NationalWatch

The Department of Justice (DOJ) says it has opened an investigation into a New York City coffee shop after it blasted Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., in a social media post, saying it should not have served him, and he should never come back due to his support of Israel. 

Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon said the DOJ has opened an investigation into the Poetica Coffee Shop in Brooklyn.

Dhillon says the department is aware of the “denial of service taunts” directed at Goldman and says federal law prohibits public accommodations, including coffee shops, from discriminating against patrons based on race, religion, or national origin. Dhillon says the alleged denial of service could violate federal anti-discrimination law and says enforcement action is possible.

In a now-deleted Facebook post, Poetica Coffee said it issued a refund to Goldman after learning that he had stopped by the location with his young daughter. The shop added that it would have simply turned Goldman away if staff had recognized him at the time.

SMOOTHIE KING FIRES EMPLOYEES WHO REFUSED TO SERVE CUSTOMERS OVER TRUMP SWEATSHIRT

“Hey Congressman Dan Goldman, we see that you stopped by our shop today for a coffee. Do you see how it doesn’t taste like genocide juice? Or are you still having a hard time telling the difference?” the post stated, referring to Goldman’s support for Israel and accusations that the Jewish state has committed genocide against Palestinians during the war in Gaza.

“See, here at Poetica, we don’t serve racists, fascists, homophobes, genocide enablers, or anyone in between,” the post continued. “Too bad we didn’t recognize you right away, or we would have turned you away. We issued you a refund—we don’t need your money (it’s probably coming from AIPAC anyways). Enjoy your loss on Tuesday. Don’t ever come to Poetica.”

In a statement on social media, Goldman said he was disappointed by the shop’s remarks.

“I’m sorry to see this post,” he said. “The barista could not have been nicer to my 7-year-old daughter and me—allowing her to use the bathroom even though we had not purchased anything. I made sure to buy a coffee in return for her kindness. I hope you at least make sure she gets the tip that she deserved.”

In response, the shop said it was the barista’s idea to refund Goldman’s purchase. The poster added that they will be voting against Goldman, who faces a Democratic primary challenge from former city Comptroller Brad Lander.

DEMOCRATIC REP FEARS PARTY TURNING ANTISEMITIC PROTESTERS INTO ‘MARTYRS’ IN BATTLE AGAINST TRUMP DEPORTATIONS

Fox News Digital has reached out to Goldman and the coffee shop, as well as the offices of New York State Attorney General Letitia James and Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection.

“No comment. We stand against genocide,” a staffer told the New York Post.

The shop’s social media post was quickly criticized online.

Mark Treyger, the CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, said the incident warrants a review under city and state human rights laws.

MAMDANI IN THE HOT SEAT AFTER FIRST VETO DERAILS BIPARTISAN EFFORT TO COMBAT ANTISEMITISM: ‘DISAPPOINTED’

“Turning a cup of coffee into a Jewish identity litmus test is an affront to the law, our values, and every New Yorker who rejects discrimination,” he wrote on X. “If an identifiable Jewish customer walks into a coffee shop wearing a kippah or Magen David, are they expected to first disclose their views on Middle East policy before being served?”

The incident appears to contradict the opening statement on Poetica Coffee’s website by its owner, Parviz Mukhamadkulov, an Uzbek immigrant who opened his first location in 2020.

“In practice, it looks like a café where the door doesn’t close on anyone, where tea gets poured before anyone asks who you are,” the website states. “The guest is sacred because the act of welcoming is how a community keeps itself intact.”

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The shop also claims on its site that “whoever walks through the door is treated with unconditional dignity.”

“Not as a customer. Not as a transaction. As someone who arrived and deserves to be welcomed,” the site reads.

FIRST ON FOX: A U.S. official involved with the U.S.-Iran peace negotiations said that Vice President JD Vance made “great progress” in the talks, adding that “foreign propaganda” spread a falsehood that the prime minister of Qatar snubbed Vance.

The U.S. official told Fox News Digital that Iranian state media originated reports of Vance being snubbed by the Qatari prime minister and Iranian leadership threatening to walk away from the negotiating table.

“The vice president and the U.S. delegation departed Switzerland today after making great progress and engaging in historic talks that lasted well into the late hours over the weekend,” a U.S. official present at the talks told Fox News Digital. “The negotiations set the framework for continued talks so that the unmatched efforts of the president can lead to a deal that’s best for the American people.”

“Those parroting foreign propaganda serve no one except the bad faith actors that want to derail negotiations,” the official added.

IRAN’S UNPRECEDENTED ‘WHOLE-REGIME’ DELEGATION AT US DEAL TALKS SIGNALS ONE GOAL: EXPERT

As Vance and White House officials deliberated a peace agreement at the Bürgenstock resort on Lake Lucerne in Switzerland, a CBS poll on Sunday showed that an overwhelming 78% of Americans say that the conflict between the U.S. and Iran should come to an end.

Reports from Iranian state media created confusion about the progress of the peace talks in Switzerland, with critics alleging the Qataris snubbed Vance after Qatar’s prime minister and chief negotiator, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, walked past Vance and warmly greeted Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif instead. 

“The U.S. delegation had just spent hours with the Qataris and there was no need to re-greet someone having just spent hours with,” a U.S. official said. “The decision to give statements together before the meeting was done impromptu, which is why it wasn’t a staged greeting.”

TRUMP AGAIN SAYS DEAL IS CLOSE, THEN CONFIRMS A LAST-MINUTE AGREEMENT WITH IRAN, BUT DETAILS STILL SECRET

In an interview today with Qatar’s official media outlet, Al Jazeera, Al Thani denied snubbing Vance, saying he had just spent hours with Vance and hadn’t yet greeted Sharif. He blamed the media for misrepresenting the encounter. “And they just made the issue too big,” he said.

Prospects of a peace agreement have already shown signs of life in the U.S., even without a final deal. The New York Times reported oil prices dipping on Monday amid expectations Vance would secure peace during the talks in Switzerland. 

Critics of Vance have been vocal in the media about the vice president’s handling of the talks, echoing a sentiment among protesters that have been supporting the Islamic Republic of Iran since the onset of hostilities earlier this year. Some critics allege that Vance is surrendering to the Iranians and that the Iranians are getting more out of the peace deal than the U.S.

FAR-LEFT NETWORK ACTIVATES TO FLY IRAN’S FLAG OVER AMERICA IN VICTORY AND WAGE A ‘SMOKELESS WAR’ ON THE US

A Fox News Digital investigation found that a network of pro-communist groups funded by Neville Roy Singham, an American-born tech tycoon living in China, supporting the Chinese Communist Party and allies, like the Islamic Republic of Iran, has been behind most of the protests that have taken place. 

In April, nonprofits in Singham’s network mobilized to protest President Donald Trump’s “criminal war,” painting blood on their hands to symbolize what they called the “genocidal threats” the administration was making against Iran. 

The Party for Socialism and Liberation, a self-declared pro-China communist group, communicated to its followers through its propaganda platform, “Liberation News,” to “keep up the pressure” in combatting the war.

VANCE SAYS US-IRAN TALKS END WITHOUT DEAL AFTER 21 HOURS OF NEGOTIATIONS

In 2017, Singham married a co-founder of CodePink, Jodie Evans, and started pouring a documented $278 million into a network of groups that fuel anti-American protests in the United States, support the People’s Republic of China and now back the Islamic Republic of Iran, a strategic partner of China and a major source of its oil imports.

Despite the coordinated propaganda defending Iran, the administration has maintained its intention to rid Iran of nuclear capabilities. For more than three months, U.S.-Israeli forces have been fighting Iranian forces, a conflict which Americans have expressed concerns about. 

Vance’s trip to Switzerland marks his second attempt to bring the conflict to an end. In April, he traveled to Islamabad, Pakistan, alongside Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Special Peace Envoy Jared Kushner to negotiate peace. The talks failed and Vance returned home, but he has remained a key figure in finalizing a ceasefire.

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His involvement with the negotiations has also led to a surge in bettors placing wagers on the vice president winning the presidency in 2028.

In March, Kalshi showed Vance being beaten out for president in 2028 by both Secretary of State Marco Rubio and California Governor Gavin Newsom. Since Vance has been facilitating the peace deal this month, he surged to the top spot for the next presidential election cycle.

The Senate advanced a massive, Trump-backed housing package that proponents say will prevent the U.S. from becoming a “nation of renters.” 

The upper chamber sent the 21st Century Road to Housing Act to the House on Monday after months of delay. After the heads of the House Financial Services Committee and Senate Banking Committee reached a deal last week, the package is on a glide path to President Donald Trump’s desk. 

It’s the first major push by Congress to address housing regulations in decades, and one Trump has been calling on lawmakers to complete as the midterm elections near. 

TRUMP-BACKED AFFORDABLE HOUSING OVERHAUL CLEARS SENATE, WHILE HOUSE GOP RAISES RED FLAGS

Loaded with nearly 60 different provisions, the package broadly tackles rolling back some permitting regulations, launches several pilot grant programs to build, repair and push affordable housing construction, and blocks investors from buying up housing stock — a key provision pushed by Trump.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., one of the architects of the package, said the legislation was “not the federal government big footing local government,” but instead the federal government laying out tweaks to current programs and policies that “over time will make housing more affordable.”

“This is a housing package that will help increase supply and bring down costs,” Warren said. “One way is by beating back private equity, so they won’t invade your neighborhood, buy up all the houses, and turn America into a nation of renters.” 

Warren said that among several things, the package increases access to manufactured housing by changing the federal definition to open up for more units to be constructed, pre-approved plan books for local governments to quickly approve new construction, and the waiving of some environmental review regulations for the construction of new homes.

BIPARTISAN HOUSING PUSH ADVANCES, BUT TRUMP-BACKED INVESTOR BAN FACES RESISTANCE

“It’s not just one piece that’s gonna solve a problem,” Warren said.
”It’s a whole lot of smaller pieces that push in the same direction that’s important.” 

The package also tries to turbocharge housing stock by tying federal grants and incentives sought by local governments to housing construction. And there are tweaks to mortgages, with a push for small-dollar mortgages at $100,000 and updates to lending standards for manufactured homes. 

Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, whose provision to establish pre-approved housing designs to speed up home construction made it into the package, said the legislation “sends a signal to state and local communities, to say, ‘Hey, guys, you really have to drive down the cost of housing, and you do that by not torturing homebuilders.’”

TRUMP CAN SOLVE THE HOUSING CRISIS, BUT HE NEEDS TO GET TOUGH WITH STATES

While there are several moving parts to the 21st Century Road to Housing Act, it does not tackle every facet of housing costs.

For instance, it does not allocate fresh federal funding for the issue, as Senate Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott, R-S.C., has lauded the package as being deficit neutral. Nor does it directly address rising costs of homeownership, given that much of the thrust is focused on building new homes and lowering the barrier of entry for Americans to get into a home. 

And for some, it does not go far enough to address permitting issues. 

Sen. Alan Armstrong, R-Okla., argued that the “legislation as drafted fails to meaningfully address” the issues of housing costs.

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“Instead, this legislation makes a half-hearted attempt to waive minor environmental laws while failing to address the need for permitting reform at large,” Armstrong said. 

“Our permitting process deserves its own committed effort, and attaching weak slivers of those reforms to unrelated legislation undermines the work currently being done to pass comprehensive, meaningful permitting reform,” he said.

A Chicago priest told President Donald Trump to “shut up” following his social media post about a violent Juneteenth weekend that saw at least six people killed and more than 30 others wounded across the city.

Father Michael Pfleger scolded Trump as Chicago community leaders on Monday called for a city agency to tackle gun violence prevention following the weekend’s bloodshed.

From 6 p.m. Friday through 11:59 p.m. Sunday, Chicago had 24 shootings resulting in 39 victims, six of them fatal, according to the Chicago Police Department.

On Sunday, Trump remarked on Chicago’s crime woes in a Truth Social post, suggesting that federal forces be sent into the city.

6 DEAD, 39 SHOT IN CHICAGO BLOODBATH AS TRUMP TOUTS DC-STYLE CLEANUP WHERE NATIONAL GUARD STEPPED IN

“Lots of Killing going on in Chicago. 22 people shot, at least 4 Dead,” Trump wrote. “Why isn’t Governor Pritzker calling me for help. I could make Chicago a safe City in ONE MONTH, in ONE YEAR, it would be one of the safest!!! D.C. went from one of the worst, to one of the safest cities in the U.S. President DJT.”

On Monday, Pfleger, a prominent South Side priest at St. Sabina Catholic Church, criticized Trump for highlighting the violence.

“I hear this morning on the news that Donald Trump said he wants to send people,” he said. “He’ll solve the gun violence in a month. First of all, the man lies every day.”

PRITZKER RAILS AGAINST ‘UN-AMERICAN’ POSSIBLE NATIONAL GUARD DEPLOYMENT BY TRUMP

“The reflecting pool was good for 50 years,” Pfleger added. “And Iran was going to be solved in a month. Shut up, Donald. Just send money and restore the money you took away from gun violence prevention for the city of Chicago and across this country. Give the money back now.”

In response to the violence, community groups, faith leaders, and city officials gathered Monday morning at City Hall to support creating a Department of Gun Violence Prevention. The proposed department would focus entirely on reducing gun violence and helping coordinate violence prevention programs across the city, FOX 32 reported.

OUR LEADERS ABANDONED CHICAGO. TRUMP IS RIGHT: IT’S TIME TO CALL IN THE GUARD

State and city leaders have opposed federal intervention, saying they prefer investments in community-level crime prevention programs.

“President Trump’s bold actions in cities like D.C. and Memphis have dramatically reduced violent crime – local Democrat leaders in Chicago should see the President’s incredible results and be begging him to do the same in Chicago,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told Fox News Digital. “Chicago residents and visitors would benefit tremendously from the President’s successful efforts to drive down crime and make American cities safe again.”

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson on Monday said he wished that Trump would “follow Chicago’s lead and invest in Black America,” saying the administration has made cuts to agencies and programs that make communities safer, including slashing funding for education, housing, and health care.

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“It’s unfortunate that this president has worked overtime to literally defund the efforts that create safer communities,” Johnson said.

“If you look at Donald Trump’s Black agenda, he promises to do all the things that I’m doing, but he’s failed to do it,” the mayor added, referring to the hiring of more young people, expanded mental health support services, and investing in more affordable homes.

A New York City coffee shop criticized Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., in a social media post after he purchased a cup of joe from its Brooklyn location, declaring that it would have turned him away under its policy of not serving “genocide enablers” due to his support for Israel, despite its motto of treating all customers with dignity.

In a Facebook post on Sunday, Poetica Coffee said it issued a refund to Goldman after learning that he had stopped by the location with his young daughter. The shop added that it would have simply turned Goldman away if staff had recognized him at the time.

“Hey Congressman Dan Goldman, we see that you stopped by our shop today for a coffee. Do you see how it doesn’t taste like genocide juice? Or are you still having a hard time telling the difference?” the post stated, referring to Goldman’s support for Israel and accusations that the Jewish state has committed genocide against Palestinians during the war in Gaza.

SMOOTHIE KING FIRES EMPLOYEES WHO REFUSED TO SERVE CUSTOMERS OVER TRUMP SWEATSHIRT

“See, here at Poetica, we don’t serve racists, fascists, homophobes, genocide enablers, or anyone in between,” the post continued. “Too bad we didn’t recognize you right away, or we would have turned you away. We issued you a refund—we don’t need your money (it’s probably coming from AIPAC anyways). Enjoy your loss on Tuesday. Don’t ever come to Poetica.”

In a statement on social media, Goldman said he was disappointed by the shop’s remarks.

“I’m sorry to see this post,” he said. “The barista could not have been nicer to my 7-year-old daughter and me—allowing her to use the bathroom even though we had not purchased anything. I made sure to buy a coffee in return for her kindness. I hope you at least make sure she gets the tip that she deserved.”

In response, the shop said it was the barista’s idea to refund Goldman’s purchase. The poster added that they will be voting against Goldman, who faces a Democratic primary challenge from former city Comptroller Brad Lander.

DEMOCRATIC REP FEARS PARTY TURNING ANTISEMITIC PROTESTERS INTO ‘MARTYRS’ IN BATTLE AGAINST TRUMP DEPORTATIONS

Fox News Digital has reached out to Goldman and the coffee shop, as well as the offices of New York State Attorney General Letitia James and Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection.

“No comment. We stand against genocide,” a staffer told the New York Post.

The shop’s social media post was quickly criticized online.

Mark Treyger, the CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, said the incident warrants a review under city and state human rights laws.

MAMDANI IN THE HOT SEAT AFTER FIRST VETO DERAILS BIPARTISAN EFFORT TO COMBAT ANTISEMITISM: ‘DISAPPOINTED’

“Turning a cup of coffee into a Jewish identity litmus test is an affront to the law, our values, and every New Yorker who rejects discrimination,” he wrote on X. “If an identifiable Jewish customer walks into a coffee shop wearing a kippah or Magen David, are they expected to first disclose their views on Middle East policy before being served?”

The incident appears to contradict the opening statement on Poetica Coffee’s website by its owner, Parviz Mukhamadkulov, an Uzbek immigrant who opened his first location in 2020.

“In practice, it looks like a café where the door doesn’t close on anyone, where tea gets poured before anyone asks who you are,” the website states. “The guest is sacred because the act of welcoming is how a community keeps itself intact.”

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

The shop also claims on its site that “whoever walks through the door is treated with unconditional dignity.”

“Not as a customer. Not as a transaction. As someone who arrived and deserves to be welcomed,” the site reads.

Records show former Olympic canoeist David Hearn, who was charged in the weekend vandalism of the Reflecting Pool, has ties to a major left-wing fundraising network as protesters descended on the National Mall and racked up multiple criminal charges.

Hearn, 67, donated to Democratic fundraising apparatus ActBlue 10 times while also contributing to Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns five times, an administration official told Fox News Digital.

Hearn was charged with a misdemeanor for destruction of government property Saturday after he reached into the water and allegedly grabbed a hose being used by a National Park Service worker, Fox News previously reported. The Reflecting Pool was drained and painted under President Donald Trump’s direction, sparking scrutiny over peeling paint and algae growth.

ActBlue has funneled billions of dollars to Democratic candidates such as New York democratic socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The group has also drawn scrutiny for its overseas donations that prompted federal probes into donor fraud.

DEM FUNDRAISING GIANT ACTBLUE ROCKED BY ALLEGATIONS IT MISLED CONGRESS ABOUT FOREIGN DONATIONS

The three-time summer Olympian and registered Democrat told The Associated Press he is a “curious citizen” and “reached down to see what it felt like.” He said it felt “very rubbery.”

Hearn was previously arrested by U.S. Park Police in 1996 after he ignored an emergency closure of the Potomac River during a severe rainstorm and launched a canoe onto the river despite the restrictions. He was charged with failing to obey a lawful order, but the judge later cleared him of the charges.

The $14.8 million restoration project has sparked outrage from Democratic lawmakers and Washington residents who have descended on the National Mall to inspect the pool. Michigan Rep. Debbie Dingell said her constituents are “outraged” by the algae during an appearance on CNN.

FORMER OLYMPIAN AMONG THOSE CHARGED WITH VANDALIZING REFLECTING POOL, TRUMP VOWS IMMEDIATE REPAIRS: REPORT

An administration official told Fox News Digital that five people have been arrested on vandalism charges, while federal citations were issued to five additional individuals.

There have been 14 police reports filed for vandalism, the official added.

Among the reports was one involving a suspect accused of using a blade to slash nearly 300 feet of the pool’s liner, an incident President Donald Trump highlighted in a Truth Social post on Saturday.

WATCH: TRUMP REVEALS FLASHY NEW COLOR FOR NATIONAL MALL’S REFLECTING POOL MAKEOVER

“They took some form of knife or blade, and put a 250-foot-long gash into the beautiful facade of what took so much work, competence, and money to build and complete. They also poured corrosive and destructive chemicals into the Pool,” wrote Trump. “The Reflecting Pool was never so beautiful as it was just one week ago, even going back to 1922 when it opened.”

Trump said Friday that he believes vandals are damaging the grounds surrounding the Reflecting Pool and that chemicals were used to damage the pool’s newly installed surface, he wrote on Truth Social.

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Fox News Digital reached out to NPS for comment.

Fox News Digital’s Jackson Thompson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Iran has agreed to let nuclear inspectors back into the country, Vice President JD Vance said Monday, as nuclear experts warned President Donald Trump’s new Tehran framework will only work if inspectors get the kind of unfettered access they say was missing from the Obama-era Iran deal.

The news, which Vance described as “a major milestone,” comes as Trump’s new Iran framework drew warnings from nuclear experts who told Fox News Digital the deal could leave Tehran too much control over its uranium stockpile unless inspectors first locate, secure and verify the material. The IAEA has not been able to resume full in-field verification of Iran’s declared nuclear program since last year’s strikes, apart from a June inspection at a single Iranian nuclear power plant.

The verification gap concern centers on language in the reported U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding (MOU) saying the two sides will resolve the fate of Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile through a still-to-be-negotiated process. The MOU identifies onsite “downblending,” which means diluting enriched uranium so it is less usable for a nuclear weapon, under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) supervision as the minimum acceptable method for dealing with the material. The MOU does not explicitly say Iran will retain a civilian nuclear program, but it says the two sides will discuss enrichment and other matters related to Iran’s “nuclear needs” in a final deal.

“Unfettered verification is everything,” Chuck DeVore, Chief National Initiatives Officer at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, told Fox News Digital. “There can be no denial for teams to inspect on the ground. Remote, technological means can achieve a lot, but nothing beats in-person inspections.”

TRUMP NUCLEAR TALKS FACE DEFINING QUESTION: WHAT HAPPENS TO IRAN’S URANIUM STOCKPILE?

IAEA supervision would only be meaningful if inspectors first regain enough access to fully account for Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile and ensure Tehran does not retain unchecked control of the material, experts warned Fox News Digital. Meanwhile, a recent IAEA report released this month underscored the agency’s limited visibility into Iran’s declared nuclear program after last year’s military strikes, saying that aside from a single inspection at an Iranian nuclear power plant, the agency “has not received information from Iran” about the status of its other declared nuclear facilities or associated nuclear material. “Nor has the Agency had access” to those sites for in-field verification, the report noted.

A senior administration official told Fox News Digital on background that the MOU required Iran’s regime to reaffirm that it will not procure or develop nuclear weapons, calling that a critical first step under Iran’s new Supreme Leader.

The official said the U.S. has reached understandings with Iran when it comes to its uranium stockpile, and the new deal is the first step of turning these understandings into real results, which include progress on enriched uranium stockpiles, dismantlement of nuclear sites, an enrichment ban and inspection access. The official added that the U.S. has already had productive discussions with Iran on those issues and, now that the MOU is formally in place, negotiators will work to make quick progress.

US-IRAN TALKS POSTPONED IN SWITZERLAND AMID ISRAEL-HEZBOLLAH TENSIONS; HORMUZ REMAINS A KEY ISSUE

The official also referred Fox News Digital to comments Vice President JD Vance made Thursday, when he said the deal’s benefits depend on Iran following through on its promises.

“They have promised not to enrich. They have promised that they would allow inspectors in to destroy that highly enriched stockpile. And then, of course, it’s not usable anymore. You take it somewhere else,” Vance said. “They promised a number of things, and that’s why the deal contemplates a number of benefits if they do those things. But it doesn’t do anything if they don’t actually meet those promises.”

“The Iranians have agreed to invite IAEA inspectors back into their country. That is a major milestone for the American people, and the first step in permanently denuclearize, easing or permanently ending a nuclear weapons program in Iran,” Vance added Monday after negotiations in Switzerland resumed. “And that’s exactly what we wanted to do. That’s exactly what we asked to happen.”

The Vice President said that the technical negotiations will continue over the next weeks and days, even in his absence. He said a framework for “proper political oversight” of these negotiations has been established as well. Vance simultaneously highlighted that “a lot of great progress on other nuclear talks” has already been made in the early days. 

Andrea Stricker, deputy director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Nonproliferation Program, told Fox News Digital that any credible agreement must begin with recovering and safeguarding Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile, and not allowing Tehran to keep control of the material while it is diluted inside the country.

“Without verifiably dismantling and destroying all of Iran’s fundamental nuclear capabilities — nuclear material, facilities, centrifuges, manufacturing capabilities, equipment, documentation, and weaponization capacities, and ensuring scientists are redirected to civilian work — Iran’s pledge on paper is meaningless,” she told Fox News Digital, noting that Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile could, if recovered and further enriched, provide enough weapons-grade material for roughly 22 nuclear weapons.

HOW DOES TRUMP SOLVE KEY ‘NUCLEAR DUST’ HANG-UP IN NEGOTIATIONS TO END IRAN WAR?

DeVore was more cautious about assigning a single number to Iran’s potential weapons capacity, saying the estimate depends heavily on the sophistication of the weapon design. He said the same stockpile could translate into fewer basic weapons or be stretched further by a more advanced nuclear program.

He said onsite downblending, if properly verified, would be aimed at making Iran’s roughly 1,000 pounds of 60% enriched uranium unavailable for further enrichment. DeVore cautioned that the material would still need additional processing to be turned into weapons-grade uranium and said he does not believe Tehran can currently do that because key facilities were destroyed in last year’s strikes.

Asked what would be needed to make any Iran deal enforceable, DeVore told Fox News Digital the U.S. must avoid repeating what he described as a key weakness of the Obama-era nuclear deal: allowing Tehran to restrict access or keep certain sites off limits. He said the “ultimate question” is onsite verification, warning that Washington cannot allow itself to be pushed into “an agreement for agreement’s sake.”

TOP SENATE REPUBLICAN RIPS INTO TRUMP’S IRAN DEAL, SAYS $300B MAKES OBAMA DEAL LOOK LIKE ‘A PITTANCE’

DeVore also said the Obama-era JCPOA gave inspectors too much notice and too little freedom to inspect suspicious locations as well, arguing that any new deal must avoid a system where Iran can delay, limit or steer inspections before the IAEA gets on the ground.

DeVore told Fox News Digital that his concern is informed by his experience as a young special assistant for foreign affairs in the Reagan administration, when he worked on verification issues surrounding Cold War-era nuclear agreements with the Soviet Union, including the Peaceful Nuclear Explosions Treaty and the Threshold Test Ban Treaty.

In those negotiations, DeVore said, the danger was that the minimum level of verification sought by defense and intelligence officials could become the starting point for diplomats, meaning the final deal could end up below what experts believed was necessary.

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“Once you say, ‘This is the minimum we need,’ then that becomes the starting point, so anything agreed to is less than that,” DeVore said. “That’s what I fear.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the IAEA asking whether the agency can currently account for Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile and whether it has any comment on the verification questions raised by the reported framework but did not hear back. The agency did not release any statement after Vance said they would be allowed access to Iran in time for publication.

Chicago’s mayor has become the subject of ridicule after promoting his transgender violence state of emergency amid a deadly Juneteenth weekend where dozens of people in his city were shot and six were killed.

“Since declaring a Transfemicide State of Emergency, our administration has strengthened the City’s capacity to support LGBTQ+ Chicagoans,” a Sunday X post from Mayor Brandon Johnson said. “This framework builds on that work by centering the voices and lived experiences of trans Chicagoans to chart a path toward a safer, more connected city.”

“Transfemicide” is defined as the “targeted killing of a transgender woman motivated by transphobic and misogynistic hatred.” Critics were quick to point out that Johnson appears focused on promoting on Juneteenth weekend the fight against an obscure transgender violence category rather than the killing of black Chicagoans.

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

Johnson’s office reupped the state of emergency on Sunday after it was first implemented in 2024.

A report on the subject suggests that violence against transgender women, particularly black, indigenous people of color (BIPOC) transgender women, is endemic in Chicago. 

But the report does not mention how many transgender women have been killed in the city, and admittedly includes suicides in the “transfemicide” category despite the term’s definition. An image at the top of the paper features 21 people and their photos, presumably transgender women who have died in Chicago.

Online critics lambasted Johnson for focusing his administration’s energy on the transgender issue, and many noted that the timing of the post coincided with a weekend where 39 people were shot and six killed while the city celebrated Juneteenth.

FOUR DEAD AND 29 SHOT IN CHICAGO WEEKEND VIOLENCE AS LEADERS TOUT CRIME PROGRESS

“Nobody knows what a ‘Transfemicide State of Emergency’ is,” said Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, on X. “This is what the Mayor of Chicago is focused on.”

“Black Chicagoans are dying in the streets by the dozens every month in gang violence, drive-bys, and retaliation,” one X user said in part. “That’s the real emergency crushing families in Roseland, Englewood, Austin, and beyond. Not niche identity reports.”

“‘Transfemicide state of emergency.’ Beyond parody. And delusional,” said a post from conservative commentator Matt Walsh in part.

“Everyone is dunking on this but I think it’s NICE that Mayor Johnson finally found a type of murder he doesn’t like. Baby steps,” said X personality Jarvis Best.

“‘Transfemicide State of Emergency,'” former White House Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair parroted. “We are running out of sentences.”

President Donald Trump blasted Democratic Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker for the violence on Saturday, and offered federal help to quell the chaos.

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“Lots of Killing going on in Chicago,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Why isn’t Governor Pritzker calling me for help. I could make Chicago a safe City in ONE MONTH, in ONE YEAR, it would be one of the safest!!!”

He touted success in slowing violent crime in Washington, D.C. by bringing in National Guard troops and federal law enforcement.

Johnson’s office did not return a request for comment.

The city of Chicago was rocked by a spate of shootings over the weekend, including a drive-by mass shooting on Juneteenth, leaving six dead and 39 injured in the Windy City. The shootings, which took place in a three day period between Friday evening and Sunday, prompted President Donald Trump to call on Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker to take action by requesting federal assistance.

Chicago police reported that two dozen shooting incidents took place over the weekend, with victims who died ranging in age from 18 to 50, according to the Associated Press. On Friday night, two unidentified individuals fired into a crowd in Princeton Park on Chicago’s South Side, resulting in 12 people — eight males and four females — being hospitalized, according to the AP.

That same night, a 29-year-old man named Mario Price was killed in a drive-by shooting in which he was shot in the body and face, according to Fox 32 Chicago. A 70-year-old man who was standing nearby was also shot in the leg but survived. Shootings continued on Saturday and Sunday, resulting in additional deaths and injuries.

Besides these, on Thursday, a 14-year-old boy was shot multiple times, resulting in his death, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The outlet reported that the Midwest Hawks youth football team, of which the boy was a member, mourned his passing, saying in a statement that “there are no words that can ease the pain of a loss like this.”

AG BLANCHE SLAMS PRITZKER FOR REFUSING HELP AS CHICAGO CRIME SURGES

In response to the shootings, Trump shamed Pritzker for not taking action.

“Lots of Killing going on in Chicago,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Why isn’t Governor Pritzker calling me for help. I could make Chicago a safe City in ONE MONTH, in ONE YEAR, it would be one of the safest!!!”

The president pointed to his crime crackdown in the nation’s capital, writing, “D.C. went from one of the worst to one of the safest cities in the U.S.”

Besides Washington, D.C., Trump has also deployed National Guard troops and federal authorities to Portland, Los Angeles and Memphis. After extensive legal challenges, Trump sent several hundred troops to the Chicago area late last year. However, the deployment remained tied up in court, and the troops were demobilized in January.

TRUMP’S DC CRIME SUCCESS PUTS SPOTLIGHT ON CHICAGO’S DEADLY ‘WAR ZONE’

Pritzker, one of the country’s most prominent Democrats and a rumored 2028 presidential frontrunner, has repeatedly declined Trump’s offers to send the National Guard and federal authorities to crack down on crime in Chicago.

In a news conference last year, Pritzker stated emphatically, “Mr. President, do not come to Chicago,” adding, “You are neither wanted here nor needed here.”

Pritzker said, “If this were happening in any other country, we would have no trouble calling it what it is — a dangerous power grab.”

ILLINOIS DEMOCRAT LEADERS BLAST TRUMP PUSH TO SEND NATIONAL GUARD TO CHICAGO

In October, Pritzker mocked the notion that Chicago was undergoing a surge in violence during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show. Dressed in a Kevlar vest and standing in downtown Chicago, the governor quipped, “This is JB Pritzker, reporting from war-torn Chicago. As you can see, there’s utter mayhem and chaos on the ground. It’s quite disturbing.”

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“We’ve seen people being forced to eat hot dogs with ketchup on them, and our deep dish pizza, well, has gone shallow. So, it’s a challenge to survive here in the city of Chicago, but there’s no hellscape that I’d rather be in,” said Pritzker.

Fox News Digital reached out to Pritzker for comment.

Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas on Monday dissented from the Supreme Court’s refusal to take up a case that they said forces police officers to create a separate set of rules for racial minorities.

“It is dangerous to allow an individual to be treated differently based on statistics, studies, or expert testimony that purports to show that members of the racial or ethnic group to which he belongs are more likely to act in a certain way than are members of other groups,” Alito wrote on behalf of himself and Thomas. “Here, the special treatment helped the individual; in other situations it will not.”

The case, U.S. v. Donte J. Carter, involved a Black man whose firearm and theft convictions were vacated after the D.C. Court of Appeals held that police seized him before they had reasonable suspicion. Officers later recovered a .40-caliber pistol from Carter’s pants and the government said the gun had been stolen from an FBI agent’s vehicle.

According to the D.C. court, “black Americans like [Carter] are ‘especially distrustful of law enforcement’” and therefore “‘less likely’ than other people ‘to terminate a police encounter’ due to skepticism that any attempt to exercise their constitutional rights will be respected.” 

SUPREME COURT REJECTS BOSTON PARENTS’ APPEAL CLAIMING RACIAL BIAS IN AN ADMISSIONS POLICY

The D.C. court reasoned that Carter’s race was relevant to whether a reasonable person in his position would have felt free to end the police encounter. It ruled that the encounter effectively became a seizure, and that such an action was unlawful because police officers hadn’t established reasonable suspicion before subjecting him to it.

Alito and Thomas argued that the D.C. ruling effectively forces law enforcement to treat people differently based on their race, something precedent established by the Supreme Court prohibits.

“Under the test, officers will need to quickly assess a person’s race, and if officers and courts must craft special rules for black persons, what about dark-skinned Latinos, other Latinos, and members of other minority groups?” Alito continued. “We have said that our ’Constitution is color-blind.’ It ‘almost never’ allows government actors to treat persons differently based on their race.”

SUPREME COURT RULES ON KEY VOTING RIGHTS ACT RULE AS REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS WAGE REDISTRICTING WAR

To support his claims, Alito cited Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and Louisiana v. Callais and Shaw v. Reno. 

“And we have rejected the proposition that the Constitution permits an individual to be treated differently based on a ‘perception that members of the same racial group — regardless of their age, education, economic status, or the community in which they live — think alike,'” Alito wrote, citing Shaw v. Reno.

This appears to be a direct challenge to the D.C. Court of Appeals, which lawyers representing the United States argued forced police officers to assume that all black people have the same attitudes toward police officers and would therefore feel uncomfortable exercising constitutional rights in their presence.

TRUMP’S FIRING POWER FACES TWIN SUPREME COURT TESTS, BUT ONE AGENCY MAY GET SPECIAL TREATMENT

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Carter, the individual Alito noted was helped by the case, initially lied to officers by answering in the negative when approached and asked if he was carrying a weapon.

The police then asked Carter to pull his pants up, at which point they noticed an L-shaped bulge which was later identified as a .40-caliber pistol that had been stolen from a federal agent’s vehicle.

Former Vice President Mike Pence said that the Iran Memorandum of Understanding President Donald Trump signed last week “smacks of the kind of appeasement” Trump rejected in his first White House term.

“The president deserves tremendous credit for taking the fight directly to Tehran, and every American should welcome the prospect of peace. No one wants another prolonged war in the Middle East, despite the flippant accusations from isolationists on the populist right,” Pence asserted in a Wall Street Journal piece.

Pence, however, characterized the agreement as nothing more than “a plan to make a plan.”

TRUMP’S IRAN GAMBLE DIVIDES GOP HAWKS AND ‘AMERICA FIRST’ CONSERVATIVES OVER WHAT VICTORY LOOKS LIKE

“But the memorandum of understanding with Iran signed last week falls well short of what is required to end the Iranian threat. It smacks of the kind of appeasement the president rightly rejected during our first term. It isn’t the deal a defeated Iran should be getting. It isn’t even a deal—it’s a plan to make a plan,” he asserted.

“Maximum pressure worked. America’s military strength worked. The blockade worked. Iran came to the table because the regime’s existence teetered on a knife’s edge,” Pence wrote.

VANCE, IRANIAN OFFICIALS END FIRST ROUND OF TALKS IN SWITZERLAND, MOVE TO NEXT PHASE

“This 60-day period should be used to secure what this agreement doesn’t yet provide: an end to Iran’s nuclear ambitions, an end to Iranian-backed terror, and an end to its half-century of warfare against the U.S. and Israel. If those reasonable goals cannot be achieved, Mr. Trump should let the armed forces finish the job,” Pence wrote.

ISRAELI AMBASSADOR WARNS IRAN’S GRIP ON LEBANON IS A ‘WARNING SIGN’ FOR MIDDLE EAST PEACE

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Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.

Don’t call it a library.

The $1 billion Obama Presidential Center opened with huge fanfare last week in a park near the shore of Lake Michigan, but critics say what the public thinks is a library will function as the headquarters of Barack Obama’s private foundation, promoting the 44th president’s left-wing worldview to future generations.

While every other modern presidential library houses that former commander-in-chief’s papers for public viewing, the Obama Presidential Center has no such component. Instead, Obama’s presidential records are being stored elsewhere, though digital versions may one day be available there.

SUBCONTRACTORS SAY THEY’RE OWED MILLIONS, FACE FINANCIAL RUIN, AFTER HELPING BUILD OBAMA PRESIDENTIAL CENTER

At its core, the center serves two purposes: a museum dedicated to Obama’s presidency and the headquarters of the Obama Foundation, Obama’s private nonprofit organization.

The sprawling 19.3-acre campus will host various leadership programs, while spaces there include a “Democracy in Action Lab,” conference facilities, foundation offices and a major athletic complex designed for youth sports and community programs — features not typically associated with a presidential library.

Signs reading “Bring Change Home” and “A Home For Action” surround the perimeter of the campus. The messaging mirrors how the Obama Foundation has described the center in its annual reports — not as a traditional presidential library, but as a “campus” and “living institution.”

“We are building more than a campus. We are creating a living institution that will inspire, empower, and connect the next generation of leaders,” the foundation’s 2024 annual report reads.

The center, which as of 2021 had cost well over $800 million and is believed to have eclipsed the $1 billion mark, is a departure from presidential libraries, in both scale and purpose.

“Usually, these libraries are a monument to a presidency and the presidency is in the past, it’s in the rear-view mirror,” Tevi Troy, a presidential historian and former George W. Bush administration aide, told Fox News Digital. “It looks like Obama wants to use it as some kind of activism center, something that continues to promote his ideas and his political views.”

Troy said the direction did not surprise him.

“Obama was a community organizer. He’s an activist. That’s how he came up, and it doesn’t surprise me that he wants to go in this direction,” Troy said.

Obama himself offered a glimpse into how he views the center’s mission during Thursday’s opening ceremony.

“We designed the center not to be some lifeless mausoleum,” Obama said, while highlighting Obama Foundation leaders from around the world.

Among them was a Polish human-rights lawyer behind more than 30 lawsuits involving refugees, climate policy, LGBTQ rights and anti-discrimination litigation.

“This center is devoted to lifting up their stories, giving them the tools and support they need to expand their impact,” Obama said.

Obama later underscored that mission in his speech.

“While we are non-partisan, we are not value-neutral. We have a point of view,” he said

OBAMA PRESIDENTIAL CENTER WANTS 100 UNPAID VOLUNTEERS AS VALERIE JARRETT EARNS $740K

Critics say Thursday’s ceremony confirmed what they feared all along: The center seems designed not just to preserve Obama’s presidency, but to carry his vision into the future.

The center’s opening has reignited debate over whether the project evolved far beyond the traditional presidential library model for which many Chicagoans originally believed they were handing over their historic parkland.

The public land fight

The distinction matters because the center occupies roughly 19 acres of Jackson Park — Chicago’s equivalent of New York’s Central Park — under a controversial 99-year agreement city leaders approved for a one-time $10 payment.

Opponents argue that transferring public parkland to a private foundation violated the public trust doctrine, a legal principle intended to preserve public assets for the public benefit.

Those challenges were ultimately unsuccessful in court, although critics note that the central public trust arguments were never fully tested on the merits.

“When we were defeated, we weren’t told that we were wrong on the merits,” Richard Epstein, a New York University law professor and one of the nation’s foremost experts on the public trust doctrine, who represented the local Protect Out Parks group.

“We were told that we had no right to bring the complaint at all.”

The Chicago City Council approved the deal with Obama, but Epstein said lawmakers were not free to simply set aside the public trust doctrine.

“The public trust doctrine is meant to be a restraint on the legislature,” Epstein told Fox News Digital. “This has been an epic frustration.”

Epstein said his concerns extend beyond the use of public land. Courts never fully examined whether the foundation had sufficient financial safeguards in place before receiving control of the site, including a long-promised $470 million reserve fund intended to shield taxpayers from future liabilities, Epstein said. A Fox News Digital investigation found that just $1 million has been deposited into the fund.

Epstein warned that handing over public land without fully vetting the foundation’s finances could expose taxpayers to future risks if the center encounters financial trouble down the road.

WATCH: NYU law professor Richard Epstein says courts never ruled on key Obama Center claims

Those concerns resurfaced after a Fox News Digital investigation found minority-owned and local subcontractors who worked on the center say they were stiffed for millions of dollars.

Critics also point out that the public land transfer was only part of the taxpayer contribution. Hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars were spent on surrounding road, utility and transportation improvements tied to the project. Supporters say those upgrades modernized the area, but opponents argue they were done to serve a privately run institution.

Bait and switch?

Bob Grogan, chairman of the Illinois Republican Party, said the project was initially promoted as a presidential library to win public support and secure the land, but then morphed into something very different.

“This isn’t a presidential library. It’s a Democratic headquarters on the South Side,” Grogan told Fox News Digital outside the facility.

Grogan described the shift as a classic Chicago politics bait-and-switch.

“They go and sell it with the most palatable thing,” Grogan said. “Then they just incrementally, drip by drip, make it worse until they get back to the reality.”

“It’s not just a museum. It’s the home base for the foundation and everything it does,” he added. “They’re not going to go and pay rent someplace else when they’re going to have this big mausoleum here to go and hold their meetings and plot their plans.”

The National Archives and Records Administration — which has oversight on all other presidential libraries — told Fox News Digital that the Obama Center is operated entirely by the Obama Foundation and sits outside the federal presidential library system.

That means the foundation — not the federal government — decides how the center is run, what exhibits visitors see and how Obama’s legacy is presented.

The campus does include a branch of the Chicago Public Library.

WATCH: Illinois GOP chair says Obama Center is political operation on public land

Troy: A mixed verdict

Troy said presidential libraries have evolved over time and that making records available digitally could ultimately benefit historians if the system works as intended. Presidential researchers like himself may no longer need to travel across the country to review presidential records, he noted.

Troy also acknowledged that presidents have traditionally had broad discretion over the non-archival portions of their presidential libraries.

“At the end of the day, presidents raise the money for these things and they have leeway to do what they wish with that part of it,” Troy said.

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“It’s not the direction I would choose, but he raises the money,” Troy said. “He gets to do what he wants.”

But Troy cautioned that the center should not lose sight of the traditional purpose of presidential libraries.

“I worry about getting too far afield from the purpose of what these things are supposed to be, which are memorials to a presidency and a repository for all their documents,” he said.

Congress could determine the future of college sports.

Thursday was a seminal day as to whether Congress can either salvage – or potentially ruin – intercollegiate athletics. It’s a congressional Hail Mary as senators address name, image and likeness (NIL) deals for athletes, compensation packages and transfers between schools.  

“College sports is in crisis,” declared Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas.

“There’s a sense of urgency in that room you can feel it, right? You’ve got to do something rapidly,” said Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo.

TED CRUZ, MARIA CANTWELL UNVEIL BIPARTISAN COLLEGE ATHLETICS BILL AMID NIL CHAOS, LAWSUITS, ‘LANE KIFFIN RULE’

The Commerce Committee approved a bipartisan gameplan to fundamentally alter college sports. The full Senate plans to debate the bill in July. 

“We have put something on the table that’s going to bring more certainty and predictability to the system,” said Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., the top Democrat on the panel. 

Establishing a nationwide payout framework is a key aspect of the deal. Lawmakers know that inaction could mean that monied, major programs will simply outbid smaller schools. Perhaps even for a future NFL MVP.

“I’m worried that we’ll never see a Josh Allen again at the University of Wyoming,” said Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., referring to the Buffalo Bills standout quarterback. “It leaves those of us who don’t really have a donor base [to struggle to] pay for players of that caliber.”

The bill also restricts athletes to one transfer between schools during a five-year period without a penalty. 

“Now we have this unbelievable number of players that get in the (transfer) portal every year and we have nothing to control the agents,” said former Alabama head football coach Nick Saban to a Senate panel earlier this month.

UCLA QUARTERBACK ATTEMPTS TO EXPLOIT LOOPHOLE IN TRANSFER PORTAL WINDOW WITH UNIQUE TACTIC

 Lawmakers believe this plan will curb the constant roster chaos. 

Advocates of the legislation believe it protects student-athletes.

“It definitely makes sure that predatory contracting done by agents or universities or conferences or shill organizations, don’t get students stuck in binding arbitration,” said Cantwell.

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., is the only former Division I college athlete in the Senate. He played tight end for Stanford’s football team. Booker opposes the bill.

SENS MARSHA BLACKBURN, MARIA CANTWELL HUSTLING TO PROTECT COLLEGE ATHLETES’ FINANCES IN MURKY NIL WORLD

“I’ve seen decade after decade, how the NCAA has screwed athletes. And so we need to make sure there’s firm athletic protections and not trust the NCAA to do it,” said Booker. 

Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., is the only former Division I football head coach in the Senate. He led programs at Auburn, Ole Miss, Texas Tech and Cincinnati. He joins Booker in condemning the legislation.

“They’re trying to turn college sports into the same situation we got in with Obamacare,” said Tuberville on Fox News Radio. “We can’t get the federal government involved in college sports.”

During a floor speech, Tuberville argued that “Congress should not decide how much money student athletes can earn.”

Yet Tuberville conceded that “college sports is facing a five-alarm fire. It’s getting ready to be over with as we know it.”

That’s why Cruz believes Congress should intervene.

“If the alternative is do nothing and allow chaos to continue in college sports to be destroyed, I think that alternative is unacceptable,” said Cruz.

Congress struggles to do lots of things right. That’s why some observers doubt that Congress is a good substitute for the NCAA.

Matt Mackowiak is a former GOP Senate aide who’s written about Brendan Sorsby, his gambling scandal and the saga involving Texas Tech megabooster Cody Campbell. Big money lured Sorsby to the school for a hot minute. Mackowiak says the Cruz/Cantwell bill fails to prevent another Sorsby situation. But Mackowiak’s biggest concern is congressional willingness to undercut the NCAA.

“I don’t know why you need to create some new system and make it overly complicated. You have a governing body. They haven’t had a lot of teeth in their enforcement in recent years.”

Some of that is because super conferences like the Big Ten and SEC wield more power than the NCAA. Notably, neither of those conferences endorsed the Senate bill. But it was the NCAA which demanded congressional intervention. The NCAA has told lawmakers it can’t address NIL on its own and pushed for a national standard set by Capitol Hill.

But Booker isn’t enamored with the NCAA.

“The NCAA, which can’t be trusted, has shown decade after decade, (of) failing college athletes,” he said.

There’s concern the bill could undercut current sports broadcasters by diversifying the number of streamers and outlets carrying games. That could complicate viewing. Additional options aren’t necessarily good for fans if they struggle to find their games.

“Then the fans get hurt because all the content is behind a paywall,” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. 

“I suspect everyone in this room has heard about frustrations from their constituents in trying to watch their favorite professional sports teams play. They are met with blackouts and paywalls,” said Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis.

The House of Representatives stumbled in two previous efforts to regulate college sports. The House Republican leadership had to yank completely different college sports regulation bills off the floor in December and this spring because they lacked the votes. So, now it’s the Senate’s turn to try.

There are lots of questions about whether the Senate, like the House, can command the votes for this bill. Moreover, what bandwidth does the Senate even have for serious legislating in July? The Senate is trying to figure out what’s next about the nomination of Jay Clayton to serve as director of national intelligence. The future of FISA Section 702 – the nation’s top program to fight terrorism – is up in the air after authorization expired a few weeks ago. And some Republicans are optimistic the Senate can advance a third “reconciliation package” to pay for the war in Iran, cut taxes and reduce fraud.

It would seem that those priorities might outweigh something on college sports.

REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: HOUSE DEMS QUESTION SPORTS BILL TIMING AMID LANE KIFFIN CONTROVERSY

But as Cruz and Tuberville both say, the situation in college sports is dire. There’s worry that the SEC and/or Big Ten might form a mega conference. Or develop their own broadcast platforms for games. And there may be a lot more Brendan Sorsbys as gaming becomes more ubiquitous. 

None of this is going to get any better.

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The future of college sports is on the line. 

So, to fix it, the Senate might just give it the old college try.

President Donald Trump may have united Republicans behind military action against Iran, but his push to formalize peace is proving far more divisive.

As details of a memorandum of understanding emerge, GOP hawks are questioning whether the administration gave up too much, while Trump allies argue the president achieved a historic objective that crippled Iran’s military capabilities without dragging the U.S. into another prolonged war.

The disagreement is about more than Iran. It has exposed a growing divide inside the GOP over what Trump’s “America First” foreign policy should look like in practice — and what victory should mean once a military campaign ends.

At its core, the debate centers on competing visions of American power. One camp views military success as leverage to extract maximum concessions from adversaries and secure lasting strategic gains. The other sees it as a tool to neutralize threats and end conflicts before they become another Iraq or Afghanistan. Trump’s Iran agreement has forced those competing philosophies into a rare public collision.

That divide is already playing out among some of the party’s most prominent national security voices.

TOP SENATE REPUBLICAN RIPS INTO TRUMP’S IRAN DEAL, SAYS $300 BILLION MAKES OBAMA DEAL LOOK LIKE ‘A PITTANCE’

The deal’s fiercest Republican critics argue Trump is giving away leverage at the very moment Iran is most vulnerable. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., has blasted the agreement on X as the “worst foreign policy blunder in decades,” while Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., has warned it appears “out of step” with the goals of the military campaign.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has questioned the concessions offered to Tehran and former U.N. Ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has criticized proposals that could help rebuild Iran.

Former Vice President Mike Pence has gone even further, calling the agreement a potential “lifeline” for the regime and warning it “smacks of appeasement.”

VANCE SAYS ‘UNITED STATES WINS EITHER WAY’ AS HE DEFENDS TRUMP’S IRAN DEAL AGAINST GOP SKEPTICS

Trump’s allies, however, argue critics are overlooking the sweeping military campaign that preceded the agreement.

Vice President JD Vance and other administration officials contend the president achieved his core objective after U.S. and allied forces struck key Iranian military and nuclear sites, eliminated senior commanders and inflicted significant damage on Tehran’s military infrastructure. Supporters say those operations crippled Iran’s ability to project power, restored deterrence and ultimately brought the regime to the negotiating table without requiring a large-scale deployment of American ground troops.

They argue victory is defined by achieving U.S. objectives and ending the conflict on favorable terms — not by risking another prolonged war in the Middle East.

The clash highlights a foreign policy debate that has been simmering inside the Republican Party for years.

NEW SATELLITE IMAGES SHOW FIRES, NAVAL BASE DAMAGE ACROSS IRAN AFTER US-ISRAELI STRIKES

While Republicans have largely rallied around Trump’s use of military force against Iran, the disagreement over what comes next reflects a deeper tension inside the party.

For traditional hawks, military victories create opportunities to reshape adversaries and secure lasting concessions. For many America First conservatives, the objective is narrower: neutralize threats, avoid nation-building and keep U.S. troops out of prolonged conflicts.

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As lawmakers and conservative leaders continue debating the memorandum of understanding’s merits, the fight may ultimately be less about the details of the Iran deal than about the future direction of Republican foreign policy — and what victory should mean in the Middle East.

The organization widely regarded as the leading authority on transgender medical treatment is facing allegations from the Federal Trade Commission that it built influential treatment guidelines for minors on evidence its own leaders privately acknowledged was limited and uncertain.

The complaint, filed in a Texas federal court by the Federal Trade Commission and the attorneys general of Alaska, Iowa, Nebraska and Texas, accuses World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) of developing and promoting guidance that healthcare providers relied upon when recommending puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and sex-change procedures for minors.

The case could determine whether the medical guidance that shaped transgender treatment for thousands of children was built on solid evidence or agenda-driven speculation.

FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said the lawsuit is a consumer-protection case focused on whether families were properly informed about the risks and benefits of these treatments.

WASHINGTON POST ADMITS SCIENCE BEHIND PUBERTY BLOCKERS AND HORMONES FOR MINORS NOT CLEAR

“Children, but especially their parents, must have complete and truthful information when making decisions to purchase medical services,” Ferguson said in a statement. “For decades, the FTC has taken action against entities that make deceptive and unsubstantiated health-related claims.”

At the center of the lawsuit are allegations that WPATH publicly described its Standards of Care as evidence-based and rooted in expert consensus while some of the organization’s own leaders privately acknowledged limitations in the available evidence.

The complaint cites a 2023 strategy memo from Standards of Care 8th edition lead author Dr. Eli Coleman stating that “all of us are painfully aware that there are many gaps in research to back up our recommendations.”

ESSAY EXPOSES CRUMBLING MEDICAL CONSENSUS ON YOUTH GENDER SURGERY

It also references comments from Dr. Amy Tishelman, lead author of the organization’s chapter on children, who acknowledged in an NPR interview that there was no established “research basis” for determining the best assessments or treatments for “transgender youth.”

Federal regulators further allege WPATH removed age minimums from its 2022 Standards of Care for procedures including breast removal surgeries without scientific justification. According to the complaint, internal discussions revealed some WPATH leaders struggled to identify evidence-based reasons supporting the change.

Kurt Miceli, chief medical officer for Do No Harm, a medical ethics advocacy organization, said the allegations raise serious questions about how the organization’s guidelines were developed.

PLASTIC SURGEON CITES ‘EMOTIONAL BLACKMAIL,’ POOR EVIDENCE IN WARNING AGAINST YOUTH GENDER SURGERIES

“The conflicts of interest that are within the standards of care are significant, and again, not brought to light, and this is part of that deception, and the concern that WPATH has sort of stated that the science is there behind pediatric medical transition when it is not.”

Federal regulators allege that many of the clinicians and surgeons who helped draft WPATH’s guidelines had financial and professional interests tied to the treatments being recommended.

“What WPATH did was stack the deck with folks who had a financial invested interest in promoting pediatric medical transition, and subsequently you get guidelines that push hormones, puberty blockers, and surgeries,” Miceli said.

GENDER DYSPHORIA TREATMENTS POSE ‘SIGNIFICANT RISKS’ TO KIDS AND TEENS, HHS REPORT REVEALS

The lawsuit argues WPATH’s influence extends far beyond its membership. Its Standards of Care have been widely cited throughout medicine and have helped shape treatment protocols, insurance coverage decisions and professional guidance across the United States.

WPATH is a co-sponsoring organization of the Endocrine Society‘s widely used clinical practice guideline on gender dysphoria and gender incongruence. The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry describes WPATH and Endocrine Society guidance as the two most widely known clinical guidelines used by providers caring for youth with gender dysphoria.

Among the most serious allegations are claims that WPATH promoted pediatric transition procedures as “lifesaving” despite insufficient evidence that such interventions reduce suicide risk.

PROGRESSIVES TRAPPED IN ‘MISINFORMATION BUBBLE’ ABOUT TRANSGENDER YOUTH TREATMENTS, ATLANTIC WRITER ADMITS

The complaint cites instances in which parents were allegedly asked whether they would “rather have a live daughter or a dead son” when considering treatment options for their children.

“When WPATH says that these are life-saving interventions, and then we hear physicians tell parents, ‘Would you rather have a dead son or a living daughter?’, and we hear that line repeated, which again is not supported by evidence by any means whatsoever,” Miceli said.

“The benefits that WPATH is claiming are there actually aren’t,” Miceli told Fox News Digital. “In fact, the benefits are a very low certainty.”

CHLOE COLE REVEALS INTENSE PRESSURE TO TRANSITION AS A MINOR, PARENTS WERE TOLD SHE’D ‘PROBABLY DIE’

The complaint alleges that some minors who underwent medical transition experienced lasting complications, including chronic pain, sexual dysfunction, urinary incontinence, fertility concerns, nerve damage and ongoing psychological distress.

WPATH rejected the allegations Wednesday, calling the lawsuit politically motivated and legally flawed.

“This is the second time this year the Trump Administration has abused the authority of its agencies to interfere with Americans’ rights to seek and obtain the healthcare that should be decided between a patient and their physician,” the organization said in a statement.

PRISHA MOSLEY: DOCTORS TOOK MY BODY APART FOR GENDER ‘CARE.’ NOW THEY ADMIT IT WAS WRONG

“For more than 50 years, WPATH has been committed to developing guidelines informed by established scientific standards, expert consensus, and patient centered values.”

Miceli said the lawsuit should prompt a broader review by medical organizations that have relied on WPATH’s guidance.

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“We need the American Medical Association, the Endocrine Society, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychiatric Association—the list goes on—we need them to look at the evidence as well, and they need to do that immediately,” he said.

“The standards of care is terribly flawed, and again it has done considerable harm as a result,” Miceli continued.

CHICAGO — Opening weekend visitors at the Barack Obama Presidential Center called the 44th president’s legacy an example of unifying, scandal-free “Black excellence,” while they lamented what they view as a dark turn for the U.S. under President Donald Trump.

“The community is great, we’re just kind of glad it’s here,” Lauren Tillman, who lives about 40 minutes outside of Chicago, told Fox News Digital. “We needed something like this. Chicago looks like a certain place to certain people who are not from the area… so I just think this brought everybody together, like, ‘oh there’s something for the community,’ for Black people, and on Juneteenth, so I thought that was great, too.”

The presidential center’s opening weekend began with a star-studded private ceremony and concert on Thursday night, and the 19.3-acre campus opened to the public on Friday during the Juneteenth holiday, which celebrates the day Black slaves were declared free in 1865.

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“Just knowing that Chicago doesn’t always get the best rep, to know that we’ve had a Black president come from this place, and then to memorialize his legacy is just great,” said Ashley Woods, who joined Tillman at the opening.

“To know that [Obama] was going to try to do at least something for his people, that meant a lot to me and being here means a lot,” added Tillman.

“And I think, to piggyback off that, I think the legacy is Black excellence,” continued Woods. “Again, growing up in a place like Chicago, you don’t really think you can do much besides being a rapper or, you know, going into sports, but so see that somebody actually made it to the top per se, they were able to run the nation, there was very little scandal around him and his family, like it just shows you that we can be more than what America tells us we can be.”

OBAMA’S LEGACY PROJECT OFFERS LITTLE HOPE FOR CHICAGO’S SOUTH SIDE RESIDENTS

Sheryl Rogers and Peggy Neely-Harris made the trip from St. Louis for the weekend’s festivities.

“What it means for African Americans [is] a coming together, a reckoning, a remembrance of the excellence that is within each one of us, particularly in African Americans and particularly at this time when our very existence is under attack,” Rogers told Fox News Digital.

Neely-Harris agreed, and said that the brand new presidential center is a symbol of hope and renewal, and that the center is a “light in this present darkness.”

OBAMA PRESIDENTIAL CENTER SLAMMED FOR PROMOTING ‘FAR-LEFT’ AGENDA ON PUBLIC LAND

“[Obama] has left an excellent example of how you should live, what type of character you should have and the love of family and community,” Rogers continued. “You can see love just exudes from them, and I love to see love in action.”

“No scandal,” she added.

However, Obama did face some major scandals and controversies during his two terms in the White House.

Obama’s DOJ infamously seized records of Fox News’ phone lines, including a phone number that belonged to the parents of a reporter.

The seizure was approved after a warrant was granted by a judge, and in an affidavit seeking the warrant, an FBI agent called reporter James Rosen a likely criminal “co-conspirator” in a violation of the Espionage Act.

Obama also faced government weaponization claims when his IRS allegedly slow-rolled the tax-exempt nonprofit approval of grassroots conservative organizations that set out to oppose his agenda.

Groups with words such as “Tea Party” or “Patriot” in their names were allegedly hindered from forming for months and years.

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Operation Fast and Furious was another chart-topping Obama scandal.

ATF agents intentionally allowed illegal straw purchases of weapons near the U.S. southern border with Mexico, in hopes that tracking the firearms would lead them directly to high-level cartel kingpins. But the Obama-era agency failed to monitor at least 2,000 of the weapons, which did in fact make their way into the hands of dangerous characters.

One of the weapons in the ill-fated sting was used to kill Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in 2010.

When, in 2012, then-Attorney General Eric Holder was subpoenaed during a House Oversight Committee investigation into the matter, he refused to comply, disallowing the committee from seeing thousands of pages of records pertaining to the operation. He later became the first U.S. cabinet official to be held in contempt of Congress, but the Obama DOJ failed to prosecute him.

Obama ordered the extrajudicial drone strike killings of four terror-tied Americans in Yemen without due process.

TRUMP OFFERS TO HELP OBAMA WITH PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY’S ‘DISASTER’

Twenty-six-year-old Chicago resident Valerie Reynolds told Fox News Digital she thinks the center will improve the image of the city’s South Side, which often finds itself in news headlines for violence and poverty.

“I think Barack Obama’s legacy is and will continue to be the inspiration of togetherness, of the power of what can be done and what can be created when we all come together,” she said. “It’s absolutely something that we are missing today. I’ve seen divisions in this country in ways that I’ve never seen before, and I was reminded of just how vast those divisions are being out here today, because it’s the first time I’ve felt this closeness since he ran for office in 2008.”

An emotional Kia Ware, a woman from Virginia, said the grand opening of the center was a sad reminder of the direction of the U.S. since Obama left office.

OBAMA REMAINS DEM HEADLINER WHILE PRESIDENT WITH MOST VOTES EVER FADES INTO BACKGROUND: ‘IT WAS ALL A DREAM’

“It makes me sad because I was so proud of everything that was accomplished during that legacy in terms of, you know, fighting for vulnerable people and vulnerable lands and protection of so many things that are now being erased forever, and I feel like it’s setting us back,” she said.

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Ware added that Obama is still a “powerhouse” in the Democratic Party, and said that people who believe in his legacy want him to “step back in.”

“I guess it just means, like for me, I just am feeling very thankful that we have those eight years of history for putting women forward, putting minorities forward,” she said. “I felt like that unification, just seeing all people of different backgrounds and ages and generations here, I get that same feeling.”

FIRST ON FOX: As families across the country celebrate Father’s Day, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is honoring a group of fathers bound together by tragedy: fathers whose children were killed or catastrophically injured in crimes tied to illegal aliens and cartel-linked criminals.

DHS shared the stories of three Angel Dads with Fox News Digital: Marcus Coleman, Joe Abraham and Doug Quets, whose lives were forever changed by the deaths of their children and whose losses now serve as a reminder of the lasting impact illegal immigrant crime can have on American families.

“This Father’s Day, the United States Department of Homeland Security honors fathers, children and spouses forever changed by violent crimes committed by illegal aliens who should have never been in our country,” DHS said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

The recognition comes through the Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement Office, known as VOICE, which was relaunched under the Trump administration after being shuttered during the Biden administration. The office provides support, offender custody information, victim services and guidance to families affected by crimes with an immigration nexus.

GRIEVING FATHER SAYS DAUGHTER’S DEATH BY ILLEGAL ALIEN SHOWS COST OF SANCTUARY POLICIES

The office has fielded nearly 900 calls over the past year, according to DHS and ICE data. Victims and family members accounted for 87% of callers, who collectively reported 815 crimes linked to immigration violations, including homicides, sexual assaults and violent attacks.

As families gather for time with loved ones, fathers like Joe Abraham are instead confronting the painful reality of another Father’s Day without their children.

Katie Abraham was just 20 years old when she was killed in a crash caused by an illegal immigrant who was driving drunk, according to her father.

AFTER LOSING MY DAUGHTER, I LEARNED WHERE THE IMMIGRATION CRISIS REALLY BEGINS

This year, her family should be celebrating her graduation from college. Instead, they are mourning the future she never had.

“This Father’s Day, our family is once again facing the unimaginable reality that Katie is not here,” Abraham told Fox News Digital. “We should be celebrating her graduation from Ohio University and looking forward to all the milestones still ahead of her. Instead, we carry the weight of everything that was taken from her, and from us.”

Abraham described Katie as “intelligent, thoughtful, fiercely loyal, and full of promise.”

GRIEVING ILLINOIS FATHER BLAMES SANCTUARY POLICIES AS ICE ISSUES CRACKDOWN IN DAUGHTER’S HONOR

“Her life mattered, and she deserved the chance to live it,” he said.

Abraham said he is grateful DHS chose to honor Katie through Operation Midway Blitz and believes efforts to remove dangerous criminal illegal aliens can help prevent similar tragedies from happening to other American families.

“While no operation can undo the loss our family has endured, meaningful action to remove dangerous criminal illegal aliens and prevent future tragedies ensures that Katie’s story is not forgotten,” he said.

ANGEL FATHER SLAMS PRITZKER’S SANCTUARY POLICIES, SAYING THEY LEAD TO ‘PREVENTABLE’ DEATHS

Hundreds of miles away, Doug Quets is preparing for a Father’s Day marked by another painful anniversary.

“This weekend we will commemorate our second Father’s Day without our beloved son, Nicholas Douglas Quets, who was ambushed in a horrific failed carjacking by Sinaloa affiliated cartel members on October 18, 2024,” Quets said.

Nicholas Quets, a Marine Corps veteran, was 31 years old when he was shot and killed in Mexico while traveling to Rocky Point, according to his father.

FATHER OF MARINE VET MURDERED IN MEXICO PRAISES TRUMP ADMIN SANCTIONS ON SINALOA CARTEL: ‘PALPABLE’ MOMENTUM

Quets says his son’s death demonstrates what he believes are the dangers posed by cartel violence and the consequences of failed border security policies.

“The terrorists, emboldened by failed Biden-era U.S. immigration policies which were weaponized against us, pursued Nick in eleven vehicles stolen from U.S. citizens on both sides of the border,” Quets said.

“After identifying him as a U.S. citizen, they cowardly shot Nick in the back, through the heart, using weapons smuggled south from the U.S. effectively.”

FAMILY OF MARINE VETERAN MURDERED IN MEXICO BACKS TRUMP, VANCE AFTER SILENCE FROM BIDEN-HARRIS ADMIN

“Cartels exploited our uncontrolled border and weaponized our unenforced immigration laws against all of us,” he said.

“While nothing will bring Nick back, we are exceptionally grateful President Trump signed Executive Order 14157 designating Sinaloa and other Mexican cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs),” he said.

DHS is also honoring Marcus Coleman, whose daughter, Dalilah, suffered catastrophic injuries in a crash involving an illegal immigrant that later fueled advocacy efforts surrounding commercial driver’s license laws.

Unlike Abraham and Quets, Coleman is not mourning the death of a child. Instead, he has spent years caring for and advocating on behalf of his daughter while pushing for reforms he believes could help prevent similar tragedies.

“Dalilah changed my life forever,” Coleman told Fox News Digital. “She taught me that being a father is more than providing—it’s protecting, advocating, and refusing to stay silent when change is needed.”

EXCLUSIVE: NOEM BACKS TRUMP’S ‘DALILAH LAW’ AFTER CRASH LEAVES YOUNG GIRL UNABLE TO WALK, TALK

“This Father’s Day, I honor and stand with every Angel Father who turns his pain into purpose and his love into action.”

Coleman, founder of Stand With Dalilah, has dedicated himself to advocacy efforts in the years since the crash that altered his daughter’s life.

The fathers’ stories sit at the center of the Trump administration’s renewed focus on victims of crimes connected to illegal immigration through the VOICE office.

The agency says the office was created to help victims and surviving family members navigate the aftermath of crimes linked to immigration violations by providing offender custody information, enforcement and removal guidance and referrals to victim-assistance resources.

According to ICE data, callers identified 815 crimes linked to immigration violations over the past year, including violent assaults, sexual assaults, homicides, family violence and stalking cases.

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DHS says many surviving victims and family members face emotional, legal and logistical challenges long after a crime occurs and that the VOICE office was designed to help guide them through those challenges.

For fathers like Abraham, Quets and Coleman, however, no government office can restore what was taken from them.

This Father’s Day, while families across the country celebrate with their children, Angel Dads are remembering the sons and daughters they lost.

Vice President JD Vance landed in Switzerland early Sunday to help launch a new round of negotiations with Iran, as the Trump administration pushes for a lasting agreement following a recently signed ceasefire.

Vance arrived shortly before 6 a.m. local time and is expected to join White House envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, for the talks.

Swiss officials confirmed Saturday that the Iranian delegation had arrived and was traveling to Bürgenstock, where the discussions are expected to take place.

The talks were initially scheduled for Friday, but Switzerland’s foreign ministry announced that planned negotiations involving the U.S., Iran, Qatar and Pakistan had been postponed.

ISRAEL–HEZBOLLAH CEASEFIRE BECOMES FIRST TEST OF TRUMP IRAN FRAMEWORK AFTER TALKS DELAY

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is also expected to participate in the talks, according to Axios.

The negotiations come days after Trump signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Iran following the G7 summit at the Palace of Versailles. The agreement established a 60-day ceasefire and outlined a framework for broader negotiations between the two countries aimed at ending the conflict.

In a Truth Social post Saturday, Trump warned that the United States could impose tolls in the Strait of Hormuz if negotiations fail to produce a lasting agreement before the ceasefire expires.

TRUMP’S IRAN CEASEFIRE ROCKED WITHIN HOURS AMID REPORTED MISSILE, DRONE ATTACKS

Before departing from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, Vance said a successful trip would involve establishing the framework for future negotiations.

“I think number one, just getting things set up in the right way and getting the actual structure of the negotiations in place,” he said.

“The way that we’re going to do this, we’re going to have a principal level of political leadership at the top,” he continued. “And then obviously the technical team is going to stay on the ground.”

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Vance said he expected to remain in Switzerland for a day or two.

The vice president also previewed some of the issues expected to be discussed during the negotiations.

“I think we’re hopefully making progress on the nuclear issue, make progress on the Lebanon ceasefire issue,” he said.

VANCE TOUTS DESTRUCTION OF IRANIAN NUCLEAR PROGRAM AS TRUMP ANNOUNCES ISRAEL-IRAN CEASEFIRE

“Those are the two big things that I think we’re going to be focused on,” he continued. “I’m sure the Iranians are going to have issues they’d like to discuss as well.”

Vance said conditions in Lebanon had improved despite renewed clashes between Israel and Hezbollah.

“Despite the headlines, things are actually getting better there,” he said, while acknowledging that sporadic violence remains a challenge in the region.

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The vice president said the goal is to prevent further escalation and preserve the ceasefire.

“The big problem is that somebody will shoot and then somebody will respond,” Vance said. “You’ve just got to stop the shooting for long enough to get the ceasefire to hold.”

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Pakistan also announced that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Army Chief Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir would participate in technical-level discussions in Switzerland.

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

Pope Leo XIV used a visit Saturday honoring St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, the first American saint and patron saint of immigrants, to deliver his latest appeal on behalf of them, asking Catholics to look to her example at a time when migration remains one of the defining issues of his emerging papacy.

The remarks came as Leo continues to make migration a central focus of his public ministry, a position that has sparked months of public friction with President Donald Trump over immigration and foreign policy.

“What could be more relevant today than a missionary charism dedicated to serving migrants?” Leo said during an evening prayer service in Sant’Angelo Lodigiano, the northern Italian town where Cabrini was born.

The American-born pope prayed at Cabrini’s tomb and urged young Catholics to learn from the saint’s life of serving immigrants, many of whom had left their homelands in search of better opportunities.

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But Leo also invoked his predecessor, Pope Francis, whose own papacy was defined in part by calls to welcome migrants.

“Let us ask ourselves: if Mother Francesca were alive today, what would her missionary spirit tell her?” Leo said. “And what would a pope like Francis — who, as the son of Italian immigrants, made service to migrants one of the key priorities of his pontificate — ask of her?”

The comments are the latest in a series of migration-focused appearances that have helped define Leo’s first year as pope.

POPE LEO APPOINTS PRO-IMMIGRATION BISHOP TO DIOCESE HOME TO TRUMP’S MAR-A-LAGO

Last week, Leo traveled to Spain’s Canary Islands, a major destination for migrants departing West Africa, where he met migrants and called for greater efforts to welcome and integrate people fleeing hardship and conflict.

During that trip, Leo urged world leaders to create “legal and safe pathways” for migration and warned against reducing migrants to statistics.

Leo’s migration advocacy has frequently drawn criticism from Trump, who has accused the pontiff of venturing into politics and sharply disagreed with some of his comments on immigration and foreign affairs.

The public disagreements have become one of the most closely watched relationships between the Vatican and Washington during Leo’s papacy.

INCLUSIVE TONE OF NEW POPE ISN’T SITTING WELL WITH SOME IN THE ‘AMERICA FIRST’ MOVEMENT

Earlier this year, Reuters reported that Secretary of State Marco Rubio was expected to meet with Vatican officials and Italian leaders during a period of heightened tensions between the Holy See and the Trump administration.

Leo has rejected suggestions that his remarks are political attacks, arguing instead that his appeals stem from Catholic teaching on human dignity, peace and care for vulnerable people.

Saturday’s visit centered on Cabrini, who became a naturalized U.S. citizen and spent decades serving Italian immigrants through schools, hospitals and orphanages before her death in Chicago in 1917.

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The Vatican has also announced that Leo will travel to the Italian island of Lampedusa on July 4, a date likely to draw attention in the United States given the pope’s American roots.

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Lampedusa has become one of Europe’s most recognizable migration flashpoints because of the thousands of migrants who attempt dangerous crossings from North Africa each year. The island also carries symbolic importance within the Catholic Church because it was the destination of Pope Francis’ first trip outside Rome after becoming pope in 2013.

Fox News Digital’s Eric Mack and Robert McGreevy, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Multiple people have been arrested this weekend after allegedly vandalizing the newly refurbished Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, prompting a strong response from President Donald Trump and an increase in security at the site.

Journalist Emily Miller posted a two-minute video Friday on X showing a man in lime-green racing gear questioning a National Guardsman before being handcuffed by U.S. Park Police.

The Washington Post later identified the man in Miller’s video as David Hearn, 67, a former three-time Olympian who was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of destruction of government property.

TRUMP SAYS VANDALS USED CHEMICALS TO DAMAGE NEWLY RENOVATED REFLECTING POOL NEAR LINCOLN MEMORIAL

Hearn told the outlet he had just finished a 52-mile bike ride when he noticed a “partially detached piece” of the new pool liner and “reached into the water to see what it felt like.”

While Miller claimed in her post that Hearn “grabbed” a hose that National Park Service workers were using to remediate algae growth, Hearn told The Washington Post the hose “may” only have been touched by his bike tire.

“I didn’t vandalize anything,” Hearn told the outlet.

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Hearn, who was arrested in 1996 on charges of canoeing on the Potomac River but later had them dropped, said, “I didn’t destroy, break, or peel anything. By the time I realized what was happening, I was already being handcuffed.”

Miller reported that seven people were detained Friday and five people were detained Saturday in separate incidents, which has led to a major security surge.

Trump addressed the recent incidents Saturday afternoon on Truth Social, confirming that the Park Police arrested “multiple” people for vandalizing “our Nation’s magnificent Reflecting Poll.”

“Who would do such a thing?” the president wrote in the post. “These are very serious crimes having to do with the destruction of National Monuments. Years in jail! Work will begin immediately on its repair.”

Trump on Friday noted Park Police has had “real problems” with vandalism at the Reflecting Pool, as the administration faces scrutiny over peeling paint and algae growth just weeks after a $14.8 million restoration project was completed.

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The White House, U.S. Park Police and Miller did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.

Fox News Digital’s Michael Sinkewicz contributed to this report.