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I spent four years as an Army infantry officer in Alaska, where our operational responsibilities stretched from Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic Ocean to the Aleutian Islands reaching toward Russia.

During Exercise Brim Frost ’89, some 26,000 American and Canadian troops took the field, and I served as a brigade operations officer. As we maneuvered across Alaska’s interior, temperatures plunged as low as 76 degrees below zero. The exercise produced more than 250 cold-weather injuries, including 88 cases of frostbite. At those temperatures, fuel systems become unreliable, batteries lose power, lubricants thicken and weapons and vehicles can fail in ways soldiers from warmer climates rarely encounter.

And no, a week on the slopes at Vail does not prepare anyone for that. The Arctic punishes amateurs.

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That experience is why President Donald Trump’s Greenland announcement at the United Nations on Tuesday deserves attention beyond the political headlines. "We’ll be building two very major military bases," the president told the General Assembly.

The agreement Trump signed with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland Premier Jens-Frederik Nielsen amends the 1951 defense pact. It allows the United States to modernize and expand the existing Pituffik Space Base in the northwest and to establish new defense areas at Narsarsuaq in the south and Mestersvig in the northeast. It also grants U.S. forces broad access by land, air and sea, including undersea access for American public vessels within Greenland’s territorial waters.

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Announcing an Arctic base, however, is a long way from making one operational. Frederiksen said no decision has been made on the specifics of Golden Dome, and Washington has yet to say which forces will occupy the new sites or when.

Forget the flat map and look at the globe from over the North Pole. Alaska, northern Canada and Greenland form the northern approaches to North America, and Greenland sits astride the routes connecting the Arctic Ocean, the North Atlantic and Europe.

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The Pentagon’s 2024 Arctic Strategy calls the North American Arctic vital to homeland defense because it hosts NORAD’s aerospace and maritime warning.

Greenland has been strategic terrain for generations. Narsarsuaq itself was an American air base, Bluie West One, until the United States closed it in 1958. At the height of the Cold War, Washington operated 17 military facilities with more than 10,000 troops on the island. Today only Pituffik remains, with about 150 service members.

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Pituffik supports missile warning, missile defense and space surveillance. The new agreement recognizes American access to defend Greenland, the NATO area and the American continent, including through Golden Dome, Trump’s planned missile-defense system.

Add Narsarsuaq and Mestersvig, and the United States could build a distributed Arctic network. Pituffik is already the northern sensor and space node. Narsarsuaq could strengthen access to Greenland’s southern approaches and the North Atlantic, while Mestersvig could extend American and allied reach toward the Greenland Sea.

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That geography matters most against Russia.

Russia fields the most developed military presence in the Arctic. Its Kola Peninsula hosts the Northern Fleet and important strategic nuclear forces. The Pentagon warns that Russian Arctic capabilities could place the American homeland and allied territory at risk and complicate U.S. power projection.

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Russia does not have to invade Greenland for Greenland to matter. Russian submarines, long-range aircraft and missiles make the island important because of where it sits. More American sites could improve warning, surveillance, reinforcement and resilience while reducing our dependence on a single installation.

China presents a different problem. Beijing is not an Arctic nation, yet it has spent years seeking influence there. The Pentagon strategy documents Chinese icebreaker operations, dual-use research and growing military cooperation with Russia.

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Against China, the agreement’s most consequential provision may involve no runway at all. No non-NATO country may establish a manned or unmanned military installation or maintain a persistent military presence in Greenland without the parties’ agreement. The pact also bars non-allied control of, or significant influence over, critical infrastructure, resource extraction and other sensitive sectors. It has no expiration date, and it requires Denmark and Greenland to ensure that any future independent Greenland remains in NATO and assumes the pact’s defense obligations.

"No U.S. adversary will ever be permitted to establish a military presence in Greenland," Trump said. That closes one path to a Chinese foothold in the Arctic.

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None of this changes the lesson I learned at 76 below zero. An Arctic base is a supply chain that has to survive January. And an Arctic force is more than troops flown north on short notice. The people operating those bases must know how to live, maintain equipment and perform their missions where routine mistakes quickly turn deadly.

Fuel must arrive. Aircraft must fly. Vehicles must start. Communications must work. Soldiers must function outdoors without becoming cold-weather casualties. Spare parts must travel thousands of miles from America’s industrial base.

The Army’s Arctic strategy says the service must "man, train, equip, and organize to win in the Arctic." The Pentagon calls for better communications above 65 degrees north, where satellite coverage thins. Pituffik and Mestersvig both sit well north of that line.

Can two additional U.S. defense areas strengthen deterrence against Russia and China? They can, but concrete and runways alone deter no one.

Deterrence exists when an adversary believes America and its allies can see what is coming, move forces, sustain them and respond effectively. Greenland strengthens each of those against Russia. Against China, denying military access and strategic investment may matter just as much.

The agreement provides geography and access. The hard work is converting them into enduring capability.

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Alaska taught me long ago that the Arctic has little patience for PowerPoint plans or optimistic assumptions. At 76 below zero, strategy meets reality fast.

The adversaries have changed since World War II and the Cold War. The geography has not. Neither has the Arctic’s unforgiving nature.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ROBERT MAGINNIS

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Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said on Sunday that living public officials should not have buildings named after them and proposed a rule to prohibit such renaming efforts.

This comes as President Donald Trump continues to push to rename the Kennedy Center after himself. The president has also sought to rename other prominent federal buildings in Washington, D.C., after himself since returning to the White House last year.

Kennedy said public officials, including Trump, should not "spend public money on private ads for themselves."

"The White House sees it differently, but … you can’t spend public money to … promote yourself," Kennedy told host Margaret Brennan during an appearance on CBS News' "Face the Nation."

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Kennedy's comments came as a new ad promoting Trump appeared on multiple networks, that was funded by the federal government.

The senator then suggested public officials should be barred from having a building named after them while they are still alive.

"I may end up with a sombrero on my head, but I also think we ought to have a rule that no politician can have a building named after him when he’s alive," he said, referring to Trump mocking Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., last year by sharing AI videos of the lawmakers wearing sombreros.

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Trump has attempted to rename multiple buildings after himself since returning to the Oval Office, including the Kennedy Center, although federal judges blocked multiple attempts by the center's board — handpicked by Trump — to add the president’s name to the building.

Trump's name was briefly added to the building's facade but was ordered removed after courts ruled that only Congress holds the authority to change the center's name.

The State Department also added Trump’s name last year to the U.S. Institute of Peace, but former institute officials removed by the Trump administration filed a court motion earlier this month to block construction crews from putting the president’s name onto the outside of the building.

Trump also suggested he wanted New York's Penn Station and the D.C. area's Dulles Airport named after him as a condition for a funding deal earlier this year.

The president has additionally floated a project to construct a promenade connecting the back of the Lincoln Memorial to the Potomac River, saying that allies wanted to call it the "Trump Promenade."

"They want to call it the Trump Promenade, but I don't know if I want to do that, but it's going to be beautiful," he said at the time.

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For generations of American service members heading into the unknown, one of the most important things tucked into a uniform pocket was a Bible.

Some returned battered from war, while others read heartfelt prayers written by family members hoping their sons and husbands would come home. One type was encased in metal and carried over a soldier's heart.

Another Bible traveled to the frozen reaches of Antarctica, sharing Scripture to the very ends of the world.

Now, as the U.S. marks 250 years since the Declaration of Independence, the Museum of the Bible's "Bible in Times of War" exhibit is using those surviving artifacts to trace how American service members turned to God's Word for strength and hope through generations of conflict.

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Wesley Viner, an early modern curator at the Museum of the Bible and Marine veteran who curated the special display in Washington, D.C., told Fox News Digital that some of the most powerful stories preserved in the collection belong not to famous generals or celebrated heroes, but to ordinary Americans whose names may have otherwise disappeared from history.

Among the most recognizable artifacts are so-called "Heart Shield Bibles," small, pocket-sized Bibles with thin metal covers carried by some American service members during World War II and into the Korean War.

The Bibles were frequently purchased by relatives for departing service members and designed to fit into a breast pocket over the heart, helping fuel stories that the metal-covered books could theoretically stop a bullet.

Viner, however, said the truth is less cinematic.

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The thin metal covers were rather unlikely to stop World War II-era ammunition traveling at high speed, he said, though he would not rule out the possibility that one could have protected a service member from shrapnel or flying debris.

"Many of the tales that surround the 'Heart Shield Bibles' are likely a bit exaggerated," Viner said.

But whether the books literally stopped bullets may obscure what they represented to the families who sent loved ones to war.

"It was a source of protection. It was a source of strength. It would keep them safe," Viner said, describing the metal shield as largely symbolic.

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Some of the most affecting evidence of that hope survives in heartfelt handwriting inside the covers.

Viner said small pocket Bibles were produced on a large scale during the first half of the 20th century, allowing families to purchase them for sons, brothers and husbands preparing to deploy.

"To my dear boy, may God keep you safe," one note reads.

Another simply says, "praying for you at Christmas."

In many cases, Viner said, historians do not know who wrote the messages or who received them. He said the anonymity can make them even more powerful.

"As I read those, I think about how profound and serious and meaningful that was for the family members who sent their kids, their loved ones off to war and gave them this as they left," Viner said.

More than 80 years before the "Heart Shield Bibles," another now-tattered Bible traveled with a Union soldier whose life Viner was able to partially reconstruct because of the book he left behind.

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John Weissenheimer served in the 107th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, a largely German-speaking unit that endured bloody Civil War battles, including Gettysburg, according to Viner. Weissenheimer was already in his late 40s when he enlisted, older than what was typical for a soldier.

Viner said enlistment records show Weissenheimer joined before many of the unit's major engagements. Years later, an inscription in his Bible places him at Lincoln Hospital in Washington, D.C., serving with the Invalid Corps, which was composed of injured, sick or otherwise disabled soldiers who could no longer perform regular front-line duty.

The surviving evidence does not reveal exactly what happened to Weissenheimer, nor did he leave extensive notes explaining what the Bible meant to him. But the battered book establishes something perhaps even more interesting for historians in that Weissenheimer kept it.

"If not for this Bible," Viner said, Weissenheimer would be "largely a forgotten name."

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"This Bible allows us to take this anonymous person from history, this person who no historical textbook is ever going to talk about, and surface them and tell their story," he said.

Whatever Weissenheimer endured, Viner said, he ultimately reached a point where he could no longer serve in a regular unit, continued serving in the Invalid Corps and had his Bible with him.

"For some reason, he found something in that Bible that meant a lot to him," Viner said.

Not every Bible in the exhibit accompanied an American into battle, however. In the 1950s, Navy chaplain Peter Boal took part in Operation Deep Freeze, the umbrella term for U.S. military operations in Antarctica. During his time there, Boal gave a Bible to a man identified in its inscription only as "Bill."

Viner said the museum cannot definitively establish Bill's identity, though he believes one possibility is Petty Officer William Stroop, who helped lead an expedition to establish a smaller Antarctic station.

What Boal wrote to the recipient of that Bible, however, survives.

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"Best of luck on your journey," Viner recounted from the inscription. "We'll be praying for you. We hope the Lord brings you back safely."

For Viner, the artifact shows the Bible serving a familiar purpose in a dramatically different setting. Instead of accompanying a serviceman through combat, it traveled with Americans venturing into an isolated and uncertain frontier.

One of the oldest Bibles in the display reaches back to the nation's founding and comes with a story Viner said is probably more legend than fact.

The German-language Bible was printed in Philadelphia in 1776 by Christoph Sauer and eventually became known as the "Gun-Wad Bible."

One popular version of the story held that British soldiers seized copies from Sauer's printing operation, tore out the pages and used them as wadding for their muskets, hence the 'Wad.' Another version turned the story around, claiming American colonists confiscated the Bibles because the Sauer family held Loyalist sympathies.

Viner said there is likely little truth to either tale, but conceded the competing stories are revealing in their own way. They suggest people understood that portraying an opponent as disrespecting the Bible could tarnish that side's reputation, reflecting the significance attached to Scripture at the time.

The books also preserve more mundane, everyday records of what American service members actually did with the Bibles they carried.

As smaller and more durable editions became increasingly available, Viner said surviving examples more commonly contain handwritten notes and other markings. Some service members used blank pages to record their movements.

One World War I soldier effectively used his Bible as his own record of deployment, documenting his journey from his hometown to a recruiting depot, then to New York, England and France before eventually recording his return home.

Viner said the collection shows that service members facing the dangers and stresses of war responded to those circumstances in different ways, but many turned to Scripture for "strength, courage, relief" and "hope."

Centuries later, some of the people who carried the books remain identifiable and others have been reduced to only a first name or precious few words written inside a battered cover.

But the messages their families sent with them into battle remain familiar even in our modern eyes, like a prayer at Christmas, a hope for protection and a solemn plea that a loved one come back home.

The Bibles in Times of War Exhibit is located on the second floor of the Museum of the Bible as part of the Bible in America section.

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A massive five- day ICE operation that netted 426 arrests across Indiana is fueling Hoosier Sen. Jim Banks’ push for Congress to cement President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown into law before a future administration can reverse course.

Banks hailed "Operation Safe Community: Indiana" in a Fox News Digital interview this week after federal immigration officers fanned out across his home state from Aug. 30 through Sept. 3, arresting 426 people with records involving sex crimes, assault, domestic violence, drug trafficking and weapons offenses, according to ICE.

"This is why Donald Trump was elected in 2024: for mass deportation," Banks told Fox News Digital. "It was one of his key agenda items during the campaign. And in this case in Indiana, you see the direct result of it."

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ICE also credited cooperation with state and local law enforcement agencies in carrying out the operation, something Republicans have flagged as a key aspect to successful enforcement.

But Banks argued the operation also underscores a limitation of Trump’s crackdown: aggressive executive enforcement today does not guarantee that the same immigration policies survive the next administration.

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"It is important that we codify Trump border security measures and tough-on-immigration policies and make them the law of the land," he said.

The busts build on the lawmaker’s seven-bill immigration package, previously reported by Fox News Digital, which targets issues including birthright citizenship, family-based immigration, H-1B visas, noncitizens’ CDLs and congressional authority over Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to limit judicial intervention.

"If this could happen in Indiana, it could happen anywhere," he added, arguing that the opposition has made it tougher to achieve immigration goals after displacing ICE from the 2025 immigration appropriations legislation.

"They've made that one of their biggest priorities in this Congress to defund our federal law enforcement, to stop ICE from doing their job, to deport violent criminals who are here illegally," he said.

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"So it is important that we codify Trump border security measures and tough-on-immigration policies and make them the law of the land so that the next time, God forbid, a Joe Biden ever gets elected back to the White House or someone that comes from that radical wing of the Democrat Party…"

Banks also directed his frustration at his own party, criticizing the Republican-led Senate for failing to advance separate election legislation that he says should be another priority.

Many on the right have pressed for passage of the SAVE Act, a bill requiring documentary proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections.

"That’s one of my biggest disappointments with this Republican Senate – we haven’t passed [it]," he said.

"I hope by the end of the year that we can find a way to pass it. I'm going to keep fighting for it, but at the end of the day, the Trump administration and the Department of Justice is doing a lot crack down on illegals voting in our elections."

In a separate Indiana case, DHS arrested an illegal immigrant on Sept. 18 who had entered the U.S. during the Obama administration and later cast a federal ballot.

ICE Enforcement Division Assistant Director Patricia Hyde said the right to vote is the "cornerstone of democracy" in announcing the capture of Guatemalan national Helda Mendez-Merida for "poisoning our elections."

"We cannot allow that sacred right [to vote] to be perverted," she said.

Banks said such incidents keep surfacing "because Joe Biden and Democrats flooded our country with tens of millions of illegals – they’re still here [and] mass deportation is important."

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has repeatedly pushed back on criticism he is not working hard enough to pass the SAVE Act or advance the Trump agenda.

Thune previously told Fox News Digital that he is an original co-sponsor of a previous version of the bill and that the 50-vote threshold needed to pass provisions that qualify for the parliamentary maneuver known as reconciliation remains a sticking point.

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"I keep asking the question, am I the only one in this town that can count to 50? Because it seems like these questions recur and there are a lot of people out there who haven't seemed to internalize the fact that there aren't Democrats that are going to flip and vote for this," Thune said.

Fox News Digital’s Alex Miller contributed to this report.

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Rapper Nicki Minaj urged young Americans to get involved in the upcoming midterm elections and "vote red" while doubling down on her support for President Donald Trump in an interview on Saturday.

The Grammy-nominated hip-hop star said on "My View with Lara Trump" that young voters shouldn't assume their voices don't matter as Americans prepare to head to the polls Nov. 3.

"Now is not the time to think that your voice will not be heard," Minaj said. "Your voice will not only be heard, but your voice is very necessary right now for the country and for the world. We need you guys involved. We need you guys involved more than ever before. This is your country, this is your world. You are the ones that have to reap the benefits of whatever vote decisions we make now."

Minaj encouraged young voters to become engaged in their communities and participate in elections beyond presidential contests.

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"Think about how much you want a say in what happens and realize that the only way to have that is by voting — not just voting for the president, but just voting in all of the local elections," she said.

The music superstar then urged young voters to support Republican candidates in November.

"Please, and vote red now," Minaj said.

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Minaj's midterm message comes as she has become increasingly outspoken about her support for Trump.

The "Super Bass" and "Starships" singer also recently partnered with the Trump administration on the Small Business Administration's Million Dollar Pitch Competition, serving as one of the celebrity judges.

Trump has praised Minaj, calling her a "fantastic person."

During her interview with Lara Trump, Minaj described the president as "a very authentic person" and said his willingness to speak without appearing scripted appeals to her.

"He brings this candid, unedited vibe to the White House that we've never before seen," Minaj said. "And it's refreshing because for a very long time, people started feeling like we don't know who we can trust."

"When you see someone that goes off script, it's like you come alive again, you feel alive," she continued.

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The rapper said she would not shy away from defending Trump.

"I've made it my mission to be someone that supports him," Minaj said.

Lara Trump noted that Minaj works in an industry where the president is frequently criticized and asked what had shaped her political views along with what she had seen from Democrats that discouraged her.

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"I think the Democrats have gotten way too caught up in pop culture, for lack of a better term," Minaj said. "I think that they've allowed their relationships with artists to cause them to act like children and to be so petty and childish."

Minaj also reflected on arriving in the U.S. and building her music career from very little.

"My fan base, they got to see me come from absolutely nothing. They really saw the struggle in real time," she said.

"Overall, yes, it has been the American dream," Minaj added. "That's why I love this country."

Fox News Digital's Nora Moriarty contributed to this report.

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"Knots Landing" star Ted Shackelford was spotted out in Los Angeles on a rare outing.

In the photos, the actor, 80, is seen sporting a blue collared shirt layered with a blue knit cardigan, which he paired with black trousers, sunglasses and sneakers.

Shackelford first rose to fame starring as Raymond Gordon on "Another World" for 110 episodes, before landing the role of Gary Ewing in the hit show "Dallas," and later its spinoff, "Knots Landing."

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He played the black sheep of the Ewing family on the show from 1979 to 1993, and maintained a strong acting career following the end of the show.

While he played the character for over a decade, he told The Dallas Decoder in 2013 he never liked the character, even referring to him as "weak."

"I thought he never thought anything through. I didn’t see any strength of character," he said. "I mean, just once I wanted him to have some courage. And I never saw that."

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Shackelford went on to appear in a number of TV movies and as a guest on various TV shows, including "Cybill" and "Spin City."

He then returned to his soap opera roots, starring as Jeffery and William Bardwell on "The Young and the Restless" from 2006 to 2015. He most recently appeared in a 2017 episode of the hit show, "NCIS."

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In addition to returning to the role of Gary Ewing in the "Dallas" reboot in 2013, Shackelford also participated in the "Knots Landing" reunion in 2005, which brought together cast members Joan Van Ark, Michele Lee, Donna Mills, William Devane and others, to discuss behind-the-scenes stories in a reconstruction of the set.

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When speaking to Entertainment Tonight in August about her love scenes with Shackelford on "Knots Landing," Mills referred to them as "steamy."

"I mean, look at Ted," she said. "I mean, really, get into bed with that body — and he’s such a sweetheart. He really is. It was, uh, it was fun. I can’t deny it. It was fun."

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NEW YORK — Russia is trying to scare Europe into backing off its defense in the region, claims European Union’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas, who warns it will only lead to Moscow becoming more aggressive if it succeeds.

"Their goal is to intimidate us from not supporting Ukraine, from refraining to support them and pressuring Russia," Kallas told Fox News Digital in an interview on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.

"What is important for us is that we are not afraid," she continued. "Because otherwise this kind of intimidation actually pays off, and then we will see more of it across the world."

For Kallas, Russia’s attempts to intimidate its European neighbors carry a history that reaches well beyond the war in Ukraine.

Her mother, Kristi, was just six months old in 1949 when Soviet authorities deported her — along with her mother and her grandmother — to Siberia during Stalin’s mass deportations from the Baltic states. Kallas’ maternal grandfather was separately sent to a Siberian prison camp.

Kallas has recounted how her mother was transported east in a cattle car, with fellow deportees drying the infant’s diapers against their own bodies during the freezing journey. The family spent roughly a decade in Siberia before they were allowed to return to Soviet-occupied Estonia in 1959.

Kallas was born in Tallinn in 1977 and spent the first 14 years of her life under Soviet rule. Estonia restored its independence in 1991 as the Soviet Union collapsed.

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Her family would go on to become deeply entwined with the new democratic Estonia. Her father, Siim Kallas, became the first president of the Bank of Estonia after gaining its independence, later serving as foreign minister and prime minister before moving to Brussels as a European commissioner.

Kaja Kallas followed her own path from lawyer to member of Estonia’s parliament and then the European Parliament.

In 2021, she became Estonia’s first female prime minister and three years later was chosen as the European Union’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy. It was a historic moment — putting a politician who grew up under Soviet occupation at the center of Europe’s response to Russian aggression on the continent.

That history has made Kallas one of Europe’s most prominent voices on Moscow — even as officials in her native Estonia and elsewhere along NATO’s eastern flank now caution against interpreting Russia’s recent provocations as preparations for a conventional invasion.

Russia invaded Ukraine more than four-and-a-half years ago and shows no signs of backing off despite repeated promises that negotiations for an end of war are ongoing.

Asked whether she agreed with Estonian and other Baltic officials who say they do not currently see Russia preparing for such an attack, Kallas instead pointed to Moscow’s growing use of sabotage and the importance of deterrence.

"We see that Russia is actually increasing their sabotage acts in Europe," Kallas said. "But of course how far they will go depends very much on us and whether we are investing enough in defense so that it acts as a deterrent."

The debate comes as NATO countries confront a string of Russian aircraft and drone incursions, along with suspected sabotage and other hybrid activity across Europe. The incidents have fueled warnings in some European capitals that Moscow is probing the alliance for weaknesses, while officials closer to Russia have cautioned against equating those provocations with preparations for an invasion.

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Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna told Fox News Digital in a separate interview this week that his country's intelligence services see no indication Russia is preparing for a full-scale attack on NATO.

"We have more and more this kind of panic in Europe that Russia will invade and will be full-scale aggressive against NATO and Europe and the Baltic states, Poland, but we don’t see it," Tsahkna said. "Our intelligence, we see very, very deep into Russia, we don’t see any change."

Kallas, however, argued that Moscow's actions are designed to weaken Western support for Ukraine rather than simply test NATO's defenses.

"Their goal is to intimidate us from not supporting Ukraine, from refraining to support them and pressuring Russia," she said.

The pressure campaign comes as Washington continues its push for a negotiated end to the war. Kallas said Moscow has yet to demonstrate that it is serious about reaching one.

"They should start with stopping bombing the civilians," she said, pointing to recent Russian attacks on Kyiv. "If they are serious about this, they should agree to a ceasefire, sit down at the negotiation table and talk to the Ukrainians."

Kallas said Ukraine has already agreed to an unconditional ceasefire while "Russia is just playing games," arguing that coordinated pressure from Washington and its European allies could change Moscow's calculations.

"If America, Europe, UK, other strong players are all acting together in the same way to put in the sanctions, then actually we could have the effect that Russia understands that this is serious and they will sit down and negotiate," she said.

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