Happy Thursday Everyone! Todayâs newsletter: 1,036 wordsâŚ3.9 mins
đ Todayâs Edition: Minneapolis Shooting, Shaun White Shreds The Slopes in Central Park, NYC, Von der Leyen In India, Israel Recovers Final Hostage Remains, Trump & Walz Have A âVery Goodâ Call, Nvidia Earth-2⌠& much more!
đ Do you know the name of the only person ever to win both the Nobel Peace Prize and the Medal of Honor? Scroll down to find out!
đTHE HIGHLIGHT
One killer insight to stash in your back pocket
Left: Alex Pretti; Right: The altercation that led to his death
đĽ The Minneapolis Shooting: A Sanctuary City in a Federal Crossfire
A U.S. Border Patrol agent shot and killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, during an ICE raid.
This is the second fatal federal shooting in Minneapolis this month, turning the city into a symbolic battleground in Trumpâs immigration crackdown.
Two irreconcilable stories emerged:
đ´ Federal View: Agents say Pretti was obstructing federal agents, armed, posed a lethal threat, and therefore they âfired defensive shotsâ.
đľ Critics View: Circulating videos show Pretti resisting arrest, then subsequently got disarmed by an agent, pepper-sprayed, and on the ground before being shot 10 times.
Witnesses claim a gun misfiredâeither in his holster or after an agent seized it, which might have caused the other agent to react and shoot.
đŁ The rhetoric is nuclear:
President Trump accuses Gov. Walz and Mayor Frey of encouraging people to protest and âinciting insurrectionâ, to distract from the massive fraud in their state.
Gov. Walz compared ICE to the Gestapo in a previous address; and illegal aliens to Anne Frank - in the most recent briefing.
đĄBottom line: The story is still unfolding. Minneapolis has erupted into massive riots and investigations are underway.
âď¸THE CHESSBOARD
Geopolitics Decoded In 3 Moves
đŽđłđŞđş India Rolls Out the Red Carpet for Europe
For the first time ever, the EU showed up as chief guest at Indiaâs Republic Day celebration paradeâwith Ursula von der Leyen and AntĂłnio Costa riding in a horse-drawn carriage alongside President Droupadi Murmu. Symbolism dialed to 11.
We are showing a fractured world that another way is possible.
The duo then watched the grand spectacle unfold alongside PM Modi.
The visit doubles as the 16th IndiaâEU Summit, with talks on trade, tech, defense, and energyâwith a mega trade pact dubbed the âMother of All Deals,â to be signed tomorrow.
đĄBottom line: As U.S. tariffs loom and global blocs reshuffle, Delhi and Brussels are hedging together.
đŽđą Israel Recovers Last Hostage Remains â Ceasefire Gate Opens
Israel says it has recovered and identified the remains of Ran Gvili, the last Israeli hostage whose body was still in Gaza.
His remains were found in a northern Gaza cemetery during a large-scale IDF operation using forensic and dental records.
Returning all hostagesâliving or deadâwas a major stipulation for moving to phase two of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire.
đ§ Whatâs next: Officials signal Rafah crossing reopening and broader talks on Gaza governance.
đşđ¸ USS Abraham Lincoln Enters The Middle East
The USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group entered the Middle East on Mondayâpositioning F-35Cs and Tomahawks within striking distance of Tehran.
TIME Magazine reports 30,000 protesters killed in just two days during Iran's January crackdownâa death toll so massive the regime ran out of body bags and used semi-trailer trucks.
Trump told protesters "help is on the way."
But after the regimeâs formal executions were postponed, he dialed back the military rhetoric to vague "deterrence" measures.
đĄBottom line: The Lincoln's there. Iran's weak, but they have their finger on the nuclear button. So will Trump actually strike a regime that just slaughtered tens of thousandsâor is this Top Gun cosplay?
đ˝THE EMPIRE FILES
Political Drama From DC To NYC
Olympic legend Shaun White thrills onlookers at Central Park, NYC
đ¤ Trump & Walz Strike DealâHoman Heads to Minnesota
Trump announced Governor Tim Walz requested federal cooperation on Minnesota crime, calling their conversation "very good" and saying both are "on the same wavelength"âa sharp departure from last week's "insurrection" accusations.
Tom Homan, Trump's border czar and former ICE director, is en route to Minnesota tonight to coordinate with state officials on transferring individuals the administration labels criminal offenders.
Trump says Walz welcomed the move; and Walz says, the President âagreed to consider reducing the number of federal agents.â
This comes just as Minneapolis erupts into major riots. How bad? A protester bites the finger off of an HSI officer, bad.
đĄBottom line: Walz is cooperating with federal enforcement rather than resistingâa strategic shift that gives Trump operational support, while potentially insulating the Governor from further White House attacks.
âˇShaun White Jumps Shane Gillis in Central ParkâBecause NYC
During Sundayâs snowstorm, Olympic gold medalist, Shaun White casually converted a Central Park hill into a mini terrain parkâthrowing jumps, flips, and even clearing comedian Shane Gillis on a human-sized gap.
Why it popped: Clips went instantly viralâOlympic legend, random park slope, zero permits, peak New York energy.
đĄBottom line: Retired since 2022 and heading to the 2026 Olympics broadcast booth, White just reminded everyone: heâs still box office.
đ¤ CODES & POWER
Tech Wars, Crypto Chaos, and AIâs Black Mirror Moments
𧊠Claude Gets Apps â and Enters Your Office Stack
Anthropic launched interactive Claude appsâplugging Slack, Figma, Canva, Box, and soon Salesforce directly into the chatbot.
Think: Claude that can message coworkers, edit designs, and pull files, not just talk about them.
Built on the Model Context Protocol, this pushes Claude deeper into enterprise workflowsâespecially paired with its new agent tool, Cowork.
âĄThe AI office assistant just got handsânot just opinions.
đŞď¸ NVIDIAâs Earth-2 Turns Weather Into an AI Problem
NVIDIA released Earth-2, the worldâs first fully open, GPU-accelerated weather AI stackâpromising global forecasts in minutes, not hours.
The models span 15-day forecasts, real-time storm nowcasting, and ultra-fast data assimilation.
âĄThis slashes reliance on energy-hungry supercomputersâcutting compute by up to 90% in early deploymentsâand democratizes forecasting for smaller nations, insurers, energy grids, and logistics.
đş FUN FACTS & TRIVIA
Teddy Roosevelt
Did You Know?
President Theodore âTeddyâ Roosevelt, is the only person in history to win both the Nobel Peace Prize (for diplomacy) and the Medal of Honor (for military valor in the Spanish-American War).