On Saturday morning the world woke up to news that China’s most senior military officer, who is second only to Xi Jinping, has been put under investigation over alleged “grave violations of discipline and the law.”  The detained Gen. Zhang Youxia is a vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, the Communist Party body that controls China’s armed forces, and this was a major shock given he is widely regarded as President Xi’s closest ally within the military, until now.

Another shock is just what he is being investigated for. While all the initial speculation focused on corruption, The Wall Street Journal on Sunday reveals the top general is accused of leaking information about the country’s nuclear-weapons program the United States. However, this has not yet been confirmed through official Chinese statements or sources.

He is also accused of taking bribes in exchange for official actions, including elevating an officer to the post of defense minister, according to individuals familiar with a senior-level briefing on the allegations cited in this latest Wall Street Journal report.

The accusation of passing Chinese nuclear secrets to the United States is alone quite the bombshell, obviously rising to the level of treason, which could elicit the death penalty – as this represents the most severe crime against national security.

Below are some key lines from the WSJ report, which cites its unnamed exclusive sources:

But the people familiar with the briefing—which hasn’t been reported until now—said Zhang is under investigation for allegedly forming political cliques, a phrase describing efforts to build networks of influence that undermine party unity, and abusing his authority within the Communist Party’s top military decision-making body, known as the Central Military Commission.

Authorities are also scrutinizing his oversight of a powerful agency responsible for the research, development and procurement of military hardware. Those familiar with the briefing said Zhang was alleged to have accepted huge sums of money in exchange for official promotions in this big-budget procurement system. 

The most shocking allegation disclosed during the closed-door briefing, the people said, was that Zhang had leaked core technical data on China’s nuclear weapons to the U.S.

The reference to “undermining party unity” has by now become familiar in President Xi’s ongoing purge of CCP sectors seen as potentially disloyal, or networks of power which present a challenge. In October this was largely the basis for the expulsion of nine senior generals, which marked one of the largest such crackdowns of top military officials in decades. 

Currently there are reports that mobile devices have been confiscated within military ranks and among officials seen as close or under the influence of Gen. Zhang.

The WSJ report is receiving significant pushback from Chinese pundits and sources:

“China’s top General accused of giving nuclear secrets to US”

ACCORDING to People familiar with a high-level briefing on the allegations.

Translation: Trust me bro.🥱It goes without saying WSJ is just adding their own little spices over this incident.

For the record. Zhang… pic.twitter.com/D4n5IvI1su

— Zhao DaShuai 东北进修🇨🇳 (@zhao_dashuai) January 25, 2026

WSJ’s chief China’s correspondent Lingling Wei describes, “And this is far from the end. With thousands of officers having risen through the ranks under Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli, these individuals now recognize they are primary targets for a systemic purge.” She reports that “Mobile devices have been seized across ranks and all units are now on high alert.”

Analyst Christopher Johnson, head of China Strategies Group, has meanwhile told WSJ of Zhang’s rapid fall, “This move is unprecedented in the history of the Chinese military and represents the total annihilation of the high command.”

Authored by ‘sundance’ via The Last Refuge,

Last week CPB commander Greg Bovino was asked what makes Minneapolis different from other cities where ICE enforcement operations have taken place. Bovino noted in the Minneapolis region there is no separation between the extremists on the ground and the people in local government.

Today, Vice President JD Vance concurs and expands on that sentiment:

[Source]

What Vice-President Vance says here is very important. 

The regional government is a stakeholder in maintaining the chaos on the streets. 

Why? 

Because for two decades a cancer of rampant financial fraud has been permitted to spread throughout the Minneapolis region and has now reached the stage of visible metastasis.

Shortly after the George Floyd shooting, some of us started looking into a background issue where it seemed like local police and Floyd had a knowledgeable relationship with each other prior to the encounter on the street.  The initial contact between Floyd and police was about Floyd passing off a counterfeit $20 bill to a business that was not part of the approved money laundering operation.

When you follow that trail, you end up in a really weird place where it seemed like millions of counterfeit dollars were entering the country through Mexico, going by rail into the U.S. mainland and then transitioning through the Minneapolis region. I stopped researching it {SEE HERE} when I discovered that Floyd and police officer Chauvin were friends, and worked together at one of the laundry businesses; a nightclub.

ICYMI: CBP officers discovered $900,000 in counterfeit US currency in a commercial rail shipment in International Falls, MN. The counterfeit currency was seized and will be turned over to @SecretService. Details: https://t.co/2xX7nd34Xx pic.twitter.com/eCi8WjN1so

— CBP (@CBP) January 28, 2020

The corrupt activity in the Minneapolis area has been going on for around two decades.  There are two basic components, local financial fraud and govt financial fraud. 

• The local fraud represented millions and involved counterfeit goods/money and laundering operations. 

• The government assisted financial fraud represents billions and involves abuses of federal tax monies.

After 20 years of this activity almost all elements of the economic and social structure are now compromised.  As we have seen in the last several weeks, the HHS/CMS fraud is extensive and that illegal activity is impossible to exist without the knowledge, aid and assistance of the regional and municipal government officials.

Fraudulent day cares, fraudulent healthcare services, fraudulent transport companies, fraudulent “Health Outreach Workers” and various governmental offices all involved in bilking taxpayers for billions upon billions.  At the same time there is a massive money laundering operation in the underground economy.

After two decades of this unchecked corruption, there’s no way to guess how much of the regional economic activity is actually dependent on the financial fraud.  My best estimate is that over fifty percent of all economic activity -in the entire region- is based on fraud.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions are the surface level issue for the regional and state government.  However, it is the widespread financial fraud that turns the activity of the leftist agitators on the street into a useful tool for the regional officials to manipulate in order to hide the true financial fraud that surrounds the area.

The “local authorities” are working with the “far left agitators” because the Minneapolis region is a network of codependent fraud.

The police are compromised. The judges and courts are compromised. The local municipal officials are compromised. The mayor’s office is compromised, and the corruption issue spreads out to the state level when Governor Tim Walz previously shut down audits of the financial crimes and then state officials ignored whistleblowers.

All of the private and public institutions -within the system of regional and state government- are connected to a statewide network of financial fraud, from counterfeit money laundering to exploitation of federal government benefits; it is all connected to the same network of fraud.

It was the ease and ability to conduct fraud that attracted the Somali migrants and the criminal aliens.  These people came for the money. ICE coming to arrest the aliens has put a spotlight on the reason why they aggregated in the Minneapolis region.

How this can be corrected is anyone’s guess.

Follow the money trail and you will discover this real reason for the state and local officials to support the anarchy in the streets.  They all want the federal government to leave.

Arrest Records Here…

Centrus Energy, which has long been one of our favorite stocks throughout 2025 and into 2026, is redirecting over 60% of the $900 million Department of Energy (DOE) funding award back into the economy to secure the US domestic nuclear fuel chain.

Centrus will invest $560 million into their Oak Ridge, Tennessee, centrifuge production facility to convert it to a high-rate manufacturing plant with the goal of quickly addressing the lack of domestic enrichment and get new centrifuge cascades online before 2029. The investment is expected to create over 400 jobs in Oak Ridge, and is likely only the first of many announcements.

Centrus has long differentiated itself from its competition in the uranium enrichment business by highlighting their all-American supply chain and production facility, which also enables them to produce the high-demand unobligated enriched uranium. This is often compared to the commercial-scale competition from Urenco, which has been operating for years out of New Mexico. Urenco uses European centrifuge technology developed by a consortium of the UK and Dutch governments, along with German utility companies.

The US still remains incapable of supporting even its current domestic commercial nuclear fleet, requiring imports of over 99% of raw uranium ore (U3O8) and about 75% of enrichment services.

Relying heavily on countries like Canada and Kazakhstan for U3O8, and a combination of Russia and Europe for enrichment services, this has led to the current table-pounding by Secretary Wright and President Trump to reinvigorate the nuclear fuel chain at every stage. The recent $2.7 billion enrichment award from the DOE is a major part of this effort.

As also noted by Goldman Sachs, the tightening of supply from Russia for U3O8 and conversion/enrichment services has sent prices almost straight up over the past few years since the start of the Ukraine-Russia war. 

The other two awardees of the recent enrichment contract, General Matter and Orano, have yet to provide explicit details as to where the $900 million will be spent.

Like USAR, which we learned had received a massive $1+ billion investment from the US government, Centrus (ticker LEU) is one of the most shorted names in the market, with 25% of its float shorted…

… and we expect to see a major squeeze when it opens for trading tomorrow, especially since it is one of the most popular retail-held stocks according to JPMorgan; in fact just on Friday we listed it as one of the 20 most likely stocks according to JPM to rip in a major short squeeze.

Authored by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog,

I hate shopping. I hate crowds. I hate malls. I don’t believe I had entered a mall in over a decade, until Monday. My visit to the once vibrant Montgomery Mall in Montgomeryville, PA was a shocking confirmation of what I had been predicting about retail stores since 2008.

Next to the term Dead Mall in the dictionary should be a picture of the current version of the Montgomery Mall. If you need visual proof, here is brief video showing how it is deader than ever.

We didn’t go to the mall to shop. My wife bought me a watch from Macy’s (online purchase) for Christmas. I haven’t worn a watch in over a decade and now that I’m retired, have no need for a watch. So we were going to get a refund and then walk around the mall for some exercise, because the weather outside is bitterly cold. The Mall had three anchor stores: Macy’s, JC Penney, and Sears. The Sears closed in 2020. JC Penney declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2021, but still operates as a zombie like entity on the opposite end of the mall from Macy’s. Macy’s hasn’t declared bankruptcy yet, but their business plan appears to be closing 50 to 100 stores per year, until there are none left.

We arrived at the Macy’s at about 11:00 am on MLK day. Ghost town USA. The few employees we saw outnumbered the customers. A store filled with jewelry, clothes, shoes, and other useless crap had no customers.

It took us ten minutes to find someone who could process a return.

Both Macy’s and JC Penney are clearly in an extend and pretend phase. The entire pitiful mall is pretending to be viable, when it is clearly deceased. What a far cry from its heyday – 1977 until approximately 2007. With three rambunctious boys, my wife spent many days at this mall trying to wear them out. When they were teenagers, I would drop them off on Friday nights so they could cruise around the mall with their friends. Those days are long gone.

The two story Montgomery Mall, with 1.1 million square feet of retail space, was built in 1977 by Kravco. Before smart phones, social media and online ordering, malls were the place to go for shopping mothers and teenagers escaping from their parents clutches. Malls were swarming with people, because they were convenient and accessible. They were the mecca of consumerism, enabled by the all powerful credit card. I have lived in Montgomery County since 1990, with three malls encircling me: The Plymouth Meeting Mall, where my employer’s first store in the U.S. (IKEA) and their headquarters were located; The Montgomery Mall; and the king of all malls in King of Prussia.

At its peak, the Montgomery Mall had over 90 stores/eateries. Major tenants, excluding their anchors, included: H&M, Disney Store, Uniqlo, Boscovs, Tweeter, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Strawbridge’s, and dozens of the usual smaller mall outlets. The bustling food court consisting of Chick-fil-a, McDonalds, Sbarro, Subway, and a Chinese place met all the healthy eating requirements. Yesterday, the number of occupied outlets totaled less than 15. It was a pitiful mixture of dynamite retail juggernauts like Cell Phone Care, Dilshal Halal Cuisine, Montgomery Dental, a pop-up Spirit Halloween store, and a mixture of wireless and jewelry repair stores. I think a store selling Vacancy signs would best suit this nearly dead mall.

The death of this now obsolete mecca of consumerism can be blamed on clueless corporate executives, devious developers, feckless bankers, and technology. The beginning of the downfall can be traced to the acquisition of the mall by Simon Property Group in 2003. These corporate raiders use the legal system to organize their holdings in such a way that they can take on massive leverage, pillage the asset, not repay the debt, and walk away virtually unscathed, like they did in 2021 when the mall was foreclosed upon with a $119 judgment against Simon. Simon Property Group is still a thriving entity, with their stock near an all-time high of $184 per share, because they gate off each of their mall entities so they can go bankrupt and not affect the parent company. Ain’t America great?

The bank sold the stinking, rotting carcass of this beached 1.1 million square foot retail whale to Kohan Retail Investment Group for $55 million in 2021. When you buy a mall for $50 per square foot and still can’t make a profit, you got yourself a dead mall. Kohan has been referred to as “the last owner a mall sees”, investing little in the malls it purchases and allowing mall facilities to deteriorate while trying to sell off out parcels to restaurants and grocery stores. Dead and deteriorating is the correct description of the Montgomery Mall. As we walked around this dank, depressing hulk of cement and glass, my “glass half full” wife suggested they only needed to get a few good tenants to start reviving the mall. I reacted like the clown in Seinfeld when George couldn’t believe he had never heard of Bozo. Malls are either dead or dying. There is no coming back.

I guess I should feel vindicated as I had written dozens of articles about the downfall of retailers and malls since I began writing in 2008, including: Ghost Malls: Coming to Your Town (2008), Extend and Pretend Coming to an End (2012), Available (2013),  Retail Death Rattle Grows Louder (2014), Will Sears Survive Until Christmas (2016). The Covid scamdemic put the final nail in the coffin of the Montgomery Mall, and the rise of Amazon and all online retailing put the coffin in the ground.

By purposely killing malls, they forced more retail online, with only electronic payment as an option. Wait until they institute their CBDCs and then can control your ability to purchase based upon your social credit score. Just observe what is happening in Davos to see your dystopian future. AI will tell you what to buy. Hell, it will buy it for you without asking whether you wanted it at all. No need to think, freedom to choose, or ability to say no.

I see the death of the Montgomery Mall and hundreds of other malls across this land of plenty (of debt) as a metaphor for the imminent death of this American Empire of Debt. The bigger things get, the worse they get. With or without physical malls, credit card debt has risen from $600 billion in 2000 to almost $1.3 trillion today. Meanwhile, the national debt grew from $5.6 trillion in 2000 to $38.5 trillion today. The average American goes deeper into debt each day, as the American empire adds $5 billion of debt each day.

Our cities and infrastructure deteriorate and decay (just like these dead malls), while financial wizards think up new ways to rape and pillage what remains of the national treasury. It’s all a Potemkin facade, propped up by never ending issuance of debt, ceaseless propaganda, increasing surveillance state authoritarianism, and no way out. Mall owners (with their bank partners) have been extending and pretending for over two decades. Our country has been doing the same since 2008. But, eventually the jig is up. The current faux foreign conflicts are designed by the powers that be to distract from the intractable domestic financial disaster coming down the track.

When Dick’s closed up shop in the Montgomery Mall last year, they replaced themselves with a perfectly named outlet which describes the mall and our country.

Trump made history last year as the first sitting president to attend a Super Bowl when he showed up at the game in New Orleans, but on Saturday, he announced he won’t be attending this year. 

Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump blasted the NFL for choosing Bad Bunny and Green Day as halftime performers. Trump told the New York Post that the halftime act represents “a terrible choice” that only serves to “sow hatred.” He confirmed his absence from the game at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, though he insisted the artists are not the reason. “It’s just too far away,” Trump said, adding that he would attend “if it was a little bit shorter.” 

The president made his feelings about the performers clear. “I’m anti-them. I think it’s a terrible choice. All it does is sow hatred. Terrible,” Trump declared. 

Trump blasted the NFL back in October when Bad Bunny was selected to headline the halftime show.

“The NFL just chose the Bad Bunny rabbit or whatever his name is,” Greg Kelly of NewsmaxTV told him. “This guy, who hates ICE, he doesn’t like you, he accuses everything he doesn’t like of racism.”

Kelly added, “This guy does not seem like a unifying entertainer, and a lot of folks don’t even know who he is.”

“I’ve never heard of him,” Trump said. “I don’t know who he is.”

He nevertheless criticized the selection. “I don’t know why they’re doing it. It’s crazy. And then they blame it on some promoter they hired to pick up entertainment— I think it’s absolutely ridiculous.”

According to Entertainment Weekly, Bad Bunny was “the most streamed artist on Spotify in 2025, but he said he avoided bringing his Debi Tirar Mas Fotos World Tour to the continental United States due to concerns that ICE would target his concerts.”

“There were many reasons why I didn’t show up in the U.S., and none of them were out of hate — I’ve performed there many times,” the musician said last year “All of [the shows] have been successful. All of them have been magnificent. I’ve enjoyed connecting with Latinos who have been living in the U.S. But there was the issue of, like, f—ing ICE could be outside [my concert]. And it’s something that we were talking about and very concerned about.”

Last year, a Cygnal poll showed support for Trump’s deportation of illegal immigrants surged with Hispanic voters.

“Among Hispanic voters, 50 percent supported deportations and 48 percent opposed,” Newsweek reported in July. “There was a seven percent increase in overall support since May among this demographic, with an 11 percent rise among those who said they ‘strongly support’ the policy.”

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced last year that ICE would blanket the Super Bowl. “We’re going to be all over that place,” Noem told Benny Johnson in October, declaring that only “law-abiding Americans who cherish this country” should attend. She added that agents would “enforce the law.” 

Green Day has made attacking Donald Trump a recurring feature of its performances for nearly a decade. Frontman Billie Joe Armstrong has altered lyrics in “American Idiot” to target “MAGA,” displayed a Trump mask labeled “IDIOT” at a 2024 Washington, D.C., concert, and led anti-Trump chants during televised award shows. Armstrong has also compared Trump to Adolf Hitler in interviews. 

Turning Point USA, the conservative group founded by Charlie Kirk, who was shot and killed in September 2025 during an event at Utah Valley University in September, announced it would stage an alternative “All-American Halftime Show” to counter Bad Bunny’s performance. Spokesperson Andrew Kolvet said in October that the counter-show would be “a real production” held in an arena.

The organization has not revealed any performers or details about its halftime show, despite the game taking place in less than three weeks. Public relations manager Aubrey Laitsch told TMZ in January that the show is confirmed, but fans must tune in during the Super Bowl to learn the lineup.  

Authored by Susan Crabtree via RealClearPolitics,

The Supreme Court on Thursday gave California Democrats a week to respond to the California Republican Party’s request to block the new Democrat-drawn congressional district maps from being used in November.

The request for a response, issued by Justice Elena Kagan, who is handling the emergency-injunction request for the court, surprised many court watchers.

Given that the justices allowed Texas Republicans’ gerrymandered map to stand, most thought the Supreme Court would allow the Los Angeles district court’s ruling earlier this month, validating California’s new map to stand as well. California Republicans, however, argue that the new maps violate the Voting Rights Act because at least one of the districts was written to favor Latino voters.

The California Republican Party, joined by the Justice Department, Tuesday filed an emergency application at the Supreme Court in hopes of blocking the state from using the newly approved district maps, which target four to six Republican members of Congress, in the 2026 elections.

The request for a response is just that, however. The Supreme Court could still decline to take up the case. The high court is already deliberating over a voting rights case in Louisiana, the decision in which could impact its decision on the California map. In October, arguments concluded in a landmark voting rights case, Louisiana v. Callais, that will determine whether Louisiana’s 2024 congressional map, which includes a second majority black district, is an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. A high court decision is expected any day.

On Thursday, Mark Meuser, the election law attorney with the Dhillon Law Group who filed the challenge to the maps on behalf of the California Republican Party, celebrated Kagan’s order for California Democrats to respond by 4 p.m. Jan. 29.

“Supreme Court just ordered California to respond to our Emergency Application for an Injunction,” Meuser said in an X.com post. “California must respond by Jan. 29.”

In his brief supporting California Republicans, Solicitor General John Sauer underscored their argument, writing that “California’s recent redistricting is tainted by an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.”

The Supreme Court has allowed gerrymandering, and in the Texas case, approved mid-decade redistricting undertaken specifically to win more seats for Republicans purely for partisan gain. It has not, however, looked favorably on redistricting efforts undertaken to consolidate racial minorities’ power.

“But unlike Texas’s map, the [California] map suffers from a fatal constitutional flaw: one of the districts (District 13) was clearly drawn ‘on the basis of race,’” Sauer wrote in his amicus brief.

The California GOP asked the Supreme Court to rule on its injunction request by Feb. 9, when congressional candidate filing in California begins. The party also asked the justices to schedule oral arguments in the underlying case.

The Supreme Court approved Texas’s map, drawn with an eye toward winning Republicans five more seats in the Lone Star state, last month. California Democrats, led by California Gov. Newsom, aim to offset that with a map that could net Democrats five additional seats.

The national Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ political action committees then paid consultant Paul Mitchell to redraw the state’s 52 congressional districts. Newsom, arguing that Democrats must fight President Trump’s efforts to rewrite congressional maps in Republicans’ favor, then called a special election last November, asking voters to approve it.

Proposition 50, as the ballot initiative was called, overwhelmingly passed with 64% of the vote.

Newsom on Thursday didn’t address Kagan’s move but commented on the larger issue in a tweet posted Thursday.

“Donald Trump called up [Texas Gov.] Greg Abbott and demanded more MAGA seats in Congress,” Newsom posted on X.com from Davos, Switzerland. “He thought we’d be good little Democrats and respond with an op-ed. Not this time, buddy.”

“I’m not naïve. These guys are going to try to take me down – not just my state,” Newsom added during an interview at the glitzy international economic gathering of world leaders.

A three-judge panel from the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California rejected Republicans’ racial claims in their Jan. 14 order denying the state GOP’s petition.

“Challengers now seek to enjoin California’s use of the Proposition 50 Map, arguing that the predominant reason for its adoption was not politics but rather unconstitutional and unlawful racial gerrymandering,” the judges wrote.

“We have reviewed briefing from all parties, held a 3-day evidentiary hearing with 9 witnesses (including 6 experts), and reviewed a record that includes over 500 exhibits totaling thousands of pages … We find that [the] challengers have failed to show that racial gerrymandering occurred, and we conclude that there is no basis for issuing a preliminary injunction.”

A Cuban diplomat has accused Washington of “international piracy” as the US moves to choke off Venezuelan oil supplies to the island following the Jan.3rd Pentagon operation that led to the ouster and abduction of President Nicolás Maduro.

Carlos de Céspedes, Cuba’s ambassador to Colombia, told Al Jazeera on Saturday that the United States has effectively imposed a “marine siege” on Cuba and that this is the most threatening and serious action imposed by Washington in decades.

“Cuba is facing more powerful US threats than it has in the 67 years since the revolution,” de Céspedes said, after the island-nation has already endured decades of sanctions.

Washington is openly blocking fuel shipments in the Caribbean, he described. “The US is carrying out international piracy in the Caribbean Sea that is restricting and blocking the arrival of oil to Cuba.”

Havana receives an estimated 35,000 barrels of oil a day from its longtime ally Venezuela, and the Cuban foreign ministry has also respond by saying every country has a right to import fuel “without interference” and that “no one dictates what we do.”

President Trump first unveiled the pressure campaign on January 5: “Cuba is ready to fall. Cuba now has no income. They got all of their income from Venezuela, from the Venezuelan oil. They’re not getting any of it. Cuba literally is ready to fall.”

Oil flows from Venezuela to Cuba have virtually already collapsed at this point. But the US administration is still yet weighing a full energy blockade against Cuba, which could unleash humanitarian catastrophe. Politico details of an economy and population under immense pressure:

Conditions on the island have indeed worsened, triggering blackouts and shortages of basic goods and food products. But the regime has weathered harsh U.S. sanctions — and the sweeping trade embargo — for decades and survived the fall of the Soviet Union after the Cold War. Meanwhile, concerns remain that the sudden collapse of the Cuban government would trigger a regional migration crisis and destabilize the Caribbean.

Critics of the Cuban government will likely celebrate the proposal if implemented by the White House. Hawkish Republicans had already embraced the idea of completely blocking Cuba’s access to oil.

Likely there is ratcheting paranoia within the halls of power in Havana at this very moment. We detailed earlier that the White House is also working to identify people inside the Cuban government who could be ripe for making a deal in which they use their position to help oust the current leadership, including President and First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Miguel Diaz-Canel.

This would be along the lines of a ‘Venezuela model’ – but it is also the case that Cuban intelligence is a lot more experienced in dealing with the American adversary, after many decades of being locked in a shadow war and fight for survival.

Update (1900ET):

The good news for those across the southern US and the Mid-Atlantic is that the massive snowstorm turned ice storm will wind down this evening. In the Northeast, snow will continue overnight. The bad news: much of the eastern half of the country is set for a week of dangerously cold temperatures.

The end is finally here friends!

This last round is DUMPING big flakes on top of it!

We get BRUTALLY cold tonight it feel like -25 in the morning so be ready!

-Michael pic.twitter.com/V2AaPMbSHD

— BAM Weather (@bam_weather) January 25, 2026

Winter weather has disrupted air travel across the eastern half of the US, with nearly 12,000 flights canceled at two dozen airports.

In total today, airlines have canceled nearly 12,000 flights in the United States and more than two dozen airports are closed entirely.

Today’s cancellations:
American 3874
Delta 2367
United 1964
Southwest 1339
JetBlue 592 pic.twitter.com/SFLX2736ls

— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) January 25, 2026

Government weather forecasters have been in nonstop crisis mode over the last few days, as urgent internal forecasts issued by the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center reached unprecedented levels. This cold snap and snowstorm represent a high-impact winter weather event.

@NWSSPC meteorologists issued 26 winter mesoscale discussions (MDs) in the past 48 hrs. The most winter MDs for any 2 day period in our database (2008-present).

Previous record:
20 (Feb 21-22, 2011)

Nearly 8000 winter storm reports issued by @NWS offices during the same period. pic.twitter.com/1MnhDdGyLQ

— NWS Storm Prediction Center (@NWSSPC) January 25, 2026

In markets, New York natgas futures surged another 16.6% as winter activity and extreme cold triggered production freeze-offs. If these gains hold, January will mark the largest monthly jump on record.

Natural gas prices are now at their highest level since late 2022.

Reporting on the freeze-offs:

Lower 48 dry gas production is 100.1 Bcfd today, down 9.7 Bcfd from the baseline of 109.8 Bcfd. Cumulative freeze-offs 36.3 Bcf. #NaturalGas #NatGas #GasProduction pic.twitter.com/1L1PTC7bR5

— GasFundies (@RealGasFundies) January 25, 2026

Ice accumulation is a concern for the Haynesville in the next 24 hours, and that could further exacerbate the freeze off impacts beyond the limited regional impact seen through this morning.

The overall interstate drop since Friday has totaled -987 Mmcf/d, with losses spread… pic.twitter.com/5IrtN2b7gI

— Criterion Research (@PipelineFlows) January 25, 2026

Oh shit it’s getting worse…down to 97 Bcf/d…Permian off a cliff, lost 6, Haynesville down 3, NE somehow holding in with @Shalennial out there thawing frozen pipes $natgas #freezeoffs https://t.co/yC4pmw4jrf pic.twitter.com/g8LVI9XEc7

— AuxReignots (@Reignots) January 25, 2026

All eyes remain on freeze-offs this week and the risks to power grids.

* * * 

The major winter storm we’ve been tracking all week is now blanketing much of the eastern half of the U.S., with snow falling from Oklahoma through Louisville, Cleveland, Washington, DC, Baltimore, and Philadelphia, and now reaching Boston.

🚨 Our Winter Storm is in full LUDICROUS MODE, unleashing insane Snow and catastrophic Ice across the Eastern U.S.

❄️ This storm is every bit as big and impactful as forecast – a true Once in a Decade Winter Storm, and it’s nowhere near done.

🌨️ Snow is absolutely DUMPING… pic.twitter.com/0hPHbcMzjw

— Brady Harris (@StormCat5_) January 25, 2026

Impacts are already significant, with the largest surge in flight cancellations and delays since the Covid era: Airlines have canceled more than 10,00 U.S. flights for Sunday, according to the flight-tracking site FlightAware. Most in single day since Covid era. 

every flight at DCA is canceled today. https://t.co/OsAss5Khft

— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) January 25, 2026

FlightAware’s Misery Map of delays and cancellations shows severe travel disruptions across major airports, from Dallas and Atlanta to Washington, DC, New York City, and Boston.

“Extremely cold air will follow, prolonging dangerous travel and infrastructure impacts into next week,” the National Weather Service wrote in an early morning weather update.

Attention now turns to energy risks, as extreme cold raises the threat of natural gas production freeze-offs and reduced pipeline flows, increasing the potential for power grid stress from Texas through the Mid-Atlantic and into the Northeast.

And so it begins. Per today’s early-cycle pipeline data, I calculate that #natgas production will tumble by 4.7 BCF/d from Friday to 101.4 BCF/d, down -1.8 BCF/d vs last year for the first year-over-year decline in over a year. Expect additional weakness a temporary freeze-offs… pic.twitter.com/KcZ4VDJcbF

— Celsius Energy (@CelsiusEnergyFM) January 24, 2026

Related:

• NatGas Futs Erupt As Arctic Air Invasion Penetrates Deep Into U.S. South

• US NatGas Spikes Most Since Ukraine Invasion On Arctic Blast, Major Winter Storm Threat

• US NatGas Poised For Biggest Weekly Spike On Record As “Blizzard Of ’96” Fears Resurface

• Appalachian NatGas Output Faces “Intense Losses” As Arctic Blast Drives Power Grid Risk Higher

• NatGas Jumps 75% As Extreme Cold, Blizzard Risks Threaten Appalachian Gas Supply

• NatGas “Tightening Shock” Sparks Historic Weekly Rally As Major Winter Storm Imminent

• Winter Storm Threatens Appalachian NatGas With ‘Freeze Offs’ As Data Center Demand Tightens PJM Grid

Earlier, the Department of Energy issued a special emergency alert to “mitigate blackouts in the Mid-Atlantic” by allowing power plants operate above “environmental permits or state law.”

“As Winter Storm Fern brings extreme cold and dangerous conditions to the Mid-Atlantic, maintaining affordable, reliable, and secure power in the PJM region is non-negotiable,” said Secretary of Energy Chris Wright.

West Virginia’s coal fired power plants are saving the eastern electric grid this morning pic.twitter.com/ISgR8BuXKy

— savage daughter (@DonnaPrissyrn1) January 24, 2026

Wright noted, “The previous administration’s energy subtraction policies weakened the grid, leaving Americans more vulnerable during events like Winter Storm Fern. Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, we are reversing those failures and using every available tool to keep the lights on and Americans safe through this storm.”

PJM Interconnection is the regional grid operator that runs wholesale electricity markets and grid reliability across much of the Mid-Atlantic and parts of the Midwest and South

The power generation mix on PJM is mostly NatGas, coal, and nuclear, with unreliable renewable power such as solar and wind barely producing power. In other words, fossil fuels and nuclear power are keeping the grid from collapsing as heating demand surges.

Power outage tracking website PowerOutage.com shows nearly 900,000 customers from Texas to Virginia without electricity. Tennessee has the highest number of outages at nearly 300,000, followed by Mississippi with about 150,000.

*Developing. 

Amid the escalating violence in Minnesota, we calmly ask you to cast your mind back a few years – we know it’s hard, but just try…

President Obama gave his ICE chief an award for deporting 409,000 illegals (in 2012).

President Trump’s ICE chief has deported 290,000 (in 2025) and he is called a Nazi.

The ICE chief… the same guy – Tom Homan.

The difference is Democrats’ rhetoric and the industrial crisis-manufacturing complex.

And that is why President Trump is calling for some “common sense” from officials:

“I am hereby calling on Governor Walz, Mayor Frey, and EVERY Democrat Governor and Mayor in the United States of America to formally cooperate with the Trump Administration to enforce our Nation’s Laws, rather than resist and stoke the flames of Division, Chaos, and Violence:

1.    Governor Walz and Mayor Frey should turn over all Criminal Illegal Aliens that are currently incarcerated in their State Prisons and Jails to Federal Authorities, along with all Illegal Criminals with an active warrant or known Criminal History, for Immediate Deportation.

2.    State and Local Law Enforcement must agree to turn over all Illegal Aliens arrested by Local Police.

3.    Local Police must assist Federal Law Enforcement in apprehending and detaining Illegal Aliens who are wanted for Crimes.

4.    Democrat Politicians must partner with the Federal Government to protect American Citizens in the rapid removal of all Criminal Illegal Aliens in our Country. Some Democrats, in places like Memphis, Tennessee, or Washington, D.C., have done so, resulting in safer streets for ALL.

Additionally, President Trump calls for an end to Sanctuary cities:

“In addition, I am hereby calling on the United States Congress to immediately pass Legislation to END Sanctuary Cities, which is the root cause of all of these problems.

American Cities should be Safe Sanctuaries for Law Abiding American Citizens ONLY, not Illegal Alien Criminals who broke our Nation’s Laws.”

And all in the name of “common sense”:

“All of these requests are rooted in COMMON SENSE, and will provide the best possible circumstances to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

The Trump Administration is standing by, and waiting for ANY Democrat to do the right thing, and work with us on these important matters of MAKING AMERICA SAFE like it is in all sections of our Country where we are, together with Local Leadership, participating and involved.”

We anxiously await the Democrats’ “common sense” response… which we expect to be “nope! Racist!”

Mainstream media outlets rushed to paint Alex Pretti as a blameless ICU nurse gunned down by heartless Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis on Saturday. They highlighted his work caring for veterans and seized on video snippets showing him holding a phone. The New York Times ran with that angle, running the headline “Man Killed by Federal Agents in Minneapolis Was Holding a Phone, Not a Gun,” and claimed that footage captured Pretti only with his phone in hand, insisting that agents had no reason to believe he was armed during their encounter.

Media outlets are also quick to point out that Pretti held a valid Minnesota concealed carry permit and legally owned the gun, as if that absolved him for his actions against the Border Patrol agents.

Others point out that he had no criminal record, just traffic tickets.

This, they argue, proves he was an innocent victim, not an agitator. 

Walz: “To Americans who are watching this, I’ve got a question for you: What side do you want to be on? The side of an all powerful federal govt that can kill, injury, menace, and kidnap its citizens off the streets? Or on the side of a nurse at the VA hospital who died bearing… pic.twitter.com/NQW4MqkYU1

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 25, 2026

But what the mainstream media isn’t telling you is that Pretti wasn’t just some random bystander.

According to Jeanne Massey, a neighbor, Pretti was part of a “Signal ICE” group chat of volunteers who organized a sophisticated operation to track ICE activity in real time and alert each other when agents were in the area. 

These folks patrol streets, blow whistles, alert residents, and film operations to disrupt arrests.

That puts him not on the sidelines but plugged into the very network that coordinated responses to federal enforcement operations.

Mother Jones profiled the group just last week.

“A new activist twist on neighborhood watch is taking shape in Minneapolis and other cities under occupation by federal immigration agents: ICE Watch,” the outlet reported.

“As Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel drive around these cities, they’re often tailed by people in the neighborhoods. The idea is to make sure witnesses are present for any immigration arrest, to catch incidents on video, and to protest—or at least get the detainee’s name.”

The article described the “ICE watchers” as “passionate, determined, and just about everywhere—and ICE is getting frustrated.”

🚨 HOLY CRAP. They have a full-blown lengthy training manual for leftist insurrectionists stalking, harassing and ambushing ICE and Border agents in Minneapolis

This is a well-organized and well-funded network.

These people need to be in PRISON.pic.twitter.com/RGpNsOlh2b https://t.co/YGJ5CwRY8Y

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) January 25, 2026

Massey and Pretti were part of the Kingfield neighborhood ICE Watch.

Massey spoke on behalf of her neighbors, saying, “Let me be clear: we are horrified, we are furious, and we are not going to pretend this is anything but what it is — another senseless act of violence carried out by federal agents in our city.”

“This is the third time in just weeks that someone has been shot during these so-called enforcement operations, and it’s devastating to see another life taken while our community is trying to stand up for justice and safety.”

Massey explained that she was one of many Minneapolis locals who flocked to the scene where the man was shot dead this morning.

She said that she was there when the ICE agents stormed the crowd and tear gassed the bystanders.

“People here are terrified, but we are also angry — angry that federal agents continue to operate with impunity, with lethal force, with no accountability,” Massey claimed.

“Our city is under siege. No one here feels safe, and that is unacceptable.”

The mainstream media seems to be uninterested in reporting on Pretti’s involvement with his local ICE Watch group.

Similar gaslighting took place after the shooting of Renee Good after she attempted to run over an ICE agent with her car earlier this month. She was immediately portrayed as a scared “Minnesota mom” who had just dropped her son off at school and accidentally found herself in the middle of an active ICE operation.

In reality, she was a committed anti-ICE activist who deliberately sought to obstruct federal immigration enforcement, and was part of her local “ICE Watch” group as well, with which she received training on how to obstruct federal agents.

Finally, here’s how Dana Loesch put it:

Yes, you absolutely can carry at a protest.

Anyone who tells you otherwise is an anti-2A statist. 

No, you absolutely cannot interrupt a federal op while armed and tussle with LEO.

That’s how tragic things happen. 

This isn’t rocket science.

Hard to argue with that.