First Thing: Border patrol chief praised federal agent who shot US citizen in Chicago | US news

Good morning.

Newly emerged evidence showed that Gregory Bovino, the border patrol chief who was the face of the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts until last month, praised a federal agent who shot a Chicago woman during a crackdown on immigrants last year.

U.S. citizen Marimar Martinez was shot five times by a border patrol agent while in her vehicle in October. He was charged with a felony after Department of Homeland Security officials accused him of trying to hit agents with his vehicle. But the case was dismissed after video evidence emerged showing an agent directing his vehicle toward Martinez’s car.

Evidence in the dismissed criminal case was released this week after U.S. district judge Georgia Alexakis lifted the protective order.

• What did Bovino say to the shooter? Text messages showed Bovino sending encouragement to Charles Exum, the Border Patrol agent who shot Martinez, after the shooting. “In light of your excellent service in Chicago, you still have a lot to do!!” Bovino wrote an email to Exum on Oct. 4, hours after Martinez was shot, urging him to delay his retirement.

• How are the management’s actions going? The NBC/SurveyMonkey poll found that 49 percent of American adults strongly disapprove of the Trump administration’s handling of border security and immigration; In a similar survey conducted last April, this rate was 34 percent.

Pam Bondi was attacked while being questioned by the House judiciary committee about her handling of the Epstein files

Attorney General Pam Bondi attacked Democrats at a House judiciary committee hearing Wednesday while defending the justice department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein-related files.

Democrats questioned Bondi as the Justice Department has come under intense scrutiny for both releasing the names of survivors and removing the names of people who may have committed crimes without disclosure.

Bondi declined to answer and, under pressure from representative Pramila Jayapal, refused to return and apologize to the Epstein victims who were in the hearing room.

• What did Bondi say during the controversial hearing? He lashed out with, among other lawmakers, the committee’s top Democrat, Maryland’s Jamie Raskin, saying: “You’re a screwed, losing lawyer. You’re not even a lawyer.”

House reprimands Trump, backs bid to block tariffs on Canada

The House of Representatives voted Wednesday to roll back Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada; It was a symbolic, albeit rare, rebuke of the White House agenda, with Republicans joining Democrats over objections from GOP leadership.

The 219-211 score was among the first times the Republican-controlled House of Representatives has confronted the president over a signature policy.

The decision is intended to end the national emergency that Trump declared to impose the tariffs, but actually reversing the policy would require Trump’s support, which is unlikely. The decision will then go to the Senate.

In other news…

• Dawson’s Creek actor James Van Der Beek passed away at the age of 48. In November 2024, he revealed his bowel cancer diagnosis.

• Canadian police identify the suspect who carried out the school massacre As an 18-year-old woman with a history of mental health issues.

• A man who participated in the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was found guilty of multiple child sexual abuse charges in Florida on Tuesday. He was pardoned by Donald Trump.

• French police appealed to victims and witnesses in the case of the 79-year-old former teacher. He is accused of raping and sexually assaulting 89 children since the 1960s.

• Texas officials were confused yesterday. the The Federal Aviation Administration ordered the closure of airspace over El Paso for 10 days. He suddenly removed it hours later.

Status of the day: US jobs report beats forecasts with 130,000 gain in January

Total U.S. nonfarm payroll employment rose by 130,000 in January after months of labor market fatigue. Bureau of Labor Statistics announces unemployment rate decreased to 4.3% last month, down from 4.4% in December. It was stronger than the 70,000 jobs economists expected.

Filter Suggestions: A reading journal won’t make you smarter, but it will make you more attentive

“For a while, turning the pages of a novel felt less like an item on my to-do list and more like a way to relax,” writes Lauren Gould. To change this dynamic, she turned to a book journal. “I found the journal to be a structured, notebook-like way to keep track of my goals and a way to turn reading into a more mindful and intentional experience.”

Don’t miss this: The rise of bad signaling – how hate is poisoning politics

Zoe Williams, a professor of linguistics, says helpful signaling is a typical strategy of the hard-line, far-right: “Consistently violating taboos and thus gaining immediate media attention, often on the front page, while escalating the dynamics of the entire conversation.” It works for political rebels because it breaks down the establishment’s barriers to entry.

Climate control: Point of no return – scientists say a hellish ‘greenhouse Earth’ is on the way

The world is closer than thought to a “point of no return” where runaway global warming cannot be stopped, according to a paper published in the journal One Earth that analyzed the latest scientific findings on climate feedback loops and 16 tipping factors. Continued global warming will lock the world into a hellish new “greenhouse Earth”, scientists have said.

“Comedians pick me all the time. Hardly a show goes by where they don’t comment on the person who laughed the loudest,” writes Jane Howard. He tries to hold his breath to suppress his laughter. “But it’s also the part of me that I love the most” – “it’s so overwhelming that all I can do is surrender to it.”

become a member

First Thing is delivered to thousands of inboxes every weekday. If you haven’t registered yet, subscribe now.

Contact us

If you have any questions or comments about any of our newsletters please email newsletters@theguardian.com.