US politics

US politics

A little more than one week ago, TikTok stepped on to US shores as a naturalized citizen. Ever since, the video app has been fighting for its life. TikTok's calamitous emigration began on 22 January when its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, finalized a deal to sell the app to a group of US investors, among them the business software giant Oracle.

The cause isn't an abnormal number of deaths or a plummeting birthrate - though that's slipping too, exacerbating the trend - but instead a collapse in the rate of migration from 2.7 million people in July, 2024 down to just 1.3 million in 2025 as the White House does everything in its power to make the country hostile to immigrants.

"These are just cyclists, clubs, bike shops and individuals who have come together and said, 'Hey, Alex was one of us,'"

"We're looking at everything that would shed light on what happened that day and in the days and weeks leading up to what happened," Blanche said during a news conference.

By this point I think you're all sadly familiar with Kash Patel, the former host of a MAGA podcast and current director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He's the guy accused of abusing the FBI's $60 million jet to go on dates with his 27-year-old country singer girlfriend, Alexis Wilkins, and has a bad habit of running to Twitter to clout-post while federal investigations are still underway.

The US Senate approved a major government funding package on Friday, after the killings of two US citizens by federal agents in Minneapolis upended spending talks and gave out-of-power rare leverage over Donald Trump's mass deportation campaign. In a 71-29 tally, the Senate overcame last-minute opposition from a handful of Republicans to rally behind a deal the president struck with Democrats, an unusual display of bipartisanship as tensions rise nationally over the presence of ICE in American cities.

Economic boycotts are a familiar tool of protest. The problem is they often place the greatest strain on the smallest businesses. That was the case during Friday's nationwide general strike, which was designed to pressure the Trump administration to dial back its aggressive anti-immigration policies. For many small business owners, the shutdown created a dilemma. Supporting the cause often means losing a day's revenue and risking their ability to keep staff employed. Across social media, owners voiced solidarity alongside an apology for staying open.

If there is something about protecting women' in the title, for example, then it's probably actually about controlling women or bullying transgender people. The same is true of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (Save) Act, which would change the way US citizens register to vote. The purpose of the bill doesn't seem to be to safeguard democracy but to help destroy it through stealth disenfranchisement.

Harper Polling Survey Release National Findings on Immigration Among Trump Republicans Date: January 30, 2026 Conducted: Thursday (January 29, 2026) From: Brock McCleary, Mike Yelovich To: Interested Parties NEW: Survey shows MAGA base opinion not shifting post-Pretti killing Harper Polling survey of likely Trump GOP voters finds strong, unchanged support for President Trump, Secretary Kristi Noem, and aggressive immigration enforcement/deportations.

"I have to say, there have been a few mayors who have expressed thoughtfulness about what to do"

Much of the week's news revolved around the killing of protester Alex Pretti in Minneapolis and Republicans' scrambling to limit the fallout. As the week went on, we got a new Fed chair announcement, Tulsi Gabbard showing up at an FBI raid in Georgia, and what appears to be a long weekend government shutdown? Don Lemon, you will have to wait until next week, sorry. If only the Surge could control the flow and spacing of news events, the world would run a lot smoother.