The Morning Sixpack - January 14, 2026

Press raids, prosecutor walkouts, mass protest deaths, U.S. losing track of 137 deported Venezuelans, Kremlin Greenland fantasies, and Trump’s factory-floor flare-up.

F.B.I. Raid on Reporter’s Home Raises New Alarms Over Press Freedom

Federal agents rifling through a journalist’s home is the kind of scene that should make every American sit up straight.

In an extraordinary escalation, F.B.I. agents searched the home of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson as part of an investigation into the alleged sharing of government secrets. This isn’t how leak investigations usually go; the government typically sticks to metadata, not front doors.

Natanson has spent the past year chronicling the Trump administration’s push to purge and repurpose the federal workforce. The employees she interviewed shared their fear and outrage, but also a fierce commitment to truth. As one Defense Department worker put it, “I understand the risks. But getting the truth and facts out is so much more important.”

The search stems from an inquiry into Aurelio Perez-Lugones, a Maryland systems administrator with top-secret clearance, accused of taking classified intelligence home—some of it reportedly discovered in his lunchbox. Even so, constitutional scholars warned this kind of search risks chilling legitimate journalism. Jameel Jaffer of the Knight First Amendment Institute called the development “intensely concerning,” emphasizing that “there are important limits on the government’s authority to carry out searches that implicate First Amendment activity.”

This all comes after the Trump administration scrapped a Biden-era safeguard that limited the Justice Department’s power to target journalists’ data. Attorney General Pam Bondi justified the rollback by insisting the department “will not tolerate unauthorized disclosures that undermine President Trump’s policies, victimize government agencies and cause harm to the American people.” History is repeating itself: during Trump’s first term, investigators sought journalists’ phone and email records—though even then, they didn’t enter their homes.

In standard leak cases, reporters aren’t the targets. They’re the collateral path. But the line between investigating leaks and intimidating the press is thin, and this search bulldozed right up to it.

Source: New York Times

Editor: Bold move raiding a reporter’s home when classified documents were allegedly sitting in a guy’s lunchbox. Maybe start with the lunchbox next time.

Prosecutors Walk Out as Trump DOJ Shuts Minnesota Out of ICE Shooting Probe

When half a dozen federal prosecutors slam the door behind them, it’s not a staffing issue—it’s a five-alarm fire.

A wave of resignations has hit the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota after the Trump administration blocked state authorities from participating in the investigation of Renee Good’s killing by an ICE officer in Minneapolis. The Justice Department also sidelined its own civil rights division, a break from decades of practice in high-profile police shootings. Career attorneys saw the direction things were heading—and walked.

The civil rights division, which for generations has swiftly opened probes into officer-involved shootings, was told to stand down. A department official insisted there was “no basis” for a criminal civil rights investigation into Good’s death. That assertion landed like a hammer in an office already strained by fears of political interference. Among those who resigned was First Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson, who had been leading major federal prosecutions in the state.

Minnesota leaders didn’t mince words. Sen. Amy Klobuchar warned the departures were “a loss for our state and for public safety,” while Gov. Tim Walz said the exodus spotlighted troubling political pressure inside the Justice Department. Hundreds of DOJ lawyers have resigned or been pushed out over the past year, a trend that says more than any official talking point ever will.

Meanwhile, DOJ leadership offered its standard-issue denial, claiming the civil rights prosecutors who left were already planning to retire. Sure. This from the same department dismantling tools once used to investigate systemic police misconduct—including the very pattern-or-practice reviews that reshaped Minneapolis after George Floyd’s murder. What’s left now is a Justice Department more comfortable retreating from oversight than exercising it.

The contrast with prior administrations is stark: when civilians are shot by law enforcement, federal civil rights scrutiny is supposed to be the baseline, not a political choice. Minnesota’s leaders are now suing to stop a surge of ICE deployments, a move underscoring how quickly trust has eroded.

Source: CBC News

Editor: Imagine a Justice Department so allergic to accountability that the people hired to enforce the law would rather quit than stick around. At this point, “early retirement” sounds like the department’s version of “the dog ate my homework.”

Iran’s Protest Death Toll Tops 2,500 as Regime Cuts Communications and Blames the World

When a nation has to sever its own phone lines to hide the body count, you know the crisis is erupting faster than the regime can contain it.

Activists now say more than 2,500 Iranians have been killed in nationwide protests—an astonishing, grim figure that dwarfs every uprising since the 1979 revolution. The Human Rights Activists News Agency reported 2,571 deaths as of early Wednesday, even as the government offered only the vague admission that there had been “a lot of martyrs.” Meanwhile, demonstrators scrawled graffiti and chanted openly for the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a crime that can itself carry a death sentence.

Communication blackouts made confirmation difficult, but the scale of unrest was unmistakable. Phone calls abroad resumed Tuesday after days of silence, allowing witnesses to describe heavily armed security forces, charred government buildings, and streets emptied by fear. Many of the dead—2,403 by activists’ count—were protesters, with 147 government-affiliated casualties and at least a dozen children. “We’re horrified, but we still think the number is conservative,” said Skylar Thompson of HRANA.

The turmoil spilled beyond Iran’s borders when President Donald Trump took to Truth Social, urging “Iranian Patriots” to “KEEP PROTESTING–TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!!” He later hedged when reporters pressed him on the soaring death toll, saying the administration was waiting for “confirmed” figures. Iranian officials fired back, with National Security Council secretary Ali Larijani declaring Trump—and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—the “main killers of the people of Iran.”

Inside Iran, people venturing out for the first time in days described a city bracing for more upheaval. Security officials in plainclothes monitored intersections, riot police patrolled with shotguns and tear gas launchers, and shops opened to a capital largely too terrified to walk its own streets. “People—particularly young ones—are hopeless, but they talk about continuing the protests,” said Reza, a Tehran taxi driver.

And yet, even as the government hunts down satellite dishes and raids buildings looking for Starlink terminals, activists say the company is now offering free access inside the country. “We can confirm that the free subscription for Starlink terminals is fully functional,” said activist Mehdi Yahyanejad—an unmistakable sign that Iranians are determined to reconnect with the world, whether their rulers want them to or not.

Source: AP News

Editor: Tehran can smash ATMs, burn offices, and silence phones, but the minute Starlink boots up, the regime suddenly looks like it’s fighting teenagers with Wi-Fi. Hard to win a censorship war when the sky beams your opposition a signal.

Rubio Admits U.S. Lost Track of 137 Venezuelan Migrants as Washington Tightens Its Grip on Caracas

When the Secretary of State tells a federal judge the U.S. has no idea where 137 deported people ended up, it’s not just a paperwork problem—it’s a policy failure.

In a court filing, Secretary of State Marco Rubio acknowledged that the United States does not know the current whereabouts of 137 Venezuelan migrants it deported under the Aliens Act last March. These migrants were flown, without notice or any chance to object, to a notorious prison in El Salvador. The disclosure comes as the U.S. expands its involvement in Venezuela after toppling Nicolás Maduro and launching strikes earlier this month.

Rubio told the court that “given the passage of time, the U.S. government does not know—nor does it have any way of knowing—the whereabouts of class members,” including whether the Maduro regime “subsequently took anyone back into custody.” With Maduro captured and Venezuela in what Rubio described as a “fluid situation,” the administration argues that allowing the migrants to challenge their deportations now is simply “not feasible.”

A federal judge ruled in December that the 137 individuals must be given a retroactive opportunity to contest their removals. But Justice Department officials pushed back in their Monday filing, insisting that video hearings from inside Venezuela would pose “insurmountable legal and practical obstacles.” Bringing the men back to the U.S., they added, “would disrupt ongoing negotiations” with Venezuela’s post-Maduro leadership.

Rubio went further, warning that reopening the issue “would risk material damage to U.S. foreign policy interests in Venezuela.” And those interests have grown dramatically. Just days ago, Donald Trump proclaimed that the U.S. would “run Venezuela” until a “safe, proper and judicious transition” is secured. He even updated his Truth Social profile to list himself—quite literally—as “Acting President of Venezuela.”

The administration’s increasingly hands-on posture follows the January 3 operation in which Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured and flown to New York to face narco-terrorism conspiracy charges. Venezuela’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, has since been sworn in as interim president while Washington shapes the country’s next steps.

Source: LiveMint

Editor: Losing track of 137 human beings while claiming you’re “running” their country is quite a managerial flex. If this is the transition plan, Venezuela might want to misplace us right back.

Kremlin TV Floats Helping Trump “Free” Greenland as Putin’s War Drags Past WWII Length

When Russian state TV starts daydreaming about teaming up with Donald Trump to seize Greenland, you know the propaganda machine has slipped its gears.

In a week already brimming with delusion, Kremlin mouthpieces took aim at Britain, NATO, and pretty much anyone not named Vladimir Putin. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova mocked UK Defence Secretary John Healey’s support for trying Putin for war crimes as “the wet fantasies of British perverts,” even as Healey himself had to take shelter when a Russian strike on Lviv triggered an air alert. Meanwhile, Moscow marked Day 1,419 of its invasion of Ukraine—longer than the USSR fought in World War II—by ordering state media not to mention it at all.

That blackout is understandable from a regime embarrassed by its own math: nearly four years of war, more than a million killed or wounded by Western estimates, and only tiny territorial gains to show for it. No wonder propagandist Vladimir Solovyov resorted to theatrics, using his primetime show to suggest Russia might help Donald Trump wrest control of Greenland from Denmark. “Trump is preparing for a major war,” he insisted, crowing about America’s boosted military budget before promising Moscow would “be ready to help Trump free Greenland from this alien influence.”

From there, Solovyov pivoted to the usual menu of insults, calling Europeans “cattle,” sneering at Sir Keir Starmer’s comments about deploying British troops to the Arctic, and mocking the UK for supposedly lacking both troops and the means to transport them. The message was clear: Russia wants the world to think the West is weak, divided, and easily steamrolled—never mind its own stalled offensive in the Donbas.

Solovyov didn’t stop at geopolitical fantasies. He went full extremist, demanding the killings of senior Ukrainian officials including President Volodymyr Zelensky, General Valeriy Zaluzhny, and Lt-Gen Kyrylo Budanov. “Enough pitying the enemy. They must be destroyed,” he declared, as if casually ordering lunch. It’s the kind of rhetoric that gives away the Kremlin’s desperation: when battlefield results fail, threaten assassinations on television.

Zelensky, in contrast, reminded the world what’s at stake. Drawing parallels between Putin’s invasion and 20th-century fascism, he said Russia’s forces “wanted to repeat and did repeat the mockery of people—repeated fascism.” And after nearly four years, he added, Moscow is still trying—and failing—to take the same ground it targeted at the start. He renewed his call for Western unity, warning: “Every day of war is a reminder that the world cannot protect itself from mad men.”

As if to punctuate the point, Russia launched fresh strikes on Kyiv, Odesa, and Chernihiv overnight, wounding two medical workers when an ambulance was hit.

Source: The Express

Editor: Putin’s propagandists can fantasize about Greenland all they want, but if you can’t take Kupyansk after four years, maybe hold off on annexing the Arctic. At this rate, Denmark could defend the place with a sternly worded postcard and a snow shovel.

Trump Flips Off Detroit Factory Worker as White House Calls Gesture “Appropriate”

A president flashing the middle finger on a factory tour isn’t exactly in the civics textbooks, but here we are.

During a walkthrough of Ford’s F-150 plant in Dearborn, President Donald Trump twice mouthed “f--- you” and raised his middle finger toward a heckling line worker—a moment caught clearly on a cellphone video and later confirmed by the White House. The heckler, shouting “pedophile protector,” was referencing Trump’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. Rather than deny or downplay the incident, the White House leaned in. Spokesman Steven Cheung defended Trump’s reaction, calling the worker “a lunatic” and the president’s response “appropriate and unambiguous.”

The worker, 40-year-old UAW Local 600 member TJ Sabula, told The Post he stands by his decision: “As far as calling him out, definitely no regrets whatsoever.” Sabula said he has now been suspended and believes he’s facing “political retribution” for embarrassing Trump. He estimates he was 60 feet away and that Trump “very, very, very clearly” heard him. “I don’t feel as though fate looks upon you often, and when it does, you better be ready to seize the opportunity,” he said.

While Sabula worries about keeping his job, the internet moved instantly. A fundraiser launched in his name blew past $150,000 by Wednesday morning—an amount that probably softens the blow of corporate disciplinary action. Meanwhile, the rest of Trump’s Ford visit played to a friendlier crowd, with workers cheering and taking selfies as he toured the line with Bill Ford and CEO Jim Farley.

The broader context is one Trump would rather skip: renewed scrutiny of his past ties to Epstein and his years-long resistance to releasing Justice Department files related to the case. Democrats—and even some MAGA voices—have hammered him over treating the Epstein probe as a “hoax.” Trump cut ties with Epstein decades ago and has not been accused of participating in his crimes, but the issue clearly still resonates, enough that a single shouted insult in a noisy factory got under his skin.

This wasn’t the first time a top official flashed a middle finger at critics—Rockefeller did it in ’76—but Trump’s instinctive need to retaliate on camera is its own kind of political signature. For supporters, it’s “authentic.” For critics, it’s juvenile. For the White House, apparently, it’s official policy now.

Source: Washington Post (free)

Editor: Nothing screams “presidential composure” like flipping off a guy on the job who makes trucks for a living. At this point Ford should install a dashboard light that warns: “President approaching—emotional maturity not guaranteed.”