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Lady Gaga and fiancé Michael Polansky welcome their first child together: report
Lady Gaga is now a mother, according to multiple reports.
People and Page Six confirmed that the 40-year-old singer and her fiancé, Michael Polansky, have welcomed their first child together.
No other details have been shared.
Fox News Digital has reached out to Lady Gaga for comment.
The Grammy Award-winning singer spoke to the New York Times in March 2025 about her desire to be a mother, saying she is "excited to be a mom" although she "used to have a lot of apprehension about it."
AUBREY PLAZA CONFIRMS PREGNANCY WITH FIRST CHILD AFTER PERSONAL CHALLENGES AND HEALTH STRUGGLES
"I’m also kind of at war with myself sometimes as I get ready to, hopefully, become a mom soon," she said. "Like, today is wonderful, but the whole day has revolved around me. There’s an incredible amount of narcissism in this. How do I live a life where I’m passionate about my art while also making more space for other things?"
One of her main concerns about motherhood, she shared, was "to not force my children to live a life that they are not choosing," and to "give them space to discover who they are on their own."
She also previously spoke about her excitement about having children during a March 2020 interview with InStyle.
"Isn’t it incredible what we can do? We can hold a human inside and grow it," she said. "Then it comes out, and it’s our job to keep it alive."
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Gaga and Polansky met in late 2019, and were first romantically linked when they were spotted kissing that New Year's Eve in Las Vegas. The singer hard-launched their relationship by going Instagram official in February 2020, posting a yacht photo sitting in Polansky's lap, captioning the post, "We had so much fun in Miami."
The singer confirmed the two were engaged in July 2024, sharing that Polansky had proposed earlier that year, in April. They later made their red carpet debut at the "Joker: Folie à Deux" premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September 2024.
"The missing piece in my life was having real love," she told Vogue in September 2024.
Gaga recently wrapped up her Mayhem Ball tour in April, and her last public appearance was at the Grove in May for the premiere of "Apple Music Live: Lady Gaga MAYHEM Requiem."
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Yankee stadium security tackles field invader waving Palestinian flag during 9/11 anniversary game
As the New York Yankees and New York Mets commemorated the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, outfielder Cody Bellinger hit a three-run homer off rookie Nolan McLean in the second inning to lift the Pinstripes to a 6-4 victory over the Mets Friday night.
However, the game was briefly interrupted when a spectator carrying a Palestinian flag ran from the stands onto the field. Yankee Stadium security quickly tackled the man. He reportedly timed the field invasion at exactly 9:11 p.m.
Details about how the person reached the field were not immediately clear.
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Video from the scene appeared to show some fans throwing drinks, while loud "U-S-A" chants broke out as security escorted the man off the field.
The game resumed after the on-field incident.
The Yankees and Mets wore special caps honoring FDNY, NYPD and other first responders. Across Major League Baseball, players and coaches wore caps featuring a special "We Shall Never Forget" side patch.
When play on the baseball diamond began, designated hitter Ben Rice also homered, helping the Yankees improve to 85-62 and move a season-high 23 games above .500 as they commemorated the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Rookie Spencer Jones added an RBI single in the first inning and Ryan McMahon hit an RBI single in the eighth as the Yankees remained three games behind the Tampa Bay Rays in the American League East.
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Carlos Rodón allowed two runs and three hits in a season-high 6.3 innings. The left-hander notched two of his eight strikeouts on slugger Juan Soto, who heard boos from Yankee fans before each at-bat.
Bellinger homered after catching the ceremonial first pitch from Brielle Saracini, whose father Victor Saracini was the pilot on United Airlines Flight 175, which was flown into the South Tower of the World Trade Center.
Bellinger gave the Yankees a 4-1 lead by hitting a full-count curveball off McLean into the right field seats. Rice added his 37th homer by sending a sinker the opposite way into the left field seats on the first pitch of the fifth.
Game 2 of the Subway Series is scheduled for Saturday at 1:35 p.m.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Democrats are within striking distance in the Senate, but shouldn't celebrate yet
If the 2026 midterms were held today, polls suggest that Democrats would be the favorites to retake the Senate.
Indeed, according to RealClearPolitics polling averages, Democratic Senate candidates lead in North Carolina (+8%), Minnesota (+4%), Texas (+3%), Ohio (+3%), as well as Michigan, Maine, and Alaska (+2% each).
Moreover, with President Trump’s approval rating hovering just below 40%, it’s legitimate to ask whether his sagging approval numbers will drag down Republican candidates across the country.
12 RACES SCRAMBLE SENATE BATTLEFIELD AS DEMOCRATS EYE COMEBACK
Needing to flip four seats — assuming no GOP pickups in Michigan, Minnesota, or Georgia — the Senate is well within striking distance for Democrats, according to the data.
That being said, the midterms are not today, and roughly two months until Election Day is a considerable amount of time.
In that same vein, the Democratic candidates in these races have a number of personal and party-wide vulnerabilities, so it is by no means clear that what may currently look possible — or even probable — will come to fruition.
TRUMP'S APPROVAL RATING PLUMMETS TO NEW LOW AHEAD OF CRITICAL MIDTERMS: 'MORE WORK TO DO'
I say this for a number of reasons.
First, outside of North Carolina and Texas, in each state, the Democrats’ polling advantages are well within the margin of error.
Voters tend to turn their attention to midterms only after the summer ends, so it is entirely conceivable that these numbers reflect high-frequency voters, which often benefits Democrats.
Second, and perhaps more important, frustration with the Trump administration will only get Democrats so far — candidate quality remains a deciding factor for many moderates and swing voters.
LEE CARTER: THE SUMMER POLLS MISSED THE POINT: VOTERS ARE MOVING — AND THE MIDTERMS BEGIN
The success of candidates affiliated with, or members of, the Democratic Socialists of America has opened a lane for Republicans to paint all Democrats as out-of-touch, far-left extremists.
In 2024, then-candidate Donald Trump effectively painted former Vice President Kamala Harris as too far left on hot-button social issues, and Democrats have only moved further left since.
On this, races in Texas, Michigan, and Maine in particular will be crucial to watch and may represent Republicans’ best hope of maintaining control of the upper chamber.
As I’ve noted previously in these pages, the Democrats in those races — James Talarico, Abdul El-Sayed, and Troy Jackson, respectively — are so far to the political left that it’s easy to see how voters could be turned off.
SENATE MAP TIGHTENS AS TOP FORECASTER MOVES 3 RACES TOWARD DEMOCRATS
Whether it’s Talarico’s past support for transgender women competing against biological girls in sports, El-Sayed’s anti-American statements, his rabid anti-Israel positions, his association with far-left Twitch influencer Hasan Piker, or Jackson’s history of flip-flopping and other controversies, these are flawed candidates.
To that end, as these campaigns kick off in earnest, Republicans are all but certain to remind voters of their opponents’ far-left progressive positions on a number of issues.
GOP SENATOR, EX-HOUSE DEM EMERGE FROM ALASKA’S ‘JUNGLE PRIMARY’ DESPITE FAR-LEFT MEDDLING
Even when the Democrat is not a progressive, such as in Alaska, where Mary Peltola is a moderate Blue Dog Democrat, Republicans may be able to tie all Democrats to the DSA.
That’s been Republican Dan Sullivan’s strategy, framing a vote for Peltola as a vote for a Senate hostile to the state’s energy sector — a vital local issue — despite Peltola’s record of supporting drilling.
Third, on a basic level, Democrats’ task is made more difficult by needing to secure 51 seats given Vice President JD Vance’s tiebreaking vote and the possibility that Sen. John Fetterman could switch parties.
He has repeatedly denied any intention of doing so, though his video appearance at the GOP convention in Dallas on Wednesday did nothing to quell rumors or speculation.
Finally, Republicans have a sizable cash advantage. In recent filings, the Republican National Committee reported $128.5 million in cash on hand, versus $16.3 million for the DNC.
FORMER DSA MEMBER ALLEGES COMMUNISTS HAVE ‘CAPTURED’ SOCIALIST GROUP, WARNS DEMOCRATIC PARTY IS NEXT
Additionally, across the three major Republican committees and two affiliated super PACs, Republicans reported $657 million — nearly double the $334 million held by comparable Democratic groups.
President Trump’s super PAC alone has more than $400 million.
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Ultimately, Democrats have a genuine chance to retake the Senate, a remarkable achievement just two years after their 2024 across-the-board defeat.
The 2026 Senate map had been considered favorable to Republicans, but, according to the polls, it’s Democrats who have the momentum. That Democratic candidates would be leading in Senate races in states like Alaska and Texas would have been inconceivable not long ago.
However, the midterms are by no means a foregone conclusion, and a polling lead two months before Election Day is not the same as winning the election.
Democrats’ razor-thin margins in the majority of the states they need, lingering concerns over candidate quality and the DSA’s impact, as well as Republicans’ massive financial advantage, mean it is by no means clear that the Senate will flip.
Carly Cooperman is CEO of Schoen Cooperman Research.
Natural compound in blueberries and grapes may unlock fat-burning process in muscle cells
A natural compound found in blueberries and grapes may help muscle cells break down stored fat, new research suggests.
In laboratory experiments conducted in Japan, researchers found that the compound, called pterostilbene, reduced fat accumulation in cultured mouse muscle cells.
Pterostilbene is a naturally occurring antioxidant found in blueberries, grapes and other types of berries. While previous research linked it to metabolic benefits, little was known about how it could affect skeletal muscle.
POPULAR SUMMER FRUIT HAS AN EDIBLE PART MOST PEOPLE THROW AWAY, USDA REVEALS
The new findings, published Sept. 1 in the journal Food Bioscience, suggest that pterostilbene reduced abnormal fat buildup by encouraging cells to break down fat already stored in the cells. Fat buildup can result from high-fat diets, inactivity and aging, according to a news release.
Too much fat inside muscle cells can interfere with how the body uses glucose and fatty acids and may contribute to insulin resistance.
"Our findings establish a scientific framework for developing functional foods and nutritional supplements that target muscle fat metabolism," lead researcher Takakazu Mitani, an associate professor at Shinshu University, said in a statement.
SEAWEED-BASED COATING COULD KEEP STRAWBERRIES FRESH FOR DAYS WITHOUT REFRIGERATION, STUDY FINDS
The team screened several food-derived compounds in the cells and found that pterostilbene caused the strongest reduction in fat accumulation without disrupting muscle growth. It appeared to preserve a protein, PPAR-delta, that helps regulate how cells process fat, according to the study.
The research also provides an "experimental framework" for identifying other natural compounds that protect PPAR-delta, Mitani added.
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While the findings provide a starting point for studying dietary approaches that could one day help address obesity, type 2 diabetes and age-related metabolic decline, future studies in humans and animals are needed to determine whether the effect translates beyond lab-grown cells.
Using a cell model "strips away the complexity of human metabolism," Johannah Katz, a registered dietitian from Florida, told Fox News Digital.
"In people, pterostilbene has to be digested, absorbed, metabolized, circulated and actually reach muscle tissue at an effective dose," she said. "We also can't assume mouse muscle cells will respond exactly like human muscle."
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While the study identified a potential mechanism that may help explain reduced fat accumulation in cells, that is different from showing that eating blueberries or taking pterostilbene supplements directly leads to fat loss, Katz added.
"Blueberries and grapes are nutritious foods for many reasons, but this study alone doesn't show that eating more of them will reduce fat buildup in human muscle," she said.
Fox News Digital reached out to the study authors for comment.
Liam Neeson, 74, says he likely still has ‘a couple’ more action movies left in him
Liam Neeson isn’t hanging it up yet.
The 74-year-old said he thinks may have "a couple" more action movies in him.
"Maybe a couple left, you know," Neeson told Fox News Digital when asked if he’ll transition away from action films in the near future. "Maybe … I hope I have a couple left."
WILLIAM SHATNER SAYS HE'S 'TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS' AT 95: 'THE LEAST OF ALL I WANT DO IS DIE'
The "Taken" star joked to Variety last year that he didn’t want to be doing stunts while pushing a walker.
His newest action flick, "The Fix," in which he plays an ex-CIA operative alongside Zachary Levi, hit theaters Friday.
In "The Fix," Neeson said, "There's this incredible thread of humanity that these men, these extraordinary men, have to eventually analyze or work out what makes them tick."
Levi said he "wanted to do something fun, gritty, darker, in comparison to other roles that I've played in the past, and this gave me that and then some, because there was all of the great spycraft and twists and turns and revelations throughout the story, as well as this human foundation."
Neeson touched on the theme of redemption, which is explored in the film.
"I'd like to think we all need and want second chances, you know," he told Fox News Digital. "We're humans. We've all made mistakes in our personal lives and stuff, you know? It's extraordinary to be forgiven, and it's an extraordinary thing to really forgive someone. It really is very, very special. So, you know, I'm 74 years of age. I've had quite a few things happen to me that several of which seriously I have been forgiven for, which is just amazing, and then I can return that."
Levi compared a lack of forgiveness to "drinking poison, hoping that the other person will die."
"Forgiveness is grace, mercy, understanding, empathy," he said. "These are things that we don't explore enough as human beings."
The 46-year-old said that people are often encouraged to look at others as an "evil monster. And by the way, people do evil things. People do monstrous things. And yet, still, I believe that they are children of God. And yet, still, I believe they are worthy of second, third, fourth chances, right?"
He explained that there needs to be boundaries, but a lack of forgiveness is "eating us alive as human beings, as a society, in this country and around the world because we're not able to just see the other as a child of God."
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"The greatest definition of love I've ever heard is to will the good of the other," he added. "It doesn't mean you have to like them at all. It doesn’t mean you have to agree with their decisions at all, but you want them to find the light. You want them to be redeemed. You want that because we all need redemption. We all need forgiveness."
In the film, Levi plays another former CIA operative who is Neeson’s protégé, and he said it was a relief "that I was not wrong to want to meet one of my idols, you know, like everybody says 'don't meet your idols,' and I get it."
The "Shazam" actor revealed that he’s met some of his idols in the past who didn’t live up to his image of them, "but fortunately, you get these wonderful, beautiful exceptions."
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Director Guy Moshe told Fox News Digital that he had been looking for a while for a movie in which he could lend his perspective as an Israeli military veteran, but he said he didn’t want it to be a reenactment of something that really happened.
"So when one of the producers came to me with this hook, you know, this idea of this urban legend or like CIA lore or whatever, like money hidden in a wall in Tehran since ‘79, which may or may not be a true thing, I thought, ‘What an interesting way of sort of like hooking a story around a group of guys in that field.’"
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He said that it was about a year and a half after the U.S. pulled out of Afghanistan, and "I could feel what those American soldiers must be feeling after a 20-year war, handing the keys back to the Taliban or something."
Moshe said he had been serving in the Gulf when "we gave back the keys to the PLO after the Oslo agreement."
"I just knew there and then I’ve got to do this," he explained. "I want to start the film in the evacuation from Afghanistan, and I want give these people some sort of a journey to a mental redemption rather than specific redemption for something, so to fix what was broken in them."
Ultimately, Moshe said "The Fix" is "about a father who wonders if he wants his son to grow up to be like him, even though outwardly the father is "the image of the hero that we like to look at," referring to the mentor/mentee relationship of Neeson and Levi's characters.
The director said he thinks Neeson has succeeded as an action hero because he’s "real."
"We identify the most, especially in the action genre, we identify with real people, with a person that we feel conveys something that we believe is a real person in a real situation," he explained. "It sounds simple. It's the hardest thing to do in acting."
White House unloads on violent ‘criminal alien’ nabbed after investigators uncover election offense
A Bahamian national who arrived in the U.S. during President Gerald Ford’s administration and was living with a green card while racking up a violent rap sheet before investigators found he voted illegally in the 2020 election, sparking the deportation process, officials say.
The case of Anthony Tyrone Higgs is only the latest in a slew of arrests connected to illegal votes cast in recent elections, as the Trump administration engages in a broader crackdown on election integrity-related crimes.
"This alien was a guest in our country who forfeited his right to be in the U.S. when he committed these violent crimes and voted in the 2020 election," White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis exclusively told Fox News Digital on Friday.
"Any non-citizens who vote illegally in our elections will be arrested and removed. American elections are only for Americans."
Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), a division of DHS, confirmed in a statement that Higgs had illegally voted in the 2020 election.
FORMER KANSAS MAYOR WHO PLEADED GUILTY TO ILLEGAL VOTING TURNS HIMSELF IN TO ICE
HSI’s Atlanta office arrested Higgs in Decatur, Georgia on September 3, and he is currently in the custody of ERO, the ICE subdivision that handles migrant removal operations.
Higgs was admitted into the U.S. in October 1976 as a Lawful Permanent Resident – commonly dubbed a Green Card holder. The Trump DHS has since placed him in proceedings to revoke his immigration status due to his lengthy rap sheet.
"This criminal alien from the Bahamas has a rap sheet for multiple violent crimes, including armed robbery, domestic violence, and assault on a police officer," DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said.
"On top of all of that, he illegally voted in the 2020 election," he added.
MORE THAN A QUARTER-MILLION NONCITIZENS MAY BE REGISTERED TO VOTE IN 4 KEY STATES, DHS ALLEGES
Higgs’ record also includes resisting arrest, two counts of grand larceny and two counts of possession of a weapon during a violent crime.
Of the voting-related charge, Mullin said that just one noncitizen casting a ballot is enough to cancel out an American citizen’s vote.
"Thanks to the hard work of the men and women of ICE, this criminal will be removed from our country and can never interfere in our elections again," he continued.
DHS also provided several other recent cases of illegal immigrants or ineligible voters committing or being charged with election-related crimes.
In August, Colombian illegal immigrant Carlos Jaramillo-Grajales was sentenced to three years in prison following an ICE investigation that led to a guilty plea in a case where he was found to have committed identity theft to illegally vote in elections for more than 20 years, according to the agency.
"Federal immigration laws serve to safeguard our nation’s borders and protect the integrity of our government," said Gregory Kehoe, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida.
"Those who seek to circumvent, exploit, or break these laws will be prosecuted fully," he said in an August statement.
In New Jersey, a Slovakian national was found to have illegally voted in the 2022 midterms, according to HSI – which also cited the case of an Australian national accused of illegally casting ballots in both 2022 and 2024 in Louisiana.
Mauritanian national Mahady Sacko was busted by an ICE and FBI partnership in Democrat-run Philadelphia, and charged with voter fraud.
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Sacko allegedly voted illegally multiple times going back to 2008. He was already under an order of removal, DHS said in a statement, stating that he "exhausted all appeals" and an immigration board upheld his removal order as of 2002 but he remained in the country.
Returning to the case of Higgs, Mullin added in a statement: "Thanks to the hard work of the men and women of ICE, this criminal will be removed from our country and can never interfere in our elections again."
NBC beefs up security at 'Today' studio after Nancy Guthrie kidnapping, intruder incident
NBC has stepped up security at the "Today" studio in Manhattan after co-host Craig Melvin was accosted in a vestibule and months after the unsolved abduction of fellow co-host Savannah Guthrie's mother from her home in Tucson, Arizona, according to a new report.
"It was much-needed and took longer than people would have liked, but it does feel a lot better now," an unnamed insider told Page Six.
Although more burdensome, "Today" staffers don't mind the added hassle, another unnamed source told the outlet.
NANCY GUTHRIE MYSTERY: 'TODAY' SHOW INTRUDER SPARKS SECURITY SHAKEUP AT NBC STUDIO
Specifics about the increased security measures were not immediately made public.
"We are reviewing the incident and our security protocols and remain committed to providing a safe and secure environment for everyone who works at and visits our studios," an NBC spokesperson said in July after police arrested an intruder who gained access to a secure area.
Plans were first revealed about new security measures later that month in an internal memo obtained by Variety. NBC sources later confirmed its authenticity.
One change outlined in the memo was that guests can now be accompanied by only two people — whether they be stylists, spokespersons, social media aides or other "support personnel."
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Nancy Guthrie, Savannah's 84-year-old mother, was abducted from her home in Tucson's Catalina Foothills on Feb. 1. Her whereabouts remain unknown, no suspects have been publicly identified, and no arrests have been made.
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While Guthrie and her colleagues were still reeling from the kidnapping, a homeless man identified as 41-year-old Andrew Truelove snuck onto the set, allegedly hunting for Al Roker.
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SAVANNAH GUTHRIE DELIVERS 'VERY SPECIFIC' MESSAGE TO MOM'S KIDNAPPER 25 WEEKS AFTER HER ABDUCTION
He found Melvin instead in a vestibule inside a secure area of the studio and allegedly accosted him with a racial slur.
A review of footage from the "Today" show that morning reveals a man resembling Truelove and wearing the same clothing was pictured in the background repeatedly in the 8 a.m. hour.
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Truelove has a criminal record going back decades and in 2007 was convicted of trying to abduct an 8-year-old from a school in Norfolk, Virginia.
He faces hate crime charges of burglary, a felony, and menacing, a misdemeanor, in connection with the Melvin incident.
Court records in New York show a man with the same name and age as Truelove has additional pending cases in connection with an alleged assault in the NYPD's 5th Precinct in January, trespassing and reckless endangerment charges on the city's transit system from May — and a 12-count criminal mischief indictment from last year.
What does ‘Never Forget’ mean for a generation with no memory of 9/11?
Twenty-five years after a generation promised to "Never Forget," that pledge now relies on education for the more than 100 million Americans with no memory of 9/11.
The Pentagon is preparing to help address that challenge by breaking ground this weekend on a long-awaited Visitor Education Center at the only one of the three 9/11 attack sites still without a dedicated museum or education center.
The new center is intended to fill the gap that has grown more pronounced with each passing year by helping Americans who never experienced the attacks understand not only what happened on Sept. 11, 2001, but why it continues to matter.
Joseph Kornhoff, executive director of the Pentagon Memorial Fund, told Fox News Digital that nearly one-third of the country was either not alive that day or has no recollection of it and therefore lacks the "personal connection" shared by those who watched the attacks unfold.
NEW 9/11 MUSEUM EXHIBIT AIMS TO CONNECT YOUNGER AMERICANS TO THE ATTACKS THROUGH POWERFUL ARTIFACTS
"That's what we're trying to provide with the visitor education center experience," Kornhoff said in an interview with Fox News Digital, explaining that the goal is to give visitors a personal connection that allows them to "start to understand the gravity of that day."
Nearly 230 miles north, the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York is confronting the same generational divide.
Beth Hillman, president and CEO of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, said the passage of time has only made the annual vow to "Never Forget" more important as the number of Americans with firsthand memories of the attacks declines.
"Many in my generation remember exactly where we were on that horrific day," Hillman said during an Aug. 31 press preview outlining the museum's plans for the 25th anniversary. "Yet, 100 million Americans were not even born or are too young to remember that day for themselves today."
Noah Rauch, the museum’s senior vice president for education and public programs, said he has watched that transition unfold firsthand through the museum’s work with students and teachers. "I've seen this line creeping up between memory and history, between those who remembered the attacks and those who didn't," Rauch said during the Aug. 31 press event.
That transition from memory to history also raises a more modern challenge. Americans too young to remember the attacks are increasingly learning about an event they never experienced firsthand, while conspiracy theories and false narratives about 9/11 run rampant online.
Kornhoff said that makes factual education increasingly important, pointing specifically to conspiracy theories surrounding the attack on the Pentagon and narratives suggesting that America "deserved 9/11."
"That's the need for the education center," Kornhoff told Fox News Digital. "As a nation, we need to really take a step back, look at how we're educating our young children to make sure that we're providing them with the facts of the situation ... and not these conspiracy theories and entertaining wild ideas that just simply are not true."
REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: 9/11 IS JUST A HISTORY CHAPTER FOR A NEW GENERATION OF AMERICANS
The Pentagon center will include 10 exhibits telling the human stories of the attack, including the 184 people killed at the Pentagon and aboard American Airlines Flight 77, the first responders who rushed to the scene and the military and civilian personnel who aided the wounded.
"We are going to address the facts of the day," Kornhoff said. "We are going to address the entire Pentagon story."
The renewed focus on 9/11 education has also reached Capitol Hill. Reps. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., and Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., introduced bipartisan legislation ahead of the 25-year anniversary, which aims to direct the Department of Education to examine how 9/11 is taught in schools nationwide and identify gaps in instruction.
Kornhoff praised the effort during his interview with Fox News Digital, saying the legislation reflects a growing recognition of the need to educate generations with no firsthand connection to the attacks.
The Pentagon 9/11 Memorial Visitor Education Center is expected to open by the end of 2029 near the existing Pentagon 9/11 Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.
The project received $12 million in federal funding this year, along with $1 million from Virginia and additional private donations raised by the Pentagon Memorial Fund. Once completed, the center is expected to include interactive exhibits, historic artifacts and firsthand accounts from survivors and victims' families while providing visitors with additional context about the attack and its aftermath.
Trump says he would 'love' to see Ireland unified as one nation
President Donald Trump said Saturday during a trip to Ireland that he would love to see the country unified.
The Republic of Ireland gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1922, while Northern Ireland, established in 1921, has remained part of the U.K.
"I don't want to cause any problems, but I will tell you, I'd love to see it unified. I have friends on both sides, great people. They're Irish people. How can they be bad, right?" Trump said in Dublin while on stage with Ireland's Prime Minister, Micheál Martin. "I'd like to see a unified country. I think it would be a great feather in everybody's cap if that happened. It's going to happen eventually."
He added that the U.K. "will have something to say about it obviously," but reiterated that unification would be a "great thing."
TRUMP SAYS IRAN CONFLICT COULD END AFTER MIDTERMS
Later Saturday, Trump addressed a crowd at the Deerfield Residence, the official home of the U.S. ambassador to Ireland.
U.S. Ambassador Edward S. Walsh introduced the president, who took the stage to the sound of Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA."
Early in his remarks, Trump revisited the question a reporter had asked during his meeting with Martin about the prospect of Irish reunification.
"That's one of those questions where no matter what you say, no matter how well you say it, there's no good answer, right?" he said, before saying reunification would be a "cool thing."
The debate over whether Ireland should be one country has been one of the island's most divisive political issues for decades.
At times, it was far more than a war of words. From the late 1960s through the late 1990s, Northern Ireland was gripped by decades of sectarian violence known as "the Troubles."
Irish nationalists and republicans — drawn largely from Northern Ireland's Catholic minority — sought to reunite the island under a single Irish state.
Unionists and loyalists, who mostly belonged to the Protestant majority, wanted Northern Ireland to remain part of the U.K.
Throughout the conflict, more than 3,500 people were killed in violence involving Irish republican and loyalist paramilitary groups, as well as British security forces.
The fighting largely ceased with a peace deal in 1998, but in the decades since, tensions remain between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland.
A 2024 U.K. Parliament report found that 90% of students in Northern Ireland attend schools that "are effectively segregated along religious lines."
The peace deal signed in 1998 — known as the Good Friday Agreement or the Belfast Agreement — set up a new government that had representation for both nationalists and unionists.
It also established that Northern Ireland will remain part of the U.K. unless a majority of citizens vote to leave through a referendum.
Brexit reignited debate over Ireland's future, with Northern Ireland voting to remain in the European Union even as the U.K. as a whole voted to leave. Still, no referendum has been proposed or scheduled on whether Northern Ireland should leave the United Kingdom.
Why Erika Kirk’s forgiveness matters
Author William P. Young’s new book "Return to the Shack" centers on the power of forgiveness, and he praised Erika Kirk for presenting a strong display of it last year.
Young’s novel "The Shack" tells the story of a father’s healing process after his daughter was kidnapped and killed on a camping trip. The grieving dad, Mack, receives a mysterious letter from God asking him to come to a shack, where he meets an unorthodox Holy Trinity. While considered controversial by some religious readers, the story largely resonated with audiences and was turned into a motion picture in 2017.
Young's sequel focuses on forgiveness as Mack comes face-to-face with his daughter’s killer as he is given a more humanized storyline.
"I think we need to make a distinction between forgiveness and reconciliation," Young told Fox News Digital. "Forgiveness is for the sake of the one who's been harmed, so that you can continue to live your life without the specter of what's on your shoulders. And I mean, you can forgive someone and never trust them again. Reconciliation is the slow, arduous, painful process of learning how to trust. Or taking the risk that you might become trustworthy if you've done the harm. So, reconciliation is for the sake of the perpetrator, much more than forgiveness is."
‘THE SHACK’ AUTHOR EXPECTS MORE CHRISTIAN CRITICISM WITH SEQUEL, BUT WILL TAKE IT IN STRIDE
Making peace is essential, he said.
"Otherwise, you're going to live with a corpse of an event or a situation or some human being who may be dead," he continued. "A lot of abuse was done to us by people who no longer are alive. And if we can't let them go, which is the idea of forgiveness, is that we move our hands from around their throat so that we may hold something other than their throat, like life. And it becomes essential. Otherwise, we're poisoning all the relationships around us."
Erika Kirk, the widow of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, shocked many Americans when she publicly forgave the man accused of assassinating her husband last year. Kirk was killed while speaking at a Turning Point USA event one year ago at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.
"Our Savior said, 'Father, forgive them, for they not know what they do,'" Erika said at her husband's memorial service. "That young man … I forgive him. I forgive him because it was what Christ did, and it's what Charlie would do."
Young found it a very powerful example of the message he’s trying to convey.
ERIKA KIRK FORGIVES HUSBAND'S KILLER AT MEMORIAL SERVICE: ‘IT’S WHAT CHARLIE WOULD DO'
"And I think that's what Erika was doing, saying, ‘I'm not going to let what you have done to own me,'" the author said. "I'm not going to enter the same prison that you are now in,’ metaphorically, of course."
"And so, in terms of the human journey, we have this — same with every guy on death row — they don't have, in the deepest places of their heart, a desire to be harmful or to be non-truth tellers or to be unkind," Young continued. "They're human beings and that raises a question is why should that be the deepest places of movement towards a wholeness of what it means to be human by saying, ‘I want to do the work, what it takes to not be addicted. To be a truth-teller, to be someone who is kind and caring.’"
"And part of that is the underlying belief that love is actually more powerful than violence, or love is more powerful than harm," he added.
‘THE SHACK’ AUTHOR EXPECTS MORE CHRISTIAN CRITICISM WITH SEQUEL, BUT WILL TAKE IT IN STRIDE
Young said that is often not the reality and not everyone takes the route Kirk took.
"And we live in a world where it seems like violence is really the power," he said. "In word, thought, or deed, whether we're using it in words online, or we're perpetrating it to the person in front of us, or we're gossiping about someone in order to give ourselves a boost and them a detraction. Love is more powerful, and that's my statement. You know, that's, I'm solidly convinced that it is, because it actually changes things."
Young couldn’t discuss the art of making amends without reflecting on his own years-long journey to forgive his father.
"Violence doesn't change any things," he said. "It only adds to the violence that already exists. And, you know, my dad was an abusive man when I was growing up. And if I thought that treating him with violence was going to be a resolution, I would have been absolutely blind and ignorant."
"It's not violence," Young added. "It's care. It's love. It's listening. It's that people shouldn't take a timeout, and the state offers one if you don't adhere to the rules. But even then, I think that love, God, meets us where we're at and begins to move us in a direction toward our wholeness so that we can learn to love others, and we can learn to love ourselves, and that produces incredible outcomes that would not be available otherwise."
"Return to the Shack: A Journey into Redemption" will be released in October.