A 25-year-old teacher at a special education school in Inver Grove Heights was taken into ICE custody early Monday morning in the school parking lot and was held for nearly 12 hours at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility at Fort Snelling, her mother told the Pioneer Press.

After an apparent collision with a federal vehicle, Christina Rank was taken into custody in the parking lot of the Concord Education Center while it was still dark, according to her mother, Sarah Hunkele.

Nearly 12 hours later, close to 7 p.m., Christina Rank was released for 10 days pending an investigation, Hunkele said.

Little contact

Hunkele said the lack of information and waiting to hear about her daughter had been “terrible.”

“You don’t know where she is going, where she is at, what is happening. There is no communication.”

U.S. Rep. Angie Craig’s office was working to learn more information and called the detention “shocking.”

“I’m incredibly concerned about today’s incident in Inver Grove Heights and will be pushing for answers,” Craig said in a Monday night statement. “Schools should be safe places for our teachers to teach and students to learn. That’s why I’ve introduced legislation in Congress to keep ICE out of sensitive locations, like schools, daycares and churches.”

During a morning phone call after her detention, Rank told her mother that she didn’t know why she was being held, Hunkele said. Rank told her mother that she would be able to call her again once ICE officials decided whether to press charges against her. But then Rank was unexpectedly released shortly before 7 p.m.

Events unclear

Hunkele said she is working with attorneys and others to obtain surveillance video from around the school area to determine what took place.

Videos posted on Facebook by an apparent coworker appear to show an ICE official claiming that Rank rammed his car, while bystanders say they saw him ram Rank’s car. The video was taken after the incident, as agents searched Rank’s car in the parking lot of the Concord Education Center at 9015 Broderick Blvd.

While ICE agents claim Rank hit their vehicle with her own, Hunklele said based on the damage to her daughter’s car, it seemed unlikely.

“There was no damage to her front bumper. The only damage was to the passenger side door and the back window where they had broken it.”

Hunkele questioned why the ICE agents were at the school, which offers alternative learning services for nine south metro public school districts.

“With it being a Level 4 school, I don’t understand why they were there,” she said. “It’s special education in a highly heated environment. The staff is there not only to teach but to protect. For federal agents to show up with guns?”

She believes her daughter would never interfere, impede or attack officials.

The school

Rank has been a paraprofessional at the school for the past seven years, working one-on-one with students with disabilities.

“She’s young,” her mother said. “She’s very passionate about her work. She’s very caring. She would never do anything with ill intent. There was a lot of unnecessary force used in a situation that could have been defused in many other ways.”

Amber Cherrier, who has worked as a special education teacher in the past, said a Level 4 school is one where the students cannot be around their non-disabled peers and have very limited vocal skills.

“These children will likely not understand the demands shouted by police or ICE,” Cherrier wrote in an email Monday night. “They will likely not be able to comply and are extremely vulnerable around police and ICE, especially if the person does not have extensive training and understanding of neurodivergence and how to de-escalate a situation. They also will have a much harder time processing trauma that they witness or happens to them.

“In general, the teachers, paraprofessionals, and other staff working in a level 4 school are very compassionate people with patience and genuinely care deeply for their students. They do everything they can to protect the children in the building.”

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NEW YORK (AP) — The WNBA and its players’ union agreed to a moratorium for league business Monday.

The moratorium, which was confirmed by the league, was necessary because the sides failed to reach a deal on a new collective bargaining agreement or an extension of the current one by Friday night’s deadline.

The sides are continuing to negotiate in good faith on a new CBA and are far apart on salaries and revenue sharing.

The moratorium will halt the initial stages of free agency in which teams would seek to deliver qualifying offers and franchise tag designations to players.

Minnesota Lynx guard Kayla McBride (21) steals the ball from Phoenix Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas during the first half of Game 3 of a WNBA basketball playoff semifinals series game Friday, Sept. 26, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Before the moratorium, the WNBA, under U.S. labor law, had a status-quo obligation to allow teams to send out qualifying offers under the expired CBA agreement. Sunday was the first day that teams would have sent out offers to players.

While the moratorium makes sense for both sides, they are still far apart on key issues.

The league’s most recent offer last month would guarantee a maximum base salary of $1 million in 2026 that could reach $1.3 million through revenue sharing. That’s up from the current $249,000 and could grow to nearly $2 million over the life of the agreement, a person familiar with the negotiations told the AP earlier this month. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the negotiations.

Under the league’s proposal, players would receive in excess of 70% of net revenue — though that would be their take of the profits after expenses are paid. Those expenses would include upgraded facilities, charter flights, five-star hotels, medical services, security and arenas.

The average salary in 2026 would be more than $530,000, up from its current $120,000, and grow to more than $770,000 over the life of the agreement. The minimum salary would grow from its current $67,000 to approximately $250,000 in the first year, the person told the AP.

The proposal would also financially pay star young players like Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers, who are all still on their rookie contracts, nearly double the league minimum.

Revenue sharing is one of the major sticking points in the negotiations.

The union’s counter proposal to the league would give players around 30% of the gross revenue. The player’s percentage would be from money generated before expenses for the first year and teams would have a $10.5 million salary cap to sign players. Under the union’s proposal, the revenue sharing percent would go up slightly each year.

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By EDITH M. LEDERER

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States accused Russia on Monday of a “dangerous and inexplicable escalation” of its nearly four-year war in Ukraine at a time when the Trump administration is trying to advance negotiations toward peace.

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U.S. deputy ambassador to the United Nations Tammy Bruce singled out Russia’s launch of a nuclear-capable Oreshnik ballistic missile last week close to Ukraine’s border with Poland, a NATO ally.

She told an emergency meeting of the Security Council that the United States deplores “the staggering number of casualties” in the conflict and condemns Russia’s intensifying attacks on energy and other infrastructure.

Ukraine called for the meeting after last Thursday’s overnight Russian bombardment with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles, including the powerful, new hypersonic Oreshnik missile, which Moscow used for only the second time in what was a clear warning to Kyiv’s NATO allies.

The large-scale attack came days after Ukraine and its allies reported major progress toward agreeing on how to defend the country from further Moscow aggression if a U.S.-led peace deal is struck.

The attack also coincided with a new chill in relations between Moscow and Washington after Russia condemned the U.S. seizure of an oil tanker in the North Atlantic. And it came as U.S. President Donald Trump signaled he is on board with a hard-hitting sanctions package meant to economically cripple Russia.

Moscow has given no public signal it is willing to budge from its maximalist demands on Ukraine. And Russia’s U.N. ambassador on Monday blamed the diplomatic impasse on Ukraine.

Europe’s leaders condemned the attack using the Oreshnik as “escalatory and unacceptable,” and U.S. envoy Bruce was equally tough on Monday.

“At a moment of tremendous potential, due only to President Trump’s unparalleled commitment to peace around the world, both sides should be seeking ways to de-escalate,” she said. “Yet Russia’s action risks expanding and intensifying the war.”

A residential building is seen damaged after a Russian strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Bruce reminded Russia that nearly a year ago it voted in favor of a Security Council resolution calling for an end to the conflict in Ukraine.

“It would be nice if Russia matched their words with deeds,” she said. “In the spirit of that resolution, Russia, Ukraine and Europe must pursue peace seriously and bring this nightmare to an end.”

But Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the Security Council that until Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “comes to his senses and agrees to realistic conditions for negotiations, we will continue solving the problem by military means.”

“He was warned long ago, with each passing day, each day which he squanders, the conditions for negotiations will only get worse for him,” Nebenzia said. “Similarly, each vile attack on Russian civilians will elicit a stiff response.”

Ukraine’s U.N. Ambassador Andriy Melnyk countered that Russia is more vulnerable now than at any time since the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022. Its economy is slowing and oil revenue is down.

“Russia wants to sell to this council and the whole U.N. family the impression that it is invincible, but this is another illusion,” he told the council. “The carefully staged image of strength is nothing but smoke and mirrors, completely detached from reality.”

By AAMER MADHANI

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has arrived at a delicate moment as he weighs whether to order a U.S. military response against the Iranian government as it continues a violent crackdown on protests that have left nearly 600 dead and led to the arrests of thousands across the country.

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The U.S. president has repeatedly threatened Tehran with military action if his administration found the Islamic Republic was using deadly force against antigovernment protesters. It’s a red line that Trump has said he believes Iran is “starting to cross” and has left him and his national security team weighing “very strong options.”

But the U.S. military — which Trump has warned Tehran is “locked and loaded” — appears, at least for the moment, to have been placed on standby mode as Trump ponders next steps, saying that Iranian officials want to have talks with the White House.

“What you’re hearing publicly from the Iranian regime is quite different from the messages the administration is receiving privately, and I think the president has an interest in exploring those messages,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Monday. “However, with that said, the president has shown he’s unafraid to use military options if and when he deems necessary, and nobody knows that better than Iran.”

Hours later, Trump announced on social media that he would slap 25% tariffs on countries doing business with Tehran “effective immediately” — his first action aimed at penalizing Iran for the protest crackdown, and his latest example of using tariffs as a tool to force friends and foes on the global stage to bend to his will.

China, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Brazil and Russia are among economies that do business with Tehran. The White House declined to offer further comment or details about the president’s tariff announcement.

The White House has offered scant details on Iran’s outreach for talks, but Leavitt confirmed that the president’s special envoy Steve Witkoff will be a key player engaging Tehran.

Trump told reporters Sunday evening that a “meeting is being set up” with Iranian officials but cautioned that “we may have to act because of what’s happening before the meeting.”

“We’re watching the situation very carefully,” Trump said.

Can the protests be sustained?

Demonstrations in Iran continue, but analysts say it remains unclear just how long protesters will remain on the street.

An internet blackout imposed by Tehran makes it hard for protesters to understand just how widespread the demonstrations have become, said Vali Nasr, a State Department adviser during the early part of the Obama administration, and now professor of international affairs and Middle East studies at Johns Hopkins University.

“It makes it very difficult for news from one city or pictures from one city to incense or motivate action in another city,” Nasr said. “The protests are leaderless, they’re organization-less. They are actually genuine eruptions of popular anger. And without leadership and direction and organization, such protests, not just in Iran, everywhere in the world — it’s very difficult for them to sustain themselves.”

Meanwhile, Trump is dealing with a series of other foreign policy emergencies around the globe.

It’s been just over a week since the U.S. military launched a successful raid to arrest Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro and remove him from power. The U.S. continues to mass an unusually large number of troops in the Caribbean Sea.

Trump is also focused on trying to get Israel and Hamas onto the second phase of a peace deal in Gaza and broker an agreement between Russia and Ukraine to end the nearly four-year war in Eastern Europe.

But advocates urging Trump to take strong action against Iran say this moment offers an opportunity to further diminish the theocratic government that’s ruled the country since the Islamic revolution in 1979.

The demonstrations are the biggest Iran has seen in years — protests spurred by the collapse of Iranian currency that have morphed into a larger test of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s repressive rule.

Activists take part in a rally supporting protesters in Iran at Lafayette Park, across from the White House, in Washington, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Iran, through the country’s parliamentary speaker, has warned that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if Washington uses force to protect demonstrators.

Trump allies want to see US back protesters

Some of Trump’s hawkish allies in Washington are calling on the president not to miss the opportunity to act decisively against a vulnerable Iranian government that they argue is reeling after last summer’s 12-day war with Israel and battered by U.S. strikes in June on key Iranian nuclear sites.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said on social media Monday that the moment offers Trump the chance to show that he’s serious about enforcing red lines. Graham alluded to former Democratic President Barack Obama in 2012 setting a red line on the use of chemical weapons by Syria’s Bashar Assad against his own people — only not to follow through with U.S. military action after the then-Syrian leader crossed that line the following year.

“It is not enough to say we stand with the people of Iran,” Graham said. “The only right answer here is that we act decisively to protect protesters in the street — and that we’re not Obama — proving to them we will not tolerate their slaughter without action.”

Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich, another close Trump ally, said the “goal of every Western leader should be to destroy the Iranian dictatorship at this moment of its vulnerability.”

“In a few weeks either the dictatorship will be gone or the Iranian people will have been defeated and suppressed and a campaign to find the ringleaders and kill them will have begun,” Gingrich said in an X post. “There is no middle ground.”

Indeed, Iranian authorities have managed to snuff out rounds of mass protests before, including the “Green Movement” following the disputed election in 2009 and the “woman, life, freedom” protests that broke out after 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died in custody of the state’s morality police in 2022.

Trump and his national security team have already begun reviewing options for potential military action and he is expected to continue talks with his team this week.

Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior director of the Iran program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a hawkish Washington think tank, said “there is a fast-diminishing value to official statements by the president promising to hold the regime accountable, but then staying on the sidelines.”

Trump, Taleblu noted, has shown a desire to maintain “maximum flexibility rooted in unpredictability” as he deals with adversaries.

“But flexibility should not bleed into a policy of locking in or bailing out an anti-American regime which is on the ropes at home and has a bounty on the president’s head abroad,” he added.