NationalWatch

Control of Congress may very well run through Michigan’s seventh district. Anchored by Lansing, the state capital, it features a large blue city, surrounded by reddish suburbs, and deep red rural areas. It is consistently described as one of the closest swing districts in the country.

Freshman Congressman Tom Barrett narrowly won the district in 2024, and is now locked in a tight race with William Lawrence, an activist and founder of the climate change-focused Sunrise Movement.

Barrett is a 21-year Army veteran helicopter pilot, who served numerous deployments overseas, before returning to Michigan and spending nearly a decade in the state legislature.

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The race has recently been roiled by a series of controversial social media posts. In some of them, Lawrence called the nuclear family “an isolating, violent way of organizing society” and praised campaigns to abolish the police. 

He now claims that his views have changed.

Barrett argues that the newfound shift is about political expediency, not genuine conviction:

“I think we got to take him at his word that this was his absolute true ideology and it wasn’t just this one statement that he made. He made repetitive statements against police, calling to not just defund but abolish the police altogether. He wanted to throw open the borders. He said if we’re a humane country, we’ve got to throw open the borders and redistribute all of the wealth. 

“He called the nuclear family a violent way to organize society, as you said. Countless other statements that he’s made and other things that he has done that show a pattern of behavior that this is not an isolated incident. 

“And obviously it’s clear to any neutral observer that he is doing this because he is running in a competitive district trying to get elected to Congress. He’s not running in Rashida Tlaib‘s district or AOC’s district where they’re far more sympathetic to these DSA-aligned socialist candidates. He’s running in the district that I live in where I’m raising my own nuclear family.”

Barrett contends that the implementation of Lawrence’s border and immigration policies would pose a clear and present danger to the safety of Americans:

“Well, the foremost obvious risk of these open border policies of my opponent is just starting with the public safety threat. So take out all of the other economic factors: just the physical threats to our communities are substantial. 

“There are criminal gang activities. We have cartels that were freely operating both ways across the border under the Biden administration. We had upwards of ten or even fifteen million illegal immigrants that came into our country completely unvetted.”

Barrett also argues that the fentanyl crisis is directly tied to border and immigration policies as well.

“The leading cause of death of Americans my age wasn’t cancer, wasn’t heart disease, it was fentanyl overdose deaths. People that I served with in the military that came home and survived combat and died of fentanyl overdose…because of drugs that were pouring across our border. 

“For the first time in my life, we have seen a significant decline in fentanyl overdose deaths, really because of the efforts…to secure our border, and my opponent, William Lawrence, would entirely reverse that, throw the border open again, abolish the police at the same time. 

“And we can only assume the outcome of that would be far more Americans dying of fentanyl deaths, as well as gang activity and other tragic circumstances that arise when you have an open border and no public safety to protect Americans.”

William Lawrence is also a longtime member of the DSA (Democratic Socialists of America), but recently claims that he let his membership lapse. Barrett argues that Lawrence remains a fervent believer in socialist ideology, but is merely trying to downplay his true beliefs to win a competitive race:

“Well, I think being a socialist should disqualify him for people’s consideration in my district. You look at the tenets of socialism and what they want to do and the endorsement of that. 

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“My opponent…cleverly claims that he let his membership lapse, I don’t know, two weeks before the primary election on the eve of him winning…to face off against me in one of the most competitive congressional races in the country that will arguably decide control of the House of Representatives. 

“So he doesn’t disavow the democratic socialists…He has embraced all of their positions, gathered all of their support, really benefited from the support of the democratic socialist movement. 

“And then when the time comes to defend those positions, he wants to say, well I let my membership lapse so you can’t hold me accountable for all their positions. But I didn’t leave under any actual disagreement with them. I’m simply leaving for political reasons because he’s so focused on trying to win this election in a desperate attempt to not be accountable to his own record, but to distract away from the devastating effects of socialism and what that would mean for our country if he were to be elected.”

Perhaps the most controversial of Lawrence’s statements involved a post expressing frustration and outrage with politicians on climate policy. Lawrence, specifically targeting West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, wrote: ‘Hurry up and die so that we can get started.”

Barrett believes that this type of rhetoric should put the voters of the seventh district on high alert:

“Obviously that’s entirely inappropriate, something that should really raise the attention of every single reasonable American to say that that’s not how we go about our rhetoric here in our country. Politics is a full contact sport…but I’ve never in my political life, in any campaign, called on political figures to ‘F you and hurry up and die.’ 

“And that shows the radicalization…He was a founding member of the Green New Deal Alliance in Michigan, calling to ban gasoline-powered vehicles that we build in my district that employ thousands of people in my district.”

Midterm elections generally hinge on economics and affordability issues are driving the political narrative today in tight races around the country. Barrett makes the case that congressional Republicans have delivered on everyday pocketbook issues:

“Well, we lowered costs on people’s taxes, certainly…and we expanded the child tax credit. We saved families taxes to the expanded standard deduction, streamlined filing for individuals. No taxes on tips, no taxes on overtime, no tax on Social Security. I wanna take that a step further and have no taxes health care. Give every American a tax-exempt health savings account and expand the things that they can use it for, for healthy groceries, gym memberships, fitness equipment.

“Obviously bring down the cost of gas as well with the conflict in Iran that I have again voted my conscience on as well and want to see gas prices come down and that will affect a lot of other parts of the economy as well around affordability. These are things that we can face. 

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“But if we hand our country over to radical socialists who are simply going to tax Americans to death and then pass on benefits to illegal immigrants and people who refuse to go to work and participate in the economy. We will be worse off for that.

“So this is a very, very important election. I stand on my own merits. I know what I’ve done here in Congress. It’s my job to go out and make the case to the voters in my district, and contrast that with the exact things that my opponent has said what he has stood for and what his pattern of behavior has shown in what he would do if he were elected to Congress.”

President Donald Trump’s proposed 250-foot arch at Memorial Circle in Washington, D.C.—which he said would be the largest in the world—is being opposed by three Vietnam veterans who say the project would block views between the Lincoln Memorial, Arlington National Cemetery, and Arlington House, some of the most well-known views in and around the city.

Veterans Michael Lemmon, Shaun Byrnes, and Jon Gundersen—along with architectural historian Calder Loth—have been engaged in a months-long legal battle with the Trump administration over the “Great Triumphal Arch”.

“Our plaintiffs are three Vietnam veterans and an architectural historian. All of them have a deep personal relationship with Arlington National Cemetery,” Nicolas Sansone, an attorney with the Public Citizen Litigation Group representing the plaintiffs, told Fox News Digital. “Two of our veteran plaintiffs hope to be buried there.”

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Trump has said the arch should be built near Arlington National Cemetery, which serves as the final resting place for more than 400,000 military service members.

Critics of the project contend that the planned structure is disrespectful to the solemn character of the cemetery. In addition, the Trump administration acknowledged in a planning document that the project will have “adverse effects on historic properties”.

“Such adverse effects cannot be fully avoided while retaining the location-dependent purpose of the undertaking,” the National Park Service wrote in the document.

The nation’s capital was designed to keep historic landmarks from being obscured by other structures, Sansone said.

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“One of the sort of central design features is that the capital has been laid out in a very deliberate way to create this uninterrupted view between the Lincoln Memorial on the east side of the Potomac River and Arlington House, the Robert E. Lee Memorial, on the west side in Arlington National Cemetery,” he said.

“So our plaintiffs… are really sort of concerned about the impact that this sort of enormous structure is going to have on that sort of historic symbolic view that each of them finds really meaningful,” he added.

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Earlier this month, the administration announced that excavation work for the project would begin within the next two weeks.

The plaintiffs have asked a federal judge to issue a temporary restraining order to keep the project from moving forward, saying it can’t be built without authorization from Congress.

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The Trump administration has cited a 1925 law that originally authorized a pair of 166-foot columns in Washington, D.C., that were never built.

Administration officials argue that past congressional approval grandfathers the triumphal arch project and allows them to avoid authorization from Congress.

“The idea is that really it’s just an institutional question of who gets to decide: Is it one person, the person sitting in the White House, or should it be a sort of democratic deliberative process to sort of figure out what these monuments should look like, where they should be situated, what they should commemorate, and the like,” Sansone said.

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“Congress’s authorization to have a particular project built at a particular time subject to a specific price cap by a now-disbanded commission can’t reasonably be relied on to authorize a totally different independent project that’s going to cost way more money centuries into the future,” he added.

FIRST ON FOX: Former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown is targeting Republican Sen. Jon Husted over Ohio’s growing data center industry in a new campaign ad that features a facility owned by Google — whose corporate PAC and lobbyists have contributed thousands of dollars to Brown’s campaigns.

The Sept. 4 ad features an Ohioan blaming Husted for spearheading “the push to bring data centers to Ohio” and linking their expansion to “higher electric bills.”

The facility featured in the ad, which opened in Lancaster in 2023, is owned by Google.

Campaign finance records reviewed by Fox News Digital show Google’s corporate PAC contributed $20,000 to Brown over his political career. Brown also received thousands of dollars from individuals who lobby for Google, including two whose firms have worked on permitting, grid reliability and energy affordability issues.

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“Apparently Google is terrible enough to put in a campaign attack ad, but perfectly acceptable when the political contributions are coming in,” Mehek Cooke, a GOP strategist and attorney in Ohio, said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “That is the contradiction Brown needs to answer. If Google’s Lancaster investment is so bad for Ohio, why was Google political money acceptable to Sherrod Brown?”

Among the contributors are Google lobbyist Lisa Kountoupes, who donated $3,500 in March, and Google lobbyist Michael D. Smith, who donated a total of $10,200 to Brown since 2017, according to Federal Election Commission records. The contributions were made to Friends of Sherrod Brown, Brown’s principal campaign committee.

Kountoupes’s firm, Kountoupes Denham Carr & Reid, was hired by Google in December to lobby on “issues related to permitting reform” tied to the company’s data center needs, Politico previously reported. Smith’s firm, Cornerstone Government Affairs, reported lobbying for Google on “issues related to permitting reform for grid reliability and energy affordability,” according to federal lobbying filings.

FEC records show Brown also received a combined $6,000 over the past decade from three additional Google lobbyists.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Lauren Chou, a spokeswoman for Brown’s campaign, highlighted Brown’s opposition to Ohio’s data center expansion, saying Husted “led the charge,” but did not address Brown’s past campaign contributions.

“Husted is a ‘chief reason’ Ohio has 226 data centers and is ‘the face of data centers’ in Ohio,” Chou wrote. “Ohioans shouldn’t be forced to subsidize these costs and Ohioans – not Jon Husted and his billionaire friends – should get to decide if data centers are built in their community.”

Cooke accused Brown of acting like his “Google relationship in Washington does not count,” calling it “Jekyll-and-Hyde politics.”

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“For nearly five decades, Brown has sold himself as the plaid-shirt, working-class populist,” she said. “He lost in 2024, and now he is back running the same playbook: say one thing to Ohioans while his Washington record tells a very different story.”

Brown, who is seeking to return to the U.S. Senate in the high-stakes race against Husted, was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2006 before losing his reelection bid in 2024 to Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio.

But this isn’t the first time Brown’s comeback campaign has faced questions over conflicting positions.

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In 2015, Brown celebrated the construction of an Amazon data center in central Ohio, saying in a press release the new facility “is great news for New Albany and central Ohio.”

Despite his public praise, Brown has become an outspoken critic of Ohio’s growing number of data centers, a defining issue in Ohio politics ahead of the midterms. President Donald Trump has pushed to expand the facilities, warning that communities that block them would “end up being backwards and poor.”

But Cooke said this about more than one local data center.

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“America is in a global race for AI, computing capacity and energy infrastructure,” she said. “China is not slowing down because American politicians discovered that attacking data centers makes a convenient campaign commercial.”

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Husted campaign spokesperson Amy Natoce said that Brown failed Ohio families during his 32 years in Washington and is “once again resorting to lies instead of facing his abysmal record head-on. “

“The House overwhelmingly passed Sen. Husted’s bipartisan legislation requiring data center companies to pay for the power they use, but Senate Democrats blocked it,” Natoce said. “Sherrod Brown and his friends would rather play politics and stick Ohio families with higher electric bills than pass a commonsense solution. It’s despicable.”

Texas’ flagship public university is ending new enrollment in three majors focused on gender, sexuality and race in a move that is being hailed by many conservatives as a major victory.

Students applying to the University of Texas at Austin can no longer select Women’s and Gender Studies, Mexican American and Latina/o Studies or African and African Diaspora Studies as majors, the institution has confirmed to Fox News Digital. The move follows a slew of other universities dropping similar majors and heated internal deliberations at UT Austin about whether to keep theirs.

“In recognition of the changing degree offerings in the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis, the University is no longer enrolling new students in three majors: Mexican American and Latina/o Studies, African and African Diaspora Studies, and Women’s & Gender Studies,” a university spokesman told Fox News Digital.

“So, as you might expect, those majors have been removed from the University’s admissions applications to avoid new students enrolling in majors that are changing. Students currently enrolled in those majors will be able to complete their degree,” the statement continued. 

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“I don’t know the particulars of UT Austin’s programs. But this news is unsurprising. Across the Anglosphere, ethnic and sexuality studies have long been captured by political activists,” Timur Kuran, a professor of economics and political science at Duke University, wrote on X. “Other state universities, and even private ones, will follow.”

Low enrollment has been part of the broader debate over the programs, although UT Austin has not publicly said it was the reason for ending new enrollment in the three majors.

Earlier this year, the Austin American-Statesman reported that the university had just 307 students enrolled across the entirety of African and African diaspora studies, Mexican American and Latino studies, women and gender studies and American studies, citing institutional data. That represents less than 1% of the 44,315 undergraduates who were enrolled at the university in fall 2025.

UT Austin, which is one of the largest universities in the nation, has also faced growing pressure from Republican state and federal officials over how it handles race, gender and other politically sensitive subjects. The University of Texas System has reviewed courses on gender identity to assess compliance with state and federal law and alignment with Board of Regents priorities.

An internal email obtained by the Austin American-Statesman indicates that, while the majors may be on the way out, much of the coursework could remain. The plan appears to be to consolidate the defunct majors into a single offering.

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“Gender and ethnic studies have transformed the study of the humanities and social sciences, and now they are what they are,” Lisa Moore, the university’s chair of women and gender studies, said prior to the consolidation announcement. “We can’t unknow what we know… It’s just not the case that we can believe that only a small slice of human beings are responsible for everything that’s good about the world.”

Conservatives, unsurprisingly, have a less rosy view of the field.

Steve McGuire, a fellow at the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, called axing the majors “the pedagogically responsible thing to do.“

“Excellent news. These programs are not ‘viewpoint diversity.’ They are ridiculous Leftist delusion[s] that have no place in truth-seeking institutions,” J.D. Haltigan, a research fellow at the Centre for Heterodox Social Science, wrote on X. “They should be abolished entirely from every institution of higher-learning.”

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Some on the right see this as a sign of things to come.

“Every red state should follow suit with their universities,” independent scholar Varad Mehta wrote on X.

Indeed, a number of universities in red states have already scaled back similar programs. Texas A&M University, Wichita State University, the University of Iowa and the University of Toledo are among the institutions to make such cuts.

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UT Austin did not respond to a request for comment when reached by Fox News Digital on Friday.

Pennsylvania lawmakers are warning that proposed changes to the state’s public health rules could usher in “COVID 2.0,” giving health officials sweeping “police power” over residents during future disease outbreaks.

Lawmakers opposing Pennsylvania’s planned 502-page rewrite of state health code rules are urging the public to submit comments before the deadline, warning the proposal could serve as a roadmap to unfettered and intrusive restrictions and surveillance efforts, including the reported ability for agency representatives to enter private homes.

“This absolutely is COVID 2.0, but it’s even worse because [Governor] Josh Shapiro is trying to circumnavigate or skirt the constitutional provision that we the people in Pennsylvania voted to take that kind of power away from the governor,” said state Rep. Russ Diamond, R-Lebanon, who is leading the charge against the policy changes.

“We were the only state in the nation to reduce our governor’s powers by a constitutional amendment after COVID,” Diamond said, adding that “surveillance, segregation and quarantine” are areas being assessed.

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Pennsylvania voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2021 limiting the duration of a governor’s disaster declaration to 21 days unless extended by the General Assembly. Those emergency powers played a central role in then-Gov. Tom Wolf’s statewide mitigation orders.

In the 502-page proposed Regulation 10-242, Communicable and Noncommunicable Diseases, the Pennsylvania Department of Health proposes expanding the list of reportable diseases, infections and conditions and updating the rules to reflect changing expert standards. “The Department proposes to add language in this subsection, indicating that the Department or a local health authority may enter an apartment, a building, a health care facility, a school, college or university, or other location as necessary to conduct its investigation under 208 this chapter,” one provision highlighted by critics reads.

“I don’t think that we want a very left-leaning governor with his Department of Health and their henchmen having this kind of police power in Pennsylvania,” Diamond said.

A spokesperson for Health Secretary Dr. Debra Bogen — who led the Pittsburgh area’s COVID mitigation response — said Shapiro “did not personally propose” the updates and rejected critics’ characterizations.

“Any misconstruing of these proposed changes designed to scare Pennsylvanians is inaccurate and disingenuous,” Neil Ruhland told Fox News Digital.

A Shapiro spokesperson also responded to criticism Wednesday, saying the governor’s philosophy is that “public health depends on trust” and emphasizing that the proposed health regulations are part of a larger effort to update about 200 regulatory areas across state agencies.

Lapowsky told Fox News Digital that the public, stakeholders, independent regulators and the legislature can review and respond to the proposed changes.

“Once public comment concludes later this month, [Shapiro] will weigh in, and the regulations will be revised accordingly,” she said.

Lapowsky said Shapiro’s emphasis on public trust includes respecting parental rights. Critics say the proposed regulations could give health officials greater authority over certain disease-control measures involving children, including masking. Lapowsky added that the governor believes “government should work closely with the people it serves.”

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Ruhland said the Pennsylvania Department of Health began analyzing and proposing regulatory updates several years ago and that the regulations in question are 25 years old and need modernization to “better support evolving public health needs and manage dangerous disease.”

While the proposed regulations do not themselves enact a new mask mandate, they would broaden disease-control language beyond “surveillance,” a term central to litigation over Pennsylvania’s statewide school masking order during the pandemic.

Pennsylvania House Minority Leader Jesse Topper told Fox News Digital that although the proposed regulations directly affect Pennsylvania, Americans elsewhere should also pay attention.

“Everybody in the United States was impacted by COVID one way or another,” said Topper, R-McConnellsburg.

“We were one of the worst locked-down states in the entire nation. And we had one of the worst death rates from COVID… We don’t want unelected bureaucrats making those decisions. We need to follow the [Commonwealth] Constitution, which says, ‘Hey, you can declare a public health disaster emergency if you want. But after 21 days, the legislature gets to say whether you can continue that or not’.”

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State Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-Gettysburg, who, along with Diamond, led demonstrations against lockdown policies during COVID, told Fox News Digital that the proposed regulations are an “end-round” around voters.

“Pennsylvania endured enough government overreach during COVID. We will not go back,” said Mastriano, whom President Donald Trump nominated to serve as U.S. ambassador to Slovakia.

Jason Richey, an attorney and the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor, also dubbed the changes “COVID 2.0.”

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“These are even worse than the COVID rules… [DOH] can look at your medical records. They can enter any building and go in without a warrant to do an investigation. They can even take your kid from school and talk to him privately without your consent,” Richey said in a video recorded outside a Pennsylvania Department of Health office in Lehigh County last week.

Beyond the public health implications, Topper said he is concerned that the proposed regulations would expand government authority.

Topper and Ruhland both encouraged Pennsylvanians to submit feedback on the proposed regulations before Monday’s public-comment deadline.

One of Washington’s most powerful Cold War-era tools could be used by President Donald Trump to rein in artificial intelligence (AI) if the powerful emerging technology ever becomes a national security threat.

Originally enacted in 1950 to mobilize American industry during the Korean War, the Defense Production Act (DPA) has long been used to expand military production, prioritize government contracts and respond to national emergencies. Experts now say those authorities could also give the executive branch significant leverage over frontier AI companies if one of their systems posed catastrophic national security risks.

Exactly how the government could use DPA’s powers against a dangerous AI system remains largely untested, but national security and legal experts who spoke with Fox News Digital described a range of existing authorities that could apply — including laws in the act that encompass cyberattacks, exports, federal contracts and civil liability.

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“The authorities could be a little clearer,” James Lewis, director of the Strategic Technologies Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Fox News Digital. “But you could probably cobble together a solution using the legal authorities we have now.”

The question has taken on new urgency after leaders at some of the nation’s most powerful AI companies issued stark warnings this week about increasingly capable models and backed calls to slow the pace of development so safety measures can catch up.

Trump said this week that the administration already has “tremendous criminal and regulatory power” over AI companies as he pushed back on calls from industry leaders for new guardrails on increasingly powerful models.

That largely remains because Congress recently extended most of the DPA’s authorities, which were set to expire on Sept. 30, through Dec. 11, 2026. This is sure to set up another reauthorization fight later this year, right before the power of the legislative body could change after November’s midterms in the new year.

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Lewis said the cyber threat has already changed. Finding vulnerabilities that once took months can now take days or even hours, he explained, while AI can help attackers chain smaller weaknesses together into more damaging attacks.

“The threat itself is not new,” Lewis said, recounting a recent conversation with a senior official from a Five Eyes intelligence partner. “We’ve known about this for a while, but people weren’t taking it seriously.”

AI, he said, has “changed the landscape dramatically.”

The Trump administration has already begun building a framework to identify when those capabilities become dangerous.

A June executive order directed federal agencies, including the NSA and CISA, to establish classified benchmarks for advanced cyber capabilities and determine when an AI system should be designated a “covered frontier model.” The order also calls for a voluntary framework through which developers can give the government early access to covered models before their release — while expressly stopping short of creating mandatory federal licensing or pre-clearance for frontier AI.

But knowing a dangerous capability exists is only the first problem. The next question is what Washington can actually do about it.

One potentially powerful use of the Defense Production Act would come before an AI system ever caused damage: forcing companies to tell the government what they are developing.

James E. Baker, a former chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces who previously served as a legal adviser to the National Security Council, pointed to the DPA’s broad information-gathering authority.

“What you could use the DPA for is to require reporting, and that’s the first step to making sound policy,” Baker told Fox News Digital. “You can have a debate about whether there should be regulation and what the regulation should look like. But you really can’t argue against knowing what’s happening.”

“That’s the first place to start: know what’s happening, and then you can react with either a policy prescription, a legal prescription or nothing at all.”

The DPA’s limits, however, are just as important.

Paul Rosenzweig, a lawyer and former deputy assistant secretary for policy at the Department of Homeland Security, said the law was principally designed to ensure the government could obtain goods and services needed for national defense — not to give Washington broad power to stop private companies from producing them.

“The Defense Production Act is more about mandating the production of things for the United States rather than preventing the production for the general public,” Rosenzweig told Fox News Digital.

Where it could prove particularly useful, he agreed, is giving the government access to information.

“What it does give them, I think, and this is the best part about it, is it does give them a pretty good handle for demanding more information about a defense-sensitive kind of product, which frontier AI certainly could be reasonably characterized as,” Rosenzweig said.

If the DPA could help Washington understand what AI companies are building, other existing authorities could potentially come into play depending on the threat.

Export controls can restrict sensitive technology from reaching foreign adversaries. Government contracting rules can impose conditions on companies seeking federal business. And criminal laws continue to apply when AI is used to commit crimes.

The June executive order, for example, directed the attorney general to prioritize enforcement of existing federal criminal laws against people who use AI to illegally access or damage computer systems.

Trump has separately directed national security agencies to expand their use of frontier AI while requiring systems used by the military and intelligence community to remain controllable and preserve clear lines of human accountability.

“I think it’s important to understand that there’s no broad AI exemption from generally applicable law,” Rosenzweig said.

Both federal and state governments already have “a host of legal authorities” potentially applicable to frontier AI, he said, ranging from tort liability and privacy rules to consumer protections and criminal law.

But Rosenzweig cautioned that no one knows precisely how well that patchwork would hold up in a true AI emergency because it has never been tested.

The uncertainty becomes even greater if an AI system causes damage on its own.

If a model autonomously hacked a hospital, company or critical infrastructure network, for example, Rosenzweig said courts would have to determine whether the developer was negligent, whether a stricter product liability standard should apply and whether the damage could even be reliably traced back to a particular AI system.

“I tend to think that liability is going to be difficult to establish early on,” Rosenzweig said. “Right now, that’s not where I would base my deterrence model.”

That uncertainty points to the limits of the government’s existing toolkit. The laws already on the books give federal and state authorities multiple avenues to respond to dangerous uses of AI, but many have never been tested against a system acting with increasing autonomy.

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For now, Rosenzweig said, that leaves policymakers applying laws written for other threats to a technology evolving faster than the legal system around it.

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., told Fox News Digital she has not been made aware of any criminal investigation into her after White House border czar Tom Homan said Sunday that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is investigating allegations involving Omar.

“No, they have not,” Omar said after being asked if the DHS had reached out to her about any investigation.

Homan confirmed that there is an “ongoing criminal investigation” into the Minnesota Democrat on “The Sunday Briefing.” Homan declined to give comment on whether the federal government had evidence that Omar committed immigration or naturalization fraud — a popular allegation against Omar that has prompted numerous calls for a probe. Homan also declined to give specifics on what the investigation is centered on.

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When asked directly whether Homan was confirming an investigation involving Omar, Homan replied, “I’m confirming that ICE is, yeah — look, I said months ago that there’s something that’s been reported and needs to be looked at.”

Fox News Digital asked Omar for her response to the allegations, particularly the claim that she married a man who critics allege is her brother as part of a scheme to obtain citizenship in the U.S.

“The right wing has always had this s— going, so I don’t really worry about it,” Omar said about the allegations.

Omar has repeatedly denied claims that she married her brother, as well as claims that any investigation involving her has been opened by DHS or the Justice Department. There has been no public evidence available to confirm an open investigation into Omar.

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Vice President JD Vance claimed in May that the Justice Department was looking into allegations against Omar — both related to the claim she married her brother and fraud after her amended financial disclosure forms and steep drop in net worth caught national attention.

Homan’s confirmation of an investigation into Omar comes after DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin alluded to the idea that the DHS was investigating Omar, bringing up her alleged marriage immigration scheme.

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“There may be more to this, the whole family migration and possibly some illegal activity for them to come to the United States to begin with. … If we can prove it, that you shouldn’t have been here in the first place, we will deport you,” Mullin said on the podcast.

Omar is a naturalized citizen, but Homan said there is a denaturalization process for cases of proven immigration fraud, which he claimed had been done “many times.”

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“Denaturalization is a process,” Homan said. “It’s a very serious process, so if someone lies through that process to become a citizen, and we can prove they, in fact, lied or misrepresented themselves, we can absolutely denaturalize them.”

A federal lawsuit filed Thursday alleges the city of Dearborn spent thousands of taxpayer dollars on public displays celebrating Muslim holidays while ignoring a Christian resident’s repeated requests for Easter and Passover recognition.

Margot Cleveland, a journalist with The Federalist, filed a civil rights lawsuit with the American Freedom Law Center (AFLC) against the city of Dearborn and Democratic Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, alleging the city violated her First and Fourteenth Amendment rights, including protections involving religious establishment, free speech and equal protection.

“The City of Dearborn spent taxpayer money to light up its streets and parks for Ramadan while stonewalling a resident who simply asked that Easter, Passover, and other Christian and Jewish holy days be treated the same way,” Robert J. Muise, AFLC co-founder and senior counsel, said in a statement. “That is a straightforward Establishment Clause violation, and the retaliation our client faced for speaking up about it only compounds the constitutional harm.”

PASTOR UNLEASHES ON DEARBORN AS RELIGIOUS TENSIONS ERUPT AT CITY COUNCIL MEETING: ‘ENOUGH IS ENOUGH’

Dearborn is home to one of the largest Arab American communities in the country. The city had 109,976 residents in the 2020 Census, and 54.5% reported Middle Eastern or North African ancestry. Michigan Avenue, the city’s main thoroughfare, is lined with businesses featuring Arabic-script signs and Middle Eastern cuisine. There are ten mosques within the city limits, according to an online directory.

Hammoud was first elected mayor in November 2021, becoming the first Muslim and Arab American to lead the city of Dearborn.

“What makes this case especially troubling is that City officials, up to and including the Mayor, responded to a citizen’s respectful request for equal treatment with silence, stonewalling, and outright hostility — including the Mayor’s own words telling a Christian resident he is ‘not welcome’ in his own city,” David Yerushalmi, an attorney on the case, said. “Our client is simply asking the City to treat Christians and Jews as equal citizens.”

Lawyers for Cleveland pointed to a September exchange between Hammoud and Christian pastor Ted Barham as evidence of what they allege is the city’s hostility toward Christians. Barham had raised concerns during a City Council meeting over the city’s decision to rename a street after Usama Siblani, publisher of The Arab American News, who has made statements expressing support for Hezbollah.

TRUMP INAUGURATION PASTOR SAYS DEARBORN CHRISTIANS ‘AFRAID’ TO SPEAK OUT IN MUSLIM-MAJORITY CITY

In the exchange, Hammoud called Barham a “bigot” and an “Islamophobe.”

“And although you live here, I want you to know as mayor, you are not welcome here,” Hammoud told the Christian pastor. “And the day you move out of the city will be the day that I launch a parade celebrating the fact that you moved out of the city… because you are not somebody who believes in coexistence.”

But Cleveland’s lawsuit alleges that city leaders ignored her requests for the city to also recognize Christian and Jewish holidays after she began seeing “Ramadan Kareem” banners and large crescent moons displayed across the city in spring 2025. A FOIA request revealed that the city had spent $1,500 on Ramadan banners and $5,000 on the crescent-moon display. The Dearborn Police Department was also selling Ramadan-themed T-shirts.

In emails to the city, Cleveland said she did not want the city to stop celebrating Muslim holidays but wanted equal recognition for Christian and Jewish holy days.

“I much prefer to ensure equality of faith traditions, as opposed to a challenge to the display,” Cleveland wrote in an email.

MASSACHUSETTS HIGH COURT BLOCKS CITY FROM DISPLAYING CATHOLIC SAINT STATUES HONORING FIRST RESPONDERS

Not only did the city allegedly ignore Cleveland’s requests, but in February 2026, it expanded its Ramadan displays, commissioning crescent-and-star lights that were displayed on municipal streetlights across the city.

“This initiative reflects who we are as a city,” Hammoud said in a statement.

Tensions between Cleveland and city officials continued in April, when Cleveland alleges she was told she could attend a community meeting as a resident but not as a journalist. The lawsuit also alleges Hammoud made what it describes as a “snide comment” about residents who criticize the city on social media to monetize their posts.

The lawsuit also alleges that in February 2026, the city expanded its Ramadan displays, commissioning crescent-and-star lights for municipal streetlights across the city.

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Cleveland pushed back, according to the lawsuit, saying she was simply “a concerned resident who was ignored when I asked for the City to treat Christians and Jews equally.”

“Despite the repeated requests, they treated her as if she were an outsider and not a full member of the political community,” Muise told Fox News Digital.

The lawsuit comes during Michigan’s closely watched 2026 U.S. Senate race, with Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed, who is Muslim and the son of Egyptian immigrants, facing Republican nominee Mike Rogers for the state’s open Senate seat. Religion and antisemitism have become points of dispute in the race, with Republicans and some Democrats criticizing El-Sayed over his association with streamer Hasan Piker, who said the U.S. was worse than al Qaeda “pound for pound, as far as the number of deaths,” while arguing that U.S. military actions that kill civilians can amount to acts of terror.

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At the same time, El-Sayed and his supporters have accused opponents of targeting him with anti-Muslim rhetoric.

Fox News Digital reached out to Hammoud’s office and Cleveland’s attorneys for comment.

A Democrat running for the state legislature in battleground North Carolina remains on the ballot despite her party publicly abandoning her after inflammatory social media posts she made resurfaced.

The North Carolina House Democratic Caucus and a county party group both condemned posts by Shelly Headen in which the legislative candidate called for an attack on U.S. soil targeting red states and compared President Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler.

But Headen remains a candidate because the filing deadline to drop out of the race was Aug. 20, and the general election ballots are finalized and were sent out to voters starting on Sept. 4.

Headen, who is challenging Republican state Rep. John Blust for the House District 62 seat in Greensboro-anchored Guilford County, posted a year ago, “I think our only hope is an attack on US Soil … preferably Alabama, Louisiana … where the stupid people live.”

WATCH: HUGH HEWITT’S TAKE ON THE HEADEN CONTROVERSY

In separate posts, she argued that the damage done by Trump was “getting close to surpassing Hitler” and claimed the “MAGA cult may be more destructive and evil than the Nazis.”

Breitbart reported that a Facebook post by Headen that pictured her at a memorial at the Nazis’ Dachau concentration camp in Germany, where tens of thousands of people were murdered during World War II, with the words, “This is where Trump supporters belong.”

Headen denied last week to the Greensboro News and Record that she posted the concentration camp image and said she believed the image was edited to include the words over a real photo.

Her old comments grabbed new national attention earlier this week when the White House Rapid Response account that supports Trump shared them on X and charged that Democrats “ARE SICK PEOPLE!”

DEMOCRACY ’26: STAY UP TO DATE WITH THE FOX NEWS ELECTION HUB

North Carolina Republican U.S. Senate nominee Michael Whatley posted on social media a photo of Headen and former Gov. Roy Cooper, the Democratic Senate nominee, and argued, “Roy Cooper still stands with NC Dem who called for the genocide of Republicans. This is against everything America stands for.”

“These remarks are reprehensible – Roy strongly condemns them and all forms of political violence and he believes it’s up to all of us to speak responsibly,” Cooper’s campaign emphasized in a statement.

Headen, a certified public accountant and small business owner, told WFDD, a public radio station in North Carolina, that she didn’t remember making the posts but apologized to those hurt by them. And she added that she understood the party’s decision to drop support for her.

But in an interview with The Assembly, a digital-first news operation in North Carolina, Headen defended her posts, describing them as “a few angry moments.”

“I’ve sacrificed myself just like Jesus sacrificed Himself on the cross, and Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln and all the people that put themselves out there to sacrifice for our country,” Headen also told The Assembly. 

“If a few angry moments on social media are the end, then so be it. MAGA will keep winning if we continue with not standing up for what’s right.”

The Assembly’s reporting preceded the move by Democrats to drop support.

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“Shelly Headen’s posts are unacceptable and do not reflect the values we expect of our candidates,” the North Carolina House Democratic Caucus said in a statement. The caucus added that it “condemns these comments without qualification and will not support Shelly Headen’s candidacy.”

The Guilford County Democratic Party said in a statement, “We unequivocally reject and condemn the social media posts by Shelly Headen. These statements violate everything our party represents. Effective immediately, the county Democratic Party is formally withdrawing all financial, operational and organizational support for Shelley Headen’s campaign.”

Headen earlier this week told Fox News Digital she’s received death threats in recent days but declined to give any further responses regarding her posts.

In an article published Thursday in The Rhino Times, Headen reiterated, “I’ve been getting death threats, and now all I want to do is protect myself and my family. My whole world has been collapsing.”

And she acknowledged that she took down her social media pages, saying, “I don’t have access to any of my accounts anymore.”

Republicans have spotlighted the controversy.

North Carolina House Speaker Destin Hall called Headen’s comments “Absolutely disgusting.”

And the North Carolina House Republicans wrote on X, “Democrat Shelly Headen who is “Running to Restore Human Decency” just posted that she wants an attack on US soil. It is unclear whether Shelly would prefer ISIS or China to attack the United States, but it’s clear she wants an attack.”

Meanwhile, the popular conservative X account Libs of TikTok argued that Headen “should drop out immediately. She doesn’t belong anywhere public office.”

The attention over the resurfaced comments comes a week after Headen faced a separate controversy following a move by State House Republicans to release two 2024 Guilford County Sheriff’s Office incident reports involving her and her husband, Gregory Thomas Headen.

The reports, which identify the alleged domestic offense as physical assault, list Headen as the suspect and her husband as the potential victim.

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In a statement she released earlier this month, Headen said that during a stressful time in their marriage, she and her husband had “a couple of arguments that escalated.” She said that, during one argument, her husband grabbed her, causing her to fall backward and hit her head. She then called 911.

Headen, in her statement, described herself as having experienced abuse. And she argued that Republicans were using a private family matter for political gain.

It’s a matter of debate as to why House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., sent the House home a day early this week. This is in addition to the House lopping off two additional weeks from its schedule later this month and into early October.

“We’re going to modify the House schedule by a day. And let me explain to you why. The House has done its work,” said Johnson as House Members fled Capitol Hill early Wednesday night. “House Republicans are going now back to our districts. We’re going to make the case to the American people on what we have delivered on their behalf.”

The House isn’t scheduled to reconvene until November 9, just after the midterms.

But outgoing Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., believes there’s a different reason Johnson cut everyone loose early. The Kentucky Republican introduced eight articles of impeachment for Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth. Because Massie’s push for impeachment is “privileged,” the House had 48 hours max to consider the articles.

THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO MASSIE SAYING JOHNSON IS SENDING THE HOUSE HOME EARLY TO PREVENT HEGSETH IMPEACHMENT

“I figured out why we canceled tomorrow,” said Massie. “Tomorrow would be the vote on impeaching Secretary of Defense Peter Bryan Hegseth. And it looks like that vote’s not going to happen.”

A senior House Republican leadership source insisted to Fox last week that Members would be on Capitol Hill “for a full week.”

But by Wednesday, the House had synced up with the Senate and passed the Russia sanctions bill. It okayed legislation to protect consumers from high electricity and water bills associated with data centers – foisting the cost on tech companies. Yes, there were calls by bipartisan lawmakers that the House should remain in session to address intensifying concerns about AI. But the House was running out of floor traffic.

Except for Massie’s measure to impeach Hegseth.

REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: HOUSE CONTROL COULD HINGE ON WHETHER THE OLD POLITICAL RULES STILL APPLY

Now you can determine for yourself why Johnson dismissed lawmakers a day early – to say nothing of the plan for the House to cut town two weeks sooner than originally planned.

But you can imagine what Massie thought.

“Exactly what I predicted,” said Massie on the House floor. “Why did he just cut another day off the calendar?”

I found Massie off the floor after he concluded his speech.

“Do you think they adjourned the House because you have the votes on Hegseth?” asked yours truly.

“Chad, they cut two weeks off of the calendar to keep me from getting to 218 votes on the Epstein discharge petition. And then we came into this week and I introduced eight articles of impeachment against Peter Hegseth and they have 48 hours to vote on that,” replied Massie. “He cut off the day tomorrow to avoid the vote.”

Here are the parliamentary mechanics.

The House was compelled to consider Massie’s impeachment articles if it met this past Thursday. Otherwise, the resolution covering the eight impeachment articles would expire. The 48-hour window associated with such privileged resolutions disappears. Sure. Massie could bring them up when the House next meets in November. But that is seven weeks from now.

But let’s say the House met on Thursday and was forced to bring up Massie’s impeachment articles, Republicans would likely have offered “a motion to table.” This is an effort to kill Massie’s gambit. Thus the vote would not have been on impeaching Hegseth, but whether or not to set aside Massie’s plan. 

If the House voted to table Massie’s articles of impeachment, the gig is up. It’s done. The House never even considered the actual impeachment resolutions. The vote was one step removed from a straight, up/down vote on actually impeaching Hegseth.

But let’s say the motion to table were to fail? That means the House immediately skips to the articles of impeachment. The possibility suddenly exists that Hegseth could face eight impeachment votes – even through there’s been no investigation. No committee hearings. No “process.”

Nowhere does it say in the Constitution that Congress is required to wrestle with the usual parliamentary volutions to impeach someone. If a simple majority in the House votes to impeach you, you’re impeached.

Nuff said.

REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: CONGRESS MEETS AI AS FEARS OF HUMAN EXTINCTION JOLT CAPITOL HILL

This is why Republicans likely would have moved to table Massie’s impeachment articles. A vote to table inoculates Members from having to take a challenging vote on the underlying issue. Keep in mind that there are a number of House Republicans who are aggravated with Hegseth and beside themselves about the war in Iran. This vote would have put them in an interesting position – especially since many if not all Democrats may have voted to impeach.

So I asked Massie the following about the motion to table.

“That would have put (Members) in a tough spot. Or would if they had to vote on that, that would have passed?” I asked.

“A vote on a motion to table — he may not have survived that vote,” declared Massie.

In other words, Massie believes the House could have defeated the motion to table. That would have triggered votes on actually impeaching Hegseth. And, from Massie’s standpoint, that’s why Johnson sent the House home. 

You might remember that there was a bipartisan effort last summer by Massie and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) to go around Johnson and deposit a measure on the floor forcing release of the Epstein files. Johnson let the House out early for summer break then. Later, Johnson kept the House out of session for most of the 43-day government shutdown as the special effort to bring action on the resolution loomed.

The House voted to re-open the government in mid-November. And one of the first things the House did after that? Voted 427-1 to require a release of the files. The lone nay vote against releasing the files? Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La.

Even though there aren’t votes until early November, Massie is still a Member of the House. He’ll be a Member in the lame duck session through early January. Massie lost his primary to Republican Ed Gallrein — a candidate backed by President Donald Trump. And Hegseth took the unusual step of traveling to northern Kentucky this spring to campaign for Gallrein.

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It’s unclear if the Hegseth articles of impeachment will return late this fall or winter. But Massie is back. At least for a little while. And whether Johnson adjourned the House to prevent a vote on the impeachment articles will remain a matter of debate.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Department of Justice lawyers have asked U.S. District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema to dismiss a case connected to the Trump administration’s $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” arguing that Attorney General Todd Blanche issued a formal recission order in August and has affirmed many times, including under oath before Congress, that the fund is dead.

However, Brinkema seemed skeptical Friday.

“The issues that underlie this case are still alive and kicking in my view,” Brinkema said.

“The real concern that lurks … is the concept of taxpayer money being used to promote particular political views,” Brinkema said, pointing to pro-life activists convicted of violating the FACE Act and others who attempted an “insurrection” on Jan. 6 “to overthrow the legitimate election.”

CLINTON JUDGE INDEFINITELY BLOCKS TRUMP’S $1.776B ANTI-WEAPONIZATION FUND

“That entity is gone,” said Brinkema, referring to the Anti-Weaponization Fund and agreeing that Blanche has said under oath at his confirmation hearings that the fund is dead. 

“But is there a functional equivalent?” Brinkema said, referring to the DOJ’s ordinary Judgment Fund authority.

The Judgment Fund is a permanent U.S. Treasury account managed by the Bureau of the Fiscal Service that pays court judgments and DOJ legal settlements against the federal government. Brinkema called that fund “a less transparent structure” and suggested that some defendants convicted of FACE Act crimes have already received large payouts from the DOJ’s Judgment Fund.

JUDGE TEMPORARILY BLOCKS TRUMP DOJ’S NEARLY $2B ‘ANTI-WEAPONIZATION’ FUND

Here, Brinkema affirmed she was talking about the case of Paul Vaughn.

Vaugh, of Centerville, Tennessee, was convicted in January 2024 for his role in blockading an abortion clinic in Mount Juliet, Tennessee, in March 2021. Vaughn ultimately received a pardon and a taxpayer-funded payout from the DOJ’s Judgment Fund that confirmed to Fox News is “seven figures.”

BIDEN ADMIN USED ABORTION GROUP DOSSIERS, INCLUDING PHOTOS OF MINORS, TO TARGET CHRISTIANS, DOJ REPORT REVEALS

DOJ lawyer Andrew Block asked what remedy the plaintiff wants, given “the fund is dead.”

Brinkema countered that although the case is nowhere near the remedy stage, “I think there are remedies.” She brought up the possibility of requiring a “neutral” person to oversee a fund, “not someone from the DOJ, which I see unfortunately as coerced” in this matter.

“A proper, unbiased look. … There’s been too much talk from members of the administration, which undercut [DOJ’s] position,” Brinkema said. “They contradict themselves all the time.”

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Brinkema closed the hearing by telling both sides she intends to craft a new discovery order in the coming days, suggesting this case is far from over.

Anyone who has a conversation with former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is likely to hear his claim that he was never going to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by former President Barack Obama in 2008, insisting his innocence in the high-profile case that led to him serving nearly eight years in federal prison. Blagojevich has repeated for years that he was closing in on a deal to appoint Lisa Madigan to the U.S. Senate.

Hers is a name that has largely dropped out of the public arena. At the time of the scandal, Madigan served as the Illinois Attorney General. More relevant to this case, she is the daughter of the very powerful and entrenched then-Speaker of the Illinois House Mike Madigan. The former Speaker has since gone to prison for a separate corruption case. (Welcome to Illinois.) Blagojevich claims he would have appointed Lisa to the Senate, in exchange for the father supporting his health care package and budget.

Shortly after the arrest of Governor Blagojevich in December 2009, both President-elect Obama and his incoming chief of staff Rahm Emanuel were interviewed by the FBI. Obama on December 18, 9 days after the Governor was arrested. Emanuel was interviewed on the 20. The records of those interviews were kept out of both criminal trials and away from the public, until now. Fox News has obtained the partially redacted FBI FD-302s of those interviews.

The Obama interview notes: “Obama was asked whether he was aware of Emanuel having a conversation with the Blagojevich administration regarding Lisa Madigan being considered for the Senate seat in exchange for legislation being passed.”

RAHM EMANUEL WARNS DSA AGENDA DOESN’T PLAY WELL OUTSIDE ‘UPPER WEST SIDE OF MANHATTAN’

“Emanuel would have been aware that Lisa Madigan was an acceptable candidate to Obama.”

And “Emanuel had an open line of conversation with the Blagojevich administration.”

The Emanuel interview notes that on December 8, 2008, “(David) Axelrod and Emanuel went to see (U.S. Senator Dick) Durbin, D-Ill. In this meeting they all agreed that Lisa Madigan would be a good candidate.”

“As a result of this conversation, Emanuel contacted (Blagojevich Chief of staff, John) Harris and told him the merits of appointing Lisa Madigan as Senator.”

The next morning, December 9, 2009, just after 6 a.m., Blagojevich was arrested at his home in Chicago.

RAHM EMANUEL WARNS ‘BERNIE BROS’ COULD SINK DEMOCRATS BY SADDLING MODERATES WITH SOCIALIST AGENDA

Then-U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois Patrick Fitzgerald said, “Governor Blagojevich was arrested in the middle of what we can only describe as a political corruption crime spree. We acted to stop that crime spree.”

“That just proves the Madigan deal was very much front and center. It was something I was about to do,” Blagojevich said in light of the newly unsealed information. “There never was a crime spree that Mr. Fitzgerald, the U.S. Attorney said he was stopping to justify arresting a sitting governor in his home.”

Other interesting notes from the interviews: President Obama initially wanted Valerie Jarrett to succeed him the Senate. But he reversed his thinking early in the process deciding, “that he would like Jarrett to join him at the White House as a senior advisor.”

However, “Emanuel was still interested in Jarrett taking the senate seat rather than working in the White House.”

Because, according to the Emanuel interview, “the fact that she is the President-elect’s best friend, having her on the White House staff would be awkward.”

“Rahm’s a crafty, political, crafty, cunning and very effective political operator,” Blagojevich chimed in. “He was interested in being closer to the king.”

Eventually, according to the Emanuel interview, Obama became resolute. “Obama told Emanuel he made a decision that Jarret was going to the White House and he was not going to reconsider this decision.”

After that, a gaggle of familiar names entered the ring for consideration: Tammy Duckworth, and Reps. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., and Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Ill. (Who also went to prison for a separate case.)

MINNESOTA FRAUD SCANDAL WILL HAUNT FLANAGAN IN HIGH-STAKES SENATE RACE, TOP HOUSE REPUBLICAN WARNS

Then Obama, busy with establishing a new administration, stated, “He did not want to put his thumb on the scale.”

Still, he dispatched Emanuel to communicate with the Governor’s office that “Obama was interested in someone who he thought would be a good Senator for the people of Illinois and who could also hold the seat in the 2010 election.”

Blagojevich ended up appointing Roland Burris to Obama’s vacated seat. Burris did not run for re-election.

Republican Mark Kirk won the seat in 2010 and was defeated by Tammy Duckworth in 2016.

Blagojevich served 7 years 11 months in prison until President Trump commuted his sentence in 2020. Blagojevich received a full pardon in 2025.

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Fox News reached out to both former President Obama and Rahm Emanuel. They did not respond.

FIRST ON FOX: President Donald Trump struck a sweeping agreement with Denmark and Greenland this week granting the United States permanent military rights on the strategically placed Arctic island.

The U.S. will now have permanent access, basing and overflight rights in Greenland, and the ability to establish additional military installations as needed, according to a senior U.S. official who outlined the deal exclusively to Fox News Digital.

The deal bars China, Russia and other non-NATO countries from establishing military bases or maintaining troops in Greenland. It also restricts adversaries from investing in sensitive sectors that could pose a threat to U.S. national security.

“This historic deal is a huge win for the United States and the American people,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Fox News Digital. “Thanks to President Trump’s vision and leadership, this historic agreement permanently guarantees U.S. security interests in the Arctic at zero cost to the U.S. taxpayer.”

DENMARK VOWS TO DEFEND GREENLAND AFTER TRUMP REITERATES US SHOULD CONTROL TERRITORY

“Greenland will forever be part of the strategic defense area of North America and exclude any adversary from it and the surrounding area,” Rubio said. “This deal permanently and completely addresses our national security concerns in Greenland.

The new agreement, which has no expiration date, stops short of transferring sovereignty over Greenland to the U.S. But administration officials still view its permanence as key to addressing the security concerns that drove Trump’s push to acquire the territory in the first place.

“The difference here is we’re not spending any money for the right,” to expand the U.S. military presence, the senior official explained.

The deal is designed to remain in effect even if Greenland eventually becomes an independent country, they added.

Trump had repeatedly argued that control of Greenland was necessary for U.S. national security, pointing to the island’s strategic location in the Arctic as Russia and China expand their presence and capabilities in the region.

The deal significantly expands on the longstanding U.S. defense relationship with Greenland. The U.S. already operates Pituffik Space Base and has maintained military access to the island under a defense agreement dating back to 1951.

Under the new agreement, however, Denmark and Greenland would not have approval authority over additional U.S. military installations. The U.S. would consult with them but would have the right to build new installations when it determines they are necessary without needing their buy-in, the official said.

The administration believes an expanded U.S. military footprint in Greenland could eventually play a role in Trump’s planned Golden Dome missile defense system.

RUSSIA’S QUIETER NUCLEAR SUBMARINES THREATEN NATO, FORMER COMMANDER WARNS

The deal only allows the U.S. and its allies to make “sensitive investments” on the island, such as telecommunications infrastructure, undersea cables, ports and critical minerals.

The administration is seeking to prevent Greenland from becoming another version of what it sees as the strategic vulnerability that developed around the Panama Canal, where Chinese commercial interests have fueled U.S. concerns that ostensibly civilian infrastructure could have national security implications.

“We’re never going to face that in Greenland as a result of this,” the official told Fox News Digital.

Officials from both Greenland and Denmark, which holds sovereignty over the self-governing island territory, initially scoffed at Trump’s insistence that the U.S. must ‘own’ Greenland.

But months of negotiations between Rubio, White House adviser Stephen Miller and officials at the State Department and National Security Council led to a deal that satisfied all sides, a second official told Fox News Digital.

Representatives from all three countries went through “various rounds of quiet negotiations that never leaked and never got out there” starting in February, as Denmark and Greenland came to see the agreement as serving their own security interests.

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“They recognize at the end of the day that they have a national security concern here as well,” Rubio said. “Denmark and Greenland understand that they don’t have the financial means necessary to defend Greenland if it were to come under attack or be threatened. The United States has the power to do that.”

Foreign actors hacked two Colorado water utilities’ computer systems last month, changing pumping cycles, disabling alarms and altering equipment settings before operators regained control, state officials said Thursday.

The intrusions did not affect drinking water quality or treatment processes, according to Colorado Gov. Jared Polis’ office. But the incidents add Colorado to a widening series of breaches in U.S. water and wastewater infrastructure.

High-profile cyberattacks have targeted more than 100 drinking water and wastewater systems across 12 states this year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, expanding the footprint of a threat that federal authorities warned this summer was disrupting water operations across the country.

WATER CYBERATTACK HITS AT LEAST 7 STATES

Colorado officials have not identified the actors behind the intrusions of the two small systems or said whether they are connected to the broader activity reported elsewhere in the country.

“These were brief incidents, and the risks were quickly addressed by the providers themselves, who subsequently alerted the state,” Polis spokeswoman Eric Maruyama said in a statement.

The hackers altered equipment settings, disabled remote access and alarms and changed pumping cycles, according to the governor’s office.

The incidents demonstrate how hackers can reach beyond traditional computer networks and gain access to operational technology used to control physical equipment at water plants, including pumps, valves and other machinery.

The water utility systems that were impacted provide drinking water to approximately 400 people.

IRANIAN HACKERS ATTACKED OUR WATER SYSTEMS. HERE ARE 5 THINGS OUR LEADERS NEED TO DO NOW

Federal authorities warned in July that malicious cyber actors were targeting internet-connected operational technology at water and wastewater utilities. At the time, the FBI and EPA said utilities in at least seven states had reported incidents, some of which degraded water operations.

The agencies said attackers had remotely accessed internet-facing programmable logic controllers, or PLCs, and tampered with device configurations, in some cases causing utilities to lose monitoring or control capabilities. Reported operational effects included loss of water pressure and flooding.

The Colorado breaches follow a series of attacks on water systems across the country this summer, including cyber activity affecting more than 30 community water systems in Minnesota.

Federal investigators have examined whether Iranian actors or hackers affiliated with Iran were responsible for the Minnesota attacks, though officials had not publicly attributed the activity at the time.

President Donald Trump disputed suggestions that Iran was behind the Minnesota attacks, saying during a Cabinet meeting, “They blame it on Iran. I don’t think so.”

He instead blamed Minnesota officials.

IRAN’S CYBERWAR TARGETS ORDINARY AMERICANS. WE NEED TO DISMANTLE THE HACKER NETWORK

The recent incidents have renewed attention to longstanding cybersecurity vulnerabilities within America’s water infrastructure, particularly among small and rural utilities that can have limited cybersecurity staff and resources.

Many utilities use internet-connected industrial control systems to remotely monitor and operate pumps, valves, water pressure and other equipment. Federal officials have urged operators to remove programmable logic controllers from direct exposure to the internet and strengthen authentication and access controls.

The EPA, which serves as the federal government’s sector risk management agency for water and wastewater systems, told Fox News Digital it is working with utilities, states and federal partners to identify vulnerabilities and strengthen cybersecurity.

Since fiscal year 2025, the agency has identified more than 900 vulnerabilities in over 650 water systems and helped eliminate about 700 at more than 500 utilities.

The EPA has also conducted more than 710 cybersecurity risk assessments and provided direct technical assistance to approximately 15,900 utilities.

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The FBI declined to comment when reached by Fox News Digital.

EXCLUSIVE: An illegal immigrant from Guatemala is accused of voting in a national election in Indiana, a crime that federal officials said steals votes from American citizens, while announcing the woman’s arrest.

Helda Araceli Mendez-Merida was arrested Sept. 3 by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Indianapolis, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said.

“The patriots of ICE arrested this illegal alien from Guatemala after she illegally voted in a past election,” DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said. “This illegal alien will be deported so she can never again poison our elections.

ICE ARRESTS PERUVIAN NATIONAL ACCUSED OF ILLEGALLY VOTING IN 2024 ELECTION AS DHS CITES SIMILAR CASES

“If even one noncitizen casts a vote, it steals a vote from an American citizen.”

It wasn’t clear which election Mendez-Merida allegedly voted in, officials said. However, she illegally entered the U.S. through Arizona in September 2015 during the Obama administration, according to DHS.

WHITE HOUSE UNLOADS ON VIOLENT ‘CRIMINAL ALIEN’ NABBED AFTER INVESTIGATORS UNCOVER ELECTION OFFENSE

She was arrested by a U.S. Border Patrol officer and released. An immigration judge issued a final order of removal for her in September 2019.

“The right to vote is the cornerstone of democracy in the United States,” ICE Enforcement Division Acting Assistant Director Patricia Hyde said. “Helda Araceli Mendez-Merida attempted to subvert a national election by unlawfully casting a vote.

DHS APPROVES PLAN TO VERIFY VOTER CITIZENSHIP, MONITOR MAIL BALLOTS AS TRUMP PUSH INTENSIFIES

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“Voting in U.S. elections is a privilege that is reserved exclusively for U.S. citizens, and we cannot allow that sacred right to be perverted by foreign nationals who seek to undermine American democracy.”

A New York City socialist seeking to replace a retiring Democrat drew criticism Thursday after pledging to carry the “fight” inspired by Mexico’s struggle for independence into Congress, with critics pointing to her disclosure that she met with members of Mexico’s ruling left-wing party.

Claire Valdez, who is seeking Rep. Nydia Velazquez’s seat in a district that includes Bushwick and Ridgewood, is facing calls for the State Department to investigate her under the Logan Act, a rarely enforced 1799 law that criminalizes certain unauthorized efforts by private citizens to influence foreign governments in disputes involving the U.S. Democrats have also invoked the law in connection with President Donald Trump.

In response to her post, immigration attorney and columnist Alicia Nieves tweeted at Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau, a former ambassador to Mexico, calling for an investigation of Valdez after the candidate disclosed that she had met with members of Morena, Mexico’s ruling left-wing party.

“Given that she is currently a congressional nominee, not a member of Congress, and appears to have discussed facilitating support contrary to current U.S. policy as well as describing our country an ‘empire’ that has ‘stolen from us’… I hope the administration will review whether these communications warrant investigation under the Logan Act.”

COLORADO’S SOCIALIST CANDIDATE CALLS FOR ‘MORE IMMIGRANTS INTO OFFICE’ TO STOP AMERICA’S ‘EXPLOITATIVE’ NATURE

The act, enacted in 1799, came after the John Adams administration and congressional Federalists objected to Pennsylvania politician George Logan’s unauthorized trip to France, where he sought to ease tensions during what was called the “Quasi-War.” Federalists feared private diplomacy could undermine the U.S. government’s foreign policy.

Adams and his Federalist allies also viewed Logan’s actions through the partisan tensions surrounding the 1800 presidential race against Thomas Jefferson.

In her tweet, Valdez wrote, “215 years ago, Mexicans fought an empire that demanded our land and our labor. And we won.”

“I’ll carry that fight with me to Congress as New York’s first Mexican-American representative,” Valdez pledged. “And I’m strengthened not just by Mexico’s history but its present.”

She said she met “comrades” in the Morena Party who are “standing up to the empires and corporations that have always taken from us — and building a government for the working class. Viva la Independencia, Viva México!”

MAMDANI-BACKED SOCIALIST PREVAILS IN CROWDED PRIMARY TO REPLACE RETIRING REP

Fox News Digital reached out to Valdez and the Mexican government for comment. Morena could not immediately be reached.

Critics also pointed out that Valdez’s father, Larry, is connected with a company that helped construct a Texas immigration facility during the Obama administration. They contended that the connection conflicts with her opposition to immigration enforcement.

“This would be a great campaign for Congress in Mexico,” added Christina Pushaw, a top communications official for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Fox News Digital also reached out to community organizer Melvin Rivera, the Republican opponent facing Valdez, for comment.

Democrats cited the Logan Act in connection with Trump after he publicly remarked, “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing” in reference to his 2016 opponent Hillary Clinton.

Then-Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada suggested that Trump had violated the Logan Act. The law has also been invoked against other public figures, including former Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, but no prosecution under the statute has resulted in a conviction.

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Two men faced proceedings under the Logan Act but were never convicted. A grand jury indicted Kentucky farmer Francis Flournoy in 1803 after he advocated a separate Western United States allied with France. Jonas P. Levy was arrested and held to bail under the law in 1853 after writing to Mexico’s president.

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Valdez, the Democratic nominee for New York’s 7th Congressional District, will face Republican community organizer Melvin Rivera and other candidates in the November general election. Fox News Digital reached out to Rivera for comment on Valdez’s remarks.

The Department of Homeland Security fired off a warning shot to a major consortium of immigration attorneys as the Trump administration cracks down on fraudulent asylum claims while seeking to roll back the Biden administration’s open-border policies.

The warning letter marks an escalation in DHS’ tactic of targeting illegal immigrants and problematic asylum seekers or green-card holders by also targeting the attorneys who represent them and seek to help them remain in the U.S.

“Asylum offers protection to aliens who have fled their countries due to persecution by the government on account of a protected ground,” Percival warned the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) on Wednesday.

TRUMP PUTS ASYLUM LAWYERS ‘ON NOTICE’ WITH NEW FRONT IN WAR ON FRAUD

“To be eligible for asylum, an alien must show that he is a “refugee” as defined in 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(42)(A), meaning that he is unable or unwilling to return to his country because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.”

Percival said asylum is discretionary and not guaranteed for someone who believes they are being targeted in their home country, even if they meet the eligibility requirements.

“We have been abundantly clear: If immigration attorneys commit fraud for their clients, the attorneys will be fined,” Percival told Fox News Digital on Thursday.

He warned of a growing backlog of asylum cases clogging up the immigration courts system and warned AILA against exacerbating it, should they then face consequences.

“Filing a frivolous asylum application generally renders an alien permanently ineligible for most forms of relief and other immigration benefits … The Department will vigorously pursue all available remedies against anyone engaging in this conduct,” Percival warned in his letter.

“We must restore order and accountability to our immigration framework now, or we risk dismantling the humanitarian safety net for those who need it most.”

In 2025, AILA previously criticized President Donald Trump after he raised concerns over “rampant fraud and meritless claims” in a directive to DHS and the DOJ.

AILA officials called the missive “chilling” and rejected that their members are engaged in frivolous litigation or conduct.

Fox News Digital reached out to AILA for further comment.

Percival wrote Wednesday that an asylee’s persecution must be committed by a “state actor” to be considered by the U.S. system, while adding that private actions against an asylee are potentially valid when that person’s government acts in a way unwilling to confront the persecution.

CHICAGO’S DEADLY JUNETEENTH WEEKEND LEAVES 7 DEAD AS TRUMP SHAMES DEM GOV FOR INACTION

But he said that carve-out is a high bar, appearing to take a shot at Illinois leaders over the state’s persistent crime problems.

“[T]his requires an extraordinary showing, as residents of crime-ridden cities like Chicago could easily claim that the government is unwilling or unable to control private actors. To meet the high legal threshold of the government being ‘unable or unwilling’ to control the non-state actor, the alien must establish that the home government has fundamentally breached its basic duty of protection to its citizens,” Percival said.

DHS DIRECTS ICE ATTORNEYS TO SEEK EARLY DISMISSAL OF LEGALLY DEFICIENT ASYLUM CLAIMS

With many of the border-crossers in recent years coming from Central and South America, Percival indicated that conditions in most Western Hemisphere countries are not extreme enough to warrant a legitimate basis for entry into the U.S. under current policy.

“Recent trends show that individuals who illegally migrate within the Western Hemisphere generally do so not because they seek a safe haven from persecution but instead primarily due to a variety of non-humanitarian factors, including economic incentives and misinformation about migration policies,” he said.

He said many such meritless claims are filed to either stifle the ability for the feds to deport them or to secure grounds on which to obtain work permits.

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“Claims that lack a reasonable legal or factual basis and claims filed with an improper motive are improper and will be dealt with accordingly,” he said.

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The warning comes as the Trump administration, more broadly, is conducting nationwide crackdowns on multiple forms of alleged fraud beyond illegitimate asylum claims, including social services fraud, election fraud and other areas.

Republicans on Capitol Hill are grappling over whether and how to regulate artificial intelligence companies even as top AI business leaders warn the technology could pose an existential threat to humanity.

The simmering debate over AI guardrails has exploded this week as House lawmakers worked through their final week in Washington until after the midterm elections. The flurry of activity was partially spurred by tech CEOs like Anthropic’s Dario Amodei and OpenAI’s Sam Altman warning that the pace of innovation should be slowed after both companies saw AI models hack into other organizations of their own accord.

And while some in Congress are demanding swift action, others who spoke with Fox News Digital are questioning the motivation of AI companies in calling for the government to step in.

“I think there’s a false sense of urgency,” Rep. Troy Downing, R-Mont., told Fox News Digital.

REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: CONGRESS MEETS AI AS FEARS OF HUMAN EXTINCTION JOLT CAPITOL HILL

Downing spent his young adulthood in tech, having previously been a research scientist at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University and founding online calendar company WebCal, which was later acquired by Yahoo!.

“Yes, we should be taking it seriously, but I think the hyperbole is misplaced right now,” Downing said. “Any one of those people crying gloom and doom has the possibility of stopping it in their own shops, so there’s something else going on there.”

Rep. Brad Knott, R-N.C., a former assistant U.S. attorney, also doubted AI companies’ motives.

AI ‘DOOMERS’ RISK KNEECAPPING US VS CHINA, BUT EX-PENTAGON VET SAYS BOTH EXTREMES MISS THE MARK

“I’m very skeptical of people in big business who want to leverage big government to suppress competition,” Knott said. “I’m afraid that’s what we’re seeing. That’d be like … Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Apple saying, ‘We need to regulate all tech.’ Whether it’s software or hardware. It’s like, guys, you’re here already, right? And if there’s one thing that I’m confident in, to protect AI for good, there has to be more than one option.”

Still others believe lawmakers do not broadly have enough knowledge to take on AI guardrails.

Rep. Jimmy Patronis, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital that Congress should instead repeal Section 230, a federal law shielding internet and tech companies from liability for what third parties post.

“I think the warning is real, and I think that AI is unbelievable — look, AI is going to cure cancer. AI is going to find solutions to get rid of diseases that we never thought we could get rid of, but it does need to have some oversight. It needs a kill switch,” Patronis conceded. “But again, I don’t think Congress has the expertise to tell an emerging technology what’s the best way to go.”

Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., said when asked if Congress should act before the end of this year, “It’s too complex a subject. You’ve got to understand it.”

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump also joined the debate by dismissing AI companies’ calls for more government regulation.

TRUMP UNLOADS ON TECH TITANS PUSHING FOR SLOWDOWN ON EMERGING INDUSTRY: ‘WHOEVER WINS AI, WINS!’

“AI taking over the World, destroying Humanity, and all other things bad, is a HOAX,” he wrote on Truth Social. “The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!”

But others are pushing for the government to step in to at least some degree, with some Republicans arguing for human guardrails to ensure AI does not go too far by itself.

RAND PAUL CLASHES WITH FELLOW REPUBLICAN OVER AI ‘KILL SWITCH’ AS SENATE GRAPPLES WITH ‘TERMINATOR’ FEARS

“The sooner we can act, the better,” Rep. Jay Obernolte, R-Calif., chair of the House’s AI task force, told reporters Wednesday. “Certainly, we’ve had some warning shots lately that have been very concerning … So, God forbid we have a Chernobyl moment at some point here that really causes harm to people and focuses the public’s attention on AI in a way that we hope it will never be.”

When asked by Fox News Digital about Trump’s warning, however, he said, “I think the president was talking about the dangers of over-regulation, and that’s something I very much agree with him on.”

RESEARCHER WHO DEPARTED AI ROLE OVER FEARS OF RACING INTO EXTINCTION SAYS PEOPLE ARE ‘BEGGING’ FOR REGULATION

Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., held a press conference alongside Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., on Thursday pushing legislation to stop “rogue” AI agents such as those that broke out of containment during trials by OpenAI and Anthropic.

“We want to make sure that people remain in control. This isn’t about stopping AI or stifling innovation,” Lawler said. “Some states have put a moratorium on the infrastructure that powers this technology. That does not invent a kill switch.”

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Gottheimer said the bill “tells the National Institute of Standards and Technology [to] get in a room and set standards, so organizations can find every agent on their network, verify who built it, who’s running it, watch it in real time for anything suspicious, and cut off its access the second something looks wrong.”

Gen Z and young Millennial voters in Michigan who are leaning blue for the midterm election say they welcome the ideas of the Democratic Socialists of America, with a couple of voters agreeing that Americans should abolish the Senate.

Fox News Digital was on the ground at Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s “Students v. Billionaires” rally at Michigan State University on Sept. 11 and at the Detroit Health Department’s annual block party, where young Democratic voters said rising costs and the complacency of the Democratic establishment have made the DSA more appealing to them.

“I feel as if they actually focus on the people,” Detroit resident Shelby Campbell, who is also a 2023 Wayne State University graduate. “It’s not as, I guess, capitalistic or just bought into the system. They want to do good, but they are just another big organization, and I think we just need to get rid of all the political parties and be independent.”

SHOCKING PERCENTAGE OF DEMOCRATS IDENTIFY AS ‘DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS’ ACCORDING TO NEW POLL: ‘TOXIC POLICIES’

So far this election cycle, dozens of Democratic Socialists of America candidates have won their primary races, including Michigan state Rep. Donavan McKinney, who defeated incumbent Rep. Shri Thanedar, D-Mich.

But some of the biggest upsets came out of New York, where New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic Socialists of America member, saw three candidates he endorsed — Claire Valdez, Darializa Avila Chevalier and Brad Lander — win their Democratic congressional primaries.

The flurry of DSA-backed primary victories has put Republicans on the offensive while fueling concern among some Democrats about the socialist movement’s growing influence within the party.

Noel Otteson is a sophomore at Michigan State University. He described himself as a “leftist” and “anti-capitalist,” but he said he supports El-Sayed for his Medicare-for-all stance and promise to get money out of politics.

SCHUMER DODGES QUESTION ON WHETHER DSA BELONGS IN DEMOCRATIC PARTY

“I believe in the power of people and democracy over corporations and oligarchs running everything, putting millions upon millions if not billions of dollars into Congress to,” Otteson told Fox News Digital.

“The system is rigged against the average person and is in favor of a corporations and special interests and lobbyists,” Otteson continued.

Otteson said he supports the DSA’s proposal to abolish the U.S. Senate, which he called “undemocratic.”

“The way that the Senate is set up is inherently undemocratic,” Otteson said. “I’m someone who always, always, prioritizes democracy, and the Senate isn’t that.”

“Some states hold more power than others based on population, and I would probably advocate for a more parliamentary system, you know, things like the UK and a lot of other European countries have, or most other countries have actually,” Otteson said.

NEWSOM ADMITS DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST IDEAS ‘MAINSTREAM’ IN DEMOCRAT PARTY: ‘PRETTY ALIGNED’

He proposed that the House of Representatives should be expanded.

And in the heart of Detroit, Jahdante Smith, who is a Green Party candidate for District 9 of the Michigan House of Representatives, agreed that the Senate has got to go.

“Their stance on abolishing the Senate, I think that is something that can work, only because the Senate is one of the most exclusionary clubs in politics and is also very, very hard to get into, and I think if you have a Republican and Democrat in the U.S. Senate in one state, they kind of cancel each other out and they really don’t get anything positive done,” Smith told Fox News Digital.

Smith said he supports the DSA’s anti-ICE agenda and Medicare-for-all proposals, but wants to see the organization bring about actual change.

“I support their ideas, but I love to see them have more traction in getting things actually done. Policy is something that you have to enact. It’s not bills die in Congress, bills die on Capitol Hill every day,” Smith told Fox News Digital. “You have to be able to get those bills passed through. I do support their stance on anti-ice.”

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Blake, a Michigan State University freshman, said he likes a lot of what the Democratic Socialists of America is pushing but said he’s not on board with everything on its agenda, including abolishing the Senate.

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“The standard democrat has shown themselves to more or less be incapable of standing up for themselves and standing up for what’s right,” Blake told Fox News Digital. “So I’ve leaned on, I’ve decided to take my allegiances with further parties on more extreme sides of leftism because they can do what needs to be done.”

“And I feel like that’s a lesson that normal Democrats need to learn,” Blake continued.

FIRST ON FOX: The CEOs of four companies, including Flock Safety, are being called to testify before a Senate panel next week as lawmakers look to crack down on AI-powered surveillance camera tracking Americans’ movements, Fox News Digital has learned.

A number of lawmakers and several governors have called for investigations into alleged privacy violations regarding the handling of images and data generated by AI-backed surveillance cameras.

The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism will hold a hearing titled “Always Watching: Flock’s Nationwide AI Surveillance Network” on Sept. 23.

THREE NEW COMPANIES FACE JOSH HAWLEY’S INVESTIGATION INTO AI SURVEILLANCE AND VEHICLE TRACKING

“Americans do not surrender their privacy rights when they drive to work, drop their kids off at school, or go to church,” subcommittee Chairman Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., told Fox News Digital in a statement. “I’m investigating these companies to determine WHO has access to hundreds of millions of Americans’ data – and what they’re doing with it.”

Garrett Langley, CEO of Flock Safety, Rick Smith, CEO of Axon Enterprise Inc., Greg Brown, CEO of Motorola Solutions, and Filip Kaliszan, CEO of Verkada, have all been invited to testify before the committee.

Fox News Digital reached out to the four companies invited to testify.

AI-powered surveillance cameras have been heavily scrutinized by lawmakers over concerns that the cameras track individuals’ movements without reason, regardless of whether a crime is being committed.

FORMER PENTAGON AI CHIEF WARNS FLOCK CAMERAS COULD CREATE ‘CHINA-LIKE SURVEILLANCE STATE’ IN THE US

A number of politicians have taken action against the devices, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ordering the removal of all license plate reader cameras from Florida state roads and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordering all state agencies to stop spending state money on Flock Safety cameras.

Flock Safety cameras, along with other similar brands and technology, use artificial intelligence to automatically track and identify vehicles and license plates for local law enforcement use. Nationwide concern has grown about whether the AI-backed system should be allowed to track the movement of vehicles without a warrant or the consent of drivers.

FLOCK SURVEILLANCE SPREADS ACROSS THE SOUTH AS RED-STATE LAWMAKERS SEEK TO AX ‘1984’-STYLE TRACKING TOOLS

A total of about 120,000 Flock Safety cameras are operating in the U.S. in every state except Alaska.

Opposition to Flock Safety cameras has created an unlikely political overlap, with Republicans and far-left activists criticizing the technology for very different reasons. Republican lawmakers have largely centered their objections on privacy rights, government overreach and warrantless surveillance, while socialist and communist organizers have incorporated the cameras into broader campaigns opposing artificial intelligence, law enforcement, immigration enforcement, data center development and what they describe as an emerging “police state” or “AI surveillance state.”

LICENSE PLATE CAMERAS ARE TRACKING DRIVERS EVERYWHERE

President Donald Trump told reporters on Monday that he supports the idea of Flock Safety cameras “because of law enforcement” and the aid AI-powered cameras provide to police and local law enforcement.

Over the last year, several far-left organizations tied to a network funded by Shanghai-based tech businessman Neville Roy Singham have organized local opposition to Flock Safety cameras while simultaneously campaigning against new data center projects. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump and other Republican leaders have continued to champion data center construction as part of the administration’s broader technology and infrastructure agenda.

FIRST ON FOX: ‘NO KINGS’ PROTEST NETWORK BEHIND FIGHT AGAINST AI DATA CENTERS AND FLOCK CAMERAS

The Party for Socialism and Liberation’s Denver chapter teamed up with Indivisible and the far-left Sunrise Movement in May to promote a public forum focused on the alleged link between data centers and mass surveillance, contending that both exist to serve billionaires instead of everyday communities.

TEA PARTY FOUNDER LAUNCHES NATIONWIDE ‘DATA CENTER REVOLT’ AGAINST AI DATA CENTER EXPANSION

The Party for Socialism and Liberation’s Tucson chapter joined “deFLOCK Tucson” and the “No Desert Data Center Coalition” on July 25 for a gathering dubbed “It’s ALL Connected,” held at the Global Justice Center on E. 26th Street.

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Event advertisements posed a question about what mass surveillance, data centers and electricity have in common, responding with a single message: “IT’S ALL CONNECTED.”