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‘Fiction’: House Republican campaign chair dismisses Democrats’ expanding GOP target map

‘Fiction’: House Republican campaign chair dismisses Democrats’ expanding GOP target map

EXCLUSIVE – Emboldened congressional Democrats are expanding their battleground map for this year’s midterm elections, when Republicans will be defending their razor-thin majority in the House. But the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) chairman, Rep. Richard Hudson, isn’t buying it. “I mean, I’ve read fiction my whole life, and I recognize it when I see it,” Hudson said in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital. Republicans currently control the House 218-214, with two right-tilting districts and one left-leaning seat currently vacant. Democrats need a net gain of just three seats in the midterms to win back the majority for the first time in four years. HOUSE DEMOCRATS ON OFFENSE: EXPAND GOP TARGET LIST The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) this week added five more offensive opportunities in Colorado, Minnesota, Montana, South Carolina and Virginia to their list of what they consider are vulnerable Republican-held House districts. That brings the total number of districts Democrats are hoping to flip to 44. The DCCC notes that all five of the new districts they’re adding to their list of “offensive targets” were carried by President Donald Trump by 13 points or fewer in the 2024 elections. FOX NEWS POLL: AN EARLY LOOK AT THE 2026 MIDTERMS “Democrats are on offense, and our map reflects the fact that everyday Americans are tired of Republicans’ broken promises and ready for change in Congress,” DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene emphasized earlier this week. And DCCC Spokesperson Viet Shelton told Fox News Digital, “In a political environment where Democrats are overperforming by more than 17 points in congressional special elections, it’s pretty clear we’re poised to re-take the majority. Momentum and the American people are on our side while Republicans are running scared.” Asked about the DCCC’s move, Hudson scoffed. “They’ve got to have a list they can present to their donors,” he said as he pointed to the DCCC. “But it’s not realistic. I mean, if you look at the map, there are very few seats up for grabs, and the majority of those seats are held by Democrats, but they’re seats that Donald Trump has carried or came very close….if you look at the seats that we’ll be competing for this fall. They’re all favoring Republicans.” The House GOP campaign chair added, “If you look at the map, it’s a Republican map. We just got to go out and win those races.” The move by the DCCC comes as Democrats are energized, despite the party’s polling woes. Democrats, thanks to their laser focus on affordability amid persistent inflation, scored decisive victories in the 2025 elections and have won or over performed in a slew of scheduled and special ballot box contests since Trump returned to the White House over a year ago. GOP CALLS TRUMP ITS ‘SECRET WEAPON’ — BUT POLLS SHOW WARNING SIGNS HEADING INTO MIDTERMS Republicans, meanwhile, are facing traditional political headwinds in which the party in power in the nation’s capital normally suffers setbacks in the midterm elections. And the GOP is also dealing with Trump’s continued underwater approval ratings. The latest national surveys, including the most recent Fox News poll, indicate the Democrats ahead of the Republicans by mid-single digits in the so-called generic ballot question, which asks respondents whether they’d back the Democratic or GOP candidate in their congressional district without offering specific candidate names. Asked about the polls, Hudson said, “We almost never lead in the generic ballot. But a single digit generic ballot, we do very well.” And the House GOP campaign chair added he remains “very bullish.” Cost of living concerns helped boost Trump and Republicans to sweeping victories in 2024, but affordability and overall economic concerns may work against them this year. While the latest AP/NORC national poll indicated the GOP with a slight advantage over Democrats on handling the economy, a bunch of surveys, including the latest Fox News poll, indicate many Americans feel things are worse off than they were a year ago and remain pessimistic about the economy. But on Friday the latest government numbers indicated that inflation eased during January. And Hudson says the economy is still a winning issue for Republicans. CASH SURGE: HOUSE GOP SMASHES FUNDRAISING RECORDS AS REPUBLICANS GEAR UP TO DEFEND SLIM MAJORITY Pointing to the numerous tax cuts kicking in this year in the GOP’s sweeping One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which Trump signed into law last summer, Hudson touted “we put policies in place that are going to bring prosperity to the American people, and they’re starting to feel it.” “And as we move into tax season…folks who work overtime, folks who work for tips, they’re going to see a lot more money in their pocket thanks to no tax on tips, no tax on overtime,” he added. The GOP is also dealing with a low propensity issue: MAGA voters who don’t always go to the polls when Trump’s name isn’t on the ballot. “Our voters tend to be more working-class voters, and you have to put in extra effort to get them to the polls,” Hudson said. “We know that’s our challenge. President Trump knows that’s the challenge, and he’s committed to helping us.” Pointing to the NRCC’s annual fundraising gala, which Trump will once again headline this year, Hudson said this dinner will be a great kickoff for this year. We raised a whole lot of money with President Trump last year. We plan to raise a lot of money in March with President Trump, and then he’s going to get out on the campaign trail and help us turn out those voters and make that case.” Asked about midterm election predictions, Hudson shied away from giving any hard numbers. “Not going to give you a number, but we’re going to hold the majority,” he predicted. “President Trump was elected with a very specific agenda. We delivered almost his entire domestic agenda, and we’re going to go back to the voters and say promises made, promises kept, and they’re going to keep this

Arundhati Roy ‘shocked’ by jury’s Gaza remarks, quits Berlin film festival

Arundhati Roy ‘shocked’ by jury’s Gaza remarks, quits Berlin film festival

Jury chair Wim Wenders said filmmakers ‘have to stay out of politics’ when asked about German support for Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza. Listen to this article Listen to this article | 3 mins info Indian author Arundhati Roy has announced that she is withdrawing from the Berlin International Film Festival after what she described as “unconscionable statements” by its jury members about Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. Writing in India’s The Wire newspaper, Roy said she found recent remarks from members of the Berlinale jury, including its chair, acclaimed director Wim Wenders, that “art should not be political” to be “jaw-dropping”. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list “It is a way of shutting down a conversation about a crime against humanity even as it unfolds before us in real time,” wrote Roy, the author of novels and nonfiction, including The God of Small Things. “I am shocked and disgusted,” Roy wrote, adding that she believed “artists, writers and filmmakers should be doing everything in their power to stop” the war in Gaza. “Let me say this clearly: what has happened in Gaza, what continues to happen, is a genocide of the Palestinian people by the State of Israel,” she wrote. The war is “supported and funded by the governments of the United States and Germany, as well as several other countries in Europe, which makes them complicit in the crime,” she added. During a panel to launch the festival on Thursday, a journalist asked the jury members for their views on the German government’s “support of the genocide in Gaza” and the “selective treatment of human rights” issues. German filmmaker Wim Wenders, who is the chair of the festival’s seven-member jury, responded, saying that filmmakers “have to stay out of politics”. “If we made movies that are dedicatedly political, we enter the field of politics. But we are the counterweight to politics. We are the opposite of politics. We have to do the work of people and not the work of politicians,” Wenders said. Advertisement Polish film producer Ewa Puszczynska, another jury member, said she thought it was “a bit unfair” to pose this question, saying that filmmakers “cannot be responsible” for whether governments support Israel or Palestine. “There are many other wars where genocide is committed and we do not talk about that,” Puszczynska added. Roy had been due to participate in the festival, which runs from February 12 to 22, after her 1989 film, In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones, was selected to be screened in the Classics section. Germany, which is one of the biggest exporters of weapons to Israel, after the US, has introduced harsh measures to prevent people from speaking out in solidarity with Palestinians. In 2024, more than 500 international artists, filmmakers, writers and culture workers called on creatives to stop working with German-funded cultural institutions over what they described as “McCarthyist policies that suppress freedom of expression, specifically expressions of solidarity with Palestine”. “Cultural institutions are surveilling social media, petitions, open letters and public statements for expressions of solidarity with Palestine in order to weed out cultural workers who do not echo Germany’s unequivocal support of Israel,” organisers of the initiative said. Adblock test (Why?)

Trauma and defiance: Life and death of 17-year-old killed fighting Israel

Trauma and defiance: Life and death of 17-year-old killed fighting Israel

Nablus, occupied West Bank – Before he was killed by an Israeli drone 18 months ago at the young age of 17, Wael Mesheh was an aspiring university student who was wanted to be a successful computer programmer. But having seen five of his relatives and friends cut down by Israeli forces during almost daily raids of his northern West Bank refugee camp of Balata, the Palestinian teenager came to believe that life and death were the same, engendering a desire to sacrifice himself for the cause of Palestinian freedom, and therefore turning himself – in his belief – into a “martyr”. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list “What our family was suffering planted this desire inside him: He always knew he wanted to fight and see his country without occupation,” Wael’s 47-year-old father, Belal, told Al Jazeera. “And it was not just Wael, but many of his generation in the camp.” Before he turned 17, Wael had been imprisoned for throwing stones at Israeli soldiers, assaulted in jail, and then freed in a prisoner exchange deal. He joined the Qassam Brigades – the armed wing of Hamas – once he got out of prison, and was eventually killed in August 2024 while fighting Israeli troops near his home in Balata, southeast of Nablus. Wael’s story is typical of many young Palestinians in the West Bank’s refugee camps. Children learn from an early age that trauma will define their lives in ways even other Palestinians are spared. Psychologists from the West Bank told Al Jazeera young people in the camps face “incessant traumatisation”, and most are deprived of “safety, places to play, opportunities, and a chance to escape”. Advertisement Instead, as the offspring of refugees denied the right to return to their homeland, they face a life surrounded by poverty, death, and Israeli military violence. They are part of Palestinian society, yet remain marginalised within it – without the sense of belonging others take for granted. The conditions endured by those in the camps make them a breeding ground for armed resistance to Israel. Belal says that it was Wael’s time in prison that eventually pushed him to fight. He says that Wael was tortured by guards for being defiant, and was kept in solitary confinement. He was eventually released as part of the November 2023 prisoner exchange deal, at the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. The Balata refugee camp in the occupied West Bank has been repeatedly attacked by Israeli forces [Al Jazeera] Defenders of the camps The West Bank’s 19 refugee camps, once makeshift tented communities when they were established in 1948 after Israel’s founding and intended to be temporary, are now densely populated built-up areas housing the descendants of hundreds of thousands of refugees. The older generations remember being forcibly expelled from their homes in historical Palestine by Zionist militias in the 1948 Nakba to pave the way for the creation of an Israeli state. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) describes the camps as dominated by poverty, severe overcrowding, and joblessness. The camps are also the primary targets of Israeli military operations in the West Bank. Without the prospect of a normal childhood for their occupants, the lure of fighting Israel can often prove irresistible. Nablus-based psychologist, Nisreen Bsharat, said “martyrdom”, particularly for those in the camps, is viewed as the ultimate demonstration of faith and resilience. Bsharat, who works with young people and grieving mothers from Balata, said martyrdom is seen as a “’heroic’ contribution to Palestine”, and that martyrs and their families are celebrated as such. Those who fight against Israel are seen as “role models” when so few opportunities exist in refugee camps, Bsharat added. “Historically, martyrdom is tied to our national identity,” she said. “It’s seen as the least we can offer our homeland, and part of our duty.” Though far from an exclusively Islamic concept, Palestinians often refer to those who are killed by Israeli forces as martyrs, believing they sacrifice their lives fighting for their nation, Islam, and the Holy Land – and believe that God promises them their place in paradise. Advertisement Bethlehem-based clinical psychologist and academic, Amanda Manasra, who was born in Aida refugee camp, and focuses on trauma in Palestine, told Al Jazeera the vast majority of camp residents live with untreated complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD), which is significantly more difficult to cure. The harsh environment of the camps creates a revolutionary fervour that is far less common in wealthier areas, Manasra added. “The idea of martyrdom is related to how Palestinians find meaning to deal with hardship, individually and collectively,” she said. “Many of my cases are adolescent men from the camps – many former prisoners – who have lost so many friends and family members. “Joining the resistance is about taking control – it can feel like a reward for experiencing hardship, and can satisfy feelings of retribution. “The fighters feel they have survived, persisted, and beaten the occupation war machine.” Camps in the northern West Bank came under even more relentless attack since Israel launched “Operation Iron Wall” in January 2025, which has displaced tens of thousands of refugees in nearby Jenin and Tulkarem, and killed hundreds. Tributes to Palestinians killed fighting Israel are visible across Balata [Al Jazeera] Psychological toll Belal, who spent eight years in Palestinian Authority (PA) prison during Wael’s childhood, feels the pain of his son’s loss deeply. They both had only ever known the narrow, labyrinthine streets and decrepit buildings of Balata, the most populous refugee camp in the West Bank. But Belal feels that he wasn’t able to be there to guide Wael through them. “I didn’t get the chance to see Wael growing up, or spend time with him as all other fathers do,” he said, unable to fight back his tears. “I envy his mother and brother because at least they lived with him. They have beautiful and plentiful memories with him, shared moments. “Do you know what it feels like to

Danish PM says more Greenland talks due after meeting US’s Marco Rubio

Danish PM says more Greenland talks due after meeting US’s Marco Rubio

New opinion poll finds seven in 10 US adults disapprove of President Donald Trump’s handling of Greenland issue. Listen to this article Listen to this article | 4 mins info Denmark’s prime minister and Greenland’s premier met ⁠with United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio and agreed that talks would be pursued on the running of Greenland, the semi-autonomous Danish territory that President Donald Trump has threatened to take over. Rubio held a 15-minute meeting with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland’s Premier Jens-Frederik Nielsen on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on Friday. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list Greenland’s leader Nielsen said in a post on social media that during the meeting with Rubio, “it was emphasised that the conversations being made are the right way forward and the interests of Greenland were once again clearly highlighted”. Prime Minister Frederiksen said on X after the meeting: “Constructive talk with Secretary of State Marco Rubio together with Jens-Frederik Nielsen, Chairman of Naalakkersuisut, at the Munich Security Conference.” “Work will continue as agreed in the high-level working group,” she said. The meeting between the Danish and Greenlandic leaders and the US state secretary comes amid severely strained ties between Europe and Washington, and NATO allies, amid President Trump’s repeated threats to take over Greenland and criticism of European nations as “decaying” and “weak”. Speaking to reporters on Friday, Trump said, “We’re negotiating ‌right ‌now for Greenland.” “I ‌think Greenland’s going to want us, but we get along very well with Europe. We’ll see how it all works out,” he said. After months of bellicose language regarding the US’s necessity to acquire Greenland, Trump abruptly stepped back from his threats last month, saying that he had reached an understanding with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte that would give the US greater influence in the mineral-rich Arctic territory. Advertisement Late last month, the US, Denmark and Greenland also launched talks to find a diplomatic path out of the crisis. Poll finds most US adults disapprove of Trump’s Greenland plan The US administration has cited key national security concerns related to Russia and China to justify its demand to take control over Greenland and has accused Denmark, and Europe more broadly, of being unable to defend the strategic territory. But, according to a new opinion poll conducted by The Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, Trump’s push to seize control of Greenland has gone down badly with the US public and members of his own party. The survey, conducted between February 5-8, found that about seven in 10 US adults disapprove of how Trump is handling the Greenland issue – a higher disapproval rating than the share of those who dislike how he is handling foreign policy generally. Even among Republican supporters, about half disapprove of his attempt to turn Greenland into US territory, according to the poll. Sweden said on Thursday that it would send fighter jets to patrol Greenland as part of a newly launched NATO mission in the Arctic aimed at placating Trump’s concerns over the threats posed by Moscow and Beijing. The government said in a statement that Swedish-made Gripen fighter jets would patrol Greenland as part of the newly-launched NATO mission, Arctic Sentry. “As a NATO ally, Sweden has a responsibility to contribute to the security of the entire territory of the Alliance. The Arctic region is becoming increasingly important from a strategic perspective,” Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said. In a separate statement, the Swedish Armed Forces said the fighter jets would be based out of Iceland, where six aircraft have been stationed since early February as part of the rotating incident response force, NATO Air Policing. Swedish special forces would also be sent to Greenland to take part in training exercises for a couple of weeks, the military said. Adblock test (Why?)

Delhi triple murder case: How Baba Kamruddin lured victims using ‘djinn’, ‘dhanvarsha’ | 10 key points

Delhi triple murder case: How Baba Kamruddin lured victims using ‘djinn’, ‘dhanvarsha’ | 10 key points

Peeragarhi’s triple murder case has shocked Delhi in which a 72-year-old tantrik has been arrested. He was identified as the primary suspect in at least two previous murder cases in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan and used to give poisoned laddoos to his victims. Kamruddin, popularly called ‘Baba’, a resident of UP’s Firozabad, had been arrested in the previous cases but was out on bail due to lack of evidence. The UP case was registered in 2025 in which he secured bail.