Thursday, January 1, 2026
■ Today's Top News
Journalists called out missing details from the latest disclosures, with one outlet saying that "US authorities no longer bother to specify where they're conducting the extrajudicial murders."
By Jessica Corbett
"For too long in our city, freedom has belonged only to those who can afford to buy it," said the new mayor. "Our City Hall will change that."
By Jessica Corbett
"If the monstrous political-economic system that is tearing our planet, the climate, and its people apart isn't brought to its knees—then humanity will be," warned one climate scientist.
By Jessica Corbett
"My team and I are exploring all our legal options to ensure that critical childcare services do not get abruptly slashed based on pretext and grandstanding," said Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison.
By Jake Johnson
The Trump administration on Wednesday froze federal childcare funding to every state in the US after initially suspending funds for Minnesota earlier this week, a move that the state’s Democratic attorney general condemned as a “hasty, scorched-earth attack” on key social services.
Jim O’Neill, deputy secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), said in a statement posted to social media that he has “activated our defend the spend system for all [Administration for Children and Families] payments” to states, alleging “fraud that appears to be rampant in Minnesota and across the country.” As evidence, O’Neill cited a viral video by Nick Shirley, a right-wing influencer who recently visited Somali-owned Minnesota daycare sites at the direction of state Republicans.
In order to receive Administration for Children and Families (ACF) funding going forward, O’Neill said Thursday, states will have to provide “a justification and a receipt or photo evidence.” States with childcare centers that the Trump administration suspects of fraud will have to jump through additional hoops, according to an HHS spokesperson.
The Trump administration’s decision to cut off childcare funds to all states—not just Minnesota—on the dubious grounds of fighting fraud came after Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz accused President Donald Trump of politicizing the issue to advance a broader assault on the social safety net.
“While Minnesota has been combating fraud, the president has been letting fraudsters out of jail,” Walz wrote in a social media post on Thursday, apparently referring to the president’s commutation of the seven-year prison sentence of David Gentile, a former private equity executive convicted of defrauding more than 10,000 investors.
“Trump’s using an issue he doesn’t give a damn about as an excuse to hurt working Minnesotans,” Walz added.
“If we allow this funding freeze to happen, all Minnesotans are going to suffer.”
In a statement on Wednesday, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said that the Trump administration “is threatening funding for the essential childcare services that countless families across Minnesota rely on—apparently all on the basis of one video on social media.”
“To say I am outraged is an understatement,” he said. “We’ve seen this movie before. In mid-December, the Trump administration gave four counties in Minnesota one month to conduct in-person interviews with almost 100,000 households that receive [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] benefits to reverify their eligibility.”
“My team and I are exploring all our legal options to ensure that critical childcare services do not get abruptly slashed based on pretext and grandstanding,” Ellison added.
Minnesota state Rep. Carlie Kotyza-Witthuhn (D-49B), co-chair of the Legislature’s committee on children and families, warned that “if we allow this funding freeze to happen, all Minnesotans are going to suffer.”
MY COMMENT FROM OTHERS:
THIS IS REMINISCENT OF CLOWNS LIKE TRUMP & JUST DANCE VANCE circulating LIES about immigrants eating PETS! IT'S LIES CIRCULATED BY NICK SHIRLEY!
MINNESOTA - from THE INTERCEPT:
Right-Wing YouTuber Behind Viral Minnesota Fraud Video Has Long Anti-Immigrant History
Jonah Valdez
Before alleging fraud in Minnesota’s Somali community, right-wing YouTuber Nick Shirley built a following with anti-immigrant clips.
Read More →
https://theintercept.com/2025/12/31/nick-shirley-videos-minnesota-somali-day-cares-fraud-claims/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=The%20Intercept%20Newsletter
DEMOCRACY LABS WROTE ABOUT TRUMP'S NAZI-STYLE COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT:
DEMOCRACY LABS
“This is truly the honor and privilege of a lifetime," the new mayor said.
By Jake Johnson
"Such arbitrary suspensions make an already intolerable situation worse for the people of Gaza," said the United Nations human rights chief.
By Brett Wilkins
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