作者： root

Trade an alliance for an island? That’s a bad deal

Analysis by Brett H. McGurk, 15 hr ago, PUBLISHED Jan 25, 2026, 6:00 AM ET

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Aurora borealis lights up the night sky over residential houses in Nuuk, Greenland, on Friday, January 23.
Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP/Getty Images

In 416 BC, the city-state of Athens was in a prolonged conflict with Sparta, its archrival. For years, Athens had enjoyed comparative advantage over Sparta, particularly alliances and mutual defense pacts with smaller city-states known as the Delian League. By 416 BC, the Delian League had been in place for nearly 70 years, roughly the same as NATO, the modern equivalent of a prolonged and successful mutual defense alliance.

That was also the year that Athens came to view the Mediterranean island of Melos as vital for its strategic position. Melos had no military of its own, but it sat geographically at the intersection of maritime routes that helped both protect and project Athenian power. The island had long claimed neutrality, but for Athens, that would no longer suffice.

When an Athenian delegation demanded that Melos become a part of Athens, the Melians refused and appealed to Athenian traditions of logic and justice to work out a compromise. The Athenians responded with a famous line about power: “You know as well as we do that right, as the world goes, is only a question between equals in power — while the strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must.”

Gain an island, lose an empire
Athens seized Melos, an exercise of brute force that was contrary to its traditions and what had built its consent-based alliances over decades. Shortly thereafter, these alliances frayed as Athens relied on coercion over persuasion to maintain them. Within a decade, Athens was defeated, and its empire collapsed.

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19th Century illustration depicting the volcanic Greek island of Melos in the Aegean Sea. Dated 1860
Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

This account of Melos and the fall of the Athenian empire is recounted by the ancient Greek historian Thucydides. His “Melian Dialogue” describes the interaction between the island and the Athenians, together with the famous line about global power politics. The timeless lesson, however, is not about brute force alone — but rather the risks of using brute force at the expense of alliances.

Trump’s ‘Greenlandian’ dialogue
In a recent interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, President Donald Trump’s senior advisor Stephen Miller took a page from Thucydides when he described the White House’s logic of acquiring Greenland:

“You can talk all you want about international niceties and everything else. But we live in a world, in the real world, Jake, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world that have existed since the beginning of time.”

Miller was correct that power and its projection remain an irreducible component of global affairs. He was also correct that the United States today remains the most powerful state in the world when measured by its military strength, economic resiliency, and entrepreneurial system that drives global innovations.

But that was also true of Athens, and like Sparta was for Athens back then, China is not far behind the United States today. That’s where Miller’s “iron laws of the world” fall well short: They fail to recognize that the lasting formula for maintaining and sustaining global power over time is through mutually beneficial alliances, not brute strength and coercion.

Greenland as Melos
Now, let’s apply all of this to what just happened with Greenland. Trump is not the first to recognize that Greenland, like Melos for Athens, is strategic ground for US defense

William Seward, Secretary of State for Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson, after successfully negotiating to purchase Alaska from Russia for 2 cents per acre, set his sights on Greenland. By 1868, Seward’s negotiations with Denmark to buy the island made some progress, with an offer of $5.5 million in gold reportedly on the table, but they stalled as Congress showed no interest, and post-Civil War America had larger problems.

In 1946, President Harry S. Truman offered Denmark $100 million in gold for Greenland, driven by its strategic location at the start of the Cold War. Truman’s military command had unanimously urged the White House to acquire the territory given its proximity to Russia, and Moscow’s designs on the arctic region.

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The HDMS Ejnar Mikkelsen ship of the Danish Navy patrols on January 20, near Nuuk, Greenland.
Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Denmark turned down Truman’s offer, but it agreed to negotiate a military pact that gave Washington open-ended access and basing rights to the entirety the island. This treaty — the Defense of Greenland Agreement — was ratified by Congress in 1951. At the height of the Cold War, the United States had dozens of military bases and positions in Greenland. Today, there is only one — but that’s by choice. The 1951 treaty is in full effect.

This historical experience with Greenland would make Thucydides proud. America got all it wanted — and ultimately defeated the Soviet Union — through alliance building and power projection through consensus, not brute force and coercion.

The timeless lesson for Trump
Trump is right to identify Greenland as a strategic priority for the United States. In fact, the island matters even more today than in Truman’s time. As polar ice melts and new sea lanes open, the Arctic region is not a buffer but a strategic arena. Russia has invested massively in ice breaking ships to forge and control access routes. China, despite having no territorial access to the region, has declared itself a “near arctic state” and aims to build a “Polar Silk Road” together with Russia to rebalance global trading patterns.

Looking ahead, the Arctic region may soon be central to global commerce. Its Northern Sea Route from East Asia to Europe is 5,000 miles shorter (and fourteen days shorter in transit time) as compared to traditional routes through the Suez Canal. Greenland’s size and central location offset some advantages enjoyed by Russia over the United States in the region, and it provides an Arctic foothold that Beijing can never hope to match.

The US on its own, however, cannot effectively compete with Russia in a contested Arctic region. Russia’s Arctic coastline stretches 15,000 miles. That’s over ten times the size of America’s, limited to Alaska. Russia has a fleet of 50 icebreaking ships, including some that are nuclear powered. The United States has three, which are non-nuclear powered.

That all changes so long as the United States remains aligned with NATO. Together with the United States, NATO includes eight allies with arctic access — Canada, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Finland, and Sweden. Combined, they have over 100,000 miles of Arctic coast — over five times Russia’s — and a fleet of ice breakers that begins to match Russia’s. All of this territory and the projection outward is linked through mutual defense agreements.

America’s strength and power in the Arctic region, like Athens in the Mediterranean, comes not from one remote island, Greenland, but rather from its web of consent-based alliances. Accordingly, any policy that would effectively risk jettisoning NATO to acquire Greenland for perceived advantage over Russia or China in the Arctic region or globally would be the height of folly.

A welcome off-ramp — for now
This week in Davos, Trump appeared to retreat from his insistence on acquiring Greenland through use of force or purchase — relying instead on the treaty Truman worked out that offers the United States everything it could possibly need on the island. Details of what Trump has called an “infinite” and “unlimited” deal are still unclear, but both of those adjectives aptly describe the Defense of Greenland Agreement of 1951. Trump may not get all he wanted, but America already has what it needs through consensual alliances built over decades — America’s true superpower that China or Russia can never match.

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Locals stand on a snowy shoreline at dusk in Nuuk, Greenland, on January 21.
Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP/Getty Images

The open question is what might have been squandered in this exercise. Confidence and trust with allies are earned over decades but can be lost in weeks. Let’s hope the twists over this past week result in a strengthened alliance — and a strengthened Greenland — and can begin to mend the frayed seems of trust within NATO. Because as Thucydides teaches, while any great power can seize a patch of land, only lasting powers sustain their friends.

Transcript: Rep. Steve Scalise on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Jan. 25, 2026

2026-01-25T12:03:00-0500 / CBS News

Updated on: January 25, 2026 / 12:40 PM EST / CBS News

The following is the transcript of the interview with House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, a Louisiana Republican, that aired on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Jan. 25, 2026.

*

MARGARET BRENNAN: And we turn now to House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who joins us from New Orleans. Good morning to you.

HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER STEVE SCALISE: Good morning, Margaret.

MARGARET BRENNAN: I know in addition to being a leader in Congress, you have this unique experience of having been the victim of political violence yourself. You know how dangerous rhetoric can be. We’ve heard a lot of anger in the past 24 hours, and your fellow Louisianan Senator Bill Cassidy said the events in Minneapolis are not only incredibly disturbing, but the credibility of ICE and DHS are at stake. He called for a joint federal and state investigation. Would you join his call?

LEADER SCALISE: Well, I don’t question the credibility of ICE. They’re doing an incredibly hard job. They’re- look we are all, just feel sorry about what happened in Minneapolis. And this has happened over and over again. I mean, I’m not just talking about regarding ICE. I mean, they’ve got some failed local leadership. They let their city burn down years ago. They have chaos, it seems like all the time in places where other cities don’t. ICE is operating in a lot of cities, Margaret, and you don’t have these kind of incidents in any other city but Minneapolis–

MARGARET BRENNAN: — You don’t- don’t see these numbers either?– .

LEADER SCALISE: — and so, I wish yesterday didn’t happen. What’s that?

MARGARET BRENNAN: You don’t see these numbers either, though, when we looked at, for example, at the federal response in New Orleans. I mean, it’s just a fraction of the number of federal agents. Nearly 3,000 is quite a lot for a city the size of Minneapolis.

LEADER SCALISE: Well, that’s because they didn’t get resistance in cities like New Orleans, where, you know, when you look in Minneapolis, and I just listened to the chief, and you could hear him lamenting four times, I think he said that they’re strapped so thin. And let’s keep in mind, Minneapolis is a city that defunded their police. That’s not the chief’s fault. That’s the failed Democrat leader’s fault. But at the same time, when they defund the police, that leaves the chief stretched thin. And so he- was made a decision not to assist ICE– .

MARGARET BRENNAN: — He was talking- he was talking to- dealing with the federal issues. Because when you look at the Minnesota database, shooting victims down 76%, homicides down 67%, burglary down 39% year-to-date, sex offenses down, robberies down, motor vehicle theft is up. So he was talking about the response- the deal that they have now, that the stretch they have now dealing with the federal agents who are there.

LEADER SCALISE: Well, but remember, these agents have also arrested thousands of violent criminals in Minneapolis. That’s one of the reasons that crime is down, and we’re seeing that across the country. ICE- look again, anytime something bad happens, we all lament that. I wish it didn’t happen. But the rhetoric does need to be toned down, but we also need to remember, why is ICE doing this in cities? They’re enforcing federal law, Margaret. The law says you can’t be here illegally and if you’re committing violent crimes. The President made it clear, in fact, he was elected. President Trump was elected to get rid of criminals in our communities. 416,000 criminals have been arrested by ICE just in the last year. That has helped make our communities safer.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, it’s interesting you bring up the politics of this, because undoubtedly, the President was elected on the platform of immigration enforcement. There was a lot of support for it. But our latest poll shows more than half of Americans say ICE is making communities less safe, almost two thirds of Americans say they dislike the President’s approach to his deportation program. There is not public support for the way this policy is being implemented. Do you think there needs to be a reassessment?

LEADER SCALISE: Well, if you asked people in a poll, do you want violent criminals that are here illegally in your community? Yes or no? What do you think the answer is going to be? I will tell you, overwhelmingly, they will say, please get the violent criminals out. In fact, you’re seeing that on the ground in many, many cities where they are cooperating with ICE, where they don’t have sanctuary city policies, and where you don’t see by the way, people going in the streets breaking the law to interfere with law enforcement, which is a felony.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You have been a supporter of the Second Amendment. When Secretary Noem says, “I don’t know of any peaceful protester that shows up with a gun and ammo rather than a sign.” Do you believe Americans have the right to bear arms while they’re protesting?

LEADER SCALISE: Well, first of all, I’m a co-sponsor of Louisiana’s law that allows you to have a concealed carry permit. It’s worked very well there. I don’t know the state law in Minnesota. I know in a state like Louisiana, and frankly, most states, you are not allowed to carry a gun while you’re committing another crime and interfering with law enforcement is a felony. It’s something that, unfortunately, we’re seeing in a lot of cities. You even had the police chief yesterday, Chief O’Hara, that you just had on, yesterday said of the protests going on after the shooting, that they were unlawful. Yes, he actually said it was an unlawful assembly, what a lot of people are doing. And they were throwing things at ICE agents. Throwing projectiles that could harm ICE agents–

MARGARET BRENNAN: — Yeah, he wasn’t talking about the victim —

LEADER SCALISE: — So, let’s tone this down. And-and leaders in Minnesota, by the way, have been ratcheting up the rhetoric. I mean, you saw the governor, Governor Walz said they’re Gestapo. He said they’re violently hurting people.

MARGARET BRENNAN: I’m going to have to take this commercial break and let you finish the thought on the other side of it. If you could stay with us, Leader, we have more questions. We’ll be right back.

[COMMERCIAL BREAK]

MARGARET BRENNAN: Welcome back to Face the Nation and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise. Leader, we have seen a letter that Attorney General Pam Bondi sent to Governor Walz out in Minnesota, offering to end the federal surge if the state does a number of things, among them giving access to the food assistance programs and voter registration logs. What’s the purpose of that? What’s the intent?

LEADER SCALISE: Well, I haven’t read that letter between Pam Bondi and the governor, but I know that we are investigating tens of billions of dollars of potential fraud coming out of Minnesota. There have been hearings that have already been held. We have a lot of whistle blowers talking to us about major theft of taxpayer money coming out of Minnesota, and these are stealing programs from learning centers, from disabled students, programs that are being stolen, and the Governor did nothing about it. Congress is–

MARGARET BRENNAN:– But voter registration logs?–

LEADER SCALISE: — Investigating that aggressively.

MARGARET BRENNAN: As a conservative, doesn’t that make you a little uncomfortable that they’re demanding the state hand- hand over voter registration logs like, what’s the purpose of that to end ICE enforcement?

LEADER SCALISE: Well, I haven’t seen the letter. I know- I know we’re trying in Congress to deal with putting laws on the books that will make sure that we protect the integrity of the vote nationwide. States like Minnesota have had problems with voter integrity. We want a national standard, the SAVE Act, which makes sure illegals can’t vote, but also making sure you show a picture ID. Those are things we’re pushing for that’s across the board federally.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Non-citizens cannot vote. But I want to ask you ICE- about all the things that have happened this week, even before that shooting in Minnesota. ICE has said his officers can go into homes without judicial warrants. ICE shot unarmed Renee Good, as you know, claimed that she was a domestic terrorist. An FBI agent resigned after she was ordered not to investigate the officer who shot her. ICE detained at least five kids, including five-year-old Liam Ramos, who was taken into custody by men in masks. Does this picture sound right to you? Are you comfortable with how this is being implemented?

LEADER SCALISE: Let’s keep in mind that the five year old’s father was here illegally and was evading law enforcement and abandoned his child. ICE actually–

MARGARET BRENNAN: –the family–

LEADER SCALISE: –protected the child–

MARGARET BRENNAN: –The family disputes that. The administration has a problem with the previous administration’s legal system for asylum, that’s- they don’t like the app he used to file for asylum.

[START CROSSTALK]

LEADER SCALISE: Well, Joe- Joe Biden allowed–

MARGARET BRENNAN: –And they dispute that he fled–.

LEADER SCALISE: –millions of people to come into our country illegally, including very violent people, Margaret–

MARGARET BRENNAN: –But they are retroactively trying to change the legality of the status–

LEADER SCALISE: –people from prisons in other countries. President Trump was elected. The number one issue last year was President Trump saying–

MARGARET BRENNAN: –Absolutely–

LEADER SCALISE: — I’m going to secure the border, and he’s doing it. But also he’s removing violent people. 416,000–

MARGARET BRENNAN: –The father did not have a criminal record of any kind of violence–

LEADER SCALISE: –criminals- illegals have been arrested by ICE. 416,000 have been arrested by ICE. These are very bad people, by the way–

MARGARET BRENNAN: 47% of ICE detainees have criminal charges or convictions. 47%.

LEADER SCALISE: –ICE just put up a website. Not ICE, Homeland Security, worst of the worst DHS. Go Google worst of the worst DHS. State by state, they show you all the people that have been picked up in each state. Your state, you can find out horrible people, murderers, rapists, that they picked up that would be on the street–

MARGARET BRENNAN: –That doesn’t apply to the father or five-year-old Liam–

LEADER SCALISE: –today if President Trump wasn’t securing this country.

MARGARET BRENNAN: –or the two year old who was separated from her mother.

LEADER SCALISE: –that father was here illegally and abandoned his child–

MARGARET BRENNAN: They are not the worst of the worst, are they?

LEADER SCALISE: –Go look at the website. It shows you who they picked up–

MARGARET BRENNAN: –Are they the worst of the worst, sir?

LEADER SCALISE: 416,000 people with violent criminal records. These are people- and by the way, America today has the lowest murder rate that we’ve had since 1900 in part because of President Trump’s actions to get these violent people off our streets. 416,000 have been removed. Do you want them still out on our streets?

MARGARET BRENNAN: No.

LEADER SCALISE: I don’t think most people do.

MARGARET BRENNAN: No and I don’t think–

LEADER SCALISE: –This is a hard job ICE has.

MARGARET BRENNAN: –They do, indeed–

LEADER SCALISE: And local law enforcement, local officials, the mayor, the governor, should not be encouraging people to go out on the streets and break the law by interfering with law enforcement. That’s a felony to interfere with law enforcement–

MARGARET BRENNAN: –And American citizens are concerned about American citizens being shot, and that’s why we are asking the questions–

LEADER SCALISE: Yeah, and we don’t have that chaos in other cities.

MARGARET BRENNAN: -about the tax payer funded federal–

LEADER SCALISE: –Minneapolis has its own problems–

MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay.

LEADER SCALISE: –failed leadership that has led to a lot of this, and it’s unfortunate it happened. I wish it didn’t happen. Their failed leaders need to look in the mirror and tone it down.

MARGARET BRENNAN: I have to go next to our next guest. Leader Scalise, thank you for your time today.

美特使与内坦亚胡会谈 美方促以开放拉法口岸

2026年1月25日 23:48 / 联合早报

美国总统特使威特科夫和特朗普女婿库什纳与以色列总理内坦亚胡就加沙和平计划第二阶段举行会谈。以色列媒体报道，美方敦促内坦亚胡重新开放加沙和埃及之间的拉法过境点。

综合路透社和法新社报道，威特科夫和库什纳于星期六（1月24日）在耶路撒冷与内坦亚胡会晤。

以色列新闻网站Ynet引述一名以色列官员报道称，这次会谈积极，但威特科夫敦促以色列在哈马斯归还最后一名人质的遗体之前，重新开放拉法过境点。

拉法过境点是向加沙220万人口提供人道主义援助的关键入口。自战争期间以色列军队控制拉法过境点以来，它长期处于关闭状态。

特朗普去年10月提出加沙20点和平计划，相关内容要求重新开放拉法过境点。

负责监督加沙日常管理的15人巴勒斯坦技术官僚委员会主席沙阿特星期四（22日）说，拉法过境点会在下周双向开放。

威特科夫星期天（25日）在一份声明中说，与内坦亚胡的会谈积极且富有建设性，“双方在后续步骤以及继续在所有地区关键问题上开展合作的重要性方面，达成一致”。

上述以色列官员透露，威特科夫在会谈中还提出了土耳其可能在加沙未来局势中扮演的角色。这一要求或许触及以色列雷区。

Transcript: Sen. Angus King on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Jan. 25, 2026

2026-01-25T12:08:56-0500 / CBS News

January 25, 2026 / 12:08 PM EST / CBS News

The following is the transcript of the interview with Sen. Angus King, a Maine independent, that aired on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Jan. 25, 2026.

*

MARGARET BRENNAN: We go to Independent Senator Angus King, who joins us from Maine. Good morning to you, Senator.

SEN. ANGUS KING: Good morning, Margaret. Good to be with you.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Good to have you here. And I understand that in your state, ICE just launched this operation “Catch of the Day,” which an official told CBS would target Somali immigrants, among others, targeting 1400 criminal aliens who have quote, unquote, terrorized communities in Maine. What’s been the impact? Do you know how many arrests there have been?

SEN. KING: There have been something like 100 that DHS has told us- and by the way, to follow up on Leader Scalise’s previous comment, that worst of the worst website that DHS has established. They list 13 people in Maine. They concede that- or they state that they’ve arrested 100. I want to know who the other 83 are- I’m sorry, 87. My math is off. But the point is this worst of the worst thing is a pretext. What they’re really doing is going after people who are here. They’re asylum seekers. They’re in the process. They have green cards. We’ve had numerous cases in Maine of people being stopped and detained with zero criminal record, including a recruit for the sheriff’s office to be a guard at the at the- at the county jail. So this idea that it’s the worst of the worst is just nonsense.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, yesterday, your governor released a statement saying she’s requested a meeting with President Trump to withdraw agents from Maine. Powers of the state government seem extremely limited here when you look at Minnesota. Does Maine have any ability to stop this?

SEN. KING: Well, I think we can be talking with DHS and talking with the President. I’m trying to interact with DHS just to get some questions answered. They tell me, I have to submit my questions in writing, and then they’ll get back to me in writing maybe in a week or two. I mean, you know, I represent the people of my state. They shouldn’t be- I shouldn’t have to go through a lot of bureaucratic red tape to get some answers. But this- here’s the real problem, Margaret, the people that are being terrorized in Maine are being terrorized by ICE. They’re not being terrorized by criminals. And ICE says we’re taking we’re- we’re not going to be terrorizing people with criminals on our streets. Here’s what’s happening in Portland. People are afraid to send their kids to school. People are afraid to go to work. Businesses are suffering because their workers can’t come in. Families are sending food to their- to their friends who are afraid to come out. That’s the real impact of this, and it far outweighs any benefit that’s being accrued by these- by these heavy handed tactics.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, in terms of getting to a place where, you know, this can be settled peacefully, one of the things the administration argues again and again is, oh, we were forced to do all this because the last administration, you know, didn’t do adequate jobs when it- job at the border. But they also point to Sanctuary laws. Maine is about to have a law in place by this summer that will prohibit local law enforcement from working with federal authorities on immigration enforcement. Is there a way forward here between states like Maine and the federal government when it comes to peacefully extracting, peacefully, you know, carrying out interior enforcement?

SEN. KING: Well, you put your finger on it. Margaret in the last interview, the question is not, should we enforce the law? Should we be trying to expel dangerous criminals? The question is, how is it done? I did a little research this morning. Obama during his administration, there were something like 2.7 million removals, but you didn’t have people roaming the streets with masks on. By the way, I’ve never seen law enforcement with masks on in my life. Where I come from, the people wearing masks are the bad guys. But you didn’t have this heavy handed, heavily armed, you know, bulletproof vest kind of thing. And there were no incidents that I could find of the kind that we’ve seen just in the last few weeks in Minnesota during that 2.7 million removals during Obama’s administration. We’ve got about 600,000 and and we’re having these incidents all over the country, so it’s not necessary- you can enforce the laws against illegal immigration and- and people that are criminals without ransacking our cities and terrorizing our residents.

MARGARET BRENNAN: This is having reverberations in Washington, as you well know. Leader Schumer said Democrats will not vote for the appropriations bill if DHS funding is included. That means we could see a partial shutdown here. Do you know how you’re going to vote?

SEN. KING: Margaret, I hate shutdowns. I’m one of the people that helped negotiate the solution to the last- the end of the last shutdown, but I can’t vote for a bill that includes ace funding under the circumstances. What they’re doing in my state, what we saw yesterday in Minneapolis. There’s an easy way out, by the way, Leader Thune could separate, which is what they did in the house, separate the five other appropriation bills, put them on the floor. They would pass, I think, overwhelmingly. Then let’s take up DHS. And by the way, if those bills pass, 96% of the federal government is funded. Take up DHS by itself. Let’s have an honest negotiation. Put some guardrails on what’s going on, some accountability, and that would solve this problem. We don’t have to have a shutdown.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So that’s your path to avoid a shutdown. But quickly, I want to ask you about rhetoric in Arizona, the state AG said ICE is not real law enforcement. Minnesota’s governor also said, quit referring to these people as law enforcement, they’re not law enforcement. Do you consider ICE law enforcement?

SEN. KING: I guess I technically would, but I don’t- again- well, let me, let me put it in the words of the sheriff in- in Cumberland County, Maine when they took one of his recruits, he called it ‘bush league policing.’ And I think that sort of summarizes it and- and there’s no need for this overwhelming show of force. I believe what we’re seeing is an attempt to intimidate the American people. Again, armed people with masks and- and telling people they can’t photograph what they’re doing, and intimidating protesters. That’s- that’s not America. And then you mentioned in your previous interview about the going into houses without any warrant. That’s a blatant violation of the Fourth Amendment. These people are acting outside the Constitution. They’re ignoring our laws, and we just can’t keep- keep supporting that.

MARGARET BRENNAN: All right. Senator King, thank you for joining us today. We’ll be right back.

美特使与内坦亚胡会谈 美方促以开放拉法口岸

发布时间 / 来源：2026年1月25日 23:48 / 联合早报

美国总统特使威特科夫和特朗普女婿库什纳与以色列总理内坦亚胡就加沙和平计划第二阶段举行会谈。以色列媒体报道，美方敦促内坦亚胡重新开放加沙和埃及之间的拉法过境点。

综合路透社和法新社报道，威特科夫和库什纳于星期六（1月24日）在耶路撒冷与内坦亚胡会晤。

以色列新闻网站Ynet引述一名以色列官员报道称，这次会谈积极，但威特科夫敦促以色列在哈马斯归还最后一名人质的遗体之前，重新开放拉法过境点。

拉法过境点是向加沙220万人口提供人道主义援助的关键入口。自战争期间以色列军队控制拉法过境点以来，它长期处于关闭状态。

特朗普去年10月提出加沙20点和平计划，相关内容要求重新开放拉法过境点。

负责监督加沙日常管理的15人巴勒斯坦技术官僚委员会主席沙阿特星期四（22日）说，拉法过境点会在下周双向开放。

威特科夫星期天（25日）在一份声明中说，与内坦亚胡的会谈积极且富有建设性，“双方在后续步骤以及继续在所有地区关键问题上开展合作的重要性方面，达成一致”。

上述以色列官员透露，威特科夫在会谈中还提出了土耳其可能在加沙未来局势中扮演的角色。这一要求或许触及以色列雷区。

Bondi seeks Minnesota voter rolls, welfare data to “help bring back law and order” in wake of shootings

January 25, 2026 / 2:24 PM EST / CBS News

Attorney General Pam Bondi is pushing Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to let the federal government access the state’s voter rolls and public assistance data, as tensions flare in Minneapolis after a second person was shot Saturday by federal immigration agents assigned to a weekslong crackdown in the city.

In a three-page letter obtained by CBS News, Bondi also urged the state of Minnesota to scrap all “sanctuary” policies and “cooperate fully” with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, including giving the agency access to all local jails and honoring federal agents’ requests to detain people.

“I am confident that these simple steps will help bring back law and order to Minnesota and improve the lives of Americans,” Bondi wrote in her letter to the governor Saturday, which accused state officials of “anti-law enforcement rhetoric” and “putting federal agents in danger.”

Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon responded with a statement Sunday saying: “The answer to Attorney General Bondi’s request is no.”

Simon called Bondi’s letter “an outrageous attempt to coerce Minnesota into giving the federal government private data on millions of U.S. Citizens in violation of state and federal law,” and said it followed “repeated and failed attempts by the DOJ to pressure my office into providing the same data.”

The Trump administration has pressed for greater access to Minnesota jails and prisons for weeks, suggesting it may roll back immigration operations in the state if it had more power to go into detention facilities to pursue people accused of being in the U.S. illegally. State corrections officials say they already cooperate with ICE, but cooperation varies at the county level.

Bondi said the federal government needs access to state voter roll data to “confirm that Minnesota’s voter registration practices comply with federal law.” The Justice Department has pushed Minnesota and other states to provide voter registration data for months, suing Minnesota for access to the data last year — but the department typically hasn’t tied that push to immigration enforcement efforts in Minnesota in the past.

And Bondi demanded that the state share records on Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps, so the federal government can “efficiently investigate fraud,” as the Trump administration focuses on alleged fraud schemes in Minnesota public assistance programs.

In his response, Simon noted: “Attorney General Bondi knows full well that the Governor has no formal role in managing our elections or maintaining our voter registration system. She is also well aware that this specific request is the subject of active litigation with our office.”

“It is deeply disturbing that the U.S. Attorney General would make this unlawful request a part of an apparent ransom to pay for our state’s peace and security,” Simon added. “More broadly, the federal government must end the unprecedented and deadly occupation of our state immediately.”

The governor’s office reacted to the letter by urging the Trump administration to “engage in a serious conversation about ending this federal occupation.” In a statement Sunday, Walz’s office sharply criticized the conduct of federal immigration agents, including Saturday’s fatal shooting of Alex Pretti and another shooting by a federal officer that killed Renee Good earlier this month.

“This is not common sense, lawful immigration enforcement. That is not what this occupation is about. And it’s not what the attorney general’s letter is about,” the statement read.

Eric Henderson contributed to this report.

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Trump says he’s skipping the Super Bowl: ‘It’s just too far away’

Published Time: 2026-01-25T14:00:46.951Z / Source: CNN Politics

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PUBLISHED Jan 25, 2026, 9:00 AM ET

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President Donald Trump attends the College Football Playoff national championship game in Miami Gardens, Florida, on January 19.

Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP/File

From UFC matches to the US Open, President Donald Trump has had box seats at some of the most high-profile sporting events in the country during his second term. But the president won’t be attending football’s biggest night: the Super Bowl.

“It’s just too far away. I would. I’ve gotten great hands for the Super Bowl, they like me,” Trump said in an interview with the New York Post on Friday. “I would go if, you know, it was a little bit shorter.”

Super Bowl LX will be held February 8 at Levi’s Stadium in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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Four teams are competing Sunday to earn their place in the game. The Seattle Seahawks face the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC Championship, and the New England Patriots face the Denver Broncos in the AFC Championship.

While Trump blamed his potential absence on the long flight, it’s no secret he is not thrilled about this year’s halftime performers, Bad Bunny and Green Day, both of whom backed Kamala Harris in 2024. (The president has frequently traveled long distances in his second term, including to the Middle East, Asia and Europe.)

“I’m anti-them. I think it’s a terrible choice. All it does is sow hatred. Terrible,” Trump told the Post.

After the artists were announced in October, Trump told NewsMax he’s “never heard of” Bad Bunny, who has nearly 84 million monthly listeners on Spotify, calling the choice “ridiculous.”

Bad Bunny, a Puerto Rican singer and rapper, didn’t initially include US stops in his 2025-2026 tour because of fear that US Immigration Customs and Enforcement would target concertgoers.

“There was the issue that … ICE could be outside (my concert venue). And it’s something that we were talking about and very concerned about,” Bad Bunny said in an interview with i-D magazine last year.

Green Day’s lead singer, Billie Joe Armstrong, has also called out Trump’s administration as a “fascist government,” telling his audience at a concert, “It’s up to us to fight back.”

Trump has traveled along the East Coast during his second term to attend numerous sporting events, including UFC 314 in Miami, the Ryder Cup golf tournament in New York, the Army-Navy football game in Maryland, a New York Yankees game, and NCAA wrestling championships in Philadelphia.

Trump received a mixed reaction at Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York City for the US Open men’s finals, and similarly at Yankees Stadium, with some cheering and others booing.

Another factor for Trump skipping the Super Bowl may be that he does not have any properties in the Bay Area. When traveling the country, Trump rarely stays at hotels that aren’t affiliated with his own properties.

CNN has reached out to the White House to see whether Trump has plans for a traditional presidential Super Bowl interview, given his criticisms of former President Joe Biden opting out of one in 2024.

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Trump praises ‘great and very brave’ UK soldiers who served in Afghanistan war | Fox News

By Anders Hagstrom | Fox News
Published January 25, 2026 8:06am EST

President Donald Trump praised the soldiers of the United Kingdom who served alongside the U.S. in Afghanistan on Saturday, clarifying his previous criticism of NATO allies.

Trump had earlier criticized NATO troops who served in Afghanistan, arguing they had stayed “a little bit back” from the frontlines during the conflict. His statement was met with outrage in the U.K., however, where Prime Minister Kier Starmer called it “insulting and frankly, appalling.”

“The GREAT and very BRAVE soldiers of the United Kingdom will always be with the United States of America! In Afghanistan, 457 died, many were badly injured, and they were among the greatest of all warriors,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“It’s a bond too strong to ever be broken. The [U.K. Military], with tremendous Heart and Soul, is second to none (except for the U.S.A.!). We love you all, and always will!” he continued.

THE IMPORTANCE OF PRESIDENT TRUMP’S UK VISIT SHOULDN’T BE UNDERESTIMATED

U.S. President Donald Trump talks at a press conference with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer at Chequers at the conclusion of a state visit on September 18, 2025 in Aylesbury, England.(Leon Neal/Getty Images)

The social media post partially walks back his previous criticism of NATO, made during an interview on Fox Business.

“We have never really asked anything of them,” he said. “You know, they’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan or this or that, and they did. They stayed a little back, little off the front lines.”

Starmer’s office says the prime minister raised the issue with Trump during a phone call this weekend.

UK READY TO SEND TROOPS, JETS, SHIPS IF TRUMP CLINCHES UKRAINE CEASEFIRE, DEFENSE CHIEF SAYS

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned Trump’s comments about NATO troops in Afghanistan.(Andy Buchanan, Pool Photo via AP)

“The Prime Minister raised the brave and heroic British and American soldiers who fought side by side in Afghanistan, many of whom never returned home,” a spokesperson said. “We must never forget their sacrifice.”

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Trump’s initial remarks also drew a direct rebuke from Prince Harry, who served two tours in Afghanistan.

Britain’s Prince Harry also criticized Trump’s downplaying of NATO soldiers who served in Afghanistan.(Eddie Mulholland/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

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“I served there. I made lifelong friends there. And I lost friends there,” Harry said.

“Those sacrifices deserve to be spoken about truthfully and with respect, as we all remain united and loyal to the defense of diplomacy and peace,” he added.

Anders Hagstrom is a reporter with Fox News Digital covering national politics and major breaking news events. Send tips to Anders.Hagstrom@Fox.com, or on X: @Hagstrom_Anders.

Power plant outages surge in Eastern US amid restricted gas supplies and frigid weather

2026-01-25T16:58:12.621Z / Reuters

By Tim McLaughlin and Arathy Somasekhar

January 25, 2026 9:56 PM UTC Updated 4 hours ago

A worker uses a snowblower to clear snow from the sidewalk, as a major winter storm spreads across a large swath of the United States, in Washington, D.C., U.S., January 25, 2026. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

• Summary
• Companies

• New England leans heavily on oil-fired power plants
• PJM generation outages surge
• Spot electricity prices rise to several hundred dollars per MWH

BOSTON/HOUSTON, Jan 25 (Reuters) – Power plant outages surged along the eastern United States on Sunday as constricted natural gas supplies and frigid temperatures cut the electricity output of the region’s generation fleet.

The PJM Interconnection, the largest U.S. regional grid that serves 67 million people in the East and Mid-Atlantic, reported nearly 21 gigawatts of generation outages, with most of that capacity being forced offline. Those outages represented about 16% of PJM’s Sunday afternoon demand of 127.4 GW.

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On Sunday afternoon, PJM issued a pre-emergency order mandating that some customers in its curtailment program curb their electricity use. Customers in the program get paid to curb their electricity during critical periods.

PJM’s order sought to ease an upswing in demand in PJM’s territory while asking some generator operators to preserve their run time for colder weather and higher electricity demand later in the week.

Without native supplies of natural gas, the Eastern seaboard relies on a pipeline network that is historically constricted during extended bouts of frigid weather, said Pieter Mul, a grid expert and associate partner at PA Consulting’s energy and utilities practice.

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Domestic demand of natural gas, net of exports, is estimated at 146.7 Bcf/d, down 3.6 Bcf/d compared to Saturday and ranks at No. 10 all-time.

“From a natural gas production and price perspective, the current US winter storm so far is less severe than prior storms such as Uri and Elliott of 2021, 2022, but the risk isn’t over, with sustained cold lingering behind the storm,” said Matthew Palmer, the head of Americas Gas Research at S&P Global Energy.

PJM’s outages are higher than the grid planned, Mul said, adding that there is less flexibility in the PJM system than a few years ago because of power plant retirements and a surge in demand from data centers.

PJM’s territory also is hurt by bottlenecks in its transmission system of high-voltage power lines, hindering the transfer from west to east. For example, cheap power in Illinois on Sunday – sometimes dipping into negative prices because of abundant wind energy – could not be moved to help out other sections of PJM.

As snow and sleet hit the major cities of Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, DC, the power grid also lost access to solar power in the afternoon from an increase in cloud cover.

Meanwhile, power prices in PJM and the electric grids for New York and New England surged between $400 and $700 per MWh Sunday afternoon, grid operators reported. The increases reflected demand that continues to top grid operator forecasts.

ISO New England, which serves a six-state region that includes Boston and Hartford, reported about 20.2 gigawatts of demand at 1:45 p.m. EDT, or greater than a projected peak load of 19.5 GW expected later in the day.

With constricted natural gas access, nearly 40% of the New England grid’s output came from oil-fired power plants. Natural gas, usually the grid’s main source of fuel, accounted for just 30% of the grid’s fuel source for power plants.

But as Mul noted, New England supply of diesel fuel oil can be depleted and not easily resupplied during hazardous winter conditions. ISO New England’s surplus capacity dropped to about 1.1 GW, down from earlier estimates of several gigawatts.

Earlier on Sunday, ISO New England issued an “abnormal conditions” alert asking power plant operators not to schedule any maintenance or anything else that would affect the grid’s reliability.

Outside of Washington D.C., real-time wholesale electricity prices topped $1,800 per MWh early Sunday in Dominion Energy’s Virginia territory, up from $200 per MWh on Saturday morning. Virginia houses the biggest cluster of data centers in the world, which are used to power things like artificial intelligence and have been responsible for rising power demand and prices in swaths of the country.

The demand spike began late Saturday night, according to data from PJM as Winter Storm Fern swept across parts of the country.

PJM predicts an all-time winter demand record on Tuesday, partly due to data center electricity needs. Dominion has said extended frigid temperatures this week, along with heavy snow, have the potential to be one of the largest winter events to affect the utility’s operations.

PJM predicts demand at 147.2 gigawatts, which would beat the current record winter electricity demand of 143.7 GW set in January 2025.

Spot wholesale electricity prices across the U.S. have been elevated throughout the weekend as regional grids strain to meet surging demand. When demand is higher than the forecasts, utilities can be forced to pay elevated spot prices for electricity to meet the demands of their residential and business customers.

Regional grids feed their power into the local distribution lines that bring electricity to homes and businesses. Those local power lines are showing disruptions, with nearly 1 million customers without power on Sunday, according to PowerOutage.us, with more than 300,000 in Tennessee and more than 100,000 each in Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana. Other states affected included Kentucky, Georgia, Virginia and Alabama.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the state’s main grid operator, forecast peak demand of 85.1 GW for Monday morning, compared to seasonal capacity of nearly 100 GW. Day-ahead market prices indicate the price of electricity per MWh could top $1,000 on Monday morning, according to ERCOT data.

Reporting By Tim McLaughlin; Editing by Liz Hampton, David Gregorio, Nick Zieminski and Deepa Babington

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Minneapolis police chief says “people have had enough” after fatal shooting by federal agents

Updated on: January 25, 2026 / 12:41 PM EST / CBS News

Washington — Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said on Sunday that “people have had enough” after this weekend’s fatal shooting of a 37-year-old man by federal agents.

Federal agents in Minneapolis shot and killed Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse, on Saturday morning. The shooting came as protests have continued in Minnesota’s largest city over a federal immigration enforcement surge. Earlier this month, Renee Good was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, and a Venezuelan migrant was shot in the leg by ICE while allegedly trying to flee.

The Department of Homeland Security said agents were acting in self-defense while trying to disarm Pretti, while local officials have pushed back on the account.

O’Hara said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that it’s “deeply concerning the things that are being said.”

“This is an individual that was a city resident. It appears that he was present exercising his First Amendment rights to record law enforcement activity and also exercising his Second Amendment rights to lawfully be armed in a public space in the city,” O’Hara said. “So I think very obviously, there are serious questions that are being raised.”

O’Hara added that “the greater issue is, even if there is an investigation that ultimately proves that at the time of the shooting it was legally justified, I don’t think that even matters at this point, because there is so much outrage and concern around what is happening in the city.”

“This is the third shooting now in less than three weeks. The Minneapolis Police Department went the entire year last year, recovering about 900 guns from the street, arresting hundreds and hundreds of violent offenders, and we didn’t shoot anyone. And now this is the second American citizen that’s been killed, it’s the third shooting within three weeks,” O’Hara said.

O’Hara added, “People have been speaking out, saying that this was going to happen again, and I think everyone is kind of waiting for folks on both sides to come together and just figure this thing out.”

“This is not sustainable,” he said. “This police department has only 600 police officers. We are stretched incredibly thin. This is taking an enormous toll trying to manage all of this chaos on top of having to be the police department for a major city. It’s too much.”

Asked whether he is calling on ICE to leave Minneapolis, O’Hara said the problem isn’t that “enforcement is happening, it’s clearly the manner in which these things are happening.”

“These tactics are very obviously not safe, and it is generating a lot of outrage and fear in the community,” O’Hara said.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said at a news conference Saturday that Pretti was in possession of a gun and ammunition and alleged he assaulted officers. Asked whether he knows if the weapon was concealed or was brandished, O’Hara said, “I don’t have any evidence that I’ve seen that suggests that the weapon was brandished.”

Trump administration officials have also accused local law enforcement of not doing enough to help ICE officers. O’Hara called those claims “deeply disappointing.” He argued that local police are “doing everything that we can to manage this chaos,” but are vastly outnumbered by the thousands of immigration agents deployed to the city.

Amid the conflicting narratives and tension between local and federal officials, O’Hara said the police department doesn’t have “any official information from federal law enforcement about what has happened,” adding that when officers responded to the scene of Saturday’s shooting, “our watch commander was not given even the most basic information that is typical in a law enforcement-involved shooting.”

“I don’t know how I’m supposed to share information with the public that they are not sharing with us,” O’Hara said.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, a Louisiana Republican, also appeared on “Face the Nation” Sunday and pointed to “some failed local leadership,” saying, “you don’t have these kinds of incidents in any other city” with federal immigration enforcement operations.

“Look, we are all just feel sorry about what happened in Minneapolis, and this has happened over and over again,” Scalise said. “They let their city burn down years ago, they have chaos it seems like all the time in places where other cities don’t.”

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