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The U.S. military has lost or sustained damage to at least 81 aircraft during the war with Iran — nearly double the number identified five months ago, according to a new government analysis that warns replacing some of the critical vehicles could strain the military’s ability to meet demands elsewhere.

The aircraft include some of the military’s most advanced fighters and critical support aircraft, as well as dozens of drones, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) noted in its report.

The tally is nearly double the 42 aircraft CRS identified in May as lost or damaged, although the increase partly reflects additional information becoming publicly available and does not mean all 39 additional aircraft were lost or damaged since that assessment.

ALARMING MISSILE REPORT DRAWS FORCEFUL RESPONSE FROM TRUMP AS IRAN WAR TESTS AMERICA’S ARSENAL

CRS, a nonpartisan arm of the Library of Congress that provides research and analysis to lawmakers and congressional committees, identified 12 F-15E Strike Eagles, an F-35A Lightning II, seven KC-135 refueling tankers, an E-3 Sentry airborne warning-and-control aircraft and 45 MQ-9 Reaper drones among those lost or damaged since Operation Epic Fury began on Feb. 28, 2026.

The body also warned that losses among aging, high-demand aircraft could create capability gaps or increase risk in other theaters, while production constraints and competing demands could affect how quickly the military rebuilds its capacity.

The 81 aircraft were lost or damaged through a mix of Iranian attacks, enemy fire, friendly fire, accidents and aircraft deliberately destroyed during rescue operations — though some damaged aircraft have since returned to service.

“We do not comment on reports from outside organizations or non-DOW battle damage assessments,” a Department of War official told Fox News Digital when reached for comment on the report.

HOW IRAN ATTACKS ARE FORCING THE PENTAGON TO RETHINK ITS DECADES-OLD MIDDLE EAST BASE STRATEGY

CRS cautioned that the tally could continue to change because of classification, ongoing combat operations and questions of attribution.

The new accounting comes more than eight months into a war that has strained U.S. weapons stockpiles and raised broader questions about how quickly the defense industrial base can replenish what the military is using. A Pentagon inspector general report last month found that the U.S. had spent an estimated $22.3 billion on munitions through June alone and warned of “strategic inventory shortfalls.”

The Congressional Budget Office estimated in September that replacing equipment lost through Aug. 1 could cost between $1.9 billion and $3.3 billion, depending on the Department of War’s replacement plans.

Drones account for more than half of the aircraft in the new tally. At least 45 MQ-9 Reapers have been lost in operations against Iran, according to CRS, along with three MQ-1 drones and an MQ-4C Triton.

But while drones drive much of the raw number, the report also points to losses and damage among scarcer, harder-to-replace aircraft.

An E-3 Sentry was damaged in an Iranian attack on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia in March and was later reported to have sustained a “direct hit.” CRS specifically flagged the aging and limited E-3 fleet as an example of how losses among high-demand aircraft could create capability gaps or increase risks for U.S. forces in other theaters.

Iranian attacks have also inflicted damage on U.S. aircraft while they were on the ground at bases across the region. Five KC-135 tankers were reportedly damaged at Prince Sultan Air Base in March, while eight F-15Es sustained light damage during an Iranian strike on Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan in September. The eight fighters were returned to service.

At least 18 U.S. service members have also died since the war began, though the Pentagon has divided those deaths between Operation Epic Fury and a separate category for the renewed fighting that began in July.

PENTAGON RACES TO BUY 10X MORE MISSILES AS IRAN WAR DWINDLES ARSENAL, THREATENS READINESS FOR CHINA AGGRESSION

Other losses illustrate the dangers surrounding recovery operations. Two MC-130J Commando II special operations aircraft were intentionally destroyed while supporting efforts to rescue the crew of a downed F-15E, while an HH-60W Jolly Green II helicopter was damaged during the same rescue effort. Four AH-6 Little Bird helicopters were later destroyed by U.S. forces during separate rescue operations, according to the Defense Department inspector general.

Three F-15Es were destroyed by friendly fire over Kuwait in the opening days of the war, while an F-35A was later damaged by Iranian ground fire over Iran.

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CRS said the losses could prompt Congress to examine whether the U.S. industrial base can replace aircraft quickly enough to meet military requirements. The report also pointed to a broader operational question: whether the losses reflect changes in Iran’s capabilities that require the U.S. to adjust its equipment, tactics or basing posture.

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten drew backlash Wednesday after filming a video from a field near Newark’s Delaney Hall migrant detention facility, where she decried alleged conditions inside.

Weingarten’s video, filmed within view of the facility, comes as school-choice advocates have criticized her political activism while student academic performance remains below pre-pandemic levels — with one critic recently summing up the contrast as a desire to “dictate … policy on immigration while its own members’ students struggle with basic skills.”

“Dangerous rhetoric from politicians and activists demonizing our brave ICE officers has led to the over 8,000% increase in threats against DHS law enforcement who are heroically performing their congressionally mandated mission to remove criminal illegal aliens from communities across the country,” a DHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital when asked about Weingarten’s visit.

“Any claim that there are subprime conditions at ICE detention facilities is false,” the agency said.

ANTI-ICE PROTESTERS CLASH WITH AGENTS OUTSIDE NEW JERSEY DETENTION CENTER AS GOV SHERRILL DENIED ENTRY

Fox News Digital reached out to Weingarten through AFT for comment. In her video, Weingarten disputed DHS’ characterization of conditions at the facility:

“This is one of the most despicable things that our current government does,” Weingarten said as she was filmed pointing and gesticulating toward Delaney Hall.

“They put people — people have not committed any crimes — they are immigrants. They deport them, or they … detain them and deport them in conditions that are unimaginable.”

Weingarten, who grew up about 40 miles north of New York City in Nyack, New York, said her grandparents came to the U.S. seeking a better life, drawing a comparison to migrants detained at Delaney Hall.

“We saw families coming out [of Delaney] who had just visited their loved ones… They work hard. They play by the rules. They should not be detained or deported because we have a broken immigration system,” she claimed. “We should fix the immigration system, but the cruelty of this government right now is terrible.”

DHS said in response to Weingarten that its mission remains “straightforward” — enforcing laws on the books and protecting America’s national security.

“Being in detention is a choice. We encourage all illegal aliens to take control of their departure with the CBP Home App. The United States is offering illegal aliens $3,000 and a free flight to self-deport now,” the DHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital.

INSPECTION OF DELANEY HALL ICE FACILITY CONTRADICTS CLAIMS IN NEW JERSEY ATTORNEY GENERAL’S LAWSUIT

School-choice advocate Corey DeAngelis responded to Weingarten’s video by arguing that the union leader wants more illegal immigrants enrolled in public schools because their enrollment increases taxpayer funding.

“It’s time to overturn Plyler v Doe and stop forcing taxpayers to fund education for illegals,” DeAngelis tweeted, referencing a 1982 Supreme Court case wherein Eisenhower-appointed Justice William Brennan Jr. ruled for the majority that Texas could not deny undocumented school-age children access to free public education.

A 2026 Annie E. Casey Foundation analysis found that 47 states fared worse on its education index in 2024 than in 2019, with national declines in math proficiency, reading proficiency and preschool attendance. Weingarten has led AFT since 2008. She previously led New York City’s UFT from 1998 to 2009.

DeAngelis previously criticized Weingarten after she encouraged a boycott of Target over the Minnesota-based retailer’s response to ICE operations. DeAngelis wrote for the Heritage Foundation that AFT “wants to dictate corporate policy on immigration while its own members’ students struggle with basic skills. That mismatch should alarm every taxpayer and parent.”

WATCH: WEINGARTEN GESTURES WILDLY DURING ANTI-TRUMP RANT, LATER SAYS HE DRIVES HER TO DRINK

The clip of Weingarten drew criticism on X, including from users who argued that the teachers union leader was straying beyond education policy and into the immigration debate.

Other critics shared photos of Weingarten promoting her book “Why Fascists Fear Teachers.”

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“This is wild. Randi Weingarten is bad enough in her education related field (power, indoctrination, control) but now she is expanding into immigration,” another wrote.

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The clash comes as Weingarten and AFT have become increasingly involved in immigration fights beyond the classroom, including pressuring Target over ICE operations. Critics have pointed to persistent academic setbacks as evidence the union’s leadership should be focused on education, while AFT describes political activism and broader civil-rights advocacy as part of its mission alongside public education.

Fox News Digital also reached out to the Department of Education for comment.

The White House ripped Joe Biden after documents declassified by President Donald Trump on Monday revealed internal strife between the former president’s Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FBI’s Washington Field Office (WFO) before carrying out a raid on Mar-a-Lago in 2022.

In the months leading up to the raid, internal emails between FBI agents in the field office expressed frustration that the DOJ, led by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland, was unresponsive to their requests and unwilling to consider alternative options to raiding Trump’s estate in Palm Beach, Florida a year-and-a-half after he left office after his first term.

Fox News Digital exclusively reported on the internal emails, which show the FBI didn’t believe it had probable cause to execute the warrant, in December.

“Spying on political opponents is weaponization of law enforcement, plain and simple,” the White House said Tuesday. “This is further proof the Biden administration weaponized the DOJ to target political opponents. Those responsible must be held accountable.”

TODD BLANCHE REVEALS DOJ UNEARTHED CACHE OF JACK SMITH DOCUMENTS INSIDE FORGOTTEN ROOM

An email dated May 24, 2022, with the subject line “PE (Plasma Echo) Next steps – timeline preference – UNCLASSIFIED,” the special agent in charge of the counterintelligence division of the WFO sent an internal email detailing a proposed timeline for the investigation, ending with the execution of a search warrant. That target date was June 6 of that year. The raid would eventually take place on Aug. 8, 2022.

Another agent replied asking the first to loop the DOJ in on the timeline. What followed was skepticism that the raid was even necessary.

“[REDACTED] and I also agreed if there was a way to obtain the records via the [REDACTED], without the execution of the SW (search warrant), it would be preferable,” the special agent in charge said.

Another batch of internal emails from June 1-2, 2022, shows the FBI seeking a potential off-ramp from the investigation that was heading towards the execution of the raid.

“Even as we continue down the path towards a search warrant, WFO believes that a reasonable conversation with the former President’s attorney, [REDACTED], ought not to be discounted,” the email said. “At a minimum, even if the former President’s attorney is correct and that the documents were all declassified (or believed to be declassified), it can be reasonably argued that the documents remain sensitive and should be properly secured until the matter of classification is sorted out. This conversation could easily be accomplished at the same time that WFO presses forward with the investigation and continues building out the search warrant.”

JACK SMITH’S TRUMP PROBE SWEPT UP FOX NEWS, OTHER MEDIA COMMUNICATIONS AS INVESTIGATION WENT BEYOND LAWMAKERS

The emails noted that Trump’s defense attorneys would likely argue that the president has the absolute authority to declassify documents and expressed frustration that the DOJ, despite being asked, had not provided the FBI with a list of the charges they might file.

An internal email from July 13, 2022, less than a month before the raid, the assistant special agent in charge of the WFO said flatly that the FBI didn’t believe there was probable cause for the raid.

“WFO does not believe (and has articulated to DOJ CES), that we have established probable cause for the search warrant at Mar a Lago. DOJ has opined that they do, requesting the a wide scope including residence, office, storage space,” that email says.

The agent annoyedly continued by implying that the DOJ wasn’t interested in recovering the allegedly mishandled classified documents, intimating that there may have been an ulterior motive.

“Finally, if the goal is to identify and recover classified records quickly, so as to protect the information, the 5 weeks spent fixated on probable cause for a search warrant have been counterproductive,” the email said.

The agent offered other solutions to the raid, including re-interviewing Trump’s attorney and attempting to find other material witnesses.

BIDEN-ERA FBI TRACKED TRUMP FAMILY TRAVEL AND WILES’ CALLS WITH LAWYERS IN SECRET PROBE: DOCS

“A reasonable step would be to recontact the attorney and inquire about any further documents. WFO has made numerous suggestions to DOJ over the course of this investigation that the most expedient way to ensure recovery of all classified documents would be to go through [REDACTED]. DOJ has persistently disagreed.

Other documents declassified by the White House Monday showed that the FBI tapped now-White House chief of staff Susie Wiles’ phone and tracked the movements of Melania and Barron Trump.

The raid on Trump’s Florida estate was viewed as politically driven by many, as Trump was at the time mulling what became a successful bid for the presidency in 2024.

DOJ-appointed special counsel Jack Smith investigated the alleged retention of classified materials. Trump pleaded not guilty to all 37 felony charges from Smith’s probe, including willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice and false statements.

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A superseding indictment charged Trump with three more alleged crimes: another count of willful retention of national defense information and two additional obstruction counts.

Trump pleaded not guilty, and Smith dropped after Trump won the 2024 presidential election.

President Donald Trump announced the U.S. government will take a 40% stake in the new shipyard being built in Baltimore to boost submarine production, adding a major government ownership component to the $6.6 billion project.

“The ultimate proof of our commitment to ensuring the shipyard’s enduring success: American taxpayers will receive a 40 percent stake in the new shipyard,” Trump said during remarks in Sparrows Point on Tuesday. “We get 40 percent.”

Anduril has said the stake will be in a new subsidiary created to operate the Arsenal-2 shipyard, rather than in the defense tech company itself. Further details about what rights come with the government’s 40% interest, what the government is providing in exchange and how it could ultimately generate a return have not yet been publicly released.

Fox News Digital has reached out to Anduril and the White House for details.

STARTUPS BRING INNOVATION TO DEFENSE INDUSTRIAL BASE

The size of the stake stands out even as the Trump administration has increasingly taken direct government interests in companies and projects it considers critical to national security. The administration has struck equity arrangements involving chipmaker Intel, rare earths producer MP Materials and other strategic industries.

The arrangement is part of a broader $6.6 billion effort to expand production of Virginia-class attack submarines as the U.S. struggles to keep pace with China’s vast shipbuilding capacities and the Navy falls behind on its production goal.

Anduril is committing $3.7 billion of its own capital to build the facility and manufacturing capacity, while the Navy could spend up to $2.9 billion purchasing what it produces.

The project is aimed at closing a persistent U.S. submarine production shortfall as China rapidly expands its naval and shipbuilding capacity. American shipyards are delivering roughly 1.3 Virginia-class attack submarines a year, short of the Navy’s goal of two, which it does not expect to reach until around 2032. Once fully operational, Arsenal-2 is expected to add about 9 million labor hours annually to the submarine industrial base, increasing Virginia-class production capacity by roughly 15%, an administration official told reporters on a call before Trump’s remarks.

LARGEST-EVER US STEEL PLANT IS COMING TO A KEY RED STATE AS TRUMP UNVEILS $15B INVESTMENT

An industry official on the call emphasized that Anduril would finance the new production capacity itself while the government paid for the resulting output.

“I wouldn’t say that the government’s paying us back. We feel the government [is] buying the results of what we’re able to produce,” the industry official said.

The 40% government stake was not disclosed on the call, which included questions from reporters about how the project would be financed.

The submarine crunch is part of a broader shipbuilding gap with China, whose vast commercial maritime industry also supports its rapidly expanding navy. China now accounts for more than half of global commercial shipbuilding output, while the U.S. accounts for only a fraction of 1%, giving Beijing an enormous industrial base that can also support military ship construction.

Anduril plans to begin with critical components including torpedo tubes, which a senior administration official described as a current “gating component” slowing Virginia-class production. The company eventually plans to manufacture larger modules and sections of submarines at Arsenal-2.

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The more than 2 million-square-foot facility is expected to create 3,100 direct jobs and roughly 11,000 indirect jobs nationwide, with operations slated to begin around 2030.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio will deliver a speech in Greece on Wednesday calling for the renewal of Western civilization and urging allies to join the United States in rejecting the decline of the West.

The renewal of the West has been a theme during Rubio’s tenure at the helm of the State Department. He has often railed against what he views as an erosion of the values upon which Western civilization was built.

And his speech Wednesday will build on that. The remarks will commence at 11:30 a.m. ET, 6:30 p.m. local time in Greece, and is set in the ancient ruins of the citadel Acropolis.

“Secretary Rubio will deliver an address from the birthplace of Western civilization, where he will call upon Americans and Europeans alike to join together in a great renewal of the Western spirit – an inheritance stretching from Athens and Rome to Christendom to the founding of the American Republic,” Dylan Johnson, the State Department‘s assistant secretary for global public affairs, told Fox News Digital.

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“Against the backdrop of the Acropolis, Secretary Rubio will look to the history of ancient Greece as the first full expression of the qualities that would come to define the West: curiosity, courage, ambition, and a restless spirit of exploration and discovery of the unknown,” Johnson added.

“He will warn that too much of our civilization has forgotten these essential qualities and urge our allies across the West to join the United States in rejecting decline, defending our shared heritage, and confronting a new era of great-power competition together.”

During his visit, Rubio announced a new counterterrorism partnership between the U.S. and Greece.

He emphasized the strategic importance of Greece on Wednesday, calling it a “source of stability in an unstable world.”

“As you see a world that faces these destabilizing events, you recognize how important this alliance with Greece is to the United States,” Rubio said. “It is a source of stability in an unstable world.”

At the Munich Security Conference in Germany in February, Rubio delivered a speech on the topic that earned him a standing ovation from European leaders, and racked up millions of views online. One popular X user described it as “one of the greatest” speeches by a Secretary of State in decades.

Many others insisted the speech upped Rubio’s potential 2028 presidential chances.

AS AMERICA MARKS 250 YEARS, OUR GREATEST CHAPTERS ARE STILL AHEAD OF US

Rubio described the five centuries before the end of World War II, a time when the West had expanded across the globe, building “vast empires.” But, he said, after the war, Europe was in ruins, and “godless communist revolutions” in Europe caused people to believe that the West’s dominance was forever finished.

“Against that backdrop, then, as now, many came to believe that the West’s age of dominance had come to an end, and that our future was destined to be a faint and feeble echo of our past. But together, our predecessors recognized that decline was a choice, and it was a choice they refused to make,” he said.

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Rubio urged the European leaders to reinvigorate that spirit.

“This is why we do not want out allies to be shackled by guilt and shame,” he continued. “We want allies that are proud of our culture and our heritage, and understand that we are heirs to the same great and noble civilization and who together with us, are willing and able to defend it.”

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“And this is why we don’t want allies to rationalize the broken status quo, rather than what is necessary to reckon with what is necessary to fix it. For we in America have no interest in being polite and orderly caretakers of the West’s managed decline. We do not seek to separate, but to revitalize an old friendship and renew the greatest civilization in human history.”

House GOP leadership is ratcheting up pressure on its Senate counterparts to pass legislation making daylight saving time permanent after President Donald Trump called on Congress to act.

The House’s No. 2 leader, Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told Fox News Digital that “there’s no reason Americans should lose an hour of sunlight at the end of the day when more daylight means more time with our families, more activity for our businesses and safer communities.”

“President Trump has been pushing to make daylight saving time permanent, and House Republicans delivered by overwhelmingly passing the Sunshine Protection Act. It’s a commonsense change and the Senate should take it up,” Scalise said.

HOUSE PASSES DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME REFORM AS TRUMP SIGNALS SUPPORT FOR ENDING CLOCK CHANGE

The debate over the twice-annual changing of clocks has raged for decades in Washington.

Former President Richard Nixon’s administration led the country through a temporary 16-month trial of year-round daylight saving, but mounting public frustration forced the experiment to end six months early.

But the appetite for such a change appears to have returned. The House passed the Sunshine Protection Act in a bipartisan 308 to 117 vote in July, and Trump posted on Truth Social Friday, “A ridiculous Clock changing process that takes place twice a year, costs our Country a fortune, is bad for Crime, stress on people, Sports, and just about everything else you can imagine.”

But the legislation is stalled in the Senate, where Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told Politico there was “no clear path forward.”

TRUMP URGES SENATE TO PASS BILL MAKING DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME PERMANENT AFTER OVERWHELMING HOUSE VOTE

It’s created yet another rift between Trump and the Senate GOP majority, which he has clashed with on multiple fronts so far this term.

Trump’s frustration boiled over on the weekend when he targeted Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., one of the bill’s most prominent critics.

BATTLE OVER DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME ERUPTS AS PUSH TO STOP CHANGING CLOCKS HITS SENATE WALL

“Almost everybody wants ‘The Sunshine Protection Act’ to pass, except for Tom Cotton,” Trump said Saturday, sharing the senator’s cell phone number. “To the Great People of Arkansas, please let your Senator know it would be a GREAT Bipartisan WIN for the United States Senate, and for America, itself.”

Cotton responded, noting that Congress has tackled daylight saving time before, only to roll back the change shortly after.

SLEEP DOCTOR REVEALS THE BRUTAL HEALTH DOWNSIDE OF DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME

“No one likes changing the clock, me included, but Congress has enacted permanent Daylight Saving Time multiple times before and repealed it each time once Americans experienced absurdly late sunrises in the winter,” Cotton said on X. “Arkansans don’t want their kids going to school in the pitch dark, and I’ll always put Arkansas first.”

It’s a unique issue that has divided lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. There are others who agree with Cotton, who argue that sending kids to school in their states in the dark is a no-go for making the change. But there are also those who support the option and believe that Trump’s added pressure could see the legislation resurface.

But that will have to contend with an already stacked lame-duck schedule that will be heavily dictated by the outcome of the Nov. 3 election.

“Look, obviously, Tom has very strong feelings, he’s made those known both publicly and within the conference, so I don’t expect that to change,” Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., said. “You know, it’s something, obviously, the people of Alabama, for the most part, have said that they’re for.”

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“And so, we’ll look for a pathway to have dialogue about it … but I would anticipate, given the president’s energy around it, that we’ll have that dialogue and debate when we get back,” she continued.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom called for invoking the 25th Amendment against President Donald Trump, calling the president “mentally ill” following Trump’s controversial remarks involving Los Angeles and San Diego.

“Donald Trump is mentally ill. TIME FOR THE 25TH!” Newsom said in statements provided to multiple media outlets.

The Democratic governor’s comments came after Trump referenced the two California cities while discussing Iran during a campaign rally in Grand Island, Nebraska, on Monday.

“They can take out a city. Let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego,” Trump said. “This is a very small price to pay.”

GAVIN NEWSOM ACCUSES TRUMP OF EXPLOITING WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS’ DINNER SHOOTING TO ATTACK ENEMIES

Newsom blasted the president as “deranged and dangerous” in a post on X responding to the remarks.

It is not the first time Newsom has called for using the 25th Amendment against Trump. In July, the California governor said Trump’s election integrity speech represented a “legitimate 25th Amendment moment” and described it as “the rambling of a mad king.”

That earlier call drew sharp pushback from Republicans, who accused Newsom and other Democrats of applying a double standard after defending former President Joe Biden amid questions about his age and cognitive fitness while he was in office.

HOUSE DEMS UNVEIL BILL TO EXAMINE REMOVING TRUMP USING 25TH AMENDMENT

The 25th Amendment, ratified in 1967, provides a process under which the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet — or another body designated by Congress — can declare a president unable to discharge the powers and duties of the office.

The White House has pushed back on interpretations of Trump’s latest comments, saying the president was arguing that American cities could have faced threats from Iran if Tehran had obtained a nuclear weapon.

White House communications director Steven Cheung said the ensuing “media freakout” was “not rooted in reality,” adding that Trump “was clearly stating U.S. cities would have been threatened if a nuclear Iran hadn’t been stopped.”

“America is safer because of the President. Iran has no nuclear, no navy, no air force, and no money,” Cheung said.

Trump’s remarks came as he discussed the costs associated with the conflict with Iran, telling the Nebraska crowd that Americans were paying a “small price … for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe,” before referencing the potential threat to U.S. cities.

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Fox News Digital reached out to Newsom’s office and the White House, but did not immediately receive responses.

China nearly doubled the number of military and coast guard ships it sent to a key flashpoint in the South China Sea last month, according to Manila’s military.

It comes as a series of increasingly tense encounters raises the risk of confrontation with a U.S. treaty ally located in the disputed waters. The Armed Forces of the Philippines said it tracked 101 different Chinese navy and coast guard vessels around four disputed areas over the course of September, up from 56 in August and 48 in July.

The sharp increase comes as Chinese and Philippine forces have faced off both at sea and in the air, including an encounter over the weekend in which Manila accused a Chinese fighter jet of repeatedly maneuvering dangerously close to an unarmed Philippine patrol plane.

China claims sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, including waters that fall within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, and uses coast guard ships, naval vessels and aircraft to assert those claims. Manila has continued patrolling the waters and resupplying Philippine positions, bringing forces from the two countries into repeated close contact.

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The confrontations carry particular stakes for Washington: the Philippines is a U.S. treaty ally, and the U.S. has repeatedly said its Mutual Defense Treaty with Manila applies to armed attacks on Philippine armed forces, public vessels and aircraft — including in the South China Sea.

The latest Philippine count showed the largest number of Chinese vessels around Scarborough Shoal, where 39 different Chinese coast guard and People’s Liberation Army Navy ships were observed during September.

Another 28 were tracked around Thitu Island, known in the Philippines as Pag-asa; 23 around Second Thomas Shoal; and 11 around Sabina Shoal.

Rear Adm. Roy Vincent Trinidad, an Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea, said the figures showed China’s continued “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive” activities in the region.

But Philippine officials stopped short of concluding that the jump represented a broader shift in China’s strategy. Asked why the number had nearly doubled from August, Trinidad said the military wanted to examine a longer period before drawing conclusions about the trend.

The increase comes as the two sides have repeatedly confronted each other around some of the same contested waters.

On Saturday, a Philippine C-208 maritime patrol aircraft was flying near Scarborough Shoal when it encountered two Chinese military aircraft, according to the Philippine military.

Manila said one of the aircraft, a Chinese J-16 fighter, repeatedly approached the unarmed Philippine plane and maneuvered in front of and behind it at what the military described as an unsafe distance.

“This incident is part of a recurring pattern of unsafe and coercive behavior against Philippine government vessels and aircraft conducting lawful operations,” the Philippine military said.

The Philippine aircraft completed its mission and returned safely to base.

TRUMP ENVOY WARNS CHINA’S POWER MOVE AT SEA IS THREAT ‘WE CANNOT AFFORD TO IGNORE’

Beijing offered a sharply different account, saying the Philippine aircraft had entered airspace over Huangyan Dao, China’s name for Scarborough Shoal, without permission and that Chinese forces took “necessary measures” in response.

Scarborough Shoal sits about 120 miles west of the Philippine island of Luzon and has become one of the most persistent flashpoints between Beijing and Manila. China has effectively controlled access to the shoal since a 2012 standoff, while the Philippines maintains that it falls within its exclusive economic zone.

China claims sovereignty over Scarborough and much of the South China Sea, overlapping claims by the Philippines and several other Southeast Asian nations. An international tribunal ruled in 2016 that China’s sweeping historic-rights claims in the South China Sea had no legal basis, a ruling Beijing rejects.

The encounters have continued despite a recent diplomatic thaw between Washington and Beijing, with President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping emphasizing stability in the relationship during Xi’s state visit to Washington.

Days before the latest air encounter, Chinese coast guard and naval vessels moved to block a Philippine resupply mission to Second Thomas Shoal, another major flashpoint in the dispute.

The Philippines deliberately grounded the aging BRP Sierra Madre at Second Thomas in 1999 and keeps a small contingent of troops aboard the rusting ship to maintain its presence. Chinese vessels have repeatedly tried to block missions carrying food, water and other supplies to those troops.

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The latest incidents put renewed attention on Washington’s defense commitment to Manila. The two countries have been bound by their Mutual Defense Treaty since 1951, and the U.S. has said an armed attack on Philippine armed forces, aircraft or public vessels anywhere in the South China Sea would invoke U.S. obligations under the treaty.

Former Special Counsel Jack Smith told lawmakers he had “never met” former CIA Director and vocal Trump critic John Brennan when pressed about whether Brennan provided consultation or counsel during his tenure, but records just declassified by the White House reveal members of Smith’s team met with Brennan while preparing the classified-documents case against President Donald Trump.

The revelation about Brennan’s meeting with Special Counsel Smith’s team adds another wrinkle to Republicans’ broader scrutiny of Smith’s investigations into Trump, which has included claims of political bias, overreach and other investigative missteps.

“Jack Smith was a tool of the Biden administration to put Trump in prison,” said Harvard Law professor and former Trump impeachment counsel, Alan Dershowitz, who described Smith’s work as “a partisan weapon that broke the rules, lied to the court and engaged in bad faith throughout” in an 2025 Op-Ed for the Wall Street Journal. Another critic, investigative reporter John Solomon, recently described the probes as among a “10-year conspiracy to stop Donald Trump using the resources of the United States government.”

EXPLOSIVE NEW REPORT PUTS JACK SMITH BACK IN HOT SEAT AS JIM JORDAN ALLEGES HE TRIED TO ‘SWAY’ 2024 ELECTION

Two assistant special counsels working under Smith joined FBI agents for a November 2023 meeting with Brennan at CIA headquarters in McLean, Virginia, according to documents that were declassified Monday by the White House. The meeting was held “to discuss expert testimony to National Defense Information in the forthcoming trial,” indicating prosecutors were exploring the possibility of using the former CIA chief’s national security expertise as they prepared their case against Trump.

Meanwhile, Smith appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week as part of the Republican-led panel’s oversight of his investigations into Trump. During the hearing, GOP lawmakers pressed Smith over allegations of political bias, investigative overreach and misconduct in both the Arctic Frost 2020 election probe and his classified-documents case known as “Plasmic Echo.”

In particular, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, asked Smith whether he had ever received “consultation or counsel” from Brennan, including during his tenure as special counsel.

EX-CIA CHIEF ACCUSED OF ORCHESTRATING ‘RUSSIA HOAX’ SUES TRUMP ADMIN FOR ‘VINDICTIVE PROSECUTION’

“Have you ever received any consultation or counsel by John Brennan, former CIA director, whether during your time as special counsel or otherwise? If so, when and for what purpose?” Grassley asked.

“I’ve never met John Brennan,” Smith responded.

FORMER CIA DIRECTOR BRENNAN SUBPOENAED TO TESTIFY IN FEDERAL TRUMP CONSPIRACY CASE

Grassley’s question, however, was broader than whether Smith personally met Brennan, and the newly declassified records show prosecutors working directly under Smith met with the former CIA director as they prepared the government’s case against Trump.

“This meeting occurred during Jack Smith’s time as Special Counsel and constitutes ‘consultation or counsel’ from John Brennan to Smith and his team,” Grassley told Fox News Digital. “Smith’s response before the Senate Judiciary Committee was highly evasive and misleading, at minimum.”

During the hearing, Grassley later returned to the issue, asking Smith whether he had ever had a conversation with Brennan.

“I have no recollection of having a conversation with John Brennan,” Smith responded.

FBI QUESTIONING CURRENT AND FORMER CIA OFFICIALS IN DOJ PROBE INTO JOHN BRENNAN’S ROLE IN RUSSIA ASSESSMENT

In addition to the memo outlining the 2023 Brennan meeting, the declassified release also included two pages of notes bearing CIA Headquarters headers where lines of text beneath Brennan’s name are blacked out by government redactions, leaving the remainder of the ruled pages blank.

Brennan was not serving as CIA director during the period covered by Smith’s classified-documents case and the released records do not indicate he had firsthand knowledge of Trump’s alleged handling of the documents.

JACK SMITH’S TRUMP PROBE SWEPT UP FOX NEWS, OTHER MEDIA COMMUNICATIONS AS INVESTIGATION WENT BEYOND LAWMAKERS

Grassley, as well as other GOP lawmakers and critics, have accused the former special counsel of investigative overreach and political bias, including pointing to records showing his Arctic Frost investigation obtained financial information involving thousands of Trump donors and phone records of Republican lawmakers, among other investigative steps. Grassley has separately raised questions about the origins and conduct of Smith’s classified-documents prosecution.

Smith, meanwhile, has rejected allegations that his investigations were politically motivated, and has maintained that his decisions were driven by the evidence and defending the work of prosecutors and investigators on his team.

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Fox News Digital reached out to attorneys for Smith to obtain comment about the Brennan meeting, as well as the Justice Department, but did not receive a response.

A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration’s attempts to fine migrants up to $1.8 million for failing to leave the country after receiving final deportation orders.

U.S. District Judge George O’Toole in Boston issued the ruling on Monday in response to a class-action lawsuit filed last year by two of the thousands of migrants who have received civil penalties from the Department of Homeland Security.

The judge granted preliminary relief to the plaintiffs, finding that the administration’s process for imposing the fines violated federal law, and that migrants in the  “economically precarious position” of addressing the fines could be pushed into “insolvency.”

“The plaintiffs live in an economically precarious position even without the imposition of the government’s exorbitant fines,” he wrote.

DHS ISSUES $84B IN FINES TO ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS UNDER TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

“They face the possible garnishment of their already modest wages, loss of any vehicles and homes, federal collections lawsuits and other adverse collateral consequences,” O’Toole added. “If they were ultimately successful in this suit, there is no indication that simply requiring the government to vacate their fine notices would –– or even could, at that point –– make the plaintiffs whole or return the circumstances to the status quo.”

O’Toole, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, described how the plaintiffs worked for low salaries and had come to the U.S. to escape political violence.

“Nancy M. was fined over $1.8 million,” O’Toole wrote, referring to one of the plaintiffs. “She is a laborer working over 60 hours a week with two jobs, and she reports feeling serious anxiety affecting her ability to sleep, eat and live a normal life.”

The judge also found that the administration’s fine notices violated the Administrative Procedure Act by failing to provide specific allegations explaining why an individual’s conduct warranted a penalty.

Fox News Digital reached out to DHS for comment.

As recently as July, DHS said it had issued more than 103,000 fines to migrants totaling about $84 billion since President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January 2025.

DHS has defended the penalties, saying people who refuse to leave the country after receiving a final order of removal could face fines of $998 per day.

Although Congress authorized civil penalties under the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, no administration had attempted to impose the fines until Trump’s first term.

Last year, the Trump administration began imposing fines of $998 per day for migrants who did not leave the country following a final order of deportation. The fines have been imposed retroactively for up to five years, with a maximum penalty of $1.8 million.

20 STATES SUE TO BLOCK TRUMP ADMIN RULE THAT WOULD MAKE IT HARDER FOR IMMIGRANTS TO OBTAIN VISAS, GREEN CARDS

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In July 2025, DHS and the Department of Justice implemented changes aimed at streamlining the assessment of fines by scrapping a 30-day notice period and shortening the process for challenging penalties.

The plaintiffs successfully challenged that policy and what they described as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement policy of issuing fines using boilerplate forms without independently assessing whether a person’s failure to leave was “willful” or “voluntary.”

O’Toole also found that the administration had failed to comply with rulemaking processes in implementing its streamlined fine-imposition process because it did not offer the public a chance to first comment on the policy change.

Congressional lawmakers have attempted to challenge the administration’s fines against migrants through the Immigration and Nationality Act. Sens. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., urged DHS and DOJ to pause the “improper application of certain civil penalties” in the law to “law-abiding immigrants.”

Reuters contributed to this report.

Dayton, Ohio – Former employees of Fuyao Glass America Inc., a Chinese-linked glass manufacturer that moved into an old General Motors plant in Ohio, gathered around one of the most prominent congressmen in the U.S. today to share their stories of misery, pain and neglect they claimed to have suffered while working for the CCP-linked corporation.

“My experience at Fuyao was not a good experience,” Tiffany Moore, a woman who identified herself as a three-year veteran of the factory, told a group that gathered at the International Union of Electrical Workers in Dayton, Ohio, on Tuesday. 

“The heat in there is unbearable; they don’t care,” she told the group — a group that included Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif.

WHAT THE GOLF CART INDUSTRY CAN TEACH US ABOUT CHINA’S THREAT TO AMERICAN JOBS

Khanna, the ranking member on the House Select Subcommittee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), made the trek to Dayton to conduct Congressional oversight on Fuyao.

Khanna had previously sent Fuyao a letter asking them to submit a packet of information to his committee, including information on wage suppression, worker conditions and violating U.S. immigration and labor laws.

DEMAND TO END ‘SCAM’ VISA PROGRAM REPLACING AMERICAN WORKERS SURGES, WEST VIRGINIA CONGRESSMAN REVEALS

“Fuyao Glass America Inc. (FGA) has only provided a single supposed reply letter, dated September 23, that answers virtually none of the Committee’s questions in a material way and fails to include any document submissions,” Khanna wrote in an Oct. 1 letter to the company’s leadership.

“Thus far, a generous interpretation of your approach toward this investigation would be that Fuyao does not appreciate Congress’s oversight function and the American system of government,” Khanna wrote.

“A less generous interpretation of your lack of transparency would be that your companies have something to hide, beyond even what multiple federal investigations, documentaries, and press reports about Fuyao’s conduct have already uncovered,” the letter, shared exclusively with Fox News Digital, read.

Khanna, despite requesting permission to visit the Lorraine, Ohio, factory, did not receive express permission from the company to do so. Despite the lack of response, Khanna continued to conduct his business, convening a roundtable that included a wide swath of former Fuyao workers.

BLUE STATES SET TO TRIGGER FRESH MINIMUM WAGE HIKES WITH PAY FLOORS MORE THAN DOUBLE FEDERAL RATE

Demetria Hodges, who identified herself as having worked at Fuyao for five years, explained how she believed the company went to great lengths to prevent the workers from unionizing.

“First they were trying to use scare tactics to get us to not vote for the union,” Hodges said.

DAVID MARCUS: WHY JD VANCE’S RESHORING MESSAGE IS A PERFECT FIT FOR STRUGGLING SMALL TOWNS LIKE ST. CLOUD

“Then they offered a $2 an hour pay raise … which they have never given again. And that was like 10 years ago,” she added.

An attendee named Darrell, who identified themselves as a former employee, also pointed out the company’s failure to cease operations when 57-year-old Ricky Patterson was killed in a grisly industrial accident in the factory.

LARGEST-EVER US STEEL PLANT IS COMING TO A KEY RED STATE AS TRUMP UNVEILS $15B INVESTMENT

“When that guy got smashed by … glass, we had to work the next day, we were stressed out. He was trying to load up the glass. He was a little shaky because he had just lost his mom,” Darrell told the roundtable.

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“They made us work,” he told the group, who all expressed shock at the revelation.

President Donald Trump said Tuesday he will speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin “very soon” as his administration closely tracks reports of a suspected pneumonic plague death in Siberia that have prompted a U.S. health alert and heightened health precautions across several countries bordering Russia.

Trump revealed the planned call while taking questions from reporters Tuesday.

Asked whether he had spoken with Putin about the situation, Trump said he already had a call scheduled.

“I have a call scheduled, yup,” Trump said.

TRUMP RESPONDS TO CONCERNS OVER SUSPECTED PLAGUE CASE IN RUSSIA, SAYING US ‘WILLING TO HELP’

Asked when the call would take place, the president responded, “Very soon.”

Trump said the administration was in “very deep discussions” when asked what U.S. intelligence agencies were saying about the reports.

The president’s comments came as the U.S. Embassy in Moscow issued a health alert Tuesday saying it was aware of press reports from Russia’s Irkutsk region of “suspected pneumonic plague resulting in the death of an individual,” along with associated quarantine measures and hospital closures.

“We continue to track the situation closely,” the embassy said.

NEW YORK DECLARES MEASLES DISASTER EMERGENCY AS CASES SURGE IN PENNSYLVANIA

A State Department spokesman told Fox News Digital that the department, along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other interagency partners, is “closely monitoring the fatal case of suspected pneumonic plague” in Russia’s Irkutsk Oblast.

“The Trump Administration has no higher priority than the safety and security of Americans,” the spokesman said.

The spokesman cautioned that “many details remain unconfirmed” and called on Moscow to provide greater clarity.

“We encourage Russian authorities to share accurate information quickly and openly,” the spokesman said.

The alert advised Americans in the area to follow local health guidance, avoid affected medical facilities and seek prompt medical care if they develop fever or respiratory symptoms. Those who have traveled to an area experiencing an outbreak were advised to monitor their health for 14 days.

The State Department’s existing Level 4 “Do Not Travel” advisory for Russia remains unchanged. The embassy reiterated that Americans currently in Russia should depart and warned that the U.S. government’s ability to assist citizens there is limited, particularly outside Moscow.

UKRAINE STRIKES DEEP INTO RUSSIA’S ARCTIC GAS HEARTLAND AS TRUMP PUSHES PUTIN TOWARD PEACE

Several countries bordering Russia are also implementing new health precautions in response to the reports.

Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are moving to implement what their governments have described as “enhanced health and sanitary measures” in response to reports of pneumonic plague in Siberia.

A 28-year-old employee of the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia and the Far East died last week from what Russian authorities described as pneumonia of undetermined origin. Russia has not said the woman died of plague and said testing found no microorganisms in her body linked to her work.

Russian officials told the WHO that her contacts tested negative for dangerous infectious pathogens. The WHO has assessed the risk to the general population as low.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has also said it is closely monitoring the reports and working across the U.S. government as additional information becomes available. The agency said there is currently no indication of a broader threat to the United States.

Pneumonic plague is a serious bacterial infection caused by Yersinia pestis. It can spread between people through respiratory droplets during close contact and can progress rapidly if untreated. The disease can be successfully treated with antibiotics, particularly when identified and treated early.

For now, U.S. officials are continuing to seek additional information about what occurred in Irkutsk and whether the incident poses any wider threat.

The president suggested his administration could have more to say as soon as Wednesday.

“We’ll be able to report about it probably tomorrow,” Trump said.

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The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.

A top official at the Department of War discussed how artificial intelligence is playing a role in war readiness strategy, and said foreign adversaries are carrying out “psyop” operations to fuel the anti-data center and anti-artificial intelligence movement across the U.S.

During an interview with Fox News Digital in the White House, Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering Emil Michael warned that the movement to decrease production for artificial intelligence infrastructure is being pushed by America’s adversaries.

“It is natural from a propaganda standpoint that your adversary, who doesn’t want you to be developing super intelligence ahead of them, is going to try to psyop your population into believing that. And to some degree, it’s worked. And I think that’s why you see the president push back and say, ‘no, this is a good thing,’” he said.

CRUZ SAYS WINNING AI RACE AGAINST CHINA IS ‘SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT ECONOMIC QUESTION’ FOR AMERICA

Data center production has been at the center of debate ahead of the midterm elections, with lawmakers taking near-partisan stances as to whether developments should continue. Michael referred to data centers as the “electricity that fuels the superintelligence revolution,” and explained that continued production of facilities are a crucial part of ensuring the U.S. maintains the lead in the artificial intelligence race.

Protests have popped up across the country against data centers and artificial intelligence advancements in general, with some lawmakers raising questions about the role that foreign influence plays in the demonstrations.

DATA CENTERS COULD BE THE SLEEPER ISSUE OF THE 2026 MIDTERM ELECTIONS

“It’s the same reason we saw Middle Eastern countries paying for anti-fracking movements,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital in an interview last month. “Because if they can convince America, ‘Don’t develop your oil and gas, just buy it from us,’ well, that’s great for them and terrible for us.

“The same is true on data centers. If they can convince Americans, ‘You don’t want data centers here, you want to just rely on the Chinese for AI,’ that’s great for China, and it’s terrible for America.”

CHINA ‘THROWING GASOLINE ON THE FIRE’ IN AI DATA CENTERS RACE, SAY LAWMAKERS

Michael echoed some of Cruz’s concerns about foreign influence, though he did not specifically name China as the culprit.

Lawmakers have raised questions about hundreds of millions of dollars that American-born communist tech tycoon Neville Roy Singham pumped into nonprofits and organizations that are now among the leading organizations fighting data center development throughout the country. Recipients of Singham’s largesse include the Party for Socialism and Liberation and the ANSWER Coalition, both self-described pro-China communist groups.

HOUSE PANEL TO PROBE FOREIGN ‘TROJAN HORSES’ AS SINGHAM SCRUTINY WIDENS

Last month, activists from both groups carried signs in a Chapel Hill, N.C., protest, merging anti-Trump sentiments with support for communist Cuba and opposition to data centers and AI development, including the message, “SHUT IT DOWN!”

Singham, a 72-year-old American who sold his tech company for $785 million in 2017 and now lives in Shanghai, is known to fund pro-Chinese Communist Party groups that operate in the U.S. He has funneled $278 million into the broad network of nonprofits since 2017, according to a Fox News Digital investigation.

MARXIST ORGANIZER LEADS CAMPAIGN AGAINST VIRGINIA AI DATA CENTER AS FOREIGN INFLUENCE CONCERNS MOUNT

The Party for Socialism and Liberation Boston, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit whose national chapter regularly partners with and supports the Singham network, posted to social media in July openly opposing data centers, saying the control of AI and data centers is in the hands of billionaires.

“Workers are rising up across the country in a growing movement against the tech billionaires – from fights against data centers in hundreds of cities, to labor organizing at the world’s biggest tech corporations,” the post read.

As for how the Department of War utilizes artificial intelligence, Michael told Fox News Digital that usage has skyrocketed since Secretary Pete Hegseth assumed the cabinet role, growing from roughly 70,000 users out of a 3.5 million-person workforce to approximately 1.7 million today.

He explained that the Department of War is deploying artificial intelligence across three main areas: enterprise operations, warfighting and intelligence.

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“We have incredible vignettes and stories about how people took 200 hours of work and combined it down to two hours,” he added. “They can see what we have as assets. They can see what the adversary has as assets – they can time things better, they write quicker, they can consolidate orders quicker.”

FIRST ON FOX: A blue city in one of the country’s hottest battleground states is accused of being a potential hotbed of foreign worker visa fraud, according to the House lawmaker who represents the area.

Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga., is writing to the Trump administration on Tuesday asking for an investigation into alleged abuse of the H-1B work visa program in his own district. He warned in the letter that his district is a “suspected hotspot of this fraud” and offered himself as “an interlocutor to help enable cooperation with state-level agencies and law enforcement.”

Georgia’s 7th Congressional District, which McCormick represents, encompasses part of the Atlanta metro area including the city’s northern suburbs. That includes part of Fulton County, whose top prosecutor, Fani Willis, has been under heavy scrutiny by Republicans in recent years.

FEDERAL JUDGE STRIKES DOWN TRUMP’S $100K H-1B VISA FEE, RULING IT AN UNCONSTITUTIONAL TAX

“Established by the Immigration Act of 1990, the purpose of the H-1B program is to allow American businesses to temporarily bring in foreign citizens to fill key, high-skill employment positions when the domestic workforce demonstrably cannot provide the necessary labor,” McCormick wrote.

“Unfortunately, the H-1B program has become the subject of rampant fraud and abuse for the nefarious purposes of obtaining labor that bad actors can exploit below-market-rate wages and abusive work conditions given H-1B holders’ dependence on retaining their employment in order to avoid removal back to their country of origin.”

FURY ERUPTS AS US BRAND FIRES 1,600 EMPLOYEES AFTER SECURING THOUSANDS OF FOREIGN WORKER VISAS

He said the alleged fraud is sowing uncertainty in the U.S. labor market by undercutting wages and unfairly increasing competition for American workers, particularly those fresh out of college.

“Bad actors have developed illicit methods for meeting the requirements for obtaining H-1B visas and the necessary work authorizations, and they employ these methods at scale to enrich themselves through fraud and exploitation via the most threadbare compliance with the letter of the law,” McCormick wrote.

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE SAYS MIGRANT COMMUNITIES SHOW ‘CLEAR PATTERN’ IN FEDERAL FRAUD AS INVESTIGATIONS WIDEN

The Georgia Republican said his suspicions were raised by “stakeholder engagement, reports from my constituents, and recent federal investigation and enforcement activity targeting entities in and around GA-07.”

And while he did not name specific businesses or people he believes are associated with such fraud, McCormick argued, “Metro Atlanta’s recent economic growth and international airport unfortunately make it a logical area of concentration for these bad actors.”

EXCLUSIVE: ‘PHANTOM EMPLOYEES’ SCANDAL SPURS GOP CRACKDOWN ON $36B INCENTIVE FOR COMPANIES TO BYPASS AMERICANS

The Trump administration launched an investigation into suspected H-1B visa fraud in July.

H-1B visas have become the subject of fierce debate on the right, with prominent critics like Vice President JD Vance calling it a “broken” system while calling to eliminate it altogether.

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Supporters of H-1B visas, like Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, have argued it’s critical for attracting global talent in fields like technology and engineering that are key to keeping the U.S. at the forefront of global innovation.

Republicans are quietly warning that the true consequence of losing the Senate could be one that shapes the makeup of courts and the law for years to come.

While Republican candidates and surrogates on the campaign trail are warning of a rise in socialism and a return to Biden-era policy should Democrats flip Congress this cycle, some are pushing a different message: if Democrats win the Senate, they’ll block future Supreme Court nominees.

“I think the key over the next 34 days is bringing home Republicans. And I think it’s important to remind some of these Republicans who are not energized yet that the Supreme Court’s on the ballot,” Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., told Fox News Digital.

BATTLE OVER DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME ERUPTS AS PUSH TO STOP CHANGING CLOCKS HITS SENATE WALL

Daines, who chaired the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) in 2024, played a key role in flipping the Senate two years ago. That election was dominated by pocketbook issues, much like this midterm cycle, and Democrats have pounced upon that message.

But the Supreme Court and the implications of the balance of power in the Senate are a message Daines contended the GOP wasn’t pushing enough.

“I mentioned that to the White House. And it’s — that’s not a silver bullet, it’s a silver buckshot,” of several issues Republicans should be talking about, Daines said.

If Trump doesn’t have a GOP majority in the upper chamber, he said, “if we have a vacancy, Sotomayor, Clarence Thomas, who knows — we could not, President Trump could not move through a Supreme Court justice.”

DEMS HAND GOP FRESH MIDTERM WEAPON BY OPPOSING WIDELY USED VOTER ID

The high court is aging, with conservative stalwarts on the bench, Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas, 78, and Samuel Alito, 76, nearing octogenarian status. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, 72, and Chief Justice John Roberts, 71, aren’t that far behind.

“The Supreme Court as we know it would cease to exist under Troy Jackson, Abdul El-Sayed and James Talarico, who are hell-bent on replacing it with a bloated, lawless body designed to advance Democrats’ socialist agenda,” NRSC spokeswoman Bernadette Breslin told Fox News Digital.

Speculation has swirled over Alito after NPR earlier this year published a report declaring his retirement before swiftly retracting it.

Alito added some fuel to that fire, however, during an interview with CBS earlier this month. When asked if he was considering retirement, he admitted to considering it earlier this year, and noted that “it’s something I think that somebody at my age has to think about every term.”

DEMOCRATS THINK A BLUE WAVE IS BUILDING. HERE ARE 3 FORCES THAT COULD STOP IT

Democrats haven’t been keen to support several of Trump’s nominees for a variety of positions throughout the government over the last two years. Notably, Republicans went nuclear last year to change the Senate’s rules to move through bundles of nominees that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Democrats were blocking.

And Schumer suggested that a Supreme Court pick, should there be a vacancy, and other positions in the judiciary may suffer the same fate.

“The bottom line is one of the reasons that we want to make sure we do everything we can to take back the Senate is not let Trump put such horrible justices, MAGA justices on the Supreme Court and the lower courts,” Schumer said.

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Daines noted that sometimes voters look for a shortcut to head to the polls, and that the Supreme Court being a quiet issue on the ballot could very well be that path to energizing a Republican base to getting out and voting as the midterm cycle winds down.

“Without a Republican majority, President Trump will not be able to move his Supreme Court nominee through, and that’s a nominee that’ll be on the bench for 25 years,” Daines said. “We need Republicans to connect those dots. Disgruntled Republicans in Texas, come home and vote for Ken Paxton, because the Supreme Court’s on the ballot.”

Revelations that the Biden-era FBI tracked Trump family travel and top aide Susie Wiles’ phone records received a blistering rebuke from a former top Democratic official who compared the behavior to Nixon-era abuses of federal power that surfaced amid the Watergate scandal.

The FBI investigation codenamed “Plasmic Echo,” later taken over by special counsel Jack Smith, examined Trump’s alleged improper retention of classified and national-defense material and possible obstruction. Records show agents tracked first lady Melania Trump’s and Barron Trump’s travel while planning the 2022 Mar-a-Lago search and later logged metadata from now-Chief of Staff Susie Wiles’ calls with attorneys, journalists and others.”

Julian Epstein, the former chief counsel for the House Judiciary Committee’s Democratic bench, compared the situation to the scandal that brought down President Richard Nixon.

JACK SMITH’S PROBE SWEPT UP FOX NEWS, OTHER MEDIA COMMUNICATIONS WITH GOVERNMENT SOURCES

“It’s hard to think of good justifications for this. To me, it feels a little Nixonian,” said Epstein, who also served as staff director to Democrats on a second powerful panel, the House Oversight Committee.

“If this report is true, then it’s pretty bad. If true, then those in charge at the time better have some darn good explanations for surveillance of family members and advisors talking privately to lawyers or exercising their free-speech rights with the news media,” he said.

Nixon, a California Republican, maintained an “Enemies List” developed by White House aides around top adviser Charles Colson and later formalized by White House counsel John Dean. Dean – now a vocal critic of Republicans like Trump – once described it in a 1971 memo as intended to “use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies.”

Epstein questioned what legal justification investigators had for monitoring the contacts, particularly those involving lawyers and journalists.

VETERAN DEM BREAKS PARTY LINE AS JACK SMITH SPYING SCANDAL GRIPS CAPITOL HILL

“[That] seems like a stretch,” he said.

Epstein appeared to be among the few prominent Democrats publicly criticizing the newly disclosed investigative tactics Tuesday, including the tracking of Melania and Barron Trump’s travel and the collection of Wiles’ call metadata.

SECRET PHONE-RECORD SEIZURE SPARKS PERSONAL LAWSUIT FROM GOP SENATOR

Fox News Digital reached out to Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat who just months ago similarly broke party-silence to object to prior revelations from Smith’s probe.

Blumenthal told Fox News Digital in July that Republicans were right to be upset that some of their communications were subpoenaed without their notice.

“I think we need to have more facts. Look into it. Republicans are rightly concerned about the possible breach of norms and improper access to email,” Blumenthal said at the time.

In a separate disclosure on July 14, the GOP-led Senate Judiciary Committee released records showing that Smith’s 2020-election investigation obtained and reviewed text messages exchanged between Trump White House officials and 44 current and former members of Congress, including Republicans and Democrats.

Theo Wold, a former acting assistant U.S. attorney general under Trump who later served as Idaho’s solicitor general, said the new disclosures involving Melania, Barron and Wiles vindicate Republicans who have long warned of a so-called “Deep State.”

“But now we know that DOJ, the FBI, and the wider intelligence community have targeted Catholics, homeschool families, pro-life prayer warriors, and even the then-leading Republican Presidential candidate and his family,” Wold said.

“The Deep State is real. They have abused their authority for political gain. They have wielded government power against innocent Americans to coordinate their attack on opposition political figures and dissident movements.”

The White House also condemned the newly disclosed tracking of Trump family travel and collection of Wiles’ call metadata.

“Jack Smith’s surveillance operation was a disgraceful abuse of government power. Spying on political opponents is weaponization of law enforcement, plain and simple,” White House spokesperson Lauren Bis told Fox News Digital. “Those responsible must be held accountable.”

On one day in March 2023, documents showed investigators logged metadata for 39 calls made or received by Wiles.

Calls to and from multiple campaign contacts, a lawyer and an extension associated with Melania Trump were among those logged in Wiles’ phone metadata.

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Former RNC official Elizabeth Pipko highlighted Wiles as someone that critics should be emulating, not celebrating the surveillance of.

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“She managed a historic and victorious presidential campaign and became the first woman to serve as White House chief of staff. Her story should inspire young women. Instead, hatred from President Trump’s opponents teaches young people that if you work for the ‘wrong’ candidate, you and those around you can become targets,” Pipko told Fox News Digital.

The revelations come after Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, told Fox News Digital exclusively that Smith’s probe had also captured communications with dozens of journalists, including some from Fox News.

Fox News Digital reached out to counsel for Smith for comment.

The unexplained death of a researcher at a Russian anti-plague institute has one former senior U.S. arms official warning it could be ‘far worse’ than the bacteria that caused the Black Death.

Marshall Billingslea, who served as President Donald Trump’s special presidential envoy for arms control, said a top Soviet bioweapons defector told him decades ago about secret work on antibiotic-resistant plague at the same facility where the recent plague-related death occurred.

“This may not be just ‘the plague.’ It may be far worse,” Billingslea wrote on X.

He spent much of the 1990s working on proliferation and arms control issues on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee — and during that time worked with Ken Alibek, the former No. 2 official in the Soviet biological weapons program who defected to the U.S.

BIOWEAPON THREAT EXPOSED AS ANTHROPIC SOUNDS ALARM ON FOREIGN ACTORS PLOTTING VIRUS EXPERIMENTS

“He claimed that they had engineered a strain of plague that was antibiotic-resistant & that they had worked on plague chimeras (fusing 2 or more pathogens),” Billingslea wrote of Alibek.

“He specifically called out Irkutsk for being involved in the BW program,” he added.

Billingslea’s warning comes after a 28-year-old employee of the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia and the Far East died last week from what Russian authorities have described as pneumonia of undetermined origin.

Russia has not said the woman died of plague and said testing found no microorganisms in her body linked to her work.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said Tuesday that Russian officials told the agency no plague or other high-threat pathogen had been detected among her close contacts, though they are still awaiting confirmation of what caused her fatal pneumonia.

DEFENSE DEPARTMENT SCIENTIST’S ACCIDENTAL DEATH RAISES QUESTIONS AS PROBE INTO MISSING SCIENTISTS GROWS

About 60% of the woman’s identified contacts have been tested so far, according to Russian authorities, with two cases of COVID-19 and two rhinovirus infections detected — but no other infectious disease pathogens.

Still, the unexplained death at a facility that works with dangerous pathogens has drawn scrutiny from biosecurity experts — including questions about why the cause remains unknown.

Kevin Esvelt, an MIT professor who studies biological security and catastrophic pandemic risks, said Russia’s latest explanation suggests the researcher did not die from plague while leaving unanswered what killed her.

“If we take the Russian authorities at their word, it is not plague,” Esvelt wrote Tuesday.

“But untargeted research-grade sequencing reliably identifies pathogens, and people seldom die of pneumonia without pathogens, let alone 28-year-olds,” he added. “It would be surprising if they did not know the cause.”

Esvelt cautioned that more alarming explanations remain hypothetical.

“The concerning possibility is still only a possibility,” he wrote.

The questions surrounding the death come against the backdrop of the Soviet Union’s documented history of secretly developing biological weapons, including weaponized plague, and U.S. assessments that elements of that program continued after the Soviet collapse.

In its 2025 arms control compliance report, the State Department assessed that Russia maintains an offensive biological warfare program in violation of the Biological Weapons Convention and that the Soviet program was “absorbed, not dismantled” after the Soviet collapse.

The department said the program “has continued and evolved” under the Russian Federation and that Moscow continues activities prohibited under the convention. Russia has repeatedly denied maintaining an offensive biological weapons program.

The U.S. assessment does not establish any connection between Russia’s biological weapons program and the researcher’s death in Irkutsk, and no such connection has been confirmed.

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The Soviet program Billingslea referenced was one of the world’s largest clandestine biological weapons efforts. Alibek, born Kanatjan Alibekov, rose to become the first deputy chief of Biopreparat, the ostensibly civilian network that formed a major part of the Soviet biological weapons apparatus, before defecting to the United States in 1992.

After his defection, Alibek provided U.S. officials with extensive information about the scale and capabilities of the Soviet program. He described Soviet scientists working to weaponize pathogens including plague and developing strains designed to withstand antibiotics.

His claims about some aspects of the Soviet program have faced scrutiny over the years, making independent documentation particularly important. But the existence and enormous scale of the Soviet biological weapons effort — conducted despite Moscow’s 1975 ratification of the Biological Weapons Convention — is well established.

The Irkutsk institute says it was founded in 1934 as a scientific and operational center for combating plague. Its mission later expanded to other highly dangerous diseases, including cholera and anthrax, and it describes itself today as a research and anti-epidemic facility responsible for helping protect the region from infectious disease.

The Trump administration has said it is closely monitoring the situation and pressed Moscow for greater transparency about what happened.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday that while travel between the U.S. and Russia remains limited, an infectious disease could quickly spread beyond Russia’s borders.

“If something like that gets out, it could quickly spread,” Rubio said.

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President Donald Trump said the U.S. would offer assistance to Russia if needed.

“I hate to see them having it,” Trump told reporters Monday. “It’s a rough disease.”

Former President Joe Biden has been largely absent from the campaign trail as Democrats fight to win back House and Senate majorities in November, even as former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Kamala Harris step up efforts to boost the party’s candidates.

Biden, 83, has kept a limited public schedule while battling advanced, metastatic prostate cancer. He has endorsed candidates and is helping Democrats raise money, according to a source in Biden’s political circle. But the former president has made few political appearances this year.

The contrast is increasingly visible with four weeks to go until Election Day.

Obama is cutting ads for Senate and gubernatorial candidates, helping the party fundraise and preparing to hit the trail during the closing stretch of the midterm campaign. Harris, the Democrats’ 2024 presidential nominee, is also campaigning across key battleground states, including a recent stop in Michigan with Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed.

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Biden has appeared at just a handful of political events this year. He spoke in February at a reception honoring his 2020 South Carolina primary victory, which propelled him toward the Democratic nomination and eventually the presidency. In June, he addressed a Maryland Democratic Party event.

Longtime Democratic strategist Michael Ceraso told Fox News Digital that some in the party’s elite and fundraising class are concerned that “if Biden were to be pushed out there in any sort of way for virtual or in-person opportunities, he could be a liability.”

Veteran Democratic strategist Maria Cardona had a different take, telling Fox News Digital, “there are still a ton of Americans who love Joe Biden.”

Biden did weigh in on a handful of Democratic primary showdowns this cycle. The former president endorsed former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms for governor. Bottoms, who later served as a senior advisor in the Biden administration, won the Georgia Democratic gubernatorial nomination.

The former president also backed Dan Koh, another Biden administration veteran, who captured the Democratic nomination in Massachusetts’ 6th Congressional District.

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Biden is also advocating on behalf of efforts to secure democracy.

“American democracy begins and ends at the ballot box. There is no more important civic duty nor fundamental right to be defended,” the former president wrote on social media last month, as he cast his ballot in his home state of Delaware’s primary. “Voting defines our freedom and makes everything possible.”

But mostly, Biden has served as a foil for President Donald Trump, who Biden ousted from the White House in the 2020 election. Four years later, Biden ended his re-election bid after a disastrous debate performance against Trump in their 2024 rematch.

Trump and fellow Republicans are repeatedly blaming Biden for high prices at the gas and diesel pumps, even though public opinion polls indicate most Americans now point fingers at Trump and his administration.

Biden left the presidency with poor approval ratings, as he faced high inflation, foreign policy divides, and lingering questions about his ability to serve in office. He stood at 42% approval and 57% disapproval in January 2025, in the final Fox News poll during his White House tenure.

Post-presidency, Biden held a 71% favorable rating among Democrats in a CNN poll conducted in May. But Biden’s favorable rating among Democrats was 25 points lower than that of Obama.

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Meanwhile, some Democrats still blame him for Trump’s 2024 re-election, arguing that Biden did not get out of the race in time to allow Harris to mount a successful campaign.

Ceraso, a veteran of two presidential campaigns, pointed back to the 2024 election and told Fox News Digital that Biden left a “bad taste with some Democrats, especially within the in the party’s elite and fundraising class.”

He added, “I do not think Biden has the same level of charisma as Vice President Harris and former President Obama, and if I’m organizing an event to get thousands of people to come out, I would not do that around Biden.”

Cardona, a Democratic National Committee member, said that Biden’s health is stifling requests for campaign trail appearances.

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“I guarantee you no one would try to bother him to come campaign for them while, at 83-years-old, he is battling cancer and in the toughest fight of his life,” Cardona emphasized.

Fox News Digital reached out to a Biden spokesman for comment, but did not receive a response at the time this story was published.

The Trump administration is turning to a defense technology giant in a $6.6 billion effort to speed production of submarines as the U.S. struggles to keep pace with China’s vast shipbuilding capacity.

The ramp-up in production brings a Silicon Valley-style manufacturer into one of the Pentagon’s most troubled industrial bases as they fall behind expected pace of two Virginia-class attack submarines per year.

Anduril will build a more than 2-million-square-foot shipyard at Sparrows Point shipyard just outside of Baltimore to manufacture critical submarine components, eventually scaling up to large sections of the vessels. A senior administration official said the facility could add roughly 9 million labor hours a year, equivalent to about a 15% increase in submarine production capacity.

President Donald Trump will visit the shipyard on Tuesday afternoon to formally announce the new initiative in Baltimore alongside Anduril leadership.

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The investment takes aim at a problem the Navy has struggled for years to solve: shipyards are delivering roughly 1.3 Virginia-class submarines a year, well short of the Navy’s goal of two, even as demand for the nuclear-powered attack boats grows. The Navy currently projects reaching the two-per-year rate around 2032. It currently has 26 Virginia-class submarines and expects to add two more in the spring, according to a senior administration official.and

For the submarine project, Anduril plans to invest $3.7 billion of its own capital to build the facility, workforce and manufacturing capacity. The Navy could spend up to another $2.9 billion purchasing the resulting production.

The deal represents an unusual bet on a commercial model for fixing one of the Pentagon’s most stubborn industrial problems: Anduril will risk billions of dollars of its own capital building new submarine production capacity, while the Navy pays for what the company can successfully produce.

“I wouldn’t say that the government’s paying us back. We feel the government [is] buying the results of what we’re able to produce,” an industry official told reporters of the deal.

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The deal also deepens Anduril’s growing relationship with the Pentagon just days after War Secretary Pete Hegseth tapped company founder Palmer Luckey, along with Elon Musk and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, to launch Project Meridian — a 120-day study of how future wars will be fought and what weapons and technologies the U.S. military will need.

The arrangement puts Luckey in a position to help shape recommendations about the Pentagon’s future technology needs as the company he founded expands its own business selling weapons and other systems to the department. Project Meridian does not have procurement authority, and the Pentagon has said “appropriate” safeguards will be used to address potential conflicts of interest.

Anduril will work under General Dynamics Electric Boat and alongside HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding, initially producing components that have become bottlenecks in the construction of new Virginia-class boats.

Among the first will be torpedo tubes , which a senior administration official described as a current “gating component” holding up production. The official said getting those tubes earlier could allow the Navy to move.

Anduril has already begun work on torpedo tubes at a facility in California and plans to shift that production to Baltimore as the new shipyard, dubbed Arsenal-2, comes online. The company eventually hopes to move from individual components to complex modules and large sections of submarines.

“We just need new production capacity,” an industry official said. “We need to grow the maritime industrial base, the submarine industrial base, so that we can produce more submarines.”

The company plans to build Arsenal-2 around software, automation and digital manufacturing to break historically complex shipbuilding work into simpler tasks that can be done without years of shipyard experience.

The push comes as the Navy faces growing pressure to expand the attack-submarine fleet while also preparing to transfer Virginia-class submarines to Australia under the AUKUS security pact. Meeting those commitments will require the industrial base not only to reach the Navy’s longstanding two-per-year goal, but eventually move beyond it.

Arsenal-2 is expected to create 3,100 direct jobs and another 11,000 indirect jobs nationwide. Anduril expects the Baltimore facility to begin operations around 2030, though the company said production of some submarine components is beginning now in California.

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The approach will still have to clear the certification and safety requirements that govern nuclear submarine construction. Anduril acknowledged that it will have to prove it can meet those standards before graduating from individual components to increasingly complex sections of the boats.

FIRST ON FOX: The Treasury Department blocked $175 million in federal payments tied to deceased recipients in fiscal year 2026, up sharply from the $99 million identified just months earlier as the Trump administration expanded government-wide screening for improper payments.

“I applaud Secretary [Scott] Bessent for slamming the door on these fraudsters before they can pick taxpayers’ pockets,” Republican Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy told Fox News Digital.

“Unless you were playing Frisbee in the quad during Econ 101, you know the federal government shouldn’t be sending taxpayer money to dead people,” Kennedy went on. “I fought for years to pass my common-sense bill to stop fraudsters from gaming the system, and now it’s the law.”

Kennedy has for years pushed to give Treasury greater access to Social Security death records, helping pass a 2020 law that temporarily authorized the Social Security Administration to share its full Death Master File with the department. That three-year data-sharing program began in December 2023. Trump then signed Kennedy’s Ending Improper Payments to Deceased People Act into law in February 2026, making access permanent.

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Trump has tasked his administration with rooting out fraud, waste and abuse across the federal government and tightening safeguards around taxpayer dollars — the latest effort to stop federal benefit payments to dead people is just another initiative within that broader effort.

“President Trump continues to deliver for Americans where previous administrations have fallen short. This Administration is setting new standards in record time to prevent fraud and improper payments before hard-earned taxpayer dollars leave the Treasury. Under President Trump’s leadership, there is no tolerance for waste, fraud, and abuse,” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers told Fox News Digital.

Treasury screened more than 1.1 billion federal payments totaling roughly $3.7 trillion in FY2026, identifying and returning about 13,500 payments worth $175 million that otherwise would have been distributed to individuals no longer eligible for payments due to death.

“Treasury continues to transform how the federal government protects taxpayer dollars by using better data, stronger controls, and advanced technology to stop fraud and improper payments before money goes out the door,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a press release shared with Fox News Digital.

“In the past year alone, Treasury built and deployed new safeguards that verified more than $3.7 trillion in federal payments and increased Do Not Pay access from 4 percent of programs to 99 percent, ensuring agencies have access to the data they need,” Bessent added. “We are moving beyond ‘pay and chase’ and making prevention the federal government’s first line of defense.”

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More than 99% of federal programs now have access to the “Do Not Pay” tool, up from roughly 4% at the end of FY2025.

The expansion fulfills key requirements of a March 2025 executive order from Trump directing his administration to strengthen safeguards against fraud, waste and abuse involving federal payments.

Treasury also screened more than 2.3 billion records against Do Not Pay data sources in FY2026, nearly four times the 641 million records screened the previous fiscal year.

The jump comes as the program has expanded across the federal government, alongside new payment verification efforts and additional screenings for states.

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Treasury also tested new safeguards aimed at verifying that bank accounts belong to the intended recipients and checking Taxpayer Identification Numbers tied to federal payments.

The checks became fully operational Sept. 30 and allow Treasury to flag and return payments that fail verification before the money is sent.

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The latest figures build on Treasury’s July announcement that it had screened more than 885 million payments worth roughly $2.77 trillion and flagged more than 4,900 payments worth about $99 million tied to deceased recipients.