The White House appears to be rejecting Democrats’ demands in the burgeoning government funding fight, as the chances of a partial shutdown grow larger by the day.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is threatening that Democrats will vote against the massive federal spending bill set to get a vote this week unless funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is stripped out and renegotiated.

Republicans have already signaled they’re not inclined to do so, which White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt reaffirmed during her Monday afternoon press conference.

Leavitt also pointed out that all the bills wrapped into the massive spending package are the product of bipartisan negotiations between the House and Senate — meaning Democrats already had a say in the legislation they are now rejecting.

‘At this point, the White House supports the bipartisan work that was done to advance the bipartisan appropriations package, and we want to see that passed,’ President Donald Trump’s spokeswoman said. 

‘Policy discussions on immigration in Minnesota are happening. Look, the president is leading those discussions, as evidenced by his correspondence with Governor Walz this morning. But that should not be at the expense of government funding for the American people.’

Democrats are coming out against the DHS funding bill en masse in the wake of another deadly federal law enforcement-involved shooting in Minneapolis. A Border Patrol agent shot Alex Pretti, a nurse who worked with veterans at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center, during a wider protest against Trump’s immigration crackdown in the city.

Both Republicans and Democrats have called for investigations into the fatal encounter, but only Democrats are threatening to put federal funding at risk.

Leavitt pointed out that the DHS funding portion would also allocate dollars to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), not just the Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spending that Democrats object to.

‘We are in the midst of the storm that took place over the weekend, and many Americans are still being impacted by that. So we absolutely do not want to see that funding lapse,’ she said. ‘We want the Senate to move forward with passing the bipartisan appropriations package that was negotiated on a bipartisan basis.’

The legislation negotiated between Republicans and Democrats already includes guardrails for ICE, including mandating body-worn cameras and more training on public engagement and de-escalation.

But Pretti’s killing and DHS’s handling of it infuriated Democrats — at least several of whom will be needed to meet the Senate’s 60-vote threshold to advance the legislation.

Senate Republicans had wanted to pass the package as early as Thursday and send it to Trump’s desk just before the Jan. 30 shutdown deadline.

Senate Democrats held a private, caucus-wide call on the matter on Sunday, after which a source familiar told Fox News Digital that Schumer’s plan was to reject any DHS bill without several reforms, but that the broader, five-bill funding package could move ahead. 

‘Basically, DHS is the problem and should be split from the package,’ they said.

But with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., taking the first procedural step to set up this week’s vote on the larger package on Monday, Democrats’ prospects of strong-arming the GOP are thin.

Even if Senate Democrats did prevail, it’s virtually guaranteed that Congress would miss the Friday shutdown deadline at this point.

Any changes to the spending package would require it to return to the House to be considered again, despite it passing the lower chamber last week.

But a House GOP leadership source told Fox News Digital of that prospect on Saturday, ‘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. We have no plan to come back next week.’

Fox News Digital reached out to Schumer’s office for a response.

Russia criticized the U.S.’ proposed Golden Dome missile defense system Monday, warning it could destabilize global nuclear deterrence, according to reports.

According to TASS, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev told Kommersant newspaper that the ambitious project is extremely ‘provocative.’

‘Problems in the strategic sphere resulting from destabilizing U.S. actions only continue to grow. It is enough to recall the highly provocative anti-missile project ‘Golden Dome for America,’’ he said, TASS reported.

‘It fundamentally contradicts the assertion of the inseparable interrelationship between offensive and defensive strategic arms, which, by the way, was enshrined in the preamble of New START,’ Medvedev added, citing the treaty that protects U.S. national security by placing limits on Russia’s deployed intercontinental nuclear weapons.

A defense expert says Russia’s reaction underscores the Golden Dome’s power as a geopolitical signal to the world.

‘Even before it has been built, the dome is military focused and politically focused and an incredible bargaining chip with U.S. adversaries,’ defense expert Cameron Chell told Fox News Digital.

‘In this case, it is Russia and China in particular, in terms of how the U.S. postures for negotiating peace terms, treaty terms and whether the U.S. will be negating their already existing arsenal,’ the Draganfly CEO claimed.

The Golden Dome is a long-term missile defense concept aimed at protecting North America from ballistic, cruise and hypersonic missile threats.

Chell spoke after the Pentagon released its National Defense Strategy on Jan. 23, outlining a renewed focus on homeland defense, expanded missile defense, counter-drone systems, cyber capabilities and long-range strike forces.

The planned Golden Dome missile defense shield is designed to defeat ‘large missile barrages and other advanced aerial attacks,’ the strategy said, while also hardening military and key civilian infrastructure against cyber strikes as Russia and China continue expanding their hypersonic weapons programs.

As previously reported by Fox News Digital, China has also pushed back against the Golden Dome missile defense initiative, accusing Washington of undermining global strategic stability and risking the weaponization of outer space.

‘There’s big value in the talk and the build-out of Golden Dome, even long before it gets built, not to mention the research and technology development that comes out of it,’ Chell said.

‘The posturing and the economic benefits of building something like this are also factored into why the dome is so important.’

The project’s sheer scale is expected to drive its strategic impact but could also come with an enormous price tag.

‘The dome is going to take trillions to build and is the largest military project, probably the largest engineering and technology project ever attempted, so there are going to be challenges getting it done,’ Chell explained.

‘The U.S. has ten years of planning, including where they are going to have communication links, radar systems, and early warning systems.’ That planning, Chell noted, is shifting focus north.

‘In order to protect the U.S., you want to take things down before they get over the top of the country,’ Chell said.

‘Places like Canada, or even further north, become the dropping ground. You want to get these threats as soon as possible.’

Canada and Greenland are viewed by U.S. defense planners as critical for radar coverage, space tracking and early-warning infrastructure.

‘The idea is something being shot down from space, but to do that you need very detailed landscape data of the entire North and you need access to the North,’ Chell said.

President Trump has long argued the U.S. must control Greenland for national security reasons, citing its strategic Arctic location and natural resources.

‘There needs to be infrastructure and oversight in the far north, in Canada, in Greenland, and places like that,’ Chell said. ‘All that planning has to be done well ahead of time, before we have anything operational.’

Chell also pointed to the potential role of drones in supporting the Golden Dome’s broader mission.

‘Drones could be part of informing the Golden Dome as reconnaissance, surveillance and intelligence tools,’ he said, adding that the ‘entire military complex is integrated.’

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Department of War for comment.

More and more brutal evidence of the Iranian regime’s crackdown on its own people is circulating online, as the true number of those killed in Iran’s protests remains hotly contested amid internet blackouts and state intimidation. Estimates range from the thousands confirmed dead to the tens of thousands feared killed, according to activists, media reports and medical data.

Fatemeh Jamalpour, an Iranian journalist who has covered every major protest movement over the past two decades, said the latest crackdown represents a turning point in the regime’s use of force. ‘The regime’s level of violence has increased dramatically, and with the internet crackdown, it is difficult to know the true scale of the killing.’

‘The new thing I have seen in these protests, something we have not seen before, is that starting on the night of January 8, the regime issued shoot-to-kill orders to the IRGC, the Basij and the riot police, authorizing direct fire,’ Jamalpour told Fox News Digital.

‘In previous protests, military-grade weapons were used mainly in minority provinces such as Kurdistan and Baluchestan,’ she added. ‘This time they were used across the entire country… Health Ministry officials told us they ran out-of-body bags for the dead.’

The most widely cited baseline comes from the Human Rights Activists News Agency, or HRANA, a U.S.-based group that tracks deaths by name and location.

As of January 25, HRANA reported 5,848 people confirmed killed. Of these, 5,520 were protesters, 77 were children under 18, 209 were government-affiliated forces and 42 were non-protesters or civilians. The number of deaths still under investigation stands at 17,091.

The group has emphasized that its confirmed tally reflects only cases that could be independently documented, and that its overall figures are expected to rise as information continues to emerge.

According to The Associated Press, Iranian authorities have offered only one official count, 3,117, and have not updated it publicly in the last five days. Authorities have not released names, locations, or documentation to support that figure.

Beyond human rights tallies, a separate medical working paper reviewed by Fox News Digital suggests the death toll may be far higher.

The report by Munich Med Group, authored by professor Dr. Amir-Mobarez Parasta, compiles hospital-registered fatalities from multiple Iranian cities and applies what the author describes as a conservative extrapolation model to account for underreporting during the communications blackout.

Using that methodology, the paper estimates a nationwide death toll of approximately 33,130 people as of January 23. The author stresses the figure is not a verified count, but a lower-bound estimate based on partial medical data and stated assumptions.

Iran International published its own investigation, claiming it reviewed documents indicating that more than 36,500 people were killed during two days of protests on January 8 and 9 alone. The outlet said the documents were provided by sources inside Iran, but the claims have not been independently verified.

The wide gap between confirmed counts and higher estimates reflects not only the scale of violence, but also the conditions under which it occurred.

According to Jamalpour, despite the internet shutdown, doctors and medical workers attempted to document what they were seeing using limited satellite connections.

‘Many doctors and medical staff tried to send us their accounts and documentation through small Starlink connections,’ she said. ‘Medical workers say protesters were often shot in the head and neck, with intent to kill. Many were killed by multiple bullets. Some were shot from behind while trying to flee.’

Jamalpour said the victims she documented reflected a generation the regime appeared determined to crush. ‘Among the dead are children and a 67-year-old man, but most are young people under 30,’ she said. 

Jamalpour described the killing of Mehdi Khanmohammadi, a 67-year-old retired army colonel and pilot. ‘He was killed on Friday, January 9, in Saadat Abad by two bullets,’ she said. ‘In a video, his daughter stands over his lifeless body and says, ‘Can you open your eyes and wake up?’’

She said scenes like that have left the country in collective mourning. ‘These days, Iranians are in shock,’ Jamalpour said. ‘There is grief everywhere.’

At the same time, she warned that the crackdown is far from over. ‘Lawyers and human rights organizations are deeply concerned about more than 20,000 protesters who have been detained and are at risk of execution,’ she said.

Yet even amid the fear, Jamalpour said she hears something new inside Iran. ‘In my conversations from inside the country, I hear people’s hope for Trump’s help in freeing Iran,’ she said. ‘And a determination to change the regime, now intertwined with anger and grief.’

Venezuela opposition leader María Corina Machado argued that a successful democratic transition for her country would rapidly transform the nation’s economy and reverse years of instability, reshaping the region’s political landscape.

Machado told the New York Post in an interview that such an outcome would define Trump’s foreign policy legacy, comparing it to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

‘The legacy to the world is going to be huge,’ she explained. ‘You’re going to have a prosperous Venezuela and the region.… If you make a comparison in history, this would mean for the Americas as much as the fall of the Berlin Wall had for Europe. It’s equivalent.

‘For the first time in history, you will have the Americas free of communism, dictatorship and narco-terrorism for the first time,’ she added.

Machado said she intends to return to Venezuela soon to help drive a democratic transition despite the risks she faces under the country’s current government.

‘I need to be there. I want to go back as soon as possible,’ Machado said.

Her planned return would come at a pivotal moment for Venezuela, as interim President Delcy Rodríguez leads a U.S.-backed transition following the removal of Nicolás Maduro.

Rodríguez, a close ally of Maduro, was sworn into office on Jan. 5 after U.S. forces ousted the ex-leader and his wife, Cilia Flores, from their compound in Caracas during a military operation.

The duo were flown to New York and arraigned in federal court on multiple charges to which they pleaded not guilty.

Rodríguez has since been working with the White House and has spoken with President Donald Trump by phone.

Machado, however, voiced deep reservations about Rodríguez’s leadership, warning that the transition risks falling short without a broader break from the Maduro-era government.

‘If Delcy Rodríguez stays, nothing truly changes,’ she told the Post. ‘There will be no rule of law, no trust, no stability. Venezuelans will not come home under a criminal.’

The Pentagon’s newly released National Defense Strategy warns that future wars may no longer be fought solely overseas, arguing the U.S. military must be prepared to conduct combat operations directly from the American homeland as adversaries gain the ability to strike the United States itself.

The strategy, released Friday evening, elevates homeland defense above all other missions, calling for expanded missile defense, counter-drone systems, cyber capabilities and long-range strike forces capable of launching decisive operations from U.S. soil. Pentagon planners describe a global threat environment that is faster, more dangerous and far less forgiving than in past decades.

‘The Joint Force must be ready to deter and, if called upon, to prevail … including the ability to launch decisive operations against targets anywhere — including directly from the U.S. Homeland,’ the strategy states.

‘More direct military threats to the American Homeland have also grown in recent years, including nuclear threats as well as a variety of conventional strike and space, cyber, electromagnetic warfare capabilities,’ it adds.

Russia and China both field intercontinental ballistic missiles that can reach the continental United States, while North Korea has tested long-range missiles that U.S. officials say are capable of hitting U.S. territory. Iran is not believed to possess intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching U.S. soil.

As a result, the Pentagon will prioritize President Donald Trump’s planned Golden Dome missile defense shield, with a focus on defeating ‘large missile barrages and other advanced aerial attacks,’ while also hardening military and key civilian infrastructure against cyber strikes. 

‘The United States should never — will never — be left vulnerable to nuclear blackmail,’ the strategy says, as it calls for continued modernization of the nation’s nuclear deterrent.

After years of focusing on a potential conflict with China in the Indo-Pacific, the strategy makes clear the Pentagon will seek what it calls a ‘stable peace’ with Beijing, including expanded military-to-military communications.

‘We will also be clear-eyed and realistic about the speed, scale, and quality of China’s historic military buildup,’ the document says. ‘Our goal … is simple: To prevent anyone, including China, from being able to dominate us or our allies.’

Pentagon planners argue deterrence will rely less on confrontation and more on denying China the ability to win a fight outright, particularly in the western Pacific, by blocking attempts to dominate U.S. allies or control key maritime routes.

But China is not the only concern.

The strategy warns the United States could face multiple crises at the same time, with adversaries acting together or exploiting moments of distraction — raising the risk that conflicts overseas could overlap and reach the homeland early.

To manage that risk, the Pentagon is pressing allies to shoulder more of the burden. The strategy calls on European and Indo-Pacific partners to dramatically increase defense spending, freeing U.S. forces to focus on homeland defense and the most dangerous threats.

The document also sharpens the Pentagon’s focus closer to home, treating border security, drug trafficking and access to key terrain as core military missions. It calls for readiness to take decisive action against narco-terrorist groups and to protect strategic locations including the Panama Canal and Greenland.

Distance, the strategy argues, is no longer a shield. Long-range missiles, cyber weapons and drones now allow adversaries to reach the United States directly, compressing warning times and raising the risk that future wars could hit American soil early.

To keep pace, the Pentagon calls for a rapid rebuild of the U.S. defense industrial base, warning that America must be able to produce weapons and equipment at scale if it hopes to deter — or survive — a prolonged fight.

The strategy describes Russia as a serious but declining threat, warning Moscow still poses dangers through its nuclear arsenal and cyber, space and undersea capabilities, even as the Pentagon argues Europe is now capable of taking the lead in its own defense.

‘Russia will remain a persistent but manageable threat to NATO’s eastern members for the foreseeable future,’ the document says, noting Russia continues to modernize ‘the world’s largest nuclear arsenal.’ The strategy makes clear Washington expects NATO allies to shoulder far more responsibility, arguing Europe’s economic and military potential far outpaces Russia’s if allies invest accordingly.

On Iran, the Pentagon paints a picture of a regime weakened by recent U.S. and Israeli military action but still dangerous and unpredictable.

‘Iran’s regime is weaker and more vulnerable than it has been in decades,’ the strategy says, while warning Iran’s leaders ‘have left open the possibility that they will try again to obtain a nuclear weapon.’

The document stresses Tehran’s continued hostility toward the United States and Israel, noting Iran ‘has the blood of Americans on its hands,’ and emphasizes empowering allies, particularly Israel and U.S. partners in the Gulf, to deter Iran and respond decisively if American interests are threatened.

Iran regularly touts its ballistic missile arsenal as a central pillar of its deterrent and retaliatory strategy, showcasing new medium-range and ‘hypersonic’ systems and warning they can strike regional rivals and U.S. interests in the Middle East. 

China, meanwhile, has pushed back strongly against the U.S. Golden Dome missile defense initiative, accusing Washington of undermining global strategic stability and risking the weaponization of outer space.

A cohort of Senate Republicans plans to launch a targeted task force aimed at tackling fraudsters in the wake of the Minnesota fraud scandal.

Republican members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee announced that they would form a task force dedicated to rooting out fraudsters abusing federal funding.

The seven-member panel will be led by HELP Committee Chair Bill Cassidy, R-La., who has cranked up efforts in recent weeks to crack down on fraud, particularly in Minnesota.

‘Our tax dollars are supposed to help American families, not line the pockets of fraudsters,’ Cassidy said in a statement to Fox News Digital. ‘HELP Committee Republicans are committed to rooting out this fraud and ensuring Americans’ tax dollars are used responsibly.’

The long-running, nearly six-year-long investigation into alleged fraud in Minnesota gained new attention and traction among Republicans and the White House earlier this year.

The scandal, in which federal prosecutors estimate that up to $9 billion was stolen through a network of fraudulent fronts posing as daycare centers, food programs and health clinics, has dominated the bandwidth of many in the GOP and spurred the Trump administration’s deployment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents into Minneapolis.

The majority of those charged, so far, in the ongoing investigation are part of Minnesota’s Somali population. The Trump administration has taken steps outside the deploying of ICE agents to target Somalis in the area, too, including ending protected status for the population and launching investigations into whether the fraudulent activity is connected to al-Shabab, a terrorist organization based in Somalia.

The task force will delineate its focus into three prongs: health, education and labor and pensions.

Those three subgroups will be led by Sens. Ashley Moody, R-Fla., Roger Marshall, R-Kan., who will lead the health-focused section, Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., Jon Husted, who will lead the education-focused group, and R-Ohio, Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., and Tim Scott, R-S.C., who will chair the labor-and-pensions-focused section.

But the task force’s announcement comes at a precarious time, as lawmakers hurtle toward what could be another government shutdown fueled in large part by the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) actions in Minnesota. 

That situation comes after Senate Democrats, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., signaled their plan to reject the DHS funding bill following the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Alex Pretti on Saturday by a border patrol agent. Cassidy, along with a handful of other congressional Republicans, demanded that the incident receive a fulsome and thorough investigation. 

Still, Cassidy’s effort is not the first time he’s forayed into the Minnesota fraud scandal.

Earlier this month, the lawmaker led the entire Senate GOP in a letter to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, demanding that he provide receipts on several issues, and warned that failure to do so could lead to several streams of federal money flowing to Minnesota drying up.

That effort was centered on several requests, like how often the state conducted on-site monitoring, inspections or investigative visits to childcare facilities that received federal dollars.

Senate Republicans specifically wanted examples of any information uncovered on fake children, false attendance records, over-billing, ineligible enrollments, and shell or fake business structures, among other demands from Walz.

A battleground district House Republican is wading into the redistricting war that has seized the U.S. with his own new proposal to crack down on ‘partisan gamesmanship.’

Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., has introduced a bill called the Fair Apportionment and Independent Redistricting for Maps that Avoid Partisanship (FAIR MAP) Act, which would impose new guardrails on the process of changing congressional districts across all 50 states.

The bill would bar states from drawing districts for or against a specific political party or candidate and ban the creation of new congressional maps more than once a decade following the U.S. census.

It comes as election watchers eye Virginia and Maryland as the latest states whose Democrat-led legislatures could move to redraw their congressional boundaries ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

Earlier this month, a state Supreme Court judge in Lawler’s own home turf of New York ruled that New York City’s lone Republican-held district is unconstitutional and must be redrawn — handing potentially a consequential win to Democrats.

Lawler said of Democrats’ push in his state, ‘[Gov. Kathy Hochul] and [House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’] scheme to redraw New York’s congressional districts months before an election is a blatant power grab and misuse of public office.’

The growing redistricting war was kicked off last year when Texas’ GOP-led legislature approved a new congressional map that could give Republicans as many as five new seats in the House of Representatives come the November elections.

Redistricting normally occurs every 10 years after the U.S. census is taken to ensure that seats in the House are reflective of each state’s population. And while there’s a patchwork of state laws aimed at blocking those districts from being redrawn along partisan lines, there is no current federal standard.

In addition to banning mid-decade redistricting in most cases and creating a federal gerrymandering standard, Lawler’s bill would also create a host of new provisions dictating how those populations are ultimately counted and how disputes can be resolved.

The bill would block state and local courts from legal redistricting fights, for example, leaving it to federal judges to weigh in on those fights.

It would also mandate that just U.S. citizens are counted toward state populations when creating new maps — something that could take a significant amount of power away from sanctuary jurisdictions that can currently factor numbers of illegal immigrants who cannot vote when apportioning districts.

The legislation also includes new electoral provisions like barring ranked-choice voting in federal elections, requiring photo ID for voting in those elections, and banning same-day registration in federal elections.

Lawler was among the House Republicans who forcefully came out against the growing redistricting war last summer, when leaders in Texas and California were going toe-to-toe with threats to redraw their maps.

But it does not appear likely as of now that his bill will get taken up for a House-wide vote, given House GOP leaders’ prior insistence that redistricting is a states’ issue.

‘Voting rights and equal representation only work if the system itself is fair, transparent, and trusted. My FAIR MAP Act puts clear guardrails around congressional redistricting, ends mid-decade political map rigging, and ensures that federal elections reflect the voices of lawful voters, not partisan gamesmanship,’ Lawler told Fox News Digital. ‘Every voter deserves confidence that the system is fair and that their vote counts the same as anyone else’s.’

Speaking to global leaders in Davos, Switzerland, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivered a blunt warning to Europe about its self-defense.  

‘Europe needs to know how to defend itself,’ he said, arguing that the continent still isn’t ready to stand on its own without U.S. backing.

Zelensky’s remarks reflected a growing anxiety across Europe — that decades of reliance on American protection left the continent ill-prepared for a more dangerous era. While European countries have contributed troops, weapons and money to conflicts from Afghanistan to Ukraine, the ultimate backstop for NATO’s security has remained Washington.

President Donald Trump has openly challenged that assumption, repeatedly warning NATO allies that U.S. protection should not be taken for granted, and insisting the U.S. needed to take Greenland from Denmark

Before he ruled out the use of force to wrest control of the island, European officials had worried about a military dust-up between Western powers would mean the end of NATO.

‘Maybe we should have put NATO to the test: Invoked Article 5, and forced NATO to come here and protect our Southern Border from further Invasions of Illegal Immigrants, thus freeing up large numbers of Border Patrol Agents for other tasks,’ Trump mused on Truth Social Thursday.

Trump’s suggestion that the U.S. may not defend allies that fail to invest in their own security rattled the alliance and pushed European governments to pledge sharp increases in defense spending.

Even so, European leaders continue to acknowledge how central U.S. power remains to NATO’s defense. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has pointed to the American nuclear umbrella as the alliance’s ‘ultimate guarantor,’ alongside a strong U.S. conventional presence in Europe.

‘We are still having a strong, conventional U.S. presence in Europe,’ Rutte said, ‘and, of course, the nuclear umbrella as our ultimate guarantor.’

Security analysts say that long-standing guarantee shaped Europe’s choices over time.

‘For much of the post–Cold War period, it is fair to say that Europeans underinvested in defense, partly because threats were low, and partly because a series of U.S. presidents did everything they could to convince Europeans that we would stay there forever,’ Barry Posen, a professor of political science at MIT, told Fox News Digital.

‘Trump was right to argue that Europeans have been slow to fix up their forces as the situation changed — as Russia pulled itself back together and became more demanding and threatening, and as China also grew its power,’ Posen said.

But Posen warned that driving a wedge inside NATO carries risks. ‘The problem Trump faces is that ‘conditional commitments’ make challenges more likely,’ he said. ‘And then we would still have to decide what to do. As a great power, in the event of an actual challenge, we might not wish to look weak.’

Over time, those choices carried political consequences. With American power serving as the backstop, defense spending was easier to restrain than politically popular domestic subsidies such as healthcare, pensions and education, which became entrenched in European politics.

As defense demands rise, governments are running into those constraints. In Italy, officials have warned that boosting military spending to meet NATO commitments would strain an already tight budget, where pensions and social benefits account for a large share of public spending.

Germany found a way to buy time. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Berlin created a €100 billion special defense fund — financed through new borrowing and kept outside the regular budget — to rebuild its military without immediately cutting other spending. The move jump-started rearmament while shielding popular social programs from near-term cuts. But the fund is temporary. Once it runs out, sustaining higher defense spending will require permanent budget decisions inside a system built around strict fiscal rules and expansive social commitments.

John Byrne of Concerned Veterans for America said Europe’s dependence on the United States runs deeper than defense budgets. Even as European governments pledge more spending, Byrne said they still lack the senior-level experience needed to run NATO operations without U.S. leadership.

‘They don’t have the experience,’ Byrne said, pointing to the fact that large, multinational military commands have overwhelmingly been led by American generals for decades. ‘That institutional knowledge still sits almost entirely with the United States.’

Byrne said that gap matters in a crisis. Running complex, coalition military operations requires years of practice at the highest levels, he said — something that cannot be fixed quickly, even with higher spending.

‘You can buy equipment,’ Byrne said. ‘You can’t instantly buy command experience.’

During his address at Davos on Thursday, Zelenskyy questioned whether Europe has the power  or the will  to act independently if assumptions about U.S. protection change.

‘Europe still feels more like geography, history, tradition, not a real political force, not a great power,’ Zelenskyy said.

He warned that European leaders continue to plan around expectations that may no longer hold. ‘To believe that the United States will act, that it will not stand aside and will help,’ Zelenskyy said. ‘But what if it doesn’t? This question is everywhere in the minds of European leaders.’

The World Health Organization on Saturday warned that America’s withdrawal from the agency will make the country and the world ‘less safe.’

The globalist body said in part of a January 24 statement that it ‘regrets the United States’ notification of withdrawal from WHO – a decision that makes both the United States and the world less safe.’ 

‘We hope that in the future, the United States will return to active participation in WHO,’ the statement noted.

The U.S. announced its withdrawal from the WHO last week, after President Donald Trump got the ball rolling on his first day back in office last year.

‘Today, the United States withdrew from the World Health Organization (WHO), freeing itself from its constraints, as President Trump promised on his first day in office by signing E.O. 14155,’ U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in part of a January 22, 2026, joint statement.

‘Going forward, U.S. engagement with the WHO will be limited strictly to effectuate our withdrawal and to safeguard the health and safety of the American people. All U.S. funding for, and staffing of, WHO initiatives has ceased,’ their statement said.

They claimed the WHO ‘pursued a politicized, bureaucratic agenda driven by nations hostile to American interests.’ But the WHO pushed back.

‘This is untrue. As a specialized agency of the United Nations, governed by 194 Member States, WHO has always been and remains impartial and exists to serve all countries, with respect for their sovereignty, and without fear or favor,’ the WHO said in its statement.

The daughter of a senior Iranian official who publicly criticized U.S. involvement against President Donald Trump regarding intervening in Iran’s protests has reportedly been fired from her teaching post at a top U.S. college.

The Emory Wheel, Emory University’s news outlet, reported the School of Medicine Dean announced in an email Jan. 24 that Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani was no longer a university employee.  

Ardeshir-Larijani was an assistant professor in the department of hematology and medical oncology at Emory’s medical school.

‘The announcement follows a Jan. 19 protest where Iranian-American demonstrators gathered outside Emory’s Winship Cancer Institute to oppose the employment of Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani by the University,’ the outlet said.

Ardeshir-Larijani’s Emory faculty page and her Emory Healthcare pages were also no longer visible online.

The nonprofit Alliance Against Islamic Regime of Iran Apologists (AAIRIA) claimed that Ardeshir-Larijani had lived and worked in the U.S. for several years.

The group also cited the professional profile on Emory Healthcare’s official website as showing a listing for a woman called Ardeshir-Larijani who is a U.S.-trained hematologist-oncologist and practicing in Atlanta.

The claims had first drawn attention amid escalating tensions between the U.S. and Iran following the outbreak of protests and reports of deaths during an intense crackdown from Dec. 28.

Trump warned of potential U.S. action in response.

In a Jan. 2 Truth Social post, the president warned that if Iran ‘violently kills peaceful protesters’ the U.S. ‘will come to their rescue,’ saying ‘we are locked and loaded and ready to go.’ 

Trump’s remarks prompted warnings from senior Iranian officials, who said any American interference would cross a ‘red line.’

Ali Larijani had posted on X that U.S. interference in Iran’s internal affairs would ‘[destabilize] the entire region’ and ‘[destroy] American interests.’

‘The American people must know that Trump is the one who started this adventure,’ he wrote, ‘and they should pay attention to the safety of their soldiers.’

AAIRIA responded by urging U.S. authorities to review the immigration and visa status of Ardeshir-Larijani and her husband.

The group urged officials to determine whether continued residence in the U.S. aligns with U.S. law, national security considerations and principles of accountability and human rights, in a statement shared online.

Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., also called on Emory to dismiss Ardeshir-Larijani and the state’s medical board to revoke her medical license.

Ardeshir-Larijani’s dismissal also arrived two weeks after sanctions had been placed on her father by the Treasury Department, who said that he ‘is responsible for coordinating the response to the protests on behalf of the Supreme Leader of Iran and has publicly called for Iranian security forces to use force to repress peaceful protesters,’ and has publicly defended the regime’s actions.

Ali Larijani has portrayed the U.S. as a hostile power in the past.

A 2018 report by The Washington Times highlighted what critics described as a double standard among Iranian officials whose relatives live or work in Western countries.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House and the Department of Homeland Security for comment and Emory University for comment.