International News Briefs for Friday, January 16, 2026
HAVANA TIMES – We bring you some of the top international news stories compiled by Democracy Now on Friday, January 16, 2026.
Trump Threatens to Invoke Insurrection Act to Suppress Protests Against Federal Agents’ Abuses
Jan 16, 2026
President Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to send active-duty military personnel to Minnesota, where large-scale protests continue to resist the Trump administration’s surge of thousands of federal immigration agents into the Twin Cities region. Writing on his social media platform, Trump claimed “professional agitators and insurrectionists” were “attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job.”
Trump’s threat came as three children were hospitalized for tear gas inhalation, after federal agents surrounded a car carrying a family of eight Wednesday evening as they were attempting to drive to their home in north Minneapolis. Witnesses say the agents deployed concussion grenades and tear gas, with at least one device rolling under the family’s van, where it exploded, set off its air bags and began filling the vehicle with toxic smoke. Bystanders then rushed to help pull the family from the van as the children inside gasped for air. Destiny Jackson told TV station KMSP her 6-month-old infant stopped breathing and lost consciousness.
Destiny Jackson: “When we did finally get out of the car, I, of course — my baby was lifeless, so I did do the CPR and mouth-to-mouth. And there were people — there was multiple people in the house who were pouring milk all over my other kids’ face and trying to get the tear gas off of them.”
On Thursday, federal agents fired tear gas outside the federal building in Minneapolis where ICE detainees are being jailed. Former prisoners there say they were tightly packed into a large holding cell, denied requests for water or to use a toilet, and witnessed other prisoners with untreated injuries.
Meanwhile, ICE’s actions have devastated Twin Cities businesses run by or patronized by immigrants. This is Luis Reyes Rojas, owner of Pineda Tacos.
Luis Reyes Rojas: “Our last resort is to go down to the basement, to the office, and hide ourselves. That’s what we’re doing. It’s worse than war. We have a plan A, plan B and plan C, because we don’t know how much longer we can endure this.”
ACLU Lawsuit Seeks to Halt “Unprecedented Level of Violence” Committed by Immigration Agents
Jan 16, 2026
Image Credit: Twin Cities Coalition 4 Justice
The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a class-action lawsuit over the Trump administration’s surge of immigration agents to Minnesota, describing it as a mass “racial profiling campaign” resulting in “an unprecedented level of violence” against Minnesotans of color. The lawsuit reads, in part, “People targeted by ICE have been handcuffed, tackled, and beaten by federal agents. Agents have broken car windows, dragged people from their cars, and used pepper spray and tear gas against compliant, non-violent people.”
This comes as a federal judge in Minnesota on Thursday ordered the release of a Liberian man, ruling that heavily armed immigration agents violated his Fourth Amendment rights when they broke into his home using a battering ram, without his consent and without a judicial warrant.
Records Reveal Minneapolis Mother Renee Good Was Struck Multiple Times by ICE Agent’s Bullets
Jan 16, 2026
Newly released records from the Minneapolis police and fire departments reveal that Renee Good, the 37-year-old mother of three killed by an ICE agent last week, suffered two gunshot wounds to her chest, one to her forearm and a possible gunshot wound to the left side of her head. The records reveal Good was not breathing and had an irregular pulse when first responders — who were delayed by federal agents and had to approach on foot — finally reached her. Blood was flowing from her left ear, and her pupils were dilated. Medics performed CPR on Good until they arrived at the Hennepin County Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.
Cuban Immigrant’s Death in Texas ICE Jail Was from “Asphyxia Due to Neck and Chest Compression”
Jan 16, 2026
Image Credit: Jeanette Pagan Lopez
The death of a Cuban immigrant who was jailed in an ICE detention camp in Texas was likely a homicide. That’s according to The Washington Post, which reported El Paso County’s medical examiner found the preliminary cause of death for 55-year-old Geraldo Lunas Campos was “asphyxia due to neck and chest compression.” Lunas Campos was arrested last July and pronounced dead on January 3 at Camp East Montana, a sprawling immigration detention tent camp at the Fort Bliss military base in El Paso. ICE claimed the Cuban father had died after “experiencing medical distress.” But El Paso officials reportedly told his daughter they will likely rule his death a homicide, pending a toxicology report. Lunas Campos is one of four immigrants who died in ICE custody during the first 10 days of this year, 2026.
Pentagon Orders Carrier Strike Group to Middle East as Trump Threatens to Attack Iran
Jan 16, 2026
The Pentagon said Thursday it’s moving a carrier strike group toward the Middle East, as the Trump administration continues to threaten airstrikes against Iran. The USS Abraham Lincoln and accompanying warships and aircraft are currently in the Indo-Pacific region and should take about a week to reposition. On Thursday, the White House said “all options remain on the table,” as it announced new sanctions against Iran, citing the ongoing crackdown on anti-government protesters — this as the head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service, David Barnea, is in the United States with plans to meet Trump’s Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff in Miami. At the United Nations, Iran’s deputy U.N. ambassador said any attack would be a violation of the U.N. Charter, and said his nation was prepared to fight back.
Gholamhossein Darzi: “Iran seeks neither escalation nor confrontation. However, any act of aggression, direct or indirect, will be met with a decisive, proportionate and lawful response.”
U.S. Seizes Another Oil Tanker as Venezuela’s Interim President Proposes Opening Oil Sector
Jan 16, 2026
Image Credit: US Southern Command
U.S. forces have seized another oil tanker with ties to Venezuela in the Caribbean. This is the sixth vessel to be captured by the Trump administration as part of a broader campaign to control Venezuela’s oil industry since a U.S. military strike earlier this month led to the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife from Caracas. On Thursday Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez announced she’d move to propose a reform in Venezuela’s hydrocarbon law, which would facilitate U.S. and foreign investors’ access to Venezuela’s oil. On Thursday she met in Caracas with CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
This comes as protests against U.S. imperialism have spread across the region. Demonstrators in Colombia gathered outside the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá.
Juan Fernando Romero: “It is an attack on all of Latin America, and therefore all of Latin America must mobilize to confront and resist this onslaught of imperialism, which, as Trump himself said, is an imperialism that only seeks profits and oil, without regard for human beings.”
Cuba Repatriates Remains of 32 Officers Killed in U.S. Attack on Venezuela
Jan 16, 2026
The remains of 32 Cuban officers killed in the U.S. attack on Venezuela arrived in Havana, Cuba, on Thursday. The officers were part of President Nicolás Maduro’s security detail. Thousands of Cubans lined up the streets to pay their respects as the island remains on high alert amid escalating threats by the Trump administration.
María Corina Machado Gives Nobel Peace Prize to Donald Trump
Jan 16, 2026
Here in the U.S., right-wing Venezuelan opposition figure María Corina Machado met with President Trump at the White House Thursday, where Machado said she gave her Nobel Peace Prize to Trump. The pair posed for a photo in the Oval Office, with Trump smiling as he displayed the medal in a large golden frame. Trump called the transfer “a wonderful gesture of mutual respect.” In response, the Nobel Peace Center wrote on social media, “A medal can change owners, but the title of a Nobel Peace Prize laureate cannot.” The Washington Post previously reported that President Trump was not willing to support Machado because she accepted the peace prize. A source told the Post, “If she had turned it down and said, ‘I can’t accept it because it’s Donald Trump’s,’ she’d be the president of Venezuela today.”
NATO Members Deploy Soldiers to Greenland Amid Trump’s Threat to Seize Territory
Jan 16, 2026
Several European countries have deployed soldiers to Greenland after President Trump signaled he may seize the semiautonomous Danish territory by force. The deployment by France, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Netherlands and the U.K. is largely symbolic, with only a few dozen personnel deployed alongside Danish forces for joint military exercises. Article 5 of NATO’s charter says that an armed attack against one member is considered an attack on all, but the charter does not specify a course of action if one NATO member attacks another.
Israeli Forces Kill 10 Palestinians in Latest Violations of U.S.-Brokered Ceasefire Deal
Jan 16, 2026
Israeli forces killed at least 10 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, mostly in a series of airstrikes on residences. Two homes were destroyed in an area of Deir al-Balah that was designated by Israel as a so-called safe zone. A third home was bombed in the Nuseirat refugee camp. Among the dead is a 62-year-old Palestinian woman killed by Israeli gunfire in southern Gaza. Israel has killed nearly five Palestinians per day, on average, since it agreed to a U.S.-brokered so-called ceasefire deal on October 10, bringing the death toll to 451 Palestinians and the number of injured to more than 1,250.
The latest killings came even as the Trump administration announced the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement. President Trump announced Wednesday he’d formed a so-called Board of Peace for Gaza, with himself as the chair, alongside a 15-member committee of Palestinian technocrats given the assignment of governing postwar Gaza. This comes as the United Nations warned that it could take more than seven years to clear over 60 million tons of rubble in Gaza that’s piled up from more than two years of attacks by Israel.
Appellate Court Overturns Ruling That Freed Palestinian Activist Mahmoud Khalil
Jan 16, 2026
Image Credit: Flickr/Joe Piette
A federal appeals court has reversed a ruling that freed Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil from a Louisiana ICE jail in June of last year. Advocates fear the move could pave the way for the Trump administration to rearrest Khalil, a Columbia University graduate who became the first pro-Palestinian campus protester to be jailed by Trump officials as part of a nationwide crackdown. We’ll speak to Mahmoud Khalil later in the broadcast.
Trump Says 2026 Midterm Elections Should Be Canceled
Jan 16, 2026
President Trump has once again said that the 2026 midterm elections should be canceled because he expects his party to lose. Trump made the remark in a closed-door interview with Reuters, telling the news agency, “It’s some deep psychological thing, but when you win the presidency, you don’t win the midterms.” Trump continued, “When you think of it, we shouldn’t even have an election.” It’s at least the second time this month that Trump has floated the idea.
CBS News “Exclusive” That ICE Officer “Suffered Internal Bleeding” Draws “Huge Internal Concern”
Jan 16, 2026
Image Credit: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Image
In media news, some employees of CBS News expressed concern after their network cited two anonymous U.S. officials on Wednesday to report that the ICE officer who fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis “suffered internal bleeding to the torso” after the incident. That’s according to The Guardian, citing internal emails which reveal top CBS News editor Bari Weiss expressed a high level of interest in the story on an editorial call on Wednesday. CBS News senior vice president David Reiter pushed back, writing, “I’m no doctor, but internal bleeding is a very broad term and can range in severity. … We do know that the ICE agent walked away from the incident — we have that on camera.”
This comes after CBS’s new news anchor, Tony Dokoupil, concluded his second-ever broadcast of the CBS Evening News with a lighthearted segment about Secretary of State Marco Rubio, displaying AI-altered meme photos of Rubio and saluting him as “the ultimate Florida man.”
Tony Dokoupil: “For Rubio’s hometown fans, which are many around here in Miami, it is a sign of how Florida, once an American punchline, has become a leader on the world stage. Marco Rubio, we salute you. You’re the ultimate Florida man.”