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Federal officials said Alex Pretti, 37, “approached” officers with a handgun and intended to kill them. Videos don’t appear to show Pretti with a firearm in his hand before he was shot.

Eyewitness videos showing at least one federal agent shooting and killing Alex Pretti, 37, in Minneapolis appear to counter the Trump administration’s description of events, presenting two starkly different narratives.

Shortly after the shooting, federal officials said agents had acted in self-defense during a violent altercation Saturday morning. Pretti “approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9-millimeter semi-automatic handgun,” Kristi Noem said, adding officers “attempted to disarm” him and he “violently resisted.” Donald Trump shared a picture of what he said was “the gunman’s gun, loaded (with two additional full magazines!), and ready to go.” White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said Pretti “tried to assassinate federal law enforcement.”

But at least four different videos of the encounter — filmed by eyewitnesses and verified and analyzed by NBC News — run counter to some of the administration’s statements. The videos do not appear to show Pretti holding a weapon during the skirmish that led to his death. The footage shows him coming to the aid of a person federal agents pushed before the encounter.

Exclusive: German research into responses to health queries raises fresh questions about summaries seen by 2bn people a month

Google’s search feature AI Overviews cites YouTube more than any medical website when answering queries about health conditions, according to research that raises fresh questions about a tool seen by 2 billion people each month.

The company has said its AI summaries, which appear at the top of search results and use generative AI to answer questions from users, are “reliable” and cite reputable medical sources such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Mayo Clinic.

However, a study that analysed responses to more than 50,000 health queries, captured using Google searches from Berlin, found the top cited source was YouTube. The video-sharing platform is the world’s second most visited website, after Google itself, and is owned by Google.

Researchers at SE Ranking, a search engine optimisation platform, found YouTube made up 4.43% of all AI Overview citations. No hospital network, government health portal, medical association or academic institution came close to that number, they said.

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/22601

On January 24, federal agents killed ICU nurse and community activist Alex Pretti in cold blood, after he tried to protect one of his neighbors. The Trump administration wasted no time putting forward a false narrative which completely distorted the events to justify Pretti’s murder. Pretti’s parents have released a statement to share the truth about their son, which we republish below.

~

We are heartbroken but also very angry.

Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital. Alex wanted to make a difference in the world. Unfortunately, he will not be with us to see his impact.

I do not throw around the “hero” term lightly. However, his last thought and act was to protect a woman. The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs. He had his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down, all while being pepper sprayed.

Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man. Thank you.

The post “Please get the truth out about our son”: Statement from Parents of Alex Pretti appeared first on Left Voice.

From Left Voice via This RSS Feed.

https://archive.is/20260125031921/https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/01/24/us/pam-bondi-walz-doc.html

The first part is pretty standard Bondi. And then:

You and your office must restore the rule of law, support ICE officers, and bring an end to the chaos in Minnesota. Fortunately, there are common sense solutions to these problems that I hope we can accomplish together.

First, share all of Minnesota’s records on Medicaid and Food and Nutrition Service programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program data, with the federal government. Allowing the federal government to efficiently investigate fraud will save Minnesota taxpayers’ money and ensure that Minnesota’s welfare funds are being used to help those in need, not enrich fraudsters.

Second, repeal the sanctuary policies that have led to so much crime and violence in your state. Removing criminal illegal aliens from Minnesota neighborhoods will save lives, and state and local officials should support this goal. All detention facilities in your state should cooperate fully with ICE, honor immigration detainers, and permit ICE to interview detainees in custody to determine immigration status. I urge you to reach an agreement with ICE that allows them to remove illegal aliens in custody of Minnesota’s prisons and jails and avoids pushing these interactions into your streets.

Third, allow the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice to access voter rolls to confirm that Minnesota’s voter registration practices comply with federal law as authorized by the Civil Rights Act of 1960. Fulfilling this common sense request will better guarantee free and fair elections and boost confidence in the rule of law.

I am confident that these simple steps will help bring back law and order to Minnesota and improve the lives of Americans.

The time has come for state and local officials in your state to change course. As the chief law enforcement officer of the United States, I am committed to enforcing federal immigration laws and keeping every American safe. Minnesota can and should be a partner with this administration. Do not obstruct federal immigration enforcement; do not allow rioters to take over the streets and houses of worship; do not hinder federal officials from investigating financial fraud and violations of election laws. Whether state and local politicians stand in the way or not, we will work every day to protect Americans and make Minnesota Safe Again. I request that you join us in that effort.

While the reaction to Renee Good's killing shows that the abuse of power won't go unnoticed, the more urgent question is whether Americans, and their institutions, can convert visibility into accountability before government by intimidation becomes the new normal.

They went to a judge and got a warrant to investigate the scene - a public area, that’s already unusual - and the brownshirts refused.

The level of bullshit went up a lot more just then.

The National Institutes of Health failed to protect brain scans that an international group of fringe researchers used to argue for the intellectual superiority of white people.

Genetic researchers were seeking children for an ambitious, federally funded project to track brain development — a study that they told families could yield invaluable discoveries about DNA’s impact on behavior and disease.

They also promised that the children’s sensitive data would be closely guarded in the decade-long study, which got underway in 2015. Promotional materials included a cartoon of a Black child saying it felt good knowing that “scientists are taking steps to keep my information safe.”

The scientists did not keep it safe.

A group of fringe researchers thwarted safeguards at the National Institutes of Health and gained access to data from thousands of children. The researchers have used it to produce at least 16 papers purporting to find biological evidence for differences in intelligence between races, ranking ethnicities by I.Q. scores and suggesting Black people earn less because they are not very smart.

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“What’s happening in Minnesota is appalling —and unacceptable in any American city. Democrats sought common sense reforms in the Department of Homeland Security spending bill, but because of Republicans’ refusal to stand up to President Trump, the DHS bill is woefully inadequate to rein in the abuses of ICE. I will vote no,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement Saturday. “Senate Democrats will not provide the votes to proceed to the appropriations bill if the DHS funding bill is included.”

The legislation needs 60 votes to secure passage in the chamber, where Republicans control 53 seats.

Shutdown ahoy

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/33256856

Federal authorities said the slain man, Alex Pretti, had approached agents with a gun. But videos show Mr. Pretti was holding his phone, not a weapon, when they pulled him to the ground.

In particular, he never drew his gun, and ICE took his gun away before executing him.

Bellingcat reached the same conclusion

https://archive.is/4rPyO

**This is from a different angle than the original. The link in the article is to an X post. I am also including a link from a separate source.

A new video published on social media contradicts the Department of Homeland Security’s account of why federal agents killed 37-year-old Minneapolis man Alex Pretti in broad daylight on Saturday.

The graphic video, which was uploaded by Drop Site News, shows Pretti appearing to direct traffic and film federal agents on his phone. Soon after, he appears to be pepper-sprayed and wrestled to the ground by multiple agents. About a half-dozen agents are on top of Pretti or in his immediate vicinity when he is initially shot. The gunshots continue after Pretti is on the ground.

The video, along with others recorded from different angles, refute the more than 150-word account of the shooting that DHS published on social media on Saturday afternoon. In that statement, DHS claimed that “an individual approached US Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun.”

DHS has tried to back that up by saying Pretti had a handgun on him at the time, sharing a photo of it in the same social media post. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said on Saturday that Pretti appeared to be a licensed gun owner. But the video published by Drop Site makes clear that he was not holding a weapon in the lead-up to the shooting, or when federal agents forcefully took him to the ground. Instead, he only appears to be holding his phone to record the situation.

cross-posted from: https://lemmings.world/post/40296130

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