The Headlines
Minneapolis Children Describe ‘Living in Fear,’ and China’s President Carries Out a Mass Purge
04 Feb 2026
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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From The New York Times, it's The Headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Wednesday, February 4th. Here's what we're covering.
We're here on behalf of Ney's big family and those who loved her. We're here to ask for your help.
On Capitol Hill yesterday, lawmakers heard testimony from two brothers of Renee Good, the woman shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis last month.
This is not just a bad day or a rough week or isolated incidents. These encounters with federal agents are changing many lives, including ours, forever.
They urged Congress to rein in the White House's aggressive immigration operations, saying Good's death was part of a pattern of abuses from agents. The event was held by congressional Democrats. No Republicans were there when the brothers spoke. Disagreements in Congress over immigration enforcement had triggered a government shutdown earlier this week.
That ended last night after the House narrowly passed a spending bill. But the question of ongoing support for President Trump's immigration operations remains. Lawmakers only agreed to fund the Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE, through next week. Democrats say before they give the agency any more money, there must be new restrictions.
They're pushing for things like mandatory independent investigations after shootings. Meanwhile, on the ground in Minnesota, Times reporters have been covering how the continued presence of thousands of federal agents has shaken the Twin Cities.
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Chapter 2: What impact does ICE enforcement have on Minneapolis children?
doesn't currently have. The thinking is that standardizing construction regulations and guidelines, instead of having a patchwork of state and local rules, could reduce costs and streamline new development. Also, both bills aim to give a boost to manufactured and modular homes.
That kind of housing is built off-site, then delivered and assembled, a much faster way to build than traditional construction. And the bills would also make it easier to fix up existing homes. The Senate bill, for example, would give grants and loans to low-income Americans and small-time landlords to make critical repairs so that older housing can continue to be used.
I've been covering Chinese politics for over 20 years now. And in the past few years in China, there's been a steady rhythm of senior military officials who have either been officially dismissed or simply disappeared. But there was nothing like the announcement of the removal of Zhang Youxia, China's topmost uniformed officer. Now, this is a stunning development.
Shakespearean is a word that's been used by a lot of people to describe this.
Chris Buckley is part of the team of Times reporters covering a remarkable purge at the highest levels of the Chinese military. It's been called a total annihilation of the high command.
My colleagues recently analyzed state media reports and official announcements and found that 23 out of 30 high ranking generals and admirals have been removed from their posts in recent years, including China's top general, who was ousted just over a week ago.
Chinese politics under Xi Jinping is a black box. It's extremely difficult to get reliable information from the innermost circle of Xi Jinping. Nonetheless, we do know that the Chinese military newspapers have come out with a few broad accusations against Zhang Yuxia. One of them is corruption. The other one is a broad accusation of disloyalty against Xi Jinping.
Now, the corruption allegation is a bit easier to understand in the context of the Chinese military over the past few decades. It has become a notoriously corrupt institution.
The more difficult charge to figure out is what they're meaning when they're saying that Zhang Youxia, who seemed to be one of Xi Jinping's most loyal generals, was also involved in some sort of act of disloyalty against him, some betrayal of the principles of power within the Communist Party. That's harder to get at. But what we're seeing at the moment is a Chinese high command that seems...
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