Republican drops primary challenge against incumbent Sen Cassidy after Trump-backed candidate enters race
Louisiana state Rep. Julie Emerson announced on Thursday that she was nixing her U.S. Senate bid in light of President Donald Trump-backed U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow entering the GOP primary. “With Congresswoman Letlow’s entrance into the race, the path to victory that was visible a couple of months ago has diminished. I support President Trump and respect his decision to endorse Julia Letlow to defeat Bill Cassidy. Because of this, I’m choosing to end my campaign now,” Emerson said in a statement. Incumbent Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who has served in the U.S. Senate since 2015, is running for re-election. TRUMP ENDORSEMENT ROCKS LOUSIANA SENATE RACE AS LETLOW JUMPS IN After the House impeached Trump in 2021, Cassidy was one of the Senate Republicans who voted to convict during a vote that occurred after Trump had already departed from office — the Senate vote ultimately fell short of the threshold required to convict Trump. The president pledged his endorsement to Letlow in a Truth Social post on Saturday. WHO IS JOHN FLEMING, THE FREEDOM CAUCUS FOUNDING MEMBER CHALLENGING GOP SEN BILL CASSIDY? “Should she decide to enter this Race, Julia Letlow has my Complete and Total Endorsement. RUN, JULIA, RUN!!!” the president exclaimed in the post. Letlow launched a Senate bid days later. GOP LOUISIANA STATE SENATOR SAYS HE’S RUNNING FOR US SENATE BECAUSE INCUMBENT REPUBLICAN ‘SUCKS’ “Today, I am announcing my candidacy for the United States Senate to ensure the nation we leave our children is safer and stronger. Louisiana deserves a conservative Senator who will not waver. I am honored to have President Trump’s endorsement and trust. Let’s Geaux!” she declared in a Tuesday post on X. Louisiana State Treasurer John Fleming and state Sen. Blake Miguez are also running in the Republican U.S. Senate primary in the state.
NEA insider blows whistle on ‘toxic’ culture and far-left politics inside teachers union: ‘It’s a cult’
FIRST ON FOX: As the National Education Association, one of the most prominent teachers unions in the country, continues to face criticism over placing far-left agenda items over the needs of children, a whistleblower organization spoke to Fox News Digital about the “toxic” politics inside headquarters. “It’s a very liberal place, there’s only a handful of conservatives that work at NEA, and if you are, it’s like you just don’t say anything, because it’s a very toxic environment if you do say something,” an NEA employee, who is remaining anonymous due to concerns of retribution, told Fox News Digital. “It’s crazy, they’ll send out this weekly newsletter of ‘Trump’s a fascist’ and blast it to all the states.” The whistleblower described a workplace where staff members are often subject to staff meetings and breakout sessions focused on “social justice and White supremacy and all that nonsense” that feel more like “brainwashing” than they do education. “It’s a cult. It’s 100% a cult and if you don’t have their mindset, you’re the enemy.” GOT A SCOOP ON CAMPUS? SEND US A TIP HERE Earlier this month, Fox News Digital exclusively reported on a federal NEA filing showing the union funneled millions of dollars to far-left activist groups, ballot initiatives and social justice organizations. Among the largest expenditures was more than $3.5 million sent to Education International, a global teachers federation where NEA President Becky Pringle serves as a vice president. “Why are we sending money internationally?” The whistleblower told Fox News Digital. “They’re not American teachers.” In November, Fox News Digital first reported on NEA training sessions instructing members on a variety of far-left causes, including how to go through a gender transition at work, best practices for using gender pronouns and combating transphobia, while also being provided with literature labeling conservative opposition as “villains.” “They don’t care about the students, they care about pushing these leftist, liberal Democrat people [politicians] so that they can get more money and just fund all these stupid initiatives,” the whistleblower told Fox News Digital. PARENTS’ RIGHTS GROUP RELEASES SCATHING ‘LOOKOUT’ WARNING TARGETING TOP 2 TEACHERS UNIONS: ‘INDOCTRINATION’ Additionally, Fox News Digital obtained an email sent on Jan. 16 from NEA Executive Director Kim Anderson that included more heated rhetoric directed at ICE and President Donald Trump. “Masked ICE agents are operating with impunity in Minneapolis, attacking students on school grounds and abducting neighbors from locations that are considered places of safety and care, including churches and hospitals,” the email said. “ICE agents are harassing, frightening, abusing, detaining and killing our neighbors. They abuse power and disregard the rule of law.” The email continued, “Violent ICE raids disproportionately targeting Black and brown students, families, and communities, have forced public schools to close their doors. Keeping students safe from ICE also keeps them from their classrooms, their friends, and the support they deserve.” The email referred to Trump’s actions enforcing immigration law as “Un-American” and an “authoritarian threat.” “People talk about turning down the temperature and how rhetoric is getting people killed, like it is, and they’re doing it, they’re the ones saying all this crazy nonsense,” the whistleblower told Fox News Digital. Mika Hackner, director of research at the North American Values Institute, told Fox News Digital that a union’s purpose is “to advocate for and to represent effectively and fairly its union members” and that it’s “difficult to see how the NEA can do this when it ensures that a particular political position and worldview is woven into the fabric of its organization.” Another area the whistleblower flagged is union revenue, claiming NEA leadership is especially focused on protecting dues collection by shifting members to “auto-pay” in states where payroll deductions face pushback. “That’s the biggest thing they’re worried about right now,” the whistleblower said, claiming the union is fighting efforts that prevent dues from being “take[n]… directly out of your paycheck.” On the day following Trump’s victory over former Vice President Kamala Harris, endorsed by the NEA, in the 2024 presidential election, the whistleblower told Fox News Digital the NEA offices were filled with distraught employees. “Everybody in the office had their doors closed. They were crying. It was a whole thing. It was wild, grown-ass people crying over an election.” In a statement to Fox News Digital after publication, an NEA spokesperson said, “The positions of the NEA are determined through democratic processes by the educators and other dedicated public employees who make up our membership. NEA staff go to work every day to support our members as they educate and care for students. NEA members and staff hold a wide variety of views, but one thing remains constant: we believe in the value of a quality public education for every student and every community in this country.” Erika Sanzi, senior director of communications for Defending Education, told Fox News Digital in November that the union’s federal charter should be re-evaluated given the organization has become more of a political operation than a union pushing for better student outcomes. Sanzi explained, “Their federal charter was granted because they promised to ‘elevate the character and advance the interests of the profession of teaching; and to promote the cause of education in the United States.’ Seeing as their leadership — and by extension, the organization itself — has morphed into a far-left insane asylum that is actively destroying the cause of education, that charter is no longer defensible.” “Few organizations have done more to erode trust in American public education than the National Education Association,” Terry Stoops, director of state affairs at Defending Education, told Fox News Digital this week. “The National Education Association has little interest in improving the lives of America’s public school educators. Instead, it’s committed to dispensing millions of dollars in membership dues to Democrats, while infiltrating classrooms and corrupting young minds with the grotesqueries of the far Left.”
Trump says US should have tested NATO by invoking Article 5 over border security
President Donald Trump on Thursday said the United States should have considered testing NATO by forcing member countries to respond to America’s southern border crisis. Trump speculated in a post on Truth Social that the U.S. could have invoked Article 5 — the alliance’s collective defense clause that deems an attack on one member as an attack on all — thereby putting NATO “to the test.” “Maybe we should have put NATO to the test: Invoked Article 5, and forced NATO to come here and protect our Southern Border from further Invasions of Illegal Immigrants, thus freeing up large numbers of Border Patrol Agents for other tasks,” he wrote. The president’s comments came after he has recently questioned NATO’s commitment to aiding the U.S. DENMARK RAMPS UP DEFENSES IN GREENLAND AS TRUMP ZEROS IN ON CONTROL OF TERRITORY “We will always be there for NATO, even if they won’t be there for us,” the president wrote on social media earlier this month. After meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Wednesday at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, Trump announced that he had the “framework of a future deal regarding Greenland.” Trump wrote on Truth Social that if finalized, the deal “will be a great one for the United States of America, and all NATO Nations.” DAVOS BRACES FOR TRUMP AMID TENSIONS OVER NATO, GREENLAND AND GLOBAL DEFENSE Following the meeting, Trump said he would scrap a plan to impose tariffs on a group of NATO members who sent troops to Greenland amid the president’s efforts to acquire the island. Trump had asserted that those countries would be subjected to a 10% tariff on all goods beginning Feb. 1. In an exclusive interview with Fox News this week, Rutte said Trump was “totally right” about needing to shore up security in the Arctic region, noting that the chance of Russia or China becoming a threat in that region was increasing. Rutte applauded Trump’s leadership in getting NATO countries to pay more money for the alliance’s defenses. “I would argue tonight with you on this program he was the one who brought a whole of Europe and Canada up to this famous 5%,” Rutte said, “which is crucial for us to equalize our spending, but also protect ourselves. And this is the framework which you see in his post that we will work on.” NATO members were previously spending 2% of GDP on defense, but have now agreed to spend 5% of GDP on defense and national security infrastructure. Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment. Fox News Digital’s Alec Schemmel contributed to this report.
US officers detain 5-year-old boy as Minnesota immigration raids continue
School official says the child, Liam Conejo Ramos, was ‘essentially’ used ‘as bait to apprehend his father, who is seeking asylum in the US. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers have detained a five-year-old boy arriving home from preschool in Minnesota, after allegedly using him “as bait” to apprehend his father, who has a pending asylum case. Federal agents took the child, Liam Conejo Ramos, from a running car while it was in the family’s driveway on Tuesday afternoon, Columbia Heights Public Schools Superintendent Zena Stenvik said during a news conference on Wednesday. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list The officers then told the child to knock on the door to his home to see if other people were inside, “essentially using a five-year-old as bait”, Stenvik said. Stenvik said the family, who came to the United States in 2024, has an active asylum case and had not been ordered to leave the country. “Why detain a five-year-old?” she asked. “You cannot tell me that this child is going to be classified as a violent criminal.” Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that “ICE did NOT target a child”. She said ICE was conducting an operation to arrest the child’s father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, who McLaughlin said is from Ecuador. “For the child’s safety, one of our ICE officers remained with the child while the other officers apprehended Conejo Arias,” McLaughlin said, adding that parents are given the choice to be removed with their children or have them placed with a person of their choosing. Liam is the fourth student from Columbia Heights Public Schools who has been detained by ICE in recent weeks, said Stenvik. A 17-year-old student was taken on Tuesday while heading to school, and a 10-year-old and a 17-year-old have also been taken, she said. Advertisement The family’s lawyer, Marc Prokosch, said on Thursday that Liam and his father were taken to an immigration lockup in Dilley, Texas, and that he assumes they were being held in a family holding cell. “We’re looking at our legal options to see if we can free them either through some legal mechanisms or moral pressure,” he said at a news conference. A lawyer who visited the Dilley detention facility last week, as part of an ongoing lawsuit to ensure the safekeeping of immigrant children in federal custody, said conditions were deteriorating. “The conditions were worse than ever,” said Leecia Welch, chief legal counsellor at the advocacy group Children’s Rights. “The number of children had skyrocketed, and significant numbers of children had been detained for over 100 days,” Welch said. “Nearly every child we spoke to was sick – and it seemed there was an epidemic of illnesses going around. Families reported that their children were malnourished, extremely ill, and suffering profoundly from prolonged detention,” Welch said. During a visit to Minneapolis on Thursday, US Vice President JD Vance said he heard the “terrible story” about Liam, but said he was not sure what the federal agents could have done differently. “Well, what are they supposed to do? Are they supposed to let a five-year-old child freeze to death? Are they not supposed to arrest an illegal alien in the United States of America?” said Vance, noting that he was also the parent of a five-year-old. US federal agents have arrested some 3,000 people in immigration raids across Minnesota in recent weeks, according to Greg Bovino, a US Customs and Border Protection official. Julia Decker, policy director at the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota, said advocates have no way of knowing whether the government’s arrest numbers and descriptions of the people in custody are accurate. Also on Thursday, US Attorney General Pam Bondi said that three people have been arrested in Minneapolis after they protested at Cities Church in St Paul, where they alleged one of the pastors, David Easterwood, was the acting field director for the St Paul ICE field office. Those arrested included Minneapolis civil rights activist Nekima Levy Armstrong and St Paul school board member Chauntyll Louisa Allen, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune newspaper. In a post on X, Bondi said that Armstrong had played a “key role” in organising the protest on Sunday. Adblock test (Why?)
Trump says US still ‘watching Iran‘ as ‘massive’ fleet heads to Gulf region
US president says ‘big force going towards Iran’, but he would ‘rather not see anything happen’ as tension with Tehran ratchets up. Published On 23 Jan 202623 Jan 2026 Click here to share on social media share2 Share United States President Donald Trump said a US naval “armada” was heading towards the Gulf region, with Iran being the focus, as officials said an aircraft carrier strike group and other assets would arrive in the Middle East in the coming days. “We’re watching Iran,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Thursday as he flew back from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list “We have a big force going towards Iran,” Trump said. “I’d rather not see anything happen, but we’re watching them very closely,” he said. “And maybe we won’t have to use it … we have a lot of ships going that direction, just in case, we have a big flotilla going in that direction, and we’ll see what happens,” he added. Trump’s announcement on the US naval buildup comes after he appeared to back-pedal last week on his threats of military action against Iran after, he said, receiving assurances that no executions of protesters would be carried out by Tehran. Trump’s confirmation of continuing military preparations in the region follows after US media reports in the past week that the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and its strike group of vessels were ordered to divert from manoeuvres in the South China Sea to the Middle East. Speaking on Thursday, Trump reiterated that his earlier threats to use force against Tehran had stopped authorities in Iran from executing more than 800 protesters, and he again said he was open to talking with the country’s leadership. Iranian officials have denied plans to execute people who had taken part in the widespread antigovernment protests that began in late December and which Iranian state media said left 3,117 people dead, including 2,427 civilians and members of the security forces. Advertisement Speaking to US broadcaster CNBC on Wednesday, Trump said he hoped there would not be further US military action against Iran, but also said the US would act if Tehran resumed its nuclear programme. “They can’t do the nuclear,” Trump told CNBC in an interview in Davos. “If they do it, it’s going to happen again,” the president said, referring to US air strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities in June 2025 when Washington joined Israel’s 12-day war on the country. Washington last ordered a major military build-up in the Middle East in advance of its attacks in June, and officials later boasted about how it had kept its intention to strike Tehran’s nuclear programme a secret at the time. Writing in the Wall Street Journal newspaper on Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned the US that Tehran will be “firing back with everything we have” if attacked. “Our powerful armed forces have no qualms about firing back with everything we have if we come under renewed attack,” the minister wrote. Araghchi said his warning was not a threat, “but a reality I feel I need to convey explicitly, because as a diplomat and a veteran, I abhor war”. “An all-out confrontation will certainly be ferocious and drag on far, far longer than the fantasy timelines that Israel and its proxies are trying to peddle to the White House,” he said. “It will certainly engulf the wider region and have an impact on ordinary people around the globe,” he added. Adblock test (Why?)
Did the US give Greenland back to Denmark? Trump omits history at Davos
On Wednesday, United States President Donald Trump made clear to other world leaders in Davos, Switzerland, that he was unflinching in his demand to acquire Greenland, even as he said for the first time that he did not plan for the US to take the land by force. Trump, who talked up his tariff-based negotiation strategy, cited Greenland’s strategic position between the US, Russia and China as the main reason he wants to acquire the territory. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list Retelling the US history with Greenland and Denmark, Trump said, during World War II, “we saved Greenland and successfully prevented our enemies from gaining a foothold in our hemisphere”. This much is accurate: After Germany invaded Denmark, the US assumed responsibility for Greenland’s defence and established a military presence on the island that remains today, albeit in diminished scope. But Trump overstepped when he said, after World War II, “we gave Greenland back to Denmark”. “All the United States is asking for is a place called Greenland, where we already had it as a trustee, but respectfully returned it back to Denmark not long ago,” he said. Although the US defended Greenland during World War II, it never possessed the nation, and so could not have given it back. Experts have told PolitiFact that Greenland’s status as part of Denmark is not in question, and has not been for more than a century. Denmark’s colonisation of Greenland dates to the 1720s. In 1933, an international court settled a territorial dispute between Denmark and Norway, ruling that as of July 1931, Denmark “possessed a valid title to the sovereignty over all Greenland”. Advertisement After the 1945 approval of the United Nations Charter – the organisation’s founding document and the foundation of much of international law – Denmark incorporated Greenland through a constitutional amendment and gave it representation in the Danish Parliament in 1953. Denmark told the UN that any colonial-type status had ended; the UN General Assembly accepted this change in November 1954. The US was among the nations that voted to accept Greenland’s new status. Since then, Greenland has, incrementally but consistently, moved towards greater autonomy. Greenlandic political activists successfully pushed for and achieved home rule in 1979, which established its parliament. Today, Greenland is a district within the sovereign state of Denmark, with two elected representatives in Denmark’s Parliament. What about Iceland? Four times in the Davos speech, Trump referred to Iceland instead of Greenland. “Our stock market took the first dip yesterday because of Iceland,” Trump said. “So Iceland has already cost us a lot of money, but that dip is peanuts compared to what it’s gone up, and we have an unbelievable future.” US markets reacted negatively to Trump’s Greenland comments the day before his Davos speech, falling about 2 percent in value. But in recent weeks, Trump has said nothing about acquiring Iceland, an independent island nation with nearly 400,000 residents, located east of Greenland. In an X post following Trump’s Davos address, the White House press secretary criticised a reporter for posting that Trump “appeared to mix up Greenland and Iceland” several times. Karoline Leavitt said Trump’s “written remarks referred to Greenland as a ‘piece of ice’ because that’s what it is”. Although Trump did call Greenland a “very big piece of ice”, he also separately mentioned “Iceland”. Traditionally, Icelanders have maintained strong ties to the US, dating back to World War II, when Reykjavik invited US troops into the country. In 1949, Iceland became a founding member of NATO, and in 1951, the two countries signed a bilateral defence agreement that still stands. Its location – between the Arctic and North Atlantic oceans, a strategic naval choke point in the Greenland-Iceland-United Kingdom gap – means that Iceland, despite its lack of a standing military, is geographically important for both North America and Europe. In 2006, the US gave up its permanent troop presence at the Keflavík airbase – a 45-minute drive south of the capital, Reykjavik – but US troops still rotate through. Icelandic civilians now handle key NATO tasks such as submarine surveillance and operations at four radar sites on the nation’s periphery. Iceland also makes financial contributions to NATO trust funds and contributes a small number of technical and diplomatic personnel to NATO operations. Advertisement Trump’s pick for ambassador to Iceland, former Republican Congressman Billy Long, attracted criticism earlier this month when he was overheard saying Iceland should become a US state after Greenland, and that he would serve as governor. Long apologised during an interview with Arctic Today. “There was nothing serious about that. I was with some people, who I hadn’t met for three years, and they were kidding about Jeff Landry being governor of Greenland, and they started joking about me. And if anyone took offence to it, then I apologise,” Long told the publication. Trump has tapped Landry, Louisiana’s Republican governor, to be the US envoy to Greenland. Silja Bara R Omarsdottir, an international affairs professor who now serves as rector, or president, of the University of Iceland, told the Tampa Bay Times in August that newfound attention to Iceland’s security, including concerns over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine for the rest of Europe, is “definitely very noticeable at the political level”. Multiple analysts in Iceland told the daily, only half-jokingly, that the key to surviving the Trump era has been to remain out of sight, something Greenland, for whatever reason, was unlucky enough not to be able to do. “You could say Icelandic policy towards the US has been to try to keep under the radar,” said Pia Elisabeth Hansson, director of the Institute of International Affairs at the University of Iceland. Adblock test (Why?)
Yuvraj Mehta’s final moments caught on video: Torchlight plea for help goes unanswered
Days after 27-year-old software engineer Yuvraj Singh’s died by drowning in a construction pit in Greater Noida’s Sector 150, a video showing Noida techie’s final moments of desperation filled with struggle. The video shows the software engineer sitting at the top of his car.
Parvesh Verma hits out at AAP over Kirari drainage, says projects to end waterlogging in a year
Delhi’s Irrigation and Flood Control Minister Parvesh Verma lashed out at the previous Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government over the issue of drainage system in Kirari Assembly constituency and promised that BJP would complete the project within a year.
IMD Weather Update: Delhi-NCR sees rain as temperatures fall, winter chill to intensify; AQI remains ‘very poor’
Light rain lashed parts of Delhi-NCR as an active western disturbance triggered cloudy skies, thunderstorms, and gusty winds. An orange alert has been issued, temperatures are set to fall sharply, and air quality remains in the very poor category despite slight improvement.
Bomb threat to Schools in Noida, Ahmedabad; classes suspended, Bomb disposal team deployed
Bomb threat targets Shiv Nadar School in Noida, and several schools in Ahmedabad ahead of Republic day. The schools received via email.