INTERNACIONAL
House GOP’s already fragile majority to further shrink after Democrats’ ballot box victory
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Democrat Christian Menefee, a former attorney for Houston’s Harris County, has won a special congressional election in a left-leaning congressional district in Texas, which has been vacant for nearly a year.
The Associated Press reports that Menefee defeated former Houston City Council member Amanda Edwards, a fellow Democrat, in Saturday’s runoff election to fill the seat left vacant when Democratic Rep. Sylvester Turner died last March.
Menefee’s victory means the Republicans’ razor-thin House majority — they currently control the chamber 218-213 — will shrink by one seat when Menefee is sworn in to Congress.
DEMOCRATIC TAKEOVER FEARS SOAR AS HOUSE REPUBLICANS CLING TO FRAGILE MAJORITY
Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee was endorsed by the Congressional Progressive Caucus Political Action Committee. (Office of the Harris County Attorney official website)
Sylvester, a former longtime state lawmaker, served two terms as Houston mayor before winning election to Congress in 2024, to fill the seat of the late longtime Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee.
While Texas has redrawn its congressional maps for the 2026 midterms, as part of the high-stakes redistricting battle between President Donald Trump and Republicans versus Democrats, the special election used the state’s current district lines.
DEMOCRATIC TAKEOVER FEARS SOAR AS HOUSE REPUBLICANS CLING TO FRAGILE MAJORITY
Democratic Rep. Sylvester Turner of Texas died on March 5, 2025. (Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)
The addition of another lawmaker into the House Democrats’ ranks will give Republican leadership in the chamber further headaches.
«They’d better be here,» House Speaker Mike Johnson recently said of his members. «I told everybody, and not in jest, I said, no adventure sports, no risk-taking, take your vitamins. Stay healthy and be here.»
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., walks from the chamber to speak with reporters after the final vote to bring the longest government shutdown in history to an end, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo)
And House Majority Whip Tom Emmer’s office confirmed it is advising members that «outside of life-and-death circumstances,» they expect Republican lawmakers to be on Capitol Hill.
Three other special congressional elections are on tap this year.
Eleven candidates are running in the Feb. 5 Democratic Party primary in New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District.
The seat was left vacant after now New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill stepped down after winning November’s gubernatorial election in the Garden State.
Then-Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill stepped down from Congress in November after winning election as New Jersey governor. (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The winner of the Democratic primary will face off with Randolph Mayor Joe Hathaway, the only Republican to file for the special election, which will be held on April 16.
The suburban district in northern New Jersey leans to the left, with Sherrill winning re-election in 2024 by 15 points, the same margin she carried the district in November’s gubernatorial showdown.
REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: HOUSE EXODUS THREATENS JOHNSON’S GRIP ON POWER AS OVER 40 MEMBERS HEAD FOR EXIT
But then-Vice President Kamala Harris won the district by just eight points in the 2024 presidential election, giving the GOP some hopes of possibly flipping the seat.
A whopping 22 candidates, including 17 Republicans, are running in a special election in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District, in the race to succeed former GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. The MAGA firebrand and one-time top Trump House ally four weeks ago stepped down from Congress a year before her term ended.
Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene resigned from Congress on Jan. 5, 2026. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
According to Georgia state law, all the candidates will run on the same ballot. If no contender tops 50% of the vote, a runoff election between the top two finishers will take place on April 7.
The district in northwestern Georgia is solidly Republican, with Greene winning re-election in 2024 by nearly 30 points and Trump carrying the district by 37 points.
Primary Day in California for the 2026 elections is scheduled for June 2, and this year it will also include a primary for the special election in the state’s 1st Congressional District, in the race to fill a seat left vacant following the recent unexpected death of Republican Rep. Doug LaMalfa. The general election will be held on Aug. 4.
The district, in northeastern California, is solidly Republican.
Republican Rep. Doug LaMalfa of California died on Jan. 6, 2026. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Similar to Texas, California is also altering its congressional maps as part of the redistricting wars, but the special election will be held under the current district lines.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
The White House and congressional Republicans criticized the decision by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom to not hold a special election to fill LaMalfa’s seat until August, six months after the late congressman’s death.
But Democrats similarly complained about Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas not scheduling the special election to fill Turner’s seat until eight months after the late lawmaker died.
Fox News’ Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this story.
house of representatives,democrats elections,elections,texas,congress,mike johnson
INTERNACIONAL
El secreto peor guardado de Vladimir Putin en Ucrania tras cuatro años de invasión rusa
El Ejército ruso ha perdido más de 300.000 hombres en los cuatro años de guerra en Ucrania, según fuentes independientes. Aunque las bajas rusas son un secreto a voces, el Kremlin mantiene silencio para no instigar aún más el creciente descontento entre los rusos con la campaña militar.
La última vez que el Ministerio de Defensa ruso informó sobre muertos en acción –Cargo 200– fue en septiembre de 2022 -cuando los situó en 5.937-, justo antes de la movilización de reservistas que provocó el exilio de más de un millón de hombres en edad militar.
Fuentes occidentales, desde la OTAN a la inteligencia estadounidense y británica, estiman en un millar las bajas diarias en las filas rusas y en más de 30.000 las pérdidas mensuales. Además, enero sería el primer mes en el que el Ejército ruso no puede reponer las bajas con voluntarios.
Los militares rusos caídos se llaman Cargo 200 desde la guerra de Afganistán (1979-1989). Entonces, el talón que acompañaba al cargo ponía 200, ya que ese era el peso máximo del féretro de zinc permitido por el Ministerio de Defensa de la Unión Soviética.
El conocido bloguero militar Yuri Podoliak, que ha sido invitado a recepciones en el Kremlin, fue el que rompió la baraja al abordar en enero en YouTube el sensible tema del Cargo 200.
Podoliak admitió que el Ejército ruso podría haber perdido hasta 415.000 hombres entre soldados, voluntarios y antiguos presidiarios reclutados por el grupo Wagner.
Además, situó las bajas totales en más de 800.000 de los más de dos millones de rusos que han participado en la conocida como ‘operación militar especial’. Ese número de pérdidas humanas contrasta con las conquistas territoriales: apenas un 12% del territorio ucraniano desde el 24 de febrero de 2022.
Según los expertos occidentales, ningún país ha sufrido tantas bajas en un conflicto desde el fin de la Segunda Guerra Mundial en 1945. De hecho, las tropas rusas han sufrido más bajas en estos cuatro años que en todos los conflictos anteriores desde la contienda mundial, lo que incluye las dos sangrientas guerras chechenas.
El portal independiente Mediazona, en colaboración con Meduza y la BBC, cifra los combatientes rusos muertos e identificados con nombres y apellidos en más de 168.000.
A esta cifra hay que sumar los muertos aún no identificados, pero incluidos, entre otros, en los certificados de defunción y hereditarios de acceso público, datos de servicios funerarios o denuncias de desaparición. De hecho, Mediazona admite que, según sus cálculos aproximados, esa cifra rondaría ya los 300.000, a falta de los datos de este año.
En los primeros meses la mayoría de muertos eran soldados profesionales -efectivos de las fuerzas aerotransportadas y de las brigadas motorizadas-, después los presidiarios y a partir de mediados de 2023, los voluntarios.
Mientras, el Centro de Estudios Estratégicos e Internacionales de EE.UU. publicó a principios de año un informe en el que aseguraba que “desde febrero de 2022 las fuerzas rusas han sufrido casi 1,2 millones de bajas (325.000 muertos), más que ninguna otra potencia en cualquier campaña desde la Segunda Guerra Mundial”.
En cuanto a Ucrania, según las estimaciones del centro, habría sufrido entre 500.000 y 600.000 bajas y entre 100.000 y 140.000 muertos.
“A este ritmo, las bajas rusas y ucranianas combinadas podrían alcanzar los 2 millones para la primavera de 2026”, destacó.
Al contrario que el Kremlin, el presidente de Ucrania, Volodímir Zelensky, sí admitió recientemente más de 55.000 muertos en las filas de su ejército.
El Kremlin ha intentado ocultar por todos los medios esta información, lo que incluye el cese de la publicación de datos oficiales sobre mortalidad en Rusia, pero también otros indicadores demográficos que permitirían calcular los muertos en combate.
El presidente ruso, Vladímir Putin, prohibió la publicación de datos de bajas en las filas de las Fuerzas Armadas en mayo de 2015, después de que soldados irregulares rusos fueran desplegados en el este de Ucrania para apoyar la sublevación prorrusa.
De esta forma, los rusos no tienen acceso a datos sobre las pérdidas humanas en el ejército tanto en tiempos de paz, como durante operaciones militares especiales.
Con todo, la censura no es infalible. El segundo tribunal militar del Distrito Occidental admitió a finales de enero, contra la versión oficial, que el buque insignia de la Flota del Mar Negro, el ‘Moskvá’, había sido hundido en abril de 2022 en un ataque ucraniano con torpedos.
Además, el fallo admitió la muerte de 20 marineros, identificados con nombres y apellidos, a lo que hay que añadir ocho desaparecidos.
(Con información de EFE)
War,Europe,Military Conflicts
INTERNACIONAL
Major drug lord ‘El Mencho’ killed in Mexican military operation with US intelligence support
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Major Mexican drug lord Nemesio Oseguera, known as «El Mencho,» was killed in a military operation Sunday morning, the country’s Defense Department announced, marking one of Mexico’s most significant blows to organized crime amid pressure from President Donald Trump to intensify the crackdown on drug cartels.
The announcement came as government officials warned of clashes in Jalisco state and widespread criminal activity across the country, prompting the U.S. Embassy in Mexico to issue shelter-in-place advisories for multiple states.
On Sunday, Mexican troops reportedly conducted operations in Tapalpa, Jalisco, targeting Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, a former police officer who became the elusive leader of the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), a major supplier of fentanyl to the United States.
Known as «El Mencho,» Oseguera Cervantes carried a $15 million U.S. bounty and rose to power following the arrest of Joaquín «El Chapo» Guzmán, the former head of the Sinaloa Cartel. Over the past 15 years, CJNG has grown from a local criminal group into a global trafficking organization operating out of its stronghold in Jalisco.
A MEXICAN DRUG KINGPIN YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF IS INFILTRATING SMALL-TOWN AMERICA
El Mencho was killed during a Mexican operation in Jalisco on Feb. 22, 2026. (Drug Enforcement Administration)
«I’ve just been informed that Mexican security forces have killed ‘El Mencho,’ one of the bloodiest and most ruthless drug kingpins,» U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said in a post on X. «This is a great development for Mexico, the US, Latin America, and the world. The good guys are stronger than the bad guys.»
The Mexican Defense Department said the operation was conducted as part of bilateral coordination and cooperation with the U.S., whose authorities provided complementary intelligence that contributed to Oseguera Cervantes’ capture.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that the U.S. «provided intelligence support to the Mexican government in order to assist with an operation in Talpalpa, Jalisco, Mexico, in which Nemesio ‘El Mencho’ Oseguera Cervantes, an infamous drug lord and leader within the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, was eliminated.»
«‘El Mencho’ was a top target for the Mexican and United States government as one of the top traffickers of fentanyl into our homeland. Last year, President Trump rightfully designated the Jalisco New Generation Cartel as a Foreign Terrorist Organization — because that’s exactly what it is. In this operation, three additional cartel members were killed, three were wounded, and two were arrested,» she wrote on X.
Smoke rises into the sky over Puerto Vallarta during an operation targeting cartel activity on Feb. 22, 2026. (Obtained by Fox News Digital)
During the capture, the CJNG ringleader became wounded and died en route to Mexico City, the Defense Department said.
Four others were reportedly killed at the scene of a shootout between Mexican troops and criminal suspects in Jalisco, with Oseguera Cervantes among three additional individuals who were wounded and later died.
Authorities said they detained two other members of the criminal organization and seized a range of weaponry, including armored vehicles and «rocket launchers capable of downing aircraft and destroying armored vehicles.»
Consequently, three members of the armed forces became injured and are receiving treatment.
TOURISTS IN MEXICAN SEASIDE CITY TOLD TO STAY ON RESORT AS GOVERNMENT WARNS OF ‘CLASHES’
Four others were reportedly killed in a Jalisco shootout during the operation (Gabriel Trujillo/Reuters)
Widespread criminal activity has been reported in Jalisco, the cartel’s stronghold, as well as in northern regions that serve as key border and transit corridors for the organization.
The Security Cabinet of the Government of Mexico noted that multiple buildings were reportedly damaged during the «violent incidents,» including roughly 20 branches of Banco del Bienestar, a state-run banking institution.
At least 21 highways remain blocked, with authorities reporting that five have already been reopened.
Photos showed numerous roadblocks and burning vehicles, with dark smoke rising into the sky, across the country – tactics officials say cartels often use to slow or block military operations.
Photos and videos shared with Fox News Digital show thick, dark smoke rising over the skyline of the tourist city of Puerto Vallarta on Mexico’s Pacific Coast in Jalisco.
ALLEGED SINALOA CARTEL FENTANYL PRODUCER CHARGED IN NEWLY UNSEALED FEDERAL INDICTMENT
Widespread criminal activity has been reported in Jalisco, the cartel’s stronghold. (Obtained by Fox News Digital)
«I’m watching the scenes of violence from Mexico with great sadness and concern. It’s not surprising that the bad guys are responding with terror. But we must never lose our nerve,» Landau said.
The Mexican National Guard and Army units from central Mexico and states neighboring Jalisco are currently mobilizing to reinforce security, the Defense Department said.
«We remain in Code Red. We reiterate the recommendation to avoid leaving your homes. The clashes are occurring in several federal entities,» Jalisco state Governor Pablo Lemus Navarro added.
At least 21 highways remain barricaded. (Michelle Freyria/Reuters)
Travel warnings have been issued for Jalisco, including Puerto Vallarta, Chapala, and Guadalajara; Tamaulipas, including Reynosa and other municipalities; and parts of Michoacán, Guerrero, and Nuevo León.
«Due to ongoing security operations and related road blockages and criminal activity, U.S. citizens in the named locations should shelter in place until further notice,» the U.S. Embassy & Consulates in Mexico said.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Complementary intelligence from U.S. authorities aided in the operation. (Michelle Freyria/Reuters)
The operation against Oseguera follows sustained pressure from the Trump administration on President Claudia Sheinbaum’s government, urging Mexico to step up its fight against drug trafficking amid threats of potential U.S. intervention.
mexican cartel violence,location mexico,drugs
INTERNACIONAL
La muerte de “El Mencho”: cómo colaboró Estados Unidos con México para eliminar al capo narco
Milei abrirá las sesiones ordinarias del Congreso: nueva hegemonía libertaria, paquete de reformas y desbandada peronista
Hay alerta amarilla por tormentas y viento para este lunes 23 de febrero: las provincias afectadas
El horóscopo de hoy: lunes 23 de febrero
Preocupa a las consultoras la posible caída de la popularidad del gobierno
El equipo que perdió ante su clásico rival y sufrió el descenso más prematuro en la historia del fútbol inglés
El Gobierno reúne a su mesa política para blindar la estrategia en el Congreso
Escándalo en MasterChef: una famosa abandonó a los gritos y acusando que está todo arreglado
Del himno peronista de Kelly Olmos al exabrupto de Agustina Propato: las perlitas del debate por la reforma laboral
Villarruel cuestionó la apertura de importaciones: «Sin industria, se pasa a depender de China»
“Ahora es la hora de jugarse”: el mensaje de Patricia Bullrich a los empresarios tras aprobarse la reforma laboral
ECONOMIA2 días agoVillarruel cuestionó la apertura de importaciones: «Sin industria, se pasa a depender de China»
- POLITICA2 días ago
“Ahora es la hora de jugarse”: el mensaje de Patricia Bullrich a los empresarios tras aprobarse la reforma laboral
- ECONOMIA2 días ago
Según un especialista, el precio de la carne se mantendrá alto “entre dos y tres años”
