The Minneapolis ICE Shooting & Trump's Greenland Plan

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Hi readers, happy Thursday! Today we’re covering the Minneapolis ICE shooting, Trump’s hunger for Greenland, the aftermath in Venezuela, China-U.S. AI relations, Trump’s military spending plan, the sluggish job market, and prediction markets.

“It is easy to sit up and take notice, what is difficult is getting up and taking action.” – Honoré de Balzac

A Twin Cities Tragedy

Yesterday, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent shot and killed a woman during an operation in Minneapolis, Minnesota. According to two sources with the federal government, the victim, 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, is a U.S. citizen. 

In a statement soon after the shooting, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem claimed that Good had tried to “weaponize her vehicle” against the ICE agents in “an act of domestic terrorism.” The ICE agent, according to Noem’s account, “used his training to save his own life and that of his colleagues” during the incident.

However, video footage of the incident, and statements from local officials and law enforcement, seem to contradict Noem's account. In the video, Good’s car is approached by three ICE agents. At first, she puts the vehicle into reverse in order to move away from them as they try to open her door and reach through her open window. She then shifts into drive, with two agents out of the path of her car (on the left) and one in front. She begins turning right – away from two of the agents – and the officer in front of her car, at this point moving out of her path by her left headlight, fires his gun through the windshield. The car then accelerates, the officer gets off two more shots into the front seat through the driver side window, and the vehicle quickly crashes into a parked car. The agent who killed Good, appearing totally unharmed, walks up to the parked car before turning around and telling the other ICE agents to call the cops. 

“This was an agent recklessly using power that resulted in somebody dying – getting killed,” said Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, adding that his message to ICE is to “get the f*** out” of the city. 

Getting Greedy For Greenland

The White House has confirmed that Trump officials are “actively” discussing the possibility of the U.S. purchasing Greenland from Denmark. The only problem is that the island is not actually for sale, according to the governments of both Greenland and Denmark. So how do you buy something that’s not for sale?

Earlier this week, the White House had apparently considered using military force to take the island territory. “Nobody’s going to fight the United States militarily over the future of Greenland,” Trump aide Stephen Miller told CNN when asked to rule out the use of military force to take the island. “We live in a world, in the real world, Jake, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power,” he added. “These are the iron laws of the world since the beginning of time.” Keep in mind that this man’s hairline is on the wrong half of his head and he looks like he’s seen less sunlight than Dracula.

While the Trump White House has still refused to rule out a military invasion of Greenland (gotta keep all your options on the table!) it looks like they’re taking the diplomatic route for now. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters yesterday that he’s scheduled to meet with Danish officials next week. The U.S.’s European allies, meanwhile, seem to have been caught flat-footed by Trump’s abrupt turn towards the Danish territory, and European diplomats have only issued a limp statement that the people of Greenland “have the full support and solidarity of the European Union.”

Clamping Down On Caracas

• When the U.S. captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro over the weekend, it wasn’t clear how the U.S. would leverage its newfound power over the country. Now, the White House’s plan is beginning to take shape – yesterday, the U.S. seized two oil tankers allegedly carrying Venezuelan oil exports, one in the North Atlantic and the other in the Caribbean. “The blockade of sanctioned and illicit Venezuelan oil remains in FULL EFFECT - anywhere in the world,” Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote on X after the seizures were announced.

• According to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Venezuela’s current leadership is cooperating with the U.S. in its oil capture plan. “They understand that the only way they can move oil and generate revenue and not have economic collapse is if they co-operate and work with the United States,” Rubio told reporters yesterday. President Trump, meanwhile, announced that Venezuela “will be turning over” up to 50 million barrels of oil (worth $2.8 billion). Rubio chimed in to state that the oil would be sold “in the marketplace at market rates,” and that the proceeds from the sale would be distributed by the U.S. “in a way that benefits the Venezuelan people.” The secretary of state added that the U.S. plans to stabilize Venezuela before overseeing a transition of government.

So… What Are We?

• China seems to be taking a long, hard look at its relationship with the U.S. AI industry. Yesterday, Beijing ordered Chinese tech firms to pause their purchases of Nvidia H200 chips – the processors are the second-most-recent generation of chips used for training AI models, and the White House just approved their sale to Chinese firms early in December. Beijing is apparently weighing its need to keep Chinese AI firms competitive with its desire to encourage companies to buy domestically-made processors. This means that the roughly 82,000 H200s slated to enter China by mid-February will be put on ice until Beijing figures out its direction.

• Another part of the China-U.S. AI relationship was also thrown into doubt on Wednesday, when Beijing announced that it would be reviewing Meta’s purchase of Manus, an AI assistant platform acquired by the U.S. tech giant in December. Despite the fact that Manus is now headquartered in Singapore, Beijing is apparently examining whether the fact that the company’s tech was developed while it operated out of China should make it subject to the country’s national security or tech export laws. Overall, the U.S. and China seemed happy to have their AI industries more intertwined over the past few months, but that relationship seems to be freezing up as China works out the roadmap for its domestic AI industry.

Additional World News

• Civilians flee Aleppo as clashes between Syrian government and Kurdish forces escalate (AP)

• Two weeks on, questions linger over targeting and impact of US airstrikes in Nigeria (Guardian) 

• Violent clashes reported as Iran protests spread to more areas (BBC)

• Beijing vows fiscal support for debt-stricken provinces (Semafor)

• UN rights chief says Israeli policy in West Bank 'resembles apartheid system' (BBC)

• What Is the UNFCCC and Why Is the U.S. Pulling Out? (NYT, $)

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Big Don Wants To Ball Out

• Yesterday, President Trump announced that he plans to ask Congress to increase the country’s defense budget by 50% for fiscal year 2027. Under this plan, the budget would balloon from $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion – for comparison, Ukraine has a GDP just under $200 billion.

• According to Trump, the jump in defense spending is necessary to fund his “Dream Military,” which features massive projects like the “Golden Dome” missile defense system and the next-generation “Golden Fleet” battleships. Speaking of the “Golden Fleet” (we were away when he announced it), the crown jewel of Trump’s plan for the Navy is the so-called “Trump-class Battleship,” which will apparently be able to launch guided nuclear and hypersonic missiles.

• Back to the budget, Congressional Republicans seem convinced that they’ll be able to scrounge together Trump’s $500 billion. In fact, some are calling to make the defense spending hike permanent – “A lot of us are saying we want a commitment to a sustained spending [increase], not just a one-year,” said Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) after Trump’s announcement.

A Cold Winter For Job-Seekers

• The U.S. labor market is still looking sluggish. According to Labor Department numbers released on Wednesday, employers posted just 7.1 million job openings in November, the second-lowest level recorded in half a decade and a significant decrease from the 7.4 million posted in October. The weak employment numbers contrast with wider economic growth, with the economy growing 4% year-over-year in the July-September quarter of 2025.

• What does this mean? In a nutshell, don’t quit that job. As for the future, the optimistic outlook is that economic growth should drive employers to open up more jobs. But as companies increasingly turn to AI and automation to cut costs, we could see a situation where the economy will continue to grow, algorithm-assisted, while more and more people struggle to find new work.

Additional USA News

• US House advances Democratic effort to reinstate healthcare subsidies (Reuters)

• Trump says he wants to ban large investors from buying houses. It's part of his affordability plan (AP)  

• California Tech Executives Plot Against Rep. Ro Khanna Over Support of Wealth Tax (NYT, $)

• More gen Z men live with parents in this city than anywhere in the US. How do they date? (Guardian) 

• Nick Reiner’s Lawyer, Alan Jackson, Removes Himself From Murder Case (NYT, $)

• New US dietary guidelines call for more protein, less processed food (BBC)

Polymarket Pervades Another Publication

• Dow Jones is a publishing company (and subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp) that owns The Wall Street Journal, Barron's, MarketWatch, and other financial publications. It’s also known for its past publication of the Dow Jones Industrial Average stock index, though that business has since been sold off to a different company. Yesterday, the publishing giant announced a partnership with prediction market firm Polymarket, which will see Polymarket live odds displayed across all Dow Jones outlets.

• Let's get this out of the way: the institutional legitimization of Polymarket and Kalshi – glorified online casinos – is disturbing to watch. It’s 2026; we know that gambling addiction is a serious problem that’s only gotten worse with the legalization of sports betting in the U.S., but media giants like CNN and Dow Jones are still taking these prediction markets’ money to promote platforms that allow people to bet on everything. 

• But morality questions aside, these prediction market odds aren’t actually providing people with real insights into the news. The pool of people who actually bet on these platforms is quite small, meaning odds can be disproportionately manipulated, especially by whales (big spenders) looking to influence people’s perception of reality. People also use the markets to make hedges – a smart trader might bet that the unemployment rate will skyrocket next month in order to offset their losses in other investments. Betting on the Brexit crisis has also shown that prediction markets can be self-reinforcing, meaning initial beliefs (which can, again, be manipulated by whales) can make people make irrational trades. So while Polymarket’s CEO says his platform is providing you with “reliable, transparent, and accurate information,” it might be best to take those numbers with a big fat grain of salt.

Additional Reads

• The weirdest tech we’ve seen at CES 2026 (Verge)

• People who come off slimming jabs regain weight four times faster than dieters (BBC)

• Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s Wedding: What We Know So Far (NYT, $)

• Lego unveils tech-filled Smart Bricks - to play experts' unease (BBC)

• Grok Is Generating Sexual Content Far More Graphic Than What's on X (Wired)

• The Friend-Group Fallacy (Atlantic, $)

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Peanut For Your Thoughts

The whole point of NATO (and U.S. imperialism in general) is that the White House doesn’t need to outright control other countries in order to project force across the globe, so Trump’s move to purchase or invade Greenland is… pretty confusing.

Editor + Writer: Marcus Gee-Lim

Designer: Joe Stella