Mariah Carey and a tribute to disco are hardly controversial.

For the 2026 Winter Games, the Olympics kept political messaging to a minimum, save for a couple of small segments.

‘Harmony between beauty and creativity.’

The games, which are taking place in Milan and Cortina, Italy, held two parades for the opening ceremonies. Athletes came from the mountains, where they will compete in Cortina, down to the town square to celebrate, while fans packed the San Siro Olympic Stadium in Milan to watch the ceremonial performances.

The ceremony opened with a montage video featuring skiers, a woman making a bowl of pasta, cappuccinos, families on a mountain, Italian sports cars, and more.

According to NBC’s commentary team, the ceremony that followed was meant to represent “harmony between beauty and creativity.”

This featured dancers dressed as angels performing a lot of interpretive movements, which was a recurring theme throughout the near-hour-long event. There were mascots serving as an ode to Italian composers, giant paint tubes, and even a segment dedicated to disco dancing.

After Mariah Carey sang in Italian, a few of the more contentious elements of the ceremony appeared.

First, a very diverse cast of fans arrived at the stadium on a train before Armani-clad models in Italian colors delivered the Italian flag to the podium. Then, an “all-female honor guard,” which NBC noted was the first of its kind for the Olympics, raised the flag.

RELATED: Baphomet, drag queens, and the Olympics’ satanic symbolism

Photo by Matthias Hangst/Getty Images

What seemingly caused the most disagreement was the Olympic committee using giant rings to represent harmony between dueling ideals, which then turned into the Olympic rings. Fans pointed out on X that this was similar to London‘s use of the rings in 2012.

“Bit of a London copy of 2012,” one viewer wrote.

“Copying the [Brits] I see! Nothing will top 2012 opening and closing ceremonies,” another person reacted.

Overall, the general lack of divisive messaging in the ceremony was appreciated by viewers, with one applauding the organizers. “Italy. No woke garbage.”

The 2024 Paris Olympics’ opening ceremony sparked worldwide controversy, however, particularly with Christians. The ceremony mocked the Bible’s Last Supper with a “drag queen Last Supper,” replacing Jesus and his apostles with a cast of disturbing characters, including an obese woman in the place of Jesus.

A nearly nude male, painted blue, appeared as Dionysus, the god of winemaking, vegetation, fertility, and ecstasy.

The strange events were also coupled with a drag queen carrying the Olympic torch before the games started.

RELATED: Russell Brand explores what was revealed by the Olympics’ symbolic attack on Christianity

Photo by Andreas Rentz/Getty Images

In 2026, rapper Snoop Dogg, who is a part of the NBC Olympics crew, wore a special Italian Olympic chain. This is noteworthy because in 2024, the musician was accused of wearing a chain that some alleged was a representation of Baphomet. Baphomet is a pagan god adopted as a symbol for the Satanic Temple.

Snoop rejected the idea, saying he had it made because “somebody told me I was the GOAT, so I wanted to make me a goat chain.”

This time around, Snoop focused on celebrating the Jamaican bobsled team, which is drawing comparisons to the 1993 film “Cool Runnings.”

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A 16-year-old girl said in a video interview that that she fought the adult male with a MAGA hat at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement protest in Texas earlier this week, calling him “old” and “racist” while excusing fellow teen brawlers.

“I didn’t think it was going to escalate this far,” Alissa, a student at Moe & Gene Johnson High School in Buda, told KEYE-TV. “I didn’t think that he was going to be capable to even think to hit a minor. I didn’t think he was actually going to get out of his vehicle. So in the moment I reacted.”

‘I’m not gonna let, like, [an] old man, a racist man, like, say something to a minor.’

Alissa told the station she saw another female juvenile kick the man’s truck amid a verbal argument between them Monday afternoon.

“She kicks the truck. She just kicks the truck one time, and that’s it,” Alissa added to KEYE. “That’s the moment that he got mad. He reached for his door. He decides to get off the vehicle and starts to come straight to the girl and starts to attack her.”

She also told the station that “he should have known better. He’s an adult. He could have just easily let the girl hit the car, park to the side, call the police, and call it a day. He decided to get out of the car and do what he did.”

Alissa added to KEYE that cellphone video another student recorded shows the moment she intervened.

“He kind of got on top of her and started to hit the girl. In that moment, I reacted. I went and I pulled the guy off, and that’s when I hit him,” she recalled to the station. “Everybody comes and attacks him, and it escalates from there.”

Alissa in her interview with KEYE excused the actions of her fellow teens.

RELATED: Video: All-out brawl erupts between adult male with MAGA hat and more than a dozen apparent HS students at ICE protest

“It’s teenagers,” she argued to the station. “How was he not going to expect teenagers to act like teenagers? Like, if they have the moment to attack a guy, and they’re doing a protest … like, obviously those kids are gonna take the time out of their day to come defend the girls.”

Alissa added to KEYE, “Like, it’s a girl. Like, he should have known better, like, not to put his hands on girls, first of all, and he should have known that it’s a minor; he should have known that these are kids doing a protest.”

She also told the station, “I’m not gonna let, like, [an] old man, a racist man, like, say something to a minor.” The reporter interviewing Alissa didn’t ask her to clarify why she called the man a racist.

Alissa’s father told KEYE he was furious when Alissa told him the man grabbed her by her hair.

RELATED: Cops drop new detail about what led to all-out brawl between adult male with MAGA hat, apparent HS students at ICE protest

“I was really, really mad,” Jose Loredo told the station. “We are grown-ups, you know; we’re not little kids. And him hitting girls, females, you’re not supposed to do that. He could have just left. No reason to pull over and get off his car.”

Buda Police said 45-year-old Chad Michael Watts of Kyle was charged Tuesday with two counts of assault causing bodily injury, which are Class A misdemeanors.

Hays County Jail records indicate Watts was booked into jail Tuesday and released Wednesday on two surety bonds of $2,500 each. Police told KEYE in a separate story that Watts has no previous record of violent offenses.

While police determined that Watts was the primary aggressor, Officer Matt Schima with the Buda Police Department told KEYE in a video interview that police also are looking into possible charges against the juveniles involved in the brawl and that “we want to be thorough in this investigation to make sure that everybody is held accountable that needs to be held accountable.”

KEYE claimed that it had attempted to reach out to Watts for comment but those attempts were unsuccessful.

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A congressional committee has demanded documents related to the suspicious increase in the net worth reported by Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.

Republicans have publicly aired suspicions of financial malfeasance after financial reporting showed Omar’s net worth exploded from about $51,000 to millions.

‘There is no way such wealth could have been accumulated, legally, while being paid the salary of a politician.’

On Friday, Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky posted a letter requesting information from a company partially owned by Omar’s husband, Timothy Mynett.

“There are serious public concerns about how your businesses increased so dramatically in value only a year after reporting very limited assets,” wrote Comer, who is the chairman of the House Oversight Committee.

In May 2025, Omar filed a required congressional financial disclosure that indicated two companies tied to her husband had risen in valuation by at least $5.9 million. The disclosures require only ranges of valuations to be reported, so exact sums are not public.

“There is no way such wealth could have been accumulated, legally, while being paid the salary of a politician,” President Donald Trump said at the time.

Omar said that various investigations into her finances found no discrepancies and added that the valuations did not reflect her husband’s share of the companies.

The letter demanded financial records from a winery and a venture capital management firm, including audited financial statements as well as filings and communications with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

RELATED: Questions linger after man sprays liquid onto Rep. Ilhan Omar during speech on impeachment — hazmat identifies liquid

“I’m demanding financial information from companies linked to Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar’s husband,” Comer wrote on social media. “His companies reportedly went from $51K to $30 MILLION in one year — with zero investor information. So we want to know: Who’s funding this? And who’s buying access?”

The letter set a deadline of Feb. 19 for the documents to be delivered to the committee.

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A federal court has cleared the way for President Donald Trump’s ban on diversity, equity, and inclusion policies in federal agencies to go forward on Friday.

U.S. Circuit Judge Albert Diaz, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, wrote the opinion for the three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia.

‘Continue your critical work. Keep the faith. And depend on the Constitution, which remains a beacon amid the tumult.’

“President Trump has decided that equity isn’t a priority in his administration and so has directed his subordinates to terminate funding that supports equity-related projects to the maximum extent allowed by law,” the judge wrote. “Whether that’s sound policy or not isn’t our call.”

The ruling lifts an injunction on the order that had been issued by U.S. District Judge Adam Abelson of Baltimore in Feb. 2025.

Abelson said the executive order likely violated the free-speech amendment to the Constitution. That lawsuit was filed by the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, the American Association of University Professors, and the City of Baltimore.

The court ruled against the arguments made opposing the order but allowed for the possibility of challenging them after the ban is implemented.

Diaz went on to admit in a separate concurrent opinion that he issued the order “reluctantly” and encouraged those fighting the DEI ban to continue their work.

RELATED: Equity activists are outraged that ‘white guilt’ has run out after Disney, Netflix, and other companies force out DEI chiefs

– YouTube

“For those disappointed by the outcome, I say this: Follow the law,” Diaz wrote. “Continue your critical work. Keep the faith. And depend on the Constitution, which remains a beacon amid the tumult.”

Judge Abelson was appointed by former President Joe Biden.

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On January 30, the U.S. Department of Justice dropped over 3 million pages of Epstein-related documents, as mandated by the Epstein Files Transparency Act, signed into law by President Trump in November 2025. This massive data dump includes roughly 2,000 videos and 180,000 images.

These revelations seem to confirm what independent voices like Glenn Beck and Matt Kibbe have warned about for years: a shadowy cabal of insiders wield tremendous power to shape how we think.

As the dust settles around this 2026 bombshell, it’s the perfect time to revisit BlazeTV’s docuseries “The Coverup” — Matt Kibbe’s deep dive into a similar web of corruption: the COVID-19 pandemic.

Months before this latest Epstein file dump, Glenn Beck sat down with Kibbe to dissect the insidious links between COVID mandates, Russiagate hoaxes, and censorship to pinpoint the very same shadowy forces now spotlighted in the Epstein files.

“The same people and the same machine that weaponized the Russiagate story and covered up the Hunter Biden laptop story are the same people in the [COVID-19] apparatus,” Kibbe told Glenn.

With the Epstein files shining new light on long-hidden networks of power and influence, now is the time to watch BlazeTV’s “The Coverup” series. Go to faucicoverup.com to access the full series.

Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

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New York City’s first Muslim mayor cited verses from the Quran before saying he is strengthening sanctuary city laws to protect illegal aliens.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) made the comments during an interfaith prayer meeting on Friday morning. The order will prohibit Immigration and Customs Enforcement from entering city property without a judicial warrant.

‘If faith offers us the moral compass to stand alongside the stranger, government can provide the resources.’

“I consider my own faith, Islam, a religion built upon a narrative of migration,” said Mamdani. “The story of the Hijrah reminds us that prophet Muhammad … was a stranger too who fled Mecca and was welcomed in Medina.”

The order will also create a new task force to focus on immigration and ICE, increase protections on private data, and institute a review on agency policies to ensure they follow the mayor’s directives.

He went on to site several other Quran verses.

“‘As for those who immigrated in the cause of Allah after being persecuted, we shall surely bless them with a good home in this world,'” he quoted. “Or as the prophet Muhammed … said, ‘Islam began as something strange and will go back to being strange. So glad tidings to the strangers.'”

Here the audience applauded his quote.

“If faith offers us the moral compass to stand alongside the stranger, government can provide the resources,” Mamdani continued. “Let us create a new expectation of city hall, where power is wielded to love, to embrace, and to protect. We will stand with the stranger today, tomorrow, and all the days that are still to come.”

Video of Mamdani quoting the Quran was posted to social media.

RELATED: Mamdani housing official decries ‘white middle-class homeowners’ for stalling ‘renter justice’

In January, Mamdani said that the city would expand free day-care opportunities to the city’s residents and specifically included illegal aliens. He also signaled that he would continue the city’s sanctuary policies.

“We are also proud to be a sanctuary city,” Mamdani said at the time. “What a sanctuary city means is that we have policies in place, policies have existed for years in the city, that deny ICE agents access into schools, hospitals, city properties, or even the properties of city contractors unless those ICE agents can present a judicial warrant signed by a judge.”

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