It’s Wednesday, January 28. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Rachel Goldberg-Polin reflects on what comes after “Bring them home.” Tyler Cowen on how AI will change religion. River Page on a TV show about closeted gay hockey players that has caused a “mass psychosis event.”
But first: Olivia Reingold reports from Minneapolis.
“They messed with the wrong city,” Mary Irene Slatt, a 48-year-old realtor, told The Free Press’s Olivia Reingold in Minneapolis yesterday.
Slatt is one of the many protesters who have opposed the massive federal deportation operation in the city in recent months—and who now, four days after the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, sees signs that the Trump administration is reversing course.
Another is Kevyn Burger. “They will never say we won,” Burger said of ICE. “But we know it.”
In her dispatch today, Olivia reports on how things have changed in Minneapolis since the killing of Alex Pretti—and what the city’s residents think will come next.
—The Editors
On Monday, the body of the final hostage in Gaza was returned to Israel. It marks the end of the 843-day campaign to “Bring them home.” Rachel Goldberg-Polin, whose son Hersh was killed in captivity by Hamas, reflects on a moment that brought a mix of grief and relief and asks: Where do we go from here?
A new study found that a majority of sermons in Christian churches are likely co-written with AI. At a time when AI knows more about the Bible than most human specialists, and religious figures disagree about the appropriate uses of technology, Tyler Cowen wonders: Will machines advance the spiritual development of the world—and should they have any significant role in religious observance?
Heated Rivalry, a steamy new show about closeted gay hockey players, dropped on HBO late last year to great fanfare. Then things got weird. Today, River Page unpacks the internet meltdowns, broken taboos, and harassment campaigns that have created what one of the show’s co-stars called a “mass psychosis event.”
Last year, Columbia University hired a monitor to make sure the school kept its promises to fight antisemitism. But last week, the university replaced that consultant, Bart Schwartz, citing “administrative and logistical reasons.” Today, Maya Sulkin reports on the real reason behind the shuffle.
Senator John Fetterman asked President Trump to fire DHS Secretary Kristi Noem yesterday amid the controversy over her handling of the killing of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis over the weekend. “Americans have died,” Fetterman wrote to Trump on X yesterday. “She is betraying DHS’s core mission and trashing your border security legacy.”
TikTok settled a lawsuit in California court Tuesday. The suit accused the company of intentionally addicting teens to the social media platform. The Chinese-owned app is the first major tech company to settle such a case, as similar lawsuits continue against Meta, Alphabet, and Snapchat, alleging their platforms cause psychological harm.
The chief judge of Minnesota’s federal court ordered acting ICE director Todd Lyons to appear in court to explain his failure to comply with previous court orders related to Trump’s immigration crackdown. “The Court’s patience is at an end,” Judge Patrick Schiltz wrote.
UPS will cut 30,000 jobs and shut down 24 facilities in 2026 as part of a shift away from low-margin Amazon shipments, the organization said yesterday. After cutting 48,000 jobs last year, the world’s largest package delivery company targeted about $3 billion in savings.
The death toll from Winter Storm Fern, which hit the eastern and southern U.S. last weekend, rose to at least 34 amid continued power outages and below-freezing temperatures. Half a million Americans are without electricity as forecasters monitor the possibility of another significant winter storm hitting the East Coast this weekend.
The U.S. sent a delegation from ICE to provide security at the Winter Olympics in Italy, prompting confusion and outrage among locals who disapprove of the agency’s activity in Minneapolis. “They don’t do immigration enforcement operations in a foreign country, obviously,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement Tuesday.
Neil Young is offering free streaming of his entire discography to residents of Greenland amid tensions between the U.S. and NATO over control of the Danish-owned land mass. “I hope my music and music films will ease some of the unwarranted stress and threats you are experiencing from our unpopular and hopefully temporary government,” Young wrote on his blog yesterday.
U.S. population growth slowed to one of its lowest rates in history, according to numbers released by the Census Bureau on Tuesday. Over the past year, America’s population increased by only 1.8 million as immigration plummeted by more than 50 percent from 2024 amid President Trump’s increased focus on border security.
Russia is offering cash bonuses to citizens who agree to fight in Ukraine, along with commuted sentences for prisoners, and a fast track to citizenship for foreigners. So far, some foreign nationals from South Asia have reported being swindled into enlisting by Russian military recruiters who promised them non-combat jobs.
Wirh reapect to the population topic - theres some discussion on that vis a vis AI. Would be keen to understand your reporting on that. Also, how talk about birthrate, and more specifically the immigration rate versus the US birthrate. TFP has done lots of articles on Gen Z and Millennials - would be good to tie it all together for us readers. Thanks.
Watching the resistance to immigration enforcement over the last year has made me really sad for our country... because it has displayed just how bad our education system has become, how easily manipulated/activated too many are, and how little history people remember.
- 83 percent of deportees never saw a judge
- Many detained migrants were never given a chance to call their families
- Two-thirds of deportees had no criminal record
- Citizens and Green Card holders improperly detained
- Targeting of Latinos
- Deportations of mothers and children in Family Raids
- Workers swept from jobs in "silent raids"
- At least 5,100 children in foster care due to immigration enforcement
All that describes immigration enforcement under OBAMA, who deported 3.1 million people and turned away another 2 million! Don't take my word for it, read the Obama era articles posted below.
ICE under Obama detained migrants ON Christmas Eve in 2015 and no one took to the streets. ICE last summer did an operation at a marijuana farm in Camarillo, CA, where they rescued unaccompanied minors working there, and there were "protests" at the scene with at least one shot fired at officers! Think about that... If many of these people weren't "activated" to mobilize against immigration enforcement that is largely similar to past enforcement, would those two individuals still be alive?
12/4/2014, ACLU: The Ones Obama Left Behind - And Deported Without a Chance to Be Heard
"Each year, over 363, 279 - 83 percent - of deportations from the United States are ordered by immigration officers, NOT judges. Those deported in 'summary removal' processes do NOT get a hearing or a chance to present evidence, or call a lawyer, or even say goodbye to their families before they are banished, sometimes for life."
4/7/2014, TIME: Most Immigrants Deported Under Obama Had Thin or NO Criminal Record
"Two-thirds of immigrants deported from the U.S. since 2008 committed minor traffic violations or had NO criminal record at all despite Obama's promise that his administration was targeting immigrants who were threats to the community."
3/21/2014 ACLU: Three Ways We Got to 2 Million (3.1 million total for 8 Obama years)
"At the same time, we have seen U.S. citizens and Green Card holders improperly detained, targeting of Latinos and immigrants by local police, and increased fear in communities, yet no indication that the Administration plans to curb Secure Communities." "In its first five years, the Obama Administration has deported about twice as many people as the Bush Administration did in the same period - all while the number of immigration judges has remained virtually stagnant and border apprehensions are at an all-time low." "The reality is that this Administration has increasingly relied on methods, such as expedited removal and reinstatements of old decisions."
1/4/2016, Politico: Obama Administration Kicks Off FAMILY Deportation Raids
“The Obama administration confirmed Monday that it began a new wave of arrests of Central American immigrant families over the weekend, moving forward with deportations of MOTHERS and CHILDREN despite an outcry from immigrant rights groups and potential political fallout for Democrats.”
7/10/2010: New York Times: Illegal Workers Swept From Jobs in 'Silent Raids'
11/8/2011, The Atlantic Philanthropies: Shattered Families: The Perilous Intersection of Immigration Enforcement and the Child Welfare System
“Deportations and detentions of undocumented immigrants are destroying families, according to a ground breaking report by the Applied Research Center (ARC). When parents are detained or deported, their children are placed in foster care. Parents face a difficult, if not impossible, battle to regain custody because of barriers by immigration enforcement and the child welfare system. ARC estimates that at least 5,100 CHILDREN live in foster care whose parents were deported or detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.”