President Donald Trump threatened on Saturday that he would implement 100% tariffs on Canada if it strikes a deal to become a ‘drop off port’ for China.

‘If Governor Carney thinks he is going to make Canada a ‘drop off port’ for China to send goods and products into the United States, he is sorely mistaken. China will eat Canada alive, completely devour it, including the destruction of their businesses, social fabric, and general way of life,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social.

‘If Canada makes a deal with China, it will immediately be hit with a 100% tariff against all Canadian goods and products coming into the U.S.A.,’ the president added.

Trump referred to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney as a ‘governor,’ echoing comments he made while campaigning for a second term about annexing America’s northern neighbor. He previously used the same term when speaking about Carney’s predecessor, Justin Trudeau.

Carney made his first official visit to China earlier this month as he and Chinese President Xi Jinping work together to forge an improved bond between their countries. 

During the Jan. 14-17 visit, the leaders of the two nations reached an agreement that would allow up to 49,000 Chinese electric vehicles to enter the Canadian market at a lower tariff rate of 6.1%, Carney’s office announced. 

‘At its best, the Canada-China relationship has created massive opportunities for both our peoples. By leveraging our strengths and focusing on trade, energy, agri-food, and areas where we can make huge gains, we are forging a new strategic partnership that builds on the best of our past, reflects the world as it is today, and benefits the people of both our nations,’ Carney said in the statement.

Additionally, by March 1, China is expected to drop its tariff on Canadian canola seed to a combined rate of 15%. Carney’s office said that Canada expects that its canola meal, lobsters, crabs, and peas will not be subject to relevant anti-discrimination tariffs beginning March 1 ‘until at least the end of this year.’

It is unclear what deal would trigger a response from Trump in the wake of the ones made during Carney’s trip to China.

Tensions between Carney and Trump have flared in recent days, as the leaders took swipes at one another at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland — and at home after the conference.

Carney, fresh off his trip to China, delievered a speech that garnered international attention. While he did not mention Trump by name, he made a reference to the U.S., saying that ‘rules-based order is fading.’ Many, including the U.S. president, saw this as a jab at Trump.

‘Every day we’re reminded that we live in an era of great-power rivalry,’ Carney said. ‘That the rules-based order is fading. That the strong can do what they can, and the weak must suffer what they must.’ 

He admitted that there were benefits to U.S. leadership on the world stage, but painted the entire concept of a rules-based international order as a falsity that is actively failing. Additionally, in his address, Carney urged middle powers, like Canada, to assert themselves and take the opportunity to ‘build a new order that embodies our values.’

‘Middle powers must act together because if you are not at the table, you are on the menu,’ Carney said. 

When delivering his address on Wednesday, Trump did not shy away from taking aim at Carney. He said that Canada ‘should be grateful’ because the country gets ‘a lot of freebies’ from the U.S., though he did not say what he was referring to.

‘I watched your prime minister yesterday. He wasn’t so grateful,’ Trump said. ‘Canada lives because of the United States. Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements.’

In another apparent swipe at Carney, Trump issued an ‘open letter’ to the Canadian leader on Truth Social revoking Canada’s invitation to join the Board of Peace, a U.S.-led council tasked with managing Gaza’s post-war future.

‘Please let this Letter serve to represent that the Board of Peace is withdrawing its invitation to you regarding Canada’s joining, what will be, the most prestigious Board of Leaders ever assembled, at any time. Thank you for your attention to this matter!’ Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The inauguration of the Board of Peace took place after Carney had already departed, according to The Associated Press.

Upon his return to Canada, Carney addressed a cabinet retreat and took the opportunity to reject Trump’s claim.

‘Canada and the United States have built a remarkable partnership in the economy, in security, and in a rich cultural exchange,’ Carney said on Thursday while speaking in Plains of Abraham, Québec, during a cabinet retreat. 

‘But Canada doesn’t ‘live because of the United States’,’ he said, referencing Trump’s remark. ‘Canada thrives because we are Canadian. We are masters in our own house. This is our country. This is our future. The choice is ours.’

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House and Carney’s office for comment.

Christians in Sudan are daily facing hunger, misery and terror. The new Open Doors World Watch List for 2026, which ranks the worst countries in the world for the persecution of Christians, placed the country at No. 4, up one place from last year’s report. 

There are an estimated 2 million Christians in the conflict-ridden northeastern African country. Sudan’s civil war has raged past the 1,000- day milestone with 150,000 people reported to have been killed and more than 13 million displaced. Christians have lived in Sudan since the late first century.

Many of Sudan’s Christians live in the Nuba Mountains, part of the Kordofan region. Rafat Samir, general secretary of the Sudan Evangelical Alliance, told Fox News Digital that the ‘Nuba Mountains now, where the majority of our church members are  coming from, is under siege and  bombing every day for the last six months or seven months. Last week, after Christmas, they bombed our church, hospital and school.’

Adding to the misery, a report by MEMRI, citing Christian Daily international, said 11 Sudanese Christians were killed, as they took part in a procession to their church for a religious celebration on Christmas Day by a drone operated by the government’s Sudanese Armed Forces. 18 others were injured in the attack. MEMRI reported the SAF are backed by the Muslim Brotherhood.

A State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital, ‘Since the April 2023 outbreak of conflict in Sudan, we have witnessed significant backsliding in Sudan’s overall respect for fundamental freedoms, including religious freedom. This backsliding especially impacts Sudan’s oppressed ethnic and religious populations, including Christians.’ 

In a Fox News Digital report last year, Christians were said to be eating grass to survive. Samir says the position is even more bleak in 2026: ‘even the grass is gone now.’

‘The conflict is accelerating the erasure of ancient Christian communities and sacred heritage,’ Mariam Wahba, research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), told Fox News Digital. ‘These losses will be far harder to reverse than the rebuilding of roads or ministries once the guns fall silent,’ she said.

Ideologically, Sudan’s Christians face a hostile future, Samir of the Evangelical Alliance said. ‘Both sides in the civil conflict are daughters of the Islamist movement in Sudan, and the Islamic ideology of both of them is to not have tolerance for others. They consider everyone different from them is against them. The Christian is considered their enemy as part of their religious ideology, and opposing them their religious duty.’

He continued, ‘So whoever does something to harm Christians is considered favorable to the law or to Allah.’ Samir went on to say, ‘the country is getting back to the dark ages.’

Repeated and continuing attempts at getting the government’s Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the opposing militia, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), to reach a ceasefire have failed. Both sides admit they are still fighting and, it’s clear, killing civilians with sustained energy, particularly in the central Sudanese region of Kordofan, home to many Christians.

‘The United States is committed to ending the horrific conflict in Sudan,’ a State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital, adding, ‘Under President Trump’s leadership, we are working with our allies and others to facilitate a humanitarian truce and bring an end to external military support to the parties which is fueling the violence. President Trump wants peace in Sudan.’     

The spokesperson continued, ‘The suffering of civilians has reached catastrophic levels, with millions lacking food, water and medical care. Every day of continued fighting costs more innocent lives. The war in Sudan is an enduring threat to regional stability.’

The U.N. says fighting is increasing in Kordofan, with U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk telling reporters in Port Sudan on Jan. 18, ‘I am very worried that the atrocity crimes committed during and after the takeover of El Fasher are at grave risk of repeating themselves in the Kordofan region, where the conflict has been rapidly escalating since late October.’

‘The Kordofan states are extremely volatile,’ he continued, ‘with relentless military engagements, heavy shelling, drone bombardments and airstrikes causing widespread destruction and collapse of essential services.’

Wahba said that ‘while the United States remains kinetically active across neighboring theaters, it is unlikely to wade directly into Sudan’s civil war.’

‘President Trump’, Wahba added, ‘has signaled a clear desire to see the conflict resolved —  an objective echoed by both Egypt and Saudi Arabia — but translating that consensus into outcomes on the ground has proven far more difficult than the rhetoric suggests.’

‘For now,’ Wahba continued, ‘U.S. policy is centered on convening regional stakeholders and pressing for alignment among them, while prioritizing humanitarian corridors, aid delivery and coordination with partners willing to host talks. Washington is acting as a facilitator, not an enforcer.’

‘This posture reflects both constraint and caution. Sudan presents few reliable leverage points, no unified opposition partner, and (there’s) little appetite in Congress or the White House for another open-ended entanglement in a fragmented civil war. The result is a policy that remains fluid and reactive, and is shaped less by strategy than by crisis management,’ she said.

Despite everything, the Sudan Evangelical Alliance’s Samir has hope, ‘The Holy Spirit is moving and God’s hand is working in our country. I can tell you through this evil, this darkness, the light of love of our God is lighting in many hearts. The devil is stealing people to death every day. We pray that let us Christians live for one day more, for one day more to proclaim Jesus’s message.’

President Donald Trump is waging war against a century-old tradition in the Senate that both Republicans and Democrats don’t want to touch.

Trump has ebbed and flowed in his disdain for the blue slip tradition in the upper chamber, taking out his frustrations on Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and other Republicans who have drawn a firm line in the sand for their support of the practice.

Much of his anger stemmed from the blue slip’s role in derailing a pair of his hand-picked U.S. attorney nominees — Alina Habba and Lindsey Halligan — last year.

Trump sounded off on the practice late last year in the Oval Office, arguing that the GOP should ‘get rid of blue slips, because, as a Republican President, I am unable to put anybody in office having to do with US attorneys or having to do with judges.’

But the practice, which has been around since World War I, is likely not going anywhere, given that it’s been a valuable tool for minority parties to block nominees.

The tradition allows for home state senators to weigh in on judicial nominees, giving them a say on who does and doesn’t move forward. Returning a blue slip is the equivalent of giving a thumbs up to the nominees moving forward, while keeping the slip effectively blocks the process.

While the tradition was used to block both Halligan and Habba, both of whom served as Trump’s attorneys while in between stints in the White House, Republicans have still been successful in confirming several of the president’s judicial picks.

Grassley noted in a post on X that ‘nearly 1/5 of the 417 nominees who were confirmed this [year] went’ through his committee.

‘I’m ready to process even more in the new [year] just need materials from WH and DOJ so [committee] can continue contributing to Senate’s historic nominations progress,’ he said.

While Senate Democrats tried to block as many of Trump’s nominees throughout last year, Republicans changed the rules to ram more through. That resulted in the upper chamber confirming 36 U.S. attorneys and 26 federal judges.

Four of those were from Democratic senators with blue slips in Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Michigan and Minnesota, where the Trump administration’s usage of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents has faced legal challenges.

Both of Minnesota’s Democratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, who aren’t quiet critics of Trump and his administration, returned their blue slips for U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen last year.

‘Putting aside political differences, he is respected across the board in Minnesota, and so I thought he would be a good U.S. attorney,’ Smith said.

And notably, the blue slip tradition was used by Republicans to ensure that Trump would have 15 judges to appoint once he took office, blocking several of former President Joe Biden’s nominees in the process. There is also not a single blue slip holding up a judicial nominee currently making its way through the process.

There have also been several Senate Republicans who have pushed back against Trump’s demand to decimate the tradition, including Sens. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and John Kennedy, R-La., both members of the Judiciary Committee.

They argued that the entire point of the blue slip was to ensure that individual senators got to have a say on the matter, and that the ‘issue cut both ways.’

‘I would urge my colleagues to respectfully tell the president that we would do damage to this institution, and we would do damage to the power of individual senators if we were to rescind the blue slip,’ Tillis said on the Senate floor last year.

Like many instances of Trump’s desire to take a sledgehammer to Senate tradition or procedure, Republicans largely aren’t biting.

And neither are members of Senate GOP leadership, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., who last year argued that there was more of an ‘intense feeling about preserving the blue slip maybe even than there is the filibuster.’

Thune noted that he and fellow South Dakota Republican Sen. Mike Rounds both took advantage of the blue slip process to ensure that their state had a Republican-appointed district court judge for the first time since former President Ronald Reagan’s presidency.

‘There were two vacancies,’ Thune said. ‘They wanted one Dem, we gave them a Dem, we got a Republican person into that position in South Dakota. So it’s — there are examples of how that process, I think, works to our advantage, and that’s what most senators hang on to when it comes to a discussion about the blue slip.’

Senate Democrats are ready to break a fragile truce that would avert a partial government shutdown after a Minneapolis man was fatally shot by a border patrol agent on Saturday. 

Congressional Democrats were already leery of backing funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in the wake of the agency’s presence in Minnesota and beyond, but the shooting of 37-year-old Alex Pretti during an immigration enforcement operation has shattered what little unity they had on the bill. 

Now, Senate Democrats, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., plan to vote against the legislation, which is currently included in a broader funding package along with five other spending bills. 

Schumer, in a statement on Saturday, said that Democrats tried to get ‘common sense reforms’ in the DHS funding bill, but charged that ‘because of Republicans’ refusal to stand up to President Trump, the DHS bill is woefully inadequate to rein in the abuses’ of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

 ‘I will vote no,’ Schumer said. ‘Senate Democrats will not provide the votes to proceed to the appropriations bill if the DHS funding bill is included.’

Schumer’s play call serves as a blow to Senate Republicans, who worked with their colleagues across the aisle to find compromises in the DHS bill, in particular. It also comes as the deadline to fund the government is rapidly approaching on Friday, Jan. 30. Further complicating matters is the arctic storm ripping across the country, which has already forced the upper chamber to cancel votes on Monday. 

A senior Senate aide told Fox News Digital that Senate Democrats had been for weeks saying that they weren’t interested in shutting the government down again, and had praised the bipartisan nature of the government funding process up until Saturday.

 ‘These bills were negotiated with Dems — they agreed to what’s in them,’ they said.

The agency would be fully funded in the current proposal with several restrictions and reporting requirements that if not met, would act as triggers to turn off certain cash flows. 

Ripping the bill from the current six-bill funding package would cause a domino effect of headaches in Congress, given that any changes to the package would have to go through the House.

The lower chamber is gone until Feb. 2, making the likelihood of a partial shutdown much higher. 

Before the shooting, a handful of Senate Democrats had already made their opposition to the legislation known, including senators Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Tim Kaine, D-Va.

Kaine, notably, crossed the aisle last year to join a cohort of Senate Democratic caucus members to reopen the government after the longest shutdown in U.S. history.

He was not the only member of that group of eight to voice opposition — senators Catherine Cortez Masto, D-N.V., and Jacky Rosen, D-N.M., both came out against the DHS bill’s inclusion in the broader package on Saturday. 

‘My personal guiding principle has always been ‘agree where you can and fight where you must,’ Rosen said in a statement. ‘And I believe this is a time when we must fight back.’

Meanwhile, House lawmakers are on a week-long recess after passing their latest spending package in two chunks — one standalone vote on DHS funding and another wrapping together funding legislation for the departments of War, Health and Human Services, Labor, Education, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development — this past Thursday.

A provision was added to the legislation before it passed the House that would combine the bills into one large package for the Senate to consider at once. It was then expected to be paired with other bills the Senate has not yet considered but which passed the House this month.

Changing that ahead of the Jan. 30 shutdown deadline would mean House lawmakers must return to Washington early to go through multiple procedural hurdles and another vote on the legislation — something House GOP leaders are ruling out, at least for now.

‘We passed all 12 bills over to the Senate, and they still have six in their possession that they need to pass to the president,’ a House GOP leadership source told Fox News Digital on Saturday evening, referring to the lower chamber completing its portion of Congress’ annual appropriations process. ‘We have no plan to come back next week.’

Even if House leaders changed their plans, the impending snow storm would mean lawmakers may not return until Tuesday at the earliest. That would put final passage sometime Wednesday or Thursday, virtually guaranteeing Congress does not complete consideration of the bills until after the Friday deadline.

House GOP leaders would also likely be grappling with attendance issues if they did order a return, with various lawmakers on planned trips and over a dozen busy campaigning for higher office.

A partial government shutdown would mean only agencies that Congress has not yet funded would have to reduce or cease functions — in this case, payment to active duty troops, air traffic controllers, and border patrol agents could all be affected.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo both issued dire warnings about the pressing need to protect the endangered Syrian Kurdish population under attack by government forces in the war-torn nation.

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who earlier this month ordered his army, which reportedly has a large jihadist element, to conquer territory controlled for more than a decade by the U.S.-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF.)

Writing on the social media platform X, Graham declared, ‘There is strong and growing bipartisan interest in the U.S. Senate regarding the deteriorating situation in Syria. There is strong consensus that we must protect the Kurds who were there for us in destroying the ISIS caliphate, as well as many other groups.’

Pompeo responded to Graham’s post, stating, ‘Turning our backs on our Kurdish allies would be a moral and strategic disaster.’

The Trump administration is facing criticism from its long-standing ally, the Syrian Kurds, who played a crucial role in the defeat of the Islamic State in the heartland of the Middle East after a U.S. government announcement on social media that seemed to hint that the partnership had ended this past week with the Kurdish-run SDF in northern Syria.

The SDF formed as a bulwark against the rapid spread of the Islamic State’s terrorist movement in 2013. ISIS created a caliphate covering significant territory in Syria and Iraq. Al-Sharaa was a former member of the Islamic State and al Qaeda.

Fox News Digital reached out to the State Department regarding U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack, who also serves as the special envoy for Syria, for a response to his recent statement on X that indicated the U.S. partnership with the SDF was over.

Barrack wrote, ‘The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), led by Kurds, proved the most effective ground partner in defeating ISIS’s territorial caliphate by 2019, detaining thousands of ISIS fighters and family members in prisons and camps like al-Hol and al-Shaddadi. At that time, there was no functioning central Syrian state to partner with — the Assad regime was weakened, contested, and not a viable partner against ISIS due to its alliances with Iran and Russia.

‘Today, the situation has fundamentally changed. Syria now has an acknowledged central government that has joined the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS (as its 90th member in late 2025), signaling a westward pivot and cooperation with the U.S. on counterterrorism.’

Iham Ahmed, a prominent Syrian Kurdish politician, told Fox News Digital, ‘We really wished to see a firm position from the U.S. The Kurdish people are at the risk of extermination. The U.S. does not give any solid or tangible guarantees.’

Ahmed cast doubt on statements like Barrack’s, warning the ‘Syrian army is still consisting of radical factions that no one can trust. Alawites, Christians, Sunnis and Druze cannot trust these factions. We could face massacres, which happened in other Syrian cities.’

When asked by Fox News Digital if the SDF wants Israel to intervene to aid the Kurds as it did to help the Syrian Druze and other minorities last year, Ahmed said, ‘Whoever wants to help us should do so. Today is the day.’ She said ‘the Islamic State is showing itself in the image of an official army. Everyone is threatened now.’

She urged a ‘special status for the Kurdish region’ in northeastern Syria.

Ahmed accused the Erdoğan government of nefarious involvement. 

‘Turkey stands behind the attacks on our region. Turkish intelligence and small groups are leading attacks. Statements from Turkey are encouraging the extermination of our people,’ she claimed.

Fox News Digital sent a press query to the Turkish embassy spokesman in Washington D.C.

The influential president of the Family Research Council, Tony Perkins, wrote on X, ‘Sen. Graham is right. I’ve been discussing the situation in NE Syria with Republican House leaders.  It is not in America’s interest for Islamist forces to seize territory once governed by trusted U.S. allies who protected minorities and advanced religious freedom. 

‘Yet this is happening as Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa’s forces move into northeast Syria, displacing the Syrian Democratic Forces — our partners in the fight against ISIS, who lost thousands of fighters, guarded U.S. bases, and detained ISIS prisoners.

‘Before we place trust in al-Sharaa, a former al Qaeda insurgent who fought U.S. forces in Iraq and was held at Abu Ghraib, he has to show he is trustworthy.  So far, he is failing the test.’

Sinam Mohamad, the representative of the Syrian Democratic Council to the U.S., had harsh words for the administration, telling Fox News Digital, ‘American officials continue to describe the SDF as a reliable partner in that narrow mission. Washington avoids framing the relationship as a political alliance. The U.S. never intended a long-term political commitment to the Syrian Kurds. It was a military partnership without political guarantees. From Washington’s view, that’s consistency. From the Kurdish view, that’s betrayal.’

She added there has been an announcement of a 15-day extension of a ceasefire.

‘But both the SDF and outside observers noted continued [Syrian] government troop buildups near Kurdish-held areas, signaling that conflict could resume. The Kurds want to have peace and stability through negotiations.’

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo both issued dire warnings about the pressing need to protect the endangered Syrian Kurdish population under attack by government forces in the war-torn nation.

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who earlier this month ordered his army, which reportedly has a large jihadist element in it, to conquer territory controlled for more than a decade by the U.S.-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF.)

Writing on the social media platform X on, Graham declared, ‘There is strong and growing bipartisan interest in the U.S. Senate regarding the deteriorating situation in Syria. There is strong consensus that we must protect the Kurds who were there for us in destroying the ISIS caliphate, as well as many other groups.’

Pompeo responded to Graham’s post, stating, ‘Turning our backs on our Kurdish allies would be a moral and strategic disaster.’

The Trump administration is facing criticism from its long-standing ally, the Syrian Kurds, who played a crucial role in the defeat of the Islamic State in the heartland of the Middle East, following a U.S. government announcement on social media that seemed to hint that the partnership had ended this past week with the Kurdish-run SDF in northern Syria.

The SDF formed as a bulwark against the rapid spread of the Islamic State’s terrorist movement in 2013. ISIS created a caliphate covering significant territory in Syria and Iraq. Al-Sharaa was a former member of the Islamic State and al Qaeda.

Fox News Digital reached out to the State Department regarding U.S. Ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barrack, who also serves as the Special Envoy for Syria, for a response to his recent statement on X wrote that indicated the U.S. partnership with the SDF was over.

Barrack wrote, ‘The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), led by Kurds, proved the most effective ground partner in defeating ISIS’s territorial caliphate by 2019, detaining thousands of ISIS fighters and family members in prisons and camps like al-Hol and al-Shaddadi. At that time, there was no functioning central Syrian state to partner with — the Assad regime was weakened, contested, and not a viable partner against ISIS due to its alliances with Iran and Russia.’

He added, ‘Today, the situation has fundamentally changed. Syria now has an acknowledged central government that has joined the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS (as its 90th member in late 2025), signaling a westward pivot and cooperation with the U.S. on counterterrorism.’

Iham Ahmed, a prominent Syrian Kurdish politician, told Fox News Digital that, ‘We really wished to see a firm position from the U.S. The Kurdish people are at the risk of extermination. The U.S. does not give any solid or tangible guarantees.’

Ahmed cast doubt on statements like Barrack’s, warning the ‘Syrian army is still consisting of radical factions that no one can trust. Alawites, Christians, Sunnis and Druze cannot trust these factions. We could face massacres, which happened in other Syrian cities.’

When asked by Fox News Digital if the SDF wants Israel to intervene to aid the Kurds as it did to help the Syrian Druze and other minorities last year, Ahmed said, ‘Whoever wants to help us should do so – today is the day.’ She said that ‘the Islamic State is showing itself in the image of an official army. Everyone is threatened now.’

She urged a ‘special status for the Kurdish region’ in northeastern Syria.

Ahmed accused the Erdoğan government of nefarious involvement. ‘Turkey stands behind the attacks on our region. Turkish intelligence and small groups are leading attacks. Statements from Turkey are encouraging the extermination of our people,’ she claimed.

Fox News Digital sent a press query to the Turkish embassy spokesman in Washington D.C.

The influential president of the Family Research Council, Tony Perkins, wrote on X that, ‘Sen. Graham is right. I’ve been discussing the situation in NE Syria with Republican House leaders.  It is not in America’s interest for Islamist forces to seize territory once governed by trusted U.S. allies who protected minorities and advanced religious freedom. Yet this is happening as Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa’s forces move into northeast Syria, displacing the Syrian Democratic Forces — our partners in the fight against ISIS, who lost thousands of fighters, guarded U.S. bases, and detained ISIS prisoners.’

He continued, ‘Before we place trust in al-Sharaa, a former al Qaeda insurgent who fought U.S. forces in Iraq and was held at Abu Ghraib, he has to show he is trustworthy.  So far, he is failing the test.’

Sinam Mohamad, the representative of the Syrian Democratic Council to the U.S., had harsh words for the administration, telling Fox News Digital, ‘American officials continue to describe the SDF as a reliable partner in that narrow mission. Washington avoids framing the relationship as a political alliance. The U.S. never intended a long-term political commitment to the Syrian Kurds. It was a military partnership without political guarantees. From Washington’s view, that’s consistency. From the Kurdish view, that’s betrayal.’

She added there has been an announcement of a 15-day extension of a ceasefire, ‘But both the SDF and outside observers noted continued [Syrian] government troop buildups near Kurdish-held areas, signaling that conflict could resume.’ She added, ‘The Kurds want to have peace and stability through negotiations.’

Senate Democrats are beginning to peel off from their leadership, upping the ante for another government shutdown.

Disputes over Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding, fewer restrictions on President Donald Trump’s authority and a possible headache with a previous, controversial provision could set the stage for another government shutdown.

Senate Republican and Democratic leaders don’t want to idly fall into another government shutdown, given that Congress just exited the longest closure in history a few short months ago. They have differing reasons, but for now, Republicans and Democrats agreed that the best option was to fund the government.

While the powers that be may have a momentary truce, it’s rank-and-file members who could drive Washington, D.C. to the edge of another shutdown.

Many of the issues lie within the DHS funding bill, which Democratic negotiators argued included several wins in their quest to rein in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). That bill passed through the House Thursday, with tepid support from House Democrats.

Only seven broke from their colleagues, a sign that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and his leadership team will have their work cut out for them in the upcoming week. And now, they’ll have to wrangle Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., who on Friday announced in a statement that he would not back the broader package.

Kaine wanted to see a much broader swath of constraints baked into the behemoth funding package, including safeguards against Trump’s war powers, the firing of federal workers, and DHS and ICE retribution against his home state.

‘We are not living in normal times,’ Kaine said. ‘The president is acting chaotically and unlawfully, and we shouldn’t give his deranged decisions the imprimatur of congressional approval by passing this legislation without significant amendment.’

Kaine’s defection is particularly notable, given that he was one of a handful of Senate Democrats who crossed the aisle to reopen the government last year.

A source familiar told Fox News Digital that there were up to 10 Senate Democrats who might not vote for the package or any funding bills from Republicans in general. That complicates the math needed to reach 60 votes.

Then there is Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who is a member of Schumer’s leadership team and the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations subcommittee, who said he won’t support the DHS bill, arguing that it does not go far enough to restrict DHS Secretary Kristi Noem or Trump.

Murphy, who was involved in negotiations for the bill, said in a statement that he understood that his colleague ‘had a hard job — no new budget for DHS is going to cure all the rampant illegality happening within the department.’

‘Democrats have no obligation to support a bill that not only funds the dystopian scenes we are seeing in Minneapolis but will allow DHS to replicate that playbook of brutality in cities all over this country,’ Murphy said.

Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Katie Britt, R-Ala., told Fox News Digital in a statement that ‘importantly, this bill contains no Democrat poison pills.’

‘I’m hopeful my colleagues on the other side of the aisle will do what’s right and not further politicize this process,’ Britt said.

Still, leaders on both sides are hopeful that the weight of the broader package, which will include defense funding, is enough to keep lawmakers in line and avoid a shutdown.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who is the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, argued that while the package was not exactly what she and Democrats had hoped for, it was good enough to support.

That’s because she and congressional Democrats were able to bake in their own restrictions on funding that would not be adhered to if Congress again has to turn to another short-term funding bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR).

‘While there’s a whole lot more I wish these bills would have addressed, these compromise bills protect critical investments in the American people, reject truly heartless cuts that would have undone decades of progress —and they are a significantly better outcome than another year-long CR,’ Murray said. ‘I look forward to ensuring they get signed into law.’

As Americans brace for massive winter storms expected to impact more than 170 million people across the U.S., President Donald Trump mocked what he described as ‘environmental insurrectionists’ in a Truth Social post on Friday.

‘Record Cold Wave expected to hit 40 States. Rarely seen anything like it before,’ Trump said in the post.

‘Could the Environmental Insurrectionists please explain — WHATEVER HAPPENED TO GLOBAL WARMING???’ he quipped.

‘A significant, long-duration winter storm will bring widespread heavy snow, sleet, and freezing rain from the Southern Rockies to New England through Monday. Widespread travel disruptions, prolonged power outages, and vast tree damage is likely,’ the National Weather Service noted in a Friday post on X.

In a Truth Social post last year, the president declared, ‘I (WE!) just won the War on the Climate Change Hoax.’ 

Trump’s post addressed a recent essay by Bill Gates. In the essay, Gates wrote, ‘Although climate change will have serious consequences — particularly for people in the poorest countries — it will not lead to humanity’s demise. People will be able to live and thrive in most places on Earth for the foreseeable future.’

‘Bill Gates has finally admitted that he was completely WRONG on the issue,’ Trump wrote at the time. ‘It took courage to do so, and for that we are all grateful.’ 

Former Democratic President Joe Biden repeatedly addressed the issue of climate change during his White House tenure.

In his 2023 State of the Union Address, Biden claimed there is a ‘climate crisis’ that is ‘an existential threat.’

In a Truth Social post the night of Biden’s 2023 speech, Trump asserted, ‘His Climate Change statements, they can no longer use Global Warming because that doesn’t work anymore, will bankrupt our Country, and bring us into the Third World status, which we’re getting closer and closer to anyway.’

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has rejected President Donald Trump’s assertion that ‘Canada lives because of the United States.’

‘Canada and the United States have built a remarkable partnership in the economy, in security, and in a rich cultural exchange,’ Carney said on Thursday while speaking in Plains of Abraham, Québec, during a cabinet retreat. 

‘But Canada doesn’t ‘live because of the United States’,’ he said, referencing Trump’s remark. ‘Canada thrives because we are Canadian. We are masters in our own house. This is our country. This is our future. The choice is ours.’

In response to Fox News Digital’s request for comment, the White House pointed to Trump’s Truth Social post.

On Thursday, Trump published an open letter to Carney informing him that Canada’s invitation to join the Board of Peace — a U.S.-led council tasked with managing Gaza’s post-war future — had been rescinded.

‘Please let this Letter serve to represent that the Board of Peace is withdrawing its invitation to you regarding Canada’s joining, what will be, the most prestigious Board of Leaders ever assembled, at any time. Thank you for your attention to this matter!’ Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The board was inaugurated in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday, though Carney had already left, according to The Associated Press.

Tensions between Carney and Trump flared as world leaders met in Davos for the annual World Economic Forum. Both Trump and Carney took swipes at each other in their respective speeches.

During his address on Tuesday, Carney did not mention Trump by name, but rather he said that ‘rules-based order is fading,’ referencing the U.S.

He admitted that there were benefits to US. leadership on the world stage, but painted the entire concept of a rules-based international order as a falsity that is actively failing. Additionally, in his address, Carney urged middle powers, like Canada, to assert themselves and take the opportunity to ‘build a new order that embodies our values.’

When delivering his address on Wednesday, Trump did not shy away from taking aim at Carney. He said that Canada ‘should be grateful’ because the country gets ‘a lot of freebies’ from the U.S., though he did not say what he was referring to.

‘I watched your prime minister yesterday, he wasn’t so grateful,’ Trump said. ‘Canada lives because of the United States. Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements.’

The friction between Trump and Carney underscored a growing rift between the two. In his address to a cabinet retreat, Carney framed it as a moment for Canada to assert its own power and build a future based on its own values.

Fox News Digital reached out to Carney’s office for comment.

As President Donald Trump aims to build a ballroom at the White House, federal Judge Richard Leon on Thursday reportedly asked Justice Department lawyers to point to what authority allows the president to engage in a construction project at the White House.

‘Where do you see the authority for the president to tear down the East Wing and build something in its place?’ the judge asked, according to The Washington Post. 

While the outlet reported that Leon said he could issue a decision next month, NBC News reported that the judge promised that he would issue a decision in February.

Attorney Thad Heuer, who represents the National Trust for Historic Preservation, contended that the president lacks the constitutional power to rip down the East Wing and build a ballroom, according to NBC News, which quoted Heuer as saying, ‘He’s not the owner.’

The outlet reported that the judge seemed to be leaning in the direction of pausing the project.

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House on Friday.

‘The president didn’t want $400 million in taxpayer money to be used for this,’ Justice Department attorney Yaakov Roth said, according to NBC News. 

‘He wanted to use donations,’ Roth noted.

The project began last year at the behest of Trump, but he has asserted that it is being funded by private donations, not taxpayer dollars.

‘I am honored to be the first President to finally get this much-needed project underway — with zero cost to the American Taxpayer!’ Trump declared in an October Truth Social post. ‘The White House Ballroom is being privately funded by many generous Patriots, Great American Companies, and, yours truly. This Ballroom will be happily used for Generations to come!’