Politics
Trump vows to ‘de-escalate’ after Minneapolis shootings
- Trump’s border adviser meets Minnesota Governor and Minneapolis.
- Trump admits presence of a govt official behind tensions.
- Calls for ‘honourable and honest investigation’ over killings.
MINNEAPOLIS: US President Donald Trump said Tuesday he would “de-escalate a little bit” in Minneapolis after the fatal shootings of two civilians fuelled a storm of criticism over his signature immigration crackdown.
Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan met with officials in the city as the Republican attempted damage control after the killing by immigration agents of 37-year-old nurse Alex Pretti on Saturday.
The president also admitted that Gregory Bovino, a hardline Border Patrol commander who is now expected to leave Minneapolis, was “a pretty out-there kind of a guy” whose presence may not have helped the situation.
“We’re going to de-escalate a little bit,” Trump told Fox News after days of tensions following the shooting of Pretti, while adding that it was not a “pullback.”
Trump said that Homan — the top US border security official, who brings a less confrontational communication style — met with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey Tuesday.
The US president told reporters that he rejected the “assassin” label used by a top aide to describe protester Pretti. “I want a very honourable and honest investigation,” he said.
Yet Trump did not hold back from criticising Pretti for carrying a licensed firearm that was taken off him before he was shot.
“I don’t like that he had a gun, I don’t like that he had two fully loaded magazines,” the president said.
‘Pretty out there’
Mayor Frey said in a statement after meeting Homan that he discussed the “serious negative impacts this operation has had on Minneapolis,” and that the city “will not enforce federal immigration laws.”
Former Democratic vice presidential candidate Walz said he called for “impartial investigations” into shootings by federal agents in the city as well as a “significant reduction” in federal forces in the state.
Pretti’s death has sparked outrage nationwide.
Democratic former president Joe Biden on Tuesday said the situation “betrays our most basic values as Americans.” Ex-presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama have also spoken out.
Pretti, shot multiple times after being knocked to the ground, was the second US citizen killed by immigration officers in Minneapolis this month, turning the city into ground zero of national tensions over Trump’s mass deportation policies.
Protester Renee Good, a mother of three, was shot by an agent at point-blank range in her car on January 7.
The killings capped months of escalating violence in which masked, unidentified, and heavily armed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol agents have grabbed people suspected of violating immigration laws off the streets.
Despite multiple videos showing that Pretti posed no threat, top officials initially claimed he had been intending to kill federal agents.
Trump backed his under-fire Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem, who described Pretti as a “domestic terrorist,” saying she would not step down and was doing a “very good job.”
But he was less supportive of Bovino, a Border Patrol official famed for revelling in aggressive, televised immigration crackdowns who had also played up the narrative that Pretti had posed a threat.
“Bovino’s very good, but he’s a pretty out there kind of a guy. And in some cases, that’s good, maybe it wasn’t good here,” Trump told Fox.
‘Sickened’
Concern over the violence and the attempt to blame Pretti for his death quickly spread to Washington.
Republican Senator Rand Paul said Tuesday that agents involved in the shooting should be put on administrative leave, later adding that the heads of ICE, Border Patrol and Citizenship and Immigration Services would testify before Congress next month.
Centrist Democratic Senator John Fetterman said “grossly incompetent” Noem should be fired.
The turmoil could even result in a fresh US government shutdown, with Democrats threatening to block approval of routine spending bills up for votes in the Senate later this week.
“The whole community is just sickened by all this,” said 68-year-old retiree Stephen McLaughlin in Minneapolis. “The aim of the government is to terrorise citizens, it’s really frightening.”
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that if the US attacked Iran, it would become a regional conflict, state media reported on Sunday, amid heightened tensions between Washington and Tehran.
The US has built up its naval presence in the Middle East after President Donald Trump repeatedly threatened Iran with intervention if it did not agree to a nuclear deal or failed to stop killing protesters.
“[Trump] regularly says that he brought ships […] The Iranian nation shall not be scared by these things, the Iranian people will not be stirred by these threats,” Khamenei said.
“We are not the initiators and do not want to attack any country, but the Iranian nation will strike a strong blow against anyone who attacks and harasses them.”
A diplomatic solution remains on the cards, with Tehran saying it is ready for “fair” negotiations that do not seek to curtail its defensive capabilities.
The US Navy currently has six destroyers, one aircraft carrier, and three littoral combat ships in the region.
The protests, which started in late December over economic hardships but morphed into the most acute political challenge to the Islamic Republic since its establishment in 1979, have now abated after repression.
Official numbers put the unrest-related death toll at 3,117, while the US-based HRANA rights group said on Sunday it had so far verified the death of 6,713 people. Reuters was unable to independently verify the numbers.
Khamenei likened the protests to a “coup”, saying that the goal of the “sedition” was to attack the centres that govern the country, state media reported.
ABU DHABI: The United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque recorded a historic surge in visitors in 2025, welcoming nearly seven million worshippers and tourists, the highest annual figure since the landmark opened.
According to official figures, the total marked a 4% increase compared with 2024, reflecting the mosque’s growing status as one of the Middle East’s leading religious and cultural destinations.
More than 1.53 million people performed prayers at the mosque during the year, while over 2.4 million visitors attended for iftar and religious activities.
Foreign visitors accounted for 82% of the total, while UAE residents made up 18%. By region, Asia ranked first with 49% of visitors, followed by Europe at 33% and North America at 11%.
During Ramadan and Eid ul Fitr, more than 1.89 million worshippers and guests visited the mosque, where over 2.6 million iftar and suhoor meals were distributed as part of humanitarian initiatives.
The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque Centre also organised more than 4,000 cultural tours and programmes and hosted 335 high-level delegations throughout the year, reinforcing its role as a global hub for faith, tourism and intercultural dialogue.
WASHINGTON: Travel misery was set to continue Sunday as a powerful snowstorm blasted southern US states, bringing subzero temperatures to regions not accustomed to the deadly winter conditions.
The latest bout of extreme weather came about a week after a monster storm pummeled a wide swath of the United States, killing more than 100 people and leaving many communities struggling to dig out from snow and ice.
Heavy snow fell in North Carolina and neighbouring states Saturday, as authorities urged residents to stay off the roads and warned oceanfront structures were threatened by the storm.
All of North and South Carolina, and portions of Georgia, eastern Tennessee and Kentucky, as well as southern Virginia were under a winter storm warning.
North Carolina saw 750 car crashes on Saturday, the highway patrol said.
Faust, North Carolina recorded 14.5 inches (37 cm) of snow, while West Critz, Virginia got 12.5 inches. Harrisburg, Tennessee received more than nine inches of accumulation.
In the North Carolina town of Cape Carteret, high winds sent thick snow blowing sideways, prompting the National Weather Service to warn that travel was “Treacherous and Potentially Life-Threatening especially if you become stranded.”
In dramatic footage released by police in Gastonia, North Carolina, a train ploughed at high speed into a semi-truck that had gotten stuck on the tracks, crushing the vehicle. No one was hurt.
The weekend storm forced more than 1,800 flight cancellations Saturday and Sunday at Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina, a major hub for American Airlines, data from the tracker FlightAware showed.
A 300-strong “snow team” was working to clear runways, taxiways, roads and sidewalks, the airport said Saturday.
More than 600 flights were cancelled Saturday at Atlanta’s international airport, the world’s busiest. About 50 flights in and out of Atlanta were cancelled in the early hours of Sunday.
“An explosively deepening coastal cyclone will continue to bring moderate to heavy snow, high winds, and possibly blizzard conditions for the Carolinas,” the National Weather Service said Saturday.
“An intense surge of arctic air behind the coastal storm will send below freezing temperatures down toward South Florida by Sunday morning.”
Davis, West Virginia recorded the lowest temperature in the lower 48 states on Saturday — a frigid minus 28°F (minus 33°C).
About 156,000 customers remained without power early Sunday, mostly in the south, according to poweroutage.us, with Mississippi, Tennessee and Louisiana hardest hit.
In North Carolina, the National Park Service announced the closure of campgrounds and some beaches at the Outer Banks, a series of barrier islands off the coast of the southern state that are vulnerable to storms.
It said oceanfront structures were threatened, and a section of highway that threads through its dunes was closed.
In Mississippi, Governor Tate Reeves said the US Army Corps of Engineers helped to install generators at critical sites, and authorities were opening 79 shelters and warming centres across the state.
The freezing weather forced Nasa to postpone a key fueling test over the weekend of the 322-foot (98-metre) rocket that is on the Cape Canaveral launch pad in Florida.
That in turn is likely to push back by at least a couple of days a planned manned Moon flyby slated for this month.
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