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Reform defector explains party succeeds because it’s not embarrassed of ‘Rule Britannia’ nostalgia and culture
Who's accountable for the results?

EXCLUSIVE — Reform UK has found great success leaning into a British culture and identity that has long lain dormant among the Conservatives and Labour.

A nostalgic “Rule Britannia” spirit pervades the speeches and interviews of Reformers. A light, cheeky monarchism bubbles up to the surface when party members sing “God Save the King” or are asked about the royals. Oceans of Union Jacks, the United Kingdom’s national flag, can be seen in the hands of supporters at outdoor rallies, and the local pub is held with the same patriotic reverence as the National Health Service.

And that cultural confidence may play just as big a role in the party’s success as the Tories’ broken promises or Labour’s entanglements with convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

“Reform has understood something that the major parties, for different reasons, have been reluctant to acknowledge. Love of country is not something to apologize for, and it’s certainly not something I apologize for,” Andrew Rosindell, member of parliament for Romford since 2001, told the Washington Examiner in an exclusive interview.

U.K. Member of Parliament Andrew Rosindell poses with Reform UK leader Nigel Farage after announcing his defection from the Conservative Party in January.

“For years, overt expressions of national pride were treated as faintly embarrassing or politically suspect in mainstream discourse,” the MP explained. “The Union Jack, our history, even our constitutional monarchy, were often handled defensively rather than with confidence. That created a vacuum — one that many voters felt instinctively, even if they could not articulate it in policy terms.”

Rosindell is among the latest crop of longtime Conservative parliamentarians who have crossed the Rubicon and defected, joining Reform UK last month.

The third-party, led by arch-Eurosceptic Nigel Farage, is enjoying a moment of previously unthinkable success. It is polling at the top of British opinion surveys with 29% — followed in a distant second and third by the mainstream parties, Labour with 19% and Conservatives with 18%.

Policy promises to end mass-migration, deport illegal immigrants, scrap environmental regulations, and roll back progressive ideology in state institutions are widely understood as the backbone of the movement’s success.

Less discussed, however, is Reform UK’s embrace of British nationalism at a time when English flags are being taken down by police and the national government is publishing web games …

Kamala Harris aims to prove she isn’t too ‘cringe’ for a comeback
Trust is earned, not demanded.

When former Vice President Kamala Harris rebranded her 2024 campaign social media accounts as a “new Gen-Z led progressive content hub” ahead of the midterm elections, she attracted both cheerleaders and scoffers. 

Some Democrats hailed Harris for visionary outreach to younger voters in a crucial election year with control of Congress on the line. Others mocked the apparent reference to the 67 meme in the account name, which was quickly abandoned. 

“While some think it’s cringe, others think it’s smart,” is how one reporter put it in what might be an apt description of the divide over Harris’s whole political career.

Harris lost the 2024 presidential election, paving the way for President Donald Trump’s return to the White House. On the one hand, she probably improved on former President Joe Biden’s likely performance had he continued his reelection campaign, saving some down-ballot Democrats in tight races and losing the popular vote by just 1.5 points. Democrats were still able to pull out Senate contests in Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, and Nevada, while Harris came up short in those states.

Yet, Harris also received 6 million fewer votes than Biden did in 2020. She was the first Democratic presidential nominee to lose the popular vote in 20 years and only the second to do so since Michael Dukakis was defeated by George H.W. Bush in 1988. She lost all seven battleground states. Perhaps of greatest concern to Democratic donors, she blew through $1 billion in campaign cash.

Harris has yet to win a single Democratic primary. She was granted the nomination at the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago when Biden dropped out after the primaries were over, facing no competition. She ended her first presidential campaign before the 2020 primaries even started, but was later tapped as Biden’s running mate.

In recent months, it looked like Harris might have been eclipsed by another ambitious Democrat from her home state, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), who has consistently found ways to needle and oppose Trump. Newsom and Harris have been seen as rivals in the past.

Despite all this, Harris is still standing. She leads among Democratic primary voters nationally by 5.8 points, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average. A recent Harvard-Harris poll showed her beating Newsom by 9 points while Rasmussen Reports had her up by 14. The Republican polling firm Echelon Insights still has Newsom on top. Potential Harris challengers have yet to make much …

MAGA vs. liberal tastemakers: Alternate Super Bowl show latest battle for American culture
Every delay has consequences.

Millions of Americans are expected to watch the Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show on Sunday, but don’t expect President Donald Trump to be one of them.

Instead, Trump and many conservatives are likely to tune out the official NFL performance in favor of Turning Point USA‘s alternative halftime show, featuring country music stars Kid Rock, Brantley Gilbert, Lee Brice, and Gabby Barrett.

The split reflects something bigger than musical taste. It’s the latest sign Republicans aren’t just fighting for votes — they’re using their political might to create an alternative mainstream.

TRUMP ‘WOULD MUCH PREFER’ TO WATCH TPUSA SUPER BOWL HALFTIME SHOW INSTEAD OF BAD BUNNY

In recent weeks, Trump has snubbed society’s tastemakers by adding his name to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and showcasing new MAGA surrogates such as rap queen Nicki Minaj. First lady Melania Trump, meanwhile, has released an eponymous documentary that is expanding into theaters across the country.

“You want to be everywhere all the time,” GOP strategist Ford O’Connell said. “That’s the rule of politics. That’s messaging one-on-one. You want to control the narrative.”

The importance of countering the Super Bowl

The Super Bowl is the largest sporting event in America, with more than 100 million people likely to tune into the Seattle Seahawks duke it out against the New England Patriots. It comes exactly one week after several musicians, including Bad Bunny, took to the Grammy stage to denounce Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions in Minnesota.

“Before I say thanks to God, I’m going to say, ICE out,” said Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, who goes by the stage name Bad Bunny, while accepting the Grammy for Best Música Urbana Album. “We’re not savage, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens. We are humans, and we are Americans.”

Republicans say that Bad Bunny’s flamboyant sartorial choices, along with his progressive views, created an opening for a counter-halftime program — one that could appeal to every segment of society.

MAGA QUEEN OF RAP: NICKI MINAJ BECOMES TRUMP’S NEWEST WHITE HOUSE SURROGATE

“The Super Bowl is almost like another holiday in our American society,” Florida-based Republican strategist Dewayne Moore said. “So one of the biggest, one of the biggest platforms, one of the biggest stages, on a Sunday that will bring 136 million viewers, we’re going to put an individual, a man who will wear a dress, a man who will paint his …

West Virginia worked with ICE — 650 arrests later, officials say Minnesota-style 'chaos' is a choice
Who's accountable for the results?

A relatively brief, but lucrative ICE surge into West Virginia netted roughly 650 illegal immigrant arrests earlier this month — a two-week, statewide operation officials say unfolded with little disruption and now stands as a counterpoint to the turmoil surrounding similar enforcement efforts in Minnesota.
From Jan. 5 through Jan. 19, federal agents fanned out across the Mountain State — at times working with local law enforcement — targeting illegal immigrants with criminal histories or prior deportation orders, DHS officials told Fox News Digital.
Officials involved contrast the West Virginia operation with recent tensions in Minnesota, where ICE-related enforcement actions have sparked sustained protests, surveillance of federal agents and confrontations with law enforcement.
"I think the most important thing to notice here is that West Virginia and similarly situated states … have made it very, very easy for criminal illegal aliens to be picked up and processed by ICE," West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview.
MANY OF AMERICA’S SAFEST CITIES ARE IN JURISDICTIONS THAT COOPERATE WITH ICE
Some of the operations even reached the state’s bluer-tinged Eastern Panhandle, the fast-growing exurb of Washington, D.C., where officials say cooperation, not confrontation, defined the response.
There, Jefferson County Sheriff Thomas Hansen confirmed a two-week operation with ICE in his jurisdiction, which includes Charles Town, Harpers Ferry and Summit Point.
"The (JCSO) was impressed with the professionalism and work ethic of the agents and how well they interacted with the citizens and local law enforcement officers," Hansen said in a statement obtained by Fox News Digital.
McCuskey said the lack of disruption in West Virginia reflected a cooperative approach that he argued prevented the kind of disorder seen elsewhere.
"When you contrast that with places like Minnesota, where you have Keith Ellison — who's obviously embroiled in a massive fraud scandal involving Somali immigrants, et cetera, what you see is riots and violence," he said.
McCuskey suggested the West Virginia mission shows Minnesota’s leadership can no longer blame federal law for its approach, noting that all states still operate under the same immigration statutes that have remained intact since the Obama administration.
TRUMP’S IMMIGRATION VICTORY IN A MINNESOTA COURT IS A WIN FOR ALL LAW-ABIDING CITIZENS
"All God-fearing Americans believe in immigration. We believe that the promise of this country should be available to those who want to come …

Leader Jeffries could be ‘Speaker Jeffries’ soon. What challenges could he face?
Are they actually going to vote on something real?

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) could make history as the first black speaker should Democrats win the upcoming midterm elections. But a razor-thin GOP majority that seems to narrow by the week could put Jeffries in the speaker’s chair much sooner than anticipated.

If Jeffries becomes speaker, he will have to take on the burden that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) currently faces: a slim majority, different ideological factions, and working across the aisle and chambers to get things done. 

Within his caucus, Jeffries would likely find himself facing challenges with his progressive flank, who will want their leader to go full steam ahead in standing up to President Donald Trump.

The minority leader has already taken a strong approach in pushing back against the administration, but he often finds himself disconnected from his counterpart in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, and battling with Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD). Schumer’s recent deal-making with Republicans and the White House on government funding has put the two Democratic leaders on different wavelengths at times, leading to frustrations from House Democrats who want to put as much pressure on Trump as possible.

Would Left flank pose a challenge?

With Trump in the White House and Republicans controlling both chambers of Congress, Jeffries has faced little internal pushback on his leadership decisions. But progressives across the country have been demanding new blood in the halls of Congress, calling for establishment and elder Democrats to pass the torch onto a new generation of leaders.

Jeffries, who came into Congress in 2013, has been serving as the House minority leader since 2023 after Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) stepped down as leader of the party after the 2022 elections. Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-MA) and Chairman Pete Aguilar (D-CA) were also part of a wave to bring new leadership to the caucus.

With the GOP’s control of Washington, Democrats virtually hold no political power. But that hasn’t stopped Democrats from forcing key votes on the floor on issues such as healthcare and the disgraced Jeffrey Epstein files, albeit due to the assistance of a handful of Republicans willing to go across the aisle.

Progressives don’t appear to be looking to challenge Jeffries’ leadership, especially after he was unanimously reelected minority leader after the 2024 elections. Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL), a progressive and the youngest member of the Democratic …

Heightened security for Starbucks CEO puts spotlight on growing safety concerns for industry executives
Every delay has consequences.

Starbucks’s move to expand security for its CEO underscores how an increasingly anti-corporate environment is posing mounting challenges for high-profile figures.

Starbucks ratcheted up security spending by roughly 760% last year and disclosed in January that CEO Brian Niccol can use the company’s private jet for all travel, ending a $250,000 cap on personal use. The move came in response to an independent security review that cited rising “credible” threats to Niccol, heightened media attention on the CEO, and the broader threat environment.

Starbucks isn’t alone. Seth Krummrich, a vice president of an international security firm that services Fortune 500 companies, told the Washington Examiner that he saw a 55% surge in demand for executive protection in 2025 and a 150% spike in North America operations. Last year marked an “inflection point” in the corporate security world, the Global Guardian vice president said, pointing to industry safety concerns that spiked following the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson the previous December. By April 2025, at least a dozen S&P 500 companies had flagged an increase in security risks, according to a Reuters analysis, with Walmart, General Motors, and American Express among companies that disclosed new or increased security expenses over previous years.

In places such as Minnesota, where corporate leaders from Hilton hotels, Target, and other major companies are facing tense protests on the Immigration and Customs Enforcement front, Krummrich said they must be prepared “at the highest and the lowest level– geofence at all of those sites” because of “very dynamic, fluid and turbulent” conditions. 

“It starts with digital awareness, online threat monitoring, so that they know what people are saying about them, and they can see a rise in threat language,” he said. “We’re also putting in cameras, whether it’s at the CEO’s home or at properties. We’re putting cameras in an entire school district. Think of all your stores, your hotels, and then we’re wiring it backwards, actively being monitored. It’s not roll back the tape after something’s happened. We’re warning you before somebody comes out of the problem.”

Krummrich, a retired army colonel, emphasized social media as a pivotal factor in escalating security concerns. Bad actors are increasingly utilizing platforms such as Reddit, Facebook, and gaming systems to plan harm, a problem he said has “metastasized.” Many radicalized groups are using …

March Social Security direct payment worth $994 goes out in 19 days
This feels like a quiet policy shift.

March 2026 Supplemental Security Income payments, worth up to $994, will be issued to recipients in 19 days.

SSI payments are typically issued on the first day of a month, but March’s payment will go out on Feb. 27. When the first of a month falls on a weekend or holiday, SSI payments are issued on the last business day of the previous month. March 1 falls on a Sunday this year.

Beneficiaries are people with limited income who are either blind, aged 65 and older, or have a qualifying disability.

The amount beneficiaries receive varies based on several factors, including the number of people filing. For example, individual filers can receive up to $994, couples filing jointly can receive $1,491, and those providing essential care to SSI recipients can receive up to $498. 

In addition to the previous prerequisites for receiving SSI payments, recipients must also be U.S. citizens or noncitizens in one of the alien classifications granted by the Department of Homeland Security.

JILL BIDEN’S EX-HUSBAND WILLIAM STEVENSON CHARGED WITH KILLING WIFE

Additionally, recipients must live in one of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, or the Northern Mariana Islands, and must not be absent from the United States for a full calendar month or 30 consecutive days.

A full calendar for the Social Security Administration payments can be viewed on the agency’s website.

Shannon Bream’s new book on Biblical ‘overcomers’ explores ‘purpose’ within trials
Be honest—this is ridiculous.

Fox News’s Shannon Bream said her new book, Nothing is Impossible with God, delves into how “pain doesn’t have to be without purpose” in exploring various stories from the Bible.

Bream, the host of Fox News Sunday with Shannon Bream, explained that the book’s theme is about “overcomers,” featuring 11 characters from the Bible who faced “very difficult” challenges. The Washington Examiner obtained an early copy of Bream’s book for this review.

The beginning of the book reveals that Bream was diagnosed a few years ago with a genetic condition called Map-dot fingerprint dystrophy, something she said made her “much more empathetic” to other people’s struggles while also growing her own faith.

“So in writing the book, I felt like it’s important to share just how tough your own struggle has been, and maybe somebody else reading and walking through something says, ‘Okay, there’s hope in this process, pain doesn’t have to be without purpose, and there is a way to walk through this to the other side,’” Bream told the Washington Examiner Thursday.

Cover art for Nothing is Impossible with God, left, and its author Shannon Bream, right. (Credit: Fox News)

“So I’m happy to share my story. Again, I wouldn’t have wished it on my own enemy, but I really did gain a lot from it, and I hope that if somebody is reading the book and is in that place, they’ll be able to feel that they’re not alone,” Bream said.

Bream is “really grateful” for the opportunity this past year to write the book, highlighting the theme of “overcoming” through a collection of short stories. The book is split into three parts: overcoming when you don’t understand God’s plan, overcoming when it’s hard to love others, and overcoming when God feels far away.

Bream hopes the book helps people find the exact Biblical stories they need in their current struggles, adding that she aims to “equip” readers with “very practical skills” by exploring them.

While Bream has always had “a really good, basic understanding” of the highlighted Bible stories, though she consumed additional sermons for further research with a researcher in Texas as her “theological check,” and consulted them during the writing process.

Bream concluded that the book is intended for all audiences, especially those undergoing “a difficult period.”

One of the stories Bream featured in her book is the story of Joseph, one of Jacob’s 12 sons, which she called “the best illustration” of how God is still with people amid “the storm” …

Redistricting court battles: Where things stand
Trust is earned, not demanded.

The battle over new congressional maps ahead of November’s midterm elections has heated up as primary elections rapidly approach, with various court rulings blocking and approving new maps.

The mid-decade redistricting battle began when Texas, pushed by President Donald Trump, decided to redraw its congressional map to net Republicans up to five House seats, and has been followed by efforts in both Democrat and Republican-led states. As more of the efforts face legal challenges, courts could indirectly dictate who controls the House of Representatives next year based on which hyper-partisan maps are allowed to be installed ahead of midterm elections.

Texas and California’s maps given green light by the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has been asked to weigh in on whether to allow two of the most controversial maps of the current mid-decade cycle, allowing both to be used for the November elections.

In November 2025, a panel of three federal judges halted Texas’s use of a congressional map, which would have allowed the GOP to flip up to five Democrat-held seats, alleging it was an unlawful racial gerrymander.

The 2-1 ruling included a blistering dissent from U.S. Circuit Judge Jerry Smith, who called the decision “the most blatant exercise of judicial activism that I have ever witnessed.” Smith also said it was “replete with legal and factual error, and accompanied by naked procedural abuse,” which demanded reversal by the Supreme Court.

Texas appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court’s emergency docket, with the high court ruling 6-3 in December 2025 to allow the Lone Star State to use the new congressional map for the 2026 elections. The majority on the high court found the lower court had made “at least two serious errors” in its ruling and found the lower panel violated the current normal rule of not altering “the election rules on the eve of an election.”

California Democrats, looking to negate the GOP’s gains with the Texas map, brought forward a new congressional map for the Golden State, which would give Democrats a net gain of five House seats. Voters in California passed the new map in November 2025, but the California GOP filed a lawsuit alleging it was an unlawful gerrymander.

A panel of federal judges denied the California GOP’s request to halt the use of the new congressional map, leading them to appeal to the Supreme Court’s emergency docket. The high court issued a brief order earlier this week denying the California Republican …

We are Professors of Psychology and Mathematics. We just published a longitudinal study on the 2024 Election finding that White Americans who felt "tied for last place" (regardless of their actual income or education) were the most likely to vote for Trump and support DEI bans. Ask Us Anything!
Trust is earned, not demanded.

We are Erin Cooley (Associate Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences) and Will Cipolli (Associate Professor of Mathematics) from Colgate University. We are here to discuss new data on the psychological and statistical drivers of the 2024 U.S. Election—specifically, a phenomenon known as "Last Place Aversion."
In our recent paper, "White Americans’ feelings of being 'last place' are associated with anti-DEI attitudes, Trump support, and Trump vote during the 2024 U.S. presidential election" (Open Access Link: we tracked 506 non-Hispanic, White Americans over five waves throughout the 2024 election cycle. In our sampling, we used census-based representative quotas for age, gender, region of the country and education to increase the generalizability of our results.
The Findings: Using a statistical technique called Latent Profile Analysis (LPA), we identified distinct groups based on where people subjectively ranked themselves and other racial groups on the American status ladder.
We found a specific group of White Americans (~15% of our sample) who perceived themselves as "tied for last place" with Black Americans.
Crucially: This group was the most likely to vote for Donald Trump and support bans on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
Importantly, this effect held true even when we controlled for their actual income, education, age, and gender. In other words, feeling like you are losing status predicted voting behavior more strongly than actually having low status.
Four main subjecitve status \"profiles\" that emerged in our sample
Why does this matter? This helps explain the "economic anxiety vs. racial resentment" debate. Our data suggest that for a significant block of voters, a primary driver is racialized status threat—specifically the feeling of being "left behind" by perceived progress of other racial/ethnic groups.
Ask Us Anything About:
The Psychology: What is "Last Place Aversion" and why does it drive particular political leanings?
The Math: How does Latent Profile Analysis work, and why is it better than standard polling averages?
The Election: How did these trends shift (or stay stable) as the election date approached?
About Us:
Dr. Erin Cooley: I am a social psychologist exploring the intersections of race, class, and gender. My lab investigates how high economic inequality leads people to feel they are "falling behind," and how that feeling shapes political polarization.
Dr. Will Cipolli: I am a statistician specializing in Bayesian nonparametrics and supervised learning. I focus on applying rigorous statistical modeling to complex social science questions to ensure the data are telling a reliable and valid story.
This AMA is being facilitated by advances.in/psychology, the open-access journal that published our article in their Psychology of Pushback Special Issue (
We will be online to answer questions starting at Monday, Feb 9th, 10:00am EST. Ask Us Anything!