“A Russian drone strike on a passenger train in north-eastern Ukraine has killed five people, prosecutors said, an attack denounced as terrorism by president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Prosecutors said fragments of five bodies had been found at the scene of the strike on the train, which occurred on Tuesday near a village in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region. The train had been operating from Chop, near Ukraine’s western borders with Hungary and Slovakia, to the town of Barvinkove. Photographs posted online showed at least two carriages ablaze next to a snow-covered rail bed. … A barrage of more than 50 Russian drones killed three people and wounded more than 30 in the southern city of Odesa, regional officials said.” (01/27/26)
“A man was arrested after he lunged at and sprayed Rep. Ilhan Omar with an unknown substance during a town hall Tuesday evening in Minneapolis. Minneapolis Police say Omar was uninjured and resumed speaking, but said that Minneapolis Forensic Scientists responded to process the scene. The town hall was an opportunity for Omar and other officials to meet with community members about the federal immigration operations going on throughout the state. Omar was speaking when the man got up, lunged at the congresswoman, and sprayed an unknown liquid from a syringe before being tackled. Police say the man was arrested for third-degree assault.” (01/27/26)
“TikTok’s U.S. app, now under majority American ownership, said a recent wave of glitches and content disruption was due to a power outage at one of its data centers, pushing back against claims that the platform was censoring political speech. Users have reported issues with their accounts since the video-sharing app began operating under a newly-formed U.S.-led joint venture, following months of political pressure over its Chinese ownership. Against the backdrop of a tense political environment in the U.S., a growing number of viral complaints about TikTok have accused the platform of censoring certain political positions and even the word ‘Epstein’ within direct messaging. CNBC confirmed that messages containing the word ‘Epstein’ triggered an error message, but was unable to independently verify broader claims of political censorship.” (01/27/26)
“As the internet blackout in Iran appears to be easing after weeks of protests across the country, the scale of the Islamic Republic regime’s bloodiest crackdown in decades is now being made public, according to activist groups. More than 5,700 protesters have been killed since Jan. 8, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency, an Iran-focused activist group based in the U.S. More than 17,000 other related death cases are still under review, the group said. That U.S.-based group relies on a network of activists in Iran for its reporting and has been known to be accurate during previous unrest. While ABC News cannot confirm the number independently, the true toll might be even higher, according to other sources.” (01/27/26)
“Minnesota’s chief federal judge has ordered the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Todd Lyons, to appear in his courtroom Friday and threatened to hold him in contempt for what he says has been repeated defiance of judges’ orders in the state. ‘The court’s patience is at an end,’ U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz said in a three-page order issued Monday night, demanding the acting director explain himself ‘personally.’ … Schiltz, a George W. Bush appointee, said the administration has been slow-walking or outright defying the directives of many Minnesota judges, including at least one of his own: The order for Lyons to appear came in the case of a man Schiltz ordered released on Jan. 15 but who remained detained as of Monday night.” (01/27/26)
“Meta has started blocking its users from sharing links to ICE List, a website that has compiled the names of what it claims are Department of Homeland Security employees, a project the creators say is designed to hold those employees accountable. … As agents from Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which are under DHS, have continued to terrorize immigrant communities and kill US citizens, activists have sought to track and record their activity online in a bid to hold them accountable. But as well as threatening to prosecute those they claim are ‘doxing’ ICE agents, the Trump administration has pressured tech companies to block any efforts at crowdsourcing the location and activities of those agents.” (01/27/26)
“Relatives of two Trinidadian men the U.S. military apparently [murdered] in a boat strike filed a wrongful-death lawsuit on Tuesday, bringing the first legal challenge in an American court to President Trump’s policy of targeting vessels suspected of smuggling drugs at sea. The lawsuit was filed in Federal District Court in Boston by the mother of one of the men, Chad Joseph, and the sister of the other, Rishi Samaroo. It said they vanished after telling their families they were about to take a boat home from Venezuela in mid-October. Mr. Trump announced on Oct. 14 that the military had attacked such a boat and [murdered] six people. … The lawsuit, brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights, names the U.S. government as a defendant, rather than trying to hold any particular official accountable as an individual.” (01/27/26)
“The Apple and Google app stores have applications that generate images of women with their clothes removed with AI, a tech watchdog reported Tuesday. The Tech Transparency Project found 55 apps on Google Play and 47 on the Apple App Store that alter images of women to make them appear nude or partially nude. … These apps have been downloaded 705 million times and generated about $117 million in revenue, which Google and Apple receive a portion of. … Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok drew backlash earlier this month for following user prompts asking it to remove the clothes of children.” (01/27/26)
“On Tuesday, Iraq’s parliament postponed the presidential election session after failing to reach a quorum due to low attendance and ongoing disagreements among Kurdish parties. This delay increases uncertainty over forming a new federal government. The constitution requires at least 222 of 329 lawmakers to be present to elect a president. Only 85 attended, well below the threshold. Parliament Speaker Haibat al-Halbousi postponed the session, citing the lack of quorum and formal requests from the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) for more time to negotiate a presidential agreement.” (01/27/26)
“Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., has called upon President Donald Trump to fire Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. In a Tuesday post on X, the Democratic senator from Pennsylvania accused Noem of ‘betraying’ the department’s central mission. Tagging the @POTUS and @realDonaldTrump accounts on X, Fetterman declared, ‘I make a direct appeal to immediately fire @Sec_Noem.’ ‘Americans have died. She is betraying DHS’s core mission and trashing your border security legacy. DO NOT make the mistake President Biden made for not firing a grossly incompetent DHS Secretary,’ the senator warned. Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment but did not immediately receive a response.” (01/27/26)
