• Carney says Canada not pursuing free trade deal with China as Trump threatens 100% tariffs (CNBC)

• China investigating top general over serious violations, says defence ministry (Reuters) 

• AI is hitting UK harder than other big economies, study finds (Guardian)

• Report Says the E.U. Is Gearing Up to Weaponize Europe's Tech Industry Against the U.S. (Gizmodo)

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The United States Of Snow

• A powerful winter storm is sweeping across the country over, bringing heavy snow, wind, and ice to an area spanning from the East Coast to Texas. So far, authorities report that at least 30 people have died in states affected by the cold, and over 200 million people were under cold alerts on Monday morning. Schools in the Northeast were shut down on Monday, forcing hundreds of thousands of students to take their classes from home, while poweroutage.com showed that there were 670,000 power outages nationwide yesterday morning.

• On Sunday, a private jet crashed in Bangor, Maine, killing 6 people. The plane had taken off from Houston’s Hobby Airport before landing at Bangor International Airport at 6:10 p.m. EST. At 7:45 p.m., the plane was cleared for takeoff on its trip to Paris as a snowstorm picked up in the area – just a few minutes later, an air traffic controller told all pilots in the area, “All traffic is stopped on the field! All traffic is stopped on the field!”

• According to an FAA report on the crash, the plane “crashed under unknown circumstances on departure, came to rest inverted, and caught fire.” Authorities and pilots who were at the airport at the time have raised questions about the accumulation of snow on the plane’s wings – one pilot said their crew was being pressured to take off quickly, stating, “I keep telling them this is stupid,” while another pilot said things were “not looking good” at the time of the crash.

A Nasty Surprise For Seoul

• Those “shifting trade realities” we wrote about two stories ago? They continued shifting yesterday as Trump announced that he would be hiking tariffs on South Korean imports by 10%. “Because the Korean Legislature hasn’t enacted our Historic Trade Agreement, which is their prerogative, I am hereby increasing South Korean TARIFFS on Autos, Lumber, Pharma, and all other Reciprocal TARIFFS, from 15% to 25%,” the president wrote in a social media post.

• The announcement left South Korean diplomats stunned – Seoul said the White House had given it “no official notice or explanation about the details” – and Hyundai and Kia both saw their stock plunge in response to Trump’s announcement. The nasty surprise for a historic U.S. ally was announced just a day after Trump threatened to slap Canada with 100% tariffs if the country followed through on a trade deal with China over the weekend.

Additional USA News

• How Trump’s promise to slash energy bills in half has failed across the US (Guardian) 

• Exclusive: In secret recordings, Cruz trashes Trump tariffs, Vance (Axios) 

• 'Kill Switch' for Cars Approved by House Republicans (NewsWeek)

• Florida Republicans raise doubts about Trump’s plans for Venezuelan oil under Rodríguez (Semafor)

• Far From Minneapolis, Memphis Remains Under a Different Federal Crackdown (NYT, $)  

• Border Patrol head Bovino and some agents leaving Minnesota, Walz, Frey say (Axios)

Taking A Byte Out Of TikTok

• Across the globe, farmers are working smarter (and probably harder) than ever before. According to a 2022 report by the US Department of Agriculture, while the number of farms in the U.S. has decreased over the years, those remaining farms have become increasingly “tech dense” as farmers turn to cutting-edge technologies to keep up in a competitive market.

• One farmer operating a 17,000 acre farm in Saskatchewan, Canada has upgraded his tractor with new software and remote cameras. “It can look down and spray a nozzle when the sensors pick a weed, while we're going around 15 miles an hour,” he says. While the upgrades let him spend more time on other tasks, they also help him save on weed killer, making them doubly efficient. Other new tech on the market includes agri-tech giant Sygenta’s Cropwise, which allows farmers to leverage AI and satellite imagery to live-monitor their massive fields, and NoMaze, which tells farmers how to keep their plants healthy under different climate conditions.

• According to a 2024 McKinsey survey, 57% of North American farmers say they’re likely to adopt new technologies over the next two years. The hope is that the tech will make farming more stable for farmers and also decrease costs for consumers. “When farmers get help to avoid crop failures, that could lead to a more controlled farm environment and a reliable and secure food system,” says one agronomist.

Additional Reads

• No, willpower isn’t a muscle – here’s a better way to think of it (Psyche)

• We Strapped on Exoskeletons and Raced. There’s One Clear Winner (Wired, $)

• Sienna Rose: AI suspicions surround mysterious singer (BBC) 

• Instagram Reels and the New Era of Desocialized Media (NYMag) 

• Saudi Arabia to scale back flagship NEOM project: report (New Arab)

• Sea lion recovering in LA after marine center found two bullets in his head (Guardian) 

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