Minneapolis Children Describe ‘Living in Fear,’ and China’s President Carries Out a Mass Purge

0:02From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Wednesday, February 4th. Here's what we're covering.

0:13We're here on behalf of Ney's big family and those who loved her. We're here to ask for your help. On Capitol Hill yesterday, lawmakers heard testimony from two brothers of Renee Good, the woman shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis last month. This is not just a bad day or a rough week or isolated incidents. These encounters with federal agents are changing many lives, including ours, forever. They urged Congress to rein in the White House's aggressive immigration operations, saying Good's death was part of a pattern of abuses from agents. The event was held by congressional Democrats.

0:58No Republicans were there when the brothers spoke. Disagreements in Congress over immigration enforcement had triggered a government shutdown earlier this week. That ended last night after the House narrowly passed a spending bill. But the question of ongoing support for President Trump's immigration operations remains. Lawmakers only agreed to fund the Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE, through next week. Democrats say before they give the agency any more money, there must be new restrictions. They're pushing for things like mandatory independent investigations after shootings.

1:36Meanwhile, on the ground in Minnesota, Times reporters have been covering how the continued presence of thousands of federal agents has shaken the Twin Cities. Officials in Minneapolis, for example, estimate the city's been losing$20 million a week, as the majority of businesses there, like hotels, restaurants and stores, have seen sales drop. The impact's been particularly intense on businesses that cater to immigrants or rely on them for staffing. One grocery store owner told The Times he'd lost about half his employees. They were too scared to come into work. He now keeps the front door of the store locked.

2:12And when it comes to children, our schools, we've got video footage at night of ICE officers walking around schools in the middle of the night. We had reports this morning. They're following the buses to the bus stops where they let kids off. Yesterday, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said the ICE operations have also taken an intense toll on children in the state, and that he was particularly worried about kids getting swept up in immigration raids, like the high-profile case of five-year-old Liam Conejo-Ramos, who was photographed wearing his Spider-Man backpack as he and his father were detained.

2:44I sent Kristi Noem a letter today demanding clear answers on how many children are currently being held in federal detention centers, where they're at, why they were taken, and what their due process rights are. Trump administration officials have denied that federal agents target schools and said they're focused on arresting violent criminals. But many families are still on edge. The Times talked with the mother of a nine-year-old who's having her son carry a copy of his U.S. passport in his backpack now, and another mom who sends her eight - and 15-year-old kids to school in the Minneapolis suburbs with their passports in clear pouches hanging around their necks.

3:20The eight-year-old told The Times she was still worried about what could happen, saying, quote, I have a passport, but it's paper, not a shield.

3:35Americans are calling on their leaders to take action on affordability. Housing has consistently been one of the top-ranked issues that families care about. For the past few months on Capitol Hill, Republicans, Democrats, and independents all agree housing prices are too high, the supply too low, and regulations too much. Bipartisan momentum has been building around starting to tackle America's housing crisis. The U.S. is currently short as many as 7 million housing units, which is one of the big reasons that home prices surged roughly 50 percent in the last five years. The Senate approved a package of housing-focused bills in the fall, and now the House is expected to vote on a similar package as soon as next week that would reward new construction and eliminate red tape.

4:23A few of the things the new legislation could do. First, it could push the federal government towards writing a national building code, which the U.S. doesn't currently have. The thinking is that standardizing construction regulations and guidelines, instead of having a patchwork of state and local rules, could reduce costs and streamline new development. Also, both bills aim to give a boost to manufactured and modular homes. That kind of housing is built off-site, then delivered and assembled, a much faster way to build than traditional construction. And the bills would also make it easier to fix up existing homes.

4:59The Senate bill, for example, would give grants and loans to low-income Americans and small-time landlords to make critical repairs so that older housing can continue to be used.

5:16I've been covering Chinese politics for over 20 years now. And in the past few years in China, there's been a steady rhythm of senior military officials who have either been officially dismissed or simply disappeared. But there was nothing like the announcement of the removal of Zhang Yuxia, China's topmost uniformed officer. a stunning development. Shakespearean is a word that's been used by a lot of people to describe this. Chris Buckley is part of the team of Times reporters covering a remarkable purge at the highest levels of the Chinese military. It's been called a total annihilation of the high command.

5:52My colleagues recently analyzed state media reports and official announcements and found that 23 out of 30 high-ranking generals and admirals have been removed from their posts in recent years, including China's top general, who was ousted just over a week ago. Chinese politics under Xi Jinping is a black box. It's extremely difficult to get reliable information from the innermost circle of Xi Jinping. Nonetheless, we do know that the Chinese military newspapers have come out with a few broad accusations against Zhang Yuxia. One of them is corruption. The other one is a broad accusation of disloyalty against Xi Jinping.

6:32Now, the corruption allegation is a bit easier to understand in the context of the Chinese military over the past few decades. It has become a notoriously corrupt institution. The more difficult charge to figure out is what they're meaning when they're saying that Zhang Yuxia, who seemed to be one of Xi Jinping's most loyal generals, was also involved in some sort of act of disloyalty against him, some betrayal of the principles of power within the Communist Party. That's harder to get at. But what we're seeing at the moment is a Chinese high command that seems not simply unprepared for the challenges of war, but simply not there.

7:08Current and former U.S. officials tell The Times that beyond the hazy allegations of corruption and disloyalty, something else could be contributing to President Xi's obliteration of his military leadership. Paranoia. They said that in recent years, American intelligence analysts have assessed that Xi has extreme levels of paranoia, as he's taken down not just military commanders of the world's largest army, but Communist Party officials, security chiefs and others, while he's tightened his own grip on power.

7:46And finally. Her best in show at the 150th Westminster Kennel Club dog show is the Doberman Pinscher. The world's most prestigious dog show wrapped up last night with a victory for Penny the Doberman Pinscher. There was no pitching pennies here. This was a dog that had to outlast an impressive group. Her coat was sleek and majestic, her demeanor calm, her ears curled like calla lilies. Textbook. Her handler, if we're going to talk about the humans, I guess, won best in show all the way back in 1989, too, also with a Doberman Pinscher. The breed had not won since. The runner-up last night went to a Chesapeake Bay retriever named Coda, who grabbed his ribbon in his mouth and paraded around with it before dropping it.

8:34Winky can't miss this. He's worked for two and a half years for Best of Shows. No, no, no, no, he can't miss. Jerry! Partway through the show, Westminster put up a little tribute to the actress Catherine O 'Hara, who in one of her most iconic roles played the spirited dog handler in the mockumentary Best in Show. O 'Hara died last week, and some fans turned out to remember her at Westminster, surrounded by Norwich Terriers, who she really, really loves in the movie. God didn't miss a stitch, be it dog or be it bitch, when he made the Norwich merrier with its cute little derriere. Terrier, yes, God loves a terrier.

9:19Those are the headlines. Today on The Daily, a look at how the new betting platforms called prediction markets have exploded recently, offering people the chance to bet on everything from the date of Taylor Swift's wedding to how long world leaders will stay in power. You can listen to that in the New York Times app or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.