American figure skater explodes in celebration after ending US gold medal drought
Team USA women’s figure skater Alysa Liu won gold in the women’s free skate final Thursday, ending a 20-year medal drought for American women in the event and a 24-year drought for gold.
The last American woman to win a singles figure skating medal at the Olympics was Sasha Cohen at the 2006 Turin Games. And the last American woman to win a gold medal in singles figure skating was Sarah Hughes, who pulled off that accomplishment in 2002 when the Winter Games were held in Salt Lake City.
She landed all her jumps and smiled throughout, erupting in a demonstrative celebration after she finished. She yelled, “That’s what I’m f—ing talking about!’ and “Holy s—!” while celebrating with her team.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM
Liu finished with a 226.79 total score, a 150.20 free skate score and a 76.59 short program score. It was her season-best free skate score.
But she still had to watch Japanese rivals Kaori Sakamoto and Ami Nakai challenge her.
Sakamoto finished just behind Liu. Nakai appeared to come much closer, and there was a noticeable tension in the crowd as judges reviewed Nakai’s moves before delivering her final score. But once they announced that Nakai had come up short, the crowd exploded in celebration for Liu.
Liu was the only American woman who qualified for a chance at the podium after Tuesday’s short program after teammates Amber Glenn and Isabeau Levito came up short.
All the pressure was on Liu to win gold for the U.S. in an individual figure skating event after her teammates came up short.
Liu has become a fan favorite for the U.S. this year, playing a key role in helping her country win gold in the team event after her dramatic comeback story. She only just returned to the world stage after a brief retirement after her performance at the 2022 Beijing Winter Games.
Prior to her appearance at the 2022 Beijing games, she and her father were the targets of a spying operation by the Chinese government.
ILIA MALININ HINTS AT INTENSE OLYMPIC PRESSURE DAYS AFTER UNEXPECTED RESULT
Liu called the experience “a little bit freaky and exciting.”
“You know what I mean? It’s so … unbelievable. You know what I mean like, that’s crazy,” Liu previously told Fox News Digital at a roundtable interview at the USOPC Media Summit in October.
“Like, imagine finding that out at such a young age. I mean, like In a weird way, I was like, ‘Am I like in some prank show?’ Like, is this world real? Like, I must be some movie character. But, I mean, it was like it made sense to me, you know, from, like, everything my dad did back in his activist days.”
She hasn’t ruled out having her life and experience in an international spying incident adapted for a movie.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Still, she has some preferences if her story makes it onto the big screen.
“They gotta make me look like a super cool hero or something. And just, I can’t just be the kid that got spied on and did nothing about it,” she said.
“But, honestly, I would just have the main focus be like my dad’s story, because, like, his story is so cool and, like, also just like everything that only happened because of what he did. So, I feel like we got to start with the roots.”
‘The View’ erupts as Sunny Hostin calls President Trump racist and guest pushes back
The co-hosts of “The View” erupted on Thursday after conservative guest host Savannah Chrisley defended President Donald Trump against those who call him a racist, including co-host Sunny Hostin.
The co-hosts discussed Trump’s celebration of Black History Month at the White House.
“I think, you know, when it comes to the event that happened yesterday, what’s so hard for me to witness is people stating that the president is a racist, because I’ve seen him firsthand. He saved one of my best friends’ lives, a Black woman who has been with him for —,” Chrisley began.
“He is a racist,” Hostin interrupted, as Chrisley continued and repeated that Trump saved her Black friend’s life.
TRUMP LAUDS ‘PIECE OF WORK’ JESSE JACKSON IN ‘SOLD-OUT’ BLACK HISTORY MONTH EVENT
“So, he has a Black friend. He’s a racist,” Hostin shot back.
Co-host Whoopi Goldberg also pushed back on Chrisley and explained why she felt differently.
“Here’s the problem, Savannah, and why we have a different take on it,” she said. “Many of us have a different take on it, because when you target DEI programs with executive office, from your — with executive orders your first week in office, arguing that the policies undermine national unity.”
“You know, when you shared racist posts about the Obamas, when you pursued the death penalty for the exonerated five after you knew they had been exonerated. These are the reasons that his behavior is so hard,” Goldberg added.
SAVANNAH CHRISLEY WARNS ‘THE VIEW’ AHEAD OF GUEST-HOSTING GIG SHE HASN’T FORGOTTEN ‘PUBLIC BASHING’ OF FAMILY
Hostin repeated her argument that Trump was indeed a “racist.”
“Let’s call a thing, a thing. Donald Trump is a racist. There is no question in my mind. It’s time to say the truth and tell it like it is, and the most recent thing that he did by posting on Truth Social, the Obamas depicted as apes in ‘The Lion King,’ where there are no apes in ‘The Lion King.’ It was a racist — he tried to blame a staffer,” Hostin said. “A staffer did not do it.”
Chrisley insisted that a staffer did do it, as the show played a clip of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying, “When you see it on Truth Social you know it’s directly from President Trump.”
“President Trump is a racist,” Hostin said again. Chrisley argued, “He’s not.”
CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF MEDIA AND CULTURE
After further back-and-forth, Chrisley acknowledged that the White House had failed in handling the post.
“I agree wholeheartedly that the White House failed when it came to the posting of that video, because it is the White House’s responsibility to protect the minority groups that lost friendships and relationships over just standing for President Trump,” she said.
Goldberg ended the segment by noting that disagreement was acceptable and one of the show’s strengths.
Chrisley has co-hosted this week in place of Alyssa Farah Griffin, who is on maternity leave.
“Sunny Hostin is an extremely unlikeable, talentless hack with a poorly rated TV show who clearly suffers from a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle told Fox News Digital in a statement.
“No President has done more for black Americans than President Trump has,” the spokesman added. “During his five years in office, President Trump signed criminal justice reform, prison reform, opportunity zones, long-term funding of historically black colleges, school choice funding, Trump Accounts, and the largest middle-class tax cuts in history.”
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
“President Trump was proud to receive historic support from the Black community in 2024, and he is working around the clock to deliver for them and make our country greater than ever before,” the statement added.
Trump rips Obama for spilling ‘classified’ secrets about extraterrestrials
President Donald Trump said aboard Air Force One that former President Barack Obama revealed classified information by suggesting aliens are real, calling the remarks a “big mistake” and accusing Obama of disclosing secrets about possible non-human visitors to Earth.
Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked Trump about Obama’s claim during a gaggle aboard Air Force One, pressing the current sitting president on whether he has seen evidence of non-human visitors on Earth.
“He gave classified information. He’s not supposed to be doing that,” Trump said. “I don’t know if they’re real or not. I can tell you, he gave classified information. He’s not supposed to be doing that – he made a big mistake. He took it out of classified information.”
Former President Barack Obama appeared on Brian Tyler Cohen’s podcast Saturday, where he was asked point-blank whether aliens are real.
JD VANCE SAYS UFOS, ALIENS COULD BE ‘SPIRITUAL FORCES’ AS VP VOWS TO ‘GET TO THE BOTTOM’ OF MYSTERY IN SKIES
“They’re real, but I haven’t seen them,” Obama said.
The 44th president also dismissed the idea that extraterrestrials are being held at Nevada’s Area 51, saying there is no secret underground facility “unless there’s this enormous conspiracy and they hid it from the president of the United States.”
After his comments sparked buzz online, Obama sought to clarify his remarks on Instagram.
TULSI GABBARD TELLS PODCASTER ALIENS MAY BE REAL: ‘WE’RE CONTINUING TO LOOK FOR THE TRUTH’
“I was trying to stick with the spirit of the speed round, but since it’s gotten attention, let me clarify,” he wrote. “Statistically, the universe is so vast that the odds are good there’s life out there. But the distances between solar systems are so great that the chances we’ve been visited by aliens are low, and I saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us. Really!”
Cohen also asked what Obama’s first question was after taking office, prompting another alien reference.
“Uh, where are the aliens?” Obama joked.
PILOT REPORTS UFO HOVERING BESIDE JET, LEAVING AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL STUNNED: ‘GOOD LUCK WITH THE ALIENS’
Saturday’s appearance was not the first time Obama addressed the topic. During a 2021 interview on “The Late Late Show with James Corden,” he said that after entering office, he looked into whether aliens were being studied in a secret lab and was told they were not.
Still, Obama noted that officials are investigating aircraft exhibiting unusual flight patterns.
“There is footage and records of objects in the skies that we don’t know exactly what they are,” he said. “We can’t explain how they moved, their trajectory. They did not have an easily explainable pattern. I think people still take seriously trying to investigate and figure out what that is.”
UFO DOCUMENTARY PULLS BACK CURTAIN ON ‘PSYCHOLOGICAL OPERATION’ AFTER DECADES OF GOVERNMENT COVER-UP: EXPERT
Doocy later asked President Joe Biden about Obama’s remarks, referencing unidentified aerial phenomena, or UAPs.
“What do you think that it is?” Doocy asked.
“I would ask (Obama) again,” Biden responded.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Interest in UAPs has intensified in recent years, drawing attention from federal lawmakers and defense officials. Congress passed the Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Disclosure Act in 2023, and the Department of Defense established the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office to further examine such incidents.
Chicago Bears move one step closer to ditching Illinois after Indiana vote
The latest chapter in the Chicago Bears stadium saga unfolded this week as an Indiana House panel unanimously approved legislation that lays out a financing framework for a potential NFL facility.
Senate Bill 27 cleared the House Ways and Means Committee and now heads to the full House for a vote. The House would need to pass the bill before the legislature adjourns at the end of February.
The bill would establish the Northwest Indiana Stadium Authority, granting the new agency power to oversee land acquisition and coordinate financing for construction of a state-of-the-art facility near Wolf Lake in Hammond, Indiana.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM
Republican Indiana Gov. Mike Braun, House Speaker Todd Huston and Hammond Mayor Tom McDermott jointly announced Thursday’s 24-0 committee vote.
“Indiana is open for business,” Braun said. “We’ve identified a promising site near Wolf Lake in Hammond and established a broad framework for negotiating a final deal.”
CHIEFS ANNOUNCE RELOCATION TO KANSAS BY THE 2031 NFL SEASON WITH NEW DOMED STADIUM
The Bears reacted to the news, releasing a statement describing the development in Indiana as “the most meaningful step forward in our stadium planning efforts to date.”
“We are committed to finishing the remaining site-specific necessary due diligence to support our vision to build a world-class stadium near the Wolf Lake area in Hammond, Indiana,” the team’s statement added.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson underscored his position that the NFL franchise should remain in the city that bears the team’s name.
“The Bears belong in the City of Chicago,” he said at a news conference.
“I’ve said repeatedly that the door is always open for conversations. (Bears CEO) Kevin Warren did call me yesterday, we didn’t get a chance to connect. I still firmly believe that their best position is in Chicago and the evidence is clearly speaking for itself.”
The Bears have alternated between developing land in Arlington Heights and rebuilding on the Chicago lakefront at Soldier Field, before shifting back to the suburb. The Bears have played at historic Soldier Field since 1971. The lakefront stadium first opened in 1924 and has undergone numerous renovations over the decades.
The Illinois House Revenue and Finance Committee was scheduled to hold a hearing Thursday morning on a bill that would allow the Bears and any other developer of a large enough project to negotiate long-term property tax rates with local taxing bodies. But that got canceled.
“Illinois was ready to move this bill forward,” Matt Hill, Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications for Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, wrote on X. “After a productive three-hour meeting yesterday, the Bears leaders requested the (Illinois General Assembly) pause the hearing to make further tweaks to the bill. This morning, we were surprised to see a statement lauding Indiana and ignoring Illinois.”
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The Bears hosted two playoff games at Soldier Field in January, defeating division rival Green Bay in a wild-card round thriller. The following week, the Los Angeles Rams outlasted the Bears in a frigid divisional round matchup in Chicago.
sports coverage on X the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter
Vacation hot spot bans alcohol sales during key hours in sweeping new crackdown
The nightlife in Croatia’s second-largest city could soon look quite a bit different for visitors on vacation getaways.
The city of Split is proposing a ban on the sale of alcohol between the hours of 8 p.m. and 6 a.m.
Licensed venues such as bars, restaurants and nightclubs would remain exempt.
POPULAR EUROPEAN CITY BANS LATE-NIGHT BAR CRAWLS IN ATTEMPT TO CURB DRUNK TOURISTS
Economy Minister Ante Šušnjar announced the plan Wednesday, which would amend the country’s Trade Act.
“This is primarily for the health of our citizens, especially children and young people, to preserve public order and protect the environment and cultural heritage,” said Šušnjar.
The minister also said he believes this solution provides a “better way” to manage tourist destinations, according to local outlet HRT.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTER
The new measures could take effect this summer.
Croatia is a premier European destination for yacht party tourism, with hubs in Split, Dubrovnik and Makarska.
Split is also known for its Ultra Music Festival and many beach bars.
In 2024, 21.3 million people visited Croatia, according to government data.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Last year, another European city implemented a ban in an attempt to curb tipsy tourists.
Prague, the capital city of the Czech Republic, has enforced a ban on organized nighttime pub crawls, Fox News Digital previously reported.
The popular activity of tour groups hopping from bar to bar has caused a stir among the city’s council board, with complaints of noise and safety concerns coming in.
TEST YOURSELF WITH OUR LATEST LIFESTYLE QUIZ
“We don’t want to support [the] cheap alco-tourism that’s unfortunately still quite common in Prague,” Adam Zabranský, a member of the city’s council who drafted the proposal, told The Associated Press.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE LIFESTYLE STORIES
The ban applies to the hours between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., with fines of up to 100,000 koruna (roughly $4,300) handed out to organizers of the crawls.
Olympic ski jumper struck by worker’s leaf blower in wild scene during competition
United States ski jumper Ben Loomis luckily avoided what could’ve been a disaster at the 2026 Milan Cortina Games on Thursday after being struck by a leaf blower on his attempted jump.
Loomis was a part of the Nordic combined team sprint on Thursday, where he was going down the track to attempt his big jump when he was struck by one of the leaf blowers on the side of the track.
Workers at the Olympics are stationed alongside the track to blow off excess snow, ensuring that the participants have a clean jump where they are also not slowed down. The weather conditions have also required numerous leaf blowers to make sure the track is clear.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM
However, one of the leaf blowers wasn’t paying attention as Loomis was coming down, and the 27-year-old American collided with it.
“I’ve never experienced anything like this,” Loomis said to NRK. “Fortunately, it happened at the top, so I just tried to convince myself to make a good jump.”
TEAM USA STARS BRITTANY BOWE, HILARY KNIGHT ANNOUNCE ENGAGEMENT AT MILAN CORTINA OLYMPICS
Loomis added, “If it had hit me in the face, it would have been a completely different story.”
Loomis was able to get a 116-meter jump on that attempt despite the obstacle at the top of the track.
Loomis reportedly received apologies from Olympic officials for the incident, but he said he didn’t want to redo his jump.
“It was good that nothing more happened, but it should not happen,” competition director Lasse Ottesen said, per the New York Post. “The person has apologized to the jury and [International Ski and Snowboard Federation] apologizes to the USA.”
In the end, Loomis and teammate Niklas Malacinski finished in seventh place, unable to medal in the team event.
Meanwhile, Norway won gold in the event, while Finland and Austria took silver and bronze, respectively.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The U.S. has accumulated 26 total medals in Milan, including the most recent gold medal for the women’s ice hockey team in a thrilling overtime victory over Canada, 2-1. The U.S. has eight gold medals now, with the closing ceremony set for Sunday.
The 26-medal total is tied for second among countries participating, as Italy also has the same amount as the U.S. Norway leads the way with 34 medals.
TV millionaire admits sneaking onto GoFundMe to cover families’ hospital costs
Kunal Nayyar lives in a constant state of gratitude.
The “Big Bang Theory” actor – who portrayed Raj Koothrappali throughout the sitcom’s 12-season run – revealed a favorite pastime as he reflected on his own financial freedom.
“Money … has given me greater freedom and the greatest gift is the ability to give back, to change people’s lives,” he said in a December interview with “The i Paper.”
KATEY SAGAL’S SON, ‘TELL ME LIES’ STAR JACKSON WHITE, PRAISES MOM FOR ‘GETTING HER S— TOGETHER’
In addition to funding university scholarships for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds with his “Christmas Karma” director Gurinder Chadha, the television star gives back to families in need.
“We also support animal charities because we love dogs,” Nayyar said.
“But what I really love to do is go on GoFundMe at night and just pay random families’ medical bills. That’s my masked vigilante thing!”
LIKE WHAT YOU’RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS
He added, “So, no, money doesn’t feel like a burden. It feels like a grace from the universe.”
Nayyar also knows the value of community and the importance of helping others.
“Right now people are not happy, because we are all expecting someone else to be kind,” he told the outlet. “We are expecting a president or a politician, some leader, to come and bring us world peace.”
He added, “But there is no world peace if your neighbour comes to your door wanting some sugar for their tea, and you lock it against them and say ‘get away’.”
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER
Nayyar has a hard stance when it comes to politics: grace above all else.
“People experience racism and sexism, all kinds of isms in this life, because of how narrow-minded people are,” he said. “For me, whenever I face hardship, I try to approach it with compassion and understanding, because I don’t believe you can change someone’s mind by beating them in the mouth.”
He added, “I think that, with grace, you can help heal their inner child. Whatever is screaming out inside of them, you can hold that and say: I am here with you.”
During the peak of “Big Bang Theory” fame, Nayyar pulled in roughly $1 million per episode. At one point, he was one of the highest paid actors on television, according to Fortune.
While the “Spaceman” star amassed significant wealth and is worth a reported $45 million, he still faces challenging times. A one-word mantra provides Nayyar clarity.
“Sometimes, if I find myself really banging my head against something, and it’s just one of those days where everything’s going wrong, I just tell myself surrender,” he said. “Take a breath. Take a pause. Let’s just see what happens.”
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
He added, “Our minds work in such a way where on a difficult day, it keeps going to the worst-case scenario.
“So in those moments, you have to really just look at your mind and say, stop. Take a breath. Surrender to this moment and let’s see what happens.”