Jelly Roll Delivers Emotional "Jesus Is For Everybody" Speech After 2026 Grammy Win; Screen Rant, February 2, 2026

 

Sarah Polonsky , Screen Rant; Jelly Roll Delivers Emotional "Jesus Is For Everybody" Speech After 2026 Grammy Win

"Jelly Roll’s meteoric rise reached a new pinnacle at the 2026 GRAMMYs, where he took home the trophy for Best Contemporary Country Album for his acclaimed project, Beautifully Broken. Known for his raw honesty, the artist used his time on stage to deliver one of the most talked-about acceptance speeches of the night.

Standing before the Recording Academy, Jelly Roll chose not to shy away from his troubled past. He reflected on the dark days that inspired his album, admitting there was a time when he felt he was a "horrible human."

"There was a moment in my life that all I had was a Bible this big and a radio the same size and a 6 by 8 foot cell," he shared, referencing his previous incarceration. He credited those two things—faith and music—with having the power to completely transform his life.

The singer was visibly moved as he thanked his wife, Bunnie XO, in a deeply personal tribute. He stated plainly that he "would have never changed [his] life" without her, even going as far as to say he might have ended up dead or in jail if not for her and his faith. The climax of the speech turned into a sermon-like moment that resonated throughout the arena. Jelly Roll addressed his faith with a message of inclusivity that broke through the typical awards show rhetoric.

"I want to tell y'all right now Jesus is for everybody. Jesus is not owned by one political party. Jesus is not owned by no music label. Jesus is Jesus and anybody can have a relationship with him."

Move Fast, but Obey the Rules: China’s Vision for Dominating A.I.; The New York Times, February 2, 2026

Meaghan Tobin and Xinyun Wu , The New York Times; Move Fast, but Obey the Rules: China’s Vision for Dominating A.I.

"Mr. Xi’s remarks highlight a tension shaping China’s tech industry. China’s leadership has decided that A.I. will drive the country’s economic growth in the next decade. At the same time, it cannot allow the new technology to disrupt the stability of Chinese society and the Communist Party’s hold over it.

The result is that the government is pushing Chinese A.I. companies to do two things at once: move fast so China can outpace international rivals and be at the forefront of the technological shift, while complying with an increasingly complex set of rules."

Where Is A.I. Taking Us? Eight Leading Thinkers Share Their Visions.; The New York Times, February 2, 2026

 The New York Times ; Where Is A.I. Taking Us? Eight Leading Thinkers Share Their Visions.

"People have been working on artificial intelligence for decades. But five years ago, few were predicting that A.I. would break through as the most important technology story of the 2020s — and quite possibly the century. Large language models have turned A.I. into a household topic, but all areas of A.I. have taken great leaps forward.

Now, we are inundated with chatter about how much A.I. will transform our lives and our world. Already, companies are trying to find ways to offload tasks and even entire jobs to A.I. More people are turning to A.I. for social interaction and mental health support. Educators are scrambling to manage students’ increased reliance on these tools. And in the near future A.I. may lead to breakthroughs in drug discovery and energy; it could allow more people to create art and cultural works — or turn these industries into slop factories.

As society wrestles with whether A.I. will lead us into a better future or catastrophic one, Times Opinion turned to eight experts for their predictions on where A.I. may go in the next five years. Listening to them may help us bring out the best and mitigate the worst out of this new technology."

Federal court reverses decision on Idaho’s library materials law, returns case to lower court; Idaho Capital Sun, January 30, 2026

SEAN DOLAN , Idaho Capital Sun; Federal court reverses decision on Idaho’s library materials law, returns case to lower court

"A federal appeals court on Thursday delivered welcome news for opponents of the Idaho Legislature’s 2024 law that established civil penalties for libraries and schools that allow children to access “harmful” material.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit on Thursday narrowly reversed a decision from the U.S. District Court of Idaho to deny a preliminary injunction that would have stopped the law from going into effect. The circuit court’s decision on Thursday sided with the plaintiffs, reversed the district court’s decision and returns the case back to the lower court to consider “the scope of a limited preliminary injunction” and to “conduct further proceedings consistent with our opinion...

HB 710’s “context clause” requires courts and other reviewers to consider if the allegedly offensive content in libraries and schools possesses “serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value for minors.” The court concluded that the plaintiffs — a coalition of private schools and libraries and their patrons — showed a “likelihood of success” because the bill’s context clause is “overbroad on its face” and threatens to regulate a substantial amount of expressive activity."

Google helped Israeli military contractor with AI, whistleblower alleges; The Washington Post, February 1, 2026

Gerrit De Vynck , The Washington Post; Google helped Israeli military contractor with AI, whistleblower alleges

"Google breached its own policies that barred use of artificial intelligence for weapons or surveillance in 2024 by helping an Israeli military contractor analyze drone video footage, a former Google employee alleged in a confidential federal whistleblower complaint reviewed by The Washington Post.

Google’s Gemini AI technology was being used by Israel’s defense apparatus at a time that the company was publicly distancing itself from the country’s military after employee protests over a contract with Israel’s government, according to internal documents included in the complaint...

At the time, Google’s public “AI principles” stated that the company would not deploy AI technology in relation to weapons, or to surveillance “violating internationally accepted norms.” The whistleblower complaint alleges that the IDF contractor’s use contradicted both policies.

The complaint to the SEC alleges that Google broke securities laws because by contradicting its own publicly stated policies, which had also been included in federal filings, the company misled investors and regulators."

Judge Orders Release of 5-Year-Old, Whose Detention Drew Outrage; The New York Times, January 31, 2026

Mattathias Schwartz and Emily Cochrane, The New York Times ; Judge Orders Release of 5-Year-Old, Whose Detention Drew Outrage

The image of Liam Conejo Ramos, wearing a blue winter hat and Spider-Man backpack while in the custody of immigration agents, fueled outrage across the country.

"A federal judge on Saturday ordered the release of a 5-year-old boy and his father from immigration custody, condemning their removal from their suburban Minneapolis neighborhood as unconstitutional.

The image of Liam Conejo Ramos, wearing a Spider-Man backpack and an oversize fluffy blue winter hat as he was detained by officers earlier this month, spurred outrage at a moment when many were already incensed by the Trump administration’s immigration tactics in Minnesota and elsewhere across the country. The flood of immigration enforcement officers into Minneapolis, known as Operation Metro Surge, has led to mass demonstrations as well as the shooting deaths of two protesters, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, at the hands of federal agents.

In a blistering opinion ordering Liam’s release, Judge Fred Biery of the Federal District Court for the Western District of Texas condemned “the perfidious lust for unbridled power” and “the imposition of cruelty.” The boy’s father, Adrian Conejo Arias, was also arrested and the pair were taken to an immigration detention center outside San Antonio. A lawyer for the family previously said in court filings that Mr. Conejo Arias, who is from Ecuador, had legally entered the country under American guidelines for asylum. The Department of Homeland Security had charged that Mr. Conejo Arias had entered the country illegally in December 2024.

In a statement, Jennifer Scarborough and four other attorneys who represent Liam and his father praised the ruling. They said they were now working to quickly reunite the family. “We are pleased that the family will now be able to focus on being together and finding some peace after this traumatic ordeal,” they wrote."

Students Are Finding New Ways to Cheat on the SAT; The New York Times, January 28, 2026

Stephanie Saul, The New York Times; Students Are Finding New Ways to Cheat on the SAT

Sites in China are selling test questions, and online forums offer software that can bypass test protections, according to tutors and testing experts raising alarms.

"Three years ago, after nearly a century of testing on paper, the College Board rolled out a new digital SAT.

Students who had long relied on No. 2 pencils to take the exam would instead use their laptops. One advantage, the College Board said, was a reduced chance of cheating, in part because delivering the test online meant the questions would vary for each student.

Now, however, worries are growing that the College Board’s security isn’t fail safe. Fueling the concerns are what appear to be copies of recently administered digital SAT questions that have been posted on the internet — on social media sites as well as websites primarily housed in China...

Test questions also have been sold on Telegram, a Dubai-based platform, and posted on Scribd, a subscription digital repository of data. Students have also circulated questions among themselves on Google docs, the European tutor said. Many of the tests have been removed from Scribd, apparently at the College Board’s request. A spokesman for Scribd, based in San Francisco, said the company responds to valid requests to remove copyrighted material.

But the College Board has been unable to fight bluebook.plus, according to an email exchange with the College Board that the tutor shared."

Copyright and creativity in Episode 2 of the EUIPO Podcast; European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), January 28, 2026

European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO); Copyright and creativity in Episode 2 of the EUIPO Podcast

"Copyright and creativity in Episode 2 of the EUIPO Podcast

The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) has released the second episode of its podcast series ‘Creative Sparks: From inspiration to innovation’, focusing on copyright and the launch of the EUIPO Copyright Knowledge Centre.

Titled “The idea makers: Europe’s new home for copyright”, the episode looks at how copyright supports creativity across Europe. From music, film and publishing to design, digital content and emerging technologies such as generative artificial intelligence.

It brings together institutional and creator perspectives through two guests: Véronique Delforge, copyright legal expert at the EUIPO, and Nathalie Boyer, actress, voice-over artist, Board member of ADAMI and President of the ADAMI Foundation for the Citizen Artist. They discuss creative innovation, why copyright remains essential in a rapidly evolving creative landscape and how creators can better understand and exercise their rights.

The conversation highlights the growing complexity of copyright in a digital and cross-border environment, the specific challenges faced by performers and cultural organisations, and the need for clarity, transparency and trusted information. Particular attention is given to the impact of streaming platforms and generative AI on creative works, authorship and remuneration.

The episode also introduces the EUIPO Copyright Knowledge Centre, launched to bring together reliable information, research, tools and resources in one place.

Making IP closer

The podcast is part of the EUIPO’s determination to make intellectual property more accessible to all and engaging for Europeans, businesses and creators.

The EUIPO will issue monthly episodes and explore topics related to creativity and intellectual property as a tool to foster innovation and enhance competitiveness in EU in the digital era, among many others."

ICE’s surveillance app is a techno-authoritarian nightmare; The Guardian, January 30, 2026

Moustafa Bayoumi, The Guardian; ICE’s surveillance app is a techno-authoritarian nightmare

"Now is the time we must start paying attention to another highly damaging part of ICE’s arsenal: the agency’s deployment of mass surveillance.

I’m referring specifically to Mobile Fortify, a specialized app ICE has been using at least since May 2025. (Usage of the app was first reported last June by 404Media.) What is Mobile Fortify? It’s an app for facial recognition that can additionally take “contactless fingerprints” of someone simply by snapping a picture of a person’s fingers. The app has been used more than 100,000 times, including on children, as alleged in a lawsuit filed by the State of Illinois and the City of Chicago. And it’s dangerous."

The $1.5 Billion Reckoning: AI Copyright and the 2026 Regulatory Minefield; JD Supra, January 27, 2026

 Rob Robinson, JD Supra ; The $1.5 Billion Reckoning: AI Copyright and the 2026 Regulatory Minefield

"In the silent digital halls of early 2026, the era of “ask for forgiveness later” has finally hit a $1.5 billion brick wall. As legal frameworks in Brussels and New Delhi solidify, the wild west of AI training data is being partitioned into clearly marked zones of liability and license. For those who manage information, secure data, or navigate the murky waters of eDiscovery, this landscape is no longer a theoretical debate—it is an active regulatory battlefield where every byte of training data carries a price tag."

Florida Universities Have Partnered With ICE, Stoking Anxiety Among Students; The New York Times, January 30, 2026

Vimal Patel, The New York Times; Florida Universities Have Partnered With ICE, Stoking Anxiety Among Students

"An unusual agreement between many Florida universities and federal immigration officials has caused a new wave of anxiety among students, as immigration raids around the country have swept up thousands and ignited protests.

The agreements give university police departments, after training from ICE, authority to conduct immigration enforcement and access to databases to check immigration status. It remains unclear to what extent university police departments have worked with ICE in practice."

How Trump’s 2020 Election Claims Have Been Debunked Again and Again; The New York Times, January 30, 2026

 Reid J. Epstein and Nick Corasaniti, The New York Times; How Trump’s 2020 Election Claims Have Been Debunked Again and Again

"More than five years after President Trump lost the 2020 election, he and his administration are still pursuing baseless conspiracy theories in an attempt to prove otherwise.

Though scores of lawsuits aiming to overturn the results were dismissed by judges in 2020 and 2021, Mr. Trump’s relentless false arguments that he won the election have led many of his supporters to believe him. And now that he is back in the White House, some of those falsehoods have become official stances of the U.S. government.

On Wednesday, F.B.I. agents in Georgia searched an election center in Fulton County, Ga., which includes Atlanta, for ballots and other voting records from the 2020 contest. The move appeared to be a significant escalation of Mr. Trump’s effort to rewrite the history of the 2020 election and his defeat to Joseph R. Biden Jr.

Here’s the reality of what happened."

Music publishers sue Anthropic for $3B over ‘flagrant piracy’ of 20,000 works; TechCrunch, January 29, 2026

 Amanda Silberling, TechCrunch; Music publishers sue Anthropic for $3B over ‘flagrant piracy’ of 20,000 works 

"A cohort of music publishers led by Concord Music Group and Universal Music Group are suing Anthropic, saying the company illegally downloaded more than 20,000 copyrighted songs, including sheet music, song lyrics, and musical compositions.

The publishers said in a statement on Wednesday that the damages could amount to more than $3 billion, which would be one of the largest non-class action copyright cases filed in U.S. history.

This lawsuit was filed by the same legal team from the Bartz v. Anthropic case, in which a group of fiction and nonfiction authors similarly accused the AI company of using their copyrighted works to train products like Claude."

Federal Agents Arrest Don Lemon Over Minnesota Church Protest; The New York Times, January 30, 2026

Hamed Aleaziz, Devlin Barrett and Alan Feuer, The New York Times ; Federal Agents Arrest Don Lemon Over Minnesota Church Protest

The former CNN anchor has said he was not demonstrating, but reporting as a journalist, during the interruption of a service inside a St. Paul church earlier this month.

"The former CNN anchor Don Lemon was arrested late Thursday night on charges that he violated federal law during a protest at a church in St. Paul, Minn., his lawyer said, in a case rejected last week by a magistrate judge.

Mr. Lemon has said he was simply reporting as a journalist when he entered the Cities Church on Jan. 18 to observe a demonstration against the immigration crackdown in the area.

The protesters interrupted a service at the church, where an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official serves as a pastor, and chanted “ICE out.” Afterward, the Trump administration sought to charge eight people over the episode, including Mr. Lemon, citing a law that protects people seeking to participate in a service in a house of worship.

But the magistrate judge who reviewed the evidence approved charges against only three of the people, rejecting the evidence against Mr. Lemon and the others as insufficient. The Justice Department then petitioned a federal appeals court to force the judge to issue the additional warrants, only to be denied."

Georgia lawmakers express alarm to see Tulsi Gabbard at FBI elections office raid; The Guardian, January 29, 2026

George Chidi , The Guardian ; Georgia lawmakers express alarm to see Tulsi Gabbard at FBI elections office raid

"Democratic lawmakers are raising questions about why Tulsi Gabbard, the president’s director of national intelligence, was “lurking” in Fulton county on Wednesday while FBI agents carted off boxes of 2020 election documents.

Gabbard visited an elections hub in Fulton county, home to Atlanta, on Wednesday as the FBI executed a search warrant for records related to the 2020 election. The warrant sought all ballots from the 2020 election in the county, tabulator tapes, ballot images and voter rolls, according to a warrant obtained by the Guardian.

“My constituents in Georgia – and I think much of the American public – are quite reasonably alarmed and asking questions, after the director of national intelligence was spotted bizarrely and personally lurking in an FBI evidence truck in Fulton county, Georgia, yesterday,” said the senator Jon Ossoff, a Georgia Democrat. “I encourage all of us on a bipartisan basis to pursue the facts as quickly as possible to understand whether the office of the director of national intelligence is straying far outside of its lane.”

In a statement released on Wednesday, the senator Mark Warner, of Virginia, described Gabbard, a former representative and army veteran known for adhering to widely debunked conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, as “totally unqualified” to be one of the nation’s spymasters, citing her presence in Georgia during “a federal raid tied to Donald Trump’s obsession with losing the 2020 election” as evidence.

Gabbard only had two reasons to be there, Warner said: either she “believes there was a legitimate foreign intelligence nexus – in which case she is in clear violation of her obligation under the law to keep the intelligence committees ‘fully and currently informed’ of relevant national security concerns – or she is once again demonstrating her utter lack of fitness for office that she holds by injecting the nonpartisan intelligence community she is supposed to be leading into a domestic political stunt designed to legitimize conspiracy theories that undermine our democracy”."

She Fought a Book Ban. She May Never Teach Again.; The New York Times, January 29, 2026

Dana Goldstein

Photographs by Nick Oxford

, The New York Times ; She Fought a Book Ban. She May Never Teach Again.

Summer Boismier, a high school English teacher in Oklahoma, lost her teaching license after she protested a book ban. Now she is fighting to return to the classroom.

"When Oklahoma passed laws that pressured teachers to remove books on race, gender and sexuality from their classrooms, she refused. Other teachers resisted, too — but Ms. Boismier did so loudly. She plastered her 10th-grade English classroom with signs of protest, posted to social media and advised her students on how they could find books online. Eventually she resigned.

She knew that in her conservative state she would be criticized, but the reaction was much more severe than she expected. And in 2024, the state took away Ms. Boismier’s teaching license.

It was an extraordinary punishment. More than 20 states, including Oklahoma, have passed laws over the past five years restricting the curriculum around race, gender, sexuality and American history. Hundreds of teachers have faced discipline or lost their jobs as a result of these laws. But Ms. Boismier is perhaps the only one whose certification has been fully revoked."

Faith leaders criticize Trump administration’s removal of Philadelphia slavery exhibit; Episcopal News Service (ENS), January 29, 2026

Adelle M. Banks, Episcopal News Service (ENS); Faith leaders criticize Trump administration’s removal of Philadelphia slavery exhibit

"Religious leaders are among those objecting to the National Park Service’s removal of a historic exhibit about slavery located steps away from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania’s Liberty Bell and that featured African Methodist Episcopal Church founder Richard Allen and Absalom Jones, the first Black priest in The Episcopal Church.

On Jan. 22, exhibit supporters and city officials learned that NPS staffers had removed panels from “The President’s House: Freedom and Slavery in the Making of a New Nation,” an exhibit that, according to a page on the park service’s website, examined “the paradox between slavery and freedom in the founding of the nation.” As of the afternoon of Jan. 28, the website said “Page not found” where that information previously had been.

The open-air exhibit, which opened in 2010, is located on the site where Presidents George Washington and John Adams lived in the 1790s and features a replica of the exterior of the dwelling and a wall with the names of the nine enslaved Africans Washington brought there.

Independence National Historical Park, which hosted the exhibit, was cited in a March 2025 executive order signed by President Donald Trump. Titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” the order directed the U.S. Department of the Interior to ensure that monuments at national sites “do not contain descriptions, depictions, or other content that inappropriately disparage Americans past or living (including persons living in colonial times), and instead focus on the greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people.”

The Rev. Mark Tyler, historiographer for the AME Church and former pastor of Mother Bethel AME Church, which was founded by Allen and is within walking distance of the exhibit, said the loss of the panels is “a gut punch.”"

Democrats Call for Release of 5-Year-Old Detained by ICE; The New York Times, January 29, 2026

Aaron Boxerman and Lina Fisher , The New York Times; Democrats Call for Release of 5-Year-Old Detained by ICE

Representative Joaquin Castro said Liam Conejo Ramos appeared lethargic during a visit by lawmakers to the facility where he and his father are being held. The pair was detained in Minnesota.

"Democratic lawmakers called Wednesday for the immediate release of Liam Conejo Ramos, a 5-year-old detained by federal agents in Minnesota, after visiting him and his father in an immigration holding facility.

The detention of the boy — seized while wearing a Spider-Man backpack — has become a flashpoint, as anger has continued to grow over the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and deportation efforts. Critics called his detention emblematic of the callousness of the administration’s policies, while the Department of Homeland Security said the boy had not been targeted or arrested.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained the pair in Columbia Heights, Minn., shortly after Adrian Conejo Arias, Liam’s father, collected him from school, according to local officials. They were then taken to an immigration detention center in Dilley, Texas, about 70 miles south of San Antonio."

Local Prosecutors Join Forces to Bring Charges Against Federal Agents; The New York Times, January 28, 2026

Shaila Dewan , The New York Times; Local Prosecutors Join Forces to Bring Charges Against Federal Agents

"Nine progressive prosecutors from cities around the country are launching a coalition to assist in prosecuting federal law enforcement officers who violate state laws, one of the prosecutors, Larry Krasner in Philadelphia, said on Tuesday.

The organization, which is called the Project for the Fight Against Federal Overreach, will also include Mary Moriarty, the elected prosecutor in Minneapolis. Its acronym, F.A.F.O., references a slang term for negative consequences, and its formation was spurred by “growing concerns about warrantless entries, unlawful detentions, and coercive enforcement tactics by federal agents,” according to a news release.

The handling of potentially criminal actions by federal agents has become a major issue in Minneapolis after two protesters, both U.S. citizens, were killed there this month by Department of Homeland Security officers...

Mr. Krasner said the new organization would provide “mutual support” to prosecutors who are “up against the might of the federal government.” So far, nine prosecutors from around the country have signed on."

Copyrighted art, mobile phones, Greenland: welcome to our age of shameless theft; The Guardian, January 28, 2026

 Jonathan Liew , The Guardian; Copyrighted art, mobile phones, Greenland: welcome to our age of shameless theft

"Last week I discovered that an article I wrote about the England cricket team has already been copied and repackaged, verbatim and without permission, by an Indian website. What is the appropriate response here? Decry and sue? Shrug and move on? I ponder the question as I stroll through my local supermarket, where the mackerel fillets are wreathed in metal security chains and the dishwasher tabs have to be requested from the storeroom like an illicit little treat.

On the way home, I screenshot and crop a news article and share it to one of my WhatsApp groups. In another group, a family member has posted an AI-generated video (“forwarded many times”) of Donald Trump getting his head shaved by Xi Jinping while Joe Biden laughs in the background. I watch the mindless slop on my phone as I walk along the main road, instinctively gripping my phone a little tighter as I do so.

Increasingly, by small and imperceptible degrees, we seem to live in a world defined by petty theft; petty not in its scale or volume but by its sense of entitlement and impunity. A joke, a phone, an article, the island of Greenland, the entire canon of published literature, a bag of dishwasher tablets: everything, it seems, is fair game. How did we get to this point, and where does it lead us?"

Key Witness in Alex Pretti Shooting Says Feds Are Totally Ignoring Her; The New Republic (TNR), January 28, 2026

Malcolm Ferguson, The New Republic (TNR); Key Witness in Alex Pretti Shooting Says Feds Are Totally Ignoring Her

"The woman who filmed federal agents shooting and killing Alex Pretti still hasn’t been contacted by the government days later, only fanning accusations of a federal cover-up. 

“Have you been contacted by anyone from the federal government?” CNN’s Anderson Cooper asked Minnesota resident Stella Carlson, whose footage has been crucial in delegitimizing the Trump administration’s lies about Pretti. “FBI?”

“No, no, I have not. I do have a legal team now who are fielding much of that, and I am no longer accessible in those ways,” Carlson replied. 

“I talked to your attorney this morning; she said she had not received any outreach from the FBI or anybody from the federal government,” Cooper said.

“I do not think they have my name yet,” said Carlson, a shocking oversight given that it’s been four days since the shooting. She then expressed that she had zero confidence in a federal investigation into Pretti’s killing."

Frantic Stephen Miller Tries Shifting Blame for Minneapolis Disaster; The Daily Beast, January 28, 2026

Catherine Bouris , The Daily Beast; Frantic Stephen Miller Tries Shifting Blame for Minneapolis Disaster

"Stephen Miller is seeking to shift blame for the death of Alex Pretti at the hands of Customs and Border Patrol agents away from himself and back onto Kristi Noem.

The White House deputy chief of staff released a statement to CNN just hours after Homeland Security Secretary Noem appeared to draw battle lines, throwing 40-year-old Miller under the bus...

Miller, the president’s top aide in the White House, is widely considered the architect of the aggressive immigration crackdown that has quickly come to define President Donald Trump’s second term in office.

Miller’s hint at an investigation or evaluation into the agents involved in the Saturday killing of Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, is a departure from prior inflammatory comments in which he labelled Pretti a “would-be assassin.”...

Miller seeking to distance himself and the White House from the actions of the agents involved in Pretti’s killing suggests that Noem is not the only senior Trump official trying to emerge unscathed, particularly as the public backlash against him continues to grow.

The Rupert Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal’s editorial board wrote in a Tuesday editorial that Miller’s immigration policies are costing the White House credibility and “building distrust.”"

Vancouver library board removes ‘equitable access’ from strategic plan; Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB), January 27, 2026

Erik Neumann (OPB) , Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB); Vancouver library board removes ‘equitable access’ from strategic plan

"The Fort Vancouver Regional Libraries board removed references to equity from the district’s strategic plan at a contentious meeting Monday night. 

A board member resigned after the vote, which followed a heated debate over intellectual freedom at a time when “diversity, equity and inclusion” policies have come under growing scrutiny. 

The board meeting focused on whether to keep phrases about “equitable access” and “intellectual freedom” in the plan that will guide the library district for the next five years. 

The plan has been under review for 10 months. Recently, some board members have said terms about equity and intellectual freedom should be replaced with more neutral language in the plan’s mission, vision and priorities, in order to avoid politicized terms. 

After hearing dozens of public comments over nearly three hours of discussion, the board of trustees could not agree on whether to keep the equity language or approve the updates that would remove it. 

Nearly all public comments during Monday’s meeting were in support of keeping “equitable access” and “intellectual freedom” in the strategic plan. 

Likewise, a library staff report noted that over 80% of earlier public comments also supported retaining the equity language. 

“The idea that the word ‘equity’ is divisive isn’t supported by the community surveys this board itself commissioned,” resident James Watson-Hughes said during public comment. “We can’t dismiss that data in favor of small samples of anecdotal conversations simply because the word makes some people feel uncomfortable.” 

Late in the meeting, the board disregarded that input...

Fort Vancouver Regional Libraries Executive Director Jennifer Giltrap did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. 

During public comments on Monday, Diane Clark, a public services librarian for the Fort Vancouver Regional Libraries, advocated to keep the original equity language and said changing it would lead to a “one size fits all” approach to access that does not recognize different people’s varied needs. 

“Equity demands that we be proactive,” Clark said. “It is the difference between simply keeping the doors open and actively building a bridge to communities that cannot reach the library.”"