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Milan mayor says ICE security is ‘not welcome’ at Winter Olympics
This feels like a quiet policy shift.

The mayor of Milan, Italy, has said Immigration and Customs Enforcement is “not welcome” at the Winter Olympics early next month after reports confirmed the U.S. agency will provide extra security at the games.

Upon learning the news, Mayor Giuseppe Sala criticized ICE over its role in two fatal shootings in Minnesota this month.

“This is a militia that kills,” he said in an Italian radio interview. “It’s clear that they are not welcome in Milan. There’s no doubt about it. Can’t we just say no to Trump for once?”

The ICE-linked security team will support diplomatic security details in Milan without carrying out any immigration enforcement operations, according to the Associated Press. ICE confirmed its participation in the security detail.

“At the Olympics, ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) is supporting the US Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service and host nation to vet and mitigate risks from transnational criminal organizations,” the immigration agency said in a statement, adding that “all security operations remain under Italian authority.”

ICE also stressed its officers do “not conduct immigration enforcement operations in foreign countries.”

It’s unclear how many ICE officers will be deployed to the Winter Olympics, scheduled from Feb. 6 to Feb. 22.

Vice President JD Vance, second lady Usha Vance, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are set to attend the sporting event’s opening ceremony on Feb. 6. There is no indication President Donald Trump will be in attendance.

HOW LOCAL BUSINESSES ARE HELPING ANTI-ICE ACTIVISTS OBSTRUCT IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT

Italy’s Interior Ministry said the United States has not confirmed the makeup of its security detail but noted that it doesn’t appear ICE “will act as an escort to the American delegation,” made up of the three White House officials at this time.

Meanwhile, ICE has been met with widespread opposition to its immigration actions in Minneapolis from local residents and state politicians. The heated situation has led to two separate officer-involved shootings, one of which killed Renee Good earlier this month and the other claimed the life of Alex Pretti over the weekend. Their deaths have motivated anti-ICE protesters to continue resisting federal law enforcement.

Republicans appeal judge's decision rejecting New York City GOP district lines
Confidence requires clarity.

The Republican Party is appealing a New York judge's decision to throw out the congressional lines for a GOP-held district in New York City on Monday.
The judge ruled that the current map for Rep. Nicole Malliotakis' district, which lies in Staten Island and Brooklyn, dilutes the power of its Black and Hispanic voters. The state's Independent Redistricting Commission has now been tasked with creating a new map by February 6.
Republicans filed appeals to the ruling in two separate courts, including a mid-level appeals court and the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals.
The Court of Appeals previously ruled against a Democrat-favored map in 2024. It has not announced a date for when it will take up the case for Malliotakis' district.
REDISTRICTING BATTLES BREWING ACROSS THE COUNTRY AS PARTIES COMPETE FOR POWER AHEAD OF 2026 MIDTERMS
The case is the latest battleground in a war over congressional maps being waged across the country ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
Texas and California have pursued redistricting maps that would grant roughly five seats to the GOP and Democrats respectively.
Meanwhile, the Virginia State Senate on Friday greenlit a constitutional amendment that would clear the way for the Democrat-controlled legislature to redraw the state's House maps in time for midterms.
DOJ URGES SUPREME COURT TO BLOCK CALIFORNIA MAP, CALLS NEWSOM-BACKED PLAN A RACIAL GERRYMANDER
If the ballot measure is approved this spring, the legislature, rather than the current non-partisan commission, would redraw the state's congressional maps through 2030.
Virginia Democrats, who currently control six of the state's 11 districts, are aiming to draw up to four additional left-leaning seats.
Republicans are defending their razor-thin House majority in the midterms, and Democrats need a net gain of just three seats to win back control of the chamber.
Republican-controlled Missouri and Ohio, and swing state North Carolina, where the GOP dominates the legislature, have drawn new maps as part of President Donald Trump's midterm push.
Florida Republicans, in a move pushed by GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis and state lawmakers, are also hoping to pick up an additional three to five seats through a redistricting push during a special legislative session in April.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Trump whistleblower Alex Vindman launches campaign to flip Florida senate seat
Same show, different day.

Alexander Vindman launched a Democratic Senate campaign in Florida on Tuesday, catapulting himself back into the limelight after emerging as a key whistleblower in President Donald Trump’s first-term impeachment.

“The last time you saw me was here, swearing an oath to tell the truth about a president who broke his,” Vindman said in a launch video, referencing clips depicting his congressional testimony during Trump’s impeachment trial. “See, my family came here as refugees to escape tyranny, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to bow down to some wannabe tyrant.”

Vindman is seeking to oust Sen. Ashley Moody (R-FL), the former Florida attorney general who was appointed to fill Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s seat after he left Congress for the Cabinet position. It will be an uphill battle for Vindman, as Rubio cruised to victory in his last reelection campaign, winning the 2022 race by double digits. 

Before launching his campaign this week, Vindman was known for the role he played in Trump’s 2019 impeachment. At the time, Vindman, whose family had fled to the U.S. as Jewish refugees from Ukraine when he was a three-year-old, was a lieutenant colonel and aide on the National Security Council.

I’m Alex Vindman and I’m running for the U.S. Senate. Chaos, corruption and sky-rocketing costs are crushing ordinary people, while the billionaires and career politicians profit.

I stepped up when my country needed a soldier, I reported corruption at the highest levels of…
— Alexander S. Vindman (@AVindman) January 27, 2026

Vindman came forward as a key whistleblower in the impeachment case, providing Democrats with possible evidence they could use to allege a phone call Trump made with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky violated the law. Vindman became a star witness in the trial, asserting Trump tried to pressure Zelensky into investigating former President Joe Biden and his son, as well as the 2016 election, on the call. Vindman’s brother, Eugene, a lawyer on the National Security Council, also played a key role in the investigation and later won a Virginia congressional race in 2024. 

While he was impeached in the House, Trump was acquitted in the Senate and has denied any wrongdoing, calling it a “perfect” call.

Vindman was fired from his position on the National Security Council after testifying against Trump. He later blamed his retirement from the Army on the president as well, claiming he was forced to leave due to …

Protest Culture Is Annoying and Un-American
Who's accountable for the results?

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., likes to argue that the “whole point” of protesting is to make people “uncomfortable.”

Debate. Dissent. Running highly misleading political ads on TV. These are all part of our great tradition of political discourse.

In this, as in so much else, the Democrat darling is incorrect. Taking to the streets to disrupt the lives of average citizens is a leftist ideal, not an American one. It’s antithetical to the highest virtue of republicanism, namely, minding your own business.

But decades ago, American leftists began conflating “activism” with patriotism, and millions of young people were convinced that protesting was an expression of good citizenry. These days, caring is often given more reverence than wisdom, knowledge, or achievement, let alone patriotic activities like working, getting married, and raising kids.

An equally intolerable and parallel notion has also sprung up: It says the rest of us have a patriotic duty to admire anyone who’s “making a difference” or engaged in “participatory democracy,” no matter how insufferable or wrong they are. And protesters are almost always insufferable and wrong.

Every loudmouth ignoramus with an opinion has a First Amendment right. You’re not special.

Yet modern left-wing protesters believe their passion and anger imbue them with moral license to demand things and speak over their fellow citizens.

Just watch the video of those self-righteous “activists” disrupting church services in St. Paul the other day, or global warming cultists shutting down traffic in major cities, or college students using their heckler’s veto to disrupt speeches and debates.

Then again, most of these efforts aren’t organic or spontaneous expressions of political anger anymore. They are well-funded and well-managed by organizations that see political benefit in creating chaos and turning our country into a revolutionary battleground. From Lenin to Alinsky, forced confrontation has been a tactic of Marxist activism.

Every bully, of course, sees themselves as the embodiment of Martin Luther King Jr., though most of them lack dignity and a worthy cause. It’s amusing hearing these self-aggrandizing activists treat protests as great acts of bravery. But wake up: You’re not actually living in a fascist state.

Those marching against the clerics in Iran risk their lives. As did those who marched in Tiananmen Square in 1989, who rose up against the communists during the Prague Spring of 1968 or engaged in civil disobedience against the Stamp Act in 1765.

You can be as passionate as you like here in these United States, but our laws governing the border and immigration, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement itself, were all democratically instituted.

You’re free to vote in the next election.

Failing to get your preferred legislation passed isn’t repression, and you’re not Gandhi.

Though it’s heartening for the rest of us to know that most protests are merely performative acts with little political consequence.

Demonstrations are rarely a barometer of public sentiment.

In the Left’s hagiographic rendering of the 1960s, peace-loving demonstrators took to the streets and ended the …

Democrat Governors Ignore Global Realities, Cling to ‘Green’ Policies
Be honest—this is ridiculous.

As global corporations and governments increasingly shed ideologically driven policies that raise energy prices and undermine supply, governors in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic cling to counterproductive agendas of contradiction and equivocation. 

Programs that prioritize dubious environmental goals over economic growth and basic human needs have been losing support. In the U.S., the Trump administration promotes fossil fuels and nuclear power over so-called “green” energy, suspending leases for? five offshore wind projects?Christmas week while offering loan guarantees to nuclear operators and promoting coal as a?“clean” stocking stuffer. 

Half a globe away, Japan has ended its financial support for large-scale?solar projects. Meanwhile, the island nation plans to restart the world’s?largest nuclear power plant, which was shuttered a decade ago as an overreaction to a tsunami-induced disaster at another plant. 

Private enterprises that had invested billions of dollars into green energy initiatives are returning their focus to core businesses. 

ExxonMobil reduced?“low-carbon” investments?by $10 billion even as it announced that?oil and gas production?would fuel $25 billion in earnings growth over the next few years.? 

Shell, Aker BP, and Enbridge—companies based in the UK, Norway, and Canada, respectively—have withdrawn from the?Science Based Targets initiative, which was supposed to address the purported threat of climate change. 

“The trend toward a carbon-neutral society appears to be slowing,”?says?Tomohide Miyata, the CEO of Eneos. The Japanese refiner abandoned plans to produce hydrogen (an overhyped “alternative” energy source?that still relies on fossil fuels) to expand its liquefied natural gas business. 

Meanwhile, Pennsylvania’s Democrat Gov. Josh Shapiro is unaware—or unconcerned—that his confused policies stymie the development of affordable energy in the most densely populated region of the United States. 

The Pennsylvania governor’s record has been, at best, mercurial. 

Shapiro recently surprised many when he agreed to withdraw Pennsylvania from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), the multistate compact that imposes carbon taxes on member states. But just months earlier, Shapiro sued to?stay?in RGGI. The reversal drew positive reactions from Republican lawmakers and labor union leaders, who predicted increased investments in the state’s natural gas and coal industries with the abandonment of RGGI’s tax on fossil fuels. 

“?The war’s over,” said?Shawn Steffee?of Pittsburgh Boilermakers Local 154, who had been among those blaming RGGI for discouraging fossil fuel projects in Pennsylvania since the commonwealth flirted with joining in 2019. “It is time to … rebuild right here in Pennsylvania.” 

However, within weeks, the?Environmental Quality Board?(EQB) of Shapiro’s Department of Environmental Protection recommended increasing setbacks for natural gas wells by as much as tenfold. The restrictions—up to a mile in distance—would shut down gas drilling and increase energy prices, according to industry sources. 

Jim Welty, president of the?Marcellus Shale Coalition, calls the setbacks “a ban on future natural …

Fetterman demands Trump fire Noem after deadly Minnesota shootings
Every delay has consequences.

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., has called upon President Donald Trump to fire Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
In a Tuesday post on X, the Democratic senator from Pennsylvania accused Noem of "betraying" the department's central mission.
Tagging the @POTUS and @realDonaldTrump accounts on X, Fetterman declared, "I make a direct appeal to immediately fire @Sec_Noem."
FETTERMAN URGES MINNEAPOLIS ICE OP TO STAND DOWN AS CITY SPIRALS TO ‘UNGOVERNABLE AND DANGEROUS’ LEVELS
"Americans have died. She is betraying DHS’s core mission and trashing your border security legacy. DO NOT make the mistake President Biden made for not firing a grossly incompetent DHS Secretary," the senator warned.
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Unlike other Democratic senators, Fetterman typically takes a more pragmatic stance toward Trump and the broader GOP on issues including immigration and border security. In recent weeks, Fetterman had encouraged his party to avoid calls to abolish U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). 
FETTERMAN OPPOSES SHUTDOWN EFFORTS AS DEMOCRATIC COLLEAGUES MOVE TO BLOCK ICE FUNDING BILL
As the Trump administration has been having federal authorities crack down on illegal immigrants around the U.S., the fatal shootings of U.S. citizens Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minnesota have sparked controversy this month.
"Ms. Good and Mr. Pretti should still be alive. My family grieves for theirs," Fetterman said in a statement on Monday.
MORE THAN HALF OF HOUSE DEMOCRATS BACK IMPEACHMENT PUSH AGAINST DHS CHIEF KRISTI NOEM
"The operation in Minneapolis should stand down and immediately end. It has become an ungovernable and dangerous urban theatre for civilians and law enforcement that is incompatible with the American spirit," he noted.
"As a very pro-immigration Democrat and Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Border Management, I believe our nation deserves a secured border and that we should deport all criminal migrants. I also believe there needs to be a path to citizenship for those hardworking families who are here," Fetterman said in the statement.
But he also reiterated that he opposes the idea of abolishing ICE.
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"I reject the calls to defund or abolish ICE. I strongly disagree with many strategies and practices ICE deployed in Minneapolis, and believe that must change," he said in the statement.

Trump’s 401(k) housing pitch collapses into reality check as economists say supply is the real crisis
Who benefits from this decision?

The Trump administration's quick about-face, pitching 401(k) retirement plans as a path to homeownership, was never likely to work because it ignores the deeper forces driving the housing crunch, some economists are now arguing.
Experts pointed to two key factors doing the most damage: restrictive zoning and regulatory policies that have choked supply, pushing home prices out of reach. Restrictive zoning controls what gets built; regulatory policies determine how hard it is to make it happen.
Ben Harris, vice president and director of economic studies at the Brookings Institution, said policies that don’t directly increase housing supply are unlikely to lower prices.
"Anything that doesn’t answer the question, ‘Are we going to have more homes at the end of this?’ is going to be an insufficient response," Harris told Fox News Digital.
HASSETT REVEALS TRUMP HOUSING PLAN WOULD LET AMERICANS TAP 401(K)S FOR DOWN PAYMENTS
Harris noted that while cities in the South, for example, once saw rapid homebuilding — including places like Houston, metro areas in Florida and Phoenix — new construction has slowed sharply in recent years, contributing to rising prices.
That resistance to new construction, experts say, is why restrictive zoning and regulatory barriers sit at the top of the list of forces driving America’s housing crisis.
"There are just many, many ways to halt and stop development," explained Joseph Gyourko, a professor of real estate and finance at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
"And we've gotten very, very good at it in the United States."
Jim Tobin, president and CEO of the National Association of Home Builders, added that the cost of regulations alone plays a massive role in housing affordability.
Tobin explained that roughly $94,000 of the cost of a new, single-family home is inflated by regulations at "all three levels of local, state and federal government."
He added that some local governments intentionally restrict growth, adding time, uncertainty and cost to the process. 
THE PRICE OF BUILDING A HOME KEEPS CLIMBING — AND UNCERTAINTY ISN’T HELPING
"Time is money in real estate," he said. "You own the land, you’re paying taxes and, while you wait for local approvals, costs keep rising. Then many communities require developers to install sewer, water, roads and electrical infrastructure and all of that gets folded into the final price of the home."
Those mounting costs on builders, economists say, ultimately get passed on to buyers, pricing many out of the market.
California offers one of the clearest examples of how those …

Bessent says Mark Carney walked back blunt Davos comments in call with Trump
This isn't complicated—it's willpower.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Monday that Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney “aggressively” walked back his comments made at last week’s Davos summit in a follow-up call with President Donald Trump.

A day before Trump accused his Canadian counterpart of being “ungrateful” to the United States in his Davos speech, Carney called on smaller countries to unite against economic coercion from greater powers without explicitly naming Trump.

The prime minister’s remarks were a veiled allusion to Trump’s tariff threats, which have been repeatedly lorded over Canada to ensure its cooperation on trade and border security. In a more direct statement after Trump’s speech, Carney claimed Canada doesn’t depend on the U.S.

Bessent, who was present for the Trump-Carney call in the Oval Office on Monday, said he wasn’t “sure what the prime minister was thinking” in making such “unfortunate” remarks.

“Of course, Canada depends on the U.S. There is much more north-south trade than there could ever be east-west trade,” he told Fox News host Sean Hannity.

The Cabinet secretary was referencing Canada’s trade talks with China, which drew Trump’s ire.

Earlier this month, Canada struck a new strategic partnership with China to lower its tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles. In exchange, China reduced its tariffs on Canadian agricultural products.

While initially in favor of the agreement, Trump appeared to change course after Carney’s remarks. The president threatened to impose 100% tariffs on all Canadian goods entering the U.S. if Canada pursued a broader free trade deal with China.

Carney denied that his country is pursuing a broader deal with China beyond the limited EV agreement.

“We have commitments under [the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement] not to pursue free trade agreements with nonmarket economies without prior notification,” he said on Sunday. “We have no intention of doing that with China or any other nonmarket economy.”

Still, Canadian Internal Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc told U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer that Canada is negotiating a “narrow trade agreement” with China. LeBlanc said the agreement is similar to the trade truce that Trump made with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea last fall.

The Canadian official stressed that the trade talks are simply a review of the USMCA, not a renegotiation of the trade terms.

BESSENT SAYS CARNEY NOT ‘DOING THE BEST JOB’ FOR CANADA AMID CHINA TRADE TALKS

Bessent criticized …

How a Democratic heavyweight is using AI in the midterms
Transparency shouldn't be controversial.

A Democratic opposition research powerhouse is putting massive troves of its work product online ahead of the midterms. And it’s using artificial intelligence to help everyone from campaigns to podcasters figure out how to navigate it.

The project from American Bridge 21st Century, shared first with POLITICO, reflects an expansion of its efforts ahead of the 2026 midterms — as well as the evolving nature of political campaigning, including oppo research, in an increasingly fragmented media environment.

“Swing voters are generally speaking getting their information very ambiently,” American Bridge President Pat Dennis said in an interview.

A challenge in recent election cycles, he said, has not been a lack of opposition research, but rather how to best convey it when more voters are getting political news from podcasts, social media influencers or group chats. “If people can’t find it or read it, it’s no good,” Dennis said.

The new tool, titled Research Books, is a public-facing website featuring opposition research on dozens of Republican candidates in races that American Bridge has identified as crucial to deciding control of Congress. It also includes select statewide candidates.

Pages for each candidate feature messaging around key votes, candidate-specific research and — in some races — videos from Democratic trackers and sample media based on the oppo that closely resemble campaign ads.

It also includes an AI-powered search tool that aims to bring together different sources about a candidate into cohesive messaging. (The AI agent only probes the super PAC’s internal database, not external sources or the wider internet.)

Results from the search link back to original sources, which include news articles, videos and public records. The tool also integrates with other external large language model platforms such as ChatGPT.

The notion of publishing opposition research files online, rather than keeping them closely held by party operatives for strategic deployment, is not entirely new for American Bridge. Ahead of the 2020 election, the group posted 1,043 pages of opposition research about President Donald Trump online for use by other Democratic groups.

Sharing such research publicly is a way for super PACs to avoid running afoul of campaign finance laws that prohibit direction coordination.

Because the new research tool is publicly available online, it could similarly be used by Democratic campaigns or other outside groups — though American Bridge hopes the uptake is broader than that, including among influencers and voters.

For its initial public rollout, Research Books includes 15 GOP House incumbents in seats Democrats are hoping to flip this year, along with Republican Senate candidates in four seats Democrats are trying to flip, as …

Michael Lorimer: Talented Brits can power our economic renaissance, but only if government allows them to
Unelected doesn't mean harmless.

Michael Lorimer is Chief Executive of DCS Group.

Britain’s economic story has always been written by people willing to take risks, build businesses and create work for others. From family firms to fast-growing challengers, enterprise is the quiet engine of national prosperity. Yet today, that engine is being asked to run with the handbrake on.

Prosperity comes through growth yet at precisely the moment when growth should be the Government’s central mission, British businesses face a cocktail of rising taxes, regulatory burdens and policy uncertainty that actively discourages long-term thinking. Nowhere is this clearer than in the treatment of family businesses.

The latest family business polling report from the Jobs Foundation paints a sobering picture. Changes announced in the Budget have shaken confidence among family firms, making it harder for them to plan, invest and pass businesses on to the next generation.

Family businesses account for a significant share of private sector employment in the UK. They invest smartly, train locally and think generationally. Undermining their stability may raise short-term revenue, but it risks long-term damage. Fewer jobs created, less capital invested and less wealth retained in Britain.

At DCS Group, we are determined not to let that happen on our watch.

Despite a difficult economic backdrop, we are on a clear path towards £1 billion in turnover. That ambition is not about scale for its own sake. It is about building a strong, sustainable British business that creates jobs, develops skills and supports a broad UK supply chain. Even in today’s climate, we are investing £10 million in a new Customer Innovation Centre and offices, because standing still is not an option.

We were pleased to welcome Kemi Badenoch and Sir Mel Stride to DCS recently. They spent time on our warehouse floor, picking products and working on our co-packing lines, seeing first-hand the operational realities of a British business like ours. We discussed our growth plans, the pressures facing employers and the stark findings of the Jobs Foundation report. It was refreshing to have a serious policy conversation grounded in reality.

But while policy matters, businesses ultimately succeed or fail because of people.

People like Karen, now our Head of Quality and Compliance, who joined DCS in 2003 as a temporary warehouse order checker. She left school at 16 and learned her trade through on-the-job training and sheer determination. Over two decades, she progressed into senior leadership. Her journey is a reminder that Britain’s talent is not confined to university lecture halls.

Then there’s Ella, one of our health and safety apprentices, who joined us in her early twenties after an injury forced her to change career direction. She is …