In an early show of his leftist bona fides, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani ordered police and sanitation workers to stop dismantling the city’s homeless encampments. Now that 18 people have died on the streets amid record cold temperatures, Mamdani is reversing course. The mayor is expected to reinstate homeless encampment sweeps — which were standard under his predecessor, Mayor Eric Adams — as early as Wednesday, according to the New York Post. It’s a major reversal for Mamdani, who claimed that the city’s primary responsibility was “connecting [homeless] New Yorkers to housing.” New York’s Department of Homeless Services will lead encampment sweeps by issuing notices to homeless individuals to clear their encampments within one week. During that period, homeless outreach workers will make repeated visits to connect individuals with shelters and supportive services. Curtis Sliwa, the leader of New York’s Guardian Angels, a volunteer organization that conducts homeless outreach, told The Daily Wire that homeless individuals are reluctant to enter shelters for a number of reasons.  “First off, they’re not in control of their mental faculties,” Sliwa said. “Number two, they fear going into a shelter where they’re going to be preyed upon, where what few, few items that they may have will be stolen from them, where they can be sexually abused and physically harassed, and just again turned into a human piñata.” Sliwa also said many individuals who are struggling with addiction resist shelter rules, including a 10 p.m. curfew. Some, he said, believe they are better off in a jail cell than in a shelter.  Before reversing his stance on encampment sweeps, Mamdani converted city buses into temporary warming centers during the cold streak. However, the initiative drew criticism after reports surfaced that the warming buses were difficult to locate. Mamdani took responsibility for the communication failures. “I think at the end of the day, that is the responsibility that I have as a mayor,” Mamdani said. “It’s never a moment to pass the buck to anyone else.”  Some of the buses, which had 40 seats, were reportedly not operating at full capacity. Norman Siegel, a civil rights attorney who leads a volunteer group called the Street Homeless Advocacy Project, blamed inadequate signage. “As the cliché goes,” he said, “Sometimes the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.” In an attempt to address the problem, Mamdani’s team committed to additional signage in more than ten languages.  With the homeless on the streets and not in shelters or warming buses, New York City has received more than 3,300 complaints about encampments, according to 311 data. Mamdani’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the encampment sweeps are a winter-only effort or a lasting policy change.

A U.S.-born Olympic skier who abandoned her country to represent communist China has publicly dismissed concerns about the Uyghur genocide, declaring human rights abuses “not my business” while collecting millions from Beijing. American-Born Athlete Defends Communist Regime Eileen Gu, born and raised in San Francisco, sparked outrage by dismissing U.S. government findings on China’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang. When pressed about allegations of genocide during a TIME interview, Gu stated, “I’m not an expert on this. I haven’t done the research.” Her refusal to acknowledge documented human rights abuses reflects a troubling prioritization of personal gain over fundamental American values of freedom and human dignity. This stance contradicts the principles that made her success possible in the first place. The 23-year-old freestyle skier announced her decision to compete for China in June 2019, abandoning the country that provided her with world-class training facilities, educational opportunities, and the freedoms she now takes for granted. Her switch came as U.S.-China tensions escalated over Beijing’s crackdown on religious minorities. Gu justified her decision by claiming she wanted to inspire Chinese youth, yet she refuses to use her platform to advocate for those suffering under authoritarian oppression. This selective activism reveals the hollowness of her stated motivations. Financial Ties and Citizenship Questions Raise Concerns Documents exposed in 2025 revealed Beijing funneled $6.64 million in government funds to support Gu’s training, money that came from a regime accused of systematic human rights violations. Chinese censors quickly scrubbed these financial disclosures from the internet, raising questions about what else the Chinese Communist Party wants hidden. China’s strict prohibition on dual citizenship means Gu likely renounced her U.S. citizenship to compete, yet she consistently dodges questions about her legal status. This lack of transparency undermines trust and suggests she wants to maintain access to American opportunities while serving Chinese interests. Gu’s decision represents more than athletic competition; it symbolizes choosing authoritarian power over the constitutional freedoms that enabled her achievements. American commentators like Tucker Carlson appropriately called her “ungrateful” for turning her back on the nation that gave her everything. Meanwhile, even Chinese nationalists have attacked her as an “opportunistic outsider,” recognizing her allegiance stems from financial incentive rather than genuine loyalty. Her treatment from both sides demonstrates the consequences of abandoning principle for profit. Olympic Schedule Complaints Reveal Entitlement At the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, Gu qualified for the big air final on February 14 after winning slopestyle silver, but immediately complained about scheduling conflicts affecting her halfpipe preparation. She criticized the International Ski Federation for “punishing excellence” because multi-event athletes face training limitations between competitions. Her entitlement ignores that the FIS applies rules uniformly to maintain fairness for all competitors. Gu hasn’t competed in halfpipe since December 2025 or big air since her 2022 gold medal, making her scheduling grievances less sympathetic given her extended breaks between competitions. ‘Not My Business’: U.S.-Born Skier Eileen Gu Competing for China Is a ‘Skeptic’ of Uyghur Genocide Claims https://t.co/QoiYNAEtQd — The Gateway Pundit (@gatewaypundit) February 18, 2026 The skier’s complaints about “unfairness” ring hollow coming from someone who benefited from millions in Chinese government support unavailable to athletes from democratic nations. FIS spokesman Bruno Sassi defended the organization’s efforts, noting multi-event scheduling conflicts are “inevitable” when athletes choose to compete across multiple disciplines. Gu’s public criticism of Olympic organizers while representing an authoritarian regime that silences dissent demonstrates a stunning lack of self-awareness about actual unfairness and oppression. Broader Implications for American Values Gu’s case highlights growing concerns about Americans who leverage their citizenship for personal advancement before abandoning their country for financial gain from foreign adversaries. Her success helped China’s propaganda machine promote winter sports participation, with 313 million Chinese citizens taking up winter activities following her 2022 Beijing Olympics performance. This athletic diplomacy serves Beijing’s soft power objectives while undermining American interests. Patriots recognize that true excellence includes moral courage to speak against injustice, something Gu conspicuously lacks when it conflicts with her endorsement deals and medal pursuits. The controversy surrounding this athlete extends beyond sports into fundamental questions about loyalty, values, and the responsibilities that come with American freedoms. Her dismissal of genocide concerns as “not my business” while profiting from the perpetrating regime deserves condemnation from anyone who values human rights and constitutional principles. As tensions between democratic nations and authoritarian powers intensify, Americans must recognize the difference between legitimate international competition and actively promoting regimes that oppose everything the United States represents. Gu’s choices serve as a cautionary tale about sacrificing integrity for gold medals and corporate sponsorships. Sources: Fox News – Controversial Olympian Eileen Gu Upset Over ‘Really Unfair’ Winter Games Schedule TIME – How Eileen Gu Became the Olympics’ Star Freestyle Skier Wikipedia – Eileen Gu AOL – Eileen Gu Olympic Practice Schedule

'People don’t want to be gaslit and belittled'

'Pure bullsh*t'

'Reformation is profiting from promoting a life-altering rupture'

'We are all heartbroken'

'That's unbelievable'

'He made a bad decision'

This isn’t just policy. It’s patriotism.

Movies & TV Cold Storage Cold Storage Is a Fun Midnight Movie that Needs More Midnight Movie Energy But we still get a lot of exploding alien fungus, never fear. By Leah Schnelbach | Published on February 18, 2026 Credit: StudioCanal Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: StudioCanal First things first: Is this is a Disclosure Day prequel? Because that film’s screenwriter, David Koepp, also wrote this screenplay, based on his 2019 novel, and the deer are, as in the latest Disclosure Day trailer, up to some weird shit. Beyond that I will try not to say anything spoilery about the deer, or most of the plot after the first ten minutes or so, because this is a film that twists, turns, allows shenanigans to ensue, and sets a lot of different people on wacky collision courses, and I don’t want to give any of the fun away. Cold Storage begins as a tense, creepy sci-fi-tinged outbreak story, set about 15 years in our past. A space probe has crashed back to earth, and it looks like some of the samples that were sent up have come back… wrong. Robert Quinn (Liam Neeson), Trini Romano (Lesley Manville), and Dr. Hero Martins (Sosie Bacon),  are sent in to assess and contain the situation, but naturally things don’t go as planned. The film brings us up to present day, with the civilization-ending fungus in a storage facility built atop the (real life) Atchison Caves in Kansas, where it’s unknowingly guarded by Teacake (Joe Keery), and Naomi (Georgina Campbell). Because, you see, at a certain point the military sold the warehouse off and now it’s a private storage facility, full of people who have no idea what lurks beneath them. Teacake and Naomi have both taken this mind-numbing, low-paying job in a bid to reset their lives. When they find themselves in a gross-out horror movie they try to adapt, but they’re still just normal people trying to survive, not seasoned action heroes like Quinn and Romano. (I will say, as a slight ding, that the two of them do wayyy too well with this situation, but if they were realistically incompetent and terrified there’d be no movie.) Meanwhile, of course, there is a collection of people who all have reasons to be at the storage facility at the worst possible time, and they range from Vanessa Redgrave in a role that achieves a strange poignancy to an especially hapless biker gang. Cold Storage is the kind of movie that ideally you’d stumble across at 2am on HBO, right when everyone at the sleepover was about to actually sleep, to keep everyone awake and giggling for another two hours. Screenwriter/novelist David Koepp is a legend, obviously, but he also wrote two of my favorite movies of last year (Presence and Black Bag) and one of my least favorite (Jurassic World Rebirth). He’s behind the script for Spielberg’s upcoming  Disclosure Day (which I’m excited for both because its Spielberg’s return to aliens, and the trailers indicate that Josh O’Connor will spend the film feeling emotions he can only express through his kind, kind eyes) and I’m seriously wondering if Cold Storage was an early exploration of ideas for that film. The way Cold Storage uses animals, especially deer, is impressively creepy and unsettling. Director Jonny Campbell will possibly be best known to readers of this site as the director of Doctor Who’s “Vincent and the Doctor” (sorry if you just started crying), and was also behind the TV movie Eric and Ernie, and his previous theatrical feature, also a horror comedy, 2006’s Alien Autopsy. The acting is uniformly great. The bad guys are silly and over the top, but not so over the top that they become scary in a way that would outweigh the fungal threat. Georgina Campbell is fun in a role that riffs on Tess in Barbarian without ever being too on-the-nose. Joe Keery is ridiculously appealing as a kind of working class Robert Pattinson, occasionally verging on wacky but never so much that Teacake becomes a caricature. There are real people inside both Naomi and Teacake, and Campbell and Keery allow them to show, especially in the film’s first act. Ellora Torchia is solid as the only reasonable, sane person in a government bureaucracy, and makes the creakiest part of the movie work so well you barely notice the exposition. But maybe best of all are Leslie Manville and Liam Neeson, who ground the film as the two people who know how much danger the world is in, but are also grizzled and sarcastic about it. It’s fun and inventive, but I found myself wishing Campbell and Koepp had stretched even more. I haven’t read Koepp’s novel, but in the film there’s an interesting class element woven into both Teacake and Naomi’s stories—and they talk about that a little bit, but I wanted a more. More loneliness underneath Teacake’s need to fill every silence with chatter. More rawness in Naomi’s life as a single mom finally trying to pursue the degree she wanted years ago, and stuck at a crummy job to make it work. There’s a fun poking at ageism as well, in the way Romano and Quinn come together to be bad asses in their 70s. And there is a lot of splatter and goo. Where I think Cold Storage is stronger is in its matter-of-fact acceptance of climate collapse—and collapse in general. The fungus only becomes a problem because, first, the U.S. government doesn’t take its stewardship seriously enough. The warehouse, that becomes a storage facility, that is then guarded by underpaid, exhausted workers who cannot possibly take over the care of something so sensitive, shows the us the gradual breakdown of infrastructure rather than lecturing about it. And second, the fungus is only able to break containment because the environment has warmed up enough to reawaken it—a process that is made lethally worse by the violent and unpredictable storms that have become a common feature of life in the Midwest. No one debates this fact, it’s just a backdrop to the emergency. I also thought a lot about the latest Toxic Avenger. That movie went for a splattercore midnight movie vibe, but with the serious undercurrent that humble punk janitor Winston Gooze only becomes Toxie because he’s trying to expose a corrupt chemical company that’s destroying the environment and exposing his community to, well, toxic waste—and he only does that in retaliation when they refuse to cover his brain cancer treatment, and he doesn’t want to leave his stepkid an orphan. Heady shit for a Troma production! But as with that film, I think Cold Storage needed to be even more extreme with the gore. The aftereffects of the fungus are horrifying, yes, and the makeup is fantastic, but I think the movie needed to really drip with green vomit—the way it would have if it was made in 1980s by B-movie vigilantes with part-time actors and no permits. I get the sense that filmmakers think today’s audiences are more squeamish or prudish than their parents, but are they, really, or have they just grown up in a world overflowing with Marvel’s CGI oatmeal? Because in my (fairly full) theater, everyone reacted to every bit of green vomit and deer weirdness. Society only collapses if we let it, people—which is kind of the deeper message of Cold Storage? Bring more midnight movie energy into the world, commit to the splatter, let’s turn this ship around.[end-mark] The post <em>Cold Storage</em> Is a Fun Midnight Movie that Needs More Midnight Movie Energy appeared first on Reactor.