Trump Changes Course in Minneapolis, and Social Media Giants Face Big Tobacco-Style Lawsuits

0:28From the New York Times, it's the headlines. over the killing of Alex Preddy by federal agents in Minneapolis. Administration officials initially claimed Preddy was a dangerous threat, even as videos showed he was pinned down and had been disarmed before agents shot him. Stephen Miller labeled Preddy a domestic terrorist. Does the president agree with them? Look, as I've said, I have not heard the president characterize Mr. Preddy in that way. However, I have heard the president say he wants to let the facts and the investigation lead itself. Was he alarmed to hear his top officials referring to him in that way?

1:00Rushing to that judgment. Danny, go ahead. Thanks, Caroline. Yesterday, Press Secretary Caroline Levitt did not defend or repeat those statements. And in a pivot on the ground, the White House says it has sent Borders R. Tom Homan to oversee operations in Minnesota. President Trump said Homan will report directly to him. And I know that he's catching a plane in just a few hours to do just that at the request of the president. With Homan going in, the administration is pulling Gregory Bovino out. But the outspoken senior Border Patrol official had become the face of the aggressive tactics federal agents had used in the state.

1:34At the same time, Trump has also backed off his attacks on Minnesota's governor, Tim Walz. After the two talked on the phone yesterday, Trump went from blaming Walz for the violence in his state to saying they, quote, seemed to be on the same wavelength. First of all, I ask that we have a fair and independent investigation into the murder of both Rene Good and Alex. Walls described the phone call to Minnesota Public Radio. He said he's made clear that the current surge of ICE agents has people afraid to go outside and even afraid for their lives. I told him that this is unsustainable. And I said, quite honestly, you know, no one wants this.

2:12And I hope that's true. No one wants this.

2:19Meanwhile, the Times has been learning new details about what's happened to some of the Minnesota residents who've been caught up in the administration's immigration operations. According to lawyers, family members and faith leaders, more than 100 refugees with no criminal record have been arrested there in recent weeks and flown to detention centers in Texas. Unlike asylum seekers who arrive at the U.S. border and try and make a case to stay, people with refugee status have often had extensive vetting and arrived in the country on flights coordinated with the federal government. But the administration announced earlier this month that it would begin re-examining many of their cases with new background checks, starting with the roughly 5 ,500 refugees in Minnesota.

3:00Some of them have described a frightening and confusing process, of being picked up without warning and flown to detention centers in Texas for interviews, without lawyers. Some said their wallets, IDs, and other documents have been confiscated, and that after multiple days in custody, they've been released to find their own way back to Minnesota. Family and friends have scrambled to buy them plane and bus tickets home. In response to questions from the Times, a spokesman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said that the agency is, quote, verifying the merits of all refugee applications and ensuring no issues were overlooked.

3:37He did not explain why refugees are being flown to Texas for the interviews.

3:53On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israeli troops have recovered the remains of the last captive taken on October 7, 2023. Sergeant Ron Gavili was killed while defending one of Israel's southern border towns. His body was then brought to Gaza by militants. Gavili was one of roughly 250 people, living and dead, who were taken that day. I don't think you can really overstate how important it was to ordinary Israelis across the political spectrum to reach this point. David Halbfinger is the Times Jerusalem bureau chief. From the start of the war, the seizure of the hostages really created an overwhelming imperative for the Israeli military and for the Israeli government to bring those hostages home.

4:37And the longer the war dragged on, the fate of the hostages was something that really animated a big anti-war movement in Israel. You saw banners and billboards and bumper stickers all over the country. There were protests, small and large, in every little town and hamlet and major city. It also was like the biggest source of opposition to Netanyahu. David says that the return of the last captive is an emotional moment of closure for the entire country and also a crucial step forward in the Gaza ceasefire plan. Getting all the Israeli captives back was perhaps the most important precondition to allowing Israel and Gaza to move into phase two of the Trump peace plan for Gaza.

5:23That may actually prove to be a more difficult phase because it requires Hamas to disarm and for Gaza to be demilitarized. It requires the creation of an international force of soldiers designed to keep the peace. It requires the creation of a new Palestinian government. All of these things are in motion, but it's unclear how quickly they can come to pass. Yesterday, following the return of Gavili's body, Israel said that it would soon reopen a key border crossing between Gaza and Egypt that it's locked down for more than a year and a half. Aid groups say that could allow them to evacuate people who need advanced medical care.

6:04It could also potentially allow for some of the 100 ,000 Gazans who fled during the war to return home, though Israeli strikes have turned most of the territory into ruins.

6:19In California, what could be a landmark trial on the effects of social media kicks off today, with Meta, TikTok, and YouTube facing allegations that their platforms have caused harm to kids. These companies have been under scrutiny for many years about the kind of content they host, but this is the first time that they'll really have to defend themselves in court about the products themselves and how they're engineering the products in a way that's potentially harmful. Cecilia Kang covers technology for The Times. She says that this case is one of several trying out a new legal strategy that's inspired by the lawsuits against big tobacco.

6:57Basically, the argument is that social media companies knew they were making potentially dangerous and addictive products and pushed them out to the public anyways. In this first trial and potentially future ones this year, we're going to see the tech CEOs defend emails and other documents where they themselves are confronted with evidence about the stickiness of their products and how they're being engineered to get people to engage more and more and how that was really concerning to a lot of other employees within these companies. So, for example, YouTube will be asked to explain why there were slide decks internally, where they use language like how to make their app more addictive.

7:38Mark Zuckerberg also will have to defend internal documents where his employees had asked him to respond to research that their own scientists were coming up with that showed that some of their tools like beauty filters on Instagram and some of the algorithms that were being used in the main news feed to drive people to certain content was unhealthy potentially for young users. Cecilia says that Metta is expected to argue that the plaintiffs have oversimplified the problems and cherry-picked statements from internal documents. And YouTube has pointed to extra safety measures it's put in place for kids.

8:25And finally. The snow is coming down heavily across our city. New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani urged people to use the recent snowstorm as a chance to stay home, nap, or take advantage of our public library's offer of free access to heated rivalry on e-book or audio book for anyone with a library card. He pointed people to heated rivalry, the love story between two pro hockey players that, thanks to a very steamy TV adaptation, has become a global phenomenon. According to the New York Public Library, thousands of people took him up on his suggestion, and downloads surged. Mamdani, it turned out later, has not read or watched the series, but basically everybody else has.

9:09It's currently the most popular romance novel in the country, according to the library, and it was one of the most watched shows on HBO last year. The plot has sparked a lot of conversations around the NHL and its relationship to the LGBTQ community, the league has never had any openly gay players, and at one point a few years ago, banned the display of some pride symbols before backtracking. The NHL commissioner himself, though, said he's a heated rivalry fan. He called it a little spicy, but said he binged the show in one night.

9:45Those are the headlines. Today on The Daily, a look at the Ghost Fleet, the ship's defying sanctions by secretly moving oil around the world. You can find that in the New York Times app or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Will Jarvis. We'll be back tomorrow.