NationalWatch

The U.S. and partners completed the removal of all remaining enriched uranium from a legacy research reactor in Venezuela, the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration announced on Friday.

“For decades, the RV-1 reactor supported physics and nuclear research. Once that work finished in 1991, its uranium, enriched above the crucial 20 percent threshold, became surplus material,” the NNSA said.

The NNSA’s Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation (DNN) team and technical experts from the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research “safely removed 13.5 kilograms (about 30 pounds) of uranium from the RV-1 reactor,” the administration said. “Working in close cooperation with the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] throughout, the team securely packaged the uranium into a spent fuel cask.”

TRUMP CLAIMS HE’D WIN AS THE PRESIDENT OF VENEZUELA — JUST NEEDS TO ‘QUICKLY’ LEARN SPANISH

The material was then transported to the U.S., where it will be processed and reused, the NNSA noted.

“The group then escorted the material 100 miles overland to a Venezuelan port. There, they transferred the cargo to a specialized carrier supplied by the U.K.’s Nuclear Transport Solutions,” the announcement said. “The vessel carried the material to the United States arriving on U.S. shores in early May. Upon arrival, U.S. teams unloaded the casks and transported them to the Savannah River Site (SRS) for processing and reuse.”

The SRS is located in the state of South Carolina, near Augusta, Georgia.

US RESTORES DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS WITH VENEZUELA AMID PUSH FOR DEMOCRATIC TRANSITION

“The DOE Office of Environmental Management took custody of the material at SRS. There, technicians will process the material at the H-Canyon chemical separations facility to obtain high-assay low-enriched uranium for America’s nuclear renaissance,” the NNSA said.

The move comes months after President Donald Trump ordered the U.S. military operation capturing Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in early January.

VENEZUELA’S DELCY RODRIGUEZ REPLACES SANCTIONED LOYALIST DEFENSE MINISTER WITH MILITARY INTEL HEAD

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“The safe removal of all enriched uranium from Venezuela sends another signal to the world of a restored and renewed Venezuela,” NNSA Administrator Brandon Williams said in a statement. “Thanks to President Trump’s decisive leadership, the dedicated teams on the ground completed in months what would have normally taken years.”

Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch said differences among his colleagues on the high court are often less about politics than they are about diverging approaches to constitutional interpretation — a dynamic, he said, that influences both the court’s rulings and its internal relations.

“That has nothing to do with politics,” Gorsuch told Fox News Digital in a recent interview. “That has to do [with] how you read law. Interpretive methodologies.”

Gorsuch, who was nominated by President Donald Trump in 2017, has described himself as a “textualist,” noting his approach focuses on interpreting legal texts based on the ordinary meaning of the words as written. The philosophy is linked to originalism — or the view that the Constitution should be interpreted based on its original public meaning when it was adopted. 

Other justices have different interpretations, including ones that allow for evolving interpretations over time. Gorsuch stressed that differences, while significant, are not inherently personal.

JUSTICE THOMAS WARNS PROGRESSIVISM IS A THREAT TO AMERICA IN RARE PUBLIC REMARKS

“At the end of the day, you’re trying to get to the right answer under the law,” he said, adding that disagreement is an expected, and healthy, part of the process.

His remarks come as the federal judiciary and members of the Supreme Court have come under increasing scrutiny in recent years, including by Trump and his allies, who have criticized the courts for impinging on what they see as the duties of the executive branch. 

Trump took to Truth Social last month to criticize the Supreme Court’s conservative majority for showing him “very little loyalty” in blocking his so-called “Liberation Day” tariffs in February.

He also suggested they might block his executive order seeking to end so-called “birthright citizenship” in the U.S.

“Certain ‘Republican’ Justices have just gone weak, stupid, and bad, completely violating what they ‘supposedly’ stood for,” Trump said. 

JUSTICE GORSUCH HIGHLIGHTS HUMANITY, HISTORY IN CHILDREN’S BOOK CELEBRATING AMERICA’S 250TH ANNIVERSARY

He contrasted this with liberal justices on the court, whom Trump said “stick together like glue, totally loyal to the people and ideology that got them there.”

Gorsuch, for his part, stressed that the justices often share plenty of common ground, even if their interpretation of the Constitution prompts them to reach different conclusions.

That approach, he suggested, carries over into how the justices work together behind closed doors — where collaboration and debate are central to the high court to perform its constitutional duties.

FEDERAL JUDGE BLOCKS TRUMP’S BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP BAN FOR ALL INFANTS, TESTING LOWER COURT POWERS

“The framers understood that people would come to the table with different views,” Gorsuch told Fox News Digital. “The goal is to reason together.”

While ideological divides can be sharp, Gorsuch emphasized that culture at the high court is built on mutual respect.

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“If you sit and listen to someone long enough, you’re going to find something you can agree on,” he added. “Maybe you start there.”

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – Communist and socialist activists are increasingly joining broader liberal protest movements, where they are promoting a 20-hour workweek, rent caps, seizure of private property and confiscating wealth from billionaires.

The proposals, outlined in interviews with Fox News Digital at a recent Minneapolis demonstration, would mark a dramatic shift away from private ownership and free-market principles toward a worker-controlled model if they were ever to come to fruition and would fundamentally change the United States as we know it.

The exchanges reflect a broader pattern identified in Fox News Digital reporting, where far-left ideas once considered fringe are increasingly appearing alongside more mainstream protest movements, often within demonstrations billed as broadly focused on workers’ or immigrant rights as well as “No Kings” protests.

“We are building a party of professional class fighters, people who are seriously looking at the system of capitalism and coming to the conclusion that we need a revolution… on a socialist basis,” said Owen Phernetton, a member of the Revolutionary Communists of America. He was holding a copy of the group’s newspaper, The Communist, and was wearing a sweater that read “Communism Will Win.”

FOX NEWS DIGITAL ANALYSIS: HOW MINNEAPOLIS AGITATOR NETWORKS USE INSURGENCY TACTICS TO HINDER ICE

“This means handing political and economic power to the working class.”

A May Day demonstration also highlighted how these different left-wing groups operated within the broader event, with some marching behind immigrant rights organizers while others worked the edges of the rally, distributing literature and engaging directly with bystanders.

Phernetton said their vision includes placing factories, mines and businesses under collective control, limiting rent to a fraction of workers’ income and using confiscated wealth to fund government-backed healthcare, education and housing.

Phernetton, who was walking along the edge of the main rally with fellow members who were distributing newspapers, said the changes would require a fundamental restructuring of the economy and called for taking wealth from the richest Americans.

“Their wealth should be expropriated and put to use for the working class,” he said, while arguing for decreasing the workday to only 20 hours a week without any loss in pay.

“I’d actually say that the productivity will increase if the economy operates on a planned basis,” he said when pressed about a potential productivity dip on reduced hours, adding that the working class would control all productivity.

Andy Koch, a member of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), also argued that wealth and power should be shifted away from the ultra-wealthy.

“The country is run by billionaires, for billionaires,” he said.

But when asked about reports that some protest groups have received support from wealthy donors, Koch said he would welcome such funding.

“If one billionaire wants to donate to progressive pro-worker causes, that’s great,” he said.

CCP-CONNECTED MILLIONAIRE ALLEGEDLY BANKROLLS MINNEAPOLIS AGITATOR GROUPS THROUGH DARK MONEY NETWORK

At another section of the march, a protester wearing a mask stood on the sidewalk with a small group holding copies of The Communist newspaper with the headline “Down with Trump’s War!” while openly engaging with bystanders as the demonstration passed.

“I’m a communist because the workers create all the value in society and we get to own none of it under capitalism,” she said. She argued that rent should be capped at 10% of income and dismissed the struggles of similar policies in cities like New York and California.

“The reason why rent control hasn’t worked is because it hasn’t been under workers’ control… under capitalism, it won’t work,” she said.

Cass Batica, another activist affiliated with the Revolutionary Communists of America, was standing among demonstrators carrying Soviet-style flags and believes capitalism should be replaced entirely.

“I came to the conclusion that capitalism is not the way to go. We need socialism, we need communism for the workers of the world,” Cass Batica said, pointing to the Soviet Union as an example.

The march that Batica and other far-left protesters attended was led by the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC), which gathered speakers in a public green space ahead of the march and displayed a large banner reading “Legalization for All, Sanctuary State Now.”

As speakers addressed the crowd, members of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization remained toward the rear and did not take part in the main program, offering insight into their strategy within the demonstration. When the march began, they fell in line behind the immigrant rights groups and moved with the broader crowd. None of them spoke at the podium.

Other activists operated more independently, positioning themselves along sidewalks rather than within the main body of the march.

FOX NEWS POLL: SOCIALISM GAINING GROUND AMONG VOTERS

Not every far-left supporter was part of an organization, including Caleb Batts, 24, who was draped in a hybrid LGBTQ pride and Soviet-style flag and described himself as a Marxist-Leninist.

“I like the way [Lenin] structured the economy and I believe the growth they saw under it was amazing. I believe China has seen some of the same growth,” Batts, who said he is a business major, said.

“The capitalist revolution in the 18th century was good, it freed millions of people from slavery under feudalism, and I believe after about 250 years capitalism has run its course and it’s just not productive anymore. I believe we should evolve as a society into socialism because we can afford to.”

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Batts also said he does not believe borders should exist, a similar sentiment shared by members of groups such as the FRSO, who marched with banners calling for “No Deportations” and “ICE Out of Minnesota.”

“I believe that the most productive human society would be one without borders at all,” he said.

“My belief is that we need to develop into socialism with the workers owning the means of production, into communism with the government owning the means of production and then into anarchism, where we have a stateless, classless, moneyless society and work as neighborhoods.”

WATCH: Communist Party presence noted at Minneapolis May Day demonstration

President Donald Trump on Friday announced a three-day ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia to celebrate the Soviet Union’s victory in World War II, as well as a massive prisoner exchange between both nations.

The ceasefire will begin on Saturday and run through Monday, Trump wrote on Truth Social. “The celebration in Russia is for Victory Day but, likewise, in Ukraine, because they were also a big part and factor of World War II.”

“This ceasefire will include a suspension of all kinetic activity, and also a prisoner swap of 1,000 prisoners from each country,” he added. “This request was made directly by me, and I very much appreciate its agreement by President Vladimir Putin and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.”

RUSSIA BUILT GLOBAL RECRUITMENT PIPELINE TARGETING VULNERABLE MIGRANTS FOR UKRAINE WAR: REPORT

Russia will celebrate Victory Day on Saturday, marking the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. It is one of Russia’s most important national holidays. 

However, festivities have been scaled back amid the war as Moscow opted for a low-key celebration. This year’s traditional military parade won’t feature tanks, missiles, or other military equipment for the first time in decades.

Russian military forces have been engaged in a slow and bloody conflict with Ukraine, which was supposed to deliver a quick victory. The war has stalled amid the Kremlin’s unforeseen resistance by Ukraine’s smaller military.  

On X, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed the exchange of prisoners captured during the four-year conflict, which began when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbor.

“Within the framework of the negotiating process mediated by the American side, we received Russia’s agreement to conduct a prisoner exchange in the format of 1,000 for 1,000,” he wrote. “A ceasefire regime must also be established on May 9, 10, and 11. Ukraine is consistently working to bring its people home from Russian captivity. I have instructed our team to promptly prepare everything necessary for the exchange.”

RUSSIAN MISSILES AND DRONES BOMBARD UKRAINE IN HOURSLONG ATTACK, KILLING AT LEAST 16

Zelenskyy also thanked Trump for his diplomatic involvement in the process and said he hopes the United States will make sure Moscow abides by the agreement. 

Trump made ending the war one of his signature promises during his presidential campaign.

“Hopefully, it is the beginning of the end of a very long, deadly, and hard-fought war,” he said. “Talks are continuing on ending this major conflict, the biggest since World War II, and we are getting closer and closer every day.”

Both sides in the war have voiced distrust over one another as a unilateral ceasefire in Ukraine that Russia announced for Friday and Saturday quickly unraveled, The Associated Press reported. 

Ukraine’s drone technology has allowed it to reach inside Russia with more frequency and regularity and both sides have accused each other of violating past ceasefire agreements.

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Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry on Friday said Moscow had ceased combat operations and remained at its “previously occupied lines and positions” from midnight, when Putin’s unilateral ceasefire came into force, the AP said.

EXCLUSIVE: Alabama Republicans are moving to force through a new congressional map that could reduce Democratic representation amid a narrow national GOP House majority, while rebuking Yankee Democrats traveling to the Yellowhammer State to gin up opposition.

State leaders argue the new Supreme Court ruling limiting the use of race in redistricting has changed the legal landscape, giving Alabama grounds to revisit and undo a court-imposed map that recently reshaped its congressional districts to help minority voters.

As attention shifted from Louisiana to Alabama after the high bench tossed the Pelican State’s map last week, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., traveled south to stump in Birmingham with fellow Democrats bemoaning legislators’ attempts to force the high bench to reconsider a partially conflicting order from three years prior.

“Well, I’m probably guessing that’s first time Cory Booker’s ever been in Alabama,” Alabama House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, R-Rainville, told Fox News Digital.

BLOCKBUSTER SUPREME COURT VOTING RIGHTS RULING IGNITES REDISTRICTING WAR ACROSS SOUTHERN STATES

“The thing about it is the people that we represent have lived here most of all of their lives and they’re the ones that ask us to do something for them — not the Cory Bookers,” Ledbetter said. “And he can nationalize it all he wants to, but it’s not going to change facts.”

Booker joined Rep. Terri Sewell of Birmingham, the state’s lone Democrat, until the court-mandated redraw produced a Democratic flip by Rep. Shomari Figures of Mobile.

“We are in a storm right now — the question is, where will you stand, will you hold up your light,” Booker addressed a redistricting town hall in Birmingham, where he declared voting rights are on the ballot, according to the Alabama Reporter.

The Yankee Democrat said he came south out of obligation to recognize that the Supreme Court upended decades of progress made by Alabamians, according to the city’s NBC affiliate.

Late last month, the Supreme Court struck down Louisiana’s 2-Democrat congressional map, in which Reps. Cleo Fields and Troy Carter’s Democratic districts were drawn with race as a significant factor.

Alabama faced a similar fight after the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Allen v. Milligan forced the state to redraw its map, leading to a court-imposed plan that shifted its delegation from a 6-1 Republican split to 5-2 after Republicans created but were rebuked for the so-called “Livingston map” that gave minorities districts with 55% and 40% representation respectively.

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

The interceding Livingston map, so named for Sen. Steve Livingston, R-Scottsboro, should be revisited and upheld by the Supreme Court in line with its more recent ruling, Ledbetter argued.

In passing the map, Ledbetter said he expects the Supreme Court will be forced to weigh in, via a new legal challenge or otherwise, and that the Louisiana ruling gives Alabama the precedent it needs to undo the high court’s prior ruling and imposed map.

“Once that happens, it gives the governor opportunity to call a special election.”

While any action taken by Ledbetter’s legislature would likely spur court action, he suggested quick passage is needed as Alabama’s primaries approach on May 19.

“If we did nothing, we had no shot, and doing this gives us the opportunity to have a ball in the air in case they do overturn [Milligan].”

Gov. Kay Ivey called the legislature to special session Monday to create plans for potential adjustment of upcoming primary elections, if the state is able to force the redistricting issue upon the Supreme Court.

Ledbetter said the Livingston map was fair, and attempted to follow the will of the court originally — adding that he plans to force the issue this week during the special session.

“Our goal is to pass the Livingston map and give the governor the opportunity if the 14th Amendment [provision] is removed; that gives us the opportunity to go forward with it,” he said, arguing the earlier ruling relied on legal standards that may now be affected by the court’s more recent decision.

“That’s really the only shot we got to be able to do this before the November elections is that map that’s existing,” he said.

SUPREME COURT JUST GAVE BLACK VOTERS A SHOT AT REAL POWER BEYOND SAFE SEATS

Pushing back again on Booker and critics of Alabama’s prior attempt to redraw, Ledbetter said the Livingston map, under today’s population footprint, actually gives all voting blocs a better shot.

“When that was redistricted that was a 50-50 seat,” he said of one of the Democrat-friendly districts on the map. “It gives everybody a shot and it’s got all seven seats open.”

He criticized national Democrats for descending on other states like Virginia to try to tip the scale of their own redistricting, noting that Alabamians elected a Republican supermajority in Montgomery and want to reflect that in Congress.

DEMS CIRCLE THE WAGONS BY BLAMING GOP FOR THEIR REDISTRICTING RESPONSE AHEAD OF MIDTERMS: ‘VERY DESPERATE’

“I don’t think it’s right for the courts to overstep their boundary and try to do legislation.”

Ivey said in a statement the state has been battling “federal courts and activist groups who think they know Alabama better than Alabama” since the 2020 census.

“By calling the Legislature into a special session, I am ensuring Alabama is prepared should the courts act quickly enough to allow Alabama’s previously drawn congressional and state Senate maps to be used during this election cycle,” she said.

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With Ledbetter and his partners on the Senate side primed to repass the Livingston map, the Supreme Court would have about a week to step in ahead of the May 19 primary, while Secretary of State Wes Allen told the Montgomery Advertiser that no matter the result of the special session, that date is set in stone — setting up a reason for national attention to turn toward the Yellowhammer State.

Fox News Digital reached out to Booker and Ivey for additional comment.

Gov. Gavin Newsom is rolling out a taxpayer-backed freebie for new parents, promising hundreds of diapers for every baby born in California under a new statewide program.

The Democrat announced Friday that the state will partner with nonprofit Baby2Baby to hand out 400 free diapers to families leaving participating hospitals, starting this summer. The initiative, dubbed “Golden State Start,” is being billed as a first-in-the-nation effort to ease the high cost of raising a child.

“Every baby born in California deserves a healthy start in life,” Newsom said in a statement, touting the plan as part of his broader push to tackle affordability.

CALIFORNIA IS BROKE, BUT IT’S NOT TOO LATE FOR THE REST OF US

Under the program, hospitals will distribute the diapers directly to parents upon discharge. Officials said early rollout will prioritize facilities serving low-income patients on Medi-Cal, with plans to expand statewide.

During the program’s first year, it will be offered at about 65 to 75 hospitals that handle about a quarter of births in the state and largely serve low-income patients, Newsom’s office said, according to the Associated Press.

The move is the latest in a string of family-focused spending initiatives from the Newsom administration, which already includes free school meals and universal preschool for 4-year-olds.

Critics are likely to challenge the program’s price tag, particularly as California navigates a tightening fiscal environment. Fox News Digital has reached out to the governor’s office regarding the costs of the program.

According to the Associated Press, the state has allocated $7.4 million in last year’s budget to launch the free diaper initiative, and Governor Newsom’s latest proposal seeks an additional $12.5 million for implementation through the fiscal year ending in June 2027.

However, these spending goals collide with a sobering economic reality.

In its January budget overview, the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) noted that while the administration officially projected a $2.9 billion deficit for 2026-27, the long-term outlook is far more dire. The LAO warned that the state faces structural deficits ranging from $20 billion to $35 billion annually over the coming years

State officials said that they are also looking at ways to take on major diaper brands and drive down prices.

Baby2Baby, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit that distributes supplies to children in need, will handle manufacturing and logistics for the program. The group says diaper need is widespread, with as many as one in two families struggling to afford them.

CALIFORNIA SCHOOL DISTRICT INFORMS PARENTS PERIOD PRODUCTS ARE IN BATHROOMS FOR ‘ANY STUDENT WHO MENSTRUATES’

Co-CEOs Norah Weinstein and Kelly Sawyer Patricof praised the partnership as “historic,” saying it will help families during one of their most financially vulnerable moments.

“We are incredibly grateful to Governor Newsom for his ongoing commitment to combating diaper needs in California and could not be prouder to partner on this historic initiative that will support moms and babies at their most vulnerable time,” Weinstein and Patricof said in a joint statement.

The announcement comes two years after Tennessee and Delaware became the first U.S. states to offer free diapers to families enrolled in their Medicaid programs, which provide healthcare to low-income families.

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Tennessee families can go to pharmacies to pick up 100 diapers per month for children under two. The Delaware program, which began as a pilot before the state extended it in 2024, provides individuals with up to 80 diapers and up to one pack of baby wipes per week in the first 12 weeks.

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

Rep. Thomas Massie’s campaign has raked in more than $1 million so far since launching a “Moneybomb” fundraiser on Monday morning, according to a running tally displayed on the fundraising website.

The embattled Republican, who represents Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District, is competing in a GOP primary showdown against former Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein, the candidate backed by vociferous Massie critic President Donald Trump.

“This race has become a national referendum on whether our country is better served by Congressmen like me who keep their promises, or whether Congress needs yet another ‘warm body from central casting’ like Gallrein who pledges to be a rubber stamp for the uniparty,” Massie wrote in a statement provided to Fox News Digital.

“He’s like central casting,” Trump said of Gallrein while speaking in Kentucky in March, adding moments later, ” … give me somebody with a warm body to beat Massie. And I got somebody with a warm body, but a big, beautiful brain, and a great patriot. He’s unbelievable.”

Massie added in his statement to Fox News Digital on Friday, “We are ahead in the polls, ahead in Kentucky fundraising, and way ahead in national support as shown by our million dollar moneybomb… as long as you don’t count the three liberal out-of-state billionaires propping up my opponent.”

ACTOR ZACHARY LEVI BACKS THOMAS MASSIE AS TRUMP TARGETS THE REPUBLICAN FOR OUSTER: ‘GOOD FOR THIS COUNTRY’

Gallrein’s campaign fired back, providing Fox News Digital with the following statement from senior advisor Tim Murtaugh: “These are the last gasps of a member of Congress who promised to term limit himself to three terms, but is now seeking his 8th. He’s turned his back on Kentucky, he’s pointlessly antagonized President Trump, and has tried to obstruct the entire America First agenda. Thomas Massie serves only one person — Thomas Massie — and the voters of Kentucky’s 4th District are about to show him the door. Ed Gallrein is a heavily decorated, retired Navy SEAL a solid conservative who will support President Trump and the America First agenda.  Massie’s ego and his act are worn out.”

Massie fired back in another statement to Fox News Digital, declaring, “In typical fashion, Ed has a surrogate repeating his lies. Ed is scared to debate me and even afraid to speak to the press.”

Before taking office in 2012, Massie signed a pledge declaring that he would support a term limits amendment to the Constitution. “I, Thomas Massie, pledge that as a member of Congress I will cosponsor and vote for the U.S. Term Limits Amendment of three (3) House terms and two (2) Senate terms and no longer limit,” the pledge read.

MASSIE ALLY SPARKS BACKLASH AFTER ACCUSING TRUMP-BACKED CHALLENGER OF ABUSING VA BENEFITS

During an appearance on KET’s “Kentucky Tonight,” Massie, who has served in the U.S. House of Representatives since late 2012, was asked about the issue.

“After 14 years, are you not wading into career politician territory? And for those curious about you re-upping your Washington service, how is that better than honoring the spirit of that pledge you signed back in 2012?” host Renee Shaw asked.

“Well I’ve honored both the spirit and the letter of that pledge. I have cosponsored the bill that I said I would cosponsor and I voted for it. In fact, now I serve on the Judiciary Committee where that bill starts. All Constitutional amendments begin in the Judiciary Committee,” Massie replied. “So I’ve had the opportunity … and taken it, to vote for that … amendment to the Constitution several times.”

MASSIE SAYS MUSK NEVER DONATED TO HIS RE-ELECTION CAMPAIGN DESPITE PRIOR PLEDGE

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The upcoming May 19 primary in Kentucky is less than two weeks away.

The Trump administration’s decision to declassify a batch of UFO and UAP files Friday drew unexpected praise from a prominent Democratic lawmaker. 

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., the leader of Senate Democrats’ campaign arm, cheered the release of dozens of never-before-seen images and videos, stating, “Transparency is the only path to truth.” 

“I am encouraged that the administration has finally heard my call and the call of millions of Americans to begin unsealing these files,” Gillibrand wrote on social media, adding that she has long advocated for the declassification and release of unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) files.

“This is another important step, but there is much more work to do,” the New York Democrat went on. “I will continue to fight to ensure the administration finally meets its legal obligation to the American people.”

DECLASSIFIED APOLLO MOON DOCS DESCRIBE UNEXPLAINED MYSTERIES, UFO LIGHTS ‘LIKE THE FOURTH OF JULY’

The Trump administration’s file dump, available on the newly created website war.gov/UFO, contains records related to UAP, including inexplicable lights and phenomena captured during the Apollo 12 mission in 1969 and Apollo 17 in 1972.

President Donald Trump in February directed the Department of War and other agencies to declassify and publish files related to alien and extraterrestrial life. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said Friday that the administration would continue its declassification work.

GOP lawmakers widely praised the administration’s effort to bring more transparency to UAP-related material.

“This is a massive first step in the right direction,” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., who has long pushed for the file release, said Friday.

Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., also called the move “historic” and said he hoped the file release would be the first of many.

The Pentagon’s disclosure also prompted tepid enthusiasm from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who omitted the Trump administration in his statement.

“For decades, UFO disclosure has been a distant object — unidentified and unexplained,” he said. “That’s starting to change. I’ll keep pushing until we land on the truth.”

TULSI GABBARD TELLS PODCASTER ALIENS MAY BE REAL: ‘WE’RE CONTINUING TO LOOK FOR THE TRUTH’

Trump argued Friday that his administration’s transparency efforts related to government secrets far surpassed those of his predecessors.

“Whereas previous Administrations have failed to be transparent on this subject, with these new Documents and Videos, the people can decide for themselves, “WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?” Trump wrote on the social media platform Truth Social announcing the release of the files. “Have Fun and Enjoy!”

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The Trump administration also declassified records last year related to former President John F. Kennedy’s assassination and the 1937 disappearance of Amelia Earhart.

IVY LEAGUE CLASH: Ivy League student says president’s confrontation was unlike anything seen on campus

‘LOSES ALL MEANING:‘ College ‘makes a mockery’ of all-women status by admitting transgender students, education watchdog says

RADICAL RHETORIC: University director booted after calling Zionism ‘cancerous’ in explosive remarks

‘COMPLETELY OSTRACIZED:’ Junior college athletes speak out on trans controversy that’s now in the Trump admin’s crosshairs

REMOTE CONTROL: Bill would let illegal immigrant professors keep teaching US students remotely

‘BETTER THAN THAT’: University rushes ICE alert system months before deadline after pressure from far-left students

A Utah Supreme Court justice has resigned amid a probe into an alleged relationship with an attorney who worked on a redistricting lawsuit.

Justice Diana Hagen appeared to reference the investigation and the toll it has taken on her loved ones in a resignation letter to Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, which was obtained by Fox News Digital.

“As a public servant for twenty-six years, I am keenly aware that public service requires sacrifice,” Hagen wrote. “I have willingly accepted those sacrifices for the privilege of holding a position of public trust, where I could do my part to uphold the rule of law and protect the constitutional rights of every Utahn.”

UTAH LEADERS LAUNCH PROBE INTO SUPREME COURT JUSTICE OVER ALLEGED RELATIONSHIP WITH REDISTRICTING LAWYER

“I also understand that public officials are rightly held to a higher standard and must accept a greater degree of public scrutiny and diminished privacy,” she said. “But my family and friends did not choose public life. They do not deserve to have intensely personal details surrounding the painful dissolution of my thirty-year marriage subjected to public scrutiny.”

The resignation was effective immediately, a spokesperson for Utah’s Administrative Office of the Courts said.

Hagen was accused by her former husband of sending “inappropriate” text messages to an attorney who helped challenge a Republican-friendly map that maintained four red congressional seats in Utah. David Reymann, who worked on behalf of progressive voting rights groups in the case, was named as the lawyer in a complaint that an attorney for Hagen’s husband submitted to Chief Justice Matthew Durrant and the Judicial Conduct Commission, according to local outlet KSL.

RED STATE JUDGE CHOOSES NEW CONGRESSIONAL MAP IN FIGHT THAT COULD RESHAPE HOUSE CONTROL

Hagen and Reymann previously denied the allegations.

The Judicial Conduct Commission—described on its website as an independent body comprising several state lawmakers, judges, and members of the public—conducted a preliminary investigation based on the complaint and chose not to pursue the matter further, KSL reported.

A statement issued by the Utah Supreme Court on behalf of Hagen in April said she took “prompt, prudent, and transparent steps” in response to the allegations by her ex-husband.

“My last involvement in the redistricting case was October 2024,” Hagen said. “I voluntarily recused myself from all cases involving Mr. Reymann in May 2025, and my recusal was reflected in the Court’s September 15, 2025, opinion in League of Women Voters.”

In her resignation letter, Hagen stated that she would love to continue serving on the bench.

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“But I cannot do so without sacrificing the privacy and well-being of those I care about and the effective functioning and independence of Utah’s judiciary,” she wrote.

Cox will be tasked with naming Hagen’s replacement. Fox News Digital has reached out to the governor’s office.

Fox News Digital’s Ashley Oliver contributed to this report.

A top Virginia Democrat’s support for his state’s redistricting referendum ironically backfired after a judge he previously appointed helped torpedo his party’s bid to redraw the state’s congressional districts.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., who endorsed the referendum and appeared at pro-referendum events, gave $100,000 to the campaign behind Virginia Democrats’ redistricting effort, which voters approved in April. On Friday, a judge Warner appointed when he was governor in 2002, D. Arthur Kelsey, was among the four justices who voted to strike the referendum down on constitutional grounds. In fact, Judge Kelsey authored the 4-3 prevailing opinion.

The voter-approved ballot measure was poised to give Democrats a major advantage heading into November’s midterm elections, and they vastly outspent Republicans in their bid to get it passed. However, Kelsey wrote in the prevailing opinion that the sequencing in which Democrats held the referendum vote violated the state’s Constitution, which requires an intervening election between the state legislature’s mandatory first and second passage of the proposed constitutional amendment.

‘JUSTICE’: CELEBRATION, MOCKERY ERUPT AFTER SPANBERGER ‘GERRYMANDER’ IS BLOWN UP IN BLOCKBUSTER DECISION

Warner, who was the Governor of Virginia from 2002 until 2006, previously appointed Kelsey, then a Circuit Court judge, to the Virginia Court of Appeals. Kelsey served two terms before a GOP state legislature elevated him to the state’s Supreme Court, where Kelsey has been serving since 2015.

When Warner appointed Kelsey to the Virginia Court of Appeals in 2002, he praised the then-Suffolk circuit judge as having shown “a keen intellect, a strong work ethic and a commitment to equal justice,” according to a report from Virginia Lawyers Weekly at the time.

“Although I had not met Judge Kelsey before this process began, I have spoken to him at length, reviewed his numerous opinions and consulted with those who know him well,” Warner added in 2002.

Following the ruling by Virginia’s Supreme Court, Warner put out a statement in a news release saying he respected the decision, but added that “it’s impossible to ignore that more than three million Virginians already cast their ballots on the amendment and deserved to have their voices heard.”

MARK WARNER FACES GOP CHALLENGE FROM AIRBORNE RANGER-TURNED-LAWMAKER BRYCE REEVES

Fox News Digital reached out to Warner to inquire whether he felt the ruling was fair, but a spokesperson for the senator only referred Fox News Digital to the news release with his public statement.

“Donald Trump assumed he could tilt the playing field and lock in political advantage before a single ballot was cast. But Virginians are paying attention,” Warner also said in his public statement. “They want leaders who will protect their rights, defend their freedoms, and actually focus on lowering costs and getting things done. Democrats will still show up this November, we will still compete everywhere, and when the votes are counted, Virginians will send a strong message about the kind of leadership they want.”

The prevailing opinion written by Kelsey said that Democrats’ proposed map would have replaced Virginia’s current 6-5 congressional split “with a highly partisan gerrymandered map” expected to create a 10-1 advantage for a single party.

Kelsey went on to highlight that under Democrats’ proposed new map, roughly 47% of Virginians who voted for one political party during the last congressional election would end up being represented by just 9% of Virginia’s delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives, while 51% of Virginians who voted for the other major political party would be represented by 91% of Virginia’s congressional delegation.

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Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger said Friday she was “disappointed” with the Supreme Court’s decision and, along with other Democrats, blasted the state’s High Court for invalidating the will of voters.

“More than three million Virginians cast their ballots in Virginia’s redistricting referendum, and the majority of Virginia voters voted to push back against a President who said he is ‘entitled’ to more Republican seats in Congress with a temporary and responsive referendum. They made their voices heard,” Spanberger said after the ruling.

“I am disappointed by the Supreme Court of Virginia’s ruling, but my focus as Governor will be on ensuring that all voters have the information necessary to make their voices heard this November in the midterm elections because in those elections we — the voters — will have the final say.”

Democrats exploded in fury Friday after the Virginia Supreme Court struck down a party-backed redistricting map central to their midterm election strategy, with at least one prominent leftist voice going so far as to call violent revolution “inevitable.”

In a 4-3 decision, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that a voter-approved map, which would give Democrats a 10-1 advantage in U.S. House races, violated the state’s constitution because of procedural errors in the map’s passage. Virginia voters will cast ballots in the 2026 midterms using the same district maps from the 2022 and 2024 elections, which Democrats currently hold 6-5.

But Democratic lawmakers and commentators alike have framed the Supreme Court’s ruling as an act going against the will of the people. Hasan Piker, a popular leftist streamer who has espoused antisemitic rhetoric and campaigns with congressional candidates, accused the Virginia Supreme Court of denying the results of the state’s redistricting referendum.

“Scotus gutted the voting rights act and tennessee carved up the last dem district destroying black voter power in the state,” Piker wrote on X. “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable.”

VIRGINIA’S MAP WAR LAYS BARE STATE’S SHARP PARTISAN TURN AS LEGAL FIGHT LOOMS

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., suggested that Democrats won their redrawn map fair and square by holding a statewide election.

“Unlike Republican-led states that have redrawn their maps through backroom deals, the Virginia General Assembly let the people decide for themselves in a free and fair election,” Kaine said in a statement. “If the Virginia Supreme Court had legitimate concerns about this referendum, the time to stop it would have been before three million Virginians cast their ballots.

TRUMP URGES VIRGINIA VOTERS TO REJECT ‘BLATANT PARTISAN POWER GRAB’ BY DEMOCRATS

“But the Court let the process move forward, and Virginians sent a message loud and clear: we see President Trump’s brazen power grab in states across the country, and we won’t stand for it,” Kaine continued.

Kaine also echoed Piker’s sentiment that the ruling “eviscerates” the Voting Rights Act.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said they’re “exploring all options” to fight back against Virginia’s high court’s ruling.

BLOCKBUSTER SUPREME COURT VOTING RIGHTS RULING IGNITES REDISTRICTING WAR ACROSS SOUTHERN STATES

“The decision to overturn an entire election is an unprecedented and undemocratic action that cannot stand,” Jeffries said in a statement.

“MAGA Republicans have adopted voter suppression as a strategy, as also evidenced by far-right extremists on the Supreme Court gutting the Voting Rights Act to open the door to a Jim Crow-like attack on Black representation across the American South,” Jeffries continued.

Meanwhile, Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates Don Scott took a more pragmatic approach, saying he respects the high court’s ruling.

“We respect the court. But we will keep fighting for a democracy where voters — not politicians — have the final say. Because in Virginia, power still belongs to the people.”

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As Democrats describe the Virginia Supreme Court’s ruling as a violation of the Voting Rights Act, Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters, who spearheaded the lawsuit over the maps, said Virginia’s ruling was not based on politics but on the “rule of law.”

“Democrats just learned that when you try to rig elections, you lose,” said Chairman Gruters. “The RNC led the charge in court against this blatant power grab, where Virginia Democrats poured more than $66 million into an effort to lock in control and silence voters. We took them to court, and we won.”

Former special counsel Jack Smith unleashed on the Department of Justice in an unusually fiery speech to a few hundred people during a private event, accusing the department of being “corrupted” and targeting President Donald Trump’s enemies.

Smith’s remarks, given during a private dinner in D.C. in April and reported by the New York Times this week, zeroed in on the DOJ’s decisions to investigate and prosecute some of Trump’s top political rivals, such as former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. The former special counsel accused the department of weaponizing its authority, the very same accusation that Republicans have widely leveled at Smith for bringing two criminal cases against Trump during the Biden administration.

“We have a Department of Justice today that targets people for criminal prosecution simply because the president doesn’t like them,” Smith said.

CONSERVATIVES ACCUSE JACK SMITH OF IMPROPER TIES WITH JUDGES IN TRUMP CASES AFTER NEW DOCUMENT DUMP

A DOJ spokesperson told Fox News Digital the department expected “nothing less from Jack Smith whose sole mission was to politically prosecute a former president in an attempt to stop him from assuming office again.”

“This DOJ has ended the weaponization perpetrated by the Biden Administration and will continue to ensure no one is above the law,” the spokesperson said.

Smith brought indictments against Trump alleging he illegally attempted to overturn the 2020 election and that he retained classified national defense information. Smith faced significant hurdles in the election case, while the classified documents case was tossed out by Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, who said he was unlawfully appointed as special counsel. Smith’s office was appealing Cannon’s ruling when Trump won the 2024 election. Weeks later, Smith moved to dismiss both federal cases, citing the Justice Department’s longstanding policy against prosecuting a sitting president.

Trump raged at Smith repeatedly, calling him a corrupt “thug” who belonged in jail. In January, Trump said on Truth Social that Smith was a “deranged animal” who should lose his law license. Smith is a longtime attorney who prosecuted war crimes in the Hague and led the DOJ’s Public Integrity Section during the Obama administration.

JACK SMITH PUSHES FOR PUBLIC TESTIMONY TO CONFRONT ‘MISCHARACTERIZATIONS’ OF TRUMP PROBES

Trump said he hoped the DOJ was investigating Smith, “including some of the crooked and corrupt witnesses that he was attempting to use in his case against me. The whole thing was a Democrat SCAM — A big price should be paid by them for what they have put our Country through!”

The president’s remarks directly clash with Smith’s rare, heated commentary at the private event, as both accuse the other of weaponization and as Smith faces threats of federal prosecution for targeting Trump, despite the DOJ and congressional investigators yet to uncover criminal wrongdoing by Smith.

HOUSE DEMOCRATS DEMAND ANSWERS ON DOJ’S MOVE TO FIRE FORMER SPECIAL COUNSEL OFFICIALS

Smith said the DOJ has “been corrupted” over the past year but that he believed the department would “ultimately come through this better.”

Smith also accused the DOJ of turning a blind eye to cases that might reveal “inconvenient” facts that would contradict “narratives the president would like to press.”

Smith praised career prosecutors, saying a “central component” of the current DOJ’s strategy was to punish those like the several Minnesota attorneys who resigned in protest over internal disputes with how to handle an investigation into an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent killing Renee Good, a 37-year-old anti-ICE activist.

“To erode the rule of law in this country you need to attack these people, and that is what we have seen since January 2025,” Smith said.

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Smith’s comments were not all negative, however, according to the New York Times. He praised the DOJ for being more vocal than it was under Biden, a comment that comes as Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who replaced Pam Bondi a month ago, has taken on an aggressive, proactive media strategy. Blanche has held a series of press conferences where he has taken rounds of off-topic questions while also doing numerous wide-ranging interviews with friendly and tough media outlets.

A Smith representative had no comment. Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.

The Department of Justice has ramped up its use of a rarely deployed legal tool to strip citizenship, targeting 12 naturalized Americans accused of hiding ties to terrorism, violent crimes and other offenses, and signaling more cases will follow.

The action on Friday against 12 immigrants included bringing civil complaints or charges against those from Iraq, Somalia, China and India. It comes as acting Attorney General Todd Blanche touts expanding the typically difficult effort to denaturalize people and also follows the DOJ Civil Division ordering more denaturalizations in a memo last summer about the Trump administration’s priorities, which include cracking down on illegal immigration and fraud.

Blanche said in a statement to Fox News Digital of Friday’s sweeping enforcement action that anyone “who intentionally concealed their criminal histories or misrepresented themselves during the naturalization process will face the fullest extent of the law.”

FEDS LAUNCH OPERATION TARGETING MINNESOTA REFUGEES FOR POTENTIAL DEPORTATION AMID FRAUD INVESTIGATION

One of the dozen, Ali Yousif Ahmed, gained citizenship after saying he fled Iraq in 2009 because al-Qaeda terrorists attacked his family, authorities said. But, authorities said, Iraq sought Ahmed’s extradition in 2019 for allegedly murdering two Iraqi police officers while a leader in al-Qaeda, a detail he allegedly omitted from the U.S. government.

Another, Salah Osman Ahmed of Somalia, naturalized in 2007 and pleaded guilty in 2009 to providing material support for terrorists and belonged to the terrorist group al-Shabaab, Fox News Digital learned. The DOJ alleged that joining a terrorist group within five years of naturalization was grounds for revoking citizenship.

Others included Abduvosit Razikov of Uzbekistan, who allegedly entered into a sham marriage to gain citizenship, and Oscar Alberto Pelaez of Colombia, a priest who was convicted in the United States of 13 counts of sexual abuse of a minor, including sodomy, and allegedly lied about the crimes during the naturalization process, Fox News Digital learned.

Denaturalization has long been an infrequent tool for immigration enforcement. In the span of about 30 years, the DOJ filed about 305 denaturalization cases. Then, when Trump first took office in 2017, the government brought 168 cases. The figure drastically reduced under President Joe Biden, and now with Trump back in office, the effort has returned to the fore.

SENATE REPUBLICANS PUSH TO DEPORT, DENATURALIZE FRAUDSTERS AMID MINNESOTA SCANDAL

Prosecutors must meet a high bar to denaturalize immigrants by proving with “clear and convincing” evidence that “material fraud” occurred during the naturalization process, Neama Rahmani, a California-based former federal prosecutor, told Fox News Digital, saying it was not an easy process.

Blanche warned during a recent CBS News interview that people “should be worried” if they obtained citizenship through fraud.

“Who are targets are? We are not limiting ourselves to anyone in particular except to say that unfortunately, and I think you’re going to hear more about this in the coming days and weeks, there are a lot of U.S. citizens who shouldn’t be,” Blanche said.

TRUMP IS TARGETING NONVIOLENT AND LEGAL IMMIGRANTS. AMERICANS ARE STARTING TO NOTICE

Pressed on denaturalization being a “very drastic penalty,” Blanche shot back, “It’s a very drastic reward being naturalized, committing fraud.”

Immigrants rights groups have raised worries that the some 24 million naturalized citizens in the United States have been left unsettled by the Trump administration’s broadened pursuit of revoking citizenship.

“There are concerns that the federal government’s denaturalization efforts could lead to the revocation of U.S. citizenship of many individuals who made minor or unintentional mistakes or omissions in their naturalization application,” Forum policy expert Christian Penichet-Paul wrote last summer.

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Rahmani noted that the alleged fraud cannot be trivial or negligent, but instead must be significant and intentional.

“It has to be something material, and material means that the citizenship would not have been granted had DHS known,” Rahmani said. “That’s really the standard.”

Declassified transcripts from two Apollo missions show astronauts repeatedly describing unexplained lights and objects while orbiting and walking on the moon.

The Pentagon on Friday released transcripts and photos from two NASA Apollo missions as part of a broader disclosure of dozens of photos and documents detailing UFO sightings it has documented since the 1950s.

The trove of documents reporting UFO and Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) sightings comes in compliance with a directive from President Donald Trump aimed at increasing government transparency around reported UFO sightings, all of which remain unsolved. Tens of millions of documents are being combed through and will be released on a rolling basis.

UFO EXPERT SAYS TRUMP’S DECLASSIFICATION COULD EXPOSE POSSIBLE ‘COVER-UP’ SPANNING DECADES

The documents include technical transcripts and photos from Apollo 12 in 1969 and Apollo 17 in 1972, capturing moments in which crews discussed strange flashes, moving lights and unidentified phenomena against the stark lunar horizon.

The release includes six photos taken by Apollo 12 mission astronauts on the moon’s surface, revealing unidentified and oddly shaped lights appearing in the sky. In one of the photos, there are a total of five UFOs identified.

A four-page transcript from the mission unveils one of the astronauts’ accounts of what he was witnessing, telling command about the lights he saw in the dark sky.

He described that the lights were “sailing off into space.”

EXPLOSIVE NEW DOCUMENTARY PROBES ’80-YEAR GLOBAL COVERUP’ OF UFO SECRETS

“I was thinking they’re dropping off from my water boiler, but it looks like some of those things are escaping the moon. They really haul out of here and just press off at the stars.”

The astronaut described that the lights were “pulsing every second.” Command suggested that the phenomenon was a likely electromagnetic interference, which can occur by both man-made and natural sources.

A 16-page transcript from the Apollo 17 mission detailed how the astronauts saw lights from their window which resembled “Fourth of July.”

“They’re very jagged, angular fragments that are tumbling,” one of the astronauts described.

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Another astronaut recounted how when he was trying to sleep he saw bright “peripheral horizon-type things” which made it difficult to sleep.

“The last one I remember before falling asleep — was the fact that there was a very bright spot that flashed right between my eyes like a very bright headlight — like a train coming at you, only with a flash,” the astronaut said.

More UAP files were made available at WAR.GOV/UFO.

Fox News’ Peter Doocy and Fox News Digital’s Robert McGreevy contributed to this report.

The Virginia Supreme Court’s ruling striking down Democrats’ costly redistricting push sparked an uproar on social media over the massive sum the party spent to pass the now-defunct congressional map. 

Virginians for Fair Elections, the main pro-redistricting group, raised north of $64 million in support of the Democratic-friendly gerrymander that could have netted the party four GOP-held seats in November’s midterm elections. Nearly $40 million of that came from a super PAC aligned with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., who was heavily involved in the effort to redraw the state’s congressional map.

The pro-redistricting campaign outspent the opposition 10 to 1 on television ads, according to analysis from The Washington Post. But the legal challenge that Republicans helped bankroll to get the map thrown out proved more decisive.

“The funniest part about the court’s ruling that Virginia’s map is unconstitutional garbage is that the Democrats burned $64M just to get it thrown out,” conservative columnist Dustin Grage wrote on social media.

DARK MONEY FLOODS VIRGINIA AHEAD OF REDISTRICTING VOTE THAT COULD HAND DEMOCRATS HOUSE EDGE

“Democrats incinerated nearly $70 million on an unconstitutional gerrymandering scheme in Virginia,” conservative commentator Steve Guest said following the court’s ruling.

The Virginia Supreme Court ruled Friday that Virginia Democrats violated the state constitution by fast-tracking the gerrymander referendum before voters, who narrowly approved the measure earlier this year.

The court’s decision is a major setback for Democrats’ efforts to flip control of the House of Representatives in November’s midterm elections. Though the party made gains in California with a Democratic-friendly gerrymander, Republicans have carved out a significant lead in the country’s redistricting race.

The GOP has redrawn maps in Texas, North Carolina, Missouri, Florida and Tennessee that could carve out roughly 10 additional seats for the party in 2026.

Republicans are also eyeing new maps in Louisiana and South Carolina among other southern states, following the Supreme Court’s decision to significantly curb the use of race in drawing electoral districts. 

Jeffries ripped the court’s ruling as an “undemocratic action” designed to disenfranchise voters.

“We are exploring all options to overturn this shocking decision,” he said. “No matter what it takes, House Democrats will win in November so we can help rescue this nation from the extremism being unleashed by Donald Trump and Republicans.”

REDISTRICTING BATTLES BREWING ACROSS THE COUNTRY AS PARTIES COMPETE FOR POWER AHEAD OF 2026 MIDTERMS

Other observers mocked Virginia state Sen. L. Louise Lucas, who championed the gerrymander under the slogan “Ten F—– One,” referring to the new congressional map that would let Democrats hold 10 out of the state’s 11 congressional seats.

“You all started it and we f—— finished it,” Lucas wrote on social media after Gov. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., signed the since-defeated map into law in February.

“So did Louise Lucas still ‘F—— FINISH IT?'” journalist Charles Cooke wrote on social media Friday.

“Tough luck, @SenLouiseLucas – merch just got Supreme Court’d straight to the clearance rack,” GOP strategist Christian Martinez wrote on social media in response to a post from Lucas promoting “Ten F—– One” shirts.

“Maybe try ‘Zero F—– Wins’ next time,” Martinez added.

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“I guess it’s fitting that her initials are LLL,” journalist Chuck Ross wrote, referring to Lucas.

The FBI raided Lucas’ office on Wednesday in Portsmouth, Va., as part of an ongoing investigation. The probe is examining possible corruption related to a marijuana dispensary business she owns, sources familiar with the matter told Fox News Digital.

A spokesperson for Lucas did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Virginia Supreme Court on Friday invalidated a new, voter-approved redistricting map, delivering a significant victory for Republicans in the state ahead of the fast-approaching 2026 midterm elections.

“We hold that the legislative process employed to advance this proposal violated Article XII, Section 1 of the Constitution of Virginia,” the Virginia Supreme Court said in the ruling. “This constitutional violation incurably taints the resulting referendum vote and nullifies its legal efficacy.”

The Virginia Supreme Court heard oral arguments last month over the newly passed congressional map, which voters in the state approved by a narrow 51% to 49% margin.

The ballot measure would have given  the Democrat-controlled Virginia legislature — rather than the state’s current nonpartisan commission — temporary redistricting power through 2030.

It was also expected to yield a 10-1 advantage for Democrats in Virginia’s congressional delegation, up from their current 6-5 edge.

Republicans quickly sued to block the effort, prompting the state supreme court to hear oral arguments last month.

RNC chair Joe Gruters praised the ruling Friday, describing it on social media as a “HUGE WIN” for election integrity.

“This was a clear violation of the Constitution — that’s why the RNC stepped in to stop Democrats’ rigged maps and WON!” he said.

Virginia is one of the latest battlegrounds in the redistricting war pitting President Donald Trump and GOP lawmakers against Democrats.

Trump last spring floated the idea of a rare — if not unheard of — mid-decade congressional redistricting effort in an effort to prevent the so-called “blue wave” that saw Democrats retake the House majority in the 2018  midterms during his first term in office.

The effort was aimed at redrawing congressional district maps in GOP-led states to pad the fragile House majority and keep control of the chamber after the midterms, when the party in power traditionally faces political headwinds and loses seats.

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Asked last summer about his plan to add Republican-leaning House seats to maps across the country, Trump said, “Texas will be the biggest one. And that’ll be five.”

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This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is meeting Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni Thursday in Rome amid diplomatic tensions with both Italy and the Vatican.

The meeting comes one day after Rubio, a practicing Catholic, held talks at the Vatican with Pope Leo and senior church officials in what many observers viewed as an effort to calm relations after weeks of escalating rhetoric between President Donald Trump and the Holy See.

For much of Trump’s second term, Meloni was widely viewed as Trump’s closest ideological ally among major European leaders. But that relationship has begun to fray amid disputes over the Iran war.

That political partnership, however, has come under strain in recent months, as Trump’s escalating clash with Pope Leo XIV collided with separate tensions over Italy’s limits on using its territory for U.S. combat-linked operations tied to the Iran war.

RUBIO TO VISIT ITALY, VATICAN AMID TROOP DRAWDOWN CALL, TENSION WITH TRUMP, POPE LEO: REPORTS

Asked April 30 whether he’d consider pulling troops out of Italy and Spain, Trump said, “Yeah, probably. … Why shouldn’t I?”

“Italy has not been of any help to us,” the president said.

The Italian prime minister built a strong rapport with Trump through their shared positions on immigration, nationalism, border security and opposition to progressive cultural politics. Meloni was the only European leader to attend Trump’s second inauguration in January 2025, and she also visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago as she sought to position herself as a key intermediary between Washington and Europe.

TRUMP MEETS WITH ITALIAN PM GIORGIA MELONI AT HIS MAR-A-LAGO RESORT

The relationship often appeared notably warm in public. 

During a 2025 Middle East summit in Egypt, Trump publicly praised Meloni as “a beautiful young woman” and joked, “You don’t mind being called beautiful, right?” before describing her as an “incredible leader” respected throughout Italy.

Trump and Meloni also found common ground politically. 

Both leaders embraced tougher border enforcement policies, criticized “woke” ideology in Western institutions and argued for stronger nationalist identities inside their respective countries. Meloni’s conservative Brothers of Italy party was frequently described by Trump allies as an example of the type of populist movement reshaping Europe.

The split became visible after Meloni publicly criticized Trump’s attacks on the pope as “unacceptable,” prompting Trump to lash back and reportedly tell aides she was “much different than I thought.”

RUBIO HOLDS ‘CONSTRUCTIVE’ MEETING WITH POPE LEO AFTER TRUMP SENDS HARD-LINE IRAN MESSAGE TO VATICAN

Italian media and European analysts have described the dispute as a remarkable deterioration between two leaders once viewed as natural political allies.

The Vatican dispute has been especially politically sensitive for Meloni because Pope Leo, the first U.S.-born pontiff, remains highly influential in Italy, where criticism of the pope by foreign leaders can quickly become politically toxic. Trump’s remarks about Leo’s opposition to the war against Iran generated significant backlash among Italian Catholics and across portions of Italy’s political establishment.

The Iran conflict has further complicated relations. Italian officials reportedly have expressed growing discomfort over the possibility of deeper U.S. military escalation and concerns surrounding American military base access in Italy. Rome has also faced pressure domestically to distance itself from Washington’s handling of the conflict.

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Economic tensions continue simmering in the background as well. While Trump earlier in 2026 reduced tariffs on some Italian exports, including pasta products, as what he described as a “New Year’s gift” to Italy, concerns remain in Rome and Brussels over the administration’s repeated threats to impose broader tariffs on European goods.

Against that backdrop, Rubio’s visit is widely being interpreted as an effort to stabilize relations before the political rift deepens further. The secretary of state is expected to discuss Middle East security, NATO coordination, migration and trade during his talks with Meloni and other Italian officials as the administration works to preserve Italy’s role as one of Washington’s closest partners in Southern Europe.

The White House and Italian embassy in the U.S. could not immediately be reached for comment. 

New York Governor Kathy Hochul is using her 2027 budget request to push new restrictions targeting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the Empire State, testing the limits of her authority to impose requirements on federal agencies — a test that experts say is doomed from its outset.

The Local Cops Local Crimes Act would block local law enforcement from acting on behalf of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Alongside a proposed ban on masks and new operational limits in certain settings, Hochul’s efforts continue Democrats’ efforts to use state-level policies to push back on President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

“ICE will no longer be able to use our police, our jails and our resources to carry out civil immigration enforcement. Because guess what: Our officers paid for by local taxpayer dollars were hired to protect their communities, to be there to assist with a traffic accident, to go after retail theft, stop domestic violence,” Hochul said at a press event on Thursday.

HOCHUL DENOUNCES ICE RAID AS ‘CRUEL,’ DESPITE CHILD ENDANGERMENT AMONG CHARGES

“They’re not there to do the federal government’s bidding.”

Since the beginning of President Donald Trump’s second term, governors in states like Illinois, California and Virginia have thrown up barriers to local-federal immigration cooperation by limiting communication, data sharing and more.

In Hochul’s case, the Local Cops Local Crimes Act rescinds and prevents the expansion of any new agreements under the 287(g) program — a federal law that allows local officers to assume authority to conduct immigration-related work that is normally carried out by federal officials.

It also comes alongside a slew of separate immigration-related reforms Hochul is pressing for, including establishing a state right to sue ICE for “constitutional violations,” a prohibition on masks for local and federal law enforcement and a restriction that would prevent ICE from entering schools, libraries, polling locations and homes without a judicial warrant.

Hans von Spakovsky, a legal scholar with Advancing American Freedom, believes those additional changes won’t survive long — even if they do become law.

“If the question is: can she do any of that? The answer is no. This is not an ambiguous issue,” Spakovsky said.

JONATHAN TURLEY: WHY BLUE STATES’ NEW ANTI-ICE LAWS ARE UNCONSTITUTIONAL VIRTUE SIGNALING

Spakovsky, pointing to the 1890 Supreme Court case In re Neagle, said states can’t hold federal agents responsible for carrying out federal mandates.

The Local Cops Local Crimes Act stipulates that local law enforcement would still have to comply with warrants issued for an immigration-related arrest.

“Nothing in this section shall be intended to limit local government law, law enforcement agency, correctional facility, or local correctional facility from enforcing any valid state or federal court-issued warrants or orders, or any other actions as required by law,” the bill reads.

Even so, Laurin Bis, acting assistant secretary for public affairs for the Department of Homeland Security, blasted Hochul’s announcement, calling it a dangerous development for NYC residents.

“Governor Hochul’s policies of not cooperating with ICE put New Yorkers in danger. When politicians bar local law enforcement from working with DHS, our law enforcement officers have to have a more visible presence so that we can find and apprehend the criminals let out of jails and back into communities,” Bis said.

Bis said DHS feared that NYC would end up allowing more immigration-law violators back onto the street.

“Instead of working with us, Governor Hochul is choosing to release violent criminals from her jails directly back into our communities to perpetrate more crimes and create more victims.”

NEW JERSEY GOV SHERRILL SIGNS LAW BARRING ICE AGENTS FROM WEARING FACE COVERINGS TO SHIELD IDENTITIES

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Hochul’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment on whether New York would refuse to hold suspects in violation of immigration law.

The office also did not respond to questions about why the Local Cops Local Crimes Act had been included alongside the 2027 budget request.

FIRST ON FOX — The Trump administration on Friday released a batch of “never-before-seen” files and videos on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon (UAP) as part of an effort to increase transparency on government knowledge of extraterrestrial phenomenon.

“The latest UAP videos, photos, and original source documents from across the entire United States government are all in one place – no clearance required. While past administrations sought to discredit or dissuade the American people, President Trump is focused on providing maximum transparency to the public, who can ultimately make up their own minds about the information contained in these files,” the White House said in a statement to Fox News.

The release is a function of President Donald Trump’s Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE) program.

Photos from the initial disclosure, which a White House official told Fox News is the first of a series of releases, show strangely shaped objects captured on film during the Apollo 12 and Apollo 17 space missions.

One photo taken from the surface of the moon appears to show a cluster of three tiny dots in the sky.

TRUMP SAYS FIRST RELEASES FROM PENTAGON UFO STUDY WILL COME OUT ‘VERY, VERY SOON’ AFTER PHOENIX RALLY TEASE

A transcript of communications between Apollo 17 operators released in the disclosure Friday details the operators’ exchange over the unknown phenomenon.

“Now we’ve got a few very bright particles or fragments or something that go drifting by as we maneuver,” an operator told the command center.

“Roger. Understand,” the center replied.

UFO COVER USED BY GOVERNMENT TO ‘HIDE A LOT OF THINGS,’ FORMER NASA AGENT SAYS

“There’s a whole bunch of big ones on my window down there – just bright. It looks like the Fourth of July out of Ron’s window,” another operator added.

“Yes. Now you can see some of them in shape. They’re very jagged, angular fragments that are tumbling,” the first operator said.

Another pair of photos from the release come from the FBI and contain images from New Year’s Eve 1999 showing other UAPs in the same image as U.S. aircraft.

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In February, after former President Barack Obama told a podcaster that aliens were real, Fox News senior White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked Trump directly about the existence of aliens.

“He gave classified information. He’s not supposed to be doing that,” Trump said of Obama. “I don’t know if they’re real or not. I can tell you, he gave classified information. He’s not supposed to be doing that – he made a big mistake. He took it out of classified information.”

Days later, Trump announced in a Truth Social post that he would be declassifying files related to the subject.

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“Based on the tremendous interest shown, I will be directing the Secretary of War, and other relevant Departments and Agencies, to begin the process of identifying and releasing Government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs), and any and all other information connected to these highly complex, but extremely interesting and important, matters. GOD BLESS AMERICA!” he wrote.

Numerous agency heads commented on the release, calling it an unprecedented step in transparency.

“The Department of War is in lockstep with President Trump to bring unprecedented transparency regarding our government’s understanding of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena,” Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said.

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“These files, hidden behind classifications, have long fueled justified speculation — and it’s time the American people see it for themselves. This release of declassified documents demonstrates the Trump Administration’s earnest commitment to unprecedented transparency,” he concluded.

“The American people have long sought transparency about the government’s knowledge of unidentified anomalous phenomena,” Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard added.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence is actively coordinating the Intelligence Community’s declassification efforts with the Department of War to ensure a careful, comprehensive, and unprecedented review of our holdings to provide the American people with maximum transparency. Today’s release is the first in what will be an ongoing joint declassification and release effort.”

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FBI Director Kash Patel added, “The FBI is proud to stand alongside President Trump and our interagency partners in this landmark release of UAP records. For the first time in history, the American people have unfettered access to declassified government files on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon – a level of transparency that no prior administration has delivered. The FBI remains committed to supporting this rolling declassification effort with the same rigorous and integrity we bring to every national security matter. As these files continue to be reviewed and release, the American people can be confident that their security remains our highest priority.” 

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman also weighed in. “I applaud President Trump’s whole-of-government effort to bring greater transparency to the American people on unidentified anomalous phenomena,” Isaacman said.

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“At NASA, our job is to bring the brightest minds and most advanced scientific instruments to bear, follow the data, and share what we learn. We will remain candid about what we know to be true, what we have yet to understand, and all that remains to be discovered. Exploration and the pursuit of knowledge are core to NASA’s mission as we endeavor to unlock the secrets of the universe,” he concluded.

A large batch of UAP files will be available at WAR.GOV/UFO.