Category: News
Roosevelt football recruit Jamari Thomas cuts through red tape running Hillcrest’s show. ‘A pure point guard.’
A perfect fit for his role, senior point guard Jamari Thomas likes to take control for Hillcrest.
The 5-foot-7 Thomas has always been a selfless talent. He doesn’t worry about scoring or producing offense by himself. He just continually seeks out how to best set up his teammates.
“The game’s not rocket science,” Thomas said about running the show. “I’ve been a facilitator ever since I was little. I started playing when I was 4 and I’ve always been that playmaker.
“I enjoyed setting others up and helped them get theirs.”
Thomas provided that helping hand again Tuesday night, scoring eight points to go with six assists and four steals for the host Hawks in a 70-40 South Suburban Blue victory over Bremen.
Senior guard Jamir Ratliff picked up 25 points, five rebounds, three steals and a blocked shot for Hillcrest (15-7, 9-0), which had nine different players reach the scoresheet with points.
Hillcrest’s Jamari Thomas (11) puts up a shot over Bremen’s Kishawn Gantt (4) during a South Suburban Blue game in Country Club Hills on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026. (Vincent D. Johnson / Daily Southtown)
Senior guard Kishawn Gantt made a pair of 3-pointers and scored a team-high 14 points for Bremen (11-16, 6-5). Senior guard Josh Johnson added 11 points.
The combination of Thomas’ ball pressure and that ability to create shots for his teammates, meanwhile, ignited the Hawks’ two-way attack.
“I’ve been playing with Jamari for a long time and he’s a very good facilitator and creator,” Ratliff said. “He doesn’t say much and he’s kind of nonchalant sometimes.
“But he definitely knows how to look for you and find me in great spots.”
Hillcrest’s Jamari Thomas (11) dribbles past Bremen’s Carter Luster (10) during a South Suburban Blue game in Country Club Hills on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026. (Vincent D. Johnson / Daily Southtown)
Thomas exemplifies one of the first rules of being a point guard — acting as an extension on the floor of coach Don Houston.
”He’s a pure point guard,” Houston said of Thomas. “He’s our engine who gets us into what we need to get into. He finds not only the first man but the second and even the third man.
“He controls the tempo and he plays tough defense, so he plays well on both ends.”
Thomas created the perfect early storm with two 3-pointers while adding three assists and two steals as Hillcrest raced out to a 14-point lead in the first quarter.
Hillcrest’s Jamari Thomas (11) works a full-court press on Bremen’s Jalen Clardy (0) during a South Suburban Blue game in Country Club Hills on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026. (Vincent D. Johnson / Daily Southtown)
The Roosevelt football recruit shows the same energy, toughness and conviction while playing running back for Hillcrest.
“Football improves my skill, intensity and conditioning and helps with my speed and quickness,” he said. “I love to compete and play really hard no matter the sport.”
In basketball, Thomas remains a force of energy who loves to get into the passing lanes and take away what the other team does best.
“I think I’m really disruptive and a great on-the-ball defender,” he said.
Houston believes that opposing teams make a big mistake underestimating Thomas because of his height.
“I’ve coached a lot of small guards and seen them do a lot of good things,” Houston said. “He’s very good at his size because he makes great decisions and doesn’t turn the ball over.”
Hillcrest’s Jamari Thomas (11) hits a jumper against Bremen during a South Suburban Blue game in Country Club Hills on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026. (Vincent D. Johnson / Daily Southtown)
Thomas is atypical in another regard as the floor leader, given his naturally quiet, self-effacing manner.
“I let my game do the talking,” he said. “I get hyped and motivated in other ways like listening to music. Lil Durk is my favorite artist. I listen to him and he gives me inspiration.
“I take what he says, go out and visualize it, and make it happen on the floor.”
Thomas has been doing that since taking over the starting point guard spot halfway through his sophomore year.
“He’s so underrated and the key to what we do,” Houston said. “I’m going to miss him.”
But for now, Thomas loves being an option quarterback on the basketball court.
”I never feel any pressure or anything,” Thomas said. “My role has pretty much been the same, even if the players around me have changed. Having the ball is what I was meant to do.”
Patrick Z. McGavin is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/03/jamari-thomas-hillcrest-bremen-baskebtall/
The Indo-US Trade Deal Might Sharply Shift The Direction Of The Global Systemic Transition
The Indo-US Trade Deal Might Sharply Shift The Direction Of The Global Systemic Transition
Trump unexpectedly announced an Indo-US trade deal on Monday whereby US tariffs on Indian imports will drop to 18% while India will reduce its tariffs on US imports to zero. He also said that Modi agreed to stop buying Russian oil, which he’ll replace with US and possibly Venezuelan oil, while also pledging to buy $500 billion of American energy, technology, agricultural goods, coal, and other products. For his part, Modi confirmed that a deal had indeed been reached, but he didn’t confirm the details.
If Trump accurately conveyed them, and he was reportedly wrong in claiming late last year that India had already stopped buying Russian oil, then the Indo-US trade deal would certainly be historic.
For starters, a little less than half of the Indian population (42%) is employed in the agricultural industry, so tariff-free US imports of such products could ruin some of their livelihoods and lead to these rural folk moving to the cities. The potential socio-economic turbulence could lead to political unrest if improperly managed.
That could be offset if more investment from the US and the EU, which reached a trade deal with India last month, provides new employment opportunities. While a gamble, Modi might have calculated that it’s worth taking these risks for macroeconomic, regional security, and geo-economic reasons.
The first aims to turbocharge India’s GDP growth, which was already expected to be 7.4% this year despite the US’ 50% tariffs at the time, thus helping it become the world’s third-largest economy by 2030 or earlier.
As for the regional security dimension, this relates to restoring India’s role as the US’ top South Asian partner via economic diplomacy after rival Pakistan replaced it last year, thus averting the scenario of the US weaponizing Pakistan and their shared junior Bangladeshi partner as proxies for derailing India’s rise. The aforesaid economic diplomacy segues into the tertiary geo-economic reason that can be speculated as accounting for why Modi might have made such significant compromises for a deal with Trump.
The US’ punitive 25% tariffs for continuing to import discounted Russian oil are no longer worth the economic cost now that the US is offering India similarly priced Venezuelan oil. Meanwhile, the US’ threatened 25% tariffs for doing business with Iran and concerns about its stability render the North-South Transport Corridor through its territory en route to Russia unviable for the time being. The effect of this geo-economic pressure might have understandably pushed India to prioritize a deal with the US.
If Trump’s details about his deal with Modi are correct, then India is recalibrating its grand strategy in the Western direction, albeit due to economic coercion.
Potential implications of this policy shift could be a reduced focus on BRICS, decelerated diversification from the dollar, more defense deals with the US, and resultant difficulty in maintaining its incipient rapprochement with China.
Russia would also be thrown into a grand strategic dilemma if India does indeed stop importing its discounted oil.
In order to stabilize its budgetary revenue and the ruble, Russia could either rely on China to replace its lost Indian oil market at the risk of becoming too dependent on it or agree to tough compromises with the US over Ukraine for phased sanctions relief that would gradually return its oil to the global market.
The consequences would sharply shift the global systemic transition in China’s or the US’ favor, and if the Indo-US trade deal prompts Russia to make this epochal choice, then it would truly be historic.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 02/03/2026 – 23:25
AI’s Next Frontier Is Physical As Humanoid Robots Begin March On Assembly Lines And Beyond
AI’s Next Frontier Is Physical As Humanoid Robots Begin March On Assembly Lines And Beyond
Humanoid robotics is transitioning from prototype to production by late 2026 and into 2027. The market, currently valued at roughly $3 billion, is projected to expand to $40 billion under Barclays’ base-case outlook, with upside scenarios reaching $200 billion as physical AI scales across labor-intensive sectors.
In one of the latest Barclays Eagle Eye newsletters, the firm’s internal thematic research for clients highlighted humanoid robotics, with several examples of these bots moving past pilot programs to industrial production lines.
The research note stated:
Industrial robots have been part of growing automation for half a century, welding car parts, sorting mail, moving packages in warehouses and even flipping burgers in recent years. However, they have been limited in mobility and confined to a narrow set of tasks because they lacked one critical skill: understanding context.
For example, when a humanoid robot was asked to water plants, it could confuse humans with plants. But thanks to recent advances in AI, humanoid robots are now learning to read situations and act accordingly, making them far more scalable than fleets of specialized machines.
A robot equipped with arms, legs and visual reasoning can adapt and perform multiple tasks safely, replacing a dozen single-task robots. German carmaker BMW has put humanoid robots on the line in its Spartanburg plant, where they perform multiple precision-required tasks, such as loading sheet-metal parts into welding fixtures.
. . .
The cost for one unit has collapsed from about $3 million a decade ago to $100,000 today.
The plunge in production costs for these humanoid robots suggests that, as the global population ages, urbanization continues, and worker preferences change, companies will find use cases for these bots to replace low-skilled labor.
As adoption accelerates, Barclays estimates the humanoid robotics market could expand from roughly $3 billion today to as much as $200 billion by 2035. Initial demand is expected to be concentrated in industrial firms, automakers, ports, and warehousing, where labor substitution and productivity gains are most immediate. Humanoids for households will be a story for the early 2030s.
In a separate note, Barclays analyst Zornitsa Todorova recounts the biggest takeaways from her discussion about bots at the World Economic Forum in Davos last month:
The key takeaway from our panel: humanoid robots could generate powerful near-term tailwinds for industrials, not only for companies building the hardware, but also for those looking to deploy these systems across manufacturing, logistics, agriculture, defence and, as the technology matures, healthcare and elderly care.
Beyond manufacturing, logistics, and agriculture, humanoid robots will soon be entering the modern battlefield – like it or not – this trend cannot be stopped.
Some of the leading robotics companies, including Boston Dynamics, Agility Robotics, ANYbotics, Clearpath Robotics, Open Robotics, and Unitree, have already signed an open letter stating that the robotics industry should not be weaponized.
Figure AI CEO Brett Adcock recently told investors, “We will not place humanoids in military or defense applications, nor any roles that require inflicting harm on humans.”
This leaves us with Foundation Robotics, a US-based robotics startup developing humanoid robots for industrial and military applications. The company has identified a significant gap in defense use cases for humanoids and is training its Phantom MK1 for offensive operations.
Foundation is positioning itself as a leader in military humanoid robotics. CEO Sankaet Pathak recently confirmed this move in comments to tech blog Humanoids Daily, emphasizing the company’s defense-first mindset.
Its philosophy is reinforced by co-founder Mike LeBlanc, who recently said the team designed the Phantom MK1 to enter and breach rooms and other high-risk environments ahead of human operators. As LeBlanc put it, the goal here is simple: do not send a Marine where a robot can go first.
Like it or not, the rest of the world, whether China, Russia, or Ukraine, is already pursuing a dual-use robotics strategy. The rise of humanoid robotics on the modern battlefield is unavoidable.
While many US robotics firms emphasize safeguards and ethical constraints, other countries are rapidly integrating robotics, large language models, FPV drones, and AI-driven systems into warfare. What we are seeing today in Ukraine – on both sides – is a preview of what war in the 2030s may look like, and it is deeply unsettling.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 02/03/2026 – 23:00
Milwaukee Bucks snap a 5-game skid with a 131-115 win over the Chicago Bulls
MILWAUKEE — Kyle Kuzma matched a season high with 31 points and the Milwaukee Bucks snapped a five-game skid, beating the Chicago Bulls 131-115 in a meeting of short-handed teams Tuesday night.
Milwaukee was missing its top two scorers due to injury, while the Bulls traded away three players earlier in the day.
The Bulls sent Kevin Huerter and Dario Šarić to Detroit as part of a three-team deal in which they acquired Mike Conley Jr. from Minnesota and Jaden Ivey from the Pistons. They also traded Nikola Vučević and a second-round draft pick to Boston for Anfernee Simons and a second-round draft selection.
The Bulls were missing leading scorer Josh Giddey due to a strained left hamstring.
Milwaukee was again without two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, who strained his right calf on Jan. 23. Antetokounmpo was on the court taking shots and working out before the game.
The Bucks improved to 4-15 without Antetokounmpo.
Milwaukee also didn’t have Kevin Porter Jr. (oblique strain), Bobby Portis (hip bruise) and Gary Harris (left hamstring strain). Bucks coach Doc Rivers said before the game that Porter could return Wednesday or Friday.
Ryan Rollins had 21 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds for Milwaukee. Kuzma had 10 rebounds and six assists.
The Bucks made a season-high 23 3-pointers and shot 60.5% from beyond the arc.
Chicago’s Matas Buzelis scored 22 points. Coby White had 21 points and 10 rebounds.
Two nights after scoring their fewest points of the season in a 107-79 loss at Boston, Milwaukee nearly equaled that output by halftime, leading 77-52 at the break. That was the Bucks’ highest first-half point total of the season.
Chicago cut Milwaukee’s lead to 90-84 late in the third quarter but couldn’t get any closer.
Up next
Bulls: Visit Toronto on Thursday.
Bucks: Host New Orleans on Wednesday.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/03/chicago-bulls-milwaukee-bucks-trade-deadline/
Magdalene Mikroulis, who’s open to playing in college, shows senior leadership for Lemont. ‘A steady presence.’
Lemont’s Magdalene Mikroulis isn’t sure about her future when it comes to playing basketball.
The senior guard, however, is still mulling over her options.
“I have some interest from a couple of schools, so I’ll see where the wind takes me,” she said. “I haven’t decided on a college yet. But if anything gets thrown my way, I’m open to anything.”
Mikroulis could ride the wind of momentum to a college if she plays like she did Tuesday night.
The 5-foot-8 Mikroulis scored a team-high 13 points — including nine in the second half — to help lead visiting Lemont to a 36-33 South Suburban Blue victory over Oak Forest.
Khloe Madej scored all of her 10 points in the second half and added seven rebounds and four steals for Lemont (10-10, 4-5). Claire Podrebarac picked up eight points, three rebounds and three steals, while Mackenzie Strehlau produced seven rebounds and two steals off the bench.
Lemont’s Magdalene Mikroulis (4) pulls away up the court as Oak Forest’s Natalia Covarrubias (22) defends during a South Suburban Blue game in Oak Forest on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026. (James C. Svehla / Daily Southtown)
Natalia Covarrubias led Oak Forest (18-10, 2-5) with 17 points, including five in a wild final minute that shaved an eight-point deficit down to three. Maddie Martinez finished with six of her nine points in the fourth quarter. She also had six rebounds, four steals and two blocked shots.
During the frantic final minutes of the game, Lemont counted on Mikroulis for senior leadership.
“Man, you know ‘Mags’ is a steady presence,” Lemont coach Tracy Rainey said. “She’s been on varsity since her freshman year.
“For this game specifically, we were calling out to her to settle everyone down in the last three or four minutes. She has that ability to do that. When she’s in the game, people feel confident.”
Lemont’s Khloe Madej (33) drives to the basket as Oak Forest’s Maddie Martinez (21) defends during a South Suburban Blue game in Oak Forest on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026. (James C. Svehla / Daily Southtown)
The ending was frenzied, but what earned Lemont the win was its defense in the third quarter. Oak Forest held a 14-12 lead at halftime as both teams struggled to score.
But Lemont made it even tougher on the Bengals by holding them scoreless for more than 6 1/2 minutes in piling up a 25-14 lead.
“Honestly, we were just trying to play hard-nosed defense,” Mikroulis said. “We needed to try to keep the lead that we just got and to hold them.
“It was a big night. It was their senior night, and we wanted to hold ourselves accountable on defense. We needed to move our feet so we wouldn’t get into foul trouble.”
Lemont’s Mackenzie Strehlau (20) looks up to take a shot as Oak Forest’s Rebecca Yerkes (3) defends during a South Suburban Blue game in Oak Forest on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026. (James C. Svehla / Daily Southtown)
Madej confirmed that she finds herself in foul trouble quite a bit, so she was glad she could perform well against Oak Forest.
“It was a very intense game and it was really important that we stayed on our toes and flowed with whatever they were bringing at us,” she said. “I think we did that well in this game.”
Only a sophomore, Madej also appreciates what Mikroulis brings to the team.
“She’s great — I love her,” Madej said of Mikroulis. “Sometimes, she’s a little intense, but it’s all to make us better. She’s a great captain, and I’ve loved playing with her.”
Lemont’s Magdalene Mikroulis (4) moves the ball up the court on Oak Forest’s Kynzie Oliver (5) during a South Suburban Blue game in Oak Forest on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026. (James C. Svehla / Daily Southtown)
Mikroulis, a four-year varsity player, was a quick study in the seventh grade when she was introduced to the sport by watching her brother, Tasso, play in a church league.
“He was my mentor,” she said of her brother. “I watched him play and it looked like a lot of fun. I wanted have that fun, too, so the first time I picked up a ball, I don’t think I ever put it back down.”
Mikroulis praised her brother for making a difference in her game.
“He taught me how to be resilient and keep my focus,” she said. “He taught me to not let my emotions get the best of me, hold myself accountable and to lift all my teammates when I’m on the floor.”
Jeff Vorva is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/03/magdalene-mikroulis-lemont-oak-forest-basketball/
Epstein, Western Decline, & The Moral Collapse Of The Elites
Epstein, Western Decline, & The Moral Collapse Of The Elites
Authored by Lucas Leiroz,
January 2026 marks a rupture. It is no longer possible to treat the Epstein case as a sexual scandal involving powerful individuals. What has now come to light – documents, images, records, explicit connections – has pushed the debate to another level. This is no longer about “abuses,” “excesses,” or “individual crimes.” What has been exposed points to systematic, organized, ritualized practices. And that changes everything.
For years, the public was conditioned to accept a narrative of ambiguity. There were always doubts, always a lack of “definitive proof,” always a call for caution. That time is over. The material released leaves no room for ingenuousness. When evidence emerges of extreme violence against children, of practices that go beyond any conventional criminal category, the discussion ceases to be legal and becomes civilizational.
What is at stake is no longer who “visited the island” or who “caught a ride on Epstein’s plane.” What is at stake is the fact that networks of this kind only exist when they are backed by deep institutional protection. There is no ritual pedophilia, no human trafficking on a transnational scale, no systematic production of extreme material without political, police, judicial, and media cover. This is not conspiracy: it is the logic of power.
From this point on, the West can no longer hide behind the idea of gradual decline. It is not merely cultural degeneration or a loss of values.
It is something darker: an elite that operates outside any recognizable moral limits and yet continues to govern. People directly or indirectly involved with this world continue to decide elections, wars, economic policies, and the fate of entire societies.
Another decisive element is that we still do not know who is behind the leak. This uncertainty is central. It may be a move by Donald Trump or by sectors aligned with him, attempting to definitively destroy their internal enemies and reorganize power in the United States in a minimally positive direction. It may be the opposite: a controlled release of material intended to pressure Trump into serving the interests of the Democrats and the Deep State.
And the uncomfortable truth, impossible to ignore, is that all of this may still be part of an even deeper and more macabre plan by the Deep State – encompassing both Democrats and Republicans – to “resolve the Epstein issue” through a brutal campaign of collective desensitization, “normalizing” in public opinion the idea that the Western elite is composed of pedophiles, satanists, and cannibals.
This reinforces a critical point: the truth only came out because it stopped being useful to keep it hidden.
For decades, all of this was known behind the scenes. The silence was not the result of investigative failure, but of a high-level decision.
The press stayed silent. The agencies stayed silent. The courts stayed silent.
The system worked exactly as it was supposed to, all in order to protect itself.
Western societies now face a dilemma that cannot be resolved through elections, parliamentary commissions, or encouraging speeches. How can one continue to accept the authority of institutions that shielded this level of horror? How can respect be maintained for laws applied selectively by people who live above them? How can one speak of “Western values” after this?
The problem is that the modern West has forgotten how to react to anything that is vile and essentially evil. In Western societies, the people no longer know how to deal with absolute evil – especially when it is located at the top of society. Everything becomes procedure, everything becomes mediation, everything becomes technical language. Meanwhile, social trust evaporates.
This is no longer about left and right, liberalism and conservatism. It is about a rupture between people and elites.
Between societies that still retain some sense of limits and a ruling class that operates as if it were outside the common human species.
If there is anything positive in this moment, it is the end of naivety.
It is no longer possible to pretend that the system is “sick but recoverable.” What remained of the Western (anti-)civilizational project has been corroded from within. What comes next is still uncertain – and will be contested by all possible and necessary means.
But one thing is clear: after Epstein, nothing can continue as before. Anyone who acts as if nothing has changed either does not understand the gravity of what has come to light or is pretending not to understand.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 02/03/2026 – 22:35
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/epstein-western-decline-moral-collapse-elites
Presidenta encargada dice que en calma y con madurez Venezuela se repone de ataque de EEUU
CARACAS (AP) — La presidenta encargada Delcy Rodríguez afirmó el martes que Venezuela “ha transmutado” en tranquilidad y se repone de la “agresión” sufrida el 3 de enero, cuando Estados Unidos en un audaz operativo militar depuso y capturó al expresidente Nicolás Maduro.
En lugar de una situación de caos tras ese acontecimiento “el pueblo venezolano con una gran madurez… se repuso del ataque”, señaló, al tiempo que afirmó que su gobierno dio pasos importantes que apuntan al deshielo de las relaciones con Estados Unidos, la aprobación de leyes para impulsar la economía del país. El gobierno también anunció un proyecto de Ley de Amnistía que apunta a la liberación masiva de presos por motivos políticos.
“Ustedes saben que en estos días yo he sostenido conversaciones telefónicas con el presidente Donald Trump, con el secretario de Estado, Marco Rubio, y ese debe ser el camino. Tenemos que trabajar con respeto para superar nuestras diferencias”, aseveró en declaraciones a medios estatales.
Aunque Rodríguez criticó vehementemente la captura de Maduro por parte de Estados Unidos, desde que asumió el cargo ha promovido la reanudación de los lazos diplomáticos.
En ese sentido, la encargada de negocios de Estados Unidos para Venezuela, Laura Dogu, se reunió el lunes con la presidenta.
Tras ese encuentro, la diplomática estadounidense afirmó que fue una oportunidad para “reiterar las tres fases que el @SecRubio (el secretario de Estado Marco Rubio) ha planteado sobre Venezuela: estabilización, recuperación económica y reconciliación, y transición”, indicó Dogu a través de la cuenta oficial de la Oficina Externa de los Estados Unidos para Venezuela en la red social X.
El encuentro se produjo dos días después de que Dogu arribó a Caracas con miras a la reapertura de las misiones diplomáticas en ambos países, marcando un hito en la recuperación paulatina de las relaciones bilaterales.
Ambos países rompieron relaciones en febrero de 2019 por decisión de Maduro y cerraron sus embajadas luego que Trump, en su primer mandato, apoyó al líder opositor Juan Guaidó, entonces titular de la Asamblea Nacional, quien en enero de ese año se declaró presidente interino de Venezuela.
La Asamblea Nacional, de abrumadora mayoría oficialista, por iniciativa de Rodríguez aprobó una reforma a la Ley de Hidrocarburos que reduce significativamente el rígido control estatal sobre las operaciones petroleras vigente en las últimas dos décadas y que abriría el sector a la inversión extranjera.
El gobierno de Trump ha dicho que mantiene sus esfuerzos por asumir el control de las exportaciones de productos petroleros venezolanos para asegurar, según dice, que beneficien al pueblo venezolano, así como vigorizar la alicaída industria atrayendo inversión extranjera al país sudamericano.
Trump recientemente firmó una orden ejecutiva que busca garantizar que los ingresos por la venta de petróleo venezolano permanezcan protegidos contra su uso en procedimientos judiciales de sus acreedores.
“El país está en calma, el país está tranquilo, pero tiene un clamor nacional que es pedir la libertad del presidente Maduro” y su esposa, Cilia Flores, dijo Rodríguez.
Tras su captura, Maduro fue trasladado a territorio estadounidense y el 5 de enero compareció ante un tribunal en Nueva York para enfrentar los cargos de narcoterrorismo de los que le acusa el gobierno de Trump. El depuesto mandatario se declaró no culpable.
Chicago Bulls’ flurry of deadline activity includes trading Nikola Vučević and acquiring Jaden Ivey
The Chicago Bulls are taking a more aggressive approach to the NBA trade deadline this year.
After years of muted activity at the midseason, executive vice president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas kickstarted a flurry of activity Tuesday — first cementing a three-team trade to acquire Jaden Ivey from Detroit, then offloading Nikola Vučević to the Boston Celtics.
The Bulls acquired Ivey and veteran guard Mike Conley Jr. in a three-team trade with the Pistons and Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange for guard Kevin Huerter and forward Dario Šarić, both of whom went to Detroit. Minnesota also sent a draft pick swap for a protected first-rounder to Detroit in the deal, per an ESPN report. The Bulls then sent Vučević to the Celtics in exchange for guard Anfernee Simons and a second-round draft pick swap.
This isn’t the end of the action for the Bulls, who remain active sellers ahead of the deadline at 2 p.m. Thursday. The Bulls front office is continuing to target Coby White as a blue-chip trade asset to leverage contending teams in the Western Conference out of trade picks or young talent.
This uncertainty hung over the Bulls as they attempted to regroup for Tuesday’s game in Milwaukee against the Bucks, a 131-115 loss. Players cracked jokes in the locker room about who would get traded next. Only 10 players were available to participate in the game, with Tre Jones suiting up as a fail-safe despite the team having no expectation that the injured guard would play.
For White, the loss of teammates and anticipation of his own potential trade made Tuesday a difficult day to navigate.
Chicago Bulls center Nikola Vučević (9) dunks the ball in the second quarter during a game against the Philadelphia 76ers, Friday, Dec. 26, 2025, at the United Center in Chicago. (Dominic Di Palermo/Chicago Tribune)
“I think sometimes there’s a narrative — just in the NBA but in general — that it’s part of the business,” White said. “But we’re still human. … Vooch was a locker room leader. Seeing him go, it was kind of tough for probably a lot of guys. You’re gonna feel something, right? We’re all human. But we still got a game and we got a job to do, so we’re going to go out there and do it.”
Moving away from Vučević signalled the closing of a chapter for the Bulls. The center was the first acquisition of the 2021 roster rebuild for Artūras Karnišovas, who took a major swing to craft a roster that climbed to the top of the Eastern Conference before crashing out of a first-round series with the Milwaukee Bucks in the 2022 playoffs.
Although he struggled at first to fit his style of play into the Bulls’ system, Vučević thrived offensively in recent seasons as a facilitating center. He shot a career-high 40.2% from 3-point range last season and averaged 16.9 points and nine rebounds per game for the Bulls this season. The Bulls heard offers on the center at last year’s deadline but ultimately couldn’t find a suitable trade partner. With a move to Boston, Vučević achieves his ultimate goal of spending one of the final seasons of his career with a contender.
Teammates and coaches alike praised Vučević for his availability — playing 93% of possible games during his Chicago tenure — and work ethic during his time with the Bulls.
“The game has evolved and it’s always kind of changing and he’s always adjusted,” coach Billy Donovan said. “He was always available. We played a lot of games and he was always available. He found a way to always get himself ready. We could rely on him.”
After snagging a pair of second-round picks in a three-team trade on Saturday, the Bulls exclusively picked up guards in their pair of Tuesday deals.
Detroit Pistons guard Jaden Ivey dribbles past Phoenix Suns forward Ryan Dunn on Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
A 6-foot-3 shooting guard who was averaging 8.2 points per game for the Pistons this season, Ivey fits the mold for Chicago’s current youth development plan as a third-year player at age 23. The guard missed the majority of the 2024-25 season after breaking his left fibula, a significant injury that required nearly a full year of recovery. He still hasn’t returned to his full vitality this season — the guard was averaging 17.6 points per game in the first 30 games of that season before the injury — but there is hope that he will continue to rebuild to that prior output with another year’s removal from the incident. Ivey is the son of Notre Dame women’s basketball coach Niele Ivey.
Conley is a 38-year-old veteran who moved to the bench for the Timberwolves this season and averages 4.4 points per game. Simons — a 6-foot-3 guard averaging 14.2 points per game off the bench for the Celtics — is younger at 26, but still not on the same age timeline as the rest of Chicago’s preferred roster.
All three of these players are on expiring contracts, which provides the Bulls with their ultimate objective of flexibility. But as it stands right now, the Chicago roster includes 10 guards — and only two centers, including two-way rookie Lachlan Olbrich.
Still, with more than a day left until the trade deadline, there’s still plenty of time left for Karnišovas to balance this roster.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/03/chicago-bulls-trade-nikola-vucevic-acquire-jaden-ivey/
Defunding ICE Is A Politically Toxic Position For The Democrats
Defunding ICE Is A Politically Toxic Position For The Democrats
In recent weeks, calls to defund or even abolish ICE have ramped up from the Democratic Party, particularly after the shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. However, despite their rhetoric, American voters are far more aligned with Trump’s immigration crackdown. In fact, it looks like their views on immigration enforcement are so far out of touch with mainstream America that it could cost them the midterm elections.
The latest Cygnal survey has made some rather telling discoveries: enforcement is popular, defunding ICE is toxic, and Democrats are walking straight into an electoral buzz saw by pretending otherwise.
Cygnal, widely regarded as one of the most accurate private pollsters in the country, polled likely 2026 midterm voters and found that voters still see the border as a question of law, not vibes. A full 73 percent of voters say that entering the United States illegally is, in fact, breaking the law, which means most Americans still accept the basic premise behind the word “illegal.”
Voters also back deportation of people in the country illegally by a margin of 61 percent to 34 percent, nearly two to one. Support for actual enforcement is just as clear. Fifty-four percent want ICE to enforce federal immigration laws and remove illegal immigrants, and 58 percent oppose efforts to defund the agency.
NEW POLL:
🗳️ 73% say coming here illegally is breaking the law.
🗳️ 61% support deporting illegals.
🗳️ 58% oppose defunding ICE.
🗳️ 54% support ICE enforcing our immigration laws. pic.twitter.com/E7r1JTUHmw
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 2, 2026
The biggest problem for Democrats hoping to win back control of the House and Senate in November is that the opposition to defunding ICE includes majorities of independents and undecided voters.
Nearly two-thirds of likely midterm voters, 64 percent, say illegal immigration is a national problem. Among swing voters, it’s 71 percent. Republicans are almost unanimous at 97 percent, and 60 percent of independents agree, while Democrats are the only group in which a large share insists it is not a problem at all.
The data shows that Democrats have a significant problem with one of their most prominent policy positions ahead of the midterm elections, and it will likely cost them.
According to Cygnal’s polling, Democrats hold a modest four-point edge on a generic congressional ballot. The problem for them is that this advantage disappears once voters are told Democrats want to defund ICE or weaken enforcement. In that scenario, the race becomes tied. If Democrats push a government shutdown to defund ICE, Republicans gain a two-point lead, a six-point swing driven by a single issue. Among swing voters, the backlash is even sharper, producing a 16-point shift toward Republicans.
That kind of shift points to a deeper problem than messaging. It exposes a structural blind spot in the Democrat coalition: The activist wing’s demands to confront or abolish ICE alienate the very voters needed to win close races, particularly in swing districts.
Cygnal’s data show Republicans gain whenever they draw a clear contrast between enforcing immigration law and Democrat efforts to weaken or defund enforcement. Voters reward candidates who back deportation and strong ICE enforcement and punish those who side with activists against it.
“Voters see illegal immigration as a simple question of law and order,” Brent Buchanan, the founder and CEO of Cygnal, said in a statement. “Americans want the law enforced, they want illegal immigrants removed, and they punish politicians who try to block ICE from doing its job.” The data show little ambiguity in how voters process the issue.
The numbers paint a clear picture heading into the midterm elections. Most voters support enforcing immigration law and oppose efforts to defund or hamstring ICE. Despite all the negative publicity, this issue is a winning issue for the GOP.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 02/03/2026 – 22:10
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/defunding-ice-politically-toxic-position-democrats
Filial de empresa china anuncia arbitraje contra Panamá, luego de fallo contra concesión portuaria
CIUDAD DE PANAMÁ (AP) — La filial de la empresa CK Hutchison Holdings, de Hong Kong, anunció el martes que comenzó un arbitraje internacional contra el Estado panameño por una supuesta campaña que afectó a la empresa y la concesión de los puertos en ambos extremos del canal interoceánico. La medida tiene lugar días después que la justicia del país centroamericano declaró inconstitucional dicha concesión portuaria.
De acuerdo con un comunicado de Panama Ports Company (PPC), el inicio del arbitraje se produce tras “una campaña del Estado panameño dirigida específicamente contra PPC y su contrato de concesión, a través de un año marcado por una serie de acciones abruptas… que culminaron en daños graves y daños adicionales inminentes a PPC, mientras que no se han dirigido contra contratos similares en el sector portuario”.
PPC indicó que está exigiendo, además, una indemnización “amplia” basada en una evaluación de datos financieros “relevantes”, aunque no mencionó alguna cuantía, y que la compañía así como sus inversionistas “continúan reservándose permanentemente todos sus derechos” de actuar para defender sus intereses en el país.
El gobierno panameño no había reaccionado de momento al anuncio de PPC.
El jueves, la Corte Suprema del país dictaminó que la concesión otorgada a la subsidiaria de CK Hutchison Holdings era inconstitucional, en un fallo que impulsa el objetivo de Estados Unidos de bloquear cualquier influencia de China sobre la estratégica vía fluvial y que provocó de inmediato una fuerte reacción de Beijing.
El presidente panameño José Raúl Mulino dijo posteriormente que hasta que se ejecute el fallo de la corte —un período de tiempo que no especificó— la Autoridad Marítima de Panamá trabajará con PPC para asegurar la continuidad de las operaciones en ambos puertos (Balboa en el Pacífico y Cristóbal en el Atlántico).
El gobierno de Panamá también anunció que una vez culmine el proceso judicial y sus notificaciones, y la concesión se termine formalmente, una subsidiaria de la empresa danesa de logística A.P. Moller-Maersk operará los puertos en una fase de transición hasta que se pueda licitar y adjudicar una nueva concesión.
En el comunicado PPC llamó al Estado panameño a proporcionar claridad y consultas para resolver el asunto.
