Video footage captured by another bystander shows that just as Pretti managed to stabilize the EMT, agents shoved the other woman to the ground. As Pretti and the EMT attempt to help her stand up, multiple agents surround the group and begin to spray them with cans of chemical irritant. Some of the agents continue pursuing the women, while others separate #Pretti from the group and begin beating him.
“I was saying to the agents, “We’re leaving! We’re leaving. We’re leaving!’ — just trying desperately to like get them to stop,” the EMT said.
The Department of Homeland Security (#DHS) is expanding its efforts to identify Americans who oppose #ICE by sending tech companies legal requests for the names, email addresses, telephone numbers and other identifying data behind social media accounts that track or criticize the agency.
In recent months, #Google, #Reddit, #Discord and #Meta, which owns #Facebook and #Instagram, have received hundreds of administrative subpoenas from the DHS, according to four government officials and tech employees privy to the requests.
“Before I say thanks to God, I’m gonna say: ICE out!” proclaimed trap and reggaeton artist Bad Bunny on February 1, while accepting the Grammy award for best urban music album.
The crowd inside the show, which took place in LA, overwhelmingly responded with cheers.
“We’re not savage, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens,” he added. “We are humans and we are Americans.”
The #Grammy ceremony and #BadBunny’s anti-#ICE statement came in the context of the #Trump administration’s brutal crackdown against immigrant workers, with hundreds of thousands of people arrested and deported in the last year, often violently.
Bad Bunny, one of the most well-known and awarded #US musicians today, repeated his pro-#immigrant message a week later at the #SuperBowl halftime show, without making an explicit political statement as he did in the Grammys.
Arturo O’Farrill is a #Grammy-winning pianist, composer and one of the most influential voices in #AfroCubanJazz. But for him, #Cuba is more than just an inspiration — it’s home, history and identity.
In #Havana, during the 41st International #Jazz Plaza Festival, Arturo told us why #jazz cannot be understood without Cuba, why #AfroCuban roots remain central to the music’s evolution, and why #cultural exchange persists despite the #US’s decades-long economic war on Cuba.
Arturo has been returning to Cuba year after year for over two decades, honoring his heritage, and using #music as a bridge between Cuban and US citizens - despite the personal cost of taking political positions.
“This is Cuba,” he says. “I come here to learn how to live.”
On Friday, Feb. 6, 2026, students at Bellaire High School in Houston, Texas, walked out as part of a coordinated regional effort involving several area schools, including Cypress Falls and Conroe High Schools, to protest operations by #Immigration and Customs Enforcement (#ICE) amid fears that its agents will be allowed onto school property to detain students and their families.
The Houston Chronicle article reproduced below on the Bellaire walkout conveys important developments in the fight to oppose #deportations across the United States.
The widespread high-school student walkouts on January 30 are now being followed by new and similar grassroots initiatives at schools around the country.
#Trump urges Iran negotiations and praises #Netanyahu for conduct in #Gaza. VP #JDVance says Trump wants a deal that blocks #Iran’s nuclear program. Netanyahu, wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court, signs onto Trump’s “Board of Peace.” #Hamas leadership meets with an Iranian representative. #US draft proposes gradual disarmament of Hamas. Prominent #Palestinian leader assaulted and starved in prison. #Israel revokes citizenship of two Palestinians. GHF “security provider” in talks with Trump’s Board of Peace about a future role in Gaza. Thousands of #UK passport holders served in Israeli military during Gaza #genocide, records show. #China offers support to #Cuba amid US-driven fuel shortage. Russia says it will observe expired nuclear treaty if the US does the same.
As scholars from around the world, we unite to condemn the #US government’s ‘maximum pressure’ policy aimed at starving the Cuban people into submission. We defend #Cuba’s right to self-determination, including the right to pursue a socialist development path. We oppose the #Trump administration’s declaration of a ‘national emergency’, its threats of tariffs against countries sending #oil to Cuba, and the absurd claim that Cuba threatens US national security. The impact is already visible with hospitals and universities closing, and industry, agriculture and transport in crisis...
The policy’s objective, laid out in a 1960 memorandum by US diplomat Lester Mallory titled ‘The Decline and Fall of Castro’, is to use economic warfare ‘to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government’. This constitutes collective punishment, illegal under international law.
#Israel continues to harass #Palestinians returning to #Gaza. Far-right Israeli bill would mandate death penalty for Palestinians. #Trump to meet #Netanyahu at the White House to discuss #Iran. Grand jury rejects Trump-backed effort to indict Democratic lawmakers over military dissent video. Trump weighs second #US aircraft carrier deployment to #MiddleEast. Progressive challenger #AnaliliaMejia wins Democratic primary in #NJ special House race. Instagram suspends #AIPAC tracker. Children in #Texas#ICE family detention experience fear, illness, and months without school. Children zip-tied during militarized #immigration raid at Idaho horse racing venue, lawsuit claims. #Kurdish#PKK fighters withdraw from #Syria.
Donald Trump said on February 1: "We're talking to the people from Cuba, the highest people in Cuba, to see what happens. I think we’re going to make a deal." But according to #DropSiteNews, no such talks are taking place.
Meanwhile, in Cuba, the #US de facto #oil blockade has already led to a shutdown of some essential services. We spoke with Cubans about the fuel crisis and their concerns for the future.
Also:
Interview With Cuban Jazz Legend Arturo O'Farrill
With Jet Fuel Scarce, Canada and Russia Cancel Flights
“THIS IS NOT A PROTEST STORY. THIS IS A CIVIC DEFENSE MANUAL”
by Closer To The Edge And Rook T. Winchester on Substack
“From that moment on post the murders in [#Minneapolis of Renee #Good & Alex #Pretti], Minnesota stopped acting like this was about persuasion and started acting like it was about protection.
What followed wasn’t chaos. It was organization under pressure. And that’s what other cities need to understand, because this wasn’t a protest cycle. It was a community building a defensive system in real time.
Essential (but long) reading for anyone who still harbours the illusion that Russia (with all its many faults) is the historical “bad guy” and the collective Britain/ US/ EU/ NATO imperium is on the side of the angels!