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WATCH LIVE: President and first lady visit Fort Bragg in North Carolina
What's the administration thinking here?

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump will visit Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on Friday.

DELCY RODRÍGUEZ CONSIDERING VISIT TO US AFTER MEETING WITH ENERGY SECRETARY

The first couple is expected to visit the military families and the special forces soldiers who carried out the operation to capture former Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro and his wife.

Their visit comes as Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, floated the idea of a White House visit earlier this week after visiting with Energy Secretary Chris Wright.

George Pickering: The myth inside Manchesterism as a borrowed Burnham ‘cure-all’
Why resist verification?

George Pickering is a researcher at the think tank Bright Blue. He holds a doctorate in Economic History from the University of Oxford.

The recent setback to Andy Burnham’s parliamentary ambitions seems to have done little to diminish expectations that he could be the man to finally end the troubled premiership of Keir Starmer.

Even after having been blocked from running in the Gorton and Denton by-election, the Greater Manchester Mayor is still amongst the bookies’ favourites to become the next Labour leader. Indeed, his rejection of Starmer’s offer of a safe Labour seat in 2027 suggests that Burnham still expects to be able to return to Parliament and challenge Starmer long before the next general election.

Burnham offered some clues as to what his agenda as Prime Minister might be in a speech he recently delivered to the IFS and the UCL Policy Lab. There, Burnham appeared to lament Britain’s wince-making national debt, describing the country as “in hock to the bond markets.” This would all be very well if Burnham meant to tackle the debt by the obvious means of restraining government spending. However, proposing spending cuts in any area – except, perhaps, defence – would be unlikely to endear him to the Labour rank-and-file.

Instead, Burnham argued that Britain should follow the example of Manchester’s supposedly miraculous recent economic growth which he attributed to “roll[ing] back the 1980s and [taking] more local public control over the essential drivers of the economy, such as housing, utilities, transport and education.”

However, it is far from clear that “Manchesterism,” as Burnham has called his programme, would really be the miracle cure to Britain’s economic woes. For one thing, it seems probable that the official figures suggesting exceptional productivity growth in Manchester have overestimated the number of new professional jobs in the city, and fail to account for the city’s lack of wage growth, except amongst those benefitting from recent hikes in the minimum wage.

Burnham’s proposals also hardly seem novel enough to be considered their own distinctive programme deserving its own special soubriquet. It is difficult to imagine any centre-left figure who would not echo Burnham’s wearily predictable denouncement of austerity, Brexit, deregulation and privatisation as “the four horsemen of Britain’s apocalypse.” Nor is it clear how increasing state control of housing, utilities, transport and education – hardly bastions of unregulated enterprise – would apply the needed smelling salts to Britain’s torpid private economy.

By far the most objectionable aspect of Burnham’s agenda, however, is the name he has chosen for it. As the Mayor of Greater Manchester must be aware, the name ‘Manchesterism’ is already associated with the …

Fetterman bucks Democrats, says party put politics over country in DHS shutdown standoff
This is performative politics again.

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., the lone Senate Democrat to join the GOP to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), accused his colleagues of choosing party over country in their shutdown vote.
Senate Democrats dug their heels in against funding the agency on Thursday in their pursuit of stringent reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), following the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good during immigration operations in Minnesota.
But Fetterman believed that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and his party were missing the point.
GOVERNMENT TO SHUT DOWN AT MIDNIGHT AFTER DEMS, WHITE HOUSE FAIL TO STRIKE DHS DEAL
"This shutdown literally has zero impact on ICE functionality," Fetterman said in a post on X. "Country over party is refusing to hit the entire Department of Homeland Security. Democracy demands a way forward to reform ICE without damaging our critical national security agencies."
Senate Democrats’ refusal to fund DHS this week has made a partial government shutdown affecting only DHS inevitable. The deadline to strike a deal is midnight Friday, and the likelihood of that happening is nearly nonexistent.
That’s because both chambers of Congress quickly fled Washington, D.C., on Thursday, with many in the upper chamber leaving the country altogether for the Munich Security Conference in Germany.
DHS SHUTDOWN EXPLAINED: WHO WORKS WITHOUT PAY, WHAT HAPPENS TO AIRPORTS AND DISASTER RESPONSE
Schumer and his caucus argued that the White House and Republicans weren’t serious about reforms to ICE or Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and contended that the GOP’s counteroffer to their own list of demands didn’t go far enough to earn their votes.
But to Fetterman’s point, shutting down DHS won’t halt the cash flow to immigration operations.
That's because congressional Republicans last year injected roughly $75 billion into the agency for ICE with President Donald Trump’s marquee "big, beautiful bill." That money is spread across the next four years, meaning that a shutdown now will have little, if any, effect on ICE’s core functions.
DEMS DIG IN, GUARANTEE SHUTDOWN WITH BLOCK OF DHS FUNDING
But other functions under DHS’ purview, like TSA, FEMA, the Coast Guard and more, will experience the brunt of the partial shutdown.
Negotiations on striking a deal are expected to continue in the background, and Senate Democrats have signaled that they’re considering offering a counteroffer to the White House in response to the GOP proposal.
Still, a vote to reopen and fund the agency won’t happen until early next week at …

Trump DOJ files new lawsuit accusing Harvard of withholding records on race in admissions
Equal justice apparently isn't equal anymore.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced that its Civil Rights Division lodged a new lawsuit against Harvard University, alleging that the Ivy League institution illegally withheld admissions material needed to decide whether the school is continuing to discriminate in the admissions process despite a 2023 Supreme Court ruling.
"Under President Trump’s leadership, this Department of Justice is demanding better from our nation’s educational institutions," Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. "Harvard has failed to disclose the data we need to ensure that its admissions are free of discrimination — we will continue fighting to put merit over DEI across America."
This is a breaking news story and will be updated
 

Friedrich Merz warns US ‘not strong enough’ to axe European alliances in Munich speech
Who benefits from this decision?

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called for a revival of the U.S.-European relationship, warning Washington against going solo on the world stage.

“In the era of great power rivalry, even the United States will not be powerful enough to go it alone,” the German leader said in a speech to NATO members during the high-profile Munich Security Conference.

Merz sought to appeal to Washington this week, arguing that keeping a strong relationship with Europe is in line with the U.S.’s increasingly transactional philosophy on partnerships. Although he acknowledged concerns about “difficulties” in the relationship, he said calls to write off the U.S. as a partner are unrealistic, warning that critics “ignore hard geopolitical realities” and “underestimate the potential that our partnership with the U.S. continues to have.”

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz addresses the audience during the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

“Being a part of NATO  is not only Europe’s competitive advantage. It’s also the United States’s competitive advantage. So let’s repair and revive trans-Atlantic trust together. We, the Europeans, are doing our part,” Merz said in remarks seeking to “repair and revive trans-Atlantic trust together.”

At the same time, the chancellor urged Europe to step up internal partnerships and decrease “excessive dependency” on the U.S.

Merz revealed he is speaking with French President Emmanuel Macron to create a joint European nuclear deterrent, stating that “in the long run, we will only be successful if we take the other Europeans on board.” And he warned the U.S. claim to global leadership “has been challenged and possibly lost,” arguing that the world order as NATO has known it “no longer exists.” While he urged the U.S. not to write NATO off, the chancellor also urged partners to build “a strong, self-supporting European pillar within the alliance.”

“Partnership is not an absolute term here — it doesn’t require full convergence of all values and interests,” he said, naming Canada, Japan, Turkey, India, Brazil, South Africa, the Gulf states, and others as opportunities to expand alliances in place of the U.S.

Merz’s statement comes as the long-standing relationship between the U.S. and European partners has undergone a realignment under the Trump administration, with Washington approaching alliances from an increasingly mercurial, noninterventionist standpoint. That approach was …

Republican attorneys general demand DOJ investigate foreign funding tied to 150 climate groups in US

FIRST ON FOX: Nineteen Republican attorneys general on Friday asked the Department of Justice to investigate dozens of U.S.-based nonprofits for potential violations of federal foreign agent laws after receiving nearly $2 billion in foreign funding over the past decade.
The state attorneys general urged Attorney General Pam Bondi and the DOJ’s national security division head, John Eisenberg, to open the probe after the nonprofits accepted the funding from five foreign-based climate foundations, according to a letter first obtained by Fox News Digital.
The funding may have been used to improperly influence U.S. energy policies without the nonprofits registering under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, the attorneys general wrote.
CLIMATE GROUP SCRUBS JUDGES' NAMES FROM WEBSITE AFTER UNEARTHED CHATS UNMASKED COZY TIES
The attorneys general identified more than 150 U.S.-based organizations the DOJ should investigate, saying there was "substantial evidence" that many of them were violating FARA by "engaging in coordinated funding and advocacy efforts to influence U.S. energy policy and undermine American energy independence."
The five foreign groups named in the letter, the Oak Foundation, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, Quadrature Climate Foundation, KR Foundation and Laudes Foundation, were found by the conservative watchdog Americans for Public Trust to have funneled the money to the smaller organizations over the past decade.
The letter was led by Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen. Fox News Digital reached out to the five groups for comment.
The attorneys general alleged the foreign foundations used funding to "direct climate activism and influence energy policy in the United States, including by funding U.S. policy fights, litigation, research, protests, and lobbying to advance an extreme, foreign, activist agenda."
BOMBSHELL REPORT SHOWS FOREIGN CHARITIES DUMPED BILLIONS INTO US POLITICAL ADVOCACY GROUPS, 'ERODE' DEMOCRACY'
At least one of the foreign groups, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, "has documented ties to the Chinese Communist Party," the attorneys general said.
They noted a separate December 2025 request from more than two dozen state attorneys general seeking a FARA investigation into two U.S.-based groups connected to CIFF.
Fox News Digital reached out to the DOJ for comment.
Under the FARA statute, entities must register if they act as an "agent" of a "foreign principal" and engage in certain political activities.
The attorneys general argued the foreign foundations qualified as foreign principals because they …

Council by-election results from this week and forthcoming contests
Transparency shouldn't be controversial.

Bradford – Worth Valley 

Conservatives (51.7 per cent, -4.7 on 2024) Reform UK (26.1 per cent, +26.1) Labour (12.1 per cent, -19.6) Green Party (7.0 per cent, -1.0) Lib Dems (2.4 per cent, -1.6) Independent (0.8 per cent, +0.8)

Conservatives hold

Pembrokeshire – Fishguard North East 

Plaid Cymru 253 (33.8 per cent, +33.8 on 2022) Lib Dems 135 (18.0 per cent, +18.0) Reform UK 95 (12.7 per cent, +12.7) Labour 83 (11.1 per cent, -47.9) Independent 79 (10.5 per cent, +10.5) Conservatives 69 (9.2 per cent, -31.9) Independent 35 (4.7 per cent, +4.7)

Plaid Cymru gain from Labour 

Peterborough – Fletton & Woodston

Reform UK 565 (29.4 per cent, +29.4 on 2024) Green Party 529 (27.6 per cent, +16.2) Conservatives 419 (21.8 per cent, -11.8) Labour 323 (16.8 per cent, -31.2) Lib Dems 84 (4.4 per cent, -0.7)

Reform UK gain from Labour 

Forthcoming contests

February 19th

Caerphilly – Van. (Labour held)

Leicester – Stoneygate. (Labour held)

Redcar & Cleveland – Zetland. (Labour held)

February 26th

Southampton – Shirley. (Lib Dem held)

March 5th

Braintree – Coggeshall. (Independent held)

Durham – Murton. (Reform UK held.)

Sevenoaks – Hextable. (Independent held.)

Stroud – Thrupp. (Green Party held)

Tamworth – Spital. (Labour held.)

March 12th

Cotswold – The Beeches. (Lib Dem held)

Liverpool – Aigburth. (Lib Dem held)

North Kesteven – Sleaford Westholme. (Lincolnshire Independents held)

Vale of White Horse – Abingdon Abbey Northcourt. (Green Party held.)

Westmorland & Furness – Penrith South. (Lib Dem held)

March 17th

Pembrokeshire – Milford Hakin. (Independent held)

March 26th

Vale of White Horse – Stanford. (Lib Dem held)

The post Council by-election results from this week and forthcoming contests appeared first on Conservative Home.

Keith Ellison had no answers during Minnesota fraud hearing: Joe Concha
Same show, different day.

Washington Examiner columnist Joe Concha said Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison didn’t have any answers during his Capitol Hill hearings about the fraud in Minnesota because the evidence is “so overwhelming.”

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee held a hearing on Minnesota oversight on Thursday, where Ellison and other state leaders testified about the fraud scandals gripping the state.

“I’m sorry, if you’re at the top of leadership in Minnesota, whether you’re [Gov.] Tim Walz, whether you’re [Minneapolis Mayor] Jacob Frey, whether you’re, obviously, Keith Ellison, or a congresswoman like [Rep.] Ilhan Omar, things are going to get very uncomfortable,” Concha said on Fox & Friends First Friday.

“It’s not a good time to be a politician in Minnesota right now.” 

During the hearing, Ellison had a heated exchange with Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), in which Hawley said the Minnesota attorney general “ought to be in jail.”

Concha agreed with Hawley that the evidence is “overwhelming” because it’s “on tape.”

“It’s not a couple thousand dollars here and there; we’re talking 9 billion to scratch the surface, it’s probably even much higher than that,” Concha said. “And now we’re seeing the same types of situations in places like California, for example.”

WALZ CALLS ON FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO REIMBURSE MINNESOTA FOR ‘DAMAGE’ IN SURGE

Concha said things are now “coming to light” in Minnesota about the fraud.

“It is coming to light now, at least, that this is probably the worst-run state in the country and that’s saying a lot right now,” he said.

Why Gen Z men could hurt Trump in the 2026 midterms
Why resist verification?

Archive:
A new nationwide survey from Third Way and HIT Strategies highlights the uncertainty surrounding young male voters heading into the midterms.
Among young men who say they are likely to vote in the 2026 midterms, Democrats lead the generic congressional ballot by a wide 61–31 percent margin.
At the same time, the survey points to a turnout risk for Republicans.
Young men who identify as Republican or independent report being significantly more likely to skip the 2026 midterms and instead wait to vote in the 2028 presidential election, a pattern that could blunt GOP gains even where persuasion remains competitive.
Separate national polling indicated Trump’s job approval has fallen sharply among Gen Z adults, underscoring risks for Republicans if young male disapproval translates into midterm votes.
The University of Chicago’s GenForward survey, reported by NPR, found nearly 60 percent of young Americans disapproved of Trump’s job performance and that Democrats held a 15-point lead on a generic congressional ballot among young voters, though many indicated interest in third parties.
The latest Economist/YouGov survey, conducted from February 6 to 9 among 1,730 U.S. adult citizens, found Trump’s approval rating at 25 percent among voters ages 18 to 29, with 67 percent disapproving.
Why are Gen Z voters, especially Gen Z men, losing interest in the Republican Party? Is this just a matter of low turnout for midterms, or is it a more substantial disagreement with the GOP? Are these voters truly flocking to the Democratic Party, or are they swinging back and forth?

Fani Willis slams $17 million legal fees demand from Trump and former codefendants
This looks less like justice and more like strategy.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis pushed back against President Donald Trump and his former codefendants’ effort to recover nearly $17 million in legal fees Wednesday following the collapse of her sweeping 2020 election interference case, warning it could consume her office’s fiscal budget.

In a Wednesday filing in Fulton County Superior Court, Willis said her office “has no intention of allowing Fulton County taxpayers” to foot the bill for what she called “an absurd amount for such an absurd reason,” arguing that paying the requested sums could consume a “significant percentage (perhaps all)” of her office’s annual budget.

Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis speaks at Turner Chapel AME church Thursday, June 13, 2024, in Marietta, Georgia. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

Trump is seeking more than $6.2 million in attorney fees. Combined with requests from some of the 18 other defendants originally charged in the racketeering case, the total request approaches $17 million, according to Pete Skandalakis, chairman of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia.

The fee demands stem from a Georgia law passed last year that allows criminal defendants to seek reimbursement for legal costs if the prosecuting district attorney is disqualified from the case.

Willis was removed after courts found that her romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade created an “appearance of impropriety” and exhibited an “odor of mendacity.” The Georgia Supreme Court earlier declined to hear her appeal of that decision.

Skandalakis, whose office assumed control of the case after Willis’s disqualification, later moved to dismiss the charges entirely. On the day before Thanksgiving, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee granted that request, ending the prosecution.

In her latest filing, Willis sharply criticized the reimbursement statute, calling it a “punitive, nonsensical schema” that could force taxpayers to pay millions simply because a successor prosecutor opted to drop charges.

“The defendants are asking that the District Attorney’s budget and the taxpayers’ funds be handed over to the Trump Campaign and the Georgia Republican Party for expenses including luxury hotels and seafood lunches,” the filing reads, characterizing some claimed costs as “truly astonishing,” including high-end travel, meals, media communications, and unexplained research expenses.

Trump’s Georgia attorney Steve Sadow balked at Willis’s assertions in a …