Pretti Shooting Escalates Standoff Between Federal Agents, Minnesota Officials

0:00At Janice Henderson, we strive to deliver better outcomes through insight-led investing, innovation for clients, and a partnership approach that's core to our identity. I'm Jessica Lianzini, Head of Fixed Income Client Portfolio Management. I'm passionate about my role in investments. It allows me to partner with our clients, simplify fixed income, and support them in achieving better outcomes for their clients. Janice Henderson, investing in a brighter future together.

0:32Joe Wallace:Minneapolis reels after federal agents kill another U.S. citizen. They shot a man. I know. They have shot a man. They have shot a legal observer. We'll get reaction from around the country. Plus, the rest of the day's news, including a massive scandal at the very top of China's military leadership. It's Monday, January 26th. I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal, and here is the AM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving your world today.

1:11Joe Wallace:President Trump says his administration is investigating the killing of intensive care nurse Alex Preddy by federal agents in Minneapolis over the weekend. Speaking to the Journal yesterday, Trump repeatedly declined to say whether the officer who shot Preddy had acted appropriately, though he also criticized Preddy for carrying a gun during protest activity, calling his 9mm semi-automatic handgun, quote, very dangerous and unpredictable. Those comments come after the Department of Homeland Security alleged that Preddy violently resisted officers trying to disarm him, leading them to fire, quote, defensive shots.

1:48Joe Wallace:However, bystander footage contradicts that version of events, as Visual Investigations reporter Brenna Smith explains. The Wall Street Journal reviewed numerous bystander footage of Preddy's encounter with DHS agents, including before, during, and after the shooting. What these videos show is before the shooting, Preddy was seemingly with two other civilians in filming DHS agents with his phone. eventually after filming the agents Preddy and two other civilians walk away and one of the agents follows them and then shoves one of the people that Preddy seems to be with and Preddy immediately puts himself between the fallen person and the officer who then sprays a chemical agent on all three of them and that's when things really start to kick off and a crowd of DHS agents then swarms the civilians They separate Preddy from the other two civilians that he was with.

2:54And bystander footage then shows one officer seemingly withdrawing a gun from Preddy. And soon after, another officer begins to fire at him.

3:12We spoke with one expert who confirmed that there were at least 10 shots within five seconds based on the available audio and that they all seem to come from a single semi-automatic firearm. After the shooting, by-steer footage also shows officers then shouting, where is the gun, as they're applying first aid to Preddy.

3:32Joe Wallace:Following Preddy's killing, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O 'Hara ordered that his officers not leave the crime scene, despite being told that they weren't needed. The state of Minnesota's top criminal investigators then took on the case, only for them to be blocked by federal officers, including after they obtained a signed search warrant. Speaking to CBS's Face the Nation, O 'Hara described federal operations in the city as having gotten out of hand. We understand that for as long as there has been ICE, there has been immigration enforcement in Minnesota. The problem is not that enforcement is happening.

4:08It's clearly the manner in which these things are happening. These tactics are very obviously not safe, and it is generating a lot of outrage and fear in the community.

4:18Joe Wallace:A hearing is scheduled for today in Minnesota federal court in a suit brought by the state's attorney general that seeks to bar Homeland Security and Justice Department officials from destroying or concealing evidence related to Saturday's shooting. A Homeland Security spokeswoman defended the actions of immigration agents and described claims that evidence was destroyed as, quote, an attempt to divide the American people. When pressed on how the investigation is being managed, Secretary Kristi Noem told Fox News that more details would be provided in due course. I think that information is consistently coming out when it's appropriate, when investigators deem that it is something that they can release that will give answers to people.

4:59That's exactly what President Trump and his administration want.

5:03Joe Wallace:In addition to widening a rift between divisions of law enforcement, Saturday's killing is spurring gun rights advocates to issue rare criticism of the Trump administration following comments like this from FBI Director Kash Patel on Fox News' Sunday Morning Futures. You cannot bring a firearm loaded with multiple magazines to any sort of protest that you want. It's that simple. You don't have that right to break the law and incite violence. The Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus called Patel's statement completely incorrect on Minnesota law, while the National Rifle Association said that officials shouldn't be demonizing law-abiding citizens.

5:41Joe Wallace:Meanwhile, back in Washington, Senate Democrats, angry over events in Minnesota, say they won't vote for a government funding package unless it includes major changes to its homeland security provisions, including constraints on DHS's immigration enforcement activities and more oversight. That's teeing up a potential government shutdown this coming weekend, something that many Senate Democrats had initially sought to avoid after last year's record-setting funding lapse. Speaking on NBC's Meet the Press, Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar criticized the behavior of ICE and U.S. Border Patrol and called on her colleagues across the aisle to work with Democrats.

6:19Our Republican colleagues have to stand up and stop this. And no, I am not voting for this funding.

6:25Joe Wallace:Klobuchar stopped short of joining other Democrats in calling for abolishing ICE. Voting against the DHS funding measure would do little to rein in immigration enforcement in the short term, given that last year's tax and spending package set aside more than$4 billion to hire and train more Border Patrol agents. For more on ICE and how it's operating, check out Sunday's What's News episode in your podcast feed now. Coming up, the U.S. digs out after a major winter storm and a vaccine showdown as pediatricians take issue with the CDC's pared back shot recommendations for kids. Those stories and more after the break.

7:07Law moves fast. Time is short. Your role expands. And every draft must be airtight. LexisNexis Protégé workflows are built for the pace of law, bringing verified authority and shepherdized citations into your work, so you can move fast while maintaining legal standards. From first draft to final review, your work is grounded and ready. LexisNexis Protégé workflows. Greater certainty. Private. Secure. Authoritative legal AI.

7:42Joe Wallace:Large swaths of the U.S. remain covered in snow and ice this morning after a winter storm wreaked havoc from the southern Rocky Mountains to New England. More than 800 ,000 Americans are currently without power, according to PowerOutage.us, with Tennessee and Mississippi hit especially hard. The Northeast, Great Lakes, and Central Plains are all expected to get more snow today, adding to pressure on power grids. The harsh weather has also forced major oil and natural gas-producing regions to shut up shop, further stressing grids. According to analysts at J.P. Morgan, about 250 ,000 barrels of daily crude production has been lost due to closures in Oklahoma and parts of Texas.

8:23Joe Wallace:Travelers are also bearing the brunt of the storm, with tens of thousands of flights canceled yesterday and more than 4 ,000 canceled so far today. Pediatricians are pushing back against the CDC's new and slimmed-down childhood vaccine schedule. In its guidance out today, the American Academy of Pediatrics continues to recommend that children be vaccinated against 18 diseases, including hepatitis A and B, COVID-19, influenza, rotavirus, and the disease that causes meningitis and other infections. Those six immunizations were dropped from the CDC's schedule for children earlier this month, with the agency now recommending children get vaccinated against 11 diseases.

9:05Joe Wallace:Hitting out at the CDC's pared-back vaccination schedule, the AAP's Dr. Sean O 'Leary said the recommendations aren't grounded in science, but rather in ideology. A purge of the Chinese military has now reached the country's senior most general, and we can exclusively report that he's being accused of leaking information about China's nuclear weapons program to the U.S. and accepting bribes for official acts. General Jian Yuxia was once considered Xi Jinping's most trusted military ally and is a descendant of revolutionary elders who helped Mao Zedong's communist forces seize power in 1949. Analysts say the opacity of China's political system makes it hard to ascertain Xi's motivations for targeting John.

9:52Joe Wallace:A spokesman at the Chinese embassy in Washington said the party's decision to investigate John underscores that China's leadership maintains, quote, a full-coverage, zero-tolerance approach to combating corruption. We've left a link to our reporting in our show notes.

10:10Joe Wallace:And gold has surged past$5 ,000 for the first time ever, adding to its historic rally. We're less than a month into 2026, and gold prices have risen 17 % so far this year. That's nothing, though, compared to the silver market, which is up 8 % this morning, and 55 % for the year so far. So this is a really historic rally in both precious metals. That's markets reporter Joe Wallace, who said that political uncertainty regarding Greenland and Venezuela, coupled with President Trump's latest threat of 100 % tariffs on Canada, is pushing safe havens like gold and silver to new highs. There's also some concern among investors about the independence of the Federal Reserve after the DOJ investigation into Chair Jerome Powell became public early this year.

10:58There are a couple more things going on. The Fed has been lowering rates, and gold prices typically do well when rates are lower. That's because gold doesn't pay any dividends or coupons. So the opportunity cost of holding what essentially is a shiny piece of metal falls when interest rates are themselves lower. And then central banks around the world just keep on buying gold in their droves. This had been going on for years, but it really picked up speed after 2022 when the West put sanctions on the Russian central bank reserves and central banks in other countries that aren't aligned with the West started thinking, hang on, do I really want to hold quite so many dollars?

11:32Maybe I should own some gold in my foreign exchange reserves in case my dollar holdings get weaponized in the same way.

11:38Joe Wallace:And before we go, a quick correction. An earlier version of this episode incorrectly called the U.S. Gun Advocacy Group the National Rifle Administration when it is, in fact, the National Rifle Association. And that's it for What's News for this Monday morning. Today's show was produced by Daniel Bach and Hattie Moyer. Our supervising producer was Sandra Killhoff. And I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal. We will be back tonight with a new show. Until then, thanks for listening.

12:16You don't need AI agents, which may sound weird coming from ServiceNow, the leader in AI agents. The truth is, AI agents need you. Sure, they'll process, predict, even get work done autonomously. But they don't dream, read a room, rally a team, and they certainly don't have shower thoughts, pivotal hallway chats, or big ideas. People do. and people when given the best AI platform they're freed up to do the fulfilling work they want to do to see how ServiceNow puts AI to work for people visit servicenow.com