It’s Tuesday, February 4. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Coming up: The unique horror of a midair collision. Two communities panicking about ICE raids. The woman fired by the UN for refusing to lie about Israel. Why Trump isn’t the first conservative to obsess over the Panama Canal. A trade-war reprieve. And much more.

But first: What’s a Dem to do?

Democrats have had a rough go of it lately. After Kamala’s dramatic loss in November, they’ve been lost at sea with no captain and the waves are getting high. Trump is sucking up all the oxygen, only 3 out of 10 Americans have a positive view of the party, and the GOP is outregistering Democrats in key swing states like Nevada, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina.

The Democratic National Committee’s election this past weekend was a chance for the party to turn things around. But that’s not what happened. Instead, there was a conundrum where a nonbinary candidate gummed up the DNC’s gender balance rules. Then there’s David Hogg. Even his trauma-bonded classmates think he’s a grifter, but that didn’t stop America’s most controversial school-shooting survivor from being elected as one of three DNC vice chairs. Unlike David Hogg, I wouldn’t start a liberal pillow company. I’d start a libertarian one: memory foam, with a pinch of cocaine and a gun in every box, plus a pillowcase made from Nick Gillespie’s leather jacket.

But I digress.

The DNC seems to have learned nothing. Instead of examining the real reasons for Kamala’s defeat, every candidate for DNC chair blamed Kamala’s loss on misogyny and racism—the sort of whiny, coping message they’ve been losing on for years.

Things are grim. What’s a Dem to do?

In his latest Free Press column, Ruy Teixeira has some advice for a party lost in the wilderness. Rather than opposing everything the president does, Democrats must pick their battles, wait for Trump to make mistakes, and persuade the public that they are moderate and reasonable replacements. The alternative, he writes, “is four years of garment-rending, continued isolation on a few islands in Blue America.”

Read Ruy’s new column, “Trump 2.0: A Survival Guide for Democrats.”

Fired UN Employee Says She Was “Hounded” over Pro-Israel Views

Unlike many of her colleagues, UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide Alice Wairimu Nderitu refused to label Israel’s war on Hamas a genocide. Last November, she lost her job for it.

Nderitu stayed silent. But after attending the 80th commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz in Poland last week, she’s decided to speak out. Air Mail’s Johanna Berkman got the exclusive. In the interview, which we’re republishing in The Free Press today, Nderitu describes the price she paid for refusing to go along with a lie. She was threatened, petitioned, called a “Zionist rat,” and “hounded day in and day out.” And all for her belief that Israel’s war against Hamas was just that—a war.

Read more about Alice Wairimu Nderitu: “She Stood Up for the Truth. Then the UN Fired Her.”

After a Plane Crash

Last week, an American Eagle jet en route to D.C. from Wichita collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River, killing everyone on board each flight. The victims include top figure skaters from the U.S. and Russia, an attorney traveling home for her birthday, pilots, flight attendants, a professor, and others. Their families are demanding answers.

Peter Richmond knows how those families feel. His father died in a plane collision in 1960, when Peter was just seven years old.

“You have to figure that after the helicopter crashed into it last Wednesday, American Eagle flight 5342’s passengers had maybe two seconds of knowing what was happening before the plane hit the water and broke into pieces,” writes Peter. “To my mind, they were lucky. It took 90 seconds for my dad’s plane to fall to earth. An excruciating minute and a half.”

Read Peter on “American Eagle 5342 and the Worst Club There Is.”

“People Are Panicking. They’re Not Coming Out of Their Homes.”

In its first few days in power, the Trump administration launched a series of raids targeting illegal immigrants. The raids—many of which were made for TV, with one, inexplicably, featuring Dr. Phil—were designed to send a clear message. As Ben Kawaller finds in his latest video report, that message was heard loud and clear in the heavily Latino New York neighborhood of Spanish Harlem. “A lot of people are afraid to go to work,” said one local. Another told Ben people were afraid to leave their homes, while Trump voters explained why they now regret their vote.

Watch Ben’s full video dispatch below.

The Free Press’s Austyn Jeffs found similar anxiety in the agricultural hub of Bakersfield, California. Watch his dispatch below.

It Was Never Just About the Canal

For the last few months, Trump has been fixated on the Panama Canal. In his inauguration speech he complained that it is controlled by China, and threatened to take it back—by any means necessary. Over the weekend, Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited the Panama Canal and convinced Panamanian president José Raúl Mulino to exit China’s Belt and Road infrastructure initiative.

It’s not the first time the canal has been at the center of American politics, reports James Kirchick. Today in The Free Press, he recounts how America’s decision to forfeit the canal to angry Panamanians powered the rise of Ronald Reagan and the modern conservative movement. What elites didn’t understand half a century ago—and what Trump understands today—is that the debate over who controls the Panama Canal was really a debate about how Americans feel about their place in the world.

Read James on “Why Trump Is Obsessed with the Panama Canal.”

BOOK NOW: Does the West Need a Religious Revival?

This year, The Free Press is partnering with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) to present The Freedom Debates, four live debates in cities across the country inspired by FDR’s four freedoms. Up first, in Austin, Texas: freedom of worship.

On February 27 at the Paramount Theatre, panelists will duke it out over the question: Does the West Need a Religious Revival?

Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Ross Douthat say yes. Adam Carolla and Michael Shermer say no. God will be watching—and you can be too, but only if you’re quick. VIP tickets have already sold out, and less than 100 seats remain!

Get your tickets to join the Free Press crew in Austin here.