January 18, 2026: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

Trump says 8 European countries will face 10% tariff for opposing US control of Greenland

President Donald Trump said Saturday that he would charge a 10% import tax starting in February on goods from eight European nations because of their opposition to American control of Greenland, setting up a potentially dangerous test of U.S. partnerships in Europe. Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland would face the tariff, Trump said in a social media post while at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida. The rate would climb to 25% on June 1 if no deal was in place for “the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland” by the United States, he said. The Republican president appeared to indicate that he was using the tariffs as leverage to force talks with Denmark and other European countries over the status of Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark that he regards as critical to U.S. national security.

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“The United States of America is immediately open to negotiation with Denmark and/or any of these Countries that have put so much at risk, despite all that we have done for them,” Trump said on Truth Social. Related Stories Trump says he may punish countries with tariffs if they don’t back the US controlling Greenland In their words: European governments criticize Trump's tariff threats over Greenland Rubio plans to meet with Danish officials next week to talk about US interest in Greenland The tariff threat could mark a problematic rupture between Trump and America’s longtime NATO partners, further straining an alliance that dates to 1949 and provides a collective degree of security to Europe and North America. Trump has repeatedly tried to use trade penalties to bend allies and rivals alike to his will, generating investment commitments from some nations and pushback from others, notably China. Trump is scheduled to travel on Tuesday to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he likely will run into the European leaders he just threatened with tariffs that would start in little more than two weeks. Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said Trump’s move was a “surprise” given the “constructive meeting” with top U.S. officials this week in Washington.

Why the tech world thinks the American Dream is dying

Silicon Valley is filled with all sorts of dreams. But one of those wild-eyed ideas, long debated on subreddits and in hacker houses, is becoming a real-life nightmare: Will the AI boom be the last chance to get rich before artificial intelligence makes money essentially worthless? The argument is that tech companies (and their leaders) will become a class unto their own with infinite wealth. No one else will have the means to generate money for themselves because AI will have taken their jobs and opportunities. In other words, the bridge is about to be raised for those chasing the American dream. And everyone is worried about being left on the wrong side. It’s the kind of FOMO that on first blush seems to require a huge suspension of disbelief. But the idea’s mere existence helps explain some of the increasing class worries in California, where a growing movement to tax billionaires is roiling the Democratic Party, affordable housing is a real concern and the idea of the middle class seems out of reach.

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Yes, it smacks of sci-fi thinking. But in San Francisco it feels real. And it’s made more believable by the exploits of Elon Musk, the rise of OpenAI’s Sam Altman and warnings by Anthropic’s Dario Amodei about Great Depression-like worker displacement. “The transition will be bumpy,” Musk said this month on a podcast. “We’ll have radical change, social unrest and immense prosperity.” And that’s Musk’s best-case scenario. History is filled with technology booms that create new winners and losers. AI optimists like to point out that a rising tide has tended to lift all boats. What’s being talked about now—massive job loss to automation and the need for public safety nets, in the form of universal basic income—paints a dramatically different future. It’s still not clear there’s any appetite for so-called UBI, which runs counter to many Americans’ bedrock ideals of personal achievement. “I used to be really excited about UBI…but I think people really need agency; they need to feel like they have a voice in governing the future and deciding where things go,” Altman, OpenAI’s chief executive, said last year when asked by a podcaster about how people will create wealth in the AI era. “If you just say, ‘OK, AI is going to do everything and then everybody gets…a dividend from that,’ it’s not going to feel good, and I don’t think it actually would be good for people.”

Republican candidate Marty Lancton leads in Harris County Judge campaign funds, Parker trails behind

Local firefighters union president Marty Lancton, a top Republican candidate for Harris County Judge, has raised more than $500,000 in his upcoming bid for the seat — outpacing the leading Democratic candidate, former Houston Mayor Annise Parker. But while Lancton received several high-dollar donations from some business owners and real estate moguls, Parker, who drew in roughly $416,000, received about 115 more donations than Lancton, according to recent campaign finance reports filed this week. His lead in campaign funds comes weeks after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced his endorsement of Lancton in the county judge’s race, vowing to devote a significant part of his war chest to Lancton’s campaign and a consolidated effort to turn elected Harris County seats red. Lancton’s campaign finance report did not include any direct donations from Abbott.

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A 2025 University of Houston Hobby School of Public Affairs survey — which was conducted before Lancton threw his hat in the ring — showed Harris County voters slightly favored Parker in this year’s county judge election. Other candidates trailed behind Parker, like Democratic Houston City Council member Letitia Plummer, who received a 2% net favorability for the position. Plummer did not file a campaign finance report through the Harris County Clerk’s Office by the Jan. 15 reporting period deadline. Her campaign made a July 8 filing appointing a treasurer, and a Jan. 12 filing giving her authorization to file financial reports. A spokesperson for Plummer’s campaign did not immediately return a message seeking comment Friday. Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo announced last year she would not seek reelection for her seat. Her recent campaign finance report shows she pulled in about $1,800 in the latest reporting period and spent more than $280,000. Many of those expenditures went towards her Japan trade mission, which was aimed at garnering more business for the county. Republican candidate Aliza Dutt, the mayor of Houston suburb Piney Point Village, brought in $42,000 in donations. Republican Warren Howell raised just under $4,500.

They wanted a university without cancel culture. Then dissenters were ousted.

The inaugural year of the University of Austin, or UATX as it’s known, had been marked by the frenzy and occasional chaos that one might expect from a start-up aimed at disrupting American higher education. The audacious experiment — the construction of a new university ostensibly based on principles of free expression and academic freedom — had drawn the interest and participation of a star-studded cast of public intellectuals, academics and tycoons. Even measured against this high bar, however, April 2, 2025, would be a memorable day. The night before, the campus had hosted a dinner and conversation between the prominent conservative historian Niall Ferguson and Larry Summers, the former Harvard University president and Treasury secretary. Later, that evening, the billionaire entrepreneur Peter Thiel would deliver the first of a series of lectures on the Antichrist. People at UATX had grown accustomed to fast-paced action. But in the afternoon, all of the professors and staff were summoned, quite unusually and mysteriously, to a closed-door meeting.

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It had been called by Joe Lonsdale, a billionaire entrepreneur who’d co-founded the data analytics company Palantir Technologies with Thiel. Together with Ferguson and the journalist Bari Weiss, Lonsdale had been a driving force behind the creation of UATX and was a member of the board of trustees. But he wasn’t often present on campus, and it was almost unheard of for a member of the board to summon the staff, as Lonsdale had. The campus was quiet that Wednesday, the first of the spring term. The college, which operates under a quarter system, doesn’t schedule classes on Wednesdays, and so no students would be around to see the staff coming and going from the conference room in the elegant, former department store where UATX had made its home. Through the window, one could see the huge American flag in the atrium, illuminated by a skylight in the ceiling. It was a warm, pleasant day in Austin, but Lonsdale’s mood didn’t match the weather. “Let’s get right into it,” he said. Then, with heightened affect, Lonsdale explained his vision for UATX — a jingoistic vision with shades of America First rhetoric that contrasted rather sharply with the image UATX had cultivated as a bastion of free speech and open inquiry. “It was like a speech version of the ‘America love it or leave it’ bumper sticker,” one former staffer told me, and if you didn’t share the vision, the message was “there’s the door, you don’t belong here.” Like many of the people I spoke with for this story, the staffer was granted anonymity for fear of reprisal. “It was the most uncomfortable 35-to-40ish minutes I’ve ever experienced. People were shifting uncomfortably in their seats.”

European Union and Mercosur bloc of South American nations sign landmark free trade agreement

he European Union and the Mercosur bloc of South American countries formally signed a long-sought free trade agreement on Saturday, strengthening commercial ties in the face of rising protectionism and trade tensions around the world. The signing ceremony in Paraguay’s capital, Asuncion, caps more than a quarter-century of torturous negotiations. It marks a major geopolitical victory for the EU in an age of American tariffs and surging Chinese exports, expanding the bloc’s foothold in a resource-rich region increasingly contested by Washington and Beijing. It also sends a message that South America is keeping a range of trade and diplomatic relationships even as U.S. President Donald Trump makes an aggressive push for geopolitical dominance of the Western Hemisphere. The agreement could still face hurdles in the EU parliament, which must ratify it before it can take effect. Ratification is considered all but guaranteed in South America, where the agreement has broad support.

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Mercosur consists of the region’s two biggest economies, Argentina and Brazil, as well as Paraguay and Uruguay. Bolivia, the bloc’s newest member, is not included the trade deal but could join in the coming years. Venezuela has been suspended from the bloc and isn’t included in the agreement. Supported by South America’s cattle-raising countries and European industrial interests, the accord will gradually eliminate more than 90% of tariffs on goods ranging from Argentine beef to German cars, creating one of the world’s largest free trade zones and making shopping cheaper for more than 700 million consumers. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who heads the EU’s executive branch, portrayed the deal as a bulwark against the disruptive policies of the Trump administration. “It reflects a clear and deliberate choice: We choose fair trade over tariffs. We choose a productive long-term partnership over isolation,” von der Leyen declared in an veiled rebuke of Trump at the ceremony, which got underway as Trump announced 10% tariffs on eight European nations over their opposition to American control of Greenland. “We will join forces like never before, because we believe that this is the best way to make our people and our countries prosper,” she added. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

State Stories

GOP Rep. McCaul says a US invasion of Greenland would mean 'war with NATO itself'

Republican Rep. Michael McCaul warned on Sunday that any U.S. military intervention to obtain Greenland would put America at odds with its NATO allies -- and possibly spell the end of the alliance itself. "What do you make of what's going on with the president in Greenland? And now he's slapped tariffs on eight of our allies in Europe; he's not ruling out military force to get Greenland. What is going on?" ABC News' "This Week" co-anchor Jonathan Karl asked McCaul, who serves as chair emeritus of both the House Foreign Affairs and Homeland Security committees.

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While McCaul acknowledged the strategic importance of the autonomous island, which is part of the Kingdom of Denmark, he said that the U.S. already has a treaty that allows "full access" to protect Greenland -- effectively negating the purpose of any invasion. "The fact is, the president has full military access to Greenland to protect us from any threat," McCaul said. "So if he wants to purchase Greenland, that's one thing. But for him to militarily invade would turn Article Five of NATO on its very head and, in essence, press a war with NATO itself. It would end up abolishing NATO as we know it." McCaul added, "If we want to put more military in there, we can; we don't have to invade it. If he wants to buy it, that's fine. But I don't see a willing seller right now."

AI-generated video of Crockett, Cornyn dancing takes center stage in Paxton’s 1st campaign ad

With 32 days until early voting starts for the Texas 2026 U.S. Senate Primary, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton released his first television advertisement — heavily featuring artificially generated versions of two other candidates. The ad, titled “Partner,” depicts U.S. Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, slow dancing with incumbent U.S. Senator John Cornyn, R-Texas, and highlights comments made by the candidates about their bipartisan work. “The ad is being released in honor of this week being the two-year anniversary of John Cornyn calling Jasmine Crockett his ‘dance partner’ and Crockett calling Cornyn her ‘best partner’ in the Senate,” said Paxton’s campaign in a press release. Cornyn declined to comment on Paxton’s recent advertisement, but Crockett’s campaign said she feels Paxton’s ad highlights her strong suits.

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“This ad doesn’t attack her on substance, but instead launches attacks for bipartisanship, something that most voters appreciate,” Crockett’s campaign said in a statement. “Paxton’s AI-generated digital ad attacks Congresswoman Crockett for crossing the aisle to deliver solutions to our opioid crisis, to stop fentanyl deaths, and address hunger in Texas.” While the ad’s usage of AI is obvious to the average observer, it includes a disclaimer about the generated imagery at the end of the video. However, he wasn’t legally required to do so. Under Texas law, there’s not much restricting the use of generative AI in political materials outside of laws that cover all AI-generated content. Multiple attempts to legislate AI in recent years saw some traction, but failed to pass a vote of both chambers of the legislature.

ICE detains, injures one person in Kyle as agents conduct operations in Hays County

A person was detained by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Kyle on Thursday and transported to the hospital, according to the Kyle Police Department. Emergency medical services provided the transport, and the individual was accompanied by Homeland Security personnel, according to Kyle Police. Hays County Judge Ruben Becerra said the incident happened outside a Costco store and that the individual was “beat up” by ICE agents and was “bleeding from his face." “They beat up a shopper. They beat them up so bad that they needed to call for paramedics. Really? … There's an army of you to take one person down,” Becerra said. “They're not trained on de-escalation. They're not trained on how to take someone down. They're not trained as we would expect them to be. They're being run through like if it was the draft and we were in Vietnam.”

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KUT News has reached out to the Kyle Police Department to confirm the injuries sustained by the individual. ICE agents are also active in Buda, according to a Thursday announcement from city officials. “[ICE] agents informed the City that they intended to temporarily park a transport vehicle at City Hall as a central location while conducting their own operations in surrounding areas,” city officials said in a Facebook post. “The City requested that the transport bus be relocated to free up limited public parking and the agents complied.” The city of Buda and the Buda Police Department are not involved in the operation, according to the post. Buda city officials did not confirm where the transport vehicle is now parked or what it looks like, however Becerra said ICE agents are operating out of a large, unmarked white bus. “I'm not trying to thwart, undermine or usurp laws,” Becerra said. “What I'm trying to do is inform people like a car wreck, like a tornado, like a fire. I am saying, ‘Guys, this chaos has been brought upon [our] community, and this is where it's at, and this is what's going on.'”

Bud Kennedy: MAGA vs. Muslims: Steve Bannon rallies Texas voters with ‘invasion’ cry

Muslim-bashing has returned to Texas Republican politics, and it’s not clear why. Most Texas Muslims are religious conservatives who oppose abortion, gay rights and, in some places, liquor stores. They’re like Baptists with dancing. New York’s new mayor notwithstanding, Muslim men trended toward President Trump in 2024. That was mainly because they viewed Democrats as backing Israel. Yet some Republicans want the state to ban mosques, shut down schools and discourage anyone from the Middle East or South Asia from moving to Texas. This conservative-on-conservative bashing was on full display Saturday night at the Gaylord Texan in Grapevine, where former Trump strategist Stephen K. Bannon led a fervent Christian revival warning of an “invasion” by “jihadists” to overthrow Texas and thus America — “Why in the hell do you think they’re in Houston and north of Dallas?”

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Bannon led a rally titled “Save Texas from Radical Islam.” But he allowed speakers like fervent Muslim-basher John Guandolo to broadly complain about all worshipers of Islam and, in Guandolo’s case, also those of the Hindu faith. In other words, this was a Christian revival to stir up Christian voters against anyone who isn’t a Christian, not just to oppose supporters of Hamas or the Muslim Brotherhood. Bannon accused unnamed people of “making big money on the invasion of this state by Islamists.” That was between his commercials for gold bullion, spyware blockers and Patriot Mobile, a Church of Christ-founded telephone reseller in Grapevine that donates to conservative political campaigns. On a star-studded political night that included Irving-based showman Glenn Beck and Dutch politician Geert Wilders — he has called for ending immigration from Muslim countries and banning mosques — almost every speaker strayed far from Gov. Greg Abbott’s policy-based position opposing sharia in Texas government.

Nirenberg outraises Sakai in Bexar County Judge race

Campaign finance reports covering July 1 through Dec. 31 were due Thursday, offering the first look at where money is flowing in a Bexar County Judge contest between two popular, well-known Democrats. In total, former San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg raised more, leaning hard on the money of a few large donors to make up for lost time in an officewhere individual donors could only give $1,000 per campaign cycle. Incumbent Peter Sakai brought in less money but reported a bigger campaign war chest, amassed over the course of three years in a role with no contribution limits. Nirenberg reported roughly $360,000 raised between July 1 and Dec. 31, plus a $100,000 loan from local philanthropist Harvey Najim, leaving him with about $355,000 on hand as of Dec. 31. Sakai raised about $254,000 during that same span and ended the year with $563,000 on hand.

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Neither candidate had spent much on the most recent reports, with early voting for the March 3 primary starting Feb. 17. In a busy season of campaign events, Sakai and Nirenberg will face off in a debate hosted by the San Antonio Report at Stable Hall on Feb. 10, one week before early voting kicks off. Nirenberg, who termed out as San Antonio’s mayor this year, had been raising money for a future campaign even before leaving that office, though he wasn’t sure what race it would be. In August he closed out his city campaign account, where mayoral candidates can only collect up to $1,000 from an individual donor each campaign cycle, and started a Texans for Ron Nirenberg PAC to be the fundraising vehicle for whatever came next. From there he was able to collect a $50,000 check from his old campaign handChristian Archer and a $25,000 check from Najim, among other smaller contributions. Nirenberg ultimately passed on a potential statewide bid, where assembling the resources would have been a big challenge. But since county offices have no contribution limits, he was able to roll the PAC money into his campaign account for the judge race. Nirenberg spent about $100,000 in the past six months through the PAC and campaign, some of which went toward his campaign consultants at Viva Politics, which worked on Sakai’s race in 2022. Sakai, meanwhile, entered 2025 under pressure from the business community to deliver a deal on a new Spurs arena. He started off hesitant, but after crafting a plan to rehabilitate the team’s existing home on the East Side, took on a major role in bringing voters on board. The largest contributors so far to his reelection race have been from salsa billionaire and Pearl founder Kit Goldsbury and attorney Tullos Wells, who each gave $10,000. He’s paying MAP Strategies, previously Nirenberg’s longtime consultant, to run his race.

Fort Worth City Council member Michael Crain arrested on DWI charge

Fort Worth City Council member Michael Crain has been arrested on a drunk driving charge, according to Tarrant County Jail records. Crain, who is in his third term representing District 3, was booked into the county jail early Saturday. Details about his arrest, including where it took place, weren’t immediately available. As of Saturday afternoon, Crain is being held in the Tarrant County Jail on a $750 bond, according to court records. It’s not clear if he’s obtained an attorney. No one answered his phone when the Star-Telegram tried to reach him for comment Saturday morning. The Fort Worth Police Department referred the Star-Telegram to the Texas Department of Public Safety for more details. DPS spokesperson Sgt. William Lockridge confirmed the arrest and said the department plans to release more information Saturday. Crain, 53, was sworn in for his first two-year term in May 2021. His district covers parts of far west and southwest Fort Worth, including the area around Texas Christian University. He previously told the Star-Telegram that he’s taken an active role bolstering the university’s Neighbor-to-Neighbor program.

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Williamson County will no longer offer countywide voting sites on primary Election Day

Voters in Williamson County will no longer be able to cast their ballot at any polling location on primary Election Day. Instead, they will only be able to vote at their assigned neighborhood polling place. The county's Republican Party has decided it no longer wants to offer countywide polling locations on primary Election Day, and under current state law, the county's Democratic Party has no choice but follow Republicans' lead. Both parties must agree to using countywide polling locations for them to be offered. "We decided, as a party ... to return to precinct based polling," said Michelle Evans, the chair of the Williamson County GOP. "It just means that you are voting in your community, as an overwhelming majority of voters do anyway."

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Williamson County, she said, only began offering countywide polling places in 2013. Evans said for her and other Republicans, the shift back to precinct based polling places is about "being more confident in the outcomes of our elections." "I could get into all of those details, but at the end of the day, it's because we can," she said. "It's legal. It's something we're entitled to do, and it's something that our party would like us to do." Last year, Republican state lawmakers introduced two bills aimed at eliminating the use of countywide polling place, but the bills failed to gain enough support. Early voting, however, will remain unchanged. Voters will still be able to cast their ballots at any available polling place in the county during the two week period. Kim Gilby, the chair of the Williamson County Democratic Party, said she and other Democrats are "adamantly opposed" to the change, but intend to go along with it for the March 3 primary election. "I don't want to jeopardize our candidates and our election. So we are doing precinct level [polling], not because we want to — because we're being forced into it," she said.

Judson ISD trustee calls for investigation into board president days after superintendent placed on leave

Days after a tense board meeting that led to Judson ISD’s superintendent being placed on leave, a board trustee told KSAT Investigates he requested a special meeting to start an investigation into allegations of abuse of power by another trustee. Judson ISD board member José Macias said the investigation would be into allegations made against Board President Monica Ryan, which include abuse of board authority and employee intimidation.

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“I am not saying that she has conducted herself inappropriately,” Macias told KSAT Investigates in a Wednesday text message. “I am asking that we determine if those allegations have merit.” As of Thursday morning, no agenda has been posted for any upcoming Judson ISD board meeting. “Disgusting does not even begin to describe learning that a fellow board member has shared false claims about my children with members of the public and, now, with media outlets,” said Ryan via a Facebook post. Ryan said she was accused of having her children taught alone in a classroom, having a college professor coming to teach her children and petitioning the school board to hire a teacher. She denies those allegations, adding that “retaliation against board colleagues by targeting their families—especially children who have nothing to do with this—is repulsive and shameful."

Recent New World screwworm cases along Texas border

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller alerted livestock producers on Thursday to new cases of New World screwworm in the neighboring Mexican state of Tamaulipas. The Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) received confirmation of these cases from Mexico’s National Service of Agro-Alimentary Public Health, Safety, and Quality (SENASICA), which raised the total number of screwworm cases from two to 11 since Dec. 30. With sterile fly deployment already in place to combat the screwworm population, Miller urged Texas livestock producers to be vigilant.

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“Producers should be checking livestock every day and treating any wound as a potential entry point,” said Miller. “Early detection and aggressive surveillance are how we protect Texas livestock … Texas producers need to stay on high alert along our border.” Expanded TDA surveillance and trapping efforts began, with strategic trap placements at ports of entry, livestock export facilities and other locations where there was livestock movement and pest risk. The TDA has not received confirmation that the affected animals reported by SENASICA have a history of movement outside Tamaulipas, with concern that the screwworms could spread naturally rather than through animal movement.

Four businesses with ties to Patriot Front operating in North Texas

After last year’s deadly Hill Country flood took at least 135 lives over the July 4 weekend, volunteers flocked to the area to support disaster relief efforts. Among those volunteers were members of Patriot Front, a neo-Nazi organization that is one of the nation’s largest and most influential white nationalist groups. On July 23, Patriot Front posted multiple photos on their official Telegram account showing about two dozen of what the group described as their “activists” doing disaster relief work in Kerr County. The faces of the participants were blurred other than that of the group’s North Texas-based leader, Thomas Rousseau, and a well-known podcaster and Holocaust denier. In a video also posted to Telegram two weeks prior, Rousseau described the intent of the mission, which appeared to be part of a broader strategy that extremism experts say is meant to launder the group’s image and recruit new members. “Patriot Front is here in Central Texas responding to the flooding,” Rousseau said in the video. “We are prioritizing the interests of our people in this mission. While every other race and religion across the country and the world, for that matter, can establish charities, communities, and institutions that explicitly exist by and for their own, it is regrettably a revolutionary act to do so for Americans, that unique nation, descendant of the European peoples who discovered, settled, and founded America.”

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While the neo-Nazi group shielded the identity of most of its members, a photo posted on the Facebook page of the River Inn Resort in Hunt, where disaster relief was coordinated, was unblurred. It shows roughly 20 people standing in a semi-circle, including Rousseau and some others previously identified by police or media as Patriot Front members, with many wearing shirts and hats that bear Patriot Front insignia. (Scott Towery, the general manager of the River Inn Resort, told the Texas Observer he was “shocked” to hear of the volunteers’ white supremacist affiliation and said “River Inn has zero affiliation with the group.”) Encroaching in from the left side of the River Inn photo is a pickup bearing the logo and contact information of Veteran Brothers Roofing & Restoration, a Fort Worth-based contractor. Near the photo’s center, a man resembling the company’s owner, Cameron Schronk, stands beside a known Patriot Front member and behind Jake Shields, the Holocaust-denying podcaster whose shirt reads “AIPAC Is a Foreign Agent.”

Is San Antonio the next big city for filmmakers? MovieMaker magazine thinks so.

Are you an up-and-coming filmmaker looking for your next creative home? San Antonio just might be for you, according a trade magazine’s ranking. The city was named one of MovieMaker magazine’s “Best Places to Live and Work as a Moviemaker” for the eighth consecutive year, according to a Thursday news release from the city’s Department of Arts & Culture and Film Commission. San Antonio jumped six spots from No. 20 to No. 14 in the magazine’s 2026 ranking of the top 25 “Big Cities” in the U.S. and Canada. The Alamo City appears alongside other Texas cities on the list, including El Paso, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston and Austin, while also ranking with established film hubs such as Toronto, Savannah, and Santa Fe.

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City officials cited a “revamped film incentive program, overall affordability, diverse and photogenic locations, and the growing availability of experienced local crew and vendor resources” as contributing factors to the city’s rise in attracting filmmakers. MovieMaker magazine compiles its annual list using industry surveys, production spending, tax incentives, additional research, and personal visits when possible, with supporting data provided by local film offices, according to the news release. “San Antonio thrives in filmmaking and livability, with the best incentives in Texas and simply some of the best incentives anywhere,” said Tim Molloy, MovieMaker’s editor. “We’re thrilled that the city is moving up the list.” Founded in 1985, the San Antonio Film Commission supports media production throughout the city by issuing permits to more than 250 city-owned locations, connecting productions with local crews and vendors, and administering the San Antonio Film Incentive Program. Since the 2020 pandemic, the city has seen a 165% increase in film permits, rising from 221 in 2022 to 586 in 2025. Total film days also doubled to 710.

Is Six Flags about to dump some parks in Texas? Filings raise questions.

Trademark applications filed this month are fueling speculation that Six Flags Entertainment Corp. is in the process of rebranding or selling some of its properties — possibly including the Schlitterbahn water park in Galveston. The filings with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office appear to cover current Six Flags properties in Galveston, St. Louis, Kansas City, Michigan, New York and others with uncertain locations. All were filed in Orlando, Fla., by Enchanted Parks Holdings LLC.

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Six Flags — which owns Six Flags Fiesta Texas in San Antonio, Schlitterbahn water parks in New Braunfels and Galveston and its flagship Six Flags over Texas and the nearby Hurricane Harbor water park in Arlington — has been telling investors it’s planning to continue reducing the size of its portfolio. After reporting a decline in revenue during its peak late summer period, the company said in November it was ready to invest more in its most popular locations and sell off its underperformers. After completing its 2024 merger with rival amusement park company Cedar Fair Entertainment Co., Six Flags last year said it was closing two parks in the Washington, D.C., area and evaluating the rest of its portfolio. It later announced plans to close California’s Great America in Santa Clara by the end of 2027. The recent filings included trademark requests for: Enchanted Parks Galveston. Six Flags operates one of its Schlitterbahn water parks in Galveston. Enchanted Parks St. Louis. Six Flags St. Louis operates in that Missouri city. Enchanted Parks Michigan Adventure. Six Flags owns the Michigan’s Adventure park in Muskegon. Enchanted Parks Oceans of Fun. Six Flags owns the Worlds of Fun and Oceans of Fun parks in Kansas City, Mo. Enchanted Parks Great Escape Lodge. Six Flags owns Six Flags Great Escape park in Queensbury, N.Y.

Texas court clears path for Planned Parenthood lawsuit challenging state abortion law

A Texas appeals court has allowed three Texas Planned Parenthood affiliates to move forward with a lawsuit challenging the state’s “heartbeat” abortion law, rejecting an effort by Texas Right to Life to shut the case down. The Third Court of Appeals on Friday said Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers have the right to sue over the Texas Heartbeat Act, the 2021 law that bans abortions after cardiac activity is detected and is enforced not by the state, but by private citizens through civil lawsuits. Judges said the providers face a credible and ongoing threat of enforcement that has already chilled their work, even as they comply with the law. The court found the groups “established an imminent threat of injury traceable to the threatened conduct of Texas Right to Life,” pointing to its efforts to encourage private citizens to file lawsuits and submit tips about suspected violations.

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“Stating ‘we won’t sue you as long as you obey the law’ is still a threat of litigation,” the Friday court filing read. Planned Parenthood didn’t respond to a request for comment. Texas Right to Life could appeal to the Texas Supreme Court. The group didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday. The lawsuit was filed shortly before the law took effect in September 2021. At the time, a judge granted a restraining order blocking Texas Right to Life from suing the clinics under the new statute. Providers argued the law’s private enforcement system exposed them and their supporters to unlimited lawsuits and effectively shut down reproductive care through fear of legal retaliation. And in the years that followed, the state implemented a near-total abortion ban created by three overlapping laws, after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022. The ban allows abortions only when a pregnant patient’s life is at risk, with no exceptions for rape or incest. Performing an illegal abortion is a second-degree felony, punishable by up to 20 years in prison, and the state Attorney General’s office can seek civil penalties of at least $100,000 per violation.

National Stories

1,500 paratroopers put on alert for possible Minnesota deployment

About 1,500 active-duty Army paratroopers have been put on alert for a possible deployment to Minnesota, ABC News reported late Saturday. No final decision has been made by President Donald Trump, the network reported. The move, though prepares the option. The development comes as tensions remain in the state over a federal crackdown on immigration. Earlier Saturday, an anti-Islam influencer and his small cadre of allies were chased out of downtown Minneapolis on Saturday afternoon by throngs of counterprotesters. Jan. 6 rioter Jake Lang, who had organized a rally outside of City Hall, was mobbed by crowds who jeered, jostled and possibly injured him.

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Lang — who served four years in prison for attacking Capitol police on Jan. 6, 2021, before being pardoned by President Donald Trump — said on social media he had been physically assaulted, and a photo showed a gash on the back of his head. Hours later, protests against the ongoing Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation intensified at the Whipple Federal Building in Fort Snelling. Federal agents rushed the crowd and used chemical irritants. A federal judge on Friday prohibited ICE agents from arresting, detaining, retaliating against or using force and chemical irritants against peaceful protesters and observers. The Department of Homeland Security has called the deportation operation in Minnesota its largest in history. The agency says it has arrested more than 2,500 people since Operation Metro Surge began Dec. 1 but has not released the names of all those detained.

Trump suffers major losses in his war on offshore wind

President Donald Trump’s long-running quest to demolish the U.S. offshore wind sector is facing some serious blowback in federal court. Three different judges — including one appointed by Trump — last week allowed construction to resume on multi-billion-dollar offshore wind projects off the coasts of New England, New York and Virginia that the Interior Department was trying to idle. After Congress shredded incentives for wind last year and the administration imposed new permitting roadblocks, the industry’s streak of victories this week represent a significant setback in Trump’s campaign to erase the Biden administration’s clean energy agenda and deepen the country’s reliance on fossil fuels. Democrats and wind supporters hailed the clean sweep in this week’s legal cases, even if the ultimate fate of those massive offshore energy projects remains to be determined. “Trump is getting his butt kicked again. The question is whether he learns from that,” said Democratic Rep. Scott Peters of California. The legal decisions, Peters said, “reinforces what we’ve been saying: That this is illegal. It’s a bad signal to the markets.”

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Trump has made no secret of his deep dislike of wind farms — particularly those built in coastal waters. “My goal is to not let any windmill be built,” Trump told a meeting of oil executives at the White House last week. “They’re losers.” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers reiterated on Friday Trump’s contention that wind power represents “the scam of the century.” The Trump administration paused the construction of projects because its “priority is to put America First and protect the national security of the American people,” she said. “The Administration looks forward to ultimate victory on the issue,” Rogers added. Trump’s Interior Department in December paused all five leases for large-scale offshore wind projects that are currently under construction, citing publicly undisclosed national security concerns. Those projects were approved as part of then-President Joe Biden’s effort to create an offshore wind industry that could feed clean electricity into the nation’s power grid and reduce the need for fossil fuels. The administration’s stop-work orders are among the roadblocks for renewable energy enacted by the Trump administration that also includes potentially revoking permits for offshore wind projects approved under the Biden administration. And they come with the added appeal for the administration of thumbing their nose at efforts to address climate change, which Trump has frequently derided as a hoax.

'Not for sale': massive protest in Copenhagen against Trump's desire to acquire Greenland

Thousands of people marched from Copenhagen City Hall to the U.S. embassy Saturday afternoon in protest of President Trump's comments that he wants to acquire Greenland. The crowd, waving Greenlandic flags, chanted "Greenland is not for sale." Many demonstrators wore red hats in Trump's own "Make America great again" fashion that read, "Make America go away." Trump has continued to endorse the idea of acquiring Greenland, which he says the U.S. needs for national security purposes. The U.S. already has a military presence on the island. "One way or the other, we're going to have Greenland," Trump told reporters recently on Air Force One.

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Saturday's protest came on the heels of a bipartisan Congressional delegation that travelled to Copenhagen. House and Senate lawmakers met with Danish and Greenlandic officials, as well as members of the Danish business community. The visit was meant to be a reassurance tour — affirming the longstanding relationship between the U.S. and the Kingdom of Denmark in the face of Trump's rhetoric. Peder Dam, who lives in Denmark,attended the demonstration with a sign that featured an image of Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker from Star Wars that read: "Americans: I know there is good in you. Come back to sanity." "We know what is going on in the White House is not representative for all Americans," he told NPR. Peder Dam attended the protest alongside his son Gorm. They each carried signs: one with a cartoon of Trump stepping on leggos with a caption that read: "Denmark is small, but we fight with what we have"; and another with an image of Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker from Star Wars that read: "Americans: I know there is good in you. Come back to sanity."

MAGA is discovering the downsides of X

When Elon Musk bought Twitter in 2022 promising to end “woke” censorship and transform the platform into a right-leaning haven of free speech, conservatives almost universally rejoiced. The right’s expectations for the Musk-era platform were sky-high: Many predicted that it would end the liberal media’s supposed stranglehold on information. Others hailed it as an epochal moment in the history of American conservatism. Three years later, Musk’s control of the platform, now re-branded as “X,” has delivered its fair share of benefits for conservatives — not least of which was Musk’s successful full-court press to elect Donald Trump in 2024. But as the elite echelons of the MAGA movement slowly descend into obscure online disagreements and testy turf wars between rival influencers, conservatives are starting to confront an unpleasant possibility: that the right’s domination of X is doing more to divide the MAGA movement than unite it.

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It’s an ironic inversion from the days of pre-Musk Twitter, when liberals and progressives bemoaned the platform’s tendency to stoke petty intramural disputes while conservatives watched gleefully on the sidelines. Now, it’s the conservatives who are doing the bulk of the bemoaning. In a recent op-ed for The Wall Street Journal, Ohio gubernatorial hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy announced his plans to log off of X, citing its “warped projection of reality.” And Ramaswamy isn’t alone in heading for the digital exits. During a recent appearance on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast, the conservative commentator andformer Breitbart editor Raheem Kassam bleakly proclaimed that he was deleting the app from his phone. “X is a post-apocalyptic cesspool of bots, pedophilia and political illiteracy,” Kassam wrote in a text message when asked about his decision. “I deleted it from my phone because it was making me dumber.” As anyone who’s spent time on X during the Musk era well knows, Kassam has a point. Since Musk took over the platform and promptly relaxed its content moderation rules, researchers have found a notable uptick in both hate speech and activity from bots — or fake accounts — especially during high-profile political events like presidential debates. Musk’s efforts to combat bot activity have in turn backfired on conservatives: A new feature rolled out earlier this year displaying the country where an account is based inadvertently revealed that many of the most active pro-Trump and MAGA accounts are based abroad.

ICE agents are trained in CPR. They didn’t use it on Renee Macklin Good

An analysis of videos, 911 calls, fire department records and dispatch logs conducted by MPR News and APM Reports raises questions about whether the federal agency that mortally wounded Renee Macklin Good did enough to try to save her life. It took more than 10 minutes after Macklin Good was shot by a federal immigration officer before someone gave her CPR. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are trained in basic CPR, a series of lifesaving techniques that can keep blood flowing to vital organs, but they did not perform it on Macklin Good after she was shot by ICE officer Jonathan Ross on Jan. 7. After what appeared to be a brief medical assessment, ICE agents left her bleeding and alone in the car for almost three minutes. They also turned away a man identifying himself as a physician who offered to help. “Is somebody that’s medically trained pronouncing this woman dead?” the man asked, as agents swore at him and kept him back.

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The analysis also shows that federal immigration officials waited nearly three minutes to contact emergency services in Minneapolis following the shooting. Having received calls from bystanders at that point, police, ambulance and fire crews were on their way but had difficulty reaching the scene because the street was filled with vehicles, many belonging to ICE. “I'm just appalled by the lack of immediate first aid and initial resuscitation attempts,” said Adam Armbruster, a family medicine doctor who also works in the emergency room at Sleepy Eye Medical Center in southern Minnesota. “That’s the part that is, I would say, most inadequate to me.” Macklin Good suffered bullet wounds in her chest, arm and possibly her head following the shooting, a report from the Minneapolis Fire Department showed. Those injuries may have been impossible to survive, but ICE’s use of force policy requires agents to obtain medical assistance “as soon as practicable.” And with grievous injuries like Macklin Good’s, time is of the essence, doctors and paramedics said. “All ICE candidates are subject to months of rigorous training and selection at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center where they are trained in everything from deescalation tactics, driving, firearms, and medical training,” wrote Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, in response to an email seeking comment. “We do pray for the deceased and her family, and as well as for our officer and all affected in this situation.”

It took 75 governors to elect a woman. Abigail Spanberger is now at Virginia's helm

Virginia inaugurates its governors in traditional style, complete with a swearing-in ceremony outside the Capitol building presided over by men in three-piece morning suits with coattails and an occasional top hat. "At the conclusion of the oaths, there is a 19-gun salute by the National Guard and a jet flyby, if that has been requested," reads the state's protocol guide. "After the salute, the previous Governor and his family retire from the platform." While everyone is busy with the pomp and circumstance, the guide continues, state employees "prepare the Governor's Office for the new Governor and his staff … to be ready for use the following day." But the guide will need a tweak or two now that Abigail Spanberger is Virginia's 75th governor and the first woman in the role. "There's no requirements for what women wear, what women do," she said. So she's doing her best to honor the commonwealth's traditions — but also forge her own.

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Spanberger, a Democrat, said she wanted her inauguration to showcase the commonwealth's modern vibrancy and diversity. It helps that the two other leaders taking office are also boundary breakers. Saturday, Ghazala Hashmi became the lieutenant governor and the first Muslim woman sworn into a statewide office in the country. Jay Jones is the commonwealth's first Black attorney general. Spanberger's own historic "first" didn't come up a whole lot on the campaign trail, perhaps because the three-term congresswoman and former CIA officer was running against another woman, Republican Winsome Earle-Sears, for the job. Spanberger, who led in fundraising throughout the race, won a decisive 15-point victory in November after a campaign focused on the cost of living and the impact of the Trump administration's federal cuts in Virginia. Democrats see her victory as an early test case of the party's emerging message on "affordability," which they are expected to deploy across the country in this year's midterms. In her victory speech, Spanberger paid tribute to the Virginia women in politics before her, including Barbara Johns, a Black teenage activist who led a 1951 school walkout to protest school segregation. The walkout led to a legal case that was later folded into the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education that ultimately desegregated American public schools.

Nobel Prize committee says Machado decision to give Trump award doesn’t change who won

The committee that awards the Nobel Prize said Friday that the physical symbols of the prize — a medal and diploma — can be given away, but the honor itself is “inseparably linked” to the winner. “The medal and the diploma are the physical symbols confirming that an individual or organisation has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The prize itself – the honour and recognition – remains inseparably linked to the person or organisation designated as the laureate by the Norwegian Nobel Committee,” the committee said in a statement. Several Nobel medals are currently on display in museums around the world, the committee noted. They highlighted seven past winners who chose to give away or sell theirs, including former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, whose widow donated the medal and diploma to the U.N. Office in Geneva following his death in 2024.

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“Regardless of what may happen to the medal, the diploma, or the prize money, it is and remains the original laureate who is recorded in history as the recipient of the prize,” the committee said. “Even if the medal or diploma later comes into someone else’s possession, this does not alter who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.” The clarification came one day after Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado presented her Nobel Peace Prize medal to President Trump during a meeting in the White House. “I presented the president of the United States the medal, the Nobel Peace Prize. I told him this: 200 years ago, Gen. [Marquis de] Lafayette gave Simón Bolívar a medal with George Washington’s face on it. Bolívar since then kept the medal for the rest of his life,” Machado told reporters Thursday. “Two hundred years in history, the people of Bolivar are giving back to the heir of Washington a medal, in this case the medal of the Nobel Peace Prize as a recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom,” she added.

College football teams are now worth billions—and their values are skyrocketing

On Monday night, either Indiana or Miami will grab hold of college football’s ultimate bragging rights and call themselves national champions. But no matter what happens in the title game, there’s one distinction that neither one will be able to claim: being the most valuable team in college football. That title belongs to Texas. Despite a disappointing season that began with a No. 1 ranking and finished without a playoff berth, the Longhorns lead the country with a $2.2 billion valuation, according to an annual analysis by Ryan Brewer, an associate professor of finance at Indiana University Columbus. Brewer’s study examines industry trends, cash flows, revenue and broader economic shifts to calculate what every team would be worth if it could be bought and sold on the open market—just like a professional sports franchise. These days, that’s closer to reality than ever. Schools can pay players while athletic departments are cutting deals with private-equity firms. And while some feared that this new landscape would damage the sport, Brewer actually found the opposite. Interest in college football is soaring—and so are the valuations.

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Across the FBS level, Brewer found that they were up 46% compared to last year. “There’s more value in college football than there’s ever been,” Brewer says. “Even though they’re paying players and it’s more expensive, it’s also worth more.” Brewer points to Indiana as proof. The Hoosiers are showing how nontraditional powers can emerge as huge attractions in this era. So while Indiana only ranks 28th on Brewer’s list at $648 million, it remains a 67.9% increase over last year. At $806 million, Miami placed 21st. And even though the new revenue-sharing may level the playing field, it doesn’t mean that everyone is on equal ground. Texas became the first team to cross $2 billion in the analysis, overtaking Ohio State ($1.5 billion) for the top spot. Overall, Brewer says that one reason valuations have surged is that the deeper pool of potential champions—created by the loosening of rules around player movement and compensation—has brought college football’s competitive landscape closer to the richest league around. In the NFL, it isn’t uncommon for the fortunes of crummy teams to turn on a dime. Take the New England Patriots, who went from winning four games last season to 14 victories this year. But at the college level, the powerhouses typically remained the powerhouses while schools like Indiana were their doormats. But with increased parity, Brewer believes that the sport is attracting new fans from programs that wouldn’t typically be thought of as football schools. That, in turn, boosts revenues and television ratings. Right now, the surprise team happens to be Indiana. What the Hoosiers have also shown, however, is that it could be practically anyone next year. “It’s interesting,” Brewer says, “because different teams could ostensibly enter into that conversation in the future.”

Copyright January 19, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved