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‘Essential to our nation’s sovereignty’: Noncitizen voter crackdown led by GOP ahead of 2026 midterms

House Republicans are rolling out a new package of election security legislation this week, with GOP lawmakers already setting eyes on 2026.

Republican Study Committee Chairman August Pfluger, R-Texas, introduced the bills this week, with four lawmakers co-sponsoring the entire package and various other members supporting specific pieces.

The three pieces of legislation are a bill to prohibit noncitizen residents of Washington, D.C., from voting in local elections, a bill to block noncitizens from helping administer elections and a constitutional amendment to prevent noncitizens from voting.

It is currently illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections. Though the law does not apply to state and local elections, there is currently no state in the U.S. that allows noncitizens to vote in statewide elections.

Some areas, however, allow for noncitizens to vote in local-level elections – including Washington, D.C.

‘Free and fair elections are the cornerstone of our democracy, which is why protecting them from noncitizen influence is essential to our nation’s sovereignty and will ensure America has a flourishing democracy for decades to come,’ Pfluger told Fox News Digital.

‘These bills are three commonsense steps we can take to ensure noncitizens are not influencing our elections by voting in them or administering them. We must safeguard the integrity of our electoral system, and these bills will work to do just that.’

Earlier this year, House Republicans passed the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which requires proof of citizenship in the voter registration process.

The majority of Democrats have cried foul at GOP-led efforts to crack down on noncitizen voting, with progressive lawmakers accusing Republicans of trying to spread doubt about the country’s election processes by targeting something that’s already illegal in most cases.

Democrats also criticized Republicans for pushing bills like the SAVE Act just weeks before the November election. 

However, Pfluger and his GOP allies are now side-stepping that criticism by introducing the bills well ahead of the 2026 midterm races, when historical precedent suggests that House Republicans face an uphill battle to keeping their majority.

Among the co-sponsors of the entire package is House Budget Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, who is playing a critical role in congressional Republicans’ efforts to pass a massive conservative policy overhaul via the budget reconciliation process.

Border security and immigration reform are expected to be a significant part of that forthcoming legislation.

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DAVID MARCUS: Dem senators’ shameless antics show why party is in shambles

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

A stunning new poll this week found that a mere 31% of Americans have a favorable view of the Democratic Party, with a whopping 57% viewing it negatively, and if you want to know why, look no further than the shameful antics of lefty senators in this month’s confirmation hearings.

What emerged through all the snide screeching and sarcastic snobbery is a Democratic Party that is pushing a Big Pharmaceutical agenda, agitating for forever wars, obsessed to the point of mania with January 6, and that believes the Army should be performing sex change operations. 

And they wonder why they lost the election.

In a pair of hearings featuring Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, the Democrats railed against his views on food and health, while ignoring the chronic disease and overprescription of drugs for our kids he seeks to address.

Sen. Bernie Sanders was specifically called out by RFK Jr. in the hearing for taking $1.5 million dollars from Big Pharma, to which the Vermont Senator shot back, ‘out of $200 million!’ while insisting that money came from pharmaceutical workers.

The American people aren’t dumb, they know that big pharma employees are, by and large, big fans of big pharma, and what RFK, Jr. was pointing out was that so are most Democrats in Congress.

When it came to Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s pick for director of National Intelligence, Sen. Mark Kelly D-Ariz., gravely expressed concern that her criticism of Middle East regime change wars was somehow Russian propaganda, not a legitimate policy position.

To this Gabbard wisely responded, ‘My fear was a repeat of the deployment of another half a million soldiers like we saw in Iraq toward what was the Obama administration’s goal, which was regime change in Syria.’

Avoiding new wars is a big part of why Trump was elected and Kamala Harris was defeated. The American people want a sound foreign policy, not simply a knee-jerk reaction to whatever dictators around the globe say or do.

But the Democrats weren’t done impugning the president’s nominees. They saved particular ire for Kash Patel, who Trump tapped to head the FBI. 

Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., leading purveyor of the Russian Collusion Hoax, at one point asked the nominee to stand and face the Capitol Police in the room while the senator discussed Patel’s efforts to help the families of those imprisoned for the Capitol riot.

First of all, these are exactly the kinds of stupid antics that make Americans furious, and second, Schiff needs to realize that voters rejected Democrats’ constant hemming and hawing about January 6, they just want a fair FBI that doesn’t target political enemies.

Finally, in Pete Hegseth’s hearing for the top spot at the Pentagon, Democrats seemed more interested in making sure mothers can serve in combat and that the military perform sex change operations than ensuring the lethality and readiness of our armed forces. 

What we witnessed this month in the senate is not just a Democratic Party out of touch with the American people, but one that isn’t even in the same ideological galaxy.

Voters made clear that they want to Make America Healthy Again, they don’t want forever wars, they don’t want politics in the FBI, and they want a military focused on fighting, not social justice. The Senate Democrats seem to oppose all of this.

These are the wages of a political party that has spent the last decade solely defining itself as the opposite of Trump. Whatever Trump says or does, they’re against it. It is the only platform they have left.

And Trump knows and uses this fact, by putting himself on the common sense side of issue after issue, he forces Democrats, or maybe we should say tricks them, into defending the absurd and indefensible.

A glass-half-full Democrat may look at the abysmal poll numbers and say that this is natural after a big loss, or that there is plenty of time to fix it before the next election, but they have to want to fix it, and know what to fix.

In order to do this, Democrats must take their laser focus away from Donald Trump and his pugnacious braggadocio and put that focus where it belongs, on the American people.

If they don’t, if Democrats remain nothing more than the Anti-Trump party, then their period in the political wilderness could last a very, very long time.

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After stinging election defeats, DNC eyes rural voters as key to 2026 midterm success

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) plans to focus much of its campaign efforts on winning over rural voters in the 2026 midterm elections, according to the party’s outgoing chairman— a sprawling effort they hope will help the party engage with and educate new voters, and loosen what many see as President Donald Trump’s ironclad grip on many red state voters.

The new strategy was previewed exclusively to Fox News Digital by outgoing DNC Chair Jaime Harrison ahead of the DNC’s slated vote Saturday to select his successor as next party leader.

In an interview, Harrison said the strategy, which has been weeks, if not months in the making, is designed to refute many of Trump’s campaign trail claims on the economy, health insurance and taxes for average Americans.

Rather, Harrison said the aim is to tie Trump more closely to these policies and to make the case to voters directly that Trump is ‘using rural America, and giving rural voters nothing in return.’

‘An examination of Trump’s second term agenda and first administrative actions reveals that rural families and the resources they rely on are in greater jeopardy than ever before,’ the DNC said in a preview of its new election strategy memo, shared exclusively with Fox News. 

‘One can conclude, Donald Trump is using rural America and giving rural voters nothing in return,’ the memo continued.

Trump’s rhetoric has long been praised as refreshing by voters, who resonate with what many said they see as his unorthodox, anti-establishment bona fides. However, there is a difference between Trump as a presidential candidate and Trump as president. It is ‘him just saying things and not having the power to implement them,’ compared to being back in the Oval Office, Harrison said. 

The DNC’s effort, however, will seek to challenge that assumption by highlighting victories secured by former President Joe Biden in his first term, including tightening CAFE fuel economy standards for gas-fired vehicles, investing in EV manufacturing and battery supply chains, cracking down on PFAS contaminants and pollution, and allocating billions of dollars in clean energy and climate spending.

Trump has vowed to undo many of these policies after retaking control of the Oval Office.

To date, he has made good on his promise. Trump used his first week in office to sign hundreds of executive orders and actions, a dizzying flurry of orders that, among other things, sought to crack down on immigration, unleash U.S. liquefied natural gas exports and freeze all congressionally approved spending, if only temporarily.

Democrats, for their part, have sought to use Trump’s vice-grip on the post-inauguration news cycle to double down on their efforts to appeal to voters and prepare for the midterms, no matter how far-off they might seem.

This includes focusing on issues like healthcare coverage and medical providers, both of which have suffered ‘major’ disparities in rural America, and where doctors have exited en masse amid a flurry of hospital closures and a dearth of insured patients.

Many of the Republican-led states that did not opt to expand Medicaid saw wide hospital closures, higher out-of-pocket costs for prescriptions and much more limited access to opiod recovery or substance abuse programs, Harrison said.

Rural communities are also seeing more limited access to doctors, emergency treatment centers and a lack of access to important medication, as Biden-era programs wane.

‘These things are going to have a detrimental impact on rural America,’ he said.

Still, Harrison acknowledged that the Democratic Party also needs to do its part to meet voters where they are at in 2026, just months after the party’s humbling defeat in the 2024 presidential election.

However, changing hearts and minds will not happen overnight, he said.

Rather, it will require many conversations from state party leaders at the local level, who can both identify key issues for voters and help recruit good candidates for the upcoming election cycle.

‘I think what we have to do is paint a picture for the American people of all the things that we rely upon— all the things that are necessary and needed in these communities, and that sometimes we don’t even know are [programs] that the federal government is funding,’ Harrison said.

 ‘Those things are in jeopardy under this administration.’

‘We want to let people know these things aren’t just happening by happenstance. It’s happening because Donald Trump is taking this radical right wing extremist agenda and trying to implement and therefore impacting the quality of your life.’

The DNC’s effort will also spell out to voters what they say will happen if these policies are rolled back, in accordance with Trump’s plans, Harrison said. 

‘The second thing is having our cannons— we go out, and we work with our state parties, and recruit candidates to run in 2026,’ he said of candidates who are well-positioned to speak to the communities they are representing.

In Harrison’s view, this will also help explain to voters how Trump’s drastic cuts or reductions will impact their communities specifically. 

‘And then we continue to have that conversation, one-on- one, in small and larger groups with the people in those communities,’ he said. ‘And that is how we put ourselves on a much stronger foot going into the 2026 midterm election. ‘

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Kerrigan, Harding overcome with emotions following fatal plane crash

The plane crash outside Washington D.C.’s Reagan National Airport left the figure skating world in shock Thursday as reports revealed that many members of the figure skating community were on the flight that collided with a U.S. military Black Hawk helicopter on Wednesday night.

The skaters were returning from a national development camp following the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita, Kansas. The exact number of victims with ties to figure skating is still unknown.

Many of figure skating’s most popular stars were quick to post their thoughts and prayers in support of the victims. Olympic gold medalist and NBC figure skating analyst Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir, a former figure skater and NBC partner, made posts to their Instagram accounts as did Olympic bronze medalist Ashley Wagner. Former Olympian Tonya Harding made a post on X (formerly Twitter) expressing her devastation.

However, no one had a more emotional response than two-time Olympic figure skating medalist Nancy Kerrigan.

During a press conference Thursday, Kerrigan revealed that she knew at least two skaters on the plane: Spencer Lane and Jinna Hahn. Both Lane and Hahn’s mothers, Molly Lane and Jin Hahn, were reportedly also on the flight.

‘I’ve never seen someone love skating as much as these two, and that’s why I think it hurts so much,’ said Kerrigan. ‘When you find out you know some of the people on the plane, it’s even a bigger blow.’

WATCH: Full press conference with Nancy Kerrigan

Six confirmed dead from Skating Club of Boston

Kerrigan’s ties to the plane crash run even deeper though. Kerrigan is a Skating Club of Boston alum, although she made it clear that she had never skated at the club’s new facilities. With six of the passengers on the plane confirmed to be members of the same club, Kerrigan was obviously wrecked by the news.

‘Our community is pretty small,’ Kerrigan said through tears. ‘So, it’s not just here that’s hurting. It’s every rink that has skating, has some sort of feeling toward this. It’s tragic.’

Kerrigan expressed that she thought it was ‘weird’ for her to be doing interviews so soon after the crash. She did, however, note that it was important for her to be present for the press conference in support of her community.

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Florida-Tennessee, Duke-North Carolina lead men’s basketball weekend

We begin this edition of the Starting Five with a disclaimer. We are not the NCAA. As such, we do not have to go through umpteen committees to change/invoke a rule.

We’re therefore going to utilize a ‘one game per conference’ policy in this week’s preview of the top five games to watch in men’s college basketball. No, we’re not doing this to hate on the SEC, which has three top-25 matchups on Saturday by itself. But we do want to highlight other leagues with all time zones represented.

In addition, we’re going to bring in a sixth game off the bench as a bonus offering for this weekend when the sport truly takes center stage. With all that out of the way then, here are our picks for the six best games to watch on the first day of February.

No. 6 Florida at No. 8 Tennessee

Time/TV: Saturday, noon ET, ESPN

As mentioned above, there are a couple of other games of significance around the SEC – specifically in the Magnolia State. But we’ll highlight this top-10 clash. Things have not gone swimmingly for Tennessee since being knocked off the No. 1 perch, but the Volunteers’ previous encounter with Florida earlier this month was the only one of their four losses in which they were blown out. They’ll hope the rematch in their own building will go much better, but the Gators have won three in a row and five of their last six in conference play. Tennessee’s stout defense keeps it in most contests, that off day in Gainesville notwithstanding. The issue for the Volunteers is they can struggle to get buckets when they absolutely need them, especially when facing opponents with equally strong interior defense – which describes nearly everyone in the SEC. Things get easier for the Vols when their treys are falling, but the Gators are holding opponents to just 27.9% from the arc while hitting 34.3% themselves. Florida enjoys a rebounding margin of nearly 10 on average while also recording 8.4 steals and just under five blocks per game as a team.

No. 19 Texas Tech at No. 5 Houston

Time/TV: Saturday, 6 p.m. ET, ESPN2

We head next to the Lone Star State for this clash of former Southwest Conference opponents who are now two of the Big 12’s hottest teams. The Cougars are the lone squad still unscathed in conference play and have won 13 in a row overall. The Red Raiders are riding a five-game winning streak themselves and have lost just once since the calendar turned to 2025, and that was a more-than-forgivable overtime decision against Iowa State. Houston followed its memorable escape at Kansas with Wednesday’s win at short-handed West Virginia, but the Cougars will nonetheless be glad to have a friendly crowd for this one. Texas Tech will get a return visit from the Cougars on Feb. 24 but wouldn’t mind getting a leg up on the road. The game features two of the league’s most efficient facilitators, Houston’s Milos Uzan and the Red Raiders’ Elijah Hawkins.

WARM RECEPTION?: Kentucky welcomes back John Calipari this weekend

No. 24 Connecticut at No. 9 Marquette

Time/TV: Saturday, 8 p.m. ET, Fox

The quest for a third consecutive championship season has been quite rocky for the Huskies, who find themselves in fourth place in the Big East. They’ll try to gain a little ground on the road against one of the league coleaders, but the Golden Eagles have put together an impressive resume and hope to add another quality result. UConn found a way to get past DePaul on Wednesday night despite the ongoing absence of standout freshman Liam McNeeley (ankle). There is no disputing the Huskies’ defensive intensity, but keeping Marquette’s Cam Jones and Stevie Mitchell on lockdown for a full 40 minutes is asking a lot.

North Carolina at No. 2 Duke

Time/TV: Saturday, 6:30 p.m. ET, ESPN

The sport’s most fierce rivals find themselves in very different places as they meet for the first time this season. The Blue Devils are in juggernaut mode with a top NCAA seed well within reach, while the Tar Heels are in desperate need of a good result to get back on the right side of the bubble. UNC has dropped three of its last four, with the lone win in that stretch requiring overtime on its home floor to get by a Boston College squad that is below .500. The lack of interior depth remains an issue for the Tar Heels, meaning they might not have many answers for Duke’s Cooper Flagg, who can score from multiple levels. UNC does still have reigning ACC player of the year R.J. Davis, but he’ll need a lot of help in the hostile environs of Cameron Indoor Stadium.

New Mexico at Utah State

Time/TV: Saturday, 9:30 p.m. ET, FS1

We’ll close the Starting Five-plus-one with a couple of offerings from the western part of the country. Up first is this huge showdown in the Mountain West with first place on the line. The league isn’t as deep as last year when six squads from the league went dancing, so this is a major opportunity for a top-tier win for both contenders. The Aggies staved off UNLV earlier this week to avenge their lone MWC loss of the season to date, while the Lobos have enjoyed a few extra days off after taking down that same Rebels’ squad Saturday. Both rosters saw plenty of turnover via the portal, but regular followers of the league will remember Utah State’s veteran backcourt tandem of Ian Martinez and Mason Falslev and New Mexico’s standout floor leader Donovan Dent.

Gonzaga at Saint Mary’s

Time/TV: Saturday, 11 p.m. ET, ESPN

It will be a shame to see this rivalry come to an end when Gonzaga departs the West Coast Conference for the revamped Pac-12, so we must enjoy these last few encounters while we can. It’s the Gaels who hold the upper hand in the league standings, though the Bulldogs appear to have righted themselves after a rare two-game slide as they put up 98 against Oregon State on Tuesday to avenge one of those setbacks. Finding offense against Saint Mary’s figures to be more challenging, however, as evidenced by the 30-0 run the Gaels used to put away Santa Clara on Wednesday, the same Santa Clara squad that went for over 100 in a win at Gonzaga. The key inside matchup between Bulldogs big man Graham Ike and Mitchell Saxen of the Gaels will be worth watching.

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College football mailbag: Ohio State’s Ryan Day ‘third base’ narrative unfair

The narrative that Ryan Day’s career began on third base discounts his achievements. Anyway, he got Ohio State to home plate. Day deserves his flowers.
Deep Notre Dame quarterback competition headlined by CJ Carr and Steve Angeli among top offseason topics.
Brian Kelly headed to hot seat at LSU? Maybe pump the brakes on that thought.

The narrative that Ryan Day’s career began on third base discounts his achievements as an offensive coordinator and quarterback developer before he succeeded Urban Meyer as Ohio State’s coach. Day earned Chip Kelly’s respect while starring for him as New Hampshire’s record-breaking quarterback, then caught Meyer’s eye as a Florida graduate assistant. Within a coaching industry where nepo babies are unmissable, Day didn’t gain that shortcut.

But, even to the extent that ‘third base’ narrative rings true by Day landing Ohio State as his first head coaching job, Day deserves praise for assembling an uber-talented team and bringing the Buckeyes across home plate for their first national championship in more than a decade.

Day’s coaching performance remains a water-cooler topic as the offseason uncorks, as does runner-up Notre Dame’s outlook and the College Football Playoff format.

REPORT CARD: College football season grades for all 134 teams

LOOKING AHEAD: Our way-too-early college football Top 25 for 2025

Let’s answer some reader mail addressing these topics:

Does Ryan Day get too much credit at Ohio State?

Gene writes: I think that Coach Day is given too much credit, except for raising money and recruiting. Having the best talent that money can buy, … he should win it all.  … Doing the expected is reason for appreciation but not high praise.

My response: College football championships are won foremost through stockpiling talent and getting the stars to play together as a unit. Nick Saban had a mind for the game, sure, but he became the GOAT because nobody consistently attracted and united more talent than Saban’s Alabama. Then, Kirby Smart replicated Saban’s success as a recruiter, motivator and developer.

As the saying goes, Jimmys and Joes matter more than X’s and O’s.

Day proved himself an ace recruiter, before and after NIL, and energizing NIL fundraising now is part of a coach’s duties. His persistent ability to magnetize talent made winning a national championship a matter of when, not if.

Day hired excellent coordinators and let them do what they do best while he effectively served as CEO. He kept the Buckeyes focused and motivated after another soul-sucking loss to Michigan. Yes, Day built an enviable amount of talent, but others (see: Alabama, Georgia) achieved less this season with talented rosters.

Day burnished his quarterback development résumé, too, while transfer Will Howard flourished in the postseason.

Discounting Day’s coaching abilities because he’s a skilled recruiter and he galvanizines NIL is like saying your mechanic gets too much credit, because all he does is fix your car. That’s the job.

Recruiting, fundraising, leadership and motivation are college football’s coaching pillars. Day became the coach Ohio State needed, because he assembled and inspired an unmatchable roster, much as Smart and Saban did during their national championship seasons.

Should the College Football Playoff get smaller?

Tim writes: I read your column about the CFP.  I believe 12 teams are too many.  The games proved that to be the case. … Pick the eight best teams and seed them.

My response: The playoff will not shrink in size. Not happening. If anything, it might grow to 14 teams in 2026.

Even if we could wave a wand and shrink the playoff, I wouldn’t want to. I like that this playoff earmarks byes for the top conference champions. Byes would go away in a three-round, eight-team playoff.

With an 11-game playoff, you’re naturally going to have some lopsided outcomes. That’s not new, though. The four-team playoff regularly featured blowouts. The NFL’s wildcard round featured several blowouts, too, but I don’t detect a clamoring to shrink the NFL playoff.

Fortunately, the CFP games improved as the rounds progressed, peaking with two excellent semifinals.

The first-round format heightens the chance for blowouts because the better-seeded team hosts. That’s one argument for keeping quarterfinal games at neutral sites. Playing at bowl sites removes score-tilting home-field advantage.

Let’s leave room for a larger sample size before making sweeping rebukes of this format. Just because the No. 8 vs. No. 9 game became a blowout this season, doesn’t mean that will repeat.

Is it Steve Angeli or CJ Carr for Notre Dame?

Guy writes: I think you are grossly underestimating the abilities of Steve Angeli, (a contender for Notre Dame’s starting quarterback vacancy). We have not seen CJ Carr in game action. … As in the Penn State game, Angeli has shown himself to be a more than adequate alternative.

My response: The Irish require a standout quarterback, not a “more than adequate” quarterback, to become national champions. More wide receiver starpower would help, too. It’s a pitch-and-catch game, as much as block-and-tackle. Virginia transfer Malachi Fields boosts the receiving corps, but that leaves the matter of replacing starting quarterback Riley Leonard.

Angeli probably would offer Notre Dame a respectable floor. The Irish would do well to retain him, but if the Irish are serious about pursuing a national championship in 2025, then a healthy Carr is the choice. He earned rave reviews after signing as a blue-chip recruit. His September elbow injury ended the chance of seeing his abilities this season. Never mind the floor. A healthy, effective Carr offers Notre Dame the highest ceiling.

Ohio State had too much talent for Notre Dame

James writes: You are right on!!! Glad someone said it: Ohio State was superior to Notre Dame with the skill-position guys. Are the Irish just recruiting star rankings?

My response: It’s not a matter of Notre Dame being too focused on star ratings. To the contrary, the Irish would benefit from signing a five-star receiver.

Ohio State’s top three receivers, Jeremiah Smith, Emeka Egbuka and Carnell Tate, were five-star recruits, as rated by 247Sports. Smith rated as the nation’s No. 1 overall recruit in the 2024 class.

Michael Floyd, who signed with the Irish in 2008, remains the last receiver with a 247Sports Composite five-star rating to sign with Notre Dame. Floyd became a first-round NFL Draft pick after a stellar Notre Dame career.

What’s the difference between a four-star and five-star wide receiver? I don’t mean to oversimplify it, but consider Notre Dame’s Jaden Greathouse compared to Ohio State’s Smith. Greathouse was a four-star, and Smith a five-star. See the difference? Greathouse is good. Smith is sensational.

Brian Kelly is College Football Playoff or bust at LSU

Tim writes: Full disclosure, SEC homer and LSU fan. If Brian Kelly doesn’t have us in CFP next year, look for his buyout!

My response: Kelly crushed the hot-stove league. LSU plundered an impressive bounty of portal prizes – both in quantity and quality – to accompany a top-10 recruiting class. Add it up, it’s the best player acquisition haul all of Kelly’s tenure.

Kelly’s been good, not great, for LSU, totaling 29 wins in three seasons. It’s fair for LSU fans to enter next season with a playoff-or-bust mentality, particularly considering Garrett Nussmeier returns as the SEC’s most proven quarterback. Kelly’s quest will hinge on retooling the offensive line and finally engineering improvement on defense for a unit mired in a yearslong slump.

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer. Subscribe to read all of his columns.

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Trump facing 1st test in Africa amid bloody battles ‘over electric vehicle battery minerals’ 

Fighting reportedly over minerals needed for electric cars and mobile phones has become the Trump administration’s first real foreign affairs test in Africa. 

Bodies lie rotting in the streets, and hospitals have been overwhelmed with casualties in Goma, a city of 2 million people in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). M23 rebels, backed, the United Nations and other sources say, by neighboring Rwanda, are said to have taken over the city. 

‘The M23 appears to have taken control of a significant portion of the city following intense fighting with the Congolese army,’ The United Nation’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) stated Wednesday, adding, ‘Reports have emerged of looting of shops, offices, and warehouses belonging to humanitarian organizations, while heavy gunfire and explosions have been heard in various parts of the city.’ 

OCHA added ‘Local sources believe the civilian casualties are significant, although [an] assessment is yet to be conducted.’ Thirteen South African peacekeeping troops have been killed over the past week.

Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho., recently stated in part that, ‘The M23 must immediately stop their advance on Goma, and all parties must cease hostilities, restore unhindered humanitarian access, and honor their commitments.’

In the DRC’s capital, 10 foreign embassies, including the U.S. mission, have been attacked. Some, including the French Embassy, have been set on fire.

‘The M23 or March 23 Movement is a Tutsi-led and eastern-DRC based insurgent movement born around 2012’, Frans Cronje, adviser at the U.S. Yorktown Foundation for Freedom, told Fox News Digital. He added ‘The ensuing conflict has been sustained for more than 3 decades, in large part as a consequence of the extraordinary mineral wealth of the DRC.’

Cronje, who also advises corporations and government departments on economic and political trajectory, continued. ‘According to a United Nations report, M23 has raised significant sums from ‘taxing’ minerals mined in areas under its control – a practice common to armed groups operating in the DRC.’

This is borne out by a 160-page report commissioned by the U.N. Security Council from their ‘Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of the Congo’, and presented to the council late last year.

The report states M23 and Rwanda Defence Force operatives in the DRC captured ‘the Rubaya mining sites – one of the world’s largest sources of coltan – a mineral used in EV batteries – on 30 April 2024.’ 

The U.N. report says the M23 joined up with another rebel group, the AFC (the Congo River Alliance), ‘and levied taxes and in-kind payments on the sale and transport of minerals. The tax on a kilogram of coltan and manganese was $7, while the tax on tin (cassiterite) was $4 per kilogram. AFC/M23 thus collected at least $800,000 monthly from the taxation of coltan production and trade in Rubaya.’

Cronje pointed out this week that there are other precious metals M23 has its eyes on too. ‘The DRC accounts for between 70-80% of the world’s Cobalt production. Cobalt’s importance is such that the U.S. Department of Energy has listed it as one of seven minerals essential to U.S. economic competitiveness, while the Department of Defense identified cobalt as having ‘critical’ applications. Alongside that, the DRC is the third-largest producer of copper in the world, accounting for about 11% of global production.’

President Donald Trump spoke about the fighting on Thursday. ‘It is a very serious problem. I agree, but I don’t think it’s appropriate right now to talk about it,’ when asked about it during a briefing on the deadly airline crash in Washington, D.C., on Thursday afternoon. 

However, the State Department is speaking on the issue, calling for a ceasefire. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Rwandan President Paul Kagame, ‘the United States is deeply troubled by [the] escalation of the ongoing conflict in eastern DRC, particularly the fall of Goma to the Rwandan backed M23 armed group,’ spokesperson Tammy Bruce stated, adding ‘the secretary urged an immediate ceasefire in the region and for all parties to respect sovereign territorial integrity,’ adding that the overriding goal of the United States is a durable peace that addresses security concerns and lays the foundation for a thriving regional economy.’ 

Kagame responded on X, posting that his conversation with Rubio was ‘productive.’ He said it covered ‘the need to ensure a ceasefire in (the) Eastern DRC, and address the root causes of the conflict once and for all.’

Kagame added, ‘I look forward to working with the Trump Administration to create the prosperity and security that the people of our region deserve.’

‘The M23 conflict is indeed about minerals, but more so Rwandan ambition to control and administer much of Congo’s North Kivu’, Bill Roggio, editor of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Long War Journal, told Fox News Digital. ‘Rwanda would like to control not only the minerals, but also the entire trade in the region, and flex its muscles as a new regional powerhouse in central and East Africa. Rwanda also claims it is about border security, but really it’s more about its own geopolitical ambitions in the region.’

Roggio continued, saying that it ‘is somewhat related to the Biden administration’s inability to bring both Congo and Rwanda to the table and negotiate real settlements, either through the Luanda Process or the earlier Nairobi Process.’ He added ‘especially it is a failure to put enough pressure on Rwanda to pull back its support for M23, as the Obama administration had accomplished in 2012 when M23 previously captured Goma, but were forced to withdraw after the U.S. pressured Rwanda.’

For the new administration, there is a chance here to make positive steps towards a positive legacy in Africa. Michael Rubin told Fox News Digital, ‘For Trump and Rubio, they have the opportunity to do something different that could fix the problem permanently.’ 

Rubin is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, and in 2024 embedded for several weeks with the M23 rebels. 

Rubin continued, ‘What we’ve had for too long is that old definition of insanity: doing the same thing repeatedly, but expecting different results. There’s been two Congo wars, and if we try to apply the same band-aid to a sucking chest wound this time, there will be a third.’

The blame should rest not on Rwanda, Rubin believes, but on the DRC. ‘The narrative that the DRC is the victim and Rwanda and Uganda aggressors is tired. The problem is Kinshasa. If Tshisekedi (Felix Tshisekedi, DRC President) can stop armed groups in the south, he can do so in the east as well. He turned to ethnic incitement to distract from incompetent government; that never ends well.’

Rubin added that ‘the arguments about Rwanda looting the region are not valid. Businessmen in North Kivu, are blunt: Rwanda and Uganda charge less in customs duties than Kinshasa extracts in taxes. Kinshasa cries wolf because Kigali outcompetes them. If Kinshasa wanted businessmen to turn to them, try lowering taxes and building plants to turn raw materials into something with higher sale value.’

China and Russia stand on the sidelines, waiting to choose who they dance with to get the DRC’s minerals. China has spoken out against the M23. It threatens their mining interests in the country. Additionally, soldiers from Russia’s Africa Corps, the former Wagner Group’s private army of mercenaries, have been seen in Goma, propping up the DRC’s soldiers against the M23. 

Cronje told Fox News Digital Russia and China are poised to potentially support the winner, saying ‘the geostrategic importance of the region is such that all global powers have an interest in influencing the balance of power in eastern DRC either directly or indirectly.’

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First American hostage to be released from Gaza, Hamas says

American-Israeli Keith Siegel, 65, is set to be released on Saturday as part of Israel and Hamas’ ceasefire deal. 

He is the first of the American citizens taken on Oct. 7, 2023, to be released by the terror organization as part of this ceasefire deal.

Hamas says that the hostages to be released alongside Siegel are French-Israeli citizen Ofer Calderon and Yarden Bibas, the father of the two youngest hostages, Kfir and Ariel Bibas.

Six months into his time in Hamas captivity, in April 2024, Siegel was seen in a hostage video. In the clip, which confirmed Siegel was alive, he said, ‘It’s very important to me that you know I’m okay.’

In a December 2024 interview with Fox News Digital, Siegel’s wife of more than 40 years, Aviva, said that her husband didn’t ‘look like himself.’

‘I’m just so worried about him, because so [many] days and minutes have passed since that video that we received,’ she said. ‘I just don’t know what kind of Keith that we’re going to get back.’

Keith and Aviva were taken captive during Hamas’ brutal surprise attacks on Oct. 7, 2023. In November 2023, Aviva was released from Hamas captivity as part of a ceasefire and hostage deal early in the war. She has been fighting for her husband’s freedom since she was released.

Aviva’s dream is ‘seeing Keith in front of us and his grandchildren jumping into his arms and we’ll all cry together, and we’ll be the happiest people in Earth.’

Seven American citizens, including Siegel, are still being held hostage in Gaza. Two other Americans are believed to be alive, while the four others are deceased. Hamas is holding the bodies of deceased captives.

Hostage videos, such as the one of Siegel, are not just signs of life, they are part of Hamas’ psychological warfare. Hamas also made hostage videos of American citizens Edan Alexander and Hersh Goldberg-Polin. Alexander is believed to be alive. Goldberg-Polin was murdered by Hamas terrorists as Israel Defense Forces (IDF) closed in for a rescue attempt in the tunnels deep below Gaza’s Rafah.

Released hostages have detailed the harsh conditions in Gaza, including a lack of food and water, and being held underground with little to no sunlight.

In the first phase of the current ceasefire deal, Hamas is expected to release 33 hostages over the course of six weeks. So far, Hamas has released 10 hostages, including five female IDF soldiers who were kidnapped from an observation base in southern Israel. One of the five soldiers, Agam Berger, was released separately from the other four.

The chaotic handling of the transfer of hostages from Hamas to the Red Cross infuriated Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He briefly delayed the release of Palestinian prisoners, demanding a guarantee that the remaining hostages would be released under safe conditions. His demand was met a short while later and the Palestinian prisoners were released in accordance with the ceasefire agreement.

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Olympic gold medalist dies at 95: Button was figure skating superstar

There was a time, and it wasn’t a short period of time at all, when figure skating was one of the most popular televised sports in the nation, and Dick Button was the most famous and most powerful person in the sport.

The first American Olympic gold medalist in the sport back in 1948, then again in 1952, Button took the nation by the hand and escorted all of us into the often arcane and always dramatic world of jumps and spins, slips and falls, kissing and crying. 

Button anointed stars with an on-air sentence. A triple jump wasn’t good unless he said it was. When he shed a tear in the ABC Sports broadcast booth for an injured Randy Gardner and his partner, Tai Babilonia, as they withdrew from the pairs competition at the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympics, fans wept with him. 

Viewers put their faith in him, and rightly so, because you can make a pretty strong case that no other sport has produced anyone quite like Dick Button. As a pioneering superstar, an innovator, a businessperson and a powerbroker, he was to figure skating what Arnold Palmer was to golf, bringing the sport to the masses — and making a lot of money in the process — as Americans’ access to and fascination with television was exploding across the land. 

But there’s more. Button also became figure skating’s Howard Cosell, a tuxedoed, Harvard-educated television personality who was the extremely self-confident conscience of the sport. 

“He was like a professor,” his longtime broadcasting partner, Olympic gold medalist Peggy Fleming, said in a telephone interview. “He taught audiences how to watch skating. He also sometimes was like a professor sitting next to me as a commentator. If I said something that he thought was grammatically incorrect, he would literally write a note as we were on the air to tell me about it.”

Even if viewers knew nothing of Button’s history as an athlete and entrepreneur, he became both famous and essential to them because when they turned on figure skating, there he was, ready to explain it all to them. 

And, oh my, did they turn on figure skating. Today, skating, like many sports, grasps for whatever sliver of the TV audience it can attract. But 31 years ago, in the wake of the wildly sensational Tonya-Nancy saga, when there were only three or four channels and Dick Button and Peggy Fleming were in their heyday, well, get a load of this statistic:

In March 1996, the men’s long program at the world figure skating championships, shown live on ABC with Button in the booth, received a 10.1 rating. 

Going head-to-head with the skating was live coverage of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament on CBS. That earned just an 8.8 rating. 

I knew Dick Button years before I met him. My first recollection of his call of a big Olympic moment was in February 1976, during the Winter Games in Innsbruck, Austria, which I was watching with my family at our home in the Toledo suburbs. 

Dorothy Hamill had just finished her long program as Button’s voice soared. Flowers were “raining” onto the ice, he exclaimed. 

“She has done it! I am sure!”

To that point in my life, I had never heard more delightfully certain words spoken by a sports announcer.

Nearly 20 years later when I finally did meet him, I was scolded almost immediately. As I started reporting my book ‘Inside Edge’ in 1994, I scheduled an interview with him and of course asked about his role as the most famous commentator in the sport.

He stopped me.

“I am a narrator,” he said. “I don’t commentate on skating. I narrate it.”

Got it, I said. It was the beginning of a wonderful working relationship. We talked often at skating events; I asked for his opinion on various skaters, and occasionally, he asked for mine. 

I became his colleague when I joined the ABC/ESPN figure skating announcing team for a couple of years in 2005. One memorable morning, Button, Fleming and I got stuck in an SUV with a few other members of the broadcast team on a highway overpass in the middle of an ice storm in Portland, Ore., on our way to the arena.

Button, then 75, decided he was going to do something about it. What, we had no idea. He opened his car door. 

“No, Dick,” we all said. 

He stepped out of the SUV onto the ice-covered road. He took a step or two, thankfully holding onto the car door. He stopped and surveyed the situation, then took another step or two, not holding onto the car door.

Was he going to try to walk to the arena? 

In that moment, I was comforted by the thought that this was a man with two degrees from Harvard who also happened to know an awful lot about ice.

The great Dick Button got back into the car.

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Mikaela Shiffrin finishes first World Cup race since crash, injury

Even when she’s not winning, Mikaela Shiffrin manages to impress.

Just 61 days after a crash that left her with a deep gash in her obliques and put the rest of the season in jeopardy, Shiffrin finished 10th in a slalom race Thursday in Courchevel, France. After finishing the first run in fifth place, she lost ground in the second, and her combined time was 2.04 seconds behind winner Zrinka Ljutic of Croatia.

‘It felt challenging, and the top women, they’re skiing amazing,’ Shiffrin said after the race. ‘I’m so happy to be back competing with them. Hopefully I get faster in the next weeks.’

Still, as you watched her lean into the course, her core constantly working as she shifted her weight from one ski to the other to make the quick turns required in slalom, it’s a wonder she fared as well as she did. Shiffrin was impaled, by what she still doesn’t know, when she crashed Nov. 30 during the second run of a giant slalom in Killington, Vermont. The puncture wound was 7 centimeters deep, making it difficult even to sit up initially.

She smiled after she finished the second run, waving to the cheering fans and making a heart shape with her gloved hands.

‘It was a really good, or very important, step in my recovery, to see how I’m stacking up with the top skiers in the world and to see what I can work on to improve my skiing,’ she said. ‘Also, before the world championships, it was so important to get this start.’

When Shiffrin announced her return last week, she said she’d regained her strength and her muscles were firing again. But she needs to regain her timing, and that rust was evident Thursday. She got off-balance occasionally in both runs and didn’t cut the tight, smooth line that’s her trademark.

‘When I watched video from the first run, (it was) a little bit of my rhythm or timing to catch the track the right way. I was just fighting it a little bit,’ she said. ‘That’s not something I could fix today. I had to race today to know that.’

More training will help – Shiffrin didn’t get back on snow until Jan. 1 – and she’ll have about two weeks before she races at the world championships, in Saalbach, Austria. Though worlds begin Feb. 4, Shiffrin is planning to race the giant slalom and slalom, the last two races on the program.

The giant slalom is Feb. 13 and the slalom two days later.

Shiffrin has also left open the possibility of doing the team combined, an event that will pair a technical specialist with a speed specialist. (Think someone who excels in slalom, like Shiffrin, and someone who’s good at downhill.) But she said that will depend on training.

“All of my teammates have been showing incredible speed this season, and I would be lucky and so excited to pair with any one of them for Team Combined if I’m in the position to be able to race!” she said earlier this week.

Shiffrin holds the all-time record for World Cup wins and her next will be her 100th, a milestone unlikely ever to be matched. But as she returns from an injury that could have been so much worse, that number is the least of her concerns.

Eight weeks ago, she was struggling to sit up and feared she might not be able to return this season. Now she’s in the top 10 at a World Cup and contemplating her schedule at the world championships.

‘I’m catching up to the fastest in the world, so I have a lot of work to do,’ she said. ‘But I’m happy to be here and look forward to trying that.’

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