Author: kenzie Lauren

Two pilots killed after jet collides with fire truck at New York’s LaGuardia airport
NEW YORK — An Air Canada jet carrying more than 70 passengers collided with a fire truck while landing at New York’s LaGuardia Airport late Sunday, killing the pilot and copilot and injuring several others, officials said.
The impact severed the cockpit, and hurled a flight attendant — still secured to her seat — far from the crash site, her daughter told a Canadian TV station. The flight attendant survived.
The fire truck was crossing the tarmac just before midnight after being given permission to check on another plane that had aborted its takeoff. Before the collision, an air traffic controller can be heard on airport communications frantically telling the fire truck to stop.

Officials investigate the site, Monday, March 23, 2026, where an Air Canada jet came to rest after colliding with a Port Authority firetruck at LaGuardia Airport, shortly after landing Sunday night in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Roughly 20 minutes later, the controller appears to blame himself. “We were dealing with an emergency earlier,” the controller said. “I messed up.”
About 40 passengers and crew members on the regional jet from Montreal, and two people from the fire truck, were taken to hospitals, some with serious injuries. Most were released by Monday morning, authorities said.
A key for investigators will be examining coordination of the airport’s air traffic and ground traffic at the time of the crash, said Mary Schiavo, a former Department of Transportation Inspector General. “This has been happening for years and sadly some of the most horrific air crashes in history happen on the ground at the airport.”
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said LaGuardia is “well-staffed” but faces a shortage of controllers. He said there are 33 certified controllers but the goal is to have 37. More than one controller was on duty at the time of the accident, he said.

“I can’t give specifics on what went wrong,” Duffy said, deferring to the National Transportation Safety Board, which is leading the investigation. Canada also sent a team of investigators.
The runway where the crash happened is likely to be closed for “days” during the investigation, NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said at a Monday evening news conference. She said there was a “tremendous amount of debris” that investigators have to sift through.
Homendy said authorities recovered the plane’s cockpit and flight data recorders and drove them to the agency’s lab in Washington for analysis. Officials had to cut a hole in the aircraft’s roof to get to the recorders, because its tail was on the ground, she said, adding that the cockpit voice recorder was not damaged.
Homendy said it was too early in the investigation to answer many questions about the accident, and more information was expected to be released Tuesday.
The crash shut down LaGuardia — the New York region’s third busiest hub — during what was already a messy time at U.S. airports because of a partial government shutdown.
Flights resumed Monday afternoon on one runway and with lengthy delays. The shutdown caused some disruptions at other airports, too, especially for Delta, which has a major presence at LaGuardia.

An Air Canada Jet sits on the runway at LaGuardia Airport, Monday, March 23, 2026, after colliding with a Port Authority aircraft rescue and firefighting vehicle in New York. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)
Passenger says they helped each other escape the plane
Airport security camera video shows a convoy of emergency vehicles traveling across the tarmac with their lights flashing in the moments before the plane lands, according to a recording of the video shared online.
While most of the vehicles appear to stop at the edge of the runway, the lead vehicle keeps going, directly into the path of the aircraft.
A person familiar with the investigation confirmed the authenticity of the video. The person requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss details of an ongoing investigation.
The collision left cables and debris dangling from the mangled cockpit. Images show the fire truck flipped onto its side, with most of the damage to its back half.
Flight attendant Solange Tremblay suffered multiple fractures to one leg and will need surgery after being thrown from the plane, daughter Sarah Lépine told Canadian news station TVA Nouvelles.
Her survival is “a total miracle,” Lépine said. “I’m still trying to understand how all this happened, but she definitely has a guardian angel watching over her.”
Passenger Rebecca Liquori said the plane hit turbulence while descending, and she then felt it brake hard and heard a loud boom.
“Everybody just jolted out of their seats. People hit their heads. People were bleeding,” Liquori told News12 Long Island, a station where she once worked.
Liquori said passengers helped each other slide down a wing.
“I’m just happy to be alive,” said Liquori, who had gone to Montreal for a cousin’s baby shower. “I would have never pictured a one-hour flight that I’ve done countless times … ending like this.”
Passenger Clément Lelièvre credited the pilots’ “incredible reflexes” with saving his life and others’. The pilots braked extremely hard just as the plane touched down, he said.

An Air Canada jet and Port Authority fire truck sit on the runway at LaGuardia Airport, Monday, March 23, 2026, after colliding with each other after the jet landed Sunday night in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
US and Canada sending investigators to New York
The pilot and copilot who died were both based out of Canada, said Kathryn Garcia, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airport.
Jeannette Gagnier, the great aunt of one of the pilots, identified him as Antoine Forest. Forest looked at her as a grandmother figure and always wanted to be a pilot, she said. His LinkedIn page showed he had worked for two airlines the past five years.
President Donald Trump called it a “terrible” situation. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a statement the accident was “deeply saddening.”
The Port Authority identified the two people in the fire truck as Sgt. Michael Orsillo and Officer Adrian Baez. They suffered injuries not believed to be life-threatening, Garcia said. One was expected to be released Monday while the other will stay in the hospital for observation, she said.
The fire truck was traveling across the runway to respond to a United Airlines flight, whose pilot had reported “an issue with odor,” said Garcia.
It was the first fatal crash at LaGuardia in 34 years, Garcia said.
There were 72 passengers and four crew members aboard the Jazz Aviation flight operating on behalf of Air Canada, according to the airline. The flight originated at Montreal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport.
Hours after the crash, the plane remained on the runway with its crumpled nose tilted upward.

An Air Canada jet and Port Authority fire truck sit on the runway at LaGuardia Airport, Monday, March 23, 2026, after colliding with each other after the jet landed Sunday night in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
LaGuardia has a system to spot runway encounters
The air traffic controller tried to warn the fire truck.
“Stop, stop, stop, Truck 1. Stop, stop, stop,” the transmission says. “Stop, Truck 1.” The controller can then be heard frantically diverting an incoming aircraft from landing.
Air traffic controllers are not impacted by the partial government shutdown that has caused long delays at airport security checkpoints in recent days. They have been affected by past shutdowns.
The FAA has been chronically short on air traffic controllers for years. Former FAA air traffic control chief Mike McCormick said LaGuardia has not had perennial staffing problems, but the tower would have been lightly staffed during the overnight shift at the time of the crash.

Graphic: Will Jarrett
LaGuardia is one of 35 major U.S. airports with an advanced surface surveillance system designed to help keep track of planes and vehicles crossing the airport.
An alarm heard in the background of the air traffic control audio was likely from the system and would have alerted the tower to the potential collision, McCormick said.
“It’s an aid in a situation like this,” he said, but the system doesn’t know if someone has given clearance for a vehicle to cross a runway.
FAA statistics show there were 1,636 runway incursions last year.
March 23, 2026
Slovenia limits fuel purchases as shortages hit pumps amid Iran war impact
Slovenia on Sunday temporarily limited fuel purchases to tackle shortages at the pump caused in part by cross-border fuelling and stockpiling due to the Iran war, raising concerns about security of supplies just as the country goes to the polls.
Fuelling at individual service stations has been restricted to 50 litres per day for private vehicles and 200 litres for companies and other priority users such as farmers, Prime Minister Robert Golob announced on Saturday evening.
The restrictions will stay in force until further notice.
“Let me reassure you that there is enough fuel in Slovenia, the warehouses are full and there will be no fuel shortages,” said Golob, a liberal who is standing against right-wing populist Janez Jansa in an election on Sunday.
Golob said the problem lay in the transportation of fuel to filling stations, and that the army would use tankers to help retailers move supplies. The government also recommended that retailers prepare special measures for foreign drivers, without being specific.
Petrol, the largest Slovenian oil distribution company in which the state has a 32.3% stake, has seen long queues at its gas stations in recent days due to fuel shortages.
Many filling stations across Slovenia were closed on Sunday. Those belonging to Hungarian oil and gas group MOL have remained open but had already limited purchases to 30 litres for individuals and 200 litres for companies.
“Today we didn’t have problems because I have an application where I can check where to tank (fill up),” teacher Tamara Gale Beasinsky, 40, said at a gas station in Ljubljana. “But yesterday we had a problem because we were waiting more than 20 minutes in the queue … and we were able to tank only 30 litres of diesel.”
At an emergency session on Sunday, the government accused Petrol of failing to eliminate disruptions in fuel distribution and ordered an inquiry into possible violations in fuel trading and the management of critical infrastructure.
It also called on the Slovenian sovereign wealth fund to request a meeting of Petrol’s shareholders and ask for a special audit of the company’s logistics operations after March 16.
The government also ordered the interior ministry to submit a report to law-enforcement agencies due to “possible grounds for suspicion” of criminal offences by some Petrol staff.
Petrol did not reply to Reuters’ requests for comment. It said on Saturday that fuel supplies remain stable and that supply sources are secured, blaming occasional shortages at individual points of sale on increased demand locally.
(Reporting by Fatos Bytyci, Gaspar Lubej and Branko Filipovic; Writing by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Kirsten Donovan and David Holmes)
March 23, 2026
Trump praises Japan’s support in Iran war during White House meeting with PM Sanae Takaichi
In an apparent awkward moment at the Oval Office on Thursday stateside, U.S. President Donald Trump referenced Pearl Harbor in his first meeting with Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi after her landslide electoral victory.

When asked by a Japanese reporter on why the U.S. did not inform allies such as Japan before carrying out the attacks against Iran on Feb. 28, the U.S. president said it was to maintain the element of surprise.

“Who knows better about surprise than Japan … Why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbor?”
Trump was referencing the surprise Japanese attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet in 1941, which saw the deaths of over 2,400 personnel and drew the U.S. into World War II.
Takaichi appeared to draw a deep breath and lean back in her seat with an uneasy expression.
“Who knows better about surprise than Japan … Why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbor?”
Donald Trump U.S. President
Trump said that the surprise attack on Iran had helped the U.S., adding that it “knocked out 50% of what we anticipated” in the country within the first two days.

During the meeting, Trump praised Japan for “stepping up” to assist in efforts to secure the Strait of Hormuz, “unlike NATO.“

Before the meeting, Japan, as well as Britain, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands had released a joint statement expressing their readiness to “contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait.”
Trump had called on Japan and other countries to help secure the Strait of Hormuz, but Takaichi had reportedly said Monday that there were no plans to dispatch naval vessels to escort boats in the Middle East.
Her office also said in a post on X that there was “no specific request from the United States to Japan for the dispatch of vessels.”
Japan’s prime minister on Tuesday said that the government was considering what could be done within the framework of the country’s law. Japan’s Self-Defense Forces are governed by its pacifist constitution, that renounces war and the threat or use of force for settling international disputes.
Trump had taken aim at NATO allies earlier this week, saying that the alliance was “making a very foolish mistake” by not getting involved in the war.
In response, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius reportedly said on Monday that “This is not our war, we have not started it,” a stance that was also adopted by French President Emmanuel Macron.
Subsequently, Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Thursday that “we have declared that as long as the war continues, we will not participate in ensuring freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, for example, by military means,” according to Reuters.
March 19, 2026
Donald Trump White House tries to sell war and death as a game
The White House has found a new recruit to sell the US war on Iran to an increasingly sceptical American public: SpongeBob SquarePants.
In a video posted by the White House on X, a clip of the cartoon character says, “do you want to see me do it again?” as unclassified footage of US missiles blowing up Iranian jets and trucks appears. The caption reads: “Will not stop until the objectives are met. Unrelenting. Unapologetic.”
An unlikely warmonger, SpongeBob SquarePants is just one of the internet memes harnessed by US officials in a propaganda campaign that has drawn heavily on video games, action movies and cartoons to celebrate American military prowess in Iran.
Will not stop until the objectives are met.

Unrelenting. Unapologetic. 🔁 pic.twitter.com/iM9fqjn1zc
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) March 5, 2026

Donald Trump’s White House has deployed a galaxy of pop-culture icons to hype up American martial virtues and divert attention from the growing human and economic devastation of the war.
“This is a memification and a gamification of war,” said Nick Cull, a historian of propaganda at USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. “It’s an appalling way to represent conflict.”
It is unclear how effective it’s been. An Ipsos poll this month found only 29 per cent of Americans approved of the US strikes in Iran and 43 per cent disapproved.
But Roger Stahl, professor of communications studies at the University of Georgia, said the purpose of the videos wasn’t necessarily to win over voters unconvinced about the wisdom of going to war against Iran.
“It’s to galvanise the Maga base with a kind of thrilling, easy-to-digest version of that conflict that appeals to the base instincts of gamers and people who think that war is just a series of one-liners from Hollywood,” he said. “But to probably 70 per cent of the population, a good majority at least, it’s just shocking.”
Perhaps the most striking video put out by the White House depicts the war as a Nintendo game, mixing footage of missile strikes with images from Wii Sports.
To a sprightly soundtrack, a cartoon player is shown scoring a bullseye, hitting a hole in one and bowling a strike, with each shot cutting to footage of missile strikes in Iran. An announcer bellows sporting clichés: “It’s Out of the Park!” “Slam Dunk!” and “Knockout!”
Another video along the same lines, entitled “JUSTICE THE AMERICAN WAY”, includes clips from Top Gun, Braveheart, Breaking Bad and the anime Dragon Ball Z, and ends with a voiceover saying “flawless victory”, lifted from the video game Mortal Kombat.
White House deputy communications director Kaelan Dorr reposted the clip with the caption “Wake up, Daddy’s Home”.
“They’re like ads for a knock-off Tom Cruise movie,” said Peter Loge, director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University.
“It hides the gruesome realities of conflict and war,” he went on. “You don’t feel the grief, you never see the aftermath of the conflict or the violence.”
The Justice video has drawn angry responses from some in Hollywood. Director and actor Ben Stiller, whose film Tropic Thunder was featured in the montage, demanded the White House remove the clip.
“We never gave you permission and have no interest in being a part of your propaganda machine,” he wrote on X. “War is not a movie.”
Even former members of the military have expressed disgust. “Sorry to be Debbie downer,” Connor Crehan, an Iraq war veteran and BarStool Sports host, wrote on X. “War isn’t a video game. The consequences of war are final. I wish we didn’t treat it with such a cavalier approach.”
The White House denied that it was trying to reduce the war to a game. “The legacy media wants us to apologize for highlighting the United States Military’s incredible success,” said spokeswoman Anna Kelly.
“But the White House will continue showcasing the many examples of Iran’s ballistic missiles, production facilities, and dreams of owning a nuclear weapon being destroyed in real time.”
The videos mark a big departure from the high moral tone normally adopted by US administrations entering into a global conflict.
When President Woodrow Wilson took the US into the first world war, he famously argued that “the world must be made safe for democracy”. In framing Operation Desert Storm in 1990, George HW Bush hailed the prospect of a “new world order” emerging from “these troubled times”.
“Traditionally the US government has spoken about war as something regrettable and necessary for a carefully considered diplomatic objective,” said Cull.
“They’ve sought to carry the American public with them . . . and persuade the world that it is in the best interests of humanity. And I don’t think those sorts of priorities are detectable in [Trump’s] messaging here.”
On the contrary, the videos seem squarely aimed at the president’s core supporters, especially the young men who voted for him in huge numbers in the 2024 presidential election.
Posts by White House officials over the past three weeks have been sprinkled with gamer and streamer slang. “W’s in the chat boys,” wrote Steven Cheung, Trump’s director of communications, above a video mixing strikes in Iran with an animation from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.
“Based Department? Yes. I’ll hold,” wrote Kaelan Dorr as he reposted another propaganda video on X, using the Gen Z word that means “bold” or “unapologetic”.
The clips build on a tradition established by the Department of Homeland Security last year. One viral video with the caption “Gotta Catch ‘Em All” showed ICE agents blowing in doors, and handcuffing and leading away undocumented immigrants to a song from the Pokemon cartoon. The clip was viewed 75.5mn times.
Loge compares Trump’s messaging style to pro wrestling. “He’s embracing the spectacle [of war] more than any of his predecessors have,” he said. But he warned that there was a risk for the White House that public support could collapse when the reality of the conflict hits home.
“It’s like turning on the lights on an amusement ride,” he said. “You can only suspend disbelief for so long.”
March 19, 2026
Trump Mourns with Families at Dover as 6 Soldiers Killed in Iran War Return Home
President Donald Trump on Saturday joined grieving families at Dover Air Force Base at the dignified transfer for the six U.S. soldiers killed in the war in the Middle East.
The dignified transfer, a ritual that returns the remains of U.S. service members killed in action, is considered one of the most somber duties of any commander in chief. During his first term, Trump said bearing witness to the transfer was “the toughest thing I have to do” as president.
Trump, speaking at a summit of Latin American leaders in Miami before his trip to Delaware, said the fallen service members were heroes “coming home in a different manner than they thought they’d be coming home.” He said it was “a very sad situation” and he pledged to keep American war deaths “to a minimum.”

Both Trump and Vice President JD Vance were present for the transfer, as were their spouses. A host of top administration officials were in attendance, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who wrote in a social media post Friday of “an unbreakable spirit to honor their memory and the resolve they embodied”; Attorney General Pam Bondi, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence.
Also present for the solemn event were governors and senators from Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and Florida.
Those killed in action were Maj. Jeffrey O’Brien, 45, of Indianola, Iowa; Capt. Cody Khork, 35, of Winter Haven, Florida; Chief Warrant Officer 3 Robert Marzan, 54, of Sacramento, California; Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Amor, 39, of White Bear Lake, Minnesota; Sgt. 1st Class Noah Tietjens, 42, of Bellevue, Nebraska; and Sgt. Declan Coady, 20, of West Des Moines, lowa, who was posthumously promoted from specialist.
As is protocol, Trump — wearing a blue suit, red tie and a white USA hat — did not speak during the transfer. The president saluted as each flag-draped transfer case was carried from the military aircraft to awaiting transfer vehicles, which would take them to a mortuary facility to prepare them for their final resting place. The families were largely silent as they observed the ritual, which lasted about a half hour.
The six members of the Army Reserve, who were killed by a drone strike at a command center in Kuwait, were all from the 103rd Sustainment Command based in Des Moines, Iowa, which provides food, fuel, water and ammunition, transport equipment and supplies. They died just one day after the U.S. and Israel launched its military campaign against Iran.
“These soldiers engaged in the most noble mission: protecting their fellow Americans and keeping our homeland secure,” Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa, a combat veteran, said earlier this week after the six were identified. “Our nation owes them an incredible debt of gratitude that can never be repaid.”
During the ritual, transfer cases draped with the American flag and holding the remains of the fallen soldiers are carried from the military aircraft that transported them to an awaiting vehicle to take them to the mortuary facility at the base. There, the service members are prepared for their final resting place.
Amor’s husband, Joey Amor, said earlier this week that she had been scheduled to return home to him and their two children within days.
“You don’t go to Kuwait thinking something’s going to happen, and for her to be one of the first – it hurts,” Joey Amor said.
O’Brien had served in the Army Reserve for nearly 15 years, according to his LinkedIn account, and his aunt said in a post on Facebook that O’Brien “was the sweetest blue-eyed, blonde farm kid you’d ever know. He is so missed already.”
Marzan’s sister described him in a Facebook post as a “strong leader” and loving husband, father and brother.

A combination image of undated photos shows U.S. Army Reserve Captain Cody A. Khork, 35, of Winter Haven, Florida, U.S. Army Reserve Sgt. 1st Class Noah Tietjens, 42, of Bellevue, Nebraska, U.S. Army Reserve Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Amor, 39, of White Bear Lake, Minnesota, and U.S. Army Reserve Sgt. Declan Coady, 20, of West Des Moines, Iowa, who were killed March 1, 2026, at the Port of Shuaiba, Kuwait during a drone attack. (U.S. Army Reserve/Handout via Reuters)
“My baby brother, you are loved and I will hold onto all our memories and cherish them always in my heart,” Elizabeth Marzan wrote.
Coady was among the youngest people in his class, trained to troubleshoot military computer systems, but he impressed his instructors, his father, Andrew Coady, told The Associated Press.
“He trained hard, he worked hard, his physical fitness was important to him. He loved being a soldier,” Coady said. “He was also one of the most kindest people you would ever meet, and he would do anything and everything for anyone.”
Khork’s family described him as “the life of the party” who was known for his “infectious spirit” and “generous heart” and who had wanted to serve in the military since childhood.
“That commitment helped shape the course of his life and reflected the deep sense of duty that was always at the core of who he was,” according to a statement from his mother, Donna Burhans, his father, James Khork, and his stepmother, Stacey Khork.
Tietjens, who came from a military family, previously served alongside his father in Kuwait. When he returned home in February 2010, he reunited with his overjoyed wife in a local church’s gym.
Tietjens’ cousin Kaylyn Golike asked for prayers, especially for Tietjens’ 12-year-old son, wife and parents, as they navigate “unimaginable loss.”
Trump most recently traveled to Dover in December to honor two Iowa National Guard members and a U.S. civilian interpreter who were killed in an ambush attack in the Syrian desert. He attended dignified transfers several times during his first term, including for a Navy SEAL killed during a raid in Yemen, for two Army officers whose helicopter crashed in Afghanistan and for two Army soldiers killed in Afghanistan when a person dressed in an Afghan army uniform opened fire.
March 8, 2026
Mark Ruffalo wants New York Governor to ‘tax the rich’ — critics say he should donate first
Mark Ruffalo is facing backlash after endorsing the “Tax the Rich” campaign.
On Feb. 24, the 58-year-old actor shared a video on social media in which he called upon New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to impose higher taxes on billionaires and corporations with the aim of improving affordability across the state.
In the clip, Ruffalo also promoted the upcoming Tax the Rich & Demand an Affordable NY: Albany Takeover, a march and rally being held in the state capital on Feb. 25.
“In New York, rent is crushing people,” he said. “Childcare now costs over $20,000 a year on average. Trump’s policies keep making billionaires richer, while working families endure cuts to essential services.”
“So last year, over a million New Yorkers came together to vote for Mayor Mamdani’s affordability agenda,” he said, referring to democratic socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who was elected last November.
“So who’s getting in the way?” Ruffalo continued. “Gov. Kathy Hochul has a choice to make. You protect working families, and tax the rich, or make Trump’s cuts worse by forcing everyday people to pay more. Sixty percent of New Yorkers, like me, agree that we should tax billionaires and corporations to fund childcare, housing and transit. Working people shouldn’t be the ones always stuck with the bill.”
“This Wednesday, Feb. 25, thousands of folks are going to Albany to send Kathy Hochul one clear message: Tax the Rich for New York that we can all afford. They can handle it. Trust me,” he concluded.

An X user later shared Ruffalo’s video, writing, “Mark Ruffalo: ‘Tax the rich… They can handle it, trust me,’” in a post that received over 5 million views.
The post was quickly flooded with comments as some critics slammed Ruffalo for alleged “hypocrisy,” arguing that the Marvel star, who has an estimated net worth in the tens of millions, should be offering to pay more in taxes himself.
“Waiting for him to step up,” one X user wrote.
“So he can handle it right?” another added.
“There is nothing stopping Mark Ruffalo from checking that box on his tax returns, that he would like to pay more than the required amount,” another detractor commented. “He could easily give away every dime he owns except for a middle class income level.”
“Him first,” another agreed.
Some X users argued that while Ruffalo was pressing Hochul to pursue tax reforms targeting billionaires and large corporations, he was not advocating that those in the millionaire class should be made to pay more.
“I love how he says ‘we should tax billionaires’ This exposes the sickening hypocrisy of these leftie celebrities,” one critic wrote. “He’s a millionaire – so, don’t tax him more – he’s not ‘wealthy’. No, no… it’s those nasty billionaires – who already pay tax and create wealth in the economy.”
“If we just took every penny from all the millionaires – Childcare would be free! – And housing! And food! But you would be broke, Mark,” another chimed in. “Should we vote on it? It would pass. Why is it always other people’s stuff socialists want to take??”
“Notice how it’s always a wealthy person telling others to pay more taxes, but they never pay themselves,” one person commented.
Though replies on the X post featuring Ruffalo’s message were overwhelmingly negative, the actor was widely praised in the comments section of his original post on Instagram.

Ruffalo’s fans heaped praise on the actor.
“Thank you for your compassion and leadership, Mark,” one fan wrote.
“Mark Ruffalo I am so proud of you all the time thank you,” another agreed.
“Thank you Mark Ruffalo for using your voice and influence for the right things,” one Instagram user commented.
“Hulk will forever be the strongest avenger, onset and off,” a fan chimed in as another added, “Mark we love you.”
Some Instagram users took to the comments to explain why they agreed with Ruffalo’s stance.
“We started taxing the rich in MA and it’s been amazing,” one commenter wrote. “We have school meals for all kids, continuing education for those that want it, great healthcare, among other things. And instead of losing millionaires, we have more that moved here. It works!”
“The wealthy didn’t get rich in isolation,” another argued. “Infrastructure, labor, and public systems built that wealth. Fair taxation is not punishment. It’s accountability.”
Last month, Ruffalo joined nearly 400 millionaires and billionaires, including Disney heir Abigail Disney and British musician Brian Eno, in signing an open letter urging world leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos to raise taxes on the ultra-rich, arguing extreme wealth concentration harms democracy and deepens inequality.
February 26, 2026
ChatGPT Maker Considered Warning Police About Canada Mass Shooting Suspect
TORONTO—ChatGPT-maker OpenAI said Friday it considered last year alerting Canadian police about the activities of a person who months later committed one of the worst school shootings in the country’s history.

OpenAI said last June the company identified the account of Jesse Van Rootselaar via abuse detection efforts for “furtherance of violent activities.”

The San Francisco tech company said it considered whether to refer the account the Royal Canadian Mounted Police but determined at the time that the account activity did not meet a threshold for referral to law enforcement. OpenAI banned the account in June 2025 for violating its usage policy.

The 18-year-old killed eight people in a remote part of British Columbia last week and died from a self-inflicted gun shot wound.

OpenAI said the threshold for referring a user to law enforcement is whether the case involves an imminent and credible risk of serious physical harm to others. The company said it did not identify credible or imminent planning. The Wall Street Journal first reported OpenAI’s revelation.

OpenAI said that, after learning of the school shooting, employees reached out to the RCMP with information on the individual and their use of ChatGPT.
“Our thoughts are with everyone affected by the Tumbler Ridge tragedy. We proactively reached out to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police with information on the individual and their use of ChatGPT, and we’ll continue to support their investigation,” an OpenAI spokesperson said.

The RCMP said Van Rootselaar first killed her mother and stepbrother at the family home before attacking the nearby school. Van Rootselaar had a history of mental health contacts with police.

The motive for the shooting remains unclear.

The town of 2,700 people in the Canadian Rockies is more than 1,000 kilometers northeast of Vancouver, near the provincial border with Alberta. Police said the victims included a 39-year-old teaching assistant and five students, ages 12 to 13.

The attack was Canada’s deadliest rampage since 2020, when a gunman in Nova Scotia killed 13 people and set fires that left another nine dead.
February 21, 2026
Three Dead, Including Suspect, in Shooting at Rhode Island Youth Hockey Game
PAWTUCKET, R.I. — Three people, including the suspect, were fatally shot during a Rhode Island youth hockey game Monday, authorities said.
Pawtucket Police Chief Tina Goncalves told reporters that three other victims were hospitalized in critical condition. The shooter died from an apparent self-inflicted gun wound, she said.
While police were not involved in the shooter’s death, authorities were still investigating, she said.
“It appears that this was a targeted event, that it may be a family dispute,” she said.
Goncalves did not provide details about the suspect or the ages of those who were killed, though she said it appeared that both victims were adults.
She said investigators were trying to piece together what happened and speak with witnesses of the shooting inside Dennis M. Lynch Arena in Pawtucket, a few miles outside Providence. They also were reviewing video taken from the hockey game. Unverified footage circulating on social media shows players diving for cover and fans fleeing their seats after popping sounds are heard.
Outside the arena, tearful families and high school hockey players still in uniform could be seen hugging before they boarded a bus to leave the area. Roads surrounding the arena were shut down as a heavy police presence remained and helicopters flew overhead.
Monday’s shooting comes nearly two months after Rhode Island was rocked by a separate gun violence tragedy at Brown University , where a gunman killed two students and wounded nine others. That shooter went on to also fatally shoot a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor. Authorities later found Claudio Neves Valente, 48, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at a New Hampshire storage facility.
“The fortunate thing is that the two incidents are not related, but it is very tragic,” said Pawtucket Mayor Don Grebien. “These are high school kids. They were doing an event, they were playing with their families watching, a fun time, and it turned into this.”
Pawtucket is nestled just north of Providence and right under the Massachusetts state border. A city of just under 80,000, Pawtucket had up until recently been known as the home to Hasbro’s headquarters.
February 16, 2026
Teen Suspect in Canada Mass Shooting Had Troubled, ‘Nomadic’ Upbringing

Jesse Van Rootselaar in a photo released by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. (RCMP)
Police in Canada are still investigating the motives behind the actions of 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootelaar, the suspect in a recent violent incident, and how she managed to carry it out.
In Tumbler Ridge, a mining community with about 2,700 residents, details from police reports, court documents, and family statements are revealing a troubled upbringing for the teenager.
Jesse Strang was the birth name given by her mother, Jennifer Strang. Her biological father was Van Rootelaar, a man she hardly knew following her parents’ difficult separation. Although her father resided in the same town, they had minimal interaction.
Van Rootelaar left school around four years ago, according to officials.
In her adolescence, she became familiar to local law enforcement. She frequently visited the mental-health unit at the home she shared with her mother and younger siblings for assessments under the province’s mental health laws. However, she consistently returned home. At times, firearms stored in the house were confiscated by police and later returned upon petition from a resident.
Van Rootelaar is accused of using four weapons in Tuesday’s fatal attack, which claimed eight lives before she succumbed to a self-inflicted gunshot, authorities reported. Two of the weapons, thought to be the primary ones used, had never been seized by police previously and were unregistered. Locating their source and how Van Rootelaar acquired them remains a key focus for investigators.
A dedicated team is sifting through her online presence and digital history for insights into the reasons and planning behind the mass shooting, as well as examining her previous engagements with police and mental health experts, stated Royal Canadian Mounted Police Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald.
The teen had consulted a gender transition specialist and posted a mirror selfie of her initial makeup attempt, expressing worries about her 6-foot stature’s proportions.
“Why can’t I be petit an smol?” she posted on Reddit.
Later that year, she shared that she “went crazy and burnt my house down” after a second attempt with psychedelic mushrooms, noting the dosage led to “dangerous psychosis.”
She hoped to discover the proper amount for a “positive experience in my life,” mentioning that electroconvulsive therapy and prescribed drugs hadn’t alleviated her mental health issues.
Her biological father, Justin Van Rootelaar, suggested a turbulent early life for the teen in a statement affirming their distant relationship, which he attributed to her mother.
“While that distance is the reality of our relationship, it does not lessen the heartbreak I feel for the pain that has been caused to innocent people and to the town we call home,” he told Canadian media on Friday.
As a child, Van Rootelaar’s life involved multiple relocations, court records indicate, as her mother frequently moved across the country: from Newfoundland on Canada’s eastern Atlantic coast, to Grand Cache, a small mountain town in western Alberta, and Powell River, a coastal area in southwestern British Columbia.
Around age 7 or 8, a then-pregnant Strang transported her across the country from British Columbia to Chamberlain, Newfoundland, against the father’s wishes. A judge labeled this as “reprehensible conduct” in court documents.
At that time, Van Rootelaar and her father had no relationship for “many years,” but they were starting to communicate via phone, per court records.
Some of Van Rootelaar’s online activity has surfaced. She developed a videogame simulating a mass shooting in a shopping mall on Roblox, the company confirmed. The simulation let a Roblox avatar select weapons and shoot other characters in a mall. It was viewable only by seven users via a separate developer app called Roblox Studio and was never released to the public. The company didn’t specify the creation date.
“We have removed the user account connected to this horrifying incident as well as any content associated with the suspect,” a Roblox spokesperson stated. “We are committed to fully supporting law enforcement in their investigation.”
Archived social media shows Van Rootelaar posting images of herself at a gun range, claiming to have made a bullet cartridge with a 3-D printer, and participating in online talks about YouTube videos by gun enthusiasts.
The trans woman also voiced concerns about transitioning and her interests in anime cartoons and illicit drugs, using “jesseboy347” as a social-media handle, according to a post on her mother’s Facebook page.
In 2023 Reddit posts, at age 15, she wrote in the r/trans forum that transitioning felt “super intimidating,” but she posted there.
The father, who hadn’t initially exercised all his parental rights, sought joint guardianship and requested he be consulted on parental decisions. The sparse relationship between father and child resulted from the mother’s “nomadic lifestyle,” British Columbia Supreme Court Judge Anthony Saunders noted.
Before Strang departed with the child, she texted her ex-partner: “We are moving to Newfoundland,” and “We told your lawyer that last week.” But she hadn’t informed the father exactly where or when she planned to relocate with their child, court documents reveal.
It’s uncertain when the mother returned the children.
Over the next decade, Van Rootelaar began interacting with local police due to mental health issues, and those encounters are now under review in the probe into Tuesday’s events, when police say she fatally shot her 39-year-old mother and 11-year-old half-brother at the family home. She then proceeded to Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, fatally shooting six people there—a teacher and five students—and critically injuring two others, police said. She ended her life as officers arrived at the school. Asked if she had been bullied at school, police said they didn’t know but noted she wasn’t currently enrolled as a student.
Amid the complex forensic evidence at both sites, one evident detail has surfaced, said Deputy Commissioner McDonald. Van Rootelaar didn’t seem to have a particular target in mind at the school and shot randomly, he said.
“This suspect was, for lack of a better term, hunting. They were prepared and engaging anybody and everybody they could come in contact with,” McDonald said.
February 14, 2026
Jutta Leerdam Wins Gold as Fiancé Jake Paul Breaks Down in Emotional Celebration
MILAN — The scoreboard in the far corner of a convention hall-turned-speed skating stadium said Dutch skater Jutta Leerdam had just set an Olympic record in the women’s 1,000-meter race Monday afternoon. Now it was time for two of the sports world’s biggest internet celebrities to cry.
On the ice, Leerdam, her orange racing hood pulled off and long blond tresses flowing, stared at her time on the board — 1 minute 12.31 seconds — and wept so hard at winning her first Olympic gold medal that a ribbon of mascara rolled down the right side of her face.
“That’s a good thing, I think,” said the most famous female athlete in the Netherlands, with 5.3 million Instagram followers.
Up in the temporary steel stands that ring the ice, Leerdam’s fiancé, the YouTube superstar-turned-boxer Jake Paul, dabbed his tattooed hands around red, soggy eyes and stared speechless as Leerdam skated her teary victory lap. He was in a VIP section for skaters’ families and Olympic officials. Around him, Leerdam’s family jumped and hugged and danced in place.
Paul didn’t jump or hug or dance or say anything. Instead, he sat on his seat and cried.
This wasn’t how the internet is accustomed to viewing its newest celebrity supercouple. Leerdam’s Instagram is filled with a stream of professionally posed photographs showing her with spotless makeup, looking nothing like the sobbing wreck with black streaks under her eyes. Paul is usually seen throwing haymakers in a ring or getting into social media tussles over Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show. They do not seem the weeping types.
“Not usually,” Leerdam said. “But at the same time, he also, like, knows the pressure I felt and the buildup and everything. So, yeah, I think he’s just, he’s just felt everything with me.”

Jake Paul can’t contain his tears after his fiancée, Jutta Leerdam, won gold Monday in Milan. (Antonio Calanni/AP)
The Olympic spirit isn’t always about unknowns finally living out lifelong dreams or underdogs fighting against impossible odds. Sometimes, it’s about really rich, famous people who fly around in private jets and have drivers and security guards and see an Olympic record on a scoreboard and act as uncool as the rest of us. Sometimes, Jutta Leerdam looks deranged and Jake Paul is caught treating life as something other than a follower-seeking social media bit.
What happened in the building that Olympic organizers are calling the Milano Speed Skating Stadium was very real. An incredibly famous speed skater known for her looks thundered around the oval with powerful strides that left the stands nearly filled with Dutch fans delirious.
“To be able to deliver like that is huge,” said American Brittany Bowe, a two-time Olympic bronze medalist who finished fourth Monday.
Leerdam’s Instagram life and her soon-to-be-husband’s own celebrity has made her a target bigger than any other speed skater from the world’s top speedskating country. The silver medal she won in the 1,000 at the 2022 Beijing Olympics hasn’t always been the first thing mentioned about Leerdam in recent years. She didn’t make things easier for herself when a photo of her coming to Milan in a private jet appeared online.

On Monday, she talked a lot about the pressure she felt here. She has skated well this past year, winning several races, and was arriving here as the top-ranked woman in the 1,000. The mania around her personal and skating life had exploded so much that her face here felt like a sideshow. The media seats were all taken two hours before the race began, and an army of photographers lined the ice.
Leerdam says she likes the hysteria. The pressure, she said, motivates her. She enjoys putting pressure on herself, she added, because it makes her even better.
“I try to, like, really use it in my advantage and just really let it make me even sharper,” she said.
She also skated in the last group and watched, with chagrin, as skaters before her kept going faster and faster. She wondered whether she could match them. She seemed sure Paul felt the same.
So, when she roared past Japan’s Miho Takagi on the second of three laps, the crowd seemed to sense something big, and the cheering grew. Then came the biggest roar of all when her final time was posted on the scoreboard. After wiping away her tears, she ran to her Netherlands teammates in the ring’s middle to celebrate while Paul stood amazed.
Photographers lined the walkway below the VIP section. Medal podiums were pulled into place, the flags were made ready — two Dutch flags for Leerdam and her silver medalist teammate Femke Kok and Japan’s for Takagi — Holland’s national anthem was played and Leerdam wiped tears from her face with her palms while Paul held his hands to his lips as if in prayer.
They were at once together and yet far apart, separated by a ribbon of ice. One photographer aimed his lens toward Leerdam while crossing another over his shoulder to also get photos of Paul. The camera shutters clicked and clicked.
More than an hour later, after the crowd had left and all the tears had been wiped away, Paul came to the edge of the interview area known as the mixed zone, where Leerdam was slowly making her way through lines of questions. As his entourage stood nearby, he kissed her on her cheek (now cleaned of black streaks). Then he looked at the dozens of people gathered around and said: “The GOAT!”
He turned around and, with his security guards following, walked quickly from the improvised skating arena, into the Milan dusk and toward a waiting car and the rest of their lives as a celebrity couple with the memory of a gold medal to share.
February 10, 2026
Japan Is Redefining Olympic Snowboarding as a New Global Power Emerges
The United States quickly became a dominant power in snowboarding’s early years on the Olympic stage, shaping its stars and setting its standards. A redheaded California teenager was king, and the rest of the world spent years trying to catch up.
At these Milan Cortina Games, that balance has clearly shifted, with Japan emerging as the world’s deepest and most formidable snowboarding power, particularly on the men’s side. In the early days of this Olympic competition, Japan has captured gold in both the men’s and women’s big air competitions, including Kokomo Murase’s impressive victory Monday night. Japan now has three snowboarding medals in these Games, while the United States is still looking for its first podium visit at Livigno Snow Park.
The transition has been years in the making. When snowboarding debuted at the Olympics in 1998, Japan was not a factor, while the United States began to establish itself as the sport’s defining force. As the Olympic program expanded, adding new disciplines and attracting deeper international investment, more countries began to take snowboarding seriously. None has done so more thoroughly than Japan.
“All these Japanese guys, they’re just a little bit different than the rest of the field,” said Teddy Koo, the agent for several Japanese riders. “I don’t know what the hell happened, but they figured it out.”
At the center of that rise is Ayumu Hirano, one of the most accomplished snowboarders of his generation. Hirano won Olympic silver medals in the halfpipe as a teenager in 2014 and ’18 before breaking through with gold at the 2022 Beijing Games, where he landed a triple cork that redefined the event’s ceiling. Now 27, he enters these Games as a podium favorite in the halfpipe later this week despite battling recent injuries. His younger brother, Kaishu Hirano, is also among Japan’s leading riders, part of a generation shaped by Ayumu Hirano’s ascent.

Japan’s Ayumu Hirano is one of the most accomplished snowboarders of his generation. (Lindsey Wasson/AP)
His influence has extended well beyond Japan’s borders, and the American Jake Pates calls him a “a massive role model.” The 27-year-old Pates returned from retirement in 2024 and at Hirano’s invitation, he flew overseas and joined a training camp with Japanese riders.
“It was wild,” Pates said. “It was a lot of hard work. But they showed me what real dedication, real motivation looks like. They don’t want to settle for second place. They want to be the best. They want the gold medal. … I’ve never been surrounded by people that train like that, with that mindset. They live with that mindset. They sleep, eat and breathe winning.”
The results of that approach have been visible across disciplines here. Four Japanese women reached the women’s final, compared with zero Americans. Japan also sent four riders into the men’s final Saturday and still left little room to breathe. Gold and silver went to Kira Kimura and Ryoma Kimata, while the Japanese rider who led qualifying eventually finished last — a snapshot of a program so deep that success one night offers no guarantees the next.
To appreciate that depth, consider who did not make the trip to Italy. Shuichiro Shigeno, 20, is widely regarded as a halfpipe prodigy and finished third at last month’s X Games. He would be a star on most national teams. He did not qualify for these Olympics, edged out by a gridlock of Japanese talent that has turned national selection into one of the sport’s most unforgiving competitions.
“It’s very normal for us to go big,” Shigeno said in a recent interview. “You’re not going to make the team if you don’t go big.”
The shift did not happen overnight — and is much more pronounced on the men’s side. In 2010, the Americans dominated the men’s halfpipe podium. Four years later, the United States missed the podium entirely as Japan claimed silver and bronze. By 2018, the margins had narrowed to a photo finish, where Shaun White edged Ayumu Hirano. And in Beijing in 2022, Japan took gold while Americans finished just outside the medals — evidence of a balance that has changed.
For more than a decade, American snowboarding revolved around White, the three-time Olympic gold medalist. When that era ended, the United States struggled to find a clear successor — or the depth to absorb his absence.

Reira Iwabuchi was one of four Japanese women who made the final of the women’s snowboard big air competition. (Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
Japan’s rise has been systemic, reinforced by a training infrastructure that allows riders to progress faster than ever before. While they’re fiercely competitive, Japanese snowboarding is a team sport and the top riders often train together. The national team has invested heavily in air bag training, including a dry halfpipe that feeds directly into an air bag, allowing riders to attempt high-risk tricks hundreds of times before taking them to snow.
“By the time they get on snow, they could have done 100, 200, 500 reps on that air bag,” noted Adam Begg, the head snowboarding judge for the Milan Cortina Games.
The approach has reshaped the sport’s learning curve, enabling year-round training while reducing injury downtime. A failed attempt no longer means weeks on the sideline watching the field move on.

“The key is what we do in the offseason,” said Kimura, the men’s big air gold medalist.
The contrast has been unmistakable. Japan has arrived with more contenders than available spots, while the United States continues to search for depth and continuity in a sport it once defined.
“To get a gold medal at the Olympics has been my dream since I was very young,” Kimura said. “This dream has come true now. I’m going to keep practicing.”
February 10, 2026
Lindsey Vonn Crashes in Olympic Downhill, Airlifted as U.S. Teammate Wins Gold
Lindsey Vonn, racing on a badly injured left knee, crashed early in the Olympic downhill on Sunday and was taken off the course by a helicopter after the 41-year-old American received medical attention on the snow for long, anguished minutes.
Vonn lost control over the opening traverse after cutting the line too tight and was spun around in the air. She was heard screaming out after the crash as she was surrounded by medical personnel before she was strapped to a gurney and flown away by a helicopter, possibly ending the skier’s storied career. Her condition was not immediately known, with the U.S. Ski Team saying simply she would be evaluated.
Breezy Johnson, Vonn’s teammate, won gold and became only the second American woman to win the Olympic downhill after Vonn did it 16 years ago. The 30-year-old Johnson held off Emma Aicher of Germany and Italy’s Sofia Goggia on a bittersweet day for Team USA.
Vonn had family in the stands, including her father, Alan Kildow, who stared down at the ground while his daughter was being treated after just 13 seconds on the course. Others in the crowd, including rapper Snoop Dogg, watched quietly as the star skier was finally taken off the course she knows so well and holds a record 12 World Cup wins.
Vonn’s crash was “tragic, but it’s ski racing,” said Johan Eliasch, president of the International Ski and Snowboard Federation.
“I can only say thank you for what she has done for our sport,” he said, “because this race has been the talk of the games and it’s put our sport in the best possible light.”

All eyes had been on Vonn, the feel-good story heading into the Olympics. She had returned to elite ski racing last season after nearly six years, a remarkable decision given her age but she also had a partial titanium knee replacement in her right knee, too. Many wondered how she would fare as she sought a gold medal to join the one she won in the downhill at the 2010 Vancouver Games.
The four-time overall World Cup champion stunned everyone by being a contender almost immediately. She came to the Olympics as the leader in the World Cup downhill standings and was a gold-medal favorite before her crash in Switzerland nine days ago, when she suffered her latest knee injury. In addition to a ruptured ACL, she also had a bone bruise and meniscus damage.
Still, no one counted her out even then. In truth, she has skied through injuries for three decades at the top of the sport. In 2006, ahead of the Turin Olympics, Vonn took a bad fall during downhill training and went to the hospital. She competed less than 48 hours later, racing in all four events she’d planned, with a top result of seventh in the super-G.
“It’s definitely weird,” she said then, “going from the hospital bed to the start gate.”
Cortina has always had many treasured memories for Vonn beyond the record wins. She is called the queen of Cortina, and the Olympia delle Tofana is a course that had always suited Vonn. She tested out the knee twice in downhill training runs over the past three days before the awful crash on Sunday in clear, sunny conditions.
“This would be the best comeback I’ve done so far,” Vonn said before the race. “Definitely the most dramatic.”
After the crash, the celebration for the medalists was held and fellow skiers thought about Vonn’s legacy.
“She has been my idol since I started watching ski racing,” said Kajsa Vickhoff Lie of Norway. “We still have a World Cup to do after Olympics. … I wouldn’t be surprised if she suddenly shows up on the start gate, but the crash didn’t look good.”
February 9, 2026
Japan Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi Scores Decisive Election Win
Tokyo, Japan – In a stunning political resurrection that underscores the enduring appeal of strong leadership and nationalist fervor, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s high-stakes gamble on a snap election has paid off handsomely. Her Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) not only reclaimed a commanding majority in the 465-seat lower house of parliament but achieved an unprecedented two-thirds supermajority on its own—a feat never before accomplished by the party, according to projections from public broadcaster NHK. This landslide victory positions Takaichi to pursue an ambitious agenda that aligns closely with American interests: bolstering defense spending, deepening U.S.-Japan ties, and revitalizing industrial policy to counter regional threats like China’s expansionism.
From an America First perspective, Takaichi’s triumph is a win for U.S. strategic priorities in the Indo-Pacific. A stronger, more assertive Japan means a reliable ally that shares the burden of deterring Beijing’s aggression—without dragging American troops into unnecessary conflicts. Her rapport with President Donald Trump, reminiscent of his bond with her mentor, the late Shinzo Abe, promises enhanced cooperation on trade, security, and supply chain resilience. As Trump himself posted on Truth Social, “The Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, has already proven to be a strong, powerful, and wise Leader, and one that truly loves her Country.” With a planned White House visit on March 19, this could translate to deals that benefit American workers, from joint tech investments to fairer trade terms.
Takaichi, 64, Japan’s first female prime minister who assumed office in October 2025, dissolved parliament after just three months, betting her career on public validation. She vowed to resign if her coalition lost its majority—a bold move amid the LDP’s recent scandals and electoral setbacks. In 2024 and 2025, the party hemorrhaged seats due to financial improprieties and public frustration over rising costs, forcing her predecessor, Shigeru Ishiba, to step down after a year. But Takaichi’s personal charisma—fueled by her motorcycle-riding, heavy metal drumming image—reversed the tide. NHK’s exit polls projected the LDP securing between 274 and 326 seats, with the coalition alongside the Japan Innovation Party (JIP) ranging from 302 to 366. This supermajority allows Takaichi to override the opposition-controlled upper house, paving the way for constitutional reforms long sought by conservatives.
Voters braved brutal winter conditions—sub-zero temperatures, heavy snowfall, and rare Tokyo flurries—to deliver this mandate. The transport ministry reported 37 train lines suspended, 58 ferry routes canceled, and 54 flights grounded, yet turnout reached about 21.6% by late afternoon, per the Nikkei. “People want their lives to be better and more comfortable,” Tokyo voter Ritsuko Ninomiya told the BBC. “We need a long-term solution rather than short-term fixes.” Younger demographics, drawn to Takaichi’s viral social media presence—including a drumming session with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung set to K-pop—propelled her success. “This election is more important for the younger generation,” said Daniel Hayama, emphasizing her appeal to those prioritizing national strength.

A voter at a polling station in Uonuma, Niigata prefecture. ( Manami Yamada/Reuters)
The opposition crumbled under the onslaught. The Centrist Reform Alliance, a hastily formed bloc including the LDP’s former partner Komeito and the Constitutional Democratic Party, was projected to retain only a quarter of its 167 seats. Co-secretary general Nakano Hiromasa conceded to NHK that the results demanded “humble and serious” reflection. Meanwhile, the ultranationalist Sanseito party, with its “Japanese first” platform, surged from two seats to as many as 14, signaling a rightward shift that could amplify Takaichi’s conservative base.
Economically, Takaichi campaigned on a 21 trillion yen ($140 billion) stimulus package to combat the cost-of-living crisis, pledging to suspend the 8% consumption tax on food for two years—a move costing 5 trillion yen annually. “We have consistently stressed the importance of responsible and proactive fiscal policy,” she told reporters as polls closed. Critics, including businesses, warn this could exacerbate Japan’s debt burden—already over twice its GDP, the highest among developed nations. Financial markets reacted with volatility, but supporters argue it’s essential to revive sluggish growth. In a post-election interview with NHK, Takaichi called for a cross-party forum to discuss tax cuts, noting broad support for reducing rates on essentials to zero or 5%.
On the international front, Takaichi’s victory empowers her to fortify alliances that serve American interests. Her November statement that Japan could militarily respond to a Chinese invasion of Taiwan—breaking from Tokyo’s traditional ambiguity—drew Beijing’s wrath: flight cancellations, seafood bans, and intensified patrols near Japanese waters. Yet, it resonated with voters and allies alike. Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te congratulated her on X: “May your victory bring a more prosperous and secure future for Japan and its partners in the region.” U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent echoed this on Fox News: “When Japan is strong, the US is strong in Asia.”

An election official empties a ballot box at a counting station in Tokyo. (Xinhua/Shutterstock)
Takaichi’s agenda includes ramping up defense spending—already at 2% of GDP—and reviewing foreign land ownership rules to curb Chinese influence. She aims to tighten immigration, targeting non-payments of taxes and health insurance by foreigners—in a nation where immigrants comprise just 3% of the population. Critics accuse her of stoking division, but proponents see it as safeguarding Japanese sovereignty. With a supermajority, she could advance her long-term goal: revising Japan’s pacifist constitution to allow more proactive military roles, aligning with U.S. calls for burden-sharing in containing China.
Domestically, Takaichi maintains conservative views—opposing same-sex marriage and female imperial succession—while her “work, work, work” slogan earned catchphrase-of-the-year honors. Her unconventional persona has shattered glass ceilings, attracting voters tired of the male-dominated establishment.
This political stability coincides with Japan’s cultural boom. The film industry hit a record $1.79 billion box office in 2025, up 32% from 2024, driven by anime like “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Infinity Castle – Part 1” ($255 million) and the Oscar-nominated “Kokuho” ($127 million). The global anime market, valued at $25 billion, bolsters Japan’s soft power exports. As Country of Honor at the 2026 Cannes Film Market, Tokyo plans to promote animation and co-productions—opportunities that could yield U.S.-Japan collaborations in entertainment.
Analysts like Syracuse University’s Margarita Estévez-Abe suggest Takaichi now has breathing room until 2028 upper house elections to mend China ties. But Seiji Inada of FGS Global warns markets could punish fiscal largesse, pressuring the yen. For America, her win means a steadfast partner in the Pacific—investing in defense, aligning on trade, and countering Beijing—without overcommitting U.S. resources. It’s a model of smart alliances that put American interests first.
February 8, 2026
Crypto Exchange Accidentally Sends $40 Billion in Bitcoin to Users
A South Korean cryptocurrency exchange apologised on Saturday after mistakenly transferring more than $40 billion worth of bitcoin to users, which briefly prompted a selloff on the platform.
Bithumb said it accidentally sent 620,000 bitcoins, currently worth more than $40 billion, and blocked trading and withdrawals for the 695 affected users within 35 minutes after the error occurred on Friday.
According to local reports, Bithumb was meant to send about 2,000 won ($1.37) to each customer as part of a promotion, but mistakenly transferred roughly 2,000 bitcoins per user.
“We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused to our customers due to the confusion that occurred during the distribution process of this (promotional) event,” Bithumb said in a statement released Saturday.
The platform said it had recovered 99.7 percent of the mistakenly sent bitcoins, and that it would use its own assets to fully cover the amount that was lost in the incident.
It admitted the error briefly caused “sharp volatility” in bitcoin prices on the platform as some recipients sold the tokens, adding that it brought the situation under control within five minutes.
Its charts showed the token’s prices briefly went down 17 percent to 81.1 million won on the platform late Friday.
The platform stressed that the incident was “unrelated to external hacking or security breaches”.
Bitcoin, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency, sank this week, wiping out gains sparked by US President Donald Trump’s presidential election victory in November 2024.
February 7, 2026
Missing Minneapolis Student Reportedly Seen in ICE Detention Facility in Texas
In a development that highlights the challenges and necessities of robust immigration enforcement under the Trump administration, school officials in suburban Minneapolis have located a missing fifth-grade girl who was found in a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in Texas. The discovery, made through a chance encounter between classmates, underscores the critical role ICE plays in upholding federal immigration laws while ensuring the safety and accountability of families involved in deportation proceedings.
Jason Kuhlman, principal of Valley View Elementary School in Columbia Heights, expressed relief upon learning the whereabouts of the student, who had abruptly stopped attending classes in early January. This coincided with the administration’s surge of federal immigration officers to the Minneapolis area, a move aimed at addressing backlogs in immigration cases and enhancing border security amid rising concerns over illegal immigration. Kuhlman described the initial concern when the girl’s family became unreachable: phone calls went unanswered, and a visit by the landlord revealed an empty home, though the student’s school-issued Chromebook remained behind.

Jason Kuhlman, principal of Valley View Elementary School, feared the worst when the girl stopped coming to class and her family wasn’t picking up the phone. (Kerem Yücel/Minnesota Public Radio/AP)
“It was surreal,” Kuhlman recounted in an interview. “We wondered how many kids might be unaccounted for in these situations.” After a month of uncertainty, the breakthrough came when two brothers—fellow Valley View students in second and fifth grades—who had been temporarily detained with their mother, spotted the girl in the cafeteria of the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas. The boys shared this with Kuhlman upon their release and return to Minnesota on Wednesday, February 4.
The Columbia Heights Public Schools district, which serves about 3,300 students, has reported that seven children from its schools have been involved in ICE detentions since the surge began, ranging in age from 5 to 17. Five have been released, with two believed to still be in custody—one at Dilley and another at an undisclosed location. District spokesperson Kristen Stuenkel emphasized the district’s efforts to support affected families, declining to release names to protect privacy.
Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin affirmed ICE’s procedures, stating that the agency does not target children or schools but focuses on enforcing immigration laws consistently across administrations. “No one in ICE custody is missing,” McLaughlin explained. “Detainees are searchable online, and they have access to phones to contact families. Parents are given the option to be removed with their children or designate a safe guardian—ensuring family unity where possible.”
This approach, McLaughlin noted, aligns with longstanding policies designed to prioritize child welfare during enforcement actions. ICE’s online locator system allows families and advocates to track detainees, and facilities like Dilley are equipped to handle family units humanely, with access to education, medical care, and legal resources. Critics on the left have decried these operations as disruptive, but supporters argue they are essential for maintaining the rule of law and deterring illegal crossings that strain local resources.
The Trump administration’s renewed focus on immigration enforcement has been a cornerstone of its agenda, building on promises to secure the southern border and expedite removals of individuals without legal status. The surge in Minneapolis, a sanctuary city area with a significant immigrant population, targets families with final deportation orders or those who have overstayed visas. This has led to a dip in school attendance, which Kuhlman compared to pandemic-era disruptions, as some families go into hiding to avoid detection.
However, administration officials and conservative lawmakers praise the operations for restoring order. “ICE is doing the job Congress mandated—enforcing our laws to protect American communities and ensure fair immigration processes,” said Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), whose district includes parts of the Minneapolis suburbs. “These detentions aren’t arbitrary; they’re about accountability for those who ignore court orders. And importantly, ICE prioritizes family integrity and child safety.”
One high-profile case drawing attention is that of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, detained with his father in late January. Images of the boy’s detention sparked outrage from Democrats, who lobbied for his release. Ramos was among those held at Dilley before being freed, highlighting the facility’s role in processing cases efficiently. The two Valley View brothers and their mother, who had an active asylum case, were detained on January 29 and transported to Dilley. A judge ordered their release the next day, per court documents, allowing their swift return home.
Kuhlman personally assisted in reuniting the boys with their mother at the Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis before their transfer south. Upon their return, the boys’ revelation about spotting their classmate provided closure for the school. Despite initial searches on ICE’s locator failing to find the girl—possibly due to processing delays—the district has now connected her family with legal aid.
As the district shifts focus to another silent family, Kuhlman plans a welfare check, illustrating the proactive role schools play in community stability. Yet, this incident also spotlights the broader benefits of ICE’s work: by addressing immigration violations promptly, the agency helps prevent exploitation and ensures that legal pathways remain viable for those who follow the rules.
Conservative analysts point out that such enforcement deters future illegal entries, reducing the humanitarian crises at the border seen under previous administrations. “The Trump surge is working—it’s about law and order, not cruelty,” said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank advocating for reduced immigration. “Facilities like Dilley are family-oriented, with schools and recreation, far from the ‘cages’ narrative pushed by the left.”
Democrats, however, continue to criticize the tactics. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) called for oversight, arguing the surge traumatizes children and disrupts education. But with bipartisan support for border security growing amid record migrant encounters, the administration’s approach garners backing from right-center voices who see it as a balanced enforcement of existing laws.
As this story unfolds, it serves as a reminder of the complexities in immigration policy—balancing compassion with the imperative to uphold sovereignty. For now, Valley View Elementary can breathe easier knowing their student is accounted for, thanks to the structured processes of ICE detention.
February 6, 2026