The end is near for the Trump administration’s “Operation Metro Surge” in Minnesota. After more than 4,000 arrests, many of the thousands of ICE and Border Patrol personnel sent to the Twin Cities from other areas of the country will soon return to their home offices, White House border czar Tom Homan announced Thursday. Homan came to the decision with the support of President Donald Trump after seeing “success” with the operation, which has led to a significant drop in criminal illegal immigrants roaming the streets, “unprecedented levels of coordination” from local officials, and a decrease in anti-ICE agitator activity, he said. It also resulted in federal authorities tracking down 3,364 missing migrant kids who previously crossed the border alone. “I have proposed, and President Trump has concurred, that the surge operation conclude,” Homan said during a press conference in Minneapolis. But it doesn’t mean the Trump administration is backing down from its goal of carrying out a historic mass deportation campaign, he said. It also doesn’t mean ICE is leaving for good. “A significant drawdown has already been underway this week and will continue through the next week,” Homan said. “We have a lot of work to do across this country to remove public safety risks who shouldn’t even be in this country and to deliver on President Trump’s promise for strong border security and mass deportation. Law enforcement officers drawn down from this operation will either return to the duty station or be assigned elsewhere to achieve just that.” BREAKING: HOMAN announces that he and Trump have agreed to end ICE’s ‘Operation Metro Surge’ In Minnesota ICE will still have a “footprint” in the Twin Cities that will include teams to prioritize arresting criminal illegal immigrants and violent agitators pic.twitter.com/DOzHmoXbJk — Jennie Taer (@JennieSTaer) February 12, 2026 “For those who say we are backing down from immigration enforcement or mass deportations, you are simply wrong, look at the data,” he said. While the drawdown continues, “a small footprint of personnel will remain” temporarily “to close out and transition full command and control back to the” local ICE office. That includes teams deployed to quell street violence and agents investigating fraud. Homan also said he’s directed the “strategic” placement of officers near local jails in Minnesota to ensure they’re able to swiftly receive illegal immigrants that local authorities must release. “Federal government personnel assigned to conduct criminal investigations into the agitators, as well as the personnel assigned for the fraud investigations, will remain in place until the work is done. I will also remain on the ground for a little longer to oversee the drawdown of this operation and ensure its success,” Homan said. Trump sent Homan to Minneapolis last month to assume control over the operation, replacing Border Patrol’s Gregory Bovino. Bovino was known for his showy operations, where he waltzed around the Twin Cities flanked by burly federal agents and conducted aggressive roving patrols. Homan came in and changed all of that, instructing federal agents to prioritize hardened criminals before nabbing anyone whose sole crime is being in the country illegally. The former ICE chief, however, made clear from the start that it didn’t mean that illegal immigrants without rap sheets were off the table. Homan passionately emphasized that point during Thursday’s presser. “I hear all the hate about you should arrest everybody. We are, but we’re prioritizing those who are the biggest threat to our community, the rapist, the murderers, the child molesters. That’s the right thing to do, but I’ll say it again. Present Trump made a promise of mass deportation, and that’s what this country’s gonna get,” Homan said. “If you’re in this country illegally, you’re not off the table,” he said.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday directed the Department of War to purchase electricity generated from coal plants, saying the move was necessary for national security and “American energy dominance.”  “We’re going to be buying a lot of coal through the military now, and it’s going to be less expensive and actually much more effective than what we have been using for many, many years,” Trump said at a White House event Wednesday afternoon. “And again, with the environmental progress that’s been made on coal, it’s going to be just as clean.”  Trump made the remarks before signing an executive order titled “Strengthening United States National Defense with America’s Beautiful Clean Coal Power Generation Fleet.”  “The United States must ensure that our electric grid — upon which military installations, operations, and defense-industrial production depend — remains resilient and reliable, and not reliant on intermittent energy sources,” the executive order said. “Given our Nation’s vast coal resources and the proven reliability of our coal-fired generation fleet in providing continuous, on-demand baseload power, it is imperative that the Department of War (DOW) prioritize the preservation and strategic utilization of coal-based energy assets.” The order directed Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Energy Secretary Chris Wright to approve power purchase agreements with coal-fired energy production facilities for War Department installations or other federal facilities. It states that priority should be given to projects that strengthen grid reliability, prevent blackouts, and enhance on-site fuel security. According to the Energy Information Administration’s 2024 coal report, coal production in the United States fell 11.3% from 2023 to 2024, while the number of operating coal mines declined from 560 to 524. Over the same period, American coal consumption dropped 3.5%.  Since returning to office, Trump has taken several steps to boost domestic coal production and use. He has signed executive orders designating coal as a critical mineral, expanding mining on federal lands, and repealing Biden administration regulations on coal-fired power plants.  At the White House executive order signing on Wednesday, Trump was presented with the “Undisputed Champion of Beautiful Clean Coal” award by Peabody Energy executive Jim Grech.

Once the titan of cable news, CNN is currently grappling with a historic collapse in primetime viewership, with its audience eroding by nearly two-thirds over the last ten years. “The decrease, from roughly 1.3 million in 2016 to 553,000 now, is fueling rumors of a possible network sale,” The Daily Mail reported. The downward trajectory is even more stark when examining specific windows of time. While CNN experienced a substantial ratings spike during Donald Trump’s 2016 rise, those gains have not only evaporated but have reversed into a deep deficit. In the all-important 25-54 age demographic — the group most coveted by advertisers — the numbers are particularly grim. By early 2025, CNN had slumped to just 118,000 primetime viewers in this category. The decay is not limited to the evenings. Daytime programming, once propelled by stalwarts such as Wolf Blitzer, has seen its audience decline from 752,000 to 433,000. Compared with the same period in 2021, the network has experienced a 71% drop in primetime and a 73% decline during the day. This ratings freefall has occurred against a backdrop of executive instability. Following the departure of its president, Jeff Zucker, and the brief, tumultuous tenure of Chris Licht, current CEO Mark Thompson has been tasked with stopping the bleeding. Thompson’s strategy involves a painful pivot away from the network’s “seminal TV division” toward a digital-centric model. Key developments in this restructuring include: More than 200 staff members were terminated in early 2025 to reallocate resources toward digital ventures; a shift toward mobile-friendly content, allowing users to “flick” through news stories using their thumbs; a new streaming push launched in late 2025, following the high-profile failure of CNN+ years prior; and plans for a $70 million investment in subscription-based food and fitness content. While CNN insiders argue that the decline is a symptom of a broader industry shift toward “alternative means” of news consumption, the success of rivals suggests otherwise. In January 2025, The Daily Mail reported, “Fox News, however, has continued to fly high — capturing more than 70 percent of cable news’ audiences during primetime since (the 2024 election), as well as nearly 50 percent overall.”

A transgender-identifying man commits one of the deadliest mass shootings in Canada’s history, Ohio Republicans move to protect parents who rebuff the concept of gender identity, and the Food and Drug Administration zeroes in on chemical preservatives in American foods. It’s Thursday, February 12, 2026, and this is the news you need to know to start your day. Today’s edition of the Morning Wire podcast can be heard below: Canada School Mass Shooting At least nine people are dead and dozens more wounded after a mass shooting in British Columbia, Canada. The shooting is one of the deadliest in Canada’s history. The shooter, whom police initially described as a “gunperson” in a “dress,” appears to have killed at least eight people across two locations and wounded dozens. That person has now been identified as an 18-year-old male named Jesse Van Rootselaar, who identified as a female and had a history of mental illness. “I will say this, we identify the suspect as they chose to be identified in public and on social media,” said Royal Canadian Mounted Police Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald. “I can say that Jesse was born as a biological male who approximately six years ago began to transition to female and identified as female, both socially and publicly.” Two people were found dead inside a local home, who have since been identified as the shooter’s mother and 11-year-old brother. Most of the carnage took place at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, located in a remote area of northeastern British Columbia. There, at least six others were found dead, including the suspect. One more person died while they were being taken to a hospital. Students at the school said they were forced to barricade themselves in classrooms for roughly two-and-a-half hours before they were evacuated by police. Ohio Lawmakers Take On Gender Ideology In the red state of Ohio, parents can lose custody of their children for refusing to affirm their “gender identity.” But Republicans are looking to change that. Ohio is one of many states where child welfare agencies have embraced radical gender ideology. Some parents of gender-confused kids who insist on referring to their child’s biological sex and given name could be labeled as “abusive” or “neglectful” by the state. This could mean being investigated and even losing custody of their children. The Republican-backed bill is called “The Affirming Families First Act,” as in, affirming the child’s natural family rather than a gender-affirming family found by the state. The bill would ensure that parents could not be accused of abuse or acting “contrary to the best interest of the child” by any state agency simply for affirming the child’s actual sex. FDA Reviews Food Preservatives Found In Rubber The FDA is zeroing in on chemical food preservatives and making changes to food labels, aiming to bring American food more in line with European standards and make labels clearer. The agency announced on Tuesday that it plans to review a preservative called BHA, which is commonly used in many processed foods. FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary says that the preservative may contribute to cancer. “About 4,600 different types of food that are common in the U.S. Food supply have BHA. It’s an ingredient that’s found in rubber, in plastic, in glue,” Makary told Morning Wire. “A National Toxicology Program assessment said that there’s a reasonable anticipation that it’s carcinogenic or cancer-causing.” The FDA is also rolling out new rules regarding food labels, specifically regarding claims around artificial dyes. “The FDA is making it very clear what these labels should mean, and what the criteria are. For example, the label, ‘no artificial dyes’ will now mean no artificial dyes. In the past, if you used a natural dye from natural ingredients, you could not use that label, and it created a lot of confusion among parents shopping for groceries for their kids,” said Makary.

New Yorkers struggling with mental health crises are told to call 988, the suicide-prevention hotline. But on February 6, Governor Kathy Hochul signed the Medical Aid in Dying Act into law, authorizing doctors to prescribe lethal drugs to terminally ill patients. The message is stark: some lives must be saved, others may be ended. Physician-assisted suicide (PAS), known euphemistically to advocates as Medical Aid in Dying (MAID) or “Death with Dignity,” describes a practice where patients self-administer a lethal dose of drugs under the direction of a physician. The practice is legal in thirteen states and Washington, D.C. Before Governor Hochul penned her signature last Friday, advocates for PAS were sure to be shoving pro-suicide talking points down Governor Hochul’s throat: the PAS lobby claims that PAS is “compassionate,” promotes “autonomy” and “choice,” and offers “death with dignity” to the terminally ill. These claims could not be further from the truth. To begin, the PAS lobby’s “Death with Dignity” moniker is dishonest. Suicide is cheaper than quality end-of-life care options like hospice, in-home care, and diligent pain management — in crude economic terms, a dead patient frees up a hospital bed, saves morphine, and cuts slack to insurance companies. When assisted suicide is the norm and hospice care is an exception, death loses dignity and gains a dangerous price tag.  Further, PAS is anything but “compassionate.” In the Netherlands, where euthanasia is available on demand, senior citizens “are so fearful of being killed by doctors that they carry cards saying they do not want euthanasia.” In Canada, minors may seek PAS for any reason without notifying their parents. The Canadian government also offers PAS to people “too poor to live with dignity.” While the United States, unlike Canada and Europe, has demonstrated a commitment to limiting PAS to terminal patients, concerns about a “slippery slope” are not unfounded — empirical and anecdotal evidence suggest PAS is already slipping into disrepair in the United States. In Colorado, over five hundred anorexic women were prescribed suicide drugs under the direction of a doctor who classifies anorexia as “terminal.” As far as the “autonomy” argument goes, PAS advocates misunderstand the power of a doctor’s white coat. While patient autonomy exists as a core medical ethic to stress the importance of informed consent and non-coercion, no patient, especially a vulnerable one, is truly “autonomous” as the word connotes. With the smoker developing lung cancer, a doctor must leverage his expertise to motivate him to quit smoking, and with the woman exhibiting symptoms of cholecystitis, a physician should tell her that her gallbladder must be removed. In every exam room, doctors have a unique professional mandate to suggest or inform lifestyle changes, surgical or medical — but suggesting and prescribing physician-assisted suicide crosses a critical red line. Suggesting suicide is an abuse of a doctor’s oath: “I will do no harm.” To a vulnerable patient facing a devastating terminal diagnosis, a doctor’s word on suicide is suggestive and coercive. Top to bottom, physician-assisted suicide violates patient trust and physician integrity, offends the innate dignity and equality of all human beings regardless of their physical or mental state, normalizes suicide, disincentivizes public and private investment in palliative care options, and gives rise to a slippery slope where suicide drugs may become available to the general public. Real death with dignity is 1) embracing human life until its natural end, 2) diligent pain management in terminal patients’ final days or hours, 3) ensuring every suffering person of their inherent worth and dignity despite a terminal diagnosis, and 4) innovations in high-quality palliative care, hospice, and in-home care.  Suicide is not the ethical or medical answer to fear, pain, or suffering at the end of life. A physician’s responsibility is to diligently address a dying patient’s fears, affirm the value of their life until its natural end, and assure the patient that their symptoms and pain will be vigilantly treated. Physician-assisted suicide is not “death with dignity.” It is cruelty to the terminally ill, disrespect and disregard for the elderly, and convenience for financial stakeholders in the medical industry. New York has now joined 12 states in breaking the historic commitments of the Hippocratic Oath, where doctors promise, “I will use those dietary regimens which will benefit my patients according to my greatest ability and judgment, and I will do no harm or injustice to them. I will not give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked, nor will I advise such a plan.” Governor Hochul: suicide is not dignified. * * * Hannah Lape is Legislative Strategist for the Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee, dedicated to promoting Biblical values and Constitutional principles in public policy.  The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.