Prosecutors Resign Over ICE Investigation, and Israel Is Still Demolishing Gaza

0:02From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Wednesday, January 14th. Here's what we're covering.

0:13In Minnesota, six federal prosecutors have resigned over how the Justice Department is handling the investigation into the deadly ice shooting there last week. Sources tell the Times that after Renee Good was killed in her car by a federal agent, the head of the DOJ's Civil Rights Division, who was appointed by President Trump, told her staff that she was not considering opening an investigation into whether the agent had violated federal law. Instead, the department pressed for a criminal investigation into the actions of Good's widow and her potential connections to local activist groups opposed to Trump's immigration crackdown.

0:50The most senior figure to resign was the second-in-command at the U.S. Attorney's Office in Minnesota, Joseph Thompson. People familiar with his decision say he had also objected to the fact that the DOJ blocked his efforts to work with state officials to investigate the killing. Before the shooting, Thompson had been overseeing the complex investigation into welfare fraud in the Somali community there. The Trump administration has pointed to that fraud as the reason for its surge of federal agents to the state. The Minneapolis police chief said Thompson's resignation will deal a major blow to that fraud investigation.

1:28Meanwhile,

1:33Tensions are still high on the streets in Minneapolis, where federal immigration agents have continued to carry out aggressive operations. Videos verified by The Times show them smashing car windows, deploying tear gas, and detaining U.S. citizens. Residents say they've been profiling people based on their race or ethnicity. We're doing an immigration check. We're doing a citizen check. And we're asking you where you were born. This is where I belong. This is my home. As part of the crackdown, agents have arrested dozens of refugees who entered the country lawfully, according to lawyers and immigration rights advocates.

2:07The group is mainly from Somalia and includes children. They had previously passed extensive security screenings and background checks. Most of the detainees have now been flown from Minnesota to facilities in Texas. Federal officials did not respond to a request for comment, but the Trump administration previously vowed to reexamine the status of thousands of refugees.

2:39Now, three quick updates on the Trump administration's foreign policy. Today at the White House, Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio will sit down with the foreign ministers of Greenland and Denmark as the administration has ramped up its threats to take over the territory. Greenland does not want to be owned by the USA. Greenland does not want to be governed by the USA. Greenland will not be part of the USA. Ahead of the meeting, Greenland's prime minister reiterated that the island is not for sale and said his people want to stick with the European Union and Denmark, which currently oversees the territory.

3:20Also, in Gaza, as soon as today, the U.S. could announce a committee of Palestinians who will be put in charge of running daily life there. Under the U.S. plan for Gaza, that committee would be apolitical and mostly focused on providing public services. U.S. officials hope that setting up the new panel will weaken the grip that Hamas still has on the territory, though experts say they will face enormous challenges in rebuilding Gaza. Many of the territory's 2 million residents are still living in tents or half-destroyed houses. And the Times has found that despite the ongoing ceasefire, Israeli forces have continued to demolish structures there.

4:00Satellite imagery shows Israel has destroyed more than 2 ,500 buildings in the last few months, along with greenhouses and swaths of farmland. Israel says it's destroying underground tunnels and demilitarizing the areas, Though one former Israeli military commander questioned the scope, saying, quote, it's not selective destruction, it's everything. And trade data released by the Chinese government yesterday offers a new look at the impact of Trump's tariffs. For years, China has sold way more to the U.S. than it has bought from American companies. Now that difference, called a trade surplus, has shrunk significantly by more than 20 percent.

4:43But China has found other customers. It still managed to have the largest global trade surplus in world history. It exported a trillion-plus more dollars of goods and services than it imported overall. There are several factors at play there, including that Beijing has pushed for more domestic production, and that Chinese companies have been shipping more and more of the goods they make overseas because Chinese customers at home have been struggling to afford them amid the country's economic woes.

5:21In California, there's a major push underway to get a new billionaire tax on the ballot, but the state's governor, Gavin Newsom, is already vowing to stop it. The proposed initiative would require Californians with a net worth of over a billion dollars to pay a one-time tax equal to 5 % of their assets. It would apply retroactively to anyone who was living in the state as of January 1st. It's being pushed by a large union of health care workers, who say the tax is necessary to make up for the deep funding cuts President Trump signed into law, like reductions in Medicaid. Supporters are working to gather the nearly 900 ,000 signatures they will need to put it to a vote in November.

6:05Newsom, however, told The Times, he's working relentlessly behind the scenes to keep that from happening. He has long been opposed to a wealth tax because of concerns that it would stifle innovation in his state. He's also worried that billionaires will simply leave, leading to longer-term tax losses. He said it would be one thing if the tax was national, but quote, it's another when you're competing against 49 other states. The founders of Google have started cutting ties to California. so has the venture capitalist Peter Thiel. But at least one billionaire says he's not bothered by it. I haven't thought about it even once.

6:43Jensen Wong, the chief executive of NVIDIA and one of the world's wealthiest people, was asked about the potential wealth tax on Bloomberg Television this month. We chose to live in Silicon Valley, and whatever taxes, I guess, they would like to apply, so be it. He said he was perfectly fine with the proposal.

7:08And finally... This traffic patrolman came on the bus to the back door and asked me to get up and give this one white lady a seat. And I said, no. Claudette Colvin, who refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, months before Rosa Parks did the same, galvanizing the civil rights movement, has died at 86. Colvin was just 15 years old in 1955 when she defied repeated orders to move on the segregated bus. People ask me, say, why didn't you get up? I say, you know what? History had me glued to the seat. She described the moment a few years ago in an interview with Michelle Norris.

7:50I said, well, it felt as though Harriet Tubman's hand would push me down on one shoulder and Sojourner Truth's hand would push me down on another shoulder. Colvin was arrested, quickly convicted in juvenile court, and given a fine and probation. While her case made headlines, local civil rights leaders decided not to make Colvin their symbol of discrimination. Instead, they waited and rallied around Parks when she was arrested for taking a similar stand. Colvin later said it was because she was too dark-skinned and too poor to win the support of Montgomery's black middle class. Colvin went on to become a star witness in a crucial court case that paved the way for the end of segregation on public transit across the entire U.S.

8:36She kept relatively quiet about her own story until years after it happened. She told The Times she changed her mind after she realized she could potentially help kids better understand the civil rights movement. Quote, young people think Rosa Parks just sat down on a bus and ended segregation. But that wasn't the case at all.

8:59Those are the headlines. Today on The Daily, Times reporter Farnas Fasehi, who has covered protests in Iran for decades, on why the new wave of massive demonstrations could be a turning point. 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.