Top Stories — Friday, April 17, 2026
What is trending in the USA today? Here is Breaking News:
- ICE agent charged with assault by Minnesota prosecutors, arrest warrant issued — CNBC
- New leaders, new fund: Sequoia has raised $7B to expand its AI bets — TechCrunch
- Why China Isn’t Pushing Iran to Accept U.S. Demands to End War — nyt News
ICE agent charged with assault by Minnesota prosecutors, arrest warrant issued
Source: CNBC • Published: 4/17/2026, 8:27:27 AM
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent has been charged with two counts of assault related to a road rage incident by state prosecutors in Minnesota, who have issued a nationwide warrant for his arrest.
The ICE agent, Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr., is accused of pointing his duty gun at the heads of two people in another car on Feb. 5 as he tried to pass them while illegally driving in his unmarked SUV on the shoulder of a highway in Minneapolis, prosecutors said Thursday at a press conference.
The incident came on the heels of the killings in January of two U.S. citizens, Renée Good and Alex Pretti, by federal agents in Minneapolis, amid the Trump administration's controversial Operation Metro Surge immigration enforcement actions in the Twin Cities.
Those killings, and other incidents involving federal immigration enforcement agents in the Twin Cities, remain under investigation by local prosecutors.
Morgan "is the first federal agent charged in connection with what happened here in Operation Metro Surge," Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said in announcing the charges of second-degree assault against the agent.
"Is it the first case of its kind nationally? We believe it is," Moriarty said.
"Mr. Morgan's conduct was extremely dangerous," the prosecutor said.
"The people in the vehicle had no idea he was a federal agent until a state trooper told them that," Moriarty said.
"There was nothing that they did that justified Mr. Morgan's actions," Moriarty said.
"There is now a warrant for his arrest," Moriarty said. "That warrant is nationwide."
"ICE should make arrangements for him to turn himself in," she said.
"That warrant will remain out there until we get him in custody," Moriarty said.
CNBC has requested comment from ICE about the case.
This is developing news. Check back for updates.
Correction: This story has been revised to reflect that the Hennepin County attorney is Mary Moriarty. A previous version misspelled Moriarty's name.
New leaders, new fund: Sequoia has raised $7B to expand its AI bets
Source: TechCrunch • Published: 4/17/2026, 8:25:06 AM
Few venture firms have bet more aggressively on AI than Sequoia Capital, and it isn’t slowing down.
The Silicon Valley stalwart has raised roughly $7 billion for a new fund, according to Bloomberg. Sequoia declined TechCrunch’s request for comment. The money will go toward what the firm calls its “expansion strategy” — essentially its late-stage investing arm, focused on the U.S. and Europe — and it’s nearly double Sequoia’s last comparable fund, a $3.4 billion vehicle raised in 2022.
That growth in fund size reflects something bigger: late-stage investing has taken on an entirely new meaning in the AI era. Companies can now scale at a speed and cost that would have been unimaginable a decade ago, and the firms backing them have to keep pace.
The money signals where Sequoia sees the future: deeply embedded in AI, from the giants building the underlying technology to the startups putting it to work. The firm has backed two of the most prominent players in the AI race — OpenAI originally and, more recently, Anthropic — both of which are reportedly eyeing public listings in 2026. The development that could mean a significant payday for the firm.
Sequoia isn’t only swinging for the foundational AI heavyweights, however. It has also placed bets on other buzzy startups, including Physical Intelligence, the Bay Area robotics startup, and Factory, which builds AI agents for enterprise engineering teams.
The fundraise is also the first major capital raise under Sequoia’s new leadership, with Alfred Lin and Pat Grady now serving as co-stewards of the 54-year-old firm.
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Why China Isn’t Pushing Iran to Accept U.S. Demands to End War
Source: nyt News • Published: 4/17/2026, 8:24:32 AM
As the United States imposes a blockade of Iranian ports, pressure is mounting on Beijing to push Tehran to accept terms that will end the war and the global energy crisis. In reality, there is little that Beijing could or would do to pressure its partner in the Middle East.
This week, as an array of leaders including the crown prince of Abu Dhabi and the prime minister of Spain visited Beijing, the question of what China could do to help resolve the crisis was the inescapable backdrop to every meeting. In these talks, China’s leader, Xi Jinping, condemned the flouting of international law as a “return to the law of the jungle” — a not-so-veiled dig at President Trump — and offered “a Chinese solution” in the form of a four-point plan to resolve the crisis.
But that plan offers little more than a call for all to respect the principle of sovereignty and international law. It reflects how China, even as it grows more concerned about the war’s impact on its economy, has avoided becoming too entangled in the crisis. That includes being noncommittal in its response to Tehran’s calls for China to guarantee its security, as well as not using its influence as Iran’s largest trading partner to push the country to accept U.S. demands.
Asking China to pressure Iran is to “misread China’s foreign policy and position,” said Ding Long, a professor at the Middle East Studies Institute of Shanghai International Studies University. “Helping the United States or Israel is not China’s intention because China opposed this war from the very beginning.”
China, which has long claimed that it does not interfere in other countries’ affairs, wants to be viewed as a global leader on its own terms. Unlike the United States, which has long maintained its dominance through its defense alliances, China has only one treaty ally, North Korea.
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