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WASHINGTON
Moments ago, the Louisville Courier Journal reported that Mayor Greg Fischer has announced the Louisville Metro Police will initiate the termination of Officer Brett Hankison, one of three LMPD officers responsible for fatally shooting Breonna Taylor in her apartment in March.
In response, Chanelle Helm, core lead organizer BLM Louisville, released the following statement:
"This is an unbelievable feeling. We have been fighting in the streets. This is not only justice for Breonna's family, this is justice for the protestors who are also victims of police terrorism. While we are still perplexed why the other officers haven't been fired we know that is still coming. We want to thank the community for coming together in support of the Louisville protestors in spite of the violence we have experienced from the police while fighting for justice."
In response, Shaunna Thomas, Executive Director of the national women's group UltraViolet, released the following statement:
"The LMPD's firing of Brett Hankison is an important step, but still falls short of everything that needs to be done to win justice for Breonna Taylor. The LMPD must also fire the remaining officers, arrest them and hold them accountable to the fullest extent of the law. We stand with the family and BLM Louisville and demand that the LMPD revoke the pensions of these officers, that the Mayor of Louisville and LMPD address the use of force in this department, and provide necessary information to a local, independent civilian community police accountability council.
"The work here is far from over. We will not stop fighting for justice until the remaining officers who murdered Breonna Taylor are also fired and arrested."
This past month, The Louisville Courier Journal carried a paid advertisement commissioned by UltraViolet and Color of Change in conjunction with Black Lives Matter in Louisville declaring that "Breonna was Essential."
VIEW THE AD HERE: https://bit.ly/BreonnaWasEssential
Nearly three months after Louisville Metro Police officers fatally shot Breonna Taylor in her South End apartment, the department released the incident report from that night; it is almost entirely blank. The four-page report lists the time, date, case number, incident location and Taylor's name -- as well as the fact that she is a 26-year-old black female. Though she was shot at least eight times, the report lists Taylor's injuries as "none."
After the release of the report, UltraViolet and Color of Change worked with activists from Black Lives Matter Louisville to commission a plane that fly over downtown Louisville demanding justice for Breonna Taylor.
Last week, the Louisville Metro Council voted unanimously to ban no-knock warrants. The legislation was titled Breonna's Law, in honor of Breonna Taylor.
UltraViolet is a powerful and rapidly growing community of people mobilized to fight sexism and create a more inclusive world that accurately represents all women, from politics and government to media and pop culture.
LATEST NEWS
'Beginning of the Chaos': FBI Raid in Georgia Seen as Ominous Sign of Trump Plans for 2026 Midterms
"This should have people across the country absolutely shook," said Sen. Jon Ossoff.
Jan 29, 2026
The FBI's Wednesday raid on an elections center in Fulton County, Georgia is raising alarms about President Donald Trump's plans to disrupt the 2026 midterm elections.
Shortly after FBI agents executed a search warrant at the Fulton County Election Hub and Operations center to search for materials related to the 2020 presidential election, Fulton County Commissioner Mo Ivory warned that this kind of operation would likely be spreading to other counties and states.
"Fulton County is right now the target, the only county right now fighting over an election that already happened," she said, referring to Trump's election loss that he has refused to concede more than five years after it happened. "But it is coming to a place near you. This is the beginning of the chaos of 2026 that is about to ensue."
Commissioner Mo Ivory: Fulton County is right now the target, the only county right now fighting over an election that already happened. But it is coming to a place near you. This is the beginning of the chaos of 2026 that is about to ensue. pic.twitter.com/0HvPMMoQO8
— Blue Georgia (@BlueATLGeorgia) January 28, 2026
In a Wednesday interview on MSNOW, Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) described the raid on the elections center as a "seismic event" that should be a flashing red light for US voters.
"This should have people across the country absolutely shook," Ossoff said. "This is a huge deal. This is an FBI raid on the Fulton County Elections office. [Trump's] conspiracy theories about the 2020 election have been based in Georgia from the very start... this is a shot across the bow at the midterm elections. He tried to steal power when he lost it in 2020. We have to be prepared for all kinds of schemes and shenanigans."
Ossoff: "This is a seismic event. This should have people across the country absolutely shook. This is a huge deal. This is an FBI raid on the Fulton County Elections office ... This is a shot across the bow at the midterm elections. He tried to steal power when he lost it in… pic.twitter.com/vb8YwcP3Pa
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 29, 2026
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) noted that US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was spotted at the elections center during the FBI raid, which he said was wholly unprecedented given that her job is supposed to be focused on foreign national security threats.
Warner then posited two explanations for her presence on the ground in Fulton County.
"Director Gabbard believes there was a legitimate foreign intelligence nexus," Warner wrote in a social media post, "in which case she is in clear violation of her obligation under the law to keep the intelligence committees 'fully and currently informed' of relevant national security concerns."
The other option, said Warner, is that Gabbard "is once again demonstrating her utter lack of fitness for the office that she holds by injecting the nonpartisan intelligence community she is supposed to be leading into a domestic political stunt designed to legitimize conspiracy theories that undermine our democracy."
ProPublica published a report on Thursday that dove into the specifics of the search warrant executed at the Fulton County election center that allowed federal agents to seize 2020 election ballots, tabulator tapes, digital data, and voter rolls.
Rick Hasen, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, told ProPublica that he has never seen a search warrant of this nature.
"The idea that federal officials would seize ballots in an attempt to prove fraud is especially dangerous in this context," said Hasen, "when we know there is no fraud because the Georgia 2020 election has been extensively counted, recounted, and investigated."
Derek Clinger, a senior counsel at the State Democracy Research Initiative, an institute at the University of Wisconsin Law School, told ProPublica that the sweeping search warrant marked "a dramatic escalation in the Trump administration’s efforts to expand federal control over our country’s historically state-run election infrastructure."
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5-Year-Old Abducted by ICE in Minneapolis Now Sick in ‘Abysmal’ Texas Detention Facility
"Liam is getting sick because the food they receive is not of good quality. He has stomach pain, he’s vomiting, he has a fever, and he no longer wants to eat," his mother said.
Jan 29, 2026
Liam Conejo Ramos, a 5-year-old boy abducted by immigration agents in Minneapolis last week, is now in poor health after being sent to languish in a Texas facility with “absolutely abysmal" conditions, according to his family.
HuffPost reports that "Ramos and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, are being held at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas. This is despite Arias entering the country legally and having no criminal record, according to [the family's lawyer]. Late Tuesday, a federal judge temporarily blocked federal immigration officials from deporting Ramos and Arias, for now."
Reporters got in contact with Zena Stenvik, the superintendent at the Columbia Heights public school district, where Ramos attends preschool, who said she spoke with Ramos' mother.
Just visited with Liam and his father at Dilley detention center. I demanded his release and told him how much his family, his school, and our country loves him and is praying for him.
[image or embed]
— Joaquin Castro (@joaquincastrotx.bsky.social) January 28, 2026 at 3:45 PM
“Unfortunately, Liam’s health is not doing great right now,” said Stenvik. “He’s been ill. I’ve been told he has a fever. So I’m very, very concerned about his well-being in that facility.”
Earlier this week, Ramos’ mother told Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) that “Liam is getting sick because the food they receive is not of good quality. He has stomach pain, he’s vomiting, he has a fever, and he no longer wants to eat.”
A lawyer for the family, Eric Lee, told MPR that the conditions at the Texas facility are “absolutely abysmal."
“They mix baby formula with water that is putrid. The food has bugs in it. The guards are often verbally abusive,” he said.
Marc Prokosch, another of the family's lawyers, emphasized that although US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials describe them as a "family unit" that crossed the border illegally, they entered the US lawfully and had no order of deportation against them or criminal record.
He said the tactics ICE has used in Minneapolis seem designed to evade the law and separate detainees from legal representation.
“Since [Operation] Metro Surge came, they’ve been moving them all out to Texas… within 24 hours," he said. "That’s one of the core elements of being able to help somebody in the legal sphere, is to be able to communicate with them… It’s really hard to talk to them.”
Democratic US Reps. Joaquin Castro and Jasmine Crockett of Texas went to visit Ramos and his father in the detention facility in Dilley on Wednesday. In a video posted to his social media, Castro said the facility is holding 1,100 other people.
"We spoke to many parents throughout our visit," Castro said. "There were a lot of parents there who talked about their kids experiencing deep depression, anxiety, people losing weight, both because of the bad food but also because of their mental state."
Castro said he "very bluntly told" the ICE officials there and officials for Core Civic, the private prison company that runs Dilley, "the country is against what's going on, that Liam needs to be released, that the country demands his release, and that no child that's five years old should be in detention like that."
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'He Is a Fascist': Scottish Lawmaker Accuses Trump of Piracy Over US Abduction of Tanker Captain, First Mate
"Our sovereignty has been violated, our courts have been defied, and a foreign military has abducted two people from our territory," said Ross Greer, co-leader of Scotland's Green Party.
Jan 29, 2026
A Scottish lawmaker railed against US President Donald Trump on Wednesday over the American military's seizure of an oil tanker and detention of its two top officers earlier this month in waters between Iceland and Scotland.
Ross Greer, a member of the Scottish Parliament and co-leader of Scotland's Green Party, said that two people—tanker captain Avtandil Kalandadze and his unnamed first officer—"have been abducted from Scotland in the middle of the night by the US military, despite our highest court ordering they be kept under our jurisdiction."
As the Scottish newspaper The National reported Thursday, Kalandadze—a Georgian national—and his first officer were taken out of UK territory by the US Coast Guard earlier this week despite a court ruling against their removal from Scotland's jurisdiction.
"He's not our ally. He is a fascist," Greer said of Trump during his remarks in Parliament on Wednesday. "Our sovereignty has been violated, our courts have been defied, and a foreign military has abducted two people from our territory."
Greer called on the Scottish government to immediately evict US troops from Prestwick Airport, which is used by American forces.
"Will the first minister show Trump that his piracy has consequences?" Greer asked.
Two people have been abducted from Scotland in the middle of the night by the US military. Despite an order from our highest court that they be kept here.
The Scottish Government must respond and evict American troops from their base at publicly-owned Prestwick Airport. pic.twitter.com/owBpL9fvT5
— Scottish Greens (@scottishgreens) January 28, 2026
The BBC reported Wednesday that the Trump administration "says it intends to prosecute" Kalandadze and his colleague for alleged involvement in the violation of US sanctions.
Angela Constance, Scotland's justice secretary, has said the Trump administration's handling of the vessel seizure and abduction of its crew has demonstrated a lack of respect for Scottish jurisdiction.
"We have a number of questions, we have a number of concerns, and deep frustrations about how this matter has evolved, because it is a matter of significant public interest and confidence," Constance said earlier this week. "The Scottish government wants to play our part in international justice because that is appropriate and responsible. But that starts with the recognition and respect that must be afforded to Scottish jurisdiction and Scots law."
Aamer Anwar, an attorney representing Kalandadze's wife in a lawsuit over the incident, said earlier this week that the captain was "whisked away under the cover of darkness" by US forces, and "we have no idea what role our own governments played in that."
"A dangerous precedent has been set, as the US should not have the power to arrest people under our control," said Anwar. "These people have been denied their most basic human rights right under our noses, whilst the UK knowingly assisted the US ‘abduction’ of two men from Scotland to avoid the Judicial Review taking place."
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