What happened
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty yesterday announced criminal charges against an ICE agent for allegedly pointing his gun at two people in another car in a road rage incident during President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota. She said a nationwide arrest warrant had been issued for the agent, Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr., on two felony counts of second-degree assault. 

Who said what
Minnesota has “no such thing as absolute immunity for federal agents who violate the law,” Moriarty (pictured above) said at a news conference. This is a “rare instance” of local law enforcement charging a federal official for “on-duty actions,” The New York Times said. It’s also the “first criminal charge to be levied against a federal agent” from Operation Metro Surge, The Minnesota Star Tribune said. Moriarty said the charges were filed before more high-profile ongoing investigations, like the killing of Renée Good, because this case was straightforward, with ICE cooperation and ample evidence. 

What next?
If convicted, Morgan “faces up to seven years in prison for each assault charge,” The Associated Press said.

What happened
The House early this morning approved a 10-day extension of a controversial surveillance law after a rebellion by libertarian-leaning Republicans. President Donald Trump had urged Republicans to “UNIFY” and pass an 18-month extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act without any changes. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) (pictured above) called an overnight session to pass either that bill or a five-year extension with some changes to win over GOP holdouts. Some 20 Republicans joined all but four Democrats to vote both down, and the 10-day extension was passed by voice vote. 

Who said what
Section 702 allows the CIA, FBI and other intelligence agencies to surveil foreigners overseas — and any Americans they are communicating with — without a warrant. Debate over its reauthorization “has scrambled the usual polarized party lines,” The New York Times said. “Privacy and civil liberties-focused lawmakers in both parties have allied to press for greater limits, while centrists and national security hawks” want it renewed without changes.

What next?
Section 702 expires on Monday, and the Senate is “gaveling for a rare Friday session, as Congress races to keep the surveillance program running,” The Associated Press said. 

It may be an island of trash, but the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is home to dozens of species. The detritus is floating within the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, a “huge rotating current system between California and Hawaii” where “objects tend to get trapped,” said Earth.com. The gyre has amassed tens of thousands of tons of plastic trash, about 80% of which originated on land.

Over time, much of this plastic has gained living inhabitants, according to a 2023 study published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution. Scientists found 484 animals from 46 species on plastic debris from the gyre. Inhabitants were not “merely riding the debris to a new location,” said IFL Science. Researchers found “animals at all life stages, including juveniles and adults.” This range indicates that the organisms are there for the long haul. 

Perhaps counterintuitively, the plastic is key to this ecosystem. “Unlike natural floating substrates such as driftwood or pumice, plastic can persist for decades, providing a continuous surface for attachment,” said The Economic Times. The plastic allows “coastal species that once would have died long before reaching remote islands” to survive, said Econews.

But this migration “comes with serious risks,” said Econews. It introduces new invasive species to areas where they “compete with native corals, algae and invertebrates on reefs that are already stressed by warming, pollution and overfishing.” So even though there is life on the Patch, it “does not diminish the urgency of reducing plastic production and improving waste management,” said The Economic Times.