Please do your part today.

Annie Ganger: ?No matter the adversity she faced, Renee always remained so tender and open and was a caretaker and protector. I?d like to acknowledge that this type of violence isn?t new, and how unfair it is that the way someone looks garners more or less attention. And I?m so sorry that this is the reality.?

Meanwhile, Jim Stolley, the chief counsel for ICE in Minnesota, resigned from his position after 31 years on the job. This comes as government prosecutors are facing a surge of immigration cases that are overwhelming the court system.

Last month, the top federal judge in Minnesota, Patrick Schiltz, criticized ICE for violating more than 100 judicial orders, saying, ?ICE has likely violated more court orders in January 2026 than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence.?

In more news from Minnesota, a Mexican immigrant whose skull was broken in eight places during his arrest by ICE last month has described harrowing details of his ordeal. Alberto Castañeda Mondragón says he was violently pulled from a friend?s car outside a St. Paul shopping center by four masked men, thrown to the ground, handcuffed, then punched and struck in the head by a steel baton. He says he was then dragged into an SUV and taken to an ICE jail inside the Whipple Federal Building, where he says he was beaten again. Castañeda Mondragón?s injuries are inconsistent with ICE officers? claims to the nurses who treated him that he ?purposefully ran headfirst into a brick wall.?

More than 1,000 workers at Google have signed a petition calling on their company to cancel contracts with ICE and Customs and Border Protection. They write, ?Google is now a prominent node in a shameful lineage of private companies profiting from violent state repression. We must use this moment to come together as a Googler community and demand an end to this disgraceful use of our labor.?

In Massachusetts, a federal judge has put a temporary hold on data sharing between the IRS, Social Security Administration and ICE. In a statement, the New York Immigration Coalition applauded the order, writing, ?With tax season here, this ruling ensures that immigrant families can meet their civic obligations without fear of retaliation or surveillance.?

President Trump is refusing to apologize for publishing a racist video that depicts former President Obama and Michelle Obama as apes. Trump?s account on his social media platform Truth Social posted the video late Thursday night, where it remained for 12 hours before it was deleted around noon on Friday. It prompted rare criticism of the president from Republicans, including Tim Scott, the Senate?s only Black Republican. Scott said, ?It?s the most racist thing I?ve seen out of this White House,? adding that he was ?praying it was fake.? But speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump defended his actions.

Reporter: ?Mr. President, a number of Republicans are calling on you to apologize for that post. Is that something you?re going to do??

President Donald Trump: ?No, I didn?t make a mistake. I mean, you give — I look at a lot of — thousands of things. And I looked at the beginning of it. It was fine. They had that one post. And I guess it was a takeoff. By the way, a lot of people were covered. If you look at where it came from, a lot of — I guess it was a takeoff on 'The Lion King.' And certainly it was a — a very strong post in terms of voter fraud.?

The Justice Department is set to allow Congress access to unredacted files related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein starting today. Epstein?s associate, the convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, is also set to testify before the House Oversight Committee in a virtual deposition closed to the public. Maxwell?s lawyers have indicated that she will invoke the Fifth Amendment and decline to answer questions. Attorney General Pam Bondi is expected to testify on Wednesday over the Justice Department?s handling of the Epstein files. It comes as Republican Congressmember Thomas Massie is pushing for Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to resign, after emails revealed Lutnick lied when he claimed to have ended his relationship with Epstein in 2005. At the National Prayer Breakfast last week, President Trump called Congressmember Massie a ?moron.? Meanwhile, in the U.K., British Prime Minister Keir Starmer?s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, has resigned over his role in recommending the appointment of Peter Mandelson, a friend of Jeffrey Epstein, as ambassador to the United States.

Israel?s security cabinet has approved new rules to tighten Israeli control over the occupied West Bank. The rules will make it easier for Israeli settlers to buy land in the occupied West Bank, and give Israeli officials stronger powers to enforce laws on Palestinians in the area.

Meanwhile, a new report by The Intercept has uncovered the Pentagon?s $210 million deal to buy advanced cluster munitions from an Israeli weapons manufacturer. The U.S. will pay the Israeli company Tomer over a period of three years to produce new 155-millimeter shells containing smaller submunitions. The Cluster Munition Monitor has recorded nearly 25,000 cluster munition injuries and deaths since the 1960s, the vast majority from unexploded remnants.

Iran?s Foreign Ministry says it?s open to a deal to limit its ability to enrich uranium in exchange for relief from sanctions. But Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said any new agreement must include the right to enrich nuclear material for peaceful purposes. His comments came after U.S. and Iranian diplomats held indirect talks in Oman on Friday, as U.S. warships gathered within striking distance of Iran amid Trump?s threats of a new attack.

Abbas Araghchi: ?Iran?s power lies in its ability to resist bullying, hegemony and pressure from others. The U.S. and their allies are afraid of our atomic bomb, but we are not looking for an atomic bomb. Our key strength is the power to say no to the great powers.?

In more news from Iran, security forces have announced the arrest of four senior opposition politicians, including the head of the Reformist Front, widening a crackdown on dissent that?s left thousands of people dead since protests erupted in late December. Those arrested face charges of plotting to overthrow Iran?s Islamic regime. Separately, the jailed Nobel Peace laureate Narges Mohammadi has ended a hunger strike, after an Iranian court on Saturday sentenced her to another seven years in prison. She was on medical leave from prison in December when she was arrested at a memorial service for a well-known human rights lawyer who died under mysterious circumstances. Mohammadi has already spent over a decade behind bars.

A Hong Kong court has sentenced media mogul Jimmy Lai to 20 years in prison. Lai had already been in detention for more than five years while serving a separate prison term on fraud charges. Lai was arrested back in 2020 under the national security law that China implemented in Hong Kong following the pro-democracy protests in 2019. He was the founder of the Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily, which ceased operations in 2021 after police arrested the paper?s employees and froze its assets.

In Sudan, a drone attack by the paramilitary group RSF hit a vehicle carrying displaced families on Saturday, killing at least 24 people, including eight children. The attack took place close to the city of Er Rahad in North Kordofan province, according to the Sudan Doctors Network, a group tracking the country?s civil war. The conflict in Sudan is the world?s largest humanitarian crisis, with more than 40,000 people killed and more than 14 million people forced to flee their homes.

A federal judge has unfrozen $16 billion in funds withheld by President Trump for rail infrastructure between New York and New Jersey. Friday?s court order came as President Trump reportedly told Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer that he would release the funds if Schumer supported renaming Dulles International Airport in Virginia and Penn Station in New York City after him. New Jersey?s Acting Attorney General Jennifer Davenport issued a statement, saying, ?The Trump Administration must drop this campaign of political retribution immediately and must allow work on this vital infrastructure project to continue.?

In Italy, thousands of people marched through the streets of Milan on Saturday to protest the environmental, social and economic impacts of the Winter Olympics. They?re also objecting to Israel?s participation in the Games — and the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents with the U.S. delegation. Police fired tear gas and water cannons as some protesters approached a hockey venue.

Inside the Games, U.S. Vice President JD Vance was met with a chorus of boos when he appeared at the opening ceremony on Friday evening. This is how the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation covered the brief on-camera appearance by JD and Usha Vance.

Devin Heroux: ?In an individual sport. What an honor for her.?

Adrienne Arsenault: ?There is the Vice President JD Vance and his wife Usha. Ooh, those are not — uhh, those are a lot of boos for him.?

Those boos were not audible in video of Vance?s appearance broadcast across the United States by NBC, and then widely shared online — including by the White House?s social media account.

Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny has made history as the first artist to perform a Super Bowl halftime show almost entirely in Spanish. Bad Bunny?s performance came a week after he publicly criticized ICE at the Grammys during his victory speech for Album of the Year. During the halftime performance, Bad Bunny held a football that read, ?Together, We Are America.? The performance ended with Bad Bunny holding a light blue pro-Independence variation of the Puerto Rican flag. He was followed by dancers holding the flags of every country in the Americas.

Bad Bunny: ?God bless America! Sea Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Perú, Ecuador, Brasil, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Panamá, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, México, Cuba, República Dominicana, Jamaica, Haití, las Antillas, United States, Canadá. And my motherland, mi patria, Puerto Rico. ¡Seguimos aquí!?

President Trump called the performance ?absolutely terrible, one of the worst, EVER!? and ?an affront to the Greatness of America.?

Join Amy Goodman, Juan González, Nermeen Shaikh, special guests and the entire Democracy Now! family to celebrate 30 years of global independent news in NYC on Monday, February 23, 2026