Fears Spread Over New ICE Crackdowns, and F.B.I. Makes Arrest in Jan. 6 Bomb Plot

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From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford.
Today's Friday, December 5th. Here's what we're covering.

The Times has gotten access to newly available government data on hundreds of thousands of immigration arrests carried out by the Trump administration and found that most of the immigrants who've been arrested during crackdowns in major cities had no criminal record.

Millions of illegal aliens with violent records have flooded into our communities.

The findings stand in contrast to how the administration has framed its aggressive operations that have targeted cities like LA, Chicago, and D.C.

We conducted a deportation flight to remove some of the most barbaric, violent individuals. Trump officials have repeatedly said the crackdown is crucial for apprehending dangerous people.

Incredible law enforcement officers are arresting violent illegal aliens from American communities every day.

The records the Times reviewed, though, which cover every ICE arrest through mid-October, show that only about 7% of people arrested in those major operations had violent convictions.

Of the people who had nonviolent convictions, the most common were for driving under the influence and other traffic offenses.

Overall, the share of immigrants with criminal records that ICE has arrested under the Trump administration is considerably lower than it was under the Biden administration.

That could be in part because Trump officials have been casting a much wider net, arresting people at home depots and schools, at airports, and green card interviews.

Notably, the data shows that earlier this year, when the Supreme Court gave the green light for immigration officers to use race and ethnicity as factors in who they can stop and question, the arrests of people without a criminal history jumped.

In response to questions from the Times, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security reiterated that the government is targeting, quote, the worst of the worst, and pointed to the fact that beyond those who've had criminal convictions, many others who've been arrested have pending criminal charges.

Meanwhile,

The Times has been covering how the stepped-up immigration enforcement is sending shockwaves through communities across the country.

In New York City, there's been outrage from elected officials after a six-year-old boy was separated from his father when the two were arrested during a scheduled immigration hearing last week.

Their case is apparently part of a tactic the administration is using to pressure undocumented immigrants to leave the U.S. by taking children from their parents if they refuse to cooperate.

At the same time, in Minneapolis, the mayor says, quote, people are incredibly scared as the administration launches a new effort to detain Somali immigrants there.

He said he's been getting questions from people about whether it's safe to go to the grocery store or to drop their kids off at school.

And in New Orleans, where federal agents have also started another crackdown, my colleagues talked with immigrants who are afraid of getting caught up in it, including the owners of a Mexican restaurant who now roll out mattresses on the floor at closing time and sleep there so they don't risk getting pulled over on the drive home.

Now, a few more updates on the Trump administration.

President Trump's push for red states to redraw their congressional maps so that the GOP can potentially pick up more seats in the midterms, scored a legal victory yesterday.

The redrawn maps for Texas, which favor Republicans, had been blocked by a federal court after civil rights groups challenged them.

But the Supreme Court has now overturned that in response to an emergency application from Texas lawmakers. That clears the way for the state to use those maps in next year's elections.

Also, at the Capitol, lawmakers were shown video of one of the U.S.

strikes on an alleged drug smuggling boat in the Caribbean, amid questions about whether that strike and the many that have followed are legal.

What I saw in that room was one of the most troubling things I've seen in my time in public service.

Representative Jim Himes and other Democrats said they were alarmed after watching footage from early September of the military killing two survivors who were in the water after an initial U.S.

strike. Any American who sees the video that I saw will see the United States military attacking shipwrecked sailors.
The Pentagon's law of war manual prohibits firing on those who are shipwrecked.

But the admiral who ordered the strike is said to have told lawmakers it was lawful because the purported risk of cocaine might have remained with part of the boat still afloat.

And the survivors could have been communicating with another boat, though the video doesn't appear to show that happening.

I want to thank Admiral Bradley and General Kane for coming to brief about the strikes on September 2nd, which were righteous strikes.

Some Republicans, meanwhile, meanwhile, said they supported the attack after viewing the footage, with Senator Tom Cotton saying it was, quote, exactly what we'd expect our military commanders to do.

And lastly, thank you all for being here for this critical investigation we've been working on for a very long time. We deeply appreciate it.

The FBI announced that they've arrested a suspect in a case that's presented a years-long mystery and sparked rampant conspiracy theories. The question of who planted two pipe bombs in D.C.

the night night before the January 6th attack on the Capitol.

Officials said they've now charged Brian Cole Jr., a 30-year-old man from Virginia, with putting explosives outside the national headquarters of the Republican and Democratic parties.

Neither device exploded, but their discovery added fear and confusion to a day when a pro-Trump mob stormed the halls of Congress.

Some of the conspiracy theories, including those spread by Dan Bongino, the former right-wing podcaster who is now number two at the FBI, claimed it was an inside job.

For the moment, investigators have not been able to determine the intent behind the bombs or why the suspect targeted both political parties.

In Ukraine, When Russia first launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, the U.S. and many Western countries rushed to offer billions of dollars of military and financial support.

Given Ukraine's long history of government corruption, they did that with a crucial stipulation.

They said there would have to be careful oversight of how that money was managed to prevent it from disappearing into the pockets of corrupt officials.

But a new investigation from the Times has found that the Ukrainian government has systematically sabotaged the oversight system that its allies demanded.

In documents and in interviews with about 20 officials, the Times found evidence that President Vlodymir Zelensky's administration stripped away guardrails by stacking oversight boards with loyalists or leaving them empty altogether.

That paved the way for situations like the one in which members of Zelensky's own inner circle have recently been accused of siphoning off $100 million from a state-owned nuclear power company.

The scandal is currently roiling Zelensky's government since the president ran on a platform of fighting corruption. An advisor to Zelensky declined to comment.

Amid Ukraine's ongoing corruption issues, European leaders have privately criticized how the country has failed to rein in the problem, but have continued to send resources.

One Norwegian official told the Times:

We do care about good governance, but we have to accept that risk because it's war, adding, Ukraine is defending Europe from Russian attacks.

And finally,

last night, LeBron James whipped a pass over to one of his teammates, who then sank a buzzer beater of a three-pointer.

For the Lakers, it was a victory, but for James, the game marked an end to one of the wildest streaks in sports history.

In every single regular season game that James has played in since 2007, he has scored at least 10 points. That streak lasted for nearly 1,300 games until last night when he only got eight points.

Immediately afterwards, people asked him, why did you pass? Why not take a shot yourself and try and keep the streak alive? James said he was just making the right play for the team.

The chance of anyone topping James's record anytime soon seems incredibly unlikely.

Kevin Durant got a streak of his own going, but to beat James, he would have to keep playing until he's almost 50 years old.

Those are the headlines. If you'd like to play the Friday News quiz, stick around.
It's just after these credits. This show is made by Will Jarvis, Caitlopresty, Jan Stewart, and me, Tracy Mumford.

Original theme by Dan Powell. Special thanks to Isabella Anderson, Larissa Anderson, Zoe Murphy, and Paula Schumann.

Now for the quiz. We have a few questions for you about stories The Times has been covering this week.
Can you get them all? First up,

the list of companies challenging challenging the Trump administration over its sweeping tariffs is growing.

Recently, another major American retailer jumped in with a lawsuit, becoming one of the biggest businesses yet to try and fight the surcharges.

Can you name that company based off these online reviews of products it sells? We begin with a brand new cold weather all-in-one. These heated LED beanies at 30 bucks.
Look at the size of that.

I know it's hard to see on camera how large it is, but compare it to me. This is two pounds of cake.
Here, I have 10 pounds of potatoes and a ginormous, ridiculously sized bag of jasmine rice. Whoa!

The answer?

Maybe the one place where you can buy a $1.50 hot dog and a gold bar, Costco.

The retail giant and the other companies are all hoping that the Supreme Court will rule against Trump's tariffs, which it could do any day now.

If it does, the administration could be forced to refund billions of dollars in tariff revenue.

Okay, next question. This week, the team behind the Oxford English Dictionary unveiled their 2025 word of the year.

I'm gonna give you multiple options here. Which one was it? If you are feeling exhausted or drained all the time, biohack your life with these simple steps.
Biohack,

trying to use DIY science hacks to optimize your health. New rage bait method just dropped.
Here it is. Rage bait, something intended to just absolutely infuriate you, or aura farming.

This kid has so much aura that even celebrities are trying to farm some of it. Trying to like cultivate a positive vibe.
So that's biohack, rage bait, or aura farming.

The answer?

Rage bait. According to Oxford's data, its use has spiked threefold this year.
Last year's word was, in case you forgot, brain rot, which, yeah, that definitely happened.

Last question here. The celebrated playwright and screenwriter Tom Stopper died recently.
He's been compared to Shakespeare and he won an Oscar for the movie Shakespeare in Love.

But through a funny quirk of Hollywood, his name is nowhere on some of his most famous projects because he worked as a script doctor.

That means he was brought in and paid a ton of money to punch things up with no formal credit.

So, your question: Can you name these three big movies he worked on behind the scenes based off just short clips? Ready? People are trying to kill him. I know, Dad!

That was Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Okay, next one.
I couldn't have gotten more Haska. There are 1,100 people are alive because of you.
Look at them.

That was Schindler's List. Stoppard worked a lot with Steven Spielberg.
And last one.

You know, this is ridiculous. It's a dog.
He doesn't have preferences. You could call him ding-dong head.
He wouldn't know the difference. Yes, he would.

Who tells what he wants to be called?

That is Beethoven.

The movie about the gigantic Saint Bernard. Because Stoppard had range.

While getting secretly rewritten could ruffle some feathers, one of the screenwriters whose project he hopped onto told The Guardian once: If you're going to be rewritten by anybody, Stoppard's the one.

That is it for the news quiz. If you want to tell us how you did, our email is theheadlines at nytimes.com.
I'm Tracy Mumford. The headlines will be back on Monday with my colleague Will Jarvis.

I will see you Tuesday.

This podcast is supported by Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

If you pay attention to the headlines, you know lawmakers are using every tool to strip away Americans' fundamental right to health care.

Without it, cancers will go undetected, STIs will go untreated, and patients won't have the care they need to plan their futures.

You also know that Planned Parenthood never stops fighting for everyone's right to get high-quality sexual and reproductive care. Planned Parenthood needs you in this fight.

Donate today at plannedparenthood.org/slash defend.